Eliot_Rulez

All the clichés in one show

MDL woke up and put this show on the page... I watched this a bit over two weeks ago and this was something I did not expect. This series packs every BL cliché into the story imaginable... It start's of with a drunken NC-scene and of course the "perpetrator" is in the "but I'm a man" closet... the one who let it happen is in the "he can't be touched" closet, meaning he was traumatized and does not like to be touched by anyone.

And of course you will find even more clichés like the scheming bad brother with his worse wife, the awful father and of course the standard evil "bitch" as so many BLs portray woman nowadays. And don't forget one of the MLs must be married off to increase the status and influence of his family. The difference is, I did not find myself annoyed with it. It's just a fun experience with so many ridicilous storyplots, but with the vibe that the creators did not take it seriously.

While I'm critical of most clichés because they are not executed well, this series is a persiflage of all the BLs imaginable and that makes it fun to watch. The actors did a good job, there is real kissing and even the nc-scenes are tastefully executed. The production quality was quite high for such a vertical drama. The only downside for me is, that it could have been a tad better, if they would have released it in the normal format too because it was not filmed with a smartphone. If you want something fluffy, something fun, this is for you!

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A rabbid who is happy with a poly relatiosship...

It's unusual that a series/movie explore a poly relationsship. The only question I always agreed with is: Why is marriage only for two people? This is something I still don't understand, because if you are three or four people so many things in life, especially the painful stuff would be so much easier to deal with. As that may be, it was refreshing to see that in a series. While it was interesting to watch, I feel the story is in part superficial, especially the sexual aspect. While the older of the two man give me much more "gay" vibes he is the one first opposed, That did not really match for me. Also I wished there would have been more intimate moments where the three explore each other, because if that part does not work, the relationsship part would not work either imho.

I also understand why this is a comedy setting, but I would have prefered if this would have been filmed in a much more serious way, But I also understand why they did this, because things beside the social norm in Japan are hard to do and I assume they wanted the viewers at home not to feel offended.

Even with the negatives, I had a lot of fun watching this and the ending is hinting a season 2 which would be so much more interesting... As usual japanese productions bring something unusal on the screen and for that I appreciate it a lot. If you prefer it light-hearted and not so heavy, you should watch it. Thanks to my friend Daniel who showed me this show, otherwise I would not have noticed it :)

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Cuteness overload...

How to begin this review? I'm a bit overwhelmed with positives and negatives of this show. First of all, The workshop/rehearsals they all did payed off very well. But I still don't like the representation of Japans society. The first irk was the question of the girl on the end of episode 2 "By the way, why are you so protective of Hioki?" - no-one in Japan would ask the question, if they are not really, really close or family. This does not happen. And then we have Morisaki brother. First the prank in the car was really of very bad taste and would have earned him a beating in my book. But then pushing Watarai would also never ever happen. The four friends only spoke for about four months at that time, which means Watarai may have seen Morisakis brother but does not have any connection to him whatsoever. This is the typical fantasy land most BLs are in and we could have done without that.

One the other hand, this couple is one of the cutest we ever have to get to know. Hiokis actor protrayed his character to perfection. I only wish his scream was much much much longer. 🤣Yes he is shy, but on the other hand he is direct, asks what's on his mind and is not wishywashy at all which was very refreshing. Watarai's actor plays the cool one, but he is shy himself but covers it up most of the time. Both characters grow with each other and in the finale Hioki is the leading man. Perfect!

Production quality was also top notch! Cinematography, costumes, editing and the audio were all perfect as well. So this was very enjoyable and cute and of course I have to recommand that show. Also we get the treat of two special episodes airing consecutively next week and the week after. And both of them on a spring break trip is something I look forward. 🤣

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Slow as a snail, but the tiny daily life moments makes it special

We all know some JBLs are extremely slow, but this is slow to a standstill. On one hand we have Wataru who is aware of his feelings but to frightened to give into them and on the other hand there is Minato a steady, courages character who has his goal in mind all of the time and that is to be with Wataru.

What is especially mind boggeling is that the director of this show also did "My Personal Weatherman" and both shows could not be farther apart as they are. Weatherman is about miscommunication but both characters show a special desire to have sex with each other - not just for the sex because they do love each other. This time the countdown starts at 3698 days more than 10 years and it's a very slow process.

Especially for western viewers to watch this snail pace is a bit hard and frustrating, because it's not in our culture. While life is very fast paced in Japan, in Europe we have something called "life-work balance". Our goal is not life for work, but just work for life and enjoy life as much as possible and this contradiction also shows in this show. Minato got a job and left for three years not because he wanted to, because he needed to. This was also the point in the story where Wataru realized that he is really in love. But when Minato returns after three years he still denies his feelings and hurt Minato as well.

Of course, because of the title, we all know they will end up together, but it was a really slow process. I personally would have wished they would have packed all the eleven episodes in just eight with less flashbacks, which would have led to a better pacing. But even while it was slow they created a special atmosphere. There is no drama per se, there are many small moments which drive the characters, the glances, the intimacy in just doing little things. Also of note is the positive messaging even with grandpa who said "I don't understand it, but as long as you are happy, I'm happy" which pulls this show closer to reality.

Production quality was very good, except the "night scenes". I can see clearly that many where not filmed at night but done with not so good CGI especially the star night. And of course I wished they had the kiss-scenes like in "My Personal Weatherman". But besides that, there is nothing to complain about. In the times we live in this show gives us a little bubble to be happy and to slow down ourselves. I can only say, I liked it regardless of it's flaws.

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This was a mess, but entertaining....

Wow what a season. And many did not like it, as I saw in the other reviews 🤣.

I'm not fazed with a messy season and this season was really messy. First it was a second shoot. The already had the season filmed three months or so before but one contestant - we don't know yet who - did something bad - we still don't know what happend - at least I do not. So they recast some contestants and re-shoot the whole thing again.

Then they put the happy couple of the first shoot in this show and they broke up before because one did not want to reshoot and the other one wanted to because of "outing". But even the one not wanting it appaered anyways.

Yeah and about half the episodes this was the central focus of the show... the messy after breakup process. One who already closed this part of his live and the other one still clinging on... Messy is not the right word for everything, it was also really intense.

At least we did get two couples out of "it". So not all was lost and not all was bad. It's quite impressive they did also 15 episodes as "The Boyfriend S2" which took place over two months(!) - the last episode is double the length.

I think that one week is not enough time to really do such a show, it should be a least two weeks. On the other hand most of them had two weeks, but not all of them. Also a point which I do not like is the removal of contestants by vote. I don't know, but I felt that was too much. The people participating are under enormous mental pressure as it is, to add this extra pressure was not a sensible choice. I would also not have put the breakup couple up again, because it was predictable that this would be messy and move the focus off from the other cast. I also felt there were fewer dates than before and the yoga date was not something fitting korean (and in this case japanese) personalities which are more reserved and shy then elsewhere which made the whole date akward. And of course what I really did not like was the removal of the iconic phone booth. If they invest a ton of money for the show, they could have placed a phone booth there too.

While it was messy, some people did grow their personality and found more understanding of themselves which is a good thing. Regardless of the tensions between the ex-es and the clumsy attempts by some I felt entertained.

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No magic, just the same old recycled GMMTV concept.

When you already know in the first episode who the "bad guy" is, then I asked myself who did not see this coming? When you like to do a fantasy BL, then why not skip all the crap with the cheapo cliché bad guy? Of course they laugh in the end and are still friends even when the baddie tried to kill his "friend" but failed. That's fantasy of course, because in real life that would never happen in a span of a few days.

GMMTV is hyperfocused to give fans just the feel-good vibes without any depth. They want to sell their overpriced concert tickets and merchandise. They seldom do stories which are controversial or have a background from real life. Where are the times when storytelling was king and fluffy scenes where the cherry on top? Or: When was the last time a story made sense and you did not know what will happen next?

The second question is: Why bother with a second couple when this couple is just an afterthought? Yes they are cute together, but there was no substance, they just were there to look pretty.

Production quality was very good, because that's one of the most favorite ships in GMMTVs menagerie of ships. At least First had a nice time, because he could play the bad guy and he did a good job of that - as far as the script let him. While Sea can act, I would also say Jimmy improved again, but he is not even close to Sea. So overall, this is a brain off series with mostly good vibes and that's what GMMTV went for. They all look pretty, the camera framed them pretty and that's that. But for me, it was just predictable and most of the time boring as hell. Still, I can't fault it too much, because it's at least not bad. It's ok to watch and ok to like, but as usual the ratings are overblown by all the fangirls who do like seeing there ships hugging, kissing and in some NC scenes.

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An unusual dark chinese series...

When I first watched I could not distinguish between the actors of this series and "Deep In". If you would swap the actors the story could have been told exactly the same, because the couples look sooooo similar. While every episode is only 30 to 35 minutes long, it does not feel rushed and it avoids the boring idle time of many series.

We have a story of two disfunctional families. And then we also have a couple which borrowed an imho typical japanese theme of "miscommunication". While we have a cold and a docil character both have hidden traits. And both do not communicate at all. Because this is a very dark story, watching it may make you uncomfortable which is of course intended. We have character growth through the series. Rich families daddy is a honorable man doing his utter most to protect his family and their names because the higher on the social ladder you are the more it matters. Poor family mom wants of course climb the social ladder, but realizes all her wrongs. At least she does not fall into the pit of greed as her husband and other son.

It's also a story of two families circumstances bond together. One to save their names and one to climb said social ladder. As it is with every fairy tale, greed will be your doom. Our docile guy has a plan to ruin his lover which he loves and hates at the same time. His lover on the other hand acted mostly cold except when his desire overwhelmed him, but in the end he can't escape him, because his love for him is so much stronger than every hurt he did receive.

A special shoutout for the set designers who did find all the stuff from the 90ties which needed to work, be it CRT TVs, discmans, dvd players, cars and tons of old PCs. There is so much detail in every scene, I have never seen that in a series without a huge budget. I can't of course not know how much budget they had, but I doubt it can compete with Hollywood at all. This is also a reason why my rating is higher compared to the story rating. Also the costumes matched the times and in the short scenes where you see a lot of people going to work for example, they did style all of the people accordingly.

The actors/actresses did an outstanding job imho. Not only the MC but everyone involved did a really good job. I can't complain at all. This was superb. I'm happy that the MC already has filmed another series which will be hopefully released this year and they did deserve that.

While dark, this is not an ordinary series. It's a story about family, greed and miscommunication. And because it's a fairy tale we get the punishment for the guilty parties and an happy end we always expect. This series is of course not fluffy at all, it's partly painful to watch but it's for sure not the common stuff you see everyday. The final scene of course is part of the fairy tale, because that would not have happened IRL (at that time). Also they did mix up Portugal with Spain, either in the script or the translation which was a bit weird. At least as european you can distinguish between spanish and portugese languages. But besides this minor lapse, I like it and recommand it. You should give it a chance.

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Another remake nobody needs...

What's with all the MAME (MeMind) remakes and do they even make sense? I really don't understand why they need to do a remake of every story. The BossNoeul pairing is imho the superior pairing to the japanese counterparts. While it's "only" the second outing for this japanese pairing, they still don't know how to kiss. Besides that the production quality comes nowhere close to the original. Many scenes feel lifeless, especially considering this is an university setting. It was a bit different with the "Love Sea" remake where the production quality was comparable and the compact format and some other changes made me enjoy the japanese version more. This series on the other hand is totally uncessary. The only highlight of this version is they changed the ridiclous end of the original, which makes the story in this aspect better, but on the other hand the compact format made some things a bit too compressed.

So, if you are into parallel worlds and other scifi/fantasy settings you should watch the original. This version is just there, just improving the end of the mom-story a bit, but not offer anything extra. The chemistry between the actors is marignal better compared to their previous work (Love in the Air Japan) but it's nearwhere close to the original pairing. Also the second couple gets less screentime and the younger looking one is the "Senpai" which makes no sense. Of course even the kissing and the nc-scenes are much better in the original, here it feels quite akward. Overall, you will not miss anything when you don't watch this.

Update: The special is the same as the original, so they passed up the chance to tell a different story which would have been much more interesting.

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Typical toxic chinese BL...

It ended without much fanfare... While it was interesting in the beginning, it was overly toxic and the redemption arc was not well done. I felt like Mr. Toxic doesn't want to change for real and he still behaves like the asshole he is to anyone not connected to his love-interest.

I can't complain about the production quality, that was very high, even when they used too much blur for my taste in many scenes. So it felt a bit artificial. OST is excellent and the best point of this show.

Besides that I have not much to say. The kissing was lackluster, there aren't any nc-scenes and many say it's an adaption of another work but altered so they don't have to pay for a licence to use it. So that also leaves a bad aftertaste. Overall it's too plain and too ordinary to leave a lasting impression, it's average at best. If you are into the toxic tropé there are much better chinese series than this.

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Very strong beginning, but loosing pace and focus on the story.

As usual many series have a very strong start... but then it feels like the writer(s) loose focus on the story and the finale cumulated in a chaotic fashion for the first 10 minutes and then nothing much happend.

Compared to shows like "Fourever You" we see what Pond can do, when the character in his script is well written. But overall the story was not that good. Some illogical things like telling that he's come from the future, is something nobody would do. Bom was also interesting in the beginning but that faded when he got overly mad. He flees somewhere without any clothes but in the finale he was impeccable styled - that made no sense for me when we see him in the last episode in the run down house with not much in it. Yeah and the side couple was just an extra. They wasted time with the main couple but did nothing to explore the other one at all.

Besides that, it had some redeeming qualities such as very good cinematography, OST and the acting in most cases. Compared to many other shows this started very refreshing but still failed in the end imho. In the end the positive aspects outweigh the negative ones.

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GMMTV/Raiser Music outed themselves or so it seemed...

Wow, what a show, I thought in the beginning of this series... but as always with GMMTV the show gets gruadually worse... The positive of course is the chemistry between William & Est and also Nut surprised with good acting. The other memebers of the boyband are not at that level yet. A second positive we got was a very nice OST interpreted by the band. And the most positive: It was not an university setting again... boah is that overused nowadays.

The bad: GMMTV shows us how the entertainment industry work - and indirect how they work - the finale was especially lackluster with the "happy end". Of course this is a BL and the business woman is not that business after all which felt so insincere and unbelievable. We all know that idols and ships have slave-like contracts and such a series will of course change nothing. The break-up part (Pepper/Gam) was one plot to drive home that this industry is unforgiving and they will do everything to get their investment in their artists back.
After reading an other review, now I know in Thailand things are different especially with idols dating... so they just copied K-Pop style which is bad.

Overall for me: Strong beginning and weak ending. I give them cudos doing something different, but of course this is top notch marketing to present one of their boybands to the international fans and broaden their appeal and success which of course means more money for GMMTV. Because this is a BL, it's a fantasy and the finale would never play out this way in reality. If someone gets fired from one company it would be hard to get a contract with another company, because the companies talk to each other and there enough back-channels that they all know what had happened. So this leaves a bitter taste...

And because this review section is swamped with 10 reviews, I guess, I will get a lot of hate because I disagree. It could have been so much more but I have little faith in the big thai companies to deliver a good show from start to end, as usual I got disappointed. Believe what you want, but this show is very far from a 10 and my 7 (edit 6.5) is very generous because I admit that William & Est have a special charm.

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A feel good series with some depth (but not that much)...

When "New Sijaw" is directing there is always a chance that it gets very childish and cringe - see "Fourever You Part 1 or "Perfect 10 Liners"". But to my surprise he did not direct it that way. It's of course a bit childish, because they are 15,16 when the show starts (10th grade)... but mostly not in a cringe way.

It's a typical summer series, just giving off good vibes, no excessive drama and the "gay" topic does only appear once even when the series is played out in the 90ties (and they found working phones from that time). Production quality was very good as expected and the OST was really good.

So there is not much to say about the series besides that I found it to be pleasant.

But we also have to talk about GMMTV, the most unprofessional company in the thai entertainment industry. First we have to talk about Justin Angus Moir (who's partner disappeared in the finale which was a bummer). Yes Justin posted a lot of shit on twitter but it's unimagable for me, that GMMTV did never know about it. GMMTV failed completely, first a 13 year old boy posting such shit needs help from his parents (I don't know what they did, except not deleting the posts), caunceling sessions/therapist. Most youth post shit, because they have no clue what they are posting... they find it funny, post it and have no idea how that post could be interpreted. So I give him the benefit of a doubt that he was just a stupid kid. Regardless, when GMMTV saw value in him und signed a contract with his parents, they should do due dilligence. That's what my brain tells me without needing to study business administration. So they should have deleted the posts (before announcing), they should have talked to his parents - because clearly they failed - and they should send him to counciling/therapy. But what does GMMTV do? They just kicked him out, because Justin is a nobody, does not bring in money (he first needs investment) and it was the easiest way out, compared to telling the public that they failed and that Justin will remove the posts and that he does not homophobic or misogynistic thoughts anymore, because he got help - that would have been the more unpopular move but the right one. GMMTV signed a contract with his parents (and him) and didn't check his social media profiles? When Joss followed Trump and another right wing - he just removed the follows, said nothing and nothing else happenend. And there was also the tasteless prank on women with Zee before he even joined GMMTV. But of course Joss will not be fired, because he brings profit for the company. But the internet does not forget.

Meanwhile there was also a controversy about a chinese fan who got too close at a fan-meeting and it got rowdy. GMMTV had not hired security because that costs money and of course they must optimize for profits. GMMTV statements are typical corporate speech which says nothing. Chinese fangroups say they will boycott everything GMMTV. I would say - well deserved. And everyone who says, it will not do much harm for GMMTV, they forget that China is by far the biggest market for BLs (fanmeets, concerts, merch - which is what makes them money). GMMTV is a disgrace as an artist managment. Two days ago a chinese fangirl followed Mark into the GMM Grammy building and filmed him in the elevator. Why can fans enter this elevevator and why do they not have security in house who protect their artists? Ah yes, I forgot, it costs money. In the third statement after that incident they said they will take legal action - that should have happened immediately. GMMTV does not get it's shit together and that after years of incident after incident.

Sorry this rant had to be in. Not proactive protecting their artists is a no go. It does not influence my rating for this series of course, It just influences what I think about them and they are the lowest of all companies in the thai entertainment industry so far. Going back to the topic, it's a nice series to watch, but don't expect something too deep but for what it is, it's good.

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folklore meets BL, but it failed to deliver.

I like a premise where fantasy/folklore is part of the story and in the beginning they did well. Till episode 4 they had an animated intro which did explain bits of the tale which played out 1000 years ago. With ep 5 this part was gone and we had to wait till ep 9 where a lot of the background was explained. This episode was the best of the series, but I felt they should have given us more background. The part of the BL was also a long time in the background and overall I think the couples lacked the chemistry needed to "sell" it to us. It got better in the later episodes but imho it was not enough. I would have liked to have seen more of the past and less in the current time.

In the finale we got a quite satisfying happy end for the main-couple, but the side-couple was just a 2 minute insert without any details or depth. Overall I felt the series lacked a constant pace, some episodes felt a bit streched and genereally I missed the focus of both folklore & BL. We also have an antagonist and with his smirk in the last scene (and with a scene before), there is even an open end for a season 2.

Production quality was very good, which felt a bit of a waste considering the script. I think the actors did lack chemistry with each other. They did kiss, the side couple landed in bed together (but we did not see what happened there), which was fine, but I never felt a longing for each other. So I'm a bit disappointed with the outcome of this series, because they have tried to do a good show, but I think the script was too weak to do so. For me it's an ok show but not a show I will watch again, except if there is a season 2 to refresh my memory. This show will not leave a lasting impression.

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Shallow, without substance and no direction....

This show was a fanservice for the fangirls. The story was shallow, Sant, the main, was a prick and Mark (the actor) was underutilized, because he can do much more. The show did not have a direction to be either a comedy or a drama. So they brought us the worst of both worlds. It was forced funny, the drama was short and resolved in two episodes.

There was nothing which is rememberable from the story. It was just meaningless without any substance. The actors did their best, but it's still not even a medicore show. The only plus point of course is their chemistry and intimate scenes, but that's almost a given by any GMMTV show.

So in essence it was not very bad, just shallow and forgetable. If you have to watch it, you can, but as usual I have no idea why there are so many high ratings.

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not really a dating show nor a casting show and for a fact not reality...

While most of the boys look cute to charming to handsome, this was the most scripted show I could imagine. First, five episodes of just the daily life and the "missions" are not nearly enough to do anything useful. When we know that everyone does not know each other, without one couples exception, it feels very unsecure and unsure. They are really young, have not much experience especially with what they want in a partner and there were not a lot of in depth talks.

Patji & Ryujin were build up to be a couple, but even this show added unnecessary drama if they really go together or not - which felt so cringe. Of course they will be together, they know each other for about two years and both of them would not choose a stranger.

So, all in all it was a very scripted show, easy on the eyes but it felt not natural at all. They would have needed not a week but at least a month, they would have needed lots more episodes. Maybe there were in depth talks, but we did not see them and that would have been much more interesting. OK to watch, but not interesting at all.

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