assez

So it goes

OK, I'm gonna be understanding and still critical. I can't help but feel that the last few minutes of the ending just showed what had been on my mind while watching it most of the time. This presented itself—in the words of many people—as a high- or even standard-quality mainstream/Netflix series, while there were such obvious fuck-ups that it just wasn't (though 90% of the time they were well hidden).

We'd all probably prefer almost any setting over the main leads standing in the middle of nowhere with some fucked-up computer-generated thing in the background, but at the same time, I can't help thinking that this is the result of everyone forcing everyone to avoid ambiguity and uncertainty by expressing everything explicitly. And because no one—or rather, most of us—doesn't even know what to do with that, they opt for a boring, explicit confession of love by the boring sea. Everything has to be dripping with romance, even if it doesn't excuse the main lead's previous behaviour at all or make anything easier for anyone; it just looks saccharine.

I think it truly was a highly above-average series, but if you want to make it exceptional, you need to:

a) Cut the AI/CGI sea thing altogether, along with the confession. Do something normal and in character for Tae.

b) No strange, idiotic moments like this: revelation – 2 minutes of nothing – then Ju Tae Seon childishly jumps to cover Chae's ears to "unhear" what was told ages ago. At some moments, Chae's overly submissive behaviour was just tiring. He's not only submissive, but also highly intelligent and observant, so... do something with it, please? We love emancipated submissives too, you know?

c) Pay more attention to the pacing at the END and the BEGGINING. If you keep it up in the middle, that's a great bonus, but yeah... well.

We are far more forgiving of poor production quality than of poor creative choices.

Aside from these complaints: good job with this one. Hope you get even better with the next three projects. Can't wait.

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?‍♂️ Series Review: [GMMTV Vampire BL Series]

wish the action scenes felt more realistic or that they had been excluded altogether if they couldn’t be executed well. A supernatural theme doesn’t excuse unrealistic physical fights; it should enhance them. When it doesn’t, it just becomes laughable.
Acting & Characters

It was fascinating to observe how each actor handled their role.
I once thought Boun was the stronger actor and Prem kept a wall between himself and his character, but now I feel the opposite—Prem seems to have improved and connects more deeply with his role, while Boun feels slightly detached. This makes me think it’s all about how well a character’s traits fit the actor.

Some of the supporting cast felt wooden, but Barcode has shown noticeable growth—both physically and as an actor. And I must praise Mark (Methas) for his portrayal; I truly enjoyed both the character and his performance.
Story & Structure

There were some inconsistencies between the trailer and the actual series, but after finishing all ten episodes, I was pleasantly surprised. It turned out better than I expected.

The story flows nicely, even though, like many Thai dramas, the final episode feels padded with filler. The last episode could easily be shorter. Still, I appreciate that the show didn’t drag out unnecessary melodrama—it kept things relatively focused.

One big issue I have with many GMMTV series (including this one) is emotional detachment in the final episode. The supposed “big fight” between good and evil lacks emotional impact because the villains are never fully integrated into the story. If the evil side isn’t active in the main characters’ lives throughout the series, viewers can’t care about the final conflict. It ends up feeling like an afterthought rather than a climax.

Romance & Chemistry

The relationship between the main leads was interesting but could have used more emotional exploration. The romantic storyline feels solid though.

Still, I appreciate that the show avoided unnecessary comic relief—a refreshing change from the usual GMMTV formula. The overall atmosphere stayed consistent, and I was never pulled out of the story by misplaced jokes.

Themes & Execution

This series feels a bit different from the usual GMMTV lineup—it’s slightly darker, more mature, and not reliant on cliché humor. That’s probably why I ended up liking it more than expected.

It’s not fiery or groundbreaking, but it’s stable, safe, and competently done. The main weakness lies in the lack of real tension or danger—vampire stories should make you feel unsettled, but this one mostly made me feel relaxed. The danger between the lovers was stronger than the danger between good and evil, which unbalances the tone.

Dialogues

Dialogue remains one of GMMTV’s persistent problems. Too many lines feel staged, as if the actors are simply delivering words without real emotional connection. Crying scenes alone don’t equal good acting; what’s missing are authentic emotional shifts—anger, excitement, vulnerability—that make characters feel alive.

Final Thoughts

This isn’t a masterpiece, but it’s definitely one of the better vampire-themed BLs from Thailand. It’s well-structured, atmospheric, and emotionally consistent, even if it never reaches the intensity or innovation of other top-tier BL series.

If we rate it out of five, I’d say 3+—good, enjoyable, and relaxing to watch. It may not excite seasoned viewers or win new audiences outside the BL community, but it’s still a solid entry that proves GMMTV can handle something a little different when it wants to.

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6 Days of Doomsday (/Doomsdom)

So the progress goes:

6 days ago:
Do I smell a series that will not give the young audience the standard digestible, forgivable cheating, but the very hurtful deal? I'm in!

3 days ago:
My oh my, I am into ep. 6 and I am fed up with Toh and Jimmy, the characters (fortunately we have the lovable, adorable Fah Teh here). Jimmy is just a greedy baby who will not say no to anything since it is offered to him, while Toh just doesn't know when to stand up and leave. If he did, maybe many more things could be solved.

Jimmy? He is your friend? Well, you have too many friends for my liking.
And Toh? You do realize you have more things in your life than the male organ between your legs, right?

OK. Now go and do something with your lives, because this is horrible.

2 days ago:
EP. 8

Jimmy: "I tried my best."
Me: This is your BEST?! 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱🙀🙀🙀🙀🙀🙀🙀🙀🙀🙀🙀

/then it got worse/

Jimmy: "He was so stubborn."
Me: Victim blaming? 🤔

Jimmy, the f**k, grow up first, please. You are as dumb as a rock and twice as useless. If lying after a cheat-and-lie game is somehow "the best you could do," then you have a loooong way to go to learn how to do things properly.

And a suggestion — try exchanging your flings for some self-development. It would do you a world of good.

The last day of torture:

Why did this get stupider and stupider with each later episode?

I would say that, in the writing, the story itself was written fine — it could stand — but the relationships were written very poorly. It is a very strange mix of quite deep potential for personalities that somehow landed flat, as if someone had written it while thinking about secondary-school relationships.

They were not the worst kind of flat characters at first, but they became flat in the later stages of development — and you can't recognize that from the first episodes.

It somehow culminated with supporting characters in the last episode doing something totally improbable that no normal adult would realistically plan to do. But it strangely sounds like a secondary-schooler fantasy or wish for things to happen that way.

It is not an entirely bad story, and whatever is bad about it does not have anything to do with the budget. It is just that the majority of us seem to be adults, or at least of an adult mindset, and even if shown kindly, these stereotypes from the story do not appear in this format in real life.

So as fantasy it is fine, but you need to have huge objections when comparing it with normal behavior or acceptable paths in these situations.

Note: it was not the acting or the chemistry of the actors — that was good.

There is also a certain level of comfort, cuteness, and security, and that is mostly delivered thanks to the fact that you know how it will happen. You know the Happy Ending in advance. You know you will run into some hurtful stuff, but it is not going to be a fatal transgression. No mortal trespass.

And so it is still a comfortable and, in places, cute watch, which makes it digestible even if most of the actions are not.

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Don't listen to all the Biased Teens Writing Reviews about This

... because this is actually a very good story + acting + storytelling.

For now, ill just copy paste part of my older convo here, as it is still relevant:

... I am an adult, and I am proud of the actors and their work here. I also feel that now, when parenthood is pushed to the background, this feels more realistic than stories focused on eighteen- to twenty-five-year-olds. Moreover, this portrayal is more unique than those featuring young parents, and I believe both approaches explore different kinds of challenges. Young parenthood often focuses on struggles with finances, whereas older parenthood deals with everything, including health.

I am genuinely happier to see this portrayal, which is closer to our realistic experiences these days, rather than a one-dimensional story with only good-looking, young characters I can no longer relate to. Even if the adaptation isn’t entirely faithful, I am incredibly happy with how the creators chose to handle this series. I also love the way the actors embody their characters—it’s simply brilliant.

As I mentioned above, the series becomes increasingly addictive the more you get used to its intriguing character dynamics, storytelling, and direction. I just love it. And I am not even getting into the very specific and interesting category of different cultures and their unique age-shifts of parenthood, even though that is a fascinating discussion too.

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...

Somewhere along the road, I stopped understanding Earth.

Like - completely.

At least to the point where S2 ends. And - I am saying and complaining this right now just because I rooted for him, and think I understood him, and would excuse many things coming from him... till

S3, that would be maybe more satyfying for different not only shippers, but character rooters as well, please?

If it were to end like this I would say that season second sufferred problem of not have time to make filmed on time hence suffering severe issues of wrapping it to the point that something very important was missing. Missing in the sense that the creators of the series didn't show us something. It was either cut out of the final product or wasn't filmed at all, or somebody forget to present it to us. But it was something that was vital for understanding and maybe emphasizing with the main characters. That is a good pointer for me that the creators intent to create another season in continuation with the existing stuff, or that it was rushed and not finished before release date. But it might just my feeling.

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Too few episodes killed good intentions

Sigh. It didn’t start badly at all — in fact, it was very promising. I honestly didn’t realize it only had six episodes, and that’s a real pity. The restrictions clearly hurt it, but that’s not the only thing people are criticizing.

One of the most talked-about issues is how a show with such obviously high production quality could end up with such awkward, almost perfunctory kisses — and even worse, how it skips straight from A to Z in the main relationship. It’s deeply unsatisfying to see them suddenly become a couple without any real emotional build-up. If you can forgive the kisses, that abrupt transition might still be the biggest transgression here.

Then there’s the subject matter. What we learn about the main character is undeniably problematic, and the way the show treats and approaches these topics feels clumsy. I suspect that’s another reason the current rating sits around 6.9. Personally, I don’t think this is a series for kids or teenagers — it’s better suited for adults who can handle retrospective and introspective storytelling. Still, it’s painfully underdeveloped. Six episodes were never going to be enough.

As another reviewer pointed out, trying to squeeze four couples into a regular-length Thai BL is already ambitious. Doing it in six short episodes is nearly impossible. Each episode gets about twenty minutes of story, and that’s just… laughable. Maybe if they had split it into four separate mini-series, one per couple, it would have worked better. But as it is, they decided to keep all four — and while every character was charming and likable in their own way, all couples felt rushed.

If you watch this as a supplementary series rather than a standalone, you might not be too disappointed — at least until episodes 5–6, when you realize how much they tried to cram in so little time. The first four episodes just drift along, postponing the moments everyone waits for in a BL: the first touch, the first kiss, the emotional payoff. Then, suddenly, everything happens all at once. It’s uneven, to say the least.

Despite that, I still believe this is a higher-quality series than its rating suggests. The visuals are beautiful, the characters are adorable, the performances are solid, and it’s definitely more watchable than some other BLs with weaker writing but higher ratings.

If anything, I think the show was simply dealt bad cards. Maybe if they had left out the kisses entirely, it would’ve even worked better.

So, newcomers, don’t be put off by the rating — this isn’t a “bad” series. It’s just one that deserved more space to breathe.

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What a lovely... second version of Old-Fashioned Cupcake!

And so we will not avoid to draw comparisons between old-fashioned cupcake and this one for obvious reasons: there is an age gap, office romance and both are japanese series.

In my personal taste, Old Fashioned Cupcake still rocks it miles in comparison with this one. And I am a little bit sad for saying that maybe because I would love to see at least something on the level of Old Fashioned Cupcake.

I mean this one had the biggest hopes because the age range is very similar, the topic is very similar. It's as well again Japanese boys love genre series. When I was trying to discern why is that, maybe one of the things that play significant role in it is I am a fan of age gaps, I am not a fan of height gaps. But before you accuse me of anything, listen, it's not I hate it, it's more I don't care about it so I don't see why would anyone do a thing of it. Now when this one is out of the way, another thing I think plays a significant role in why I still love Old-Fashioned Cupcake way better than this one is because the tone of the series of Old-Fashioned Cupcake was much more serious (+ heavym, yes) in comparison to this one. So to explain it in reversal, I am not a target audience for this specific type of behavior of the male leads, I mean of the characters of course.

You see, I can imagine adult people behaving like adults did in Old Fashioned Cupcake. I don't see them behaving the way it was in this series.

It is not that it is something bad, I love that someone experiments with sweeter, lighter tones. I love that there is such a representation in series. But it does not change the thing that I am personally more on the darker side of spectrum and so I appreciate more the darker things than is this one and I came into watching this not knowing what is it about or who is gonna do what. I did not know the original material for this.
After all of this is said, I just want to note here that no matter how much I love Old-Fashioned Cupcake more, there are definitely moments and instances where this series and the story shined. I did appreciate, stand above, and in the context of the whole series I did not expect them, which is a praise.

If we avoid the comparison itself, it's a nice, cute, sweet, light-hearted comedy with deeper moments, topics of self-doubt and self-value. Introspective one, where one of the things that stand above in comparison with Old-Fashioned Cupcake (haha, we haven't seen that coming, right?) was, of course, the final kiss. I mean, there was this rumor that there is no kiss scene in Old-Fashioned Cupcake, which is not true, because there is a kiss just the episode before the last one. kone-sided (which is very doubtful, that it was one-sided, but like "kinda one-sided"). But there is not a kiss in the final episode, nor in the additional episode that came out later. But there is this final, rounding kiss of these two male leads. And that one kiss is basically like five kisses in one, which was very nice after all of this, after one not-necessary episode filler, after all of the complaining, coming to this thing and expecting nothing, paid off in rewards, and we have got the official final, you know, final episode kiss of the two characters, then bed scene (just sleeping what you thik aobout?), annd then again 1:1 parting Old-Fashioned upcake eating scene. Nicely enough, the kiss was nice, and it was a proper kiss, not the dead fish kisses we so frequently see, if the team don't want to do it in the first place. So I greatly appreciate the actors' efforts and the storytellers' and creators' creative decision about this.

From my viewer's perspective, it is a nice attempt and try at Old-Fashioned Cupcake number two, with its own merits. And now I would love to see another one where it's again darker, deeper tones with more of the good things from this series (and i don't mean only the proper couple parting kiss).

- I am up to no good.
Nox.

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How to build a house on ashes, dust, and ruins

Betrayal. Obsession. Possessiveness. Manipulation. Non-consensual acts. Threats. The destruction of trust. People sacrificing themselves for someone who has hurt them. The possibility that love can mutate into something terrifying without necessarily ceasing to be love. = ashes, dust, and ruins
Now the house:


Too many things to say about that. It never bodes well.

Since some kind soul connected Double Helix with A Round Trip to Love, I'm going to treat it as such.

The problem is that with A Round Trip to Love, I saw the devastation in comparison to their youthful, careless, unconditional love versus the extent to which such passion, love, and devotion can destroy a human being. And then that human being is ready to destroy another human being without there being any evidence, without there being any justification for it, even on the emotional level.

Because if we say "rape" in a fictional world, it always and primarily should refer to some sort of symbolism and not a literal translation into what it means in real life.

And I'm just shocked that I did not recognize A Round Trip to Love in Double Helix. And in retrospect, since I finished both, I see why that is.

There was an incredible amount of love, passion, tension, and expectation if you watched it in two hours. The scale of a whole series is...

And here comes—I am going to altogether skip everything I wanted to say and any yapping I could have inserted.

What I lack absolutely in Double Helix is any sort of both/all-sided tension.

And what I mean by that is that I perceive (as a problem) both of the characters as very flat. The passion, the exaggerated emotions, the tension—it's all there beneath the surface, but the surface is so thick and flat. You kind of cannot get into it.

The series is literally "tell, don't show," while A Round Trip to Love was exactly the opposite. It was "show, don't tell." It was creating a visceral reaction inside of you through what you had seen, experiencing it with the characters.

And Double Helix is the exact opposite.

You were told everything.

Sometimes there was, like, scrutinizing details. I have a lot of forgiveness toward A Round Trip to Love just based on the emotional connection I had there. It spoke to me on a level where I could understand how this could create this reaction (in other characters).

In Double Helix, I feel nothing. Like, zero. Absolutely nothing whatsoever in terms of connectability.

They are so literally inside their brains, inside their logic, inside the logic itself, inside the descriptive level of storytelling.

Sometimes they break character, and it's very strange because you can see there is potential. If someone had directed it differently, it would have been such a roller coaster, as it's supposed to be.

But if I imagine rape, I imagine it the way A Round Trip to Love showed it, not the way Double Helix showed it.

And then, if we are talking about symbolism and how much BL series should be emotional—because this is the primary attraction for people who want to unwind and want to feel, not think—I cannot help but think about you telling me, not showing me, as a flat way around certain topics you didn't want to discuss.

I cannot help but think about it.

You had taken out of real life certain ideas about how not to do it and how not to mess with people, not make them angry, not turn them against you.

And I understand that feeling/need. Esp. as a creator.

But it's unforgivable for me in art, specifically.

So I get that Double Helix might be way more digestible than the aeons-old, two-movie-only A Round Trip to Love for wide audience who do not know what they are gouing into.

And I see that you could have worked with the actors differently, and I see an incredible amount of quality in the series, which is why it is so devastating for me that you opted for avoiding certain controversial topics.

Like, look, you could have skipped it altogether. People would have been much happier.

Or you could have done it in a very visceral way, as A Round Trip to Love did.

But this is somehow sort of halfway—not to offend anyone, not to please anyone—which is maybe why it has such a good rating, to be honest.

But it's nowhere near where I imagine pushing art, at least a certain branch of art, because I feel like it's highly needed and it has its place.

I mean, people these days are obsessed with not showing, only telling. And I cannot imagine not having these boundaries broken.

Something that is so supposed to be connected with love, passion, sex, gender—if you flatten it, you are doing a great justice to composed minds, and you are doing a great injustice to the animals we have inside ourselves.

I think it absolutely has its place - creating for composed minds.

I'm just not sure *this* story specifically is a great choice for doing it on.

So, in a weird way, I perceive Double Helix and A Round Trip to Love as absolutely separate—two units and two different stories, to be honest—dealing with the same topic, basically, doing approximately the same journey, but not really.

And I really appreciate that you did not devastate me (as thoroughly as you could) because I could not think of the things that happened in Double Helix as rape in a way that would give me a visceral reaction (and incapacitated me and my ability to do other things during the day).

I do know it is rape.

I see it as rape sometimes.

I know other people will see it as a rape.

Sometimes it's very questionable what it actually was though, which is how it was intended to be done.

But you never showed me anything over the top. You never went as far as Revenge Love in terms of kissing or showing anything physical getting together.

You never really showed me, without any doubt, maybe with one exception only, that a noncon/rape was non-con/rape.

And you never showed me—which is the greatest reason why I am even composing this whole freaking review—you never showed me a proper reaction to the insanity you had told me about.

You told me about and showed me the greatest injustices. You showed me things unforgivable, unforgettable, traumatizing— incredibly traumatizing. Sometimes more traumatizing for audience than for the characters themselves.

You spoke about them very lightly, in a very scientific (flat, distatnt, disengaged) way.

And it's not what I wanted from characters, to have such sterile reactions to it.

Especially with the second main male lead (in this case, it would be Cheng Yi Chen / Xiao Chen), I kept thinking: what is he like? What does he think? What does he _feel_?

I had a very hard time getting into his character.

I just don't know what that dude thought. How he perceived what was going on. If he even was into Lu Feng or not.

I don't know what he felt.

I don't know anything about that dude.

He looked like paper for the first main male lead (Lu Feng in this series, in Round Trip I would say the importance was equal or switched), who did all of the acting there (at least some very normal emotional psycho of them all).

And the minimalism of the second main male lead (Yi Chen again) —I just couldn't get him.

If these things were done to me, if they were even threatened toward me, I would definitely have significantly stronger reactions.

Even if I trusted that person, and loved that person and could forgive that person, I would have significant reactions to what was being done, said and threatened.

Some things didn't even make sense.

That dude literally endangered your brother's life on the stairs, possibly damaged his walking ability, and the thing you do after four years of being married to someone else and running away from him (Lu Feng) is return (crawl!) back and explain yourself to him, excuse yourself to him. Ask for understanding/forgiveness.

But on what grounds?

((...because you married, i know, but things were ambiguous between you when you left. So why? It's not how it would look like really.) He did not find you. He never did anything to help your brother. Things around him always seemed to get worse, and 3/4 of the times he did it to both of you.)

I mean, I'm sorry if it is in the original material, but here it is not shown or told properly.

On the bright side, it's the only shortcut I have any problem with, which is a very, very positive thing to say (the brother off the stairs thing).

It's even partially forgivable.

I would still love this to make more sense and be more rational (the brother off the stairs thing).

But...

I mean, you are dealing with non-consensual sex, you are dealing with rape, and you are dealing with two insane people who still, despite all of this, want to get together.

I cannot imagine this being set within the boundaries of logic.

If you want to do it, the only way to do it is emotionally.

But you skipped all of the emotions out of the story.

So it just does not make sense to me.

Despite all of what I have said and all of the complaints I might have about this—and there would be a shit ton of them—I love it.

I loved A Round Trip to Love.

I think I get it on a level that many people just cannot stomach or don't get at all, because they haven't experienced certain things in their life—or maybe because they did.

But it's such my blood type of story.

Again, most normal people would imagine it's all about the rape.

It's not.

I promise it's not.

It's not about the non-consensual stuff.

If not among two real-life people, if it is only me being affected by what I have seen through storytelling, it speaks to me volumes on a symbolic level.

No one wants to have anything to do with this shit in real life.

And I would be very saddened thinking or assuming that anyone who watches these types of audiovisual projects would then go and do something like that in real life—that they would take a lesson out of it, that they would somehow transfer it literally into their life or excuse themselves with it.

But on a very symbolic level, where there is only purity and symbols, it speaks so loudly and represents something so important to me.

I can't explain it.

But it's there.

And I believe it's the reason why we all return to something that today's youth would call toxic relationships, toxic dynamics, or toxic characters.

It's not only about that.

If it was only about that, we would refuse it, and it would stop working the moment we put a finger on it.

But this is not it.

So yes, I do love Double Helix.

I just think that if it had been done the way I imagined it and had taken lessons from the good examples of A Round Trip to Love, it had the potential to be a much bigger fire than even Revenge Love, probably.

Especially if someone had really written it with the loopholes it has.

And it has incredible loopholes beneath the surface level.

You could have dived into so many things with a depth I can't even explain.

But I do love it.

I love this type of storytelling.

I love this type of intensity.

I love this type of depth.

I love this type of meaning.

I love it.

And if this has a third, fourth, and fifth adaptation where they would actually show what I am talking about here right now, I would love Double Helix for what it is.

It's an abbreviation and a specific type of portrayal of how love, no matter how pure, can maim people to the point and level that they don't recognize themselves and still be slaves to, and sacrifice everything for, the person they love, no matter how much they hurt them.

And how the other side has an incredible amount within themselves for forgiveness, if it matters to them.

The capacity for forgiveness you have for someone you love—it might be parents, it might be brothers, it might be lovers, it might be a child—is vast.

It's endless.

The condition there should be that you both know the game, you both know the downsides and upsides of it, you know the boundaries, and you are able, no matter how much the other side is raging and at their worst, and no matter how much they need help—either yours or some professional's—you can still see them in it, in the animal that lashed out.

So, yeah.

I mean, if you don't have real-life traumas, if you are not overly sensitive, watch these types of series.

They really are no... They have their place, is what I want to say.

And I hope for more adaptations of this story because it deserves them.

Because there are so many unexplored places there.

Thanks.

Thank you very much.

---
Perceived possibility that the described things are wrong on my side: 30% (scientist/analyst) / 50% (human) / 70% (creator).

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FINAL REV

I have this theory: every writer is an exceptionally good storyteller in one particular direction—and not so much in others.

In this series, the development of the story between the two main leads is just perfection. It’s beautifully done, especially in the detailed, emotionally loaded moments.

However, there’s the last episode—where the flaws and gaps begin to show.

If you’re going to include something as intense as time reversal, that’s totally fine—as long as you keep it focused. For example, having two major scenes where the main lead gets shot is already pushing it. But keeping it at that, and not more, was the right choice. A scene like that—being shot and falling down several floors—carries immense visual and emotional weight. The less you repeat something that heavy, the better. And if you do echo it, let it be in a mirrored or symbolic way, not just repetition.

Then it works.

Now, let’s talk about the ending. The entire arc involving the brother of one of the main leads is deeply problematic. His sudden, intense descent into obsession and irrationality—mirroring the main villain’s madness—feels forced and unrealistic, especially at the start of the final episode. It was just too much. (Though, to be fair, by the very end, things harmonized a bit, so I might let it slide.)

If the writers wanted to give the brother some depth, they could have simply gone with:
He wanted the fame.
The power.
The spotlight.
He was jealous.
He wanted to save and protect his mother—and himself.
He wanted to win.
He wanted everything.
Or—he simply went mad.

That’s enough motivation.
THAT IS TRULY ENOUGH.

...but falling in love with his brother? Why that choice?

Less is more—and this episode is a perfect case study. Just a few scratches removed from the script, and it could’ve been truly perfect and balanced.

That said, I do love the core idea. I love the character dynamics. I love the tenderness, the sort-of attraction/devotion/kindness the creators infused into the leads’ relationship. And I love the actors in those roles. They portrayed dedication, devotion, and warmth flawlessly. But I’m also deeply disappointed in the denouement—well, mostly regarding the brother. (See above.)

On the bright side, one thing I am happy about is how short and to-the-point the resolution was. And, for the most part, the characters behaved logically and rationally. There’s still room for improvement—especially when dealing with serious topics that deserve thoughtful, realistic handling. But I’ll give the series credit where it’s due.

And finally—

#ItIsACrime that we never got a proper couple arc for WeinaiJanine.
#JusticeForWeinaiJanine!
*winkwink* Who saw Janine in The Next Prince and went crazy? 😁😁😁

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up to currently aired episode

Achjaj, the push-pull but in the wrong direction.
If anyone else (after thorough movie/series experiences with other projects) feels something is off here… yes, there is, you’re right.

How to put this to not trigger… ok, the hell with it. After watching this, you have to have the feeling Krist is waaaaay better an actor than Singto. Thanks to the past controversy, despite that? Well, maybe he just is. You have to have the feeling that the only times when Singto is properly acting is when he is without Krist. And you would be absolutely correct in that.
Right?
So Singto is a bad actor, right?
Well… not really?

I have seen both Singto and Krist in several roles. I was not present when Singto left the company, I don't know why that happened, I’ve heard that he is back, that Krist made him come back. I am not sure if it’s for ever or just for this project.
I have loved Singto in Paint with Love. I personally think that type of character suits him well. I have seen him in series where the character is way more detached than a romance character could be, and I would say that suits him very well too.
I have seen Krist in multiple things, acting well all the time.
It's a real pity we cannot combine the character from Paint with Love with the character Krist is portraying in The Ex-Morning.

The push-pull but in the wrong direction: What I feel the problem here is, the writer couldn’t decide who is gonna be the dominant character, making both of them both, and then… got entangled and strangled with this dynamic. Making it indeed very difficult for them — and us — to land smoothly.
I am temporarily giving up on hope that this issue will solve itself, and I see in Krist+Singto great potential acting side by side — as friends. This story is interesting, unfortunately the romance here isn’t, or not so much, or not acted properly (probably the last). In this respect, their Sotus project remains way better in the romance department than this series (maybe the leading = directing is to be blamed here).
I still like it, I will still finish, and after that I will hope for reconnection of these two in something that will suit them, their acting abilities, and that their characters will be written well… romantically better.

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Not a ‘Stalker’ Story: A Story of Deep Love, Loyalty, Kindness and Dedication

Okay, so let me start with this. The first information I got about this project was a very kind-hearted five-star review mentioning something about a toxic stalker. So I went into watching the series with exactly that expectation—a toxic relationship, whatever—and I was ready to enjoy it.

At first, it started very promisingly. The production quality is extremely high, just like Love in the Air. At the same time, I much preferred the beginning of this series and its storytelling compared to Love in the Air, where I considered the first story of Boss Noell to be kind of not a story at all. Here, the structure looked so freaking promising.

As I watched several minutes in, a bright idea struck me. I realized I loved how extreme—really extreme—the shifts were compared to what we’ve seen in Love in the Air and The Boy Next World. The characters didn’t even resemble their original impressions. At first, I thought they were just versions of themselves from those stories, but seeing them here, I realized they were not. These were characters written in a specific way, carefully adjusted for this story.

And I don’t just mean physically—that alone is a drastic difference—but also their acting performances and the moments when they emit specific vibes. In Love in the Air, they give one vibe; in The Boy Next World, a different one. I absolutely love and adore this, and it kept me hooked. I started watching whenever I felt in the mood, which drastically improved my experience.

I stayed in that blissful state for the entire duration, which could have either put me off or kept me hooked—and it definitely kept me hooked.

…

And guess what I found at the bottom of this bottle? I found a story about complete love, dedication, and loyalty—full of caring. This is true storytelling that spoils its audience in the department of treating each other kindly, giving full attention, and showing genuine care.

So no, I don’t blame people who judge stories by calling them “stalker” stories and preferring a false, nonexistent universe over a besotted boy who couldn’t help himself and would do anything for his love interest. I might just laugh at the parts where they clearly don’t understand how emotions work in creating a storytelling. And that’s basically it. After all, there are special conditions required to portray and share such a kind of love outside the family in the form of storytelling.

I just applaud the craft of creating a truly beautiful relationship between two characters outside the sexual department.

Trying to apply logic or geometry to art doesn’t work. It never has. If it did, architects would write stories, not writers. I support anyone who creates clear distinctions between imagination, fantasy, real life, and their own life in relationships and society. Do it. Then show me how you would write a story so intensely emotional yet free from tedious technical descriptions. If you could, you’d have something most of us don’t have.

But I guarantee that 90–99% of people cannot create a story about supposedly “toxic” people that results in such a highly intense, genuinely nice relationship. Most creators can’t get rid of technical nonsense—it gets in the way of smooth storytelling. If you can see the lines of the storytelling, something was done wrong. And I don’t blame you—life is difficult. Creating art while living life is even harder.

But pardon me—if I address it. After all, people don’t think twice about calling a story “toxic” without looking at what comes before or after.

For me, this is a highly relationship-based series. It surpasses standard storytelling in creating a loving, dedicated relationship that’s still full of passion—but not the typical “passionate” type.

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IDK yet

* note: the story works for me (at places), the execution not so much (the acting is wooden around the edges for my taste, possible reasons: work with actors, highly probably actors' age), the music is beautiful - and does not blend with acting; it is 2 levels stronger as if wonting to rely what the acting itself doesn't; still solid enough to not stop watching

Edit: So finally, I went to inspect the series thoroughly, and I came to these conclusions:

1) What I mentioned in the initial post of this review - wooden acting - it is used for the melodramatic movie within the series, which, from a technical side, is maybe not done as smoothly as it could be, but I don't mind it as much as I would, if it was in the series itself (it is there, but sparsely, which is good).

2) The original material for the series is tragic if you take it from a real-life perspective. And I believe once it gets into live action, it gets way more fairly inspected than if it stayed only in written words. As it is, from what I have heard, it is the worst of the hell of a situations you would want to fall into if it were happening in real life. And no, it is no excuse that tragic things happened in real life, because if it is a self-reflective work that works with how tragic stuff in real life is, then it would never fall into certain specific traps that it did fall into in here.

And don't get me wrong, there is no shame to the author, because I still believe it has its place in a fictional world. But I must stress here: it is not copy-paste, role-model behavior, it is not something you should excuse if it happenes to you in real life, it is not something you should romanticize in your real life, and it is not something you should accept in your real life. It is definitely not something you should internalize or look up to. As long as you take it as a metaphor, as a symbol non-translatable into real life and not as a representation of anything, we are fine.

3) Construction-wise, it was obviously done by someone older who does understand the craft. I just must admire how incredibly smoothly it works if you watch all of the episodes together. There is zero room for any filler content. It is absolutely like they knew what was going on at all times. Logic-wise, it makes sense; even the story within a story is perfectly done. It's very smooth, very portable, very page-turner-ish, and very digestible.

Where it leaves room for improvement is still acting, and one of the reasons why there is room for the acting to improve is, I would say, thanks to the actors' very young age. It did get into my experience of what I was watching, I'm not going to lie, and at the same time, I must admire to what level and to what capacity the acting already is as it is (...good).

But in this specific circumstance, we must take into consideration what type of material we were dealing with: non-consensual sex, very dangerous types of behavior, rape, and other various very bad human things that you are definitely going to portray differently if you are 20 and if you are 35.

And then again, don't get me wrong, there is a drastic difference, in my perspective, in how you are going to portray university students as a 20-something and as a 30-something. But the impact of portraying students at different ages, and the impact of portraying doctors who are supposed to take care of mental health issues, are going to be drastically different. A person is not going to happen to be a doctor anywhere before 26, if not around 30 years old; to get a degree, you need to be old enough to treat people. On top of that, a doctor who obviously has severe mental issues himself (btw, including supervision was ingenious, grown up idea, great to let people see that even as a doctor who takes care of you as a patient, they are not left alone on all of these things, in fact, they must undergo this in order to do their work, and to fo it right. They absolutelly need supervision and peer supervision) - these things are going to be drastically different.

You definitely can do stuff a little differently as someone who is an adult and has much more perspective on the settings, but the implications and executions will vary much less and the depth is gonna be somewhere entirelly different no matter if you're 20yo acftor or 50yo actor. But as a 20-year-old, you cannot really give all of the necessary emotion-wise insight to a doctor who has all of these experiences himself when he is 15 years older than you.

And I would be very careful about undermining the series if someone were replying to my complaints about this with the argument that we are supposed to tell romance stories, not educational stories or whatever stories. There is something you should see once you get older that you cannot see when you are young, and the twist here is mostly responsibility.

And while they have done many beautiful things in the series, I would say the department of responsibility was severely left behind from the doctor's side. While everything around him grew up — the doctor and author with it — he as a character remained at his age range (20 - and should be much older). (Now, to clarify the confusion - the character was written like that, the actor portrayed him lie that. The character did not allow the actor and his actions to grow up, restricting him. If hewas written differently, if actor was able to rewrite him, it could be easily added those 6 + years in behavior and in thinking both.)

And for some strange reason, in this specific case, I cannot just wave my hand and say, "It's fine, it's just fiction." But at the same time, it's perfectly fine with me, and I have no issues if you decide to go with this simplified route of "it is just fiction" and not scratch that deeply into it. I can even understand why you would be unwilling to go deeper into this.

4) Just to make it perfectly clear, in both actors I have seen wooden-type acting, but at the same time, I have seen that it was very disproportionate because at some points they were way ahead of their age in acting, and at the same time, somewhere they were wooden in their reactions. I would say it applies to both actors. I would say I am leaning more towards wooden acting in the case of Shu Yuan. But it is served in such a way that I can write it off by saying it was done for the character that was supposed to be melodramatic in the movie within the series, so we are covered there.

5) Part of why I was so disappointed that it was supposed to end last week is probably that I thought and felt like this series deserved a longer scale, because we were delivered only around 30 minutes per episode and we had only 12 episodes, which is very much like lower-budget Thai series. I would definitely say there was room for delivering more if we had more time.

But because it's Chinese, somehow we managed to do it relatively short, yet relatively complex, yet relatively deeply intelligent, yet relatively layered — and I am fine with that combination. I actually love it. I just feel that it deserved way more space than it was given.

6) What I enjoyed the most and was the most happy with were the differences between the actors within the series versus the characters within the movie, and how we had this puzzle and the shifted perceptions of it and shifted perspectives of it.

How one of them villan in the movie was a good friend in real life. How someone wanted the role of the main actor, and then, when we were watching the movie, they were actually a character that wanted the main lead. And in real life, how they acknowledged that there were some skills in the main lead that he did not see and would not have shown if he were one of the main characters in the series. Etc.

7) I would say the script and the way the story was told was in lot of ways very satisfying. So is the choice of costumes; that's really nice. I would maybe opt for different colors within the actors' age range and different colors for the stories, just because I feel like the deep atmosphere that it is setting is kind of between their acting skills and acting range.

As in, they cannot pull it as gloomy as the darker furniture and coloring gets, nor as "cold" as it gets, because at some points it is really a very passionate story. And we are constantly trying to drown it in dark colors — why? Well, I know why; that is just a rhetorical question.

Also, I'm not so sure, technique-wise, why series that tend to work with very dark colors — as in gray, white light, and a black or dark color scale — have such a misery about abandoning it and using contrast.

I mean, in *Deep In*, there is at least some attempt at switching from light, like the gold lights, to yellow warm lights. Aka, the white lights are like the therapy room, versus the warm yellow light, which is like the hotel room during the night when they spent time together.

But for the contrast's sake, I would abandon this color grading and color scale altogether. Even in *Justice in the Dark*, I have so frequently seen scenes that could have been lightened and brightened way more than they were, and they just refuse to get rid of the constantly dark colors. At places, it was very suitable, and that is an example, by the way, where I would say it worked perfectly well and was justified.

And/or — but even there, I would say that there was this great disproportion in overusing it, and they did not really do enough justice to make a contrast for these very dark atmospheric scenes with something that screams light and brightness.

I think, texture-wise, this was not a problem for me in *Fangs of Fortune*, I cannot now pinpoint why it was not an issue there. Obviously, the creators there work very much with visual storytelling, and it just shows, and it's perfect in a sense.

And I wouldn't even say they managed to balance the darkness with contrast, as in making something that is incredibly bleak and dark and uses heavy atmosphere and heavy colors to translate this on screen. They don't use the opposite contrasts to balance it out, but for some reason, it might not be an issue there.

It might be because the storytelling from A to Z is kind of a very dark atmosphere too, but it kind of makes sense, and it's smooth, and it gets the impact all together. There is no reason there that would force you out of it, while I would say in *Deep In* and *Justice in the Dark*, it was kind of annoying in places because they pushed it unnecessarily everywhere, even where it did not belong anymore.

Another thing and reason why I think *Fangs of Fortune* uses something many series don't is that I get that if you have a dark, heavy atmosphere with a low-quality budget, and you want to convey the darkness and heaviness through dark colors, it might look laughable if you all of a sudden use baby, bright and light colors. You want to avoid parody-impression.

I think series like *KinnPorche* or *Payback* could balance it ideally. They might have overused the dark tones and made it fierce, but they interchange them with, again, warm other colors heavily saturated lights. And if you cannot switch into a palette of light colors because it would simply not fit the storytelling overall, you have the option to use deep, dark colors but across the whole spectrum.

In *Payback*, what struck me the most were these cuts where we go out of something incredibly deep and dark into darker red, dark green, dark purple, the KinnPorsche series again using yellow light, as in like a rising or falling sun, and green and purple — still heavy, but colorful colors, you know.

So, if you cannot switch to light colors, it's fine, but make it somehow visually diferentiated by using something that gets you out of the constant gray cloud you put on the screen. Using vivacious red, green, purple, and yellow on the darker side of the color spectrum can tone and balance it out perfectly.

And then all of these other bleak, dark gray, dark brown moments will make sense and bigger impacts, and it will fit way better than if you just use this one monotone type of color grading.

8) I have to admit I'm in love with the original soundtrack for the series, which is another reason why I did not want this to end so soon after I started watching it properly, just because the initial credits and now the final song for it, *Tiger in My Love*, were so beautiful. And I just love the sneak peaks after the song; that was ingenious (and wicked).

I also appreciate that they decided not to force the ML to create the lyrics for the OST. Not only because this is overdone already, but also I feel like if you have an actor who is 20, it's way wiser and it adds layers as time goes by if someone older writes the lyrics for them to sing. I might be completely wrong, and the creator of the lyrics might be — I don't know — maybe 15. Kids these days are relentlessly intelligent and bright, and experienced, of course. However, whatever it is, I really love that song.

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Ball Boy Tactics

The love scene — the generic sound design was absolutely atrocious. Here's a clear example that slow doesn't always equal sensual. I understand that the show might be trying to showcase its actors in a way that appeals to a horny teenage girls, but please, please… could you take a step back from doing it so obviously? Maybe five steps. Or fifteen. Thank you.

Surprise, surprise — aside from that, everything else was acted well. In my vocabulary, this is a well-told story. Every actor with even the slightest importance brought their A-game. The picture quality, character styling, group dynamics, cinematography… all of it was solid, often even above that.

But the love scene? If I’m being kind, it felt like you were trying too hard: too much time spent saying nothing new, showing nothing we haven’t seen a million times before. If I’m not being kind, it felt uncomfortably close to selling young boys to lewd gazes — the music, the long camera takes, and the overall directorial style of this scene didn’t help the case, even if the acting remained decent.

I was honestly worried, with the two-episodes-per-week format, that these last two episodes would fall flat. But no — they were very well done, aside from this one misstep. I’m positively surprised, enough so that I would place this series among the best of the year, for me at least.

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Rew

Wohoa, I am at episode 2 and it could already have a different name: All The Things That Wouldn't Happen Like That at All IRL.
It is not a bad story... it is just so badly written story. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Okay, this is not good. This is really, really not good—so let me rephrase.

I love JoongDunk. I truly do. I think Chimon gives the story certain elegance that wouldn’t be there otherwise. The female cast did a really good job, and the actor portraying Jung’s case-solving brother, Jay, was also very solid. Overall, I love JoongDunk’s chemistry, and I genuinely believe they are among the strongest Thai BL pairings out there. Joong’s acting, especially, is something many of us hold in very high regard.

That’s exactly why this series is such a disappointment.

The concept and the story had real potential, but somewhere along the way, that potential was completely wasted. The romance was technically healthy, but it was boring. I couldn’t emotionally or empathetically commit to it at all. The case-solving aspect was even worse—painfully dull, with no tension or payoff.

What did work was the color grading, which fit the tone well, and the overall production quality, which was solid. The simple structure of the story could have worked—but instead, it became the biggest weakness. There was basically no drama. I expected chases, internal conflicts, mysteries, stakes—something. Instead, everything felt flat and lifeless.

This series wasn’t a mess. It was just deeply unengaging. And I don’t think that’s only my issue—I think it failed both as a romance and as a crime-solving drama.

I also can’t ignore the acting and character dynamics. I’ve honestly never seen such weak work from Dunk before. During intimate scenes, I kept thinking, Where is he even looking? Why does this feel so disconnected? It constantly pulled me out of the moment.

I strongly believe that pushing Dunk into the superior position over Joong was a mistake. I’m not against role reversals—I actually love them—but only when the writing and direction can support them. Here, both characters were written far too bluntly, with no nuance or emotional layering. There was no room for a convincing role-switch dynamic to develop naturally.

Right now, Dunk shines much more in inferior roles. He simply isn’t strong enough yet to convincingly portray this type of detective character. That’s why I’m genuinely relieved that in their next series, Joong will once again be in the superior position. With proper writing and direction, that dynamic works far better for both of them.

As for the plot—there are countless “death” scenes where absolutely nothing is happening. Even when the show pretends something is going on, there’s no urgency, no danger, no emotional weight. The entire series could have been significantly shortened and heavily edited without losing anything meaningful.

And please—don’t even get me started on how nonsensical the police work is. There are dying children, and after the second death, no one thinks to assign protection? No detectives, no officers guarding potential victims? What kind of job are they even doing? The shooting scene is just as ridiculous: they storm into a building, start shooting random people without warning, and then proceed like that’s normal procedure, chase after the "biggest drug evil", one shoot him once - not concerned if he is still a danger, for the second to kill him on spot disregarding him as a potential future information source or as a person to be judged fairly, not killed off (taking justice into his own hands instead, not even attempting to immobilize him instead of killing him right away without any regret). And that is not even saying that wathever substance might the character have before was lost on "how they get rid of him"? It’s sloppy, illogical, and completely breaks immersion.

Without JoongDunk, this series would have been as boring as the EngfaCharlott Case. And while that one was over-dramatized, at least it was somewhat engaging. This series isn’t over-dramatized at all—but it also has no dramatization whatsoever.

The only thing I’m genuinely happy about is that another series is already in preparation—an office romance that’s completely different in tone. I really hope it reignites the passion between these two actors, because their behind-the-scenes chemistry is incredible. Unfortunately, this series gave absolutely no space for that chemistry to shine, which feels like a waste of time, space and talent.

And I also need to mention how poorly the romantic beats were placed. The kiss placement, the fun moments, and even the jokes were inserted in the strangest, most inappropriate or least interesting places. None of it felt organic. None of it felt earned. It wasn’t romantic, it wasn’t exciting, and it certainly wasn’t passionate—it felt like those moments existed only because they had to exist, not because the story or characters naturally led there. Everything felt mechanical and emotionally empty.

At this point, I’m honestly struggling. I don’t even know if I’ll make it through the last two episodes. And that, sadly, brings me back to my initial point: this series is not a mess, but it is completely disengaging. For a story that had so much potential—and for actors who are capable of so much more—this feels like a profound waste.

So yes—on every important level that matters to me, this series is a big no. And by “no,” I mean a complete failure. That said, everyone should form their own opinion. I’m sure some viewers will enjoy this kind of low-stakes, no-drama storytelling.

But for me? This was a huge letdown.

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