The story of Tharn and Type wasn’t bad per se - though I still maintain that Dark Blue Kiss did the stalker kid arc better with Non and PeteKao - it simply proved that some stories may look great on paper but they don’t really work on-screen. Eps on eps on eps of nothing but cute domestic scenes might work as a fic but drama needs, well, drama to stay interesting. No matter what some people say.

But I will be forever grateful to TTS2 for LeoFiat and for introducing me to the awesomeness that’s JaFirst and their chemistry and for directing my attention to Ja Phachara in particular who was criminally underused and ugly-wigged in UWMA hence he flew under the radar for me (which reminds me I need to re-watch his scenes from that). But LeoFiat, their strange push-n-pull, their odd dynamics... yeah, that gave me life and kept me hooked. It’s too bad that they weren’t given more space, more background and development. Oh well...

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Perth Tanapon was the best actor of that bunch and Can was a pint-sized - though slightly dull-witted - knight in shining armor. Basically.

What truly got me, though, was the TulHin pairing. Maybe because it came out of left field, totally out of nowhere, and stole my heart. Hin was so soft and kind and sweet and around him, Tul became a better man. Tul was a bastard. Don’t get me wrong, his terrible backstory explained his behavior, but even Hin who was head over heels for him found his actions inexcusable. And yet, he still couldn’t stop loving Tul...

So yeah, TulHin were THE pairing of this drama for me. Their dynamics, the fact that Hin never stopped calling Tul “Khun Tul”, it all fascinated me to me no end. And they were also very hot together.

TinCan was cute, I’m still mad that they didn’t bother to ask Saint to do at least a cameo and I didn’t care at all about the rest. Also, the product placements were downright ridiculous.

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Slice of Life

This was a slice of life drama. And it was really lovely. It always filled me with calm when I watched it. The way it was filmed, the music, the slow pace... it was very calming, peaceful, indeed. I also loved how the whole story and background of both Eun Seop and Hae Won were revealed bit by bit throughout the series.

Some of the character reactions irked me - both the leads’ in certain moments - and a few of the characters rankled a bit - Eun Seop’s little sister was too much for me, just like Ji Eun Shil - but overall, I fell in love with all the people living in that village. And with Hae Won’s mother and aunt, too, once I got to know them better and found out why they behaved the way they did, how much they both suffered. I think that the one character that I felt truly sorry for at the end was Crybaby because he never stopped loving Hae Won’s aunt.

If you like slow dramas with little action/suspense that focus on character development and relationships more than anything else, then I highly recommend this drama to you. But I need to stress the word ‘slow’ here. Because everything happens slowly in this. And that might not be everyone’s cuppa.

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This has been, hands down, the best gay drama I’ve ever seen. Did it have its issues? Sure. Would I change some things? Yeah. But generally, it was made with a lot of heart and warmth and a genuine desire to give people a fanfic-like story about a mob boss and the cop chasing him, literally.

Out of the 3 main pairings - Shao Fei/Tang Yi, Jack/Zhao Zi and Hong Ye/Dao Yi - I was most interested in Shao Fei & Tang Yi, the least in Jack & Zhao Zi, which was probably obvious from my recaps. But I really liked Hong Ye & Dao Yi, the only het pairing, and that’s a rare thing in gay dramas, that the het pairing isn’t there just so not everybody’s gay but that they actually have an interesting arc, too. So much kudos for that.

I loved Tang Yi and Hong Ye’s sibling relationship. I loved the glimpse of what could’ve been between Shao Fei and Chen Wen Hao. I loved the unexpectedly multi-layered relationship between Shao Fei and Captain Shi. I loved Tang Yi’s friendship with Doctor Jian. And I loved the flashbacks to Boss Tang mentoring Tang Yi…

What I didn’t expect was how non-cliché turned out Shao Fei to be. No crisis of sexuality or morality when he realized he fell for a male gangster. No, just pure love and determination to save Tang Yi even against Tang Yi’s will.

And the same goes for Chen Wen Hao. I started off hating that guy and ended up crying for him. He truly was a man screwed over by fate - and his friends. If only Boss Tang tried harder to get him out of jail. If only Li Chen waited for him. Everything could’ve been different.

I was one of the few who liked the music choices in this drama - from smooth jazz to the tinkling bells - and the slo-mo. But then, I’m old-school *shrugs*

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South Korea really upped their ante lately when it comes to BL dramas. Though short, most of them hit just the right spot with me. And this one was no different. Why?

Because it ended up going in a completely different direction than I thought at first. I thought that Jaeyoung would be your typical jerk and Sangwoo the soft and emotional woobie or... whatever. But no. Jaeyoung turned out to be much softer and sweeter and Sangwoo much more cynical and clinical that I expected. It sure made for a very interesting storytelling.

The story itself was very standard, there was nothing exceptional or all that original about it - for original or downright weird and twisty stuff one really has to dig into Japanese BL - but the characters sure elevated the whole thing, they made me smile while watching which is always a big plus for me.

Overall, a sweet story. Loved it.

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Oh, wow. Korea is sure on fire with their BL dramas. Sure, they’re very short but it’s quality entertainment, well written and well acted stories. And with each one they raise the bar. Incredible.

With this one, I wasn’t sure what to think of the characters at first. Kang Seo Joon seemed like your typical spoiled rich airhead whereas Han Ji Woo was his typical cold and stand-offish counterpart. But then... Then it turned out that Seo Joon was sweet and kind, immensely capable at handling his affairs and all around just a really good egg. And Ji Woo wasn’t so much cold as so very, very afraid of getting hurt that he would rather prefer not to let anyone in. Until Seo Joon happened, that is, someone willing to go the extra mile and climb over all the walls that Ji Woo erected around himself to protect his heart. Wonderful.

My favorite moments happened towards the end of the drama. When Kang Seo Joon stood up for himself and let the reporter have the CCTV vid. When Han Ji Woo realized that his boss planned to blackmail Seo Joon, that it was someone from his life who threatened Seo Joon this time. When Seo Joon came to deal with Ji Woo’s boss - Ji Woo’s face! When Seo Joon wouldn’t let Ji Woo push him away, saying (basically), “If you can’t come to me, I’ll come to you.” The whole of episode 9, of course, their soft intimacy...

But also the whole plot with Kang Seo Joon’s panic attacks, the way Ji Woo did his best to protect Seo Joon from the triggers once he realized what was going on. Seo Joon’s manager’s and his boss’ reactions when they realized that Seo Joon was still suffering from them and he just kept it to himself. That was wonderful and it gave the drama depth.

I think this is a drama that demands a re-watch once you reach the end and understand all the characters better. Because then you go all, “Oh!” in certain places and it makes the story seem all the richer.

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I’m not sure if you can actually call it a “series” considering it’s just 3 barely 15 min. long episodes - you can find them on YT subbed under WarperTV - but it’s so good. Very dark, very, very tragic but also very good. A pretty simple and straightforward story but told in a very weird, almost convoluted way. Beware, though, it’s a horror tale and not a happy one, not in the slightest!

Also, the story is pretty much carried by Jeff Satur and Gameplay Garnpaphon’s insane chemistry - if you have seen Ingredients then you know what I’m talking about. Here they also play lovers and, holy smokes! Now I really can’t wait to see them in Kinnporsche, hopefully playing a couple again! They’re both such amazing actors that you really get Peem’s anger and sadness and Mike’s anger and grief and guilt when he realizes what he’s done, that he took out his anger on the wrong person. Gosh, it’s heartbreaking.

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I admit I started watching this drama for New Thitipoom - if I have one bias among Thai actors, it’s Newwiee - and the beginning was rather wonky - you do have to get used to how over-the-top the characters are - but as the series went on, I really got into it, into the story of finding Wang’s mother. Yes, I admit that it dragged a little but the impact the whole thing had on Win and Wang was very intriguing and it let Newwiee and Krist Perawat really spread their acting wings.

My favorite characters were Newwiee’s Win and Namtan Tipnaree’s Pat but for very different reasons. Where Pat was consistently good and likable and sweet and understanding - Win was the character who went through the most obvious change: he started as a spoiled, selfish and rather entitled brat and throughout the drama he learned to be kind and considerate, to apologize for his mistakes and right the wrongs he did. It was a truly fascinating journey.

After several Thai dramas that felt like candyfloss - sweet but empty - this one was a good change of pace. Yes, it was still silly but I loved the family arc and many of the emotional scenes really hit me, they were so well acted I honestly bawled. I’m very glad that I watched this drama.

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Why, oh why couldn’t this Cdrama have focused on Mi Kaka and Qi Mu and their conflict with Poker? Why did it have to focus on Edison who, despite being a spy and a traitor, was the most boring character of the whole drama? Seriously, this could’ve been so, so awesome. As it is, it’s barely a 6/10 drama and that mainly because I really liked Mi Kaka and his relationship with his big brother, Mi Jie, and the madman that was Qi Mu…

So, if I get it right, the secret organization called Poker had built a machine that could calculate anything, even the future. But it needed a human brain to work. And for that, there were two candidates, two kids: Qi Mu - and Mi Kaka. Qi Mu’s mother willingly gave her child up but Mi Kaka’s parents tried to save him - they died in a fire, though. It was his older brother who pulled little Kaka out of that fire and since then, he’d been keeping his existence a secret. But because he never told Kaka any of that, Kaka didn’t know what was happening. Sure, he did feel that something was wrong which is why he kept his real intelligence secret, even from his big brother, but not knowing about Poker, he started playing their computer game, Inference Notes, the one they used to ferret out really smart people all around the world and because he excelled in it, Poker - and Qi Mu - found him…

Gosh, if the drama had focused on that, it would’ve been just about perfect. Qi Mu’s obsession with Mi Kaka - the ending, when Mi Jie saw Qi Mu’s drawing of Kaka! O.o - and Mi Kaka’s relationship with his brother, those were namely the saving graces of this series. And the wasted potential just miffs me to no end… Argh!

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At first, I really liked this drama. There's space for cute dramas just like there's space for realism and/or angst. One isn't better than the other, it really depends on what mood you're in. So...

Like I said, at first, I really liked it. But the longer it went, the less I understood Aoki and by the end, he really got on my nerves. IMHO, Ida hat the patience of a saint. I mean, after one date, Aoki already wanted a love declaration but at the same time, he wanted Ida to lie to his friends about dating him. He wanted to hear Ida say that he loved him, but when Ida did, Aoki told him not to say it out loud like that because it was embarrassing. It felt like Aoki truly didn't know what he wanted and it was no wonder that Ida was so confused. It was really irritating. Aoki could be very kind and selfless but also a complete idiot and the latter was far more prevalent in the second half.

Overall, it wasn't a bad series but not really something memorable.

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This was a sweet, quiet and calm drama, it felt almost serene. There were no big upheavals, no hidden agency, no scheming from jilted lovers or anything like that. It was your typical slice of life Jdrama.

Which made it, well, kinda boring. After several episodes, it felt to me personally that it was dragging a little, the back and forth arguments were of the lather-rinse-repeat variety and I really didn't like the secondary couple - if you could even call them that.

The whole thing was heavily carried by the two leads, Kusakawa Takuya and Nishigaki Sho, and even though Kusakawa Takuya was great, especially in moments when Akira was all flustered or almost halfway seduced already, it was Nishigaki Sho who had the biggest on me, his Shin was simply marvelous and I could really feel the depth of his love for Akira.

Still, I'm not sure I will ever re-watch this one. Except for a few truly exceptional moments, this drama was really slow. Turns out I really like some, well, drama in my drama.

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I picked this drama because of Zheng Yecheng as Fu Jiuyun - and he didn't disappoint in the slightest. There's something about his acting that makes everything he does on-screen feel natural. And as much as I'm usually not into alpha males, there's just something so very... sensual about him asserting his dominance that it makes my heart go all doki-doki.

I wasn't always on board with what Qin Chuan was doing, oftentimes I didn't like it, but I understood where she was coming from and I did appreciate her tenacity, her determination to avenge her people and then her helplessness when she realized that her people didn't want any revenge, they just wanted to move on and live peacefully if at all possible, that her efforts weren't really needed/appreciated because her people needed her to help them rebuild, not run around, playing avengers.

My favorite relationship in this drama was the friendship between Fu Jiuyun and his immortal friend Mei Shanjun. He was Fu Jiuyun's best friend, his confidante, his healer, his ride-or-die. And it was glorious.

There were several moments that made me cry really hard:

- When Xiao Bai, Fu Jiuyun's mirror, sacrificed himself to save him and Qin Chuan and Fu Jiuyun kept it from Qin Chuan, telling her instead that Xiao Bai was just sleeping, sleeping peacefully, and they shouldn't wake him up.
- When Xuan Zhu sacrificed herself. I didn't like her. Actually, I pretty much hated her throughout the drama but I did understand her feeling inadequate, always not good enough, always lost in Qin Chuan's shadow. Her death was really sad.
- When the Spirit Lamp was lit and Mei Shanjun realized that it meant that Fu Jiuyun was about to die. The way he turned away from the lamp and so very slowly looked at Fu Jiuyun who was already starting to disappear, turning into ash as he was burning up. And then, when the lamp was extinguished, the way Mei Shanjun screamed Fu Jiuyun's name.
- When Fu Jiuyun died, turning into these motes of light bit by bit while ignoring the pain of burning alive to watch Qin Chuan sleep for the last time.
- When Qin Chuan realized that Mei Shanjun lied to her and Fu Jiuyun wasn't coming back, that Mei Shanjun only relegated Fu Jiuyun's "dying message" to her, asking her to wait for Fu Jiuyun's return, to force her to live because it was what Fu Jiuyun would've wanted, for her to live.

What I really loved was that Qin Chuan's and Mei Shanjun's grief for Fu Jiuyun was treated as equal. Mei Shanjun cried as much and was devastated as much by Fu Jiuyun's death as Qin Chuan. A friend's grief wasn't treated here as something less.

The ending though was rather confusing and I had to look up what it actually meant in the explanation of someone who read the book. It was rather... head-tilting. I guess they counted on everyone knowing the book?

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Gosh, I loved Cho Yeon Joo. The way she ranted to herself when she got upset - and she got upset a lot. The way she could turn so angry so fast and explode like nobody's business, after which fisticuffs usually followed. The way she didn't let anyone walk all over her...

And, gosh, how much I loved Han Seung Wook. He was the softest. So kind and sweet and loving, despite everything that happened to him. For 14 years he'd been in love with a girl he's met exactly once and on the night his father died, too. And when he found her again, he was heart-eyes all the way. Patient, loyal, supporting, loving...

And Mr. Noh! He loved and supported Han Seung Wook as if Seung Wook was his own child. And Cho Yeon Joo then too. He looked after her and gave her his loyalty and... it was wonderful!

And I also loved Kang Mi Na, who was so very brave and smart and cunning!

This was a fantastic drama. Though I must admit that it suffered from the usual second-half slump. I think it would've benefited from having just ten or twelve episodes and not sixteen. When everybody started figuring out what was going on, it started to get a bit... well, convoluted.

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Another teeny tiny web Cdrama starring Yang Ze (he also starred as a spy in The Killer Is Also Romantic) and another great mix of humor & suspense. And featuring my favorite tropes: older woman/younger man and contract marriage pursued by the (business) woman (a la Begin Again with Gong Jun & Zhou Yutong).

I loved so many things about this one. Like, for example, that she pursued him so hard to marry her - but when he finally agreed, she realized she had to wait till his next birthday because he was only 21 and couldn't marry yet! Or that he wasn't a wilting snowflake either, that he had a hidden agenda of his own. Or that he was, basically, the Cinderella here, with two stepbrothers who abused him and stole his mother's wealth.

Also, the whump! Oh, the whump! For such a tiny drama, it had a really nice amount of whump on both sides, she after her kidnapping and him after receiving a severe head wound at 17.

Also #2! Thumbs up for the bad guy not being forgiven but facing his dues for what he had done to the both of them. That was... I cheered!

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This was a great drama. The twists just kept coming. And since I went in unspoiled, I was really shocked by some of them!

I watched it mainly and mostly for Fukushi Sota. I love it when he plays Good Boys(TM). And here he played a Truly Good Boy(TM)! So righteous and, well, innocent, I would say - or maybe naive? - about how the world of big time politics worked. What I loved, though, was that a) he didn't let himself get corrupted or swayed from his path to make justice prevail and b) he didn't turn bitter, not even at the end when pretty much everyone disappointed him in one way or another, his closest people included.

Also, I wonder what that last scene with his character meant, when he heard Habu's voice. Was it just his imagination? Who knows...

This is a thriller series where the bad guy is obvious from the get-go but he's also very, very powerful and when he actually starts going after the team, he pretty much demolishes them. The second half of the drama has the team losing on all fronts and it's not until the finale that they manage to wring out some sort of a victory. But it's not a clean-cut one, in my opinion. Though they stop the evil plan of evil, they pay for it and the mastermind still doesn't pay his dues, not really.

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