Hard to grasp and overhyped

I haven't properly watched any asian dramas since the start of the year and finally after getting some free time I thought might as well because the reviews were good. I do like romance dramas and e-sports dramas, so technically I should have loved this but honestly I did not.
While I do understand why people liked it i.e. because of the great soundtrack, the hot male lead, the cute female lead and their adorable height difference, that is it. That's where the pros end.
From the start the main issue for me was I did not understand the game. I get games like counterstrike or halo or the concept of capture the flag. So I knew the gaming parts were not going to be that interesting especially when the episode jumped from people playing games to inside the game in full animation but I appreciated the effort.
Secondly any and all conflicts were too hyped up. Are people in China that fickle that one post on the internet can change their opinions that fast or are they that hateful that they immediately start criticizing and cyberbullying the subject of any controversy. I don't believe that's true, so to show something like that just so that it looks like your MCs are struggling and having a hard time is not cool.
To add to this they dragged the series too long. 31 episodes of Tong Yao getting criticized for being a girl in the e-sports industry, losing a game, dating someone, being rude, hitting someone, going shopping, shaking hands with a guy, BEING SARCASTIC. Like oh my god the longer the series went the stupider the reasons became, half of which were either untrue or blown out of proportion by the media. Not to mention that they started dating after the 21st episode. I was snoozing by episode 20.
All the side characters were wasted as none of their storylines were deeply explored, most of them having conflicts for half or at max one episode. And the nail to the coffin was all those damn monologue. The creators should understand that us foreign audiences actually have to read the subtitles which takes all the impact out of any and all long drawn speeches making it super cringe and boring.
The FL literally said this in her MVP speech "it's ok even if he has thistles and thorns draped around his shoulders or treads on the burning hot sands. As the Captain of ZGDX everyone expects too much from him" Like WHAT. No one in the whole wide world expects sh*t like that from an E-Sports player or from any player and who talks like that. I get that e-sports like any other job in the world has its own struggles but don't make it sound like it's a selfless and thankless job (most jobs aren't). Not to mention it's very offensive and ignorant towards fans of any sports. I love tennis and yes I've idolized a player for the past decade or so, who is not doing so great now because he's older and has sustained injuries lately. But I'd rather he take a break than expect him to push himself even when he's not well just to win a trophy. No one has such unrealistic expectations from their idols.
Anyway the bottom line is this drama is not worth wasting 20+ hours on it and I definitely will not re-watch it.

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A typical setup with an atypical plot and characters....

I accidentally stumbled upon this drama and I'm very glad that I did. This is my first Filipino drama so I did not have much expectations from it. As many viewers seem to mention that this is a Filipino version of Boys over flowers (BoF). The first half of the first episode I also felt like that because of the setup. A poor girl gets into an elite school where 4 rich guys basically rule it and she offends the leader landing her in trouble and making her the target of all the bullies of the school.
But as the show went on I saw the major differences between the 2 shows. He's into her (HIH) establishes a very detailed family background, atleast for the main leads. The FL is the love child of a commoner and a rich heir. She doesn't end up at the aforementioned elite school through a scholarship but is enrolled by her father who finds her after years and takes her in. She doesn't go with him because she wants to know him or wants to live a comfortable life but to pay him back for helping with the medical bills of her grandma. The FL's major struggles involves countering the bullies and trying to fit in not only in school but also with her father's family.
The ML is established as a jerk at first which is later revealed to be a defense mechanism to counter his own family issues. He hurts others to take his mind off of the problems in his life like his comatose brother or ignorant mother. Both the leads are shown to be different at first but as the series progresses they find similarities in their lives which ultimately helps in their relationship and chemistry development.
As compared to BoF, HIH is a bit more realistic. The FLs family in BoF is poor just because, despite running a small business. In HIH the FL's grandma falls sick and the hospital bills pile up while the income declines resulting in their financial crisis. The ML in BoF stopped bullying the FL because he started liking her and went back to bullying her when she rejected him. In HIH the ML realized that he was wrong to bully people without knowing them or their circumstances and was helped by the FL in stopping bullying at their school. This part is the most significant development as it shows how HIH's ML is better compared to that of BoF for realizing, accepting and rectifying his mistakes. Instead of forcing the FL to be with him and stalking and obsessing over her like the ML from BoF, the ML of HIH slowly pursued the FL and took her on dates, helped and supported her and finally won her heart.
Now I know this may seem minor differences to some and some hardcore fans of BoF might argue saying how can a short web drama even compare to kdrama romcom classic let alone be better. But trust me and just watch this and you'll know that these minor differences is what makes this drama better in story, quality and performance. To use an analogy BoF is like a dish from a 5 star restaurant, expensive, flashy and tasteless whereas HIH is a dish from your favorite restaurant, hearty, tasty and soul satisfying. You gotta try it to experience it.

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It may not be as funny as Season 1 but it is definitely more emotional

Ok my initial thoughts on season 2 was that I did not like it much. I had absolutely loved season 1 and had actually binge watched it in 2 days (I started watching when 11 of the episodes had already been released) and then re-watched it several times later. In season 1 I had zero expectations while in season 2 I was expecting many things like the winter garden couple getting married, Ik-jun and Song-hwa getting together, Seok-hyeong reciprocating Min-ha's feelings, Jun-wan and Ik-sun to also get married or atleast engaged, and many more antics from the 2 best duos - Rosa and Jong su and the twins Yun-bok and Hong-do.
While some of these things did come true, some did not. And many loose ends were left without giving us proper closure. Regardless this season got better with each passing episodes. I liked the music in this season much better than season 1. The emotional development of many characters was very good. There were many heart wrenching moments as well especially that last episode which made me almost tear up.
The writers definitely tried to keep the magic of the previous season. This failed in some instances like the first fight scene between Ik-jun and Jun wan or when Ik jun was reciting the exam hall announcement after listening to classical music. It was funny but it seemed like the writers were just repackaging the same old content and giving it to us.
But despite that many scenes were genuinely funny. I'll just list down my most favorite moments -
1. Kim Jun-wan and Do Jae-hak duo (if they weren't both straight and in relationships, I would have shipped them)
2. Chu-Bear couple (Seok-Hyeong and Min-ha were hands down my most anticipated couple this season)
3. Ik-Jun and Song-hwa (unlike many I did not ship them very hard. They were good either way, whether they stay friends or become lovers. But I did like them together in the end)
4. Winter garden couple connecting emotionally (while in season 1 their relationship was highly anticipated, in season 2 it became very evident that while they liked each other for their personalities, they actually did not know much about each other. In this season their personal issues were brought to light especially Gyeo-ul's background and I loved how they tackled the issues together and became even closer)
So yes you should definitely watch this season. While it is not as good as season 1, it is 10 times better than any of the other series currently airing.

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Watch it for the eye candy and 2nd lead couple....

So there were 3 reasons why I started to watch this series -
1) The trailer looked good
2) It is a BL adaptation of a drama called "Just You" which I liked
3) The cast looked really great especially the 2 MLs

There were also 3 reasons why this series failed to meet my expectations -
1) Although the series looked good initially, as the episodes progressed the story started to become both messy and stagnant. For the last 4-5 episodes there was no development between the 2 main leads with only the 2nd lead couple keeping the ship afloat.
2) While this drama did share many of the plot points with the parent story like the singlehood rule, workplace romance, cohabitation between the main leads and the ever disliked blast from the past i.e. the MLs ex, the original drama "Just You" had 20+ episodes which were 1:30 hrs long whereas "Be loved In house" only had 12 episodes of 25 mins each. This meant that cover everything the story became too rushed especially with the bad structuring of the episodes (late introduction of the ex in the story resulting in unwanted drama and late resolution).
3) Both the lead actors Aaron Lai and Hank Wang are individually very good looking. Together as the main CP they literally looked very good. They are one of the top 3 best looking BL couples (the other 2 being Tharn-Type and Fighter-Tutor). And regardless of their visuals their initial chemistry was very good. But as the series progressed and the story regressed, their interactions became a bit awkward and forced. The 2nd lead couple managed to maintain their nice chemistry but because theirs was a more sweet and low-key romance it failed to add that extra "oomph" needed to make the drama really good. The biggest error in the series came from the dream sequences that both the main leads had of each other with the ex-boyfriend. These sequences were explicit instead of being suggestive which was very off-putting since neither of them were the main CP nor did I have the 2nd lead syndrome for the ex-bf character.
Although this drama was not the best BL I have seen, it was definitely not the worst and since it's short it is good for binge watching on a weekend.

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I was skeptical about this because both the leads looked like kids (they were skinny and baby faced) but this wasn't a school drama. But I didn't have anything to watch and I was craving a modern c-drama for some reason so I gave it a try and I have to say I was very disappointed.
First of all the story is unrealistic because of the scar. I get why she would get trauma because kids are pretty impressionable but a) no one makes fun of a scar. If they do they are the ones in the wrong (and an a-hole btw) not you. b) I have had experience with this and cut scars, especially at a young age are never that pronounced unless she got stiches which clearly she didn't otherwise it wouldn't just be a single line scar. I had a cut scar and a 3rd degree burn scar that I got during middle school and the cut scar faded and isn't visible unless pointed out. The burn scar you can see from a 100m away, so yeah they should probably have done that here that she accidently got burned or something to have that kind of trauma and very visible scar.

Secondly that split personality was sh*t. The first 2 episode it was my favorite part. She would go from this talented but insecure person to this talented and confident girl. But that didn't happen in the some of the later episodes. Her other personality just seemed a more high maintenance version of herself. Instead of seducing the ML with her charms like her psychiatrist friend claimed she would do, she literally just whined and annoyed the ML till he gave in and did what she asked. You can't just be an annoying version of yourself and claim you have a split personality. Like c'mon.

And lastly that ML sucked hard. Like initially he was clueless which is fine. He didn't understand why would anyone spend so much extra time, money and effort on a simple dinner date when it can be done for way less. And I was fine with that but in just a few episodes he went form clueless to insensitive. He understood that the FL genuinely liked him and he was an absolute jerk to her. Not to mention his initial intention was to simply use her to get what he wanted and he went as far as playing along her other personality to do that. He didn't help her because he wanted to but because he wanted to take advantage of her talents which is not a character trait I wanna see a lead.
Also their relationship went too far too fast. They were already a couple by the 2nd episode and broke up by the 4th. With 20 more episodes to go I just couldn't imagine how many times they would break up and make up.
The only watchable thing was the side couples but I just couldn't tolerate the main CP for 24 episodes so I dropped this.

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A typical Netflix drama

I've been putting this drama on the back burner for awhile now and I finally decided to binge watch it.
I had seen it's trailer before and did not expect anything more than a light fluffy drama with a little bit of excitement to make the story interesting and this is the main reason for a high rating.
My expectations were perfectly met by this drama. It was interesting enough to keep me seated in front of the screen without skipping forward but not so much that I got emotionally invested in it (like the main lead characters could have had a tragic ending and I wouldn't have even cared). There were many asian drama cliches used in this one as well - childhood friends that got separated and met years later and fell in love without realizing who the other person was, tragic backstories, childhood traumas, etc.
There was one issue that I found with this drama as soon as I finished watching episode 1. That is it was unnecessarily long. I'll be honest, when I finished watching, it didn't feel like any of the episodes were a waste or anything but there was a bit too much drama at one point. It's pretty easy to figure out the story halfway through the episodes eliminating the suspense (I knew what happened to nando's mother by about ep 8 as it was quite obvious) . The FL gets the holo glasses and meets the ML in the first 2 episodes itself. In my opinion this could have been easily made into a movie if all the mystery was removed. The FL could have found the glasses, fell for the AI, then meet it's maker who was the one the AI was modelled after, make him fall in love with her and the end. That was all the story was for me stretched over 12 episodes.
Also for some reason this felt like the beginning of Terminator or Avengers age of ultron. I mean it showed that an AI caused a citywide blackout to save a girl and it was explained as the AI being in love with her. No matter how prettily it is wrapped, the point is that the tech was highly dangerous and therefore this drama is highly unrealistic.
So while I'll recommend this drama for binge watching when you are bored and can't find any better drama, I'll also ask you not to get too invested or have high expectations.

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You'll be appealing for a Season 3 or just a BL with Chimon and Nanon...

Ok so I am a huge gifted series fan and it is hands down my most favorite non-bl thai series. Everyone who thinks season 1 was bad or unsatisfactory needs to get over themselves (There was going to be S2 so obviously S1 ended in a sort of cliffhanger). Therefore obviously I watched the series as it was streaming and I watched the finale weeks ago when the season ended. So why am I only now posting a review? It's because I was and still am pretty upset about my Pang X Wave ship getting wrecked. Let me hash it out first.
The Gifted Graduation was a very much awaited series for me. When I watched S1 it was in 2019 and it had already been released for almost a year and I binge watched that sh*t during a single weekend. And then I had to wait a whole year for S2. As you can guess the expectations were high from everybody. Then the trailer dropped which showed the series going from treasure hunt mystery to murder thriller level dark which was pretty exciting. The Season started perfect. The 1st gifted to be shown on the screen were the twins who were not given their own episode in S1 making them a fan favorite in an underdog kind of way. So obviously their entry was perfect and well deserved. The whole intro with Punn's piano playing in the background was thrilling. The planning and the new kids was fun too. And obviously since it's The gifted series, the twists were surprising and very well written. So where was the problem? I'll tell you.
- Despite the twins making the 1st entry and having screen time initially, they were once again neglected by the end of the series. And the worst part was so were some of the others. In the later episodes many of the gifted became simply a footnote in the whole story. Many characters like Mon, Korn, Ohm, Joe and Jack were visibly absent in the episodes after the Gifted Class 8's sort of disbandment.
- Miss Darin's background should have been explored or there should not have been a mystery in the first place. It was shown as if she had powers but nothing was clarified and then her character simply disappeared.
- I didn't like the Claire Punn breakup as Punn's episode is my fav in S1 but I did like his character development as he went from needing just Claire's love to maintain his mental stability to believing in himself and his friend's love and affection for him and being fine.
- I didn't think there was much exploration of Third's abilities. There were many other gifted in his batch other than him, Time and Grace but the 3 of them were the main characters so obviously Third's powers should have been explored a bit more.
- I liked the suspense behind Grace's powers but was kinda disappointed that after the whole mystery and sh*t, she simply got rid of her potential (I don't hate that part but I don't love it either).
- Wave's potential did not seem to advance that much. As for Pang I liked that at the end he was able to control the Director which was impossible before but his potential did not have much exposure either.
- I feel like at the end the Director should have lost his powers like Korn and Grace because all his arrogance was from the fact that he was a gifted but I'll accept the current ending too.
- Lastly I'm pretty upset about the ending. Like not that they should have taken out some parts but rather they should have added some parts. I love Namtarn but her coming in the end in this Season did not seem as impactful. The whole season there were very heavily implied that Pang and Wave had feelings for each other and Wave even decided to go to a lower level college for Pang (Classic boyfriend move). The end should have been them going to college together or something. Even if it wasn't that they should have atleast put in a graduation scene with all the Gifted given that the Season was named freaking Gifted : Graduation.
Apart from these details everything else from story to reveals to acting were all pretty perfect for me. I would totally love a season 3 but I feel like there isn't much that can be done storywise. Maybe some special episodes would be better and definitely very well appreciated. I would also like it if there was a separate BL series with Chimon and Nanon. I know Chimon has already played a BL character (incidentally Nanon was in it too albeit they weren't coupled together). I hope they get their own BL series, I know all the thai BL fans are gonna freak the f*ck out.
Anyway as far as the gifted series goes there is no question that regardless of how it turned out, it's one of the best thai shows to watch.

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Inadequate Enough to Disappoint...

I don't know if it's a bad year or just my bad luck, but so far every single k-drama I've watched has fallen short of my expectations and this one tops that list. The trailer for lonely enough to love was pretty intriguing. The thing is I've liked Kim So Eun since I first saw her in Boys over Flowers where she played the FLs bff and I loved her pairing with one of the F4 more than the main cp. Since then she had done alot of lead roles which were not bad but were just not diverse enough (she always plays the unlucky girl role where she's either unlucky in love or work or both). So when I saw the trailer where she looked all dressed up (like an adult) and professional getting hit on by 3 guys I was really excited. By the looks of it (and the sound of the title) I assumed that her character was that of a professional woman who is successful in her career but not so much with relationships and she gets courted by 3 guys (a guy she just met, her bff/her ex and her co-worker) who she considers dating simply because she feels lonely but later ends up falling for one of them.
I could not have been more wrong. I don't know why but somehow she ended up playing the same unlucky woman role who seemed to never have had any relationship ever, and lost both her job and her house in the same day. She ends up living in her friend's room in a share house where she meets all the other characters.
The ML, Kang Woo was a psychiatrist who was one step away from being a psychopath. His behaviors were almost stalker-ish and not in a cute way. He was too nosy and got into people's businesses without caring about their feelings or the consequences and got offended when someone did that to him.
The SML Hyun Jin was better but only by a little. His sudden interest in the FL was not very believable mostly because they had been friends for years but he only noticed her as a woman after he broke up with his gf and they started living together (which didn't seem very genuine to me). I did not get Second male lead syndrome because of this and also because since ep. 1 there were so many typical k-drama clues that indicated that the FL was gonna end up with the ML.
The FL Na Eun was a pretty miserable character. She had progressively more unfortunate incidents happening to her which just prolonged her unhappy mode throughout the series. I understood why she was unsuccessful as a writer. She thought she was a good writer based on the reviews of just her friends, she lost all common sense when she was offered a deal (which is why she got conned), she asked for pointers on her work from other professionals and got all depressed when she was criticized by them or when she got hate comments on her posts (in any profession especially one where you will become famous, you'll always have haters and if you let it get to you then you won't survive). Most of her principles seemed fake to me (it was as if whatever she said, she only followed it when it suited her, like she kept saying that she wanted to be successful on her own without the MLs help but when her friend helped her she was ok with it).
Apart from these 3 most other characters just felt like fillers.
Dong Seok and Ah Reum had a pointless romance. Their characters barely had more than 5 scenes together but they somehow ended up together.
I liked Kyung Won's story and character but it just wasn't explored. Bo Ra's character was good but she had no story. Same with Ji Hoon.
Ji Ah and David's story was by far the best. I absolutely loved their chemistry and relationship development (they were better than the lead couple).
Jung Hoon was a good character with the most amount of potential. Unfortunately not only his character wasn't developed enough, his story was also pretty vague leaving me with a lot of questions (It was hinted that he might be gay but never clarified, which I would have liked since I love BLs).
The plot got progressively worse and the Finale felt like it was taken from a 12 year old teenage girl's diary.
I wouldn't recommend this to anyone and wouldn't even mistakenly re-watch it.

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It's BTS being BTS....

First of all if you have watched any BTS videos before (and I don't mean MV, just them doing things, anything), you don't need to see this review to know that this show was ah-mazing.
To those who have not seen BTS in anything other than their music (and to those who haven't even seen that just in case), I would suggest that you definitely watch this.
I get that this is just them eating, sleeping, playing and relaxing but it's just so much fun. Their chemistry is off the charts and they just have fun even when they are working because they are together. This show is basically BTS setting goals.
They are friendship goals as well as life goals. They work really hard but they also know how and when to relax (like me watching them to de-stress). Instead of watching motivational speeches on the internet to inspire yourself, you can just watch this and you'll want to do better in both your personal and professional life (I have started to cook after watching them).
Also since it's BTS, obviously their music is great. And yes I'm gonna re-watch this again and again.

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An interesting plot + Thai Lakorn logic = Average Drama

Yes the plot of Mia Archeep was kinda interesting. Honestly I thought this was gonna be more like The Cupid Series, because of the synopsis but it wasn't.
The ML ,Dit, gets an offer by a business associate, Robert, who apart from his cosmetics company also runs a matchmaking project called the Plan. What Robert actually does is that he takes desperate girls like the FL, Dao, and makes them sign contracts so that they are forced to participate in the Plan. He falsifies their backgrounds and makes them marry these rich CEOs and later blackmails them into spying for him on their husbands (basically corporate espionage) to make money. Dit gets catfished by Dao (on Robert's orders) and joins the Plan. He later falls for her but doesn't know whether she really loves him or not.
The drama started off pretty good with the leads being wary but flirty with each other (The leads had pretty good chemistry, so did Phupha and Kot). But the later episodes started to drag quite a lot. There were a lot of scenes which could have been cut to give more time to resolve all the issues and misunderstanding. Apart from this there were 2 things that really bugged me-
1) Most of the female characters in this drama were either pretty bad or greatly flawed. Dao regardless of her situation was deceitful, Jarunee was greedy and scheming, Walai wasn't particularly bad but she wasn't likable either, Ann was downright obsessive and annoying, Kot was haughty and unnecessarily insulting and Maeta was a bootlicker, rude and disloyal. I don't know what's with Thai Lakorns but they will either show the female characters as naive and innocent who get manhandled or as complete b*tches who are jealous, greedy or vengeful. Fortunately most male characters were pretty good and the ML, although a bit obsessive/possessive, was not full of toxic masculinity.
2) I got a serious case of second male-lead syndrome. The second lead, Nam, was an exceptionally great guy till the end and the writers of the show did him dirty. I guess many fans are saying that he deserved the FL more than the ML. I disagree. In my opinion the FL did not deserve a great guy like him (she kept stringing him along and gave him false hope) and they should have totally gotten a great female character in the show just for him. I wish for the producers to make a spin-off with him as the ML (Nam deserves his own lakorn).
Overall, Mia Archeep, although a bit draggy (and I kind of might have fast forwarded certain scenes), is a pretty good show to watch in your downtime.

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2020s most addictiveThai Lakorn so far....

First of all So Wayree regardless of the acting, character development, twists or chemistry, happens to have many questionable themes in it which might not be suitable for some people. So Wayree is a drama, which I felt, was written in a way to mostly cater to the Thai Lakorn fans. It has got so many scenes that look thrilling but in real life is actually criminal or very unethical. The first scene between the main leads itself was pretty outrageous. The characters did things ranging from drugging someone to rape to kidnapping to murder (and don't think all this was just the villains in the drama, the protagonists did some sh*t too).
That said the overall drama was pretty good. The push and pull romance (although pretty annoying at times) was good. The chemistry between the the 2 leads was superb (I've always been a fan of Mookda and even though this is the 1st drama of Kem's that I have watched I really liked him). I also kinda liked her with Amp (who had previously worked with Mookda on the drama "Massaya") because I felt like his character got over his prejudice and accepted her for who she was and later supported the 2 leads even after getting rejected.
The 2nd lead couple (the FLs bff and the MLs brother) were amazing together with as good a chemistry as the leads (they should have their own spin-off in my opinion), they also added a lot of fun scenes in the drama which I really appreciated (Na is hands down the best Thai lakorn side-character I have seen, from her fashion style to personality, I loved everything).
The antagonists were great as well. I loved the actress playing Pam. I really liked the characters of Traitot and Krit because it proved to me that how playing a gay character does not mean that an actor will only get BL drama offers (The main reason why many thai actors are now refusing to participate in BLs is because of the fear of getting typecast) and the fact that they treated their relationship like any other (instead of problems with acceptance they had other common issues too).
So Wayree also touched on several serious topics. The fact that the FL felt the need to hide the fact that she was raped instead of reporting it simply because of fear of ridicule by her family and society was upsetting (and it does happen in a lot of asian countries). There were other instances like people manipulating the media to help themselves, parental pressure and conducting corporate espionage just to make profit etc. This was the main reason why I liked the drama (It also reminded me of "Kluen Cheewit" which had a similar mix of serious topics and thai lakorn cliches).
In conclusion if you are a thai lakorn fan this drama is a must watch.

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A pacifying ending for 2gether fans....

So I watched 2gether season 1 while it was being released and obviously it was pretty good. But the last 2 episodes of that season was pretty badly screwed up by an unwelcome misunderstanding and a hasty and less than satisfying resolution. The fans of the show (including me) basically bashed the finale episode pretty bad which is (what I believe to be) the root cause of these 5 special episodes.
The 1st episode is basically a detailed explanation of the events of the finale and give a better resolution of the issue. The other 4 episodes show the relationship development between the various couples.
Sarawat and Tine go through a not so long distance relationship phase (basically living apart in 2 different parts of the same city for 2 weeks). They get to know each others feelings and fear. It also shows them having minor disagreement in their college life which affects their personal lives and how they resolve it. Their chemistry was as usual off the charts.
Man and Type had the 2nd best on-screen chemistry and it's only because they had less scenes together. I feel like if they had more screen time they would have surpassed Sarawatine. They went through the real long distance relationship but they handled it beautifully and their last scene together was heart-warming.
Mil and Phukong had a pretty speedy relationship development (from friends to dating in under 4 episodes) but it didn't feel rushed. I wasn't particularly keen on their relationship but still their ending was pretty satisfactory.
Boss finally got a crush (on Pear from season 1 who I believe Tine was trying to hit on) and confessed to her. His character development was funny and endearing at the same time.
Green and Dim also added a lot of excitement and fun to the story. I've been Green's fan for sometime now and as always I wasn't disappointed. Green's sass, charisma and attitude cannot be surpassed and as he himself said he's the "Iron Lady" and nobody should dare challenge him.
Earn, Frong and Ohm were also a great addition.
The songs in the episodes were also pretty great. The acting was on point and the last episode literally left me swooning.
These special episodes were definitely worth it.

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An emotional rollercoaster.....

I watched Sand Princess a few months ago (and re-watched it again a few more times) after I had just discovered thai BLs. Before this the only thai dramas I had watched were the overly cliched Lakorns. So when I first found this, that was what I was expecting. After watching the 1st episode I realized that while this drama did have some cliched situations, it's storyline was new and interesting.
The basic plot revolves around Kot who's an orphan (which is frequently mentioned in the drama btw) and does all kinds of odd jobs to raise herself. She befriends Ji during their school days who have a business type relationship. Ji orders around Kot to do everything from doing his homework to cleaning his house. Ji is a playboy and one of his flings (who is also Kot's friend) becomes pregnant. She leaves the baby (Mochi) with Kot and Ji. Since Ji is engaged to Aff and theirs is a family arranged marriage (Aff's father is the investor in Ji's family business), Ji is unable to take Mochi as his own child. So as with all of his problems he hires Kot to be like an adoptive mother to Mochi. He tries to lure her with money and when that doesn't work, he threatens to send the kid to an orphanage. Jump to a couple of years later and Kot is still raising Ji's kid as a single mother when she happens to meet Ki. They somehow meet a couple more times and encounter some situations together. Later it is revealed that Ji and Ki are brothers and Ki also finds out about Ji being mochi's father. To somehow diffuse the situation, Ki and Kot agree to get married (and get divorced later) so as to make Mochi as his legitimate child and give Kot an exit from her situation.
From here on out the story is mostly romance. What starts as a love triangle evolves to a Love square (with Ki, Kot, Ji and Aff).
I really liked Kot's character and the actress played her perfectly. Obviously there were some very cliched situations she was put in but I didn't really mind it.
Ki's character was also great. He was the kind of character we all hope the male lead in every drama was like, a perfect gentleman who is considerate and loyal and treats the female lead right.
Ji's character was also good but exactly opposite of Ki. He was the kind of character most male leads in dramas turn out to be you know the spoiled rich playboy that leaves his playboy lifestyle for the female lead. Both MLs were good but with Ji it was basically missed timing and opportunity.
Aff's character was the typical second female lead who is a total b*tch type. She treated the brothers like her personal dolls just because her father was the main investor in their business. When she got bored with one she went for the other. I was glad she didn't get either at the end.
The story overall was pretty great and hit all the right emotional spots for me. I would suggest for all asian dramas fans to just go for this one, it's definitely worth a watch.

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Not every webtoon is meant to be adapted

So yes this series was adapted from a webtoon and yes the webtoon itself was quite popular. But just because the manhua was good doesn't mean you have to make into a series. Webtoon have much more episodes and are in general pretty detailed. A lot of adaptation fail to meet the expectations (like cheese in the trap, mystic pop up bar), some are average (like extraordinary you, love alarm) and a few turn out pretty great (like what's wrong with secretary kim or my ID is gangnam beauty). The failure of this series is evident in the fact that despite having stars like Yeo Jin Goo and Lee Jong Hyun in the main roles, most people disliked the series.
I started this series because the vampire concept is mostly only adapted in hollywood mainly due to 2 facts-
-most countries have mythical creatures different than vampires in their folklore (the reason everyone knows about vampires and werewolves is because they are more publicized) & hollywood's has romanticized them even though in reality they are more related to horror and less to romance
So this was definitely something interesting especially since in the show the humans are said to be aware of the vampires and living together in an integrated society.
This interest lasted about 2 episodes. You would think that a show with vampires cohabiting with humans would concentrate more on their struggles but no, the writers had to add in-
-a complicated teen romance,
-b*tchy highschool girls hellbent on ruining the new girl because the queen bee's crush seems to like her ( if the guy didn't give you the time of day even before the new girl came to school, you think he'll do so after you bully her),
-the vampire girl joining the school band because she wants to be a musician (seriously that's her plan? dude just become a trainee in an agency or join an art school or something that'll actually help),etc.

The worst part of this drama was probably when they switched time periods. Look I like period dramas as much as the next person but there is a time and place for that. I guess the writers wanted to show a reincarnation story or maybe a "history repeating itself" kinda plot but it seriously failed. There were way too many things happening and the structuring of the episodes was a mess. Not to mention that Ma-ri's character was way too dull and Jae-min's character was uninteresting (Shi-hoo was a more intersting character).
If you wanna watch a korean vampire drama I suggest you go for Blood or the Scholar who walks the night.

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One of the best thai lakorns you'll get to see...

Oh my god...there are so many emotions running through my brain I can't even begin to explain but I'll still try.
First of all the story of this lakorn is pretty good but a total mind f*ck because initially all the different characters are introduced and there are a lot of characters with 50 shades of personalities. After awhile I understood who was who and their inter-relationships (cause that's hella messy). It's got some elements of the lakorns like kidnapping the FL, plotting love rivals and evil family members but also lacks some aspects (for a period drama this does not have as much manhandling of the FL by the ML as usually happens which I appreciate).
So the basic storyline is the Rattanamahasaan house (I'm gonna refer it to as the Ratt house/family) is like this wealthy and prestigious household. The Madam Ratt adopted this kid Saan who was an orphan of their close family friend and raises him with her own 2 kids. Now when he grows up he falls in love with a girl not accepted by Madam Ratt and gets kicked out. Now years later she has 8 grandkids- 2 from her deceased son named Lak and Nit and 6 from her daughter Sajee named Pong, Pin, Pan and 3 other little kids who are not really relevant to the story. Madam Ratt send all 5 of her grown up grandkids and her daughter-in-law Ying (Lak & Nit's mom) to bring home Massaya, her adopted son Saan's daughter. The rest of the story revolves around Massaya and Lak as they get familiar and later fall in love.
I mainly watched this drama because I love both Mik and Mookda. Most of the other actors were relatively new to me but they all nailed their performances.
Massaya was well portrayed as the innocent, sometimes naive but kinda headstrong girl. Some of her decisions were very frustrating like her rebelling everytime she was asked to do something or even when she was being abused by her grandmother she wouldn't leave instead of endure it (even when she left it was because of Lak).
Lak's character was okay. I don't think I would have had a problem if he actually ended up with Chom (since she was a good person at the start) but as the episodes went by it became obvious that the main reason he was dating her was more because he was initially attracted to her good personality, unlike with Mas for whom he had fallen for at first sight.
Chom's character was going steadily nice until people started poising her and she literally devolved. You can see her nosedive into a cliff despite various other people trying to save her. She misplaced her anger (like half of the other characters in the show) and instead of going after Lak she tried harming Mas. I liked that she went back to how she was before during the end of the series.
Pong and Pan were similar characters. Both of the siblings got incited by their mother to behave badly. In Pan's case as soon as she distanced herself from her sister and mother she improved whereas with Pong he gradually realized that the hate had made his family go as far as committing crimes and he kinda sobered up. The final point in his redemption was when he got acknowledged by Madam Ratt. I didn't really like him pairing up with Chom because while he wasn't the best person at first and Chom was pretty good initially, Chom treated him like sh*t (she literally told him that him and her was impossible so he might as well help her destroy Lak & Mas's relationship to get Lak back). I feel he could have done better but whatever.
Pin was also a conflicting character but among all her siblings she was the most like her mother and also the most influenced by her.
Khun Ying's character was basically Madam Ratt's puppet. Whatever she was told to do she simply did it even if it conflicted with what she wanted.
Tan Chai is probably the best wingman in Thai lakorn history ever. Whatever problem Lak had Tan Chai's immediate response was "I think I can help you". Seriously the best character in the series.
Nop was basically collateral damage. I mean I agree that he and Mas were not a good fit (they both seemed very childlike to be together) but they didn't have to play him like a fiddle.
Madam Ratt was the worst character followed by her own daughter Sajee. I wondered as to how Sajee turned out to be so b*tchy and entitled but later realised she was just like her mother. The only difference between the two was that Madam Ratt had the power and money. Other then that they were both classist, selfish and highly manipulative. Sajee was definitely better because she told her enemies that she hated them and then attacked whereas Madam Ratt maintained a sweet facade and then manipulated others to do her bidding.

I was a bit unsatisfied with the ending cause they offed the grandma (which seemed unnecessary), put Pong and Chom together (as stated I didn't like that), did not put Nop with anybody (I felt like he Pan gelled together) and showed 5 years of separation between Lak and Mas which ended with just a lousy reunion instead of like a wedding or something.
Anyway it's still a good drama so I would definitely recommend it.

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