PPBongi

Awful

Honestly, you would be better off watching paint dry than subject yourself to this tedious, drab, lackluster, and boring series. So far, this is one of the worst I have seen this year (2023). Everything, and I mean everything about this series is insipid. I thought Cutie Pie 1 was so toxic with this one not much further behind. I found this series just too dysfunctional to enjoy, too boring, and absolutely pointless. The actors looked bored, depressed and very underwhelming performances. The love scene, if you want to call it that, in this series I had to fast forward through because it was just too painfully unimaginative to watch. How can you make love boring? Skip it if you can.

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A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing

I must confess that I knew nothing, and I mean nothing, about the world of Omegaverse especially as it pertains to the BL genre. I found, overall, this diegesis confusing and the dynamics of the plot messy, empty, and frankly hard to follow. However, that is not the only reason why I so intensely disliked this series. It is a ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’, which I detested even more. Whether one likes to admit it or not, this story is filled with pervasive ugly bullying, abuse of all various kinds, toxic masculinity, rape, rampant sociopathic personality disorders, over-the-top arrogance, and perceived entitled overindulgence. Why is all this not seen? Because of the stunningly handsome men who sugar-coat it with wit, charm, astonishing good-looks (eye-candy), and persuasive discourse. In a sense, these super-rich guys can do no wrong for the sole reason being the status of who and what they are. If this series had been portrayed with other than handsome men (e.g. pot-bellied, acned-faced, balding with missing teeth middle-aged guys instead), what would our reaction be?

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A Sad Story

While the story itself is as old as time, the way it is presented is different. This is an exceptionally well-acted series that pretended to go deep but for me did not. What you have are essentially three flawed people who by circumstance become intertwined with each seeking something that ironically, they cannot give themselves. They each want to think ‘outside the box’ in terms of what is a ‘normal’ behavioral pattern for a relationship, but struggle to define for themselves what is normal. I found this series empty, soul-destroying, and profoundly sad. Confused by its message yet compelled to watch it in a very voyeuristic fashion. This is one series that I quite literally want to forget.

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A Brilliant Series with repulsive scenes

Perhaps I am the only one who saw this BL as an allegory and a beautiful story. Of course it has some repugnant scenes in it but if you look at it as an allegory, perhaps it makes a bit more sense. This is painful no question but should not be dismissed because of the prism in which we view this series. We are NOT these guys. What happened between the two of them can not be undone but in this case ONLY they can decide and call it what they want. Does that make it right? NO! But it explains a lot. They have little time to explore their feelings and no avenues to do so. Can you imagine leaving your soulmate without ever knowing his touch, his warmth, his intensity. I can not judge their actions but only accept it. Life does not always follow the yellow brick road to happiness.

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Awful, Banal, Monochromatic

Where to begin with this tedious series that went nowhere and said nothing. If this was supposed to be a BL, then the L was missing. Watching this series was like watching paint dry - slow, boring, tedious, I have never seen such portrayals of characters so wooden and stilted that it was hard to see them even as 2-dimenshilanal people, Yes, the cuisine looked good but the endless food preparations got to be too much. The ending made no sense at all. Honestly, this was awful and a waste of time to watch. Or perhaps, I just did not get it. And I honestly do not care if I did or not.

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Felt Manipulated and Empty

I am perhaps in a minority here. While I liked the series, I do not think it is great nor a masterpiece of any sorts. Sure, it is well-acted but the story itself was so convoluted and contrived. This series simply tried too hard to get us to like it. It certainly tugged at our heartstrings. It had all the right elements - children, poverty, bad-guys, redemption, guilt, and a stab at romance. And many, many people certainly liked this series. But it all felt so empty to me, and I felt manipulated. I know that is what stories are supposed to do but I wanted and needed to feel something - a strong connection, something relatable, an emotional link. I simply just did not get it. What bothered me the most was yet again a BL story refusing to consummate its relationship with any kind of romantic gesture (i.e. kiss). Dear God, when is this going to stop. If you love one (or even like someone a lot), a simple kiss on the lips is not a commitment to enteral love or even marriage, Kissing one's forehead is an insult to everyone who is in a real relationship.

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Execrable!

I refuse to sugar-coat any pretense about this series. It is one of the worst I have ever seen. Hands down. Period. Not only in terms of storytelling and script, but also in acting, directing, and production. It has one of the most nonsensical stories I have ever seen. It had no point. The plot was witless, illogical, and utterly stupid. I could not simulate what was happening at all. The horror of horrors is that there are aliens swarming all over our planet who are going to do something to us, but I never could quite understand exactly what they were going to do. Most, if not all, were dastardly people out to either profit (but how I am not sure as their form of money was useless here) by taking things from this planet or using us for nefarious reasons. Oh my! But all that is unimportant. Seriously, there are not enough adjectives to describe how truly bad this series is. I am guessing this was supposed to be a comedy, but it is overall not funny or even has much humor or fun to it. Was this series a spoof? Or maybe nothing more than sarcasm? Perhaps it was done tongue-in-cheek, right? No, it is just bad. It looked like a clown show with costumes borrowed as hand-me-downs from a high school performance of the Wizard of Oz. There is really no coherent story. It is a jumbled mess with little thought in making the story flow with consistency. The acting between these two rather seasoned performers was not even at a mediocre level. They were flatly and unequivocally uninvolved in their personifications and had no connection with who they were supposedly representing. Their acting was pedestrian.

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More a Lakorn than a BL

This is not so much a BL as it is a Lakorn and honestly, an exceptionally good one at that. I found myself completely engaged in these characters and what was happening. Truthfully, it has been a long time since I felt ‘good’ about watching a Thai series, but this one was exceptional and almost made it to my top 10 list. Almost. Some aspects of this series just could not be overlooked as it deflated what was otherwise an exceptional mythos for a change. Indeed, it sure is a soap opera-ish saga but the story line captures you from the beginning. Although the plot is your standard rather cliché-driven formatted subject matter, because of the enveloping acting, it excites your attention. It presented several unique factors that made watching hypnotic. While the premise is ubiquitous, it presented the evolvement with vicissitude to make the story compelling.

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Standard Cliche-Filled BL

Perhaps I am becoming so jaded by the similarities in Thai BL stories that I found this series to be yet another standard typical cliché-driven saga. Except that the protagonists, of whom there are many, were all drop-dead gorgeous and this time did not lack talent in singing and dancing, which made it more entertaining to watch. Again, like so many of these series, either I do not understand its aim, or I am in a glazed over state of mind that I just did not get the message. But perhaps I am projecting my own prejudices upon a culture that I do not fully understand. Admittedly, I am of a generation that does not regard the dynamics of the generational infantile and juvenile behaviors of the times as normal. However, I did finally get to comprehend and understand the deep encroachment that fans have on entertainers. It becomes clear why the term ‘fanatic’ is attached to the term ‘fan’.

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Another Inane Infantile BL Except Good Love-Making!

Because I binged watched this series, I gained 5 unnecessary pounds from all its sweetness coming from its plot. This is one of the most saccharine-filled series I have ever watched. And of course, it employed every BL cliché, trope, and stereotypical hackneyed ploy scriptwriters could possibly think of utilizing. There was absolutely nothing original in this series, except in a few instances in which they really excelled in storytelling. However, that was not enough to even make this series fully entertaining. The plot was excruciating, and the script was jejune. These kinds of BLs are getting stale and tedious. Yet I hypothesize they will remain popular. For me, I see wasted talent and storylines. Sure, there are occasionally good subplots here, but they are few and far between. How about maturing the protagonists. Take out the fluff, even half of it. Added more angst and reality even a little to the storylines. Enrich the story and give it some gravitas. These BLs are likened to movies way back in the 50s – fantasy romances of rich idealized couples, wishing it were us. Only this is for straight people (I am guessing mostly females) who think this is how young gay men live. It is an idealized version of a gay world. (Oh, we might WANT to live like this, but it just ain’t so). Far, far from it. Not even close.

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It Is What It Is! Nothing More! I LOVED it!

Frankly, I am astonished this series has gotten such poor to mediocre reviews. I loved it. I loved it for two reasons. First, it tells a full story, albeit short and sweet but to the point. Sure, its brevity is both a hinderance and an asset. I wish there would have been greater character development. Nonetheless, this mini-BL accomplished more in a short period of time than most droning on-and-on BLs characteristically do. It had a beginning, middle, and a fine end. Secondly, we saw flawed characters. These are not individuals who are straight from the trope play book. In some sense, they are not at all likeable individuals, yet they are so relatable to who we are as people. In other words, they are untruthful, blemished, and maybe disingenuous. Traits, I am afraid, we all share at one time or another in our lives.

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Magnum Opus! The total Package!

Yes, indeed I did watch this phenomenal series and, while not a gamer nor fully understanding much about the intricacies of this series, I treasured its theme and ambition. This series is breathtaking in its presentation, cinematography, storytelling, and acting. I was completely mesmerized and astonishingly could pretty much follow the gist of the story minus the minutiae and detailed storylines. Being a Westerner, I also got hopelessly entangled by the names and relationships of individuals. None of that mattered to me, however. My focus was on the two main protagonists and the heart of their story.
To say this series is unconventional would be an understatement. Interestingly, it was adapted from a BL, but it is NOT a BL. Is it romantic? Oh God, yes. It is beyond a bromance but certainly not a BL. It is in a category all by itself. The two leads, almost from the beginning, develop a strong and inseparable bond between each other that is unshakable. Early on there is a natural affinity between them and it does not take long for both to pledge fidelity to one other.
One of the best series of 2024! You can read my full review of this series at BLBliss.com.

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One of the Worst for 2023!

he series begins interestingly enough. Even with a worn-out theme of a withdrawn boy who has an unrequired love for his best friend, it was charming for a while. However, this series very quickly falls apart when it tries to get into the nitty-gritty of an actual story. The supposed Thai Mafia underworld was filled with laughable caricatures of epic comic proportions. They looked silly, acted silly, and frankly were silly. Sometimes over-the-top trying to look bad (while always coiffed impeccably) but never really able to shake the sanitized version of a what has to be seen as nothing more than an after school special. I continue to state, there must be at least a minimal standard for acceptable acting and for me that is the ability to cry when necessary. So, if you cannot cry you cannot act and all you are doing is performing. This is such an underwhelming series that I am astonished at how bad it really is. But it presents well. Its theatrics are perhaps intoxicating but this time, I am not buying into it. The screenplay is so second-rate. The acting is at best mediocre. The story itself is so lame that it looked like it picked ideas from other BLs and stuck them in and hoped it all worked.

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Pretty to look at but Illogical

The universality of this series being praised as a ‘masterpiece’ or ‘the best so far’, makes me reticent to be critical of this series. As indeed, I had so looked forward with great anticipation to watching this series, thinking my reaction would be the same. I understand that it is a fantasy and I love fantasies, specifically time travel, as you have to suspect your beliefs and embrace your disbeliefs. And I could easily do that but not with this series. It left me feeling empty for some reason. I hate to admit this, but I felt nothing for the main couple whereas everyone else seemed to see their love destiny. All I saw was cute acting to deliberately set-up scenarios to pull at heartstrings, mostly at an agonizingly slow pace then filled in between with a density of immaturity defined by a constant sense of deference that made no sense. The only ones having the courage to fight that mindset were the ‘servants’ who were nothing more than slaves, and the women, who had the courage to stand up for themselves but paid a very heavy price for their convictions. The men, including our main characters, cowered, and are ‘waiting for destiny’ to save them.

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