EmiLayo

Since the beginning, I held that thought in, because I wanted to give the series more time to unfold; but, after 6 episodes, the story simply grew more stilted and artificial. Moments within scenes are disjointed, what are supposed to be emotional moments are spoken out loud instead of acted and filmed believably, and NC scenes are transitioned into with the same subtlety as an 80s p*rno film. It's all weird.

OK. Was this series written by AI? It's so lazily constructed, and it's as though the concept of "show, don't tell," has never been learned by any member of the cast and crew.

The fact that this series has retained an 8.0 rating is laughable. There has to be some score fixing happening, because this series isn't even deserving of a 6.0, in my opinion.

OK. Let's go with "analysis".

Your analysis reveals specific details of the plot as the series has unfolded. If someone were watching the first few episodes and encountered your comment, whether you intended to do so or not, you would have spoiled many of the moments that occur in later episodes.

Maybe.

Also, can you place your comment under a spoiler tag?

You're providing details about the characters that aren't shown in the series, which makes them irrelevant in this context.

Also, can you please tag your comment as SPOILER.

The plan was always to shift to only 1 episode per week, staring at episode 9. Now, there will only be 1 episode released per week, on Friday, through the conclusion of the series.

Ditto! 💃

OK. Enough joking and word playing, I chose to be an a$$hat , in text, for myriad reasons. Did I have to do that? No.

Have a good day.

Are you right about this? Maybe. 😄

You and I tangoed. Thanks for the dance, internet stranger.

Is your tone not snarky? Maybe. Should I take your words at face value? Maybe.

Am I a snark monster in all instances? Hmmm... you'll never know for sure. Should I defend myself from the accusation? Nah.

I am curious, though, that you didn't take any issue with the other party's responses to me. I entered into a good faith dialogue, yet the first arrow was directed at me. Is, "The joke went right over your head, stranger," meant to be nice? I merely lobbed it back, but the person you take umbrage with is me. Why is that? Has that level of impolite online discourse become so commonplace that it's merely background noise?

Hmmm... I was mildly annoyed that @Poolpik didn't decide to write something to the effect of, "Hey, internet stranger, I was being facetious. Of course I know that the series isn't complete." Which, of course, would have ended the bandying then and there. Since they didn't do that, and instead continued their antics, I decided to have a little snarky fun of my own.

As for you, my thanks for joining this ever redundant discourse. Maybe you can reply to me, and then @Poolpik can pop back in and reply to you replying to me, and we can all enjoy a round or two of annoying each other with snark and diving ever deeper into each other's navel lint. Or, stay with me here, maybe we can all just decide to leave each other alone and go about our own business, as I am sure we all have something better to do with our precious time.

Are we going to suffer through a game of snark ping-pong? I wait, with bated breath, to see what you decide on doing.

Brilliant comment!! Thank you for wading into BL dramas with an open, yet discerning mind.

KinnPorsche was also my first real BL, after mostly being fascinated by South Korean and Chinese dramas. I enjoy a lot of Thai BLs for what they are, but most of the time, I find them lacking for the same reasons you listed. Along with some of the Chinese BLs that have been dropping like hot cakes since mid-2025, my preferences are South Korean BLs, Taiwanese, and Japanese. My recommendations are below.

CHINA
• Addicted (2016)
This had a truncated season, as it's the primary cause for China placing the extreme ban on BL releases within mainland China. It was such a good series that its popularity ended up causing a huge stir in the country, and the main leads were banned from appearing together publicly by Chinese authorities. The series' acting, writing, and directing are top-notch.

• To My Shore (2025)
One of the main leads is a red/black/nuclear flag level character; so, prepare yourself. The Hua Yong character from ABO Desire can only dream of being this level of obsessed and controlling.

• Bittersweet Love (2026, currently airing)
Prepare yourself to likely want to pull your hair out while watching this one. There's a sub-dominant dynamic between the main leads and, if you're not tempted to want to reach through the screen and slap the majority of the characters, you're a better person than I am. Still, it's well written, directed and acted, and despite how agitated I feel while watching it, I really want to know how the story resolves itself.

• Double Helix (2026)
Full warning: This one goes very dark before the light breaks through.

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SINGAPORE (Really, this is a Chinese drama)
• Kill to Love (2025)
Historical BL. Well done, all around.

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SOUTH KOREA
• Blueming (2022)
• Cherry Blossoms After Winter (2022)
• Let Free the Curse of Taekwondo (2024)
• Love for Love's Sake (2024)
• Semantic Error (2022)
• The Eighth Sense (2023)
• The Prosecutor's Proposal (2026)
• The Time of Fever (2024)*
• To My Star (2021)
• To My Star Season 2: Our Untold Stories (2022)

* The story of the characters from The Time of Fever continues in the series Unintentional Love Story, but they're side characters in that series.

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TAIWAN
• Unknown (2024)
• We Best Love: No. 1 For You (2021)
• We Best Love: Fighting Mr. 2nd (2021)
• See Your Love (2024)
• HIStory3: Trapped (2019)
• HIStory3: Make Our Days Count (2019)*
• The On1y One (2024)

*Painful ending.

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JAPAN
• Life: Love on the Line (2020)
Please watch the director's cut movie, instead of the series. This has an extra 10 or so minutes, which transforms the story into a masterpiece.

• Depth of Field (2025)
• Eternal Yesterday (2022)
• Fake Fact Lips (2026)
• My Beautiful Man (2021)
• My Beautiful Man Season 2 (2023)
• My Beautiful Man: Eternal (2023, movie)
• My Personal Weatherman (2023)
• Our Youth (2024)
• Our Youth: After Story (2025) An extra episode that wraps the series up nicely
• When It Rains, It Pours (2025)

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THAILAND
• I Feel You Linger in the Air: Uncut Version (2023)
• I Told Sunset About You (2020)
• I Promised You the Moon (2021) The continuation of I Told Sunset About You
• My Only 12% (2022)
• My Stand-In (2024)
• Shine (Orchestric Ver.) (2025) This is the uncut version
• ThamePo Heart That Skips a Beat (2024)
• Ticket to Heaven (2026)
• Top Form (2025)
• Triage (2022)
• Until We Meet Again (2019)

Episode 10:
You know things are serious when someone snatches off their own wig! Drama!!! 😂

Oh, you were joking? Is that what you were attempting to do? Oh dear, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but you're not very good at it. Keep trying, though, as every great or even passable comedian started somewhere. Keep fighting!!

What show are you watching, internet stranger? At this time, only 6 episodes have aired of what's an 11 episode series. There are 5 episodes that have yet to air.

You consider disregard as "hateful rage"? A bit high-strung, are you?

I reiterate, I am grateful that you and I never have cause to meet in reality. Even more so, now.

"I'm not just a viewer, but also a manhwa reader, and honestly, your take is super impulsive for assuming everything has to be identical."

That's humorous, as you assumed that my reason for writing what I did is based on reading the manhwa. It is not.

"1. Jay didn't need to spill his long-term master plan to Sun, but letting your person know where you're going is basic relationship etiquette."

I can confirm that not everyone operates the way you'd prefer them to. As someone who's often accused of leaving people out of my plans and not letting even my romantic partner know what I'm up to, unless absolutely necessary. It annoys me to behave as though the person I love, or at the very least I'm sexually involved with, is somehow a replacement for my parents. I don't have to check in nor do they. If they want to tell me, great. If not, also great.

2. "But fiction is literally where we go to see bad guys like Songphon and Sunny actually face consequences for ruining people's lives."

Again, that's a YOU thing. Will they face consequences? Likely, as there are so many readers and viewers who demand that fiction allow for wish fulfillment or else those readers/viewers grow annoyed. I don't mind fiction skimming the line between reality and wish fulfillment and coming down more on the side of reality. I'm always pleasantly surprised when writers don't treat the audience like children who are questing for neat conclusions with fairytale endings. Not always, as over time, life is basically 50-50.

3. "Patience is a virtue, sure, but there's literally only one episode left and the plan still has zero clarity. Even the preview for the upcoming finale is still 100% pure conflict, right before the literal last episode, like what?"

Why would the preview be expected to reveal that there will be a resolution? It's a preview. I am always annoyed with a preview forgets what it's meant to do. There is one episode left and the plan/trap has yet to sprung. Why would we, as the audience, expect to have clarity on Jay's plan? We are following Sun, not Jay.

4. "I'm fully aware of how he is. My point is just that, as a viewer, it's not wrong to hope a character actually shows some growth and gets a bit more genre-savvy and aware of their surroundings. That’s a totally valid expectation."

It is not a valid expectation. It's nice, but at no point has the character shown he'd capable of what you're expecting. It's like people who like others because of what they "hope" those people could grow into, instead of seeing those people for who they are and accepting them as such.

5. "There's nothing wrong with wanting a happy ending, even if it deviates a bit from the manhwa source material. That's literally what plot improvisations and adaptations are for."

Do you comprehend what the word "literally" means? Devising happy endings from source materials is not, at all, what plot improvisations and adaptations are for-- not even close.

Ummm... I'm pretty sure Tinn's father didn't know that he was living in a house with Phob nor that they were officially back together and planning what's, essentially, a married life. When his father asked about Tinn's time working in the country, Tinn deliberately left the info vague.

ANSWERS ***Mild Spoilers***

1. Jay's strategic and secretive. Much of what he's doing is likely dependent on him not letting anyone in on his plans, to ensure no one can counter them. He's a mastermind, not a cartoonish hero.

​2. Have you not been paying attention to the world you live in? Is your inability to grasp the sad truth due to you and others being too young to know better or too naive, despite your age? How many people in power, today, who we all know are doing/have done the most detestable things, have faced zero consequences?

Right now, in the U.S., there is a known serial r*pist and assaulter as the president of that country. The former Prince Andrew has faced zero jail time. Epstein eventually died in jail, but that was after decades of living out in the open within his community. People such as Harvey Weinstein, Diddy, Bill Cosby, Jimmy Saville, Johnny Kitagawa (often referred to as the Asian Jimmy Saville), and many more, lived decades without facing consequences or died without facing consequences.

​3. Regarding Jay's strategy, you lack patience, which Jay clearly doesn't.

​4. Sun was never a mastermind. From the first episode, we learned that he was reckless and incapable of comprehending that his impulsive actions would always have consequences. He assaulted a father and that father's child, in front of her father, and it didn't occur to him that those actions would come back and bite him and his loved ones in the a$$. Despite losing his brother, due to his own callous actions, he evidently learned nothing. Expecting more from the Sun character is on you. Instead of listening to Jay and Kajorn, he still plowed ahead with his badly planned revenge scheme, but that's because he's still operating on anger-- anger that he's projecting toward Sunny, but he is actually feeling toward himself.

​5. You want a happy ending, but that's never been what Payback is about.

I am gratified that you and I never have cause to meet in reality.