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Came for Revenge but stayed for Jay and Sun!!!

I really enjoyed Payback. This was one of those BLs where I became invested not only in the romance but in the characters and the world the drama created. The leads did an excellent job portraying their roles, and the chemistry between Jay and Sun was probably one of my favourite things about the series. Every time they were together, there was an electricity between them whether they were simply having a conversation, arguing, or getting physical. You could feel the attraction and tension.

Sun was such a complex, traumatised character. He spent so much of the story pretending that he was numb and that nothing affected him, when in reality he was feeling everything grief, anger, betrayal, fear and eventually love. Jay had his own emotional baggage and trauma, but there was an important difference between them: Jay was much more in touch with his feelings. He understood what he was feeling and, importantly, he seemed to understand Sun even when Sun couldn’t articulate what was going on inside him.

And that love scene… WOW. 😂 Honestly, one of the best I’ve seen in the BL world. What made it work for me wasn’t just the physical chemistry; there was so much emotion underneath it. It felt like a culmination of everything these two had been struggling to express.

Jay actually reminded me a little of Tada from Reset although Reset had much more comedic, almost cartoonish villains and, of course, the whole time-transmigration element. Payback was considerably darker and more grounded.

The entertainment industry

I thought the drama also did a really good job of showing the seedy and sinister side of the entertainment industry. The compromises artists choose to make, the exploitation of people desperate for an opportunity and the way power can be abused were particularly effective.

What makes it uncomfortable is that none of it feels completely unbelievable. We’ve heard enough through the media about exploitation and abuse within entertainment industries to know that these kinds of power dynamics aren’t simply fictional. Obviously, drama has to heighten things, but Payback captures that uncomfortable reality of people being willing to tolerate almost anything for their chance to succeed.

The supporting characters

And we absolutely have to talk about Pkajaorn because he was one of the angels of this show! 😇 He was such a good manager and, more importantly, a genuinely good person. I really liked that his role wasn’t simply “Sun’s manager”. You could see how much he contributed to Sun’s healing journey by giving him stability, support and someone he could actually trust.

Parameee also did a really good job, and having PKN (Boss) and Max appear as guests definitely added something to the show. Those little connections and appearances were a nice touch.

The manhwa adaptation

I also have to give credit to the production for how well they adapted the manhwa. They stayed relatively close to the source material while making changes where necessary to make the story work for a Thai audience and a live-action format.

I actually think this was the right approach. Sometimes adaptations try so hard to reproduce the original that they end up feeling unnatural in a different medium. Payback kept the core characters, relationships and darker tone of the original, while adapting certain elements so they made sense within the Thai setting and the limitations of a live-action BL.

The changes didn’t feel like they were disrespecting the manhwa; rather, they felt like an attempt to translate the story rather than simply copy it. And for me, that’s what a good adaptation should do.

I’ve seen some of the criticism from people who have read the original, and having looked at parts of the source material myself, I can understand where some of it comes from. I haven’t read the entire manhwa, though, so I’m judging the series primarily on what I watched rather than trying to compare every detail with the original.

There were definitely moments where I felt the drama didn’t give us enough context. I didn’t always understand the first meeting between Jay and Sun, some of the early interactions felt a little random, and I sometimes wondered where the revenge storyline was actually going. For a show called Payback, the revenge definitely gets pushed into the background for quite a lot of the series, only to come rushing back towards the end.

I can also understand the criticism that the adaptation removed or changed some important material. If the original gives much more context to certain characters and events, then removing those pieces can make the drama feel confusing rather than mysterious.

I don’t, however, agree with the idea that Jay was one-dimensional. I actually thought Jay was one of the more interesting characters. Was he softened compared with the original? Yes, absolutely. But I don’t think that means he lacked complexity.

The Jay we see in the drama is still controlling, calculating and morally questionable, but we also see his emotional side and, importantly, his capacity to understand Sun. His relationship with Sun brings out a side of him that we don’t necessarily see elsewhere. Personally, I liked that version of Jay.

And I think this is where adaptations of toxic or darker MLs have a difficult balancing act. If you make the ML extremely toxic, obsessive and possessive, there will inevitably be criticism of romanticising unhealthy behaviour. We’ve seen similar debates around dramas like Double Helix and To My Shore. But if you soften the character too much, fans of the source material understandably feel that you’ve taken away what made the character distinctive in the first place.

So I can actually understand both sides of the argument.

And finally…

For me, the bigger problem wasn’t that Jay was softened. It was that the revenge storyline was softened along with him. The title is Payback, so I wanted the revenge to remain central to the story. Instead, there was a lot of attention given to secondary characters and other storylines, and then the actual revenge was compressed into the final episode.

That was probably my biggest disappointment.

I also think the ending could have been much more satisfying. The main antagonist being dealt with by the police felt almost too convenient. 😂 After everything we’d watched, I wanted Jay to have a much bigger role in bringing about his downfall. Sun to really have satisfying end for Sunny. That bastard dying of a heart attack was WAY too easy! 😂

After everything he did, I wanted consequences proper consequences! He really escaped the ending he deserved. All the villains just died.

Overall, though, Payback was a really enjoyable watch. Great chemistry, complicated characters, a surprisingly dark look at the entertainment industry and a very solid adaptation of the manhwa. Most importantly, Jay and Sun’s relationship felt like it had genuine emotional weight behind it, which made their eventual connection that much more satisfying.

Now i just need someone to do a compilation of Sun and Jay scenes particularly the rooftops!!!