This review may contain spoilers
A relationship built on lies & manipulation
The whole plot of this series revolves around lies and manipulation, with a whole lot of fortune-telling and feng shui overlaying it.
I'm not going to say this series is a waste of time, but I will say that it was incredibly disappointing. I'll go into more detail later, but the writing for this series is so flimsy that I'm convinced that this was the screenwriter's first time writing a script.
THINGS I LIKED
* The acting was great. It was a lot of these actors' first role, and they honestly killed it. Sadly, good acting can only save a show so much.
* The only part of the plot I liked was when Ritt didn't get back together with Itt just because he got hurt trying to "save" him. That happens way too many times in drama series, and sometimes it's fine to do that, but like in this series, it made sense for Ritt not to forgive him because at this point every step of their romance has been built on lies and manipulation, and Itt risking himself doesn't solve those issues.
* Using rune stones for fortune-telling is different.
* NC scenes were surprisingly okay. The actors have good chemistry together.
THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE
(90% of these things can be chalked up to lazy writing)
* The actors for Pure and Itt looked so much alike that I got them confused a couple of times. Not for a few seconds either, but sometimes minutes. This was probably just a me problem, but it was still annoying.
* Someone needs to tell the writers that Fortune-telling and Feng Shui can not be a person's entire personality.
* Even if you love someone, you shouldn't pretend to be someone you're not just to be with them. Ritt has the excuse that he was drunk and not thinking clearly when he told the lie, but he should have cleared things up as soon as he got sober.
* Was Pure trying to turn Ritt into an alcoholic? He was drinking so much that I have no idea how he remembered anything. Honestly, this was a small example of lazy writing because he really shouldn't have been able to remember everything.
* Pure honestly wasn't a good friend.
* Can we go back to the time when, if a character wanted to pretend to have beaten or kidnapped someone, they have real footage or at least have made it so the said person is busy and unable to answer the phone? Or manipulate the person to the location to falsify evidence against them? I've only watched a couple of series where they pull this "it was faked with AI" bullshit, and yes, it shows the dangers of AI, but at the same time you can't rely solely on that to move the plot forward. It just makes the characters look stupid for falling for it, and in this case also Pure for thinking Itt is pulling a "Ritt was kidnapped" scheme to what? Make up with Ritt? Does that make any sense at all? This whole scene was just to deal with a blackmailer that honestly played such a small role in the story that he could have been written out completely, and they could have just had Ritt's guilt slowly eating at him until he couldn't take lying anymore, only to then discover that everyone around him had been lying to him.
* Ritt has no right to play the victim after learning that Itt knew he was lying the whole time. He had no reason to snap like that. He should have just said sorry and explained why he did it. It's only after Pure reveals that he had known for a while, and that Itt and Phitcha had known the whole time, that he had the right to be mad and hurt. Because let's be honest, Itt pretty much set him up to tell the lie in the first place and then manipulated things so that they had to have a fake marriage, live together, and go on a trip together. He also had everyone around him and Ritt in on the scheme as well. So to me, Itt was the worst of these two, and I honestly wouldn't have been surprised if they hadn't gotten back together.
* They showed the same scenes from Ritt and Itt's past multiple times with little added.
* They had Itt say at the end that he wanted to start over without any lies between them when he manipulated things to get Ritt to the event in the first place. At this point, it felt like Ritt gave in to get Itt to stop, more than him being willing to give them another try. At this point, basically their whole relationship had been built on a lie, so how do you know when the lying stops? Itt's a red flag & everyone is color blind.
* LAZY WRITING! Everything written above for starters, but also the characters have no real personality or growth. The story focused so much on the fortune-telling and Feng Shui that there wasn't any room for either. They decided to add these things instead of building up good foreshadowing or tension, and defaulted to "let's just use AI". We only see Ritt struggling internally about his lie for the first couple of episodes and then again after he's being blackmailed. If Ritt's victim speech had to happen, they could have used better dialogue instead of making the audience completely unable to be sympathetic toward him. Some sympathy was possible because Itt did a lot more lying and manipulating. Itt supposedly tried to get Ritt to tell him the truth when really, after their first date, he didn't at all. Itt also used the excuse that he wasn't brave enough to hit on Ritt, but for some reason he had no problem lying to and manipulating him into dating him.
This series had potential.
I'm not going to say this series is a waste of time, but I will say that it was incredibly disappointing. I'll go into more detail later, but the writing for this series is so flimsy that I'm convinced that this was the screenwriter's first time writing a script.
THINGS I LIKED
* The acting was great. It was a lot of these actors' first role, and they honestly killed it. Sadly, good acting can only save a show so much.
* The only part of the plot I liked was when Ritt didn't get back together with Itt just because he got hurt trying to "save" him. That happens way too many times in drama series, and sometimes it's fine to do that, but like in this series, it made sense for Ritt not to forgive him because at this point every step of their romance has been built on lies and manipulation, and Itt risking himself doesn't solve those issues.
* Using rune stones for fortune-telling is different.
* NC scenes were surprisingly okay. The actors have good chemistry together.
THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE
(90% of these things can be chalked up to lazy writing)
* The actors for Pure and Itt looked so much alike that I got them confused a couple of times. Not for a few seconds either, but sometimes minutes. This was probably just a me problem, but it was still annoying.
* Someone needs to tell the writers that Fortune-telling and Feng Shui can not be a person's entire personality.
* Even if you love someone, you shouldn't pretend to be someone you're not just to be with them. Ritt has the excuse that he was drunk and not thinking clearly when he told the lie, but he should have cleared things up as soon as he got sober.
* Was Pure trying to turn Ritt into an alcoholic? He was drinking so much that I have no idea how he remembered anything. Honestly, this was a small example of lazy writing because he really shouldn't have been able to remember everything.
* Pure honestly wasn't a good friend.
* Can we go back to the time when, if a character wanted to pretend to have beaten or kidnapped someone, they have real footage or at least have made it so the said person is busy and unable to answer the phone? Or manipulate the person to the location to falsify evidence against them? I've only watched a couple of series where they pull this "it was faked with AI" bullshit, and yes, it shows the dangers of AI, but at the same time you can't rely solely on that to move the plot forward. It just makes the characters look stupid for falling for it, and in this case also Pure for thinking Itt is pulling a "Ritt was kidnapped" scheme to what? Make up with Ritt? Does that make any sense at all? This whole scene was just to deal with a blackmailer that honestly played such a small role in the story that he could have been written out completely, and they could have just had Ritt's guilt slowly eating at him until he couldn't take lying anymore, only to then discover that everyone around him had been lying to him.
* Ritt has no right to play the victim after learning that Itt knew he was lying the whole time. He had no reason to snap like that. He should have just said sorry and explained why he did it. It's only after Pure reveals that he had known for a while, and that Itt and Phitcha had known the whole time, that he had the right to be mad and hurt. Because let's be honest, Itt pretty much set him up to tell the lie in the first place and then manipulated things so that they had to have a fake marriage, live together, and go on a trip together. He also had everyone around him and Ritt in on the scheme as well. So to me, Itt was the worst of these two, and I honestly wouldn't have been surprised if they hadn't gotten back together.
* They showed the same scenes from Ritt and Itt's past multiple times with little added.
* They had Itt say at the end that he wanted to start over without any lies between them when he manipulated things to get Ritt to the event in the first place. At this point, it felt like Ritt gave in to get Itt to stop, more than him being willing to give them another try. At this point, basically their whole relationship had been built on a lie, so how do you know when the lying stops? Itt's a red flag & everyone is color blind.
* LAZY WRITING! Everything written above for starters, but also the characters have no real personality or growth. The story focused so much on the fortune-telling and Feng Shui that there wasn't any room for either. They decided to add these things instead of building up good foreshadowing or tension, and defaulted to "let's just use AI". We only see Ritt struggling internally about his lie for the first couple of episodes and then again after he's being blackmailed. If Ritt's victim speech had to happen, they could have used better dialogue instead of making the audience completely unable to be sympathetic toward him. Some sympathy was possible because Itt did a lot more lying and manipulating. Itt supposedly tried to get Ritt to tell him the truth when really, after their first date, he didn't at all. Itt also used the excuse that he wasn't brave enough to hit on Ritt, but for some reason he had no problem lying to and manipulating him into dating him.
This series had potential.
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