So many episodes, so little plot.
It's pretty rare to find a series that has more than 12 episodes and after reading comments about how well done this series is and how heartfelt it is I was thinking that this series must have a very deep and intricate plot so you can imagine my confusion when I started watching and it turns out that 70% of this series is just the main characters staring at each other. About midway I was hopeful that maybe the story would start to focus more on BounPrem's characters and maybe that's why there are so many episodes, but also no, we are only fed crumbs for the secondary couple (and yes I know they have their own spin-off series) while OhmFluke continue to just stare away at each other and occasionally start randomly crying.
The plot here made absolutely no sense and that's because there very simply wasn't one. Even the past timeline that we are shown didn't make any sense. We are made to believe that Korn and In faced so much opposition and hardship that they gave up and killed themselves but literally no one besides the fathers were against their relationship. Everybody else in their lives was happy and supportive of them making the suicide seem rather dumb and pointless. Not to mention the dramatic tonal shifts between the present and past timelines were incredibly jarring. The past timeline has a rather serious tone to it, but the present timeline has random bgm and sound effects playing every single second making it come across as goofy and unserious. It might as well be two completely different shows.
Another thing I absolutely hated about this series were the intimacy scenes. Who's idea was it to have Fluke look like a terrified child while Ohm is kissing him? It wasn't cute or endearing, it looked like Dean was assaulting Pharm and to reinforce that Pharm never once had a say in any of their intimacy moments. Dean just decided for the both of them what they would be doing and when which was rather off putting. Intimacy is something that needs to be discussed between both parties involved and whether you're strangers or soulmates clear consent needs to be given before anything is initiated.
Now the few things I did like about this series... the acting was pretty good. Cooheart especially delivered a knockout performance and his chemistry with Kla was great. I really liked seeing them together, they were very cute. Honestly, this series would have been much better off if it had just been a historical drama that solely focused on Korn and In, they're relationship was way more interesting than Dean and Pharm's. Dean and Pharm's storyline could have been said and done in six episodes if all of the random filler had been cut out. With that being said though, I did enjoy the reincarnation story, I just wish it had been executed better. I liked that the reincarnation was actually talked about and the effect it had on Dean and Pharm and their families.
I'm sure in 2019 this series was absolutely mind blowing and I can appreciate that it set the stage for the fantasy/reincarnation genre, but in 2026 this series has become incredibly outdated. The storyline doesn't have enough emotional depth to really have an impact on the audience, it shows the suicide and then the rest is all rainbows and sunshine making the whole story come across as weak. Nowadays BLs aren't afraid to give us dark stories, talk about mental health, and really gut punch us with tragedies. There are far better series to watch unless you just really happen to love the slice of life genre and don't care about the plot being 70% filler nonsense.
General info for anyone wanting to know:
• Is the series spicy/nsfw? No.
• Is there a love triangle? In a very annoying way, yes, briefly.
• Is there violence/noncon? Yes, the series does show the full suicide scene. It doesn't censor or try to hide it in any way, it's in the very first episode and it's shown again multiple times throughout the series. The series also shows brief moments of violence between the fathers and sons.
• Is the spin-off Between Us worth watching? I'd say yes if you really liked the WinTeam crumbs you watched here. Their relationship imo is much better than DeanPharm and Between Us has a normal amount of episodes so the pacing is better.
The plot here made absolutely no sense and that's because there very simply wasn't one. Even the past timeline that we are shown didn't make any sense. We are made to believe that Korn and In faced so much opposition and hardship that they gave up and killed themselves but literally no one besides the fathers were against their relationship. Everybody else in their lives was happy and supportive of them making the suicide seem rather dumb and pointless. Not to mention the dramatic tonal shifts between the present and past timelines were incredibly jarring. The past timeline has a rather serious tone to it, but the present timeline has random bgm and sound effects playing every single second making it come across as goofy and unserious. It might as well be two completely different shows.
Another thing I absolutely hated about this series were the intimacy scenes. Who's idea was it to have Fluke look like a terrified child while Ohm is kissing him? It wasn't cute or endearing, it looked like Dean was assaulting Pharm and to reinforce that Pharm never once had a say in any of their intimacy moments. Dean just decided for the both of them what they would be doing and when which was rather off putting. Intimacy is something that needs to be discussed between both parties involved and whether you're strangers or soulmates clear consent needs to be given before anything is initiated.
Now the few things I did like about this series... the acting was pretty good. Cooheart especially delivered a knockout performance and his chemistry with Kla was great. I really liked seeing them together, they were very cute. Honestly, this series would have been much better off if it had just been a historical drama that solely focused on Korn and In, they're relationship was way more interesting than Dean and Pharm's. Dean and Pharm's storyline could have been said and done in six episodes if all of the random filler had been cut out. With that being said though, I did enjoy the reincarnation story, I just wish it had been executed better. I liked that the reincarnation was actually talked about and the effect it had on Dean and Pharm and their families.
I'm sure in 2019 this series was absolutely mind blowing and I can appreciate that it set the stage for the fantasy/reincarnation genre, but in 2026 this series has become incredibly outdated. The storyline doesn't have enough emotional depth to really have an impact on the audience, it shows the suicide and then the rest is all rainbows and sunshine making the whole story come across as weak. Nowadays BLs aren't afraid to give us dark stories, talk about mental health, and really gut punch us with tragedies. There are far better series to watch unless you just really happen to love the slice of life genre and don't care about the plot being 70% filler nonsense.
General info for anyone wanting to know:
• Is the series spicy/nsfw? No.
• Is there a love triangle? In a very annoying way, yes, briefly.
• Is there violence/noncon? Yes, the series does show the full suicide scene. It doesn't censor or try to hide it in any way, it's in the very first episode and it's shown again multiple times throughout the series. The series also shows brief moments of violence between the fathers and sons.
• Is the spin-off Between Us worth watching? I'd say yes if you really liked the WinTeam crumbs you watched here. Their relationship imo is much better than DeanPharm and Between Us has a normal amount of episodes so the pacing is better.
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