ShortCircuit

Give it another try sometime, if you feel like it - for PingZhang at least. It'll be worth it. And that first scene is movie-grade (there are more like that, too.)

There's supposedly a 3rd season in the making, and Wu Lei is playing a ML. I am not too sure about that, but then Hai Yan (the writer) already managed two amazing stories, what says she can't do it again? :D

JingYan is actually just as good a character as Mei ChangSu - he's kind of obsessive and also honest to a fault, and not really bendy when he should be bendy, if he really wanted to become Crown Prince. His whole personality and unwillingness to compromise serves to better emphasize ChangSu's mastery of strategy. I felt a bit cheated that the reveal of MCS's real identity to JingYan is so muted in the drama - it's better in the novel, IMHO. But his heartache over Lin Shu made it all the more bitter sweet whenever there were hints dropped over who MCS really was, LOL. He just couldn't or wouldn't believe it.

But his mother does all the subtle stuff that's needed for him - playing the harem currents, getting allies on her and her son's side, becoming valuable to the Emperor - she's the best FL this story ever had (though I liked NiHuang too).

I loved this drama. The sequel is good too (at least as far as the family dynamics between the three MLs), but not up to this one's level. I can barely wait and see what they are preparing for the third part :)

Don't feed the troll, report and move on. They want to create a scandal, don't give them the satisfaction.

I was afraid this will precede Immortality - but then again, Bai Lu! and Luo YunXi! Can't complain all that much.

The first ep was pretty good, but the music is lacking, I hope they actually prepared an amazing soundtrack anyway. There was a lot of work going in this drama and they really do have a good chemistry, and here's hoping it turns out really really good.

I'll pace myself through it though, LOL, it's not good to get all caught up with a good drama still airing :D

I can't believe I could only finish it on 2x. The first two thirds were pretty good, then everybody went insane. So sad.

So these kids never watched Attack of the Clones. I mean, everybody knows sand is rough, coarse and gets everywhere.

This ep slowed down, which is good, and filled the time with fluff, which... Oh well at least there's another two eps added.

Try to insult me or judge my thinking all you want. I am not here telling anyone what to think or how to act on whatever situation they meet. I'm expressing my total disgust with a fictional character who used to be a disabled man's sister/aunt figure and then just decided to maybe make use of him as a boyfriend when all other options she tried to find a man for herself didn't pan out.

So maybe take your misguided righteousness somewhere else, please and thank you. None of us are gatekeeping here, or so I hope.

Have a nice day.

MXTX (the author) likes to use the present/past flashback blending. So in the novel, you get some bits from the present, some bits of the past, back to the present, again to the past and so on and so forth.

The drama, for the sake of a simpler to follow plot line, decided to link all the flashbacks into one huge flashback and tell the past in one go before going back to the present timeline.

The donghua decided to follow the past/present/past/present again timeline and flashbacks BUT there are still which are out of the novel's order, particularly near the ending on season 3.

The donghua is closer to the novel plot by using actual fierce corpses and changing the face of WWX after his rebirth (which can be easily done since they're just drawing him) and also in other points - as in which is the exact thing hidden in the cursed blade that opens the rebirth story, for example.

The drama is a bit more fleshed out particularly when it comes to the women in the story - Wen Qing and YanLi get their own storylines and extra scenes but they had to cut some corners too (as in, they're not allowed to fill the action scenes with corpses so they changed it to dark spirits and such, and toned down WWX's power a bit. Because he's actually and basically a necromancer, LOL, and you don't want a hero to be a necromancer :D) And they kept the same actor for WWX ( I would've, too!) because well - have you seen Xiao Zhan? He IS WWX. So that works perfectly, IMHO.

So the drama or the donghua don't follow along the novel exactly. BUT, in the ending scenes, the drama is more faithful to the novel than the donghua, if you don't mind the extra separation they threw in at the end. The Special Edition's ending is closest to the novel's ending (they couldn't add the papapa scenes, LOL, so for that you'd need to read the novel).

TBH, I don't know if you'd enjoy Taxi Driver - it's the usual (soppy) pay-us (not much) - to-get-revenge-for-you plot, but then it's adapted from a manhwa, you can't expect wonders from the story. It's moved mostly on Lee Je Hoon's star power, IMHO, but there are action sequences that are well done, and that's about it. The music in particular is atrocious (I try not to hear it, boo).

I did watch the first season in a lull between better series, and I am watching the second season because when it started, there were no kdramas in kdramaland that were new and interesting to me. But I am a bit behind already, LOL. For context, I like character-driven plots (I don't say no to an action story, but it better be well acted at least - and have a good soundtrack!) so Taxi Driver is not my regular kind of tale. But it's mindless fun from time to time.

Something a bit like it - maybe Leverage (also not that great, but there was Kim Kwon in it, LOL) or Mad Dog (way better - then again... Woo DoHwan :D. And the amazing OST,) And there are newer ones that I never watched and don't intend to - like The Glory (plot seems similar, I don't know how well it's executed.)

So, yeah. Give it a try, but don't expect a linear plotline or any kind of final conclusion, it's episodic and stays that way even in the second season.

My fist Thai BL was Theory of Love, LOL, I got lucky - it's a nice enough romance and there's Gun! (He still is now my favourite Thai actor. He can actually act and usually can bring the rest of the cast along). But I admit I like to do some candy-shop watching from time to time, so I don't mind the drivel as long as there's some semblance of reason through it. My standards for Thai dramas (I only watched BL) are pretty low :D

BTW, I see you haven't watched A Tale of Thousand Stars - that's by the director of Gay OK Bangkok, who also made Midnight Chicken (I'm watching it ATM). These two - AToTS and MC - are pretty good, at least in music and cinematography, and feature the same pairing - Earth and Mix, they're pretty good with chemistry. AToTS is more romantic and tropey, while MC seems more introspective. I'm pretty curious to see where it leads, it's been good so far. I'd recommend either of those two before Taxi Driver, LOL.

For more kdrama with a BL flavour (though they cheat and say it's hetero), try The Devil Judge. And for Chinese (soooo censored, boo!) BL, since you've watched TU, why not Word of Honor? Just to see what caused the soft ban on BL for these past two years? :D (Because it's THEIR fault :D)

What the actual F is the drama trying to make of the YeongJoo / JaeWoo thing?! She is basically a sister to him for DECADES and then out of the blue, because he's a few centimeters taller than her, she becomes interested in him?! Romantically / sexually?!

His mind is freaking at a child's stage, there were NEVER any hints he'd EVER had any kind of sexual / romantic interest in her (or anyone else, come to think of it) and then she's suddenly taking him out for drinks (just her, at least they didn't go that far. Yet), and basically tricking him into accepting her as his GF?!

It was plain and simple sexual harassment of an impaired person, dammit. I liked her character until now, but it's became tainted and extremely gross. I hope they don't continue along that line. Yes neurodivergent persons can be sexual, but she's still basically his other sister even if unrelated by blood. She helped raise and keep him since forever! He is visibly awkward and unhappy about it and she is STILL thinking she's the one offended?! She WASN'T drunk when she thought of how and where to make her "proposal"! Did she fall on her head one too many times playing ball?!

What the HELL, show!!

And then the idiot kids suddenly lose brain matter and never even suspect the mom got him the true test. Now their academic progress is going to be blown up - because reasons - and then what was the rest of the drama so far FOR?

I am NOT liking this a bit.

PS And from someone who was kind of socially unaware and always clueless about other people's motivations, HaengSeon suddenly got a spidey sense juuuust for DongHui. Yeah right. That didn't come out of nowhere at all, hello, deux-ex-machina plot! :(

Ep 12, okay, this turned so creepy so fast I'm not sure I'm actually liking it anymore. From a cutesy romance that worked - because of JKH, mostly - it became... not so cutesy.

I'm kind of unhappy with Zhang Yi becoming typecast - he's always the good guy, mostly a cop, randomly a soldier, always the heroic one anyway. Then again, he's good at it, so oh well. If anyone is picking this up for TL, I guess I'll watch :D

He'd better do Be Reborn 2, too, since he's committed to being the cop, just sayin'.

Uea's mother has selective deafness, I think that's pretty clear by now. She didn't hear him yell because she didn't want to hear him yell. Sadly, there ARE parents like that.

I wonder how much she knew was going on between the step-dad and her son, and if she allowed it for some financial safety (she seems pretty decided to profit off King when she first meets him and thinks he's a loaded BF of her son's.)

The sister might not have been home or too little at the time (this seems to have happened some while back.) The trauma isn't all related to the SA, anyway, but to the abuse the mother inflicted possibly even before - what with locking him up in the darkness and beating him for being different, even as a child.

The house they lived in has its own garden and it's pretty verdant, too. The neighbours might not be able to hear much, or might have become used to it (that too happens, in case of domestic violence - it happens so often that people eventually get used to not calling the cops).

The tropes are pretty much the norm in Thai BL :D From what I've watched, maybe Not Me managed to get beyond most of them, and also maybe I Told Sunset About You. The rest... I've come to expect the tropey nature, the stilted dialogue, the beach trip, the strange uniforms in school, and so on, and so forth. Oh and lately, the mafia plots LOL.

Middleman's Love, dealing with Jade, I think. If there are different novels, then introducing Jade in this series feels like linking them in an episodic manner somewhat, even if the characters also obviously appear in both novels (are there more? I haven't read either, not certain if there's any TL of them).

TBH, I like Uea better than King (both actors are pretty hot, though!), maybe because he's got this streak of self-destruction and vulnerability that makes him endearing. But Uea and King are fire together, and it's even funny watching King pretending he's not totally acting like THE boyfriend and not the FWB LOL.

Now they made it a bit longer, I have higher hopes for this series. Now let's see if they have the material to fill two more eps :D

Oh no... :(

Do they redeem DongHui? Tell me he doesn't end up a serial killer, dammit. I don't care if it breaks the build-up they did so far. I want him to be just a tiny bit obsessed with his teach, not crazy and criminal about it.

I am at 11 and I can see where this is going re: the culprit and I don't want to keep watching LOL.

Why oh why did they have to go there?! The character was written so cutely, I was rooting for him to get his own romance story. Dammit. We really can't get nice things.

PS Also... lots and lots of PPL LOL

I have no idea who these two guys are (the MLs) but they have the most natural chemistry with each other I've seen in a long time. And "Uea" / James' smiles are amazing. I hope for both their sakes the series is a success in Thailand (because it doesn't look good here on MDL with these ratings so far) and that it ends well. I see there's a companion series too, so maybe they're trying to separate the love stories into episodic tales and do them each on their own time (I approve, for such a short series.)

And can anybody change James' profile pic, he really is a gorgeous guy (particularly with a bit of eyeliner) and that pic really doesn't do him service.

There is bromance between the BFFs (of the not romantic kind.) They risk their lives for the other based on their friendship and AGAIN, with no romantic undertones. Pure, simple friendship.

Also, outsiders too risk their lives and livelihoods for the greater good (and for the better of the BFFs, LOL) again with no expectation of anything in kind in return. Though there is ham in those outsiders' future :D Maybe they're motivated by the expectation of getting ham.

This is wholesome and nice. Friendship is possible between MLs :D

PS I wouldn't vouch for the cat, though. Cats are devious.

Edit: For something along the same note, you might also check out A League of Nobleman.

He wasn't in the focus so much, not that he wasn't well written. He was... mostly retired. The focus was on the villain, and he - the villain - wasn't that enticing in the first place.