My main reasons to watch this series were Lee and Victor, and they certainly did not disappoint. The rest was however in need of improvement.

My main issues with this drama were the following:
- The whole Boy for Rent concept was poorly thought through. Imo it was far too obvious that BFR was only there to somehow hide how unoriginal the main story (the love square) was. Additionally, scenes like the "recruitment" of Badz (with Jayden simply threatening to shoot him) made it appear totally unrealistic and extremely ridiculous.
- The way they dealt with the kidnapping, attempted rape and even attempted murder (which all occurred in this series a lot), was disappointing. No police, no consequences, no traumas (poor Smile)?
- Talking about Smile: she is one of my issues as well. No, I have no problems with the actress, but this character (which Fon played well) got on my nerves from the first to the last episode. Her depicted naivete was definitely not fitting her age, and even though they did a good job showing her positive development throughout the series, it was just not enough. Oh, and her friend/roommate was annoying as well.
- The series seemed to stumble on certain gender stereotypes, most evidently when Badz was in the hotel with Smile.
- I found the music to be disappointing, but since I liked the songs, I'm not totally sure what the problem was. I guess it was their use of the overall music, which was too repetitive and often over the top.
- In many parts of the series I was just bored. The BFR service was pointless, all the criminals that the main characters encountered were easily handled and neither Badz nor Smile had a backstory. Only few changes of location as well.

There are still enough positive aspects though.
- The actors were doing great. Victor imo was undoubtedly the best, his final scene is award-worthy. :D Even the supporting cast was always on point.
- Although the plot was ridiculous, the story development through the course of the 12 episodes was well thought-out by the writers, with nicely timed-flashbacks and last-minute revelations. Didn't feel like they threw in some storylines just to play for time, leaving open ends (as it happens way too often).
- I really liked Liz's and Kyro's background stories. The reunion of Kyro and his father nearly had me in tears and Liz standing up to her family (and her terrible sister) was very relieving.
- The final episode was much better than I expected it to be. It offered a heavy plot twist, a very dramatic last-minute rescue, an extremely funny confrontation with Jayden and happy ends for both of the couples. The flashback with the leaflet was perfect and Jayden's final scene genius.

Since I watched BFR and Love Beyond Frontier simultaneously, I like to compare the two. Overall I'm giving them the same rating, but since I'm personally paying more attention to the story than to the cast, I still prefer LBF to BFR.

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Well, well, I see that the reviews are polarising a lot in this case. I will try not to be influenced by any of those I have read.

First of all: Wow! I did absolutely not see this stunning finale coming. At the beginning I had my reservations and the finale did not manage to cover all of the initial flaws of the series, but it's still above average and definitely a good watch (first series I binge-watched, btw, beginning from ep. 8).

The flaws cannot be overlooked and must be pointed out:
- Of the two main characters, I did not feel like Tharn was completely convincing. He seemed very unstable, went from very confident and heavy line-crossing (in a bad way) to extremely insecure and easily manipulable.
- Related to this first point: it is undeniable that within the first couple of episodes there were definitely non-consensual things happening. It's not made completely clear how far Tharn went, but it definitely was too far.
- Also related: the overall "tone" in the first four or so episodes was off. Comedic elements and erotic parts all did not mix well with the very serious child abuse trauma Type had suffered and his violent homophobia as a result of that. I was really frustrated with the directors at some point.
- Something seemed to be wrong with the editing in this series, especially in the first half, leaving unexplainable gaps between scenes. Could have been intentional, but then it's definitely a style of editing I do not like; it seemed to be based on airtime and budget requirements. Later on it sometimes made sense, when they were playing with the viewers' knowledge of things vs. the characters' knowledge.
- There were several inconsistencies between episodes that drove me mad, but in the end didn't matter much for the story. By that I mean little things the characters were telling each other in one episode and then had apparently completely forgotten in the next one.
- The "Three years later" part with Love by Chance crossover was unnecessary imo, especially because the different actors make it a bit difficult to make the connections between the two series. Should have just kept them apart.
- I was sad that they forgot to bring up Khom, Type's gay childhood friend, again. At least an explaining phone call by Type would have been enough. But I guess they already had too many characters to keep an eye on.

Except for my second point above, none of the "flaws" I listed could eventually stop me from giving this 9*.
- Type's character development (or maybe his non-development) was great, I could sympathise with him even with all of his flaws.
- The plot twists towards the end were extremely unexpected and led to an incredible mindgame of manipulations. I thought the drama in this series would be all like the very conventional part with P'San, but oh, I was so wrong. First I was shocked when it looked like Tar was going completely crazy; then of course Lhong made me completely speechless; and in the end I was very surprised again (now positively) when Type proved to be much cleverer than one might have thought.
- I can't say anything bad about any of the supporting cast, great job!
- The romance and the sexual moments both felt very real.
- Even with such an incredibly messed-up villain, none of the characters was completely unlikable in the end. Great job, again!

I will definitely not easily forget this series. A big thank you to everyone involved!

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Wonderful sequel with a rushed execution

I had mixed feelings when I started watching this season, because the ending of season 1 was amazing and written in a way that in my eyes didn’t easily allow for a sequel that wouldn’t ruin the story. Turns out, season 2 was in part an improvement over its predecessor, although it unfortunately also had some weaknesses.

There was one major problem with this season: it was packed with a variety of characters and many complex storylines, but the storytelling was extremely rushed. Without having researched the production details of this season, I strongly assume that something went wrong during production, forcing them either to radically cut scenes that had originally been filmed or to skip parts of the screenplay already during filming. Probably GMMTV had to rearrange their schedule due to the pandemic and this series ended up in an airing spot it was not designed for. In my opinion, the screenplay was probably aiming at a format similar to “Who Are You”, with 18 episodes à 60 minutes (maybe a little less, 16 episodes or so). That would explain why many characters were underused, there were huge gaps between scenes, many developments lacked explanation and the opening credits were left out or radically shortened. It’s a shame, because what ultimately ended up in the series was extremely promising and exciting, only disturbed by the rushed storytelling. 13 episodes of this length are a joke for this story.

With that being said, the material that we got to see was great. They seemingly were not afraid to push their criticism of the Thai education system even further, digging deeper in the political environment allowing for all of this to happen in the first place. Including the gruesome red drum killings from Thai history was not something I would have expected from a kids’ show. The story was pretty strong, with many unexpected plot twist (which actually made sense, unlike those in “Blacklist”), a healthy level of tension throughout and an interesting shift of “leadership” between several characters. The antagonist was again very convincing, while on the side of the protagonists the roles of various characters were rather “blurred”; this made it a little hard to sympathise with the kids, but in the context of the story it still worked. The acting was generally fine, although I felt like Nanon was a little spaced out sometimes. As an improvement over season 1, I liked that the story didn’t need several slow introducing episodes, but started right away. On the other hand, the ending, while still strong and unpredictable, lacked the kind of build-up of the finale of season 1, probably due to the overall rush.

In short: this is an extremely strong second season! If the director had been given enough time to tell all of the story and that in a proper pace, it could have been a 10/10 for me; like this it is still 9*, as I can't find anything to criticise besides the rushed storytelling.

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I was first very sceptical about the recast and didn’t watch the second season immediately. Actually I wasn’t too fond about the first season, which felt so far from reality in every aspect, but especially Bass has kept a special place in my memory and heart. However, I don’t regret that I watched the second season eventually.

Some aspects I really liked about season 2:
- The idea of remaking the whole first season within the first couple of episodes was a good one (although it was not that well-executed).
- Some of the new cast members did a surprisingly good job: my personal favourite was new Forth, but also new Wayo surprised me.
- The storyline around Park did succeed in bringing some real drama into the story and the writers made him a surprisingly ambiguous character (he had me fooled for a moment, back in the cinema).
- I can’t complain about missing queer representation, Wayo’s Gang made me love the season much more. Sure, it’s highly stereotypical, but in a good way imo.
- Kit’s family was another aspect of the storyline that made it feel more real and down-to-earth to me; his brother was overacting, but eventually had a nice way of showing affection.

There is a lot that bothers me about this season as well, though
- The music. I mean, the title song was really okay and even in line with the season 1 title song, I don’t expect Getsunova-style hits in every series I watch. But the overall soundtrack was extremely boring and sometimes seemed incomplete, as if they had left out some scenes in post-production entirely (I thought my audio was broken in some moments). Come on, I need music for it getting to my heart!
- Some of the actors were not convincing at all, and I feel like that applies to more of them in this season than in the first one. From the main cast, I just couldn’t get used to Ben, his facial expressions were so out of touch with his scenes sometimes.
- Overall, the story is so pointless! I can’t even decide which season was worse in that regard. It left me with that empty feeling all over again. It’s probably the very definition of yaoi, but I just can’t fully appreciate a story without a story.

There’s a lot that could be improved for season 3 (if it is realised), but I have not much hope for that, since the source material is what it is. Because I am a BL lover, I’m probably not as critical about this (and season 1) as I should, so I will give both seasons 8*. That might be too much compared to more “serious” and more thoughtful dramas, but after all I gave Love by Chance 10*, so with that as my guiding point 8 seems fair to me.

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A pleasant surprise

I was not expecting much from this, honestly. It initially seemed like a silly, over-the-top comedy show with immature, high-school characters. But The Shipper is so much better!

- First of all, great production value! The budget seemed to be quite high, the product placement wasn't too aggressive. The series had good cinematography, a varied setting and a really wonderful soundtrack. The work of the film editors was particularly noteworthy, creating many surprising moments with a clever use of flashbacks and jump cuts.
- The series provided us with a wide range of characters: the inconspicuous nice guy, the mean girl gang, the involuntary bad boy, the perfect student with secrets and the two naive shipper-best friends. The actors portrayed them well. I obviously have a soft spot for Ohm Pawat, and he did not disappoint; even his age didn't seem too far-off for a high schooler, which is mindblowing, actually. Little details in the various relationships shown really made this series above-average. The mean girls writing about each other in various chat groups were hilarious, for example. Adults were not very present, but especially Pan's uncle had some very touching moments. Oh, and the Angel of Death was pure comedy gold, thanks to Jennie!
- After the first few episodes, the character development got (in most cases) surprisingly deep, sometimes in sharp contrast with the overall comedy. We learned about a difficult siblings relationship, about strong bonds of friendship, about unexpected first loves, and about parental pressure. The whole yaoi phenomenon wasn't as present as the title would have suggested, but it was used well to portray the girls' naivete when it came to love. And I loved the audacious gender-bender concept, making all kinds of relationships between the characters possible, disregarding gender stereotypes. I am a little mad however that they went with a male love-interest for Soda in the end.
- I will end with some critique. Generally speaking, the series didn't always get the tone right. By that I mean that over-the-top comedy and very serious issues (sexual misconduct, violence, death) were sometimes clashing too harshly. Leaving the boys' locker room porn crime at the beginning largely uncommented was a very bad move. The Angel of Death's role sometimes ridiculed the concept of death in itself, which is questionable, since this touches upon the very dignity of human life. And storywise it was certainly surprising that Kim was actually dead the whole time, but it ultimately made a lot of the story appear pointless. I appreciate that they tried to fix that problem with the post-credit scene though, maybe we will get a second season (I certainly wouldn't mind)!

If you are looking for a hilarious comedy with great characters, a surprising story and enough emotional depth, this is a total recommendation! Once again a female director saves the day.

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Visually pleasing, but that’s about it

This series had a promising premise, with its combination of baking and thriller elements. Unfortunately, it didn’t deliver.

The visual aesthetics were really good, from the beautiful cafe with all the sweets to the house and the outfits of the main characters. The baking scenes were especially beautiful and made me crave for sweets more than once. Some of the characters were also well-written: first of all, Krating, but also Weir got a solid background story. Singto and Pluem did really well! The rest however didn’t work out for me.

Apparently, it was the director’s first project, and it shows. There was a lot of awkward acting (Mone’s father was arguably the worst) and many dialogues sounded unnatural. The main story of the four Baker Boys had several cute, funny and also dramatic moments, but it felt dragged and got boring easily. And while I usually appreciate efforts to give each episode of a series its own story arc, here this led to a complete marginalisation of the only actually interesting story arc, the (surprisingly dark) kidnapping and murder case. The thriller part only got full attention in the two final episodes, but ended up being rather disappointing as well, mainly due to the overly superficial depiction of the villains and their motives. And the light conclusion also felt tone-deaf, considering that children had been killed.

Undoubtedly, everyone had best intentions in making this series. For the visuals, the baking parts, Singto’s and Pluem’s acting, and several actually touching moments, I can still give it 7*, but the bad directing makes it hard to enjoy, so I doubt that I will watch it again. Maybe I will give the original a try!

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Exceeded my expectations

I am not quite sure why I see such negative reviews for this series. Admittedly, I had rather low expectations for it and even considered not watching it at all; but one week before the finale I got curious and watched it. My expectations were definitely exceeded! I will explain why I felt like this was an above-average GMMTV production.

First, aspects I didn’t like:
- Even though it only had 10 episodes, the series felt lengthy throughout. Fewer or at least shorter episodes could have helped to avoid some repetitive and just overly slow moments. I like moments of calm, but the story should not get boring because of them. In contrast, the last part of the finale in Paris went way too quick and should have been extended significantly, to make the ending more believable.
- The supposed main plot, the search for Enchanté, didn’t manage to pique my curiosity. I must say that I was surprised by the revelation and did think it was quite a clever twist, but the build-up to that moment just didn’t work the way it should have.
- The main character remained a bit too shallow. While I do not agree that Theo was being overly manipulative and therefore didn’t deserve a happy ending, he should have been given more depth. His character shone through in some rare actually emotional moments, but overall he didn’t leave much of an impression on me. Still, I find it somewhat believable that a rich and overprotected boy like him would be as naive and awkward and make use of unconventional methods, while also relying on others a lot.

But the positive aspects to me were much more prominent:
- The French theme was taken seriously. I imagined they would use the French connection as a mere gimmick to give an otherwise bland story a hint of originality. But they successfully integrated French elements into the soundtrack, some essential dialogues and central symbols (the fox and the rose), and even went for a finish in front of the Eiffel Tower. Sure, this is all pretty cliché, but it worked very well.
- The locations were beautiful. The campus of Assumption University looks stunning, and the scenes in France made up for the lack of the usual mandatory beach scenes. The shots at the democracy monument at night and Theo’s home also contributed to a coherent visual concept.
- The storytelling was surprisingly clever with its use of short flashbacks and changes of perspective, significantly upgrading an otherwise often boring story. The revelation of Enchanté and the background stories of the four admirers were clearly enhanced through the skillful storytelling. The good cinematography played its part as well, the colours and camera angles always fit very well with the story.
- Whenever the series got into emotional territory, it hit all the right notes. Acting-wise, it was Force who carried those moments. For the rest, music, symbols (rose and fox) and several moments of unspoken, but very noticeable thought processes contributed to some truly touching and even tear-jerking moments.

Therefore, all things considered, I will admit that this is not an outstanding and flawless series, not at all. But visual excellence, clever storytelling and a good use of the main theme made up for an unexciting story and some weak characters. Especially for its emotional moments, I will definitely keep a fond memory of Enchanté!

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So I finally managed to watch this, after having planned to for several years! Good to hear some Mandarin again, after so much Thai ... I had followed the backstory of the series a bit and was really impressed when two years ago I stumbled across a huge advertisement with Timmy Xu in a shopping mall in Ho Chi Minh City; happy to know that he has had a successful career.

Anyway, what we got was pretty short (I'm more used to the 50-minute format), so I will keep the review short as well. Overall I really liked Addicted!The series sets a good mood in my opinion, in that it has a healthy mix of (sometimes surprisingly) comedic and emotional moments. I also liked the setting, even though it got kind of depressing (always cold and grey, reminds me of my home); it's pretty different from what I'm used to in Asian (mainly Thai) series. The main actors (by that I mean the two leads and their respective parents / parental figures) are convincing and seem very genuine in their interactions. Gu Hai had some really interesting lines regarding gender roles. Not to forget: the soundtrack is really memorable (I would have never expected to hear the Shameless title song in a Chinese BL series!).

Obviously, I have things to criticise as well. I realise that these 15 eps are basically just an introduction to what the series could have really looked like (without imperial intervention), but the cuts and jumps between scenes were already too fast for me. I find it hard to follow a story when it goes on at such a pace and with so many things never shown on screen. And generally speaking, the amount of drama wasn't big in this, so the story felt a bit "flat". Additionally, the supporting cast did either not get enough screen time to give a relevant contribution to the series or was pretty bland (Gu Hai's girlfriend, as well as his brother). Then, let's not forget that Gu Hai is quite abusive in some moments (both with his girlfriend and with Bai Luoying); it sure fits his character and makes him more interesting, but consent-related issues need to be made clearer (by the way, that ridiculous kidnapping was completely unnecessary).

The two lead actors, the setting and the soundtrack are big pros for me, while I am not impressed by the length (shortness, actually) and the absence of serious dramatic moments. I have a good overall feeling though and would definitely recommend this!

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I did not expect such a hype, but this series certainly deserved it. They did a lot of things right and I really enjoyed it, but I still got a little frustrated with it.

Let’s start with the positive aspects. First of all, the cast was great, I can’t complain about anyone. Also, the characters they played were mostly well-written, they felt relatable and genuine. I could feel the author of “Theory of Love” (which I loved); unlike other BL series, the characters didn’t feel cartoonish or totally unrealistic. The music was on point, obviously, the screentime of the side characters was okay and the amount of humour was just right. The overall storytelling was smooth and never boring, although it sometimes jumped a little too quickly from one scene to the next one.

However, I expected more. After the first, say, 5 episodes, some more story development and more drama should have occurred; it just started going in circles at some point. When there was some tension, it was usually quickly resolved within the course of just one episode, so I could not get invested in it. The emotions of the characters felt very real, but it all went too quick to really get me emotional while watching. It was all fun and sweet, no doubt, but just too “light” for me to fully enjoy it.

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Funny, touching and thoughtful

It is easier for me to criticise than to praise, therefore this review will be rather short.

There are only two things I can criticise:
- First of all, it was too short. A story with such a variety of established characters needs to be told in at least 12 episodes. I assume that was also the original plan, but once again the pandemic changed everything. Really a pity, some characters deserved more screen time.
- Then, probably connected to the first point, the ending felt forced in some ways. Especially Saifah and his mother would have needed more time to give us a convincing reunion in the end. One or two more episodes leading up to it could have saved the ending.

But other than that, I was very surprised by how much more I liked this season compared to the first one. The story always kept a good balance between comedic and genuinely touching moments, it wasn’t unnecessarily over the top. The single storylines were very well interwoven and delivered unexpected twists. All characters seemed interesting (maybe Lookmai stayed a bit “flat”, though) and very real. I believe there is a lot to take away from the story for the viewers, especially the Doctor’s advices. I really liked the overall pace of the storytelling, not too hasty, but also not too slow. And last but not least, the cinematography in this season was on a whole new level! Good choice of colours, thoughtful composition of locations and systematic use of camera angles. And all of this combined with a solid soundtrack.

The first season got an 8.5 from me: enjoyable, but average and not very memorable. Season 2 was a clear improvement and is an absolute recommendation!

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