Disappointing

This was very disappointing - I was especialy looking forward to this series, and by the latter part of the series I just wanted it to be over.

The acting in this is excellent. Up as Gene, Bruce as Aoey, and Kenji as Hin were great. The production quality was very high.

But the writing is terrible. The central problem is that Gene is merely the writer inserting herself into the story as a self-indulgent fantasy where she gets the man of her dreams. Because of that, Gene doesn't really have a character, and almost no agency. Things just happen to him - whatever is necessary for the plot, or for a particular "moment" the writer wanted.

Sib is even worse, because his only purpose as a character is to be a hot guy that wants the writer and will do anything to get her - so there is absolutely nothing to his character except for his desire for Gene.

If the point was not clear to any viewers, the actual writer appears in the last episode to literally insert herself as Gene, and Gene & Sib indulge in insipid and stereotypical fantasies (although there's one that's dark but funny).

Gene's father has a small but important role, and Nu's performance was perfect - but his character's motivation was so baffling and stupid that it was a waste of a fine actor.

Aoey was the only person who acted like a real human being. A damaged and complicated human being, but at least a realistic person. Bruce deserves credit for breathing life and even some sympathy into what could have been a cardboard-cutout antagonist.

The plot is incoherent. In nearly the first half of the series, Sib hides who he really is for absolutely no reason whatsoever, because if he'd just told the truth he would have been extremely well-received. Gene's reaction when he discovers the deception is so OTT given how trivial it is, and if his reaction was that negative, he sure gets over it incredibly fast.

There's the usual Ep 11 drama, which is totally artificial, makes no sense, and has viritually no importance to the story, as there's a 4-month time-jump and it's more or less hand-waved away for the finale, instead of showing us the consequences of the drama and how the characters process it. But again, because Gene is just the writer inserting herself, and Sib is only there to want her, she has no interest in that. Sib relentlessly pursued Gene, until he didn't, until he did. There's no consistency to the character. I can't give away details, but you will say "WTF?" when the final episode starts. The plot crawled along at a snail's pace for the entire series, then a huge amount happens between the penultimate and last episodes, and we get to see none of it - we have no idea what any of the characters were doing that whole time, especially Sib.

The 11th ep drama itself is completely ridiculous. All they need to do in the situation presented is tell the truth about how they know each other, and it explains everything and would have satisfied everyone. Instead they do something totally unnecessary that makes no sense.

Also there are no stakes. Gene is extremely wealthy (Gene is 25 and he owns two residences, one of which is a large house. His parents live in a giant mansion that has an entrance so grand you're not sure if it's a hotel or a house.) Sib is even more wealthy. So both of them could be blacklisted by the BL industry and the worst thing that would happen to them is they'd have to choose which of their mansions to retire to to sulk. So the entire plot is meaningless. Whatever they do, they're set for life. I know Gene wants to be self-reliant, but he's already a successful author and he'll still be able to write. Sib is a college student and can go into any career he wants.

There are many, many characters that serve no purpose in the plot and just chew up time. Among these are Tum and Tiffy, who at first are intriguing, but quickly become tiresome (although I'm totally obsessed with Ken, who plays Tum), and there's never any resolution. Mork seems to have an intriguing history with one of the main characters, but it's never explored and then he disappears. Gene's brother has a mysterious conversation with Sib's brother, but nothing happens with that either (I love Poppy, but his character was a waste of time).

Even if you love this series, I don't think you'll like the ending - you may even be upset by it.

Finally, the show pretends to examine some of the darker aspects of the BL industry, but it doesn't. The tiny bit present (fanatical shippers of the real-life people) is merely a plot device, and when it has served its purpose, it's never mentioned again. Real BL actors need the money and have no choice but to go along with the machine. Sib doesn't, and doesn't even care about being an actor, so nothing matters, and Gene isn't an actor to begin with, so again, none of it matters.

Despite it's purported critique, the series is utterly formulaic & predictable and loaded with tropes. Gene is an extreme uke, totally useless without a seme to guide and protect him. Sib is an extreme Seme, who guides and protects Gene 24/7. He even has the power to teleport to whever Gene is to save him whenever the plot calls for it.

The first couple of eps are so loaded with silly sound effects that I had to turn off the volume and just read the subtitles. Fortunately, it stops after the first couple of eps. I think that was supposed to be parody, but it was just intensely annoying.

I think it's time to retire the expedient of adapting mediocre and formulaic novels, or at least there's a need for more skillful adaptation of the written medium into the visual. In any case, this was a missed opportunity for what could have been a great series. I wouldn't watch it again, but a lot of people liked it, and maybe you will too, so I have no recommendation. Just be aware that it starts as a comedy and ends as a very standard drama-romance.

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It's not terrible, but kind of sloppy.

For me, the central problem of this series is the character of Prakan. I don't think the actor was up to the job. It felt like he had a very limited set up expressions, although that might have been the fault of the script and directing rather than the actor.

The central conflict of this is that Tuaphee reaps souls, while Prakan is a doctor trying to prevent people from dying. The thing is, though, Tuaphee doesn't kill people, he just escorts their souls to the next world, but every time this happens, Prakan goes nuts, treats Tuaphee like a murderer, and tells him he never wants to see him again. Until he wants to see him again (on account of he's hot). Then the cycle repeats, over and over. This makes him a very unpleasant person who seems unworthy to me of someone as kind and sweet (and hot) as Tuaphee.

The thing is, people are usually capable of fairly mature moral reasoning at around 10 years of age.

For example, if you give small child these two scenarios and ask which is worse:

1. Mary accidentally broke 10 cups while emptying the dishwasher
2. Ann broke one cup by throwing it at Mary's head.

Most children will say #1 is worse because Mary broke 10 times more cups than Ann. by age 10, almost everyone understands the difference between an accident and an act of violence, and that #2 is infinitely worse than #1.

Prakan is probably around 30 or so, and yet he can't figure out something equally basic. I can get deflecting his anguish at being helpless on an available target. Once. And then apologizing - profusely. But not being a total dick on 5 or so different occassions over the same issue.

On another subject, the "rules" of Reapers are silly and seem to be invented to suit plot points and don't really progress in a logical way. For example, what exactly is Tuaphee? He's not a ghost, and he has physical form. So is he a reanimated dead person who can teleport? Does that mean his heart is missing? Or is he a physical recreation of his mortal body in the same form? If he's a reanimated corpse with no heart, what happens if he falls asleep on a park bench and somone checks his pulse? Would he be accidentally cremated?

And why are they invisible except when wearing Hawaiian shirts? Why do they eat and sleep? If's clearly stated more than once that nobody can remember an interaction with a reaper, but everyone does - they all know who Tuaphee is (not what he is), and ask about him when he's not there. And then there are rules that are introduced later, and punishments that make no real sense when those rules are violated, and they are violated constantly.

When a soul is to be reaped, a card appears in the reaper's pocket with the soul's name on it. But a character is apparently mortally wounded (somehow, offscreen), Tuaphee gets the card, and then then that person doesn't die. So what is the ticket for? Just to deliberately waste the Reaper's time?

And an ageless being in a relationship with a mortal who lives to 90, just eww. Come on. I get love transcends all boundaries, blah blah, but it really doesn't. How many 20-year olds do you see dating 90-year olds? Only if one of them is a billionaire and the other knows he's getting a big payout. And why does everyone's soul look exactly like they did when they died except for just one of them?

The acting is fairly strong except for Prakan - all the minor characters are strong. Karn, who plays Tuaphee, is pretty good, but he's so beautiful it's hard to tell.

The secondary couple is underwhelming. I was excited about them, and I really like both actors, but it's just bad. The writing makes very little sense, and there's no buildup to the resolution - it just comes out of nowhere and is dull and anticlimactic.

In the end, the writing is lazy, sloppy, and repetitive, and just dull. It attempts to be profound and meaningful, but it's shallow and doesn't really delve into anything with any depth or insight.

The music is above average (except the coffee commercial) and supports the story well, and expertly sets the mood.

I don't think there's anything I would rewatch, but the thought of rewatching it doesn't give me suicidal impulses like it does for Physical Therapy.

Overall, 6.5. It's not awful, but I don't think I would recommend it. There's some decent eye candy, so if you have nothing better to do you might get some enjoyment out of it.

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Not worth the time.

For me this is the least good Korean BL so far.

The pacing is really off - it proceeds slowly, normally a good thing, but very little happens. The plot and characters start with some promise, athough the annoying side characters (tenants at the boarding house) are bit too annoying, especially the one who eats everything. The one who wants it quiet ends up with more screentime than the main romantic interest.

I didn't feel a lot of chemistry between the leads. You get some automatically when you have attractive actors with hot bodies, but they looked uncomfortable in physical scenes, with their bodies tense and standing very far apart. There's even a hand-holding scene at the end where they look like they're about to arm wrestle rather than showing any tenderness.

Especially in the last half, way more time is spend on a straight couple that you don't care about because the guy is unlikeable with no positive traits, and following around and telling us the life story about the rival for Seolwon's affections - what was the point of wasting so much time on this? It's nearly irrelevant to the story except for a 10-second really awkwardly written and acted miunsderstanding. In a series that's less than two hours long, you can't waste that much time on side characters - there was none left for development of the main couple. They liked each other, didn't communicate, which caused problems, then still didn't communicate anyway other than with a very bad chaste kiss. What did they like about each other? It's never covered, and since they barely talked to each other or spent time together, it must have been purely physical. There's nothing to invest in.

The first couple of epsides have some good comedic moments, but this is soon largely abandoned to stuff in as many BL cliches in as possible - in fact it's so bad that one of the other reviewers thought it was parodying the BL genre. I was joking to myself that one main character was a PE teacher and nobody had been hit in the head with a ball yet, seconds before it happened. Somehow a grown man is knocked out for hours by a volleyball, which makes you wonder if he's in the right profession - it's really silly. Also, it hit him in the side of the head yet his nose was bleeding, so they should have rushed him to the hospital because that would only happen if he'd suffered serious internal damage.

The acting is OK - nothing special, and the roles were simple and required no real talent except to look good, which the leads certainly did. The technical aspects of this are passable, but the soft-focus filter is set so high that the whole series is blurry.

I enjoyed the first couple of episodes, and the only reason I slogged through the rest is that it's nearly the only BL on on Tuesday & Wednesday.

Story: 2 - there barely is a story, and it's purpose appears to be to keep the main couple from spending any time together as far as possible.

Acting/Cast: 6.5 - they weren't bad, didn't stand out, and had such unchallenging roles that they barely had to do any acting.

Music: Fine. Nothing stsands out.

Rewathc value - 2. Cheolsoo takes a shower and that's worth rewatching.

Overall: 5. The suggested value was 4, but that's too low - I wouldn't recommend this, but it you really have nothing better to do, it won't kill you. It didn't help that this was running at the same time as the vastly superior series Semantic Error.

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Shameless exploitation of BL audience to promote a music career.

It's a good thing Pete can sing, because if he had to fall back on his acting skills he'd starve to death. He doesn't really act at all. He does appear to have memorized his lines, though, so there's that. Tonliew is adorable as Yoshi, and that's largely why I stayed with this.

The plot is stock - a standoffish star ends up as the temporary charge of our main character, who has to navigate his star through a maze of ill-wishers including the usual malicious ladyboy, which is becoming such an offensive stereotype that I'm going to start boycotting series with characters like this, and also a cartoonishly evil rival actor - you may not be able to spot him. (Hint: he's the one wearing all black at a Thai beach resort).

I can't recommend this, but it's so short that it won't hurt you to watch it.

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Not awful, but a disappointment.

On the positive side, the cast is really good, especially the side characters, but Prem is surprising at times and can be really affecting. I guess it's not really surprising given how much presence he had in My Only 12%. Tae Weerapat is both adorable and sexy as the bumbling Bee, Yacht and O are a great pairing, and I even like Manow's romance.

But there are two central issues. The main one is that they've taken a side couple that had 20 minutes total screentime in a previous series and stretched it out to twelve episodes, and for that to work, you have to add plot and character elements to the central pair, or you end up with a dull, repetitive, boring mess. How many times do we have to watch the flashback of Team's friend drowning? For that matter, do we need two flashbacks of every scene? If it's about something that happened at least an episode ago, fine - but sometimes it's the previous scene. If the actors can't convey to us what they're feeling about the previous scene without a flashback, you either need better actors or to trust the actors you have (it's the latter in this case).

And this problem intensifies the other one: Win & Team's relationship is icky. They don't interact as boyfriends, they interact as parent and child. Team is infantilized to the point that it's hard to see him as a man, or even an older boy - he's a small child, who needs protection from everything and constant guidance from his "dad". A power imbalance in a relationship is fine, but this is way too extreme, and not sexy, it's just creepy. The power imbalance is hot when it's physical/sexual. When it's emotional to this degree, it's disturbing.

And as if Team isn't infantilized enough, he actually sleeps between his parents in their bed. I half-expected him to breast-feed, especially as there had been a lot of cow/calf comparisons in their scenes.

I come away from it feeling like Team needs serious psychiatric help. He has two kind and loving parents, but still seeks a parental figure in a lover - he behaves like a sexually abused child. His dad seems sweet, but I'm keeping my eye on him.

There's a scene (which was one of the best in the series) where Team and the mother of his dead friend are processing their grief at a grave, and Prem plays this perfectly, showing just the right amount of grief - tears without wailing, like an adult. But then this is destroyed by him calling Win for help, wailing like a child, and he sits in the rain at a gravesite for TWO HOURS waiting for Win to come rescue him, when his actual parents are a few blocks away. This is supposed to be romantic, but it makes my skin crawl. His friend died over ten years ago when he was 8. Come on. You can still feel grief and guilt, but if you're that incapacitated you need mental health treatment.

The end result is that I end up hitting the +10 seconds button repeatedly through their scenes (you only need one second in ten to grasp it all. Actually you need 0 seconds in ten because all their scenes are the same) to get to the other much more interesting relationships.

This series is a real disappointment - I remember how much I liked them and what a refreshing respite they were in Cry Babies and Their Talking Mannequins (Sorry. I was that one guy who didn't like UWMA.)

A highlight for me was Tul & Wan, who for me stole every scene they were in - both of them were able to create fully realized and consistent characters with very little screentime, and their conclusion, which was quite sudden, worked. Because we'd seen Wan's desperate loneliness and frustration & repression throughout the series, when Tul came on to him, you could see his natural defenses try to fall into place, until a lifetime of pent-up need blasted them like the walls of Jericho. He still did the planking-sex, but at least there was some real heat between them.

Minor points: It was nice to see Fluke's hair non-mutilated by whatever sadist was styling it in Sunshine Night. Someone spiked Santa's Refreshing Tea Drink with cocaine - but it worked and I enjoyed him. Art is so beautiful it hurts to look at him and it's a crime only Aam uses him as a leading man. I love that Tae has a "dad bod" instead of the usual seme's chisled abs and pecs - he's not pefect but very sexy. Boun's hair isn't long enough to tie up and I don't like it. He looks so good when it's down.

Why do Thais allow anyone anywhere near a swimming pool? We already know water in Thailand is deadly since your chances of getting a debilitating fever if rain touches you is 100%. Your chances of drowning are 90%. That's one of the reasons why Team's past didn't really move me. If you drown within 30 seconds of entering a pool, maybe you're not supposed to live.

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A dull mess. Mostly a long ad for snack foods.

I hope you like insant noodles and factory-produced chocolate cakes with some white stuff inside.

I was so excited for this, because after Bad Buddy I really wanted to see Jimmy star in a series, and I love the support cast. But what a huge disappointment.

First of all, the plot is barely existent. The gimmick is that people can get transported to an alternate universe when they die, but can get back to their own universe (apparently alive again) if you find your portkey, which is another person, but under circumstances that are not clear.

Jimmy and Sea are beautiful and they both look unusually good with their shirts off, or on, or a little of both, but that can't save this series.

Which is a thinly-veiled string of commercials for products. There is so much product placement, and not just people exaggeratedly enjoying a refreshing drink - it's endless. Episode 7, which finally killed any desire I have to waste time being victimized for my loyal BL viewership, had a good 20-minute streak where nothing happened except product placement. There's even a debate over whether KFC should be eaten with sauce or not. Apparently yes. Otherwise you're disrespecting whoever invented the sauce more than you are insulting whoever fried the chicken. (For the record, it's disrespecting whoever fried the chicken. It's already seasoned with spice.)

There is no chemistry between the leads. Part of the problem is that their personalities weren't introduced before the switch, so we never really got a sense of what their motivations are, and the show is crippled by "uke-ism", meaning the seme (Puen) comes on to the uke (Talay), who behaves like being kissed on the cheek is attempted rape and grimaces in disgust and pushes him away. When they hug, they're standing a meter apart and leaning in to touch shoulders, and their kisses are mechanical and the actors put in the minimum required to make it techically a kiss.

There is no point to this series. It doesn't explore any social issues, balancing career & personal life, the trials of showbusiness, or anything at all, despite the golden opportunity of an alternate universe that could have contrasted with ours in meaningful ways. The differences are all superficial and meaningless, like instead of birthday cake, you have birthday cotton candy (with candles in it. I wonder what the death rate in this universe is from accidental fires). All we get is 12 eps of chemistry-free fluff and snacks. None of the support characters serve any purpose except comic relief, and exposition, and the series doesn't even explore what it means for the person you love to suddenly have a different body. (Personally, if I were dating doughy Nanon, I'd stay in bed 25 hours a day if he were suddenly built like Jimmy, but I'm shallow. If I were dating Nanon I'd be just as happy but I'd make him sing a lot instead.) It could have been an opportunity to look at the difference between surface aspects of attraction and the deeper connection of love.

This deserves a 3, but the actors did as well they could in a tragic situation like this, and I feel bad for punishing them, so I gave it a 5. Most of the actors actually play and sing the music in this, which also earns some points. Nanon has a lovely voice - I wanted to hear more of it. The production is competent but uninspired.

I can't recommend it, unless you love fluff and cheesy lines. And snacks.

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Poor writing partially saved by a great cast

This was a real disappointment - the story had potential and some good ideas, but the execution was sloppy and the plot ran out of steam after a few episodes.

The acting is great with First as the standout, and Neo and Louis quite engaging whenever they had screentime. The music is also quite good, with well-chosen and moody background score that supported the story.

The problem was the writing. We started out with good ingredients - a story about tradition and authority vs modernity and individuality. At first it looked like we'd get an intelligent examination, with a quite excellent in-class argument in which the rebellious Ayan manipulates an authoritarian teacher into supporting his perspective while he takes hers - but it's like all the intelligence in the script went into that one exchange because it was never repeated.

Instead, the authors come down heavily on the side of freedom, equating rules with depression and suicide - which might have worked if he rules weren't so mild and commonplace - wear a school uniform like 90% of humanity as mandated by ministries of education, and don't use phones during class. Really? That's it? And the writing contradicts itself, as almost everything bad that happens is due to preoccupation with social media, so maybe phones were the problem after all.

The Curse of Suppalo was another interesting idea, which quickly petered out and became incidents so benign that people's OTT reactions to them were ridiculous.

There is a plot twist in Ep 11 that you won't see coming, largely because it isn't set up in the slightest and ends up requiring someone to behave totally out of character, and everyone else to behave out of character in their reaction to it - and since there are no consequences resulting at all, it's meaningless - just a random twist for no apparent reason.

The relationship between Akk and Ayan starts off interesting, but quickly degenerates into a string of tropes including the most stupid accidental kiss I've ever seen, by far - it's so bad I dropped the series and only picked it up again when everyone assured me it got better. It didn't. There is no real organic development between them - they're pushed together by stupid cliches and tropes, and it's never clear why they like each other, so you have to conclude it's a physical thing. I will say that I liked that they didn't do the seme-uke thing - in fact people in the forum argued over which was which.

This is basically a six-episode story stretched out to twelve. It really has nothing to say, and despite its promising introduction, was basically just a typical formulaic high school BL, albeit set in an all boys school, so we're at least spared the stock evil gf character, and it is refreshing that the characters are actually gay and identify as such.

The last episode is cloying and preachy. Nobody watching BL has a problem with homosexuality, so preaching to the choir is pretentious and irritating - plus the absolute ease with which coming out is accomplished and greeted sends no message - in fact it's a bit offensive in a story that has pretentions of social commentary and in its portrayal of depression and mental illness to just handwave away the most difficult and painful thing LGBTQ+ teens have to deal with.

I'm not sure I can recommend this. If you're a big fan of the cast, then I'd watch it - but otherwise it's a frustrating, shallow, formulaic melodrama. I doubt I'll have any recollection of it in three months.

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Shallow angst masquerading as, well, something.

Drama and people crying seem to be often taken for quality of storytelling and acting. It can be, for sure. But not here.

This is also a story that could have been told and been successful. Also not here.

The problem is that this is a sequel, with established characters, and the behavior of one of them is so at odds with who he was in the original that it doesn't make any emotional or narrative sense.

So we have a grumpy chef who's a bit of a old man trapped in a young man's body. He has no patience for celebrity, but ironically has to live with the biggest and most narcissistic celebrity in Korea. Naturally they fall in love, opposites attract and all that - both of them have big hearts and are beautiful people underneath the pride and narcissm, and they live happily ever after.

Then comes S2, and we discover that rather than being happy, Ji Woo was seething with resentment, crippling low self-esteem, and crushing loneliness. Forget that this is the opposite of who he appears to be and that we got not the slightest hint that any of this was going on inside him, or that this is incompatible with the character as already drawn.

So suddenly, one day, Seo Joon comes home to find Ji Woo has left, dumping him with a post-it note, and has disappeared completely. A year later So Joon finds him in the greyest and most depressing seaside village imaginable - in the depth of winter, of course, because winter is grey and the previous series was during summer. Clever subtle contrast, right? And then Ji Woo proceeds to treat So Jeon like absolute shit, with the typical "I never loved you" and even "you never loved me either, it was an illusion."

Bleak and grey covers the first 8 episodes - a campaign of sledgehammer lack of subtlety and depth of any kind in favor of shallow drama and shallow and inauthentic "exploration" of... something, I guess. I'd say inner emotional life and the tensions in a relationship, but there are no tensions - it just snaps in half and is replaced by cruelty and hatefulness.

Then it just... resolves, and they go back to Happily(er) Ever After, with no real discussion or processing - a light switch is flipped, and we resume the story of S1 just where it left off. A man leaves his bf with a short note, disappears for an entire year with no communication whatsover, then treats him like shit when he finally tracks him down. Here's the reconcilliation.

"I'm sorry. I won't do it again. Give me a hug."

"Ok."

I'm not joking, that's it. The director thought everyone would forget the first 8 miserable episodes if she dumped a pile of fluff on us for the ending.

She was right, judging by the glowing reviews.

I would skip this, so it doesn't ruin your happy memories of S1. Or just start with Ep 9, and pretend they had a minor fight (which you'll easily be able to do), and then enjoy the cute frolicking, and Ji Woo's really lovely white overshirt, which I want.

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Total waste of time

This may win the award for worst Korean BL. I'll start with the positives:

...

...

Well, one of the guys takes a shower and he has a nice body. There's that at least.

On to the negatives.

The main characters have zero chemistry. Actually, it's below zero. It's a black hole of chemistry. They're so uncomfortable even hugging that it looks like they're sexually harassing each other. Their kisses are the worst I've ever seen.

The plot is cliched and nonsensical. Again, one guy has been in love with the other for most of his life, blah, blah. I don't even need to say the rest because you can predict everything from there. The story is based entirely on totally implausible miscommunication, lack of communication, and downright taking the opposite meaning of what someone says, jumping to conclusions with zero evidence and 100% the opposite of what is totally obvious or explicitly stated.

One can say directly to the other "I like you and want to be with you", and the other's voiceover says "He's obviously in a relationship with his female editor who he can't possibly be dating because I'm with him 24/7".

Speaking of voiceovers, whoever adapted this forgot it was live-action and not a manwha and so EVERYTHING is voiceover. I suppose it has to be because the acting is so bad.

This feels like it was a porn story that was stripped of sex and is left with something as meaningful as the dialog with the pizza delivery boy before the sex.

I wouldn't waste any time on this - it's just frustrating and boring to watch.

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That was better than I expected.

I loathed this series after the first episode. I gave is a 2 and dropped it and only reluctantly came back after friends insisted it got better. It did.

My objection was the totally absurd treatment of drunkenness, and the fuzzy morality, with the writers trying to have it both ways. You can't get so drunk that you think a person is someone else. Maybe for a few moments, but certainly not after sleeping if off for several hours, and Vee having three beers in 2 hours is not sufficient to lower his inhibitions enough to do something awful, so that shot of his garbage can with empty beers in it didn't fly. So you have two choices: Either Mark knows it's Vee and wants to get laid to help him get over his pain, or Vee is a repugnant rapist and the whole series is appalling. Neither option works, so I gave up in disgust with the terrible writing.

So why do I give it a 9.5, you ask?

The thing is, because this is a remake, the production was stuck with the outline of the poor writing of the original. And I can't give it a 10, because the plot is so unoriginal and we've seen it so, so many times. But the execution of this story is so good in every way, and so much depth an nuance given to the story and characters, it's like having a piece of chocolate cake. You've had many, I'm sure. Some are dry, some are factory produced, some pretty good - but then you have a slice that is so perfectly made that you can never enjoy any other chocolate cake again.

That's sort of how this series is. It really, really needs to be the last story with this tired plot - it will never be done better than this, it's so overused that I, and probably many or most of you, groan when a preview shows anyone wearing a blue engineering shirt.

While this follows an established formula, it isn't just the usual shallow boy-meets-boy, boy-hates-boy, boy-gets with-boy, boy leaves boy for girlfriend, boy-hates-boy, boy-and-boy-live-happily-ever-after story.

First, Mark and Vee aren't 2D uke and seme characters. Mark (the uke) knows who he is, is totally comfortable with it, he's a jock with a ripped body, and he doesn't let himself be pushed around. Vee (the seme) is confused and indecisive, can't bear to be the bad guy to the point that his desire not to hurt anyone hurts everyone, and he's never in control of the situation, and seems to fail at everything.

Other than the first episode, the writing is complex and sensitive, never stuffs characters into the narrow boxes of stock archetypes. Mark isn't a useless uke, Vee isn't a brooding prince who will swoop in to take care of him, Vee's girfiend isn't evil or scheming, she's just weak, damaged, and needs the validation of a man desiring her, Nuea isn't a terrible person nor is he an alternate prince, he's just a smitten horny guy who crosses the line a little, and even Mark's father's true motivation is Mark's happiness despite his dickishness. His emoji in the last scene is hillarious.

The story contains one of the classic misunderstandings wherein one boy shows up somewhere just at the right time to see something he can misinterpret and, implausibly, no communication occurs to clear it up. But in this case the plot gives a sequence of events that leads to that moment that is logically constructed, and the timing is not at all coincidental, and while Mark misunderstands, Vee is not innocent - he let himself be put in a situation that he shouldn't have, and given their past, Mark's reaction and subsequent behavior is totally reasonable and relatable.

The dialog and writing are excellent, creative despite the unoriginal story, quirky, and provides us with suprises and unexpected resolutions, like the final family confrontation, where Vee's father is a true boss. The finale is lovely and romantic, and gives us a typical fairy-tale BL ending - and then there's the post-credit scene, for which you may need medication, possibly counseling. The typical uke-finding-a-public-sniff-kiss-to-the-cheek appalling routine starts, then heads in a direction so, so, SO far from where you'd expect that it manages to be hot, funny, and a little frightening all at once (War could [and should] play a truly terrifying villain).

The cinematography, all the editing, the music, is all thoughtful, beautifully excecuted, and all serve the story.

But what really seals the award for Best Execution of a Stale, Tired BL Plot is the acting. War (Mark) has always been good, but here he's SO good that he can make you feel eight different things with one look. Yin (Vee) was frankly a bit weak in the original series, at least compared to War, but here he's improved so much that he's able to hold his own. Vee's impulsive idiocy is funny, relatable, and believable.

If this had a better first episode, perhaps with a devastated Mark just callously grabbing Vee as the nearest male body to fill his... needs, this could have been a 10. But it's still one of the best BLs of all time and I don't hesitate to recommend it.

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A total waste of time

There's a caveat to the title above: if you like stories where nothing is ever explained and nobody's motivations make any sense, you will absoluetely LOVE this series.

First of all, how is getting to live for 400 years as a beautiful 20-something a "curse"? That sounds pretty f@$&ing good to me. So if I witness a murder, I get to be young forever? Sign me up.

In the first episode, a lot of very intriguing plot threads are set up, centering on a mysterious director and his fascination for a new employee at his media firm. By the end of the episode, you're hooked and want more.

It's a trick.

You never find out anything. There's a curse, OK. But who cursed them, why, what the curse is, and how it's lifted are never revealed. Not even slightly. There is never an explanation for why the main pair were cursed. The only thing they did is fall in love with each other. Is the message of the story that God hates homosexuals? Because that's the only motivation you can get out of what we see. What is he purpose of Dennis other than as a plot device in the last episode? What did the director do to him? Why is he so f@$&ed up? Is he part of the curse? Who the f@$& is he?

A lot of the run time of the series has the characters running in circles in a repetitive and formulaic pattern of the uke resisting the seme, and in this case it's inexcusable, as instead of running the same tiresome plot point over and over the story could have been advanced and questions answered.

If felt like the writer came up with an idea, never bothered to flesh it out or think it through, then came up against needing an ending so just pushed the "reset" button, making the entire series totally pointless. The ending made no sense - so if they aren't around each other they'll die, and the only way to lift the curse is to die. OK. Great. If that's not the case, why doesn't Dong Baek get sick when he's away from the diretor after the reset? For that matter, how did Dong Baek get through his entire life before meeting the director without dying? Maybe there's a reason, but we sure as f@$& never get it.

The chemistry between the leads is fairly minimal and the kissing would be too chaste even if the characters were 6 years old. I've seen BLs where there's a meter between the pairs' bodies when they kiss, but the actor playing Dong Baek must have gymnastic experience because he manages TWO meters. This series represents everything that's wrong with KBL. A nonsensical story, way too much time wasted on the uke acting like a twelve-year-old Victorian-era virgin, too many cliches and tropes, bad writing, rubber kisses, and actors who obviously think it's icky to touch each other. (To be fair, that could be the directing.)

This is well-filmed, with shots that support the story - the edit when Dong Baek faints on the set and sees the director but it's actually Dennis is superbly done, and the music has it's moments - but the soundtrack indicating passion is not the same as the actors showing passion.

I liked this series a lot for the first couple of episodes, but unfortunately it devolved into a boring, pointless, lazy mess.

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So disappointing.

This series started off reasonably well. It was clear from the start it was't going to be a masterpiece, but it was entertaining. But it quickly bogged down into a really negative and unpleasant mess.

Ahtip and Poon have the usual enemies-to-lovers banter and conflict at first, but then they descend into moderately psycho jealousy, misunderstanding, and lashing out to hurt each other constantly. It's not fun, and there's no chemistry between them to compensate - and even if there were there's no opportunity to see it because they're always in a fight, and not the "you didn't put the toilet seat down" type of fight - it's the "you are a controlling psycho" and "you constantly quit your job and break up with me" type of fighting.

There are no less than four villains. 1. The woman who is after Ahtip, who has more screen time than either lead, and she's awful - it's so unpleasant. 2. The handsome chef from a rival restaurant. 3. Teng's weird boyfriend and 4. The OTT evil landlady. Do we need all this? Especially with two surly and unpleasant leads, and two surly and unpleasant secondary couple characters, there is just nothing bright and fun about this series. With the secondary couple, one is in an unhappy LTR but delibrately leads someone on, and that someone is pursuing someone he knows is taken and all three make themselves (and the audience) miserable. TBH, I've never gotten the appeal of BankBonus, and I'd be surprised if you do after this.

Ahtip's friend Tewit is charming, but it's hard to think much of him as he's obsessed with Amy, who is a horrible, selfish snob.

On top of that, the writer appears not to have any experience with day-to-day life, as really basic details are wrong and take you out of the story. A hotel restaurant has nobody but a head chef to clean the kitchen and nobody is ordering ingredients. Except the head chef. Landlords can cancel leases with no notice and kick out tenants, and Ahtip is such a terrible, terrible boss that there's no chance he could have achieved any success. Etc.

Even the cutesy ending fell flat - all these people were practically trying murder each other the whole series, and now they're all best friends. Amy's redemption arc was to stomp all over everyone and then with no effort or reason ends up with the richest and best-looking guy in sight. Even after he had a drunken gay orgy with half the cast, which is weird since Poon won't let Ahtip even kiss him (until he gives him a hugely expensive gift. Nice messaging there).

It feels like punishment to watch this - it's entirely unpleasant with no romance or couple chemisty to keep you going. Honestly, I'd rather watch 45 minutes of people falling into accidental kisses than watch this.

I can't recommend this at all - there are lots of bad BLs, some of which are fun. This is just joyless and dreary. I had really looked forward to this because I love Peter - maybe someday he'll be in something good.

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Started strong then lost steam

This started off wonderfully, with a fairly original plot and a lot of energy. I loved the interaction between Bai Lang, a restauranteur, and Xun An, a dentist. Bai Lang is terrified of dentists, and in fact suffers from serious PTSD. Until he doesn't.

We also have Alex the bartender who is pursued by the much younger RJ, who also works at the restaurant. This is quite refreshing as RJ is adorable and yet he's rather aggressive with the much larger Alex.

The story was well-written, funny, fast-paced, and full of vitality and chemistry, with beautiful and taleted actors.

Then it deflated like a sad left-over balloon a week after a party. Xun An's ex shows up and chews up an enormous amount of screentime in a dull and cliched story, Bai Lang sheds his complex personality (and somehow his PTSD, which is never heard from again), and then on top of that, it turns out Xun An's father is an abusive homophobe who beats Xun An for weeks, which causes him to draw away from Bai Lang for two episodes, which leads nowhere because Dad easily welcomes Bai Lang into the family.

Likewise, RJ has to leave and is absent for 4 episodes, so that storyline ground to a halt, although we had plenty of time for Xun An's ex to woo Bai Lang's sister.

It felt like the director really didn't want to do a BL, so he tore the partners apart so there didn't have to be too much icky gay stuff, and inserted a straight couple, which added absolutely nothing to the story. This is underscored by the series ending with a heterosexual wedding. Why? Gay marriage is legal in Taiwan! How is that not homophobic?

From the tight and focused writing of the first half, the second is a sloppy and dull mess.

I'd give the first half a 9 and the second half a 6. Do I recommend it? I guess it won't kill you to watch it, and the beginning really is delightful and the cast one of the most attractive I've seen - but prepare to be disappointed by the descent into mediocrity.

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This is adorable and smart

This is a one-off short, and it doesn't rise beyond fluff, but it rises about as high as fluff can get, and even if that's not your thing, I think you might like this.

There are zero tropes in it, which is so refreshing. There is no "but we're both guys!" nonsense - it's just a straightforward romance, and it feels like one between two normal guys - not two Victorian 12 year olds, not a plaster-cast seme and uke, just two guys.

The dialogue is really clever and cute, and the guys are confident and witty, but not without youthful insecurity at the right couple of moments.

The main character, Rossi, is gorgeous - it's so nice to see a darker actor cast and not caked with makeup to whiten him. He's also naturally sexy and charismatic, although it's hard not to be when you look like that. The other guy does a great job too.

Watch it! The worst that can happen is you'll lose 17 minutes.

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The cake is too dry.

It looks great on the outside, but it tastes like sawdust.

The cast is special. Atom is fantastic at everything, including perfect comic timing, Guide is both adorable and sexy, Poom is gorgeous and an excellent actor, and Ohm showed up to work.

The chemistry of the main couple is non-existent. Or I should say Guide makes a valiant effort but he pours his chemistry onto a fencepost. If only this series had Poom in the lead role - he and Guide had so much better chemistry that it was nearly impossible to cheer on the main pairing.

It's a mercy this was only 6 episodes, but it should have been 2 or 3. Or it could have worked as 6 if anything ever went anywhere or was explored. Why is Atom & Oab's mother like that? Why didn't Atom's character arc go anywhere? Why was Atom always wearing a shirt? What happened to Guy's store? Why did they wait until the last 2 minutes to sell grandma's cakes? Everthing is surface and there's no real character development. Shin SAYS he's become compassionate, but we never really saw it. Grandma is cute, but she's a stereotype of grandmotherly grandmotherness. (It's a minor miracle that she made it to the end - I lost a lot of money on that bet.)

I can't recommend this - it's dull and pointless, although if you want to stare for a few hours at a bunch of gorgeous men and Ohm, you may get some pleasure out of this.

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