One for the guilty pleasure list

I am very conflicted because a huge part of me didn't want to enjoy this. However, did I end up getting excited and counting down the minutes every week? Yes, I did.

Let me start by saying that I don't get the draw in BL for all these brothers falling in love types of stories. I know they never technically cross the line of incest, but if you need to add 'technically' before a word like 'incest', it's definitely too close to that line for my comfort. Which is why I was pretty certain I wouldn't be enjoying this series at all. So, what happened?

Good acting, phenomenal chemistry, and emotional storytelling happened, I suppose. This is one of the best acted shows I've seen. Chris is outstanding in the role of Qian. While he's portraying a pretty stoic character, he doesn't fall into the same issue of coming across comical or uncharismatic that most other actors fall into. He plays the role with nuance and behind his eyes, the emotion is always clear to see. Truly a wonderful job and other actors refusing to move any facial muscles when portraying similar characters should take note. Kurt was great as Yuan as well, and the two had impeccable chemistry. The acting of the side characters was all great too. There wasn't one weak link in this, at least not as far as I noticed. I wish other shows put that much emphasis on acting and chemistry, instead of just hitting us over the head with the same couples who struggle to get emotion across or have the chemistry of two dead fish kissing.

The storytelling was mostly well done too. There were some hiccups, like the gang storyline coming back for no reason other than a bit of drama. But all in all, it had deep emotions, actual characters instead of just stereotypes, and interesting dynamics. So it was easy to look past the imperfections.

The editing however... Boy oh boy. Whoever edited this thing really did the acting and the emotional beats dirty. Chris and Kurt are perfectly capable of carrying an emotional scene. There is no need to stuff in as many flashbacks as you can. It doesn't add emotion, it just takes away from it. The worst editing mistake was adding flashbacks of Yuan as A CHILD during their sex scene. Like please... I do not want to see the face of a child between scenes of them kissing and taking each others clothes off. Who's idea was that???? They honestly need to go to jail. This was supposed to be the emotional climax of the story. Yuan has literally been pining over Qian for soooo many years, and Qian has been trying to restrain himself for a long time. Now, they finally let go of everything and just give in to each other. It's beautiful, it's raw, it's emotion-- BOOM, HAVE A FLASHBACK TO YUAN AS A CHILD!! It was jarring. The scene of them waking up together in bed the next morning, cuddling and kissing, actually felt more emotional than the whole kissing scene did. Because it was just them with their great acting and great chemistry, not interrupted by weird scene cuts, flashbacks, or the overuse of the (admittedly beautiful) OST.

The childhood flashbacks between kissing and touching are part of an even bigger problem for me. I don't actually know how far apart in age the characters are supposed to be, but the way the story portrayed it, it seems like quite a bit of an age gap to me. On top of that, Qian basically raised Yuan. Sure, they didn't know each other since birth. But Qian took a parental role in Yuan's life from a childhood age. Which made my alarms go off because if someone told me this story, I'd definitely feel like there's a grooming issue. I know that Yuan fell for Qian without Qian having any intention of making that happen. But still, there's just something about the age difference and the raising him that doesn't sit right with me. I took a bigger issue with that than the actual "and they were brothers!" thing. Which is a whole other thing to unpack, but I don't really feel like doing that. Because the more I think about it all, the more it makes me feel iffy. If this were an actual real life situation, I'd definitely be very concerned about it. Luckily, it's just fiction though, so I can push down those thoughts with all the positives mentioned above. But it still makes me feel sort of weird about liking the whole thing as much as I did...

Like I said, it's a guilty pleasure. I'm aware of the issues, and I think if you are too, there's nothing wrong with enjoying this. As long as we view things critically and understand that in real life, things might need to be handled differently, it's perfectly fine to aww at this story. It had character and raw emotion and was so well acted. So, would I recommend this to anyone? I'd say give it a try, and if you feel too uncomfortable, just toss it aside. But I do think it's worth a chance, even if you - like me - suspect this isn't your cup of tea. If you turn off the critical side of your brain, you might just end up enjoying this as much as I did.

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Pat and Pran as Tian and Phupha's uncertified relationship counsellors

I'm writing this review when not all episodes have been aired yet. But after the two episodes that are out, I already have thoughts that I want to share.

I should start this off by saying that I have a big love for Bad Buddy, while I'm pretty indifferent about A Tale of Thousand Stars. It's objectively a good show with solid acting and chemistry, I just never really took that much of a liking to the characters, unlike with the boys from Bad Buddy. As a result of this, I was looking forward to the Bad Buddy episodes of Our Skyy 2 much more than the A Tale of Thousand Stars episodes. And I was pretty confused when it was revealed that they'd be combining the two.

I'm not generally opposed to mixing the two shows together for these special episodes. They came up with a plot combining the two which makes sense. I actually thought, it blended together really well, and I enjoyed seeing all these actors together. I also quite enjoyed the dynamics between Pat and Phupha as well as Pran and Tian. I think that Ohm and Nanon would've fit right in as actors in the original A Tale of Thousand Stars series. They would've made a compelling side couple if you ask me.

That being said, I would've still preferred if they kept the two shows separate. Or the mix would've needed to be more even. At the moment, this very much feels like the Phupha and Tian show, while Pat and Pran are just there to help them solve their relationship issues. Or at least they're trying. As a fan of Bad Buddy, that is pretty disappointing. I know that we got one whole episode that was focused only on Pat and Pran, but that just didn't feel fulfilling enough for me to now be okay with them taking the backseat in what is supposed to be their own story.

Pat and Pran's relationship still feels the same as it did in the original series for the most part, which is nice. At least it did while they were still on campus. There's a lot of playfulness, teasing, competitiveness, but also a lot of care and mutual support. However, if you ask me, there's a severe lack of sweet moments between the two. Part of what I loved so much about Bad Buddy is how they managed to mix this very playful vibe with so many cute and genuinely sweet moments. We don't get to see much of that in Our Skyy 2.
I know that they're in their "we're pretending to be broken up" era (Don't ask me how their friends actually believe them, they're being so obvious). But all the more sense it would make for Pat and Pran to be all over each other once they get to the forest. There, they don't have to hide their love. So it would only be logical for them to barely be able to keep their hands and lips off each other. But that doesn't happen at all. In contrary, when Pat kisses Pran, Pran pushes him away. I hate how that's a thing in so many BLs, because they oftentimes treat being kissed like this huge sin that one of the characters in the relationship is super opposed to. Pat and Pran never used to be like that in the original series, which I loved. They loved giving each other little pecks on the cheeks or on the lips, and somehow now, it just feels a bit off for Pran to react that way. Besides, them basically role-playing as Tian and Phupha in some moments just felt strange to me.

Also on a very different note... Did anyone else sense some romantic tension between Pran and Tian? Or is that just me? I honestly ship it. I don't ship Pat and Phupha, but the scene where they wake up shirtless next to each other, was pretty funny. Not only because of them drunkenly mistaking each other as their boyfriends. But because apparently still wearing pants is solid proof that you weren't doing anything inappropriate with each other. As if you couldn't just put your pants back on, or simply just have made out without getting undressed.

The acting is - much like in the original shows - still really solid in this. The story is very simple and easy to follow so far. However, it feels unfair to compare it with the other episodes of Our Skyy 2, because this is stretched across 4 rather than only 2 episodes. For that being the case, it definitely isn't anything riveting that I'd wanna rewatch.

So far, I'm having an okay time watching this. It definitely lacks the magic the original Bad Buddy series had. And Phupha is really unlikable in this. I remember him being pretty stern in the original Tale of Thousand Stars, but it didn't irk me as much back then. But in these episodes, he just comes across like he's having a bad day... every day of the week.

Anyway, I'll add to this / edit this once all the episodes are out. For now, I'll go with a 5.5 rating.

Edit: I did in fact not come back to edit this, because I couldn't be bothered to watch the other episodes, which is very telling in itself.

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Pat and Pran as Tian and Phupha's uncertified relationship counsellors

I'm writing this review when not all episodes have been aired yet. But after the two episodes that are out, I already have thoughts that I want to share.

I should start this off by saying that I have a big love for Bad Buddy, while I'm pretty indifferent about A Tale of Thousand Stars. It's objectively a good show with solid acting and chemistry, I just never really took that much of a liking to the characters, unlike with the boys from Bad Buddy. As a result of this, I was looking forward to the Bad Buddy episodes of Our Skyy 2 much more than the A Tale of Thousand Stars episodes. And I was pretty confused when it was revealed that they'd be combining the two.

I'm not generally opposed to mixing the two shows together for these special episodes. They came up with a plot combining the two which makes sense. I actually thought, it blended together really well, and I enjoyed seeing all these actors together. I also quite enjoyed the dynamics between Pat and Phupha as well as Pran and Tian. I think that Ohm and Nanon would've fit right in as actors in the original A Tale of Thousand Stars series. They would've made a compelling side couple if you ask me.

That being said, I would've still preferred if they kept the two shows separate. Or the mix would've needed to be more even. At the moment, this very much feels like the Phupha and Tian show, while Pat and Pran are just there to help them solve their relationship issues. Or at least they're trying. As a fan of Bad Buddy, that is pretty disappointing. I know that we got one whole episode that was focused only on Pat and Pran, but that just didn't feel fulfilling enough for me to now be okay with them taking the backseat in what is supposed to be their own story.

Pat and Pran's relationship still feels the same as it did in the original series for the most part, which is nice. At least it did while they were still on campus. There's a lot of playfulness, teasing, competitiveness, but also a lot of care and mutual support. However, if you ask me, there's a severe lack of sweet moments between the two. Part of what I loved so much about Bad Buddy is how they managed to mix this very playful vibe with so many cute and genuinely sweet moments. We don't get to see much of that in Our Skyy 2.
I know that they're in their "we're pretending to be broken up" era (Don't ask me how their friends actually believe them, they're being so obvious). But all the more sense it would make for Pat and Pran to be all over each other once they get to the forest. There, they don't have to hide their love. So it would only be logical for them to barely be able to keep their hands and lips off each other. But that doesn't happen at all. In contrary, when Pat kisses Pran, Pran pushes him away. I hate how that's a thing in so many BLs, because they oftentimes treat being kissed like this huge sin that one of the characters in the relationship is super opposed to. Pat and Pran never used to be like that in the original series, which I loved. They loved giving each other little pecks on the cheeks or on the lips, and somehow now, it just feels a bit off for Pran to react that way. Besides, them basically role-playing as Tian and Phupha in some moments just felt strange to me.

Also on a very different note... Did anyone else sense some romantic tension between Pran and Tian? Or is that just me? I honestly ship it. I don't ship Pat and Phupha, but the scene where they wake up shirtless next to each other, was pretty funny. Not only because of them drunkenly mistaking each other as their boyfriends. But because apparently still wearing pants is solid proof that you weren't doing anything inappropriate with each other. As if you couldn't just put your pants back on, or simply just have made out without getting undressed.

The acting is - much like in the original shows - still really solid in this. The story is very simple and easy to follow so far. However, it feels unfair to compare it with the other episodes of Our Skyy 2, because this is stretched across 4 rather than only 2 episodes. For that being the case, it definitely isn't anything riveting that I'd wanna rewatch.

So far, I'm having an okay time watching this. It definitely lacks the magic the original Bad Buddy series had. And Phupha is really unlikable in this. I remember him being pretty stern in the original Tale of Thousand Stars, but it didn't irk me as much back then. But in these episodes, he just comes across like he's having a bad day... every day of the week.

Anyway, I'll add to this / edit this once all the episodes are out. For now, I'll go with a 5.5 rating.

Edit: I did in fact not come back to edit this, because I couldn't be bothered to watch the other episodes, which is very telling in itself.

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I want to battle these writers

When I first got introduced to Tutor and Yim in Cutie Pie, I fell in love. The announcement of Middleman’s Love had me super stoked, and then the end-result was so bad, I couldn’t even watch it. The whole thing gave me so much secondhand embarrassment that I physically couldn’t get myself to finish it because I was cringing so hard. I was super sad about it because outside of GMMTV artists, Tutor and Yim are one my favorite BL ships. However, looking back, there is one positive about the whole Middleman’s Love debacle — my expectations for this new show were at an all time low. I expected absolute garbage saved only by TutorYim’s chemistry, and that’s exactly what I got. Though chemistry only goes so far, and in the end, nothing could save this mess.

I don’t even know where to start with this one. It’s so absurdly badly written that one would honestly think it’s some kind of parody. The whole thing is so poorly done that it’s actually pretty hilarious to watch. Definitely falls into the so-bad-it’s-funny category, which is the only reason I watched up until episode 10, albeit with a lot of skipping. Well, that and TutorYim. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think they’re the best actors, not at all. I think Yim is a bit better with his emotional delivery, and he has managed to make all his characters at least a little bit unique despite them all feeling very samey. He’s also incredibly adorable with his puppy eyes which is a plus. Tutor feels pretty much like the same guy just with varied outfit choices in all his shows. However, I do love their chemistry, and I’m glad to see it’s still there. The series does pretty well in creating moments for their chemistry to shine, so that’s nice. Just sad that it gets ruined by an overdose of cringe. Still, their chemistry might be the only positive thing I have to say about this show.

Actually, there’s a few more positives: When Ozone catches Shan trying to kiss Ob-un while he’s asleep, he calls him out on it. More of that please because I’m sick and tired of this cliché being romanticised. The show also has the characters kissing and have sex a lot, which I appreciate since a lot of shows about adults treat kissing like some sort of sin that can only be done very sparingly. So that's nice to see.

That’s it on the positives. Now, let’s get into the negatives, aka the entire rest of the show (in no logical order because the show couldn't be bothered, so neither can I):

- The series is entirely unhinged. It thinks it’s funny on purpose by including random and stupid shit like Shan and Ob-un getting high on mushrooms and acting like animals. Whenever it’s trying to be funny, though, it’s not funny at all. The only time the show is funny is when it’s trying to be serious, because the whole thing is so laughably bad that you really wonder what they were smoking in that writer's room.
- The dialogue feels incredibly unnatural and oftentimes forced without a natural flow. Conversations shift in topic incredibly abruptly, always reminding you that someone wrote this dialogue rather than it feeling like two humans actually talking.
- While I like the concept of a group of writers collaborating on a project, the inclusion of it is incredibly confusing. The scenes from the novel feel disjointed and don’t really tell a cohesive narrative. The show is almost over, and I still have no idea what the story they write is supposed to be about. We get the same scene from different perspectives, and the scenes jump around in time, so you never get a grasp on the story as a whole. There definitely was a better way of including this.
- For the first couple of episodes, the show always starts with a scene from the novel, but they just kinda give up on that for no reason. Also, Tutor lowers his voice for some of the novel scenes which sounds comedically bad. Luckily, he stopped doing it after a while because I could not take him seriously. On top of that, the scenes are shot in such a horrendous way and are acted out so poorly that it feels like they’re making fun of wuxia storylines. It’s in really bad taste even if it’s probably not done on purpose.
- The editing of this whole thing is a MESS. Scene changes are abrupt and confusing. We see a visual representation of the group chat which happens in someone’s imagination, I suppose, but the first time it cut to it was incredibly awkward and left me wondering what the hell was going on. All in all, the editing feels jumpy and scenes feel scattered in a random way. There are also flashbacks to things that happened less than two minutes ago which is a personal pet peeve of mine. The story of one side couple is almost told entirely through flashbacks, instead of interweaving it with the actual present narrative. I really dislike when shows do that sort of thing unless it's warranted.
- Plot lines seemingly get forgotten about. Things that matter in one episode suddenly don’t matter in the next. The worst example is the whole plagiarism thing. It’s the big deal in the first episode, then Shan and Ob-un never talk about it. It’s not picked up again until episode 6, and even then, it’s not addressed properly. Sure, the whole thing wasn't plagiarism, but only Shan and Ob-un know about that. I assume Ob-un's readers are just left to believe he ripped someone else off, which leaves me wondering if they'd still support him, or if his company still would. But I digress. Similarly, Ob-un having a fight with his roommate and being thrown out never comes up again. It was just there so he could move in with Shan. In the first episode, it was also established that Ob-un needed to work as a delivery guy to make ends meet because writing wasn't enough. Once he gets fired, he never looks for another job again, though, and is seemingly fine without one. Well, I guess he has a rich writer sugar daddy now, so I suppose he doesn't really have to work.
- Most of the show is over, but I still have no grasp on any of these characters because they aren’t characters in the first place. They have one defining trait (if even that), that’s it. The one thing that is focused on most is the genre each character is writing in, however, we never get any real feel for the kind of stories they write beyond the genre being mentioned.
- While I like that there’s a bigger focus on writing than in most shows about writers, I don’t think it’s a very accurate depiction. The idea that a group of guys could write a cohesive novel together with as little discussion about it beforehand is one big joke. Their story would be plot-hole galore, and it most definitely wouldn’t be as well received as theirs apparently is. Now that I think about it, maybe that's how this whole show was written. Just a rag-tag group of writers with big ideas and little planning. So, one threw in the plagiarism thing, another wanted to write about a blind guy, and a third wanted to just make this a series of exaggerated sex-scenes with no plot. They met somewhere in the middle, each writing an episode without asking the others what happened before or after. Maybe that's how we ended up here.
- Shan and Ob-un meeting before the whole plagiarism thing was entirely unnecessary. They should’ve just met for the first time at Shan’s press conference thingy. I still don't understand what the purpose of all that was, and it kinda seems like part of an entirely different show in retrospect.
- The scenes of the Chinese actor are dubbed which is incredibly distracting.
- The entirety of episode 6 is just one massive flashback which, granted, does finally explain some things, but was incredibly clunky in execution. Surely there’s a better way at sprinkling in shorter flashback scenes throughout the series or something like that. The story as a whole came to a halt for an entire episode which is definitely not what you want in storytelling. It’s the TV equivalent of a massive chapter-long exposition dump in a novel.
- Speaking of their past… I find there’s something very disturbing about BL’s obsession with the whole 'They knew each other when they were kids‘ thing, especially in this case because Shan is a lot older than Ob-un. It felt like a teenager prying on a little kid, and if he was a few years older, it would’ve definitely felt like grooming. It comes across as creepy instead of cute. Sure, Shan mentions in a throwaway line that he didn’t fall in love with Ob-un until they met again as adults. But that goes against everything the narrative is trying to push. He’s literally been obsessed with the boy, actively including elements of their summer together in his writing. It sure seems like this grown man is pining after a kid. All in all just very creepy and obsessive. Their story could’ve been cute if they were both the same age when they first met. Them coming up with this story about the fox and the hedgehog and then getting into a plagiarism controversy over it, leading them to meet again, could’ve been cute and fun in theory. The execution ruined it though, because now we have like a 16 year old teenager fawning over a 10 year old child well until his adult years. No thank you.
- In episode 7, there is an abrupt shift to a third couple that comes out of absolute nowhere. Again, the story takes a break to basically recreate Love, Sea The Series just even more insta-lovey. I think they literally fall for each other in a day, at least the dialogue makes it sound that way. Also, it’s very bold to introduce a third couple when you have yet to make any sense of your secondary couple. Focus on fewer things, but do them right instead. In episode 10, the same thing happens with the other side couple. Clearly, the story fails at integrating the three couples in a way that makes sense, so it just takes certain episodes to flesh out the story of the side couples, which is a big fail in terms of story-telling because it unnaturally shifts away from what the rest of the story is about. It just feels so awkward and shoehorned in, like both side-couples were an afterthought.
- It’s getting pretty tropey with falling into each other’s arms, drying each other’s hair, sleeping on each other’s shoulder on a bus, and stuff like that. It's giving BL bingo.
- Shan pretending he's still blind after regaining his vision is obviously horrible, and Ob-un forgave him for it way too quickly in episode 9. However, what makes it worse, is that this whole thing leads straight into a sex scene — one with a BLINDFOLD. Like, come on! You're lucky your eye condition didn't leave you permanently blind, and the first thing you think about when regaining your sight is using a blindfold in bed? After you just pretended not being able to see? And Ob-un is okay with that???? I'm not trying to shame anyone's kink here, but after what happened, it was just a very... odd... choice.
- Speaking of their sex scenes... This show thinks it's insanely hot, but the sex scenes set in the wuxia novel are nothing more than over the top cringe. Again, making the whole thing feel like a parody. It isn't tasteful and it doesn't feel intimate or passionate, it's just borderline unbearable to watch. If I didn't laugh so hard about how bad it was, I might have cringed myself to death. In episode 10, it's no longer just the wuxia scenes, but also the ones in real life. I had to skip. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for shows being sex-positive, but it just feels like this whole show has crumbled into a series of sex scenes which doesn't go with the first half of the show at all. It feels like the writers gave up at whatever mess of a story they created and were like 'Fuck it, let's just have everyone bang for the rest of it. And let's make it as cringe as we possibly can because why not go all in at this point?'
- All in all, the longer the show goes on for, the more overbearing the cringe factor of it gets. By episode 10, it got so cringey that I've decided to drop the whole thing entirely, because I just couldn't handle it anymore without wanting to crawl out of my skin from secondhand embarrassment. We're talking Middleman's Love territories of cringe here, and I can't stand that.

The list goes on, but those are the most glaring issues. It’s kind of ironic how in a show about writers, they’re basically setting an example of all the ways not to write a story. So if you’re a writer and looking for a bad example, this is the show for you. Otherwise I suggest you either don’t waste your time, or you just go into it to make fun of it. Since my bar was so low, I’m not really disappointed. While the show is better than Middleman's Love, we're comparing two dumpsterfires here. So, really, there is no winner or loser. Or, well, the real loser is me, because I genuinely do love Yim and Tutor, so them getting put in all the shittiest shows really sucks. I sincerely hope they’ll get to be in an actually decent show sometime soon, since wasting their chemistry on garbage like this is a real shame.

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Did I just time-travel?

When I first pressed play on this show, I was incredibly confused. I had to double check the title because I thought I'd accidentally clicked on 2 Moons, or Love By Chance, or something. This feels like walking into a time machine that takes you straight (or well, gay) back to the old-school BL era. Not in a good way. In an 'I've seen this exact BL 37 times before' and 'Here we go again with romanticising toxic behavior' kind of way. The acting and the chemistry are pretty good, but this show has nothing interesting or fresh to offer, so I don't really have anything interesting to say either. Therefore, I'll do my best to sum each couple up very briefly:

Hill & Easter: Toddler in the body of a grown-up throwing hissy fits and getting manhandled by the college heartthrob who won't take no for an answer and posts photos of you holding hands without consent. Of course both of them continuously avoid telling their friends (and the viewers) about their mysterious past, which isn't all that mysterious if you've seen enough other BLs.

Johan & North: Slightly more mature toddler in the body of a grown-up getting bossed around by the stereotype of an emotionally unavailable, controlling, rich college hottie. I have a head-canon that Johan was in a motorbike accident that knocked all but one braincell out of him. Because nobody who rubs even just two braincells together would ever think acting like a dick and treating them as your slave is the way into your crush's heart. Either that, or Johan is a passionate BL watcher who has taken lessons from all the wrong characters. Well, at least Easter ships it because apparently your best friend getting harassed is cute and not at all scary, at least when the guy harassing him is handsome.

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I’d like to travel to the past, to keep them from making this show

Okay, that title may have been a bit harsh. It’s not that bad, at least not the first half of it. The second half is absolute garbage, but let me elaborate.

The first thing that irked me about this show was how they dealt with the whole time traveling thing. I don’t know how you’d react if you suddenly traveled over 20 years into the future, but I sure as hell would freak out. I think that would be a very warranted response. However, Kiew barely even reacted when this happened to him. He was seemingly more freaked out about the existence of iPhones than the actual time travel part itself. The people he told also reacted extremely calmly, and believed him pretty much instantly. This wasn’t a huge flaw, but I just found it silly. For the fact that everything else in this show feels very cartoony, they could’ve definitely gone with a more over the top reaction in my opinion. But this was one of the smaller offences.

Like in many recent BLs, the much bigger issue was, sadly, again the chemistry between the two main characters, or rather the lack thereof. Cooper is great as Kiew. He’s very charming and adds a natural charisma to the character, which makes it easy to like him. He’s not really a fully fleshed out character (none of them really are), but he’s enjoyable to watch nonetheless. The one I take issue with is Marc, in the role of Bamee. For most of the time he’s on screen, he looks constipated or like he’s in permanent pain. Granted, this expression suits the character in some scenes, since he’s not really supposed to be bubbly or a happy go lucky kinda guy. The problem is that even in scenes that are supposed to show the two characters falling in love, or Bamee being at least somewhat happy, he still looks like he’s constipated. As does he in scenes, where he’s supposed to be angry. Marc really struggles getting the needed emotions across, leaving Bamee to look about as intimidating as a cupcake, even when he’s supposed to be furious. I don’t know if this is an issue within his acting itself, or if there was simply poor directing. But I saw him in My Gear And Your Gown, and I vaguely remember having had similar thoughts. So maybe he just needs a little more practice (or a lot).
I think the lack of romantic chemistry between Kiew and Bamee resulted from this subpar acting. Kiew was able to portray at least some sort of chemistry towards Bamee, but sadly, that wasn’t enough. I think if Cooper was paired with another acting partner, I could’ve enjoyed this much more than I did. But sadly, that wasn’t the case. I actually liked the bond Kiew and Bamee formed over time, I just didn’t feel the romance at all. They radiated big sibling energy to me. So I think the show would’ve actually been better if this was a tale about a platonic friendship, rather than a romance.

I usually suffer from side-couple-syndrome. So I was hoping that maybe they would knock it out of the park, and make up for what was lacking between the main couple. Sadly, this also didn’t happen. They had no solid build up, and while they had more chemistry than the main couple, there also wasn’t a lot of it. On top of that, the only thing they did, was talk about Kiew and Bamee, which felt strange. Especially given the fact that Plawan used to have a crush on Bamee, and also kinda sorta on Kiew, I think. (Don’t blame me for not being sure, even Plawan himself didn’t know what the writers were trying to do with his vague feelings towards the two main leads.)

One thing I did massively enjoy though, was the whole dynamic in their friend group. They had a very sweet and supportive bond, which was very nice to see. I also liked how much time we actually got to spend with the squad as a whole. Again, I think this show should’ve just been about their friendship, rather than adding in these lacklustre romances.

This show is filled to the absolute brim with cliches and tropes. There’s so many in there, you lose count. If you made a bingo card with all the BL tropes and cliches, you’d definitely get bingo at least twice! There’s the painful trope of mistaking the love interest’s brother as their boyfriend. There’s a scene of the main couple getting soaked by the rain, and then Kiew drying Bamee’s hair. There’s an injury that happens when the couple is cooking together. And of course, because this is a BL, poor poor Bamee was then unable to do anything by himself for like a week. He got burned on one hand, but apparently he forgot that he had a whole other functioning hand, because Kiew needed to feed him for days. And obviously, he needed to help him wash his hair too. At this point I wonder how these BL boys would live, if they didn’t have a boyfriend to take care of them. If one gets a minor injury, they would just die, because they cannot seem to figure out that it only takes one hand to eat with a spoon. Anyway! You also have the accidental falling into a kiss scene with the side couple. For good measure, throw in a scene of one love interest wiping the other down with a towel. Oh, and don’t forget drunken kissing that one of the characters doesn’t remember the next day. Add a spoon (or bucket) full of jealousy into the mix, and you got yourself a recipe for the most standard BL ever. One would think a story about time travel has more to offer than that, but sadly, it didn’t.

If you’re into science, I recommend you don’t watch this, because you might get a heart attack at their stupid plan of sending Kiew back to the past by literally zapping him with lightning. I’m not kidding. They attempted to generate as much electrical power as a lightning strike, and zap Kiew with it, hoping that would get him back to the past. I mean, sure! But he would’ve arrived there like a roasted chicken. Also, the subtitles kept talking about the electric power of thunder. I hope that was just a mistranslation, and they were actually talking about lightning. Or they really weren’t aware that thunder is only a sound, while it’s the lightning strike that holds the electricity. I don't know much about science, but I know at least that.

The show started to drag by episode 6. But it was a decent show up until then. Nothing mindblowingly good or bad. I would’ve probably rated this a solid 6 or 6.5 at this point, because it was entertaining enough and not offensively bad. But then episode 9 happened, and I was so close to just dropping this completely. If it weren’t for Cooper carrying the entire thing, I would’ve just given up.

You see, in episode 9 an incredibly forced, dumb and out of place amnesia plot line happens. I generally dislike that trope, especially since it’s never really done in a realistic manner. But this one was just especially poorly done. Because the plot needed him to, Bamee conveniently remembered everything aside from Kiew himself. That was the first dumb thing, but I was willing to look past that for the most part. But the way they handled it all was just horrible. Bamee’s step-mother, brother and friends all tried to pressure him into remembering Kiew. This went so far, that the step-mother actually made Bamee live with Kiew, despite not remembering anything about him. Imagine you’re suffering from amnesia, and your mother makes you move in with someone who is a total stranger to you, against your will. That’s horrible. Plawan was equally as bad, suggesting Kiew forces himself onto Bamee, thinking that maybe if they were intimate with each other, that would bring back his memories. It all was in such poor taste. Bamee acted like an asshole with his partial amnesia. That wasn’t really a problem, because that can actually happen. But when he regained his memory of Kiew, and kept pretending not to remember, I almost lost it. He played not only Kiew, but also Soda whom he had given hopes to. It was very messed up if you ask me. Obviously he only did it to keep Kiew from going back to the past, but it was still an asshole move.

This whole amnesia storyline felt so out of place. It’s like the time traveling plot came to a complete halt while this was happening. It felt like the writers had two ideas for two different series - one about time travel, the other about amnesia - and then they were forced to somehow morph it into one show. Which resulted in one big mess that sucked the life force out of me. It had one positive though! The scene where Franc (the former villain of the show) was pretending to date Kiew, in order to get Bamee to confess that he has regained his memory, had me laughing out loud. Franc and Kiew had more chemistry than Kiew and Bamee, if you ask me. They should’ve just ended up together, honestly. That would’ve been a brilliant plot twist and I would’ve definitely rated the show much higher if they had pulled that off. The other parts of the Franc storyline were problematic at best. Baiwan eventually falling for Franc, who had harassed her for a really long time (to the point where she needed to get a fake boyfriend and her friends needed to protect her), was pushing a really problematic message.

In my opinion, they should’ve cut the entire amnesia bullshit, and made this into a solid 6 to 8 episodes of time travel silliness. Because it was so dragged out, there was never a real sense of urgency about Kiew getting back to the past, even if we knew his mother’s and Bamee’s dad’s lives depended on it. It felt like even Kiew himself temporarily forgot that he was supposed to travel back. Altogether, you shouldn’t think about the whole time travel plot too much anyway, because hardly anything is explained.

The ending of the show was extremely weird. I feared that this would happen, but hoped it wouldn’t. But it did. If you saw it, you know what I’m talking about. If you didn’t, I’ll spare you the weird implications the end of it all had.

On top of all that, the background music was horrible. It sounded like elevator music, or the jingles you hear when you’re put on hold while calling a company. Once you hear it, you cannot unhear it, and it gets extremely annoying.

If I had dropped this after half of the show, I would’ve rated this a lot higher than I do now, after finishing the whole thing. Cooper was definitely the one carrying the show with his natural charm. He deserved a better script than this. If you’re a fan of Cooper, you’ll probably get some enjoyment out of this show. If you’re not, I wouldn’t recommend watching this. Or you might also wish you could travel back in time, just to undo your decision of wasting time on this.

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I preferred them in Bad Buddy...

First of all, let me tell you how happy I am that GMMTV finally chose to do a GL. When the news first dropped, I was excited. When I heard that Milk and Love would be taking the main roles, I was over the moon. Sadly, though, the actual series has me a lot less thrilled than the idea did...

I absolutely adored Milk and Love in Bad Buddy. Their chemistry was great, they were adorable, and their acting was nice too. However, I cannot get myself to feel the same way about them in this show, sadly. I think these two excel at portraying a crush, but not an actual relationship, if that makes sense. Their chemistry is perfectly fine when all they have to do is give each other sweet looks and subtle touches. However, when it comes to actual physical chemistry beyond that, everything somehow evaporates, and not much is left. Their kiss scenes felt incredibly forced to me, like they got dared to kiss during a game of truth or dare or something. The scene where Sun's towel fell down and Ongsa started screaming made me want to crawl out of my skin because it felt so awkward and uncomfortable. Honestly, Ongsa kind of reads as asexual to me, which would've been nice representation. Like she is in love with Sun and wants to be with her, but has no interest in anything physical. And even if they didn't go for that idea, they could've just not included any kiss scenes either way since it's a high school romance, and those don't really need kiss scenes in my opinion. I much prefer no kiss scenes to these awkward moments that end up ruining the chemistry for me.

Because of that, I will always choose to rewatch Bad Buddy if I need my fix of MilkLove, instead of this heap of awkwardness.

But my biggest gripe with this show is how boring and dragged out it feels. It has almost no plot, which I don't generally mind if there's great characters and great chemistry. My School President didn't exactly have the most exhilarating plot either, but it still ended up as one of my favorite shows because of the amazing chemistry and the lovable characters. But this show didn't have much of either (at least not in my opinion). The nonexistent plot really made it a slog to get through, and I found myself fast-forwarding quite a lot after the first half of the show. The only thing it had going for it was the catfish storyline. But that was resolved in a very unsatisfying way (Sun was mad for 0.2 seconds, which was not enough at all) and then, everything kind of faded into nothingness. They started inserting drama for drama's sake in the later episodes - like the studying abroad and the outing thing. But the conflicts felt so shoehorned in and unnatural that it wasn't exciting to watch, it just made me roll my eyes. Let me say it again... Don't write conflict if you aren't going to resolve it in a meaningful way.
So, this just ends up being yet another one of those GMMTV shows that should've been 6 solid episodes instead of 12 that feel bloated with nonsense and side characters that get only a few scenes, which is not enough to flesh them out at all, so their storylines feel unsatisfying. Alpha, for example, was a really compelling character that never got quite enough screen time to really do the idea of her justice.

As far as the main characters go, I think Ongsa is developed decently well (at least for GMMTV standard). Sun on the other hand is lacking the screen time it would take to actually flesh her out beyond being sweet, trusting and kind. I would say her character gets ruined in episode 10, when she outs not only Ongsa but also Aylin and Luna in front of Ongsa's family, but there isn't much of a character there to begin with, so it can't really be ruined. But either way, that scene made me absolutely despise her. You don't out anyone ever, there's no room for discussion there. But especially not when it was super obvious how uncomfortable Ongsa was with the situation, even trying to deny the whole thing.

I want to praise GMM for having made the decision to replace North and Night with an actual GL pairing as the side couple. Obviously, I would've loved to see Gemini and Fourth in this, but I much prefer it to actually give those roles to girls instead. Give the girlies their time to shine when we have so many BLs already. Luna's and Aylin's storyline is much more interesting than the main romance. However, I couldn't help but scream "THIS GIRL NEEDS THERAPY!" at my computer whenever Aylin was on screen. Clearly, she has severe mental health struggles that are very reminiscent of autism-spectrum disorders or perhaps even schizophrenia with her conviction of being an alien. At best it's a really unhealthy coping mechanism, but either way, her family not actually getting her any help hurts my heart. She really needs a professional at her side, and I really really hope that this will still happen in the two remaining episodes. But knowing GMM shows, I doubt it.

The humour of this series did not land with me at all. It reminded me a lot of Japanese shows - very over the top, outright cringe in many instances, and clashing with the heavy moments of the show. This is just down to personal preference though, so while I don't vibe with that kind of thing, other people might.

All in all, this was a big disappointment for me. I think other people might really enjoy it, but it just wasn't for me. I'm very happy to see GMMTV actually trying their hand at GL, which is why I'm actually glad that other people seem to really enjoy this. Because the more support this show gets, the more likely it is that we will get more GLs in the future - which we desperately need! So I would honestly suggest you give this a try, even if it hasn't been an enjoyable experience for me. Hopefully in the future, we'll see GLs with better plot lines and chemistry. Until then, I will just rewatch Bad Buddy again whenever I'm in need of a cute GL couple.

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Absolutely adorable

If you're looking for a show with a lot of sweet, fluffy moments, then this is for you! The storyline is nothing mind-blowing by far, but the great acting, the amazing chemistry and the overall adorableness absolutely make up for it.

I think the biggest "issue" (if you can even call it that) of the show is the set-up itself: 7 years ago, when the two main characters were still in high school, Lee Wan confessed his feelings to Ki Tae. He attempted to kiss him, and Ki Tae backed away. This caused Lee Wan to run away and cut all ties with Ki Tae for 7 years. I'm not kidding. One failed kissing attempt was enough for this boy to be like 'lol, I'm out of here' and never return. Even if Ki Tae tried to contact him right after it happened, and even if Ki Tae's response wasn't actually that bad. After all, he didn't punch him in the face or even push him away. He was just clearly stunned. Bu Lee Wan really took it to heart, and cut all ties. Which is quite ridiculous in my opinion. So I suggest simply not thinking about this set-up too much.

If you look past this, the show is very easy to enjoy. Seeing Lee Wan and Ki Tae reunite and the old feelings re-igniting is absolutely precious. Some things don't make 100% sense, such as Lee Wan not really responding at all when Ki Tae (in the present day) confesses his feelings to him. That - and a few other things - are a bit odd, but you don't really think about it for long, because the cuteness of it all will distract you rather quickly.

I would've appreciated more exploration of Ki Tae's fear of Lee Wan abandoning him again, but I understand that doing more than they did was simply not possible within the very limited time. Unlike with other KBLs, I feel like this story was actually well paced and fit well into only 8 episodes. It didn't drag or feel bloated.

This is a show that I'll probably rewatch over and over again, whenever I'm in the mood for some light-hearted fluff. I think the chemistry between the main leads is some of the best I've seen in any KBL. There's no awkward pressing-our-lips-together-like-two-dead-fish kisses with these two, which was nice, considering both had been waiting for this kiss for 7 years. 10/10 would recommend this to anyone. If you're looking for a lot of complexity and deep exploration of emotions, you won't find it here. But if you just want to aww over two cute guys falling in love again, then this one's for you!

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I would've needed a shoulder to cry on if this was executed better

I went into this show with pretty low expectations. Knowing that the leads are members of a K-pop group had me really worried about both their acting abilities as well as how far they'd be willing to go to showcase physical intimacy. And I have to say that I was positively surprised!

In my opinion, Jae Han and Ye Chan were really solid in the roles of Da Yeol and Tae Hyun. I thought they both fit the roles they were playing really well, especially Ye Chan as Tae Hyun. His winking, the cheeky smiles and the puppy eyes fit the role so well and really brought a lot of charisma to the character. They aren't the best actors in the world, but they were good enough to carry their roles, and with a bit more practice, they could become really great, I think. I enjoyed watching them both and they had solid chemistry. This may not come as a surprise, given the fact that they've been part of the same k-pop group for a while now, but it really could've gone either way. It could've felt awkward since they're close friends in real life, but it didn't. I mean, it did sometimes, but that was because the characters were supposed to be kinda awkward around each other sometimes.

If you're looking for romantic kiss scenes and a lot of physical intimacy, you're not gonna find it in this show. I assume that is because the actors, as mentioned, are part of the same group, so maybe they just didn't want to kiss. Or - and more likely - their company wouldn't let them, since sadly there's still a lot of homophobia in the industry. Knowing this, it didn't really bother me that we didn't get a kiss. But I know that it would bother some people, so I figured I'd mention it.

As for the story, I really liked it up to a certain point. And even after that, the story wasn't the issue, but the execution. Tae Hyun feeling like he's responsible for his adoptive mother's (and unborn sibling's) death is a very interesting concept. Especially exploring his fear of abandonment that resulted from being given up for adoption in the first place and from the accident, as well as the idea that he brings bad things to the people he loves, sound very intriguing on paper. The issue is that the story never really did much with them. Instead, they chose to go with a time-skip at the exact moment when things would've gotten interesting. Da Yeol confessing his feelings to Tae Hyun, and Tae Hyun's fears getting the best of him, thus pushing Da Yeol away was really solid in my opinion. Tae Hyun then realizing that he actually does like Da Yeol too, but Da Yeol being too hurt to be with him would've made for an interesting conflict. In my opinion, this should've happened half-way through the series. Then, the second half should've explored the conflict. It should've shown how Tae Hyun gets over his fear of abandonment and open himself up to the idea of loving and being loved again. It should've shown Da Yeol being severely hurt and finding it hard to open up to Tae Hyun again. It should've spent several episodes on the characters growing as individuals to then slowly find their way back to each other, and finally being ready to be together. Sadly, none of that happened. Right after the conflict happened, the show chose to skip ahead in time, showing the characters get back together, but sadly not showing any of their character development in the process. It was very frustrating since this show actually had characters that had actual traits and fears, and didn't just exist to be in love with each other. But they didn't really do much with them in the end, which was a let-down. If executed properly, I would've probably shed tears as these two characters are dealing with their issues. But my eyes remained dry.

Because the ending was handled so poorly, I don't think I'd ever re-watch the show. It's simply not satisfying, and the start isn't incredible enough to warrant sitting through the disappointing ending. Only rewatching the first part of the show wouldn't be satisfying either, since you'd stop watching at the point of a break up (not that they really were together before that anyway). I would recommend giving this a watch, because it had a lot of potential. But you're most likely not gonna take away a lot from it. Unless you're an OMEGA X fan, of course, then you're probably gonna really enjoy seeing Jae Han and Ye Chan on the screen together. Even if you aren't an OMEGA X fan, you might find yourself liking the actors. That happened to me, at least. All in all, it had a lot of great potential, but sadly potential alone doesn't make for a satisfying watching experience.

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Pollution In The Air: How to ruin the stratosphere one pointless remake at a time

I imagine the pitch meeting for this show going like this…

Writer 1: Hey, guys! Have you worked on any new BL ideas? The deadline is fast approaching.
Writer 2: Oh, shit. I knew there was something I forgot about...
Writer 3: I have an idea for this cozy, food-centred story called 'My Chef, Our Love.‘ It’s this show about two guys who start living together. One of them is a bubbly cook, the other is an over-worked office worker and—
Writer 2: Sorry to interrupt, but this sounds like every other J-BL produced in the last two years.
Writer 3: At least I thought of something. You don’t have anything better, do you?
Writer 1: Don’t fret, my guys. I actually have the perfect idea. How about we do a remake of another BL?
Writer 2: A remake? Do you think that’s really going to work for us?
Writer 1: Works for Disney, so why not us?
Writer 3: That’s actually a great idea, dude! What a perfect chance of taking a flawed show and making it into something bigger and better, and putting our personal spin on it. We could use Color Rush. It’s a Korean BL with a very interesting premise that got ruined by the lacklustre execution and the confinement of only eight short episodes. I’m sure we could explore the themes in a more interesting and satisfying way, and create a more electric and layered romance.
Writer 1: Oh, no, we’re not doing that. I was thinking we just take a show and do an almost shot for shot remake. Instead of making it better, we make it shorter so the story will make less sense, hire actors without chemistry so the NC scenes will be painful to watch, and add absolutely nothing new or interesting because that would require effort on our part.
Writer 3: Um… What’s the purpose of making a remake then? If we’re only making it worse, shouldn’t we just keep our hands off it?
Writer 1: The purpose is money.
Writer 2: Ohhhh, we like money! I say we do it!
Writer 3: I mean, I guess so. I suppose we should choose a really great BL then, so the remake will be great too. How about the Thai BL Moonlight Chicken? That’s my favorite.
Writer 1: Who cares about quality, man? We just need something super popular! Preferably something with a lot of spice because that brings in the viewers.
Writer 2: KinnPorsche?
Writer 1: That’s gonna cost too much with all the action stuff. We need something easier to produce.
Writer 2: How about Love In The Air?
Writer 1: Perfect!
Writer 3: Isn’t that a bit too popular? I imagine we’ll get compared to the original a lot if we choose to do something this widely known.
Writer 1: The more popular the better! We want to benefit from an already existing fanbase. Besides, Love In The Air is either loved or hated, so we’ll get a lot of viewers for sure. Everyone will want to know how it compares to the original, so they’ll watch. Maybe they’ll hate watch, but a viewer is a viewer, and money is money.
Writer 3: I guess so.
Writer 2: Since the Thai show wasn’t great in the first place anyway, maybe people won’t notice if we make things even worse.
Writer 1: That’s the spirit!
Writer 3: I don’t know, guys… Maybe if we worked on my idea about the chef just a little bit, it could turn into something special. Or we scrap the food, and do something entirely different. Something that’s never been done before, that pushes the boundaries of BL as we know it, and will add meaningful discussion to the BLsphere.
Writer 1: Why think of something new when we can save our precious time? Now come on, let’s put out a casting call. We need actors to get this going.
Writer 2: We should cast Shoma as Payu. He looks the part perfectly, and he’s not afraid of making out in front of a camera.
Writer 1: Brilliant!
Writer 3: Then let’s find someone who’ll match his energy. We need to at least make sure that the leads have chemistry if we’re going to do this, and that they’re ready to commit to the spice. The chemistry is the saving grace of the Thai show, after all.
Writer 1: You and your ideas that require time and effort. We’ll just cast a guy who vaguely looks the part of Rain, and if he refuses to open his mouth for kiss scenes, Shoma can just lick him like a dog licks people’s faces. Sound good? Good, let’s get this show rolling.

Okay, now for a bit more serious of an analysis. First of all (in case you couldn't tell), let me clarify that I’m not a fan of the original to begin with. I have my gripes with every one of Mame’s shows, so this one is no exception. In my opinion, the writing wasn’t great, Payu was being hella problematic at the start, Sky’s only trait was having trauma which was handled with all the grace and care of a bull in a china shop, and the acting ranged from mediocre to outright laughable in some moments. I don’t think the series would’ve garnered as much popularity if it weren’t for theNC scenes and the chemistry between the two ships.

With all this in mind, I was having split feelings about the idea of a Japanese remake. My optimistic side thought that this was a great chance of improving on everything I didn’t like about the original. The pessimistic side already knew that wasn’t going to happen, and that they’d probably only make things worse. After all, Japanese BLs tend to be shorter, thus leaving even less room for character and romance development, and the way I see it, J-BLs aren’t exactly known for passion and chemistry. They usually have this air of awkwardness about them that definitely wasn’t going to work for a show like Love In The Air, and if the chemistry isn’t there, there’s nothing redeeming about this series at all. Still, I was ready to go into this with an open mind, hoping in some miraculous twist I’d like it more than the original. Safe to say, that didn’t happen.

Me titling this 'Pollution In The Air‘ might sound harsh, but it is factually correct. This remake (like most others) lacks any sort of purpose, therefore wasting resources and fuel used for transport and electricity to pollute the air without even generating good entertainment. So I stick by it.

My biggest question is WHY?????? Why make a remake if you don’t have anything meaningful to add? The show has a shorter run time, thus robbing the story of any sort of character development, realistic romantic build up, and rushing through plot points in unsatisfying ways. The chemistry between both ships is nonexistent, thus robbing the series of the only good thing the original had going for it. It keeps the problematic aspects of the original, like Payu touching a scared Rain without consent and Prapai pursuing Sky after he's made it very clear he's not into it. The scenes are almost shot-for-shot recreations of the original, only with a few adjustments to sum up multiple scenes of the original into one due to the lack of run time. Nothing new is added, nothing is explored on a deeper level. This is just a complete waste of money and time that could’ve and should’ve been spent on creating a different show — one that at least has something to say.

Now, let’s talk about the two ships individually…

Arashi x Rei (aka Payu x Rain):
I actually really like the casting for Arashi. He fits the character perfectly, his acting is decent, and he’s committed to deliver the spice of the original show. He's definitely my favorite part of this. The actor playing Rei, on the other hand, is very difficult to watch. I don’t think his acting is bad per se, but it just doesn’t work for me. The only reason I sort of liked Rain in the original was because Noeul gave him a lot of charisma. He wasn’t a great character, but Noeul made him very lovable. Here, Rei is just awkward and annoying. Especially him delivering every other line with an audible pout is getting frustrating.
The two actors have zero romantic chemistry, thus making their "love“ story fall flat on its face, and the NC scene outright painful to watch. I absolutely hate getting secondhand embarrassment, and sadly, these guys gave me a ton of it. Like, please, for the love of the BL gods, don’t cast people in a show like Love In The Air that refuse to open their mouth during kiss scenes. If I have to watch Arashi licking Rei’s lips like a dog one more time, I think I’ll actually combust from cringe. Some people argue that Rei’s supposed to be inexperienced and that’s the reason why he wasn’t participating in a proper make-out. Who knows, maybe. But that doesn’t really matter because no matter the reason, it’s just not enjoyable to watch. It makes the whole thing feel sort of non-consensual, which is the last thing I want to feel during an NC scene, so it’s a big no from me.
In terms of their story, everything is rushed. Plot points are given no time to breathe, and the characters feel even less like fully fleshed people than they did in the original. Nothing is explored in any meaningful way. Both of them fall in love with each other for no discernible reason and way too quickly. It’s hard to tell when and why both of them started to develop actual feelings for each other. Arashi is as problematic as Payu was, which made me dislike the guy as much as I disliked him in the Thai version. Sadly, Shoma doesn’t have quite as much charisma as Boss had, thus making the whole scene of him non-consensually touching Rei in the car even more unbearable to watch than Payu touching Rain in the bathroom stall.
All in all, I care for neither of the two and feel no attachment or investment in their rushed relationship. These two don't even know each other, yet I'm supposed to believe they're in love? Alright.

Fuma x Kai (aka Prapai x Sky):
I don’t mind the casting choice for Kai in terms of visuals, but I do mind what they did to poor Sky. He didn’t have a personality outside of his trauma and being sassy in the original, and somehow, here he gets even less because they took out all the sass. Which was the most enjoyable thing about Sky, so here, it just feels like we have a traumatised plank of wood on the screen. The actor looking the part doesn’t save much if you don’t give him an actual character to portray. His acting in dramatic/traumatic moments is sadly also less than convincing. He does this weird bent walk, which is probably supposed to make him look scared or sad, but it just makes him look like he has a stomach ache or constipation. The guy acting as Fuma doesn’t fit the role of Prapai in the slightest. He lacks all the flirtatiousness and charisma that Fort gave to Prapai, thus making him entirely unbelievable as this playboy-turned-good-boy. He’s giving tired office worker more than hot CEO fuckboy, which just isn’t working at all.
The two of them paired together have all the chemistry of an extinguished fire. If Rei and Arashi have zero chemistry, Fuma and Kai have negative chemistry. Their NC scenes are drier than the desert, and Fuma pursuing Kai against his wishes feels even creepier than in the original because Fuma doesn’t have any charm to help him out.
Because the show is trimmed down, Kai’s trauma is handled with even less care than it was in the original. Everything regarding his story is so rushed that I worry anyone who hasn't seen the Thai show struggles to comprehend what's going on. Kai literally goes from not wanting anything to do with Fuma to kissing him on the cheek and going on lunch dates with him in two minutes. It makes no sense and made me feel like I missed an entire episode. Then he goes from reverting back in his shell to sleeping with Fuma in lightning speed. Apparently in all the whiplash, somehow he discovered he loves Fuma, despite having known him for what feels like a week. On top of everything being rushed and glossed over, the initial scene showing Kai getting sexually abused was laughably bad. Those scenes weren’t handled well in the original either, and Peat lacked the acting chops required to get across all the fear and helplessness. But here, it's even worse. The scene feels overly camp and almost made me laugh because of the bad acting and all the evil laughing in the background. All in all, the FumaKai storyline is borderline unwatchable if you ask me.

The only good thing to come out of this so far is me falling in love with the song that was playing during the ArashiRei NC scene. The only problem is that I will forever associate it with that awkward mouth licking that is burned into my mind thanks to this show, so I can't even fully enjoy the song. The chemistry was the only reason I sat through the original, and the only reason I'm still watching the remake is because 1) it's hard to look away from a car crash, and 2) Writer 1 was right about people wanting to hate watch this to see how it compares to the original. So yes, I fell right into the trap, but at least suffering through this will make the original show look like a masterpiece in comparison.

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I was happy and merry when it finally ended

This surely was… something. At this point, I’m used to many KBLs feeling somewhat insta-lovey. The much shorter format in comparison to Thai BLs (for example) kinda has that side effect. And despite me being understanding of that, this one just felt too insta-lovey for me, even for KBL standard. I was not invested in the relationship of the main characters at all, because there was no build up. They met, talked like twice or three times, and suddenly both were apparently madly in love. I say 'apparently’, because the romantic chemistry between the actors was lacking a lot in my opinion, so that didn’t really help with buying the love part. I wasn’t awwing or smiling at any of their cute moments, because I simply didn’t care about their relationship. And that’s pretty bad for a show that is centred around the romance. When they kissed I was confused, because there was nothing really leading up to it. Both main characters are grown men, so I get that a kiss isn’t as heavily built up to as in a high school romance, where it’s the characters’ first kiss. But at least give me something that makes it feel earned.

Here’s three examples for what I mean with "too insta-lovey“ for anyone who hasn’t watched the show, and is considering investing their time (Do yourself a favour and just don’t):
1 - The two main characters meet for the first time at a wedding, where one of them is the singer and the other the pianist. The pianist doesn’t actually work for the company, he just served as a replacement for the usual pianist. A woman that works there (don’t remember her name, there’s too many side-characters for such a short series) asks him to join their company, which the pianist declines, since he’s already the CEO at a café. Suddenly, the other main character shows up. Piano man is so in awe of the singer’s handsome face, that he’s just like "Never mind, actually, I do wanna join the company!“ This grown man just made a decision about a job, based on the handsomeness of his colleague, no consideration of what this would mean for his apparently already tight schedule with a popular café to handle. I sure hope he doesn’t do this every time he meets a handsome person, or he’s switching jobs on a weekly basis.
2 - That same evening, they have dinner with their co-workers. Piano man and handsome singer exchange a few sentences, then handsome singer gets drunk and piano man is helping him get home. The next day, piano man repeatedly texts handsome singer, asking him if he’s okay and saying that he’s worried. Sure, he might just be a naturally empathetic person. But any non-BL-lead would just let it be at that, if the other person doesn’t respond. But when handsome singer doesn’t respond, piano man actually goes to the academy where he works as a vocal coach. They met ONCE and this dude is already borderline stalking him. My mind was yelling 'Run while you still can!‘ Piano man kept having such tendencies throughout the whole show, showing up at handsome singer’s house when he didn’t respond to him. Which seemed to happen frequently. It just felt pretty iffy to me. If someone acts like this after you spent a couple of hours together, I don’t want to know how they’ll act once you’re actually dating…
3 - After having met ONCE, piano man was telling two friends about handsome singer. They said that they hardly recognized him, because he was apparently so head over heels AFTER HAVING KNOWN THIS GUY FOR ONLY ONE NIGHT!!!! Piano man said he also doesn’t recognize himself. On top of that, he was for some reason convinced that handsome singer had his walls up high, and that he was gonna climb over them and win his heart. I don’t mind characters not giving up easily. But the issue is that piano man had no way of even knowing that handsome singer had his walls up. He does, but piano man doesn’t know anything about him at this point. So how does he assume handsome singer has his walls up, and not that maybe he simply has no interest in getting to know him? Your guess is as good as mine.

I could excuse some of these behaviours if this were a show about two high school students. Teens tend to make rash decisions and fall in love much faster, thinking a crush equals true love. But we’re talking about two adult men, who I assume are at least in their late twenties, more likely even in their early thirties. I understand that you can be attracted to someone on first sight, but this wasn’t just attraction, it was love that apparently can develop within seconds if you live in a BL, because who needs shared experiences and a genuine emotional connection, right?

I also took a big issue with the villain of the show, which is (like in many BLs) handsome singer’s ex boyfriend. (At least I think they were dating, but it’s never quite clear. Blame the writing for that, not me.) I did actually like their history. Handsome singer wanting to debut as an idol and having a relationship with the CEO (again, not sure if back then he was the CEO or just an employee, proving how great the writing in this is once again) actually makes for an interesting concept to explore. The problem is that their past was more interesting than the present day relationship of handsome singer, and that’s not great. Besides that, the villain felt like a caricature. He was so overtly evil that it was almost laughable. And also, he was an idiot. He acted like an asshole in front of handsome singer, trying to blackmail him and pretty much stalking and terrorising him. I thought that clearly, this was just about him being evil and having fun toying with handsome singer. Apparently however, all this was an attempt at winning back the love of handsome singer. Wow. Great plan, buddy. I know you’re a disgusting person, but if you try to win someone back, maybe try not to be disgusting in front of them? It made no sense. Also, the villain then just disappeared into thin air, giving no resolution to this storyline.

At this point, I would’ve probably rated the series a 4. It was bad and uninteresting, but not offensively so. But then they did a goddamn time-skip and that dropped my rating to a 2. You see, piano man came to save handsome singer from the hands of his evil ex. Handsome man then was being a douchebag towards piano man, telling him to leave him alone. This isn’t a problem in itself. Clearly, handsome singer had been severely hurt in the past, and was dealing with a lot of issues internally. Actually, this was the only point in the show where I got at least a little invested. I was curious about how handsome singer would overcome his demons, in order to be with piano man. And how piano man would handle the rejection. Of course, we got to see none of that, because they skipped ahead one year in time. I dislike time jumps in general, but this one was just horrible. It felt like such a cheap way of escaping resolving the conflict they had set up. Instead of meaningful character development, they let time heal it all. To me, this jus proves how the writers of this show weren’t capable of handling anything.

So, we skip ahead one year, and time magically fixed every issue. Handsome singer miraculously has overcome his severe panic disorder, because he was so eager to eventually sing in front of piano man without sunglasses on. Because that’s totally how mental illness works, yep. Not only that, but he also finally got to debut as a singer, and of course, his debut song was one huge success that climbed up on the charts like it’s nothing. Because that’s totally how the music industry works, yep. (I mean, it could’ve happened, but it feels extremely unlikely.) Of course, after all this time and being rejected in a really hurtful way, piano man immediately runs to handsome singer when he sees that he’s holding a concert. And of course he takes him back like nothing happened, and like they actually had established a meaningful relationship between the two of them. That one kiss they had must’ve been really good to warrant such behaviour, damn.

Also, how many times are we gonna do the jealous best friend who has a secret crush on the main character trope in KBLs? It’s getting really old at this point. That being said, the best friend character was actually the only character I was rooting for. Not that he had a properly developed personality or anything. He only existed as a shoulder for handsome singer to cry on, and as his emotional trashcan. However, he was caring and put handsome singer’s feelings above his own, which made him the most likeable character in this entire thing. The bar was very low. I actually thought they should’ve ended up together instead, since they at least had some sort of emotional connection. Instead, this storyline too led nowhere and we never got any resolution for the best friend character. So I'll just assume handsome singer will forget all about him in the heat of his new relationship, because he totally feels like the kind of person to do that. I hope the best friend finds someone better who's actually interested in his feelings too, rather than only using him to cry about his own.

The music in the show was pretty good. One of the main characters is a singer after all, so you’d hope so. But I noticed something weird about the background music. While oftentimes it was nice and fitting, sometimes it felt like a very odd and out of place. At least two times, there was a background music playing that sounded kinda like it was supposed to be in a western movie (western as in a cowboy movie, not the western film industry). I was so confused. But maybe that’s just me not getting a reference or something.

As for the positives… There were some moments of decent comedy. Such as when handsome singer blew his nose on a bunch of napkins and then drunkenly handed them to piano man. That got a chuckle out of me. The acting was solid. Not mind-blowing, but solid performances. Their montage of cute moments at the end was nice, it’s just that I didn’t care about their relationship at all, so even that didn’t get a smile out of me. Honestly, the best thing about this show was when it was finally over.

This has got to be one of the worst KBLs I’ve seen, and I’ve seen many. I cannot recommend this to anyone. If it weren’t so short, I would’ve dropped this half-way through, and I’m definitely never rewatching it. If you’re looking for a KBL about the music industry and a singer, I recommend Wish You: Your Melody From My Heart instead. Not that that one’s perfect, but it’s much better executed and a lot cuter, with actual chemistry.

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A typical GMMTV show with more eating than actual time travel

This show is definitely not my favorite, but it’s not entirely unenjoyable either. I would classify it as a very typical GMMTV BL, and thus a perfectly mid show. Most GMMTV shows are in that range of "not great, but not horrible either“ for me, and Be My Favorite is no exception.

Acting / Chemistry:
For me, the main reason this show didn’t crumble under the weight of its flaws is the acting. Gawin and Krist are both great in their roles. Krist pulls off the awkward and whiny Kawi so well, but he’s also delivering a great performance in emotional moments. I actually like him in this a lot more than I did in Sotus. Gawin has been great in anything I’ve seen him in, so it comes as no surprise that he’s doing an excellent job in the role of Pisaeng as well. He’s naturally charismatic, and he knows how to deliver emotions when needed. The performances of the entire cast were really good, and they definitely saved a lot of what went wrong with the writing.
The chemistry between the romantic leads was decent. They’re not one of my favorite pairings, but they do have more chemistry than other pairings (cough Pastsenger cough). To me, it was just lacking the real butterflies that come with other ships, so I don't crave more of them together, but if they were paired again, I wouldn't mind either.

Characters:
I’ll start with the positive—Pisaeng. I adore him, and he deserves the world. He’s very easy to like. That’s partially because Gawin lends his natural charm to the character, but also because he was really refreshing. It’s not like he was super well fleshed out, but he was a genuinely kind and caring guy, and he had a lot of emotional intelligence. In many ways, he reminded me of Ayan (from the Eclipse), who might be my favorite GMMTV character up to date, so that’s a huge compliment. I loved watching Pisaeng on screen, and I was rooting for him.

Kawi on the other hand was horrible. Okay, that’s a bit harsh. I actually liked him in the beginning. But the longer the series went on for, the more I started disliking him. At the start, he was just this awkward, self-deprecating guy who was actually quite cute. However, as time went on, his "I’m such a loser“ attitude began to get annoying. He also became a pretty big asshole in many moments. He was only concerned about his own emotions and thoughts, completely disregarding other people’s feelings. Him then being like "I’m such a bad guy, I feel horrible, boohoo“ didn’t help. If you’re aware that you’re being a douche, maybe try not being one next time? But then he did it again. He was also very judgmental, which didn't help his case. It got incredibly frustrating. Especially since Kawi always needed someone to point out that he was in the wrong, but never realized it by himself. I know he was written that way on purpose, but it’s just not great for a main character you’re supposed to root for. Krist also being naturally charming did help, but even Krist can’t make me enjoy watching this whiny little prick. All of this wouldn’t necessarily have been a bad thing if there was severe character development. Him starting out as selfish and judgmental, but then growing and opening his horizon would’ve been great. But that didn’t really happen. Or well, it did by the power of montage and time-skip and time travel magic. But that wasn't enough for me. Kawi was the main reason I really started disliking this show about half way through.

On a more positive note, I really liked Kawi’s best friend, Max. What a shame he didn’t really have much of a storyline to himself, but only served as Kawi’s emotional trashcan. He basically helped Kawi function and act like an at least somewhat decent human. You know how in Pinocchio, the cricket acts as Pinocchio’s conscience? That’s basically what Max was to Kawi. He was patient enough to put up with Kawi’s attitude. What an angel. Couldn't have been me.

Pearmai was fine. I appreciate the attempt at fleshing her out as a character, for example by giving her a difficult relationship with her mother. It wasn’t a lot, but it was a lot more than most other BLs do with their female characters. She wasn’t portrayed as a villain either, which I was super happy about. In general, she was really likeable and I would’ve loved to see more of her. I hope more BLs will take this approach with their female characters, rather than having them be two-dimensional villains that only exist as objects in the way of the boys love aspect.

Romance:
I was in favor of the romance because I wanted Pisaeng to be happy. And for some reason unbeknownst to me, he finds his happiness in Kawi. I also liked the general idea of Kawi travelling back in time to get Pear to like him, just for him to realize it was Pisaeng he was meant to be with all along. That actually makes for a really fun and cute story. However, because I really disliked Kawi, I found it hard to root for the romance. Especially since Kawi’s constant self-deprecation and Pisaeng serving as someone to assure him that he’s not a loser seems pretty unhealthy. Also, Pisaeng constantly having to give in to Kawi’s wishes and demands while Kawi is being stubborn also seems problematic. To me, it felt like one of those relationships where 10 years down the line, Pisaeng will probably have given up on anything he had going for himself, in order to make Kawi happy, while Kawi is not even willing to do as little as compromise. They had very cute moments, don’t get me wrong. I just don’t think Kawi was ready for a relationship at all. As we got to see in the future, it luckily didn't turn out this way. But that's probably because Kawi did an unexplained full 180 and is apparently entirely different in the future, thanks to the power of montage and time-skip.

I feel like this show would’ve greatly benefitted from a side couple (whatever the Not-Kwan-Pear love triangle was doesn't count). Spending all the time with Kawi and Pisaeng was A LOT, so a side couple to mix things up would’ve been great. Anything for me not to be trapped with Kawi for the entire episode would’ve been appreciated honestly.

On a different note, I was genuinely surprised by how little I minded the love triangle between Kawi, Pisaeng and Pearmai. Normally, I hate love triangles in BLs, especially if they involve a girl. Usually, because it’s tied to a lot of toxic jealousy and the girl being the villain of the story. But in this show, I actually thought it was handled very well.

Also, I want to talk about how they had the perfect opportunity for some asexual representation. To me, it genuinely felt like Kawi had no interest in sex. I would’ve loved it had they actually made him ace. But instead, we got a super awkward sex scene that made me feel so uncomfortable to watch, because Kawi was looking like he didn’t wanna be there (at least in the beginning). So instead of ace representation, it turned into yet another BL where one character wants to cuddle, kiss and have sex, while the other is portrayed to be reluctant to any of that for no explainable reason.

Writing / Storytelling:
Let’s start with the time travel aspect of it all. I’m simply not a fan of time travel shows in general. That’s because it’s extremely difficult to pull it off in a way that doesn’t leave 100 plot-holes. I think they were pretty clever by not really focusing much on the time travelling as a mechanism itself. At least they were until episode 11, when Time Travel Man showed up, and lectured Kawi about how he can’t use time travel to win the lottery, because that apparently depends on destiny. If you haven’t won the lottery so far, you weren’t destined to win it, and you can't win it even with time travel magic. So, according to that, apparently love isn’t based on fate then, since you can just travel back in time to fix it? Usually, BLs heavily steer into the direction of love being entirely destiny-based, so this was actually an interesting thought. But still, it left me with many questions. I wouldn’t have been too bothered by everything, if it weren’t for these glaring issues:
(1) When Kawi travels from the past to the future, he gets there with no memories of what happened during the past ten years, and then gradually gains back those memories. This is proven by the fact that in episode 7, he doesn’t remember his apartment or how he’s on bad terms with Pisaeng. But how is it then that he somehow did know the lyrics of a song he had assumably written within those past 10 years? He arrived backstage of his gig, not even remembering he was a famous singer. So how the hell does he remember the lyrics? I guess by the power of plot-convenience.
(2) They kinda broke the time travel mechanism in episode 10, when Pisaeng spun the time travel thingy, but somehow nothing happened? Why did he not travel to the future, like it happens with Kawi? Does that mean the time travelling ability is tied to Kawi specifically? I could’ve accepted that with a frown, but then in episode 11, Pisaeng spins it again, and he actually does travel in time. This made no sense to me.
(3) I thought the whole purpose of time traveling was for Kawi to right his wrongs, and then go back to the future. But apparently, he just stayed in the past? I wasn’t aware he could even do that. The whole show seemed to steer into the direction of him eventually having to return to the future, and that was just dropped entirely. To me, the end of the show would’ve been much more satisfying if Kawi had travelled to the future again, instead of the whole almost death and Pisaeng time travel arch.

The writing of conflicts wasn’t always great either. The issues weren’t as offensively bad as in A Boss And A Babe for example. But oftentimes characters’ motivations or moods changed from one scene to just a few scenes later without any reason or resolution. For example, Pear got very upset with Not for basically having pressured Kawi into a love confession, and recording the whole thing. She even calls him out in front of his friends, seemingly very angry. Then, without any resolution to that, Not gave her his book to read, and she thanked him and told him he was doing great— the bad blood seemingly having vanished into thin air. This wasn’t the only instant either. Some fights between Kawi and Pisaeng were left with no resolution too. They just suddenly got along again. It probably isn’t as notable if you watch the show week by week, but it gets very apparent when binging it. The whole love triangle story between Not, Pear and Kwan was dropped completely without any resolution whatsoever. I could not tell you if Not and Kwan ever actually got together, or if they stopped their fling entirely. Not that I really care about what Not does or who he’s with, since he’s an asshole, but leaving it unresolved is still unsatisfying.

In a similar manner, there are things that just happen out of nowhere and are left with no further explanation. For example, in episode 8, Max thanks Kawi for "helping me realize I should stay here and keep fighting“. But we saw none of that actually happening. Kawi was just using Max as his unpaid therapist, but we didn’t see anything about Kawi helping Max. The story didn’t show that, so the dialogue was clashing with what was actually happening. Similarly, in episode 9, we suddenly find out that Kwan and Not have a friends with benefits situation going on (or something like that). That also came out of the blue. We knew from that one time of travelling to the future that they would eventually have an affair, but there was no reason to believe that was already going on in college. Us finding out very late in the show that Kawi apparently is into music when it was never alluded to before also felt very sudden. These things could’ve been implemented in much better ways that wouldn’t have left you feeling like some brand new piece of information was just thrown at you out of absolute nowhere.
In this regard, another thing was Pisaeng suddenly playing the guitar and singing to Kawi in episode 7. Why the hell did that happen? Well, I know why. Because Gawin is a solid singer, and GMMTV has this agenda of pushing all their actors into a singing career as well. But in terms of the writing, it made no sense. We had no reason to believe Pisaeng had any interest in singing or playing the guitar. It was entirely illogical for him to suddenly serenade Kawi, and should’ve been cut. Not every single character needs to sing in your shows, GMMTV. Please stop forcing it in when it makes no narrative sense, I’m begging you.

I already mentioned the friendship between Kawi and Max. It was pretty badly written. For one, the story starts with Max being mad at Kawi. He then suddenly changes his mind about being mad (god knows why) and they’re back to being best friends. If you just make him change his mind without Kawi really having to work for it, why start off their relationship with any conflict at all? It was pointless and left entirely unexplored. We’re then supposed to believe they’re both helping each other and are there for each other. When really, all we ever see is Kawi using Max to complain about life. It felt so insanely one-sided that I really felt sorry for Max. I don’t think there’s a single instance where Kawi asks him how he’s doing. It’s just Kawi here, Kawi there, Kawi everywhere.

Another random thing that bothered me was the amount of scenes we got of characters eating. I know that being a foodie was part of Kawi’s character, so I don't mind more eating scenes than usual. But after a certain point, it just felt like a lack of creativity. Like please, there are other scenes that can serve as a basis for characters to talk to each other. They don’t have to be eating every other scene.

The worst offence in my opinion, however, was their annoying way of storytelling. The amount of times they cut away from a scene, just to show how that scene ended in a flashback five minutes later, made me want to rip my hair out. They did it for dramatic effect, I suppose, but it only took me out of the story with the constant flashing back and forth. It’s just unnecessary and makes it more difficult to follow the narrative. Just let the scenes play out, and then move forward. It didn’t happen all the time, but it happened often enough for me to really get annoyed by it. And there were even instances when scenes ended very abruptly without us ever finding out how they ended at all. Which in my opinion was still better than the annoying back and forth between present and flashbacks.

Positives
- I liked the relationship between Kawi and his dad a lot. It was heartwarming, and the only moments I actually liked Kawi were when he was with his dad. However, this actor in my mind will always be the mafia boss and dad of Kinn (from KinnPorsche). So I had this head-canon that the mafia business of Kinn’s dad went really south, and he had to take on a new identity. So he started a new life, with a new wife, and a new kid.
- The show had some solid comedy in it.
- As annoying as he was, Kawi felt like a pretty unique character, and not just like the stereotypical character GMMTV goes for in every other show.
- Them not making Pearmai the villain of the show just because she’s the girl was very appreciated.
- The line "Parenthood is about more than just raising our children. We have to grow with them.“ That was the best line in the entire show. It was said in a scene that was entirely useless and senseless, since it was the only scene we ever got of the parents alone. But I’m glad it was there, for that line alone.
- I liked how it opened with Pear getting married to Pisaeng, and ended with her getting married to someone else. That was a nice full circle moment.

Final Thoughts
Initially, I liked the show. For the first few episodes, it felt fresh and funny. However, the longer it went on for, the more I started disliking Kawi. And it’s just really hard to like a show when you constantly want to yell at the main character. This, paired with the weird editing choice of cutting away and then flashing back five minutes later, really took away from my enjoyment. The writing wasn’t great. It wasn’t as bad as in other GMMTV shows, but a lot of it could’ve been an easy fix, which is always very frustrating. It seems as though GMMTV puts more effort into making all their actors sing and dance these days, rather than actually putting that effort into solid writing. With all of that weighing the show down, around episode 9 I just wanted it to be over.
It was not my cup of tea, but I see why other people enjoy it a lot. There were enjoyable aspects there, for me they simply got overshadowed by the bad. But I was watching this with a very critical eye, I’m aware of that. If you’re someone who views BLs maybe a little less critically (and if you don't find Kawi as irritating as I did), then you’ll probably enjoy this. As I said, it’s a very typical GMMTV show, so if you’re into most of those, you’ll probably be into this too.
This was quite difficult to rate for me. I really didn’t enjoy it much, but giving it a very low score just because I personally have vendetta against Kawi doesn’t seem fair. Therefore, I’ll just rate this somewhere in the middle ground, like I would most other GMMTV shows.

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Oh, how beautiful this could've been...

I have conflicting feelings about this show, mainly because of what it could've been but turned out not to be. You see, I'm a sucker for the whole 'they were soulmates and loved each other in every lifetime/universe' concept. I think it's just about the most romantic and adorable thing. Which is why I was pretty excited about Every You, Every Me. I thought what I would get would be the same two characters falling in love in different lifetimes. What I got is a show about entirely different characters falling in love in different universes, until they pull a 'Lol, just kidding! They're actually just two actors who are in love, filming all these different shows.' That twist really ruined everything for me.

Even before the twist, I wasn't sold on the whole thing. I knew I was going to have a difficult time when I realised this wasn't going to be the same two characters falling for each other in different lifetimes, but entirely different characters that just look the same. I simply don't have it in me to get attached to characters that change every one or two episodes. Trying to force an entire narrative and a fleshed out personality in as little as one to two hours almost never works for me (I prefer TV shows over movies for a reason). I think this could've been easily solved if they went with the approach I thought they would take: Have the two characters remain the same throughout all their lifetimes/universes. Of course you can switch up a couple of things like names, styling and unimportant traits. But at their core, they should be the same in every lifetime/universe. They should be recognisable as the same characters, just thrown into different circumstances. Have their core personality stay the same, and have them have a few permanent quirks that show the viewer that they are watching the same characters in each episode. That way, it would be far easier to bond with them.

Some stories are better than others. Episodes 3 and 4 were my favorite by far, though I did like the ode to La Pluie in episode one. The rest was very meh.

Despite the whole thing not really working for me, I want to give praise for trying something new and fresh. I think it's always a great thing if shows stray from the norm, even if I'm not the biggest fan. As far as I'm concerned, anything that stands out from the flood of other BLs is worth some praise.

The fact that in the end, it all turns out to just be two actors in different roles really ruins the idea of the soulmates-in-every-lifetime trope if you ask me. I think it takes away all the emotional impact there could've been. My favorite story by far were episodes 3 and 4. I was actually really close to applauding them for choosing a sad ending. And I thought the idea of them having lost each other in this lifetime, but finding each other again in the next and having a happy end there was very heartwarming. However, by showing that it was all just them shooting a movie, every emotion I felt vanished in an instant and all that's left was annoyance. So they really just lost me after that. I tried to persevere, but nothing seemed to matter anymore after that revelation. I simply stopped caring about what happens to them in the next episodes, knowing it's all just them acting anyway.

Aside from this feeling new, I will also praise the acting and the chemistry. Top and Mick have this incredibly romantic/sexual tension between them. They don't need overly long or explicit sex scenes to showcase their intimacy and connection. Which is pretty amazing given the current state of the BLsphere, where most productions heavily rely on explicit scenes in an attempt to convince the audience that their actors with zero chemistry have, in fact, a ton of it, thus leaving the whole thing feeling cringe at best and nonconsensual at worst. But that's a rant for a different day. So yeah, the chemistry and acting are great. Playing many different roles within one production does take acting chops, and the two are selling all their roles pretty well. Top a little more than Mick, in my opinion.

Many people are probably going to like this a lot. And I don't blame them, because I definitely enjoy seeing Mick and Top together. However, all this really did for me is leave me frustrated and daydreaming about the version of this I had in mind. I hope some other production company sees this and does something similar, but really committing to the concept. I still love the premise, but I do not love the execution.

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Yin & War will steal your heart

The best way to sum up this show is to say it's a breath of fresh air. I know we've gotten quite a few action based BLs ever since the Kinn Porsche hype, but none of them really held my attention for long. This show, on the other hand, has me squealing, crying, and more invested in the lives of fictional characters than I probably should be.

It's not a perfect show, but it doesn't really matter because it has one major thing going for it: the acting. Honestly, everyone is great in their roles, but the stars of the show are undoubtedly Yin and War. I knew they were solid actors with decent chemistry, but in this they're phenomenal. They both embody their characters so well, portray emotion in realistic ways, have so much charisma, and fantastic comedic timing. But what's even more impressive is their chemistry. It's been quite a while since I've witnessed that much chemistry between two actors. There aren't just sparks, no. These two could burn a house down. And the best thing is that they don't even need scenes that rely on physical intimacy to portray that. All they need is talking to each other (or well, fighting with each other because damn, they were just flirting), and sparks are flying left, right, and centre. It was obvious from the first scene they had together (their conversation at the bar), persisted through the scenes where one hated the other (without the chemistry diminishing the conflicting emotions), and is still going strong by the end.
Another special mention goes to Pee as Hope. While he does get some sort of redemption arc, he was horrible for the first part of the show, and I wanted to hate him. I really did. It's just that Pee makes him so charming and charismatic that I couldn't. I call this the Vegas dilemma, because Bible made it impossible to hate that guy, too.

I will say, if you're looking for a BL with a lot of romantic scenes, you won't find it here. At least not at the start. Because they go through a journey from instant infatuation to hatred to trust and love, there aren't many "fluffy" scenes in the first few episodes. Episode 6 then makes up for all that by giving you all the domestic wholesomeness, and I was eating it up. Their relationship definitely isn't smooth sailing after that, so there are a lot of angsty scenes instead of romantic ones. But even if there aren't as many cute scenes as in a campus BL for example, it doesn't really matter, because Yin and War make every scene they share together electric. So I'd rather have a few really solid romantic scenes than drawn out, washed out, lacklustre scenes with zero chemistry like so many other BLs tend to deliver these days.

Another thing to love about the show is its characters. Specifically them feeling like actual people with actual feelings and lives, not just walking stereotypes. Jack and Joker are obviously the most fleshed out, but most of the side characters also get more than just one defining trait. It's also refreshing that most of them are morally gray. This makes the whole show more emotionally complex, and makes the viewer think about some moral dilemmas. It's not the height of complex characters, but if you compare it to the standard most BLs have, it feels like these people are deep as the Atlantic Ocean, honestly.
But not just the characters, also their dynamics are interesting. Of course there's the whole forgiveness arc between Jack and Joker, but there are also interesting parent-child and friendship dynamics. I also really liked the dynamic between Jack and his coach. Granted, most of those aren't explored as much as I would've liked, but at least there was an attempt.

If you're a lover of action in shows, I'm not sure whether you'll like this. The heists they pull are fun to watch for me, aka someone who doesn't really care about the ins and outs of robbery etc. But even I realise that a lot of things don't really make all that much sense. There's a severe lack of security cameras and guards, for example. The show also uses Hannah Montana logic, because apparently if someone is wearing a wig and sunglasses, you won't recognise them anymore. For me, it's easy to look past that because it's entertaining, but for some it might be really bothersome, so I figured I'd mention it. There's also the problem that severe injuries are treated as minor ones. Characters who get beaten black and blue move with ease the next scene. That sort of robs you from a bit of suspense, because you know when someone gets smashed up, they'll be fine the next day.

I do think that the first half of the show is stronger in what it's trying to do. It does get a bit repetitive after that and a bit unhinged. Though Jack continuously trying and failing to get out of the criminal cycle he's in does feel like a somewhat realistic portrayal. Still, I think the show would've been better if it were only 8 to 10 really good episodes, instead of starting to meander.

I've seen many people discuss whether the humour of the show is a good or bad thing. Personally, I enjoy some of it but it does get a little too cringe at times (like manic, evil cackling). Personally, I like when an otherwise heavy/dark show throws in enough humour to lighten the whole thing up a bit. I appreciated it about Kinn Porsche, and I appreciate it here. However, some of it does clash a little bit too harshly with the otherwise grittier vibe. For example, I think that Arun is a bit too over the top, kind of like Tankhun from Kinn Porsche. I was kind of disappointed by how they handled his character since they never really committed to exploring the troubled relationship with his father, and he got adjusted to a life without money way too easily. Speaking of Kinn Porsche, though, Vegas' dad would definitely get along swimmingly with Arun's dad. Maybe Arun and Vegas could start a support group for children of abusive mafia fathers.
When I talk about the "grittier" vibes, I mean the show not shying away from depicting the reality of poverty and other social issues. Obviously, it's a bit extreme and sometimes very unsubtle, but it feels nice to get a more realistic depiction of the world than all the perfect utopias many other BLs create for their characters to live in. Seriously, the worst thing that can happen to most BL leads is a bit of rain that leads to a cold. Which would lead to a homoerotic sponge bath, and who would want that, right? Speaking of sponge baths, this series doesn't rely on old, tired BL cliches and tropes which also makes it feel unique and fresh.

Another positive is the beautiful styling and cinematography. The series is shot beautifully, and the editing is on point, too. No needless flashbacks for once, which I appreciate. They started the story where it needed to start, then flashed forward to where they needed to be, instead of filling the whole damn thing with flashback after flashback (I'm looking at you, First Note Of Love). There are some fun twists in there, and the show moves at a pretty decent pace, though sometimes it is a bit fast for me, and I would like some more downtime for the characters to just build their bonds. And it does fall off its course a little by the end, if you ask me.

Even thought there are flaws, I was thoroughly entertained, and each episode, I fell more and more in love with Yin and War. They were always on my radar, but this show has catapulted them to be my second favorite BL ship currently (only second to FirstKhaotung, because they are my one true loves). All in all, I had a great time with this series. It's not a perfect show, but in the sea of the same stories being told over and over again in Thai BL, this feels different enough to stand out in a positive light. And since I'm a very chemistry driven BL watcher, this one is a massive treat. Bravo!

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A treasure amongst J-BLs

I was very hesitant to watch this show when I found out that one of the characters follows another to university after having met once in the woods. It felt pretty stalker-ish to me, and I almost didn't watch this series because of it, but boy oh boy am I glad I did.

Don't get me wrong, Taishin being so enamoured with Takara after meeting one time and then following him not only to Tokyo but also to the same university is still pretty creepy. I'm glad Takara said so too and was taken aback, because if someone approached me at uni being like "Remember that one time you consoled me in the woods? I wanted to thank you, so I followed you here. Hi!" I would run away real fucking fast. Definitely not a fan of how the whole thing started, but it's pretty easy to forget amidst all the cuteness that follows.

Is this show very realistic? Not really. Taishin is portrayed as a country bumpkin who appears to have lived in a cave for all his life, because the guy doesn't even know that gay people exist. That seems incredibly silly, but it does make for Taishin being very endearing as he tries to figure out life in the city and his feelings for Takara. He's just so pure and awkward, and you want to put him in your pocket at all times (though I do understand why he may be annoying to some people). He's all in all a really solid character who's easy to love, and he definitely reads neurodivergent to some extent which is never explicitly stated but still nice to have.

The real treasure of this show, however, is Takara. At first, he appears to be your standard J-BL love interest who's emotionally constipated and acts cold towards others. However, that cliché gets broken rather quickly. Takara is honestly such a breath of fresh air because he's not only very in touch with his feelings, but he's also not shy about making them known to Taishin. Despite his resting bitch face, he actually emotes a lot, and he's really good at communicating. The progression of his feelings for Taishin seems more realistic than in most other BLs because he slowly warms up to him more and more, and he's honest about not being 100% there yet when they two become boyfriends. Despite that, he keeps reassuring Taishin and makes him feel comfortable. His past and his shitty relationship with his mother is very interesting, because he's afraid of being overly possessive which is nice considering in most BLs possessiveness is presented as something normal or even cute. Maybe because of his fear, Takara never comes across as the toxically jealous kind of guy. He even feels bad for coming over to Taishin's house late at night after not having seen him for a while, and he voices out his thoughts. In turn, Taishin reassures him that Takara hasn't done anything he didn't like, and that he'd tell him if he did. All in all their relationship seems pretty healthy with the way they communicate, and they're both green flags — apart form their first kiss. That wasn't a great move on Takara's part, because he basically just pushed Taishin against the bed and didn't give him any time to consent or not consent before smashing their lips together. The way I see it, their kiss in episode 9 should've been their first kiss.

Generally, I have a hard time with Japanese BLs because they often feel so awkward, and (maybe because of that) I hardly ever feel romantic chemistry between the main leads. This show was also painfully awkward at times, but not in a secondhand embarrassment kind of way, just in a two young people in their first relationship kind of way. It fit well with the characters, and the main leads had plenty of chemistry together. The acting was also amazing, so this has easily become my favorite J-BL despite the strange start. It has interesting elements to offer such as the hiking club or their first date being bird-watching, and it's refreshingly self-aware by pointing out that Taishin following Takara to Tokyo was creepy. The show isn't perfect, and the ending felt a bit abrupt but that's a small issue in the grand scheme of things. All in all, Takara's Treasure feels unique despite the standard campus BL setting, and it has cute, fluffy vibes all around. I'm so glad I didn't just write this off when I first heard about it and gave it a chance, because I definitely see myself re-watching this a bunch of times.

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