RealFatUnicorn

Only the first two episodes are out so far, so it's obviously hard to tell how the show will evolve later on. So far, though, it's just like all the other time-travel Thai period pieces, including the very dramatic opening scene set in the past where someone also very dramatically falls into the water after being shot by someone we don't know yet.

Then we travel to the present day, where we meet one of our protagonists, Dr. Great (lol), who is – surprise, surprise – a doctor. But we're definitely not going to talk about the medical accuracy in this show because it simply does not exist. Seriously, anyone with even basic medical knowledge should just cover their eyes and plug their ears during these scenes or suffer the consequences of the stroke that is sure to occur.

Dr. Not-So-Great loses a patient, to which there is only one completely logical response for a young doctor at the start of his career: quit immediately. Yes, of course. Silly me – what other options are there?

Thankfully, his boss refuses to accept his resignation, so Dr. Mediocre decides to drown his sorrows in a tall glass of... coffee (?) at a bar (The Stony Devil, lols again, which also happens to be an anagram of Love Destiny – gasp) he frequents. There, he saves a fortune teller from being beaten up by thugs, so obviously the fortune teller offers to tell his fortune. (You will never guess the first card.)

I do want to point out here that the fight choreography, while obviously not Bruce Lee-level, is actually pretty decent for a show like this, so that was a pleasant surprise.

Then let's rewind to the past, where we meet Dr. Great again, except here his name is Gaew and he is a total prick. He starts out as a cute, wet-eyed little orphan who is adopted into the household of another lord, jumping into the river with his adopted brothers/cousins with childlike glee, only to emerge from the water alone and as a full-blown gigantic a-hole. (Honestly, the transition scene was pretty good cinematography-wise. It was an unexpected moment of creativity from the director.)

Anyway, for reasons yet undetermined, Gaew grows up to be an arrogant and vile young man who hates Dech, one of his adopted brothers, to the point of trying to sink his boat (not personally, obviously; he has a servant for that) to get revenge for putting Gaew back in his place after some literal cockfighting fiasco. I, personally, really did not appreciate having to learn that, no, I really do not enjoy watching two cocks having a go at each other in this context. Is there no PETA in Thailand?

Anyway, it turns out that it wasn't Dech on the deck (har-har), but his mother, who falls into the river along with the servants. One of them is impaled through the leg by a log, another disappears and is presumed dead, so obviously everyone is very mad at Gaew for being so evil. So obviously they beat up... his servant.

And then the mother is still furious with Gaew, so yet again there is only one logical solution to this problem: perform a ritual that will kill Gaew if he is indeed guilty. And Gaew is very much guilty, so the ritual causes him immense pain, which he handles like the little bee he is.

And this is where I make a detour to the acting.

Oh boy, here we go again.

The acting is... happening. Sometimes. As long as there are no big feelings involved. As long as the scene doesn't require any emotional outbursts or any of the more complicated emotions like, I don't know, mild discomfort, the main leads are doing fine. But anything that requires any more skill than that (for example, dying in excruciating pain from the Thai equivalent of Avada Kedavra), the actors... well, bleed out.
Especially Jumpa, the mother, who only seems capable of delivering every single line with the exact same bitchy expression and tone, regardless of what she's actually saying.

Right, so back to the plot.

After having his fortune told, Dr. Great drives his obligatory generic expensive Asian car from point A to point B when storm clouds suddenly darken the sky above, and he gets struck by some very high-quality and completely believable CGI lightning that absolutely had every reason to be there. (Meanwhile, Gaew is being Avada Kedavra-ed in the past, so I guess there might be a connection.)

Right, sorry. I didn't take my ADHD meds today.

So Dr. Awesome wakes up in the past in Gaew's body. Everyone thinks he has gone completely insane, and they also want to drag him to the police station to answer for Gaew's crimes when news arrives that the servant who was previously impaled through the leg is doing terribly.

If only they had a doctor...

Dr. Gaew rushes over to help him, determines that he has an arterial bleed, and promptly saves this critically injured man by changing the dressing on his wound and elevating his leg.

Yup.

Because we all know that's all you need when your artery has been torn apart.

Afterwards, he no longer has to go to the police station. Dr. Gaew takes a beauty nap, wakes up hoping it was all just a bad dream, and then quickly realizes that nope, he's still in the past.

This realization causes him such distress that he almost sh!ts himself.

And yay! Yet another Thai BL that couldn't make it through a single episode without a poop joke! Isn't this awesome? Nothing smells "romance" more than a diarrhea gag that's made even better by a period-accurate loo! This is exactly what I want in my BL shows: not just any poop joke, but a whole series of poop jokes dragged out way too long.

Ha-ha, they didn't have modern toilets back then! He-he, no toilet paper either! And wouldn't it just be hilarious if this were the exact moment Dech walked in? Ooooh, it's so smelly!

(Please kill me now.)

Right. Sorry.

If you couldn't tell, I don't really find poop jokes all that funny.

To be fair, though, there are some genuinely funny gags in there as well.

Getting back on track, this is mostly what has happened so far. A few other things happen with Dr. Gaew in the past, which eventually lead to him publicly apologizing to the family for his behaviour and promising to become a better person. Since he is a doctor, he starts handing out mosquito nets and other supplies to the household servants, as well as giving them health advice and all that. But obviously Evil Stepmother cannot stand this, so she and her servant start coming up with evil schemes to teach him a lesson.

And that's where we are for now.

All in all, it's not all bad. The production seems high-budget, the locations look great, and the costumes are pretty too. (I have absolutely no idea how historically accurate they actually are, but I like them.) The fight choreography is decent as well. The main leads do a perfectly serviceable job as long as nobody expects Oscar-worthy performances from them. I'm just very easily annoyed by exaggerated facial expressions.

So... yeah.

I'm curious to see how—or if—it improves over the next few episodes.