It's... okay.
This TV show is... okay. Not very good, not very bad. Just aggressively lukewarm.Let me try to sort my thoughts out.
Story:
The first episode genuinely surprised me. The creators seemed determined to move away from generic BL stereotypes, opening with explosions, bloodshed, and a much grittier atmosphere than I expected. I also liked the premise. While there are already quite a few BL period dramas set in similar eras, the idea of two freedom fighters falling in love during the political unrest of the 1970s felt refreshing.
Unfortunately, my excitement didn't die a quick and merciful death but instead slowly withered away over the following five episodes.
This series could have been genuinely good. Instead, it's a wasteland of unrealized potential. The show wants to tell a serious, high-stakes story about young students risking everything to fight an unjust regime, and I was completely on board with that. Then, barely fifteen minutes after innocent people are brutally killed, we're hit with... a diarrhea joke.
That perfectly sums up my biggest issue with the series.
It feels like the writers never decided what kind of show they wanted to make. One moment they're asking us to take the story seriously, and the next they're undercutting the tension with juvenile comedy that has absolutely no business being there. The tonal whiplash is constant, and it completely kills the emotional impact.
Acting:
To be completely honest, the acting follows the exact same pattern as the rest of the show: it's not very good, it's not very bad, it's just... okay. At its best it's merely mediocre, and at its worst it's awkward, stiff, and unintentionally cringeworthy. I often got the impression that neither the actors nor the directors really knew who these characters were supposed to be.
Vin is clearly written as an innocent, mischievous young man with a deeply caring heart - I think? I understand that's what the show is trying to convey but I just don't feel any of it. His emotional scenes leave me completely unmoved.
Yue has the same problem. He's supposed to be the hardened soldier who's at first frustrated by Vin's naïveté and refusal to blindly follow orders but secretely finds it endearing. He is like Shrek with all the layers waiting to be peeled back, but the problem is that while I can see the peeling happening (if I squint), I don't feel any of the emotional growth that's supposedly taking place. Then, out of nowhere, Yue starts smiling like a bashful schoolgirl, and I'm left wondering if I accidentally skipped an episode because some of his reactions feel completely out of character.
Side Characters:
The supporting cast is equally inconsistent. Some of them are perfectly serviceable. Then there's that one guy whose name I don't remember but you will know who I am talking about. It's not that his character is particularly offensive rather that his acting is so ridiculously over-the-top. We get it, you're the arrogant, macho freedom fighter - you don't have to snarl like a rabid dog every five seconds to remind us.
Ironically, the only performance that made me feel anything was the young girl in Episode 5. I think it says quite a lot when the most convincing actor in the entire series is a teenager.
Chemistry:
Oof. The chemistry between the leads is like seeing a ghost: if you squint hard enough, you can almost make out its outline, but the longer you look, the more it disappears. These two don't feel like lovers to the point where I wonder if they actually like each other in real life. They are cleary not comfortable during the emotional scenes. Their kisses are completely closed-mouthed and utterly passionless, which feels bizarre considering they're supposed to be grown men risking their lives together in the middle of a revolution. In this setting, I would expect more urgency and less bashful glances and girly giggles. Am I really supposed to believe these are hardened freedom fighters when they kiss like two Barbie dolls whose faces have been pushed together by a five-year-old?
And the sex scene... Gods, I was bored. I actually caught myself scrolling through my phone halfway through it. There was no tension, no passion, no intimacy. Serously, it felt like I was watching two wooden planks awkwardly stacked on top of each other. At one point I genuinely started wondering whether either actor had ever experienced physical intimacy before.
Then the scene suddenly included these bizarre shots where each character stared directly into the camera as if the audience was supposed to imagine themselves in the scene right beneath the actor?! Why? Who thought that was a good idea? It wasn't sexy or romantic, it was just deeply unsettling.
Final Verdict:
This show constantly sits on the border between decent and cringe. It's never bad enough to become explicitly awful, but it's rarely good enough to become genuinely engaging either. Everything about it feels trapped in this strange middle ground where every good idea is immediately undermined by questionable writing, mediocre performances, or nonexistent chemistry.
It's disappointing because the potential was absolutely there. Instead, what we got was simply... okay. And honestly, "okay" might be the harshest criticism I can give a series that had all the ingredients to be something memorable.
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Lame
Jesus Christ. I genuinely can't remember the last time I watched something this spectacularly bad.How does a guy make it into his twenties without ever hearing about alphas and omegas when he lives in a universe where literally everyone else seems to know what they are? He's spent his entire life in an ABO world where alphas, omegas, and secondary genders are apparently just a normal part of society, yet somehow nobody ever mentioned any of this to him? Not in school? Not by his parents? Not on the internet? If it's public knowledge, that's ridiculous. If it's a closely guarded secret, then why does everyone happily sit him down and explain the entire concept the moment he asks? And if it's supposed to be secret, why are there public clinics where anyone can casually walk in and get their secondary gender identified?
None of this holds up for more than five seconds. The world-building isn't just weak—it's fundamentally broken.
Then there's the acting. I honestly don't know what standards they used when casting these poor guys, but... dear God. Have any of them ever taken an acting class? Joined a drama club? Performed in a kindergarten Mother's Day recital? Anything?
The only explanation I can come up with is that the casting brief was simply "must be hot." Which raises another question: what exactly is Alpha Guy's brother doing here looking like the Thai Michael Jackson?
Okay, okay, that's mean. Making fun of someone's appearance isn't cool. But I swear that man gives me such severe uncanny valley vibes that I feel like I'm about to fall off the couch every time he appears on screen.
The writer deserves a standing ovation too—for all the wrong reasons. There's a famous writing rule: show, don't tell. It applies to TV just as much as novels. This show doesn't just ignore it—it grabs it by the ankles and launches it into low Earth orbit. Need to understand how this universe works? Easy. Character A just explains the entire setting to Character B in one massive exposition dump. Never mind that it often makes zero logical sense. Or, even better, Character B has literally lived in this world since birth, so why is someone explaining basic facts about society to them like they're an alien who landed yesterday? Nothing feels natural. Nothing feels lived-in. Everything feels like actors reading exposition because the audience needs a tutorial. It's so painfully artificial that it makes me physically cringe. I've read fanfiction written by fourteen-year-olds on AO3 that's more coherent than this.
And the chemistry between the leads? Don't waste your time looking for it because it isn't there. You can practically hear the director yelling from behind the camera: "Okay! Now passionately jump each other's bones!" And they respond with way too much wiggling to the point where I feel like I am watching worms wrestle. I've looked at my McDonald's order on cheat day with more sexual tension than these two have together.
Anyway... This show is basically the television equivalent of driving past a horrific car crash. It's objectively awful. It's probably going to haunt me in my sleep. And yet... I can't stop watching.
There's something deeply, deeply entertaining about witnessing a disaster of this magnitude unfold in real time.
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This review may contain spoilers
The Stony Devil Strikes Again
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.
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