Reviews

How was this drama green lit?

Big Mouth is a drama that attempts to say a lot of things and use a lot of themes, all of which end up falling face first into the ground. The plot reminds me of a typical badly produced mid 2000s drama. It doesn't know what it wants to be and everything about it is so uninspiring and empty. Does it want to be a murder mystery? A crime thriller? We're in a prison now, does that mean our cast will do something within the confines of this place? The drama tries to use these genres all at once and ends up feeling like a waste of time.

The pacing is bad even by kdrama standards. The first half of the drama wasn't that bad since it felt like it was building up several different mysteries that we as the viewers could speculate about and see how it all ties up. However, the latter half is just a horrible mess, which I'm sure a lot of people have commented about but I'd like to say it again: the last few episodes of this drama is quite literally unwatchable. I could not stand sitting through these episodes and watching them flail around trying to give the viewers a satisfying conclusion. I know a lot of people struggled to finish the drama purely because they wanted to see the romance, but I'll be honest and say it wasn't even that good at all. Just your average kdrama romance that didn't tug at my heartstrings and only served to move the plot forward.

I've watched Lee Jong Suk across multiple dramas and I'm not trying to be rude when I say this man should stick to his romance focused genres. I appreciate him trying to branch out to a new genre but he just didn't impress me with his performance here. His character isn't the least bit charismatic, which is surprising considering LJS almost always has a certain charm to him in other dramas. Instead we get an annoying parasitical manbaby who I could not care about in the slightest. Yoona as Miho was nothing special either. She did her role and I have no majorcomplaints, but I already know I'll forget her performance in 3 weeks. The weird slowmotion and closeups for the "look at how cool our main characters are!!!" scenes didn't really get me? Guess it'll make for some good edits on youtube dot com. The rest of the cast was boring even if they had decent acting. The side characters are forgettable, the villains are cartoonishly evil (as per the usual kdrama standards) and the big reveal on who Big Mouth was soured my entire day.

Tl;dr Big Mouth was created by taking everything bad about Pretty Little Liars and I wasted 16 hours of my life watching it.

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This is my first review and this series made me write one.

I just finished My Stand in, and lemme tell you I've never watched a bl in my life which never had atleast one scene which was boring not even Kinnporsche and Bad buddy (which are my favourite series) but this one made me watch every second of it, always eager to watch the next episode. I give a 10/10. I don't know if everybody will agree with me but still this is my top one bl so far. It got me hooked every episode and didn't disappoint not even once. Most of the series if they are really good at the beginning they'll fuck up at the ending but not this one. I don't know if I feel like this coz I watched it waiting eagerly every week but I totally enjoyed every minute of it.

And even the Cast and Crew was Top Notch. The actors especially Up, Poom and Mek really showed us how versatile of an actor they are. As a person who've watched their prior series their acting actually allows you to easy distinguish between their characters. At some point I really wondered if this is the same guy who did the other character coz the new character made their personality unrecognisable and that's how actors should be. Next the Crew, the direction, cinematography, color grading everything was on point (They share the crew of Kinnporsche and the production team of I feel the air linger in you, so no wonder why). But the music was mehhh, okay that's all I can say not that great but not bad either. The timing of the music were also questionable sometimes.

Now the plot, I don't know if everyone can tolerate this amount of toxicity and accept the characters, but from my perspective each of them had their own baggage but didn't had to impose themselves on others... But still that's how it went and at the end everything was good. The character arc of each character went back and forth (especially redemption and then going in the same old path) and that was kinda questionable. But let's be honest this was a series and not real life so it was toleratable for me.

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First I have to say I'm not good at writing reviews but I tried because there wasn't a review for it yet.
SHARK was a disappointment for me, from the way the story was explained I thought it would be quite interesting but I was wrong sadly.
What I liked about this drama was Mizuki, I hated yet loved him because of his attitude, he became the only interesting part of the drama and the only reason I managed to finish it. I also really liked the music, the songs were catchy, I found myself knowing parts of "Keep walking" by the end of it because they sang it so much.
Every episode they thought they we're progressing but no, something else went wrong >_< well I guess that's why they're called dramas, but it was a little annoying how they had these new problems arise every episode out of nowhere.
I don't really know how I feel about the drama, it was hit and miss, (mostly miss) I think if they had developed they story more and made it more interesting then it would have had a lot more potential.

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Smiling doesn't smile

Youth story, simple and cute.
The characters aren’t very elaborate, there aren’t many background stories.
The personalities were entrusted to the actors.
The characters are good or bad depending on the acting game.
It’s full of novice actors, be forgiving, it’s a debut series.
Smiling doesn't smile. The show is based on the leading girl, each character has something to do with her. The lack of smiles and facials will become painfully striking when the male character finally releases and starts playing with emotions.
The male protagonist carries the show on his back.
From the second half of the story, they try to make up for the chemistry with kisses.
The visuals and graphics are fantastic.
I'm not talking to anyone about watching it. But I can't campaign for it either.

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What a disappointment.

The good: Jang Eui Soo's eyes. Jang Eui Soo shirtless. That's about it.

The bad: The writing is terrible. The "plot" makes no sense, the villain has no motivation and suffers no consquences at all - in fact she's thanked by her victim for her perfidy. I can't even really sum up what the story is because there wasn't any.

There were a few cute moments, but I didn't really feel the commitment of the actors, or any real chemistry. Everything was flat and it was an actual chore to get through the last episode. Example: why was the music box playing "O Tannenbaum", a German Christmas carol? I realize there are probably not a lot of music boxes shaped like ferris wheels (incidentally, how did they operate the real one in that spooky-ass abandoned amusement park?), but just dub in something that makes more sense, like the Bach prelude they played a couple of times.

Korea came in strong with Where Your Eyes Linger, and each successive BL has been a step weaker. After this I'm afraid to watch the next...

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Fourth and Gemini can save even the stupidest of ideas

When I saw the teaser for the Our Skyy episodes of My School President, I almost cried. Yes, that might have been a big over-reaction, but let me explain.

I absolutely adore My School President. It is one of my favorite BLs ever. It’s not perfect at all, but it has a very special place in my heart. And that is mainly because of Fourth and Gemini. They were amazing in the show, had fantastic chemistry and are just so cute that you cannot help but smile at whatever they do. So yes, I’m very emotionally attached to both Gemini and Fourth as well as Tinn and Gun. I spent hours, imagining what the Our Skyy episodes would be about. Maybe a time skip to them in college? Maybe they’re preparing for another music contest? Maybe the band is getting more successful and Tinn is feeling insecure about all of Gun’s fans? Those are only a few ideas I had. And then I saw the teaser, and I wanted to scream. Making this into a role reversal storyline was, in my opinion, a really stupid thing to do. We got attached to the characters of Tinn and Gun, and were eager to see a continuation of their story. But what we got is the same story, apparently set in a parallel universe, where the roles are reversed. What a let-down. And despite my urge to cry and scream at my wishes not being fulfilled, I was excited for the episodes to air. Because I already knew I would be smiling like an idiot as I watch Gemini and Fourth work their magic yet again.

I was right.

I still don’t like the concept of this role reversal. Not even slightly. It’s not interesting, it doesn’t add anything meaningful to the original story or the characters. It feels like a fanfic someone wrote, because they wanted it to be GunTinn instead of TinnGun. It’s dumb and useless and I freaking loved every second of it. And that is one hundred percent because of Fourth and Gemini. It felt really weird seeing them in the opposite role, but they still nailed it. They brought their natural cuteness, chemistry and comedy to these two episodes, and turned a stupid concept into a super enjoyable spin-off. Would I have preferred a meaningful continuation of the original story? Absolutely. Am I going to rewatch these two episodes 100 times? Absolutely.

If you liked My School President, you’re probably going to like this, even if at first you think you might not. I liked how Tiw and Por were given more screen time here. They’re really cute together. The whole cast is doing as great of a job as they did in the original series, making this a very enjoyable experience despite the silly concept. It also makes you appreciate how well they cast the actors in their original roles, because this definitely feels off in all the right ways. None of these guys are perfect actors yet (some a bit weaker than others), but for this kind of series it’s definitely more than good enough. The music is still great too. And on top of all this, these two episodes were refreshingly self-aware. It felt almost like a parody of the original show (and other BLs/tropes) in certain moments, and that only added to my enjoyment. Gun talking about how maybe in a different universe, he was more courageous, was a bit too on the nose for me, but I still appreciated the humour of it all. It hurt a little how some of TinnGun’s iconic lines were given to other couples/characters, but at the same time, I enjoyed them doing that. The dance sequence was too long and felt incredibly awkward due to the choreography. It would've felt much more sincere had they just sticked to regular slow-dancing.

I would rate this a 10 if I didn’t hate the idea behind it so much. Not an objective 10, but a very subjective 10, because I can’t stop smiling at Fourth and Gemini. They’re absolute pros at cuteness overload. However, I can’t rate this a 10, not only because I disliked the concept, but also because within the two episodes, certain things didn’t make a lot of narrative sense. For example, the whole conflict between Tinn and Gun in episode two, felt extremely stupid, considering nothing severe had actually happened between them. Gun being unable to tell Tinn he likes him didn’t warrant such a reaction in my opinion. Then again, they only had two episodes and needed to push the story forward somehow, so I’ll excuse this at least to a certain degree.

If you’re looking for a more objective review than that, maybe read some others, because I’m heavily biased when it comes to these two.

All of this being said, I want to pose one question: What the hell was going on in that writer’s room for Our Skyy 2?
Either they were drunk, high, or purposefully trying to make this series as fanfic-y as possible. And I don’t mean that in a bad way, I love fanfiction! It’s just that they chose to execute most of it like a badly written fanfic. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Bad Buddy episodes were about Pat and Pran flying to Mars, where they get sucked into a wormhole that sends them to yet another parallel universe, where everything is gender-swapped and the BL turns into a GL. And maybe in the episodes about A Tale of Thousand Stars, Tian is revealed to be the long lost prince of a magical mountain realm of elves, and he needs to claim his position as royalty with Phupha acting as his bodyguard. And Gun and Cher are probably gonna accidentally swap bodies while sneezing at the same time, thus making the boss the babe and the babe the boss. Anything is possible at this point.

EDIT: I saw the teaser for the A Boss And A Babe episodes, and I wasn’t far off!

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Started out promising but ultimately disappointing

I wonder if other viewers have different standards or is grade inflation the norm for drama reviews as well. The premise of the story is interesting enough but this show is severely let down by very poor writing and pacing. This drama is based on a book and since I have not read the book, I do not know if it is the original story itself that is dumb or script changes that made it dumb. For a story about a strong FL with brains and martial arts skills, the FL got to demonstrate her martial arts for a total of 3 times lasting less than 5 mins over the course of a 24 episode long season. That can be forgiven if the intrigue and subplots were more interesting, but all the schemes are transparently obvious to anyone with half a brain. Suspense is near zero. Comedic relief is there but too infrequent to make it truly entertaining. That whole “I want to be a feeble beauty” schtick was entertaining for 5 episodes but got old very fast and every time the FL repeated it, you just want to roll your eyes and fast forward the show.

The worst is the ending. The writers suddenly decided to have no consequences for all the pretty boys who might have any female fan following. The Jinpo second prince suffered no consequences (not even a confrontation) for attempting to kill the ML and FL, multiple times!!! The triple agent Yun Hao appeared to have died in the arms of the woman he cares out (which would be a satisfactory death) but appeared alive with no explanation given. This is an agent who could have died multiple times in the whole show.

Very very disappointing overall.

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Mind blowing drama

First of all why does it have only 8.5 ratings ? I mean this drama is so good with the script , acting, and matured content also I felt this drama is more like a comic stories so good to see and untill the end it was damn good I couldn’t even skip a minute I understand joe didn’t get his body back but that is what the name says stand in , compare to same old college love stories this drama is refreshing story and it’s good thai people making bl in different themes too and hats off to the couple joe and Ming their acting and chemistry is a top notch and I’m glad got this drama unfortunately it wasn’t available in utube if not it would have cross million views hope to see the cast again all the best team

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YES - you will empathise with the main male lead

mind-boggling acting chops - seriously, every single main and supporting cast member will make you love or hate...there is no room for indifference here
simply stunning visuals - costumes, scenery, SFX
best background music score for a xianxia ever recorded
tortured storyline that the leads keep consistent
lead female is hellbent on her mission - not a standard female character
lead male is thoroughly nuanced along a spectrum ranging from perfect insanity to absolute purity
same couple, three realms (human, dream, immortal) with each having its own internal resonance
yes - watch this. Be warned, you will not view xianxia dramas the same again.

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This series is for people who likes More Comedy, More Fluff and Less Drama.

[ I added more in the end after I finished the series ]
What I love about this series are
1. Force and Book’s chemistry
2. Cher’s character
3. Comedic Romance
4. Conversations about LGBT


1. Force and Book’s chemistry
I watched A Boss and A Babe accidentally without knowing what story I was watching.
Just after I finished Episode 1, Force and Book’s chemistry interests me. I don’t know what is the definition of good or bad chemistry. I felt like “ Oh, their chemistry is really something, Very interesting. “ Now, I know how to describe it in words. Their chemistry feels natural and comfortable which is my favorite type of on-screen chemistry. Though I like watching Rom-Coms, I never liked unrealistic and cringey romantic atmosphere.

Their romantic scenes never feel cringey. As someone who likes to break the romantic atmosphere with jokes, I can relate to Cher a lot.

After that, I searched and searched, and found out that Force and Book knew each other since kindergarten?!!! They are friends for years. That’s why their chemistry is so good and goes with the flow.


2. Cher’s character
I saw a lot of comments about Cher being annoying. He’s indeed talkative and foul-mouthed ( as he said it himself ), but he’s not annoying.
He’s the kind of person who would turn a stressful workplace into full of laughter.

The main reason why I love Cher’s character is that from the first episode to the latest episode ( Ep 7 ), I never felt power struggle or power imbalance between Cher and Gun.
I don’t usually like to watch age gap romance or office romance because I can feel the power imbalance between the main leads. In many straight dramas, the male lead is in the superior position most of the time and the female lead is so clumsy and shy for no reason, which I hate.

For Cher, he always treated Gun equally.
He never hesitates to speak his mind.
He doesn’t give a shit whether someone is an authority or not. He says what he wants to say. No filter.
Like
Gun : I don’t like skinship.
Cher : But you touched my face first.

Aoi : Oh, your mother’s name is Phon? Haha!!
Cher : Hey, We stopped making fun of other people’s parents’ names long ago. Do people still do it these days?
Oh, I forgot.
You’re from the old days.

Cher : Boss, why are you late for work today?
*His colleagues panicking*

Some people says Cher is clueless.
But I don’t think so.
I think he’s aware of the authority and hierarchy. He doesn’t care and he wants to say what he wants, that’s all.
As someone who doesn’t like the authority figures or hierarchy, Cher’s character entertains me a lot.

Also I love about the character depth.
Cher looks like talkative, easy going, honest and friendly type but he hides his negative emotions with his cheerfulness. He defends others so well but rarely defends himself, and it might be because of his guilt and blaming himself for Tian’s death.

Gun looks like strict, cold and mean boss but he has moral values that he doesn’t want to be a bad person. He’s not arrogant like most bosses you watch on screen.
He has to be strict because he’s the CEO. Jack says Gun was friendlier before. His coldness is just a wall to hide his feelings, his insecurities about being gay and feeling like a freak in this society, and the wall broke down when Cher treats him like a normal human being.

3. Comedic Romance
It says Romantic Comedy but I see more Comedy here, which I love so much.
As someone who’s not romantic but still likes to watch Rom-Com, this is so good for me.
A lot of Rom-Coms that the majority enjoys are just not my taste.

I love the way Cher ruins Gun’s romantic lines with jokes because I can relate to him a lot. ( I want Cher to joke more in the later episodes )


4. Conversations about LGBT
I love that they talked about the topic “ People wants to know who’s the top, who’s the bottom when someone comes out. “
This is so true and toxic that it became normalized.
IT’S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!
Why do people push heteronormativity into gay relationships?? It doesn’t make any sense.
Like what are you gonna do with that Top or Bottom information?!! Write a fanfic or Daydream??
Why do they do like
“ Oh, he’s shorter and cuter, he’s the bottom.
He’s taller, calm and collected, he’s the top. “
Tell that to the real gays and they will laugh their ass off because it doesn’t work that way.
Their personalities and how they act in bed are not related.

As far as I see, the episodes get cuter and cuter.
I’ve been stressing out a lot in this year so this series is a comfort show for me.
Force and Book are giving us the healthy and fluffy relationship in March, and they gonna give the toxic and messy relationship in Only Friends at the end of this year.
I’m preparing my mental health for the train wreck.

Overall, I freaking love this series and I’m looking forward to watch the sequel in Our Skyy 2 as well.

—————

Now, this is after I finished the series.

I don’t know what’s the deal with some people. They said that the series got boring without conflict or drama, and then when the drama is going on, they don’t like it anymore. Like, what do you want??

Yes, I admit that there are some plot holes. They should add more scenes of Tian’s stepfather being put into jail, the friendship between Thyme and Gun, the wealth of Gun and his family, etc.
But it’s good that they didn’t drag on Tian’s case for long. Because the show is not about Tian or just Cher only. It’s about the relationship between Cher and Gun.

To people who said Cher is selfish or senseless, you should judge someone after you checked where they came from and learned to see from their perspective.

Cher lost someone he loved and he was blamed for it. Her reputation was ruined because she was pregnant. ( Cases like being pregnant as a teenager is heavily criticized by society, especially in conservative Asian countries )
So, he’s afraid that this will repeat. He’s willing to do anything in order to save Gun’s reputation as he’s an heir to a major hotel group.

Gun would do anything to be by Cher’s side. But what Cher said after Gun’s mom found out about their relationship is sensible.
“ If one day, you fall out of love with me or I fall out of love with you, you will have nothing left. “
Cher can just let Gun cut off his family or money. But he didn’t.
There are other things as important as love and you shouldn’t just ignore them just to be with someone. Life is not all about love life.

Also, even when Cher is improving himself to be good enough for Gun, he’s fine if Gun found someone suitable for him.
Some people might think Cher doesn’t love Gun as much as Gun does, but it’s not.
His thoughts here are not romantic, but they’re realistic and sensible that he won’t force Gun to fall in love with him again.
This is what a Mature Relationship should look like, i.e. I’m fine by my own but I want to be with you, so I choose to be with you.

Honestly, I think Cher should have told Gun that he would come back.
But the stubborn Gun wouldn’t let him. If he told him to stay apart for a few months and Gun didn’t accept it, they would fight and it would lead to an actual breakup.
Cher is like the representation of those children who learned to sneak because of their strict parents, Haha.

Sure, Cher is cruel for leaving Gun for a year and just left a note.
But in relationships, Compatibility is all that matters.
Gun is willing to wait for Cher and Cher is willing to improve himself for Gun. If they’re fine with each other, nothing else matters, Period!

Lastly,
What’s flawless are Force and Book’s acting ( especially, drama scenes ), their chemistry and Cher’s sense of humor.
The plot is not perfect but I give overall 8.5 for Cher’s sense of humor which I can relate a lot.
Characters like Cher who would crack jokes in romantic moments are rare to find in romance genre so I’m glad that he exists.
I hope Cher and Gun are happy and live their lives best in their universe.

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Frustrating Female Lead and Unlimited Plot holes

All of us are dead can be said as a high budget series with beautiful shots and gory details and props, but for me that was the only good thing about the series. Well, I can also add that most of the actors are really good too especially the veterans than we mostly recognized immediately in episode 1. It is enjoyable to watch in the sense that we can see that the production team did spend a lot of money for this series, the camera angles, the blood and the realistic entrails was fascinating to watch but that was all for me. The actors acting was wasted by the story line, all of the lead actors did tried their best to deliver their characters well and this is the problem, the female lead become frustratingly useless and stupid and all throughout the series I was exclaiming to my sister that she needs to get her priorities straight. I mean how stupid can you get if she keeps on whining about her crush instead of prioritizing her own life to survive and then telling your oldest friend that everyone that you hold dear in your life is either a zombie or missing ( girl best friend and crush) so she didn’t want to live anymore. She needed to be reminded about her father who might be worried and doing all that he can do to save her before she realize that she still has someone waiting for her to live. Aside from that she was useless and weak compare to her other classmates and there are so many side story that in the end wasn’t particularly necessary to have.

There is also a lot of plot holes that was so funny to watch that my sister and I keep asking each other if we have miss something because that wasn’t possible to happen. One of those is that magic towel that seems to materialized in the roof top, where could have they gotten that one when they have nothing on them when they were running towards the roof top and the inconsistencies of the “Hambies” power. The difference between Gwi nam, Eun Ji and Nam ra’s abilities were so unfair and I know they are zombies but Gwi nam keeps on reviving everytime when everyone else just die after a major blow to their bodies. There is also the fact that it wasn’t establish what sets them apart from the other zombies, I refused to believe that the will of the father and mother of the male lead and female lead isn’t as strong as the will of Gwi nam to get revenge on Cheong san. Overall, if you just want a good ol’ gory horror film with a lot of meaningless deaths and stupid decision this can be a good series to watch if you have nothing to watch.

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Utter Toxic Waste of Time!

Unless you want a "How to" for conducting your relationship with controlling, toxic, manipulative, threatening, evasive, lying, abusive techniques, then this drama has nothing to offer. There isn't even a consistent plot to fall back on. It's full of holes, boring in long stretches and it never really deals with the problems at hand. It just waves them away.

Some people liked it in spite of that because of the music. Which was nice but can't fix what's wrong with the writing.
Some people liked it in spite of that because of the hot men. Let's be honest, Max, Zee, Tutor and Perth being hot did not make up for the awful writing
Some people just wanted to ignore the problems and fangirl over it because of the sex scenes. But not me. I signed on for to experience a good story and this just can't deliver that.

Skip this and watch literally almost anything else. My suggestion at the moment would be KinnPorsche, La Cuisine and Where Your Eyes Linger.

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Snogging? – TICK! (10/10) Plot? – not so much.

First impression:
This series has had lots of money spent on it. The locations, the clothes, the superbikes – everything is expensive - and it is shot beautifully. I found the arranged marriage that Kuea and Kilen were so openly told about as children to be a strange and interesting starting point. I actually thought that this was setting the show up to exist in a fantasy version of modern day Thailand where it was accepted as the norm, but it wasn't. Their early interactions (as adults) were intriguingly dramatic and the first couple of episodes totally sucked me in. They don’t communicate well (understatement) and hide a lot from each other. Kuea’s misunderstanding, hurt and subsequent withdrawal seem totally legitimate reactions at the beginning. The ins-and-outs of their trusting each other and then not, and getting together romantically (so convincingly), to then fall into a state of unease again all become a bit confusing / frustrating – but it turns out that’s basically the plot! Once that became clear it felt a little bit limp, but I went in without any particular expectations so it was all good.

Cast:
Apart from a little bit of Zee and a tiny bit of Perth (playing Jay), I hadn’t seen the cast in anything before. I wasn’t aware of the Zee/Saint - CP/SCOY showdown (obvs I am now cos I’m showing off my acronyms) and I hadn’t even come across Boun and Prem. So it’s been educational for me ^^.
I wasn’t keen on the 2nd couple (Yi and Diao), but they didn’t have much to work with. I found it difficult to swallow all that Diao going to “teach” his judo class in secret (alongside the actual teacher XD), to a group of bemused looking kids. That sports centre though! I want a go on the climbing wall.
Zee - I love this man. I'd be happy to watch Zee in flirt mode (permanently activated?) all day, every day. I think the main draw of the series is the chemistry between him and NuNew and their pairing is as good as it gets. Apart from kissing, all Kilen really does for the second half of the show is try and reassure Kuea but I liked it - found it v comforting.

NuNew: blew me away - he's so talented he deserves his own paragraph (really needs to get some sort of BL newcomer award). He looked and acted the part – could not have been cuter - add to that his voice – he was bang on perfect for the role. His stage performances = zero cringe – he was simply a joy to watch - how is that even possible given the set up? Also give him credit for being a convincing crier – though I could have done with less of that towards the end.

Off the boil:
I lost watch-momentum midway through and it went from something I really looked forward to, to something I wanted to feel excited about but just didn’t. I had been watching the episodes as soon as they came out for the first 7 or so, but there a break in the schedule for Songkran/Thai New Year and I never got back into the swing again after that. There were a few things at the beginning that I liked and thought would feature throughout, but just vanished - like Keua’s parental home and housekeeper (she was a cutie!) and Kilen’s workplace. I’m glad Foei was a permanent fixture - he was a highlight - his side-eye in the car – hehehe!! It was the 3rd couple, Syn and Nuer, who saved it for me - arg, I loved them so much: the eye contact, the accidental falling-on-the-face-kiss ^o^. They brought life back to the series when it was flagging.

Slight agitations:
Everything in CP is exaggerated – it’s totally fantasy BL land - but despite taking it all with a pinch of salt I did find the infantilising of Kuea and Diao in some scenes (more with Diao) a bit.… gross. Other than that I didn’t have a problem with the dynamics between the couples. I don’t mind a bit of toxicity! -Especially not when it’s clearly depicted as being “wrong” and they try to right it.
Also mildly agitated (/amused) by Kuea’s interior decor – those massive pics of supercars, him on his bike and the Kilen shrine! XD

Overall:
Wouldn't watch the whole thing again, but I would do certain episodes. Best things about it for me were Zee and NuNew's partnership, and the music.

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Even if I juste rated it 7.5, I liked this drama. It was sweet and cute, made me laugh and cry. Let me tell you why I didn't rated it higher.

Story : The story is a typical romantic drama. Nothing new here : the rich heir and the not so bright girl fall in love. It is a story we've seen millions of times and it's getting a bit boring. However, taiwanese and chinese romances are particularly sweet, maybe because it feels more natural.The story dragged a bit towards the end, I think it would have been good without 4 or 5 episodes.

Acting/Cast : I liked the actors, even if it was my first time watching a drama they were in (I'm more of a taiwanese dramas fan). The thing that upset me a bit is that their voices always seemed to be dubbed when they were outside. Feng Teng seemed a bit too passive sometimes. Some of you may call him quiet, but to me it's more like no reaction at all. Well, see for yourselves! As I've never seen this actor it may just be his way of acting and not his character.

Music : The music was good but none of the songs really hit me. But they fitted perfectly at the moment!

Rewatch value : I don't think I'll watch it again, it was long, but who knows?

Overall : This was a good drama and I don't regret watching it even though some things may have been better. Don't be discouraged by everything I said and watch it!

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if you are a NHJ/SUZY fanatic and don't care if plot makes sense, then you will love it

My expectations were set too high. Firstly, I've never watched the writers previous work but I knew she was well known and respected. I knew of Suzy and Joohyuk but again I was not that familiar with any of their previous projects. Actually, I saw Joohyuk in Cheese in the Trap, but he had a minor role. With that being said, I was aware of both of their popularity so thought 3 A-listers attached to this project, series will be top-notch. The first 6/7 episodes were just that but second half of the series things went downhill fast.

What I liked: Seeing them working together trying to get into sandbox and the different test they were given once in. Watching them work together in different projects plus sandbox environment as a whole was enjoyable. Dosan/jipyeong interactions in the beginning were really great and funny. The backstory was the highlight of the series- it's probably what left most people disappointed when they realized it meant nothing in the grand scheme of things. jipyeong/grandma relationship was really beautiful and heartfelt. The samsan tech boys loyalty to each other was admirable. Dosan parents (especially dad) had a big bark but were very supportive of him. I loved Dalmi go getter attitude, even when she felt defeated and embarrassed, she didn't wallow but got through it.

What I didn't like: They failed the ML big time. Dosan started off being an awkward, funny, shy type who was unsure of himself but still endearing. Towards the end he became an unappreciative opportunist, woe-is-me type who made it seem like he had an awful life when in reality he was the most fortunate out of everyone. The dragging of a love triangle when they could have focus on other subplot was probably the biggest mistake. They made the beloved SL suffer so much, you couldn't feel empathy for anyone else even if you wanted to. Dalmi of earlier episodes was nonexistent in the last few. Everything they showcase as selective, important/valuable or precious, became futile once it's at hand (case in point- samsan tech got a mentor who they became very disrespectful too, letters who dalmi cherished for 15 yrs which was the foundation/essence of the story became irrelevant when all was revealed).

There's so much more I could say, but alas I will end with- overall, the series was not what you expect from this writer. As it continued, it became sloppy and all creativity went out the window. The saving grace was HJP, he kept me watching when so many times I wanted to give up. I wouldn't say it's a complete failure bc the 1st half was really good and if you're a super fan of the suzy/njh where you don't care if plot lost it's way or it turned into typical cliché fluff, you will enjoy it.

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