Reviews

Career First Love Second

Took me awhile to pick this up to watch in yr2026. Have seen the clips on youtube but not sure why the male lead just doesn’t attract me to. Another reason is for modern shows, 40 episodes to me it’s abit too lengthy.
From Seven Tan’s fan point of view, decided to proceed. Similar to some of the reviewers, it is hard not to put As Beautiful As You (ABAY) and Master Of My Own (MOMO) as comparison as they are career woman centric + romance from their “superior”. Fell in love from MOMO and Go ahead from Seven Tan’s acting actually. I would feel that MOMO story line and plot has more affirmation and convincing. However, can’t deny the CP from both in ABAY, gradually able to accept the male lead towards the middle of the show. Love how the female lead presents proves herself and her gusto into solving every obstacles that come her way. An entrepreneurial spirit that has been presented very well. Romance was sweet and very natural and the small details in having the game cards given some light touches to the romance in the drama.
Hope all has caught the special edition to this drama too and not missed out the final ended after the last episode - it is a complete wrap up with sweet endings though the male lead in the end passed away due to old age.

At the end of most Seven Tan’s drama there is always some take aways and learnings which I enjoyed the most

Leia Mais

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.

Leia Mais

A drama that argues with reality and wins by sheer confidence.

This is one of those dramas where emotional logic keeps tripping over narrative convenience, but somehow the momentum carries you anyway. Jeong Jian is written like a walking contradiction—terrified kid in one scene, suddenly operating with adult-level tactical clarity in the next. It’s not her acting; it’s the script flipping her intelligence switch whenever the plot needs her to survive. And the whole “everyone wants to kill the clueless niece” setup? That’s where the frustration kicks in. If Jinman truly wanted to protect his family, maybe don’t acknowledge them so openly in a world where anonymity is survival. He practically painted a target on them, and the show knows it because it has him spiraling in guilt after their deaths. Fiction can bend reality, but this one bends it until it squeaks.

The character dynamics don’t help either. Jeongmin sets off alarm bells the moment he appears with his soft smile and suspicious eagerness to help a grieving girl he barely knows. The instant he volunteered to clean the room where her uncle died, the ulterior motive practically announced itself. And then there’s Babylon—the underground mercenary organization contracted for dangerous missions—protecting Bale, a psychopath who kills for sport, while treating Jinman like a liability for having a conscience. It’s maddening, not because it’s unrealistic, but because the show frames it as normal organizational logic.

What is undeniably tight is the production. The cinematography is sharp, the action sequences are clean, and yes, the dead bodies pile up like set decorations, but the visual execution never falters. And Lee Dong Wook’s face card plus his performance do a lot of heavy lifting—he grounds the chaos, gives Jinman emotional weight, and makes the entire premise feel less absurd than it actually is. Even with an untrained girl surviving multiple assassination attempts and logic occasionally stepping out for fresh air, the drama stays entertaining. Messy, chaotic, sometimes ridiculous, but entertaining. Good enough that a season two feels not just welcome, but inevitable.

Leia Mais

Assault, abuse, and sexual violence cosplaying as romance

The drama starts out with an attempted forced abortion, flashes back to FL's drugged sexual encounter, and proceeds to domestic violence, workplace sexual harassment, violent assault (choking), and kidnapping a woman's children to force her compliance - and I'm not yet at the halfway point in this "romantic" drama. There's even a scene where the daughter admonishes ML for bullying her mother, but son "boysplains" to his sister that ML choking and assaulting FL is just 'kissing'. I've seen comments online where people are normalizing this and calling it "cute" and "romantic". That mindset is genuinely appalling and makes me fear for the safety of every woman and girl in China if this is the norm. The female lead should be grabbing her kids and running for their lives. Preferably to a different country.

If I could have rated it less than 1.0, I would have. That this drama got written and produced and has a 7+ rating on MDL says something truly horrifying about the cultural normalization of violence against women.

Leia Mais

Refreshing Story

Have watch a lot of pilot shows in the past. This show makes me want to go travel and take more planes. Front bit of the drama is abit draggy wish that the plot could have more time for the couple relationship development and romances after both get together. Or maybe 40 episodes are abit too long (if without the draggy bit in front). Love both male and female leads, their professionalism in carry out their characters and their love for their job. Seven delivers every time without fail and also ends off every drama with her own singing of OST as a remembrance of the drama she acted through the song. Finds her an interesting actress who works hard, have fun at set and have some kind of natural attraction and positive synergy towards the cast and audiences.

Leia Mais

Masterpiece deserved to be watched

Blossom of Power deserves a spot at the top of your watchlist.

From the very first episode, the story pulls you into a world filled with secrets, ambition, and unexpected twists. Every episode leaves you wanting more, making it almost impossible to stop watching. The plot is well-paced, with enough suspense to keep you guessing while allowing the emotional moments to truly shine.

What makes this drama stand out is its incredible character development. The leads aren’t perfect—they grow, struggle, and fight for what they believe in. Their chemistry feels natural and heartfelt, making every interaction meaningful. Whether it’s romance, friendship, or loyalty, every relationship adds depth to the story.

Visually, Blossom of Power is stunning. The costumes, cinematography, and soundtrack create a rich atmosphere that brings every scene to life. It’s a drama that looks as beautiful as it feels.

I give it 9.5/10 .

Leia Mais

Not worth it

This drama is so over-dramatized. So many sequences don't make any sense at all, just a bunch of high budget added scenes to glorify the the story. Every five minutes there is flash back trying to create moments and chemistry between the leads when there is non at all. Music is ear-drum crushing and unnecessarily loud and mismatched to so many scenes.
The female lead is just so plain and blank of emotions based on quite a selfish character while Linghe's acting is very repetitive from facial nuances to body language. His previous acting jobs were so natural but here he just seems to be acting. Overall a very performance by the director because there is no flow or connectivity to make it a pleasing watch. Its a total stress wreck.

Leia Mais

Beautiful story through and through

Just finished it and I am currently an emotional mess this drama had everything from comedy to romance to drama to political intrigue it had me hooked. I will say when it hit the late 20s my interest was dying but they had an amazing fight scene that reeled me back in immediately.

From 30 onwards get your tissues ready folks cause the tears will not stop. Thank you to all the actors and actresses involved in this drama from main to support they carried this drama with such amazing acting I thought this was happening right before my eyes. My girl Meng Ziyi should not see a day of hate on her acting after this masterpiece the emotions she conveyed were so raw and real that I felt them all through a screen. I also have to give flowers to Xu Zhengxi/Jeremy Xu wow that guy had me feeling all kinds of emotions I have never felt so strongly about a charscter before in my life. His performance at the end of the drama was breathtaking it had me at the edge of my seat in suspense and tears I will for sure be tuning into more of his work.

If OSTs are what really make you stay for a drama let me tell the OSTs were jaw dropping I have to give it to the editors for knowing when to put which OST because it made every scene more captivating. in the last 6 episodes there wasn’t a single OST that didn’t instantly get me into the mood I don’t know if this was intentional but the lyrics of the OSTs that played matched the scenes perfectly it was as if it was the inner monologue of the character in said scene.

My final conclusion is this is one of the best historical/costume drama of 2026 I highly recommend this to anyone who thinks of watching it.

Leia Mais

Four stories that were half-good, half-bad

As a compilation, Close to You feels like your average K-BL anthology: visually appealing but held back by inconsistent writing. While some stories stand out on their own, others lack the charm and substance to leave a lasting impression. Here’s my ranking from favorite to least favorite.

Friendship Bracelet.
What an insane plot twist paired with such a remarkable concept. I only started watching this show because of Kim Jeong Seok, and fortunately, he ended up starring in the strongest story of the four. This episode had the most unique premise, blending romance and fantasy in a way that felt surprisingly effective despite its short runtime. The idea of a rainbow-colored bracelet that lets you travel back in time with a flick was both cute and creative. However, the real highlight was the reveal that the other guy had been using the bracelet first, repeatedly going back in time just to confess his feelings to his best friend. That twist was genuinely brilliant. I really enjoyed how simple yet emotionally powerful the story was. My only complaint is that dry kiss did absolutely nothing for me.

Last Diary.
I am a sucker for tragic romance, and this episode delivered exactly that. It starts with a charming enemies-to-lovers dynamic, supported by solid chemistry and a believable relationship development. Then it hits you with the heartbreaking revelation that one of them has been hiding a terminal illness all along. Watching someone slowly fall in love, only to be left behind without ever knowing the truth,w as incredibly painful. In the end, he becomes the only one left to remember the brief yet unforgettable moments they shared in that house. It was bittersweet, emotionally devastating, and beautifully executed.

Riding A Bicycle.
Unfortunately, this episode felt as stagnant as the bicycle itself. While I appreciated the story’s key ideas, the chemistry between the leads never really clicked. The pacing also lost momentum halfway through, making the entire episode feel flat. At least it gave us a heartfelt confession between two best friends before they went their separate ways for college. That emotional payoff saved an otherwise underwhelming story.

Sunset Boulevard.
This was easily the weakest episode. Very little actually happens. It’s mostly a flashback followed by two former schoolmates reuniting after years of ghosting. Their reunion should have been emotionally charged, but instead, we get a cup of lukewarm coffee spilled on them before they casually talk about the past. By the time they finally confess their feelings, the episode is already ending. There simply wasn’t enough buildup to make the reunion feel satisfying.

Overall, Close to You is a mixed bag. A couple of stories significantly elevate the anthology, while the weaker ones drag its overall quality down. I appreciate the creativity behind the individual concepts, but I hope they move away from cramming multiple unrelated stories into such short episodes. Rather than feeling like a cohesive web series, it ends up resembling a collection of rushed short films. The potential is there, but it just needs more room for each story to actually breathe.

Leia Mais

One of the best dramas of the year

I HATE THIS SHOW SO SO MUCH 😭😭😭 I have never cried at a show as much as I have this. Absolutely beautiful. It's so beautiful I hate it. One of the best dramas I have ever watched. At the start, I thought this was more of a drama that focuses on the romance and isn't really plot-heavy, but when I tell you I have never cried at the last 10 episodes as I have this show. I dare anyone to ever hate on my girl Meng ZiYi's acting ever again. The emotions she conveyed were so amazing, I felt as if I were her, and I was feeling exactly what she was. Dare I say this should become her representative work, even better than Blossom. Despite this being HeYu's first main historical role, he absolutely killed it. If there were any historical I'd recommend to someone, it's this. I'm still crying as I'm writing this that's how emotion-filled these episodes were. Overall, just a beautiful, beautiful drama

Leia Mais

A Story Filled With Palace Intrigue & Mystique!!

“The East Palace” promises intrigue, mystique and horror wrapped in the midst of palatial politics!!

Assuredly, this show doesn’t shy away from portraying bloodlust, fury and unwarranted violence. The show opens with the horrific news of the Crown Prince dropping dead. We were given a pale glimpse into the palace history where heirs have been dying mysteriously for the past 30 years. And yet, the King only decides to investigate this horrid reality, only when his last born child is dying. You will question his logic, as he picks up a deadbeat shaman and brings him to the palace forcibly. The said shaman is told to investigate and vanquish the spirit causing the prince’s death. In return, the King offers his own exiled daughter as assistance. Every time the shaman enters the ghost realm, it is a test of his resilience and strong will. As he unwraps layer after layer of palace intrigue, the secrets pertaining to the royal family start to tumble out of the closet.

Read the complete article here-

https://kcdramamusings.wordpress.com/2026/07/27/the-east-palace-series-review/#more-2527

Leia Mais