Reviews

A Cast of Thousands and Nearly as Many Plotlines

Three friends were separated by circumstances as children. Baili Dong Jun was haunted by his friend's unjust death and in true adolescent rebellion rejected his father's guidance and sought his own way of life, even though he was coddled and much beloved. Ye Ding Zhi, whose military father won too many battles and gained too many accolades and had to be contained by the Emperor by false accusations of treason, had escaped his family's massacre and grew up on the run. Yi Wen Jun was the pawn of her sect: to gain favor and power, she was offered to the Emperor's son in marriage even though she'd been promised to Ye Ding Zhi when they were children.

The Good:
• Hou Ming Hao suited the role of the dashing Liquor Diety. His exuberance, friendship, and loyalty never diminished.
• He Yu was excellent in the role of a man pushed beyond his limits.
• The camaraderie of the wuxia world was enjoyable.

The Bad:
• With so many characters (MDL says the cast had 212 members), I had a hard time figuring out who was whom and if I'd seen them before or if they were new.
• I know I'm supposed to admire Prince Langya, but he was an enabler of horrible things all coated with the false respectability of doing it for the greater good. I will allow that he held the same standard for himself, so he wasn't a hypocrite. But he was wrong. Enabling evil, even with the best of intentions, only strengthens evil and brings ruin upon the innocent.
• After Baili Dong Jun got the girl of his dreams, she was relegated to the role of arm candy in the drama. I wanted her to match him in terms of strategy and determination instead of sitting passively in a pretty white dress.

I couldn't decide on whether to put Yi Wen Jun in the good or bad category. I despised her even while sympathizing her predicament. Without her, there wouldn't have been much of a story, but it would have been a happier one. She was a self-centered coward, but she was a powerless pawn.

I added a half star for the character of free-wheeling, loyal Baili Dong Jun as portrayed by Hou Ming Hao. (Because he reminds me of my departed cat. Hey, it's my rating—I can be capricious.)

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Will turn you into a man-hater

The tragic portrayal of the reality of living as a consort in the emperor's harem. No matter your beauty or skill, a man in the ultimate seat of power is not one to be trusted.

It was refreshing to see a drama that chooses to paint the supposed ML, the emperor in a negative light. It was not a story of romance, but survival. His favor was not a reward but poison.

This is truly a story of female friendships. Ruyi's love towards her fellow sister-wives were definitely more tear-jerking than that bitchass king. I cannot put into words how much I hate that man. That childish, egotistic man. I wished Ruyi never showed up to the wife selection to be saved from that very long and painful journey in front of her. She did not deserve the ending that she got.

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Comedic Trash: TayNew Deserve better

I watched this for TayNew, but it just wasn’t enough
The beginning was so strong and promising, but it fell off around ep 4, then it just became almost unbearable to watch and uninteresting.

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The Story: the plot follows a flight attendant, Kanit (New) and a rescuer / EMT/ Paramedic Toto (Tay). They repeated bump into each other and at first find each other annoying. Then one day, by chance, they both fly to the same place and their luggage gets swapped, and Toto ends up in trouble for starting a fight and ruining Kanit’s expensive belongings. Kanit agrees to pay for the damages and Toto can work it off. Toto becomes a “sort-of servant” and does tasks for Kanit to work off the debt. Toto discovers that Kanit’s pilot boyfriend of 4 years, Lion is cheating on Kanit with another flight attendant Veha. Toto works to prove that Lion is cheating and exposes him, but develops feelings along the way. Kanit, heartbroken has to relearn what love means to him and if he wants to risk it again for Toto. The two eventually confess to each other and become a couple, only to face issues with money and family, testing their love and willingness to fight for and be with each other. Overall, the main couple started off interesting, but quickly became lackluster and no longer interesting, following the same rich/poor dividing mindset between the characters and need to live up to parental expectations. In my opinion (coming from an Asian person), parent’s opinion are given more weight than they deserve to. There cat and mouse / dog and cat game also became boring, don’t really know what the direction of their relationship was meant to be.

Now onto the side couple. Honestly, they were completely uncessary to this series. This is in no way hate to the actors. There visuals and chemistry are good together, but the characters they played weren’t necessary. I hated how this couple started. The story follows Toto’s friend and coworker Akki and Veha, same side piece as before. Akki hates cheaters because his ex girlfriend cheats on him, but he ends up with a side piece / cheater. Although Veha himself isn’t the cheater, he is cheater adjacent. They somehow develop feelings for each other after learning they went to high school or college together (forgot which one). Once Lion was exposed, Veha all of a sudden felt sorry and sad huh??? Like you were with a taken person hoping that they would break up, but now that it’s exposed now you no longer want Lion and are sad at the situation. Akki helps Veha get past Lion and they get together.
Honestly their story was confusing and not needed at all. Their ending was even more confusing??? Don’t know why they made Akki go to military and split them up, but whatever.

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The good: the only decent thing about this series was TayNew’s chemistry. Despite the weak and ridiculous plot, their chemistry shown through and was always a pleasure to see them together. Their acting was as good as can be given the script / plot.

The bad: As I mentioned before. basically (unfortunely), the storyline of the side couple. I didn’t like it and it wasn’t necessary. (already talked about this)

Toto’s job location made no sense to me. This might be because I live in the US and accustomed to our first responder system. But what exactly is Toto’s job? Is he a first responder? Is he a rescuer? Ambulance driver? Paramedic? Whatever it is, why does it always seem like him and his team is always lying around doing nothing, no incoming emgency responses, and the only ones they respond to in the show are the ones where basically they start happening by coincidence in front of them. Like if Toto is a first responder or something adjacent he should be just as busy or if not busier than Kanit, but he always seems to have time on his hands to pursue Kanit and work his hand full of odd side jobs.
***this could be entirely my misunderstanding of his job and what he does***

Next, while I understand that Kanit is a flight attendant and Toto is whatever he is, why do they have to include ‘emergency scenes’ (not really tho) to bring them together. Like I don’t understand why they had to deliver a woman’s child in the backseat of a car, why Kanit dealt with a fainting or whatever situation in the sky or whatever that incident was at the end during their I wanna say wedding (honestly don’t know because I sort of blanked out during the last ep). For me, if they wanted to include those scenes, I was hoping they would do a better job and made it seem realistic, but alas it’s GMMTV, so you know, we got whatever. No urgency, no idea what they are really doing, and not really the appropriate response. :(
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As you can see from the good v. bad paragraphs, my overall rating is a 5.5/10. ………don’t really know what could have have this show better, but it just wasn’t good.

Honestly I wouldn’t recommend this series or rewatch this series ever. I feel so bad for TayNew, but they definitely deserved a better series given their chemistry and acting skills.

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Good thing the acting is good.

I don't know what it is about this series, but every 20 minutes felt like an hour. I watched this at 1.5 & 2X speed, and it still felt like it took forever to get through. I had to do this in season 1 as well, and it had a lot more funny moments.

Also, can I just say that I love that they made Me and Thee a series inside the series? So what we watched was them acting out everything that already happened. I also liked that they inserted the series title and did a callback to We Are at the end.

The acting was really good. I liked the cameos at the end, but it got a bit much; it went from funny to being WAY too dragged out and not funny anymore, then back to funny when we got to PerthSanta. I have to give Junior credit for bringing the crazy. And have Pond & Phuwin's kisses gotten a bit better, or am I imagining things? William's English is so cute. William also did a scary good job making his eyes look "dead" when he was killing the guy who shot Mok. That was the first time I believed anyone in this crazy family is actually part of the mafia.

Now the things I didn't like are actually very few.

1. The fighting looked so fake that it hurt to watch.

2. The side couples. Why was a new one introduced? This show can barely handle the two we had in the first series. I still don't even know if Tawan & Aran are together, which pisses me off. Rome & Mok get a bit more screen time, but it still wasn't enough to make me care about them & at least we get to see a ring on Rome's finger to confirm that they are official. I get that Thee and Peach are the main couple and they are the most important, but this series had more than enough time to give the side characters more development.

3. Throughout both series, I didn't grow attached to any of the characters. Maybe it being a comedy makes it more difficult to really get you emotionally invested; IDK, I just know that I hate coming out of a series and not being sad to say goodbye to any of the characters.

As a sequel, this was good, but it's not one that I will rewatch. The series as a whole I wouldn't rewatch.

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This show confused me.

When I first spun the lucky wheel and landed on Twenty-Five Twenty-One, I was excited. Finally, a romance. After Son: The Guest and Navillera, I was ready for butterflies.

Instead, the show confused me.

Not because it was badly written, but because I couldn’t put a label on the main relationship.

For the longest time, I kept asking: What are they?

They weren’t friends. They weren’t lovers. They weren’t siblings. They weren’t mentor and student. They were somehow all of those things at different moments. Every time I thought I understood them, the show proved me wrong.

The funny thing is… by the end, I realized that was the point.

At first, I understood Baek Yi-jin much more than Na Hee-do. He made sense to me. he was consistent. He loved her long before he admitted it, and when he finally confessed, he didn’t pressure her into returning his feelings. He simply wanted her to know.

Hee-do, on the other hand, was chaos. and that’s an understatement haha.

She cried when he disappeared. She fell asleep listening to his old recordings. She thought about him more than her own boyfriend. She got jealous… the list goes on.

And then she still said she didn’t love him like that when he confessed.

I spent several episodes questioning whether she even knew what she felt. Looking back, I think she didn’t. maybe. She wasn’t lying. She simply hadn’t caught up with her own heart yet.

One of my favorite realizations while watching was that this drama isn’t interested in telling us exactly when friendship becomes love. It treats love like a rainbow. There isn’t a clear line where one color ends and another begins.

Their relationship wasn’t confusing because it was badly written. It was confusing because that’s exactly how real feelings can be.

Then came the kiss. (the first one)

After all my confusion, I finally got butterflies. Only for Yi-jin to immediately panic afterward. I remember wanting to scream at my screen.

“YOU confessed first! Why are you acting like this now?!”

But that became one of the show’s greatest strengths.

Neither of them handled love perfectly.

Yi-jin’s instinct whenever things became difficult was to pull away because he believed distance would protect the person he loved.

Hee-do’s instinct was the opposite.

The hardest part of the drama wasn’t watching them fall in love. It was watching them slowly stop being able to reach each other.

it kind of broke me. Because love hadn’t disappeared. It simply wasn’t enough to bridge the distance anymore.

I understood Yi-jin’s job. I even defended him for a long time. I saw how much becoming a reporter changed him. He couldn’t even grieve properly because news didn’t stop happening around him. His work demanded everything from him.

But I also understood Hee-do.

She grew up with a mother who always chose work first. She promised herself she would never build a relationship that made her feel that lonely again.

That’s why their breakup worked for me. They never stopped loving each other. They just couldn’t keep asking each other to live with a kind of loneliness that neither of them deserved.

The moment Yi-jin applied for New York without telling her beforehand was the point where I stopped defending him.

it wasn’t wrong to take that apportunity but he should’ve communicated first. he asked her to understand him without trying to do the same. it was hard for both of them. I know.

One thing I appreciated about the show is that it never turned either of them into the villain. They were simply two people growing into adults whose lives demanded different things from them.

That hurts more than if someone had cheated or fallen out of love. in my opinion.

Outside the romance, this drama shines just as brightly.

Hee-do and Yu-rim’s relationship is just as beautiful. I cried so much during Yu-rim’s storyline. (If I went into details I’d write an essay lol)

Hee-do’s relationship with her mother frustrated me, but it was also painfully realistic. By the end, I understood both of them.

The secondary couple made me kick my feet like a schoolgirl whenever they appeared. They were the perfect balance to the emotional heaviness of the main story. it also shows a diffrent side of a first love.

By the end, I realized: This story was never just about Yi-jin and Hee-do.

It’s about friendship.

It’s about chasing impossible dreams.

It’s about hard work.

It’s about the people who shape us.

It’s about parents and children misunderstanding each other.

It’s about growing up.

And most of all…

It’s about first love. Not the kind that necessarily lasts forever. The kind that changes who you are forever.

The title itself says everything.

Twenty-Five Twenty-One isn’t the age they stayed. It’s the age they were happiest together.

Some chapters of our lives aren’t meant to be the whole book. They’re meant to become the reason we are who we are.

I started this drama expecting a romance. I finished it with something much bigger than that.

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Story if a Girl a Genius girl Lin Zhixia full of life lesson not cringe ,you'll cry and laugh

What i like about this drama.Well it nit your typical romance drama trope .Its well written, well directed ,I Salute for the creative team behind .Prepare yourself to get hooked on the storyline its very addictive tive you csnt stop watching .Lin Zhixia character and Jiang Yubai os focus on mutual respect ,Uplifting partnership.It discard toxic relationships so this will not give you stress as an audience.Tian xiwei as Lin Zhixia give life to Lin Zhixia she can be innocent, sad ,genius and freaking hilarious 😂. Overall is gives you warm , youll also cry amd laugh out loudfor real almost all episodes the comedy is freaking amazing.Not cringe all all

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Good effort, but falls short in many places.

The premise of the drama is good, it starts off well and intriguing, but the problems start showing on pretty early. It is a K-bl, so I did not expect it to be long at all, but even the run time that it has is not utilized well, sometimes things happen without motivation. For a crime drama there is barely any set up at times to many things, things just somehow fall into place at the right time, there is no background or introduction to substantial evidence, things just suddenly click and boom crime solved.

Even on the relationship side it is lacking, they start off as sex partners but then suddenly start liking each other, and Taeson goes from hating Chaeha to suddenly liking him, we are not shown any reason as to why he would start liking him. Taeson says he does not hate Chaeha anymore because he is already miserable enough, but that is still not reason enough to start liking someone. And Chaeha liking Taeson also makes no sense because Taeson had been an absolute ass to him since the beginning.

The characters also feel hollow at times, Chaeha is always the damsel in distress and Taeson is the prince charming who almost always saves him. Chaeha is also stupidly resilient abuse and does not know how to stand for himself at times. Taeson is also super problematic, and forcefully kisses Chaeha the very first time, something that everyone seems to just glance over. The dialogue also feels incredibly shallow at times, not just between the leads but overall with all characters.

The ending also made absolutely no sense, the last scene felt like it was out of a romcom rather than a crime heavy genre, it also went completely off the aesthetics the drama followed in all the other scenes.

Complains aside, there were a few things I did appreciate. Like the effort to atleast dive into the crime genre (something that is not easy to execute, and often requires lots of efforts to be well done) with the small budget and run time that K-bls ususally have, so it was a good first try and I hope to see more K-bls in similar genres. Secondly the opening was also pretty well made. The setting and cinematography were also pretty well done, I like the darkness in the atmosphere throughout the drama, the gloomy weather, dark interiors, gave the heaviness of a crime show.

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Korean BL steps up its game and redefines the thriller genre with The Prosecutor’s Proposal, a series that boldly breaks away from industry clichés. Moving past the usual school or office tropes, it takes a risk with a dark, mature, high-tension murder mystery that grips you from the very first minute.

Key Highlights

A Tragic, Intricate Plot: The narrative centers on a brutal murder from 15 years ago, reconnecting two men marked by history, the victim's son and the accused killer's son. Reunited years later as a prosecutor and an investigator, they are forced to uncover a web of corruption while confronting their own past demons.

Electrifying Performances & Chemistry: Park Si-woo (Chae Ha) and Yoon Do-gun (Tae Seon) deliver masterclass performances. Years of lingering pain and social stigma ground their resentment, making the friction between them raw and palpable. Their chemistry jumps off the screen; emotional tension builds at a slow burn through every shared glance and confrontation without ever overshadowing the core police investigation.

Flawless Production Value: The cinematography stands out with its sleek aesthetics and dynamic pacing that keeps the suspense sharp throughout.

A Mature Balance: It expertly strikes the sweet spot between a complex crime investigation and mature, organic moments of intimacy.

The Prosecutor’s Proposal doesn't just raise the bar for Korean BL productions, it stands as an absolute must-watch for fans of suspense stories packed with high-stakes emotional and romantic drama.

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Short, Sweet, and Packed with Charm: Four Episodes of Pure Joy

Peach and Me delivers a pure, heartwarming comfort watch that maximizes its short four-episode run without ever feeling rushed. Pond and Phuwin’s undeniable chemistry grounds the series, bringing to life a charming "energetic boyfriend meets calm boyfriend" dynamic that relies heavily on hilarious comedic timing and Kian’s utterly unhinged, devoted obsession with Peach. Beyond the main couple, the series builds a rich ensemble in very little time: Mok and Rome’s side story and chemistry stole the spotlight, while the heartwarming moments between PerthSanta and EmiBonnie left viewers wishing for even a bit more screen time. The drama cleverly incorporates fun real-life references, and the star-studded GMMTV cameo parade at the very end serves as an absolute treat for fans. Even with its brief runtime, the show manages to weave in just enough central conflict to keep the narrative grounded rather than overly sugary. While any fan would naturally crave more episodes, four felt like the perfect length to deliver a sweet, breezy, and endlessly enjoyable comfort show.

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It's Unbelievably Fine, End of an episode keeps me frustrated for the next onee, Another Week..

Under Construction :::
( Yet to add important stuff I noticed) ( Roughly drafted )
I've watched many historical and time travel dramas, I thought I would get extremely bored if I try this one, I thought it would have very similar other storylines and the actors I thought would not be that professional.
This series is so good and different.
Even though it's quite similar to Love Upon A Long Time, suddenly after some incident both the characters time travelled to recover the past mystery.
And then fall in love with someone in the past, someone they bicker with..

But honestly I understood stuff in this series much better, it's conveying every stuff clearly, actually LUAT the characters talked in a beautiful poetic harmonious manner, I don't really understand them well so, I wasn't able to understand many parts.
Well, those lines sounded very beautiful but sometimes they were quite hard for me to catch up.

The language used in this series is much more simpler, and the storyline is extremely romantic, the way P'Muen was blushing aww that was so cute, I loved his reactions after getting picked up by Gaew ( Great ) .
They were always bickering.
Great and Gaew do they even have a thing in common except for their faces.
I don't think so, Gaew is something wrong with him, how can he do those things to those people who raised him like their own son.
That was stupid, him literally trying to drown the boat..

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Lovely Runner? More Like an Overhyped, Overrated and Boring Run in Circles

If I had to describe my experience of watching Lovely Runner in one word, it would be frustrated. Several people recommended it to me, but I started it quite late because heavily hyped dramas often struggle to fulfil the enormous expectations surrounding them. Unfortunately, my hesitation proved justified. Despite its popularity and remarkably high ratings, Lovely Runner became one of my most disappointing K-drama experiences.

On paper, the premise is genuinely promising. Lovely Runner combines fantasy, romance and time travel in a story about a devoted fan attempting to change the fate of the celebrity who once gave her hope. It is an emotionally appealing concept with all the ingredients required for an engaging romantic drama. The initial episodes establish that premise reasonably well, and it is easy to understand why the story attracted so many viewers.

However, an interesting premise cannot carry an entire series by itself. After the opening episodes, the narrative becomes increasingly predictable. The repeated changes to the timeline create the appearance of movement, but the central conflicts and emotional patterns remain largely unchanged. Instead of developing naturally, the drama repeatedly manufactures danger, separation and emotional distress to keep the story moving. Several scenes feel prolonged beyond their dramatic value, while others appear to exist primarily to provoke another emotional response from the audience.

This repetition gradually weakened my investment in the characters. Rather than wondering what would happen next, I often felt that I already understood the pattern: hope would appear, another complication would separate the leads, someone would cry, and the timeline would once again rearrange the circumstances without meaningfully changing the emotional substance of the story. The nonlinear structure could have created suspense and complexity, but the screenplay handles its movement between timelines without enough clarity or discipline. As a result, the drama frequently loses momentum and, eventually, my attention.

This was my first time watching both Kim Hye-yoon and Byeon Woo-seok in leading roles, and unfortunately, neither performance connected with me as strongly as I expected. Kim Hye-yoon brings considerable energy to Im Sol, but her performance often felt excessively expressive for my taste. The exaggerated reactions, forced cuteness and frequent shifts into heightened emotion made the character more irritating than endearing to me. Some viewers clearly found this style charming, but I struggled to see a natural person beneath the performance.

Byeon Woo-seok delivers a more restrained performance as Ryu Sun-jae and handles several emotional scenes reasonably well. Nevertheless, I did not find the performance compelling enough to justify the extraordinary level of praise surrounding it. The character is likeable and devoted, but much of his appeal comes from how idealistically he is written rather than from particularly layered characterisation.

More importantly, I did not feel convincing romantic chemistry between the leads. Chemistry is subjective, and many viewers clearly experienced their relationship very differently. For me, however, their interactions often seemed carefully performed rather than naturally lived. Both actors appeared to be working extremely hard to create sweetness, comedy or heartbreak, and that visible effort prevented many scenes from feeling spontaneous. The supporting cast performs adequately, but when the central relationship fails to create an emotional connection, the surrounding story inevitably loses much of its impact.

The direction also contributes to this problem. Almost every important scene is treated as though it must become the emotional centrepiece of the entire drama. The actors are frequently asked to express everything at maximum intensity, while lingering shots, tears and music repeatedly emphasise what the audience is expected to feel. Emotional storytelling is most effective when intensity is balanced with restraint. Here, the constant insistence that every moment is special eventually makes very few moments feel genuinely special.

I always look for one or two exceptional scenes that remain in my memory after a drama ends. Great dramas usually contain moments in which the writing, performance, direction and emotional context come together so naturally that the scene stays with the viewer. Lovely Runner appears determined to manufacture that effect repeatedly. Instead of allowing a few significant scenes to stand apart, it frames numerous interactions as iconic romantic moments. For me, this overemphasis diminished their impact and left me without a single scene that felt truly extraordinary.

Visually, however, the drama is considerably more successful. The cinematography is polished, with attractive framing, warm colour grading and carefully selected locations. Recurring visual elements—including the yellow umbrella and seasonal imagery—give the series a recognisable aesthetic identity. The costumes and makeup are also excellent. The colour combinations complement both the characters and the environments, while the styling convincingly supports the movement between different periods. This department deserves genuine praise.

The soundtrack is another major strength. The songs are memorable, and the background score generally matches the intended atmosphere of each scene. Even when the narrative failed to move me, the music frequently did its best to provide the emotional weight that I found missing from the performances and screenplay.

The finale provides the happy romantic resolution that most fans would want, but by that point, I was no longer emotionally invested in the outcome. Rather than feeling satisfied, I mainly felt relieved that I had reached the end. The combination of repetitive plotting, heightened performances and excessive emotional manipulation made the series surprisingly difficult for me to complete.

I understand why Lovely Runner became popular. It offers an attractive cast, polished visuals, memorable music, an appealing fantasy-romance premise and an idealised love story built for passionate fandom. Nevertheless, popularity and personal quality are not always the same thing. For me, the execution never fulfilled the potential of the premise, and the content did not justify its exceptionally high reputation. Lovely Runner may be deeply meaningful to many viewers, but for me, it was an overextended and emotionally exhausting drama whose hype greatly exceeded its substance.

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