In the end, it was a story about love

I understand who people might be unhappy with the ending or not like the show as a whole. It’s not a masterpiece but I did like it more than I thought I would.

It is a story about love. It’s just not the love we were expecting. It’s a story about love for your family. The dad expresses it well when say that he’s happy the mom died without finding out about the daughter and Ji Won. He loved her so much that he was happy he died that day and not on the next, for example. The same way that Ji Won knew that Naoko loved him very much, but he liked her enough to let her be free and loved his mom so much that he’d always choose to be by her side.

I specially like the ending. We see that both Ji Won and Naoko appear to be happy. Also like how Naoko chose not to tell about her mom passing. They cared about each other until the end. Nice to see the sister hanging with the basketball guy and studying.

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Not a "court case of the week" type of show

I planned to watch this drama from when it started airing, but I knew it would be better to binge it once it was over. For that reason, I completely skipped any news or comments about the show. I didn’t even realize that every episode was over 1h.

The initial premise of the show would make you believe that the court cases would be a big part of the show, once it’s actually just a tool for the main plot to develop. I can see how people that expected more court cases could be disappointed, but I was very happy with how the cases we got were part of the main story and had interesting twists. If we got any cases that were not 100% crucial to the big plan, I wish we’d seen a case with a split vote. I guess the closest we got to that was the electric chair one, where the public was not totally agreeing at first.

The team of villain on this show is outstanding. I completely hated all of them with my entire body. Kudos to the fantastic work done by the actors, specially the president. I never liked and trusted the professor, so I was happy to see that my suspicions were correct.

This is a prime kdrama, so we all knew that we’d not get a romance between the two male leads. But the hints and chemistry were there. The two hugs on episode 16 were the crumbs for Ga On/Yo Han shippers. I think there is a big issue that would difficult the plot going on that path: Ga On being the split image of Yo Han deceased brother. The same way that I think Elijah had a “crush” on Ga On just because he cared about her, then he kinda became her second dad, with Yo Han. I also didn’t expect the show to make Ga On and Soo Hyun’s relationship endgame. But I thought they’d do that by making her just move on after being in love with him for so long.

As much as I believe that Ga On liked Soo Hyun for real, when she died he cried and wanted revenge. While with Yo Han, he literally tried to blow himself up twice in one 1h. I guess the thought of a world without Yo Han was pretty scary…

Even though the ending of the show is not a “we’ll never meet again” situation, the fact that Elijah has such a strong connection to Ga On makes me believe she’d not agree to just go to Switzerland in the middle of the night. I doubt she’d go 1 month without contacting him, she’s a computer genius. I understand that Yo Han is technically dead in Korea, so they can’t live like a happy family at the mansion, but they’d still keep in touch.

The show is open ended and the ending we get is “happy”. But, in a weird way, Sun Ah’s plan worked in a way that Yo Han is not all alone, but Ga On is. By the end of episode 16, Ga On has lost his best friend, his “best buddy”, his mentor and his two work colleagues. He’s left alone in life and on the fight against the system.

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The bad outweights the good

I can understand how some people might like this show, it does have some strong points, but the story is so problematic that I had to force myself to watch the second half of the episodes just to be done with it.

TharnType has a good cast and the show is well done from a production standpoint. The chemistry between Mew and Gulf if off the charts, which explains why they are one of the biggest pairing in thai BL. The scenes where Tharn and Type are together and in peace are great. Unfortunately, these moments are rare and involved in bigger overall problems of the show. I don’t know if I can say that I like any of the characters (maybe Champ).

I can’t get 100% on board with the main couple because of the night Type got drunk in Tharn bad, early in the season. Yes, Type was being homophobic and an idiot for awhile, but Tharn did go to far by taking advantage of unconscious Type. It becomes even worse after we find out about Type’s past. I don’t feel like Tharn ever really tried to apologize for what happened that night.

This show has a major problem with romanticizing relationships with non consensual moments. At some points I almost felt like the show was implying that it was okay to do things if the other person didn’t say no too much. This is a show that centers around the sexual assault of two, I’d say three, teenagers, and the issue is not handled well at all. I can’t understand how TharnType manages to give a free pass to two abusers, that don’t face any consequences. San took advantage of younger Tharn and the only thing he got was a single punch from his still best friend, which in turn is the victim’s older brother. Thorn knows that what happened was wrong but he still forces Tharn to be around San. Regarding Lhong, I don’t even have word to explain how poorly the story fails to address what he did and why nothing happens to him.

PS: I have to highlight how this show manages to hard two terrible brothers. Thorn, besides his involvement who Sam, is also quite creepy around Thanya. And Technic is also a terrible brother for what he did to Techno.

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The perfect companion episode

This type of episode is exactly how “extra” content should be. It doesn’t explain or develop something left out of the main story nor does’t do harm to the characters. I actually love how we got two mini episodes in one. The valentine’s day is sweet and very on brand for Adachi and Kurosawa. It’s nice how we get a flashback showing us Kurosawa trying to give chocolates to Adachi the previous year. I like how this episodes jumps forward just a few weeks, which means we didn’t miss months and months of the relationship. It’s still all new for them.

The Rokkaku’s story was 100% Rokkaku. I’m glad we get to see more of him, he was definitely a highlight from the show. He’s very oblivious to what is happening around him, but it’s not to a point where he looks stupid or forced. I would not mind a mini series focused on Rokkaku, since he lives 2 lives basically, the office life and the dancing life.

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So close!!

The first 3/4 are perfect. The show explores fantastically the cliche scenarios para only happen in BLs time and time again. I love the fact that our protagonist is such an extra that he doesn't even have a name, he's just Mob. The fact that he's the only one aware that this is a BL world makes everything funnier.

I don’t hate the ending. It makes sense for the protagonist to end up falling for a guy. But it would have been so nice to actually see him escaping all the tropes and be alone in the end, judging everybody around him. Or at least have him fall for a guy without it being connected to super cliche, like what ended up happening.

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Simply a better series

Because it was obviously made with the criticism the first series got in mind, Still 2gether is a better show in every way. We catch up with Tine and Wat one the next year (as previewed in the last episode on the first series). That’s a smart move because it gives the show some leeway for making changes without jumping too far ahead.
That small jump specially benefits Mil and Phukong. I was not the biggest fan of their story progression in 2gether because it seemed to forced in the end. Jumping a few months ahead we can see them more comfortable without it being too unreadable for them to not have labeled their relationship or maybe have kissed (?) yet. On the other hand, Type and Man moved, literally, pretty fast. It was nice to finally see them being together and happy. I was surprised with the amount of Green and Dim we got, but I actually made me appreciate both of them a bit more.

Now, on Wat and Tine. I’m glad we got to see them having a nice and normal relationship. I was worried that we show would force conflict and fights when the clubs were are odds. But they managed to keep things separate between work and home life. I also think that Bright and Win are better as Wat and Tine, which made me believe more on the romance between their characters. But I still don’t really feel romantic chemistry. The last scene, between just the two of them, was the only real truly full on BL romantic scene we got from them.

The fact that a group of students managed to skip 2 whole weeks of classes proves that no one goes to that university to study.

Mike and Gunsmile together are the best scene partners in the show.

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More than just the return of MaxTul

First of, it's so refreshing to finally see Max and Tul playing somewhat functioning adults. It’s a major development from eternally teenage acting Korn/Knock.

I usually complaint about the pacing in dramas, especially BLs, because half of the time the main characters are either fighting or trying to get back together. Manner or Death, on the other hand, is more of a slow burn on the romantic front and has compelling plots happening at the same time. All characters are interesting and fit into the overall narrative of the show. I like how we get introduced early on to characters that might not look important at first and then we start to see them in a new way episodes later. The acting on this show is amazing, everyone brought their A game.

I feel like this show explores the mystery aspect very well. There are many twists and the mystery is being developed throughout the series, and not just in the last 2 episodes. It’s a very complex situation, so I thing the viewers can’t easy start to predict what gonna happen too much ahead. Unfortunately, as it’s the case with mystery series, the rewatch value is diminished greatly the the nature of the plot.

I’d really appreciate a reasoning for Tan’s enormous house having a kitchen on the back porch and several empty rooms. In my head cannon that’s the secondary kitchen they use because it has the view of the woods.

It’s not related to the plot, but I have to say this: I hate the main promotional imagine for this show.

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A fun show if you're mostly interested in seeing Earth and Mix

Cupid’s Last Wish was never a masterpiece. But the series had it’s moments. It’s undeniable that the chemistry between Earth and Mix is outstanding, and the series gives them a lot of moments to explore that. I'm sorry if this review ended up being a bit of a rant towards the end.

For those that were unhappy with the single kiss at the end of Tale of Thousand Stars, CLW delivers a lot more on that front. It also gives, in my opinion, very true EarthMix type of interactions, specially if you watch their show EMS, on Youtube. The content fighting and bickering is peak EarthMix behavior we see outside of the cameras. I also think that the casting of Mix and Jan as siblings was perfection. They look alike and Jan was great in the scenes where she had to behave as Win. Unfortunately, we didn’t see much of Mix playing Lin. But, at least, we got A LOT of moments of Mix playing sassy and bossy Win.

The journey to get the water across the country was nice. I think the show managed the use it well as a way of explaining the relationship between Win and Korn. It was also fun to watch very different locations, from forests to the beach.

My main issue with Cupid’s Last Wish is the “final twist” with the mom and, overall, the last episode as a whole. The mom is by far the worst character in the entire show. By the end of last episode I’m pretty sure she managed to get a spot int he worst BL moms list. She embodies a very rare combination of worst characteristics a character can have. She is: dumb, annoying, old-fashioned, homophobic and get’s in the way of the main couple. All of that while barely being on screen.

Her plan also doesn’t make sense. She manipulated her very sick husband to give 1/4 of the farm to someone outside of the family, so it would breakup Win and Korn, and allow her to marry Korn and Lin, so the family would control the farm again. To make it even worse, she kept the plan going even after BOTH OF HER CHILDREN ALMOST DIED BECAUSE OF THAT PLAN! In my opinion, that means she was more worried with the couple being together than with her family controlling the farm. The icing on the cake is that she tells everybody what she did, and they just hug her like it’s not a big deal! Did they not hear the part where she took advantage of her dying husband or the fact that the farm was loosing money because Win was a mess after his fight with Korn? Or how that fight, which was part of her plan, almost killed her children?

Since all that reveal and development happened at the start of the episode, I couldn’t really get on board with the rest, Yeah, using the farm as a touristic attraction is a nice idea. Sure, I like that Lin and Non are together. I’m obviously happy that Win and Korn are together. But it’s all overshadowed by the mom. Also, cowboy Win and Korn arriving on their horses to greet the tourists was very cheesy.

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Color Rush 2, a BL without the love and the color rush

Color Rush 2 is not bad. If this was a new series to even a side story I would have enjoyed the series quite a lot. The problem is: Color Rush 2 is a completely different show from Color Rush.

Season 1 is a teen BL romance with the extra spice of the mono/probe world, for that reason, the mom mystery not being solved in season 1 was not a problem for me. Season 2 already started with a big disadvantage when one of the protagonists chose not to come back. With that, at least 2 of the major aspects of the show were weakened. Without Yoo Han we don’t have the romance we spent 8 episodes developing on season 1 and we don’t have a Color Rush, since Yeon Woo doesn’t have probe anymore.

As far as the new stuff, I actually liked Sehyun, and Hyuk was great in the role. I was quite surprised with the dark tone the show took very early on. Despite the 1st episode starting with Yeon narrating how his boyfriend was kidnapped 6 months earlier, by episode 2 we have the death of a teenager by the hands of an evil organization. Yes, season 1 had presented us with several crimes related to the mono/probe relationships and a suicide attempt. But season 1 still had the, literally, colorful moments of the protagonists falling in love. Season 2 is a teen crime/investigation show, where people don’t go to school. That also means that we barely get Min Jae and Joo Haeng scenes.

Based on the post credit scene on episode 8, I’m intrigued with what they’re planning for Color Rush 3. I think it’s far to imagine that they’re recasting Yoo Han’s role, since I doubt the actor is coming back.

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Only worth if you can watch the uncut version

This series is not good, but it's a short show. The acting is OK in most moments. The protagonists have chemistry. The story makes zero sense, but it had potential. The main plot might have worked if it was scaled down, the evil company takes up too much time and the story goes nowhere. I can see it working out in a 15 minutes per episode, 8 episode series. Color Rush worked with a similar concept.

The main issue with this show is that you should only watch the uncut version. It’s not that it makes less sense with the cuts, but with the uncut version the central relationship works way better. Besides, the cuts are very obvious and you can kinda see that they simply chopped off the almost kisses and the final kiss in episode 12. It’s a Chinese BL with an actual kiss.

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It's a good series, but the story went wrong somewhere

This show is entertaining and the premise is interesting, but it feels like the production didn’t know how to achieve the end goal they wanted. The entire organ trafficking plot was not handed well, in my opinion.

It’s clear that the story needed to separate the main couple in the end, which makes sense for the plot. They never manage to be together, even after trying several times. So, that’s not my issue with the show. My main problem is Dr. Doi. I don’t usually pinpoint performances that are bad, but in this case it’s important. Overall, the cast is quite good, everybody has chemistry, and the characters are interesting. But Dr. Doi is the exception. This is Boat’s first acting role, and it makes sense because from early on I could notice that I was not enjoying his perfomance. That’s usually OK, specially for a side character.

But Dr. Doi is a major player in the finale of the show. He has a lot of screen time in the last episode and it’s bad. I’m not saying it’s all the actor’s fault, because the plot is just messy. His portrayal of psycho mode Dr. Doi was not good, and the fact the entire plot depends on the fact that nobody managed to stop him, when there were 3 people in the room when he got thrown in the ground, really bugs me.

The show needed to put Tin in a coma and they chose the worst way of doing that. They could have him sacrifice himself for Tol or be shot by Dr. Sak (who was a better villain). But no, he got stabbed in the back by mega villain Dr. Doi, who comes out of nowhere and starts laughing maniacally.

Also, it feels like a huge missed opportunity to have Sing and Gap’s relationship not develop at all. It’s 11 episodes of nothing, besides Gap showing he has feelings for Sing, and then BOOM, they are together in the last loop and we get nothing.

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This fanfic story hangs by a weak thread

This series really confuses me. It honestly feels like I’m watching the serialized version of a BL fanfic. I wouldn’t be surprised if the writers just wrote a bunch of tropes in pieces of paper and developed a story around the one they pulled from a hat, at random. I’d guess they got: dead mom, late in the story secret girlfriend, protagonist traveling abroad in the last episode, family issues, evil stepmom, trauma, and misunderstood rich protagonist.

I honestly think that Chap and Green have chemistry, but the story simply doesn’t allow them to do much. The only truly good thing in The Tuxedo is the music, which is A+.

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Fun to watch

This will be a VERY quick review. I’ll start at the ending and say that there’s no good reason for the epilogue not being the ending of episode 36. Not that I’d believe that Word of Honor would kill either of the protagonists, but still. Besides that, I feel like the last episode was very rushed. All the villains are wiped out or disappear after the avalanche and the world is at peace.

I think the first third of the show had a good pace. But, towards the middle point, things started to slow down on the main plot to focus a lot on the side stories. It’s not that I don like to see Xiang and Wei Ning, but it’s a lot of time on their plot and on Scorpion. Thankfully, towards the last 10 episodes the show took better again.

The cast was great and most of the characters were fun to watch. It’s my second BL with Gong Jun, after watching Advance Bravely. I think him and Zhang Zhe Han worked very well together. I understand the constant comparisons with The Untamed, but I think the shows feel very different from the start.

PS: It’s more of a commentary, since it’s neither a good or bad thing, but I feel like this show is very light handed on the double meanings and “suggestions” about the relationship between the two main characters. Of course, the show says multiple times that they’re soulmates and from the epilogue it’s clear that they’ll live together “forever” in the mountain. But I think they didn't wanna risk much censorship.

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In one word: Disappointing

The first episode gave me strong YYY vibes, which was not a good sign. But the humor is very different in the two shows. While YYY is more full on comedy + fantastical elements, You Never Eat alone is more whimsical.

The special guests were a huge plus for the show, helping the weak plot to not fell as repetitive as it was. It was great to see cameos from Mii2, BounPrem and MaxNat. But, obviously, the highlight was having Boom appear and interact with Peak, while having a boyfriend named Fuse. The main cast as a strong point of this show. I feel like Zee and Peak worked very well together, and the supporting cast was great too. I was surprised that they didn’t try to create a love triangle with Maeung.

But, unfortunately, no cast can save the over dramatic mess that is the plot of this show. There’s no evolution at all. It looks like we can some development, be it about the earning problem or the potential relationship between Diew and Mix. But then, the next episode starts and we’re back to square one. The biggest example of that was episode 11 giving us ALL the signs that Diew and Mix have feelings for each other, and then we get back to light flirting for the finale. Same thing with the earring alone part, Diew would eat alone in one episode and then literally throw up when trying in the next one. Also, I don’t feel like Mix as a character was well developed. As Diew said, he only cares about himself and never really tried to learn more about Mix.

It’s quite obvious that the finale was developed with a second season in mind. I think it's doubt that season will not happen.

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This show doesn't know what it wants to be

I understand that a lot of people loved this show. I personally feel like it’s mainly because they like Singto. For me, this show was a mess and I can’t exactly say where things went wrong because not many things went right from the beginning. My best guess is that Baker Boys has too many side plots and the main story doesn’t work well.

The 4 boys taking care of a Café story would be enough as the basic plot of the show, throw in a little romance + fun situations and it would be a nice light series. But then we got the mystery aspect. A mystery by itself is not a major problem, although it always makes rewatches less fun. But this particular mystery is too heavy to go side by side with the fun café story. It’s literally a plot about people that kidnap and kill children. We actually get to see two dead kids in that fun show about the 4 guys trying to run a café. Those two things don’t fit together!

Then we have the other subplots. The boxer that could die if the continued competing. The guy that got kidnapped 20 years ago and cannot eat anything sweet ever since. The same guy opening a café just to try to find his first love (which does not ever happen). The guy that has phobia of women because he caught his mom cheating on his dad with his tutor, which was also his first love. We have the guy that kidnapped a boy and held him captive for 5 days, but he’s a nice person and didn’t mean any harm (WTF?!). The guy that has been a bad bodyguard since he was 14. We have a cooking competing where a contestant bribes the producer to win the show. Then we have a second competition created just because a guy wants to get back with his ex, which broke up with him after finding out the guy has a wife and children. We also have the boss that offered to sleep with his employee just so he would leave the café…

This show runs like a case of the week type of series. Each episode has a random plot that will be resolved quickly, so that the main overall plot can be dragged for 12 episodes. The cast is not bad, they are all amazing actors. But, honestly, don’t know if liked any of the characters. I only finished this show because I don’t like to keep shows unfinished and because I was curious about how many more weird plot they could come up with.

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