Felt like a state sanctioned anti-suicide infomercial

Ok. So I know the rating and review title might be confusing.

This show has some great acting, the quality of production is fantastic. The music was great. Some of the stories were really interesting and it’s for the most part well-written.

HOWEVER, if I hadn’t been watching with someone else I would have dumped the show. It felt like I was being lectured about suicide but in a very strange way. Korea has a very high suicide rate and maybe that plays into it, but some of the message delivery was clunky and anyone with an ounce of common sense can throw the reasoning out of the window. Maybe they hoped to make people think again about giving life a chance, maybe scare them into carrying on. I dunno guys, it just fell flat.

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Tawan doesn’t deserve Mork

Ok, I watched this whole series today and let me tell you, it was not good. Mork/Fluke was fantastic, his single dimple is adorable, he brought as much chemistry as a single person can bring and I believed his character, very likeable and genuine. I think he could make a great career for himself with a better script.

Tawan/Fame - if I don’t see him in anything again it will be too soon, he was playing 28 acting 18. He seemed uncomfortable and it was not believable that he was attracted to any of of the men.

The Toy/Boss coupling was cute, reminded me of 2Moons2. Chemistry was there and decently acted imo.

The straight couple was ok, that’s as far as I would go.

My score is based solely on Fluke if I am honest, hope to see him in other series.

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Problematic

TW: sexual assault

Let me preface this review by making it clear that I read pretty dark romance, so I honestly have pretty high threshold for things that happen in dark romance such as assault etc. This drama however, is tagged as DubCon and it is actually NonCon. The stepbrother plans out the r*pe, gets his brother drunk and then violates him while the man can barely speak. It plays into a horrible cliche that gay men are violent with each other. In other BL, we see men forcing kisses etc and whilst problematic, it’s usually addressed by the characters as pushing through their internalised homophobia. The brother is a gay man, he has already been with men. His brother isn’t “making him wake up” to his sexuality with a kiss, he is R*PING him. It got so uncomfortable for me that I ended up having to skip a lot of the show because it became clear that nobody was going to voice what this was and the stepbrother wasn’t going to have proper repercussions. It was completely unbelievable that the main couple would accept the brothers after learning about the assault. That being said, the main couple (while having a couple of problematic scenes of their own) fulfilled the BL tropes that we love so much, the golden retriever top and the moody bottom, the total flip from pursuing woman to falling in love with a man, the OTT romance, the PDA. It wasn’t like, award winning TV but tbh BL rarely is, due to budget and culture constraints. I hope we’ll see more quality BL dramas as the world changes.

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Michael is a magnificent actor

The story was incredibly unsettling for many reasons. It wasn’t some outstanding show deserving awards or anything, but it really did shine a light on the BL industry and I feel like there’s a good chance that a lot of it is truth. The main “couple” were not great, acting was so-so. Michael/Bas was so very good, his emotions were spot on, he pulled off looking suicidal/troubled so well. Daniel/Marco was cute and believable , telling the jokes to cheer Bas up was heart warming.

Summary: Michael carried this entire show. He should be doing starring in all of the shows.

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I’m checking out

This show is not good. Episode 0 had everyone hyped for this series but unfortunately it has been a total let down. I am not opposed to the cheating particularly, especially as the ones being cheated aren’t great people either. It’s just a poor quality show.

I’ll start with good points

1) Chahub. He does not belong in this terrible show. He’s trying really hard to promote it on social media but I honestly think he should give up and hope everyone forgets about it.

2) Boat & Candy. Both cute side characters played by insanely good looking people.

I actually thought I’d have more good points to make but alas…

Bad points


1) Sound quality. I don’t know what is going on, but this series feels like it was shot during the pandemic without someone in charge of sound.

2) Zero chemistry. Nobody has any chemistry with anyone on screen. I feel like some of the actors are trying to create chemistry but failing.

3) Best. He is cute but he cannot act. In the special episode he seemed more believable but this series has proved to me again that he is at best, a side character. I’m sorry.

4) Set/Props. Why are we only seeing such limited filming locations? Why are the advertisements that this totally amazing company are doing so utterly awful?

5) Script/Direction. Unfortunately for Kapper, because of lack of chemistry with actors, you are left with only script etc to judge the show, and unfortunately we are left wanting.

6) The Heimlich scene. This could have been funny ha ha but it was funny weird.

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Second couple MUCH cuter than main couple

This was an ok watch, and what I mean by that is I did the ol’ skiparoo through episodes 3-13. What chemistry built up through the first couple of episodes with the main couple, was completely lost after that. Like, it was nice to see them get to be together and Gui take his place beside Solo at the end but I wasn’t squealing into my pillow about it. The second couple, LOVED THEM! When I searched for Phu on MDL I almost collapsed when it didn’t say he was 30 but aside from that, he played cold for everyone but ‘him’ incredibly well and it’s one of my favourite tropes. Kao was cute as heck and I’m sure could play most type of roles with his look. He needed big built Phu next to him to be considered feeble, put it that way. I won’t rewatch this show, but I will follow Phu and Boss on insta to keep an eye out for other dramas.

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Michael just be out here carrying the whole show

So I finished season 1 and immediately started season 2 because I have a severe lack of dopamine. Unfortunately huge swathes of this series are just terrible, Ait and James were more annoying than last season, I ended up skipping almost the entirety of their side of the story, the only part I didn’t skip was the press conference because I didn’t want to miss Bas’s scene, and bloody hell, didn’t the poor acting from James and Ait drag?

A few thoughts
The attempted sui**** scene felt very rushed but still Michael held up his end of the contract and did a convincing job

People complained about the sex, people are not in the position to assume how a survivor wants to act after the case, taking back sex and intimacy is something lots of survivors do, especially once they feel safe with someone. Marco showed up and CARED. Bas has clearly been emotionally neglected his entire life, then se***lly abused! He didn’t “get over” anything in my eyes, imagine the immense relief he must be feeling now he has people on his side?! Marco and the other guy (forgive me, I forget his name) empowered him to stand up.

Again, James & Ait proving to be just the absolute worst. Didn’t really seem to care about the abuse, Ait was more worried about James getting it on with everyone. Or that’s what I gathered in between skipping ha

Marco coming out with Bas was properly nice, they played genuinely happy really well.

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Ruined by the last few minutes!

This show is FULL of tropes, absolutely rammed solid with them. The cute junior liking the senior, the ENGINEERS, only gay for you, spiteful token hetero etc etc…
I really enjoyed the majority of this series! It was like coming home on a cold day and pulling a blanket out the tumble dryer! There’s something so comforting about the familiar and predictable.
That being said, the last few minutes took the shine off/ruined my buzz. Why on earth would Ton not tell Chon he loves him? They’re going to be parents, been together 3 years, in love for more than a decade and he can’t muster it up? Yuk. I wish I had paused it and could have lived in that blissful nonsense with Miriam without hearing Chon BEG Ton to say it just once. I’m still unsure what my true rating is because I’m trying to be fair but am also seething that I stayed up all night for that.

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Lack of chemistry between main couple let’s down this potentially cute drama

This show was incredibly dull for the first few episodes. Now usually when a BL is dull at the beginning, it’s because of world building or incredibly slow burn. That is not the case with this show, the “main couple” get together relatively early in the show and have almost no chemistry at all. If it wasn’t for the beginning of the MingKit couple, I would for sure have this show in my dropped list. When a couple gets together early on in the show, often their drama is caused by jealousy and although this is the case here, it was totally unbelievable jealousy. I would have believed these men brothers before believing they were lovers.

Main couple is Yo & Dr Pha - totally unbelievable as a couple, Pha is unlikeable and I didn’t enjoy the pressure he put on Yo at all. Kissing scenes made me look away from the screen.

MingKit - CHEMISTRY, rough around the edges adorable. Good actors and believable as a couple.

ForthBeam - decent amount of chemistry, mostly brought by Pavel and his acting. Funny scenes and I really enjoyed Forth’s disappearing tattoo in the Thai heat!

I would definitely watch 2 Moons 3 but won’t be searching out any other dramas with Ben to put it bluntly. I’ll have a look at Earth’s other works though as I feel he was let down and could have the makings of a decent actor with better direction and costar.

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Started with a bang…ended with a whimper

This was an easy watch, I binge watched it on a Friday night after too many energy drinks. The opening scene with the gun got me hooked straightaway and I wanted to consume everything that led up to that moment! And then we finally got to the moment and…it’s a fake gun. This would have been a 9/10 for me if she had died at the end leaving chaos and trauma behind. But it was a fake gun just to teach them all a lesson (that they 100% didn’t learn).
Other things that bothered me was the sheer amount of rape in the show, I said aloud to myself at one point, “is everyone going to get raped?”
The side characters of the twins and Jamie was boring filler, but this is standard stuff for a drama atp.

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Extra! Extra! People expect too much from short Korean BL

I will say that I am a person that can successfully enjoy and understand a series with a fair amount of skipping and I do so liberally. This is mostly because I have an attention deficit and unless something really grabs hold, I simply skip a bit, sometimes 10/20 seconds, sometimes a few minutes. I did not skip this show once. Why? Because there was always something happening. It might feel like things weren’t fleshed out enough but it was all pretty satisfyingly completed imo.

As for reviews that say “barely a BL” well, I’m sorry, most BL on the market must be extremely boring to you. There was one kiss, and while it wasn’t fizzing with chemistry, it was sweet and intentional. Ro-A clearly liked Ji Woo throughout and didn’t make much of an effort to hide it. Ji Woo clearly started thinking about Ro-A in some kinda way when he saw him shirtless and then we saw that develop for him until he confessed. Ro-A rejected him because he heard/saw the hateful comments and didn’t want Ji Woo to have to face that for the rest of his life when he was happily pursuing Yoo Na prior to them meeting.

There was zero fall-kissing and this made me insanely happy. The only bit where I cringed was when Ro-A stopped the bat with his arm. There was also no outrageous jealousy. Ro-A warned off Yoo-Na but she WAS initially using him because he liked her and made her feel safe, which put him at great risk.

All in all, this is a short series without fall kisses or bruises that disappear the next day after applying lotion and blowing. The lead isn’t caught in a predicament when faced with his female crush confessing, he straight out rejects her and goes all out to confess to the man he feels love for. It’s put me in a pretty good mood for the day.

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