Great start, meh ending

The first section is spoiler-free:
This is one of the series that had me hooked once the characters were played by the main actors. Waiting for the next episode was truely painful and every week was too long. It was the first time I read the book the series is based on because I couldn't wait for the next episode to air. It has a really high rewatch value up until around episode 10.
The series is for anyone interested in angsty characters, slow burn and trauma/drama. The characters feel like real people, the dialogues are just so natural. Chris was an amazing actor and I loved rewatching episodes to focus on his facial expressions. Although there were many known tropes or story points, they managed to twist it so it wasn't too predictable or if it was, it was still extremely engaging. And because of these things, I was kind of disappointed in how the series ended. Overall I would say it was worth watching, and if I'd binge-watched it, I might feel differently. But because I waited 10 weeks for it to finish, the ending wasn't as satisfying as I had hoped. I was certain this would be my second 10/10, but sadly the ending wasn't as cohesive as before and the more I think about choices in the script, the less I like the ending.

Spoilers ahead:



The more I think about the last three episodes, the less happy I am with a lot of the choices. Some of the choices felt so out of character. Qian would never let Yuan kiss him in the office. Why did they insert so many montages and why did the montages include the same scenes? We don't need more than one montage in every episode... WHY did they show Yuan as a kid when they had the NC scene? I liked how they started in the middle of kissing and then went back to the beginning, but why insert so many montages in between? Yuan and Qian didn't really talk the last three episodes. From episode 7? to around 10 they were constantly talking about how they feel, but once they have sex, they do not talk about anything except for Qian's illness anymore. It just felt so empty suddently. They made a lot of scenes just to get a few laughs, and while they were funny, they didn't fit the characters too well (Qian finding out Lily is pregnant and going after San Pang, getting kissed at the office, hearing how the others debate who's top and who's bottom etc).
It just felt like they couldn't use some of the material they shot and had to improvise by adding a lot of filler or montages.

I think I'm just a little disappointed because the series was able to turn typical plot points (e.g. Yuan getting beat up by the gang and Yuan and Qian having a near-death experience) into something where I was actively stressed out or engaged in general, but the last episodes didn't feel like they belonged to the first 9.

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wasted potential

At this moment I want to give the show an overall rating of 0, but realistically that would be unfair. My rating is this low because I had such high expectations up until episode 9. When I looked through my ratings for the episodes before, it was usually 9/10. I enjoyed the slow build up and how Phupha was unsure of Nan's feelings. But the last two episodes were a complete trainwreck for me personally and left me extremly disappointed and angry. Thiscould have been one of my favourite series, but instead it was just a huge disappointment.


SPOILERS:

The confession made no sense, Phupha was shown to be very introverted, WHY would he confess infront of 50 people out of nowhere?? Why didn't they show how their relationship evolved after the confession, they just were in a relationship in the next scene. What was episode 10?? They had to include every bit of drama to really destroy the rest of the story. An action scene, a fight between the leads based on miscommunication, a plane goes missing but wait, Nan is not dead! Phupha and Nan looked more like friends than lovers in the last episode than they did in the whole show. Their intimacy felt forced and their NC was awkward. I'm so disappointed with this series...

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I'm so entertained

I know, it's only been two episodes. So why am I writing this review? Although some of my ratings aren't too positive, I would give this series a 10/10 at the moment (but I'm keeping some space for improvement).

With the last couple of series, I had to skip a lot of the first episodes because it dragged on, made me cringe, or because I simply disliked the characters. But not with this series! I don't remember when I have been so entertained by a series for the whole runtime of an episode. Especially in the first episode, something happened every single scene. I was getting whiplash from the back and forth, action and revelations. The music highlights the dramatic camera work. So many zooms (esp. episode 1)!

This might not be the best series ever made, but man is it entertaining. If this series goes on like the first two episodes, it will be one of my favourites. I'll revisit this review once I've finished the show.

Edit: Now that I've watched the whole show, I wanted to revisit this review and add a few more thoughts.

Overall I enjoyed this series a lot. I would say the first 3 and the last 2 episodes had the same entertainment as what I described before. Once their relationship changed, the series was like a standard romantic drama, but it was fine. I really enjoyed the differences between the two leads and how the conflict was handled. I liked the resolution at the end, because let's be honest, this is as close we would get to justice being served. And what I like about this, is that both Tinn and Charn were somewhat right. I'm still so sad that Tinn's niece died. I wanted her to see Tinn happily married. But that makes it bittersweet I guess.

Overall I really enjoyed this series and it's themes, and even though my rating did go down a bit, I would still recommend this series.

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It was a waste of time

I liked the synopsis of the story and was excited to see a somewhat low budget production (because I loved Our Dating Sim). But overall the leads didn't spend that much time together to really form a connection and looking back, I can't remember too much plot in general happening. I don't know why, but I was taken out of the action completely several times in each episode, and I was very much aware that this was a film shoot, with a set and a crew behind the camera. I was never really pulled into the story, I oftentimes didn't fully understand the dialogue and what they were even talking about (this could be the translation's fault).

I liked Ki Hyunoo as Choi Jun, but I didn't get a good feel for Lee Jun, who he was as a character, what his motivations were. Just his opinions in general. He was a very passive character, he sometimes felt like he was supposed to be a y/n insert character for the viewer. It always felt like the plot happened TO him, not that he was actually an integral part of the story. I just don't see the reason as to why three handsome, talented men would be into him. I might not like the other characters as much, but at least they had agency and were more fleshed-out characters with their own opinions, dreams, etc.

The more I think about it, the less I actually enjoyed this series. I would not recommend it.

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