I honestly do not understand all of the 10 star reviews this show got! I mean sure, it was pretty good, but the plot line and characters fell flat and undeveloped.

It felt like the "rich vs poor" trope was used in a shallow, plot-convenient way. Like why do we never actually get into the
awfulness of Torfun's death? We just glossed over the fact that the dad bought his kid's way to the top of the heart transplant list? There was a truly half-hearted effort on Tian's part of trying to get justice for Torfun. At no point in the plot does Tian even consider trying to change how rich people can pay their way to just about anything in Thailand. He never even contacts the friend that killed Torfun with his car. It was mentioned like once that his parents paid his friend out of jail. He makes no real effort to even face the injustice head-on. He barely acknowledges these facts and yet we are supposed to support the "redemption arc" of this guy? He (sort of) kills this woman, steals her literal heart, steals her job, steals her home, steals her journal, and most of all steals her (sort of) boyfriend?? How is this justice? At what point does he redeem himself? Sure, I liked Tian's character, he was likable, but he did not even attempt any sort of real justice. I believed his heart was in the right place, but that just isn't enough for a redemption.

So, we established this show isn't here to get justice. Sure, whatever, not everything has to be so deep and hard-hitting. So how was the romance? nonexistent. It was barely a bromance until like the last 20 minutes of the last episode. I didn't get any sort of attraction between the to main characters! Honestly, I really thought that Phupha was straight for the entire series. I'm still not convinced he even likes boys. I at least thought that Tian's character was pretty good and multidimensional enough, but Phupha was maybe the FLATTEST and least interesting main character I have ever seen! We learn almost nothing of his backstory, nothing about his feelings, nothing about his supposed grief for Torfun. He felt like a completely fictional character. He embodied all of the stereotypical stoic big man ideals so perfectly that they actually forgot to give him a personality! While I didn't find Earth's acting to be particularly bad, he never really delivered the idea that his character actually liked Tian for the entirety of the show. No chemistry whatsoever. I think Earth did what he could, but bad writing just can't be overcome.

They also made the choice to set this in some sort of fantasy world that never mentions the word "gay" or coming out or experiencing homophobia. This in itself isn't always bad, but this is really not the story where this works. It was trying to be hard-hitting and meaningful, yet fantastical and idealistic. They invented this fantasy world that takes place in an impoverished village in northern Thailand? The whole show is about struggling yet they don't want to talk about the struggles that gay people face.

Final thoughts: All of the suffering that the villagers go through is easily solved to further the plot and romance. Even still, the plot and romance managed to be bad. The acting wasn't horrible, the kids were actually really good. There was also wayyy too much product placement. There weren't any clear subplots or side romances. I don't recommend this show to anyone.