Never Let Me Go (2022)

Solid GMMTV BL

This is a very solid BL, especially considering the fact that it's from GMMTV. I enjoyed seeing Pond and Phuwin act in this drama and seeing how their acting skills have improved since Fish Upon the Sky. This drama is not light-hearted and features some unpleasant themes like the death of family members, or being outed as a gay person. But the producers made the cinematography align well with the themes, which is something they should be recognized for.
Something that I appreciate this drama for is how they did product placement. I know with GMMTV dramas the product placement scenes tend to be really obvious and take away the emotional effect of the scene. Although this drama did have a couple of product placement scenes, it didn't over-highlight the product and therefore I was still able to appreciate the scene for what it was.
To sum up, what I think of the drama as a whole, it's a toned-down version of KinnPorsche. It has the mafia, the gays, and the romance between the boss and his bodyguard.

Read More

Liked it but could've loved it

Getting the Chimon issue out of the way first. I liked how Ben was portrayed as much as any of the other characters.

In fact, I kept thinking not only would he be an absolute cutie in something fluffy but I also think he could carry a villain role. The "betrayer" type of role like the cray-cray of ThornType. Some of his eye cuts gave me villain vibes (not sure why the director/editing team left them in or why he is taking the hit for their decision).

I probably would have liked this more of it had stuck with the rich boy/poor boy storyline. Oh, and if they hadn't killed off the Mom. I AM not really into gangster flicks anyway so they could have saved all the pew-pew to the end.

Also, yet another show with absolutely crappy "bodyguards". At this point, I think I could kidnap the man. Lol.

And I always roll my eyes at the "No, don't you dare help me financially". As if turning it down proves some kind of point.

Nong in a suit, though. Mostly he was overshadowed by the pure beauty that is Pond. But standing alone, rocking a suit. Looking good, sir. Yas!!

Read More

Pondphuwin is cute okay?

First of all, I have serious trouble rewatching series but I've actually already rewatched it. Yes, the writing had its faults but the story was pretty interesting. And above all, Pondphuwin slayed. They're adorable and I actually enjoyed this series more than Fish Upon the Sky (which I binged after starting NLMG so I don't know how valid my opinion on this is). The one thing I felt was a little overkill is that the characters went through hell over and over again like there was not much reason to kill of some characters but it would've taken up too much time to not do it (Pondphuwin rocked the "I've lost everything except you"-devastation/love. At least it felt refreshing that they still chose to love and protect each other instead of fighting and leaving each other. It's worth watching just for Pondphuwin.

Read More

Interesting rewatch

So I first watched this series before we are aired but after we are I just needed more of PondPhuwin so I came back to rewatch and then I recently rewatched it towards the end of last year again and honestly the rewatch was more enjoyable than my first watch. When I first watched it I was in a hurry for some reason I didn’t sit through the entire episodes and definitely did not sit through when the screen switched to others it was more of like me satisfying myself with the little PondPhuwin scenes there were and initially Phuwin’s character was annoying….Neungdiao I thought he over acted a lot and such but my first rewatch I understood his character better but then comes my second rewatch WOW there were so SO SO many things I missed on my previous watches firstly Neungdiao is NOT annoying his situation is quite serious and if I were him I wld have been a thousand times worser, secondly I used to find Palm(Pond) doing the servant part of his character a bit too hard but when I rewatched….hey he’s actually so real for that he’s calm composed straight to the point and setting his limits and very duty minded that’s actually kinda..why he kinda….anyways this leads me to my third point I thought Neungdiao casually accepted Palm’s kiss because of the timing and he only started liking him afterwards…..but no I was wrong I must have missed the point but Neungdiao already liked Palm way before that since the start….it was obvious from the way he cared for him helping him in class being shocked he really went all out to protect him coming into his room and feeling jealous n protective over him and after kissing chimon thinking about palm like help….he never liked chimon and he said so himself when palm kissed him like how did I miss that it just made things sweeter and then comes them running away taking refuge it was the best part in the series really cute n shit by then they already somewhat knew they liked each other but obviously the financial difference really was a big obstacle n I truly understood that but that’s what makes this sweeter true love isn’t easy it’s something that is achieved through hardships and backlashes and prevails even when challenged I quite came to love Perth in this series he is an actor with potential I actually loved the dark plot of this series to those who are planning to watch piece of advice(don’t skip through don’t necessarily over analyse but pick up on some details) those who watched…rewatch it when ur in a calm n relaxed mood don’t rush through don’t skip through don’t watch it tensed

Read More

everything is going to absolute shit and Nueng and Palm are just being gay on some goofy ass island

I am doing average right now because I watched the show Hella Spread Out. I watched Ephesians 7–12 in the past day, and for the rest, I don't know how long it has been since I have seen them. The average is 8.5833 stars out of 10 stars, and I rounded down to 8.5 stars out of 10 stars. Okay, let's do this fast because I have to get ready for work. And I have no idea what my headline is going to be. if anything is spelled wrong, that's my bad.

Starting off, I absolutely hated Nuengdiao. He was unlikable and just getting on my nerves. I understood why he has no friends and no one likes him. Palm was very chill and just kind of took all of Nueng's sh*t at the beginning. This was a lot for me to process from the start. I could already tell these two were going to clash, and at first I had no idea how they were even going to get together. I started this on May 7, 2023. Which is always fun.

The second episode was way better than the first one. It filled a lot of the plot holes that the first episode left open. That's the point of episodes, but whatever. I started to understand Nuengdiao more, who he was, and where he was coming from. I am obsessed with the contrast between Pond and Phuwin's voices; it was just smooth, and I loved it. It really added to the characters and plot so much. I was watching this instead of doing homework, lol.

The episodes start to get better the more we get to know the characters. Palm and his thick skull were breaking chairs. Palm is actually really strong because theres a lot of times where any normal person would have actually just given up and just died It's me; I am a normal person. He was apparently dazed in Episode 3, and I thought it was the best part of the episode. clearly not that good if I can't remember it.

I have no idea where episode 4 is. Found it. I couldn't remember anything because it had been a month since I watched Episode 3. I said that Nuengdiao is the mofo with no friends because he's a little bitch. Which isn't technically wrong. Palm is his boy guard, which is real. I think I meant body guard, but boy guard works too. I couldn't remember if Chopper was his cousin or if he was the guy who had a crush on him. Which is valid. Ben was for real getting on my nerves with his shit, my god.

Fuck ben. He is a pussycat for not telling the truth to his dad. Everything is somehow his fault—not really, but I am blaming him for every single thing that went wrong after episode 5. He was fueling Nueng's violence and vilian era, which sadly never happened. I was praying that Tanya lived because I loved her so much. Ben's dad saying that Nueng was gay because his dad died was so fucking annoying. Your son is gay too, and you aren't dead? Shut up. I got back into the show because Nueng became way more tolerable, and I started to love him so much.

I'm still hoping that Tanya didn't die because she actually didn't even want that. It started to become obsessive that Nueng had a thing for palm, and I am glad they didn't make it where Nueng was only gay for palm because I hate that trope. He was just gay and liked the palm. That's always fun. Nueng was trusting people to easily, and that was his downfall in all of this. And Palm started to have a thing for Nueng, and it was past work at that point. But he was trying to keep it professional because workplace romance never works out for anyone in the end, especially the employee.

Bark like you want It was there song. I felt terrible for Palms dad because he was just trying to protect his son and his boss. "Everything is going to absolute shit, and Nueng and Palm are just being gay on some goofy ass island." That hit. That might be my headline, lol. Phuwin's visuals are beautiful, and I love him.

They were in the honey moon phase for like one episode, and then the fact they were on the actual run kicked them in the face. the ATM exposed them and where they were. Nueng was turning around and becoming a good person. It's good for him to be honest. Palm has a serious temper; I didn't realize that until I saw the sh*t he was pulling. They were very much in love, and the whole world came to kick their asses.

We had their first break up with them leaving each other. I hate Nueng's uncle; he was getting on everyone's nerves for real, and everyone was blaming poor Chopper. I felt bad for everyone involved besides Uncle Kit or whatever his stupid name was.

That guy at the end said you really thought they would stay happy. Bam. Nueng, Chopper, and Palm are slowly having villains made out of them. With the parents dying in front of them or being hella corrupted. They are having villains made out of them.

Probably the best episode 11 I have ever seen. Chopper, come get you, daddy. They are going to have a palm at gunpoint, and he is going to sign it. Then Tanya or Chopper, is going to step in. These are the predictions. I love Nueng and Palm; they are actually so cute. I love me some fake boyfriend turned real boyfriend.

My predictions were half right for this one. A pretty mid-end to an actually really good show. I was eating this show up at the beginning, but I ended up falling flat on my face for all the characters and everything. They broke up and got back together so much that it wasn't even funny. I need to get ready for work, but I am going to write this review. I am surprised Nueng didn't become a Viliian; he watched his dad die in front of him and his mom get shot and put into a coma. He watched his lover's mom die in front of him; he wanted his uncle to get shot, and then he watched his uncle shoot his lover. I am glad he ended up being good, but that would have been such a good villain origin story, lol.

These last two are my reviews for the episodes because I am a lazy fucker and have to go to work, but I love everyone in this. This was fun, but had a pretty mid-ending. cant way to watch the our skyy. I would recommend it, it's funny. There's not a dull moment with these two. Okay bye!

Read More

Easy to watch but doesn't mean it was flawless

Right off the bat a lot of the story didn't make sense but somehow from episodes 1-9, I found it super easy to watch. Mostly because there was more 'telling' than showing so conflicts, emotions, etc. moved at a quick pace. Episodes 10-12 became extremely hard to watch and took me four days to complete. Despite it being nice and easy to watch, the show had many, many flaws. But I'll only list the four biggest ones otherwise I'd be here all day.

1. The setting; a public high school for rich kids or kids whose parents have good connections. Wtf
2. The characters are supposedly high school seniors, 18/19, but act like uni dropouts. For instance, underage drinking wasn't considered an issue as there were multiple drinking scenes
3. The leads' relationships with their parents fell far from reality. Towards the end, Palm talks about how his mother was dead and he had this questionable(?) smile on his face. I swear if there weren't English subs, I would have thought he was talking about how nice the weather was. I understand that the hospital was far away, but Palm made no effort whatsoever to save his mother and just abruptly declared that she was dead. That would be understandable if we saw him check for a pulse, or listen for any breathing or a heartbeat but we saw none of that and he did none of that. Instead, he screamed 'mom' 10 times and shook her arm a few times and somehow the show believes that's good enough to convince us this 18/19 y.o. knows when a human being who's just been shot is really dead?? Okay, Dr. Teenager.
4. Why did a French and Chinese gay couple decide Thailand was the perfect place to get married when it's not legal in the first place...?

Finally. Rather than saying 'Yay everything's been resolved, let's overwhelm our audience with happy love scenes from our leads' the show took that 'No we need a separation to show that the leads really do love each other but just didn't think they were good enough together' route. That might have been fine but the leads were literally separated in the final episode for a little over 10 minutes, not to mention during those 10 minutes, they played a 2-minute and 20-ish seconds flashback of Diao and Palm together! It didn't feel like they were separated, it felt like they had made plans for an island getaway but Diao had to delay his flight a day or two for some last-minute business meeting. Unlike its strong opening, it had a weak ending. A lot of their conversations at the end also fell flat and contradicted a lot of what they said and did in previous episodes.

Read More

glad i didn't let go

the perfect casting + the perfect plot + the perfect acting + the perfect storyline = the perfect drama. from the first second till the last, i was into it.

it was the first time i saw perth acting in a gmmtv drama (i know him since LBC, which is a wabi sabi drama) and the first time seeing chimon. they both did a great job! perth's acting on beyond words.

pond and phuwin also got better, since FUTS! it looked more natural, spontaneous. phuwin looks more confident, more comfortable in front of cameras. they both (pond and phuwin) did really good at portraying their characters' emotions and feelings. when they were sad, you were sad. when they were happy, you were happy, etc. i also loved how they made dancing their thing!

the colors were pretty, the atmosphere was heavy and calming at the same time. what about the cinematography ? insane.

the only thing that stopped me from rating this 10/10 is that part with the couple at the bar, on the island (wu/david). making them interact with the main couple at the bar, why not. but what's the point of creating a story for them ? i didn't understand how it could be useful in the storyline, knowing it didn't have any impact on the main couple. that just made me cringe, to be honest.

but anyways, "never let me go" goes immediately on my top 5 best dramas ever! it really deserves a lot more, the cast and the storyline are literally perfect.

Read More

and i still want to know what grade they Got for the chinese class paper

Overall it is a nice Story to watch, also there are sometimes logical failures (like nueng drives the motocycle while Holding the break ) and the feeling like some scenes have been skipped....
the "i love you and never leave you" but then both of them decide to Do exactly what they promised Not to Do part was very tiering for me. Also the acting from the mother could have been more motherly , the facial expression was sometimes a bit hard/Cold.
but i liked watching the Show as a whole also i still want to know weich grade they get for their work in the chinese class.

Read More

Worth the time spent; I especially loved Nueng's character evolution.

For some reason, my impression of this series in the past year was that it is boring and poorly acted (based on random reviews in the YouTube comment sections of various other BL shows). I finally gave this a chance only because I didn't know what else to watch.

Overall, the story is satisfying and worth the time spent. It reminds me a bit of Not Me (plot-wise), which I really liked. I especially loved episode 9, which was when I realized how much more effectively this series uses music, compared to most other BL shows.

Probably just a pet peeve (and I hardly know much about writing stories), but although "show, don't tell" is a pretty solid rule to stick by, at least a couple of times, I was irritated by the use of flashbacks when what was being shown could have simply been said naturally as part of an ongoing conversation. It was jarring and felt out of place. I barely remember now but I think one of those scenes was of Nueng talking with his mother in the hospital after she regained consciousness.

Original review @ YouTube comment section of ep 12 4/4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20Q6ZWJX4fk)

Read More

This review contains spoilers

Never Let me Go was kind of a mess for a character-driven viewer like me.

Its cinematography, camera language, colour grading, editing and choice of music were all really good. The drama was a sight to behold most of the times.

But I personally found the drama lacking when it comes the writing and the acting which are - to me - the backbone of a show.

Writing-wise, I lost count of the plotholes and the number of times the story made no sense - there are many examples of such occurrences in the comments.

Worse in my book (because I'm unfortunately used to suspending my rational thinking when watching dramas), the characters were sometimes inconsistently written, Nuengdiao particularly, who was at times shown as someone who knew how to easily navigate the dark side of being from a wealthy/influential family (when he used his influence and connections to get Palm's mom and dad released for example) and at times being completely incompetent or unknowledgeable at it (when he did nothing at all to prepare for his uncle's attack in the second part of the show, though he knew it was coming).

Some actions also made no sense from a character's point of view (such as Nuengdiao enjoying himself on an island with Palm while not knowing his shot-to-death mother's condition, or the way Palm announced his mom's death to his father, not even taking him apart to tell him the news, not even taking any caution while doing so).

Acting-wise, I know Phuwin and Pond didn't have a lot to work with, given the way their characters are written, but I still think their acting needs improving, especially Pond's in highly emotional scenes. Nonetheless, their chemistry is great.

Relationship-wise, I could never quite truly engage with Palm and Nuengdiao's relationship. There's being boyfriends and there's being actually willing to sacrifice your life for one another, and I never quite understood how we got from one to the other. I also constantly felt like the show was telling me one thing (how their relationship was epic, one of kind, unbreakable despite the challenges etc.) and showing me another (Nuengdiao and Palm breaking up two times instead of working through their difficulties, or failing to work as a team in high-pressure circumstances). I also would have loved the show to work its romance more within the plot because some romantic scenes of the last eps (the restaurant scene for example) felt really tonally jarring to me in the context of an imminent attack from Nuengdiao's uncle. All in all, I never felt Nuengdiao and Palm were the mythical OTP they advertised.

Read More

Just here for the nature shots!

The only reason I finished this series is because of the AMAZING nature shots. The view of the mountains and all the greenery were absolutely stunning. I wish I could get a video of just that!

The acting/story
The acting was ehh okay but not great. Pond and Phuwin are both good actors, but I felt like the story line just couldn’t let them shine. They had more chemistry behind the scenes. It seems odd that the story was so blah, because the director and writers all have good dramas under their belts. But this drama just seemed lacking.

I liked the “bodyguard” troupe, but I felt the story was rushed with unnecessary details that took the up the place of a steady storyline. They tried to fit too much into the series with out focusing on how the flow went.

The soundtrack was okay, nothing special.

Rewatch value
2 stars… only because the cinematography and maybe because I like Pond and Phuwin. But it would be at the bottom of my rewatch list.

The our sky sequel episodes was a little better but not much.

Read More