Reverse with Me (2025)

Not a Hater, Just my Views

The actors have great potential, and it truly showed in Episode 7. However, the overall storytelling feels a bit choppy. I believe the director didn’t fully coordinate them to bring out that potential consistently. There’s a lack of continuous flow, and some scenes don’t feel natural or logical, almost as if certain "most-viewed" moments from other dramas were replicated without fitting smoothly into the narrative.

Another issue is the pacing. By the end of each episode, there isn’t that gripping "why are you leaving us hanging?" feeling that keeps you eager for the next one. The romance also feels underdeveloped - just because one character can reverse time doesn’t mean the other will automatically remember and feel the same way. The emotional buildup between the MCs wasn’t given enough space to grow.

Overall, Reverse with Me isn’t a bad series, but it has a lot of gaps that prevent it from fully utilizing the actors' talents. With better direction and a more cohesive storyline, it could have been much more impactful.

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Where Heart Meets Haste

I read the novel of the same name, which made me really excited for this series, as I really loved the premise and the sci-fi elements (although the logic and physics behind the time travel is notably absent). It is only because I loved the novel so much, and want to give it the due diligence it deserves, that I write my review.

While it makes sense length wise to make some changes there were subtle shifts and unexplained plot emissions that left me scrambling to fill in the gaps. Moments that should have been seamless felt disconnected, like when P’Karan finds Kliao in the bathroom (in the novel, Karan is at the same venue meeting a high school friend, which explains how she saw Kliao) or when Kliao walks up to the hospital roof and sees P’Karan. In the novel, P’Karan’s presence always has clear context but the show leaves these beats unexplained, relying on the audience to make assumptions. It doesn’t detract from the narrative in my opinion, and perhaps I am too much o a pragmatist (can we talk about why Kliao leaves the front door open when she enters her home in episode 6?), but it leaves a sense that the writing stumbled and was unbalanced at times, which I think would’ve been an easy fix if there was simply more episodes to work with. I think we see this throughout the series; the first few episodes of the drama focused so heavily on the storyline of Tree and Meow when they could’ve relegated that to the background and taken the time to instead flesh out more details, such as Kliao’s relationships with her bandmates, or maybe showing a scene longer than 3 seconds with Karan and Fiat, supposed besties, interacting, I do not know. Personally, the unbalanced pacing of the series results in a reliance on the viewer having already read the novel, and while that is true in my case, I think it to be a little irresponsible for the show producers to ask the viewer to fend for themselves, without any added context for a couple of scenes that could’ve afforded to be more thoroughly explained, if they have not yet read the novel.

One specific example of this, is when Kliao’s “Edge of Universe” bandmates surprise her for her birthday and there is no attempt of introduction into the backstory of their relationship to Kilao. Although I admit, there is not much purpose in doing so, it would’ve helped to fully flesh Kliao as a character out more, rather than really only relying on her key relationships with Karan and her family to develop her character.

While I enjoyed the first 6 episodes (my main complaint about them being that not enough time was spent on developing the main relationship between Kliao and Karan), I think the poor pacing of the show manifested especially in episode 7, which should’ve been the crowning jewel of this show. Episode 7 is where everything the prior episodes were building towards is revealed, and where the deep relationship between Maitree and Karan is fully realized. While it started off great, showing us Fiat’s perspective and his motives, it quickly went downhill. I was most excited for the scene where Maitree stops time (and ultimately takes 10 years off of her own life) after saving Kliao from Fiat, which is very emotional once Karan and Kliao come to grapple with the idea that Maitree has sacrificed her own time for them. I thought the show would’ve shown Maitree actually stopping time, taking Fiat’s gun, and moving Kliao from danger. I definitely think it was something that could be possible for production, considering we have all the beautiful scenes with Karan reversing time. This was supposed to be one of the biggest and heart wrenching scenes, and I was disappointed to see that scene in the show was anticlimactic and too short. There was not enough of the drama of Maitree choosing to save Kliao for Karan, nor was there enough time to process all of the emotions that were happening; for all the time concepts the show attempts to grapple with, the producers should’ve spent more time developing the pacing of this scene rather than sacrificing this scene for the secondary plots, like the plot with Kliao and her dad. We, as the viewer, have Karan’s ability to “reverse” time and rewatch scenes, but conversely, we are not given any additional opportunities to experience the gravity of this scene, as the brevity of this scene prevents us from doing so.

While there isn’t much context and sometimes the narrative is a bit confusing at times, I think the scenes do a great job of mirroring the same complexity and confusion, yet familiarity and deja vu that Kliao feels whenever Karan turns back time (I don’t think this was intentional but I’ll give SiamSi the benefit of the doubt).

However, where the pacing of the show occasionally faltered, I thought the acting also did, which in my opinion, erred on the side of being choppy. To me, Kliao, in particular, felt unconvincing in her line delivery when interacting with characters outside of her dynamic with P’Karan (she’s supposed to be close with Meow and her bandmates, but where was that chemistry?). The person whose acting I was most convinced was Kliao’s dad, and even then, it seems he had the easiest role because honestly, acting like an asshole is a hell of a lot easier to do, than act like a dynamic character with complex emotions.

All the negative being said, I think what I enjoyed the most about "Reverse with Me" was its heart. It was refreshing to watch a drama where characters weren’t toxic, mis-communicators who only confesses their feelings while under the influence of alcohol, or make choices for others under the guise of love. The connection between Karan and Kliao felt like such a green flag as well, and a nice refreshing step away from Chao Planoy’s web of toxic, yet entertaining, characters, (which I, alongside may others, seem to have a problem with because of the way they seem to reduce and saturate depictions of wlw relationships as toxic, unhealthy, and overly reliant on intimacy) and more of a turn to an example of a healthier relationship. I think I really appreciated seeing a healthier relationship between women, because no matter how much I enjoyed the massive red flags in the characters of “Affair,” not all relationships between women are unhealthy; and it was nice to be shown a more healthy relationship as representation to the complexity in wlw relationships, although it can be argued that this is more the work of the novel, and less so of the adaptation.

Another thing I enjoyed was SiamSi's ambition and production value. For what seems to be their first production, the scale is impressive. The SFX, CGI, stunts, don’t even get me started on the beautiful OST and background music which matches the emotions of each scene (the way Edge of Universe is an actual band on streaming platforms), even the props, pleasantly surprised me. I also thoroughly enjoyed the cinematography and thought it to be balanced; breathtakingly dreamy and beautiful in romantic scenes yet grounded and more weighted in more dramatic scenes. For me, this is especially important because it helps me really believe the story that is unfolding; it makes it easier for me to see the way Kliao approaches her worldview; her scenes with Karan are dreamy and magical, which of course, reflect her feelings with Karan (which of course reflects with how we see Karan, from Kliao’s perspective), while her scenes with her family are more weighted and formal, reflecting the complex gravity and pain with her family members.

“Reverse with Me" is nowhere near perfect. The show’s acting is mid, pacing is too unbalanced, too slow at times but too fast at pivotal moments, but the show and plot itself is beautiful, ambitious, and heartfelt, something that I think is very compelling. As much as it chronicles Karan and Kliao’s love story, I can’t help but also fall just a little bit in love with the characters themselves, a somewhat parasocial relationship that has formed with me spending so much time getting to know them. For me, watching the imperfections of the drama unfold with the story of Kliao and Karan is simply a reminder that sometimes, it’s a luxury to be faced with the unflinching forwardness of time, be courageous with ourselves and the ones we love, be confident in the way things will pan out (who knows maybe we all have a Maitree), and also take joy in the little moments (because every little moment is specific to the present). For me, the imperfections in the drama are just a reminder of this same message; SiamSi might not be able to reverse time and redo some fundamental aspects of the drama, but that there are still things to enjoy.

So, if you’re a fan of fantasy and romance, or if you’re simply a fan of a fun way to spend time, I think this drama is definitely a journey worth taking. I might not share Karan’s ability to reverse events in my daily life, but I can say that “Reverse with Me” is definitely a series I will be “rewinding” and rewatching.

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