The Heart Killers

Can't Do it....

Okay, before I even get into the actual review, let me just say this real quick: Peter Tuinstra, the man you fucking are. If there was one reason to continue to watch this series, it'd be so that I can watch this beautiful specimen walk across my screen and bless the rest of my week. Quite literally, and I mean this so literally; that is the finest man over 50 I've ever seen, ever. Like ever. Okay, anyways, back to the actual review.

So in conclusion, I can not finish this. I got to episode 8, and I think that's where it'll end for me. I told myself not to try and finish anything that I'm feeling myself force my way through, and THK happens to be one of them.

Let's Dive In.

Throughout the entire series, there has been a very large disconnect for me. I don't know if it's the writing, the directing, the acting, I don't know what it is, but there is just a certain something that is so totally off with this series that makes it hard to genuinely enjoy. For instance: in some lines of dialogue, there are these weird pauses. It's like a character will say something and then the reaction or the delivery of dialogue from the other person is delayed. And it happens a lot, and once I noticed it, I couldn't un-notice it, and it bothered me a lot. Eventually, I got use to it, and it got a little better.

The begin is a little tedious to get through up until maybe episode 3-4. I start to really enjoy it, mostly Fadel and Style's relationship, but they get together, and it goes downhill from there. Bison and Kant's story never really piqued my interest. To be honest, from both couples, I had no idea how or why they were falling for one another. It was also extremely obvious Kant and Style were spies. One day, you just happen to see the dude you've hooked up with once everywhere, and then his friend happens to go and fall for your brother and follow him everywhere? Obviously, some logistic just aren't suppose to make sense. But it's aggravatingly annoying how then Fadel's sent a text saying, "yeah they're the spies", Well, no fucking shit. On the plus side, the NC scene and kiss scenes are so nicely done, that I can get why someone would just watch just for that.

Moving on to the nit-pick, right off the bait, episode one, they shoot somebody and it looks like red water is pouring out extremely slowly from a man just shot twice in the chest. Same with all the wounds and blood throughout the series, just so so bad. And this is GMMTV, they can do better, I promise you they can.


But here's my biggest problem of them all: The audio. The audio. The audio. The audio. In episode one alone, the audio was so outrageously bad that I notice it instantly. And of course, when I notice, I can't un-notice. This bad audio is throughout the series. Mumbled, overexposed, too much outside noises, etc. If there's anything I'm more disappointed in, it's the audio. Nothing out of GMMTV should be this bad, good lord.

Ratings:

Story: 7/10 - parts of the story are what keep you engaged, but the problem is the story is just not working for me, at all. But I Peter gets 5 out of the seven stars.

Acting: 8/10 - good. Actually, I'm not even that big of a fan of Dunk and Joong, mostly as a pairing, but I think I enjoyed them the most in this. Of course, Khaotung and First are just brilliant actor and took a tired script and made it work.

Music: 7/10 - Mostly music/songs sung in english. Distracting once I noticed, but didn't hate it.

Recommendation value: 5/10 - Peter. Watch for peter. There's a scene where he is nearly naked sweating in a sauna. Please. Please watch for that.

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The Common Sense Killers.....

I have no idea what hex this show put on me to keep me watching for 9 episodes because it is simply one of the most nonsensical stories I have ever seen. Although, I will admit that sometimes the lack of basic sense did make me smile.....so basically it was just a slight guilty pleasure I guess.

I normally do a pros and cons list with reviews because I think it gets my ideas across the best, but I think just explaining the nonsense will express my thoughts far better than if I just put them in a simple list.

The Hitman Aspect: I cannot believe how little sense there is put into the kills that the duo commit; I audibly asked "where are there gloves at?" because you would think that professional HITMEN would be more discreet and at least have the decency to buy latex gloves when touching murder locations and dead bodies. Then there is the issue of them murdering in pretty public areas....they were gonna shoot a man at a party venue with CHILDREN AROUND. See, I wouldn't have an issue with them being morally gray enough to murk a guy around child witnesses except for the fact that this show looooves to force the idea that Fadel and Bison aren't actually that bad of people. Despite the fact that they murder people......which would constitute them as serial killers.....the issue of moral dilemmas of whether their victims deserved it or not could have been truly interesting and thought provoking, but there doesn't seem to be much room for depth in that aspect of the show. Maybe I'm just being too harsh with my expectations since I've recently joined in with the resurfacing Dexter Frenzy and been stuck on a Dexter high.

The Handling of Morality: This part may have been my least favorite because I could not fathom why it felt like they were trying to push the audience to thinking that Bison was justified in KIDNAPPING AND THREATENING KANT and not to mention how he even "joked" about killing Kant's little brother to Kant's face as well. In addition, Bison got so heated over Kant having a pushy previous hookup pop up in his life uninvited and his fuss over Kant not disclosing the fact that he used to steal cars in his past years before meeting Bison. Like, Kant stole cars to PROVIDE for him and his little brother when they were emotionally and financially distraught after the sudden death of both of their parents;
Bison: "but why did you not tell meeee??? Do you not value me????"
Me: YOU MURDER PEOPLE
-and not him acting all victim about Kant not disclosing this past and him working as a police informant to be able to continue to provide for his brother after blud literally CHOSE not to tell Kant himself that he MURDERS PEOPLE!!! I know this sounds like a Kant apologist review, but I swear I have beef with him soon too.
+ can we talk about how poorly that scenario of the pedophile gym teacher was handled??? It was good that they portrayed the guy as a creep and scumbag, but it felt too cartoony and it felt like it was supposed to be semi-comedic. I simply did not care for how they just let him walk away without notifying the authority or school board either.

The Characters:

Kant: he started off interesting as it could have been really touching to see his sense of morality decline as he begins to sympathize with a killer despite knowing that the police are backing him to arrest said killer if he or his brother become targets instead. It could also have been compelling to see Kant feeling a subtle sense of sympathy for Bison committing crime because he himself committed crime when he was younger as a means to survive; this could cause Kant to assume the best of Bison's intent and feel he must be forced into the kind of life also.....but it just turned into a battle of 'which crime is worse', which is serial murder; obviously. He also always felt kind of detached from his brother, so much so that it seemed like he only cared about Bison over his own brother and best friend; style. Oh boy, where do I begin with this? This man set his friend up with a LITERAL SERIAL MURDERER yet never told him this until it was already too late. I could not fathom how Style stayed his friend after this.....like is bro's car THAT attractive to you? Enough to forgive him POSSIBLY SACRIFICING YOUR LIFE???? But then they try and force this whole "Kant puts his friend's life before his own" in episode 8 and I was just not believing it. Miss me with that bs.

Bison: I honestly feel conflicted about him. It felt like his character was all over the place with how I was supposed to view him: was he the sultry assassin? Was he the pouty little brother with a shotgun older brother? Was he a possessive and unhinged lover that would point a gun at his not-even-yet boyfriend's ex-hookup? Was he a secretly kind soul that wanted out of the daunting hitman life? Was he the guy that wanted to dominate Kant extensively? Or was he just the guy that wanted to eternally play victim and find new ways to make Kant look worse than him despite their VERY differing circumstances? I really didn't know what to think of him because I thought that the mischievous and sexy counterpart of him was encaptivating, and I saw the slight glimpses behind the curtain to a better version of the show whenever he acted unhinged and wielded a gun around. I personally believe he would have been far more of a favorite of mine and unique in BL Land if they stopped tip-toeing around him being morally ambiguous and just dived head-in with his mood swings and femme fatale vibe. I love characters like that, and lord knows that Khaotung could pull it off with his dazzling innocent face portraying a sexy and alluring bad boy. But no....we instead got a mismatch of different personas that just couldn't mash together well at all. I lament over what could have been for his character.

Style: he was a glorified stalker. I mean I did appreciate how he seemed the least morally questionable out of the central 4, but I still had to question why they wanted to root for him getting the guy when his preferred methods were intense stalking and harassment. Oh and his intent was to use Fadel in order to get his (undeserving of the title) best friend's family heirloom car. He did make me laugh at times so I can at least admit I appreciated that, but I also could not believe him when he said he was a stud that got tons of bitches; like, where??? I think it might have been because the actor couldn't portray that charisma, but I'm not certain. I also don't the reveal to him about Fadel being a killer was before he found out last second. I thought it would have made things far more interesting to see Style grapple with that fear and made the show seem 100% more serious. To be fair, Style does act scared at first when he finds out from Kant, but for all of 5 minutes. It also didn't help that in the following episodes his fear was hard to believe because of the acting performance. He just seemed like an oblivious guy that had zero survival skills whatsoever other than to try to rizz up his captor at the worst times.

Fadel: he was my favorite out of the 4, but that's not saying much to be honest. I liked the way his actor portrayed him and I thought that Fadel's rare smiles were the closest this show ever got to 'killing my heart'. He also seemed to have the most logic in the beginning, which I respected. We needed a voice of reason in this kind of plot.....but then we lost him......to the forced romance. I liked how he didn't give in to the persistent and clingy Style at first because he honestly had to no reason to, but once he did, he lost his air of maturity and it felt like his caution was compromised to him now saying the bs of "I trust you 80%" like, huh? I would not trust a manic stalker even 2%.... so they washed away his paranoid nature and replaced it with him not wanting to fool the two dudes into thinking his brother and him are head over heels for them only to THEN PLAN TO KILL THEM LIKE 2 DAYS LATER LIKE WHAT WAS EVEN THE POINT THEN!? The fooling was so obvious that even the lovesick Kant could see through that ish; but I digress.


Now onto the ***Romance***: I hated it. Okay, that's too harsh; I disliked it. It felt waaaaay too forced, and if there is one thing I hate more than anything in a romance it is a FORCED romance. That and obnoxious miscommunications like when a character finds out they are ill and decides to make their lover hate them and then skip town instead of simply working through it with them like a functioning couple would (side-eyeing The Story of Pearl Girl with that one). What can I say, I'm a sucker for slow-burns. I also didn't understand why Kant fell for Bison the way he did or why Fadel would even give Style the time of day to the point that Style was able to bounce back from finding out his lover is a SERIAL KILLER within DAYS. I also thought that the whole BDSM stuff between Kant and Bison was super cringe and not sexy at all. I'm not even dissing including BDSM, it's just that this portrayal was less appetizing than 50 Shades of Gray's was. I also didn't see why Fadel beating Style up right after they slept together was necessary. I'm not even a hater of them adding questionable aspects to relationships if it fits within a story's narrative (in which I believe it could have here if they were faithful to the idea of hitmen leading double lives and finding out their lovers lied to them and used them), but it just felt like a random reason to include abuse to the red flags of Fadel x Style. I think there are better ways to deal with a petty stalker that has negative rizz than to beat them up. Just felt like needless violence in a show that somehow needed more thought-out violence in it. Funny how that works, huh?


Now onto other aspects:
Acting: First and Khaotung are always excellent, I'm sure they were here too, I just couldn't fully experience it because I was too busy rolling my eyes at the absurdity of how their characters were written. I do still love them in other works a lot though, and I suspect I'll be watching many more shows of them. This was the first show of Joong and Dunk I had ever seen, so I have no idea how much they have improved (though I've read from others that it is quite a lot), though I really have to compliment Joong in this. I really liked his portrayal of Fadel and Fadel's strict attitude and rare instances of sorrow and joy. They were the closest I ever came to feeling legit anything of respect for any of the characters. Dunk on the other hand was not that good in this role. I will admit he did have some funny moments, but I just could not for the life of me see his supposed "charm" he loved to boast so much about. Maybe that was supposed to be the point and it just went over my head, but I still think there is no excuse for the unbelievable emotional scenes from him. I couldn't tell if I was tuning in to an abusive relationship or a comedic bit; it was that jarring. He is still gorgeous though and I mean no hate to him as I have hope he will genuinely improve as his acting career goes on.

Music: it was alright. Not too astounding, nor too underwhelming. It just was. I do remember that a single song did make me start to dance a little bit though, so it's slightly above average for me.

Production: it could look pretty good at times like when Bison was seducing the target in episode 1, then look unappealing like whatever episode 8 had going on. I don't know how they managed to make an island set look unattractive to me, but they did. I probably just got my hopes up after the beauty that was I Told Sunset About You's island sets. It gave me whiplash with how much I thought certain scenes had downgraded, along with the shaky camera angles that were not evoking the tension in me they were probably expecting. It's a shame that the most appealing sets were the ones in clubs that only appeared once in a Vanitas blue moon.

Plot: you already know how I feel about this if you've read this far faithfully. No extra words are needed to express my disappointment with this clusterfuck of missed potential and poor character writing.

Rewatch Value: I could only really see myself rewatching this in the future as a drinking game with my friends or sibling as a means to waste time together. We would not be there with the expectation of enjoyment of the main plot.




In conclusion: I don't think I'll ever pick this show back up again unless I planned to skim the last three episodes like I did with episode 9. It was that much of a disappointment that it's left a bad aftertaste in my mouth. Yet another shining example of a romance plot that could have been more if they dipped a little less into cliche romance tropes and a little more into a mature concept that includes romance as a subplot rather than the main plot. Thank you to anyone that listened to this TedTalk lmao. I yapped a bit too much. Sheeeeesh.

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Those in the writing room… yall pmo

What I liked:
First and Khao ate down as per usual, they are in a league of their own. I loved Bison’s emotions and how he feels everything so strongly and Khao emulates that as an actor so well. From looking in love, to crying, to doing both at the same time he really was the standout in this show. First also did so well and I loved how well he showcased the back and forth emotions Kant was feeling.

Episode 8 was really good because of Kant and Bisons journey to being vulnerable with each other again and that leads me to a probably controversial opinion… I wish the show was only centered on Kant and Bison which I know was probably not possible because it was based on a book I think but a girl can dream.

What I did not like:
Now don’t get me wrong Joong did really well and Dunk’s acting was not as bad as some are saying but his character lacked little to no depth and I get he was meant to be comedic relief but it just got so boring after a while. The dynamic between Style and Fadel was so surface level with little depth and given Khao and First’s performance it was definitely a disservice to the show. I wish Style’s character had more to him something that really grabbed my attention but it was meh.

The show would switch between really good to amateur hour and don’t get me started on whoever is in charge of the music because why is it the one scene we get of Style crying you have this goofy track in the background. That scene also did not match Style’s energy at all and I don’t get the point of it because that man barely showed fear.

Anyway GMMTV continues to piss me off into 2025 so what’s new.

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I did not like so much

When I found out that it would be inspired by Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, I immediately set off alarm bells. I thought, what does this story have to do with criminals and gays? The funny about this is story it's a woman who doesn't want to do what all women were supposed to do at the time: get married and have children.

Well, speaking of the story itself, another story full of holes and boring/weak plots from GMMTV. I hope they wake up this year because the competition is knocking on the door. Another thing is that they should sponsor acting classes for their actors. In several scenes I caught myself thinking I'm better than Dunk. It gets complicated, but I'm glad that's over because there were no more stories to tell. People keep discussing situations that I think have nothing to do with sex. Having or not having kissing scenes doesn't make a story better or worse. It's pure puritanism. Can someone watch two or four gays and want to be a puritan?

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Wasted potential

The idea of the story was really nice but I guess besides the idea not much work was put into making script actually interesting.
Both couples are popular and good looking and they both usually have good chemistry on screen so proper script would make it a hit.
Instead I got kinda disappointed. Either this story doesn't fit them or maybe they didn't have enough time to properly record some scenes but bdsm FirstxKhao scene seemed so cringe that I couldn't watch it. I was actually bored of overusing s*x plots without any build up. It felt like director was just thinking "we need to show them "having sex" a lot and then we will add bdsm so it will sell". I should have checked the director tho. He also made Only Friends and apparently wanted to stick to "sex" concept. Well some people will like it probably but for me it lacks depth. Therefore although both couples are one of my favourites I dropped the series. I hope I'll be able to see them in another one with better story.

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i love this episode!!!

I really like this episode!!! because there's a lot of cuteness in episode two. still with Kant trying to get Bison, Style is still trying to make Fadel melt to him. i like how persistent Style is in following Fadel everywhere. KantBison also gives us a sweet scene, which makes us feel blushing. when I saw the scene where Kant felt jealous of Bison because Bison was with another man (Tawan) I felt scared because in that scene Kant was quite scary. I really really liked it when the two of them danced at the bowling alley, I felt the cuteness in this scene, I also laughed at it. But, when I found out that Kant was deliberately pretending to be jealous when he saw Bison and Tawan, and paid Tawan for it... I was annoyed!!! but I understood, because Kant was on a mission and it couldn't be that fast for him to really like Bison and I hope bison doesn't fall in love with kant too soon, BECAUSE I LOVE BISON SO MUCH!!! I don't want my son to get hurt because of a man!!!
And in this episode FadelStyle is hot and sexy. I love the scene in the Sauna, I can feel how awkward Fadel feels but also can't resist Style's treatment. AND HERE STYLE IS SO HOT!!! GOOD JOB DUNK!!!
until the closing scene of the episode, I was quite surprised to see Fadel's scene in his room (I can't explain it) but I really understand why he is like that, because... who can resist the charm of Style?!!

I'm really waiting for more scenes between Kant and Babe, Bison and Fadel also Kant and Style. I want to know more about their relationship.

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Something different from GMMTV...

Sometimes there is a mircale and GMMTV does take a risk and does something different. The first couple Kant & Bison did not catch most of the viewers, because it was not a romantic meeting of two persons. Kant did approach Bison for a reason, because he had a deal with the police and he wanted to clear his name. While Bison was fully in it from the beginning, Kant was just a calculating bastard :) The other couple if different. While Style did it first to get a car and help Kant, he pursued Fadel on his own after a while. Something klicked and he did forget the car and was serious for a change.

I would say Khaotung delivered a top notch performance, while First was mostly solid. Joong did the most usual as in any other show (starting off distant) and Dunk was much improved even when his over-acting sometimes was annoying and cringe. But this is only from the view of their relationsships. As hitmen they did not deliver at all.

Other than that, the story of the "Mom" was a bit shallow and not very indepth. It was over in an episode and I don't know I felt underwhelmed. The rest was ok, production quality was, as usual, excellent. Other than that I had not much connection to the whole show... something felt a bit off. I can't explain it, but I was not really in it. For me it was ok, the NC scenes were of course what the fangirls expected and they did not disappoint. Some people will of course tell you, that this is the best show ever, but of course, it's not. I guess lazy writing prevails which is typically in GMMTV tradtion. It's ok and GMMTV did take a risk, but I guess it payed off. At least for the actors it was a good development not playing the same stuff all over again, which I think is positive, but the story itself is lacking.

Edit: Also the tattoos are lacking... especially when you compare with people with real tattoos, so that was also a cost optimizing option to use foils instead painting.

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I was exposed to dramatic idiocity....

"I was exposed to dramatic idiocity...." is a phrase in my native language that used a lot when you watch something or actions of characters that DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE in terms of logic, behavior and even physics.

This drama is lacking in terms of acting (one main lead + many supporting actors), scriptwriting and directing

I'll just examples from the last episode that i just watched (from end to beginning of this episode):-
1- why fadel seemed like he fall out of love with style? that's very OOC. even when style was playing and teasing him, it felt like fadel was forced to kiss him back even though he told style that he loves him.
2- when they asked mom how did she get out and she told them by money, the question is where did she have money? cuz she told 'em that she lost everything, so where she had the money? didn't the police seized everything? or did she have offshore account? And how did she access it from the prison?
3- when mom told style's dad and babe that fadel and bison ard criminals, why they didn't give a reaction? and when kant and style say "kill me instead of them" why they didn't do anything?!!!! At least say "no P' don't do this"....

That's some examples in ONE EPISODE, and definitely the direction was bad, too many unnecessary close shots and i don't know how khun jojo accept those scenes
I didn't see any depth in this series sadly
Khun dunk, if you want to continue in this industry, pls take one year rest and go to intensive acting courses. Your very slight acting improvement won't make you succeed all the time. If you want to make a name for you forever, take my advice. If you just want to make money, ignore it.

I overall give it 6.5 just for style (not dunk), style is one of characters that i will never forget.
Style, if you out in this world, can we pls go out for a date?

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