Dare You to Death

Lower your expectations

(PSA: ALWAYS check the premiere dates and compare them with the dates of those glowing 10 star reviews if you want honest feedback. Some reviewers claim they have watched ALL the episodes even though the series has barely started. Do yourself a favor and go to the their review history. 🚩🚩🚩 red flags if you see only ONE review about said drama)

Lower your expectations when it comes to the storyline and overall storytelling. True crime series from Thailand often lack the budget and technical resources needed to deliver a gripping and polished crime drama. However, the issue is not only about production limitations. Some of the narrative decisions are questionable from a logical standpoint.

For example, how can someone calmly enjoy a relaxing bubble bath after receiving a ToD note, especially when their friends who received the same notes have already died? Moments like this make it difficult to stay immersed in the story. You have to ask yourself whether a writer who makes this kind of logical choice can truly deliver a compelling true crime drama.

There are no particularly engaging deductions, detailed forensic analysis, or tightly constructed investigative threads to elevate the tension. If you switch off your critical thinking and watch it purely as light entertainment, you may find it more enjoyable.

Overall, it was a poorly written I-Know-What-You-Did-Last-Summer wannabe mess.

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A mix of Scream and Saw with a mediocre result.

I honestly don't understand why GMM-TV insists on creating series with darker themes if they're going to stop halfway through to throw in a joke and have the characters kissing.

What's scary here isn't the killer but the weak acting and shallow protagonists who never convince in their roles as detectives. It's the extremely low-level production that delivers lazy cinematography, uncertain direction and a soundtrack incapable of evoking a feeling of terror.

And worst of all, the series had immense potential that is absurdly wasted by a script that doesn't know if it wants to be a silly romance between cops or a murder mystery.

For this series to work, it needed to invest a little more time in the other characters and better explore the dramas, secrets, fights, and betrayals between them.

Only then could we care minimally about their deaths. But the series follows an almost puritanical path, where all the bad characters are punished and killed for their sins.

And it's a valid path to follow but here it's developed in a rushed and secondary way, since the focus is on a bland romance that feels out of place in the story.

Their first kiss is right after a murder scene and that says everything you need to know about this series.

At no point do they manage to evoke even the slightest feeling of mystery, tension, danger, or fear.

The final revelation of the killer could have been good but there's no build-up to get there. The intrigues and discussions that the letters could have brought (by making the characters choose who should die) are sidelined and poorly utilized. The detectives are a joke and discover nothing throughout the entire series. The secondary characters have zero development. The deaths are creative but the cinematography is so bad that everything has an amateurish and low-quality feel.

There are so many mistakes, so many problems, and after watching Goddess Bless You from Death, this series feels like a childish version that tries at all costs to be dark and edge but only ends up being embarrassing.

An absurdly wasted potential. And a waste of time too.

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The crime part is interesting, but the romance part is very lackluster

The 'crime story part' of this drama is actually kinda captivating. I really wanted to know who the murderer is and what their motives are - it's the reason why I wanted to finish the series. Unfortunately, the 'love story part' of the drama is not very well executed. The main characters seem awkward and there is zero chemistry between them. I have seen this pair in other series before, so I know they can do much much better... I think it's a combination of bad acting and bad directing here. There are also quite a few illogical details in the drama when it comes to their police work and to their private lives... GMMTV really needs to enhance their productions!

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What The Hell is This...

Sigh, Oh JoongDunk, when will there be a series of yours that I can enjoy and/or not drop? We still haven’t crossed that threshold, and Dare You to Death has done absolutely nothing to help. Instead, we get inept cops doing a spectacularly terrible job at preventing a group of college students from dying in a murderous game of Truth or Dare, paired with some of the weakest chemistry I’ve ever seen between JD.

Let's Dive In.

Dare You to Death was my least anticipated GMMTV series of 2025, and... oh look at that, I was right!

Contrary to popular belief (or at least based on any JD series I’ve rated or dropped), I actually really enjoy both of these actors in real life. I think a big part of their appeal comes from their personalities individually and the dynamic they share off-screen. I haven’t always been sold on them as an on-screen pairing, and unfortunately this series hasn’t changed that for me. What has grown over the years is my respect for them as performers and their call-outs to some of the most annoying, crazed fans in the BL fandom. What hasn’t changed is my frustration with the roles and stories they’re consistently given. Maybe their upcoming 2026 series, "How to Survive My CEO," will finally be the one that clicks for me. As of now though, none of their projects have really delivered anything that resonates, and honestly, I hate that for them.

Moving on to the story: Surprise! I didn’t like it. Ironically, I was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed the beginning. The murder mystery had potential, and I found myself intrigued by the dynamic between Jade and Kamin. Jade being completely head-over-heels from the start was fun, and Kamin clearly enjoyed the attention even while pretending he didn’t. So what went wrong? The writing.They throw in a sudden mutual kiss in episode three, and it completely derails the cat and mouse tension they had been building so well. From that point forward, this series just plummets.

Alike a lot of others, I don't appreciate the rush of their relationship. I was hoping the show would lean more toward something like Manner of Death, where the romance sits comfortably as a subplot to the larger mystery. It feels oddly corny watching these characters investigate a brutal murder spree while simultaneously flirting, teasing, and kissing every few scenes. And the chemistry just… isn’t there. Even though I’m not the biggest JD fan, I usually think their chemistry is one of the strongest aspects of their shows. Here, something is missing. It’s like I'm eating a slice of cake and realize I somehow forgot to add the sugar. Everything works on a physical level, as it usually does with them, but emotionally there’s a disconnect that makes their relationship hard to invest in.

As for the “whodunit” murder mystery, it ends up being incredibly anticlimactic. For a while, the mystery was the only thing keeping me watching, but the reveal feels obvious and underwhelming. I also really dislike the trope where the victim turns out to be the killer. It’s rarely satisfying, and it definitely wasn’t here.

Positive aspects: Fluke looked gorgeous in this, please give him someone to kiss, and soon. Pahn !! urgh, I love her. It was also nice seeing Aou and Boom, but beyond that there isn’t much else to highlight.

Rating:

Story: 5/10 - It starts off with some promise but quickly loses momentum. The romance fails to carry the show, and the truth ot dare killer mystery becomes disappointing by the end.

Acting: 7/10 - Fine. Nothing to write home about it.

Music: 6/10 - Wasn't distracting.

Recommendation Value: 2/10 - Not worth it unless you're a diehard JD fan. Otherwise, just move on!

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Cannot believe they put this on Netflix

The whole time while watching this drama I could not figure out why they couldn't write the characters and the plot execution better. Jade and Khamin are supposed to be "good" police officers, but their investigative skills are less than average—bad even. At no point do they display urgency to solve the crime, they do not ask questions that should be asked, they didn't even look into Puifai's background to find out that she was in fact dating someone else. At one point they're standing over a dead body and flirting??????? If you want to make a bl series that has more of a plot than romance, at least try to make the plot good???????? Why insert a plot when there is no intention to follow through on the quality?? If you have an inability to write a good crime script then just stick to romance man. Though I have to say; GMMTV is not vastly great at that either. Most of the time their selling point for the series is that it's bl.

I am genuinely astonished by the fact that they chose a plot with such a gruesome murder and paired it with characters that do not care that college kids are dying. This was not engaging to watch at any point. I just found myself being annoyed at how the characters were making decisions—or a lack of decisions, rather. Save yourself the trouble and don't watch this lol.

I do not mind Joong or Dunk's acting and it's a shame because they seem to do better at slightly comedic plots, and this plot DOES NOT SUIT COMEDY. They put a lot of light-hearted scenes where light-hearted scenes DO NOT BELONG. If you have talented actors at least you should know where to put them. This would've been better as a non-murder mystery drama.

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Dare You to Death felt a bit too cliché for me.

Dare You to Death felt a bit too cliché for me. The story didn’t really bring anything new, and the action scenes often left me with a “that’s it?” feeling.

It also seems like the budget may have affected the overall execution, especially in the action and production quality, which made the series feel underwhelming at times.

There were some cute and fun flirting moments that added a bit of charm, but they weren’t enough to carry the whole series.

Compared to Heart Killers, this one falls short in terms of impact and storytelling. Honestly, it felt more like a filler in the 2025–2026 lineup rather than a standout series.

The concept had potential, but it needed stronger execution to really deliver.

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SCREENPLAY, ACTING and DIRECTION DISASTER

For starters, Dunk can't act. He sucks.

Now onto the show, the direction and screenplay was lacking so much, not even Joong or Chimon's acting could compensate for it. Like, why were they romancing right beside a dead body? Why did they as police officers not act up when they knew the victims were getting killed one by one and they literally had the list of all the possible victims? AHHHH.. it gave me a headache. The plotholes are HORRIBLE.

Sing over exaggerated his finale scene. The only good chemistry was weirdly between Ohm and Dunk and Ohm and Joong, but that's it.

I must APPLAUD all the negative actors though. Did so much better job than the leads for sure. All of them looked PURE EVIL and I loved their performances cause I literally couldn't stand ANY of them.

Aou Boom's cameo was cool. Boom didn't have the girth of a police officer. But since it's only a cameo it doesn't impact the storyline that much.

The fans of the main couple are soo deluded at this point that they are enabling a shit show instead of calling GMM out. Even Joong seems to have acknowledged the disaster it was.

Joong and Dunk's chemistry in the previous shows atleast saved them but this was BEYOND SAVING. I hope Dunk seriously starts working on his acting chops and gets better with his next show.

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Truth or Dare? (I DARE you to watch this series)

Once again, the advent of the established pairing has brought along the loss of plot. Not that there was much to begin with, considering this was more And Then There Were None - with none of the nuance or intrigue. And you add to that two children with their pretend walkie-talkies as your leads? That's a formula about to blow up so quick.

The trailer made it seem like all the romance in the entire series was packed into it, even Joong and Dunk said so.. Now I know that they were made to lie! They said that romance was apparently only a tiny part of the story, the rest of it was a crime thriller. Their words had as much truth, as the story had mystery. And now I feel kind of weird having compared the leads - Kamin and Jade - to children because they behave more like teenagers. I hope the connection is made without having me spelling it out. Teenagers in love?

Everything in this story is BANG! BANG! BOOM! Including their attraction, which happens for no other reason but a shared trauma of hair in the eye. IYKYK, but if you don't, let's just say they never had to wear sunglasses because their hair provided excellent protection from the glare. They meet in episode one, are in love by episode four, and with just ten episodes, it's not a lot - but remember. This is supposed to be a crime thriller.

The writers clearly forgot that because having Joong and Dunk flirt on screen while all the other characters get killed off is.. well it does kind of sound like a plot I'd weirdly be into.. but no! There's a plot and time, and this wasn't it. The leads are introduced as two people dedicated to their jobs, it took them ten episodes to find the killer. Instead they just flirt inappropriately, everywhere they go. And you may ask, "But what is the place where you flirt appropriately?"
Not anywhere, anytime they did.

You are assigned to a high prolific murder case, where the victims are literally being picked off like flies, yet! It's the perfect time to play boyfriends and buy each other terrible fridge magnets.

Of course, to make up for the lack of any plot, we get weird segues to drug cases that, may or may not be related to the murders, no, that definitely was not an attempt to get Joong shirtless or have Aou and Boom make a cameo (the best part of the series by the way). (The cameo, not shirtless Joong, we got a lot of shirtless Joong).

To cap it all off, by all means, the big reveal was so hilariously predictable, I was actually gagged at how badly done it was because no way I was able to guess it in the second episode. Yes, I have watched my fair share of thrillers but ask anyone, I'm not the best as putting the dots together. If I was able to get it, we know the writing was laughable.
And after all of that, the conclusions for every single character made me so furious, genuinely, I haven't gone into the details of the "thriller" much (because again, it's not really a thriller), but the characters involved in that part of the story were actual trash on earth, and none of their actions got any consequences that we could see. Instead we got the hallmark of BLs, a beach trip.

I'm not even angry or disappointed, because in retrospect, that neon yellow poster told me everything I needed to know. They clearly tried to take this way too seriously and I say they should have leaned into the silliness. If it was truly meant to be as silly as it was, I would have loved it! (that's a lie, but who cares). But if you're going to be talking about serious topics or dealing with sensitive issues in your story, at least have the people dealing with it take it seriously. There's a lot going on this story, like I said, it was insanely fast paced, with many characters but no one really managed to make an impact. I actually called the leads by their actors names until the very end, that's how bad it was.

The writing, editing, all choices made here were definitely not done with any consideration.

Maybe there is something to be said for Joong and Dunk's chemistry though, they've had good chemistry for a long while but not enough that I believe your first meeting has you at odds and by the second encounter you're practically salivating at their thought. I did not buy the romance, or the mystery, anything they were trying to sell me.

Because again, I'm not angry or disappointed, I'm just. Numb? I got a few good chuckles and an Aou Boom cameo out of it, and I'll take it, even though it's not enough. And even if you enjoy buddy cop comedies and you've always shipped the buddy cops, I wouldn't recommend this to you.

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Real bad

In this series, the characters who stood out to me the most are Jade and the group of friends nicknamed the “Avengers.” Throughout the episodes, they are killed one by one while the investigators, Jade and Kamin, try to solve the case.

On the positive side, Joong’s acting and the performances of the “Avengers” are fairly decent, and the series does make an effort to create a sense of mystery.

However, several elements weaken the overall result: Dunk’s acting has clearly declined, there are noticeable sound issues, and the editing is quite messy.

In the end, GMMTV once again delivers a rather average series. It’s unfortunate for the teams who worked on it. Personally, I wasn’t convinced, so you can easily skip this one.

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WTF

I’m not going into details because I could write for an eternity but if you really think this is a great show and have given it more than 5 stars…. I have no words for you cause you don’t have any respect for yourself.
The acting, directing, writing, dialogues, intense scenes, romance scenes, editing, all are very poor. Even the injuries and how they magically heal or only hurt for flirting purposes!
The policing is a whole other story, nothing is getting done, Kamin and Jade just show up to numerous murder scenes and have made 0 effort in solving this crime, I mean they only spoke to the 1st victim’s mother in ep 6 !!!! I’m no police but I know that’s usually the first thing you do!
To summarise: I think there is a group of fans who see this show as a weekly virtual fan meet: even if there were no dialogues they would be extremely happy and even admit they’re “only here for JoongDunk” and rate it 10/10 and call any criticism a”hate” comment and essentially prevent anyone ever getting better at their job because of their extremely low standards.
And then there is a group who is constantly getting hate for demanding better value production, solid storylines, and convincing acting. This is where I am. And based on my own experience of show business and having studied actors, directors, writers and producers and their approach to every new project, I can honestly say not only this show is very poorly done but is also problematic in terms of its representation of the Thai Police Force and investigative teams.
I honestly think production companies (specifically gmmtv as they have the highest output) need to reconsider the value of their work, please don’t think we’ll support everything just for the sake of the main couple. If I’m paying for my netflix and giving you an hour of my time every week, you need to show me you deserve it and appreciate it. Watching DY2D was a big insult and I’m genuinely annoyed by how gmmtv sees fans ….
We are better than this and so are most of your artists. Treat us as such!!!!!!

Edit: that last episode was so hilarious 🤣 the doctor made a bomb!!!! They let champ AX MURDER 2 people while they WATCHED and then SAVED HIM and escaped!!!!
Anyone who voted this show anything more than 5 is a bot and blind and (unrespectfully) a total idiot who does not deserve good quality work.

Honestly how on gods green earth did they and are they getting away whit this absolute shot show?

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The Viewer Was the Real Victim

Puifai (Pahn Pathitta) dies suddenly at a party with her boyfriend Champ (Chimon Wachirawit) and her friends Cher (June Wanwimol), Jay (Ohm Thipakorn), Time (Prom Teeprakon), Tonka (Ashi Peerakan), Tar (Aungpao Ochiris), and Bell (Earn Preeyapat). Things start to get complicated when everyone else begins to be tragically murdered; the new inspector, Kamin (Dunk Natachai), and Captain Jade (Joong Archen) are put in charge of the case.
First of all, what the hell was that I just watched?
The beginning was good, really good—I was hooked, wanting to know what would happen, who would die, and who the killer was. AT WHAT POINT DID THIS GET LOST?
The focus isn’t on the romance—clearly not—but the romance actually unfolded quite well; their dynamic isn’t common, and I think it worked in this series.
But at some point in the narrative leading up to the end, it seems like they completely let go of the mystery they’d been building up. The mystery they wanted DOESN’T EXIST.
They see it and say, “The suspect wears glasses.” THERE’S ONLY ONE CHARACTER WHO WEARS GLASSES IN THE SERIES
Then they spend episodes building up to show the woman before the final episode—by that point, everyone knew Puifai was alive. The last episode was a chore to watch; they wrapped up the series in a 20-minute episode, and we spent another 20 minutes watching them being happy on the beach, with the romance and character development. Everyone spends the whole series dying, only to get to the end and have everyone kill themselves. It was so clearly careless and rushed that it really brought down the overall opinion. Not even the actors clearly liked the ending, because it didn’t have the care that the rest of the series had.
Jade and Kamin worked out; I’m not the biggest fan of JoongDunk, but I’ll admit they did well within the dynamic of the bottom being a tough guy and the top being this softie. I think both of their performances are weak, especially Joong’s; I don’t feel the authenticity in the way he acts and speaks because sometimes he’s face-to-face with someone and you can clearly see he’s staring into space. Dunk has been going through a major evolution since *Star In My Mind*, but I still believe he has a lot to improve on. I think the character’s style suited him well, and the script supported that.
The way their relationship was built was simple—a basic setup that worked—and I think it fit the dynamic; it felt as natural as possible given that they were solving a crime.
You can see how the director (Dome Jade) tried to balance suspense and mystery 50/50, and I believe that’s what led to this final result—those who want everything at the end end up with nothing. He spent most of the series focusing on the crime and the suspense, and when he tried to make up for it with the romance, this is what happened.
I really think the series could have been much better. As someone who truly enjoys investigation and murder mysteries, you can see that this one was poorly done. Anyone who figures things out early on doesn’t do so because they’re super observant—it’s just because the production was sloppy and handed the answer to you on a silver platter. The viewer was treated like an idiot, and that was basically it.

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