Dare You to Death

A Wasted Potential

All i can say about this drama that it was a wasted potential, it aired exclusively on Netflix internationally, you'd think the will put more effort to meed the expectations and aim for wider audience but no, it was a whole mess, the storyline had potential, but potential is all what it could be, i went all my way to read original source just to see whats the issue, i found novel as bad, but they had freedom to edit and modify story, they could made it better, tone down romance or balance it with crime thriller elements, bcz omg hade and kamin were so incompetent, and flirted on every wrong place like corps and crime scenes🙄🙄 I was baffled how bad written both main characters was for their detective roles.
Crime part was intersting and kept me watching, i had multiple theory before figuring it out by ep 7, but that couldn't make up to to weird editing, out of place romance and above it the mesdy audio quality
Anyway sigh, it was disappointing bcz i love the cast

Read More

GMMTV HAS DONE IT AGAIN.

To say this series is bland, uninspiring and a disappointment would be a gross understatement. This is GMMTV throwing out trash just cos they know fans would accept anything as long as there are some kisses And I know many would say the opposite and you're entitled to it. I had extremely lower expectations but GMMTV still proved disappointing.

Pros
An interesting concept (sexual assault and it's effects on psyche) and drug trafficking.
A series about a killer who turns the harmless drunken game of truth or dare to carry out murders.
The acting from these guys were solid as expected.
The OST was quite good.

Cons.
PAINFULLY PREDICTABLE.
The script was totally bonkers so it didn't do the actors any good.
Compare to a series like "Goddess Bless You from Death" where the police work looked and felt realistic and investigations felt like brilliant minds at work, this series actually made the utterly bizarre choice to make these police characters less intelligent and more horny even at crime scenes.
Anyone with an ounce of brain cells could determine from the very first episode that Dr. Puth was the truth or dare killer when the show decided to show an extremely lacking "forensic report" about the substances in Fai's body.
With regards Puifai being the second killer, it wasn't difficult to also see it due to the fact that almost everyone else who was murdered was shown on a forensic table or nature of murder was elaborated except once again Puifai.

SHALLOW CHARACTERS
The characters in this series weren't done any good which is a shame cos these actors were putting out all their energy but the scripts wasn't doing them any favours. The police work was shoddy. The main characters were just interested in banging eachother from the very first episode. The captain of the police was just interested in banging his superior even at the crime scene.
Even the killers' who had a compelling reason for killing like Puifai being the victim of sexual assault was rendered impotent by the constant horniness on display by the main characters.
Instead of actually putting the main concept of sexual assault at the front and centre and actually using it to address the series, the writers and director decides to rather put the horny police front and centre and then slide the main concept to side.
It was a total dumpster fire wrapped in a Trainwreck of a series.
Even if you watched just the first, you could skip to final one and you'd still understand the whole thing.
All the characters especially the main ones have virtually no development as they continue to make bafflingly stupid decisions.

UNREALISTIC POLICE INVESTIGATIONS AND EYESORE VFX
I wonder if GMMTV did their homework about how the police department especially Crime Investigation worked. I don't think they did. As a crime movies and documentaries enthusiast, this series was bafflingly unrealistic at best and totally bullshit at worst. How can a police officer who has investigated crimes for at least a year not even be able to take relevant notes. The inspector's notebook had just 3 words from everything they saw and heard "Chireen", "Champ" and "relationship".
Even the crime board which could have been a display of the investigations so far had only pictures of the suspects and nothing else. Again, GMMTV didn't do anything to know and provide some sense of reality to police investigations. Even busting the drug trafficking ring which should have been a highlight was turned into another moment of sexual innuendos so the captain could further impress his superior in order to successfully get them into horny mode.
Many decisions made by the "police" were so bad. Like living together with a subordinate who is constantly flirting with you and basically lacks boundaries.
I also don't know why GMMTV fails to invest enough into VFXs especially when it comes to BLs though this genre has been their highest cash grabs in past half a decade.

CONCLUSION
I have a lot more to say but all I have to say is that this series could only be impressive if you were only looking out for horny people playing cops. If you had a lot expectations, leave them together with your brains before you watch this series.
It was a total unfunny joke of a series. I don't recommend it to anyone and if you do watch it, don't try to analyse anything cos it basically insults your intelligence.
If you're a crime scenes enthusiast like me with a touch of BL, I recommend watching GODDESS BLESS YOU FROM DEATH.

Read More

Could an investigation ever feel more sluggish and inefficient ? I don't think so.

This drama follows the investigation of a series of murders targeting a group of friends while making them play a very sadistic game of truth or dare. On paper, this sounds like a great idea but the writing was so bad that the police work and resolution of the mystery cannot be taken seriously. Dialog and plot points felt absurd with a lot of flirting and bantering in the midst of a pile of bodies.

However, I must admit that if the crime aspect and the police work was as unconvicing as it could be, the over-the-top flirty scenes between the leads brought me a lot of giggles and entertainement. Indeed, while the fight scenes were awkward, I enjoyed a lot the chemistry between Joong and Dunk. While I was fully sold on the hot scenes between the leads, the gap in acting skills was very pronounced here. Indeed, while Joong is quite good (and super hot), Dunk was a beautiful statue painfully bland, who cannot deliver and emote any kind of angst. Maybe if their roles were reversed, it would have been preferable given their respective skills because Dunk might have executed better a "lighter" character, like his role in "The Hear Killers".

I would not recommend this because of the writing being a real dumpster fire. However, I cannot denied to be entertained by some of the cheesy moments, the flirty scenes between the leads, who are living their romance in the middle of poorly investigating crimes.

Read More

A Promising Idea That Lost Its Way

The main idea of this series really appealed to me. The first two or three episodes were great, but after that the plot quickly went downhill. The story focused much more on the romantic storyline than on the crime plot, which was very frustrating. More than once I felt like shouting: “Stop focusing on romance—people are dying around you!”

It would be easier to accept if the romance had been done well, but I didn’t feel any chemistry between the characters. We also didn’t get to see how their relationship developed or what it was based on—Khamin and Jade suddenly and unexpectedly became a couple.

Khamin’s character also seemed especially inconsistent to me.

Going back to the crime storyline: it was very easy to guess the solution to the mystery, but it wasn’t possible to reach it through deduction. The creators didn’t really let us play detectives by mixing the clues or expanding the group of suspects.

The characters almost never got injured, or they would magically recover very quickly, no matter what happened to them.

The ending was completely over the top, and what’s worse, the main characters didn’t seem to care much about what had happened.

Read More

Disappointing

I normally dont write reviews, but this had such high ratings I had to add a review. This series started out okay and I had high hopes for it, but was very let down. I thought we were going to get another series like Manner of Death, as in a crime drama that just happened to have gay characters, but plot focused. This was not what we got! The focus was very much JoongDunk as a couple and some crazy plot that was not developed well and got more and more lost as the episodes went on. The acting was also more and more mediocre as the espisodes went on from the actors across the board. I also saw this after watching High School Frenemy which did a great job focusing more on the plot, but still developing the character relationships. I was expecting even better from these more experienced actors.
Unfortunately, I think most people got stuck on the fact that it was their favorite couples and seemingly ignored everything else that is needed in a good production.

Read More

Speechless

Respectfully, what was that? The stupidity is overwhelming, Jay's friend group there is just no reasonable excuse for the level of absolute stupidity shown by every single person. Jay being the absolute worst. His brother is a dang police detective (I'll be it not a good one) Jay was present at minimum 3 crime scenes, witnessed no less than 3 (maybe more) of his friends being wheeled out in body bags and still he left the hospital to meet a killer, alone? How do that make sense? In the final ep Jade left the police station to meet Kamin at a murder in progress and he brought zero back up? Why did Kamin leave an injured Jay alone in front of the house, why didn't he at least put him in his car. Why didn't Kamin cuff Puifia? He disarmed a drug lord with ease but the female college student who didn't even have a gun was to difficult? In the end the Puifia and Phut wanted to play with the detectives so they allowed themselves to be found, Jade and Kamin solved nothing. I really wanted to like this show but I cannot get past the stupidity. There was no reason everyone had to be that dumb, the plot didn't require that level of idiocy.

Read More

I wish it was so much better!

MAJOR SPOILER ALERT! BE CAREFUL!

I never leave reviews when I watch a bl and I've been doing this for 6 years but this is objectively one of the worst scripts I've ever came across. I was really excited when i found out joongdunk were doing a crime investigation drama but from the very beginning it struggles with internal coherence and narrative credibility honestly.

The issues start from the very begining, considering that Jade arguably should not even have been part of the investigation. This leads to one of my main beef with the series, Jay is protected by the police simply for being Jade’s brother and is never properly investigated even though he is one of the suspects. It just gets worse when Kamin casually moves into the house of one of the suspects (Jade's and jay's house)

The portrayal of the police is particularly problematic for other reasons as well. Officers conduct interrogations anywhere they please, arbitrarily entering people’s homes without warrants. At one point, Champ explicitly asks for a lawyer and is ignored, yet the interrogation proceeds as if due process were irrelevant. These procedural inaccuracies make the investigation feel unrealistic and poorly researched.

Even the fight scenes are poorly choreographed fight and shooting scenes make dramatic confrontations feel awkward rather than intense.

There are many problems with the plot development and the character's arcs are honestly weak. For exemple, Jay is just saved for the sake of the script cause it makes little sense that Puth would fail to kill him with that shot. Also, Jade and Yu’s backstory and motivation is so incredibly weak like why would you hate you colleague when you were the one who chose to save him like man...

In the last episode when kamin is alone with puifai and champ, why do you mean a trained policeman were tricked by a teenager?? He was pointing a gun to that girl's head and it didnt work, she did whatever she wanted in front of him. They didnt finish this case, this case finished them!

I also had a hard time understaning the moral framing of the story. I mean Jay literally assaults Puifai, he had sex with her when she was drunk!!! Yet the narrative treats his wrongdoing as if it were merely a failure to intervene and defend her from the rest of the group, it completely minimized the gravity of his crime.

Also pisses me off so much that after the explosion they chose to save champ and leave puifai to her own death. I mean, Puifai was only stabbed and could plausibly have survived, but the characters choose to save Champ instead. Like Puifai died just like that but Champ survived being shot and struck with an axe, and still manages to stab Puifai afterward?? There are so many exaggerations like that and it really undermines any attempt at realism.

There are also awkward moments like they flirt out of nowhere even in the middle of serious moments. Also, there's this scene that Jade and kamin are in the pool and jade's tattoo literally starts to fade and turn purple???

The script was bad, the directing was even worse. I never wrote such a detailed review like that but as i said before, I was excited for this new joongdunk series but i was severely disappointed.

Read More

Darlin', how could you be so blind?

I have a lot of thoughts on this show, and they aren't very positive, but yay joong dunk...I guess. I would give it a 7.5 (7.7) out of 10. I am also now realizing that the name of the show is called Dare You to Death, because they all got dared to death, lmao. I am going to try and find things I liked, and then dump on the show, and then do an episode overview and end this!

One of the main things I liked was Joong and Dunk. I am a JDK girlie through and through, no matter; I still come back to them, and I don't know why, I just love them so fucking much. They did well in this. I liked their acting, and Dunk was actually into it and didn't look completely disgusted, which was nice lmao. I think all of the actors in this did a pretty good job, yeah. If I were in their job, I would have been fired already, lmao, because I was going way too much on emotions and not on evidence. The plot has the potential to be really good and really interesting because it started off well. I love these crime ones with the right amount of love and not all the scary shit, they can be done well, this one just wasn't lmao. DUNK LOOKED SO GOOD IT HAD ME ACTING BRAND FUCKING NEW. People keep saying on TikTok that no one would have died if Joong Dunk did their jobs, okay they fucked up a couple of times, BUT THE FACT THESE BUM ASS KIDS WEREN'T TELLING THE COPS SHIT. THAT'S WHY YALL KEPT DYING, IT WASN'T BECAUSE THEY WERE KISSING. Okay, that is it.

It was a drag plot. They tried to get me to care about these fuck ass kids in this fuck ass friend group drying, and I didn't, I really didn't. Maybe don't make them terrible, and maybe I will actually give two fucks, but I don't give any fucks, not one. My main thing is that if you are going to have this big killer reveal, you need to show the killer more. We saw him once, and I forgot about that. The twist with Fai being alive was good because I was not expecting that, and then they went back on that with her horrible motives. I understand the two weird rapist guys and maybe Tonkla, but everyone else, home girl, why do you care so much? Just leave the friend group, how hard is that? ALSO SHE CHEATED ON HIM. WHY IS SHE KILLING HIM FOR CHEATING? MAKE THAT MAKE SENSE. Terrible, just god fucking awful. I could have gotten behind it if they showed it more through the show, but they didn't, so it was just like why? I do not care. My romance building. GONE. There was actually none. We didn't build anything; we just jumped into a relationship randomly, and then we are having weird issues and flirting, and I'm like, we have zero backing, what are we doing? Very poor writing all around. I wish we did more with Dunks' backstory; it felt very rushed and very one-off, and just overall, I didn't really care about it. Also, I think the whole thing with the police and the government (and all of the control) could have been done better because that also felt very one-off. THE TRUTH OR DARE THING. Where did that come from? There was no explanation for that at all. I am so confused why they went on that specifically, which made zero sense. Joong's bullshit wolf tattoo pissed me off lmao, why did he even have that? I tried to stay neutral through the whole thing, but it was really hard because this got boring very fast, the plot was the same thing with the fuck ass kids dying, and I wanted to just be happy with Joong and Dunk, but they were also fucking around in my face too. So this shit was boring. I had to 1.5x speed 5-10 episode lmao. Towards the middle, they started to do the round plot with the drug guy that led them to their killer, but also a dead end, AND 5 MILLION FUCKING THINGS WERE HAPPENING AT ONCE I FELT LIKE MY BRAIN WAS GOING TO EXPLODE (and the fact I was in class did not help, lmao). Their sex scenes were very random, oh my lord. In episode 8, I finally knew who the killer was because he looked at them all crazy. WHAT WAS HIS MOTIVE? I AM SO CONFUSED! WAS HE JUST KILLING FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME? LIKE WHY DO YOU CARE ABOUT THIS RANDOM GIRL'S FUCK ASS FRIENDS? MIND YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS, I SWEAR TO GOD. The ending was also mid as fuck, and Joong and Dunk went on this weird joint family vacation with Aou and Boom, who had no real lore and crapped on the graves of all of the deaths they could have prevented. Okay, I am done dumping on this show.

Overview time. "SOMETHING IN THE AIR BECAUSE DUNK FINE AS HELLLLLL." "I dont think I understand what the whole truth or dare thing is." "Yeah dont make terrible characters if you want me to feel bad for them dying. I did not know this was like a serial killer thing; I thought it was just one murder. Leon fucking Kennedy and Joong shirtless with some random ass tattoo. Worse than goddesses because they are dealing with real people, not ghosts. HE CANT HANDLE ALL THAT, I CAN, I SWEAR TO GOD, I CAN HANDLE ALL THAT. OH MY GOD, I CAN HANDLE ALL OF THATTTTTT. LOOK AT THAT SNATCHED BADDIE. I CAN HANDLE ALL OF THAT. This stupid tattoo has me dead." "Why has Joong been shirtless 25% of this show?" "This show is lowkey boring, and I feel like we aren't really doing anything lmao. Also, HOW DID WE EVEN KISS? WE HAVE HAD ZERO ROMANCE BUILDING. THAT IS SO FUCKED UP." "I hope everyone in this fuck ass show dies, I can't lie. 1.5x speed, because this shit is lowkey boring. I don't really know what we are doing, and it is a bit of a drag plot with no romance building, but I love joongdunk." "Random aou boom cameo." "I hope everyone in this bum ass show fuckong dies, oh my lord. Cute lore with our couple." "YOU ARE DEALING WITH A HUMAN. WHY HAS ANYONE SHOT HIM? I AM SO LOST. ALSO HE WAS WITH SOMEONE, WHO WAS IT? WHY IS FAI ALIVE? WHAT THE FUCK? HOW, I DONT KNOW, SO SHE CHOSE TO KILL ALL OF HER FRIENDS IN REALLY CRAZY WAYS. I MEAN SHE SAID SHE WAS GOING TO DO A PRANK. I AM SO LOST." "MAN FUCK THEM KIDS, YALL JUST CRAPPED ALL OVER THEIR GRAVES WITH THIS. Uh, mid ah ending to a mid show."

Yeah, I tried to find positive things for this show, but this show was lowkey ass, and I wouldn't recommend watching it. Yeah, okay, bye!

Read More

WASTED POTENTIAL!!

Honestly, the choice of story was good but the Execution said "No, Not This Time!!!".

The series went more like a romance series than a detective one ig?? By this I mean the mystery and thriller was missing, the story went sloppy.
The story resonates so well with the situations of friendships in new gen. It's all messy , no ethics, no baseline and inhumane - the story won in showing these things.
They started off really well,keeps you hook and keeps you guessing who's the killer in 1st half, and ofc the chemistry was there. The second half went quite predictable (may be like they wanted it to be). The cast blended really well with each other, definitely shows some good work out there.
But man!, Dunk's acting - idk if I'm the only one who feels like this -> it's bland and same since his debut as main role (Star and Sky)
I'm only telling this because Joong has this charisma he can bring chemistry with anyone he works with and can deliver his character really well. That's his aura + his acting is a really good plus point there.
~ Over all the series didn't leave me satisfied as it was an abrupt ending. It didn't answer :
• what happened to puifai? Did she die?
• Champ and Puth went to prison?
• Champ's father didn't resent his decision?
• no action was took against Commander Don?
• Kamin just continued to investigate with his suspension?? Also with a fake ID and how did he get gun at the last ep? And he just got away with it???

At the end of this, we are either Puifai or Jay in someone's/our own life. The decision to get out of toxic friendship is always with us and is definitely not easy. Takes a lot of bravery,courage and ofc money and power!!!

Read More

JoongDunk’s trainwreck proves you need scriptwriting and acting skills, not just a popular pair.

I turned this on looking for something light to decompress, only to realize its sole reason for existing was putting Joong and Dunk on screen together.
Calling this a "murder mystery" is generous.

Dunk trying to play an authoritative, badass detective was pure, unadulterated comedy...and a colossal, embarrassing fail. He simply did not have it in him. Beyond his character being written as a utterly useless, incompetent detective who spent the whole show doing absolutely nothing, Dunk’s performance in this series was breathtakingly bad. He was quite literally painfully stiff, wooden, and expressionless. Every single line delivery felt like he was reading cue cards in real time while trying desperately to remember how human body language works. Watching him attempt to exude authority while accomplishing zero police work was equal parts hilariously absurd and downright agonizing...

Joong was barely better; his entire character motivation was having a random crush, pursuing Dunk, and... that was it. For a romantic pairing, their chemistry was utterly microscopic. Every kiss, romantic scene, and basic interaction felt deeply awkward.

Meanwhile, a literal serial killer is running wild, but instead of investigating, our "elite" police duo does absolutely nothing while everyone else casually goes shopping and partying. The final murder resolution was pathetic. It felt like someone watched one episode of Detective Conan and thought they were qualified to write a thriller.
Send these leads to acting school and write better scripts, because this was a complete joke.

Read More

lots of potential leading to disappointment

Honestly when I heard of this role for JoongDunk after watching Heart Killers I was super excited. It looked to be the complete opposite dynamics of Fadel and Style and I believed this would continue on their high from school and college projects to explore more mature concepts and stories. The original trailer excited me as leaned towards a more mysterious and crime focused vibe. When the official trailer dropped, most of the more serious scenes of the trailer were replaced with more cutesy scenes regarding their relationship as the case evolved, which slightly diminished my spirits but made sense with how JoongDunk's chemistry works. Plus the fact that this was even resembling such an action-esque genre made me so happy for their acting progression. The cast was finalized to be with Ohm, June, Marc, Sing, Chimon, and Earn along with the main pair, which intrigued me as I had enjoyed their individual projects before and knew they would do justice to the story.

The first few episodes did live up to the hype by managing the thrilling murder case while slowly building up Kamin and Jade's tension in their partnership; however here is where the show stopped its rise. At one point it felt as if there were two conflicting plots fighting to be portrayed in the series: the crime case and the love story. I started getting whiplash from how the show would go from a character's death to Jade flirting with Kamin and being all lovey dovey. Additionally both plots also started advancing more quickly without proper buildup, thus feeling weak and rushed at the end of the series. I haven't read the novel so I'm not sure of the speed in which the story is supposed to progress in, but it all felt very insincere and and many times in which you can't at all understand why characters are acting a certain way. At the climax battle, the killer and the twist was interesting, but again felt too short as there wasn't much buildup before their quick demise. The fight and its motivations seemed very shortlived compared to all the buildup to the moment and some decisions felt surprisingly illogical especially given how intricate the killers plan was up to that stage.

Overall the acting and cast were incredible and I do believe everyone did their part phenomenally. I really enjoyed Dunk's new side of intensity in this role and he pulled it off very well. I also loved how Chimon portrayed Champ's smart but spoiled attitude. The music was great as always with Joong's amazing vocals and I also liked Dunk 's Wordless. The only problem I had was with the interwovenness of the love and crime plots and also the poor development of them both. I understand that with 10 episodes there is only so much time to develop the story. (If I remember correctly I think Joong mentioned something like that in one of the reaction videos of the episodes), but I wish there were atleast a bit more episodes to properly setup both plots. When I was watching while the episodes were airing, only the fact that I wanted to confirm who I had suspected to be the killer kept me going near the end. After that aspect is now gone, I fear that the rewatch value has diminished as really just JoongDunk's chemistry is running the show. Thoigh they do have amazing chemistry, it just disappointed me that this trailer and story held so much potential with the crime story and possible slowburn tension built with the crime tension but fell short severely with everything just touching the surface. Thus the show earned such a low rating in my books due to its loss of potential.

Read More