Dare You to Death

More like Bore You to Death

Half crime series, half comedy BL, Dare You to Death tries to mix together two apparently contrasting genres, while presenting a grittier, darker version of JoongDunk and, may I say, fails spectacularly.

The story tries to juggle between a very serious case of serial murders (and I will say, very gory ones too) and the development of a cheap romance between the main leads. The clash is honestly irritating: you will have two of the most incompetent cops ever seen on a screen shamelessly flirting while teens get brutally assassinated around them. The whole romance portion of the show is not only uninteresting and underdeveloped (you can't even understand why these two like eachother, besides finding eachother hot, I guess), but majorly inappropriate for the context of the whole show: after a while, seeing Jade getting jealous over Kamin on the crime scene of someone who just got crushed to a pulp by a falling car will just have you say "Can't these guys just do their job?".

Besides the boring romance, the crime/police part is honestly terrible, to the point that I doubt the writers of this show even bothered watching a single crime series in their whole life. Cops using guns to threaten suspects, undercover operations without any backup whatsoever, whole episodes spent on marginally important drug leads that lead to nowhere at all, no interrogations of prime suspects and key witnesses are just a few of the absurd things about this whole mess of an investigation that will make you feel like you could do a better job than these guys. The cherry on top was honestly the episode where Jade and Kamin wasted a whole day on a cute date because "they worked a lot so they deserved to rest": is the work in the room with us right now?

Acting wise, Dunk is as stiff as ever, but I at least appreciated Joong's performance, who is pretty good at portraying a goofier character for once. Regarding the supporting cast, they were ok, but unremarkable for the most.

In the end, while I found the show kinda funny during its first half, the latter one just got me so uninterested that I spent most of the time just gazing at the screen asking myself "How was this thing greenlit?" Dear writers, let's put the pens down for a while, shall we?

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people are dying, kim

it is i, the niel.

do these guys even have any professional ethics? i loved dunk's acting in this. he wasn't a useless character, and he was a real person. his eyes still remain open whilst kissing, but that's part of his charm. i was compelled, and i'm glad gmmtv didn't give him a goofy character this time. i liked him in a more serious role. there were still many hr violations. dunk is inherently goofy, yet i'm his biggest fan. joong also did a good job, unsurprisingly.

the plot was the real winner of this show. i was hooked from beginning to (almost) end. the last 15 minutes of the final episode were filler, but that's fine. there were so many characters, but i was able to keep up with what was happening with all of them. they made a smart choice by having only one couple, and keeping the show focused on them. i wasn't overwhelmed by unnecessary romance. ultimately, the crime aspect of the show's plot was kept central, rather than underdeveloped romance. the main plot was really interesting. this concept has been done before, but i was curious as to "who done it" the entire time.

i will say, i clocked the ending and other elements of the plot from the start. even so, that didn't take away from the enjoyment of it. there was room for improvement, though. i didn't mind their romance, but there could've been more of a slower development. they were u-hauling it. that sometimes made the dialogue between them unnatural. sometimes, they were developing the romance at times when they should've been focusing on their employment. they could've been investigating parts of this mystery way sooner, but they were too busy committing hr violations (lol). tbh if i were their boss, i would've been like "congrats on your relationship, you're fired." overall, thoroughly enjoyed! for a gmmtv show, impressive work. #longdunk4lyfe

best,

the niel.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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The worst piece of media in existence

bro what???? this must have been, without any exaggeration, the worst show I have ever seen. finished it only bc I wanted to minimize the damage to joongdunk's career by giving it some views, though I can't imagine this not having an impact on their future projects

kamin and jade were just bumbling about the whole time, solving nothing, the conclusion to the whole case was just them standing there while kids killed each other, no one was even armed at one point, and those two stood by idiot style and watched it happen lol

hard cuts between someone's melted corpse or a gory crime scene and kamin and jade flirting at each other like two unfunny cyborgs were villainous. they fell in love instantly and the script sounded like someone holding chatgpt at gunpoint, so none of their lines landed and I could not give a single fuck if they lived or died

they left Jay, who had been traumatized and shot, alone in the hospital and went on PTO to the beach!!!!!!!!!!!! everyone who took part in this should be tried at the Hague

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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!!!

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