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

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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.

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Poor story and development

I'm going to write a review without being biased because my fav actors have acted in this series, the plot and acting is total shit, I honestly like the Avengers group acting better than jade and kamin's.
if u just wanted a cringey romance story, why direct a thriller story, all this series has is cringey romance and stupid sulkiness, I mean police are allowed to have a personal life and dating life, but in this case the person in danger is literally jades brother but he couldn't care any lesser about it, even if his brother ends up dying all jade will care about is running behind kamin like his dog

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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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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.

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Waste of time

If you're looking for a dark/mystery Bl, probably skip this one to save your time.
First of all, why do something you're not good at? Gmmtv, please look at what you're selling people and choose a goddamn genre for once and for all. If you don't know how to make thriller bls, DON'T make them. I promise you have a choice and you will save time for people who actually know what a thriller has to have to be good and watchable. And no, don't give me the "Well, it's a Bl!" argument, because thriller bls have a their rules as well. Compared to Manner of death or DFF, DYTD didn't even get close to that. Why?
This company knows damn well what they need to do to earn money from a Bl. Good quality? No. Good acting? Nah. Good ending? Absolutely not. A fan favourite ship? OF COURSE! Works everytime, doesn't it? If you feel offended by this, you're a part of the problem. This company sees you as idiots who will devour anything that involves First Khao, Joongdunk, Pondphuwin, ect, no matter how shit of a bl they play in. They just don't care and that's the root of this problem. You don't consume low quality media, = they don't deliver it and put actual effort in it instead.
Second of all, the vision of the storyline is pretty good and to my liking, but the amount of lovey dovey and unbelievably cringe scenes that tried to fill up the plot holes and left us with zero updates ruined it. Especially in the last episode - the amount of insufferable dialogues between Jade and Kamin, plus their beach scenes just proved the storyline was never the main goal for the directors. A good, fair ending is very important, especially in thrillers, but they killed off Puifai's character just like that? I'd love to see her revenge be fulfilled and see her run away with Puth. But I knew these endings aren't to gmmtv's liking. Sure, let's let Jay live just because we want to, right? It made no sense. Not to mention that after that we didn't even get an update on how the lives of the survivors continued. Again, they just showed us the main characters flirting with each other for like 20 minutes. I never skip things like this in bls, but I was fed up and did so.
Acting felt really off almost all the time, but I really enjoyed Fai's and Puth's screen time. He looks good as a villain, he deserves more more roles like this.
Overall I'm really disappointed because I was excited for this as a dark bl fan, but it was so bad. Do better.

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A weak BL inside a horribly boring story

Oh by Thor's beard. My precious time, where did it go? Where to begin? I try to start to think about something good first. Give me a minute. Joong and Dunk are good looking guys.

That's it. Everything else was horrible. See I love drama, and as Agatha Christie fan I love a good murder story too. But this wasn't it. I felt this weird thing since the middle half that one moment we get a gruesome murder then a BL scene like these must have been the dumbest detectives I have seen. Or police, since... I mean there is a serial killer on the loose, and the police department sents TWO officers for the entire continually escalating situation? Would not the famous father of one of the potential victims (his son) not at least press for more police, or bringing his son out the country? I mean, if I were part of targeted group I'd flee the country like yesterday?

And instead everyone is waiting in the city, doing their same known routines a FEW of them guarded by ONE policeman instead of taking them into protective custody or something??? And sorry, between all the horror Joong and Dunk making out felt so unbeliebaly MISPLACED. Was is not clear the murderer was after everyone? Why did people even think, if they decide (Dare) they would not end up being killed? Sorry, all of these were psychos of some level, and unlike Death on the Nile or any Whodunnit crime this was NOT interesting. It was BORING. I care for none of the victims, nor were the villains in any way, shape or form interesting. It was evil what the people being killed did, yeah, but if one decides to go on such a revenge path with such methods I assume the murderer couple was mentally profoundly deranged before that.

And what did Kamin and Jade achieve? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It was like every single decision was unreasonable, pointless and amateurish beyond imagination. To alterate a famous movie quote:

What I've just watched is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever seen. At no point this rambling, incoherent story ever come close to anything that could be considered as rational. Following this series I am now dumber just for having watched to it. I award them no points, and may God have mercy on their soul.

1/10
One point for good looking MC actors.

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Go in to it expecting naked gun meets Thai BL...do not be serious. Prepare for whiplash.

Where do I even start...Let me give it it's flowers and grace first.

A very fun watch if you don't want to use any brain and like seeing fine men look fine. The music is really good, although a bit overused (whenever they play the stripped vocal version of the chorus during ANY romantic scene-) , the cast seems like they're really trying their best and I can appreciate that. There's fun moments, trope-y cute scenes that highlight the chemistry between the actors, and amazing wardrobe for Kamin (like I said, fine men looking fine).

Now, to the nitty gritty of it all. The sudden switch from murder investigation to them acting lovey dovey gives me such whiplash. This story has many types of characters but none I'd describe as feeling real; if you want grounded in reality, this is not the show for you. The pacing feels so odd, 10 episodes is very short for a story with a murder mystery and a romcom going along side, the show does not pause to let the viewer take in anything, it's too comfortable switching genres and expecting the viewers to be okay with it. Even the actors seem confused sometimes on how to act in a scene, Jade will go from being teary and pondering over his relationship with his brother to being flirtatious with Kamin immediately, with no real discussion of comfort between the two, no bonding moment, no "You've done well, I can see how you try your best for your brother", literally anything to acknowledge his real person feelings. None.

Their relationships has no real substance, they've barely had a real conversation. The chemistry exists between the actors but not the characters. I really hope this makes sense to someone; they seem to have this unexplained attachment with each other which feels really quick and gives a sense of "Did I miss something...?" to the viewer.

The action scenes are shot badly, they could've really done those better. The show doesn't really have moments of catharsis or satisfaction that you'd expect in a suspense drama like this. It doesn't really want you to think too much about it either. And I don't, so I enjoy it. There are so many easy fixes and realistic ways that would benefit them and protect the people in line to be murdered but they just...don't do that. They couldn't care less about it really.

Go into this expecting a fun silly cop BL, the case doesn't matter that much, the scenes are cute, depth is non existent, but a fun watch still.

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Expectations were high...

Welp.
I had hopes. I thought that perhaps the fact that netflix was producing this would help, but...
Where do I even start? The pacing is HORRIBLE (why are we getting soap opera in the middle of an investigation that had Jay in immediate danger of DEATH????) and the story is simply not cohesive. They say they have no time and have to rush but then they're randomly all lovey-dovey for half an episode. I really wanted to stick this out, but I started yelling at the screen and calling the characters stupid so I'm dropping for my sanity.
I tuned in mostly because I watched The Heart Killers and I saw a great deal of potential in that series that was simply not explored. And yet again I was way more invested in Joong's character (probably because his acting is just better than Dunk's, sorry). Though I have to admit this time around both of their characters are flat as hell. Their relationship makes NO sense at all.
I'm glad to see they got gun training this time around. But otherwise the production is not doing this series any favors... What is wrong with the music????? Why is it just cutting into the scenes louder than the dialogues???

Overall, I could rant more, probably. but some joongdunk fan probably already has an assasin called on me for this review so i will just end it here.

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kinda disappointed but still worth it?

The idea behind the series is great. I’d actually been waiting for it ever since it was first announced, and after watching The Heart Killers, my expectations were really high. Maybe that’s exactly why it ended up disappointing me a bit — it just didn’t reach the level I was hoping for.

The plot itself is cool. I’m a big fan of thrillers, and the concept of including (pretty brutal) murders tied to a game is really interesting. That said, I don’t think it was developed as well as it could have been. At least for me, there were some loose ends, and that made it hard to stay fully invested in the story at times.

On top of that, I never really connected with the characters. Everything happens so fast that you don’t get the chance to empathize with any of them — except for Jay, who felt like the most important character to me, yet somehow didn’t get the spotlight he deserved in the end.

The relationship between Jade and Kamin starts off promising, but again, things move way too quickly. There’s no real slow burn or push-and-pull you can latch onto. And the thing I HATE the most: watching Dunk kiss with his eyes open ALL THE TIME. It’s impossible to feel butterflies when Joong is fully committed to the role and Dunk is just standing there like 👁️👄👁️ the entire time.

It’s not a bad series, but it’s definitely not the best JoongDunk one — especially when GMMTV has The Heart Killers, which is honestly one of their best shows.

But hey, this is just my personal opinion! I hope this review helps you understand my point of view 😊

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