With a mature, smart, thought provoking script that feels modern, tackling the impact of artificial intelligence on both the art world and the corporate world, and a touch of melancholy that brings in some noir vibes, this series really got under my skin at times. What I loved most was the moral ambiguity. There are no perfect heroes here. Every character is complex, flawed, and makes questionable choices.
That said, the emotional intensity didn’t quite hold up all the way to the end. Koh is cold and isolated, almost completely cut off from human connection. But once he meets Jira, that wall starts to crack, and he slowly becomes less distant, more human. Pheem, on the other hand, is insecure and stuck in a friendship that keeps him tied to a job he no longer enjoys. Suddenly, he finds himself caught up in feelings (love? a need to protect?) that aren’t reciprocated at all. And then there’s Jira, the character who left me with the most conflicting emotions. In some ways, he and Koh are alike, but at times Jira shows a manipulative, even cruel side, especially toward Pheem. Honestly, I often felt like Pheem was just an “experiment” for Jira. I couldn’t sense any real emotional connection between them, which made the love triangle feel kind of forced. And to be honest, I didn’t feel like Jira was truly in love with Koh either. Throughout the series, Jira seemed emotionally detached from both Pheem and Koh. The only time he really gave himself completely was when he was painting. That’s why, for me, this story didn’t need a happy ending.
As for the acting, the chemistry between Off and Gun is undeniable. They’re both incredible actors, always sincere and intense in their performances. The chemistry between Gun and Dew was surprisingly strong too. Dew wasn’t really on my radar before, but he completely won me over. The production quality is excellent, and honestly, I’d love to have some of those paintings hanging in my house!
Oh, and one more thing: Mawin is hands down the best friend Pheem could ever have.
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Did I have low expectations with this drama?
***BURNOUT SYNDROME***10 Episodes ... BL Drama
Featuring: Gun & Off
The artwork is exquisite which I have to make to be the opening remark! Whoever is truly doing the artwork, has a beautiful eye for art. The Artistic work is what compels me to continue to watch this drama! The intensity of what goes into the drawing & how Jira feelings flow into each of his drawings.
Let's begin with the *Burnout Club*. Interesting concept for those who are stressed out, and meeting a stranger to either vent or just to find out more about each other. This drama gives off so many different emotions, especially with Koh. He goes through so many emotions that it made me a bit dizzy... more so with what he is going through with Jira. Personally, the shipping just was not there.. and leaned heavily toward Jira and Pheem take off. The annoyance of Koh always hitting at the wrong time was overwhelming. If this is what the writer wanted the viewer to experience... It's a success for me personally.
Then came the realization of his Art being the forefront of Jiras Heart. Especially understanding the Bad Boy syndrome being an attraction to the heart.
With everything Pheem is going through.. can't help but want to throw some hugs his way. The rollercoaster of emotions regarding Jira is overwhelming him.
HOWEVER, if I were to put my heart out there because of the crap that Jira is going through.. it would be his friend Ing. OMG, talk about a good friend.. all the coverups that she has to do for Jira. It's annoying, but at the same time hilarious. Jira has issues of not wanting to just make a final decision. He is so confused with his emotions, that it's more detrimental to him than beneficial.
In my personal opinion, Episode 8 is when I can feel everything is starting to form an understanding between Jira & Koh.
If I were to put a spoiler in here... the only thing I would say is how much I cried for Pheem.
The rest of the drama is something I'm not going to mention.. You'll have to come to your own conclusions on how this drama snagged on your emotions.
Stay Healthy, Safe & Amazing
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A Work of Art
A very well-made series, with a lot of care put in it and attention to detail. It stands out for its unique aesthetic and beautiful direction, surrounded by music pieces that make it feel earthy, yet so atmospherical — like it's otherworldly. The story itself is mature and complex, addressing the very fresh concept of the AI and its impact to art, through the lives and decisions of its characters, while cleverly drawing parallels to represent each side. Every scene and line has meaning and purpose to the story.Regarding the characters, they are neither pretty nor act the way they should. They are very flawed, with weaknesses and their own distinct way of thinking, which makes them frustrating, but also real. Their development was quite good overall, but at times I felt that pieces were missing, disrupting the natural flow of that development, particularly when it came to Off's character, Koh.
As for the acting, it was really good. Everyone gave their best, but the one who stood out for me the most in this series was Dew. It's the first time I saw him in such a challenging role, and it was a real pleasure to see him showcasing more range in his acting and doing such a good job.
Overall, this series is certainly not for everyone. It's one of a kind, it's different, but it's not made in a way to be pleasant or appealing and it doesn't attempt to do so either. It's a story that is meant to be viewed for what it is. It doesn't try to teach, to satisfy or embrace the idea of conventional beauty, but rather shows the beauty in imperfection.
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What I thought of the series:Okay… OffGun proving AGAIN why they are one of the strongest BL pairings ever. 10 years together and they STILL have insane chemistry. Like… how is that even possible?! 😭💚
I was honestly not disappointed at all. The mix of love, friendship, and that messy love triangle drama kept me hooked. You can really feel how comfortable Off and Gun are with each other, and it makes every emotional and cute moment hit harder.
Watching them feels like coming home to something familiar but still exciting. OffGun really know how to make fans smile and suffer at the same time… and I’m totally okay with that. 😌✨
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Thank you sooo much~ ☆:.｡.o(≧▽≦)o.｡.:☆ 💕🌸
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Triangle of Obsession
This series was all about Gun, and his uncanny ability to *become* he character he is portraying - having since seen him play anautistic man in "Leap Day", I am fully onboard the Gun Train.
I related to Jira, because I am an artist, and understand his frustration with the AI concept of replacing artists.
However, this show was all about the dynamics between three men, and the obsessions of those men. It was very easy to feel sorry for 'Pheem' who became obsessed with Jira, and not easy to sympathize with Koh, who also became obsessed with Jira. However, the more we saw the lengths Koh went to to have Jira in his life, the more we understood the man.
Off Jumpol and Dew Jirawat were perfect for their roles - again, Dew played a completely different
character from his role in Leap Day.
Support actors - AJ Chayapol and Emi Thasorn - were excellent. I would like to see AJ in an ML role.
I would also like to see Thor Thinaphan in an ML BL role - those stunning eyes and great physique make him stand out.
The evocative and exotic artworks were a major star of this show - will have to search for who the real artist was.
I would love to see "The Trainee" where Gun and Off are paired again....hope it comes to iQIYI
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As for the characters, they literally went through no development throughout the entire story. From the very first episode to the last, their personalities and decisions never changed, and none of them gave up their habits or ego. The ending was very logical if you are a logical person, but for emotional people, they probably won’t like it.
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Lost me after 7th episode
I am confused and a little speechless. I was incredibly invested and fully enjoying the show up to it’s 8th episode. When Koh manipulated the three of them into meeting each other in his hotel room was the highlight for me. The moment with Pheem and Jira in the rage room was great, and the moment of Koh interrupting Jira’s painting process of Pheem was very well done as well.But what the hell happened afterwards? The next morning Koh was suddenly all lovey dovey which felt a bit out of pocket after what happened and Jira just went along with it. I felt like I’ve missed a whole episode or two in between. Suddenly Koh was in love with Jira and Jira was also in love with Koh but it felt a little too sudden imo. Their relationship started at a super slow burn pace and there should’ve been at least one or two more episodes of complex emotional buildup between them before their feelings reached the level of ‘love’.
An intense love triangle story should’ve been more than enough to concentrate on in only ten episodes, added to the mess that Jira is a broke artists who has to work for a rich IT guy who has no qualms about using him to lie to people to get his way. We already have enough of a moral dilemma here to go in depth with: Jira’s artistic integrity vs doing what he feels he has to do to survive in this world plus his complicated feelings towards his boss and Pheem.
The AI discourse here felt very performative and bare bones, unfortunately. It’s an important topic to discuss and as an artists I do feel for Jira and the overall need to include the debate into the show but it felt like a half-formed thought. The short exchange of arguments between Koh and Jira felt like they were parroted from the internet with only the barest understanding of the subject. I in no way doubt that Nuchy is much more knowledgeable about the subject than the show would make me believe based on the superficial argument exchange between Koh and Jira, so why so tame?
The subject needed a more in depth discussion than what the show gave us.
The show made a bold move by making Koh use Jira’s art to feed into AI but never fully committed to the consequences. I personally wanted a more intense fall out between Koh and Jira, their confrontation felt too quick, too parroted without many layers such an argument could and probably would believably have.
I called it a bold move bc considering it’s a BL and OffGun it is expected by the average viewer to end in a happy OffGun ending (which it did, poorly) but how would a show make the both of them get back together without compromising it’s integrity? Not to mention in only one episode.
Well, the answer is it doesn’t. The ending was an expected disappointment bc they didn’t even try to make Koh apologize or understand Jira. One could say Koh learned to be less selfish by respecting Jira’s wish to stop pursuing him (and respecting the sleeping boundary to a degree) but what about the AI situation? That was never mentioned again and that was their biggest fallout. What happened? Idk, nothing I guess.
Jira moved on with creating his art but not really bc he still kept painting Koh and then suddenly realized that he wanted to see him still and sell him this new painting of them that he painted bc it was special. That’s nice and all but where is his character growth? What changed? Did he not care anymore about what Koh did? Did he suddenly not care that his and Koh’s ideologies did not correlate at all? It felt like a forced happy ending.
Overall I’d consider the show to have a strong start, strong middle but a very weak ending. Truthfully, I expected better from Nuchy knowing how much I loved Not Me but it is what it is. Maybe it’s bc it’s a Jittirain novel, I never liked any of her previous works so that could be a potential reason for me not liking it despite Nuchy but still.
Also, this show absolutely needed to have more episodes to dive deeper into these complex societal and relationship problems. Ten episodes were not enough, things felt rushed. There was a part where Ing pointed out that a muse does not have to be synonymous with a lover and I thought the show would do something with that idea, like make Jira realize that Pheem could become his muse after Koh’s AI betrayed but no, his muse and lover has always been and continued to be Koh, which was a bit boring.
I’m still giving it a pretty high rating bc it had a lot of good things going on for it as well and I would like for BLs to have more of these mature, complex storylines, just done better.
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THIS DRAMA KEPT ME GLUED TO MY SCREEN, START TO FINISH!!
For me when the drama has a cast like this one, I know the story line will be good. Off and Gun never fail to deliver a style of acting, that is to me, pure Perfection. I began watching and could not wait until I could watch this to the ending, The turmoil between the actors living such a complex life of roller- coaster emotions and passion touched me deeply, and with the artist setting and burnout bar setting, I loved it, and will watch it again, I am sure. To me, this one was well worth a watch, it drew me in, I enjoyed it, and it did not let me go until the very end. A perfect ten from me.Was this review helpful to you?
Magnificent but dark and disturbing series with 3 Red Flags
PLOT: Jira, a painter struggling for recognition, meets Pheem at a club. Pheem, an IT specialist at Ko's company, introduces Jira to Ko (who needs a fake Ko as representativ for his business). Jira and Pheem are attracted to each other. But while working under strange circumstances for Ko, Jira realizes that Ko is his muse, the one he wants to paint.+++ Superb cast with Off, Gun (who gave their everything in this series), and Dew, all vying for the title of the most twisted, complex, and tortured character. The series allows them to showcase their talent and previously unexplored facets of themselves.
+++ Masterful direction, whether in terms of pacing, cinematography, framing, lighting, etc.
+++ The paintings are magnificent, sensual, and evocative.
+++ The entire cast is good.
+++ Excellent OSTs
+++ The story is realistic, both in terms of the economic and technological context, and the psychology of the characters.
### The message about AI dangers remains very superficial. It's alluded to through art, but only alluded to. It doesn't address the jobs lost, the slave labor of the AI "controllers" (underpaid Africans who watch content 10-12 hours per day), the environmental consequences, etc.
=> This is far from your typical BL. The tone is unsettling, but I would definitely rewatch this drama, at least for some of the truly beautiful scenes.
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Dark and disturbing series with 3 Red Flags
PLOT: Jira, peintre en mal de reconnaissance, rencontre Pheem ds 1 club. Pheem, IT ds la Cie de Ko, fait se rencontrer Jira et Ko (qui a besoin d'1 fake Ko pr son entreprise). Jira et Pheem sont attirés l'un par l'autre. Mais en travaillant ds des circonstances chelou pr Ko, Jira s'aperçoit que Ko est sa muse, celui qu'il a envie de peindre.
+++ Super cast avec Off, Gun (qui ont tout donné ds cette série) et Dew qui concourent pour le personnage le plus tordu, le plus complexe, le plus torturé. La série leur permet de montrer leur talent et des facettes d'eux-même jusqu'alors inexplorées.
+++ Réalis° magistrale, que ce soit en termes de rythme, de beauté de la cinématographie, des cadrages, lumières, etc.
+++ Les peintures sont magnifiques, sensuelles, évocatrices.
+++ L'ensemble du cast est bon.
+++ Excellentes OSTs
+++ La story est réaliste, tant sur le contexte économique, technologique, que la psychologie des personnages.
### Le message sur les dangers de l'IA reste très superficiel. Il est évoqué à travers l'art, mais juste évoqué. Il n'aborde pas les emplois supprimés, le travail d'esclave des "contrôleurs" d'IA (africains sous-payés qui visionnent des contenus 10 h/jour), les conséquences écologiques, etc.
=> On est loin de la BL habituelle. Le ton est perturbant, mais je regarderais certainement à nouveau ce drama, au moins certaines scènes de toute beauté.
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A story of realism and art
Before anything else, I have to talk about the art in this show. It was STUNNING! Personally, the painting of Pheem and the angel painting of Koh were my favorites, but they were all so beautiful. Speaking of art, I just love how this show talks about art. From inspiration to just art inn general to REAL art vs AI, it was SO GOOD! I loved seeing it. The speech Jira made about real art vs AI art was everything to me. Absolutely loved it!Onto the characters!
Jira: I was so 50/50 on whether I liked him or not. My opinion on him changed depending on the scene to be honest. His speech about AI and when he broke up with Koh were my favorite moments from him. Him going back to Koh and what he did to Pheem made me lose some respect for him not going to lie. Idk he was just so back and forth for me. He's an incredible artist though!
Koh:I hated him. He was an asshole in the beginning and was all the way through the show. He's used people all his life and I think that will never change for him. That being said, I do think he genuinely loves and cares for Jira. I just wish we saw some character development from him, but on the other hand he showed that some people just never change. And why did this man never have pants on?! lollll
Pheem: I loved watching his arc and character development so much! He was a completely different person at the end of the show than he was in the beginning. He really learned a lot over the course of the show and I loved seeing it. I was so happy seeing him leave Koh's company. In the end he really deserved better than Jira too.
Mawin: He was a really good friend and a pretty chill dude. Loved that he wasn't afraid to call out Pheem on his bs either. I hope he got some of the acting gigs he wanted because that one audition we saw of his was phenomenal.
Ing: She was the true GOAT. She gave Jira such good advice and I pretty much always agreed with it. I loved that she also was never afraid to call Jira out on his bs either. He should've listened to her more.
For the couples!
Pheem & Jira: First off, their chemistry was INCREDIBLE! I think if it wasn't for Koh, they could've been pretty cute together, especially if Jira never met Koh. I was really rooting for them, but in the end, I was happy they didn't end up together. I think it wasn't fair how Jira treated Pheem at all.
Koh & Jira: They did have some cute, sweet, and sensual moments together for sure...that being said, I hated them together. Nothing against the actors because they obviously have great chemistry. I just think they don't have a lot in common. I think the art vs Ai will continue to be an issue as well, especially since Koh still didn't see an issue with it in the end. Koh will never see where Jira is coming from with that and I think that will be an issue that will be a problem in the future again. I really liked when Jira left Koh and was really hoping the show would end with them not together. I think with the vibe of the show, it definitely could've had an "unhappy" ending and it would've fit much better than them getting together happily in the end. Koh didn't learn anything from their separation and didn't apologize for anything, and I didn't like that despite all that, they still got back together. I think Jira could've still been inspired by him and still painted him without them reconnecting.
Overall!
I loved this show so much! The vibe of the series is so different than anything I've seen before. It wasn't super dramatic with crazy characters or crazy plot, or super spicy either, but still had me hooked from start to finish. The characters, whether I liked them or not, were all super interesting to watch as well. I was disappointed that Jira and Koh got together in the end, but despite that one thing, I thoroughly enjoyed the series so much overall.
The actors did an incredible job as well! I loved getting to see my man Dew in this! I think this was my favorite role of his yet!! I loved seeing Gun as well! Seeing these two together after Leap Day was really fun too!
I highly recommend! I will miss this show a lot!!
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Burnout Syndrome is incredibly well-balanced and thoughtfully executed
I loved the story — it feels fresh and genuinely unique.The acting was superb. Every actor delivered a powerful performance, and you can really feel the intensity in each scene. It’s sexy, dangerous, and smart all at the same time.
You can tell the production knew exactly where to invest their budget, and it paid off. The direction especially stands out — everything feels intentional and well-crafted.
Standing ovation to the cast, the director, and everyone who made this possible.
So far, this is the best series I’ve seen this year.
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offgun myfavv.....
OMG feels like a quiet storm.OffGun stepped away from familiar comfort and gave us something raw, mature, and emotionally heavy. The romance isn’t loud or dramatic—it simmers, lingers, and slowly settles into you. Every look, pause, and unspoken moment carries weight, making the connection feel painfully real.
What stood out the most was the intensity without excess—no unnecessary fluff, just honest emotions and vulnerability. It’s the kind of story that leaves you feeling full yet emotionally drained, in the best way possible. This wasn’t meant to give butterflies; it was meant to stay with you.
A refreshing, bold turn from OffGun that proves growth doesn’t always shout—sometimes it quietly breaks you.
love you offgun.
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