Top Form

Mixed But Ultimately Disappointing Bag

A very mixed and disappointing bag. Let me start with the good.

1. I LOVED the acting. The main actors are absolutely lovely, both in their roles and out. Picked from relative obscurity, this show could not have found two more perfect people to play these roles. And I find myself enjoying watching their promo videos and fan videos of them far more than the actual drama.

2. The intimacy between the main characters. And no, I don’t just mean the sex. In fact, although I know everybody loves the honey scene, sploshing is just not my kink. And neither is wet clothing. Sensory nightmares for me. What I mean is the interactions between the main characters as they navigate and build their relationship, especially when it’s just them alone.

3. The music. There was one Korean song in particular that I actually added to my playlist, it was so pretty. I also liked the use of classical-style instrumental music. Much better than some of the computerized synth music they use in other dramas.

Now let’s talk about the in between.

1. The cinematography. I loved the way they used lighting in this, and some of the close ups and the creative shots are gorgeous. But there was also some weird shaky cam work that I didn’t enjoy, and also some weird framing that tipped over my line into unnecessarily abstract/artsy. But that’s likely just a personal preference.

2. Like I said, the NC scenes. Excellent intimacy and acting in them, but a couple sensory nightmares.

And the bad.

1. I don’t watch dramas to be devastated or melancholy. I have never understood why people enjoy this. Life is hard and sad and stressful enough without making myself sadder with the media I consume. This show, while there were some truly lovely, bright moments, was overall so saccharinely melancholy that it made me feel just generally icky. The biggest example of this is the episode near-ish the end where Akin spends nearly 30 whole minutes of it crying over the death of his grandmother. Yes, it’s very sad to lose someone so close to you. A real person would likely spend far more time crying and grieving. But this is a show. He reads the last letter he wrote to her and cries the whole time, then he reads her last letter to him and cries, then dreams about her and cries, and cries and cries… It’s so drawn out, I couldn’t even feel anything after a while. I just ended up skimming it. I shouldn’t feel like I need to skim through such pivotal moments for the characters.

2. Jin was honestly a bit of a creep. Like, I understand watching through the body of someone’s work in order to better learn your craft from them, but while that’s what he claimed to be doing, it came across more like he was digitally stalking Akin while also kind of forcing his presence on him irl and trying to better his craft so that he could be more “on his level” and thus be with him. His only character trait seemed to be being obsessed with Akin, which didn’t sit well with me. I don’t even know if he actually likes acting since it seemed like he’d probably be fine with giving it up if it meant he could be with Akin.

3. This is a little random and nitpicky, but I really despised Jin’s hair. It was in his eyes more than 90% of the time, which not only bothers me in a “isn’t that poking him in the eyes???” way, but it also means that Smart’s acting was impeded by his hair. Emotion is partly in the eyes, so if we can’t see his eyes, we lose access to some of his emotions. So this did not help the issue I had with feeling like his character did not have much personality other than being obsessed with Akin.

4. Why the heck would anybody with as much good sense and acting chops as Akin try to dramatically throw himself off a building just because he lost a “sexiest man of the year” award? I understood what they were going for. They were trying to show that Akin is getting older and getting passed over for the next big, upcoming, young star, and he’s feeling old and thrown away by the industry he loves and has staked his career, his life, and his self-worth on. But really, “sexiest man of the year”? I can see a major acting award doing this, but like, I didn’t see Akin as being that shallow before this…

5. Apart from all my personal feelings about the characters, the tone, and etc., the biggest nail in the coffin for me with this show is the sexual assault that was treated like a character cheated, except don’t worry because he didn’t… There is a situation where Akin gets stumblingly, passing out drunk around another actor he’s in a play with, and this actor takes him back to his place and tries to have sex with him. Akin is IN NO WAY ABLE TO CONSENT TO ANY OF THIS. Eventually, Akin starts mumbling Jin’s name and the other guy decides not to have sex with him and instead leaves hickies all over his body just to mess with him. Akin wakes up the next morning, thinks he cheated on Jin, and breaks up with him over it. Eventually, Jin gets a recording of the actor saying he didn’t ACTUALLY have sex with him, and all is well again. BUT EVEN IF AKIN DID HAVE SEX WITH THAT ACTOR, IT WOULD NOT BE CHEATING. IT WOULD BE RAPE. Because, like I said, HE VERY MUCH COULD NOT CONSENT. As it is, leaving hickies all over a passed out person’s body is definitely some flavor of sexual assault. But the show NEVER treats this like a rape situation, instead treating it like a cheating situation, and that’s just messed up.

So. While there were some bright, lovely moments in this show, there were also so many things that I just really did not enjoy and one major stain on the quality of this show that means I can’t get behind it. But I truly do wish these actors well and will follow their works in the future.

Read More

Top Form? More Like Bottom of the Barrel

Top Form wants to be deep, dramatic, and inspiring — instead, it’s a masterclass in missed potential. The plot is predictable, the dialogue feels AI-generated, and the characters are so flat they could be printed on paper.
The acting swings between soap opera and school play, and the visuals try hard to be cinematic but land somewhere around “filter-happy music video.” Even the soundtrack feels like it was picked from a free stock library.
If you're into overhyped drama with no real payoff, this might be your thing. Otherwise, save your time — and your eye-rolls.

Read More

I was honestly quite skeptical in the beginning, and in my opinion the first couple episodes were a bit weird, but i gave it a chance and kept watching which I’m extremely glad that I did, because this is a masterpiece! I would say I’ve watched quite a lot of bls, and for me it’s always kinda hard to really get into shows/movies without dropping them if i don’t feel entertained from the beginning. I’ve also heard really good things about this bl, so i was expecting a lot and it lives up to my expectations more than i could've imagined. I love the production, the acting, the chemistry, it’s overall just really interesting and entertaining. I’ve watched 6 episodes yet and can’t wait for the next episodes to come out. This is totally worth watching in my opinion!

Read More

Incredible

I wouldn’t know where to start with this amazing masterpiece. It has been q really long time since I have found a show I enjoyed, ever since Not Me or Kinnporsche if I am being honest. I LOVED the cinematography in Top Form, specially in episode 2.

The topics that are covered are somehow so new and I haven’t seen them as often as the typical ones we get all the time. I was able to binge watch all the current 6 episodes in just 1 day, which really amazed me. I never really watch shows until the whole series is already uploaded, but this one caught my attention and I can’t wait for the next episode soon! I strongly recommend watching!

Read More

fire chemistry

Overall: excellent chemistry/acting from Smart & Boom and I hope to see them in more series. This series is based on the Japanese manga "Dakaichi: I'm Being Harassed by the Sexiest Man of the Year" which was later an anime. I haven't read/watched them and I reviewed the series on its own merits. 11 episodes about 40 minutes each. Note there is an additional scene after the initial end of the episodes. Aired on WeTV https://wetv.vip/en/play/d1z6o64bu16ncf3

Content Warnings: sexual assault, non con kiss, non con touching, non con video recording, vomiting, gaslighting, non con picture taking/sharing, stalking, cyber bullying, blackmail, coercion, death, grief

Watch Suggestions (to remove angst and focus on their sweet/steamy parts)
- watch episodes 1-5
- episode 6 stop at 12 minutes
- start episode 7 at 21 minutes
- episode 8 watch 6:45-17:45 and 40:20-end (but not the additional end scene after the initial end)
- episode 9 watch beginning to 5:45, can watch 19:35-24:30 and then 51:30-end
- episode 10 watch beginning to 4:40, 45:10-46:15, 48:15-end
- episode 11 watch 20:10-end

What I Liked
- acting/chemistry
- clear premise
- styling*
- laughed a few times
- ongoing intimacy
- role playing in episode 8
- that family in episode 9 and the advice
- supportive manager (except the pinning thing)

Room For Improvement
- started with a flash forward montage
- the non con kiss
- *the hair was covering Jin's eyes too much in some scenes
- comedy sound effects did not enhance the comedy
- camera was too shaky at some points
- deducted half a point after episode 6, they never addressed the victim blaming and I wasn't sure that if it had actually happened a character would have been okay with that/been supportive, also the villain did not have any real consequences as if they wanted the viewer to forgive him because he's attractive (which likely some viewers did but I'm not one of them), I also couldn't ship him with his hinted romantic partner
- bad how he just forgave his stalker and she had zero consequences
- they had too many angsty parts and were not able to fully explore them
- noble idiot trope/lack of communication where they caused more pain to each other than if they had been honest and worked together through their challenges
- the nonsense CEO villain
- (neutral) confused by the wings, apparently that is something from the manga

Read More

Boom, Boom, Boom

10 stars for Boom, 7 stars for Smart & rest of the cast. Boom's the best Thai BL actor I've seen. Smart's character was very one dimensional and not in a good way. I guess he did okay given the script he had to work with. Its just "unfortunate" that he was paired up with Boom, who had a better script and shone every frame, every scene, every goddamn second of this show. Plot was boring, direction & cinematography choice was not my favorite. I didnt feel the connection between the main leads, they just went from rivals to lovers within 1 episode. I don't get Jin's obsession with Kin in ep 1 nor Kin's reciprocation in ep 3 just because Jin keeps giving him rides and chocolate milk. Jin kept private videos of Kin and its too weird that Kin still falls for him soon after. A top actor like Kin has definitely seen more handsome, non-wooden, newbie/young/experienced/obsessive actors given his tenure in this industry, but nah, he still falls for Jin, whose personality is just to follow him around like a puppy, whose eyes we cant even see in some of the scenes. I just don't like to watch intimacy without depth. Please give Boom a better script & more main lead roles and hopefully with a better costar.

Read More

cinematic, nothing to complain about

I'll go same as ratings starting off with story.
I didn't read manga nor watched anime, I found out about Top Form after honey scene went viral and barely knew what to expect. Was not expecting fireworks and was right with that because there wasn't really any fireworks/plot twists.
BUT
I was right only partly. It's obvious I wouldn't find here aliens having breakfast with Akin or dancing cows but the plot was here for sure. Looking back at it, something was happening all the time. I'd catch myself checking how much time of episode do I got left and being surprised only half of it passed since I felt like so much has already happened. I didn't feel like it was too fast or overwhelming but more like if time slowed every time I'd click play. Top Form knows how to get you invested.
Even if the scene wasn't packed with dynamic action and was focusing more on romance/relationship where we can easily predict some patterns or behaviours - it wasn't boring. Due to other aspects as well written script, acting and directing making it attractive and very enjoyable to watch.

SmartBoom understood the assignment serving top form acting and chemistry. I have nothing to complain about. The script and the way SmartBoom acted it out showed characters emotion really well, the tough ones, the depth but also balanced it with a bit of unconcerned cuteness and playfulness which I feel is overloaded in many series not leaving space for what we've got here - real drama.
Side casts did good job too.
Directing ATE. I didn't put cinematic in the headline for no reason. Every frame was beautiful and satisfied me as an aesthete but also I just simply like the way director moved the story onto to the screen.

Now what I always enjoy the most - music. Aside of when music they chose, it's when they chose to play it. It wasn't just only copyrighted free bg music in cheesy moments - music played a role, it was a cherry on top of every ep and I'd like to single out the honey scene here because piano completed the mood so per.fect.ly. it deserves its own applause. Non skippable intro makes or all even better from the first minutes.

Overall: Worth watching, would recommend

Read More

Top Form to Mid Form

This could've and should've been one of the best BL series from this year! I just have zero clue what even happened in the plot. I loved seeing Jin and Akin's relationship from the mentorship beginnings to actual lovers. I thought that the production aspects were really cool, though I also work in production so I may be biased haha. What started to lose me was the issues with the sasaeng aka stalker and Akin, as well as just us AGAIN in a BL needing some element of SA in the plot. We really don't and it just made me feel icky and also had me angry at Jin's character for a hot minute. Dude was way to quick to not reading the trauma on Akin's face and body after the fact, like be a better partner! He did redeem himself after awhile, but also I will forever say Johnny deserves JAIL and nothing less. The sasaeng stuff though was wild. Letting her go with a very lackluster warning and allowing the VICTIM to be in a room with her alone. Absolutely not. Overall, Smart and Boom are amazing and their chemistry is strong as hell (even with the unfortunate stuff going on right now with management). I am also now a total Boom simp, that man is just beautiful omg.

Read More

Tenderly...He is devoured.

This is a story about accepting the darkest and sad, angriest parts of yourself and allowing another person to love you in your entirety.
or
Being a actor means adventure, action, worry and protecting of love.
maybe
This passionate and stormy story is about making space for your true self, finding the man that feels right for you, and building trust in yourself and you love.
It could be more.Or it could be more complicated. It may not mean anything.

1 sentence summary: Jin admires Akin greatly and is in love with him, but after a some errors, will Akin be able to find their way again?

My thoughts: This was so charmingly. I did not expect that. Honestly. It has everything - romance, sex trust, mistrust, apprehension, and fear. It's so spicy and cute. At the same time it was fun to watch...and sad. I don't remember crying so much while watching the anime.
Overall, this really was the great rivals to lovers story. I loved the rep, I loved the plot, I loved the music, I love the banter, and I truly love both of these main characters so very much.
And if I haven’t already sold you ... this is also just sexy story about two young artists learning who they want to be, both separately and together.

Also, I’m totally buying mints candy on the way home tomorrow, because I has such a craving.

Read More

Good but the story is meh!

While I generally liked it, I can't help but fall asleep in the second half.
Technically it's not the drama's fault that the story is repeated a billion times and I chose it it to end my drama slump -it didn't work, I skimmed through it- but let's be fair, the sex scenes were good, I mean honey as a lube? Yummy 😂 and the two leads were fantastic.

Acting was perfect, I may be slightly biased because I love Boom, watching him gives me joy, nevertheless all actors did great and it's not one of those cringey, bad acted BLs that Thailand is famous for so it's very watchable and enjoyable.

The story is where I struggle, it's not the best and it's very repetitive and boring really, nothing to look forward to, but again that's my personal statement because I have a drama slump as I said and maybe maaaayyyybe if I ever rewatch it at a suitable time I may change my rating.

So, would I suggest it? Sure if you are in your Thai BL phase, that's one of the good options you have.
İs it worth the time? İf you get bored easily maybe you'll skip some parts but overall not extremely boring, you can enjoy it nonetheless ~

Giving this lower rates because as I said it didn't fit my mood ~

Read More