So this was a weekend of final episodes
May contain poilers
Payback Episode 10
Ummm considering the suspension the show had all the way to the final ep I was surprised how "easily" thing went for Sun and Jay in the final ep. It was kind very clear cut good guys won and bad guys lost. I think for me what would have been more satisfying was to see at least some of the adversaries going to court and jail for what they did. Especially with Sunny, sure he ended up pretty miserable at the end, but he actually killed someone and did not get any legal consequences from his actions.
I did roll my eyes for Jay being bit "dramatic" at the hospital. We get it you were heart broken of what happened to your Sun, but no need to make him more agitated by slicing your own wrist.
As a series this is probably going land 7,5 for me. There were a lot of elements I liked, like the revenge plot, handling personal and professional trauma and the murky side of entertainment industry. It was heart warming to see Sun slowly beginning to learn to trust again to other ppl and form a bond with his manager and Sky.
What does knock this down for me is the relationship development of Sun and Jay as the main couple and only couple for that matter in this show.
The biggest drawback was that until the last few eps, Sun's and Jay's relationship didn't seem to go anywhere, but rather going around in circles where Sun barely seemed to tolerate Jay's advances in order to progress his revenge agenda and Jay making him look just uncomfortable most of the time. Once there was a break trough with the relationship aspect they were really cute together.
Peach and Me Episode 4
Other BL studios take notice: it is completely fine to do a plot and fit it into 4 episodes. We don't always need 10-12 episodes to tell a good story. Sometimes less is truly more.
The last episode ended this sequel perfectly. Seeing Mok and Thee saying good bye to the boss employee relationship they once shared and moving back to being friends was very touching. Similarly how Thee told Mok that he could always rely on him, even if their lives would now be different, it was great to see, after the disagreements they had on previous episodes.
The whole meta thing about Thee wanting to do the series about his and Peach's relationship, was strange. I get it that it was meant to be an insider joke/commentary about the series, but the way it was prolonged, it felt awkward for me. Second aspect that I think could have been improved was the GL plot line part, it didn't get enough screen time. I suspect it was a production choice of either giving fans more Rome and Mok content (which a lot of fans wanted already from the first series) or have more screen time to the GL pairing.
What I think was perfect was the ending scene with Peach's photo exhibition. It encompassed so well the character development that Peach has gone trough with the first and the second part of the series.
I think, bc overall we got to see more different sides from the characters in this one, compared to the first series, I will give this +0,5 higher rating. So it is a 8,5 from me. That being said, I think you will have to watch the first series to enjoy this one fully. It doesn't work as a stand alone.