This review may contain spoilers
A show appealing to mostly girls?
As expected this review section is flooded with 10... and the MDL rating as of now is at a 9... and when I see that, I have to ask myself: Did we see the same show? And as usual, this review is only valid for the UNCUT version. Do not ever watch a cut version, because besides cutting nc-scenes, they also cut story-elements (which will not be that fatal in this series imho). For reasons unknown MDL sometimes seperates them and sometimes does not, but be aware on youtube you get a cut version.
While the performances overall are good, the script is crap. The series tried to walk the fine line between comedy and cringe and Duang (the character) crosses into the cringe territory almost every time, which is so annoying, obnoxious and has nothing to do with "cute". Qin on the other hand behaves like a morron because his childhood was sooooo bad *bruhuhuhu*, sorry that's not an excuse for being a jerk most of the time. They even wrote in "red flag Qin" doing the absolute wrong things and then having him emotional blackmail Duang. Sorry, that's neither cute nor necessary nor should anyone (especially teens) learn from such behaviour. The epsisodes are also uncessary long because they only drag out and don't do anything with the side characters. NorthOtto had an interesting beginning but it faded away and suddenly in the finale he (Otto's character) was introduced to all of them (with too much makeup imho) and no explaination, no talk before - nothing. If you remember, in ep 1+2 we had the "Cherrie" storyplot and nothing happened till the finale where "ups I was Cherrie, so sorry" "confession" and that's in the same scene. Overall this scene felt so forced and cringe, I can't even find the right words for it. This script was just lazily written!
There is a redeeming quality to this show: When Duang and Qin talk alone in a serious tone, it changes the whole series. It is actually well done. I think they could not decide if this should be a comedy or a drama and mixing both gave this series a great inbalance. All the dog references with the stupid sound effects are just cringe and then bringing a dog into the finale - OMG - who thinks of something like that. While the NC-scenes were tastefully made, it shocked me, that in the finale they cut the NC-scene sooo short... that's quite unusual. The second redeeming quality is the OST which is also well done. This is Domundi/Mandee so production quality was very good as well.
But even with this redeeming qualities of the series, this show can only be "average". They had a chance to tell multiple stories in a wider arc but as usual, they failed. It's more a cringe fest for over half of the series. If I ever had such a partner I would kick his ass to the moon or even farther. For me this is a series is clearly targeted to escapists and girls. Nothing wrong with it, but for escapism I don't need a series, there are a lot of other alternatives. Thai shows don't understand how to do "cute" - the last "cute" show was "School Trip" and it had not any nonsense in it (besides the behaviour of some girls and a brother), but both MLs and even their friends were very likeable. Here, I think the actors are cute and nice people, but their characters are just unlikable. That may sound hard, but that's my impression. Also Domundi could not shy away to slap us with ads in our face again, which is soooo annoying. They could have skipped the Japan trip and saved some money going somewhere inside Thailand and made a destination pay for it. But no... for some reason it had to be Japan. If they would only watch JBLs and get inspiration from there.
I wish they had forgone with the comedy part and made it only as drama. Also the should have resolved Qins Daddy/Mama-issues in a more engaging way, just 1/3 of an epsiode is not good enough. So, in the cosmos of university BLs, this was not the worst, but it was also not good.
While the performances overall are good, the script is crap. The series tried to walk the fine line between comedy and cringe and Duang (the character) crosses into the cringe territory almost every time, which is so annoying, obnoxious and has nothing to do with "cute". Qin on the other hand behaves like a morron because his childhood was sooooo bad *bruhuhuhu*, sorry that's not an excuse for being a jerk most of the time. They even wrote in "red flag Qin" doing the absolute wrong things and then having him emotional blackmail Duang. Sorry, that's neither cute nor necessary nor should anyone (especially teens) learn from such behaviour. The epsisodes are also uncessary long because they only drag out and don't do anything with the side characters. NorthOtto had an interesting beginning but it faded away and suddenly in the finale he (Otto's character) was introduced to all of them (with too much makeup imho) and no explaination, no talk before - nothing. If you remember, in ep 1+2 we had the "Cherrie" storyplot and nothing happened till the finale where "ups I was Cherrie, so sorry" "confession" and that's in the same scene. Overall this scene felt so forced and cringe, I can't even find the right words for it. This script was just lazily written!
There is a redeeming quality to this show: When Duang and Qin talk alone in a serious tone, it changes the whole series. It is actually well done. I think they could not decide if this should be a comedy or a drama and mixing both gave this series a great inbalance. All the dog references with the stupid sound effects are just cringe and then bringing a dog into the finale - OMG - who thinks of something like that. While the NC-scenes were tastefully made, it shocked me, that in the finale they cut the NC-scene sooo short... that's quite unusual. The second redeeming quality is the OST which is also well done. This is Domundi/Mandee so production quality was very good as well.
But even with this redeeming qualities of the series, this show can only be "average". They had a chance to tell multiple stories in a wider arc but as usual, they failed. It's more a cringe fest for over half of the series. If I ever had such a partner I would kick his ass to the moon or even farther. For me this is a series is clearly targeted to escapists and girls. Nothing wrong with it, but for escapism I don't need a series, there are a lot of other alternatives. Thai shows don't understand how to do "cute" - the last "cute" show was "School Trip" and it had not any nonsense in it (besides the behaviour of some girls and a brother), but both MLs and even their friends were very likeable. Here, I think the actors are cute and nice people, but their characters are just unlikable. That may sound hard, but that's my impression. Also Domundi could not shy away to slap us with ads in our face again, which is soooo annoying. They could have skipped the Japan trip and saved some money going somewhere inside Thailand and made a destination pay for it. But no... for some reason it had to be Japan. If they would only watch JBLs and get inspiration from there.
I wish they had forgone with the comedy part and made it only as drama. Also the should have resolved Qins Daddy/Mama-issues in a more engaging way, just 1/3 of an epsiode is not good enough. So, in the cosmos of university BLs, this was not the worst, but it was also not good.
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