Eliot_Rulez

medicore show with a good vibe

OMG, was 2024 a hard year for thai shows. Many shows were childish, immature and poorly written with forgettable storylines and often boring as fuck.

What this "university" show did different: It was not as childish, it was not that immature, it had a 2:1 screen ratio (loving it because I don't have a TV since forever) and the vibe compared to all the similar shows (yes I mean all the GMMTV/Sabi Wabi crap) was miles ahead. I can't explain it really, but when watching this, I had a smile on my face regardless of some clichés & forced drama (ep 11) and some cringe scenes. And of course they did polish the presentation to new heights. Not only are the actors cute/handsome as fuck but also the cinematography did everything to perfection especially in the emotional scenes.

Makes this a good show? Of course not. The story is still poorly written without hights and with forced drama. But everything else was executed in a very good way, had a good vibe and was still enjoyable to watch. Overall I expected less and got more :)

Edit:
After knowing what was cut from this version, this makes the show not even medicore, because, they did cut away all the stuff a BL should be about - intimacy... especially the finale had a nice twist in it which can't be seen in the cut version, so a downrating is appropirate. Don't watch the cut version, it's a waste of time, only watch the uncut version!

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OMG, why is this crap produced and this crap liked?

First, there was no magic to this show whatsoever. It was so over the top that, it was cringe² ... to begin a relationship with lies is never a good start. That the other partner knew it was a lie and did nothing to not let it spiral out of control was the cherry on top. Thai writers have neither imagination nor a glimpse of real life.

The magic stones confused me in the beginning, why is there glowing and so on, when they don't do anything with it? Why do they use stones at all? Did they have any relevance in this series? Why are Ritt's phrophecies accurate when he has no clue at all... Questions the writers never asked. To make Ritt a more or less alcoholic by his friend is also nothing what I would decribe as "fine". It's irresponsible in my book.

Edit: I guess I have to rant a bit more... The mother of the soon to be idol: Typical mom, projecting and forcing her son to be what she never could and then a 180° turn, yes, I understand you - WTF? There was no development, no struggle for herselves, she just turned and everything was fine. I call Bullshit, when I see it.

I could rant a lot about this show, but I have better things to do. It was part of the crap thai BL april/may line-up which could never have been produced and nobody with a working brain would miss them. And yes, the haters are going to tell me, that I assume that everyone liking it, has no working brain - and yes, that's true. If you like it, then there is something wrong with you 🤣 But that is only my opinion, not a fact.

Besides some pretty framed pictures this show has nothing to go for it, also visual the two couples are quite similar especially with the tall guys. There is of course some f*cking because the fans expect this, but the whole thing was just stupid. If you are limited in time, don't bother with this show and if you have time, find something else to watch, maybe a series which has nothing to do with BL at all...

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Lovely setting, Nut going overboard...

While that's not my cup of tea normally, I found this series better than I would have expected. Nut had the role of his life but for my taste it was overbording most of the time. It's a mixture of comedy and drama with a touch of time-travel with too much focus on the comedy part. I would have wished they would have tuned it down, then I could have enjoyed it even more.

The side-couple was underutilized, they did not even resolve their story in the end and left them open-ended. We can assume they are also together but they had no romantic moment in the finale which was disappointing for being the more interesting couple in my eyes. I'm a bit split if they had to change history and make the country a democracy at that time. That seems a bit silly, but I approve that "Prince" went not back when he had the choice and stayed because of love. I also wish they would have condensed the story a bit more, so around 10 episodes would have been enough.

Overall, production quality was very good, the setting was something different than usual and it may entertain you. The first half of the series was imho better than the later half which is also a downer. But it's not a series that I would watch again.

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exccentric but not even medicore.

If you are a Thai major in a university and you have a native speaker there, would you not speak thai? :)
This different language and it's explaination made no sense at all. And if you are friends and grew up together, would you not be able to speak each other languages after a time?

I would have wished, they would have not the "murder" case in it, which was clumsy and unrealistic and concentrating more of the MLs opening up their feelings for each others more in detail. They could even save money by only have eight episodes. 🤣

The show was ok-ish, besides the fluffy moments and some character growth of the MLs, it did not have anything special or worth remembering. Again a show which did not need to exist and if you do two languages, just don't explain it at all and nobody would care so much about it.

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Not as bad as some reviews make you believe...

After two years I watched the series again to review my initial rating and it's better than I had in my recollection.

First of all the master question: Are they all in a toxic relationship. The answer is no. It's not a toxic relationsship for both couples. In the beginning it's controlling and harsh but not toxic. You may feel that way, but they are not constantly fighting, there is no abuse besides some harsh words in the beginning. The big problem for them is communication and insecurity. All of them are insecure of themselves.

While they dragged the story out a bit and they resolve their issues close to the end, this story is better than most crap we get nowadays. The story has a logic to itself, it goes not out of bounds with silly things which would not fit, and even the ads are not that much in the face as nowadays. Yes they do a lot of fan-service but in a sensual way and not just for doing it, it fit's in the narrative. They also did not overdo the comedy bits, so the series has a good flow. I only feel sad, that the third couple did not get enough screen-time. Many say there was no character development, but I would disagree. The conclusion of the show is to be yourself, to not hide yourself from yourself or others and they just accomplished it. It's a very positive note for me.

The story itself is not stellar, but again compared what we get in 2024 especially from Thailand, the production quality is stellar, the music is great, Nunew's singing is exceptional. All in all an entertaining show, which does not try to give you only good vibes. I was surprised, that I find this show now much better compared when it released, but that's ok for me :)

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The typical toxic chinese BL with a twist...

How to rate this? On one hand I despise the story, on the other hand it was done so perfectly. Of course I'm a bit sick of all the toxic chinese BLs because, do we really need that much toxicity? Is the world not toxic enough? As far as I can tell, the toxicity level was reduced compared to the first installment and the novels, on the other hand the scenes where Lu Feng is holding Yi Chen captive and abuses him are very painful to watch.

And then Yi Chen is also sick - with Stockholm syndrom - and deciding to stay with Lu Feng in the end. But of course he decided against him first because he is the knight in shining armor to protect the love of his brother who also happens to be gay. Of course his family did not help. At least his shitty father had the decency to die in a rage outbreak, but his mother still insisted that he would marry. And because Yi Chen is Yi Chen he does what his mother wants, even when she also dies soon after. Why the woman who loved him, did marry him, knowing he is gay, is beyond me. So it seems she is also sacrifing herself. But at least they get a divorce and because they changed the script, they don't have a child, so there was no intimicy whatsoever.

It's a bit sad, that we have always such characters especially in BLs. Yi Chen sacrifices himself - for what? Lu Feng was driven mad and due his medical condition, it escalated. At least in the finale we get the medical reason why Lu Feng did all the shitty things he did, which is neither in the book nor in most other toxic BLs. His bipolar disorder - also formely known as manic depression - at least explains a lot. He was a maniac for sure. Xi Chen did the only reasonable thing and forced him to get the treatment he needed for more than ten years.

Production quality was of course top notch and the OST was excellent. Acting was also very good for me. So, as usual, everyone who has mental issues should definitively not watch this series. At least with Yi Chen brother and his lover we got the typical fluffy BL stuff many wish for but only in limited quantity. Watch at your own peril!

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Much better than part 1...

While "New" often directs the actors as childish and cringe (Earth has to be played as a toddler), "New" was this time in the second row just producing and executive producing. The new director did tune down the childish and cringe behaviours of the direction but there is still some unnecessary childish stuff left including the stupid sound effects.

What me irked the most are the inconsistencies between season 1 and season 2. Johann bought a café in season 1 but it was not seen in season 2 at all - why is that? Of course we also did not see the bar which was also bought by Johann. This does not make much sense without any explaination. I have no idea if the novels have the same inconsistencies but for me it breaks the whole story arc. You may say it's nitpicking but for me it's a huge deal. The series does not feel in the same universe anymore.

They also broke with the story telling. In Part 1 all four couples were intertwined which made the story more dynamic. The forth couple in this case were Tonfah & Typhoon, not prominently featured but we knew there was something wrong, but we couldn't put a finger on it, till it was revealed in Part 2. But this interactions between all the couples is missed often in the last two parts. For themselves the parts with Arthit & Daotok and Suea & Dueannao are good, but they don't feel natural in the grand picture of the whole series.

The whole production was not thought through. Either tell the story in parts per couple or tell them together. The mish-mash did not help the series at all. It may be easier to follow but I don't feel a production should make it easy for the viewer. If you can't keep up with a story when it involves more than two people you need to concentrate more and such series always have a "previously" part, because that's what the US series did, because they can't be bothered to remember. For me it's a timewaster, I know what happened a week before and I don't want to know what will happen next week. For this series "Suea & Dueannao" should have been the beginning of Part 1 with their school time and then we could have had Hill & Ter and Johann & North. The Suea & Duennao arc could have been sprinkled in the Tonfah & Typhoon and Arthit & Daotok arc. But of course what do I know about story telling? 🤣

So overall even with all the problems it was a "good" show. It was not stellar, but it was entertaining for the most part. Arthit & Daotok did give us something different alone from the beginning but had flaws executing the story till the end and nobody liked Arthit turning into a red flag for two episodes. Tonfah & Typhoon was cuteness overload with a basic evil dad background. Thai scriptwriters always have a problem to alter the original work to make it better than the original. That is a strength of many JBLs where a medicore manga is turned into something different, for example "Our Youth" where 50% of the original was scrubbed and 50% was newly written for the series. But I suppose we can't have it all. Lazyness trumps the thai screenwriters and fangirls (and fanboys) don't care about the story anyways as we can see with all the 10 reviews here on MDL.

Ah, uncut and cut are two pages, so automatically deduction of 1.0 for the cut one. You never ever should watch it!

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As usual it gets weaker with every episode

While I enjoyed the first two episodes even with its weired story, it goes down the hill from there. The blood pork soup song was really entertaining and funny for me. But overall the story lacked substance and depth. Why drop the alien aspect of it? Why can they be only be 1000 years old which is against common "knowledge" and also why can't it be in the established realm that vampires can convert a human into a vampire?
That this is low budget production is evident, because most scenes are either on the rooftop or in the two rooms or Yohs home, with some scenes outside. Only the wardrobe was a bit fancy. As usual all the comedy slices in thai series have very silly soundeffects which are just annoying.

The show is not bad per se, but it left sooooo much to be desired. The supporting cast (especially the girls) are great imho because the main leads together don't have the chemistry you expect from a BL. Other low budget shows try to compensate with more mature scenes but here they are completly absent. Just one kissing scene is disappointing for a BL. Overall a mixed bag which could have been skipped alltogether.

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I had so much hope, but I'm disappointed af

I thought we will get a nice action show with some romance inbetween. But we got some action and often with excessive brutality and not much romance at all.
I thought we will get a good script, but we did get a really bad script.
I thought we will get good acting, but with such a crap script, they did the best they could.

The finale was especially painful to watch and for me the worst episode of all.
I can ask myself only, why do so many people like this show?
The characters are comically, especially the bad ones, one-dimensional with no growth, abnoxious or bland. The plot is from a $1 trash-novel and there is not much of romance at all, just egos clashing with each other, without meaningful conversations. They only did try with Joker and his father, but it was not as deep as it should be. The solution was lazily written and done in 5 minutes and that was the highlight of the series. A series with a runtime per episode of ~80 minutes is too long if they do not tell a story, develop the side characters. There is no feeling at all that the pairs grow together except Tattoo & Hoy who are together before the sereis started. :) It just gets boring . There were lots of time to develop a deeper partnership, more cuddles, more kisses between all pairs but instead it was wasted with a meaningless plot.

The only believable person of course was granny :) She had me from the beginning. But the rest is too forgetful. The best thing was the soundtrack, but it was wasted on this series, because there was no suspense in the story only in the music. I can't even say the direction is bad with the script which was given.

As with most shows, it starts with a strong first episode and then it goes down the drain.
I will not watch this again and I hope you have not wasted your time with it too :)

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What a mess...

I have no idea why someone thought to have two 3 minute episodes and a 5 minute final was a good idea. The cut of this is so hectic and the scenes are so short, it is hard to follow what is happening and why. The chemistry was lackluster, the acting was ok, but nothing more.

I wasted 11 minutes on this, but I needed to take a break from "Alice in Borderlands" but instead of switching my brain off, I had to think about the story. The music choices were at least "strange" and production quality can be described as medicore with unbalanced sound and subpar microphone quality.

This story needed at least five minutes more (which would not be that expensive) and a more elaborate script and of course a real kissing scene. Overall, quite bad, but maybe you like it more than me :)

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Cliché after cliché and vastly lack of chemistry...

While we expect shows from Taiwan to be quite nice, this one disappoints. The story is full of clichés, nothing new is told, the lack of chemistry between the couples makes this unbelievable af.

Even when the story tried to eat from the forbidden fruit, it did not make this show in the least interesting. Mostly it was boring and without any charme or emotions. Even the cinematography was not artsy and of course nobody showers with wearing underwar :) When actors are new, maybe Taiwan should also use the practice of an extensive workshop.

The only good things I have to say about this show: A nice title theme and we were spared over-acting comedy and childishness. Overall it was really forgettable. It's not the worst show from Taiwan but the 2nd worst. Better skip it and do something useful with your time.

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Childish as fuck and too long...

A typical GMMTV production: Too childish, too long, extremly cheesy lines and not much substance.

There are some serene scenes in it, which make the actors shine, but the overly childish behaviour of most of the cast is just annoying. Maybe the mid 20ties actors should have acted in an elementry school instead of an university. The production quality was of course top notch, because this is one of GMMTV highlight products. They did not skimp in the audio department and the OST was excellent. Too bad there aren't any acapella versions of the songs to listen to.

So, overall, it's a series between annoying and fun, but the drama elements of the story feel forced, the disregard for Faifa by all around him was frustrating and the fantasy elements were done to perfection. The right stuff for all the fangirls, but sadly not for me.

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Entertaining to watch but red flags...

Let me start with all the red flags that show has:
While I get to be pissed off if you are betrayed, there is no reason to get someone raped. The toxic behaviour of Chi Cheng who forced the rape is also disturbing. The elefant in the room is the "hetero to gay" tropé which at least is disrespectful to all gays out in the world and of course complete bullshit. To let Wu Suo Wei be called "aunt" by his bf nephew is also disrespectful and unnecessary.

Because this is a chinese show, they lip-sync everything because there are hundreths of dialects of Mandarin and that causes inconsistencies with fore/background audio and sometimes it felt off. Also I felt the quality of the writing declined and the last episodes fell flat. I'm also not happy that they cut the "top" thing from the book. Chi Cheng let Wei top him to prove his love for him which made it a powerful statement, but we don't get to see that in the finale which was also unusual short.

I can't agree that all the red flags are a reason to rate this show with a 1.0. Compared to "My Stubborn" this was on the mild side in the toxic behaviour. In said show the ML forced his sexual drive on his partner but Chi Cheng at least restrained himself..

The production quality was very good indeed. Of course all the MLs are also eye-candy and their acting was good, but due the lip-syncing some of the acting felt a bit cringe and unnatural (the little nephew of Chi Cheng was horrible for example). The most impressive acting was by a side character Wang Shou played by Liu Jun which really had an impact, but his story felt it does not have a real closure. The same goes with dad & son or if the family did finally embrace Wei. So all in all, it was still entertaining to watch, but storywise this show does not even come close to other chinese BLs like "Stay With Me (2023)", "Blue Canvas of Youthful Days (2024)" and "Secrets Happened on the Litchi Island (2025)".

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