Eliot_Rulez

No magic, just the same old recycled GMMTV concept.

When you already know in the first episode who the "bad guy" is, then I asked myself who did not see this coming? When you like to do a fantasy BL, then why not skip all the crap with the cheapo cliché bad guy? Of course they laugh in the end and are still friends even when the baddie tried to kill his "friend" but failed. That's fantasy of course, because in real life that would never happen in a span of a few days.

GMMTV is hyperfocused to give fans just the feel-good vibes without any depth. They want to sell their overpriced concert tickets and merchandise. They seldom do stories which are controversial or have a background from real life. Where are the times when storytelling was king and fluffy scenes where the cherry on top? Or: When was the last time a story made sense and you did not know what will happen next?

The second question is: Why bother with a second couple when this couple is just an afterthought? Yes they are cute together, but there was no substance, they just were there to look pretty.

Production quality was very good, because that's one of the most favorite ships in GMMTVs menagerie of ships. At least First had a nice time, because he could play the bad guy and he did a good job of that - as far as the script let him. While Sea can act, I would also say Jimmy improved again, but the is not even close to Sea. So overall, this is a brain off series with mostly good vibes and that's what GMMTV went for. They all look pretty, the camera framed them pretty and that's that. But for me, it was just predictable and most of the time boring as hell. Still, I can't fault it too much, because it's at least not bad. It's ok to watch and ok to like, but as usual the ratings are overblown by all the fangirls who do like seeing there ships hugging, kissing and in some NC scenes.

Read More

what a roller-coaster...

I'm neither a BTS fan nor have I any idea of the original storyline... But man that was intense. I can't collect all my toughts because I'm overwhelmed.
The only thing I can say is, this drama stands out. It is not entertainment in the least. It raises too many questions, shows us how shitty the world is we live in, depresses us and if you are sensitive, it overwhelms you.
All the actors did convey the story in an outstanding way and with this material it could not have been easy. Production quality was top notch.
I don't think I need to say more. This was outstanding in so many ways.

Read More

What a bullshit script and waste of time watching this...

I have not to tell you that this is a cliché BL with the worst things in it: An alleged rape, abnoxious woman and a story which is so boring and unrealistic that it begs the question: Who did greenlit this project?

I can't fault the actors, they did the best they could with this script. But pardon me: If you - as a brother - think your little brother was raped, you would call the police and then there would be a medical examination and so on - To keep the pretense of a rape for two episodes is the worst I have seen in any BL... Besides you can't rape someone without waking him up if he is not drugged - and he was not. So the premise is bullshit. And there is this annoying girl who got rejected but then suddenly she turns to her best (girl)friend and ends up a lesbian - OMG! How dumb can it be?

And because I was pissed at this, it's a waste of time to get into the gritty details of the rest of the story which was just awful and one cliché after the next. This was drunk writing, I can not explain it any other way. I know the actors need food on their tables, but when you read this script, can you really think that's a good idea to take on the role? I bet it was contractual obligations and they had to do this series.

The only thing I can't fault this series is the production quality which was really good but such a waste of money and effort. If you haven't seen this series yet, just don't. All the high ratings are just fangirls dreaming of cute boys/handsome men and nothing else, because it can't be for the story.

Read More

This is akward...

First of all, the reincarnation tropé is nothing new, but to have that in an instant when the body of the grandpa dies is so strange that I could not comprehend that for a second or two, because I understand that Yuan did like the outside of Ze Fang, but I can't understand that he is quite in love the moment the souls switched. That the other soul is the hetero grandpa is the cherry on top which makes this ridicilous.

Production quality was good, cinematography was ok, but overall I did expect more. This is a again a taiwanese show which does disappoint.

I will not rant further, because storywise this was dumb. When I consider we have 2025 and there is still the hetero to gay tropé - a tropé which is sooooooooooo outdated and should not have a place in any BL. When I remove the obvious stupid parts of this story, it's a decent BL with no heights and quite everything is standard. It's pleasant to watch cute/handsome actors but that's it. Because of the story I have to downrank this show, because it makes no sense for me. If you like it, good for you, but I do expect more and of course, I'm not a girl. 🤣 I was never invested in the characters, so when I rate this as medicore, than it's because they went not the GMMTV/Domundi way which would make all worse... Watch it, if you have the time, skip it if the story is important to you.

Read More

comedy missing the point...

While I can get Tongrak & Mahasamut story, I don't get the GL part... Is it me or don't you court someone you like with annoying requests and silly excuses? This irked me the most.

The characters in general are very one-dimensional, there isn't much of a development. Also all the drama elements felt a bit forced and cliché. Tongrak's buying sex-service is not a good point but it's life. The only thing which was clear from the beginning (for me) was that Mahasamut did not really do it for the money. He was interested in Tongrak from the get-go. But there's where the story almost ends. At least I understand why Tongrak acts as he does, shunning his feelings but be overwhelmed by them anyways. This leads also into excessive sex-scenes due to Tongraks "buying" Mahasamut. While japanese BLs show mostly too few (with some exceptions), Thai BLs choose too many and this fan-service is appreciated as I can see from most reviews and ratings here. In the end Tongraks overcomes his fear of love but it took too long of a time for me.

Tongrak's niece was the highlight of the show giving it a bit of flavour uncommon to most BLs. I don't find it surprising a 13 year old girl said that uncles new man is sexy, that should not surprise anyone, that's also normal nowadays.

I would have purged the script of all the silly comedic scenes, have either skipped the GL or altered it into something mature, to have a contrast to the dark outlook from the BL. Then this show could have been done in 6 or 8 episodes. Why did the producers choose to have a dark story for the MLs and to contrast them with mostly silly comedy for the GL? For me It breaks the flow and since episode 1 everyone should have understood there is something wrong with Tongrak. But maybe the writers wanted to be close to the source material or they thought that this is the way to go, I don't know. For me it was the wrong way.

Production quality was high with beautiful shots of the island which were too few imho. The ML did a good job overall especially Peat, the GL were good in serious scenes. Due to the handling of the story, this is a subpar show. Good chemistry does not save a bad BL, sensual sex-scenes don't either. It's sad that people don't invest time to think about the story and understand what's wrong with it.

But as the ratings show, sex sells, so it's again a sad day for Thai BLs with declining quality plots, writing and execution. This year seems to be a new low for Thai BLs with a lot of crap shows and a lot of medicore shows. As long as people like such shows, they will produce such shows and the quality will diminish further.

Read More

Easy on the eyes with a touch of boredom and a rushed, crazy finale...

While I understand what the production tried to do - replacing homophobia with xenophobia for merman, they did not do a thoughtful job. Especially the story around the events 20 years ago were not done properly. It is mentioned in the middle of the series and culminates in the finale with a ridicilous solution to cure poisoning. Of course when you first see the actor playing Phraphai father, you already know who the bad guy is - that's when you "typecast" an actor for mostly bad guy roles. So the predicability shot through the roof - and I don't like that. That his adoptive son also plays a psychopath is also not helping.

The rest is ok, they even put effort in the merman fins which did not look out of place. The setting is also nice, it's not in the city, but of course we have the typical rich city boy and a very naive bartender who does not stand up for himself and is under the thumb of the psychopath most of the time. Because it's not a school setting I expected him to be more pro-active and not display such a passive behaviour. He is old enough to know what he wants and what he does not want. The first four episodes drag on a bit and I wished they had introduced the past event much much earlier and kept that storyline more in focus and did tell that story in more details and not so rushed. The side-story of Pings mother was just ridicilous imho. If you tell your son for 20 years, that he is a "monster" - but then change your mind when he left for a day - it's just not realistic in my book. And they did not really need that story-plot.

Storywise this is an average show, the production was ok most of the time and it's easy on the eyes. But just cute/handsome actors do not make a convincing story. It's far away from the worst thai BLs we got to see this year but it's also not really good either. It's an ok show and if you like the premise it's not too bad to watch.

Read More

"Toxic" is too mild...

First of all I will not dive too much into this series.
You have lot's of reviewers who will explain any detail for you, but I can't be bothered.

While the acting was amazing all characters in this show do need psycho-therapy. All of them. While "psycho professor" & "angry director" do need it most, the other two need it too.

To have a BL where love is regarded as "business" leaves a bitter taste on my tongue. Also the co-worker who at least does not care about Daons background has also a problem with accepting a) rejection and b) listening. I find it quite annoying when characters refuse to listen.

And then there is the lackluster finale... Because it's a BL we get a happy end. Oh would it be so much better if Co-Worker just died and that would be the end for all. But no, he must get his Daon so all the fangirls are happy. Also the final kiss was not that good compared to the scene in his apparment when he was drunk...

Cinematography was top notch, all the details were amazing... but imho it was quite wasted on such a story imho. I liked the beginning but it then spiraled out of control especially with the "angry director" and the "psycho professor". Also who would go for a presentation when the co-worker got stabbed? Would you not inform the attendence and scrap it? Or is it a work-related thing in Korea, that business must go on regardless of what happend? That did not make much sense to me. And then Mr. Director appologizing? Nah, unbelievable, you can't reflect in such a short time on the 11 years you did all the crap.

So overall I'm a bit split about this series, even when I don't mind toxic storylines. It's an above average show, but the story will not be to everyones taste which is a plus in my book but the finale was disappointing for me.

Read More

The biggest disappointment in BL history...

While this show was not only overhyped and we all expected greatness, the script of this show was worse than I could ever have imagined. As usual this series started strong in the first two episodes to declined at a steady pace *till episode 12, where the jumped of the cliff and landed on the belly.

Everyone reading the novel can agree, that the novel did not need to be spiced up with the SM part for example. If the book is already good, you should not change it into something it never was. The pacing is all over the place and the side couples are mostly just extras where there stories are wasted and not explored in depth. But we see scene after scene of the ML which did nothing for the story.

Episode 12 culminates in the trash script this was, with one cliché after the next. Nobody can fault the actors who all did a very good job with what there were given. And of course costumes, most of the staging and cinematography was impeccable, The music with an real orchestra was great - if they had used it everywhere and not used some music from a library which again was completely unnecessary. The few minutes in every episode could have been handled by the composer as well. Of course I could nitpick about the "english" natives and the "London underground station" and so on. And don't forget all the ads slapped directly into our faces. And don't forget the miraculous healing power of Chakri, who was serving again after being shot (which was not a stray shot in the arm or so).

All in all, this was overhyped and did not deliver. Aof said, he did the best he could. If that's the best, I don't see a future for Domundi. But of course the fangirls will overrate this show again, will not understand how weak that story was and that the drama was forced. And they will write glowing reviews (hello CRPH & thanks for blocking) not having a shroud of integrity to write about the flaws this show has. Normally this show would rate even lower, but I can't deny the acting performance (oh daddy Ramil you were the perfect asshole through out the series), the cinematography, costums and most of the staging and most of the music. But the script was trash. As I have written all of that - the conclusion is: This show is a waste of your time.

Read More

Messy, stupid story... as usual...

Thankfully some people are cutting together 55 episodes of 90 seconds clips making it a movie, so we can watch it in one go. While production quality is not bad, the story is. Also the vertical format does not help and the so called "action" scenes are a bad joke.

The chemistry is just ok, but nothing amazing and the acting leaves a lot of room for improvement. This series is mildy entertaining but also boring most of the time even when it only runs for around 95 minutes.

I can't even say I was disappointed because I did not expect anything. When you are behind in your watching schedule, you should watch something else because it's not worth your time. I have no clue why the actors do such bad series, but I assume they have contractional obligations and they need food on the table.

Read More

Quite nice to watch...

As typical of Sukfilm they try to tell a short story with a very limited budget and this time I think they did quite well. Yes, we are all sick of the same places, but at least the "bar" has now background noises to make the scene more believable. I really really wish, they would have friends in the community to help them out for locations to vary the settings a bit.

This time the story did not contain a bitchy woman and without cringe which was a bliss and the story is just straighforward and kept more real without forced drama. Of course it's cute and has fluffy moments. The acting was good. The only negative I can say is in the finale where, a) the scene with the mom should have been played out and b) the scene of the sister finding out who the lover of her brother is should have been skipped, because it was unnecessary. But all in all, they did nothing wrong (this time).

So if you have not seen it yet, it's about a 65minutes filler and you could have seen worse. 🤣

Read More

Neither bad nor good, but some aspects are bad and some are good

With this series I'm very split... The part where they record their video-memories are really good. The story is a dog biting his own tail running in circles and the comedic parts are just annoying.

While the story is not great, it at least has some redeeming qualities and the mature parts are really nice. The other stuff is just there including a side couple and some NC scenes which are maybe nice to watch but not really essential at all. One highlight for me is "Cooheart" playing the "lady" of the family but not over the top as in many other series but with an aura we seldom see from him. I guess he had the most fun playing in this series. The contrast between the MLs was quite stark and may be an eye-sore for some but I guess that's done for "dramatic effect".

If they had done the show more seriously it would have been much better imho, but this story it's an improvement from their last series which was worse for me. Sadly Max & Nat have never had a good project yet and I have no hopes this will ever happen. At least they tried their best. This series is only 30-35 mins per episode, so you can rush the 10 episodes quite fast compared to most other thai shows.

Final verdict: Some will hate it, some will love it and I'm split :) I see what they tried to do, but the execution is not to my liking. But it's not that bad either. So judge for yourself.

Read More

Sometimes even Domundi BLs can surprise us in a good way...

Disclaimer: This review is only valid for the UNCUT version of this show. Avoid the cut version like the plague, because as always, the cut off a lot of story. This is especially true for episode 8 which has a runtime of 1:56:51. I would not have minded to cut a lot off the finale because the end was draggy. So consider the uncut version as a 13 episodes series with some bonus content.

P'Aof said in the making of TNP he could not do any better, but he clearly lied, because we saw, he could do better. When you do not make a show just to cater to the fangirls and the actors, to no surprise to anyone, you are successful. This was filmed before TNP and it seems, this is the series where all the energy got into the script.

While the story is elaborate it's still straightforward and easy to understand. There is a lot of darkness in it, a lot of pain, but also a lot of growing and commitment for each other. For me it was perfect for episodes 1 to 10, ep 11 and 12 did not keep up the high standards established before. Especially the "bonus" bits felt a bit draggy and also the production quality was subpar because the cuts where a bit eratic, they could not keep a rocket in focus (who wants to watch just the smoke?) and the happy family time felt unnecessary for me because it did not fit the vibe of the show. Most of the finale would have been better served as an special episode detatched from the main story.

I guess the star of this show is the soundtrack which was really exceptionell and of course the "intro" which did not spoil any story elements at all. Kudos for that! Acting was very good especially considering the filming must be especially hard without any climatized rooms for most of the time. Of course this plays out in a rural area, so we got also a lot of nature and traditional housing. Cinematography with the 2:1 aspect ratio was most of the time stunning, the special effects were better than in any other thai BL and of course they had lot's of work with makeup and costumes.

Overall, this is the first series, where a big budget meets or exceeds it's expectations and after the fiasco (in my view) of TNP Domundi/Mandee redeemed itself as being able to tell a story first and have romances second. They even went the extra mile to put their ads as subtle as possible.

This was most defenitively not a waste of my time and it will not be a waste of your time either.

Update: Thanks for all the upvotes but thanks also for nearly the same amount of downvotes. If I sometimes agree with the masses they downvote and when I write harsh reviews disagreeing with them, I get the same. It's really amusing how much hate people have in them.

Read More

Stunning pictures, not thought through story...

"The Secret of Us" is a japanese youtube channel, but only doing chinese BL content. That is one their several short series but a very weak one. While the landscapes are really stunning, the story left so much to be desired. It begins fine - a hurt stranger is found by an to be aspiring veterian - but how they fell in love is not really explained. There is a red flag scene in a tent and then it's like they are together.

In the following episodes it's revealed the stranger had his goal to reach the veterian because his dog saved him from a wolf pack. But when you listen to the story, it does not make much sense, because he mentioned there were other people saving him, so they would have rendered first aid, right? And just because he did not tell him first, they break up and the stranger returns home.

The finale is the most confusing. First it's a time jump and second he wants to search for the stranger but gets a call that mr. stranger should have an operation otherwise his life is in danger and then he appears on a horse. WTF?

This is one of the weakest series from them and I have no clue why they thought the story made any sense. They had six episodes to tell a story, but most of it was filler and not needed and it ends. While it's nice he's back, will he die now? Or what was the reason for him coming back? I can't figure it out and I don't care. The actors tried their best, they delivered a decent performance but I did not feel their attraction to each other. The only good thing about this series are the stunning landscapes which is special because most dramas play out in a big city most of the time. Also the rest of the production quality was top notch wasted on such a script. Handsome actors don't make a story. So my quite high rating is only because of the production quality, because the script is really bad.

Read More

Nice premise lacks on execution with a forced "happy end"

I do like low budget productions in general, but in this case, they skimped on the runtime which makes the series feel rushed in the end. If it were me, I would have omitted the "happy end". It makes no sense to meet a guy who looks exactly the same and for all intents "feels" like the ghost which would have been impossible.

Acting was ok, giving us a bit of fluff and good vibes with a dark undertone. Of course the actors are also handsome, that may be a bonus point for some viewers. I have not much else to say besides, it's an ok show for what it is, even when I think the ending is "lame". So binge-watch it, if you are interested, but I would stop when the ghost is disappearing because that should be the real end.

Read More

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 :)

Read More