assez

IDK yet

* note: the story works for me (at places), the execution not so much (the acting is wooden around the edges for my taste, possible reasons: work with actors, highly probably actors' age), the music is beautiful - and does not blend with acting; it is 2 levels stronger as if wonting to rely what the acting itself doesn't; still solid enough to not stop watching

Edit: So finally, I went to inspect the series thoroughly, and I came to these conclusions:

1) What I mentioned in the initial post of this review - wooden acting - it is used for the melodramatic movie within the series, which, from a technical side, is maybe not done as smoothly as it could be, but I don't mind it as much as I would, if it was in the series itself (it is there, but sparsely, which is good).

2) The original material for the series is tragic if you take it from a real-life perspective. And I believe once it gets into live action, it gets way more fairly inspected than if it stayed only in written words. As it is, from what I have heard, it is the worst of the hell of a situations you would want to fall into if it were happening in real life. And no, it is no excuse that tragic things happened in real life, because if it is a self-reflective work that works with how tragic stuff in real life is, then it would never fall into certain specific traps that it did fall into in here.

And don't get me wrong, there is no shame to the author, because I still believe it has its place in a fictional world. But I must stress here: it is not copy-paste, role-model behavior, it is not something you should excuse if it happenes to you in real life, it is not something you should romanticize in your real life, and it is not something you should accept in your real life. It is definitely not something you should internalize or look up to. As long as you take it as a metaphor, as a symbol non-translatable into real life and not as a representation of anything, we are fine.

3) Construction-wise, it was obviously done by someone older who does understand the craft. I just must admire how incredibly smoothly it works if you watch all of the episodes together. There is zero room for any filler content. It is absolutely like they knew what was going on at all times. Logic-wise, it makes sense; even the story within a story is perfectly done. It's very smooth, very portable, very page-turner-ish, and very digestible.

Where it leaves room for improvement is still acting, and one of the reasons why there is room for the acting to improve is, I would say, thanks to the actors' very young age. It did get into my experience of what I was watching, I'm not going to lie, and at the same time, I must admire to what level and to what capacity the acting already is as it is (...good).

But in this specific circumstance, we must take into consideration what type of material we were dealing with: non-consensual sex, very dangerous types of behavior, rape, and other various very bad human things that you are definitely going to portray differently if you are 20 and if you are 35.

And then again, don't get me wrong, there is a drastic difference, in my perspective, in how you are going to portray university students as a 20-something and as a 30-something. But the impact of portraying students at different ages, and the impact of portraying doctors who are supposed to take care of mental health issues, are going to be drastically different. A person is not going to happen to be a doctor anywhere before 26, if not around 30 years old; to get a degree, you need to be old enough to treat people. On top of that, a doctor who obviously has severe mental issues himself (btw, including supervision was ingenious, grown up idea, great to let people see that even as a doctor who takes care of you as a patient, they are not left alone on all of these things, in fact, they must undergo this in order to do their work, and to fo it right. They absolutelly need supervision and peer supervision) - these things are going to be drastically different.

You definitely can do stuff a little differently as someone who is an adult and has much more perspective on the settings, but the implications and executions will vary much less and the depth is gonna be somewhere entirelly different no matter if you're 20yo acftor or 50yo actor. But as a 20-year-old, you cannot really give all of the necessary emotion-wise insight to a doctor who has all of these experiences himself when he is 15 years older than you.

And I would be very careful about undermining the series if someone were replying to my complaints about this with the argument that we are supposed to tell romance stories, not educational stories or whatever stories. There is something you should see once you get older that you cannot see when you are young, and the twist here is mostly responsibility.

And while they have done many beautiful things in the series, I would say the department of responsibility was severely left behind from the doctor's side. While everything around him grew up — the doctor and author with it — he as a character remained at his age range (20 - and should be much older). (Now, to clarify the confusion - the character was written like that, the actor portrayed him lie that. The character did not allow the actor and his actions to grow up, restricting him. If hewas written differently, if actor was able to rewrite him, it could be easily added those 6 + years in behavior and in thinking both.)

And for some strange reason, in this specific case, I cannot just wave my hand and say, "It's fine, it's just fiction." But at the same time, it's perfectly fine with me, and I have no issues if you decide to go with this simplified route of "it is just fiction" and not scratch that deeply into it. I can even understand why you would be unwilling to go deeper into this.

4) Just to make it perfectly clear, in both actors I have seen wooden-type acting, but at the same time, I have seen that it was very disproportionate because at some points they were way ahead of their age in acting, and at the same time, somewhere they were wooden in their reactions. I would say it applies to both actors. I would say I am leaning more towards wooden acting in the case of Shu Yuan. But it is served in such a way that I can write it off by saying it was done for the character that was supposed to be melodramatic in the movie within the series, so we are covered there.

5) Part of why I was so disappointed that it was supposed to end last week is probably that I thought and felt like this series deserved a longer scale, because we were delivered only around 30 minutes per episode and we had only 12 episodes, which is very much like lower-budget Thai series. I would definitely say there was room for delivering more if we had more time.

But because it's Chinese, somehow we managed to do it relatively short, yet relatively complex, yet relatively deeply intelligent, yet relatively layered — and I am fine with that combination. I actually love it. I just feel that it deserved way more space than it was given.

6) What I enjoyed the most and was the most happy with were the differences between the actors within the series versus the characters within the movie, and how we had this puzzle and the shifted perceptions of it and shifted perspectives of it.

How one of them villan in the movie was a good friend in real life. How someone wanted the role of the main actor, and then, when we were watching the movie, they were actually a character that wanted the main lead. And in real life, how they acknowledged that there were some skills in the main lead that he did not see and would not have shown if he were one of the main characters in the series. Etc.

7) I would say the script and the way the story was told was in lot of ways very satisfying. So is the choice of costumes; that's really nice. I would maybe opt for different colors within the actors' age range and different colors for the stories, just because I feel like the deep atmosphere that it is setting is kind of between their acting skills and acting range.

As in, they cannot pull it as gloomy as the darker furniture and coloring gets, nor as "cold" as it gets, because at some points it is really a very passionate story. And we are constantly trying to drown it in dark colors — why? Well, I know why; that is just a rhetorical question.

Also, I'm not so sure, technique-wise, why series that tend to work with very dark colors — as in gray, white light, and a black or dark color scale — have such a misery about abandoning it and using contrast.

I mean, in *Deep In*, there is at least some attempt at switching from light, like the gold lights, to yellow warm lights. Aka, the white lights are like the therapy room, versus the warm yellow light, which is like the hotel room during the night when they spent time together.

But for the contrast's sake, I would abandon this color grading and color scale altogether. Even in *Justice in the Dark*, I have so frequently seen scenes that could have been lightened and brightened way more than they were, and they just refuse to get rid of the constantly dark colors. At places, it was very suitable, and that is an example, by the way, where I would say it worked perfectly well and was justified.

And/or — but even there, I would say that there was this great disproportion in overusing it, and they did not really do enough justice to make a contrast for these very dark atmospheric scenes with something that screams light and brightness.

I think, texture-wise, this was not a problem for me in *Fangs of Fortune*, I cannot now pinpoint why it was not an issue there. Obviously, the creators there work very much with visual storytelling, and it just shows, and it's perfect in a sense.

And I wouldn't even say they managed to balance the darkness with contrast, as in making something that is incredibly bleak and dark and uses heavy atmosphere and heavy colors to translate this on screen. They don't use the opposite contrasts to balance it out, but for some reason, it might not be an issue there.

It might be because the storytelling from A to Z is kind of a very dark atmosphere too, but it kind of makes sense, and it's smooth, and it gets the impact all together. There is no reason there that would force you out of it, while I would say in *Deep In* and *Justice in the Dark*, it was kind of annoying in places because they pushed it unnecessarily everywhere, even where it did not belong anymore.

Another thing and reason why I think *Fangs of Fortune* uses something many series don't is that I get that if you have a dark, heavy atmosphere with a low-quality budget, and you want to convey the darkness and heaviness through dark colors, it might look laughable if you all of a sudden use baby, bright and light colors. You want to avoid parody-impression.

I think series like *KinnPorche* or *Payback* could balance it ideally. They might have overused the dark tones and made it fierce, but they interchange them with, again, warm other colors heavily saturated lights. And if you cannot switch into a palette of light colors because it would simply not fit the storytelling overall, you have the option to use deep, dark colors but across the whole spectrum.

In *Payback*, what struck me the most were these cuts where we go out of something incredibly deep and dark into darker red, dark green, dark purple, the KinnPorsche series again using yellow light, as in like a rising or falling sun, and green and purple — still heavy, but colorful colors, you know.

So, if you cannot switch to light colors, it's fine, but make it somehow visually diferentiated by using something that gets you out of the constant gray cloud you put on the screen. Using vivacious red, green, purple, and yellow on the darker side of the color spectrum can tone and balance it out perfectly.

And then all of these other bleak, dark gray, dark brown moments will make sense and bigger impacts, and it will fit way better than if you just use this one monotone type of color grading.

8) I have to admit I'm in love with the original soundtrack for the series, which is another reason why I did not want this to end so soon after I started watching it properly, just because the initial credits and now the final song for it, *Tiger in My Love*, were so beautiful. And I just love the sneak peaks after the song; that was ingenious (and wicked).

I also appreciate that they decided not to force the ML to create the lyrics for the OST. Not only because this is overdone already, but also I feel like if you have an actor who is 20, it's way wiser and it adds layers as time goes by if someone older writes the lyrics for them to sing. I might be completely wrong, and the creator of the lyrics might be — I don't know — maybe 15. Kids these days are relentlessly intelligent and bright, and experienced, of course. However, whatever it is, I really love that song.

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Ball Boy Tactics

The love scene — the generic sound design was absolutely atrocious. Here's a clear example that slow doesn't always equal sensual. I understand that the show might be trying to showcase its actors in a way that appeals to a horny teenage girls, but please, please… could you take a step back from doing it so obviously? Maybe five steps. Or fifteen. Thank you.

Surprise, surprise — aside from that, everything else was acted well. In my vocabulary, this is a well-told story. Every actor with even the slightest importance brought their A-game. The picture quality, character styling, group dynamics, cinematography… all of it was solid, often even above that.

But the love scene? If I’m being kind, it felt like you were trying too hard: too much time spent saying nothing new, showing nothing we haven’t seen a million times before. If I’m not being kind, it felt uncomfortably close to selling young boys to lewd gazes — the music, the long camera takes, and the overall directorial style of this scene didn’t help the case, even if the acting remained decent.

I was honestly worried, with the two-episodes-per-week format, that these last two episodes would fall flat. But no — they were very well done, aside from this one misstep. I’m positively surprised, enough so that I would place this series among the best of the year, for me at least.

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Rew

Wohoa, I am at episode 2 and it could already have a different name: All The Things That Wouldn't Happen Like That at All IRL.
It is not a bad story... it is just so badly written story. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Of Predators and Nice Men

I am so sick of the talk about this being in any way, shape, or form pedophilic. So let's take a different approach to this, please. Just hear me out.
I want to talk about everything that is already good about this series, and I also want to get into why I don't like people equating fiction with real life, especially when they blame fiction for taking direct inspiration from real human beings and real-life situations.
Psychologically, fiction serves a different purpose from real life. Fictional rape, fictional incest, fictional abuse, and other taboo topics can serve very different purposes from their real-life counterparts. I am going to cook this out of my brain as I go, so I don't have to keep trying to formulate exactly what I think about it every time. Take it with a grain of salt, but I know what I mean.
So, first things first.
(+) THE OLDER MALE LEAD
I really want to praise the older male lead. I think they have done a great, painful, and very diligent job portraying him.
He is obviously a very soft person at first sight, but everything we know about him supports that impression. Just take his story. He is a husband — or was a husband. He and his wife have separated. He is still trying to maintain a relationship with his mother and probably does not want to hurt her, so he and his ex-wife are pretending that they are still together. That requires an immense amount of cooperation between two people who were once very close, and I think that has been portrayed beautifully.
It also messes with our brains because we are not particularly used to seeing an adult male character in a BL series who has actually been married and is dealing with the consequences of having tried to live a conventional, traditional life.
Usually, if a male character in BL has a wife or a previous marriage, it is either treated as something dirty, as cheating, or simply not portrayed particularly well. This is, so far, one of the first portrayals I have seen of a man who genuinely tried to live that conventional kind of life and simply could not make it work for one reason or another.
Unfortunately, we do not yet know why the marriage broke down. I don't know whether the issue mentioned in the synopsis had anything to do with the destruction of their marriage. We don't know whether he has been gay since day one and that was ultimately what destroyed their relationship; whether she was more career-oriented; whether he was perceived as a loser and could not deal with that; whether she wanted to pursue a career; whether she found somebody more suitable for her; or something completely different.
The one thing we do know is that he is not the one who has another person in his life, so he probably was not the one who initiated the divorce because of another relationship.
And beyond the marriage, it is not even clear whether he is homosexual, heterosexual, or bisexual. We literally do not know.
What we do know is that he is very obviously portrayed as trustworthy, reliable, and soft in nature.
Does that tell us anything about how sexually attractive he is? Yes, no, maybe. My first impression would be that no, but experience argues with that, so he might be potentially very attractive to other people.
And I think this is particularly interesting in the context of an age gap and a teacher-student relationship. We rarely get this type of “older” male lead: the supposed to be predator simply because he is older and occupies a position of authority - while keeping a persona of the reliable, responsible, emotionally soft person.
That is genuinely exciting to me because of how he is portrayed.
Of course, you can read his character differently. Character interpretation is subjective. He might still read as unreliable to someone else. But based on the direct indications we have been given, I don't see that character here.
I genuinely believe he is meant to be the good person in a bad set of life circumstances.
(+) THE ATMOSPHERE
The next thing I really want to praise is the atmosphere.
We have these very dark tones, the black and blue, the cold colours, and the overall darkness of the cinematography. It immediately tells you what kind of drama this is.
And the drama is genuinely dramatic. It deals with serious topics in a respectful undertone, which is not always the case.
For this genre, for this style, for this atmosphere, everything is extremely well attuned.
And I especially appreciate how they cut the music in situations where what is actually happening matters.
They don't constantly try to manipulate you with music. They don't show you one thing and then use the soundtrack to tell you that you are supposed to feel something completely different.
They leave the scene to speak for itself, and that makes the serious moments hit much harder.
The older I get, the more I appreciate that.
Surprisingly enough, I have even appreciated this in another BL series where one scene started without music whatsoever and was edited into the middle of a kiss.
Points to those of you who know which series I am talking about. I don't think I have ever stopped talking about how lovely that series is and how beautifully made it is. Those who know, know. Those who don't, you can ask me.
But this is another version of the same idea: silence can speak louder than music.
If you understand that the important part is the action itself and not the soundtrack telling the audience how to feel, you can create a much stronger scene.
You can start without music and then introduce it, and emotionally, that can have a similar effect. But if you cut the music completely and trust the scene to carry itself, then kudos. You know what you are doing.
(+) THE TWO COUPLES
Another thing I want to praise is that we have two couples here, and neither of these future couples is easy.
They are not simple relationships. They are complicated, and you can already see the underlying problems developing between them.
That makes them much more interesting to me than a relationship that exists simply because the story needs two people to fall in love.
(+) THE SCHOOL, BULLYING, AND DRUG-RELATED TOPICS
I also appreciate the way the series handles the bullying and the topics that are particularly relevant to Korean schools, including drugs.
Again, they match the tone and severity of the situation with the visual and audio presentation. They do not turn these things into some exaggerated spectacle. The seriousness of what is happening is reflected in how it is presented.
And then we have the other male lead.
(+) THE STUDENT IS NOT WHAT EVERYONE THINKS HE IS
He may look like a troublemaker, but he isn't really.
He is in a terrible situation, with terrible support from the people around him and from the authorities. He is being beaten. He is bruised. People want to remove him from school. They even go as far as trying to put him in prison.
And yet he keeps fighting.
This is another thing that is genuinely interesting to me because of my experience with BL series.
He is obviously already fascinated by the teacher. From the very beginning, you can see that the teacher caught his attention.
But he is not written in the way some authors write the pursuing character.
Some authors seem to think that the person who pursues has to be excessively brazen. He has to be daring, pushy, slick, constantly aware of what he is doing, and somehow almost predatory.
It is like the psychology gets completely switched around because that looks better on paper.
But here we have someone who is definitely portrayed as that kind of person from the outside perspective — and yet you watch him and realise that the people calling him that simply do not know him.
He is quiet.
He is brave, but not brave through bravado. He is brave in the sense that he genuinely keeps going despite everything happening to him.
He suffers a lot, and he has nowhere to hide, nowhere to heal, and nobody to confide in.
He does not want to rely on anyone.
The only person he can rely on is himself.
And that does not make him more audacious or more arrogant.
It makes him quieter.
So we have two people who are, in very different ways, extremely closed off. Both of them keep things to themselves. Both of them are carrying things they don't really know how to express.
And then they meet.
(+) THE TOILET SCENE / THEIR FIRST ENCOUNTER
The situation in which they meet is actually very clever.
The teacher is vomiting in a toilet because the person who is taking him to his new school and new job opportunity has asked him a question that was too close to an extremely sensitive subject: the rumour about him and the student at his previous school.
That question hits very close.
He comes out of the stall, washes himself, and puts his wedding ring down beside the basin. He knows rationally what is going on, but the stress is simply too much for his body to process.
Then the other male lead (= student) enters.
He has been beaten and wants somewhere to hide and recover, but now he notices this new person standing there.
He does not recognise him, so he knows he cannot be a teacher. But he is in the teachers' toilet, which means he is probably going to be a teacher.
Something in him immediately wakes up. He becomes aware of his surroundings.
They exchange a few words, fewer looks.
The teacher leaves his ring behind.
The student takes it.
And we are now at episode three, with the ring still not returned even though they have already encountered each other several times.
The interesting part is that the teacher knows who he met in that toilet. He can probably make an educated guess about who took the ring.
But he never asks for it.
We even see in the trailer that the student is going to examine the ring and it seems as though he wants to put it on his own finger.
Which is actually quite funny if you think about the symbolism literally, because the only other person who could realistically have that other ring is the teacher's wife, not the teacher himself.
So the intended implication is obviously, the connection between the student and the teacher, while the literal object technically connects the student to the teacher's wife.
And neither of them normally wears that ring anymore anyway.
(+) THE TEACHER DOES NOT BACK DOWN
Then we get the testing of the waters.
The student is portrayed as someone who, from the outside, appears irresponsible, rebellious, and unwilling to obey rules.
Even some of the teachers reinforce that impression. They know what family he comes from. They know he can afford not to attend school. They don't want trouble.
So they try to get this annoying new teacher — who is all justice and no practice, as far as they are concerned — out of the situation.
But he doesn't budge.
And that is extremely annoying to them.
They are willing to do genuinely wild things to a student who is younger than them, and it is honestly disgusting.
What I like about the teacher, though, is that he is not simply a "rules are rules" person.
His attitude is much closer to:
"Am I really the only person here who cares about this student?"
And he doesn't even need to ask that question.
Because even if he is the only one, he is still going to be the one person who cares.
He never wanted anything beyond that.
He never imagined anything beyond that.
He just wanted to be kind.
He just did not want this other person (the student) to think that he was completely alone in the world.
He also does not want him to believe that he can get away with anything simply because of who he is.
And that is exactly how the student begins to recognise that the teacher actually cares.
He might genuinely be the only person at that school who does.
(+) THE ROMANCE PART
And that is where the student's trust starts.
First comes trust.
Then, with trust, he starts noticing details and differences between them.
And with those details comes love.
Importantly, the love does not come from some supposedly "born rebellious" nature. Winning the ultimate authority’s attention. Conquering the system.
He does not want an illegal, hidden, twisted relationship.
The teacher does not want that either.
Neither of them is thinking, "Let's have a secret relationship because this is exciting."
Instead, what happens is much more psychological.
The student quickly realises that the teacher cares.
And because he is someone who has been deprived of reliable human connection, he starts breaking rules and inserting himself into the teacher's personal space very quickly.
(There is also this thing, the act of desperation coming from the student. He knows that his teacher is probably married, and he knows if he does not act fast, which is of course out of desperation, he's not gonna get a chance. So he cannot afford to think twice before he acts. His dreams are basically crushed before they even begin - the very first scene and the ring.)
But notice who is not doing the pursuing.
The teacher is not the one initiating it.
He is not the one approving the boundary shifts.
He is not the one creating those opportunities.
The student is.
And if you want to look at the psychology of that without immediately turning everyone into a monster, it is actually quite interesting.
If you have a student in that kind of situation — someone with a deeply troubled family life, someone being hunted and bullied at school, someone who has absolutely nobody he trusts — and you suddenly become the only person he trusts, pulling away from him is not necessarily experienced on a purely logical or professional level.
It is experienced on a human level.
You know that if you suddenly withdraw, he may simply close himself off again.
And situations like that can very easily lead to much worse outcomes.
So the teacher keeps trying to help.
And this is exactly where the boundary becomes complicated.
Because when you try to help someone emotionally, you are no longer completely outside the equation (situation) - you are part of it.
You are emotionally entangled in it.
And that opens a door for the other person to keep coming closer.
The teacher's mistake, if you want to call it that, is not that he consciously seeks intimacy.
It is that because he cares, he does not pull away quickly enough from the affectionate and intimate attention the student is seeking from him.
His hesitation is used against him, perhaps in the purest possible sense.
Not because either character consciously wants to hurt or manipulate the other.
But because human beings use each other subconsciously all the time.
That is how families work.
That is how friendships work.
That is how relationships between human beings work.
We affect one another, lean on one another, seek things from one another, and sometimes exploit vulnerabilities without consciously intending to.
And that is where the transition happens.
The teacher's vulnerability is shown too openly, the teacher is in touch with it.
He does not protect himself quickly enough.

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Okay, this is not good. This is really, really not good—so let me rephrase.

I love JoongDunk. I truly do. I think Chimon gives the story certain elegance that wouldn’t be there otherwise. The female cast did a really good job, and the actor portraying Jung’s case-solving brother, Jay, was also very solid. Overall, I love JoongDunk’s chemistry, and I genuinely believe they are among the strongest Thai BL pairings out there. Joong’s acting, especially, is something many of us hold in very high regard.

That’s exactly why this series is such a disappointment.

The concept and the story had real potential, but somewhere along the way, that potential was completely wasted. The romance was technically healthy, but it was boring. I couldn’t emotionally or empathetically commit to it at all. The case-solving aspect was even worse—painfully dull, with no tension or payoff.

What did work was the color grading, which fit the tone well, and the overall production quality, which was solid. The simple structure of the story could have worked—but instead, it became the biggest weakness. There was basically no drama. I expected chases, internal conflicts, mysteries, stakes—something. Instead, everything felt flat and lifeless.

This series wasn’t a mess. It was just deeply unengaging. And I don’t think that’s only my issue—I think it failed both as a romance and as a crime-solving drama.

I also can’t ignore the acting and character dynamics. I’ve honestly never seen such weak work from Dunk before. During intimate scenes, I kept thinking, Where is he even looking? Why does this feel so disconnected? It constantly pulled me out of the moment.

I strongly believe that pushing Dunk into the superior position over Joong was a mistake. I’m not against role reversals—I actually love them—but only when the writing and direction can support them. Here, both characters were written far too bluntly, with no nuance or emotional layering. There was no room for a convincing role-switch dynamic to develop naturally.

Right now, Dunk shines much more in inferior roles. He simply isn’t strong enough yet to convincingly portray this type of detective character. That’s why I’m genuinely relieved that in their next series, Joong will once again be in the superior position. With proper writing and direction, that dynamic works far better for both of them.

As for the plot—there are countless “death” scenes where absolutely nothing is happening. Even when the show pretends something is going on, there’s no urgency, no danger, no emotional weight. The entire series could have been significantly shortened and heavily edited without losing anything meaningful.

And please—don’t even get me started on how nonsensical the police work is. There are dying children, and after the second death, no one thinks to assign protection? No detectives, no officers guarding potential victims? What kind of job are they even doing? The shooting scene is just as ridiculous: they storm into a building, start shooting random people without warning, and then proceed like that’s normal procedure, chase after the "biggest drug evil", one shoot him once - not concerned if he is still a danger, for the second to kill him on spot disregarding him as a potential future information source or as a person to be judged fairly, not killed off (taking justice into his own hands instead, not even attempting to immobilize him instead of killing him right away without any regret). And that is not even saying that wathever substance might the character have before was lost on "how they get rid of him"? It’s sloppy, illogical, and completely breaks immersion.

Without JoongDunk, this series would have been as boring as the EngfaCharlott Case. And while that one was over-dramatized, at least it was somewhat engaging. This series isn’t over-dramatized at all—but it also has no dramatization whatsoever.

The only thing I’m genuinely happy about is that another series is already in preparation—an office romance that’s completely different in tone. I really hope it reignites the passion between these two actors, because their behind-the-scenes chemistry is incredible. Unfortunately, this series gave absolutely no space for that chemistry to shine, which feels like a waste of time, space and talent.

And I also need to mention how poorly the romantic beats were placed. The kiss placement, the fun moments, and even the jokes were inserted in the strangest, most inappropriate or least interesting places. None of it felt organic. None of it felt earned. It wasn’t romantic, it wasn’t exciting, and it certainly wasn’t passionate—it felt like those moments existed only because they had to exist, not because the story or characters naturally led there. Everything felt mechanical and emotionally empty.

At this point, I’m honestly struggling. I don’t even know if I’ll make it through the last two episodes. And that, sadly, brings me back to my initial point: this series is not a mess, but it is completely disengaging. For a story that had so much potential—and for actors who are capable of so much more—this feels like a profound waste.

So yes—on every important level that matters to me, this series is a big no. And by “no,” I mean a complete failure. That said, everyone should form their own opinion. I’m sure some viewers will enjoy this kind of low-stakes, no-drama storytelling.

But for me? This was a huge letdown.

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⚠️ Warning: Fans might not like this. - Episode 1

⚠️ Warning: Fans might not like this.
What follows is a critical assessment of the first episode of The Next Prince. If you're a die-hard fan or expecting praise, consider this your fair notice.
Read on at your own risk.
*Episode 1*
1. It isn't a good idea to start a big series with montages of this type.
2. This really doesn’t help the audience immerse themselves in the story, right? Throwing a bunch of scenes without actually emotionally connecting people to it—no matter if what you're showing makes sense or not—doesn't work.
3. Just throw in faces of overly hormonal girls who are gonna end up with whom, before they realise they are not connected to character A in the first place. Mix gently, do not tilt, or spiders are gonna fall off of it.
4. Action scenes… that are pointless, where the most action comes from the cameraman (kudos to the cameraman, though) and the editor. Not even gonna refer to the boring modern fencing stuff. From a dramatic perspective, it is done badly.
5. Well, for such a long wait and for such an expensive drama, why not mention they did a poor job cutting the filler takes on the compass? The same goes for tension/mystery—they really tried hard, but you can learn to do that correctly only if not every answer you have for everything is a comic relief… (this one is a stab at all Thai series, not only The Next Prince.)
6. Overdramatize. Just close your eyes and stretch it as much as possible. Because that is a solution. Poor audience waiting for years for such a result. The first episode is a failure—maybe because of the obviously big production. Nothing about it is done smartly to make you want to continue watching, sadly. It is still as bland as Mandee Channel gets with their latest projects. So Cutie Pie still stands as their best series of all they’ve made.
7. A bunch of tropes thrown into the same spot—unfortunately in this case all in episode one, in the first half—will not make your series good. On the contrary. (Don’t get me wrong, by the way—without a doubt, there are gonna be many fans who will make sure this series doesn't drown. Unfortunately for all the parties involved—the company, the fans, and the series with these actors.)
8. Doing promo in such an obvious way for the food you sell elsewhere in the first episode is also not the brightest idea. Why not invite Engfa to chew it for you there? Would drag more people to watch it anyway.
9. I can’t say I am impressed with you using the training stick to get your actors to even get close for the first kiss on screen in this series either. I always feel bad seeing it in series. I wonder why you used it here, if it is such a big project.
10. You do not know how to work with a pause. Learn it—then you don’t have to overuse filler (and crap).
11. Even if I omit everything I said—which I won’t—for a first episode it is incredibly stuffed. Too stuffed for it to ever shine.
12. Oh, and in the next lifetime, can you please stop blurring the paintings and backgrounds and be more mindful about angles? You’ve learned how to move the camera—bravo—but don’t make goblins out of humans, thank you.
If it is done for 14-year-old girls, it can still hold some power, I guess. At least for some of them. If we compare it with other Thai BL series, it ranks somewhere around the worse end of the middle in quality.
I sincerely hope I will be able to give praise from now on, but as I doubt it, I guess there are only going to be a few points here and there this story can collect in the 4? months to follow. And as I have it on good authority, even the original work is bad… Well, that’s that. Still, pity the wait.

approx: 1/10

*Episode 2*

Ahhh, finally, I finished watching episode two. 😫

In Episode 1, I honestly didn’t think the series could survive on 3.5 potentially decent minutes—especially when both scenes were copy-pasted from other films. One from underage romance tropes, the other from adult real-life dramas—randomly stitched together.
I doubted the series could make it.
What I didn’t doubt is humanity’s endless need for therapy (and for good taste), but let’s talk about that another time.

Now, in Episode 2… they’ve shown that they might still have the potential to return to the level the company had in 2022. Overall, if you survive the first ~25 minutes (you are a hero), you will finally land somewhere… better. (Namely, the first 4 minutes are just plain horrible—only looking good visually in terms of production. Sadly, they messed up the first segment of the plane scene logically; it could have been good and nice, instead of just… nice. And don’t get me started on the idiotic fight scenes again.)

There’s more to work with here. That said, the main issues remain:

a) Characters are still not emotionally connecting to the audience. Instead of building those bridges, the story just skips ahead without foundation.

b) It’s still bland and boring.

c) It’s still illogical.

d) It is still indigestible—the toxic level of unnecessary overdramatization.

e) Characters do illogical things, and the narrative just pushes them together for the sake of pushing them together—disregarding how human beings actually act in such situations (if the situations ever happened like that).

f) The main narrative between the two leads is unwatchable and unengaging. (Though Jimmy… you managed to mess up his parts too, but we are glad to see him back.)

But: redeeming qualities are back—finally—in the form of the sweet side narrative! Looking for a needle in a haystack, it is, but finally, at least that. We got there. Yay, I guess?

In conclusion:
Unlike Episode 1, Episode 2 actually offered something interesting. And for me, interesting > well-done or beautiful. So yes, I’m improving the rating based on this episode.
And I suggest you pay close attention to what I’m saying.

I didn’t blame the actors for most of the issues in Episode 1—because much of it likely wasn’t their fault. They were either directed to act that way or were working with what they were given.
However, I won’t turn a blind eye to the shortcomings of such an expensive project that took so long to execute. It’s in my best interest for future episodes to at least meet Episode 2’s standard—or go beyond it.

Still, it’s not to my disadvantage if the series continues to decline—because either way, it becomes a learning material for me.
So no—I’m not afraid of giving lower or higher ratings, depending on the quality I see.
Again, I benefit either way.

Pain N°1: This is probably going to be considered one of the better or best series of this year.
Why?
A1: Production.
A2: Fanbase.
A3: Lack of better projects.

Does it make this series one of the best? No.
Is it going to be enough? Yes.
In the department of kink and preferences, is it going to stand out (royal topic)? I fear yes, it will—and for quite some time.
Is it going to be trash from hindsight once better projects with this kink/preference/topic come out? I don’t predict so.

approx 7/10

*Episode 3*

In episode three, we repeatedly run into the same problems we've had since episode one.

Pain No. 2: The very degrading CGI everywhere is overwhelmingly annoying. It is indeed starting to become part of the bigger problem of this series. That high production value and choice of actors — that sheen — often mask what is essentially still a cheap, predictable, tropey, hollow political drama that tries to resemble Western royal dramas, without the socio-cultural weight, seriousness, and taste in design (or in drama).
The plot relies too heavily on bits and pieces of fan-service tropes and clichés, calculating drama rather than earning emotional arcs. Attempts at gravitas buckle under the weight of melodramatic scenes. Yet, where the real drama stands and could have a serious adult impact, we conveniently (and probably in tune with attention-lacking and memory-less writers, audience, and readers) skip it.
Shortcuts are our strengths, so mix Khanin’s non-existent royal awakening with a little spicy scene, while making the political intrigue meaningless.

Pain No. 3: Nunew's new colour. I just remembered my disagreement with this choice from before, when I saw him standing beside the ugly yellow curtain. EVERYTHING HERE is ugly yellow-orange. I would change my colour immediately after this scene back to the original.

Pain No. 4: Difference between a flag and a crest, please? Anyways, really? Not even trying to hide the roots of this?

Pain No. 5: Where cheapness again shows its horns is in the editing and camera work. This abundantly expensive project is supposed to be visually striking, and while I can't complain about the camera work in general or the wide shots, it embarrassingly struggles with close-ups and details.

+1* for the scenes and acting this time, -4* for... well, the design.

Side Dish: I must say, I’ve reflected on how people tend to criticize Zee’s performances and perceive him as someone who acts woodenly. On the other hand, NuNew is often admired for his expressive abilities. Well, we’ll discuss that later.

As someone who can recognize these nuances, I can confirm that Zee is often typecast into cold, reserved, unapproachable, aloof, stiff, and “wooden” (adult) roles—especially since working with Domundi. I understand that younger audiences, or those who aren’t particularly interested in acting, might interpret these as signs of stiffness or poor acting in general—whether they think it’s because he can’t act better (which he can) or because he’s being chosen for these roles precisely because the creators know he can’t act anything else better. I have seen him do more, so it’s either intentional or there’s another issue we won’t solve here and now by talking about it. However, I’ve seen some of his performances, and in terms of expression—he is actually very expressive. Personally, I don’t consider him a wooden actor at all. But let’s dissect this:

Facial Expression (Mimicry)
Zee is not stiff in this department. He is very expressive, particularly through his eyes.

Gestures and Physical Expression
Here, I could agree more—Zee can appear stiff. But really, this might just be due to his height. Many tall people who grew quickly tend to be more aware of their surroundings and therefore may not move as smoothly. Another factor that doesn’t help with elegance and smoothness in movement is… well, weightlifting and all the heavy training stuff. Just saying.

Intonation and Voice Work
Monotonous or unconvincing intonation... the delivery sometimes sounds like memorized text without genuine emotion. This is 50/50. I struggle with this issue in almost every actor from Thailand. They tend to be either overly emotional or entirely flat—both extremes are problematic. So yes, you might accuse Zee of that, and I could say the same about NuNew. Just because they’re on opposite ends of the spectrum doesn’t mean it isn’t the same issue. In fact, this applies to every Thai series... every actor. Send me examples of older Thai actors you think are strong in voice expression—I’ll thank you later.

Reacting to Other Actors
Because he appears wooden in other aspects, Zee often comes across as calm, composed, and attentive to others’ performances. So I’d say he reacts well and listens actively—or at least appears to do so. For this specific role, and his type of roles with NuNew in general, that works quite well.

Role Context and Direction
Here lies the greatest sin: poor direction, weak scripts, and characters that lack conflict and depth—roles pushed onto him rather than chosen (all are just possible examples)—are more to blame than any lack of acting skill. If a character isn’t well-developed or is designed only to make others look better, the actor isn’t given much to work with. In short, there might be a problem in the way he is being directed.
For these reasons, I don’t view Zee’s performances as stiff or wooden. But depending on what you focus on when evaluating acting, you might interpret it differently.

On the other hand, the widespread admiration for NuNew—while I understand your appreciation and acknowledge his likable personality in today’s Thai entertainment scene—isn’t, in my opinion, solid proof of high-quality or non-wooden acting. The fact that he’s often cast in feminine, tearful, hysterical, or overly emotional roles (which almost always end in crying as a form of - non+intentional - manipulation) speaks more to the limited imagination of the creators than to his actual range. Again—typecasting. The fact that one actor repeatedly gets a certain type of role and another gets a different type (and yes, these two are complementary together) doesn’t reflect their talent—or lack thereof—but instead reveals the uncreative thinking of creators obsessed with preserving the formula for financial success. It says nothing about what these actors are truly capable of.

That being said, I’m not criticizing NuNew the singer, the person—or even NuNew the performer, not here, not yet. But I do suggest that you stop crying along with him (God knows every Thai model trained for three months to act is a professional weeper—because it works, especially with... well, large audiences), and start to see behind the veil: is all this actually a sign of good acting? Is the crying even necessary? Or is it just something redundant done to cover other shortcomings with loud, hysterical, and over-the-top bouts of petulance/stubbornness?


approx 6/10

*Episode 4: Part One*
OK, side note, and I can't stress this enough. There is not a universe where you can promote this series as not a musical and not make it look incredibly cheap starting an episode like this. You can either promote it as a musical—or a heavily music-influenced movie/series, where you search specifically for those reasons a singer as MML—or you don't do this at all.

---- ok, because limits, the rest goes to review for the episode, maybe i will clean this all up after final episode, who knows -----

*Episode 4: Part Two*

aprox ?/10

ep.1 1/10
ep.2 7/10
ep.3 6/10
ep.4 4/10
ep.5 3/10
ep.6 3/10
ep. 7 3/10


current avr: 3.86/10

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From my perspective, most of the cringe that ultimately drags the rating down—and which I honestly expect may make it drop even further—comes from the way certain things are delivered.

There is, of course, the ever-present discussion around age gaps. Personally, I have no inherent problem with them in fiction. I can absolutely appreciate a relationship between someone in their twenties and someone in their forties. That is a much larger age gap than we are usually given between fictional characters, but for me, that is not inherently a problem. The fact that the characters' age difference is roughly comparable to the actors' ages is also an interesting detail.

My bigger problem is that the subjects this series deals with could have been presented in a much more tasteful and effective way. The material is there. The premise is there. The production quality is there. With this level of audiovisual quality, you could do genuinely amazing things with the storytelling. Instead, a lot of the connective tissue between the different plot points seems to be built around things that feel mismatched, misplaced, or simply cringe-inducing.

What particularly bothered me were the verbal explicit declarations or confirmations of love shown in situations sexually driven. Usually, BL does almost the opposite: there are love scenes dressed as sexual. Here, we repeatedly get declarations of love in situations where what actually is driving the characters is sexual desire.

Strangely enough, the love confirmations that you can take seriously (and are meant) are there too, but elsewhere. The emotional and verbal cues feel mismatched. The story tells us, “This is love,” while the actual scene can feel like, “This is sexual desire.” And then, elsewhere, it manages to communicate affection or love - mostly through action and decisions. That mismatch (...where love is actually just sex...) is one of the main sources of the cringe for me.

And that is where I started wondering whether the creators actually knew this was going to be such a heavily cringed series (it is always confusing to me as I would cross that message differently than I see). Because there is also a serious undertone, and the topics themselves could have been handled in a much more effective way. But the actual construction of the story—the way the different plot points are connected—is very often built around these mismatched, misplaced, cringe-inducing elements.

I can't quite tell whether there is some degree of awareness of how these topics are perceived, or whether the original source material itself is constructed and constricting in this way. It doesn't really feel self-aware enough for the cringe to be entirely intentional. At the same time, it sometimes feels as though the creators were aware of how this kind of material is perceived and therefore never fully committed to developing it in a way that could actually work.

What I do think is quite clear is that they weren't really trying to make this a sexy series.

And I mean that as an observation rather than a criticism.

The actors aren't presented primarily as objects designed to seduce the audience. The production doesn't seem interested in constantly pleasing the eye or pushing the audience toward a particular romantic or sexual response. It feels almost as though the actors are simply inhabiting their characters, moving through the story and hitting the required plot points, while leaving us completely free to feel whatever we happen to feel about them.

It isn't like those Thai BL series with extremely attractive, muscular men where the whole presentation is clearly designed to please the audience visually and make us fall in love with the characters. This series wasn't made to seduce us, either romantically or sexually, in the way that some of the hottest BL projects currently airing or recently finished very deliberately do.

And strangely enough, that is part of what makes my feelings about it so ambiguous.

Visually, I actually think the casting choices are striking and memorable. The actors' appearances are probably the strongest thing I am taking away from the series. I may not be able to tell you much about the plot several weeks from now, but I suspect I will remember what these actors looked like and the specific impression they created.

That is something I would compare directly with Unexpectedly Naughty Fukami (2026). I would consider the two projects to be of roughly comparable production quality, perhaps with some differences in how interesting the material is. Unexpectedly Naughty Fukagami had a more interesting and, to me, less explored premise, and yet I was much more obsessed with it.

With Unexpectedly Naughty Fukagami, I remember being genuinely invested in the project. Here, I mostly remember being intrigued, confused, or outright cringing at various points.

At the same time, I think this series has made more memorable choices when it comes to its actors and their visual identities. With Unexpectedly Naughty Fukagami, I remember the project itself more than I remember exactly what the actors looked like. Here, it is almost the reverse. I don't think I could reconstruct the plot in much detail beyond the standard age-gap premise and the fact that the older character apparently has a sad backstory—something I mainly remember because I have seen other people discussing it. But I can remember the actors.

So I am caught between wanting to be strict about this series and knowing that many other people are probably going to be strict about it already.

I wasn't impressed (as in - this is not a masterpiece, not even in the cringe or lecherous department). I cringed at quite a few places. I don't think this is a gem from any perspective I can apply to it.

But at the same time, if I stop analyzing it intellectually and look at it more emotionally, I can somehow feel that this was someone's little baby. It feels like people genuinely tried very hard to make this work. And perhaps they knew from the beginning that they were starting from a much more difficult position than many other stories, even with the same level of professionalism or production quality.

And because of that, judging it purely on everything that went wrong feels almost unfair to me.

But I also don't feel like I have to make a definitive decision about it.

I think I'm perfectly comfortable leaving it in the middle in a very non-insulting way.

I can change my mind about it tomorrow. I can decide that it was worse than I thought, or that I was being unnecessarily harsh. I can appreciate certain aspects of it one day and cringe at them again the next. And I'm completely fine with that.

What I do know is that it isn't a gem. It's far from being one from pretty much any perspective I can apply to it.

If someone considers it trash, I can completely understand why. A lot of those people are probably going to be younger viewers, and there is also an entirely separate group of people who are fundamentally against large age gaps in fiction in the first place. Combine that with the cringe, and no matter what you do, the series/story is in a very difficult position.

At the same time, some people will simply love the actors' looks. Others may connect with the characters' backstories or with particular aspects of how the characters were written. Some people will inevitably find something in this story that resonates with them much more strongly than it did with me, and they will rate it accordingly.

For me, around a 7.0 feels like a fair place for it—slightly lower, slightly higher, depending on the day.

Not because I think it is objectively a 7.0-quality series, but because I think that is a reasonable place for something this fundamentally ambiguous: clearly flawed, frequently cringe-inducing, nowhere near a masterpiece, but also not something I feel comfortable dismissing outright.

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⚠️ Warning: Fans might not like this. - Episode 1

⚠️ Warning: Fans might not like this.
What follows is a critical assessment of the first episode of The Next Prince. If you're a die-hard fan or expecting praise, consider this your fair notice.
Read on at your own risk.
*Episode 1*
1. It isn't a good idea to start a big series with montages of this type.
2. This really doesn’t help the audience immerse themselves in the story, right? Throwing a bunch of scenes without actually emotionally connecting people to it—no matter if what you're showing makes sense or not—doesn't work.
3. Just throw in faces of overly hormonal girls who are gonna end up with whom, before they realise they are not connected to character A in the first place. Mix gently, do not tilt, or spiders are gonna fall off of it.
4. Action scenes… that are pointless, where the most action comes from the cameraman (kudos to the cameraman, though) and the editor. Not even gonna refer to the boring modern fencing stuff. From a dramatic perspective, it is done badly.
5. Well, for such a long wait and for such an expensive drama, why not mention they did a poor job cutting the filler takes on the compass? The same goes for tension/mystery—they really tried hard, but you can learn to do that correctly only if not every answer you have for everything is a comic relief… (this one is a stab at all Thai series, not only The Next Prince.)
6. Overdramatize. Just close your eyes and stretch it as much as possible. Because that is a solution. Poor audience waiting for years for such a result. The first episode is a failure—maybe because of the obviously big production. Nothing about it is done smartly to make you want to continue watching, sadly. It is still as bland as Mandee Channel gets with their latest projects. So Cutie Pie still stands as their best series of all they’ve made.
7. A bunch of tropes thrown into the same spot—unfortunately in this case all in episode one, in the first half—will not make your series good. On the contrary. (Don’t get me wrong, by the way—without a doubt, there are gonna be many fans who will make sure this series doesn't drown. Unfortunately for all the parties involved—the company, the fans, and the series with these actors.)
8. Doing promo in such an obvious way for the food you sell elsewhere in the first episode is also not the brightest idea. Why not invite Engfa to chew it for you there? Would drag more people to watch it anyway.
9. I can’t say I am impressed with you using the training stick to get your actors to even get close for the first kiss on screen in this series either. I always feel bad seeing it in series. I wonder why you used it here, if it is such a big project.
10. You do not know how to work with a pause. Learn it—then you don’t have to overuse filler (and crap).
11. Even if I omit everything I said—which I won’t—for a first episode it is incredibly stuffed. Too stuffed for it to ever shine.
12. Oh, and in the next lifetime, can you please stop blurring the paintings and backgrounds and be more mindful about angles? You’ve learned how to move the camera—bravo—but don’t make goblins out of humans, thank you.
If it is done for 14-year-old girls, it can still hold some power, I guess. At least for some of them. If we compare it with other Thai BL series, it ranks somewhere around the worse end of the middle in quality.
I sincerely hope I will be able to give praise from now on, but as I doubt it, I guess there are only going to be a few points here and there this story can collect in the 4? months to follow. And as I have it on good authority, even the original work is bad… Well, that’s that. Still, pity the wait.

approx: 3/10

*Episode 2*

Ahhh, finally, I finished watching episode two. 😫

In Episode 1, I honestly didn’t think the series could survive on 3.5 potentially decent minutes—especially when both scenes were copy-pasted from other films. One from underage romance tropes, the other from adult real-life dramas—randomly stitched together.
I doubted the series could make it.
What I didn’t doubt is humanity’s endless need for therapy (and for good taste), but let’s talk about that another time.

Now, in Episode 2… they’ve shown that they might still have the potential to return to the level the company had in 2022. Overall, if you survive the first ~25 minutes (you are a hero), you will finally land somewhere… better. (Namely, the first 4 minutes are just plain horrible—only looking good visually in terms of production. Sadly, they messed up the first segment of the plane scene logically; it could have been good and nice, instead of just… nice. And don’t get me started on the idiotic fight scenes again.)

There’s more to work with here. That said, the main issues remain:

a) Characters are still not emotionally connecting to the audience. Instead of building those bridges, the story just skips ahead without foundation.

b) It’s still bland and boring.

c) It’s still illogical.

d) It is still indigestible—the toxic level of unnecessary overdramatization.

e) Characters do illogical things, and the narrative just pushes them together for the sake of pushing them together—disregarding how human beings actually act in such situations (if the situations ever happened like that).

f) The main narrative between the two leads is unwatchable and unengaging. (Though Jimmy… you managed to mess up his parts too, but we are glad to see him back.)

But: redeeming qualities are back—finally—in the form of the sweet side narrative! Looking for a needle in a haystack, it is, but finally, at least that. We got there. Yay, I guess?

In conclusion:
Unlike Episode 1, Episode 2 actually offered something interesting. And for me, interesting > well-done or beautiful. So yes, I’m improving the rating based on this episode.
And I suggest you pay close attention to what I’m saying.

I didn’t blame the actors for most of the issues in Episode 1—because much of it likely wasn’t their fault. They were either directed to act that way or were working with what they were given.
However, I won’t turn a blind eye to the shortcomings of such an expensive project that took so long to execute. It’s in my best interest for future episodes to at least meet Episode 2’s standard—or go beyond it.

Still, it’s not to my disadvantage if the series continues to decline—because either way, it becomes a learning material for me.
So no—I’m not afraid of giving lower or higher ratings, depending on the quality I see.
Again, I benefit either way.
And I do appreciate the rational, heartfelt feedback some of you have provided.
Thank you for that.

Pain N°1: This is probably going to be considered one of the better or best series of this year.
Why?
A1: Production.
A2: Fanbase.
A3: Lack of better projects.

Does it make this series one of the best? No.
Is it going to be enough? Yes.
In the department of kink and preferences, is it going to stand out (royal topic)? I fear yes, it will—and for quite some time.
Is it going to be trash from hindsight once better projects with this kink/preference/topic come out? I don’t predict so.

approx 7/10

*Episode 3*
In episode three, we repeatedly run into the same problems we've had since episode one.

Pain No. 2: The very degrading CGI everywhere is overwhelmingly annoying. It is indeed starting to become part of the bigger problem of this series. That high production value and choice of actors — that sheen — often mask what is essentially still a cheap, predictable, tropey, hollow political drama that tries to resemble Western royal dramas, without the socio-cultural weight, seriousness, and taste in design (or in drama).
The plot relies too heavily on bits and pieces of fan-service tropes and clichés, calculating drama rather than earning emotional arcs. Attempts at gravitas buckle under the weight of melodramatic scenes. Yet, where the real drama stands and could have a serious adult impact, we conveniently (and probably in tune with attention-lacking and memory-less writers, audience, and readers) skip it.
Shortcuts are our strengths, so mix Khanin’s non-existent royal awakening with a little spicy scene, while making the political intrigue meaningless.

Pain No. 3: Nunew's new colour. I just remembered my disagreement with this choice from before, when I saw him standing beside the ugly yellow curtain. EVERYTHING HERE is ugly yellow-orange. I would change my colour immediately after this scene back to the original.

Pain No. 4: Difference between a flag and a crest, please? Anyways, really? Not even trying to hide the roots of this?

Pain No. 5: Where cheapness again shows its horns is in the editing and camera work. This abundantly expensive project is supposed to be visually striking, and while I can't complain about the camera work in general or the wide shots, it embarrassingly struggles with close-ups and details.

+1* for the scenes and acting this time, -4* for... well, the design.

Side Dish: I must say, I’ve reflected on how people tend to criticize Zee’s performances and perceive him as someone who acts woodenly. On the other hand, NuNew is often admired for his expressive abilities. Well, we’ll discuss that later.

As someone who can recognize these nuances, I can confirm that Zee is often typecast into cold, reserved, unapproachable, aloof, stiff, and “wooden” (adult) roles—especially since working with Domundi. I understand that younger audiences, or those who aren’t particularly interested in acting, might interpret these as signs of stiffness or poor acting in general—whether they think it’s because he can’t act better (which he can) or because he’s being chosen for these roles precisely because the creators know he can’t act anything else better. I have seen him do more, so it’s either intentional or there’s another issue we won’t solve here and now by talking about it. However, I’ve seen some of his performances, and in terms of expression—he is actually very expressive. Personally, I don’t consider him a wooden actor at all. But let’s dissect this:

Facial Expression (Mimicry)
Zee is not stiff in this department. He is very expressive, particularly through his eyes.

Gestures and Physical Expression
Here, I could agree more—Zee can appear stiff. But really, this might just be due to his height. Many tall people who grew quickly tend to be more aware of their surroundings and therefore may not move as smoothly. Another factor that doesn’t help with elegance and smoothness in movement is… well, weightlifting and all the heavy training stuff. Just saying.

Intonation and Voice Work
Monotonous or unconvincing intonation... the delivery sometimes sounds like memorized text without genuine emotion. This is 50/50. I struggle with this issue in almost every actor from Thailand. They tend to be either overly emotional or entirely flat—both extremes are problematic. So yes, you might accuse Zee of that, and I could say the same about NuNew. Just because they’re on opposite ends of the spectrum doesn’t mean it isn’t the same issue. In fact, this applies to every Thai series... every actor. Send me examples of older Thai actors you think are strong in voice expression—I’ll thank you later.

Reacting to Other Actors
Because he appears wooden in other aspects, Zee often comes across as calm, composed, and attentive to others’ performances. So I’d say he reacts well and listens actively—or at least appears to do so. For this specific role, and his type of roles with NuNew in general, that works quite well.

Role Context and Direction
Here lies the greatest sin: poor direction, weak scripts, and characters that lack conflict and depth—roles pushed onto him rather than chosen (all are just possible examples)—are more to blame than any lack of acting skill. If a character isn’t well-developed or is designed only to make others look better, the actor isn’t given much to work with. In short, there might be a problem in the way he is being directed.
For these reasons, I don’t view Zee’s performances as stiff or wooden. But depending on what you focus on when evaluating acting, you might interpret it differently.

On the other hand, the widespread admiration for NuNew—while I understand your appreciation and acknowledge his likable personality in today’s Thai entertainment scene—isn’t, in my opinion, solid proof of high-quality or non-wooden acting. The fact that he’s often cast in feminine, tearful, hysterical, or overly emotional roles (which almost always end in crying as a form of - non+intentional - manipulation) speaks more to the limited imagination of the creators than to his actual range. Again—typecasting. The fact that one actor repeatedly gets a certain type of role and another gets a different type (and yes, these two are complementary together) doesn’t reflect their talent—or lack thereof—but instead reveals the uncreative thinking of creators obsessed with preserving the formula for financial success. It says nothing about what these actors are truly capable of.

That being said, I’m not criticizing NuNew the singer, the person—or even NuNew the performer, not here, not yet. But I do suggest that you stop crying along with him (God knows every Thai model trained for three months to act is a professional weeper—because it works, especially with... well, large audiences), and start to see behind the veil: is all this actually a sign of good acting? Is the crying even necessary? Or is it just something redundant done to cover other shortcomings with loud, hysterical, and over-the-top bouts of petulance/stubbornness?

approx 8/10


*Episode 4: Part One*
OK, side note, and I can't stress this enough. There is not a universe where you can promote this series as not a musical and not make it look incredibly cheap starting an episode like this. You can either promote it as a musical—or a heavily music-influenced movie/series, where you search specifically for those reasons a singer as MML—or you don't do this at all.

⚠️ok, because limits, the rest goes to review for the episode, maybe i will clean this all up after final episode, who knows ⚠️

*Episode 4: Part Two*

aprox ?/10


current avr: 6/10

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Two years too late....let's go.

Another entry in the ever-growing world of DoMunDy – and an easy target for criticism.
Yet another project that someone clearly believed had to be perfect — so much so that it took almost two years after being announced before anyone dared to actually make it.

Because of that, I see no reason to hold back on my viewing experience or my reaction afterward — and that’s a good thing. I think we all need this kind of project every now and then.

Considering how long this one has been in the works, I really wanted it to succeed. But looking at The Next Prince, I’m afraid it might not. We’ll see to what extent the production company can replicate the success of Khemjira, which as a series seemed to hit the mark.

*EP 1*
+ production quality
- typical subpar attepts at dragging emotions out of audiences
+/- gore/disgusting: + abv avr for horror movies, below avr for Thailand AV
+ thrown into the act / - Start like this, in this specific genre, I am not convinced it is the best start. It is confusing at a place where it should actually explain to us what happened. I am not gonna watch lunatics and gore running around a school for no reason.
- And then again the intro where the credits roll - the dead characters in here are just one and a half point better than the one we have seen in Revamp. I'm just really not a fan of something that looks dead and unalive, even if it is for a series that is about unalive non-human creatures. But yes, the AI-generated colours and the "human hand" helped here. But stil, meh.
- You have there too many "important" characters and something feels off. As if via production quality you really try to give it the impression of being expensive but when the camera goes to main actors it just feels incredibly cheap. To be fair, it's not the worst I have seen from Domundi/Mandee, but...It is still present, and it is as well not the worst I have seen in this genre, so you have plus points in there at least.
+ It starts to feel like a drama. It's not there yet, but it starts at least to be promising.
- The blue night seems to be too blue, and the color palette is just somehow off, as if you were trying to present us young people in military service, but we are watching a zombie series, so what is your focus point here? And it helps to ground the series, but I'm afraid it's too grounded. I don't really like the color palette, even though on and off itself it's not bad, but it just doesn't feel suitable.
Then again, it seems you are trying to ground us more with colors and attempt at atmosphere than with actual explanation what is going on and why. And that's not enough.
- What is even more unsatisfactory for how slow you go? I have the feeling of this being too fragmented. I am not sure you can work properly with big spaces. You know, even that you need to learn for audiovisual language to work.
20/100
*EP 2*
Again, I have this feeling that this gets too slow at places that no one cares about and don't want to see that and that's not a good idea most of the times. I start to have this feeling that nothing stands out in this series which is a problem too.
Don't count on people being used to specifcs of this genre. Even if people are used to this genre, you should still explain it properly. As you know your target audience used to be women (92-95 %) who are after these boy love genre actors and most of them probably don't watch this genre regularly and it might get confusing. So the least you can do is actually explain and introduce all of these aspects properly, fully. Not skim through it.
On the other side, if you know you have there important people that audiences can actually be interested in (90 - 95 % are there bcs of them), you should use it in your advantage and make them the focus points and not giving space of 20 minutes for something that really no one cares about.
+ I think I should thank you for killing someone I don't even care about (?)
20 / 100
*EP 3*
+ I guess they found the magic of silent terror and I think in the department of over-dramatization this one is not the worst.
? Still too many important people.I even dare to say this might work way better atmospheric-wise if they made out of it a regular horror movie, locked them (characters) in a hotel or big house, and then all the running here and there without the disgusting aspects and supernatural, unrealistic, dead monsters running after them. It would make more sense, it would be maybe more interesting.
Off script: Okay, what is even James doing there? I thought he ran away from acting to his brighter future in singing career. So he's like indecisive or what?
- Mostly uninteresting.
20/100

*EP 4*
+ I like here performances of girls and older actors.
- Many of the male actors and their performances are blending tgt.
- There is a significant step /diference between support characters and important characters in acting abilities.
+/-/? I skipped a lot. I did not miss anything.
+/-/? I guess ZNN fans or MaxNet fans must be elated, cause there was another series that we waited for for two years and there is nearly nothing out of these two main company actors, or it is so blended with other situations and characters it is as if they were not present.

*EP 5*
+ Wow, here we go, one potentially homosexual scene. And from none other but our main couple, hooray. It's actually a nice scene, it brings a little bit of humanity into this shitty, unhuman world. It is nice to be here and there reminded of lies and things that d not exist IRL between strangers. 😁
- Which brings me to another problematic part of this. This really did not have to be a series. Give me the material and I will cut it out for you into max two hours, but I believe it's gonna be hour or hour and a half. Not a freaking seven hours. Why? What for?
Okay, we have here even emotional acting. Maybe if you have showed a little bit of this in TNP, the ratings would be much better now. ALAS, it is what it is and it won't be anything else.
Okay, for the last scene, the scene did not make sense at all, so let's pretend it did not even happen.
15/100
+ ..eeehh... good production?

*E6*
Okay, again, queue of distractions, and things that people don't care about, and nothing out of the things that people do want to see, and it intensifies probably for us to disconnect with the story, and not to mourn the fact that it's gonna be over soon. I guess we should not feel like celebrating, right? with other couples, then you have here extra special proof that that's a not good idea. I don't even know why would you test something like that in the first place. However, I guess I would not have to have more warnings than this. Look, it's not that it is bad and we all like these actors and those who we are used to seeing all ar all fine alone as side characters, even if important ones. They kind of work anyways. But all of those that are in current ships, I mean, I'm not the specialist here, so maybe other people will express their opinion on this. I have seen some opinions already in comment section. But... I mean, there are only those few who are, again, vsible/strong enough to make it.
I just wouldn’t experiment with that too much — after all, you’ve built your brand around those couples. Just saying.

*EP 7*
Okay, there is this genre-conditioned issue I have with this series and that is at the beginning of episode 7 I expected much more brutal deaths and there are still too many people alive. I don't like it. It does not sound right.

And then again, for the last 2 minutes, let's not forget to be dramatic, right? The Sophie’s Choice, which kid to kill? Let's kill both babies!

Why would they even try to hold the door .. if they didn’t need to be held in the first place? Then… the whole magic will be forever and for all eternities left unaswered as the eighth wonder of the world that left me... truly speechless.
+ Praise to the mask dep.

After further consideration I give it plus two points for no specific reason but that I just discovered that this is probably not my favorite genre. I mean with werewolves --- no it's still bad but I mean with vampires, there is some hope but like what hope you have when there are just unalive undead whatever un- people running around screaming or gurgling, they are chasing after you, you are running away from them. There is no point in that there is no anything in it, only hopelessness packed in gore and disgust, ... I probably don't like zombie movies, how could I actually like a zombie series. I mean maybe it is still waiting for me to discover.
So there are those two plus points for nothing. (Okay, no, wait a second. I actually remembered two AVs with zombies that I liked. Not the zombies, the movies, I mean.)
Happy now?

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