Editorials 
This review may contain spoilers
Star Crossed Losers of the Double Standard
The show started out SO strong, then ferociously stabbed itself in the back.
I was glad to see a BL that doesn't constantly make me wonder what I've been missing since the last time I blinked.
Confirming this as one of the very few shows I have actually watched, hook, line and sinker, instead of just skipping through after ep. 3 or so.
The general story arc, pacing and cinematography were pretty dope, particularly compared to most other recent BL where a coherent story is little more than a serving suggestion. It was SO nice to see a story unfold over the entire series, rather than just reel off shitty tropes and scenes in an incoherent cringefest congaline. Even the dialogue felt unironically good for BL. And not a single hyper car in sight. Suffice to say, I was pretty chuffed.
And then they chose to chuck it in the bin...
-Spoiler starts here -
The short version as to why, is this: they chopped Chita and Dr. Ji. One step short of redemption. WTF. I hate the writers guts for this.
They killed off a guy, who by their own definition involuntarily acquired his personality by magical happenstance, and a guy who was eventually just dragged into the whole thing out of love. So yes, even if Chita had wiped out half of Bangkok and Dr. Ji had just watched him do it, I'd still be on their side.
And because the framework of the show works so well, it blinds you over the nonsensical, double standard shitshow it actually is. Really left me with more questions than it answered.
You can stop here or continue with my tl;dr of how they did dirty. It's long, be warned. And it's not even all I have to say about it - this is the short version already - but space here is limited.
Chita
My poor, beloved Chita.
OK, hear me out.
The writers let that character down, only to make killing him easier.
They failed to give Chita ANY justification for setting people on fire, other than absolutely nothing.
I even hoped those Nour blokes were proper criminals, set up by some obscure final boss, killing regular people for breakfast, lunch and dinner. But nah, Zero. Zip. F*ckall.
He lived a happy life with his Nour (!) boyfriend, so he knows coexistence is possible, himself being sweet, caring, soft, sad and alone and my favorite character right off the bat.
And the sodding writers had him go "hullo, it's me, I'm evil now", after he and his BF were attacked by one bastard Nour. No explanation, no development, no justification, no greyscale, just bibbidy, bobbidy, boo, "one day I woke up being this mindless, revenge driven monster, burning everyone to the ground, no questions asked, y'all."
And he must've done that for 50 or so years, too. How did no one stop him or make him reconsider his path since the 70ties, if eliminating vampiric monsters is a societal problem? And to really drive the point home they show him ending the symphony of sympathy: MCs daddy, a priest, pwetty students, silly police lady and a homeless guy. He probably kicked a dog somewhere too, or something. Thanks for the middlefinger, writers.
On top of the Nour making zero sense, even in their own logic, it doesn't really transpire if they are generally nice people or if some of them have adjusted and others haven't. And I'm afraid the creators omitted this intentionally, so the black and white worldview of the average viewer doesn't have to handle too much moral ambiguity. You would have to ask yourself the question of why one of them randomly killed Chita without warning, why freshly Nour-ified, unaccustomed Dr. Ji attacked his family, and how Ken obtained blood 200 years ago, with no refrigerated blood donations available at his convenience, though...
And the double standard REEKS. So the Nour can, or at least could, go kill all willy nilly, throughout centuries, with nobody stopping them, but God forbid there's this one guy who kills a bunch of THEM because unexplained divine intervention. Fingers crossed that white room they went to while dying is Marvel's headquarters. Blade might be hiring.
And then again, Chita doesn't come for Ken, even despite the latter's active death wish. He could've just jumped at him like he did with the other Nour (except for Prae, who he 1000% knew to be a Nour, but didn't take down until she got around to f*ck up Dr. Ji), and who's gonna stop him. So his determination to kill Nour stops at... what? Knowing their names? Changing his mind, or rather losing his involuntarily acquired revenge persona, because of his love for Ji, which definitely puts a massive question mark to his/their fate? No explanation.
Regardless, in the end he starts seeing the error of his ways, finally found the guy who loves him and gets through to him, and... dies. No redemption, no awakening, no eternal life of carrying the burden of his "mistakes", no healing, no learning to live and love and use his ability to protect.
The actors performance was outstanding. Thank you so much, Sweetie.
Dr. Ji
My poor, beloved Dr. Ji.
Another favorite character right away, he too fell victim to the vicious writers club, who essentially decided that misery loves... well, more misery.
Dr. Ji is a good guy and he deserved the second chance at love, and all the happiness in the world. And guess what: he is arbitrarily killed (sad), but revived for eternity by, and to be with, his lover (yay), only so shit can REALLY hit the fan again (WTF).
Like with Chita there is no two ways about him knowing that a peaceful life as Nour is possible, provided a fridge full of blood donations, what with him being aware of Ken's true identity and working beside him for years.
Yet he can't even take it for a couple days, resulting in overdramatic depart from his family, whom he could've lived with apparently, saving Chita multiple times (!), just to tell him to die anyways, and then dying himself with him. But they didn't forget to shove in a quick and dirty excuse, like magically slitting James open... (who started it, btw. Just saying...)
The actor once again awestruck me with his performance. Thank you so much, Bro.
The white room montage of them while going up in flames and that radio announcement in the end - WTF was this supposed to be? A half arsed apology to the audience for chopping them? And why is one of them a TikTok video and the other one looks like they've initially wanted them to be alive? Then decided to trash it and refrain from thinking of a better way to resolve the ambivalent characters' dilemma, so they went with the cop out of going to a "parallel universe" or "dream"? Oh, those writers... just sod'em all...
There is ALWAYS, without fail, a better way than death in fiction, and killing the side couple in BL/romance is a serious No-No.
And here it is again, the double standard.
How amazing would it have been to have Ji and Chita live and learn. But no, they have been through shit and get the axe on top of that, although they had the utmost potential for redemption, learning, healing and growing. Meanwhile static cardboard characters Ken and James gawk at a bloody rainbow, teaching each other to be "human", as if it were new to them, one being 200 years old and the other being... well, human. WTF.
Ken and James
Actors were both cute and amazing. Want to make that clear from the start.
My concern for the characters however, got lost at lightning speed. They ended up so bland that, after Chita and Ji entered the stage, I didn't give a dingo's kidneys about them...
They reduced Ken to some emo boy, moping around for forever about his own inability to cope with the peaceful, natural death of his lover... which ought to have happened a few times already? Given he's 200 years old? Go get therapy, mate.
But alas, he yearns to die and... well, good news! There's a way of killing a Nour... which Ken himself teaches James. Er. Yeah. And then also his only way to die is Chita setting him on fire? Yet Ken spoils his chance of becoming a torch by keeping his identity as Nour hidden? He's kinda jeopardizing himself here, isn't he? And why does Ken put everyone at risk by not teaching them about the Nour? Silly police lady in Chitas bath tub would've benefitted, for instance...
And alas, James... oh what a bland and ignorant, run off the mill character. James is the textbook definition of the "they killed me daddy (mommy, brother, sister, lover, doggo...) I needs revenge", flat, disgusting, immature, selfish and self righteous prick MC, whining about his day, and, for all that it's worth, he can jump off a cliff.
Did he even know his dad was a Nour? Was it ever confirmed (to him) that Chita actually killed his dad? If so, did he ever ask him why? For all I know it's more of a conclusion he jumps to, but doesn't actually prove or investigate? I mean, losing daddy's bad n'all, and I give him all the credit for trying to find the culprit, sure, but noone ever cared to shine a greater light on this very important plot driver.
Either way, James is not less revenge driven than Chita. Only HIS revenge was fully aware and intentional and based on assumption from his perspective at least, while Chitas was something he acquired involuntarily, as a character trait, while being (not quite) killed. And I believe that Chitas background story did not even reach his ears, so James is not an ounce better for trying to kill him, before even learning. The writers simply refuse to tell you all this, so you can stay at ease with that dull character.
He followed Chita and Ji, multiple times, just to kill them. As if that brought daddy back... And when he was finally taken out and they could've fled, five minutes short of enlightenment/redemption, they conveniently ignite themselves for ass pull reasons instead, so the dumb a*sehole doesn't even have to get his hands dirty.
In the end I just wanted to punch his stupid self righteous face, very, very hard :)
I was glad to see a BL that doesn't constantly make me wonder what I've been missing since the last time I blinked.
Confirming this as one of the very few shows I have actually watched, hook, line and sinker, instead of just skipping through after ep. 3 or so.
The general story arc, pacing and cinematography were pretty dope, particularly compared to most other recent BL where a coherent story is little more than a serving suggestion. It was SO nice to see a story unfold over the entire series, rather than just reel off shitty tropes and scenes in an incoherent cringefest congaline. Even the dialogue felt unironically good for BL. And not a single hyper car in sight. Suffice to say, I was pretty chuffed.
And then they chose to chuck it in the bin...
-Spoiler starts here -
The short version as to why, is this: they chopped Chita and Dr. Ji. One step short of redemption. WTF. I hate the writers guts for this.
They killed off a guy, who by their own definition involuntarily acquired his personality by magical happenstance, and a guy who was eventually just dragged into the whole thing out of love. So yes, even if Chita had wiped out half of Bangkok and Dr. Ji had just watched him do it, I'd still be on their side.
And because the framework of the show works so well, it blinds you over the nonsensical, double standard shitshow it actually is. Really left me with more questions than it answered.
You can stop here or continue with my tl;dr of how they did dirty. It's long, be warned. And it's not even all I have to say about it - this is the short version already - but space here is limited.
Chita
My poor, beloved Chita.
OK, hear me out.
The writers let that character down, only to make killing him easier.
They failed to give Chita ANY justification for setting people on fire, other than absolutely nothing.
I even hoped those Nour blokes were proper criminals, set up by some obscure final boss, killing regular people for breakfast, lunch and dinner. But nah, Zero. Zip. F*ckall.
He lived a happy life with his Nour (!) boyfriend, so he knows coexistence is possible, himself being sweet, caring, soft, sad and alone and my favorite character right off the bat.
And the sodding writers had him go "hullo, it's me, I'm evil now", after he and his BF were attacked by one bastard Nour. No explanation, no development, no justification, no greyscale, just bibbidy, bobbidy, boo, "one day I woke up being this mindless, revenge driven monster, burning everyone to the ground, no questions asked, y'all."
And he must've done that for 50 or so years, too. How did no one stop him or make him reconsider his path since the 70ties, if eliminating vampiric monsters is a societal problem? And to really drive the point home they show him ending the symphony of sympathy: MCs daddy, a priest, pwetty students, silly police lady and a homeless guy. He probably kicked a dog somewhere too, or something. Thanks for the middlefinger, writers.
On top of the Nour making zero sense, even in their own logic, it doesn't really transpire if they are generally nice people or if some of them have adjusted and others haven't. And I'm afraid the creators omitted this intentionally, so the black and white worldview of the average viewer doesn't have to handle too much moral ambiguity. You would have to ask yourself the question of why one of them randomly killed Chita without warning, why freshly Nour-ified, unaccustomed Dr. Ji attacked his family, and how Ken obtained blood 200 years ago, with no refrigerated blood donations available at his convenience, though...
And the double standard REEKS. So the Nour can, or at least could, go kill all willy nilly, throughout centuries, with nobody stopping them, but God forbid there's this one guy who kills a bunch of THEM because unexplained divine intervention. Fingers crossed that white room they went to while dying is Marvel's headquarters. Blade might be hiring.
And then again, Chita doesn't come for Ken, even despite the latter's active death wish. He could've just jumped at him like he did with the other Nour (except for Prae, who he 1000% knew to be a Nour, but didn't take down until she got around to f*ck up Dr. Ji), and who's gonna stop him. So his determination to kill Nour stops at... what? Knowing their names? Changing his mind, or rather losing his involuntarily acquired revenge persona, because of his love for Ji, which definitely puts a massive question mark to his/their fate? No explanation.
Regardless, in the end he starts seeing the error of his ways, finally found the guy who loves him and gets through to him, and... dies. No redemption, no awakening, no eternal life of carrying the burden of his "mistakes", no healing, no learning to live and love and use his ability to protect.
The actors performance was outstanding. Thank you so much, Sweetie.
Dr. Ji
My poor, beloved Dr. Ji.
Another favorite character right away, he too fell victim to the vicious writers club, who essentially decided that misery loves... well, more misery.
Dr. Ji is a good guy and he deserved the second chance at love, and all the happiness in the world. And guess what: he is arbitrarily killed (sad), but revived for eternity by, and to be with, his lover (yay), only so shit can REALLY hit the fan again (WTF).
Like with Chita there is no two ways about him knowing that a peaceful life as Nour is possible, provided a fridge full of blood donations, what with him being aware of Ken's true identity and working beside him for years.
Yet he can't even take it for a couple days, resulting in overdramatic depart from his family, whom he could've lived with apparently, saving Chita multiple times (!), just to tell him to die anyways, and then dying himself with him. But they didn't forget to shove in a quick and dirty excuse, like magically slitting James open... (who started it, btw. Just saying...)
The actor once again awestruck me with his performance. Thank you so much, Bro.
The white room montage of them while going up in flames and that radio announcement in the end - WTF was this supposed to be? A half arsed apology to the audience for chopping them? And why is one of them a TikTok video and the other one looks like they've initially wanted them to be alive? Then decided to trash it and refrain from thinking of a better way to resolve the ambivalent characters' dilemma, so they went with the cop out of going to a "parallel universe" or "dream"? Oh, those writers... just sod'em all...
There is ALWAYS, without fail, a better way than death in fiction, and killing the side couple in BL/romance is a serious No-No.
And here it is again, the double standard.
How amazing would it have been to have Ji and Chita live and learn. But no, they have been through shit and get the axe on top of that, although they had the utmost potential for redemption, learning, healing and growing. Meanwhile static cardboard characters Ken and James gawk at a bloody rainbow, teaching each other to be "human", as if it were new to them, one being 200 years old and the other being... well, human. WTF.
Ken and James
Actors were both cute and amazing. Want to make that clear from the start.
My concern for the characters however, got lost at lightning speed. They ended up so bland that, after Chita and Ji entered the stage, I didn't give a dingo's kidneys about them...
They reduced Ken to some emo boy, moping around for forever about his own inability to cope with the peaceful, natural death of his lover... which ought to have happened a few times already? Given he's 200 years old? Go get therapy, mate.
But alas, he yearns to die and... well, good news! There's a way of killing a Nour... which Ken himself teaches James. Er. Yeah. And then also his only way to die is Chita setting him on fire? Yet Ken spoils his chance of becoming a torch by keeping his identity as Nour hidden? He's kinda jeopardizing himself here, isn't he? And why does Ken put everyone at risk by not teaching them about the Nour? Silly police lady in Chitas bath tub would've benefitted, for instance...
And alas, James... oh what a bland and ignorant, run off the mill character. James is the textbook definition of the "they killed me daddy (mommy, brother, sister, lover, doggo...) I needs revenge", flat, disgusting, immature, selfish and self righteous prick MC, whining about his day, and, for all that it's worth, he can jump off a cliff.
Did he even know his dad was a Nour? Was it ever confirmed (to him) that Chita actually killed his dad? If so, did he ever ask him why? For all I know it's more of a conclusion he jumps to, but doesn't actually prove or investigate? I mean, losing daddy's bad n'all, and I give him all the credit for trying to find the culprit, sure, but noone ever cared to shine a greater light on this very important plot driver.
Either way, James is not less revenge driven than Chita. Only HIS revenge was fully aware and intentional and based on assumption from his perspective at least, while Chitas was something he acquired involuntarily, as a character trait, while being (not quite) killed. And I believe that Chitas background story did not even reach his ears, so James is not an ounce better for trying to kill him, before even learning. The writers simply refuse to tell you all this, so you can stay at ease with that dull character.
He followed Chita and Ji, multiple times, just to kill them. As if that brought daddy back... And when he was finally taken out and they could've fled, five minutes short of enlightenment/redemption, they conveniently ignite themselves for ass pull reasons instead, so the dumb a*sehole doesn't even have to get his hands dirty.
In the end I just wanted to punch his stupid self righteous face, very, very hard :)
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