Jae Jin

Dumpster Fire

I'm actually afraid to make this review because, it might just be my ignorance towards Thai Dramas. This is my 1st Thai Series, but 4th in terms of media, so it might just be the nuance or the cultural difference that I'm not getting, but I'll do it anyway. I'll be the black sheep for this drama.

The story is like a dumpster fire. It's so wacky and garbage. It has bad writing, full of cliche plot points, shameless product placements, and is also fast-paced. I say bad writing, but there are some parts where the writer managed to hit all the points that it needs to hit story wise. It has a lot of side plots as well, like A LOT that doesn't even contribute to the main story. I appreciate the topics some of the side plots tackled, like the LGBT and family Issues regarding chasing your dreams, but for me, it was like forcing something that was not the main thing of the show. I guess it's because some of them didn't have any effect on the Main Couple as well, that's why it felt like a distraction to me. You could've either cut it down or made the runtime longer. I didn't know that you could have a Music drama, that has politics in it, it's only a little bit, but you get the point I'm trying to make. I also couldn't understand some of the character's actions or decisions like I get this is a drama, but come on... at least make it convincing. It is so bad. I say fast-paced, it's because this drama has a lot to unpack, but they had to fit it all into 10 Episodes only.

The Characters, I only came here because of the Main Actress, she's a great actress, but that alone wasn't enough. I almost dropped this show, but what kept me going was the wacky dynamic between these characters after episode 4. I'm not even watching this because of the romance aspect, but purely for shits and giggles. I couldn't really feel any of the characters, but Chalarm though... he was annoying, but because of his dynamic with ML and how it evolved later on, that I appreciate, though it kinda gave off BL vibes, which is fine because that means they got good chemistry going on. And I love how the writer stood firm and went above 100 with these characters, great job on that. Like Chalarm as an example, again he was annoying and they explored all the avenues that he could do to make him a hateable character and in the end, he realized, then he changed. So I guess you could say, he was the one that stood out to me.

The music in this drama amazed me, not because it's good, but because you can tell they got the budget or I don't know, maybe music production in Thailand is not cheap because they had a lot of singing segments here and that's also one of the annoying things. I know it's a music drama, but they got a lot of random ass singing scenes that don't even connect. I already get how the character felt, you don't have to double it down, by having him dance and sing, it's sooo random. The bgm and sfx are soo exaggerated as well, I laugh every time a character makes an expression and you have this super exaggerated sound in the background, I think the only thing left is the on-the-top editing and you have those Indian edits that you see online.

Overall, I like how it ended and how it was resolved. I think despite being a dumpster fire it somehow managed to land its own two feet at the end. How I ended up in this show is that I saw a reel of FL and I was like "Ohh... She's Pretty!" Then I found out she's an actress.

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Drama is GOATED, but it still has it's flaws

This was trending all over my feed when this came out and i put it off from watching it and riding the hype train, since i still have a lot of shit to watch, so this is just something to keep as a treat because i know this is probably good and i know I'll probably love it and i must say... this will probably be my 2nd fave cdrama series next to Lighter & Princess.

The drama is about the love story of a Fire Fighter, like okay i can get behind that occupation since i fancied that job when i was a toddler, and a Doctor literally the occupation that i mostly stay away from in dramas, like the medical aspect, but hey let's not judge the book by it's cover. Before this, i was watching 'The Longest Promise' and Wang Churan is in there and she's great, at first i didn't like her mainly because of her character, but later on i actually got invested in her and started to like her as an actress, so i promised myself to watch this show after cuz i wanna see this girl in other dramas.

The pacing in the first 5 episodes or so is fast like really fast because in every episode there's plot convenience for ML and FL in order for them to meet each other, i was planning to watch Episode 1 only as i was about to sleep and would plan to continue watching it the next day, but i ended up watching up until episode 4 xD. You can tell i was really hooked right away in the beginning because, even though the beginning is fast paced, i don't think that necessarily was a bad thing, because i think it was done to get your heart fluttering right away for this Couple, no bullshit here's the mains that your gonna follow, now get invested, unlike in some cdramas where the first 10-20 episodes literally half of the show is a very slow burn build up and you're just sitting there waiting when the show will start to tickle your heart and by the time it gets good there's a big chance that you've mostly fallen off because of boredom.

Then 6-20 ish or so the story started slowing down and took its time to flesh out the story, side characters, the fire fighting and medical aspect, and building up the family drama and i wouldn't say that part is where you'll get bored as it was done really really well because it's like you're playing a tug of war, they would pull you in these side plots and maybe every, now and then they would let go and show some interactions between ML and FL, like "Hey, we didn't forget that this is a love story about this two. This shit that we are building up is for the bigger picture of this whole story".

20-25 is where you'll get the payoff that you've been waiting and 26-38 is where our couple with face the problems of them being together, the family drama i would say. Now, the family drama was done really tasteful here, like this is one of the best examples of how to do a family drama without necessarily making the parents be very hateable characters and a good family drama on top of that too, i was surprised like when i got near the end i realized i actually did not bear any hatred for FL's Mom and Dad, well the dad is mostly passive in this show, but yeah, i didn't really have any hatred for the parents because they've explained their side to make you understand, why they would do these things, even though its wrong for them to do it, they care for FL so much that they would go for such lengths for her, but as good as the family drama is, i noticed they didn't really show how powerful her family's influence really are, like how deep does it go? They did show it, but i think that was just a taste of how deep the connections her family got. Then the last 2 episodes tie everything all together into a nice bow.

After watching this, i can see why some of the comments said this was unnecessarily long because if you look at the number of episodes they've actually hit the max episodes rule placed by the law and if you look at the whole show, the stories in it aren't well balanced. I think they were too focused on highlighting both the Fire Fighting and Medical aspect of this show, like what it's like to be in that occupation, the struggles and stakes that you'll encounter, that is good, i didn't mind it, but when i finished the show i'm like "Yep... okay... wait it ended? now i'm sad" because we didn't even get the wedding scene that they've been building up, nor a scene where ML shows up on FL's Family dinner which he has been saying for half of the show and maybe even a time skip scene where they have a child and they're finally a happy family. It was really funny because they still managed to shoehorn a typhoon part very late in the show and because of that we didn't get the wedding scene that we'd been expecting and I noticed the lacking of backstory in this drama, the way they do back story here, they would just show tidbits of it when a situation is can't be explained enough with just words, that's where they would insert a backstory and it's scattered throughout the series.

Let's talk about the side plots... some of the side firefighters got their own side plot around the middle and i was like "Okay?" that was really unnecessary and necessary at the same time because it actually had some effect later on in the story and poor Zhan Dapeng, i was wondering why he suddenly got his own character arc very late in the game, without knowing they'll actually kill him off the next episode. Yanchen and Yezi's side plot was so obvious from the start, i could see it from a mile away from the way yezi is being highlighted every time there's a bar scene and that side plot was really good because both of them got the character development they needed. Zhao Miao, i was wondering when she'll get her big moment aside from being an annoyance to her brother and sticking her nose in other's business, even tho she's ML's sister she's really passive throughout the show, later on, her side plot made a big 180 to Yanchen and his side plot with Yezi, which rippled through the Family drama and I was like "Wow.... I'm amazed". I was wondering if Xiao Yixiao and Jiang Yu would be the only side characters that would be left alone, but good thing they also got a good endgame later in the story.

The characters, i think all of them are good. I like Suo Jon a lot in the beginning, as he is ML's closest friend they really bounce off each other really well and their chemistry is off the charts whenever both are on screen, too bad he was taken out early in the story. I don't know why but Song yan or his actor Yang yang he's so goated here, but I noticed one thing that he does in this drama like every time he's given water or something to drink, expect it by the end of the scene he would almost finish it or if not drank it all up and the way he drinks has vibes as well, i don't think i've noticed that of him in 'The King's Avatar' i don't know, that is the only other show i've watched from Yang yang, but i just noticed that here and i find it really funny. Xu Qin too has that quirk where she would scratch her fingers or external objects and it really shows what she really is deep inside every time they would highlight it and every time she would meet her family members her spirit would immediately bend, which goes to show her persona towards them, in her family's eyes she is their little baby that they really have to protect and control, i also noticed her actress Wang Churan, her acting in here is somewhat lacking for me, every time she has a serious scene with Yang yang she can't match his energy emotionally, every time both of them are together on screen Yang-Yang's presence would dominate, i wouldn't say she's doing a bad job, it's good but i felt like it could've been better and the line delivery as well and can i just take a moment to appreciate for how pretty she is?? My god!! and she looks like Sullyoon from NMIXX at times as well, like i got a glimpse of if ever Sullyoon becomes an actress in the future. ML's parents or i must say, Aunt and Uncle, in most dramas the parents of either ML or FL are just there to be funny quirky, and maybe be an actual parents at times, but here they are actually good as Parents they're not just there passively to be funny, they are actually goated at giving the words that our couple needed.

And speaking of words, one of the things that i like in this drama is the usage of talking. the way they resolve problems with each of the characters here is through words, rarely you would see them using action to resolve a problem and i really like that about this drama.

The music in this drama, ooooohhhh.... my god! 10/10 Top tier, i think that's one of the things that sold me on this drama in the beginning because it's such an eargasm, especially that piano-violin combo plus a singer that's harmonizing in the background, ugh!!! I wanna find that ost, I think that's my favorite in this drama.

So yeah, although this drama is goated, it still has its flaws, but i highly HIGHLY recommend it, i noticed this is the 3rd drama that I've watched where it has that intro logo in the beginning and all of them really pop off another minor thing that i noticed.

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Good Story, Great Character Writing

After watching a trashy GL jdrama, I was looking at my plan to watch list, to see if there's another trashy sounding title that i can tick off. I ended up with this drama and damn. I didn't expect i would pick up a gold one and would make me cry like a river in the end.

The story is not just all that dark mystery about this kiss of death, it's actually more than that, though it started that way, it slowly developed into this puzzle piece game with a romance on the side. The first arc with the mystery killer though short and hilarious at times, was good. Although once you get the first hint it was obvious who was actually the killer. It's also just a groundwork to build up FL antagonist and her intention was all along. After that, okay where are they taking the story... now ML realizes he can make himself rich by taking advantage of the time leap to make things go his way and that's where it starts to get messy and exciting.

The second part of the story is what i actually like the most, everything was going smoothly for our ML, but as the story goes on, more and more you see him hit a wall, and he has no choice but to actually start thinking and planning before recklessly going into time leap because, every time he time leaps, that doesn't only change his future, but also starts affecting his surroundings. And i like that even though he has the upper hand to curate his path, the story will still naturally find its way to corner him. Along the way, there are also parts where they start tapping into human emotions, that will touch your heart. It's not just all this if could redo things to make yourself rich, you'd do everything, It is also about spending time with your loved ones while they're still alive and that's where the romance on the side slowly creeps in because i doubt every time you'd kiss each other even if it's just contractual you wouldn't fall for the other. The romance was already sad as it is because it got caught up in this love triangle, then you see it get thrown out the window in the end as a way to redeem ML, like why would play with my heart like that?!?!?!

I say great character writing because you have these innocent characters who were forced to become villains because of the ML's greed to keep messing with time, some characters became good, and some remained villains to be the necessary evil. It's not every time you time leap that you would see the same flow, because other characters actually evolved and would start affecting things.

The way MC was written to only chase money, not women, you see his back story as to why he became that way. It's fucked up, sad, like really sad and you'll start feeling for him, then he starts to progressively mature and corrects everything in the end. THE FUCK WAS THE POINT OF HIM REALIZING THAT ALL THIS MESS STARTED BECAUSE OF HIS GREED, SO HE DECIDED TO NOT BE WITH FL IN THE END?!?!?! I get it though, he has this greed, he's the scummiest of the scums, so he decided to not redo his romance with FL because he's afraid that he might just still take advantage of her down the road. I was surprised that it was Kento, he's so cool here.

I like how FL was painted as a villain in the beginning, but she wasn't actually and became this important tool in MLs life. Her dynamic with ML was really funny, I like how she can bluntly diss back, with no holds bar and you'd see ML get choked. They have a really good back-and-forth going on, that's why i preferred her to be ML's endgame rather than Mikoto. Whoever Saiko's actress is, imma have to look that up, she's so cute!!! She's like an amalgamation of Adora because of the hair, Kim Jiwon because of the nose and eyes, also Seoyeon from fromis_9.

The one i was impressed with the most was Takauji, because in the beginning he's just this good "innocent" person who's really keen to protect her step-sister, no matter how his uncle sways him, but again because of ML's greed you'll start to see him become the villain that he didn't want to be. His sole job to protect his sister became an obsession in turn he's forced to do bad things and it's just sad to see.

I don't really have much to say about Mikoto, she's okay. In the beginning, i preferred her for ML but because she's just being used by ML you'll start feeling sad for her, though it was true still that ML actually managed to love her a little.

I had a lot of curiosities about the intricacies of the power and It was funny when my curiosity actually happened if the time leap would still actually work if it was girl to girl HAHAHA, the same thing as well if it was Man to Man, that was super hilarious. They managed to answer everything as well as if they could actually return years later, though only in words, not in practice.

Overall, Good Story, Great Character Writing. I rate it 9.5 because I'm bitter about the ending HAHAHAHA but in my heart, it's 10/10.

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It was alright

As a remake of the korean original, this was actually okay, but that's only it, i don't think it did anything unique or special to make itself stand out from its korean counterpart.

The story... they basically followed the korean original almost 1 to 1, but they made a few changes. One of which was unnecessary in terms of the connections of the characters is them changing FL and the Creator of the Robot as mere friends, in the original she is her Ex and that's the reason why she based her face on the robot as he couldn't move on, but here they just brushed it off as friends and they used her face because it was the idea of one of the side characters because she's pretty, like.... okay??? I mean, if hypothetically i have a scientist friend that would build an AI Robot based on my face without my consent i think i would be angry at them, because just why??? If that's the case they could've just used a random celebrity face or something. Anyway, i think they changed that part because they wanted a different endgame for the Creator of the AI and i found him and Li'er's relationship really cute, their dynamic is really good, and they bounce off each other pretty well. So yeah, i think story-wise this was okay, but it felt really weak because it didn't do anything to stand out, in the later parts the way they tied the knot of the business side was kinda bullshit, it was like as if I'm watching a teledrama. That's all i have to say in terms of the story, go watch it and judge it yourself.

The acting, we all know the bar is really high. ML's acting was good, but i think it could've been better like i think he's just acting the same character from Meteor Garden, but in a different drama. Sun Qian, she's the reason why i watched this drama in the first place and i think she did okay too, she's cute as always, but I just couldn't really help comparing it to the original as i was watching this, because the original was one of the earliest dramas that i've watched when i was getting into kdramas and i was on the high of watching banger after banger, that's why i'm so biased. So yeah, even with my love for Sun Qian didn't really help for me to say that this show was that "OH MY GOD ITS SOOO GOOOD!!!"

Side characters are okay, i don't think there's a character wasted in this remake despite the changes, all of them really contributed to the mains and to the story, again it's basically the same as the original, but with a few changes in the story and the relationship of the characters.

The OSTs are really good, there's that one cute ost that i even thought was a remake because it sounded so similar

The CGI, I'll give it to this remake, because it was made when the technology has already evolved so far that would make the original pale in comparison and the sets are really futuristic as well even the world of this drama is modernly futuristic, they really up that part. The timing for releasing this remake was really on point because we're already at the Rise of AI Technology.

I didn't know this existed because, while i was looking at Sun Qian's list of dramas, i just clicked on this because i thought the title seemed interesting, but later i found out that this was a chinese remake of 'I Not a Robot'. This is still recommendable because i had a good time and the dynamic was really cute, but i doubt i would ever rewatch it.

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SOOO GOOOD, BUT FELL FLAT A LITTLE AT THE LAST FEW EPISODES

You know the drama is good when you're a few episodes in, but they're still cooking and you're liking it. This is the first c-drama that I thought to myself "Oh my god, is this gonna be my first 10/10 cdrama?"

I was kinda worried when I finished episode 1, cuz I thought this would be one of those shows that I would watch at 1.5 speed so I could move on right away, but I decided to push thru ep 2 and by the end of it I was like "Hmmmm... this might have a chance", so I watched the next episode and MY. GOD. I was finally hooked.

The story was SLOOOOOOW AF, but I didn't mind it, because it's good, heck even the side characters are well fleshed out. Also, since the back story was them at college being an IT student, I was kinda interested in that part, since I also took an IT course in college. So it was really fun to see them coding and the way the writers wrote it is that they kinda put good vanilla romance cutesy crumbs here and there to keep you hooked. So you'll be there sitting watching episode to episode waiting for the payoff like "JUST CONFESS ALREADY!!!"...

I think if the series didn't start at the part where they are all adult and started at the university part, I think it would've been a good start. Cuz you're watching ep 1 & 2 and you're so lost like wtf is happening then suddenly at episode 3 you're now watching a backstory??? and then they should've cut the series into 2 seasons. Episode 3 is where they should've started then ended it around episode 17/18 where the romance payoff is and that would've been a perfect 10/10 College Romance Drama because, I was worried when the ML and FL confessed to each other like "Well, they're basically together? how could you go more from this??" cuz after the confession there was a time skip, so they're are now 4th yr college, who are about to graduate and enter the world of adults. And story from there slowly started to fell off a little hence I couldn't give it a full 10/10(well, at least for me).

The transition from University to them being adults was kinda fast paced a little and then some sprinkle of bullshit and then when we got back to where the story from episodes 1 & 2 left off, that's when the drama started turning into a Business Revenge Series.

The business side was fun like them entering the Professional world of the IT Industry, specifically the Game Dev Industry, I think it's really fun. I think even if they stretch the series to 50 to even 100 episodes turning it into a Slife of Life of just them and their daily lives as Game Developers, I think I would still eat the shit out of it. But the Revenge side is where they fell flat, in the beginning, it was good, but then it's kinda getting fast paced, knowing they'll have to end it by episode 36. And then there are so much convenience, just because this character is this, so he could always do this, like no! that's bullshit. and it was not even a satisfactory revenge, because they started pulling all these cards that they didn't even hinted early on.

The acting was good, I didn't pay much attention to it since it was not that "OH MY GOD TOP TIER ACTING" it was good and that's it.

Minor nitpick criticism, even though I thought this is on par with korean dramas, like the overall product is very well presented, they still don't know how to end an episode. Like there will be an important conversation or scene and then the episode would just suddenly end.

The soundtracks are top tier, but sometimes maybe occasionally they can't time it when to play the soundtrack, or like sometimes they would play it a little late, I might download them later, so I can listen to it over and over.

Overall, this was a good c-drama and I would highly recommend it if you can sit through 20 episodes of build up.

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BEST SEASON (SO FAR)!!

I think i really liked the cast in this one than the last season and i really like how there's a wide range of occupations in this season.

It was one of a hell of a rollercoaster ride, there were so many ups and downs, you can't really predict who's gonna end up who, unlike the last season we're some couples can already be predicted....

I realized this while i was watching.... and i think... this is my favorite tv show of all time. NO CAP. I really like how everytime i was this show, it pulls me out of reality and really draw me in. I genuinely think this is a really good show and i want more of it♥

Lastly, i think in this one in a weird way somewhat felt rushed? or like, to me i want more of the boring stuff, like the talking parts. Like to me it felt like this season could on up to 20 episodes with all the boring talking and i wouldn't mind that, because I'm really heavily interested in the casts, the raw emotions and sides to them, i want to see and hear all the things they've talk, get to know them even better, i want to know more about their characters, something like that, so in way i kinda wished for a directors cut of this season HAHAHAHAHA.

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Good first half, then dwindled in the 2nd

Boy oh boy! How excited I was when they announced a 3rd season because I really loved this show and It never ceases to amaze me, but then something started feeling off about it.

This season really had me in the first half, It was super perfect, I'm squealing like crazy episode after episode, I love how they tried to switch up things to make it interesting and not to make like repetitive, though I don't mind if they kept the same set up like in season 1 since the hard carry will always be the people that they will bring in.

As I said in my review for Season 2, I wish this show is longer than it is, like you could stretch this into a full-on kdrama runtime, like the standard 16 episodes a season, I even said in my season 2 review that it could go up to 20 episodes with all the boring talking included and I would still eat that shit up. The way it is, 9 to 11 episodes are great, it's fast, and you're on your toes every episode, but once you get invested in these people, you'll start to feel like "I wish I could learn more about these people, cuz these guys seemed to be interesting to know with". You can tell though that this season had a lot to show, based on the way things are moving and some interactions weren't even delved deeper that much, it looked like they had to cut out a lot, mind you, it's already 11 episodes which is like 2 episodes more than season 1, but it felt like I haven't even got to know half of the participants well enough.

And like I said in the beginning, this got me in the first half only, I didn't drop it or anything, I managed to finish it, but it took me a while even though it should've taken me only 1-2days max because, around the second half when they added the last female participant, things started dwindling. It's not Single's Inferno without a participant having a harem because this girl also got interested in this one male participant who already has 2 girls going after him. Now, I don't really mind that as long as it makes things interesting and doesn't overshadow other participants, but then the people behind this decided to make it the main thing of the show, it's a good drama, but I also wanna watch others. It felt like because of that some participants weren't able to shine, it's almost like they got ignored post-production, like background characters you're supposed to ignore, and to me, it looked like they were boring people, though one of them did fucked up in the paradise date, oooofff!

Dex being one of the panelists this season is interesting, to see and hear his opinions as someone who also went through the same struggle is good, I already saw some articles that they're doing it for the next season as well and it's my girl Hajeong, so happy for her.

So yeah, good season, it started off really strong, but yeah... fell off because of some imbalances with what to highlight, still interesting nonetheless. I still think season 2 is the best season.

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