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What Was Its Point?
This is a prime example of how to turn a bad series into an even worse one by not knowing what your direction is. And we can see it slipping away because of the lack of perspective. If this series had some sort of direction, it could have been good. If they were going for comedy, they failed miserably. If they were going for some sort of mystery, it also bombed. However, in my opinion and why I think this series worked a little is that they (I think, or I hope) were going for a ‘tongue-and-cheek’ approach to humor. But never went far enough with what they were doing to make that work.Was this review helpful to you?
This Series is a Example of Effrontery
This series is very confusing and a bit incomprehensible. Frankly that is due to the awful behaviors of all three of the main characters. No one acts with any kind of honestly or reality. How can you possibly fall in love with an individual who just stole your job knowingly? Everyone is plotting and scheming behind everyone else's back and how does this make for solid relationships? I did like how the title comes into play which you find out at the very end. Wish that the rest of the series was as relatable as that. Kind of a disappointment for me.Was this review helpful to you?
Execrable!
I refuse to sugar-coat any pretense about this series. It is one of the worst I have ever seen. Hands down. Period. Not only in terms of storytelling and script, but also in acting, directing, and production. It has one of the most nonsensical stories I have ever seen. It had no point. The plot was witless, illogical, and utterly stupid. I could not simulate what was happening at all. The horror of horrors is that there are aliens swarming all over our planet who are going to do something to us, but I never could quite understand exactly what they were going to do. Most, if not all, were dastardly people out to either profit (but how I am not sure as their form of money was useless here) by taking things from this planet or using us for nefarious reasons. Oh my! But all that is unimportant. Seriously, there are not enough adjectives to describe how truly bad this series is. I am guessing this was supposed to be a comedy, but it is overall not funny or even has much humor or fun to it. Was this series a spoof? Or maybe nothing more than sarcasm? Perhaps it was done tongue-in-cheek, right? No, it is just bad. It looked like a clown show with costumes borrowed as hand-me-downs from a high school performance of the Wizard of Oz. There is really no coherent story. It is a jumbled mess with little thought in making the story flow with consistency. The acting between these two rather seasoned performers was not even at a mediocre level. They were flatly and unequivocally uninvolved in their personifications and had no connection with who they were supposedly representing. Their acting was pedestrian.Was this review helpful to you?
The Same Game
Honestly, what can one say about a series that has so little going for it? The plot is dizzyingly twisted. Frankly, it has no socially redeeming values about it at all and there is no point pretending it does. The principal characters are all sycophantic, disreputable, and unprincipled. There is essentially no love story to speak of and what little effort that was put into a love connection, was feigned, contrived, and absolutely based on insincerity. Frankly, I am not sure how I sat through this trashy soap opera. We have seen this theme so many times before. These Bls with their cookie-cutter, cliché-driven, insincere, (poorly done) overdramatic action plots have simply got to stop. Along with the egregious, initially inauthentic love connection – one with not a shred of chemistry or sincerity about it. Honestly, you must have a brain filled with rocks to believe that the main protagonists were in love let alone believe they were in an impassioned sexual relationship. If you do not believe me, then rewatch the last episode with your eyes wide open and tell me that I am wrong. For sure, everyone looks ‘good’ but that is not enough to carry the story across the finish line.Was this review helpful to you?
This Series Has No Life To It!
Perhaps with a little more oomph, this series might have been great. As presented, I rather enjoyed some, but not all of it. This is another vampire series in what has now become a redundancy of them. Each, I am guessing, trying to be unique but none honestly supplanting the original concept. This one also tried but was only partially successful. It all still felt so ‘tired’ to me. While there were some parts to this vampire tale that were unique, there is not enough to make it outstanding and the holes-in-logic throughout are just ginormous. The story begins with a rather interesting nucleus despite the intricacies to its subplot tending to get a bit wonky for me. Nevertheless, I kind of enjoyed the development; I just wish they would put some ‘life’ into the characters.Was this review helpful to you?
Breaks The Cliche Mold!
There is something seriously wrong with you if you do not find this series entertaining at the very least. I thoroughly enjoyed this silly series from the beginning to its end. It is cute, funny, enchanting, and so tongue-in-cheek. It is satirical and yet at times so sincerely poignant. And, to a surprising extent, shatters the stereotypical BL world in a f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s way! It introduces a no-holds-barred flamboyant, over-the-top, out and proud LGBTQIA+ character with an extra emphasis on the plus. A first that I can recall where the protagonist is truly not afraid, ashamed, or inhibited in what he wants to be. Or should I say, ‘she’ wants to be! Does this production have issues? Of course it does! The story itself is ridiculously corny and sanitized. The ending is so saccharine sweet one could die of diabetes. The villains were about as believable as the munchkins from the Wizard of Oz. And the fight scenes were laughable. Yet none of that mattered. I did not care. The whole series is just so funny and entertaining. And I laughed.You can read my full review of this funny gem at BLBliss.com.
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More a Lakorn than a BL
This is not so much a BL as it is a Lakorn and honestly, an exceptionally good one at that. I found myself completely engaged in these characters and what was happening. Truthfully, it has been a long time since I felt ‘good’ about watching a Thai series, but this one was exceptional and almost made it to my top 10 list. Almost. Some aspects of this series just could not be overlooked as it deflated what was otherwise an exceptional mythos for a change. Indeed, it sure is a soap opera-ish saga but the story line captures you from the beginning. Although the plot is your standard rather cliché-driven formatted subject matter, because of the enveloping acting, it excites your attention. It presented several unique factors that made watching hypnotic. While the premise is ubiquitous, it presented the evolvement with vicissitude to make the story compelling.Was this review helpful to you?
Magnum Opus & A Masterpiece!
I believe this is a series that might be flying under the radar which is unfortunate. Rarely do I ‘binge-watch’ dramas, but this is one that I simply could not break away from. Without sounding flippant or disingenuous, this is THE best Thai series that has graced us this year and perhaps for a very long time indeed. Simply put, it is a preeminent and impassioned diary of human drama and emotions. It is original. One cannot watch this series passively. It will not allow you to do so. In toto, it is an experience. One could write volumes about this series and still not be able to adequately describe its effect or impression on you. It is that powerful. Maybe the best way to define this saga is to tell you what it is not. With great effort and prudence, it keeps clear from being your typical, tropey, cliché-driven BL. Yet there is a love story. Several romances, actually. Fervent. Intense. Erotic. Freeing. Fleeting. All deeply moving. Done in the moment – only for and in the here and now. Yet, will remain with each paramour for the remainder of their days. You will understand their extent once the full depth of this series is felt by you.The real, unfeigned story - the whole story - is about the era known as the 60’s. A point of history where the attitudes and way of life clashed and conflicted proactively with the customary social norms. This story is reflective of the kinds of individuals who were present during that counter-culture revolution. Take the story at its face value and watch it from the perspective of the individuals who were participating in the human experiment of wanting to change ‘the system’. All the characters are deeply rooted in the times.
You must watch this series at all costs. It is unmistakenly on my Apotheosis List and is a very serious contender for Top Series for this year. This is a Magnum Opus. A masterpiece! You can read the full review of this fantastic series at BLBliss.com.
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Cinematically Wonderful But .....
Pretty quickly, however, we realize that this story is stilted and becomes astonishingly boring. I mean REALLY boring. Frankly, it is bland and exceedingly predicable; one could easily write the next dialogue long before it was going to happen. That is how predictable and trite this narrative unfolded. Nothing and I mean nothing surprised me. I almost fell asleep watching this series. With few exceptions, almost everyone is wooden, ostensibly and unfortunately, also cliché. This is a cinematic triumph. The cinematography transports you back to the early 20th century indeed. The costumes were some of the finest I have ever seen and are presented in exceptional detail. The sets were wonderfully detailed, and we were transported to a different era. It is so unfortunate that the action in the story did not match everything else. I kept waiting for something to happen and nothing ever did. Even the kissing scenes and love scenes were muted and sanitized and almost presented like two schoolboys on a camping trip. Certain aspects were not serious in nature. It was indeed so soft that if forgot to do something to my heart. Watching paint dry would have been more emotionally satisfying. Even the secondary couple, while better in terms of emotional fulfilment, was only slightly more engaging in relatability and depth. Neither couple honestly made my heart pitter-patter in any way, shape, or form. This series was flatly dull from an emotional fulfillment.Was this review helpful to you?
A Winnie The Pooh Story
Watching this series will no doubt put you into a diabetic coma from sugar shock. It is so overly sweet that it becomes a travesty. Enough with the prepubescent silliness of what an ideal image of young gay relationships are. These are NOT them. I am not trying to convince anyone that my assessment is correct, but it is time now for some serious reflections on how and what is presented as young gay men in love that is actually authentic. And this ain’t it! And you are doing a gross injustice to young gay, lesbian, trans, and questioning individuals by constantly portraying this nonsense where relationships between adolescent gay boys are so easy to develop, maintain, and be accepted and worst of all so nauseatingly sweet and sanitized. They are not. And every one of their problems and issues has easy solutions; they do not.Summarily, this series is passe, outdated, disparaging, and most of all does not have a modicum of connection to reality or candor. This is a Pollyanna world; not Earth 1.
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Closed The Closet Door Again!
While I have not read the manhwa this is based off, this series failed to deliver as a BL. It did not tell a story; only presented circumstances. Ironically, we got the full picture of the straight couple(s), including a superfluous musical interlude and a tennis match. This is a straight story with two gay guys thrown in to try and make it be a BL. However, there was no intrinsic development of a gay relationship or even a foundation of a strong connection between them until the absolute end. What little we did see about their evevolment, was shown to be dark leading to uncertainty with misunderstanding assumptions and presented mostly despondently. Frankly, this series was a bitter disappointment . Oh, it is well acted, and the cinematography is breathtaking and perhaps that is what hides its flaws so masterfully. But its poor content is couched and guised in pretty words at times and nice surroundings. Take that away, and what you are exposed to is anxiety, fear, guilt, and the shame of queerness that is so prevalent in Korean culture and thinking. This series merely highlights their disquietudes about someone being gay in the worst possible way, I might add. Gayness became shameful, something that you could not share even with friends or family and would in essence be deadly if anyone found out about it. Only talked about it in the dead of night and in whispers. They did everything to put gay people back into the closet except not put a lock on the closet door. This did NOTHING to enhance, enlighten, or encourage acceptance of individuals who are gay. If anything, it merely showed how sad, pathetic, weak, unaccepting, shameful, scared, frightened, intimidating, and unaccepting it all is. Know your place. How much agony it will cause you. Meanwhile, the straight couple gets to foster a warm cozy relationship with everyone accepting of that as being normal. And they get to have a happy ending or live out a dreamWas this review helpful to you?
A Phenomenal Journey of Self-Discovery
This story has a feel about it that screams that the people involved were simply meant to be. But apparently, I did not see the same story that others saw. There are some rather harsh reviews of this series that frankly I simply do not understand – at all. Overall, this is a brilliant and beautiful story about 4 young men who find themselves interconnected at just the right time. Each traversed a journey of self-discovery that is succinctly told and brilliantly acted. Sure, it could have used more episodes to flesh out and enhance its characters more, but overall, this saga had a clear beginning, an understanding middle, and a rather satisfying ending. Plus, I liked it – a lot! Overall, I think this is a very impactful and powerful BL that has been sliced up into mini-moral pieces based upon a lack of understanding life. If you have lived as long as I have, sometimes you can step back from the noise and righteous indignation and see it from its full perspective. Not everything or everyone is perfect. But this BL frankly turned out right. Don't listen to the naysayers. This is a good series! You can read my full review of this great series at BLBliss.com.Was this review helpful to you?
Don't Listen To Naysayers! It is GOOD!
Occasionally, when you are watching something, you just get a sense that you are going to be affected by it. And in this rather short series (just about 2 hours total), you get a feeling you are going to smile and be delighted when it concludes. And that is exactly what this beautiful mini-BL series does to you. It is so entertaining and so well crafted, you might feel that if you had not watched this, you would have sensed something was missing from your life. It is that good. The whole story unfolds so beautifully with the perfect cast that you begin to feel immersed in the presentation itself. This short and sweet BL is not going to win any awards except perhaps only my acolytes and my respect. It is a cute, solid story with such stellar acting. While many BLs take so long to say so little, this says so much straight away. It gets to the point. I loved this series. It feels good. It looks good. Its message is loud and clear. I wish a lot more BLs were to the point and as genteel as this one. You can read my full review of this cute series at BLBliss.com.Was this review helpful to you?
Epic
Epic. Clear and simple, this is in a class all by itself. Granted, it might not be for everyone, and I certainly had a hard time following the complexities of the story itself. Being a lover of period pieces, I was enthralled with this fantasy series. Is it a BL? Nope. Is it romantic. Yes, and no. Certainly, it has impassionate connections between characters but to say they were romantic is a matter of interpretation. As a Westerner, I know next to nothing about Chinese culture, customs, religious practices, or history. So, I became intrigued by this story. It is difficult for me to separate fact from fiction here in a sense that these characters seem so relatable with human strengths and foibles, yet their circumstances were beyond my reference points of understanding. In addition, I find the Chinese language almost hypnotic and sounding like imagery poetry. I adored this series and felt a deeper connection to these characters, ironically. This is a long, long series and you invest a significant amount of time watching and therefore you become weirdly attached to them. Perhaps some more than others but all in general. Why? Because they all remind us of ourselves – be they mortals or demons. Watching this series becomes an experience. To some degree, it is representative of our own world.Was this review helpful to you?
Worth Watching for the Kissing!
This is best described as an anecdote BL. For me it was a bit cryptic and hard to follow. The screenplay might have made sense in Korean. Maybe it was due to translation issues or merely not understanding Korean culture very well, but I did not understand the nuances of the plot. The overall story, however, is a familiar, tried and true, standard one. Tropey. Cliché. Stereotypical. Parts of it did intrigue me and I kind of liked it, despite not fully grasping where it wanted to go. The connection between the two protagonists is surprisingly strong, more so in the beginning. I give them props also for not making this series too polished. It does show the grittier side of Korean society and the not-so-easy aspect of living the life of an aspiring idol trainee. What was really done exceptionally well in this part of the series was the kissing. There was a warmth and a sincerity to those scenes that felt organic and unpretentious and very, very genuine. It was quite refreshing to see kissing, especially in Korean Bls (honestly in all BLs as of late), to be so authentic and straightforward. No silhouettes, stuffed animals, or pillows to hide behind and the shots were clear and close-up. It felt real and surprisingly unrehearsed.Was this review helpful to you?
