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What’s the better synonym for “Do Over”—"Rearrange"? Or "Reset"?
Why write a review for Reset and Rearrange, two 2025 series that each ended months ago? This essay comes along too late to serve those who watched as the series aired. Instead, I assume my readers in 2026 (or later) comprise folks who missed the original broadcast. Perhaps, Dear Reader, you came here to learn more about a series that someone recommended to you? If you’ve heard of only the one, the one whose review you’re presently reading…well, surprise! There’s another one just like it! Hopefully, my comparative review will help guide you to which “Re-do” series is more likely to match your own taste in BL consumption. Though, in all honesty, this reviewer was entertained by each, and if you press me—I’d advise to watch them both. Though, perhaps not at the same time. Too many timelines to keep track of all at once!
In 1998, two competing Hollywood studios sent to theaters two big budget films with the exact same premise: a meteor is about to crash into the Earth and wipe out humanity, unless brave astronauts on an emergency space mission can save the day. Somehow, Deep Impact and Armageddon managed to distinguish themselves from each other, likely because each film delivered audiences a unique experience. The identical premises became less “who did it better?” and more “well that was interesting in its own right.” Here in 2025, two competing Thai studios sent to streaming platforms two BL series with the exact same premise: a discontented middle-aged man gets into an accident and awakens to find himself returned to the body of his younger self. Will this be a chance for him to rewrite (reset? rearrange?) the details of his life, perhaps making this second chance more meaningful? Somehow, Reset and Rearrange also managed to distinguish themselves from each other. The two series have a different vibe, a different ethic, and each hero with a second chance at life has very different objectives when he contemplates how to maximize his big Do Over. Each series is interesting in its own right.
As noted, Reset and Rearrange share a premise. They each start with the death of a middle-aged man, but that character’s starting point is somewhat different. We meet Armin (Reset) as a successful actor, receiving accolades at mid-life for his professional achievements. Unfortunately, his personal life is messier; he feuds with professional colleagues; his former best friend wants nothing to do with him; and his longtime lover jilts him in favor of someone he trusted. His death is accidental, but his dying thoughts are to ponder how everything went wrong. Meanwhile, when we encounter middle-aged Win (Rearrange), he loses his job, struggles to pay his rent, is estranged from his only living family, and still mourns for an unrequited high school crush who died more than 25 years prior, in 1997. Feeling despondent about the disappointment his life turned out to be, Win, like Armin, ponders where everything went wrong. At that precise moment, Win takes his eyes off the road to retrieve his fallen cell phone from the floor. And then—well, Dear Reader, suffice to say that is not the smartest thing to do while driving. Reset was quite clear that present-day Armin died in his accident. Rearrange is more ambiguous. We hear the crunch of a collision, but then Win awakens in his own bed—well, his own bed from 1997, a time when he lived at home with his father and brother and was still in high school. Glancing at a mirror, Win is astonished to see the familiar youthful face that stares back at him. Almost at once his thoughts turn to his late, long-deceased friend, Nut. Can Win meet Nut again? Armin experiences a similar moment of temporal confusion, but he regains consciousness in the middle of a film set. The gig was—is?—his first job as a professional. He was a rookie actor then, but now he has years of professional experience to guide his performance. He can rewrite his own history by dazzling the movie set with his accumulated acting prowess. Well, he might do so following a momentary freak-out stemming from his unexpected temporal relocation. Quite understandable in the circumstances, but rather exasperating in a professional environment. These summaries essentially account for the premiere episode of each series. The remaining nine episodes of each depict the respective efforts of Win and Armin to alter the undesirable trajectory of his previous life.
Rearrange is by far the simpler of the two stories. Win is a high school student, and his two chief ambitions befit the worldview of a high schooler: to start a band with his crush, Nut; and to confess that crush to Nut before the latter dies from a brain tumor. Other characters in Win’s world include his father and brother; his bandmates and their parents; and a boss at his job who also died in 1997. Win attempts to save the boss from death, but Fate is unyielding. The time and circumstances did change, but the outcome remained the same. Win II concludes that nothing he does will alter prior outcomes in any meaningful way. Win I’s lifelong regret was that Nut’s unanticipated death deprived him of any opportunity to confess his feelings. This time, however, Win can anticipate Nut’s demise. So, he strives to alter the small details—with the goal of making sure that in the time Nut II has left Win can reveal the unspoken confession from decades earlier (or is it the same year? Time is confusing!) but also to help Nut II realize the dreams that Nut I fell short of (like winning the band contest or having a girlfriend or defying his strict dad). In both timelines, the band’s prospects anchor the whole story. Absent the time travel elements, Rearrange really comes across as a standard-issue coming-of-age story about high school kids learning to mature. The bandmates’ messy personal lives feature crushes, confessions, rejections, unspoken feelings, parental conflict aplenty, and band rehearsals. Lots of band rehearsals. Fortunately, the soundtrack is pretty satisfying—and sounds convincingly like music from the late 1990s. Because Win has a general knowledge of how events turn out, he is haunted by (and the series with it) a sense of wistfulness as he awaits the inevitable. Any time Win II asks his (living!) father for advice (a normal thing for any kid to do, but a privilege middle-aged Win is overjoyed to rediscover), the wisdom imparted carries greater weight. With his middle-aged consciousness, 1997 Win II is better able to appreciate advice from his father than 1997 Win I had been. The series repeatedly wrestles with the question, “if life is short, what is the best way to spend our time?” That is heady material for a “simple” high school drama, but it elevates the emotional impact of Rearrange.
By contrast, Reset features a much more convoluted storyline, one that occasionally lapses into melodramatic lakorn territory. Armin II wishes to flourish in his career without the years of struggle he endured in the original timeline, and he wants to rectify mistakes with friends and colleagues. Knowing exactly how, when, and why the relationship with his best friend soured, he makes sure to nurture that relationship this time. That subplot is fairly soft and easy. Armin’s worklife provides the drama. If Rearrange was almost a standard-issue high school series, Reset is almost a standard-issue “wannabe celebrity” series. The travails of the modern day celebrityhood complicate Armin’s life. Public relations fiascoes, professional jealousies, and the need to keep romance out of sight of the press are all “wannabe celebrity” tropes that pop up in Reset. In his professional life, Armin II keeps meeting the same people Armin I knew previously and keeps receiving the same professional opportunities he received previously, but in many cases these encounters arrive years earlier than expected. Due to the nature of his last day in 2025, Armin brings his embittered feelings from mid-life back to his younger self. In the early episodes a desire for revenge animates his actions. Of course, this approach is problematic because in the new timeline the people Armin resents have yet to sin against him. Meanwhile, Armin II finds himself increasingly attracted to the head of his agency, TD, who Armin I had never met in person. TD has an uncanny knack to anticipate when and how Armin will encounter difficulty. TD would like nothing more than to dedicate all his spare time to promoting Armin, but a tropey “rich family/greedy stepmom/jealous stepbrother” subplot consumes a lot of screen time. Both this subplot, and the grandeur of the film career Armin is achieving bring Reset closer to the spirit of Thai lakorn. Those soap opera level trappings help establish the vibe of Reset, just as the band rehearsals keep Rearrange grounded in a high school world.
The titles of each series fit the characters’ circumstances as well as provide double entendre with “Do Over” or “rewrite.” On a film set, if a director wants another take of a scene, the actors and crew will reset the stage, returning to their original position. The title “Reset” thus reflects Armin’s profession. In music, a performer might adapt an existing song to better suit his own needs, changing the arrangement of the material. The title “Rearrange” thus reflects Win’s passion for music. And, of course, both words convey the idea of a “Do Over” life.
In 1998, Armageddon was the louder, more bombastic, more action oriented film. Deep Impact came across as a work grounded in human emotion, its screen time dedicated to showing how the characters prepared for the possibility of death by lethal falling space rock. Where Armageddon almost assaulted the viewer with IMPENDING DANGER, Deep Impact was almost contemplative by comparison. A similar disparity in mood separates Reset and Rearrange. Borrowing soap opera-level trappings from Thai lakorn, such as trope-driven character and story arcs and over-the-top acting styles, Reset comes across as the more brash of the two 2025 series. It had a larger cast— featuring numerous well-known BL actors and many many more background extras in “big” scenes; its filming clearly had more money for its own sets; for movie-within-the TV show sets; for wardrobe; and for location shooting. Its finale featured not only an action-oriented set piece but the chief villain becomes almost comically evil before suffering an only-on-TV mental breakdown. The finale went full lakorn! Meanwhile, Rearrange had a palpably small-potatoes feel by contrast. Location shooting seldom ventured beyond the band’s rehearsal spaces or the member’s homes. Most exterior locations seemed to be parks, which presumably were cheaper spaces to rent than actual places of business. Background extras were either few in number or non-existent, even when a scene was set in an area you’d expect to find other humans, like a restaurant or campground. Wardrobe? High school uniforms and casual clothing sufficed for most episodes. Only a couple of concert scenes required a large cast of extras, and those were scaled to be “just enough to do the job” rather than all-out. Rearrange did what it could with the budget it had. Its biggest accomplishment may be the OST, which features a number of original songs. Rearrange may have been quieter and smaller, but I don’t think those qualities hurt it.
In closing, Reset and Rearrange manage to avoid feeling redundant or repetitive despite sharing a nearly identical premise and despite one series starting mere weeks after the other ended. Each approaches the conundrums of being “gifted a second chance at life” in a different manner. Do Win (Rearrange) and Armin (Reset) get a happy ending in their second turn at being human? You may as well watch. If you read this far, you know you’re tempted.
In 1998, two competing Hollywood studios sent to theaters two big budget films with the exact same premise: a meteor is about to crash into the Earth and wipe out humanity, unless brave astronauts on an emergency space mission can save the day. Somehow, Deep Impact and Armageddon managed to distinguish themselves from each other, likely because each film delivered audiences a unique experience. The identical premises became less “who did it better?” and more “well that was interesting in its own right.” Here in 2025, two competing Thai studios sent to streaming platforms two BL series with the exact same premise: a discontented middle-aged man gets into an accident and awakens to find himself returned to the body of his younger self. Will this be a chance for him to rewrite (reset? rearrange?) the details of his life, perhaps making this second chance more meaningful? Somehow, Reset and Rearrange also managed to distinguish themselves from each other. The two series have a different vibe, a different ethic, and each hero with a second chance at life has very different objectives when he contemplates how to maximize his big Do Over. Each series is interesting in its own right.
As noted, Reset and Rearrange share a premise. They each start with the death of a middle-aged man, but that character’s starting point is somewhat different. We meet Armin (Reset) as a successful actor, receiving accolades at mid-life for his professional achievements. Unfortunately, his personal life is messier; he feuds with professional colleagues; his former best friend wants nothing to do with him; and his longtime lover jilts him in favor of someone he trusted. His death is accidental, but his dying thoughts are to ponder how everything went wrong. Meanwhile, when we encounter middle-aged Win (Rearrange), he loses his job, struggles to pay his rent, is estranged from his only living family, and still mourns for an unrequited high school crush who died more than 25 years prior, in 1997. Feeling despondent about the disappointment his life turned out to be, Win, like Armin, ponders where everything went wrong. At that precise moment, Win takes his eyes off the road to retrieve his fallen cell phone from the floor. And then—well, Dear Reader, suffice to say that is not the smartest thing to do while driving. Reset was quite clear that present-day Armin died in his accident. Rearrange is more ambiguous. We hear the crunch of a collision, but then Win awakens in his own bed—well, his own bed from 1997, a time when he lived at home with his father and brother and was still in high school. Glancing at a mirror, Win is astonished to see the familiar youthful face that stares back at him. Almost at once his thoughts turn to his late, long-deceased friend, Nut. Can Win meet Nut again? Armin experiences a similar moment of temporal confusion, but he regains consciousness in the middle of a film set. The gig was—is?—his first job as a professional. He was a rookie actor then, but now he has years of professional experience to guide his performance. He can rewrite his own history by dazzling the movie set with his accumulated acting prowess. Well, he might do so following a momentary freak-out stemming from his unexpected temporal relocation. Quite understandable in the circumstances, but rather exasperating in a professional environment. These summaries essentially account for the premiere episode of each series. The remaining nine episodes of each depict the respective efforts of Win and Armin to alter the undesirable trajectory of his previous life.
Rearrange is by far the simpler of the two stories. Win is a high school student, and his two chief ambitions befit the worldview of a high schooler: to start a band with his crush, Nut; and to confess that crush to Nut before the latter dies from a brain tumor. Other characters in Win’s world include his father and brother; his bandmates and their parents; and a boss at his job who also died in 1997. Win attempts to save the boss from death, but Fate is unyielding. The time and circumstances did change, but the outcome remained the same. Win II concludes that nothing he does will alter prior outcomes in any meaningful way. Win I’s lifelong regret was that Nut’s unanticipated death deprived him of any opportunity to confess his feelings. This time, however, Win can anticipate Nut’s demise. So, he strives to alter the small details—with the goal of making sure that in the time Nut II has left Win can reveal the unspoken confession from decades earlier (or is it the same year? Time is confusing!) but also to help Nut II realize the dreams that Nut I fell short of (like winning the band contest or having a girlfriend or defying his strict dad). In both timelines, the band’s prospects anchor the whole story. Absent the time travel elements, Rearrange really comes across as a standard-issue coming-of-age story about high school kids learning to mature. The bandmates’ messy personal lives feature crushes, confessions, rejections, unspoken feelings, parental conflict aplenty, and band rehearsals. Lots of band rehearsals. Fortunately, the soundtrack is pretty satisfying—and sounds convincingly like music from the late 1990s. Because Win has a general knowledge of how events turn out, he is haunted by (and the series with it) a sense of wistfulness as he awaits the inevitable. Any time Win II asks his (living!) father for advice (a normal thing for any kid to do, but a privilege middle-aged Win is overjoyed to rediscover), the wisdom imparted carries greater weight. With his middle-aged consciousness, 1997 Win II is better able to appreciate advice from his father than 1997 Win I had been. The series repeatedly wrestles with the question, “if life is short, what is the best way to spend our time?” That is heady material for a “simple” high school drama, but it elevates the emotional impact of Rearrange.
By contrast, Reset features a much more convoluted storyline, one that occasionally lapses into melodramatic lakorn territory. Armin II wishes to flourish in his career without the years of struggle he endured in the original timeline, and he wants to rectify mistakes with friends and colleagues. Knowing exactly how, when, and why the relationship with his best friend soured, he makes sure to nurture that relationship this time. That subplot is fairly soft and easy. Armin’s worklife provides the drama. If Rearrange was almost a standard-issue high school series, Reset is almost a standard-issue “wannabe celebrity” series. The travails of the modern day celebrityhood complicate Armin’s life. Public relations fiascoes, professional jealousies, and the need to keep romance out of sight of the press are all “wannabe celebrity” tropes that pop up in Reset. In his professional life, Armin II keeps meeting the same people Armin I knew previously and keeps receiving the same professional opportunities he received previously, but in many cases these encounters arrive years earlier than expected. Due to the nature of his last day in 2025, Armin brings his embittered feelings from mid-life back to his younger self. In the early episodes a desire for revenge animates his actions. Of course, this approach is problematic because in the new timeline the people Armin resents have yet to sin against him. Meanwhile, Armin II finds himself increasingly attracted to the head of his agency, TD, who Armin I had never met in person. TD has an uncanny knack to anticipate when and how Armin will encounter difficulty. TD would like nothing more than to dedicate all his spare time to promoting Armin, but a tropey “rich family/greedy stepmom/jealous stepbrother” subplot consumes a lot of screen time. Both this subplot, and the grandeur of the film career Armin is achieving bring Reset closer to the spirit of Thai lakorn. Those soap opera level trappings help establish the vibe of Reset, just as the band rehearsals keep Rearrange grounded in a high school world.
The titles of each series fit the characters’ circumstances as well as provide double entendre with “Do Over” or “rewrite.” On a film set, if a director wants another take of a scene, the actors and crew will reset the stage, returning to their original position. The title “Reset” thus reflects Armin’s profession. In music, a performer might adapt an existing song to better suit his own needs, changing the arrangement of the material. The title “Rearrange” thus reflects Win’s passion for music. And, of course, both words convey the idea of a “Do Over” life.
In 1998, Armageddon was the louder, more bombastic, more action oriented film. Deep Impact came across as a work grounded in human emotion, its screen time dedicated to showing how the characters prepared for the possibility of death by lethal falling space rock. Where Armageddon almost assaulted the viewer with IMPENDING DANGER, Deep Impact was almost contemplative by comparison. A similar disparity in mood separates Reset and Rearrange. Borrowing soap opera-level trappings from Thai lakorn, such as trope-driven character and story arcs and over-the-top acting styles, Reset comes across as the more brash of the two 2025 series. It had a larger cast— featuring numerous well-known BL actors and many many more background extras in “big” scenes; its filming clearly had more money for its own sets; for movie-within-the TV show sets; for wardrobe; and for location shooting. Its finale featured not only an action-oriented set piece but the chief villain becomes almost comically evil before suffering an only-on-TV mental breakdown. The finale went full lakorn! Meanwhile, Rearrange had a palpably small-potatoes feel by contrast. Location shooting seldom ventured beyond the band’s rehearsal spaces or the member’s homes. Most exterior locations seemed to be parks, which presumably were cheaper spaces to rent than actual places of business. Background extras were either few in number or non-existent, even when a scene was set in an area you’d expect to find other humans, like a restaurant or campground. Wardrobe? High school uniforms and casual clothing sufficed for most episodes. Only a couple of concert scenes required a large cast of extras, and those were scaled to be “just enough to do the job” rather than all-out. Rearrange did what it could with the budget it had. Its biggest accomplishment may be the OST, which features a number of original songs. Rearrange may have been quieter and smaller, but I don’t think those qualities hurt it.
In closing, Reset and Rearrange manage to avoid feeling redundant or repetitive despite sharing a nearly identical premise and despite one series starting mere weeks after the other ended. Each approaches the conundrums of being “gifted a second chance at life” in a different manner. Do Win (Rearrange) and Armin (Reset) get a happy ending in their second turn at being human? You may as well watch. If you read this far, you know you’re tempted.
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