Bali-Sunrise

IDK what to tell you but if you think I need to watch a different piece of media to enjoy this piece of media, you might have a very very different view then I do on what the purpose of transferring something to a different medium is. Hearing "oh it reminds me of the manga" doesn't validate this media standing on its own. The Magicians is a fantastic interpretation on a novel of the same name. Not only do they change characters names to better adapt to a television medium, they even change the order plot events happen to adapt to a different medium.

I will say confidently maybe there's a language barrier?

You typing more doesn't mean how the show felt to me changes? You enjoyed it! That's fantastic. I shared a less glowing opinion than your own and spoke to wider BL trends and what gets rated highly here.

I don't claim anything to be best, nor that everyone HAD to agree with me.

I don't really have comments on the word drama either. I do have to say, the whole "everyone has to receive and feel the same as me" thing? It's also incredibly common.

You can seek the perfect translations to manga. I'm looking for LGBTQ men in situations that are more dramatic than real life but also not formulaic or just doing things to stick to material.

This wasn't not my personal favorite of 2025.

it's fantastic that this was a worthwhile translation of a manga you enjoyed. You can tell me "its the best adaptation of a manga in history". That's literally not quantifiable by any other human.

As someone who only had the show? These aren't how I enjoy my human characters written and thats ok. We'll both move on.

I don't remember if I gave my thoughts on this or not.
The first like 3-4 episodes drag you in, like 6-8 keep you somewhat curious enough to finish and then the rest of the series kind of just phones it in and gets progressively worse with some highlight moments now and again.

The hitman idea was definitely intriguing to start. Kant and Bison's initial relationship was interesting and then it QUICKLY becomes maybe the worst part about the show in general. Style and Fadel were written and realized more interestingly they felt a little more consistently interesting as far as their initial slow burn.

It still has some VERY fun moments in its first half and just kinda gets less and less so as the episodes go by.

I'd still say watch the first half. But this probably should have been a miniseries with significantly higher stakes and it could have been one of the best of the year.

The series runs fairly light on recurring characters so the actual weight of two of the 4 protagonists being hitmen is just kinda wasted. (few recurring characters means low to no chances of major characters actually dying or being killed by the hitmen)

They could have literally just run a gambling shop at night and the show could have most major plotline have no major shifts, just some quick rewrites.

And therein lies the problem.

KinnPorche uses its dark world and makes us suspend disbelief for plot but it LIVES in that world.
This one wants the best of both worlds, being a hitman show but also juggling the usual BL "lets not communicate fully" and "im actually a good guy even though I kill people sometimes".

I think the ratings on some of the higher rated shows are just proving to me I need to try to watch more low rated things. Because whatever leads to super high ratings on MDL are clearly things I'm not really interested in genre wise.

I wanted to like this but couldn't finish because everything felt a little to plasticy and poorly realized. From an actor trying to act by obscuring his eyes, flandarized characters and just off putting character motivations being closer to stalking than anything that'd make a working relationship. I'm happy to suspend my disbelief but there is only so much turning off my brain i can actually do.

I'm happy people found something here they like but 2025 has been kinda booty for BL series imo.

I'm also getting really curious about what you guys find to be "good acting".

A lot of these shows aren't really feeling like stories of two independent adult men falling in love but just weird caricatures filled with every red flag and codependency issue on the planet leading to set ups that genuinely don't build up relationships or love satisfyingly but just flashy dramatic moments that aren't earned but written in abruptly whether from source material or bad pacing in conversions.

Oh boy, the "oh no something is clearly not being communicated but I'm going to pretend I know everything and not communicate" trope.

Even worse when homie was actin like psycho stalker episodes before this. Hopefully this subverts expectations.

Some people think this show needed a sad ending/ bittersweet ending, what it really needed was editing.

A sad or bittersweet ending doesn't work on shows around serious subjects that suspend the heavy nature of them. Simply put it wouldn't have worked and would have made it worse. right now? The shows fine. Very watchable but absolutely falls off a cliff around 8-9 area.

The complaining about sex is always so wild, this is hardly the raunchiest Thai show I've seen and I think at a certain point people who complain whenever 2 m/m characters get sexual have to admit they don't actually like the m/m aspect of these shows lol. There will be multi comment freakouts because... dudes who show interest in each other romantically and found each other cute... also are sexually interested in each other.

SHOCK AWE! Its not always going to be blue shorts and a chaste kiss in 16 episodes. The markets filled with enough of that for you to fill a year at minimum.

Kant and Bison are meant to hook us, but by the end I genuinely found myself fast forwarding past their parts.

Fadel stole the show, Style's contrast only made his role even more firm, also Styl'es dad was kinda hot.

The captain's plot dragged the show down a bit. On a case about hitmen and you DON'T make sure the boss is punished worse than the hitmen? What was he even doing?

I recommend people give it a shot, but its absolutely not top of any list, mainly due to biting WAY more than it could chew. Looking at the last like 3 episodes, its NOT because they didn't have the time, they just didn't have the writing chops.

I'd say go in for the romance, but Kant and Bison's chemistry is... just kinda not there. Bison's character is a bit flat and the chemistry with Kant is questionable. Entertaining characters but they just didn't gel. It read like it was a hookup that lasted way too long lol. Where as with Fadel they gave us time to see Style wear him down a bit and their chemistry felt more earned.

IDK i have complicated feelings on it. I really enjoyed it in the first half, I expected the second half to compensate and suspend more disbelief and just GO for it on a crazy unrealistic ending, instead the show which long abandoned any sense of reality keeps trying to seed itself back in lol.

They need to do some more homework or at least use media with similar themes as inspiration. The hitman theme while interesting and a good attention grabber, didn't actually go anywhere and was set dressing to a conflicted show with one really well done warming up the hardass romance.

I assure you, you are not alone. He was so hot and I couldn't figure out why I kept staring lol

I just finished episode 6 after taking a break and letting the series finish, and the preview to the next episode looked bad enough I wasn't interested.

Reading where the story actually goes? It seems like it might not be worth the 6 hours to finish the series lmao.

It was already tonally inconsistent (not necessarily bad considering so much of the action was campy) and feeling like the plot was getting to a point where there wasn't much more to be done and they'd have to grasp at straws to finish up.

The first season was alright. The cast has my attention.

I'm simply tuning in for pretty faces. (fluke and Joss, I've never really seen what people like about Earth, but not my business)

"But aren't we past these really cringey "You can be useless because I will do everything for you including matching up your chopsicks (?)" type relationships? Why can't they just be two guys in love instead of a man and a virginal Victorian 12-year old girl with consumption? "

Shout it to the heavens!

I stopped episode 2 to wait out to see if what I was sniffing came to fruition.

That's reasonable! Nothing I or anyone else can say can really invalidate anyone else's experiences - it takes more than a discussion board to do that.

We're all our own bundle of details that make us up as a whole.

End of the day its a show. I watched it and wasn't impressed, not the first time that's happened nor will it be the last. I'm glad some people were able to connect deeply with it, I definitely wasn't one.

It's funny this show isn't amazing in the end, but was absolutely unfairly judged.

It's a very fun thriller, the sex wasn't a problem, if anything it set the scene lol. It's a brothel!

I do wish people who don't like sex portrayed between males stayed away from BL shows that do portray it.

There already are like dozens of them pumped out a year that are basically 2 dudes where one lead is a self insert for female fans and the show ends on a happily ever after with a kiss after a communication issue 4th graders could resolve. This wasn't that.

The ending and the overall pacing were the issues I had. This show absolutely COULD have gotten to the ending in this one season. Trying to juggle so many characters some of which could use less screen time (PORSCHE & ZOEY - their plots felt over faster than the show allowed them to be) is what left me so unsatisfied.

This show had FOURTEEN (14!) episodes and introduced everything advancing the elephant in the room plot line too last minute.

It's a thriller that is gorgeously filmed (and some of the outfits were amazing, there's this jacket AOB wore early on that I'd buy in a second) , not afraid of male on male sexuality, and has an ambitious plot and cast. The downfall is there's a lot of build up and a wet fart of an end with no resolution due to season 2 bait. Vary camp and at times style over substance (the locker room lighting was so extra lmao)

If this show had gone a different route and not STARTED with the missing brother plotline or just lost that and instead dealt with the drugs, crime kingpin, etc etc - It'd have a been a stronger show for it.

If you find the last few episodes a bit confusing just think of a choose your own adventure novel and how you'd see the results of the choices you didn't make.

That's what the first 5 episodes were. The repeats with the differences are what actually happened.

Really fun show. Absolutely felt like a "Be My Favorite" that has put the romance on the back burner and put the Thriller to the forefront. This is NOT a browse on my phone looking for sweet moments sort of show while missing some details.

Both are excellent and well filmed. "Be My Favorite" if you are looking for a build to a romance with self-growth and more of a slight comedy edge. This one's more explicitly a thriller and a drama with romance present but not being a driving plot force.

Unlike most I didn't feel much connection to Tonkla (felt like the show's brief episode run didn't have the space for me to care about him) and mainly enjoyed Great and Tyme.
Watching episodes 1-4 then watching 5 to 8 a few weeks later was a great choice in the end lol.

Not perfect but few things are.

I'd say go in looking for a Thriller 1st with a romance second, and you'll have a good time.

I'm very glad you enjoyed it.

Compared to other things I've seen this year alone it was a bit lacking for me in just about every department and only worse when I compare it to others.

Regardless of the rating, regardless of other's opinions. We'll feel how we feel.

I primarily bring up the rating because there's a trend for shows that do feature more forward romances or sexuality to be trashed for it both in ratings and in the comments below.

Seeing so many "wow this romance is real because there isn't sex or kidding just romance!" felt weird and worth commenting on for me.

People rate for whatever reasons they want. Nothing is brave. We're talking on a discussion board, its not only not that deep, The start of my comment directly related to everything below, its the introduction to my opinion, a summary of sorts, a lot of positive vibes not for what was here but what can potentially be.

As for me - I can't say I'd really care if they do or don't do a second season? Every positive can't make up for the aspects I wasn't a fan of, pacing being an enormous one.

I don't need a happy ending. I just need a show that does something interesting. I want to understand character motivations.
I also am firmly a believer that relationships can have complexity + story after and don't just end with characters declaring their affections.

The end goal for me isn't "wow that is them and they have a fairy tale ending", some of my favorite shows deal with the complexities of the couple after, and not just them breaking up or dealing with homophobic parents.

I promised you the moon is fine. Yes it has cheating and drama, big whoop.

The second season isn't nearly as bad as I was expecting from the naysayers.

Nah I watch plenty of media that has open endings. This isn't an open ending this is bait for a second season lol.

There is no such thing as a perfect portray of queer relationships!

Queer relationships are just relationships, there is no ONE SHAPE TO THEM, the importance is representing them at all.

I'm glad FOR YOU, that this 12 episode run around is "the perfect queer representation (tf ever thats supposed to be) and that if people don't like this they obviously only want sex and kisses because there is nothing besides that and this tired cliche as argument.

I dont even solely watch "BL" shows, i actually interact with queer media from around the entire world.

You not liking my opinion is perfectly acceptable. Go enjoy.

Based on watching only this BL?
There ain't no way lmao. There ain't no way. 4 minutes alone embarrasses this.

No ending at all lol.

People will keep selling you on a slow burn - there isn't any burn here just hopes a 2nd season happens so the entire story can be told.

Wow, this show is rated really high on the hopes that it gets season 2 vs what's actually here.

I feel like my time was wasted lol.
A Slow burn romance is based on a slowly burning fire. It starts with small insignificant pieces of affection that take a long time but burn into a full on passionate fire.

A Slow burn with no BURN isn't a slow burn. Stop using the phrase on everything slow paced.

Here, I got a slow to nearly non existent romance that wasted its potentially final episode EVER on a slowly developing wet inconsequential fart.

These are developments any writer worth their salt would know only work in a novel, not a show. Pacing issues GALORE.

Why would you even trust a second season from a show that used 12 episodes to deliver this? So you can keep referencing the novel during all of season 2 so they can ALSO not get to where you expect them to end?

I really wanted to be patient because of all the overly flowerly fluffy positive reviews and "wait I read the novel it gets better".

There are too many shows that don't need that.
There are too many shows that didn't get a second season but didn't entirely squander their first season.

IF you're satisfied with that, I really can't understand the criticism of some thai shows lol.
I told sunset about you accomplished what this show wanted to, along with a dozen others.
It literally even did the purposefully failing the test for more consequence and plot purpose! We got a rainy "sad" ending when they live in the same ****ing dorm room and go to school in the same ****ing building! ITSSAY literally had a protagonist change potential years of his life for parts of the plot and for the love interest and he didn't even fail the FINAL and they are being this dramatic?

I don't even LIKE a tale of a thousand stars but that did the slow BURN thing better, because as lackluster and slow as it was, there was an eventual BURN.

Wow. I didn't expect a happy ending but at least expected something more intriguing after getting through the rest of those.

I've been through enough of the "wait till the second season" shows lol, most didn't ever get them. They got a new cast, or remade, or just never happened. Ask My Engineer fans. Or fans of 2moons. Or dozens of others i won't even bother bring up.
A good chunk were written to make me look forward to the pacing and seeing familiar faces.

Here, I'm just like, wow so I get to see the same pacing with the added pressure of an even LESS likely 3rd season?

We can't judge the show on the novel. This is the interpretation the director took, and this is what the season was. There are plenty of novel to show adaptations around the world that are ranked solely on what they present as a show, not some dreamed up idealized "oh if they copy the novel in season 2, please go like the instagram for season 2! I watched a fancam, its coming!" situations.