Blkittykat

With You Always

That weirdly conveyed more emotions in eight minutes than I have seen full length series do..

The story is pretty straightforward, it switches narrative between the present and the past and finally back to the present, all in a span of eight minutes. We see the wedding of the leads, Siam and Nawanruk, and a majority of the film is just their first dance. They talk to each other about their love for each other, their marriage and what it means for them going forward while they dance, and the film aptly concludes on what happened after.

It was all quite emotional, I'm not going to spoil anything, but it was emotional. The acting, the way it was filmed, the music, all complemented that feeling of despair and sadness the movie itself portrayed very well, and by the end, I was actually moved to tears.

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Unfinished Sequel - Unfulfilled Potential

Was this almost unnecessary?
Absolutely
Did I still watch because continuity and Wi Ha Joon?
Absolutely

The set up was right there after season 1 for sure, but there was also no real need to have another season, let alone two. But I still watched it because despite my progress with not torturing myself by watching things I don't want to in the name of continuity, I thought this would be good. I liked the first season, why not this one

The seven episodes started out incredibly serious in episodes 1-2, started getting this comedic undertone in episodes 3-5, and by the time it got to 6-7, it was a joke. The tone was serious, but the plot was a joke.

The initial set up of wanting to take down the game from within the game is a pretty bad one by the way, Gi Hun was the winner last time and knows the game inside and out. For someone who knows how it works, he sure made a lot of decisions based on the humane nature of the participants. And for someone who knows that the people controlling the games can see literally everything and manipulate it as they wish.. he really didn't think anything through.

That's the problem with this season, the core concept just feels all wrong and what it relies on instead is the bread and butter of season 1 - getting you emotionally invested in the characters. The new cast is awesome, so many wonderful and endearing characters (amongst the usual jerks because I guess there always needs to be characters as the opposition within the contestants, because meta I guess) and they are one of the few reasons I'm looking forward to season 3.

The returning characters as well, written pretty well. Gi Hun is battered and scarred from the last games and it shows, his only intent the entire time is to make sure the games end and to protect as many people as he can. This kind of backfires (see: section that talks about the bad writing), and we're left on a cliffhanger.
Jun Ho is used very sparingly despite being a lead and that choice is very paradoxical because the way they've written the series makes sure that his character can't do much. He could've if they'd changed the plot accordingly at certain points, which I hope they do in the sequel.
In Ho aka The Front Man had the best development this season, at least for me. Not in terms of character or anything, in terms of playing a role in the plot and I'm definitely curious how they'll take that forward.

There isn't really much to say until season 3 is out because I hope the plot can recover from the kind of dive it took in the last couple of episodes. I don't know how they're going to do it, but I hope for our sakes and theirs that they actually find a way to end the game because even with Wi Ha Joon, this doesn't need a fourth season.

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The horror!

Wasn't actually that scary now that I think about it, sure it had it's fair share of jump scares but overall, am I much impressed? Let's find out!

Episode 1 - Our Little Sister
Story factor - 8.0
Scare factor - 1.0
Standout performance - Aye (Cherprang)
This was a fairly good story with a solid plot twist, it was a bit creepy and a bit sad and was quite the start to the series, the best one to start with as well I would say, they made a great decision to have this be the first of the anthology.
Final score - 7.0

Episode 2 - Wedding Dress
Story factor - 5.0
Scare factor - 3.0
Standout performance - Milk (Care)
This is one of the stories I thought would have benefited from a longer runtime, a full length movie perhaps, because while it was sad and scary, it didn't really create the impact it could have. Nevertheless, a solid entry, not the best
Final score - 5.5

Episode 3 - Ode to My Family
Story factor - 8.5
Scare factor - 1.5
Standout performance - Chawin (Poon)
This was my favorite episode and even without my obvious biased opinion, this is one of the best episodes in the series. Good suspense, psychological horror as opposed to just gore and a plot twist I genuinely did not see coming. The only one I didn't see coming by the way, other episodes did have plot twists that were predictable to an extent but this one I didn't anticipate.
Final score - 9.0

Episode 4 - The Vow
Story factor - 7.0
Scare factor - 1.5
Standout performance - Nat (Gee)
This was one of the episodes that was good, but compared to others, just felt a like bit of a letdown. Nothing wrong with the episode itself to be honest, just not my personal favorite. It was psychological horror and I believe the only one that was inspired by an urban legend, so props to that.
Final score - 7.0

Episode 5 - Spectral Class
Story factor - 1.0
Scare factor - 2.0
Standout performance - Nik (Prince)
This.. what on earth did I witness with this episode? I hated it. I'm sorry but I absolutely hated it. I know that horror stories don't necessarily have to make sense but come on! This was nonsense. Unnecessarily violent and gruesome nonsense. Just.. ugh.
Final score - 1.0

Episode 6 - Girl Next Door
Story factor - 8.0
Scare factor - 3.0
Standout performance - Bird (Nat)
This was the saddest episode of them all, I was actually tearing up toward the end of the episode. The set up was sad, the twist ending was sad, everything about this was quite emotional and what I thought would be one of my least favorites when I started the episode turned into something that impressed me
Final score - 7.5

Episode 7 - Dear Granny
Story factor - 5.0
Scare factor - 5.5
Standout performance - Nulek (Sydney)
This was definitely the scariest episode and a close runner up for the position of episode I hated most. No, not because it was scary. It was again, just not very believable or coherent. The twist ending was not explained very well, even if it had to be ambiguous, there are definitely ways to clear stuff up for the audience and this was not it. Again, pointless gore with a hint of a story.. not a fan
Final score - 4.0

Episode 8 - Viral Curse
Story factor - 6.0
Scare factor - 5.0
Standout performance - Ple (Nina)
This had both a decent story and some good scares, but unfortunately I was kind of over it by the time I got to this episode and my interest just plummeted. It was a very meta and well executed plot but much like the second episode, needed more time to develop. It wasn't bad, but I was just not into it.
Final score - 6.5

The acting in almost all the parts really impressed me, they did have some standout performances I liked but I did think the acting was solid all around.
The direction and writing.. definitely could have used some work.

Adding all the scores and finding the average.. came out to a score of around 5.9.. let's round up to a 6..
So did it impress me? Almost? Some of them absolutely did, others disappointed, and a rare one actually made me want to chuck something out of a window.

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Watch me reap the consequences of my own actions

I always say that I can look past bad acting, cinematography or editing, the one thing I can't look past is bad writing. On the off chance, I can look past those two plotholes or insane storylines in scripts that are mostly airtight, but when they are gaping enough for you to fall through, that's where I draw the line.

Let me clarify, the writing isn't abysmal here, there were a few amazing twists but the story either needed to be way crisper or way more fleshed out than it was. I still don't have answers to some of the biggest mysteries they introduced and it just felt sloppy at points. I won't fault it for starting off slow and then picking up the pace, some of my favourite dramas are that way. What I will say though is that the change in pace was so abrupt, it took me a second, because after pretty much nothing happening, there was way too much going on.

The character writing.. was a little better. I couldn't really root for any of them except for Do Hyun, because really, he was the only character who didn't do something absolutely deranged, horrifying or hypocritical. You can obviously root for imperfect characters but they either need to be immediately likeable or have some character development. The development also came much too late for my liking, so there goes that.

The acting was what impressed me the most. While I did not understand the reasoning behind writing the characters to be the way they were, I genuinely felt like all the actors carried out the brief to the tee, maybe even better.
I did want a bit more of the development on interpersonal relationships between the characters, they did drive the family theme hard on this one, so I see no reason why they couldn't have done that.

Psychological thrillers aren't my favourite, sure, but I do enjoy them once in a while. Unfortunately, the thrill never really arrived for me and the psychological aspect was much too mild to make anyone uncomfortable like I usually see people say they expect. It was a decent watch with it's moments, but personally, nothing really clicked enough for me to be completely invested.

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The multiverse.. is real

Nevermind that this episode didn't answer any of my doubts from the original series, it left me with even more questions. This was not a special episode, this was a set up for another half written and executed season because a special episode would've provided answers to the several questions that went unanswered in the series, not introduced another storyline that felt like a pilot episode.

The new storyline reminded me a bit of Secret Crush On Your and a lot of The Boy Next World itself, but because it was more or less a pilot episode and a continuation of the original series we got a lot of mindless fun moments and fluff.
The characters felt different but familiar, the story felt half written and I cannot emphasize this enough, currently I have more questions than I do answers.

But yes, it was a cute episode, I found myself laughing and chuckling at how cute it was during some moments, plus there was a lot more of the second couple in this than I've seen in any other special episode. So yes, not a bad one, but also not something that tied up loose ends like I wanted it to.

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When the rain hits your face, my hands hold up an umbrella

Rain can be sticky, make you uncomfortable, but in the right moments, it can be freeing. Even then, you sometimes just want an umbrella close by, because even if the rain is liberating, you can want that it only surround you, outside the shield of your umbrella.

One missent email shakes up the lives of both the leads, and what begins as pure courtesy and politeness, soon turns into the rain in their lives. Sometimes sticky and uncomfortable, but those emails carry the freedom their lives do not mirror. Emails turn into real life but the two of them are still under the umbrella, and their real lives are ultimately going to catch up to them, but their lives are intertwined in a way that is going to be difficult to cut off or ignore because what they share with each other are not just their thoughts, or fears, or aspects of their lives, they've essentially bared their heart to each other.

The drama, much like my explanation, is as complex as complex comes. Both leads are in precarious situations with their love lives and one email sparks a whole conversation where after each email, you get the feel that those two finally found someone who gets them. Whether we as the audience understand their conversations is not the point, it's that they understood. They share their pains, and troubles and deepest thoughts with each other because they need not worry about being judged or worry about slighting each other. They are strangers after all.

As the drama progresses, them being each other's safe space, each other's liberty is the only thing that goes unchanged because every other line they unconsciously set is erased. This of course means, a whole lot of drama, but that was expected. Nothing in here was ever not going to be complicated.

I loved how every important moment between the leads happened when it rained and I loved how whether they did it consciously or unconsciously, the rain signified something for their relationship. I love that the leads actually spoke to each other, no misunderstandings, no silly arguments, the drama came when it was supposed to and it wasn't because they refused to talk to each other. I love that they were always open with each other, no matter how their situation changed. I love that they noticed things about each other, and that they took the initiative when they needed to.

It may seem like I'm describing things that are normally there in some senses in a relationship and in dramas, but this was a plot that needed a whole lot of development, and they did that while also doing all this. I wanted a little more though, that's my only complaint, I wanted a little more closure, a little more of a deep dive into Hagiwara and Sei.

But believe me when I say I ate this series up, I was completely obsessed with it while I watched, and for good reason. This series was like a summer rain, a light enough drizzle to cool you down, while the sunshine warms you up, and when that happens, you can't help but love it.

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My brain is burning but it was worth it!

Aside from the fact that I have a headache from all the thinking this show made me do, this was such a good watch! Watching people do something they're good at while you also try to figure it out is a weird kind of fun I enjoy.

What I loved:
1) The Teamwork! I live for the teamwork on variety/ survival shows. Though most of the games were mind power based, the preparation and strategy needed to figure out the solutions needed a lot of teamwork and I think for strangers (it did seem like they met on the first day of the show), all the teams worked together incredibly well.

2) The Games. I tried to play along but it's hard when the focus keeps shifting to the people actually supposed to be playing! I guess that was the point though, but the games they picked were genuinely so interesting. It was a mix of very common games, made much more complicated than they usually are and I loved it.

3) No betrayals or backstabbing or deceit. Strong words, but this may have been my favorite part of this show. There's always this aspect of having to betray someone you form an alliance with in elimination style competition, but I loved that each university was a team, and there was no need to form alliances and break them to get ahead in the game, just their skills.

What I didn't like:
1) MATH! So much maths!
The only thing I didn't like, like throw some trivia in there or something. They did have some games based on strategy, reasoning and probability, but a solid chunk of it was maths.

I had a great time with this, it was the break I needed from all the thinking I had to do for my assignments, projects and such.. more thinking.. loved it.

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For the friendships we formed along the way

I've come to find that I'm more invested in the friendships formed in dating reality shows than I am in the relationships, which is a beautiful paradox but the friendships are just so pure!!

I will also always maintain that what the audience sees is probably less than a quarter of what happened and that we have no way of telling what exactly happened behind the scenes and to what extent, and at the tip of it all, these people were just trying to find a good connection.

So obviously we'll laugh and cry with them, get annoyed at times and relate to them at others, as I'm sure the contestants themselves did. And this was a genuinely surprising experience, watching this, because I got to witness some incredible people tell their stories and share their experiences and I got to see them develop incredible connections with everyone else.

The sensitive topics were handled with care, and the host was genuinely wonderful at being supportive of the contestants. And despite a few ups and downs, I'm hoping they got something good out of their time on the show.

There was some romance, a lot of drama (a lot) and even more amazing friendships, which was definitely my favorite aspect. Whatever they choose to take forward, I hope they choose to take those friendships forward.

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Dramatic boys

Jeez. How?!
How did they manage to create more drama and even more chemistry, with a new character no less?!

I'm dumbfounded, because this could have technically been concluded with five episodes, those last three episodes were completely unnecessary. I guess technically it was needed to set up Bad Guy, but that's all just parallels, the story was complete after episode 5.

Which sucks because they had chemistry. Good chemistry, I was invested for a minute there because more than half of the second part focused on Jae Min and his new love interest, and a half of the leftover half was spent on fixing the messes from part 1.

Although they concluded it pretty neatly, a lot of it just felt unnecessary. Other than the fact that I am way more invested in Bad Guy now, it didn't really do anything for me story wise. The acting was still good, chemistry was good all around, and if I didn't find out that the MC and the SL are the leads in another series, I would've been angry about the wasted chemistry, but they are, so eh-
This was a confusing experience.

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Blue boys, you make me a mad girl

Now, first off, it was almost perfect for most of the runtime. I watched the compiled version of the first four episodes, and by my calculation, it was almost perfect until what would be the last episode in part 1.

They set up the connection between the leads very quickly and very well, and the conflicts they introduced were new and played very nicely into the set up. Even until the ‘last’ episode, the story building was incredible, I'm just angry with the way they handled one aspect of the conflict.

For a short series, they managed to stuff in conflicts about work, economic disparity, sexual experiences and unwarranted jealousy, but of course the one that caused the most damage was the oldest page in the book, the love rival.
The character is of course completely unreasonable and coming off borderline stalker - ish, but they're just doing it because they like one of the leads! Ugh-
In a matter of a few minutes, they managed to overshadow the good chemistry and connection the leads built over the past few episodes. All that hard fought connection, down the drain.

Finally coming to the second point, I'm not going to reduce my rating since I know there's a part 2, but I get how frustrating it must have been to watch a series end like THAT. Come on, you don't do that.

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Cute, simple and fun

That's pretty much it though but it had me invested.

There truly isn't much to say because essentially the story is about a green flag introvert and a green flag extrovert falling in love with each other. The only real red flags are seemingly connected to their “introverted/extroverted” behaviours and tendencies, but take even that with a grain of salt, it's not all there is to those certain scenes.

They solved all misunderstandings pretty quickly, there was a sort of gradual and steady progression to their relationship every episode, and both the leads had quite astounding character development. It was nice. Yeah. It's all complimentary but I can't exactly rave about their relationship either, it was nice and a bit more nice.

The second couple though, had more drama and oomph to their relationship, and with their very limited screentime and extreme chemistry, I was way more invested in their up and down. Yes, yes, I loved the drama that came with their friends to lovers arc, but it managed to create a good balance between the extensive cuteness and slowness of the lead couple.

The only complaints I have are about little things, really nitpicking if I think about it, like the angel/devil stuff (made no sense), the thing with the ex, and why Khun Shy could never get out of his apartment! Get the turtle a lead role please! I could practically feel the desperation to escape that fish tank in every scene he was in.

Honestly, this was a perfectly decent watch, for when you're in the mood for minimal drama, a lot of cute moments and a little golden retriever of a male lead.

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This.. just..

What.. happened

I'm not saying this was great in the first place, but it was going fine. Even though Mon had the personality of cardboard, it was nice to see two complete introverts have a romantic storyline. It was awkward and slow, but it was fine.
The comedy was better than fine and I was enjoying the unfiltered friendship between the housemates

Then came all the cliché misunderstandings and blatant lies. Two people who barely talked to each other in the first place weren't talking at all, and everytime So opened his mouth after a point, the only things that came out were lies. Even if they couldn't talk to each other before, they could at least communicate.
It hit me that the simple set up was really masking a shallow follow up, and what was slow, was now boring and slow.
I was not a fan of the "I have to lie to him to protect his feelings" thing, and I hated that they subverted that into the storylines of the support characters.
And what was with that finale? Specifically the last few minutes because despite my frustration, I did not sit through twelve episodes for that!

Despite all that, I did like a few things. I liked that the characters actually apologised for things they should apologise for, instead of brushing it off. I liked the awkwardness between the leads that lasted throughout, it was kind of refreshing. A character actually saying they want to follow their dreams and still date their love interest. Most of all, I loved the friendship between all the characters. It was honest and unfiltered, and I was only dissapointed that two people with massive potential to be a romantic couple within that group didn't become one.

What I thought was going to be a nice ensemble series didn't really turn out that way, and I can't even say I'm dissapointed, because I don't know if that's what I feel. It didn't have great potential, just a few good moments.

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Yawn

Does this company have some sort of obsession with having their leads going somewhere to escape their problems, meeting their love interest there and still having tons of problems? Do they have some sort of pact to always include this plot in their series?

Boy goes back home because he doesn't agree with the job ethics in his company, meets boy who broke his heart years ago, they fight and reconcile, then they start dating. There, I've summed it up the best I can, which is already way better than how they did it.

A majority of the story involved the leads reconciling and fighting and reconciling and fighting all over again. Even though I knew why they drifted apart, I couldn't really understand why they wanted to reconcile and be together. I didn't care enough about them to want them as a couple either, they had almost nothing going for them in my view. I thought alright, at least they don't have some weird love rival thing as well, but they introduced that as well, in a way that made no sense.

The side couples were a little better, more established and while one couple seemed like they could actually hold a conversation for the most part without it becoming an argument, the other, well they barely interacted, so I don't know what to think.

I was so bored, I watched all of it sped up and it was still way too slow. I wouldn't recommend.

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The promise unkept

I was promised angst, and drama, and so much emotion. After the prequel, I expected that much. The kind of angst that is caused by well written conflicts and misunderstandings because, let's face it, we enjoy red flags in dramas sometimes. I wanted love triangles and squares, and a ton of aching and heartbreak, and.. nope. They delivered nothing but the misunderstandings. Not well done either.

There was definitely a mood shift between the prequel and the series, they added comedy (which completely unnecessary, one of the worst aspects they added, especially since it did nothing for the story), the characters were incredibly inconsistent compared to the prequel, it was jarring going from a moody and emotional couple of episodes to a sitcom kind of series.

The leads were fine together (the child actors were really good though, I have to say), but the chemistry was almost non - existant during some scenes, which felt frustrating since you would expect two individuals who have liked each other for 10+ years, being confused about their feelings, being seperated from each other with no contact for over ten years, you would think the passion and yearning would be overflowing. It just wasn't. Like I said, they never really got that angst right, despite it being readily available to implement.

One thing I did like, was several of the supporting characters. It's weird because most of them started out being kind of pushy and a chore to watch on screen, but ended up being solid individuals. I especially loved that none of them actually crossed any line when it came to the leads, whether it be confessing their love or providing advice or nudging the leads on to confess to each other, none of these characters crossed a line, which is something I see quite often.

Talking about the actual misunderstanding now, I did not like it. I wanted something complex and emotional, and even though the reason Phupha chose to leave was because of a valid fear for him, the wait period of ten years and the payoff certainly didn't work for me. 10 years with absolutely no contact because of his reasoning was just a bit too unreasonable for me.

I'm a little dissapointed with how this played out, right up until the ending. There were so many scenes which could have been cut out, or the time they were used for could have been used to deepen their relationship, and it's a shame it wasn't. This was a slow burn story that never really picked up the pace, and thinking about it, two episodes somehow managed to tell a better story than ten did.

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A close look into complex emotions

Strictly speaking, there was nothing complex about the emotions shared by the leads. But time and circumstance complicated it way more than they could handle at times. It doesn't help us handle it any better that this is based on a true story.

Phupha and Nanfah are very simple and straightforward characters, but their actions sometimes confused the other person enough to create a whole bunch of misunderstandings that were entirely unnecessary. But this was more a story of reconciliation than the mistake, the impact of time and distance on the relationship between two people, which ended on unclear terms.

They managed to pack a whole lot of emotions in just two episodes, and though the story and a lot of the details felt a tad uneven, this is first and foremost a look into the thoughts and feelings of the leads on their broken connection. In that, it excelled.

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