"HEY I'VE GOT A GREAT IDEA!!! LET'S PLAY FREAKING JINGLE BELLS DURING A REALLY EMOTIONALLY HEAVY SAD SCENE BECAUSE NOTHING SAYS SAD ENHANCING MUSIC LIKE JINGLE BELLS"!!!!!
SAID NO ONE EVER!!!!
ARRRRGGGGG
Again just like with episode eight, the first quarter of episode nine started of really strong like it was written and directed by someone else, so of course they then had to make up for that brief flash of good by tanking the rest of the episode.
Yes Tim (Oliver) and Philip (Jason) are hot, but that whole NC scene just seemed thrown in because they didn't know what the hell to do and wanted a cheap and easy way to distract the audience. But then again they've been using Jericho and Hiro's shirtless bodies to do that every episode this season anyways so it's on point for them.
If Oliver isn't going to do it then Jason seriously needs to give Joel's ass a sexathon pounding he'll never forget so we finally get something more from him than another sexual innuendo joke ever .000002 seconds, but of course that would also require the writer to actually have to use some actual brain power and I'm not sure there's enough fire extinguishers in the world to put out the fire from that one single brain cell trying to work so hard.
At this point it's almost like they've tried to turn this season into a Pinoy version of "Only Friends" and make everyone as drama filled as possible, the problem is "Only Friends" had very well defined character traits for every character and they all for the most part never strayed too far from that, just like people typically do in real life, this on the other hand has tried to completely shatter everything they've established with these character last season.
I'm also wishing they had decided to go down the Jason X Joel X Oliver three way route and having two of them develop feelings for each other and it all comes to a pass and they end up splitting and becoming a couple in the end. That at least would have been better than the whatever in the hell this is supposed to be going on that was supposed to be just Oliver messing with them for revenge and now magically it's a what exactly? There's not even a proper story there, it's just episode padding.
Other than all of that, it's the same old problems different episode rinse and repeat that's been going on every week.
The only way the existence of this series is justified is if it's meant to launch the other couples' stories and/or…
I've said it before and I'll say it again, Chinese censored to hell and back bromance series have had more chemistry between the leads than this did with Perth and Chimon together. lol
This series only needs one word to describe it...perfection.
This is the one series that doesn't need a second season, but I'm so glad it's getting one, especially if they can keep it on par with this first season.
Nonkul and Bright are absolutely amazing together, their chemistry lights every scene on fire, and it's apparent they were so comfortable together filming the NC scenes that they really did just melt together. I can still confidently say that even after these past weeks I will still and never again be able to look at olive oil and not think of Jom. lol
now the long long long long excruciatingly long wait for season 2.
This series could've been so much better if they just put less focus on the main couple since so many of the side…
Euro and JJ are like little kids that grandparents give them a literal ton of candy to eat five minutes before their parents come to pick them up so the sugar rush induced chaos hits right when they get home.
Auto and Max really were the ones that you'd look at them and be like "THESE TWO ARE FRIENDS!?!?" and then they open their mouths and start nerding out together and it makes perfect sense. The couple of scenes where they were let loose (especially in ep 12) were great and it definitely needed much more of their shenanigans in all of the group scenes once the two groups became friends.
Marc and Pawin absolutely slaughtered Perth and Chimon as this series definitely suffered from a fatal case of second couple syndrome. Actually it's more accurate to say this suffered a fatal case of second and third couple syndrome and the closest Saifah and Name got to actually being the third couple was a couple of flirty looks and holding fingers through the bars in episode 12.
If you look at the credits of the directors and writers of this series this should have been an instant Thai BL series of the year hit, especially since they weren't limited to working within the confines of original source material. Unfortunately what we actually got was a run of the mill at best cookie cutter attempt by GMMTV to set up another one of their working couple pairings that might have looked good on paper and I'm sure will sell merch well, but have absolutely no chemistry on screen.
There were moments throughout the series were Perth shined like he normally does in every other series he's been in, but unfortunately there were many more moments where he tried to make the best of it and just wasn't able to bring it up to his normal standards. Chimon on the other hand looked very awkward even in the most basic of scenes with Perth and down right uncomfortable in other scenes when they had to have even the most basic intimacy together. This is where Marc, Pawin, Papang, and Pepper really outshined Perth and Chimon throughout the series. Those four all had chemistry with their respective co-stars gushing in every scene, every glance, every spoken and unspoken word. If this was done by any other production company besides the GMMTV merch machine, Perth and Chimon would have been relegated to the second or third couple at best, if they were even cast together at all.
I personally wouldn't mind seeing a shorter 6 episode spin-off series with Guy X Nava, maybe something over a semester break where they end up spending the break together, exploring their relationship more and giving more of their epic banter.
The ones that really do deserve a full on spin-off series from this are definitely Papang and Pepper reprising their roles as Saifah and Name. There's even an easy way that they could work it out story wise to make sense considering the events of episode 12. The way they could work the story is that Name receives a reduced sentence for cooperating with the police in their investigation of the gang leader, and after spending a couple of years in jail he's released. Saifah by this time has paid off his debts and has been saving money for him and Name to go on that trip together that they promised during the series. Instead of the trip they decide to move to a quiet area to start over, only to have their past trouble catch up with them and they get catch up in a situation with the local gang there over Name helping the police against his former boss. They could maybe even give it a bit of a "Never Let Me Go" vibe where they decided to open a hostel and bar and that's what leads to the situation with the local gang, something like that...actually give it something that lives up to the "Dangerous Romance" title of the original series.
Hopefully for the next series Perth gets paired with someone else, he's had such amazing chemistry with other actors doing BL series and it just wasn't there with Chimon and if Chimon is going to continue to be a BL lead then hopefully he can find someone he has better chemistry and is more comfortable with on-screen.
Pimfah and Napdao aren't even worth mentioning as they were nothing more than an barely used gimmick to tease a GL couple and attempt to hook that part of the audience, but then did absolutely nothing with them.
Overall, it was a series saved by the support characters/couples making it a frustrating yet worthwhile one time watch, but not something to go on the re-watch list.
This was everything it needed to be and nothing it didn't. A short sweet two adorable dweebs falling in love and being all nervous and cute over their first real relationship. I love how Amane was so patient and understanding with not only giving Ryuji space because of work but also to give him plenty of time to consider Amane's confession. On the flip side of that, I love that Ryuji took all of the time he needed to carefully consider everything and it was great for them to show that Ryuji really was thinking about Amane all summer long. The progression of Ryuji realizing his feelings was so well done.
You go into the past to save your boyfriend, but when you come back to the future you still expect him to be in…
By the point of episode six the only thing with more padding in it was fashion in the 80's, and that was definitely one of those scenes.
I'd imagine that scene was supposed to be desperation that he was able to change something mixed with the gut-wrenching realization of what he had done. That scene in a novel (haven't read the novel, just speaking in general) would be one were the more emotionally sensitive people would stop reading and let out a few choice words about the cruelty of the universe while soaking the pages with their tears. It would be a passage when you stop to process what happened, but the execution of it for the series was absolutely terrible in all aspects.
From the sounds of the synopsis, we'll get Mix back as it'll be Ongsa's turn at the wheel of fate. Unfortunately since it seems Ongsa takes two turns at the wheel it probably means we'll get very very little of Mix and Tor actually being together on screen, like has been the case for the first half of the series.
I think you nailed it. really want to like this show. And I’m actually kind of enjoying it despite glacial pace…
Eternal Yesterday was a masterclass in so many aspects that every series / movie across all genres should learn from their example. They emotionally destroyed the audience in the first part of the first episode without even giving us a chance to really get connected to the characters and yet they managed to keep us not only coming back for more, but cursing every second of the wait until the next episode. They filled in the gaps between the two characters opening communicating with each other and their inner monologues in a way that despite the WTF is going on, why is this going on, how the is this going on, etc. it always brought the audience along for the ride and never made us feel like we were missing any important information.
Absolute Zero on the other hand has done none of that in 6 episodes and it's not just a matter of still needing to place a few puzzle pieces, it's we don't even know what the puzzle looks like or how many pieces there's supposed to be. They aren't even really scratching the surface, yet they're expecting us to care about these characters and their journey.
Guy dude he bought you a freaking cake that you talked about while you were drunk, enough with the liquid courage, he already wants to slurp you up like a milkshake. lol
Wahl just needs to get beached, he's not a knight in shining armor, he's just a possessive little shit that wants to have his cake and eat it too. Go swim the fuck off with Nami, grow your little pod of baby whales and let Guy finally have some real happiness.
Ahhh gamer friends, nothing brings together a more diverse group of nerds and closeted nerds than gaming. lol
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The next series Meen and Ping do together I'd really like to see Ping being the cat and Meen being the mouse. I think Ping could pull it off and with the way the two of them play so well off of each other it would be even better if it ended up where you couldn't figure out who was really the cat and who was really the mouse in the end.
Screenplay writing is totally different from writing a novel - it's even more disastrous when someone inexperienced…
yup, exactly. There's a few authors that have managed to successfully bridge their novel writing and screenplay writing, the first example that comes to mind is "AfterDay" who wrote "Bad Buddy" and "My Only 12%, but like I said in my original message, she had a team of experienced screenwriters working with for on "Bad Baddy", not to mention an amazing Director that knows how to take the best of the source material.
I definitely agree with you on authors often being too attached to passages and I think that's a lot of what's gone wrong with the Older Soon / Ongsa part of the storyline. There's no reason that should have taken up five episodes and definitely not in the way that it was done as it's created this emotional void that leaves the viewer wondering why they're bothering to watch it week after week.
I'm wondering just how much overall creative control they actually gave the author in order to be able to make "Absolute Zero" because New isn't a bad director or writer in his own right and he should have been able to catch a lot of the flow and pacing issues with this series before it started to air.
I just checked the cast and crew listed for this series and noticed something for the first time that might explain a lot of the "misses" with this series so far. The screenplay writer for this series is the original source material's author and this is listed as her first screenplay. The problem with that is that writing a novel where you have free reign on it's length, where things can happen in a much faster / slower pace depending on how fast the reader goes through the material and adapting material for a series where you're limited on length and have to structure things different for episodes are completely different. I think this is a case where she should have been the lead on a pair or team of writers so she kept creative control over her work, but could benefit from the experience of veteran screenplay writers.
2022-2023 had a couple of BL series where a meteor was crashing into Earth...This series has enough padding they could have used it bounce both of those meteors back into deep space. lol
Tor and Mix absolutely kill it with their awkward young love whenever they're on screen together, unfortunately half the series is over and they've had less time on screen together than an entire K-BL episode is long.
I've never seen anything that Teng was in previous to this so I don't know if he's just a terrible actor or if it's the direction he was given, but damn it's a struggle to watch any scenes with him. We thought Aek in "Bite Me" had trouble stringing two words together at a time let alone a whole sentence, Older Soon makes Aek look like a speed talker. lol
This loop in the storyline should have been one to two episodes long at max and they really needed to have a loop or two before this one where Older Soon tried other things to prevent the accident before going nuclear with the whole "we never should have met". bullshit. Older Soon repeated everything that happened to his younger self in the first episode, so was that supposed to be their way of hinting that this isn't the first loop, and if that's the case then what happened in the other loops that made him decide on this course of action this time around? There's no context to why he's making the decisions he's making and yes they may explain that later on, but it's created this complete disconnect with his character and any of the supposed to be emotional things going on. If they do actually get into why he's decided things this loop then it's a really poor decision on their part to leave it until so late in the series and if they don't go into it then it's a really poor choice in adapting the story for a series.
Because Thai BLs (atleast with GMM) are merch, tickets, etc. machines especially with interfans.
it's like most of the 80's cartoons in the USA, the cartoon didn't come first and then the merch, the sole purpose of the cartoons was to sell the merch.
1 
SAID NO ONE EVER!!!!
ARRRRGGGGG
Again just like with episode eight, the first quarter of episode nine started of really strong like it was written and directed by someone else, so of course they then had to make up for that brief flash of good by tanking the rest of the episode.
Yes Tim (Oliver) and Philip (Jason) are hot, but that whole NC scene just seemed thrown in because they didn't know what the hell to do and wanted a cheap and easy way to distract the audience. But then again they've been using Jericho and Hiro's shirtless bodies to do that every episode this season anyways so it's on point for them.
If Oliver isn't going to do it then Jason seriously needs to give Joel's ass a sexathon pounding he'll never forget so we finally get something more from him than another sexual innuendo joke ever .000002 seconds, but of course that would also require the writer to actually have to use some actual brain power and I'm not sure there's enough fire extinguishers in the world to put out the fire from that one single brain cell trying to work so hard.
At this point it's almost like they've tried to turn this season into a Pinoy version of "Only Friends" and make everyone as drama filled as possible, the problem is "Only Friends" had very well defined character traits for every character and they all for the most part never strayed too far from that, just like people typically do in real life, this on the other hand has tried to completely shatter everything they've established with these character last season.
I'm also wishing they had decided to go down the Jason X Joel X Oliver three way route and having two of them develop feelings for each other and it all comes to a pass and they end up splitting and becoming a couple in the end. That at least would have been better than the whatever in the hell this is supposed to be going on that was supposed to be just Oliver messing with them for revenge and now magically it's a what exactly? There's not even a proper story there, it's just episode padding.
Other than all of that, it's the same old problems different episode rinse and repeat that's been going on every week.
and no, I couldn't type that with a straight face.
This is the one series that doesn't need a second season, but I'm so glad it's getting one, especially if they can keep it on par with this first season.
Nonkul and Bright are absolutely amazing together, their chemistry lights every scene on fire, and it's apparent they were so comfortable together filming the NC scenes that they really did just melt together. I can still confidently say that even after these past weeks I will still and never again be able to look at olive oil and not think of Jom. lol
now the long long long long excruciatingly long wait for season 2.
Auto and Max really were the ones that you'd look at them and be like "THESE TWO ARE FRIENDS!?!?" and then they open their mouths and start nerding out together and it makes perfect sense. The couple of scenes where they were let loose (especially in ep 12) were great and it definitely needed much more of their shenanigans in all of the group scenes once the two groups became friends.
If you look at the credits of the directors and writers of this series this should have been an instant Thai BL series of the year hit, especially since they weren't limited to working within the confines of original source material. Unfortunately what we actually got was a run of the mill at best cookie cutter attempt by GMMTV to set up another one of their working couple pairings that might have looked good on paper and I'm sure will sell merch well, but have absolutely no chemistry on screen.
There were moments throughout the series were Perth shined like he normally does in every other series he's been in, but unfortunately there were many more moments where he tried to make the best of it and just wasn't able to bring it up to his normal standards. Chimon on the other hand looked very awkward even in the most basic of scenes with Perth and down right uncomfortable in other scenes when they had to have even the most basic intimacy together. This is where Marc, Pawin, Papang, and Pepper really outshined Perth and Chimon throughout the series. Those four all had chemistry with their respective co-stars gushing in every scene, every glance, every spoken and unspoken word. If this was done by any other production company besides the GMMTV merch machine, Perth and Chimon would have been relegated to the second or third couple at best, if they were even cast together at all.
I personally wouldn't mind seeing a shorter 6 episode spin-off series with Guy X Nava, maybe something over a semester break where they end up spending the break together, exploring their relationship more and giving more of their epic banter.
The ones that really do deserve a full on spin-off series from this are definitely Papang and Pepper reprising their roles as Saifah and Name. There's even an easy way that they could work it out story wise to make sense considering the events of episode 12. The way they could work the story is that Name receives a reduced sentence for cooperating with the police in their investigation of the gang leader, and after spending a couple of years in jail he's released. Saifah by this time has paid off his debts and has been saving money for him and Name to go on that trip together that they promised during the series. Instead of the trip they decide to move to a quiet area to start over, only to have their past trouble catch up with them and they get catch up in a situation with the local gang there over Name helping the police against his former boss. They could maybe even give it a bit of a "Never Let Me Go" vibe where they decided to open a hostel and bar and that's what leads to the situation with the local gang, something like that...actually give it something that lives up to the "Dangerous Romance" title of the original series.
Hopefully for the next series Perth gets paired with someone else, he's had such amazing chemistry with other actors doing BL series and it just wasn't there with Chimon and if Chimon is going to continue to be a BL lead then hopefully he can find someone he has better chemistry and is more comfortable with on-screen.
Pimfah and Napdao aren't even worth mentioning as they were nothing more than an barely used gimmick to tease a GL couple and attempt to hook that part of the audience, but then did absolutely nothing with them.
Overall, it was a series saved by the support characters/couples making it a frustrating yet worthwhile one time watch, but not something to go on the re-watch list.
lol
I'd imagine that scene was supposed to be desperation that he was able to change something mixed with the gut-wrenching realization of what he had done. That scene in a novel (haven't read the novel, just speaking in general) would be one were the more emotionally sensitive people would stop reading and let out a few choice words about the cruelty of the universe while soaking the pages with their tears. It would be a passage when you stop to process what happened, but the execution of it for the series was absolutely terrible in all aspects.
From the sounds of the synopsis, we'll get Mix back as it'll be Ongsa's turn at the wheel of fate. Unfortunately since it seems Ongsa takes two turns at the wheel it probably means we'll get very very little of Mix and Tor actually being together on screen, like has been the case for the first half of the series.
Absolute Zero on the other hand has done none of that in 6 episodes and it's not just a matter of still needing to place a few puzzle pieces, it's we don't even know what the puzzle looks like or how many pieces there's supposed to be. They aren't even really scratching the surface, yet they're expecting us to care about these characters and their journey.
Wahl just needs to get beached, he's not a knight in shining armor, he's just a possessive little shit that wants to have his cake and eat it too. Go swim the fuck off with Nami, grow your little pod of baby whales and let Guy finally have some real happiness.
Ahhh gamer friends, nothing brings together a more diverse group of nerds and closeted nerds than gaming. lol
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The next series Meen and Ping do together I'd really like to see Ping being the cat and Meen being the mouse. I think Ping could pull it off and with the way the two of them play so well off of each other it would be even better if it ended up where you couldn't figure out who was really the cat and who was really the mouse in the end.
I definitely agree with you on authors often being too attached to passages and I think that's a lot of what's gone wrong with the Older Soon / Ongsa part of the storyline. There's no reason that should have taken up five episodes and definitely not in the way that it was done as it's created this emotional void that leaves the viewer wondering why they're bothering to watch it week after week.
I'm wondering just how much overall creative control they actually gave the author in order to be able to make "Absolute Zero" because New isn't a bad director or writer in his own right and he should have been able to catch a lot of the flow and pacing issues with this series before it started to air.
Tor and Mix absolutely kill it with their awkward young love whenever they're on screen together, unfortunately half the series is over and they've had less time on screen together than an entire K-BL episode is long.
I've never seen anything that Teng was in previous to this so I don't know if he's just a terrible actor or if it's the direction he was given, but damn it's a struggle to watch any scenes with him. We thought Aek in "Bite Me" had trouble stringing two words together at a time let alone a whole sentence, Older Soon makes Aek look like a speed talker. lol
This loop in the storyline should have been one to two episodes long at max and they really needed to have a loop or two before this one where Older Soon tried other things to prevent the accident before going nuclear with the whole "we never should have met". bullshit. Older Soon repeated everything that happened to his younger self in the first episode, so was that supposed to be their way of hinting that this isn't the first loop, and if that's the case then what happened in the other loops that made him decide on this course of action this time around? There's no context to why he's making the decisions he's making and yes they may explain that later on, but it's created this complete disconnect with his character and any of the supposed to be emotional things going on. If they do actually get into why he's decided things this loop then it's a really poor decision on their part to leave it until so late in the series and if they don't go into it then it's a really poor choice in adapting the story for a series.
it's like most of the 80's cartoons in the USA, the cartoon didn't come first and then the merch, the sole purpose of the cartoons was to sell the merch.