Felipe

A rare sequel that's better than the original

I really enjoyed I Told Sunset About You, but I feel like I didn't connect to the show as much as other people. I think it’s because I’m a bit over the school dramas, since it’s been more than 10 years from my high school years. So, knowing that I Promised You the Moon would take me on a journey with the characters I liked from ITSAY, but this time in university, I was very interested.

I didn’t read much about IPYTM on purpose, to avoid spoilers. So, I was very surprised to see how the timeline was structured, each episode representing 1 year of their university journey. With 5 episodes of around just over 1h, the show didn’t have time to filler and to drag out stories. By episode two we already have Teh and Oh being together for over 1 year, Oh has already realized that he doesn’t wanna be an actor. From the first episode it was cleat to me that they’d break up at some point, so I was surprised that it took until episode 4 for that to happen. There’s not much screen time for the side characters, but they all had a reason to exist in this particular story.

I personally think it would have been nice to see more of Oh’s life. We see most of the academic and overall life with Teh, and just see small glimpses of Oh with his friends. Besides, we hear a lot about how Oh has changed since moving to Bangkok, and specially after changing his major, but I only see physical changes. Yeah, he dyed his hair red, started to buy designer pieces and got a car. But it’s not like he became a different person or started to treat anyone differently.

Just like many shows that have a second season, this show fall’s into the cliche of turning one of the protagonists into sort of the “bad guy”, in this case Teh. We hear about how Oh is a different person after meeting his friends, but, as the show proves in by the end of episode 4, Oh actually was able to create new friendships, while Teh did not. Oh kept the same friend group for all 5 years of the show, while Teh lost his “friends” along the way. The way he treated Khim after finding out that she was gonna start working as a flight crew member was insane. In that single moment he lost 2 out of his 3 new friends.

The situation with Jai is bittersweet because he obviously used the knowledge from the diary to exploit Teh’s weakness and use that in his favor. But in a twisted way, Jai was just following Teh’s own mindset: You have to follow your dream at all costs. The same way Oh could not give up being an actor after coming to terms with not liking it, or how Khim should keep going to auditions even after not landing any roles.Jai used Teh’s feelings to make his play better.

I think the ending was nice. We get to see that Teh realizes that achieving his dream does take him to the unicorns and rainbow life he expected. Oh is happy working in the advertising firm. We see that both have matured. Thankfully they spent a good while split up, because I think it was important for things to work out in the end. I also like how got a call back to Tarn in the end, with the instagram post reaction. I also find it interesting that the friend group from ITSAY didn’t stay together after going to university. They say at the wedding that it has been years since being together, even though a few of them went to study in Bangkok.

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Could have been good if they focused more on the romance and the main characters

This show is very weirdly structured. They spend so much time in side stories that go nowhere that by the end, I wasn’t really that invested in the main couple. Well, at least not until the time jump. The cast is overall good, with highest praise going to Nut.

I don’t really understand the role of most of the supporting cast in this show. We need the mom to have all the family drama and someone to care for Phat at home. And me need Dream so we have the connection to the supernatural world. But Nuan get’s so much screen time for nothing. She’s not a good person, she’s doesn’t really care about anything and her one “punishment”, after causing a lot of trouble, is not getting Kinn. If she didn’t existing, and Phob just ran aways from home because of anything else, would give us the same end result. The guardian spirit of the house might be important, but he didn’t need to have a connection to Nuan, adding to my last point.

The story is kinda simple, we don’t actually get must mystery about Phob’s death. We don’t hear about the fact that he was involved in an hit and run. Also, the way this show bends the rules stablished just a few episodes before is unbelievable. In one episode we clearly see Phob and Phat not being able to touch each other and the explanation for that. Then, on episode 7 Phat is laying on Phob’s leg and they are touching like it’s nothing. No mention of it being nice to finally touch or them being surprised. Only on the following episode do we see Phob asking the guardian spirit about the fact that they can touch now. I truly believe the show did that just so they could do the sponsored scene where Phob is applying a hair treatment on Phat.

Now, the family drama with Dream and her dad, and all the alien stuff with Luck… It did not deliver anything at all. We keep hearing about Dream’s dad, and in the end he’s just a post it note. And after hearing about Luck’s parents being, possibly, adducted by aliens and he seeing two weird flashes, we get… nothing. Am I supposed to be hoping for another series focused on Dream and Luck to learn about their mysteries? Sorry, but I’ll pass.

Now, for the good part. I have to admit, the time jump to adult Phat telling Phob his story was nice. It’s a plot device that can work in a situation like this human/ghost romance. It was nice to learn that Phat managed to live a fairly good life, get and married, but never forgot Phob. It was also, obviously, very nice to see them reunited in the end.

By the way, I’ve never seen a worst reedit of a show as the one that was upload in the official Youtube channel. They literally just cut several scenes to reduce the runtime. It's impossible to watch Something in My Room on Youtube.

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It really worked for me, but I understand how it might not work for everybody

I was very surprised when I saw that the reaction to this series has been very much mixed. I really enjoyed Peach of Time, even though I had been spoiled about the ghost part of the story.

I’m personally not much of a crier overall, but this show got me hard. I cried a bit with other shows, like Andante and He’s Coming to Me, but that happened mostly in the ending of both series. With PoT, I cried from espied 3 to episode 10 at least once in each episode. That’s a record. I don’t think the “mystery” aspect would reduce the rewatch value.

For me, something that works well in this drama is that we only have 4 main characters, so we just need to introduce side characters to help develop the 4 stories we have to follow. I enjoyed Mario’s story as much as I did Peach and Yoon Oh’s story. The mom’ story was not bad, but I felt it for a bit forced in bit forced in to connect everything, specially regarding Yoon Oh’ death. I understand that the journey the mom goes through, when he think her son might have committed suicide because of her, was important to her development and for their relationship. But the way it’s connected to the dad from the hospital was the weak point of the show for me. I would have preferred if it ended up being just an accident. Just like the mom says, some deaths don’t have an explanation or reason.

The acting is superb. All 4 main actors are great in their roles, specially Tommy as Mario. Tommy shines in both the lighthearted and heavier scenes. I know this is not the most popular opinion, but I felt like the chemistry between Jimmy and Choi Jae Hyun worked. I think it worked well for how shy/awkward, but obviously in love, Yoon Oh and Peach are with each other.

Yes, the ending is very open and a bit abrupt. It does look like a cliffhanger for a potential second season. In that aspect, I understand how it might feel like it’s not a fulfilling ending for many. It didn’t bother me too much, but at least it gives hope for them to meet again.

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Don't worry, it's not sad 100% of the time

It took my a long time to finally watch ITSAY because I’ve heard time and time again how sad it was. It’s sad but I was not balling my eyes out, and that’s perfectly fine.

In a show with few characters and places, like this one, the main characters need to have chemistry. In terms of chemistry, the bar has been raised after ITSAY. Billkin and PP work together beautifully. Yeah, they’ve known each other for years and have worked together before, but have other actors and the result was not on that level. In some moments, I felt like Teh’s crying was a bit too much, but he’s a high school students going through difficult times. Was the story super surprising? No. As soon as we find out Oh is the first person in the waiting list, I knew Teh would give up his spot. I know that the second part only works as a immediate follow up to ITSAY, but this is a rare case where I’d be OK with a 1 year time jump, so Teh could go to this top pic university. I think it would still work out with the theme of living with your choices.

As part of the BKPP Project, the actual show was very well planned, and it shows. The merch is integrated in the scenes, without looking like an obvious push to sell stuff. The music is also an integral part of the story, and it perfectly complements the story, visual and acting. With the BKPP Project in mind, watching the documentary was important to understand a few elements.

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Way more than a shippable couple

It’s important to mention that 1000 stars goes beyond the romance and the couple. It’s undeniable that Mix and Earth is a pairing that works perfectly well. Their chemistry on screen is off the charts.
Going into the plot, I feel like it would have been nice to see more of old Tian besides the gambling and street racing. But I understand that he show doesn’t want to show him in a bad light because we are supposed to like him. I enjoyed the village and it’s characters. I’m glad that not everything went well for Tian and that people didn’t forgive him easily after the “truth” came out. I thought that we’d have more supernatural stuff regarding the heart, maybe with Torfun communicating with Tian, but that wouldn’t fit the show.

The romance is very slow burning, and it makes sense for the relationship, but I feel like we could have gotten something before their fight and separation. I’m not 100% sure the whole dad knew all along thing was done well.

I have a hard time believing stories that forget they are happening on the 21st century, even in remote locations. Even before the “happy ending”, it’s not like Tian could never visit the village again. The “half of the couple travels to another country in the last episode” is my most hated cliche, but it has some reasoning in this case. Tian traveling to the US to do what he wants, on his terms, by himself is very important for the character’s development.

As much as I like Mix and Earth together, and the characters, I personally don’t think a second season would work well.

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Feels like half a season

TLDR: This feels like half a season.
I was a bit worried when the last episode started and we were no closer to solving the zombie problem than we were in episode one. By the end of the last episode, I was left feeling like the series went from nothing to nowhere. The biggest advancement was done by Group B, more specifically by Nat's character, who's more of a science genius than our protagonist. But that's not a critique of her, since 90% of the characters are dumb, dumb, dumb. Plus, they are very unlikable or annoying. Group B, with Nat, Poppy, Tutor, and Tonnam, was way more interesting than the main group, except when they were discussing the family bond of the cheer team.

One of my biggest problems with the show is the lack of likable characters. People don't all have to be good or nice, but a series needs some charismatic main characters. Ning is very unlikable, and so is Jean. Also, I feel like the show tries to make us believe Ning is a genius, when she's just part of the game being played by her mom, the professor, and the patron. She found the already-done research that mentioned the jellyfish; she didn't find out about the effect of the mushroom, nor about the importance of temperature, or about the zombie mother. Plus, she got on that helicopter pretty quickly.

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A great surprise

Sometimes movies and tv shows are a case of the “whole is not greater than the sum of its parts”. A great cast with a not so great story and bland characters won’t shine. My Precious is thankfully not like that. I came into the movie thinking it would be a lighthearted first love story with a cast of young actors I already knew and liked. I started it aware that Tong and Lin would not end up together, so I was not hoping for the happily ever after. That might have contributed to the fact that, for me, My Precious was such a positive surprise. The story might not be groundbreaking, but I enjoyed the full 2 hours and the cast was fantastic.

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Just a good premise is not enough

The Heavenly Idol unfortunately suffers from a major case of good premise and weak execution. The idea of the high priest that has to pretend to be a kpop idol was fun and interesting, and Kim Min Gue really delivered on his performance of Yeon Woo/Rembrary. But the plot became stale quickly. To make matters worse, two of the central characters were terribly executed. The Evil One was a kind of villain that lacks everything imaginable. He’s not scary, nor charismatic or even has much to do for most of the time. His only quality is not being called Kim Dal... It’s been awhile since I’ve disliked a character so strongly as Dal. She’s extremely annoying and, I don’t know if thats on the actress, but... she’s got the same facial expression for every emotion. She’s extremely bland and had a serious case of bad writing. Sometimes she acts like she’s 12, other times she’s the best professional in the kpop industry. I almost stopped watching the series because she annoyed me so much.
On the other hand, most of the other characters and actors are great. All the Wild Animals members are amazing, as is the CEO. Although I expected him to do more, Gam Jae was great too.

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Bad plot development for a potentially fun series

My Ride could have been a nice fun and light BL series. No deep topics, no super complex relationships or plot twists. But the series has two problems: a boring protagonist and a super slow central plot.

Most of the characters on the show are quite okay. Mork is by far the best character, and Fluke in great in the role. The side characters are also entertaining, like the uncles and Mork’s friends. The two side couples work and their stores have a slow but steady development. I enjoyed ToyBoss more than I expected. Unfortunately, Tawan is a very dull protagonist. And to makes matters worse, he’s stuck in failed and uninteresting relationship for 8 episodes.

We get nice moments between Mork and Tawan during the episodes where they’re just friends, but the story cannot develop until Tawan is single. The story tries to show the audience that Tawan might have feelings for Mork while still “dating” Por. But Tawan tries to hold onto that relationship even after Por: ghosts him, lies to him, asks for time apart and cheats on him. Tawan caught Por in bed with another guy and he was still trying to stay together?! The issue is that Por and Tawan never had a relationship. There’s not a single nice moment between them after Por gives him flowers. There’s nothing to make Tawan want to stay together. They have no history. I hate the “ex comes back in the end to separate the couple” plot, but at least Mork and Fern were together for years and had good moments together. Episodes 8, 9 and 10 had nice moments for MorkTawan, but it ended up being too little too late. My Ride could have explored those moments better if the couple started to get together earlier.

I was not expecting a groundbreaking series, but My Ride still left me disappointed with how little screen time the main couple got as a an actual couple and how boring the central story was.

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Can't believe I cried because of a Teddy Bear

I’m writing this right after finishing the last episode. It’s a very bittersweet sensation to be “happy” that the couple you’ve been following for 15 episodes of 90 minutes doesn’t end up together, even though they are perfect for each other.

Once we had the confirmation of the connection between Tofu and Tarn, I knew this would not be a happy ending. As much as I loved Tofu, I was 100% sure the show would not let Tarn stay in a coma or die. This was never about the love story between Tofu and Nut. They never really had a chance. And that’s how I’m choosing to take this finale. I don’t have Tarn nor do I think him and Nut are a bad fit. I truly believe they are great for each other. I just don’t care much about him. We barely got to know the real Tarn, since we mostly know about him from Nut’s memories and point of view. So, he’s kinda of the perfect flawless guy. Nut always saw him as being perfect, being the polar opposite to Nut’s home life. I know, it’s true that Tofu was also kinda the perfect guy too, right until the end.

I thought Jan trying to poison Tofu would be a huge red flag. It was so obvious once the scene started. I was very surprised by that actually being how he dies. I knew he’d die in the episode, just as he did, but I expected that he’d die literally protecting someone from a bullet or a car trying to run someone over. He actually had a very, very sad death. And to make matters worse, we did not see that he got any justice. Sure, Saen was arrested, but we don’t know what happened to him. We also can’t forget that Jan was actually the killer. It looks like her punishment was losing Saen and Tarn waking up. The TRD lady got even less, the only think was that her project was stopped for good.

I’m happy that teddy bear Tofu came back in the end. I also love his scenes as a teddy bear running from the dog and reuniting with Nut. Them being together is the true happy ending of the show. Tofu will get the hugs and will be able to stay close to Nut. Gen and Song have their happy ending too, with both families both on board. BTW, Gen’s parents definitely earned a spot in the best parents in BLs. Nut’s mom does not, but he also missed the selection for worst moms [that actress being the mom of a BL protagonist is always a bed sign…]. If you really think about it, Na was responsible for everything bad that happened. At least, she was nice to Tofu.

I think 90 minute episodes was a bold choice. Airing three consecutive days also meant that a lot of people probably dropped the show because you don’t have time to catch up between airings. I know a lot of people that only restarted watching after the show was done, so they could do it at their own pace. Most episodes had a good flow. But, the amount of flashbacks annoyed me a bit, specially the ones centered around Na, Saen, Jan and Sib. I feel like we got flashback after flashback of the same things happening with them. The flashbacks centered around Saen at school were better.

Overall, The Miracle of Teddy Bear was a good show. I do think 16 episode of 90 minutes are a bit heavy, but that might be a bit selling point for people that like korean dramas. That aspect, plus the way this show is structured, makes this series more closely related to a kdrama than a regular thai BL. The cast is amazing and the chemistry is great. The acting highlight is obviously the dog. I’m glad he got his happy ending too.

PS: I find it really weird that not a single person thinks it’s weird for Tarn to open a studio right in the same living room where Tofu was murdered recently.

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The main couple is so bad that you HAVE to root for the guy kissing his brother in law

There are many instances where the main couple is not the best couple or the most entertaining to watch, like Until me Meet Again, Wy R U and My Engineer. But usually the main couple has some redeeming quality, like chemistry or a compelling story. You’re Me Sky fails miserably in that aspect.

Yes, I don’t love how much the sport aspect is a major part of the main story, but other shows have done is well. It’s the same problem for some high school BLs, where it’s all about the school. I think the problem for You’re My Sky is that I don’t get the sense that Fah and Thorn are that good at basketball. So, I kept waiting for someone to tell them that they’re not good enough, so they can face reality and move on.

We have three couples and, although I don’t love any of them, Vee and Dome are by far the best one. Yes, their relationship means that Pan is being cheated on by her boyfriend and her brother, but that’s just how things are on this series. They have more chemistry looking at each other from across a pond than the main couple making their relationship official. Aii and Saen are okay and they are cute together, But Saen annoys me a bit sometimes.

I actually like Suar and I think Tae is OK. Suar was great in You Never Eat alone, while Tae was good in Y Destiny, but I think he’s a bit to robotic sometimes. From episode 1 I could feel that Fah and Thorn didn’t have chemistry. As their story progressed, it was becoming more and more obvious that the romance was not working for me. To make matters even worse, their plot is extremely boring, at best. It’s all basketball all the time. We don’t learn anything about them nor do we see them getting to now each other better, since they last saw each other. They only talk about basketball. I couldn’t care less about how much Thorn wants the promises they made years ago to be a reality. Thorn took every opportunity he could to be an idiot at every turn.

Regarding the endings, Aii and Saen got the best one. They are making long distance work and the show remembered that Saen is rich and can just spend his vacations in Japan with Aii. For Dome and Vee, I understand it. They are still, basically, waiting for the time to pass. But it’s clear that they like each other and this is not a sad ending. As for Fah and Thorn, what a surprise, they got all they wanted. I really hoped that Thorn’s leg would get injured again or that he’d have to just keep playing with the university and wait. But no, he managed to get the opportunity to try out and play with Fah, even after that happened at the tournament. In the end, Thorn got everything he wanted, and I’m not to thrilled about that. Also, I’m 100% sure he’ll drop the university team as soon as he can.

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Remember 15 delivers gore and not much else

The thing about Remember 15 is that everyone sucks, so you’re not really rotting for any characters. I personally think that 12 episodes was too much. This could have worked better as a streamlined 8 episode series.

Everybody is guilty of something. Yet, I feel like the show wants the viewer to want Nest to “win” and survive, which I think is insane. Everything that happened is because of Nest. Yes, Mind recorded the video, but everyone suffered and died because of Nest sharing that clip.

I think the ending is a bit too open ended for this type of show. Was it all a dream? If so, from what part of the past? Did the clip get leaked or this is a timeline where Lilly was just jealous of Lyla and nothing terrible happened?
OR did everyone die, including Nest in the boat, and Lilly is just imaging how things could have been different?

The cast is overall OK but most of the characters a very one note, so there’s not much they can do.

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It’s a good season but I wish the answers came a bit earlier in the story

I went into season 2 straight after finishing the season 1 special edition. At first I was a bit annoyed that it looked like we were going back to square one regarding Shu Yi e Shi De, after a whole season for them to get together.

The second season is not bad or particularly worse than season 1, but the amount of time the show took to address a few of the question regarding the time jump bugged me. I obviously was not thinking that Shi De was dating a woman in the US and had a kid, but hinting that the kid is his brother only on the second to last episode was a bit too late. The fact that I was waiting for answers made me less open to have a good time. I wish everything had been explained once the deal with Mr. Zhou was revealed, in the first half of the season, so Shi De would also explain why he spent two years in the US, the blonde woman and the baby. I guess, as we saw on the bridge, that Shu Yi doesn’t care and doesn’t want to hear the explanation, but I do.

I liked that Zhe Yu and Bing Wei were still together and helped She Yi in the 5 years, so he was not alone. But I expected a little bit more of them in the story, they didn’t add much and got the last official scene in the series, with the proposal. The Zhen Xuan and Shu Yi story was weird. It started when Zhen Xuan was in high school, but nothing happened. Then he spent 12 years looking for someone that did not change his name, even though he’s supposed to be good enough with technology to hack the system without getting caught, according to Shi De. I guess they got a happy ending with that kiss.

Lets see what a rumored third season of WBL will bring us.

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Nice soundtrack and characters, not so much a great plot

I enjoyed this show, but I think the structure of the story is kinda bad. It should either be a show with a slow burn of the main characters realizing they like each other, culminating in the kiss on episode 6. Or a show that moved over that part quickly, so it makes sense to have their “happy life” destroyed by reality and fear. I think the “break up” would be more impactful if we got to see them living a happy life together, with the added layer of romance. Everything before episode 8 takes place over a month, so it’s not like they were together for months and then broke up.

I think the actors are great and that they have great chemistry. The soundtrack is amazing.

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I had to take a 1 month break from Andante

I had a real hard time watching this drama. The first few episodes made me stop the show for some weeks, most of the characters were just way too annoying and the story looked just silly. After those few episodes, around the halfway point, the story started to get better and became for mature.

The show that started out quite silly became a sad story toward the end. Besides the characters that most times are just annoying for no reason, the pacing is not good and some plot lines felt out of place (like the hospice closing down). So, end up with a big chunk of time dedicated to plots that don’t mean much, and a lot of Bom and Dad rushed in the last few episodes.

I think Andante might have worked better as a shorter series. I don’t think they would have been able start the dramatic stuff (Bom decease, Bom’s death, grandmas’s decease…) earlier and explore it better.

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