Felipe

One of the biggest surprises of the year

I was honestly not expecting much from Lovely Wrjter, specially because the first couple of episodes didn’t wow me. But things got way better quickly.
Right from episode 1 it’s clear that Sib is being shady and has ulterior motives to get close to Gene. Little be littler started to see layers and piece together that Sib doesn’t seem to be trying to do harm do Gene. At first I thought he was a con artist, I was sure he wasn’t even enrolled in the university, that just wanted to seduce the lonely and innocent Gene.

I did not see the twist coming. I’d never have guessed that they knew each other from childhood. It’s a bit of a stretch that a 10 year old would prefer to play hide and seek or with stuffed animals with a 6 year old, rather than playing with the other boys around his age. But, it serves to show that they have a connection since then.

I like how their relationship is developed within the 12 episodes. Even though they kissed pretty early, I like how things didn’t get rushed even after they start to date. I like how Sib has patience with Gene because he knows it’s all new to him. Yes, somethings Sib is a bit too obsessed with Gene, like telling him not to talk to stranger, when the “stranger” was one of the main characters on their series within the series.

I liked the supporting characters too. I’m glad that the show didn’t try to do a redemption act for Aye. He really gets a sad ending, all alone. I also like how the series uses him to criticize the obsessive nature of the shipping surrounding BLs. I wish we got to see Hin being a best seller and getting more respect from Bua in the end. He deserves that by being an amazing friend to Gene, jeopardizing his career. I also love how both older brothers are 100% supportive of Gene and Sib. If Hin gets the Best Friend award, Jab and Nueng share the Best Brother award.

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Very disappointing

Netflix’s worst decision was splitting what should've been the second season of Squid Game into two shorter ones. What could’ve been a tense and compelling final season ended up feeling flat and uneventful. Nothing interesting really happens. We spent far too much time following the boat group, which ultimately leads nowhere.

Jun Ho isn’t a terrible character, but his arc adds little to the story. Especially in Season 3, he's not portrayed as a particularly competent detective. His most impressive feat is somehow sneaking onto the island, navigating a maze of corridors, confronting his brother from a distance, escaping, and swimming to safety—all in under 30 minutes. All that while knowing there’s a bomb.

I don’t even mind that Gi-hun dies in the end, especially since the game just ends and nothing actually changes, but what bothers me is how irrelevant soldier 11 turns out to be. Her entire quest amounts is just to save 246, and that’s it. Meanwhile, the character who gets the harshest punishment is the guy who broke into the Captain’s house and ends up in jail, which is laughable.

P.S. Couldn’t Netflix get better actors for the VIPs? They managed to get Cate Blanchett for a cameo, after all.

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Good, but could be better

One is a series hard to describe, and just as hard to summarize whether I loved it or not. Some things I can easily say that I loved: Lee Jung Ha as Kim Eui Gyeom and Kim Do Wan as Kang Yoongi. That’s a pairing I’d never think could work so well together—but they are amazing.

But other aspects annoyed me a bit, especially since we had Study Group just a few months ago. Maybe it’s because One takes time to reveal a few key elements that are crucial to the story, and since this series was not released all at once, things moved weirdly.

You NEED to understand why Yoongi is hyping Eui Gyeom, you need to understand his reason, you need to understand why he wants to take revenge. At the same time, you need to understand the backstory with the brother to better understand Eui Gyeom. I feel like the series takes too long to drop both reasons.

So we see Yoongi in the hospital, we see Eui Gyeom suffocating himself, we see the visions and the walkman... but overall, it’s a lot of just Eui Gyeom suffering at home and beating people up, and the pieces take too long to fall into place.

Also, no one in their school being part of the main revenge group kinda makes us spend too much time with characters that don’t matter to the plot. But Im Sung Kyun, as bully-turned-voice-of-reason Seungjun, was great.

Terrible to say, but I was happy to see Eui Gyeom punching his dad in the hallucinations during the last fight. Curious to see how long it will take Wavve to make and release Season 2.

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Should focus on 1 story

The concept is interesting and the actors are all great, but this movie should have 1 story. The issue with Wonderland is trying to present too many stories instead of focusing on one.
I particularly only cared about the couple story. The idea of Tae Joo waking up and Jeongin having to deal with the not so perfect reality while not wanting to let go of Wonderland Tae Joo was the best part of the movie. Two hours developing that story would make the movie so much better. But I would understand the movie also focusing only on the mom/daughter/grandmother story. That version could also feature a bit of the Wonderland employees, maybe just not trying to pull their family into the story too.
The other small Wonderland plots only waste time and don’t give us anything special.

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DFF tried too hard to be different

This series has probably the worst case of plot development/planning I’ve seen recently. The main issue is the wish to be different and way too mysterious. BoC loved saying this was the first BL with a murder mystery and that’s where they got it wrong. The first 4 episodes are terribly boring. Nothing really happens, while a lot of things happen. But how? It’s all filler.
Once the flashbacks are introduced, the series is light years ahead in terms of quality and actually starts to have a story. Episode 5, out of 12, is when the series really happens for me. BoC missed the mark by not including flashbacks since the first or second episode. We don’t even meet the main character, Non, until episode 5, that’s a bad move.
Regarding the ending, everybody dies is the best case scenario. I didn’t think BoC would actually go for it. The only character I could see living and it working well would be Tee. Being alive is his big punishment after causing everything that happened and literally killing his boyfriend, the only innocent person. Saving Jin would be a major letdown, since he actively caused Non’s spiral and helped destroy his life with that video. All because he was jealous.

I love Barcode’s original song for the series.

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Ridiculously simple yet makes zero sense

From the first episode you already know that Lue is Din. With that in mind, you understand this is a simple story about revenge. Yet nothing makes sense for the entire series. Things just happen and 90% of the supporting cast does nothing. Sometimes it looks like Lue is in two places at once or can teleport. He changes in and out of his disguise quicker can Superman. I was expecting the plot twist to be that Lue is actually a pair of twins.
For the supporting cast, don’t even need to learn their names, it’s not all that important. Ken gets beat up every episode, and so does Lue. Yet, their bruises disappear and reappear at random times. This show does not have 1/10 of what was needed to pull off that ending with them separated, this is not Trapped. the weirdest part is that money was not an issue. This show is just bad because the plot is terrible.
Overall, the cast does a good job considering the plot and dialogues are horrible. The main actors have chemistry and could work well together in a better show.

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Cute simple story. but no side plot or many answers

A Boss and a Babe is a cute story, and the nice series Force and Book deserved after Enchanté. The plot is overall quite simple, but I really liked the main couple. The side characters don’t have individual plots or matter all that much.
Force and Book are great as Gun and Cher, you could see how well they fit into those characters. Force as Gun is the highlight of the series, in my opinion, The entire cast is overall well in the show. Java is the weakest link, but his character is also annoying, so that doesn’t help.
My biggest issue with ABAAB is the fact that the side characters and plots don’t matter. Cher’s friend group is there just to be fun and create lighthearted moments. Zo and Thee have several alone scenes that are bland and don’t go anywhere beyond proving they’re in love. We get a hint about Jack’s backstory and him having depression, but that’s no explored. But not exploring is still better than trying to tackle a heavy issue, like everything involving Tian, and doing a bad job. By the way, Thoop was OK with the mom way to easily.
The biggest mystery for me is Drake's character. Is he the bad guy? What really happened in the past? Did he steal information from Gun’s company about the new game? Was he framed? Did Ink fabricate those logs? I guess we’ll never know… (unless Our Skyy decides to mention it)

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It's a good series, but the story went wrong somewhere

This show is entertaining and the premise is interesting, but it feels like the production didn’t know how to achieve the end goal they wanted. The entire organ trafficking plot was not handed well, in my opinion.

It’s clear that the story needed to separate the main couple in the end, which makes sense for the plot. They never manage to be together, even after trying several times. So, that’s not my issue with the show. My main problem is Dr. Doi. I don’t usually pinpoint performances that are bad, but in this case it’s important. Overall, the cast is quite good, everybody has chemistry, and the characters are interesting. But Dr. Doi is the exception. This is Boat’s first acting role, and it makes sense because from early on I could notice that I was not enjoying his perfomance. That’s usually OK, specially for a side character.

But Dr. Doi is a major player in the finale of the show. He has a lot of screen time in the last episode and it’s bad. I’m not saying it’s all the actor’s fault, because the plot is just messy. His portrayal of psycho mode Dr. Doi was not good, and the fact the entire plot depends on the fact that nobody managed to stop him, when there were 3 people in the room when he got thrown in the ground, really bugs me.

The show needed to put Tin in a coma and they chose the worst way of doing that. They could have him sacrifice himself for Tol or be shot by Dr. Sak (who was a better villain). But no, he got stabbed in the back by mega villain Dr. Doi, who comes out of nowhere and starts laughing maniacally.

Also, it feels like a huge missed opportunity to have Sing and Gap’s relationship not develop at all. It’s 11 episodes of nothing, besides Gap showing he has feelings for Sing, and then BOOM, they are together in the last loop and we get nothing.

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Finished on the second try

This was actually my second time trying to watch Dear Doctor. The first time, a few weeks ago, I ended up no finishing the first episode because the rhythm was a bit off for me. But this time I endured episode one and finished the series. The first episode is a bit weird because we get dropped in the middle of the story, the protagonists already know each other and we have to understand everything via pieces of plot explanation.

The show actually doesn’t have all that much medical scenes in it, but there’s still a lot of scenes at the hospital, just not treating cases or during surgeries. I’m not the biggest medical drama fan, so that did not bother me. The whole competition to see who’s gonna get the chief surgeon position was a bit meh, because there’s a total of 5 doctors working there, and there’s not a single doctors that’s over 30. The two side couples are ok, I just wish their romances would’ve been developed better. All 4 characters get a good amount of screen time, just not for romantic scenes.

The main couple is probably the strongest aspect of the show. Karn and Nut have known each other for any years and are part of the first wave of thai BLs, with Grey Rainbow. They have great chemistry and their characters have a nice story. There’s no real twists and turns or plot twists, but it makes sense for their relationship to develop slowly at first. The whole thing about them meeting 20 ago and how that explain’s the fact that Prakan can see Tua makes sense. They have some nice sweet moment together.

Regarding the ending, I think it was nice to see Tua mention that, after sometime, he would not be able to accompany Prakan in social situations with his family and friends, since he’d not age. It’s a huge aspect for human x non human relationships, and many series don’t spend time on that. The scene with Prakan turning old and dying was done well, but I wish we’d seen more moments of them together doing stuff during those decades together.

The actual ending kinda surprised me, because I was expecting Prakan to become a reaper so he’d stay with Tua. But, since we don’t know how much time Tua has to stay as a reaper, the jump forward to reborn Prakan was a happy ending that fits with the show, and restarts the cycle. It's a very Goblin-esque ending.

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It didn’t work for me

I know that a lot of people love this series and always talk about the sad ending. I’ve seen “salt” listed as a big villain in the BL world because of it. But MODC didn’t work for me. I didn’t connect with any of the characters and thought that the main couple was a bit forced. To be fair, the ending was spoiled to me, so that could be part of the reason. I think the secondary couple is a bit better than the main one, but I expected them to have more relationship troubles. It always looked like there was gonna be cheating looming around.

Knowing how the ending was, I expected the last episode to deliver some drama. But it only showed a protagonist that’s unbearably boring and sadness about something that happened 6 years before, and that we don’t see. They stayed together for less than a year and he could not move on, besides now having a girlfriend.

I don’t think the show gave us enough moments to show how deep their relationship was and how madly in love they were. With 10 episodes, I think they could have developed a better romance. So, for me, it looks like too much drama. The hallucinations were a bit too much.

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In the end, it was a story about love

I understand who people might be unhappy with the ending or not like the show as a whole. It’s not a masterpiece but I did like it more than I thought I would.

It is a story about love. It’s just not the love we were expecting. It’s a story about love for your family. The dad expresses it well when say that he’s happy the mom died without finding out about the daughter and Ji Won. He loved her so much that he was happy he died that day and not on the next, for example. The same way that Ji Won knew that Naoko loved him very much, but he liked her enough to let her be free and loved his mom so much that he’d always choose to be by her side.

I specially like the ending. We see that both Ji Won and Naoko appear to be happy. Also like how Naoko chose not to tell about her mom passing. They cared about each other until the end. Nice to see the sister hanging with the basketball guy and studying.

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Not a "court case of the week" type of show

I planned to watch this drama from when it started airing, but I knew it would be better to binge it once it was over. For that reason, I completely skipped any news or comments about the show. I didn’t even realize that every episode was over 1h.

The initial premise of the show would make you believe that the court cases would be a big part of the show, once it’s actually just a tool for the main plot to develop. I can see how people that expected more court cases could be disappointed, but I was very happy with how the cases we got were part of the main story and had interesting twists. If we got any cases that were not 100% crucial to the big plan, I wish we’d seen a case with a split vote. I guess the closest we got to that was the electric chair one, where the public was not totally agreeing at first.

The team of villain on this show is outstanding. I completely hated all of them with my entire body. Kudos to the fantastic work done by the actors, specially the president. I never liked and trusted the professor, so I was happy to see that my suspicions were correct.

This is a prime kdrama, so we all knew that we’d not get a romance between the two male leads. But the hints and chemistry were there. The two hugs on episode 16 were the crumbs for Ga On/Yo Han shippers. I think there is a big issue that would difficult the plot going on that path: Ga On being the split image of Yo Han deceased brother. The same way that I think Elijah had a “crush” on Ga On just because he cared about her, then he kinda became her second dad, with Yo Han. I also didn’t expect the show to make Ga On and Soo Hyun’s relationship endgame. But I thought they’d do that by making her just move on after being in love with him for so long.

As much as I believe that Ga On liked Soo Hyun for real, when she died he cried and wanted revenge. While with Yo Han, he literally tried to blow himself up twice in one 1h. I guess the thought of a world without Yo Han was pretty scary…

Even though the ending of the show is not a “we’ll never meet again” situation, the fact that Elijah has such a strong connection to Ga On makes me believe she’d not agree to just go to Switzerland in the middle of the night. I doubt she’d go 1 month without contacting him, she’s a computer genius. I understand that Yo Han is technically dead in Korea, so they can’t live like a happy family at the mansion, but they’d still keep in touch.

The show is open ended and the ending we get is “happy”. But, in a weird way, Sun Ah’s plan worked in a way that Yo Han is not all alone, but Ga On is. By the end of episode 16, Ga On has lost his best friend, his “best buddy”, his mentor and his two work colleagues. He’s left alone in life and on the fight against the system.

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The bad outweights the good

I can understand how some people might like this show, it does have some strong points, but the story is so problematic that I had to force myself to watch the second half of the episodes just to be done with it.

TharnType has a good cast and the show is well done from a production standpoint. The chemistry between Mew and Gulf if off the charts, which explains why they are one of the biggest pairing in thai BL. The scenes where Tharn and Type are together and in peace are great. Unfortunately, these moments are rare and involved in bigger overall problems of the show. I don’t know if I can say that I like any of the characters (maybe Champ).

I can’t get 100% on board with the main couple because of the night Type got drunk in Tharn bad, early in the season. Yes, Type was being homophobic and an idiot for awhile, but Tharn did go to far by taking advantage of unconscious Type. It becomes even worse after we find out about Type’s past. I don’t feel like Tharn ever really tried to apologize for what happened that night.

This show has a major problem with romanticizing relationships with non consensual moments. At some points I almost felt like the show was implying that it was okay to do things if the other person didn’t say no too much. This is a show that centers around the sexual assault of two, I’d say three, teenagers, and the issue is not handled well at all. I can’t understand how TharnType manages to give a free pass to two abusers, that don’t face any consequences. San took advantage of younger Tharn and the only thing he got was a single punch from his still best friend, which in turn is the victim’s older brother. Thorn knows that what happened was wrong but he still forces Tharn to be around San. Regarding Lhong, I don’t even have word to explain how poorly the story fails to address what he did and why nothing happens to him.

PS: I have to highlight how this show manages to hard two terrible brothers. Thorn, besides his involvement who Sam, is also quite creepy around Thanya. And Technic is also a terrible brother for what he did to Techno.

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So close!!

The first 3/4 are perfect. The show explores fantastically the cliche scenarios para only happen in BLs time and time again. I love the fact that our protagonist is such an extra that he doesn't even have a name, he's just Mob. The fact that he's the only one aware that this is a BL world makes everything funnier.

I don’t hate the ending. It makes sense for the protagonist to end up falling for a guy. But it would have been so nice to actually see him escaping all the tropes and be alone in the end, judging everybody around him. Or at least have him fall for a guy without it being connected to super cliche, like what ended up happening.

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