FreshKicks

This is a review that tracks so much with my own feelings about the series that it's uncanny.

I think only Yoo Seung Hoo could have played the lead in this. He nails it in terms of his character's vulnerability, and yes his crying is indeed top notch. (Another phenomenal male crier is Woo Do Hwan in 'The Great Seducer' -- he turns on the waterworks so believably, and he has to do it in just about every episode. He starts out in the Mean Kids Club but soon turns into a soft pile of mush for the woman he loves.)

I first saw Yoo Seung Hoo in 'Master of Study'. He has a big crying scene in one of the later episodes that's so convincing it's hard to believe that he was just a teenager at the time. The series itself tends to be a little old-fashioned and instructional (it really does try to teach viewers how to study) but it made me a Yoo Seung Hoo fan and led me to 'I'm Not a Robot'.

I think the way they calculate on here makes it tough to get up to 9 and above, whereas on Viki if a series is less than 9 you might want to stay away. (This series gets a 9.7 over there.)

I looked at your reviews .. you seem to hate just about everything. I'm glad you get only one vote on this one. :)

I must admit, the cliffhanger with Gav driving to meet up with Cai was where the series started to lose me. The last part of the episode was Pearl going bonkers to get Cai to run downstairs and meet Gav, then of course it turned out there was a lookalike car and (talk about cliches) Gav was stuck in traffic and his phone battery had died and he happened to be in the only car in the city that didn't have a way to plug the phone in for a recharge.

I don't agree that this kind of writing is standard practice, at least not in fiction that tries to be more than fanfic. It feels like they're trying so hard to work the story around the cliffhangers that they're neglecting the opportunities to have Gav and Cai's relationship grow organically, from talking to one another and sharing life experiences. Right now it has been one external distrupter after another to keep the plot moving and the guys haven't had a decent 1:1 conversation for the last two episodes. Those 1:1 interactions were what got me liking that series in the first place, but they're wearing me down with the shenanigans.

I think you can also predict where they're going with the COVID-19 angle. As the saying goes, if there's a gun shown in Act 1, you know it will be back in Act 3. I just hope by the time Act 3 gets here that the guys will have already established a strong bond and *not* have COVID-19 turn out to be the catalyst for them becoming close.

I don't know if a storyline can be any simpler than the one in Gameboys, where Gav starts out with a clear intention of pursuing Cai and so far everything has been based around that premise. Even the introduction of Pearl and the new guy (Terrance?) are part of that same vector, since they serve primarily to create drama over whether Gav's pursuit is honest or dishonest. And I'm disappointed at how two of the episodes so far have ended with cliffhangers that turned out to be baseless. That feels a little lazy and manipulative. (If the one with Terrance also ends up being no big deal then that will make it three episodes.) To me that "cliffhanger" approach to the writing is the most amateurish aspect of Gameboys.

It's too soon to say if Hello Stranger will do similar things, like use Xavier's girlfriend as a prop to elicit emotion out of Mico. I hope it won't. Instead I'd like for the challenges that the characters deal with to be based on what they discover about themselves and each other as they become closer.

I do give the leads in Gameboys the edge in terms of sheer acting chops.

I thought it was great.

If you're curious whether I blame the series' failure on Bright or not, my opinion is in the review that you don't want to read. It doesn't suit your cute little psychological workup on my personality, though, so I understand why you wouldn't.

I thought I'd done a better job on here conveying how '2gether' was unique for me. I'd never been so invested in a series to start with, and its failure to come through was more upsetting as a result. I guess I'll have to keep posting to make it more clear. :)

I guess you're just hoping to shut me up or something? Because we both know there's not one iota of sincerity in your comment. (You're 'perplexed', are you? I'm sure.)

The comment that you replied to is the first one where I mention Bright in a while, and it was to give an example of how much of an impact 2gether's failure had on me. If all you get out of that is that I "hate" Bright then that's on you. (And if you were such a great scholar of my writing then you'd know that in my very lengthy review of the series I mention Bright in only two sentences, and put more blame for his performance on the director than him.)

I'm not on here constantly either (not for a while now) but then again you didn't really look to confirm that any more than you looked to see how often I "hate" on Bright.

2 days ago the rating was 8.4 ... it's now at 8.3.

Whoever cast him for 'Love With Flaws' was a genius. Talk about a role that lets an actor show his range! And he absolutely killed it. I have watched his scenes so many times and they still move me.

This is the Kdrama that made me fully understand why Kdramas are the cream of the crop. Everything is on point and the cast is sensational.

Finished it today and really enjoyed it. There's an almost operatic sweep to the story -- bigger than life in so many ways, and beautifully produced.

Joy's acting seemed really good. I've seen much worse FLs, and for me the reason they're usually bad is they make too much of every emotion. Joy was more steady in her role and reserved the emotional moments for when they mattered, and because of that I think they had more impact.

Moon Ga Young was magnificent. I would never have guessed that she's the same actress who played the frivolous FL in 'EXO Next Door'. Here she did such a great job playing evil that she should make sure she gets some sympathetic character roles in the future, otherwise she might get typecast.

Woo Do Hwan ... what can I say. Amazing performance and great presence as an actor. And he cries so believably -- which is good because in this series he has to do a lot of that lol.

My one quibble is that once again a series that features really mean characters lets them find redemption in the end. However this bunch did experience some karmic retribution so I'm not going to fuss too much about it.

I'd love to see the rating pushed higher.

I rewatched the first episodes and noticed that 'Ehhh!' is something that Pan and Soda say. Soda lets out an 'Ehhh!" in Ep 5 or maybe it was Ep 4.

This might end up being proof to other people that they really did swap bodies, since the real Kim probably didn't say 'Ehhh!' all the time before it happened.

I agree with everything you've said. This has turned out to be a nice surprise.

I also think you're right about the end game, and I like it as much as you do. :)

Way told "Kim" that the only person he could ever laugh with like that is him, and in addition he confessed that he'd never been intimate with his gf. Now, maybe "Kim" (as occupied by Pan) finally made Way comfortable enough to admit these truths, but the truths themselves are things that extend well back before the big switch.

It seems clear to me that Pan will end up with Khet in the end. They're seat mates and she's becoming more and more impressed with Khet's character. Plus, you don't cast a big name in Thai series like Ohm and *not* have him prevail in some major way.

Since Soda is a side character and has been treated as such, that leaves the other couple to be Way and Kim. Kim's relationship with the teacher looks more like a matter of convenience to him since the teacher mentions that they've never kissed.

I think we'll learn post-switch that Kim has also had feelings for Way and that because of "Kim"/Pan's influence, Way will finally take the initiative and the two will end up together. Also, it might turn out that post-switch there is a small trace of Pan still left behind in Kim's personality. (That would be less satisfying for me personally -- I want Kim to have been feeling it on his own all along.)

Golly. I make a sincere effort to explain myself and get dismissed with 'Get a life!' I doubt you really read what I wrote so you're not worth conversing with further.

Wow, you nailed it! These are all terrific.

LMAO ... a man after my own heart.

Hope springs eternal haha. It started at around 9.2 so it has fallen from grace pretty dramatically, but I'd be happy if it went down just a little bit more, to 8.3.

Is that asking too much, BL gods? :)