CapitalW

It's my favorite trope. Episode 1 set the table nicely for the feast to come.

They aren't related but it seems that when they were reincarnated, Dean was born into Intouch's family tree. I suppose we might find out that Pharm was reborn into Korn's family.

I was wondering how I'd feel if Korn had been reincarnated as Pharm and Intouch had come back as Dean.

Hmm. I'd probably feel confused lol.

I agree! And make it a role with some dramatic edge to it. I think she'd be perfect for an "ugly duckling" story where she prevails over the mean girls lol.

"The Luckiest Boy"

Yes, and with a nice "poo" graphic to complete the experience. :)

The production crew is acting like they can't figure out how to share the special episode with international viewers ... after 13 episodes where they did that just fine. I'm so irritated that tweets about the series and cast are starting to piss me off. They need to be careful not to alienate a huge part of their fan base.

We could legit miss this episode entirely and not really lose the storyline at all. The only progress that was made was at the very end when Pharm said he'd go to meet Intouch's sister / Dean's grandmother. The rest was a fluff-and-angst fest.

The Intouch sobbing scene (which felt endless) was all in a dream that Pharm was having, but it went on far too long. Which isn't cool, because we're all sitting there watching, trying to think of what could be causing him to break down for almost that entire segment, only to have them throw the "it was only a dream" twist at us in the end.

I thought the part where Pharm got emotional over tasting the soup was pretty effective though.

I like the series a lot but have to admit that you make some excellent points.

What you say about Korn and Intouch finally explains what I've been feeling but been unable to put into words. They don't seen oppressed, and this only adds to the elemental dramatic problem that Korn promised Intouch "never to leave him", but then after his father finds them together he killed himself right in front of Intouch! I hope that Dean has a cathartic moment where he expresses the guilt that Korn would feel after doing such a thing. That's a helluva way to break a promise.

And in today's episode there was almost an entire segment of Intouch crying. I've started to understand why people are getting impatient with this series' slow story development.

As for Pharm, I love Fluke Natouch but I think Pharm has scolded Dean with "P'Dean!" a few times too many. I hope they'll get intimate soon so that Pharm isn't always scandalized when Dean shows a little affection.

Most of the time they use a puppet/animatronic version of Coffee the cat and it freaks me the f out. It's got crazy eyes like it wants to swallow your soul lmao.

I feel like we're watching two different series, but to each his own.

The product placements are an unfortunate necessity. Somebody has to pay the bills. But it does get annoying though when the main story comes to a screeching halt so that they can do a goofy little pitch for one of the products. Too often, the bright mood of the product skit clashes with a serious and subdued drama scene that preceded it.

I've seen product placements in series from other countries but the Thai dramas seem to be the most in-your-face about it.

I could have written your post myself, I agree with it so completely.

I like that the romance aspect is almost secondary to the reincarnation story, and that the two are intertwined in such a way that one could not make sense without the other.

And like you I've also got all the songs. (The one of the cast singing "Luckiest Boy" is so cute.) Boy Sompob has to be a genius, writing and performing music for so many BL series with such a beautiful result every time.

What a great review. You nailed it on all counts.

And yeah, Pun's "crying" ... it was so poorly acted! Just horrible.

Oh, no need to go to that trouble! I was directing my comment at the general readership. But thanks for the thought.

This is an interesting article. The only thing missing is a list of dramas that are representative of each type. I'm curious to check them out.

I think the character is meant to be emotionally withdrawn, doubting the sincerity of other people. He's been treated like a face genius all of his life while nobody has tried to see the real person beneath. This is a counterpart to Mi Rae's situation. When she was ugly nobody cared who she was like on the inside, while Kyung Suk grew up beautiful and nobody cared about his deeper self either. It left them both damaged in their own way.

This is why Kyung Suk struggles in trying to make a connection with Mi Rae. He has a hard time relating to other people in a positive way, so his bad habits tend to take over and he becomes abrupt and rude, even with her.

But, like any worthwhile character in a work of fiction, he grows as a person over the course of the series and is much warmer and self-expressive by the end.

We can be sure that Cha Eun Woo didn't create this character on his own -- it would have been a collaboration between him, his fellow actors, and the director. The story needed a ML who attracted a lot of attention but was at first robotic and stand-offish. That's what he gave them, and I think he did a great job at it.

In his roles before 'Gangnam Beauty' he simply played a version of his K-pop idol self. He did fine in those but probably relished the challenge that 'Gangnam Beauty' presented. And, most recently, his role in "Rookie Historian" proves he can play yet another kind of character at the opposite end of the spectrum.

I think he's a real talent and I look forward to his future work.

I enjoyed reading your review and agree with almost everything!

The only detail I'm not sure about is that Jiaze held off on accepting Cancan's feelings because he thought she liked someone else. I got the impression that he held off because he was so confident that she'd like him whether he accepted her feelings or not. This came out the most the day that Lan Tianye told Jiaze that he likes Cancan and challenged him to a basketball game, saying that the winner would be the one who could date her. Jiaze declined the challenge saying he didn't need to win a game to win Cancan, because he already knew she liked him.

This resonated at the very end when he watched his high school self speak on the video that they recorded for the time capsule. He shook his head at how over-confident he had been back in the day. It was also interesting to me that after all the fuss over him being such a gifted pianist he didn't end up in the music business whereas Cancan and Lan Tianye did.

The chemistry between the leads was better than just about any other drama I've watched. One of the best scenes was when Lan Tianye showed up at the restaurant to eat with Cancan and her university roommates. As the roommates watched them bounce hilariously off of each other they immediately knew what was up between them. It was so cute. I must have rewatched that scene a dozen times and it still makes me laugh out loud.

Others in the drama world must have realized how well the ML and FL worked together (or maybe they realized it themselves) because it looks like they're the leads in another drama that's in the pipeline called My Girl.

Anyway, thanks for a review that puts my own thoughts into words better than I myself could have!

finally a voice of sanity amongst all this delusion

This is one of the very first dramas I watched and remains a favorite.

I love all three of the leads.

Shen Yue's ability to create a character who's as believable as a high-schooler as she is as a mature woman is nothing less than extraordinary. I've since watched other dramas ('With You', 'Wait, My Youth', and 'A Little Thing Called First Love') where the female lead accomplishes the same feat, and all I can say is that the mainland Chinese seem to have this concept on lock.

The two male leads are perfectly cast. I felt terrible for the one who lost out, but the one who triumphed managed to redeem himself in the end.

Yes, the plot does tend to rely too much on misunderstandings and miscommunication, but with such a great payoff I won't complain about that too much.

What a great perspective. It's true, anyone who's into a certain artistic genre should be familiar with the iconic works that have helped to define the genre.