MidnightReader

Well that was a waste of time

I gave the acting a 4 because the panic attack was the only thing that stood out to me. Honestly, none of these actors got enough collective screen time for me to be able to 1) judge their acting effectively or 2) care about any of their characters.

I wanted to watch the movies but couldn't find them, and I've heard they make a lot more sense than this show. I wasn't necessarily confused, but I did wonder multiple times what the point was. Like, what message were they trying to send, or what were we supposed to gain from watching it? The answer turned out to be nothing. Because we weren't given any time with the side couples for their relationships to go anywhere, let alone make sense, and we got a trauma dump from Takumi in the very last episode that felt like a homework assignment I was assigned last minute from a class where the teacher never taught.

That doesn't even make sense, but you know what, it suits the show weirdly enough.

This was a series that can't stand on its own, and it barely tried to.

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Slow Paced

Korea knows how to make good & scary zombie movies. I haven't been disappointed by any of them that I've watched so far.

This is a slower-paced zombie movie, with most of the action being near the end, and it focuses more on the characters than the actual zombies. We mostly follow Jun Woo as he spends his days locked in his apartment, trying to survive with little food, water, or human interaction. It's not until around the middle that Yu Bin comes in, and the story finally starts to move forward. Everything that these characters did and how they reacted is how I'd imagine normal people would react in a zombie apocalypse, and they were living in a jam-packed apartment complex. This isn't a movie about trying to find a cure or getting to safety; it's a movie about bunkering down and surviving and hoping that help arrives in time.

The only part I found even a little bit ridiculous was the ending scene because where did that helicopter come from?

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TW: Blood, Gore, Death, Murder, & don't watch if you have Pediophobia

I'm genuinely shocked at how much I enjoyed this movie. It didn't feel like 2 hours. From the beginning, they kept the pedal down and didn't let up until the credits rolled. The action, fear, and horror just kept coming as our characters fought a series of dolls & each other to survive.

Each character gave very human responses to the situations they were forced into & we got to see how the stress of life-or-death situations can make people turn on each other in what I felt was a very realistic way. I knew better than to get attached to any of the characters, so I didn't get upset about any of the deaths or about who survived.

I hate horror movies that have dolls or puppets as the killers; they just feel so fake that I find them funny, but this movie actually made them just the right level of creepy to make me unsettled. Except the polar bear. Not only was he not scary, but I felt like the characters should have caught on to what was really going on right away. That scene was honestly the only thing I can complain about. The Kokeshi scene was the one I found the most horrifying, funnily enough, and we didn't get to see most of what happened.

I would say that this movie has aged very well in terms of quality, so I recommend it if you are looking for a death game horror movie.

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Not bad, but not great.

I think my expectations were too high for this series after I watched The Gifted and The Blacklist. The acting was fantastic, and there weren't really any glaring problems (other than replaying the same song a thousand times), but I did get bored quite a few times. During Jarune and Jaya's scenes, I kind of tuned out a lot and had to force myself to pay attention. I didn't really like Jarune's storyline & I just found Jaya insufferable. Literally, the thing I liked most about Jarune's story was the ending after she had turned back to herself. Bomb & Jarune's notes actually had me crying.

The plot as a whole focused on family and finishing unresolved business & I really loved that, even if sometimes they throw in unnecessary drama along the way. For example, Jaya blackmailing people to help her so she doesn't have to do any of the work, one of Jarune's students was used in a drug deal, & Thep cheating on his wife. Enough was going on already & those things just added nothing to the story, besides making me hate Jaya even more.

All the romances kind of made me uncomfortable because of the age gap, but that didn't stop me from wanting Songpol/Paul to stay young and finally find the kind of love that he felt like he was never allowed to have. In a time period where he would have support from his peers. Also, I need to know if Phipu was Songpol's first kiss because he was sure, acting like it.

Overall, the show was fine, and I loved the acting, but I wouldn't rewatch it.

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The miscommunication trope is my least favorite trope

And this show has it and the "refuses to talk" trope in spades. I get having unrequited love and being scared to say anything, but please don't just assume things on your own. If you feel like you are getting mixed signals, talk to the person about it. I hear talking can solve a lot of problems. I get the whole "avoiding your problems," but if you are dating someone, no matter how short a time, you'd think you'd spend time with them instead of actively avoiding them the whole time. (I say this knowing my introverted self will actively hide from the person I'm dating if I want some peace and quiet.)

This was actually a cute series that, for reasons I can't explain, just felt fun to watch. Like I didn't get bored at all, even when it got a little repetitive. I also really thought the friends were funny, and I'm a little disappointed we didn't get to see the train wreck that I'm sure that group date was. I also really liked our main characters and thought the actors did a great job.

The OST was a little weird because sometimes it would sound like we were either listening to a cozy game soundtrack or something that would be played in a kindergarten class.

Something that I wish they had delved more into, instead of having a second "couple," was going more in-depth with Hun's feelings instead of just dropping the truth at the end. It honestly felt like it came out of nowhere because he was so oblivious up to that point. I just needed more for me to believe it, because yes, he was obsessed and jealous, but it also seemed like he wasn't aware of it. This series should have been called mixed signals.

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Why did I finish this?

Because I apparently have nothing better to do than watch brain rot.

First off, I watched this series because I love Tutor and Yim & was excited for them to get another series. Goodness, this series was a disappointment. I couldn't finish The Middleman's Love & I think it was better than this series. At least they looked like they were having fun filming this train wreck of a series. Why have the 2 DMD series that I've either disliked or DNF'd been their series? I love this couple! They deserve a good series.

The acting was fine, while everything else was garbage. Not counting the music, because I didn't pay attention to it, I barely paid attention to the show. I watched it at 2x speed & it still felt like a slog to get through. Not helped by the fact that the script & translations weren't good, Yim's character was cringy, & there wasn't a plot to be found.

It was mostly the lack of plot that bothered me & in the summary they make it seem like the bar is going to be a main focal point when, in reality, they barely have anything to do with it other than a mention here and there, & then it's only open for one episode before it's burned down. The drama around the ex-boyfriend and the bar being burned down was also handled with a snap of a finger. Why create drama if you're going to fix it without actually having to do anything? They don't even really explain half the connections between the characters.

Specking of characters, I'm convinced this was just a thrown-together series to give all these characters a guest role to play in while they are working in their other series. None of them served a purpose.

There were also way too many flashbacks & the series itself was too long. What was even the point of those last 2 episodes? They could have condensed the last 3 into one because nothing happened. To be honest, nothing happened in this series. What was the point of it?

The only thing I liked about this series was that it made me want to make a couples notebook with my next boyfriend. To be clear, I liked the idea; I didn't care for the last 10ish minutes of the show being snippets from the journal. That was a waste of time; it just went over things we had already seen.

As much as I love TutorYim, I can't recommend this show; it was completely pointless and wasn't even enjoyable to watch.

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For the most part, the Thai version is better

The only thing I liked more in this adaptation was that the family played a much smaller role, since they annoyed me most in the Thai version. I also liked that, for once in a Japanese drama, things weren't exaggerated. This was one of the things I was most worried about because in the Thai version it's so over the top.

I don't think this show needed to be longer episode-wise; maybe 10 minutes longer per episode & cut out most of the flashbacks. With that and the family taking up less screen time, they could have actually done something with the side couples. Don't introduce them if you aren't going to do anything with them! Giving the side couples an actual plot may have helped with the overall pacing, since after episode 2 it started to drag. I'm starting to wonder if the book even does anything with them. I'm curious, but not enough to subject myself to consuming this story in another form.

I don't have any complaints about the acting, but the fights looked really fake, and while the kisses were better than most Japanese series, the chemistry just wasn't there.

I still ended up watching the Thai and Japanese versions at X2 speed when my attention started to drift, so I can't say that I recommend either unless you've just started watching asian dramas.

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Perfect example of not enough showing and too much telling

I don't want to hear about how amazing Phatsa is; I don't want to hear about the pregnancy signs; I don't want to hear about what XY & Z person did. I want you to SHOW me.

I also wanted to see Napitch & Sangnuea get some kind of resolution. In the last 3-4 episodes, I was more interested in whatever they had going on than anyone else in the series & we got almost nothing. I get that Sangnuea did a lot of stupid things and wanted all of them dead, but Napitch was feeling something, so I would at least like to know if he planned to fight and make the relationship work, or sleep with other people on the side. What made it worse was that Sengnuea barely looked like he had the will to live at the birthday party & that's the last we see of him.

Since I'm already talking about Sengnuea, the whole revenge plot was stupid. Made worse by the horrible subtitles & script. For one, this whole revenge plot could have been in any series. If you're going to do an omegaverse, why wouldn't you choose a problem that would only exist in an omegaverse world? It was off to a good, if not poorly edited/directed, start with the unwilling bite, but we quickly moved on from that to something mundane. Honestly, they could have just cut out the revenge plot altogether and focused on the characters' internal struggles, family problems, & society's views, and it probably would have been a better story. I say probably because I wouldn't put it past them to ruin even a simple plot. Look at My Stubborn.

The script made everything worse by being repetitive & sometimes having unnecessary dialogue. For example, Phatsa's father telling Nakhun MULTIPLE times in a matter of minutes that he wouldn't give his son to him. Not only was it repetitive, but they had already bonded with each other. You have no say anymore, Dad. In fact, you lost all say when you decided Phatsa didn't need to know about secondary genders.

That was also a very stupid plot device because it's impossible. You're telling me that in all of Phatsa's 22 years, no one has talked about alphas, betas, or omegas? No school he went to had a sex-ed class? Even if that was meant to be taught at home, everyone at school would have been talking about it. And just because he can suppress his scent doesn't mean that his sense of smell would be less; he would still be able to smell everyone. The explanation we are given for this omegaverse was also delivered very stiffly and didn't really explain anything at all. You can't just slap "omegaverse" on a series and have the job done; you have to put some work into it because not everyone watching is going to know what it is.

I didn't have high hopes for this series after watching and not liking ABO Desire, but it's Thai and Boat & Oat, so I was still excited. To my disappointment, ABO Desire was better. Because of its consistency, if nothing else. This series was just poorly written, poorly edited & directed, & in the first 15 minutes I could understand why people are rating it so low and just outright dropping it. The only real positives were the acting & the special effects. The special effects weren't invasive or used more than necessary. Phatsa's bite mark slowly healing was also a nice touch. The actors could only do so much for the show when the script is what it is. Oat, as always, slayed, but I was impressed with Folk & Jame both in acting and chemistry. The chemistry was good between all the couples.

Why did we have pointless scenes with kids that don't matter to the plot and are just there to stoke Phatsa's ego? That time could have been spent doing literally anything else, like, I don't know, developing the characters or the relationships. Or, hell, explaining anything about the world.

As I said, the actors all had good chemistry, but the NC scenes went on WAY too long, and after the first couple of episodes, I started just skipping ahead and only stopping when we got a bit of dialogue before skipping ahead again. It wasn't because they weren't done well; I was simply bored.

Also, there was so much dry humping. Like an unhealthy amount.

Another positive was the style, namely Phatsa's and the mothers'; I loved basically all their outfits. Maybe that & the cars are where all the budget went because between the very few filming locations, editing, & some of the camera angles, the show felt cheap.

They could give us a special episode or another season focusing on Naphitch and Sengnuea & I'll watch it, but I'll also hope that they get a whole new team to work on it. It may not turn out better, but I don't see how it could get much worse.

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Perfect BL for beginners

This was an easy-to-watch series with solid acting & is very light on the BL. Light on the romance, really. The most intimate thing that happens is hand-holding. I'd recommend this series to anyone wanting to get into BL who doesn't want it to be the focal point of the series, or see any NC scenes. I feel like the pacing was also good considering very little was actually going on.

The actors all have really good chemistry; It made the friendships and the family dynamics (even though some are VERY unresolved) more believable. It also helped that most of the characters were emotionally intelligent enough to understand what was happening without having to be told.

I do hate the miscommunication trope, but this time it bothered me very little because I could sympathize with them for not being able to confess & feeling rejected (confession or not), and not being able to move on. This show also showed how one lie can snowball into another & become a bigger & more stressful problem as time goes on, and I think they handled it alright. It could have been better; it could have been worse. Seung Won definitely learned from his mistake & that's what's important.

The way the scenes were laid out is also something I don't normally like, but they made it work in this series in a way that made the story feel complete instead of disjointed.

The only thing I would have changed is that I wanted to spend more time with Hui Su and Seung Won as a couple. We built up to it for so long that it felt like we deserved more.

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Triggers for drinking, date-rape drug use, SA, violence, cheating, & stupidity

I apologize in advance if this review is a little all over the place. I took a lot of notes, and it got to the point where keeping them organized was a lost cause.

First off, I love that this was set in the 90s. A little before and after I was born, so it was a bit of a nostalgia trip. The set design & prop crew did a fantastic job with everything.

Honestly, my only real complaints about the show were: some scenes being replayed at different angles & it just didn't look good seeing the actor do the same action again and again and again. I have a few unanswered questions that I feel are important (I'll get to this at the end), & the unwillingness to communicate. This wasn't just miscommunication; they just didn't do it. I'm also 50/50 on whether I liked the narration or not.

Normally, I would have cheating as one of the things I hated most, because it's one of my biggest triggers, but honestly, in this case it was valid. I'm not saying that because I didn't like Bei Lu Xin either; on the contrary, once she stopped being a drunk, I actually liked her a lot. I liked that she was bold, blunt, & I was 100% in her corner when she started telling off Lu Xiao Fan's family. I've never been so happy when she called Fan's family trash and shameless to their faces. No, the cheating was valid because Lu Xiao Fan was basically sold to the Bei family & there was no love there. It was also going on on both sides. Was it right? Hell no. But I didn't think less of either character for it. This is a massive first for me.

Specking of Lu Xiao Fan~ I really liked him as well. He kind of stays a doormat throughout the series, but he's one of those hard brisily ones that hurt your feet if you stand on them barefoot. He's overly polite and mild-mannered, has a hard time going against anyone or specking up for himself, & has little self-esteem. All that being said, we learn at the end that he plays the long con and will hit you where it hurts when you are least expecting it. The scary thing was that it wasn't even really done out of hate. I don't think this boy is capable of hate.

I can understand Lu Xiao Fan's actions as well when you think about everything that Bei Lu Qing was doing and planning for them to be together, but not explaining any of it, so all Lu Xiao Fan saw was Bei Lu Qing pushing him aside for someone "better" than him. Who wouldn't be hurt and have a plan of attack & a financial plan that has literally been years in the making? A lot of my unanswered questions actually got answered in the last episode, such as why Lu Xiao Fan was throwing random magazines away? Why is he collecting cardboard boxes & trash? Why is he in this random alley? Why was this random stock trader guy smirking? I LOVED seeing all of these little puzzle pieces being shown throughout the series come together to help complete a picture that was hidden within the bigger picture we were focused on. I never would have guessed Lu Xiao Fan had been planning all of that.

This show focuses heavily on family dynamics. The good, the bad, and the ugly. And in this specific case, the very ugly.

The family was its own headache. I swear they only had a few functioning brain cells between them all. Before I get too into this, I just want to say that I grew up on a farm. I still farm to this day; being a farmer means that you have to save where you can if you can, and you are going to take more losses than gains. Especially if you live and work out of a small town and sell locally. This is all to say that I have a good idea of how poor these people probably are, so I'm not judging them for being poor and wanting a better life. I'm judging them on the fact that they are money-hungry assholes, with only the mother being halfway decent. The little sister is a self-entitled brat that I'm glad we aren't subjected to for very long. The mother, as I said, is halfway decent, but she still sold her son and used him to get further in life. What made her decent is that she gave Lu Xiao Fan some money before he left, refused to take his money in the end, & took his side when her oldest son Ping and husband were trying to take advantage of Lu Xiao Fan. The husband really was just money-hungry and felt he was owed by the Bei family.

Ping gets his own paragraph because he's a special asshole. The stupid kind that never learns & leeches off others instead of doing the work himself. Lu Xiao Fan goes to Bei Lu Qing to get Ping a job, then another job; he then loses that job & his fiancée after getting a girl pregnant after a drunk one-night stand, so Fan has to ask for another job for him when all he's trying to do is get away from the Bei family. Then this asshole badgers his brother for money so he can enter the stock market & when he doesn't get it, he sells client information & takes money from everyone in his village. He loses in the stock market & leaves said village bankrupt. He does all of this and doesn't feel bad about any of it, only that he didn't make money. When Bei Lu Qing offers money for the Lu family to cut ties with Fan, he's only more than happy to sell his brother again. Ping is the perfect example of a waste of oxygen. He is one never-ending problem.

The family is also rude and ill-mannered, which has nothing to do with them being poor & everything to do with them believing they are owed the good things they are getting & everything bad that happens is someone else's fault. They have zero accountablity & that continues as far as I'm aware until Fan cuts all ties with them. They are money-hungry and an embarrassment. How did Fan turn out so sweet? I was so happy when he cut ties with them.

Lin Zi Yang is the last character I want to talk about. I didn't really expect him to have as big a role as he did. I didn't even bother to learn his name until episode 3. He turned out to be one of the characters I liked the most because, no matter how scheming, he was a loyal friend. I also found his reaction to Lu Xiao Fan pulling a meat cleaver on himself very funny. He backpedaled so fast lmao. Lu Xiao Fan is going to make him go prematurely gray.

I guess now I should get to the unanswered questions. If you know the answers, please feel free to share!

Why marry Lu Xiao Fan of all people? At one point, they make it sound like he was chosen, so who chose him? Why? I was hoping it would have been Bei Lu Qing, so we'd get a little more backstory on why he's obsessed with Fan. What did Lu Xiao Fan do with the money his mother gave him? What happened with Bei Lu Qing's mother? Why, in that one scene that we had to watch TWICE, did Lu Xiao Fan pull his pants down? What happened after? (Maybe don't answer that one?) What happened to the girl Ping got pregnant? Did she keep the baby? Was there even a baby to begin with? Did Li Wen Xi lose out on a lot of money in the end? How did Bri Lu Qing and his friends recover financially? On this, it would have been nice to see the search process for Lu Xiao Fan. What happened to the Lu family once they returned home to their now bankrupt village? What was in the box Lu Xiao Fan hid under the bed? Why was Lu Xiao Fan still wiring money to the bully/trader dude (I'm sorry, I forgot his name)? Did the trader dude tell Bei Lu Qing where Lu Xiao Fan was? If not, how did they find out? I know from the wire transfer, but how did they know about it/ come across it? They shouldn't have even known the two had contact with each other, right?

I feel like I have a lot more questions, but I just can't think of them right now. Honestly, if they had just answered the questions of how they found Lu Xiao Fan, what was in the box, & why Lu Xiao Fan was chosen in the first place, I might have given this series an 8. It was really good. The chemistry wasn't all there, & the kisses were just alright, but the story, production value, & pacing were really good.

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Tae was done wrong

I'm going to be honest; I wanted Tae and Jaeyeon to end up together & not just because Tae has literally no one else in his life. They had history. Jaeyeon and Geonwoo knew each other for a couple of days before they kissed & who really knows how long they were together before agreeing to date. Yes, I know attraction doesn't work like that & Tae was only ever seen as a friend, but I can't help feeling that Tae was honestly never given a chance. I also feared that he was just going to disappear from both of their lives once he learned they got together. It wouldn't have been so bad if they had just given Tae a boyfriend at the end to show us that he really did move on and found happiness.

We don't see Tae and Geonwoo rebuild any part of their relationship either. Jaeyeon seems to be the only thing making them talk to each other. Why couldn't we have gotten some resolution there? Tae said he's glad they are happy in the time-skip, but that isn't enough. They already were doing a lot in the little amount of time they had; they could have included a little brother heart-to-heart. Especially if Geonwoo was going to end up with Tae's crush of like 10+ years.

Also, what chance did the fortune teller give him? From what I saw, there was no chance for him, so that part just felt unnecessary.

What happened to the stalker who stabbed Geonwoo? What happened to their mother? The woman was apparently glued to Geonwoo as a child, so where is she now? And like I said above, did Tae move on? If he did, I don't believe it was easy at all since EVERYONE he's loved has chosen Geonwoo over him. It felt like the show was enforcing the saying "once second best, always second best" in the cruelest way possible.

This is far from the worst short BL I've ever watched, and I think that's why I got a bit upset with the way they handled the brothers' relationship & the romantic relationships. If they weren't going to actually do anything with the stalker other than use him to push Jaeyeon and Geonwoo closer, then they could have just cut him out completely. If they were going to end up together, they would be stabbing or no stabbing. Use that time instead to fix the brothers' relationship. Use it to make it believable that Jaeyeon and Geonwoo like each other. Use it to give Tae a decent ending! Give this abandoned boy some love from SOMEONE!

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This was everything that I wanted

First off, I really love how down bad Arthit is for Dao. His love for Dao feels all-consuming & Ngern does a great job conveying it through his eyes alone.

This special episode was 100% necessary. Phoon and Fah's episode was basically just a fluffy check-in, but this special actually gave us much-needed closure for this couple. At the end of the series, we are left with Arthit not being able to propose to Dao, & we finally get it here in one of the most touching ways. It was so sweet & I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

It was also nice to know that at least Arthit and Fah stay in touch. I'm assuming if they do, it means all of them do. It's normal not to keep in touch with friends if you take different career paths, so it was just a relief to see that they still talk to each other.

As always, I'm a sucker for good cuddles & I was well fed~

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Domestic Fluff

This story takes place after a few years' time skip, and we get to see a glimpse of Fah and Phoon's adult life: their jobs, kind of their day-to-day routine, and overall, just them being in love with each other. It's such a soft love as well. No drama or NC scenes, and the cuddles were so nice. It makes me a little jealous.

I'm kind of torn on whether we needed this or not. On the one hand, I loved this couple, and I'm glad we got to see them again after they have settled into their adult lives, while on the other hand, I've already said goodbye to these characters twice before this & at this point it feels like I'm getting strung along. As much as I love them, I hope this is the final goodbye.

P.S. I still can't get over how small and adorable Tonliew is!

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I came for the post Love Mechanics VeeMark moments

They did a surprising amount in 3 episodes. Was the relationship believable? No, but I honestly treated this as a special set after Love Mechanics. It was nice to see Nuea find someone after everything that happened with Mark, even if I felt like it should have gotten at least a couple more episodes to really make the relationship feel like they were something other than casual acquaintances. We didn't get a lot of VeeMark moments, but I enjoyed each one, & we got more of Mark in this series than in the others (outside Love Mechanics, obviously).

Specking of Mark, I kept waiting for him to explode with how fed up he looked with all of his upperclassmen. I'm kind of sad that all we got was his death stare, which was really good imho.

The acting was just as good as in TOSSARA, but Win did a better job; maybe because he got to do something besides acting lovesick.

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Better than Future at least

I don't understand why so much of the dialogue between the characters has to be teasing or flirting. Do they have a quota they have to meet with each series or something?

Gun & Bar have no chemistry & despite the pacing of the relationship being alright, it wasn't believable. What would have been believable was Bar telling Gun to fuck off. No one who gets peer-pressured into letting someone hit on them is actually going to let the person hit on them. And the confession? Worst part of the show, in my opinion. It wasn't cute. It was a public sob story that anyone would have been an ass to say no to & it went on way too long. And I'm normally a big sucker for size differences & cuddles, but they did nothing for me this time.

Going in, I was expecting great acting from Yin and War (sadly, we got very little of War), but I was pleasantly surprised that the acting was alright overall. Folk especially surprised me both in his acting & with how much he reminds me of Nunew, looks-wise. The only person's acting I didn't like was, unfortunately, Win's (Gun). No character had any personality, but I feel like the main characters should be the exception. Folk did a decent job of making his character a tsundere, while Win's character only thought of or cared about Bar. I don't know anything about him that didn't revolve around Bar. War (Mark) was on screen for less than 5 minutes & his character had more personality.

I preferred this over Future, but it's only better because the acting was much better.

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