MidnightReader

Silent tears are the most emotional kind.

I cried a LOT, but I'll get to that later.

I'm going to start with the negatives! Which there are not a lot of. Pretty much the only thing that annoyed me was Cha wanting to give his grandson Zefang his body back, but puts zero effort into figuring out how. How did Cha know that drowning himself would even work? That is a big risk to take on the fly since it could have just killed them both. No one was there to help when he did it! I also would have liked to see Cha have to come to terms with the fact that the grandson he raised, the last member of his family, was truly gone. It didn't have to be long, just something.

Other than that, I wanted to know how Zefang lived at college up to the accident. No one liked him but Guan Ri Qing. Why? What did he do to everyone? What was his and Guan Ri Qing's relationship really like? Why did Guan Ri Qing know that no matter how loud he yelled, no one would come help? Was it because of Zefang? Guan Ri Qing? Or something else? Why did he like Hai Yuan so much? Everything must have been pretty shit for him to let Cha live in his body and move on. There is so much about Zefang's character that we don't know, and if anyone knows if it's covered in the novel, let me know.

I really enjoyed everything else. The acting was really good, especially Martin (Cha/Zefang) and Yaron (Guan Ri Qing), who really impressed me with his crying. Li Ting (Qian Sui) is also adorable. The cuddles are so good, and the nose rubbing in episode 8 was so cute!

I know a lot of people won't like someone like Guan Ri Qing just based on the first interaction, but I couldn't help but feel sorry for him even after he locked Cha in the locker. (He was truly sorry about that as well.) But I like to put myself in the character's shoes, so even though I wouldn't act this way, I know that if my boyfriend came back from visiting family a whole different person, wanted nothing to do with me, and was clingy to someone who hates me, I would feel so incredibly hurt. He only wanted someone to love him, and for all we know, Zefang may have been the one person who gave him any real love at all. I cried when Zefang said goodbye to him, and when he realized he still hadn't told Zefang that he really liked him, and now it was too late. I'm tearing up just thinking about it.

I also cried during Cha and Zefang's heart-to-heart, like during the whole thing. I had to pause multiple times to wipe my eyes and clean my glasses. I'm a very empathic person, so I cry easily, but I haven't cried this much to a show in a few months.

Was the story lacking in giving us past context and the character building of Zefang? Yes. Did it hinder my enjoyment? Very little, I was mostly just left wanting more so I could fully understand Zefang's actions. Would I rewatch this series or a sequel? Yes and Yes. I was very reluctant to watch this series at first because I didn't think they could make the relationship work out given the age gap, or make me believe that the grandson would really just decide to move on when he has his whole life ahead of him. Somehow, they made it work.

Read More

It's a rated R Thai YA novel

Honestly, I will never be able to look at a paintbrush the same way again. Which is unfortunate because I'm an artist.

Right off the bat, this series reminded me of The Princess Diaries with its hidden Prince, overly light colored floral outfits, and others vying for the throne. Then the Emmaly crest reminded me of the Hogwarts crest. We had a Hunger Games-esque archery competition. So the story was very YA coated. Until you got to the NC scenes, that is, which were WAY too long and I skipped.

I sadly didn't skip early enough to miss the paintbrush scene.

The CGI was very distracting. It wasn't bad, but it was something that I would expect to see in a WINX Club live-action. Some of the locations didn't match either, which was weird.

Fashion was great except for Khanin's wardrobe. I'm now convinced that Nunew would look good in anything because those clothes didn't look like they would have looked good on anyone.

Acting was great all around. There wasn't a single actor who felt like they were simply playing a character. This was very impressive since the 2 supporting couples didn't get nearly enough screen time. Jay and Calvin barely got the time of day, and Ramil and Paytai were in such an interesting situation that I would have loved to have seen the writers do SOMETHING with. Speaking of JJ, I really loved his singing. I was very impressed. These four did a lot with their characters in the small amount of time they had.

I loved Chakri. I think every time I laughed in this series, it was because of him.

The person behind the rebellion didn't shock me, but I didn't guess who it was because they diverted my attention well. The butler, being a part of it, didn't surprise me a bit. I can only imagine the shit he had to listen to over the years. I just don't understand why they didn't off the king in the years that Khanin wasn't there. I understand wanting to make someone suffer, but killing 2 mothers and failing to kill a baby isn't the way to go. You can't blame that on the king. That's 100% you. And if the goal was to make all of them pay, why didn't they target the others at all in the beginning? Why wait 22 years? Why target Ramil only after failing to kill Khanin? The plot felt very weak in this regard.

I expected there to be more action. More of a cat-and-mouse chase, but Khanin and Charan get to safety relatively quickly, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed.

Don't get me started on Ramil's father; that man is a real piece of work. Besides the king, I hated him the most.

From episode 1, I wanted to push the king into the grave. The man didn't die soon enough. He must be rolling over in his grave after Khanin left Emmaly and his title behind. Still don't understand why Khanin gave up his title unless he just really didn't want it. (Which, yes, I know he didn't.) I know he trusts his birth father to handle things, but it would have also given him the power to help. Maybe it also restricted him from leaving the country for school or something? It didn't seem like anything changed other than that he doesn't have a right to the throne now. Maybe I'm missing something. They didn't really give us any explanation for why Khanin chose to do what he did. But we got another NC scene! woo . . .

I really wish they would cut back on the NC scenes when we need more explanations, world-building, and character/relationship development. I feel that way, not only about this series, but about many series that I've watched.

Also, we can't ignore the fact that this generation is the end of all four family lineages, lmao.

Read More

A tame version of Only Friends

This can be watched as a standalone series, but I will be comparing them!

Compared to OF, this series had very little kissing, almost no sex (and it didn't show nearly as much as OF), and basically no drug use. It had alcohol and half the amount of drama. It was like they were afraid to push the limits as they did in OF. The toxicity levels in OF broke the meter, while here it barely reached halfway. Everything was too safe.

That being said, I enjoyed OFDO more. Maybe it was the school setting that made the world feel bigger. Maybe it was that the overall chemistry between the actors was better. In OF, I only really liked FirstKhaotung & I really liked Mark as Nick, whereas in this series, even though I only liked the couple of RomeRaffy, I loved EarthMix's chemistry. Whatever it was, I got invested in the story faster than in OF.

I wasn't stressed at any point in the series(unlike in OF, where episodes 7 & 8 gave me SO much stress I couldn't be around people), and I honestly didn't care about Arnold & Tua (hate his name, it sounds like you're spitting) and cared very little about Jack & Dean. In episodes 7-8 & 11-12, I didn't even give Arnold & Tua half my attention because it was simply uninteresting. Jack and Dean (like Top and Mew) were the main focal point, but I found myself not caring if they got together or not, not because of what Dean did, but because Jack is a hothead who escalates situations using violence, and uses Raffy's feelings for him to hurt Dean, which hurts Raffy in the process. Jack, overall, was the most toxic character with nothing likable about him.

Dean rubbed me the wrong way with his interactions with Raffy. I'm assuming the reason they hate each other is because of Raffy's crush on Jack, which, okay, fair enough, but there were several times when Dean crossed the line and was straight up being nasty or rage baiting Raffy for no reason. So I didn't really like Dean either, but I don't think he deserves to end up with Jack.

I was 100% invested in Rome and Raffy's story. They honestly didn't get enough screen time, which left the scenes that would have caused me the most emotional pain to fall flat because as soon as the hurtful thing happened, they would jump to another couple. Their kiss scenes, though? I will admit to rewatching multiple times, especially the one in episode 2.

The main point of drama in this series was easily avoidable. If Dean and Arnold felt like they did nothing wrong, and they were single at the time, then they should have told the people they were pursuing the morning after. If it meant nothing, they wouldn't have felt guilty. Honestly, I don't even know how Dean remembered it, considering how much he drank that night. Dean didn't help matters any by going to Gameplay for a place to stay because he "had nowhere else to go". Excuse me, does Timmy not count as a friend? You can't tell me he would refuse to help if you had nowhere else to go. The only real drama that I felt was unavoidable was Raffy's feelings for Jack and Raffy & Dean being double cast as Romeo, which led to Dean and Arnold making couples content together. There were already massive amounts of jealousy going on there, and it naturally progressed with the story.

In Only Friends, Boston was the main reason behind the drama, and everything kind of spiraled out of control and became a chaotic mess because of how the characters reacted and retaliated. In this series, the drama felt more controlled and, in some cases, easily avoidable. Don't make the drama avoidable; it's not what we are here for. We are here for a toxic mess, and instead, we got characters toeing the line but never crossing it, while in Only Friends, Top and Boston didn't just cross the line, they obliterated it.

As for Tua's reaction, you know it's bad when Boston is the voice of reason. Like honey, sit down, you're not ready to handle the big leagues.

Like in OF, this series focused on the drama and didn't really care about building up character backstories or just dropping characters completely. This made it hard to care about the characters and what they are going through, and in some cases, even like them (like for me, Jack). Some things, like with Pete, just kind of resolved themselves in a lackluster way, and then we heard nothing about him after, and in both series, there are issues with at least one character's parent that are just never resolved; In OF, it was Ray, and in this one, it's Raffy. Honestly, for a character like Pete to be doing so much that SHOULD have caused drama, he felt more like a wall decoration with how involved he actually was.

Boston has changed a lot from the first series to this one. I expected him to be here to start drama, and his entrance made it feel that way, but he actually helped fix things this time around. I'm really glad that Nick found someone new, but I also can't help wanting him to have actually changed, and Nick sees that and gives him another chance. If anyone doesn't deserve one, though, it is Boston.

I like that we get a one-year time skip at the end to see how our characters are doing.

Was the guy at the end a hint at a possible season 3? We saw Mix at the end of OF, and he became the main character of OFDO, so I would like to think it's possible.

Read More

I could fall asleep watching this

Going into this series, I didn't have very high expectations & I was honestly pretty sure I wouldn't like it. And well, I didn't hate it, but I was incredibly bored. Mind-numbingly so. I wasn't interested in a single part of the plot or the characters. Everything felt like it lacked substance as well.

To start, I could already tell that this series didn't need to be 12 episodes long; the pacing was already slow, and to draw out a plot like this for so many episodes is just unnecessary. I was watching at X2 speed from the very beginning, and it still felt like it took an hour to get through each episode.

The characters are also flat, and good acting can only do so much to cover that up. The relationships weren't handled any better when we speed-run Tim & Pei's in the first episodes, so we are basically working with their first meeting & some flashes of moments until they've known each other for a year. Yu and North just get married after meeting, stupid, and up to the part where I stopped watching, we haven't seen any real development for them either. They are so focused on the scamming part of the plot that it feels like the characters are just going through the motions instead of living through the experience.

I'm not technically dropping the show because the production and acting are great, and I may try to continue it in the future, but right now it isn't worth my time.

Read More