Nijaka

I just wanted to use this comment to say, that I really like the honesty and throughness of your reviews. With long form GL being so new I feel a lot of people try to hype up shows to show support which is very understandable, but also not very helpful when you have limited amount of time and can't test out every show yourself.

Equally unhinged and sadly for the most part not in a good way. Like, there is some zany humor that I liked, but the plot is one part ridiculously absurd (also not in a good way) and one part standard K-romcom tropes. It's entertaining enough, but don't expect too much.

My experience is that it gets better in the second half. But the first half of the first episode is definitely shaky and a little more convoluted than it needs to be for a plot that simple, so I can see your problem with it. That said, this isn't a sci-fi drama. It's a fairly standard romcom that happens to be set in space.

Here I am, clicking through all the new trailers, mildly interested but not really invested in anything, and then THIS comes along. And I'm trying so hard to not get my hopes up, because frankly, gmmtv shows have been pretty soulless this past year, but this looks like it could be so fun. Please give us a somewhat deep, complex, mature drama next year that isn't just another teen romance plot in disguise.

I watched the first three episodes so far, and I think if that is what bothers you, you won't be happy with the next episodes either.
As thai shows (and honestly BL in general) go, this is not even close to the most unrealistic writing I have seen. A lot of cons work by convincing one person who then convinces the others. And a good manipulator knows how to get that one person. Bank staff doesn't ask for an ID, because a collegue (their security guy) tells them, this is a new manager. Would you, a mere employee in a society where social hierarchies matter a lot just ask the new manager for an ID? Con men often use social rules to make sure they aren't questioned. So yeah, unrealistic overall, but in its core it very much works like a real con.

For me, I like this show so far, because it's fun. It's not realistic, it's not a crazy good skript, but things are happening, there is a good enemies to lovers setup with so far decent pacing, the acting is okay, there is a plot. Which is more than a ton of other thai BL productions had this year (looking very hard at you, gmmtv). The fact that this does not bore me yet is already a win in my book, so I get the high rating so far (even though it's not what I would give). It's not that it's a stellar show, but it is good compared to everything around it. There is a fun factor. I hope it holds up.

Honestly, I think it is a natural development. I started watching Kdrama in 2005, I started to fall out of love around 2013. Different decade, same experience.
Yes, there was change over the past two decades, but the basic structure, the narratives and tropes didn't change dramatically. So as a viewer you are less and less impressed, you know more often where a show is going and you expect more (hence the impression that shows get worse).
I sometimes envy new fans who can go in without all that knowledge and experience. But there are so many shows from so many countries to explore, so I just watch something else and occasionally check in with Kdrama again, when a show looks interesting.

I made the mistake of watching the korean movie and it was as bad as you could imagine. There is nothing left of the human element and the social commentary of that show, it was just "Haha, woman has young man as a pet, how quirky!"

And I am happy to see "Mars" come up quite a bit in these comments.

My big problem with a lot of gmmtvs recent productions is that they seem have to be given up completely to even try to tell a story. It's really just a series of cutesy antics over and over again.
And I like the characters here and friends with benefits to lovers has interesting things on the emotional level to explore. But none of that is happening here, because it's instalove by episode 2 and then the whole plot is: Will these two grown men, who we want you to believe have been intimate with each other for weeks, kiss? And after that it is: Will they kiss again?

And it's so frustrating, because with Moonlight Chicken they have shown that they can tell decent stories about adult love if they actually care and don't go the easy route of "just give people some good looking leads and a load of fluff".

My first drama was the Twdrama "Mars". It was 2005 or 2006, I had just started uni and was on my first semester break. I had read the manga and was looking for an anime on youtube (which had a lot more copyrighted stuff back then) and found this life action series instead. And that opened up a whole new world to me.
My first jdrama was "Kimi wa petto" (the old one), which is one of my faves to this day and my first kdrama was "My girl". But what really sucked me into kdrama for almost the whole decade that followed was "Coffee Prince" in 2006. I still remember the excitement whenever fansubbers finished a new episode and I could download it and watch it on my laptop while sitting on my balkony in the warm summer night. I still call this year my "Coffee Prince summer" and have very fond memories.

2005 was the year I discovered asian dramas. My first one was the taiwanese drama "Mars" which was based on a Manga. I originally just wanted to see if there is an Anime for it and stubled over this series which opened up a whole new world for me. Here in Europe barely anyone even knew these existed, there were no streaming services, everything was fan based (and subs were often a lot better as a result).
Taiwanse and Japanese dramas were huge back then, with the taiwanese ones being extremely silly, lots of overacting, but I watched them all, because it was so different from the tv shows produced in my country. I always hated ISWAK though, I felt so bad watching this girl being verbally abused for literal years. There were many really shitty male leads back then and it didn't bother me as much as it would today, but this one took the cake with how persistent he was in making her feel bad about herself.

Thank you for this review. I watched the first 10 or so episodes and initially liked the calm and almost tender atmosphere, but the lack of any plot plus a few other elements (female lead overly pure and shy, male lead basically a genuis in everything he touches ...) made me stop and wait for it to end. I just checked the reviews if it was worth continuing and you basically confirmed my suspicions and saved me a lot of time.
One thing that really bugged me as someone who was an avid Snooker fan in the past, is the fact that the show really wanted me to believe, that an ex snooker pro would continue training on a regular pool table ... in an avenue that has plenty of snooker tables in the background. There is really no logical reason to this apart from the fact that the writers needed him to have that table there so he could let her train there. And yeah, you don't make a seamless comeback in Snooker after training only on the side and on a smaller table for so many years.

With every moment that has gone by since I finished this movie I like it a little more, because more and more puzzle pieces fall into place as I remember certain moments and see them in a different light (plus some of the comments here make great observations). I think it needed like 10 minutes more for a better and more believable build up, but apart from that it's a "fun" movie. Just don't go in and expect BL (as in traditional straightforward romance catering to a mostly female audience), it's not.

There are a lot of things that are not against the law that are shitty and can hurt or traumatise a person. We are not talking about the law here, which is by the way not great in most countries when it comes to sa. We are talking about being sexually active with another human being without harming or hurting them. Alcohol affects our ability to make informed decisions, especially when you are as drunk as the person in question was. And if you can't be sure that the other person is sober enough to make an informed decision (and it was very clear how drunk he was even before he passed out) and 100% wants what you are doing to and with them, don't initiate anything sexual. At least if you are a decent human being who cares about the other person.
I think I have made my point clear here and this is the last thing I will say about this, as this discussion will lead nowhere if we are not on the same page regarding the things stated above.

No, he did not stop when he should have stopped. He should have stopped the moment when the kiss happened. A drunk person cannot consent, especially not a drunk person that explicitely told you they don't want to be with you when they were sober.
And I would have been okay with the kiss, because he was suprised, but trying to take things further with an obviously completely drunk person is taking advantage of them. So I completely agree with this reviewer. That scene also threw me off when I watched it.
I get the need to defend your favorite shows, but I also think it is important to talk about these things, especially when they happen in a context where they are portrayed as comepletely normal or even romantic.