Beatrice

Competent Housemates/Colleagues to Lovers RomCom

One of the strengths of this series is that both JaeYoon and JiHoon have individually defined character arcs that are influenced by the other. There is no secondary couple or plot, so everything is focused on the two main characters with a supporting cast that fills out the rest of the world as needed. The funny moments did make me laugh when they occurred, which is sprinkled in here and there like most kdramas.

JiHoon's preference for good shower pressure is actually pretty relatable. Despite playing up his spoiled brat persona to the hilt and got a nepo assignment, he's actually a competent team manager and can be quite observant and mature, being the first one offer a truce to JaeYoon and not even be mad at the concussion he sustained from his employee/landlord and having zero issue when JaeYoon drunkenly reveal love woes about a man. JaeYoon doesn't put up enough boundaries to either of his so called friends, both taking advantage of him in their own ways. The comparatively worse one being SeungSeok who JaeYoon is in love with and is aware is using him to buy all sorts of unnecessary and not good quality things, but continues to allow it like a moth to a flame. JaeYoon does start drawing boundaries as a landlord with his pesky new tenant and later no longer letting himself be used anymore after JiHoon helps him fully question how he's been treated.

Some memorable funny moments were when way before they realize their feelings for each other and JiHoon first starts patting JaeYoon's hair, looking into his eyes and thinking "I'm starting to get the feeling I'm going to get my annual raise." and later a heartbroken drunk JaeYoon finds an abandoned pig plushie next to his fallen fork which he leans against the plushie that he starts babbling his heart out to, a scene where JiHoon finds and takes both home and sets the plushie nicely with the rest of the apartment decor. I like how JaeYoon ups his styling game so dramatically after officially dating JiHoon that suddenly all the office ladies finds him attractive and JiHoon is all upset like "He's my boyfriend and I can manage to stay calm, why are ya'll making a fuss???" and tries so awkwardly to block BitNa from giving those ladies any information about JaeYoon.

It feels like they barely dated for a day before JaeYoon finds out that JiHoon is the president's son and breaks things off unilaterally and retreats to his parent's seaside restaurant. JiHoon's a new flashback to their happier dating times seems to indicates more time had passed between their dating and break up though. They should have put a longer montage to indicate that if so. We finally get JiHoon's full back story explaining why he had basically given up on his dreams, losing himself in partying and womanizing. It's nice that he decides to quit and start his own company, but that was pretty presumptuous to turn in JaeYoon's resignation as well without discussing with him first to start their own company. And not even offering co-ceo position to his man and they have another employee that interrupts their spicy lovey dovey work argument anyways.

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A varied ride

I really like the opening credit sequence. The editing of the sound effects with walla interwoven with the music then with the visuals of color and light splashes over the various sequences is really energetic and cool.

Pavel is the standout performer as Babe with a nice emotional range, charismatic screen presence, and a fully committed performance. He is the best part of the entire show. I really love the confidence he gives Babe, not just as a racer, but of Babe in his own skin as a person. His emotional moments are very well done, it's so nice to see an appropriate response to the intensity of the respective situations. He shows the emotions in his eyes and expressions so nicely. Paval carries the scenes he's in and I really hope to see him in future productions with acting partners on at least a similar level of skill to play off each other. Babe does have insecurities in terms of his relationships with other people stemming from the betrayal from both his bio dad and adopted dad, and later from his best friend which I'll touch on later.

The acting of the rest of the cast range from hit or miss to extremely distractingly green without enough directing to steer them. The second lead who plays Charlie in particular is so lost and needs more direction to go further from just acting cute and with a pouting voice ALL of the time regardless of what the scene is about. It got tiring a few episodes in when it was clear there was no further modes to the character. There are so many scenes where it's supposed to be emotional and Babe is bringing it, but Charlie is giving nothing. The character is also already written so one dimensionally with no purpose outside of being with Babe that it would have given him some bare minimum pathos if his interest in racing was genuine and worked to be good at it. I really watched all the way to the end hoping there would be an improvement once the reveal about his true intentions kicked in, but no change.

The intimate scenes seem to be well coordinated. I'm curious to know if they employed a coordinator, but however it was done like through a scripted breakdown and the director discussing ahead with the actors, there was a clear plan and choreography for every sequence. It's tastefully done even though sometimes it seems like it skirts the line between artistic choice and self-censorship with more freedom in the uncut version. It would have been great if the same level of attention were given to the fight scenes which the actors did their parts very well, but the filming and editing really needed to cheat the angles better to make everything look more believable, which again not the actors fault at all.

The regular sets of Babe's house with the wild interior design of the automobiles and faux broken concrete walls, americana-esque bar, and racing garage were pretty nice. Way's and Alan's house were shockingly expensively looking as well, no wonder Dean is extremely mad he's not getting into the big races because it looks like it pays extremely well. The most hilarious set was the hotel that Kim was staying with the murder scene level amount of blood in the bathroom but Kim is not bleeding anywhere. I guess we can assume it was blood from whoever Kim was fighting off, but nothing in the show indicates that.

The show is the strongest in the first few episodes and then proceeds to lag and drag on the plot points with very surface level coverage of the story and implications. I'm not gonna talk about them all, but I have to talk about Babe and Way's storyline which had a lot of time paid to it, yet still oddly fumbled at the same time. There is a tantalizing scene where Babe tells Alan that Way has been making him feel like he's not worthy of love by telling him that others only want to take advantage of him. It's so fascinating that he realizes that Way has been doing something toxic like that. Way is so certain that Babe must have noticed him being in love with him all these years. There is so much for these two to actually confront each other about. Then the scene where Way attacks Babe was fully horrific and is the most affecting scene from the terror in Babe's reactions to him being immobilized, realizing Way has powers, realizing his best friend has betrayed him, and being assaulted all at once. Serious kudos to Pavel's acting in this scene. You would think after this there would be a huge showdown between the two to air out their years and years of history which includes the shared trauma of being adopted and abused. Way gives an apology followed really quickly by his sacrifice, which he should have had some blood on his face for the severity of his wounds. Babe cries and tells Way that he loves him, after Way is dead which is really ridiculous and funny, he didn't tell Way what way wanted to hear a second earlier when he still could. Pavel's performance is really good, just an odd decision in the writing/directing. Babe being open to him and Way returning to their friendship was a really great opportunity for them to have a much needed deep conversation that would hit on the major themes brought up as supposedly important to the story, but it's such a huge missed necessity that the show didn't bother to do.

A few odds and ends that again does not encompass everything else, Kenta and Pete's story only showed up towards the end, but the set up of their emotional connection and stakes was one of the more interesting ones after Babe and Way. Sadly they didn't get time to finish their story. Kim's whole plot just randomly stops as well. I'm really glad that Jeff who gets paired off with Alan is at least 20, though the power imbalance of his boss constantly disrespecting that he's already said he doesn't like being touched is pretty gross.

Overall, the show had the parts to be better, but wasn't utilized to it's potential.

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Contrived soap within the guise of a modern drama

This is a bridge lakorn style drama, which is a hybrid with elements to appeal to the different generation of tv watchers. I have yet to see one nails the two tones right and this drama is the worst of the ones I've seen so far. Just because it's part soap, doesn't give it undue lenience to be badly done. The premise of the misunderstanding is dragged on for way too long, past the point of sympathy for the Meena. It's actually really creepy that she claimed to be a strangers girlfriend in the first place even if she meant well and it's just way worse the longer she did it but that's just not questioned, just shrugged off by everyone. It did more damage than harm and not in any way that added to the story. The way the show went about extending her lie is frustratingly forced with a sudden interruption every time or she changes her mind, even when the situation makes no sense to keep up the lie to a particular person. Her entire storyline is just consumed dragging out this lie for one excuse or another while making moves on the brother she has the hots for without making things clear to either men. Nothing else goes on for her character to develop. She literally never comes clean to a single member of the family of her own accord. Everyone just conveniently accidentally learned the truth or was told by someone else. So her arc was that she was lonely and wanted a man and lied a whole bunch and got a man with his eventually big loving family, everything she wanted.

I feel a lot of sympathy for the way Than was emotionally abused and bullied by the adopted mother and brother his entire life since his birth father died saving him. He loves his adopted family very much, but very much enabled Arthit's toxic behavior as well as aggressively went after a woman he thought was dating his brother long before he accidentally found out she's actually available. That's never questioned either. The way that he's treated by his mom and brother to the point of a very self harm idealizing sounding message at his adopted father's cremation ceremony is only ever heard by Cathy and not dealt with in the drama.

Cathy turned out to have the most well rounded arc despite not being a lead. The Meena role looked and felt like it would fit the actress Jan very well, especially with her being age appropriate for the part if they didn't want to make the characters in mutually consenting adult age gap relationship which would have been great if it was, but other than that Cathy is probably the best role in the whole show. She started off as not valuing herself very well with Arthit who treated her poorly. She was desperate enough to go along with his twisted scheme to destroy his brother, she actually saw Arthit for the scum he is and played him while helping Than who she sees is a good guy and very good at his import work. He's already a great collaborator even before she sees him as a possible romantic partner. She manipulated Meena into fooling Than and sent the message to the mom with her last straw broken, but actually had the self awareness to feel bad for what she's done. She gains self respect, not getting back with Arthit though she is cordial with his attempt at becoming a better person. Go Cathy!

Arthit has the most unearned redemption arc of the series. He is selfish, spoiled, and enabled by his whole family and even Than, but even beneath that he has a cruel, unhinged nature with a near sociopathic tendency to hide behind a mask of kindness while taking extreme pleasure to torture Than just to see him be miserable and less than him. This is definitely never addressed and too deeply entrenched to believably be changed by Than getting hit by a car in place of him. They never show a single moment where he ever lets up being the biggest douchebag and show kindness or brotherhood to Than that would be that glimmer of hope that would allow for such a drastic change in a short amount of time.That second hit and run is pretty ridiculous too, it makes no sense for Than to swivel Arthit out of the way to take his place. The scriptwriter just needed it to happen and couldn't think of a sensible way. Like every time Meena conveniently gets interrupted.

The second most unearned redemption arc is the mother, they have Arthit say that Than took a lot of the blame for the shenanigans Arthit was up to when they were younger, but that woman hated Than from the start for no reason. He was literally freshly orphaned and she treated him like a cockroach. Arthit learned a lot of that from her too. Her son lying and Than getting hit by a car is not enough for her to believably turn that switch to loving mother. They never showed any moment from her towards Than to build up to this ending

The second couple with the two university kids Alan and Khaotung were so childish they might as well be in high school. The non consensual photo, video, kissing, all just played for laughs and "cuteness". The most disposable storyline. Alan's relationship with his brothers is more interesting. He's the youngest and grew up better with Than's influence while still spoiled by his mother. Than and Alan have the closest familial relationship. Arthit and Alan barely interact besides the former bribing the latter, which already says a bit, but it would have been interesting to explore more.

The character of Than's adopted father was gone too soon from the show. He could have been the source from which moments of redemption of love for Than could have been sown before he kicks the bucket. Character development across the board was sorely lacking, the time wasted on furthering the misunderstanding until the last episode and suddenly they wed. There's no sufficient time to reconcile the characters at all. Even if they didn't do set up for love before the lie, they could have done work for them to bond after instead of random road accident, coma, and wedding.

I initially thought that it would be an older woman, younger man dynamic, but it seems like the main characters all seem to be around the same age. It's never addressed and it's distracting, but it's the least offensive out of everything else going on. The casting is okay, everyone played their parts well. I hope to see Jan get some female lead roles with great writing for her to sink her teeth into. The music is serviceable. I definitely will not be rewatching and putting myself through this exercise of dragged out frustration, save for maybe some of Cathy's scenes.

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Heartwarming coming of age romcom series

I really like that the lead actors for Gun and Tinn are the same age as each other as well as with the characters they play in the series and that the teens get to exist as teens rather than as cyphers for grown ups with adult soap operatics overlayed on them. Their youth allows for them to be silly during humorous ways in a way that's endearing that's also balanced by each actor's innate screen presence. Their individual characters and collective chemistry carries the series well. It's always good when the main characters are the draw.

The writing shows deep familiarity with both teen school campus drama and rom com tropes and gives the characters good definition that can be understood even underneath the green acting skills of their young, but capable actors and doesn't rely on misunderstandings to pad out the story or manufactured angst. The drama unfolds from the flow of the story that takes place throughout the final high school year of teens which shifts gradually shifts in tone as the anxiety of the impending competition and future heightens at the cusp of graduation and adulthood.

It was interesting they did a perspective shift with the 1st ep from Tinn's pov and then 2nd ep from Gun's and then evenly afterward. I LOVE both guys know their own feelings immediately. Gun having had his crush for years and Tinn immediately picking up on it as soon as Gun let slip that he's been flirting with him and they have their eye connection. The healthy communication between Gun and Tinn is so refreshing, they don't let misunderstandings or jealousies fester. They talk it out and are loving and affectionate. We never see Gun's parents together, but from context they were probably loving like Tinn's parent's. The calm, sweet relationship is a lovely base for their coming of age struggles of

Not to say this show escapes from the angry, petulant, emotionally volatile guy archetype which they pour into Win. I really dislike that character and that ship as well. The writing did try to show he had a loving side with how he's caring with Sound, but the acting did not come through in reconciling the two sides, let alone add more. Sound's actor was better able to convey vulnerability beneath his superiority complex and the writing helped to with him making the deal with Tinn to go to get treatment for his hand.

Tiw is the representative that asks the questions from the audience. It would have been more interesting to give his pairing with Por the screen time of the secondary romance. Tiw has the most thankless job of helping Gun, Tinn, and the entire music club. He always steps up and never even got to go swim with his ducky float. So when Por who has a bit of similarity in setting up and cooking for the others getting to spend time with each other being the two that showed up and Por noticing Tiw spending all the time taking photos of others on their last day of school, it's could have been better developed sooner.

It's wonderfully done how the realization of the main characters sexualities to themselves and to their family is understood and comes with the beautiful vocal support and allyship that queer characters and the very real community they represent deserve to see and feel modeled in the media. The reaction shots from the secondary characters are great. The wish redeeming scene was the best use of the product placement. It made sense they were desperate for any drink, and the raw and brutal break down and the apologies was a powerfully moving scene. On the other hand the harmful forced outing by bl shippers was glossed over and could have been handled better. Some plots beats got lost or were rushed like the implied financial issues of Gun's mom and all the pair the spares plots except for Yak.

The cinematography, editing, and directing were all competently done which is such a relief to my eyes. I never felt the pacing was slow, a lot happens every episode starting with the first one to further the story and to further the relationship. The way they reach the points where imagination ends and sweet reality begins is so lovely. All in all this drama is a definite recommend to watch and rewatch as well.

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Watchable mixed-bag and signals

I enjoyed how the different focuses of each story flowed from one to the other, but the pacing was all over the place. I liked how certain actors in the main pov role were giving a chance to play against the their usual typecast parts and that the main characters being in the wrong is actually shown as being so, whether the respective actor was able to carry the screen time with their acting though is different per case. For a show that sets itself up to show the underbelly of the industry, it doesn't really do much of that aside from showing Pan being sold by his manager to creeps. Most of the storylines involve actors being ruthless to get their time in the limelight rather than the larger systemic issues. Even when the show mentions other issues in the industries like how it's reliant on nc scenes and "service", the show merely lampshades but doesn't have anything in particular to say about it since the show itself is complicit. It literally asks questions it doesn't really answer in form of their own gossip girl type social media account that's featured throughout. There were also fangirl inserts in the form of two characters. The writing for the live comments from both Thai and international fans were eerily spot on and added well to the tension of the scene as you tried to read the reactions and watch the scene at the same time. It was one of the most well done of this kind of storytelling device I've seen so far, so kudos to the show for that. Some of the twitter trends featured were pretty fun to see like how the changed up the names of real people and events that trended regularly in Thailand like dogexpo7 instead of catexpo9. The actor First again is the stand out of War of Y as he was in Y Destiny and props to Toru as well. Both of them carry zero ego when it comes to acting and are fully committed on top of being actually very good at it which made their storyline the most enjoyable to watch. All of the main pov characters are unlikeable though humanized and Achi was the one who got away with the least comeuppance, which is ironic considering how he complained about how Peek was getting that special treatment in Y Idol. Achi is also a rich kid with a nepo safety job waiting for him for insult on top of injury. First really did an amazing job to make Achi bearable to watch. I liked that none of the couples end up happily together. The ultimate winner and this series' gossip girl, ends up to be none of the featured pov characters, but P. Attichon who seems to have some weird unresolved negative tension between him and the actor he's shipped with, but it's never addressed and he unveals his new series about marriage equality as well showing how he uses his social media savvy to stay on the pulse of what audiences want. Overall I appreciated the effort to do something out of the norm even though the delivery didn't exactly come through, it's still more watchable than most other current Thai bl offerings around the time of it's airing.

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Nothing mattered at the end.

The show lingers way too long on scenes where nothing is happening or something that should have been over after a few seconds and relies on jarring attempts of surreal behavior for attempted humor that always falls flat among other editing and writing issues.

Within all of that, the series depicted Guy and Jing who has fundamental differences in expectations for their relationship that neither could meet and were unable to resolve yet wouldn't let go of one another. Guy is a dedicated nurse and Jing is a university student who needs more attention than Guy has the time to provide. Jing knows that Guy has responsibilities that keep him, but he just can't handle it. Guy loves Jing so much that he's willing to leave an unconscious woman on the ground when Jing insisted they leave. They are clearly not in a good place to continue dating any longer and should break up. Jing of course breaks up magically with the last candy wish to make it so they never dated. Guy is now a doctor having not spent his school years dating Jing and Jing is happy with his classmates. They are still within each other's circles but no longer holding each other back. But none of that mattered because it was just the plot of Jing's student film project. The real Jing and Guy are still together and will be into their old age. The film is implied to have their be based on their real issues, but we don't see how the key ones were resolved, just that it did and back to the never ending fanservice fluff scenes.

This show is a mess to say the least, but Kana and Jing's plotline did stand out as being very competently done. Being childhood friends and Kana is Jing's refuge when he feels down and needs comfort. Kana is clearly in love with Jing, while Jing knows. Earth and Copter's chemistry really shines in their character interactions as Kana and Jing. The ease of their closeness and the palpable tension of the possibility of something more which is sadly unexplored, but the scene where they do finally address the feelings in the room is very well directed, easily the strongest scene in the entire series on all fronts, though the very messy editing with the mismatch expressions and an extra clip that should have been deleted while transitioning to the scene of Guy showing up distracts from the mood sadly. This particular director (and the writers he works with) is so selectively good at either only certain plot lines or a certain series in his entire body of work. I hope to see him nail being consistently good. I feel like he has a knack for complicated friendships type narratives in particular. This series is one of the misses alas.

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This show hates all the women in it

The writing hates the female lead and all the other women characters too, even the men to a much lesser degree. Hong Jo starts off dealing with work place bullying with an unfair amount of work assigned to her and that is absolutely all her teammate's fault. I know it's a cultural thing for the team to eat together or get drinks together, but these people are not obligated to spend time with her on their breaks and after work with her, especially if it's not on the company dime. Her constantly trying to make friends with these truly mean spirited, shallow, selfish people is really pathetic. None of her work co-workers do anything meaningful that redeems them by the end of the show. The show treats the two women getting gossip about Hong Jo's office scandalous relationship or imposing on Hong Jo to skeeve on Jae Kyung as heartwarming "friendship". She's also later falls for Shin Yu who also treats her with near the same level of disdain. Hong Jo herself is a walking red flag, literally putting a weird drink to make someone unknowingly consume without their consent. The security officer had footage of it, but no one was watching or was concerned that some weirdo is pouring liquid into the glass from her own thermos before the meeting starts.

Jae Kyung after learning about this was fine with it, but this is much after he's gotten time to know her and more of his personality has been shown. Jae Kyung and Hong Jo match each other's freak, while Hong Jo and Shin Yu enable the annoying parts of each other. They are either annoyingly arguing or just doing lovey dovey moments later. They don't get to know each other as people like Hong Jo and second male lead Jae Kyung do. They actually balance each other out, bringing her cartoonish over acting down to being a real person while you can see his introvert layers peel back the longer they know each other, bringing out his warmth and quirks. Her moments with him are the only time she gets to have a personality. They build an organic relationship throughout the series. It made sense he would reject her confession when he had barely met her a few times and gradually fell for her once he actually gets time to know her. He's always there for her and never forces his feelings on her. It's a bummer that this is the healthy relationship that can never happen in this show. Jae Kyung is also the only one that has the most complete and interesting arc in the show, with him seeming like he's tempted to corruption which seems to be confirmed when it shows his role being a court enforcer chasing down Hong Jo's past self Aeng Cho. Jae Kyung turned out to be collection information as a whistleblower all along and brought down the corrupt mayor and he moves out of the house for a better life. Good for him.

This series also undercuts every single one of it's good or interesting ideas and doesn't bother to develop the main characters nor their main romance, choosing to brute force with tropey moments rather than build the connection, leaving a hollow feeling every time Hong Jo and Shin Yu are together. There was such potential to the work place bullying storyline when Manager Ma comes back to work and shuts down that behavior from all of the team members, but then totally annihilating her cool character by making her and the head bully Seo Gu be in love with each other and she ends up fighting another otherwise very capable leader whose brains are also scrambled by Seo Gu for no reason. He forcefully does a public proposal to Manager Ma who kept saying she doesn't want to marry and ends up marrying him. This creepy guy also felt entitled to drink from Hong Jo's thermos that she brought to work, just like the murderous stalker did. I hate how this show hates women having agency so much.

Of course Shin Yu happens to be dating Hong Jo's school bully Na Yeon who slaps Hong Jo for messing around with Shin Yu. And Hong Jo 100% deserves it for making both Jae Kyung and Shin Yu drink that nasty homemade liquid, intentionally to roofie a man without consent. Shin Yu fighting the effects of the love curse was a pretty good illustration of how creepy it is at first. She had the gall to be annoyed at him from being upset. Deserved more slaps. They make Na Yeon to be cheating (as well to what the main couple is doing) to try to lessen to how absolutely awful Hong Jo and Shin Yu's magically co-erced and stockholm syndrome relationship is. The spell work suddenly stops and never plays into anything that gives Hong Jo power or agency to help herself at all, it's only the impetus to force Shin Yu to be obsessed with Hong Jo. The set up where she offers the get rich spell to her co-workers goes nowhere. Hong Jo has zero survival instincts, choosing to open the apartment door because someone out of frame of the door video rang the bell even though she was strangled through the second floor window grates like an hour before, then choosing to go to the trap set by her stalker knowingly to "catch him" but with zero plan to incapacitate him and nearly gets murdered by him before she's saved like the useless damsel she is. They randomly let her have a backbone in the last episode, standing up to Na Yeon for the school bullying at the reunion, which again also had to be the guy in the situation to film and leak the video for Na Yeon to truly receive any repercussions, just to have her willfully put her own life in danger so male lead can be the hero. They didn't even let her shoo off the playground bullies on her own. They could have just had the male lead observe and be proud, but nope.

It turns out it was Shin Yu's past self Mu Jin that killed Aeng Cho and didn't even bother dying with her as it's revealed he's very much alive and fine burying the Aeng Cho's spell books in a scene at the end. It follows through to his current life where he doesn't let her choose how she wants to do, he just makes that decision for her and his current life follows that pattern of being that macho guy who will withhold information, be territorial, put her down then love bomb her echoing how his father treated his mother etc. The show tries to have it both ways with his self admittedly unhinged behavior caused by the spell and later having the characters suddenly come to a conclusion that the spells were fake even though we see that the magic is real, so his unhinged obsessive behavior is just him then if the magic is not real. The show also has her messing up the curse breaking spells and Seo Gu never being obsessed with her. The show should just have a clear stance on whether they want it to be real or not.

The other healthy and cute relationship that could have been was Shin Yu's bestie Lawyer Kim with Shin Yu's mom Yun Ju who was sick of years of being belittled and mentally put down by her husband which legally constituted the verbal abuse grounds for divorce which she has consistently wanted for a long time. She even says she kept having to postpone it for various things happening to her family and ultimately she gets back with her husband after he love bombs her into staying and she gets pregnant, which will most likely impact her career that she just re-started again. She was happy and free with a lot of commonalities with Lawyer Kim who respected her as a human being first and foremost. This drama is really terrible at actually seeing what is a good ending or how to get there except by accidentally Jae Kyung, though he also doesn't get to be with the woman he's got fantastic chemistry and genuine connection with.

The show feels like it was just weakly built around the striking initial imagery of ghostly dirty and bloody hands groping the male lead, without any connective tissue to give it a heart or soul.

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Haunted by the ghost of it's full potential

The now removed from youtube conceptual trailer made to drum up attention and funding is one of the best trailers/short film in and of itself of all time for me. The creativity, cinematography, pacing, and comedic timing of the visual jokes are perfection. If the actual episodes was like it, then the show would be perfect too, but when the official trailer came out I could see that it wasn't as snappy and tight, but still excited to give it a chance. I really like how the show makes use of the ending credits to actually show case the status of the group with scenes that change along with the storyline. The design of the spirits as seen by all the living people is excellent, unrelentingly uncomfortable even it's revealed that the ghost was a good person or a good person all along. Kan's great, she's the only one with sensible character development. She bravely went against the privileged rich people that hurt her, her father, and her community. She's right to whistle blow about Home getting away with the hit and run. The only one to treat it with the severity of an issue that it is. She's also the person that saved Home's life. Suradech is pretty fun, they gave the poor guy one line when he answered Kan's question before passing out. It's a real missed opportunity to have him also gain abilities having almost died from poison.

I enjoyed Peach and Home's friendship and it's the only roles of the main actors working together that I have enjoyed out of their filmography, but it was a huge unresolved issue that Home really hit Peach with a car and left him to die. Somkid covered it up, but Home really did that. It doesn't matter that Peach already forgave him after finding out once they are already friends. Home dragged out his apology and then there is nothing that comes of it. He has main character immunity and is the only one of his family to not have to pay for his crime. He's a privileged guy from the beginning to end. It's also feels like a huge chunk is missing that we never find out Chai-Un's beef with his family. He seems to be supposed to be a mirror to Home, but it goes nowhere. It's also really horrifying that Peach decided to serve Chai-Un, the man that he almost killed with his neglectful cooking last time, imitation peas that may or may not have been swapped with real ones based on the guess of Home. It's weird the show framed it as "trust" that Peach has for Home. The guy is just guessing! Peach is nice but does not take deadly allergies seriously and that's really bad for someone who wants to sell food to people. Pangpang has a problem, where she has no self control regarding money at all. She's the one that forced her and Peach to homelessness. She's also rewarded and she learns nothing. She treats Home having run over Peach and Peach demanding the minimum apology from Home like it's petty bickering. The man left her brother for dead and that's her attitude. There would be times the characters would make conveniently very stupid decisions to move the plot along. The poor writing moments seems at odds with a lot of well written moving moments of various guest or secondary characters like Thansai and Ride's tragically cut short love, Kan and her father's familial love, and the tragic lifelong misunderstanding between Somkid and his father. I wonder if perhaps there is an issue of not having enough time to flesh out the script of the series as it does have a very promising skeleton.

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Cinderella in shining armor for a few seconds

It's a trend nowadays where the age difference is downplayed by either the younger actor playing a lot older or the older actor playing a lot younger so the gap is actually so close it's negligible. The difference here is focused on job status, with the female lead as the team leader and the male lead as initially an intern. It was actually pretty cool to see from his memories how she guided him as the responsible boss, the Cinderella in shining armor. It would have been great to see more of that. Their dating days were also cute and I really liked how the first two episodes had subversions like Yun Seo learning from Ju Won's brother that he didn't like horror movies, but went for her and learned to like something new. It would have also been nice if the rest of the show had them learning more about each other, but it quickly slipped into bog standard romcom cliches with the most odious being the faux love triangle with Ju Won always having a jealousy stand off with the painter guy Seong Min, who almost committed suicide, but then his mental health was magically fine afterwards. Yun Seo's storyline with escaping her abusive household and not buckling to her mother's pressure to take on her father's debts was really powerful. Sometimes the people you need to cut out of your life are your blood relatives and to keep them far away for your own well being. I feel it's especially important for Asian audiences to see that it's okay to do so. I like how Yun Seo wanted to break off the relationship because she knows that Seong Min's family would not be accepting of him. I feel like the show could have better connected the fact that it would be yet another parental figure treating her terribly. Yun Seo and Mi Jin's short friendship at the end was really short, I rather they have started their sisterhood sooner and less of Mi Jin and her husband's shenanigans. Yun Seo deserves more supportive friends and family. It would have been nice for Yun Seo to have one more scene with her mother in law, finally in acceptance and support of her, one big happy family.

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Not worth picking up

The drama asks a lot of leeway to be given, to root for the romance, but it fails to earn them with the two important categories which is the writing and the chemistry. The two leads doesn't bring any sparks in their individual scenes let alone together. Had it been better actors that suited the roles and the romantic chemistry together, it would have brought life to the drama to the dark family secrets they bear the scars of. It was really lazy of the drama which puts so much emphasis on sign language to not spare an expository line that Hee Joo can sign both KSL and BSL because there is not just one universal sign language when she went to that political shindig on duty as an interpreter. It's ridiculous that Sa Eon decides to save her from a political arranged marriage by forcing her to marry him and proceeding to treat her coldly and harshly for three whole years until she snaps from the mistreatment, but it's all okay and romantic because he's been in love with her for decades and was doing it for her own good.

Hee Joo just has the lowest bar from being horribly treated by her mother all her life. Hee Joo also has terrible survival instincts, just going back into her car that was previously shown very high jack-able. Her willingness to take the wheel from the kidnapper and drive it into death would be more impressive if she's not so callous constantly. She's repeatedly kidnapped and needs saving in some way again and again, the designated damsel. Sa Eon getting out of the car to face down the serial killer with a shotgun rather that flooring it as soon as he saw who it was, either forward or backward is really ridiculous, especially considering he does that with a whole squad of militia firing at him while he plays international batman. He shouldn't have sent her any clues, of course she would just intentionally literally walk into a warzone and just so happen to survive unharmed enough to be rescued. The political stance the show decides to randomly take at the end is pretty horrific, though it seems that may be bad translation work, which is very ironic in a show that's centered around a presidential spokesman and presidential interpreter.

A plot line that was almost good was Do Jae's tragic arc with him out for revenge against his brother's killer only to unwittingly end up helping the guy instead and the unyielding support is what Sa Eon unconsciously craves so much that he blindly trusted Do Jae, even more than he trusted Hee Joo. Better writing could have done more with this meaty plot line, as was In A's heel turn to want sisterhood with Hee Joon randomly after all these years. They should have shown what exactly made her feel this way in the three years she was gone from the plot.

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Fantasy justice and criticism for real world laws

Justitia is an extremely educated demon, having not only learned demon laws, but apparently all of the law and procedures of the South Korean court system in addition to memorizing the Christian bible and who knows what else. I do wonder if it was also a form of torture for her to endure in addition to being the heir to Bael, but whatever the lore about that, her skills makes her uniquely suited to play the system to her own ends. Manipulating humans while dealing with new feelings that her human body sends her is another issue. She did not understand how crushes causes dangerous impulses like fluctuating with wanting and not wanting the attention of a guy by taunting the police with dead bodies that would lead back to her being a glaring suspect. It's so ridiculous that she knows how the investigations work, but she still leaves the bodies with an extremely unique stamp on the forehead of the bodies around. Her cases draw attention to how the system both in the show and in real life can give slap on the wrists for the most horrific crimes and even in the case of serial killers, they can become "innocent" by just waiting out the clock on the statute of limitations, as well as corruption from the rich and powerful in the justice system.

Although Justitia falling for Da On is a big turning point, it's merely one part of her softening towards humanity. Her heart also pains for other people and she sheds tears for them as well. The Satan hunting Demon charity volunteer group leader and demon crime scene cleaning crew shows that this is a danger and possibility for all demons to become sympathetic to humans, so it's not only Da On causing this in Justitia. I really like that when she asks for 3 years in the human world, it's not to play house with Da On, but to live as an actual human judge full time. She's not at this point centering her life around this man at all, so I'm fine with the romance. The awkward immobile closed mouth kiss scenes never look good, directors need to wake up and accept the fact. The actors show in a much later kiss scene that they can do a normal kiss scene just fine. Also the interrupted kiss gag is also never funny, especially when it's multiple times. The ending has Justitia suddenly given another deal about killing 10 killers to remain human forever and also there is the fate of the original human Judge Kang Bit Na uncertain. It seems to suggest a second season rather than closing out cleanly with room for more, which would have been better as there is never any guarantee for a second season, especially for asian dramas.

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Through the dark river into the light of the other shore

The show kicks off with stunning cinematography introducing the world and our main protagonist Su Muyu, the enigmatic assassin that turns out to be an introverted extroverted and whose brotherhood with his best friend the extroverted introvert Su Changhe is a driving heart of the story within the many relationships that Muyu forms. He's really the one makes friends with ease and even getting a girlfriend despite Changhe seeming the more outgoing one. Muyu is meticulous in negotiations, while Changhe is cunning in manipulation, Muyu is played wonderfully by Gong Jun with the expressive eye acting that he's known for, especially with the more understated character like Muyu compared to the more outspoken personality of all the other characters. Though Muyu has his girlfriend and Changhe has his blood younger brother, Muyu and Changhe definitely has the strongest bond in the entire series with the most moving decisions, their collective will shaking the martial arts world.

People are born or fall into a cycle of poverty and violence and it's immensely difficult to extract themselves from it. A otherwise normal person can be trapped into joining gangs because that is the only support system available to them. This is how a lot of the characters in this drama are. Many of them being orphans who had to join to survive or die. Muyu and Changhe were both orphans that share a similar background of their families and cities being annihilated and both have goals to change the circumstances of themselves and all their peers. To annihilate the gerontocracy of Blood River as a start and break all the chains that keep them as pawns for other's political struggles and bring Blood River into the light, to the Other Shore. Both are equally fierce and goes all out for their ideals and for each other. Since they children, Muyu would save Changhe, and Change would put himself in harms way for Muyu, Muyu would catch a sword with his bare hands for Changhe, and Changhe would plunge a dagger into himself so Muyu could be the lone survivor. Muyu tells him "Those who are strong, have the right to be naive/idealistic." They will find a third option together.

I really enjoy how the characters to the minor characters have personalities and lives that seem to go on off screen. It's something that James Gunn does well and it's always enjoyable to see in a drama. The costumes design is absolutely stunning from the different layers, fabrics, and designs of all the robes to the detailed hair pieces and make up as well. The martial arts battles is actually a feast for the ideas with creative visualizations, choreography, and stunt work that makes fight scenes that are usually a chore to watch in other shows very fun to watch. Muyu's humble umbrella sword alternatingly giving him a ghostly visage at times and an elegant ethereal spirit in others. Yumo's boyfriend's Phoenix that he promises to pick up her up with. Giant demons, swords, etc. The weather, plants, blood, anything that can be formed and manipulated with the will of the inner force. A force that can also form in otherwise inanimate objects like a sword. The music is also really good and some are even unconventional picks for dramas like this that add even more dynamic feeling to the fight scenes. There are still a lot of story that can be told for the main characters and the world that the story takes place in, I wonder if there will be a sequel, if so I hope it's made by the same team, starring the same actors.

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Erase it all

The series opened with such meaty angst with Lee Gun driven to deep mental unwellness by his family treating him as a second class citizen after his tragic tennis accident from when he was just a kid. His pain when he finally snapped and let his family have a piece of his mind was so palpable. It all goes down hill after the extremely ethically questionable procedure done to his brain to take away the bad memories and his personality turns into an annoying, obnoxious cartoon character. The actor can't bring any grounded nuance to balance Lee Gun out. Ju Yeon also just becomes annoying whenever she's with Lee Gun and gets worse as she falls in love with him. The chemistry for the two main couples are all mismatched. Lee Gun is actually way more interesting with his Sae Yan whose wacky personality actually levels out his cartoonish over the top behavior to something bearable. Lee Shin and Ju Yeon are also more interesting together with him having his own mental health issues that are more on the level that Ju Yeon can help with without lies and they can relate to each other better. 16 episode is way too long for this show as well, it might have been slightly more tolerable if it was maybe 10. The twist that Ju Yeon was the actual first love all along is extremely uninspired.

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Another no kiss, exploitative fanservice drama

I didn't know anything about this drama or the actors, so I gave it a fair objective watch and it's so disappointing. If the actors cannot commit to fully playing gay characters that includes even one plain kissing scene, then they should not be playing the leads of a gay romance. If they did at least commit to that minimal professional extent, then it would at least give the drama some sort of legitimate artistic grounding, but since they didn't it just makes it so many meta layers of bad, undermining any possible critique of the hypocritical kpop industry of making money off the the appearance of a gay romantic actions without any support for any actual gay rights or artists by literally embodying the hypocrisy.

The premise itself is a very real issue of using gay as concept to attract attention which the character Ji Hoon plays lip service to being against. Using skin ship and other actions as fanservice to pander to real people shipper fans that many idols are forced to do that have now gone from the once ubiquitous homophobia laced pocky game to non committed queer roles with no kissing. The in drama company so clearly is using the "Business gay" concept but also having their artists staunchly deny and have to avoid the media questioning their shady tactics like the media is wrong to question them. This is playing into the delusional fantasies of real people shippers that idols that are denying relationships are lying to them.

The in drama ceo is also quick to sell her artists to J who wants to work with his first love, and Hyun Bin who has roofied both Ji Hoon and Eden and had them both assaulted by an actress. He took photos of it happening to Ji Hoon and almost tanked his whole career. That's a huge criminal deal and the drama just brushes past it just like it has with everything else that's also a disturbing very real thing that kpop idols have to contend with, their management selling them for sexual favors. There are so many heavy industry things that the drama is lamp shading but does nothing with.

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