This review may contain spoilers
My Golden Blood: Almost Rusty Gold
My Golden Blood isn't bad. But it's not a masterpiece either.
When the series was announced in 2023, I didn't know what to expect, but when another BL by Joss and Gawin was announced in 2024 without even an official trailer, I knew that everything in this series would be a test, and that regardless of the outcome, GMMTV was betting on them.
The series tells the story of Tong (Fluke Gawin Caskey), an orphan sent to an orphanage for having extremely powerful blood for vampires, golden blood. Mark, a vampire close to the “leader,” has the job of protecting him until he turns 21, the age when golden blood becomes “pure.”
Well, the series has its strengths and weaknesses in a good balance, if I may say so. And in the middle ground is how I can define the series as a whole. I enjoyed seeing Joss and Gawin together, I found the premise of the series interesting, but I got angry, I got bored at times, and at other times I was slightly static, wondering about the budget for three hot sandwiches and a sugarcane juice in this series.
1. PowerPoint dialogues
Everything in this series, EVERYTHING, is explained in detail. They always have dialogues that talk about everything that is happening, feeling, and MAINLY about the story. At no point could I draw conclusions or ask questions without first having a flashback thrown in my face, explaining almost everything that happened in bullet points. And this usually happened after a scene that made me pause the scene and wonder what I was watching. Everything happens as if it were an essay, in topics, one thing after another, nothing simultaneous or even spontaneous.
Which brings us to the second topic.
2. Non-special effects.
With a budget of two Big Macs, they only delivered one Big Mac; they ate the other one. I can't put into words how I felt at certain moments, pausing the series and watching the scene statically. Scenes like the one where they throw glitter around at the end, and the one in the first episode where they left through the window, partially paper, I can't explain. The green screen also annoyed me at times, in the dreams for example. I wondered a lot about what things would be like in the future if we're talking about special effects at this company.
3. The golden chemistry of JossGawin
I can't say what I expected from the two. I had seen Gawin's work before, so I knew what to expect from him, but I had never seen anything from Joss. Gawin delivered humanity, I could feel from his expressions that he gave himself over, not only the actor to the character but the character to the situation as well. Joss conveyed his feeling of being a soulless, robotic vampire, but I saw that as the goal, he wanted to be robotic and apathetic, because there were moments when it was obvious that someone was trying to suppress their feelings. And that's how Mark felt, that's how the character should be.
The two had chemistry, they made me interested in seeing them together and learning about them, seeing them together was interesting, they made me ship them (I don't like that word, but there's no other) and look forward to seeing more scenes with them. And I really believe they had an investment and faith in this couple, especially how they were treated in terms of marketing, but I'm not here to talk about that.
In My Golden Blood, I felt their chemistry, the characters' chemistry, and especially the actors' chemistry. Together they made a good couple. And I really think they're going to wreak havoc in the second season of Only Friends.
4. Middle ground
Everything in this series is almost there. The plot itself was extremely promising, everything could have gone very well, but nothing was really explored in depth. Everything was superficial. The story with Nakan (Mond Tanutchai) was interesting, but there are several things that don't make sense in the series, moments of anger when Nakan was alone with Tong and did nothing. the character seemed to want what made sense in the series, I need someone good here, so Nakan will be good, and the same happened in other situations, he wasn't even an anti-hero. Thara's (Um Apasiri) story is not predictable, but the way she was shielded throughout the series to reach the end and be defeated in a much simpler way than the series led me to believe. The college plot and Tonka (Neo Trai) dying. Several twists happened, and the point is not to say that the plots were unnecessary, but that the execution was terrible.
The series does not disappoint in more technical aspects (besides the special effects), the sets, the direction as a whole, the costumes, the colors, and the soundtrack. But the main points were left out, the series kept me hooked, I wanted to know what happened next week, but not for long.
My Golden Blood, a series that could have been almost something. It was a test in many areas, in special effects, in the couple itself, and even in the area of vampire series, since the day I write this review is the day after the release of the BounPrem series on the same theme. The series was superficial, almost as if they preferred to receive criticism for being superficial rather than criticism for going deeper and getting it wrong. Is the series bad? No. But it's not a masterpiece either.
The promise of a good story remained just that: a promise. In terms of “vampire BLs,” My Golden Blood stood out, but you can't be satisfied with just being OK, not when it comes to this universe.
When the series was announced in 2023, I didn't know what to expect, but when another BL by Joss and Gawin was announced in 2024 without even an official trailer, I knew that everything in this series would be a test, and that regardless of the outcome, GMMTV was betting on them.
The series tells the story of Tong (Fluke Gawin Caskey), an orphan sent to an orphanage for having extremely powerful blood for vampires, golden blood. Mark, a vampire close to the “leader,” has the job of protecting him until he turns 21, the age when golden blood becomes “pure.”
Well, the series has its strengths and weaknesses in a good balance, if I may say so. And in the middle ground is how I can define the series as a whole. I enjoyed seeing Joss and Gawin together, I found the premise of the series interesting, but I got angry, I got bored at times, and at other times I was slightly static, wondering about the budget for three hot sandwiches and a sugarcane juice in this series.
1. PowerPoint dialogues
Everything in this series, EVERYTHING, is explained in detail. They always have dialogues that talk about everything that is happening, feeling, and MAINLY about the story. At no point could I draw conclusions or ask questions without first having a flashback thrown in my face, explaining almost everything that happened in bullet points. And this usually happened after a scene that made me pause the scene and wonder what I was watching. Everything happens as if it were an essay, in topics, one thing after another, nothing simultaneous or even spontaneous.
Which brings us to the second topic.
2. Non-special effects.
With a budget of two Big Macs, they only delivered one Big Mac; they ate the other one. I can't put into words how I felt at certain moments, pausing the series and watching the scene statically. Scenes like the one where they throw glitter around at the end, and the one in the first episode where they left through the window, partially paper, I can't explain. The green screen also annoyed me at times, in the dreams for example. I wondered a lot about what things would be like in the future if we're talking about special effects at this company.
3. The golden chemistry of JossGawin
I can't say what I expected from the two. I had seen Gawin's work before, so I knew what to expect from him, but I had never seen anything from Joss. Gawin delivered humanity, I could feel from his expressions that he gave himself over, not only the actor to the character but the character to the situation as well. Joss conveyed his feeling of being a soulless, robotic vampire, but I saw that as the goal, he wanted to be robotic and apathetic, because there were moments when it was obvious that someone was trying to suppress their feelings. And that's how Mark felt, that's how the character should be.
The two had chemistry, they made me interested in seeing them together and learning about them, seeing them together was interesting, they made me ship them (I don't like that word, but there's no other) and look forward to seeing more scenes with them. And I really believe they had an investment and faith in this couple, especially how they were treated in terms of marketing, but I'm not here to talk about that.
In My Golden Blood, I felt their chemistry, the characters' chemistry, and especially the actors' chemistry. Together they made a good couple. And I really think they're going to wreak havoc in the second season of Only Friends.
4. Middle ground
Everything in this series is almost there. The plot itself was extremely promising, everything could have gone very well, but nothing was really explored in depth. Everything was superficial. The story with Nakan (Mond Tanutchai) was interesting, but there are several things that don't make sense in the series, moments of anger when Nakan was alone with Tong and did nothing. the character seemed to want what made sense in the series, I need someone good here, so Nakan will be good, and the same happened in other situations, he wasn't even an anti-hero. Thara's (Um Apasiri) story is not predictable, but the way she was shielded throughout the series to reach the end and be defeated in a much simpler way than the series led me to believe. The college plot and Tonka (Neo Trai) dying. Several twists happened, and the point is not to say that the plots were unnecessary, but that the execution was terrible.
The series does not disappoint in more technical aspects (besides the special effects), the sets, the direction as a whole, the costumes, the colors, and the soundtrack. But the main points were left out, the series kept me hooked, I wanted to know what happened next week, but not for long.
My Golden Blood, a series that could have been almost something. It was a test in many areas, in special effects, in the couple itself, and even in the area of vampire series, since the day I write this review is the day after the release of the BounPrem series on the same theme. The series was superficial, almost as if they preferred to receive criticism for being superficial rather than criticism for going deeper and getting it wrong. Is the series bad? No. But it's not a masterpiece either.
The promise of a good story remained just that: a promise. In terms of “vampire BLs,” My Golden Blood stood out, but you can't be satisfied with just being OK, not when it comes to this universe.
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