getoffthedolphin

Great mystery, decent BL

I had a lot of fun watching this weekly and theorising on who the killer might be with my friends. I was really satisfied with the conclusion to the case, I feel it was well written and well acted. I do wish that the secondary characters at the police precinct had been given more light of day, especially in the final episode it felt really lacking, but the main characters all had satisfying moments.

As for the romance part, I felt it started off really well, dipped greatly in quality around episode 7, and then kinda just became ok by the end. When it came to the romance parts, the characters often didn't act like themselves in order to be cute or loveable. It honestly was just juvenile at times. This is just a symptom of GMMTV's main audience being teenage girls, I suppose, and it really showed here unfortunately. That being said, the actors have great chemistry and I enjoyed watching them work as a team.

I would watch this again, and I would also show it to others and watch them try to solve the mystery themselves. I would definitely recommend this show, even if for the mystery alone, but the romance has its merits too.

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Great acting, bad writing

I'll start by saying that the cast and chemistry are really great and directing is good too. JoongDunk especially stood out to me, and I ended up being a lot more interested in their couple than the main one. There are some genuinely enjoyable scenes interspersed throughout the series and the plot had a lot of potential. However, the writing did not live up to it. The story is constantly interrupted by loooooong sequences of cheesy filler which would be better suited to a romcom, and the emotional weight of the story was badly undermined as a result. Half the time the show wanted to be this hardcore, sexy drama and the other half of it was just bubblegum fluff. That would have been fine if handled correctly but I just felt like I was watching two different shows at the same time. I wanted so badly to care about these characters but it was difficult to do with the writing being what it was. I enjoyed the idea of them more than the execution.

That being said, I will most likely still go back to rewatch the scenes I did like because the acting is worth it, but I will definitely not watch the whole thing again. Even on my first watch, I ended up fast-forwarding a lot. If you're here for plot, find a different show. If you're here for mostly fluff and/or smut, with some drama in between, you'll probably like this.

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Disappointing and uncomfortable, couldn't finish (TW)

TW: mentions of sexual assault

The first few episodes are incredible. Unfortunately they make a promise that the rest of the show simply can't keep. It fluctuates from a really interesting crime drama to a super bad, tropey slice of life show. I kept getting whiplash from the sudden atmosphere changes. On top of that, the plot, while promising in places, is generally very messy and a lot of the episodes feel forced and only there to make the characters do specific things.

What bothered me most and made me stop watching was the amount of rape and sexual assault in this show. I get this is a mafia show and violence is to be expected but it reaches a point where it just feels fetishy and uncomfortable. I'm not interested in shipping couples who don't respect consent, which is unfortunately the case for more than one couple on this show. It made it impossible to root for some of the main characters.

Positives are great acting, great soundtrack and directing and atmosphere are often well done too. It's such a shame because the good parts are REALLY good but unfortunately the bad parts are also REALLY bad. I tried to stay for the good but the bad just became too much and I stopped after episode 10.

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Toxic as hell but I ATE IT UP

* Trigger warning for sexual assault *

TLDR: This show is has a lot of problematic moments and isn't for everyone. However, it's well made and a lot of fun to watch so if you aren't put off by the toxicity, you'll probably like it.

Full review:

The premise is ridiculously wonderful. A virus that turned the world into an omegaverse? Hysterical. SIGN ME UP.

The acting, music and directing are all great. The show looks really clean and the premise is easy to buy into, I never felt taken out of the story, even when it got really ridiculous. The flowers on the hands were so funny to me though, my friend and I kept referring to them as the My Little Pony marks XD

The show did randomly switch up narrative style a couple times. For the first couple episodes we would get Hua Yong's thoughts written on a black screen but that was dropped early on and never happened again (that I can remember), and at the end Wen Lang's breakdown is just narrated by some random voice out of the blue lol, but these things didn't bother me, I just noticed them.

I'll go through my detailed thoughts in sections:

Hua Yong and Shao You (main couple):
Hua Yong gave me MAD whisplash throughout the show because half the time he was this cool, powerful mafia leader man with his Enigma powers, and the other half he was a pathetic, manipulative stalker boy who made me understand what 'getting the ick' felt like (e.g. the way he follows Shao You around and sends him so many letters after Shao You breaks up with him). Thankfully for the last few episodes he is the former and he was a lot of fun to watch.

Shao You was well written and well acted. The actor is a fantastic crier, like damn. I enjoyed his motivations and characterisation, and I also enjoyed his reaction to finding out about Hua Yong's lies. There was at least an ATTEMPT to set boundaries, which in a show like this, is already an achievement. Based on the premise, I found their getting back together believable and satisfying (though the consent of the marking scene was dubious at best, at least we got a scene showing Shao You being ok with it later). Despite the whole relationship being toxic as hell, Shao You is aware of and accepts Hua Yong's psychotic tendencies by the end (even calling him his 'Little Psycho') so at least he knows what he's in for. As a FICTIONAL romance I enjoyed them, although I only really started supporting them as a couple around episode 12.

It was around episode 12 when Shao You accepted Hua Yong as not an Omega and they get together without any lies or pretence. This is where they get really fun to watch. I loved Hua Yong protecting him from his brother's attack and the following pregnancy reveal. I love a good dynamic flip, and I feel for the most part it was done really well with Shao You.

My only major gripe with them is their rape scene in episode 9 which DID NOT NEED TO BE THERE. It doesn't forward the relationship or the plot. Shao You would still have figured out Hua Yong wasn't an Omega without that scene and their first time could just have been after the marking. The pregnancy thankfully came from a later, consensual love scene. I know it was supposed to make Hua Yong feel guilty and be more careful or something, but then just do a close call, I dunno, the way it was filmed all romantically as well just frustrated me.

Gao Tu and Wen Lang (secondary couple):

I use the word 'couple' lightly because they never actually get together. I've seen a lot of people complain about this but I LOVED it, it was so unexpected in the best way! If Hua Yong and Shao You were toxic, these two were irredeemable. To me, the big difference is that as a rich CEO and an S-tier Alpha, even though he's being manipulated, Shao You still holds power and a way out if need be. Gao Tu has none of these luxuries. He's poor, has a pheromone disorder and has to hide his status as an Omega from his abusive, phobic boss, and predatory, gambling addict father. Plus he has a sick sister he needs to provide for. Gao Tu has it rough, man. He also has my heart. Best character by far. So sweet and gentle and patient, and the way he makes the right decision for himself and his baby in the end made me so happy for him because the whole show all I wanted was for him to get away and be happy.

Wen Lang SUCKS SO BAD. STRAIGHT TO JAIL. To be fair, Hua Yong and Wen Lang both belong in jail but at least Hua Yong is fun evil (usually), Wen Lang is just a hot loser with money. He's constantly verbally abusive to Gao Tu, RAPES HIM, and then has the audacity to BLAME IT ON HIM. When he eventually finds out that he's pregnant (through Gao Tu's dad trying to extort money in exchange for aborting the baby against Gao Tu's will), Wen Lang, the man who has known Gao Tu for over a decade, believes his dad over him??? Gao Tu was right to run away and never look back. I cheered. Their ending is open-ended and I am open to believe they maybe co-parent their child in the future but I just can't see them together unless Wen Lang gets a personality transplant. I did enjoy him being the uncle figure for the main couple's kid though, it was nice to see he became a bit friendlier over the years at least.

I will say that unlike with Shao You and Hua Yong, the existence of the rape scene for these two doesn't bother me as much because it's somewhat essential to the plot. It's how Gao Tu gets pregnant, which is a major part of the reason why he leaves. Wen Lang is shown to be a scumbag and doesn't get the guy in the end, so it doesn't feel so unnecessary or romanticised as it did for the main couple.

The secretaries:
I loved the secretary characters and what their thoughts on any given situation might be. I particularly loved Pin Ming getting teary during Shao You's crying and birth scenes. My friend and I like to imagine Chang Yu, Pin Ming and Gao Tu having a secretary support club where they gossip about the crazy stuff their bosses get up. Especially after Shao You and Hua Yong get together, I like to imagine Chang Yu and Pin Ming become good friends so they can suffer their bosses' drama together lol

The ending:
I liked everything that happened in the ending, I just wish we'd gotten more detail. I feel the show could have been 18-20 episodes, rather than 16. I wonder if they ran out of budget and had to rush the ending or maybe the book really is written like that. I would have loved to have seen some of Gao Tu's life after he leaves since he's so unwell and unhappy most of the show, I really wanted to see him living a better life. It's implied of course, but it would have been nice to even have one scene of it.

I was also pretty frustrated with them skipping over the birth of the main couple's baby. Shao You has a dangerous birth due to being an Alpha and another trope I really love is a character's life being in danger and everyone worrying about them but ultimately they make it, so this could have been SO GOOD and exactly the kind of drama you need for an ending. But sadly they do a three year time skip right after they take him to the hospital. It would also have been such a great opportunity to finally have Hua Yong cry when Shao You wakes up from the birth because they built up his inability to cry so much and then never did anything with it. The main couple's baby finally being born, Shao You almost dying and surviving, Hua Yong finally crying, the friends celebrating, there would have been SO MUCH emotional pay off in this one scene it actually boggles my mind that they didn't make it. So much so that I decided to just write a fanfic to fill in the gaps for myself lollll

In conclusion, I loved it, twas incredibly entertaining. If not for the main couple's unnecessary rape scene and the rushed ending, this would have been a 9.5/10 for me. Despite that, I will definitely be rewatching this, and I will also be reading the novel.

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I cheered, I cried, I gasped

I don't even know where to start writing a review for this show. The story is incredibly complex and detailed, and with so many different characters that in the hands of an even slightly less skilled team of writers and directors, it would have been a complete mess. Something seemingly minor could happen in episode 10 and end up being important in the final arc. No detail, character or action were there superficially, everything had a purpose. There were times when I wondered how on earth they could solve this in a satisfying way and somehow they always did. The characters actions almost always made sense (there were a small number of occasions where I felt a character's motivation could have been better set up, but this is quite minor) and they genuinely felt like real people. The acting of course plays a big role in this and it was fantastic throughout. The costumes and sets were stunning, truly there is always so much to look at.

This show has it all; scheming, murder, revenge, love, tragedy, power, art, music, friendships, the list goes on. I cheered, I cried, I gasped. I haven't felt this emotionally affected by a show since watching The Untamed. I can't wait to rewatch it in a year or so and see all the details I didn't notice the first time.

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I'm obsessed with this game

I've replayed it so many times and still get something new out of it each time. The acting, the music, the story, the costumes, everything is so beautifully done. There are so many possible endings you can get and characters to explore in addition to just following the 'canon' empress path. The romance element is done really nicely, and I love the way it took inspiration from history, it's like a romance visual novel retelling of Wu Zetian's life.

If I HAD to criticise it for something, I would say there are scenes where I wished they had made the actors' makeup look less beautiful to suit the story better but this is issue is common in most C-Dramas. I also took issue with the funeral wear being black instead of the white it would have been in that time period. There was also ONE ending that I got that I felt was implausible and out of character. But truly, that is all and I am nitpicking.

It's cheap to buy and sooooo much fun to play. I promise you, if you love historical C-Dramas you will be as obsessed with this game as I am.

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Very heartwarming

I loved the Japanese drama and immediately wanted to watch the Thai version too. I love how it stays true to the original story in many ways while also putting it's own spin on it, and framing it from a Thai cultural point of view. It even pays homage to its Japanese routes in many cute ways.

There are some useless additional plots that are skippable in my opinion, it feels like they were just added as filler. I also didn't love Pai anywhere near as much as Fujisaki because she was just a creepy BL fan stand-in half the time instead of a real person within the universe. When she was just herself she was fine though.

The main and secondary couple are both adorable and the final episode was especially sweet. I also loved the friendships between all the office workers, there were so many cute friendship moments which I really appreciated. Highly recommend if you like wholesome, fluffy romances with happy endings.

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Just kinda meh

I really liked the premise and the cast but the writing was unfortunately not very good. The timeline was confusing and boring to follow, the main couple were really annoying and didn't respect boundaries, the secondary couple were so detached from the main show that I felt like I was watching two separate shows at once and just flicking between them. It does get better towards the end, the last two episodes were my favourites. The love scenes were also well filmed. I guess my main issues is that by the end I still felt no connection to the characters and really didn't care, except that I hated Achi for most of it...

It has some good moments, if you can handle badly done tropes, maybe you'll get on ok with this show. Overall, I personally wouldn't recommend it to someone.

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