3
5
The only way to watch this is to fast-forward through everything involving everything uninteresting, which on the bright side means it will only take you an hour or two to get through.
Edit: Having now watched 1,000 Stars it's hard to believe that Earth is the same Earth as one in this. What a complete waste of perhaps the most talented actor in BL.
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Diabetes-inducing.
Here's representative dialogue:Kluen: Can you not be any more lovable?
Daonuea: I'm a lovable person. I can't quit being lovable, can I?
Kluen: Continue being lovable. And I'll keep loving you. Love you with all my heart.
Vomit. That was corrected for a mistranslation - it's clear they were saying "lovable" and not "lovely", but it's terrible either way. That of course was followed by Kluen trying to kiss him and getting repeatedly pushed away, because gay sex, ick. The last thing I want a brand-new boyfriend to do is touch me.
That, incidentally, was followed by a scene featuring the late-20s couple, wherein a kiss on the cheek is treated like it's a huge deal. At least in this case Fah announced he planned to escalate their chaste slumber:
Fah: "I've changed my mind. I don't just want your company in bed. I want my boyfriend in bed." To me that means "crack out the lube and fire up the DoorDash - we're not leaving bed until Monday." To them it means cuddling while they sleep while fully dressed.
At least that didn't make me vomit. Just roll my eyes and sigh wearily. However, the extremely long product-placement scene where everyone force-fed each other fast-food fried chicken made me plenty queasy.
Every line is so predictable that you actually groan before it's even spoken. Here's a quiz:
Fah asks Prince: "Which do you like bettter - the mountains or the beach?"
Is the answer:
a) The mountains.
b) The beach.
c) Who cares? Take off your shirt so I can hump your abs.
d)
I don't need to fill in d), because you know exactly what it will be. And it's delivered with unsmiling gravitas as if it's the most meaningful and important thing anyone has ever said.
Physical Therapy is frequently held up as the worst BL of the year, but at least there was no possible way to predict what would happen (since it was randomly generated). Star & Sky is so formulaic and predictable that it's just insulting.
Do yourself a favor and skip it.
Story: 1. There is no story - just people being sickening. You can have cuteness without it sounding like it was written by a nine year old girl. Actually, that's really unfair to nine year old girls. There would at least be a cute bunny or a unicorn to distract me from the awful dialogue.
Acting: 3. Mek Jirakit is by far the best actor in this. Much like Mussolini was the least awful dictator in WW2.
Music: 3. The same two bars of synthesizer music played over and over.
Rewatch value: 1. Only if you promise to lobotomize me afterwards. Actually, scratch that. Make that only if you lobotomize me before.
Overall: 2. Sometimes a series is so bad that it's good. Not this one.
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The first episode is the worst. It goes downhill from there.
It's not at all necessary to watch Star In My Mind to understand this series - anything that matters is shown in flashback in the first episode.Mark is certainly cute, and Mek has no lack of sex appeal, but the overall chemistry here is missing, except insofar as Mek generates it by standing around and looking sexy, which in the end has a 2D quality that wears thin.
The central problem for me in this series is the character of Prince, who is humorless, judgmental, constantly disappointed in everyone , and generally a tiresome priggish elderly woman trapped in a young man's body. And yet as interesting as damp cardboard.
Example: At the beginning, the kids hide in Fah's room. It's cute and harmless, but Prince acts like they're all bad people instead of taking it like, well, a normal adult, amused at the situation. Then he's very rude to Fah for no reason and doesn't even thank him for getting a huge spider off his head. I get the formula. They don't like each other at first, I get it. But Prince never changes and just shits on Fah the whole series, constantly making him feel like he needs to apologize even though he never does anything wrong, but rather is very generous and kind to him.
Then he says he's tired of waiting for Fah to make a move - then immediately leaves in a huff so that Fah can't make a move. He's so standoffish and unpleasant that it's not clear why Fah has any interest in him, but if Prince is interested, why can't he make the first move, or at least give Fah some indication that he'd be receptive? So now he's disappointed Fah doesn't have telepathic powers?
This whole series is formulaic and pointless. There's no redemption arc for Fah, because he's always been a good and caring person who had one bad moment because his girlfriend of 7 years dumped him for another man and he got drunk and drove. There's even an arranged marriage plotline that chews up a lot of time and has nothing to say about it, and like all conflicts in this series, is handwaved away anticlimactically. In this case, everything works out because the husband-to-be is hot, so the resolution isn't just lazy, it's shallow and misogynist - "Sure, I'll give up all my agency and have my future assigned to me by men without my input just so long as I get my tall handsome man."
The highlight of the series is easily Fah's sidekicks, played by Mike Chinnerat (clean-cut and bespectacled, which is really fetching on him) and Arm Weerayut, both of them funny and charming and a breath of fresh air. Everything else is a dreary mishmash of standard BL tropes like falling on each other and staring endlessly, the uke tripping about 47 times. etc.
Mek's acting has improved - not great, but a little more natural - but in the end the writing is so bad, and he's stuck acting against someone that could have been replaced by a clay figurine, that whatever appeal he has wears out its welcome.
Mark's acting is not exactly bad so much as non-existent. Aggressively bad acting is worse than the non-acting we often get in Thai BL, but in this case, it's so non that it collapses into a black hole that sucks all life out of the drama. He's really that bad.
The final dramatic crisis is so stupid and poorly written that it's only worth a weary sigh. Somehow, Prince gets malaria which is somehow untreatable, because the medications necessary for this were only developed 180 years ago. His evil ex-bf won't tell Fah which hospital Prince is at, so Fah decides their relationship is over and gives up. Which is what one does when one is in love. Unfortunately, Prince decides moping is more useful than contacting Fah, and when Fah finally decides to try to find him, he can't, until it turns out his brother is a good friend of Prince's, which somehow never came up in conversation before,. And so Fah is able to find Prince, who is a drum major in Bangkok for no apparent reason, and they live happily ever after.
The whole final episode is full of stupid and inplausible coincidences and miscommunication - sure, coincidence is a staple of romantic drama, but they still have to make sense.
Anyway, this series is an incredibly dull and charmless waste of time.
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Surprisingly bad.
I thought with Earth in this it couldn't be terrible, but it was. And the sad thing is that this was close to being good - if only the actors weren't directed to behave like they were in a bad lakorn and the plot were stripped of its attempts to be serious.I'll start with the positives: Earth was in it. End of positives.
Seriously, there were some good elements in this, like a lot of the dialog was funny, and so were a lot of the arguments. But the problem was that this was a comedy that they tried to make into a drama, and it ruined it.
After WIn's explosion of murderous hatred for no apparent reason - I can see him being surprised and even upset, but not so furious that he would commit murder-suicide with his sister and destroy his family business out of spite! Anyway, after that the comedy all fell flat. How did he go from hulk-level rage to petty irritation and banter? And they were stuck driving for seven entire days and not once did the subject of the inheritance come up?
The entire plot depends on an unbelievably stupid misunderstanding and failure of communication so ridiculous that I just didn't care about their relationship, except insofar as it might lead to a love scene, which these two actors are apparently never going to do. You're trying to tell me these two have been in love for 20 years and around each other all day every day and during that time it wasn't blindingly clear what their feelings for each other are? And how is someone not able to tell that his own sistr and his One True Love had no feelings for each other at all? Isn't that something that might come up in conversation?
On top of that, the road trip is dull and repetitive, with a few transparent crises thrown in. It was drive, eat, eat, drive, argue, eat, hotel, eat, eat some more, stop for holy water and listen to monks spout aphorisms you'd find in a fortune cookie, drive, argue, eat. Argh! How did Mix not die during filming? There must have been several takes of each of the 7,000 eating scenes where had to inhale a whole feast.
Th mother's evil plan was so stupid I could hardly believe what I was hearing. What if Korn married someone else? She would have thrown away a quarter of her family's wealth for nothng. And if she knew Win would hate Korn, why would she think WIn would ever allow Korn to marry Lin? And what kind of horrible person does something that hateful to begin with to her own child? Again, someone is a total monster and is totally forgiven for saying "sorry, my bad."
And again we have an uke who has no sexual interest in his On True Love - how long do we have to put up with this sh#$? Bad Buddy was family-oriented too, but they had sex constantly. It doesn't need to be onscreen, but there needs to be some heat. Earth is good at putting longing into his glances,, but there's no sizzle between these two other than what you get naturally from having someone as hot as Earth onscreen.
Earth was such a stereotypical seme from 2015 that it made me LOL. And I'm sorry, but Mix and Earth are not equal in acting ability - it's not the best match. In drama, that is. They're both good at comedy and this could have worked if they'd left it in its natural state. This is as body-swap show. Why on earth would you even try to make it a drama?
I dropped this, then binged the second half because it's Sunday and nothing else is on and I needed to decompress after the finale of the almost infinitely better Miracle of Teddy Bear which is inexplicably lower rated than this mess.
If you're a die-hard EarthMix fan, then maybe you'll like this, but otherwise, skip it. Or just don't watch the first episode - that might work. I love Earth - he's one of my top favorite actors, but I could barely stomach this.
Story: 3. The plot is terrible, but the dialog is good, so a 3 seemed fair.
Acting: 6.5. It's passable, and Earth is really good. Mix overacts too much, which I know is a directorial choice and not his fault, but it is what it is.
Music: It was fine, nothing special, but did what it needed to do.
Rewatch value: No.
Overall: The "suggested" was 4.5, but I gave it 5.5 because it does have a few qualities that I appreciated. Earth's abs, etc.
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A dreary mess
The source material for this is an OTT whacky comedy-fantasy, but for some reason this was produced as a drama. The Anda analog in the original is so cute it drives everyone crazy, and half the joke is that he's totally useless. For example, his drawing is so awful that people aren't sure if it's the work of a small child or something abstract that they don't understand. Ryo is so blinded by love that he that he thinks it's really good - again, humor. Lala isn't a person, she's a manga character that Anda fantasizes about all the time (not sexually - she has superpowers and fights evil).Jet is basically Darth Vader and everyone is scared of him (he's still a good person underneath), and it's Ryo that hates Tee, not the other way around (they're both narcissists and Tee always steals his spotlight - it's major to the plot).
Anyway, nobody ever really sticks to the source material in BL, which is usually a good thing, because they're different media. But the problem is that the original Anda isn't a realistic character - he's not really a character at all, he's more of a plot device, like Ryo's marble. It doesn't work in live action to have a character that is terrible at everything, so they just made him mildly bad at some things, and he never really gets to do anything except look petulant. I also wonder if a story with undertones of pedophilia and incest is the best basis for adaptation.
In this series, which suffers from a terminal case of Penultimate Episode Syndrome, the dramatic tension builds up to intense homophobia (a real bummer) and everyone huddling in tears to a montage of happy times together and a sappy ballad. In doesn't fit the tone of the story. not that anything could, because the tone is so schizophrenic. There are outrageous things thrown in, like Bank's cartoonishly evil and gluttonous manager (so both trans and weight shaming), but these don't fit into the dreary seriousness of everything else.
The writing is poor and wanders all over the place, because they deviated so far from the original story that almost all the plot threads were abandoned just so that we could have people crying in Ep 9.
Most of the characters are bland, and the acting is flat, which is directing and writing, not a lack of ability. There are a couple of moments where you can see how talented Kaonah is, but mostly he just looks mildly confused. This is another case where the soft-focus filter is so cranked up that everyone looks wholly photoshopped. There might have been oscar-worthy performances in this, but we'd never know because it's all a blur.
There really isn't much chemistry, largely because Anda both looks and acts like he's 12 - you can only have one of those, not both. But it' also the writing. I will say that both couples seriously committed to the love scenes, and high scores for that - they were really good. Bonus points for giving us lots of scenes with Film in a muscle shirt or no shirt - he's so hot you almost have to look away.
I can't recommend this series - I was excited to see Turbo & Kaonah as a proper couple, but this was a disappointment. I would love to see this cast in a better production.
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I will say that the acting was great - especially Arthit. The Our Skyy episode with this pair makes up for a lot of the problem - it was nice to see them actually touching each other without acting like they were going to get cooties.
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That was really good
I didn't think I would like this, but was very well-written with fairly well-realized characters for such a short flim. Woo-Tae is an unusual character - sweet and conflict avoidant without being weak - far from it. I loved his honesty, including with himself.Also, points for the total absence of homophobia, which is unusual for a KBL - by which I mean the very story and the way it's told, not the inclusion of homophobia as a plot element.
I could have done with fewer BL tropes, which I think weakened the overall effect, but almost everything about this is strong, and you will likely walk away from it feeling good. There aren't any real kisses in it, but i was fine with that - it wouldn't have made sense for where the characters are.
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Cute but underwhelming.
The main series is one of the best BLs that's aired in the last few months, but this follow-up episode really doesn't go anywhere or add anything new to the characters or their relationships - it was a retread of ideas we've already seen.Also, it was a bit of a grab-bag of BL tropes - unwarranted jealousy, implausible misunderstanding, internal monologues in place of acting (although at least there weren't flashbacks. And by "in place of acting" I mean the cast is more than good enough to convey everything through their acting). When they pulled out beers I was afraid they'd add drunken vomiting and memory erasure, but no, they just sipped it.
They've been together a bit long to have such a non-romantic relationship - I thought when Yutaka scoots toward Minoru in the pool there might be something cute, but he was just worried Minoru was mad at him. Which was cute, but not in the way I would have liked.
Anyway, it won't harm you to watch this, and if you enjoyed the series you'll enjoy this - but just expect a shallow but pleasant slice-of-life.
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Tough one to review
This is difficult, because the acting in this is really superlative - there are no weak players. All the performances are moving and powerful, and it did make me cry more than once.But unfortunately, everything else is rather bad. The story is way too melodramatic and Mexican soap-opera-like, and it's way too preachy with it's themes - I mean, it literally has God telling people how to love each other. The first season showed - season 2 was all tell.
The technical aspects of this were even worse than season 1, with the dialog drowned out by music, roosters and other livestock, or just so faint it couldn't be heard, and whenever anyone was shouting, which was 90% of the time, the sound was badly distorted. All the scenes are too long and repetitive.
There's nothing notable or special about the music, and it got in the way, which is not good. As for rewatch value, I can't imagine ever watching this again, although I will definitely be all over God's instagram.
The suggested overall rating was 4.5, but I have to give it a 7 for the acting. This was really a missed opportunity, wasting the talents of perhaps the strongest cast ever assembled for a BL.
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IT's OK, but this should have been better
I think part of the problem with this series is it's based on a manwha that isn't very interesting, and the qualities of it that are were not brought to the series.The beginning of the series is largely taken up with a bullying plotline that isn't very pleasant to watch, made worse by the implication that the main character's foster brother has not done anything about this for 3 years. The manwha makes it clear that he didn't know about it, but that's not at all apparent in the series.
The othr problem is a general lack of chemistry between the leads, which I think is largely due to the directing and editing.. The seme is quite cold, which is fine, but he's never really allowed to warm up - he goes from avoiding the main character to obsessing over him. Also, the casting is a bit off. The guy playing Haebom is totally beautiful and has an obviously athletic build, and he also has a much more formidable presence than the guy playing Taesung, so the dynamic is never really beliveable.
The story builds up some dramatic tensions that are more or less handwaved away, so once the boys are togther there's really nothing left to say, yet the series continues, leading to an underwhelming finale.
As is typical in a Korean BL, there's an almost total lack of physical affection between the leads - even when they're in bed together they aren't really cuddling and they're wearing heavy layers, like a hoodie sweatshirt. Honestly, they just feel like brothers or friends.
Ok Jin Uk us engaging as Haebom and nice to look at, and there are some sweet moments in this. It's isn't bad by any means, but it's eminently forgettable.
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Charming, a little light on plot
This was a very pleasant watch, with a charming cast and good acting.Points for playing and singing music - I like that in a show that's largely about a band that they actually perform.
What I would say about this is that it takes a threadbare formula and executes it very well. But it was formulaic, and really had nothing to say. College students, demanding parents, typical seme and uke dynamic (although the uke was taller and better built, which is a rarity), and lots of the usual tropes, like umbrella holding, wiping crumbs off the face, lots of tripping and catching. and I'm not really sure what the story was about other than it being a romance.
The parent thing was never really resolved, and Ye Guang's desire to make his own decision was to... turn in a blank test and not run for student body president. Nice ambitions there. Way to prove your dad right.
The first 5 episodes are really wonderful, and then the creativity ran out and it leaned more and more on formulaic elements, but it was never overwhelmed by them.
I enjoyed the series and I recommend it, it you like fluffy romance. It's not overdone or cloying, and it feels more like two boys than usual (as opposed to a boy and a 19th c 12 year old girl).
The technical aspects of this were all quite good, with good directon, camera, and editing.
So I'd rate it "above average", but the lack of plot and themes stopped it from being truly memorable.
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Very cute and pleasant
This series doesn't cover a lot of new ground, but it's worth watching.Positives:
The characters are better drawn than in most longer series and more consistent. The story doesn't wear out its welcome, like most longer series. There is humor in it without getting silly and slapstick, the acting is fairly good - especially Jame Kasama, who I think has the best potential. He's able to project his emotions so that you feel what he's feeling.
When it ends, you'd like more, but you also feel like it stopped at the right place. That's what a good series should do. Usually love triangles are tiresome and make you cringe, but here, where everyone really cares about each other and treat each other with respect and empathy, you'll find yourself actually wishing for a thrupple - I'm not kidding, in the comments section it was almost universal.
The actors aren't afraid of m/m affection, which is refreshing and makes the romantic resolution kind of exciting. The chemistry between everyone is strong, and it isn't immediately clear who the final pair will be. There's an extremely strong clue up front so it's not like you don't know, but still, it's nice for the relationships to be left to develop.
There is no seme and uke thing, which is refreshing - just three guys. No evil ex-gf, no "I'm not gay, I only like___________" It's not explicitly stated, but all three appear to be just plain gay - it doesn't even need to be said. There's the usual failures of communication, but in this case they'r plausible, and motivated mostly by insecurity, not "but we're both guys!"
Negatives:
There aren't really any, other than a few too many tropes - there was one ep that was stuffed with them and it irritated me. I was just starting to get over my BL-character-using-a-knife PTSD, but now it's back. It't not a top-tier series, and it's a fluff piece rather than something that will stay with you like I Told Sunset About You, but it doesn't make mistakes, and its fairly enjoyable from beginning to end.
Story: 8.5 - not groundbreaking, but very well-laid out and doesn't waste time.
Acting: 8.5 - solid - not amazing, but never cringey, and Jame (Mix) strays into pretty good.
Music: 8 - better than most BLs. It's not loaded with sappy overblown balads accompanying montages of good times spent together, it's not the usual insipid BL background music but actually sounds modern, and it's never instrusive.
Rewatch value: 7 - I could rewatch it. It would be a good antidote to a bad mood, and I could watch Big take a few more showers.
Overall: 8.5 - about as good as it gets for what it is.
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This is wonderful
I didn't expect this to be that good based on the rating here but this is such a beautiful and affirming story. The central love story is slow burn but there is wonderful chemistry, and the dynamic between them is quite different than we've seen in a BL before.This is a rural setting, and while the characterization and story is more realistic than a typical BL, there is still the element of fantasy that defines the genre.
At first I didn't really find Yamato all that appealing, but it didn't take long for him to win me over. The story is about one man trying to find his place in the world, and another who has, but due to his past is too afraid of being abandoned to open himself up to love, and the resolution of this is beautiful, with an especially nice touch of it hingeing on the love and kindness of a stranger.
I really need to watch it again as there was a lot of symbolism and shading that I only half caught because too much of my attention had to go to reading subtitles, but the director's gradual ramping of the warmth of the film as it progressed was artful.
A lot of people have described this as "laid-back", but I didn't feel it that way - I thought the coiled despair and fear of all the main characters was a palpable tension that underlaid the film until its end. There is zero external drama in this - it's entirely character-driven, which is what a good drama should be.
One negative, at least for me, was the score. It wasn't just entirely Western, it was very specifically Irish, which felt out of place - especially the use of the song Oh Danny Boy and the instrumentation. It didn't have to be gagaku or all played on koto, but I didn't understand this decision and it was a bit jarring and even annoying at times.
I have the story and acting a 9.5, the music a 6, and rewatch value 10 - in fact I'm going to rewatch it right now.
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So much potential and so frustrating
This is brilliantly acted and directed, and the writing is in detail much better than the average BL - but the story as a whole was tedious.When you have characters kiss in the 2nd episode, you can't just slam on the brakes for 10 more episodes and then have nothing happen. The development of their relationship is beautifully done - slow burn at it's best - but it reaches a peak far before the end and then goes nowhere after that. Not slow burn - no burn, because to keep the relatioinship at a steady level they couldn't continue to show them quietly doing loving things to each other and so we didn't get any more of those beautiful moments.
Sheng Wang does what he does to avoid being turned on by the way Jiang Tian drinks water? After the enormous amount of focus on studies - and I mean ENORMOUS, there was no setup at all for him to do something that drastic. OK, so you're turned on. Go whack off and get it out of your system. Obviously there were deeper issues behind it, but those needed to be explored and not handwaved away with the sexy-water-drinking shorthand.
The could have entirely deleted the tiresome and totally unnecessary secondary couple plot and instead devoted that to Sheng Wang's descent into self-denial.
There's a scene a few eps before that where Sheng Wang explicitly names himself as Jiang Tian's home, which was one of the best scenes in the series and would have been the perfect place to end it. But unless you have a second season confirmed, then it's beyond frustrating to have devoted 12 weeks and hours to this to get absolutely nothing.
To be honest, what kept me from dropping the series was Andy Chen as their friend Gao Tian Yang, who I found enthralling. So hot and such a well-drawn and acted character.
Would I recommend it? No. Not unless a second season does come out and does resolve all the unresolved issues, which is ALL the issues since none of them at all are resolved. It doesn't sound to me like a second season is likely, and all those people, who appear to be most of the MDL audience, can blame themselves for watching pirated copies of this. That is stealing and it greatly diminishes the chances of BLs being made, so hang your heads in shame.
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Good cast, but not much else
This is one of those series you only stick with because the cast is really attractive. There is some good acting as well, but unforunately not much material for them.JC Lopez does a great job of playing a woman in a man's body, not overdoing it but quite convincing and funny - for as long as the plot remembers that he is, in fact, a woman. There was really no purpose to the transformation and it might have been better to skip it. There's no reason Charlie couldn't have started out with the same insufferable qualities as a man. There's a dance scene he has that's so cute and hot that it alone makes the series worth watching. Actually, this would have been more enjoyable if it were just 12 episodes of JC dancing.
Kaleb Ong is fantastic as usual, but unfortunately a bit wasted on his character's story, which is unbelievable and contrived.
Finally, Orly Mejia was a bit surprising, being not just beautiful but quite a good actor as well. The rest of the cast was of varying ability but overall good enough.
The story is repetitive and way too preachy. I don't want to be lectured about gender & love in a BL comedy, and the point hammered isn't really applicable to the real world. It should be that whichever gender you love, your love is valid, not that everyone can be in love with all genders, and in any case it never seems to apply to Trans characters, who all end up alone, so let's not pretend any of these series have any real sense of social responsibility. The message is that only attractive boys deserve love. If you're trying to make a serious LGBTQ+ point, it can't be that all you need to do to get a straight guy to love another man is to pursue him until he gives in, which is not going to lead to many happy outcomes in real life.
In the case of Felix & Kajo, for the entire series Kajo showed no romantic interest or hint thereof toward Felix until he suddently did in the last few minutes. If Kajo had repressed feelings from the start, then we needed to see that procession, not just a light switch flipping between straight and gay.
That lead to the other problem I had, which is there is way too much and too repetitive unrequited love, which grew tiresome and unpleasant. Not enough happened between the main pair to be interesting, and Kaleb Ong is too good at portraying pain to make his storyline something I want to watch in my leisure time. The plot of this is so thin that it felt like watching the same episode over and over after whatever story ideas the writer had ran out after the first handful of episodes.
And dividing it into 12 episodes was a mistake. Having to wade through the same really long credit sequence with the overbearing main theme just ads to the feeling of running in circles.
The direction and other production qualities are OK - it's hard to tell because the script is so weak.
I did enjoy looking at the cast - JC is so naturally cute and sexy that it's hard to look away - but if you need a coherent and interesting story, you won't find one here.
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