egg thief

Lmaooo I feel you!! Sometimes I look at shows like "Love is Blind" and think about how Netflix managed to create two dating shows drastically different in quality... especially with the uselessness of the host. Glad you enjoyed my rant comment! :)

Absolutely love the premise of overlapping stories about the past... every object is a physical manifestation of a memory

I also appreciated the presence of the hosts and their commentary. While in some dating shows the hosts are merely there to introduce the next activity/event that's going to occur, it was refreshing to have these hosts tune into the emotions of the characters, and it gave a lot more depth to each of the contestants. Since there was four of them, it was also nice to see how their analyses of the situation differed - at times when we didn't have the contestant's insight into their own emotions, the hosts were there to balance the perspectives of all of the people involved, and I think that's really valuable to empathize with each of the characters and help us better understand where they're coming from. I think it's easy (for me personally) to get lost in whether or not someone is making - what we think is - the "right" choice and turn this into a competition, but at the end of the day, we should look towards everyone's happiness.

I don't watch a lot of dating shows, but all of the ones I have seen have been poorly written Netflix US shows. While Single's Inferno isn't the best show I've ever seen, I think this show did a good job of humanizing all the contestants. I was really impressed with how open everyone was with their emotions - which perhaps could have just been due to the stress of being on a deserted island - but it was really nice how honest everyone was. While I was definitely rooting for the "underdogs" (aka people who didn't seem to be popular at first) in the beginning, it was refreshing that in the end, there wasn't like a "villain" or a specific character that caused drama, which I think happens on a lot of dating shows - we end up rooting for one person over another. However, I think all the characters were really sensible and ultimately likable, and a lot of them were much less cold than their first impressions seemed. By far, the character growth of each person involved was the best part of this show - I'm glad that even if they didn't leave with a partner in hand, that they were able to reflect on what they want in a partner and what they can do to improve themselves in a relationship.

My criticism is the same as that of @/iamsarah below - I would've liked to see the characters talk about their interests more. I think there was a scene towards the end of the show that really showed two characters bonding over their interests, and I would've liked to see more of that throughout, rather than the surface level conversations we saw throughout. My guess is that there probably wasn't enough screentime to air all the details of conversations that couples had on the show, but it did sort of feel like 0 to 100 real fast - why were people so smitten with one another so suddenly? They certainly did a great job of talking about their emotions once they established that they were interested in one another, but there was not a lot of screentime focused on what led them to that point - just some vapid talking points.

Loved the premise (honoring the deceased as a means to reflect on their journey while living), the realness of the characters (all of them experienced their own story arcs and had depth), and how it all came together in the end (experiencing and understanding others' pain as a segue to recover from one's own).

A lot of tropes but they were executed well compared to other dramas. I would've appreciated more of the humor from ep. 1 to carry through to the end, since the last few eps weren't nearly as interesting

I love this! I feel like we don't talk enough about it. Currently watching Go Ahead and man I gotta take up some of your recommendations. I daresay found family makes me feel warmer on the inside than a lot of solely romance-based plots.

She only starts appearing around ep. 7 or 8, but she does have a big supporting role in the second half of this drama.

(major spoiler-y text wall ahead, please don't read unless you've seen the whole thing. This comment is mainly for myself lol... this drama makes me throw hands).

Lowkey wanna punch everyone... this drama was so headache-inducing to watch. I hate how Pratheep always had to be weaponized by everyone - Min (slightly, in the beginning, at least in order to "apologize" to Day because she felt bad and he didn't want to talk to her), Piroj of course, and Phon. (Of course I don't agree with Pratheep for blaming Day, but I still hate how everyone used his dementia to expedite their wrongdoings). The fact that there was no punishment for Piroj (and some ridiculous fairytale-esque stair tumble ending for Wiganda) and the fact that Min forgave him so easily made zero sense to me.

Phon wasn't any better obviously - if he really loved Min, why would he weaponize Pratheep and conspire with Piroj just in order to be with her? And then he has the audacity to try and gaslight Fah into thinking she's just trying to ruin their relationship by telling Min the truth? Hell no. Piroj and Phon can’t pretend that hiding the truth from Min is the best way to “protect” her. Manipulative bullshit. At least Phon helped reveal Day's true feelings in the end...we all do crazy things for love, but I still don't agree with what he did.

And of course Day’s behavior as the ultimate douche. Instead of telling Min the truth about her ugly father, he abandons her, proceeds to spew a bunch of harsh things to repel her (including forcing himself onto her, which wasn’t justified imo, even if it was momentarily), and then still has the audacity to visit her after saying that he'll never go near her. And of course, although I can see why he would use Namon in order to ensure the safety of his father, I don't think it's okay to deceive her feelings, either. Like come ON, can she please find someone better who's not just going to leave without a word (and who isn't Phon)?

And I straight up just hate how Min and Day were written - Day always had to be put in impossible situations, and Min just followed him around like a damsel in distress. Everything that happened was just to keep them apart, but after a while, all the situations just became too unrealistic.

Overall, the villains weren't people we could sympathize with in the least, the heroes always had something terrible going on that just had to separate them, and this was just 15 episodes of angst with a terrible excuse of a resolution. I understand that it’s in the nature of some melodramatic lakorns to have some sort of a “revenge-esque family drama” plot where love conquers all in the end, but it was too much sometimes. (Although this wasn't quite revenge-based per se, I hate how Day just tried to brush off Min as if he didn't still love her. And it was sort of fueled by the fact that he disliked Piroj, right?) Please give these actors a better plot next time. Stan Ing-Ing and throw all the other characters away.

I will say though, the cast did a good job. I liked the on-screen chemistry between Lee and Violette; I think they both did a great job. And obviously, the villains all succeeded in making me hate them, lol.

3/10. Initially a guilty pleasure watch for the eye candy (I admit, so I'm not officially rating it), but ultimately the plot had me throwing hands. Acting was the only redeemable thing here. Honestly, I think these types of lakorns are just not my favorite—I figured I'd give this one a try and watch until the end, but I guess it's back to watching comedy/sci-fi/less intense romance-based Thai dramas for me lol. If this drama used the first 7 episodes but gave a less involved conflict to deal with (and stopped dooming Day and Min), I think I would've liked it more.

For sure... the worldbuilding is strong, but man it's hard to understand 😭
Thank you haha, I might see if I can challenge myself to finish at least one this year. :)

Ah I'll definitely have to start branching out in that case :) I've heard a lot of good things about the dramas you mentioned - Ashes of Love, Word of Honor, The Untamed, (I noticed a gif from The Legends too haha) - but I never got around to them because I tend not to prefer historical dramas. (Perhaps part of that is also trying to find comprehensible input to practice my listening skills, and historical dramas are always harder to understand... oops.) Anyways, thanks again for the informative read!

I really appreciate this article! Honestly, I watch a lot of modern dramas, and it seriously peeves me when there's noticeable voice acting. But I appreciate the different perspective you've given here :) I've definitely grown used to it because I agree that bad acting is better with voice acting. And it's interesting to see actors dubbing their own voice - I didn't realize that was a thing haha.

And quite frankly, I've been rewatching some old dramas I've already seen for language practice and was surprised to find that some of the shows I really enjoyed were actually dubbed. The dubbing wasn't noticeable/didn't bother me until I became aware that this was something c-drama production teams like to do. So I suppose it worked out well, lol. Overall, I wish there was a more surefire way to tell though before going into watching something whether or not there is dubbing, because I agree with some of the other commenters that whether or not I'll enjoy the dubbing is genre-dependent.

I found myself rewinding a lot of the time to revisit moments early on that were referenced to later on; I'm definitely going to be picking apart each character's thoughts and gradual growth when I rewatch it. So many moments of wit and banter that I feel like I couldn't fully appreciate some the first time through - standing ovation to the screenwriter!

Love that you included Bai Lu... she's so natural with her acting and I can't wait to see her grow. She does a lot of romance-type dramas though, so I hope she tries some other genres.