Kate

Truth to be told, the whole story was only baiting a vampire plot line - it barely existed in any meaningful way. You could change the set up to rich and poor lead, mafia, soldier and civilian, undercover agents and almost nothing would change. Almost all scenes with the “we can’t be together/we can’t get closer” were not vampire specific and that’s a bummer.

I think I would enjoy the drama far more if it was not set up initially as this “forbidden romance”. Rather than staying away because it’s wrong to be together, it’s dangerous, it was just “it’s too much unnecessary drama, so I’m giving you a cold shoulder”. But it felt like the mix of two so it was neither this lighthearted supernatural romance, nor this angsty thrilling love story.

All that said, I did have fun watching. I found all the characters extremely charming with unique personalities that did not feel like AI generated prompts based on stock material. Dong Ha was adorable, but he was not a pushover. Ju Won was stoic, but not emotionless. Seon Jae was cheeky, but not cheap. Gyu Min and Eun Ho, while being this comedic duo, also brought some nice more serious moments between them. All the characters also had great chemistry - be it romance, friendship or rivalry driven.

The production value clearly keeps increasing in the Korean BL industry. I liked the set designs, I thought the styling of all the characters matched their personalities and behaviors. There were a number of pretty shots worth screenshotting too.

Overall, it was fun, but it could have been so much more…