It will never not be weird to me that the main couple of this show was never in one single episode out of 13 episodes the emotional heart of this show. Even when Babe thought Charlie had died it was weirdly treated like a secondary plot to the overarching betrayal Babe felt by those around him. And even in the finale, when they have their big reunion, it feels insignificant, and gets completely swallowed by the scenes just ten minutes later between Babe and Way.
The plot, character development and emotional beats of this series ALL completely revolve around the characters of Babe and Way. And that's just weird to me.
I don't even know if I can describe my feelings for this show. It was at times compelling, at times infuriating, but it undeniably had me in a choke hold until the end. I spent at least half of the show begging for it to just end already and now that it's over, I'm wondering what I'm going to fill my Fridays with.
Can't wait to see these actors in other projects, I promise you I'll be the first one on the page for any project they do.
I like side couples as much as the next person. They are a great supplement to a show, particularly if you don't get everything you need from the main couple.
But if the forward momentum of a show's plot has to come to a screeching stand still to give enough space and time to make side couples work, then those side couples inherently will not work as a result.
I'll be completely honest: I have seen no more chemistry or development between Alan and Jeff than I have between Charlie and Babe. I know people are clinging on to them as some last hope of a decent coupling in this series, but based on the way they've been written up until now, I don't have much faith that their love story will be anything compelling or believable.
The same thing applies to Way and Pete. They have been given absolutely nothing to work with, how could I possibly believe within five episodes that they even have reached the point of liking each other, yet alone growing to love each other?
And I'll be completely frank. There is no reason for North/Sonic, Winner/Dean or Kenta/Kim to be given any focus in this story. They have next to nothing to do with the plot. They are distractions that turn the plot into a muddled mess.
By trying to appeal to too many, I fear they will end up writing six different couples that appeal to no one.
i really enjoyed this episode wayyy more than the previous episodes. things seem to be slowly unfolding and the…
This show wanted to paint itself as Only Friends or KinnPorsche with its massive ensemble cast, and then proceeded to do absolutely nothing with the characters they have.
If we're all being completely honest with ourselves, there is no reason for North, Sonic, Kenta, Kim, Winner, or Dean to be prominently featured in this series.
This show wants to be a multigenre show like the Sign, toggle between racing, action, intrigue and romance, but they can't move between their different elements with enough skill to make it make sense.
I appreciated that this episode finally moved the plot forward and saw a little bit of action, but that plot was so incoherent and stupid that I couldn't keep myself engaged. It's so interesting to me that people can watch the same show and have fundamentally different experiences. You say you're finally excited for the next episode, whereas I feel like this is the first episode that I lost that week to week excitement that I usually have for this show.
The short answer is they're not. I doubt any of those couples will share any kind of romantic scene. I'd wager…
Exactly my thoughts as well. It's false advertising and it's unfortunately leading people on in a series that I feel like they would not have otherwise watched if they had known that to be the case.
Ok. So I do want to give a little bit of general kudos just because. (Capitalization is for emphasis, not yelling--for…
I appreciate your positivity. All of my kudos go to the incredible actors that are working overtime to make this mess salvageable. I can't quite get to the place of extending that appreciation to the writers. I'm not in the business of praising hacks.
how are some of these couples going to end up together???? 🥴🥴🥴 PeteWay???I mean, I could see them maybe,…
The short answer is they're not. I doubt any of those couples will share any kind of romantic scene. I'd wager we don't even see a romantic scene between Pete and Way or Alan and Jeff. The creators of this show used pairing off the actors as an ad campaign to make people watch this show. But it's been clear from the beginning that these writers have absolutely no interest in writing a BL. They only write Charlie and Babe together because they have to, and it's clear from the bad dialogue and incoherent plot between them that they didn't really want to do that either. Just look at the writing credits between all three of these screenwriters. Not one BL. The only even vaguely LGBT subplot was a C plot with NetJames in a show that wasn't about them. These writers don't know how to write a compelling gay love story, and worse than that, they don't even care.
I hope they know it’s not their fault (actors), they are doing a great job. I’m watching just to support them…
I agree completely. The actors are the only thing saving this farce of a story.
There was even a way to make all three elements come together, if they were dealing with competent writers. Focus less on racing, and have it be more of a back drop. If you're going to include the Omegaverse elements, establish the rules of that within the universe of the show. If you're establishing characters that have powers, make those powers clear. It's crazy to me that we're on episode 8 and the show has yet to actually confirm that Way has any powers at all. The plot with Tony is obviously the heart of the actual story, and probably the most important element, the one tying all these disparate threads together into one coherent plot, so they should have spent more time building Tony up as a looming threat behind the scenes, that way when they face him in the end, it would be the culmination of an established looming tension. Instead of making your protagonist mysterious and unreadable for absolutely no reason or payoff, do that with your antagonist instead. It makes him ten times more threatening if we see less of him, but slowly learn of him through the traumas the other characters had by his hands. This is basic writing 101 stuff. They needed way less characters, and to learn the fine art of the fact that not every character needs to have their own arc. Supporting characters exist to support the main characters and the main plot, not to run off having pointless side quests that don't amount to anything.
There's a good story buried underneath all of this badly written plot. It's just a shame that it seems like we'll never get to see it.
My brain hurts. This show actively makes my brain hurt, because I'm trying to make sense of something that was clearly never written to make any sense.
The large cast of this show never felt overwhelming to me until this episode, when all I wanted to do was get more of what was going to happen between Charlie and Babe and Way and instead I got never ending nonsense and side character hijinks. This is supposed to be the point in the show where things are starting to ramp up into a climax. I've never felt less on the edge of my seat watching this show.
All of the forward momentum in this story is between Babe, Charlie, Way, Tony and maybe Jeff. Everyone else is a distraction and a waste of screentime, I'm sorry. I'm looking at five episodes that are left of this show, and thinking how are they possibly going to be able to complete a coherent story with all of the pointless crap they waste time on. Even the scene between Babe and Charlie, though they are our main characters, felt long and tediously unnecessary and out of place. There is no flow of story, just a bunch of random scenes thrown together that we're supposed to untangle and somehow find the plot in. It's exhausting.
I can't wait to see each and every one of these actors in their future projects. But I swear, I hope I never see the work of these writers again.
I feel so reinvigorated reading the few positive Way comments others have left I might just actually come back…
I like Way's character, and sometimes it feels like I'm going through the Spanish inquisition every time I say so.
It's always "Why do you even like Way?"
Sometimes I want to turn that question around and ask people, 'Why do you even like Charlie?' Aside from the fact that he's the lead, so it's easy to assume he'll come out on top, what about the actual character of Charlie, the way he's currently being written in the show and not based off of some random book spoilers that are necessary to fill in the gaps of his lacking personality, what about the character of Charlie as he is now, do you find so rootable and relatable?
He's a good person. Prove it. With his actions. In the show. Because he saved Babe that one time, when Babe was angry at him, so saving him was actually beneficial for Charlie to get back on Babe's good side? Was it when he was lying and stealing Babe's powers without his knowledge? But he did that for good reasons! Where does it say that in the show? Oh, nowhere. And yet, people find it difficult to understand why no one can relate to this character.
What I appreciate about Way is that we know all of his flaws upfront. We are introduced to his negative qualities, but we are able to see that there is a deeply emotionally broken person underneath all of that toxicity. We know this because the show goes out of its way to show us both sides of this character.
You'll have to ask the writers why they seem to care more about Way's feelings for Babe than they do about the relationship between Babe and Charlie, but until they stop writing it that way, Way is the most believable character for me.
P.S. Sorry if I wrote a whole novel. I know some people are weird about long comments for some reason.
I've never understood people who rate things before it's completely finished, sometimes an ending can make or break an entire series for me. But I will say, honestly, as far as where the show is currently, that rating seems pretty fair to me. The acting is great, and the world of the show is great, but the writing has been all over the place.
I'm getting kind of sick of the constant comments on this board that feel the need to police how someone else consumes or enjoys their own entertainment. You sit there and say 'If you don't like a show, why even watch?' but here's a novel idea: if you don't like a comment, you can scroll right past it, and how does it effect your life? I don't take my time to comment on every positive response to point out things I find negative, and yet on every slightly critical remark posted, there's someone below feeling the need to throw their two cents in about how you should just ignore the things you don't like and watch for entertainment, or not watch at all. How about you enjoy the show the way you choose to, and just let those of us who prefer to view things through a critical lens conversate amongst ourselves. Is it really that difficult?
I'm sorry if this comes across as rude, it's really not intended to. I just don't like feeling like I have to defend every stance I take when all I'm doing is trying to discuss a show I enjoy watching.
And yes, for the record. I do enjoy watching it. Otherwise I wouldn't even be here, wasting my time having this discourse.
There's something I really dislike about this show at this point. That is, they tried not to make it an omegaverse…
I agree completely. It's like the writers of the show just assume everyone watching the series has read the novel, so they don't think they have to do their due diligence to make the story approachable or narratively sound to those that don't have the same context. Imagine if people weren't just dropping novel spoilers left, right and center. Are we just meant to assume Way has powers? Because the show never explicitly revealed that. Are viewers just supposed to know the systematic workings of the Omegaverse sight unseen? Understand the inner workings of alphas, omegas and enigmas and their different abilities and capabilities? I was willing to forgive the show writers, when I believed that they were forced to write around the Omegaverse plot points. But obviously, that's not true. They didn't change nearly as many of the Omegaverse plot points as I thought they would, which makes them not delving into it or making it accessible or even explaining the bare minimum of the world they are setting these characters in make absolutely no sense.
I get real Goldie Locks syndrome watching this show. Everything is always either too much or not enough.
Too many plotlines. Too many scenes where two characters have to serve for nothing more than info dumping plot back and forth. Too many characters. Way too many couples for any of them to get any real focus. Too many pointless racing scenes that serve no purpose to the overall plot.
Not enough character development. Not enough build up to any emotional relationships in the show. Not enough time on screen to develop side couples. Not enough tension or drama between the two main leads. Not even enough NC scenes to make up for the lack of emotional intimacy.
If these writers gave even half of a rat's ass to meet some of these points in the middle, this show would be perfect. But they don't care. This show is basically a billboard for a new company to push out all of their signed actors to say, see? Look at all these products we're selling you. And I'm not talking about the in show product placement. They are pushing these actors and couples as if they're products. Nothing new in the Thai BL world, unfortunately, but this is the first show where I can literally see the behind the scenes strings being pulled. They don't care whether or not you're invested in Charlie and Babe. If you're invested in Pavel and Pooh, that's all they care about. And enjoy the five minutes you get between Nut and Ping or Sailub and Pon. If you cross your fingers, maybe you'll get to see them as the main couple in one of our other shows. They won't have any development here, but oh well.
Every single day, believe it or not, I catch myself - consciously, unconsciously, and even in my deepest subconscious…
I think just the writing is questionable. The actors are lovely and I think if you engage enough with them outside of the show and learn their real life charms, it makes it easier to be able to appreciate those charms through the sometimes clunky writing.
I feel like the novel spoilers have completely permeated and hijacked this discussion board. Because for the life of me, just based off of what we've seen in the show and nothing else, the extreme level of hatred people have for the character of Way is completely baffling to me.
He literally had a single conversation with Babe where he merely suggested that maybe Babe ought to not outright trust the complete stranger he just met because it's clear from the flashbacks that Babe has a distinct history of being used for what he can do. All of that seems perfectly logical to me. Self-motivated due to jealousy? Yes. But understandable, based on what we know about the characters.
I guess maybe people just don't like shades of gray. A character either needs to be a complete saint who only ever has noble intentions or they are evil reincarnate if they even dare to have a selfish thought. Except, people are willing to completely overlook and ignore Charlie's own lies and mysterious shadiness. So that's even more baffling to me. We don't even KNOW what Charlie's intentions are. He could be the devil incarnate and you have people out here saying Way is the worst for mistrusting him.
I'm not an idiot. I'm sure the narrative will lead to Way being a traitor because it's literally the only way the show can justify Charlie's own sketch behavior and make the main couple justified in being "the only ones each other can trust." I know that this is coming from a mile away, but I'm still not willing to write off an entire character just because the plot is obviously going in a certain direction.
Just as I think the more we learn about Charlie's intentions, the more we will come to understand and like him. I still think there's also a high chance that the same could be true for the character of Way. So far, I'm invested in all of the characters and interested to see how all of their stories shake out.
I'm not really sure where I was going with this. Just my two cents, I guess.
The plot, character development and emotional beats of this series ALL completely revolve around the characters of Babe and Way. And that's just weird to me.
I don't even know if I can describe my feelings for this show. It was at times compelling, at times infuriating, but it undeniably had me in a choke hold until the end. I spent at least half of the show begging for it to just end already and now that it's over, I'm wondering what I'm going to fill my Fridays with.
Can't wait to see these actors in other projects, I promise you I'll be the first one on the page for any project they do.
The only way for his character to receive any kind of believable redemption at this point is through a sacrificial death.
But if the forward momentum of a show's plot has to come to a screeching stand still to give enough space and time to make side couples work, then those side couples inherently will not work as a result.
I'll be completely honest: I have seen no more chemistry or development between Alan and Jeff than I have between Charlie and Babe. I know people are clinging on to them as some last hope of a decent coupling in this series, but based on the way they've been written up until now, I don't have much faith that their love story will be anything compelling or believable.
The same thing applies to Way and Pete. They have been given absolutely nothing to work with, how could I possibly believe within five episodes that they even have reached the point of liking each other, yet alone growing to love each other?
And I'll be completely frank. There is no reason for North/Sonic, Winner/Dean or Kenta/Kim to be given any focus in this story. They have next to nothing to do with the plot. They are distractions that turn the plot into a muddled mess.
By trying to appeal to too many, I fear they will end up writing six different couples that appeal to no one.
If we're all being completely honest with ourselves, there is no reason for North, Sonic, Kenta, Kim, Winner, or Dean to be prominently featured in this series.
This show wants to be a multigenre show like the Sign, toggle between racing, action, intrigue and romance, but they can't move between their different elements with enough skill to make it make sense.
I appreciated that this episode finally moved the plot forward and saw a little bit of action, but that plot was so incoherent and stupid that I couldn't keep myself engaged. It's so interesting to me that people can watch the same show and have fundamentally different experiences. You say you're finally excited for the next episode, whereas I feel like this is the first episode that I lost that week to week excitement that I usually have for this show.
There was even a way to make all three elements come together, if they were dealing with competent writers. Focus less on racing, and have it be more of a back drop. If you're going to include the Omegaverse elements, establish the rules of that within the universe of the show. If you're establishing characters that have powers, make those powers clear. It's crazy to me that we're on episode 8 and the show has yet to actually confirm that Way has any powers at all. The plot with Tony is obviously the heart of the actual story, and probably the most important element, the one tying all these disparate threads together into one coherent plot, so they should have spent more time building Tony up as a looming threat behind the scenes, that way when they face him in the end, it would be the culmination of an established looming tension. Instead of making your protagonist mysterious and unreadable for absolutely no reason or payoff, do that with your antagonist instead. It makes him ten times more threatening if we see less of him, but slowly learn of him through the traumas the other characters had by his hands. This is basic writing 101 stuff. They needed way less characters, and to learn the fine art of the fact that not every character needs to have their own arc. Supporting characters exist to support the main characters and the main plot, not to run off having pointless side quests that don't amount to anything.
There's a good story buried underneath all of this badly written plot. It's just a shame that it seems like we'll never get to see it.
The large cast of this show never felt overwhelming to me until this episode, when all I wanted to do was get more of what was going to happen between Charlie and Babe and Way and instead I got never ending nonsense and side character hijinks. This is supposed to be the point in the show where things are starting to ramp up into a climax. I've never felt less on the edge of my seat watching this show.
All of the forward momentum in this story is between Babe, Charlie, Way, Tony and maybe Jeff. Everyone else is a distraction and a waste of screentime, I'm sorry. I'm looking at five episodes that are left of this show, and thinking how are they possibly going to be able to complete a coherent story with all of the pointless crap they waste time on. Even the scene between Babe and Charlie, though they are our main characters, felt long and tediously unnecessary and out of place. There is no flow of story, just a bunch of random scenes thrown together that we're supposed to untangle and somehow find the plot in. It's exhausting.
I can't wait to see each and every one of these actors in their future projects. But I swear, I hope I never see the work of these writers again.
It's always "Why do you even like Way?"
Sometimes I want to turn that question around and ask people, 'Why do you even like Charlie?' Aside from the fact that he's the lead, so it's easy to assume he'll come out on top, what about the actual character of Charlie, the way he's currently being written in the show and not based off of some random book spoilers that are necessary to fill in the gaps of his lacking personality, what about the character of Charlie as he is now, do you find so rootable and relatable?
He's a good person. Prove it. With his actions. In the show. Because he saved Babe that one time, when Babe was angry at him, so saving him was actually beneficial for Charlie to get back on Babe's good side? Was it when he was lying and stealing Babe's powers without his knowledge? But he did that for good reasons! Where does it say that in the show? Oh, nowhere. And yet, people find it difficult to understand why no one can relate to this character.
What I appreciate about Way is that we know all of his flaws upfront. We are introduced to his negative qualities, but we are able to see that there is a deeply emotionally broken person underneath all of that toxicity. We know this because the show goes out of its way to show us both sides of this character.
You'll have to ask the writers why they seem to care more about Way's feelings for Babe than they do about the relationship between Babe and Charlie, but until they stop writing it that way, Way is the most believable character for me.
P.S. Sorry if I wrote a whole novel. I know some people are weird about long comments for some reason.
I'm sorry if this comes across as rude, it's really not intended to. I just don't like feeling like I have to defend every stance I take when all I'm doing is trying to discuss a show I enjoy watching.
And yes, for the record. I do enjoy watching it. Otherwise I wouldn't even be here, wasting my time having this discourse.
Ok, rant over.
Too many plotlines. Too many scenes where two characters have to serve for nothing more than info dumping plot back and forth. Too many characters. Way too many couples for any of them to get any real focus. Too many pointless racing scenes that serve no purpose to the overall plot.
Not enough character development. Not enough build up to any emotional relationships in the show. Not enough time on screen to develop side couples. Not enough tension or drama between the two main leads. Not even enough NC scenes to make up for the lack of emotional intimacy.
If these writers gave even half of a rat's ass to meet some of these points in the middle, this show would be perfect. But they don't care. This show is basically a billboard for a new company to push out all of their signed actors to say, see? Look at all these products we're selling you. And I'm not talking about the in show product placement. They are pushing these actors and couples as if they're products. Nothing new in the Thai BL world, unfortunately, but this is the first show where I can literally see the behind the scenes strings being pulled. They don't care whether or not you're invested in Charlie and Babe. If you're invested in Pavel and Pooh, that's all they care about. And enjoy the five minutes you get between Nut and Ping or Sailub and Pon. If you cross your fingers, maybe you'll get to see them as the main couple in one of our other shows. They won't have any development here, but oh well.
He literally had a single conversation with Babe where he merely suggested that maybe Babe ought to not outright trust the complete stranger he just met because it's clear from the flashbacks that Babe has a distinct history of being used for what he can do. All of that seems perfectly logical to me. Self-motivated due to jealousy? Yes. But understandable, based on what we know about the characters.
I guess maybe people just don't like shades of gray. A character either needs to be a complete saint who only ever has noble intentions or they are evil reincarnate if they even dare to have a selfish thought. Except, people are willing to completely overlook and ignore Charlie's own lies and mysterious shadiness. So that's even more baffling to me. We don't even KNOW what Charlie's intentions are. He could be the devil incarnate and you have people out here saying Way is the worst for mistrusting him.
I'm not an idiot. I'm sure the narrative will lead to Way being a traitor because it's literally the only way the show can justify Charlie's own sketch behavior and make the main couple justified in being "the only ones each other can trust." I know that this is coming from a mile away, but I'm still not willing to write off an entire character just because the plot is obviously going in a certain direction.
Just as I think the more we learn about Charlie's intentions, the more we will come to understand and like him. I still think there's also a high chance that the same could be true for the character of Way. So far, I'm invested in all of the characters and interested to see how all of their stories shake out.
I'm not really sure where I was going with this. Just my two cents, I guess.