xuxanxoxo

Could have been a 5

When I started watching this show, I immediately didn't think the leads had chemistry. I felt the secondary couple had more potential. By the end, I'd changed my mind on both. Finally, around episode 4, the two leads began showing signs of attraction. Honestly, I only have a few complaints that keep me from giving this sweet romance a perfect score.
One is the misunderstandings were carried on for too long. I'm not fond of them in the first place, and to keep them going that long was just too much, particularly when it worked to keep everyone apart.
Another is that Maze was too d*mn mean. How can he stand there at the end and claim that Phab left him when he downright pushed the guy to go to Japan? Told him he wasn't good enough to work for him or be with him? In an info dump near the end, Neung, after FINALLY revealing that he only thinks of Maze as a brother, it is revealed that Maze has a thing about being left behind.
The third is that, while I'm okay with a sweet romance that stays with the chaste kisses, I absolutely hate when they stand a foot apart when they do it. I'm sorry, but nobody does that.
By the end, I was totally rooting for the primary couple but didn't really care about the secondary. Not much time or effort was given for their romance. (And Yacht played THARN? The whole time, the captions said THAN.)
I could have completely done without the whole fight between managers. It was boring and didn't add much to the plot.
Speaking of not adding to the plot...why the big deal about how Phab got hurt while saving Neung from drowning? When Neung's in the hospital, they show Phab lifting his shirt to show a gigantic bruise. Then they show a flashback of how he got that bruise while saving Neung. Later, back at the office, a coworker accidentally touches Phab there, making him flinch. But nothing else was ever said about this. I thought it was going to become a big deal--like Phab had some kind of internal bleeding and Maze was going to feel like a jerk for ignoring him. But that never happened. Nothing happened. It had no purpose at all as far as I could tell.
Good story for the most part with sweet and moving moments, but it needed work, so 4 stars out of 5 for me.

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Cute and Touching

I started watching this a while back and stopped after episode one because I didn't want to watch something about Covid-19 and social distancing--I read and watch romance as a form of escape. But I decided to give it another try, and I'm glad I did.
The adorable leads made the show. What good actors for such young guys. There are some real tear-jerking moments, so be prepared for that.
The only negatives were that I wished for more time face-to-face without masks and about 50 less repeats of the word "baby." I also would have loved a more permanent happy ending, but I think they're gearing up for a season 2.
There were several side-stories that were really worthwhile, including the one with Cai's ex bestfriend and Gav's ex-boyfriend. Themes are acceptance, jealousy, loss, guilt, loneliness, and coping with the pandemic.

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What a disappointment

I have to say the breakup of Ae and Pete ruined this for me. It might have been easier to accept if we didn't have to see Ae crying every other scene. I had to start fast forwarding through those because 1. it was depressing and 2. I was there to see Tin and Can. But guess what? They changed their story too. There was a weird recap with changes and nothing was as good as it had been in season 1. Yep.
To sum up, they really should have kept Ae's scenes to a bare minimum. No one wants to love season 1 only to find their ship has broken up miserably in season 2 with one character crying his eyes out ALL THE TIME. I love Tin and Can and the characters deserved so much more out of season 2. It didn't completely suck, but almost.

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They deserved more

Korn and Knock deserved better than this. In the description it says that outsiders try to come between them, and I hate that type of plot. At the start, we couldn't see any real growth in their relationship, and then with Korn cheating on Knock with that idiot---GAH! Made me crazy. The only thing that held me together was the fact that Knock had been such an ass to Korn, ignoring him and acting like a kid, that it almost seemed like he deserved it. But they never got into that, so the lesson--if learned--was wasted.
And we got no resolution with a lot of the misunderstandings, such as the boss lying to Knock and saying Korn didn't drink that night, etc.
The conflict with Korn not wanting to tell his dad about them and Knock being eager to was commendable.

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Great Cast, sub-par story

Even the guy who played Vee thought Vee didn't make sense. (See interview at end.) Who doesn't care when their girlfriend cheats? Who gives her a final kiss when he's planning on being with someone else? And then he pines for a month (later they made it sound like two months had passed--one of many confusing things for me. I also thought that Mark may have admitted that he liked Vee even before he liked Bar, but I'm not sure because it wasn't clear. I felt that was kind of important--did Mark really want to sleep with Vee that first time? Maybe there was more information about Bar and Mark in another series--it felt very vague in this one.
The actor playing Mark did such a great job in the bar scene when he was so cold to Vee--but, again, the story failed by not providing more. Vee says "I love you," Mark looks touched, and the scene changes. But they can waste precious time out of the 4 episode series to have completely unimportant conversations among the friends.
The cast was great, although the actress who played Ploy couldn't even squeeze out one tear during the breakup scene. The actor playing Vee, on the other hand, was great at crying.

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