Reviews

THIS ROAD HAD NO SPLENDOR, and yet I ENJOYED THIS JOURNEY

I finished watching this drama two days ago, and yet I could not decide on how to rate it. It felt like a heartbreak happening in front of my eyes, and yet I could neither hate it nor look away from it.

One thing I do want people to know before picking this up is that THIS IS NOT A ROMANCE GENRE DRAMA, yes romance plays a pivotal role in the way the characters develop, and the decisions they make. However, there is barely any romance on screen. The story focuses more on the court politics, life as a commoner with no power, and how both of these shape and change the two pivotal leads individually *and* differently.

Without giving spoilers, I would say there were many times in the show where I hated the decisions (or the circumstances that resulted in those decisions) the main characters took, however I wasn't annoyed by them. Usually, I am the kind of person who drops shows instantly once a character makes a stupid decision that goes against their character's core traits. But here, all decisions taken were true to their core, and I think that's why I happened to fall for the show despite such heartbreaks.

This drama dares to tell a new story without falling for the celebrated perfect green flag ML and always understanding and devoted FL drama tropes. It treats its characters as real human beings instead of a self-insert mould in an escapist fantasy. And for that I fully respect it.

It also had me GLUED from episode one; this director's cinematographer should never stop working with him AND the screenwriter as always is GREAT at writing layered characters and diverse representation of what it means to be a strong female character.

I would recommend watching it but I would warn you, there was NO SPLENDOR ON THIS ROAD!

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I've seen a handful of BL shows recently and Fadel has won my heart like no other character.

The story is interesting and (mostly) heartwarming with a great soundtrack.

Don't expect a full on crime drama, it's (mostly) romantic comedy with some serious undertones at times.

Most of the cast is doing a pretty good job, but the actors playing Fadel, Bison and Kant are doing the heavy lifting here. The side couple has excellent chemistry, but the main one not so much, since one of the actors is doing a much better job and it's jarringly noticable how lacking the other is in comparison.

Style is easily one of the most annoying lead characters I've ever encountred. The character did grow on me (very very slowly), the actor ... not so much.

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Underwhelming

I like dramas with ghosts, particularly ones with 'good' ghosts. This show wasn't that. It barely adheres to its core premise. It's more of a family/corporate drama than a supernatural crime rom com. That's my one issue with it (perhaps the biggest). The first sign that this wasn't going to focus on the 'Spooky' is the fact that the ghosts hardly spoke. At first, I thought it was a cool and unique creative decision, but I guess it was just an indicator of the writer's priorities.

Now I won't dwell on the cliches. Common tropes are not bad if the story is well written, plausible and consistent. The show suffers from a weak script. Character motivations and actions sometimes felt out of place and unearned, things happening to quickly (like the romance). I think the show tried to do so much and failed. Some of the storylines could have been done away with and instead spent on building a convincing romance (and crime) plot.

Now I did like some aspects of it, the friendship between the ML and his two colleagues for one. I typically find most romcom friendships (moreso on the ML) unconvincing, in that the non-leads seem to put all the effort in while the ML just exists to benefit from it without reciprocation, but I didn't feel much of it with this drama. I guess that's a plus.

I didn't hate watching this, but it's a drama I'll probably not recall much of in a few months. Nothing in it standouts, it's just average, be it the OST, the story, characters, acting.

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Did the job as expected

I didn't have many expectations when I watched a drama called “Genius Girlfriend,” with Xiwei Tian as the main character, especially after the social media marketing campaign showed only a few romantic scenes.

As expected, Xiwei Tian's cuteness and convincing acting were the backbone of the drama, and the remaining characters, including the male lead, were just there to support her showdown.

I didn’t read the novel, so maybe, to avoid the project failing, they played it safe by sticking to the original plot to meet the difficult task of fulfilling hardcore fans' expectations. But from my mature perspective, they missed the opportunity to develop a contemporary story exposing the challenges of balancing a career, family, and love, which has been the challenge of the modern world and, from my point of view, the greatest challenge of modern society, even for mature people.

For those who love high school stories, the drama is accomplished. For me, I expected high school to shape the characters' behavior, but it spent too much time on slow, unnecessary scenes that added nothing to the plot.

As for the supporting characters, it was another missed opportunity to develop great stories about the challenges of becoming an adult, and Lai Wei Ming’s character was absolutely useless and unnecessarily punished. The only interesting contributions were the main character accepting the love, avoiding the usual antagonist trying to split the MLs, and the sick girl's quote about healthy people worrying about superficial issues when survival is the challenge for others. By the way, the final voice-message scene was unnecessarily melodramatic, illogical, and poorly timed.

About intimacy, I am still trying to understand the message of Asian dramas because, as far as I know, Westerns and Asian dramas have the same physical motivations. I think between the extremely sexualized American dramas and movies and the puritanism of the asian dramas, we can navigate more realistic situations.

Xiwei Tian's cuteness covered the huge plot holes. As part of the romantic-comedy license, money comes from heaven; the ML just wanted to study, and after five years of struggling with money, he could magically afford to pursue his studies, and just like that, he was a successful researcher.

For me, developing the story of how they became successful while trying to build a new married life, working remotely, was the real deal, and summarizing in a few minutes the most difficult part of their life was a wasted opportunity, forcing a happy ending which could be achieved, as we all expected, making sense of the plot.

As for cinematography, nothing special; as the comment said, it used too much AI, which didn’t affect the plot or cover the hole.

In the end, I had fun; the drama did its job, and it is another drama.

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Misleading Rom Com

The story itself feels fundamentally flawed. While marketed as a rom com, it suddenly pivots to depicting flagrantly abusive characters. The writers introduce a wide spectrum of parenting styles—ranging from supportive and neglectful to toxic, controlling, and outright violent—yet the narrative refuses to deal honestly with the consequences of these actions. Treating such extreme characters lightly, rather than focusing on mildly dysfunctional ones like the female lead's mother, makes these subplots feel like a disappointing distraction.

Additionally, casting mid-30s actors to play high schoolers in uniforms feels absurd, regardless of how intertwined the dual timelines are. Hiring actual teen actors for the flashback sequences would have made those scenes far more believable and natural.

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Just Wonderful To See Them Together Again!!

If you were a fan of Guardian back in 2017 (and how can you not be) ... you will absolutely love this reunion of the cast.
I may be a bit bias with this review, because Dong Wook has always been my favorite actor. That said, this was a reunion that really seemed special, not just for us to watch, but for everyone in the cast that gets together at this beach house.
We've all seen gatherings of celebrities get together and you can pretty much tell everything is staged and phony. This show does not appear to be that way at all. Everyone seemed genuine and enthusiastic toward seeing each other.
I'm never a fan of "real" tv. I hate reality shows, but this was not at all like that.
We watched them travel, shop for food, cook together, drink together. We get to see them reminisce about the last ten years and special moments for them making Guardian.
If they were putting on an act, you never know it. It really was a special few hours to watch it all come together.
Dong Wook walking through a parking lot at the food market and a woman says to him "You really are beautiful" ... and without missing a beat, he responds back "Yes, I know" ... just classic!

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Royal intrigues and shoulder pads

Overall I liked this drama for it's story line and character consistency (well, most characters were consistent). The overall plot was the ''lost princess'' trope, but there were many side quests interspersed into the story and they were concluded within 3-4 episodes each, which was kind of new for my watching experience.

Acting was OK. As oring as I found the side character relationships to begin with, in the end the FL and ML best friends provided a more moving relationship arc than the leads. Lots of shoulder pads, they did a lot of male acting.

The camera work was pretty but editing was questionable, especially the slow motion moments, that often didn't make sense for the tone of the moment and were too many in total. Music was not memorable, except for a few darker tunes when the antagonists appeared on screen, which made me chuckle.

Plot was easy to follow and guess. By ep 4 I knew who was the big bad and that whole plot line was very dissapointing. It didn't help that they threw in more antagonists as the series progressed, because they were all so easy to deal with that they posed no real threat. Overall, the protagonists had a way too easy of a time dealing with their controversies, although the FL was dealt a ridiculous amount of attacks against her. Story wise it just looked like something to make everyone like her, because there was no character growth through these ordeals as she had already gone through hell as a child, which solidified her personality as a head strong, scrappy, street-smart, quick witted lier who would do anything to get out of a sticky situation and stand up for the ones she loves. How quickly she became a loyal subject who would do everything according to the law was also a leap, but that at least was within the confines of logical character development.

The ending made no sense and did a huge disservice to the series. Normally I expect the series to run up to 40 episodes, so 32 is a bit short, and this story just felt like it was cut off as quickly as possible after the FL made nonsensical choices. In my opinion it made no logical sense for the character to all of a sudden be willing to leave everything behind for a nation she only recently remembered to be a part of. Yes, she's a champion for the under dog, her family was slaughtered and survivors were being tortured and imprisoned, but the 180 she did looked to be more for the sake of drama than a logical story and character development, which was very dissapointing.

The closer to the end the series drew, the more rushed everything felt, starting from a one night martial arts learning to apparent double and tripple crosses with no clues how or when they were planned, especially taking into account the shear size of some of the plots. Ah, we have a problem, what's the ieasiest and fastest way to deal with it - let's just jump to that.

The whole court drama was a let down, they tried to make it more than it was, but it never amounted to more than Emperor and Ministers yelling at each other and then FL getting smacked, slapped, attacked or thrown into dungeon for it. For all its female empowerment, the series sure didn't hold back on violence against women. No relationship on the show felt genuienly real and I hate to say it, because at least here there was shown some good female relationships. But that was mostly because the hole premise was built on emancipation, girl bossing and womens power. I just wish it had more nuance than ''men are always evil'' and ''women are jelous snakes''. But OK, I'm being very picky, it was still miles better than other plots.

The ending, on one hand, was unusual, as the FL and ML didn't become a couple, but it also felt very rushed. Maybe there will be season 2, I wouldn't mind watching that.

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It starts good then...

I thought I’ve discovered a gem, but as the story progresses , it has this weird, unsettling, character development. They try to takle serious issues like work and family relaled harassment and abuse by brushing it off with "misunderstanding" , giving abusers a redemption arc. One of the girl's fear of menn which caused by abuse/trauma from childhood gets easily resolved (not by a therapist) but a male friend from the neighborhood? And later finds peace when her resentment towards her abuser comes to an end after he reveals some "misunderstanding" of his actions. I mean why include serious subjects if you want make light hearted slice of life drama? Truly an odd choice, also the house helper does not only help you with house chores but is also « a life coach» writer really tried to paint him into this perfection. This could’ve been a gem if the writer wasn’t confused and tone deaf.

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Not the best series but a good starting point.

I've been a on again off again week to week watcher of Kamen Rider since Wizard so I was very interested to see how the first series to be simulcasted in the west would go and I gotta say it's pretty good, though far from perfect. The secret Agent aesthetic early on is probably one of it's strongest points, it really succeeds in evoking stuff like James Bond without straight up copying it, giving it that Rider spin so to say. Though I honestly found the Rider and Kaijin suit design the be quite wanting this series, with only the base and final forms of Zeztz fitting my own tastes enough to make me want figures just based on the looks and all the others just coming off as an oddly colored collection of shapes, sometimes with a very entertaining characters inside. I think the cast is also pretty entertaining, the younger actors are a little rough at times but they mostly hit their marks and the veteran character actors they join have some really fun out there moments when they're allowed to cut loose. Plus, while it is used quite repetitively, the score is very solid and helps to sell moments that would otherwise feel a little weak ether due to the acting or story. Personally though, I feel like the writing really falls off after the big mid series reveal and because of that I'm kinda leaning towards this being my least favorite Takahashi Yuya Rider series, it just goes in a direction that really feels like it's ignoring a greater point it seemed to be building towards in favor of something that feels more generic and makes some of the leads look like fools to me as a more critical viewer. It's not terrible though, the final arc still has a few very good episodes, the action direction stays good throughout almost the entire series if a bit special effects relient for my taste and the finale left me feeling fairly satisfied and interested in seeing what My-th will have to offer. Overall, I think this show did it's job as a good introductory series for new fans that was neat enough for long time ones like myself, but that's really all it works as, this isn't a show I think I'll ever feel the pull to revisit.

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A story about music, friendships, and rivalries

This drama has had an excellent start. Ever since I heard it was premiering, it's been the one I've been most looking forward to (plus, the finale airs on my birthday, how exciting!). As a pianist, this series really appealed to me. So far, it's going well, and I hope it continues this way. I like that it doesn't focus on a love triangle, but rather on friendship instead of romance. Another point I liked is how it focused on the family situations of our protagonists and how they struggle day after day; it's very realistic, and that contemporary touch definitely gives the drama a great style. The actors were fantastic, and Jang Gyu-ri was undoubtedly the funniest with her character's energy. So I have high expectations and hope it continues like this. 🎹

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Queer as Folks Thailand…maybe

The much-awaited return of WilliamEst is finally here. Since their debut series, their popularity has skyrocketed, and the simultaneous world-wide release on Netflix, IQIYI, VIKI and GMMTV shows just how much they have helped define the rapidly expanding Thai BL industry. As Uncle Ben told Peter Parker, “With great power comes great responsibility.” The expectations placed upon these two are now enormous. For sure GMMTV brought out their big guns (and money) to produce this series.

A breakout series may rely heavily on chemistry and production, but lasting success also depends on choosing the right script. As William and Est gradually move into more mature roles, You Maniac has the opportunity to prove that their appeal extends beyond the characters who made them famous.

The series enters Thailand’s openly visible gay culture through two opposing personalities…Dean, a seemingly open-book player, and Moth, who is far more guarded and reserved. It is a familiar pairing, told many times before, so I hope the writers develop them into something deeper than another hormone-driven gay romance. With its large ensemble of men navigating their own relationships, the series already reminds me of one of my favorite gay shows…the American version of Queer as Folk. Thankfully, WilliamEst were never trapped in high school roles, which should make their transition into this more adult world feel natural.

Perhaps I am asking too much after only one episode, but the potential is clearly there. If You Maniac can come even close to the emotional and sexual intensity of Queer as Folk, WilliamEst may finally break free from the shadows of Thame and Po…and begin defining who they truly want to become as actors.

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First Love, Six Years of Pain, Intense Kisses and a Reunion I Could Not Stop Watching!

I am usually not a fan of vertical dramas because I have to constantly hold my phone. Unfortunately, Eyes on You is not available on the iQIYI TV app and can only be watched through the mobile app. However, once I started watching, I completely forgot about that minor inconvenience. I was addicted from beginning to end and watched all 51 short episodes in one sitting. Yes, all 51 episodes in one go. I was completely hooked because it was just that good.

The story follows Junheng and Shiyu, who were each other's first love during high school and shared a passion for archery. Their relationship was torn apart six years earlier when Shiyu suddenly left Junheng. At the time, Junheng believed that Shiyu had chosen money over their relationship after his father offered Shiyu financial help while Shiyu's own father was seriously ill in hospital.

However, the truth was much more complicated. Shiyu made the painful decision to walk away because he wanted Junheng to focus on his future and pursue his archery career without the pressure and potential consequences surrounding their same sex relationship. Unfortunately, years of misunderstandings and unresolved pain left both of them deeply hurt.

When they reunite six years later, Junheng is now a successful archery champion and asks Shiyu to become his manager and work with him. Their relationship goes through a emotional journey from former lovers to enemies and eventually back to lovers again. Junheng initially wants to make Shiyu feel the pain he carried for years, but as they spend more time together, his anger slowly begins to turn into concern. The torment gradually becomes caring, protecting and rescuing Shiyu, as his heart slowly opens up again.

The basic premise is not particularly new. We have seen similar storylines countless times in K-dramas, especially the rich parent offering money to the poorer main lead and telling them to leave their child. But honestly, a familiar plot can still be incredibly enjoyable when it is executed well, and Eyes on You absolutely kept me entertained.

What really made this series work for me was the chemistry between the two leads. The acting was engaging, the tension between them was addictive, and their relationship kept me wanting to immediately watch the next episode. The kissing scenes were especially intense. Their early kisses were filled with anger, resentment and years of unresolved emotions, but once the misunderstandings began to clear, their relationship became incredibly cute and adorable.

The story itself is simple, but sometimes simple stories are exactly what you need when the acting and chemistry are strong enough to keep you invested. Despite being a short vertical series, I found myself completely absorbed in their journey from first love, to enemies, and finally finding their way back to each other.

If you enjoy first love reunions, lovers becoming enemies before falling in love again, athlete male leads, emotional misunderstandings, flashbacks, archery, intense kissing scenes and a story that hooks you from start to finish, this short series should definitely not be missed.

I honestly hope both actors get the opportunity to star together in a full length series in the future because I would absolutely support and watch them again.

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