Reviews

Well, I have very mixed feelings towards this drama.

Well, I have very mixed feelings towards this drama. Head over Heals is very interesting story-wise. I very much liked the deep cultural representation it brought, from Shamanism, to folklore, to history. It made me want to conduct research on spirits, ghosts, and the grim reaper (one of the topics I am most fascinated by). The cast is very charming, and characters like Do Ryeong, or as he is known: The “Flower Master,” very witty yet kind-hearted, and a nice callback on the cultural aspect of how men can be shamans. On that line of argumentation, I kind of liked Bongsu a little bit more than Gyeon U because he had more of a character in general. His story sparked my curiosity, and I am so into joyful tragic characters and backstories as a whole. He is also a child; it made me feel very protective of him, knowing that he was a victim of war and all he wanted was to be loved. Nonetheless, he acted like a child who was holding and playing with dangerous tools (aka the arrow scene), PERFECT depiction of what he was doing before his death. I am sure it is not a big deal that some of us would like him more, as Seong A is made to be since she likes Gyeon U more, and that's what both the main lead and the spirit really care about.

On another note, I did not know how to feel about Yeom Hwa. She is definitely an anti-hero and a grey character, a bit more lenient towards the villain archetype. She lost her baby, and the realization that she could not protect them even in death is very upsetting. Yet, it definitely is not an excuse to torment Gyeon U, as he was a child himself at some point, and she did not have any empathy for the kid who died in the first few episodes in an accident; like, she moved on very quickly. General Dong Cheon is also very captivating, a mother at heart and a very wise one too. Her death was certainly emotional. Still, I just could not comprehend how Yeom Hwa was blaming the entity in a way. I mean, she cast the spell, was about to summon the grim reaper as a murderer, forcing both Bongsu and Gyeon U to be on the other side, and was protected by her mom as she died for her. Not to forget she was the one who was blinded enough to make Bongsu possess Gyeon U through casting spells, manipulation, and causing harm.

I felt bad for Ji Ho in a funny and not-so funny way. His tragedy comes from being left out; nobody thanked him for all of the stuff he did. He had to confess to his friend in front of her very obvious non-lover (which was kind of weird), then was rejected by her, was kicked by Bongsu on few occasions, was dumb enough to also indirectly cause the death of the General by giving the obvious non-villain the ring, etc. He is a great person and he remained kind, although I wish he could have protected, or at least stood up for, Seong A when she was a push-over.

Other than that, I really could not understand characters like Hye Ri and her motivations, and whatever they did in episode 11 could not make me stomach her. I loved the representations of the Suicide Spirit and wondered why the grim reaper wouldn't be by his side, side by side. However, the grim reaper only appears when there is certain death, plus the ghost spirit already looks like the grim reaper in a way.

Seong A is also kind of a push-over. I like her and dislike her at the same time, since I couldn't see much character development or motivation. I would like to say more about her, but that's what I am mad about: I don't really have much to say about the FL in the same fashion that I do about the supporting cast.

Story-wise, I like the idea of the drama. Still, it felt like... too much? I have finished it in 2 days, yet I felt like it was a week already. Too many events happened, and the second half already felt like Season 2. A lot of questions were left unanswered and things were kind of unresolved (Hye Ri's motivations for causing the arson, how does Seong A feel now about being a shaman, how does Gyeon U feel about shamans now? their parents, how did he carry their misfortune tbg...). It felt kind of too packed and didn't make a lot of sense. Too many plots too. I just wished they could have stuck to one theme or made a Season 2.

The acting was very nice. I found myself tearing up every now and then and cried too, which I was not expecting, the General's sacrifice, the unfairness regarding the baby in the coffin as a punishment for their mom, etc. I wish I could have paid more attention to the OST to be honest!

Very nice, a solid 7/10

Read More

6”4 thug preys on a kid with no friends

Fuck this show lmao. I had to gun to my head this show, it was so bad. And watching this now is also sad because they are no longer a couple, but that's fine. I would give it a 6.5 (7.9, but this was terrible, so) out of 10. Don't watch it. I am going to say what I liked, what I didn't like, and then an episode overview. So let's go.

Winner. I love him so much, and I would watch this all over again for his sexy ass, oh my god, I forgot he was in this, but I would give my life for him. The show started off well, I will give them that. It was random, but they were free, and that is all that mattered. I think I just like mafia shit, I love that so much, and this was no different...actually it was, but that is fine. The intro was cool, lmao, just the music was ass. The show is so bad I'm complimenting the intro lmao. Whatever happened towards the end of episode 5, with the plot picking up a bit, was fun, like we did harm a bunch of innocent people, but that was fun. Ping is good looking, he just isn't the best actor lmao, but I have hopes for my boy. Uh, yeah, that's all I have positive to say about this show.

I love Meen and ping together so much, but they have no chemistry, and part of me is excited to see their ship get laid to rest and ping going on to other projects under GMMTV. Jesus Christ, they had no chemistry in Ai Long Nhai; they have none in this either. Fuck, this was hard to watch. Like two brick walls trying to fuck. THE VIDEO GAME SHIT. I don't know why, on November 12, 2023, when I started this, I thought that was so interesting. That was so fucking random, and I was like What the fuck is happening? How are we even connecting the two plots right now? YOU AREN'T AND YOU CAN'T. The bullshit with that Kenji freak, like, why does he have more screen time than our couple? Like shut his fat ass up and put him in the fucking dirt, I swear to god. The costumes and the makeup were ass, I swear to god, just terrible. This show was also beyond cringe lmao. Jesus Christ, some parts were stomachable, and the other parts were not at all, oh my god. This whole show was a whole bunch of nothing. I can't even lie to you. We fucked around in my face for way too fucking long, Jesus. I felt myself wasting away watching this show; we were doing bullshit, having bullshit problems, just the full 9 yards. A TERRIBLE ENDING TO A TERRIBLE FUCKING SHOW. WHOEVER WROTE THIS DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO WRITE A PLOT, I SWEAR TO GOD. You need to go back to the drawing board, draw a gun, and shoot yourself because this was so fucking bad and not even in a good way; it was just awful. We can't act, we don't have chemistry, the plot is awful, there is no romance building, fuck this show, it was terrible. Fuck it.

Take what I say in the episode reviews with a grain of salt. "I miss these two together so fucking much, oh my god, bro. Especially with them in a mafia video game romance thing. I am very excited for this, and I love them together. Their chemistry is great and makes everything 10 times better." I dont know why I lied. "We are definitely going to get a fake overplayed love triangle because of the way whale man is acting." "Everyone in this show is freaking me out. Love the actor who plays the mob boss, but he’s so creepy in a hot way I can’t get over myself. He’s so scary. And he’s literally doing so much for his man, and I respect it. And we have a second couple, maybe. And I think Tul had a think for Tew at one point." "The mafia is making his life better, bro. You are just mad because he is leaving your toxic ass in the dust."Hey, you're going to get jumped. I want to know why Homeboy quit. He's going to get jumped. Oh, shit, he is a traitor. Probably the most interesting thing to happen in this episode. Oh shit. He's actually a traitor. He clearly likes hanging with them, but it's going to kick his ass later. Oh, shit, he drugged them. That's insane. That's insane. What a twist! There are like four very innocent people you also just drugged, so keep that in mind." "There is something so tragic about watching shows with dead ships." " Also, a whole bunch of nothing is happening, and I know why I didn’t finish this." "I will miss their very awkward on-screen chemistry dearly. Why do I keep watching this bull shit fucking shows? My lord, I feel myself fucking wasting away right now lmao." "The crimped hair makes him look less like a pimp and more like a Japanese host." LMAOOO I DONT KNOW WHY I WROTE THIS. "Ping is gorgeous, and I hope he gets slightly better acting lessons and gets a new show soon."

FUCK NO. STAY AWAY. Okay bye!

Read More

Be your idol

I thought this show was cute and had a lot of potential, but we spent way too long on plot building, and we needed more cute moments because the end felt empty. So I don't know, watch it if you want. I would give it an 8 (8.7, but I am going to bring it down) out of 10. I am going to say what I liked, what I didn't, and then an overview.

Great potential with this show, truly great. It just didn't reach it. I think the plot is fun. It's like an idol x just a regular guy. Which is so fun, and I love that. Great potential, truly. Uh, I think their chemistry is kind of good. It has this awkward kind of charm to it, and I love it. I also love their height difference. SUCKING THAT SHIT WHILE STANDING UPPPP. I thought the setup was great. It seemed very fun and cute, and I think most of that was due to the setup. Great job with that. I think both guys are good-looking in their own respect. They are different kinds of attractive, but I do think they are both good-looking and mesh pretty well together. Yeah, that's it lmao.

We spent way too long on plot building, and we didn't have any romance building because of it. Plot building is great, but in this case, I just needed more cute moments and more romance building. I also thought the ending was incredibly lackluster, and we should have done more with that because it was just meh and a pretty boring way to end the show. The plot lowkey felt random in some parts. I remember that now, and I am like This is so fucking random, what are we even doing? I also kind of liked the side couple, but also not because the episode was not long enough for the lore as well as the main couple, so they could have done that better, in my opinion. Around episode 7, they had genuinely the most random thing pull them apart, like completely out of left field, he's suddenly doing it to get back at a guy. That made no fucking sense, and I don't know why they did that, and after that, the show went downhill. And we were just spending entire episodes on fake fucking issues like that had nothing to do with the plot or anything that they put on the table, I am like, why did we do that? We set so many things up, but we are going to bring in random stuff that has nothing to do with anything, Jesus Christ. That was fucking annoying as hell. My final thing is the god awful pacing. I don't know why, but I am so picky with pacing and romance building. The pacing of this show was miserable and they should have, instead of spending like an entire episode dealing with bullshit, we should have made it so we had the climax in an earlier episode and give them actual time to make up, like go on dates, prove yourself and not just filler epiosde or now we are gonna have awkard ass momments for the final episode, like fuck. Yeah, that is it for what I didn't like.

Okay, let's look at my thoughts during the episodes. "I could binge the show completely right now if it were all the way out. The giant guy, I wonder what lab he was grown in because holy fuck he is big." "I low-key love the show. It has me giddy and excited. And every time Idol comes on screen, I say Where did they grow him because he’s huge, like genuinely huge. Also, you do not know how to dribble a ball at all, and he is too big not to know how to play basketball." "The second couple, I want more of them because I’m like so confused." "See how I wouldn’t respond. Didn’t he break up the group? Shouldn’t you shut your fat ass up, how you like them apples bitch? Shut your fat ass up and go back to gooning." "They should make a season two where they like switch characters because that will be really cute. Like the same exact plot, but they’re switched, that would be very cute." "I don’t want to see y’all dealing with fake issues." "Okay. I think that was an interesting way to deal with their problem and actually a pretty good way." "I wish they had more cute moments. No, I don’t need sex scenes. I need like dates and like cute kisses, cause I feel like I don’t know this ending was kind of empty, and I feel like they could’ve done more with this and should’ve spaced the show out better, but then again, I don’t really care."

Watch it if you want. I dont really know. Okay bye!

Read More

Well-written but slow

It's objectively well-written but I'm not sure if I really connected to the characters on an emotional level.

The pilot episode is fantastic and the overarching plot is really interesting, and it's supported by characters that are very layered. The show is supported by extremely strong performances — especially Lee Seung-gi's.

While I think the premise is interesting, the pacing did feel a little slow at times. There are some good twists, but the big whodunnit seems pretty obvious from the start, and we're just waiting to get there. I'm not sure if the show needed to be stretched into 20 episodes. Perhaps it would've worked better as a weekly watch, but there wasn't quite the "race against time" tension that I wanted.

Read More

i love it when the drama is nothing like my expectations.
there was a point where i was on ahjin's side, and although that changed drastically, i can't deny that her revenge plans strike me as genius. pure evil at times but a necessary evil perhaps? devestating but equally evil. HOWEVER, not at the expance of jae oh man... i called it but i'm also quite baffled with his character, because while i understand his feelings and behavior, i can't imagine myself going throught that. i may have tolerated it once, but in the long run, it's peak evil to say the least, but completely understandable from his side too. i also have to mention that i don't particularly think i've ever hated hong jonghyun's characters before, but he truly took the cake for this, epic villain!!! who would've thought he'd be such a maniac, and i loved every second of it.

Read More

This started strong, but kind of fell flat as it went on. There’s a lot of things that didn’t really work for me in terms of relationship development for all the characters involved.

For the main couple, we know that Minwoo likes Yooha and we can see the progression of his feelings developing. It makes sense that Minwoo likes Yooha. He’s this clean, pristine, closed-off person, and Yooha brings something new and dynamic to his life. He cares and shows an interest in Minwoo that no one else ever has. But what exactly does Minwoo provide to Yooha? There’s not a lot of character development for Minwoo - he’s clean, pristine, and closed-off all the way to the end, except for maybe giving a few more closed-lip smiles. He’s not emotionally forthcoming, and we never see him do anything genuinely nice or caring for Yooha. The only thing he ever did was go looking for Yooha’s brother when he went missing, but after he found him, he didn’t even tell Yooha that he did. Instead, Yooha found out where he was when his brother’s co-conspirator came clean of her own volition. It’s a small thing, but that scene where Minwoo accidentally makes a coffee for Yooha with salt instead of sugar but then doubles down that it was on purpose and Yooha feels pressured into drinking the whole thing…I can’t help but feel like that could have been a pivotal scene where Minwoo could have shown a caring side by admitting he was wrong and fixing it. As it is, I don’t feel we ever got a pivotal moment. I never really got when Yooha fell for Minwoo or why.

The relationship build up started off well, though. The fake dating and Minwoo falling for Yooha were good. When Minwoo kisses Yooha and freaks out, apologizing and telling Yooha that he should have maintained the contractual terms of their relationship, that conflict should have been the focal turning point of their relationship. Instead, they don’t talk for days, Yooha terminates the contract to fake date someone else offering more money to save his brother’s bar, and they don’t really talk again until the end of the show. Minwoo turns up drunk, finds out Yooha’s brother is missing, locates said brother but does nothing with that information, then the brother returns home by himself, Minwoo confesses, and they live happily ever after. They don’t get together until midway through the final episode. The pacing just felt off. With all that time apart, I didn’t feel a proper emotional connection between them, and with them getting together so late, I felt the relationship was too new to feel stable enough for a true HEA.

Yooha and Taeha’s relationship didn’t make sense to me, from start to end. We’re told they’re “brothers,” but they’re not biologically related. And the way that Taeha acts, I can’t help but feel he has feelings for Yooha. He was so obsessively dependent on Yooha. He wanted Yooha with him by his side forever, and when Yooha wanted independence and left home, he went as far as faking his disappearance and the threat of the bar being auctioned off because he wanted Yooha to come running to him for help. Instead, Yooha was able to manage on his own, and Taeha fell apart even more. I don’t think it’s normal to be so emotionally dependent on your brother, or to have such a volatile reaction to the idea of him fake dating someone. Or to touch him, or caress his face, hair, or hand in that way. It was genuinely weird. Yooha and Taeha have matching “family” rings, except their family is just the two of them so it came across more like couple rings. I wanted Yooha to take his off already, but the show was going with the premise that these two have a normal brotherly relationship, so the rings stayed.

And the side couple should not have happened at all. Jaemin had feelings for Taeha for the entire show, but Taeha never once even noticed him beyond a bar employee. In the final episode, Taeha is crying over Yooha and saying he doesn’t know how he can live without him and Jaemin is comforting him, and then Taeha suddenly kisses Jaemin. It didn’t feel like a couple getting together or finally revealing feelings for each other. It was a man hopelessly in love with someone who would never love him back (in my mind anyways, the show thinks they’re brothers), crying over him, and then he kisses the closest person he can latch onto. All he’s doing there, brotherly feelings or not, is shifting his obsession to someone else. He never even noticed Jaemin before, let alone developed genuine feelings for him. He kisses Jaemin, pulls away and apologizes, and after Jaemin processes, he kisses Taeha. Except Taeha looked like he massively regretted that first kiss and didn’t want the second. So all in all, a messy, non-romantic situation and they would have been better off leaving both of them single.

Also, Suyeon made zero sense to me. I don’t know why she was let off scot free like she did nothing wrong at the end. She was Minwoo’s boss and she was in a relationship with a man that didn’t want to marry her. She finds out Yooha is only fake dating Minwoo and decides to hire him herself so that she can make her boyfriend jealous. Except I don’t know what she was trying to accomplish, because she breaks it off with him and when he shows up at the same cafe she’s at with Yooha, Yooha is confrontational, saying that he’s her boyfriend and he needs to leave her alone. I thought the goal was to make him jealous, not to get him to leave her alone, so that made no sense to me.

And then she claims that her ex is harassing her so she wants to hire Yooha longterm. I don’t know if that claim was true or not, but we never hear of it again and she turns out to be a serial liar, so I’m assuming it wasn’t. But to get Yooha to agree to that, she first lies to Yooha’s brother saying she’s Minwoo’s fiancee under the premise that both of them have been wronged and Yooha / Minwoo need to return back to where they belong. So they decide that the brother will disappear and they’ll fake the bar being put up for auction. The brother wanted Yooha to run to him when he’s in trouble, and Suyeon wanted to offer financial support for the bar to convince Yooha to fake date her. So Yooha agrees and ends the contract with Minwoo to fake date her.

Except she changes the terms, saying that she likes him and since she’s offering so much financial support, he should give some of himself to her too. That was really messed up, given the financial power dynamic and the fact that she made the money conditional on his reciprocation. Eventually Yooha breaks the contract with her, but then she’s suddenly portrayed as the good guy, because she lets him keep the money, tells him the truth about his brother’s whereabouts, and lets him cleanly cut ties, no drama. And in the end, but Minwoo and Yooha end up working under her. Like what? No consequences whatsoever?

Consent / boundary issues: Suyeon essentially coerces Yooha into putting forth something real even though their relationship is supposed to be entirely fake by making the money he needs to save his brother’s bar conditional on it. While it’s not necessarily romanticized, it’s also not properly acknowledged either, and Suyeon never faces any consequences. In the finale, Taeha surprise kisses Jaemin without giving him the opportunity to consent. Then when Jaemin processes, he kisses Taeha except Taeha looks like he regretted kissing Jaemin and didn’t want that second kiss.

Kisses: For the main couple, there’s a lip press kiss midway through the series, and 2 LONG intense kisses in the finale. For the side couple, there’s two wide-eyed lip presses in the finale (one kisses the other while they’re staring wide-eyed, and then that one kisses the first while they’re staring wide-eyed).

Read More

Luo Yunxi is being brilliant again

So, at first I wasn't too happy with this drama. The first episode didn't really get me with the usual tropes of police behaviour. You know; yelling at the handcuffed suspect, slapping papers on desks, having the though guy attitude, female cop dressing like a butch, etc. I was seriously contemplating dropping it, then it finally became interesting.

Luo Yunxi plays a brilliant forensic pathologist with the ability of remote crime solving. And this is already good enough, but thankfully, the drama doesn't revolve only and solely around him. His charisma and aura rule his scenes, but in meantime, he also gently downplays his own presence. He feels the difference between his xianxia and modern characters perfectly and doesn't aim to be the overruling star of every episode.

The crimes are interesting enough, the riddles are entertaining and creepy, clues are well and carefully hidden. The amount of horror is only as much as it's needed, like cognac in your coffee.

I like it. My favourite part, however, is the fact that this is the fourth time that Nian Baiyu (Li Jiahao) escorts our Tantai Jin to his endeavours. Well, we all heard him promising that he'd always stand by his Lord 😃

Nice modern drama and that comes from one who doesn't like modern dramas. Not even with Luo Yunxi. But this one gets green light from me.

Read More

A breath of fresh air

I seldom write reviews and I’m taking my time to write one for this series as I genuinely enjoyed it. It’s been years ever since I watched BL series due to busy work schedules. I only managed to watch it as a year ender due to the holidays. Firstly, I’d like to emphasize watching this BL series has piqued my interest and stirred lot of realization and emotions on my end. It’s light hearted to the point that you won’t get stressed/frustrated due to the conflicts that arose as you get deeper in the story. The actors’ acting skills and how they portrayed each character is really superb and they played it really well. The introduction and plot of the story is really engaging for me. I tried to watch 1-2 episodes at first if this would be binge worthy and would really pique my interest. I’m happy that I came across this BL series title in Netflix. It was really worth watching. The plot twist of Mick being the bad guy at first, then unexpectedly he was relentless in secretly helping the group is undoubtedly easy to miss. I was thinking of him as a passive aggressive character in the beginning. But after watching episode 12, my perception of him instantaneously changed! Sorry for that Mick! I suddenly love your character :P

I do have a few points in mind that I’d love to see if it was incorporated in the series.

1. I wish they could’ve focused more on the growth and progression of Thame and Po’s love story before the conflict. They have little to no time to get really blissful in the relationship before being separated. :(

2. Jun’s flirting - On the onset, I was quite perplexed on what Jun’s trying to achieve here. I thought of him as a hot and cold kind of guy that would just bully Po. They should’ve expanded at least on the JunPo ship and maybe closure I guess at least, letting Po know Jun’s feeling should’ve done it. I have to admit Jun’s flirting with Po is effective to the point that Thame really had to compete with Jun’s efforts and Thame acting jealous is really adorable!

3. The slow burn part really made me sleepy and almost lost interest when I was already in the middle of the series. I hoped they picked up the pace at the right interval and didn’t dwell on things that shouldn’t have consumed too much screen time, with not having the desired outcome.

4. I hope other characters would also have a chance at a minimum meet their LOML (love of my life) or maybe I got used to the traditional past BL series I watched during the pandemic, where the supporting characters had their chances to have partners along the way and navigated through the relationship. I mean yeah there’s Per and Gam but, I think it wasn’t enough. I was hoping for a JunDylan ship here haha.

In summation, this BL series is worth watching and a really good one to begin with. The main characters undeniably have genuine chemistry. I really hope to see them again, along with other veteran actors in the BL industry and of course other members of the boy band!

Read More

My Ultimate BL Obsession

Okay… where do I even start? I have no idea how a show about coding and university life could make me feel this many butterflies, but here we are 😳. Every episode had me laughing, blushing, and just completely hooked. The chemistry between Choo Sang-woo and Jang Jae-young is insane—they make every scene, every tiny interaction, feel electric.

The story itself is simple but super satisfying. Watching Sang-woo’s stubbornness clash with Jae-young’s blunt honesty? Chef’s kiss. And yes, the kissing… oh, the kissing. It’s sweet, fiery, and so frequent that I had to pause and just… stare. The pacing keeps you invested, the moments are all relatable in this awkward-yet-adorable way, and honestly, the show balances humor and heart perfectly.

If you haven’t seen Semantic Error, stop whatever you’re doing. It’s hilarious, romantic, and totally addictive. My favorite BL, hands down.

Read More

Fun at First, But Dragged Out in the End

I have mixed feelings about this one. Hatano is fun to watch—he’s lively, charming, and technically 18 (though Japan considers adulthood at 20, which is interesting). The problem for me was Mob. He spent way too much time dragging things out instead of being upfront. A simple, “Not interested,” would have ended most of the drama right there—but of course, then we wouldn’t have a show.

The series started with a clever premise and had some genuinely enjoyable moments, but by the end, it felt like it had overstayed its welcome. Fun in parts, but a bit too long overall.

Read More

Addicting but the last 2 episodes make it lose its spark

Binge worthy crime thriller

We have the suspense and solid plot points, good acting and cinematography to make someone sit and watch episode after episode but it loses all the suspense it builds up by simply revealing the culprits in the 11th episode. We didn't have a well planned reveal, it was like writers were like 'oh we are at the second last episode? let's reveal the killers and end it'. Making a random side character the real killer is getting boring now. I was suspecting the prison doctor at one point because how he was highlighted. I think we could have subtlety hinted at the real criminals.

Even the reasons also felt too dumb, killing someone cause they won't apologize? I get the message but for the buildup it had it was boring. Even the prosecutor's reason for being so fixated on An YunSu felt too simple.

Read More