Reviews

My Dearest?

“My Dearest” is without a doubt one of the best historical romance series I’ve ever watched. At first—especially during the first two episodes—you might think you’re dealing with a cliché and repetitive storyline, but if you give it some time, you’ll slowly find yourself completely drawn into it.

• The visual effects, battle scenes, and action sequences are absolutely stunning.
• The acting is flawless and highly professional. The love visible in Jang-hyun’s eyes and Gil-chae’s transformation from an innocent, naive girl into a wounded yet mature woman are conveyed entirely through their performances, which truly highlights the actors’ skill.
• The cinematography and high production quality clearly reflect the professionalism and dedication of the production team.
• The storyline is deeply engaging and emotionally gripping. Unlike many historical dramas that rely heavily on clichés, this series presents a different perspective on a nation’s fate—how a country is pulled into war and how each individual plays a role in shaping its destiny.

Honestly, I can’t fully describe how much I love this series. I’m genuinely in love with it, and words just aren’t enough 😂

However, despite my deep love for the show, there were two aspects I personally found disappointing:

1. The timeline isn’t clearly defined, which makes it confusing for viewers to understand the time gaps between events.

2. I had hoped that everything would end at the beach in episode 20, with Jang-hyun dying there while surrounded by soldiers. But instead, he survived, and a completely different final episode (episode 21) was presented.

How is it that events spanning ten years required twenty episodes, while another ten years were wrapped up in just one episode?

Episode 21, in my opinion, didn’t live up to the quality of the rest of the series. Because of that, I personally choose to imagine that Jang-hyun died on the beach and that the story ended with episode 20.

Despite these two flaws, this series holds immense value for me. I truly enjoyed every moment of watching it and have absolutely no regrets.

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"The Royal Family" is an epic drama of dreams, hope, and legacy about horse racing and the people dedicated to the sport. This drama is crafted so intentionally to center the horses and the beauty of the sport through top-notch cinematography and grand storytelling. The cast obviously is a who's who of talented actors with Tsumabuki Satoshi and Sato Koichi really setting the tone with their characters' relationship and growth. No character is wasted in this story - everyone is vital, critical, and adds to a narrative that grabs the audience and really doesn't let go. Though I'm not at all a fan of the sport, watching this drama felt like watching a love letter to horse racing and my emotions were completely swept up into it all. I sobbed after nearly every horse race, the anticipation and adrenaline running through me thanks to the superb acting that brought each race to life. As with dramas like this one, a story of team perseverance always becomes a story about chosen family brought together by a shared goal and dream and watching that struggle and growth as they came together was fantastic. Highly recommend this drama if you appreciate a well-written drama (it's not unique, but it is very strong!) that will take you though a beautiful human (and horse!) story with an amazing emotional journey.

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Slow Start...Ended Better Than Predicted

For me, this series was just middle-of-the-road. I was happy for another Englot Series, but having them star in Unlimited Love was not enough.

The beginning of Unlimited Love was very slow in terms of character and relationship building among the main ensemble cast. A lot of the show's bandwidth is devoted to the episodic elements of Unlimited Love. On top of that, the early story messaging was very superficial, which was distracting and problematic. While I believe every story has a right to be told, I thought we were beyond these kinds of surface-level stories in 2025.

But the series was not all bad. The last couple of episodes of Unlimited Love gave us what they should have from the start. It was hilarious, and the pairings all finally took steps in their relationships. This was nice to see, as I do believe MGI did an excellent job chemistry-wise with all the couples, and I wish we had the chance to see more of their relationship dynamics. I hope MGI gives them more opportunities to shine as pairings outside of an ensemble cast.

All in all, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't great.

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No Redeeming Quality Whatsoever

The dullest drama I have seen EVER! There was a small chance that this drama would be good with the male lead playing a double role but I couldn't even tell the two roles apart. It was portrayed so badly. Even the flashbacks felt pointless and uninteresting. I was not invested in their friendships nor their relationships. The leads had no chemistry and the romance bored me as well.

The majority of the drama revolves around the architecture and city planning work and the fight between the two leads. It is only in the last few episodes that the couple finally get together and it is completely uneventful.

The second couple are slightly better but there is something about this drama that manages to make their story utterly boring as well. Even the supporting characters were incredibly boring and I fell asleep multiple times watching the last few episodes. The entire drama was seen on 2x and I still wished I could speed it up further.

There is some good scenery but not enough to raise the score of this drama. I didn't enjoy the music and there were no memorable dialogues. There is something about the way this drama was shot that makes it so unlikeable. Only I know how I didn't drop this show. I had read the last couple of episodes were good so I held on but it was not worth it.

I really urge people not to waste time with this drama even if you love the actors. This is easilly the WORST drama of 2025.

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would have been so much more if they had tried to do less

The early episodes held such promise - bouncing from one crime lakorn trope to another, then swerving (because Thailand, and I love this) into comedy series and developing a beautiful care and trauma focus with Q’s sleepwalking, anchored by Ohm’s ability to show quiet emotion through his face and voice.

But the crime lakorn never became more than a string of tropes, ungrounded and unintegrated, lazily thrown together in pursuit of plot, motivations and filling time. Enough to carry an entire side plot of a 30 hour lakorn but merely surface level tension here. Veteran actors Lift Supoj and Pym Pympan gave competent but generic performances, they could have done them in their sleep. Tae Pitisak was at least given a decent monologue to work with and he is excellent with a good monologue.

This is the first time I've felt my familiarity with lakorn tropes and actors got in the way of watching either a lakorn or series. Their characters were stock roles so I was watching actors go through well-known motions. Papang though, he’s not cut out for a tough guy. Give him more roles please, but not this.

I wish I had seen this earlier, before I got the hang of lakorns and their tropes. It might have worked better for me as I wouldn't have realised how paint by numbers it was. Or maybe I would have just been casting about for an explanation within my experience. The series support characters were generic too.

The BL was also trope-heavy, though on a par for recent GMMTV fare and Ohm can elevate anything through the strength of his acting and facial expressions. Much praise for him. No criticism of Leng, his delivery suited his character. And certainly none for the two of them together or their chemistry. The only thing lacking there was years of fans building up fantasies about their boys, the kind which lets shippers bypass everything else and fill in the gaps with their own emotions.

But all of those tropes, that was a lot of weight for the BL to labour under, and through the middle it was more cliches than unique characters. That’s on the writers, Ohm and Leng did their best to try to make them more. (How often am I writing something like this these days? GMMTV, get it back together. Please.)

This had one excellent idea which it developed and then set aside - the sleepwalking, with its mix of care and trauma. Anchored of course by the quality of Ohm’s performance. It seemed a promising start, especially with the kindness and humour it mixed in, the perfect recipe for Thailand’s fantastic way of tempering trauma and difficult subject matter.

They did revisit it in the last two episodes, with the characters having matured. They got the emotions right in that, although it felt somewhat discconected and …. Still trying to figure out what was missing there for me. It might come back to integration of the story lines and their many elements.

The series also had what should have been solid ideas around sacrifice, except they chopped it all into too many pieces and scattered it about, dissipating its emotion. That’s my primary criticism, this series couldn’t be bothered to truly develop and explore any of its ideas. I have to mentally recompile it to appreciate what they were trying to do, it just kept bouncing from one bit to another.

It’s like the many writers (too many cooks perhaps?) didn’t have the courage to properly develop and explore any of their story-lines, or understand which ones were its strengths - everything was resolved too quickly and easily. This would have been so much more if they had tried to do less.

So this is yet another What might have been, with this premise and these actors, if only the creators had done their part better. I very much want that tender care/trauma laced with comedy series the beginning seemed to promise. Choose a few lakorn tropes carefully to develop the themes of sacrifice and the questions it asks around that. And above all, have the courage to stay with those emotions. Thailand does that so well.

What this might have been, with Ohm and Leng and that potential.

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so far so good. make me feel alive again.

Honestly speaking, I wouldn't watch this if it weren't for Yu Shuxin. I'm not really into this kind of plot (no-blood relation step-siblings), it's just too awkward for me and not my type. But I'm so glad she's the FL here, otherwise, I may have never known this masterpiece of a drama.

The male lead, while I feel like he can do more, still, his acting worked well. He suits so much as Jin Chao. His eye acting, in particular, is his best department. Second was him while in a race. I'm glad she's paired with YSX. That kind of eye acting needs to be known more. Plus! His yearning character deserves more attention too! haha. For YSX, the girl can really act. Just one thing I wish could've done differently was her expression when Chao reached something, cos that reaction reminds me of Ling Miaomiao. I feel like that reaction was out of character for Jiang Mu's nature. But other than that, she's so great. Although I like her expressions so well, that's not what hooked me to her character. Instead, I like how cool she is while driving, while conversing, but most of all when she can fight. Finally! One thing I quite don't like in modern drama (not fond of modern drama, truthfully speaking) is that MOST OF THE TIME, FL relies so much on ML. Always needs saving. But Jiang Mu belongs to another FL who knows how to defend when needed. That's a very good one for me. So yep, these two together bring good chemistry and their tension is just so perfect!

For other characters, firstly, I love San Lai! If there's no Jin Chao or Mike (forgot his name in SAL, oh my), if I were Jiang Mu I'd definitely fall for him. He's so nice and attentive. I like the other workers in Chao's business too. But my favorite aside from the main leads? Definitely Mike. WHOEVER IS RESPONSIBLE FOR GIVING HIM THAT ROLE AND PAIRING HIM WITH YSX DESERVES A RAISE! He gives me butterflies every time he's close to Jiang Mu. Definitely my type if Jin Chao didn't exist in this drama (he's just built differently you know? Who doesn't like a man who yearns, who can say no, and so passionate and almost like obsessed?? I'm definitely into this type!) Mike and YSX's chemistry is also really good (or was this YSX's never-ending "chemistry queen"?). Lastly, Snakey (was that what they called her?). She's crazy but I feel like deep inside her, she's not a bad person. And yes, her with ysx made me think I was watching a GL, lol. Their dynamic and tension is so ugh so good!

Overall, this is a very well-thought-out drama. It is almost perfect. This year, I can count using my one hand how many dramas hooked me. It has been so rare for me to be impatient for new episodes, and thank goodness SAL happened because I'd be bored to deàth!

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Great Show if you are okay with an open ending

Great Show if you are okay with an open ending. I’ve only really seen Li Hongyi play a lot of serious roles that weren’t as oblivious as Fu Sheng. It honestly felt refreshing to see him play this character. Fu Sheng’s friendship with Gu Tian is one of the many things I enjoyed in this series and there are times when you see the friendship is very important. I do wish that they had clarified the relationship between Fu Sheng and Wen Jue, knowing that Wen Jue likes Fu Sheng. But the story ends in a realistic way, no magical happy endings the come up out of no where which is why this show is really good! It is bittersweet but also you can feel happy with the ending

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Lot of potential and a good story ruined cz of poor direction and screenwriters

30 mins into the drama ep 1 and I'm frankly tired. Just the Nawa's intro was 10 mins long and then 20 mins was just Phu staring at Nawa and nawa getting warned he's a playboy. It feels like they wanna keep the 1st episode only as intro with no plot but to do that they just added lot of filler shots... the story is good the cast is good but pacing damn sucks. Then i checked the director and screenwriter and now i kinda get it. They're the same as "bad guy my boss". They've not shown any improvement from their last work like literally. I like the plot so I'm gonna skip and finish this one. Also i really suggest that they have a woman on their team. They kinda suck at guilding the actors on facial expressions or emotions. This happens in all their dramas so i definitely can't blame the actors its direction problem. For example Phu is a playboy. Okay we get that but he looks stiff they should have asked him to look more relaxed. Like lean on the counter get bit closer when he's trying to flirt with Nawa what playboy stands straight attention position and flirts🙃 n this is definitely not actors problem but the directors cz even if the actor did that the director didnt correct him or see anything wrong with that.. also i get nawa is a kind and nice guy. They could just make him smile lightly instead his smile is a little too much that it looks like he's forcing himself.. it's like they had this great script great actors but fucked up in the direction, screenwriting and editing.

I'm at ep 5 and no improvement🙃. Awkward acting and a forbidden stepbrother love arc🙄 which has a messy execution. The only likeable part of this drama would be the leads and their smile😆😆 and probably the 2nd couple. I liked their story more it kinda made me cry 😭. Initially i thought they were using vfx for the mermen but turns out it's silicone tails. Yes great effort but also they look fake when it's in a drama... also i don't get like all mermens are in danger but then they're all obsessed with protecting nawa. why? That way if you look at it ping was at high risk cz he was not part of any clan.. also yep people are right they equated homophobia and xenophobia 🙃 like bro give a proper back story if ur gonna bring up monster hunt. Like a merman killed human or was misunderstood so humans go on monster hunt.. the other reason selling them cz they're rare made sense but monster hunt was BS. Literally how many of us would kill a merman if we saw one especially if it looks exactly like in the series🙄🙄... sigh also i really don't get nawa or phu like their breakup made no sense. Phu sees his lover become a merman n before that he saw nawa being sick but didnt bother waiting and checking on him and nawa bro pick a side bro he's like chilling with the mer tribe while phu is all depresssed on the other side WTF😆 and Phra's death was totally unnecessary. Like he got to know his dad killed nawa's parents. He knows nawa loves phu but still poisons him? N then he trades his life for Phu??another WTF. There were lot of loop holes like uk there good actors when u watch the last episode cz i cried there😭😭😭 but the director has not guided them with the right expression it feels like a drama filmed over a weekend🙃

It's a really mid series like even if u skip it. It's fine you're not missing anything.

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