Reviews

I was TRAPPED alright - spoiler heavy post series review

I usually finish what I start because some series are late bloomers, but this one never flowered. I was indeed trapped, to the point where I wanted to gnaw my arm off to escape.

The core problem was simple: they put three interesting satellites in orbit around a very dull sun. Yoo Doo was attractive beyond reason but as dull as a doorknob. Nothing about his character justified one, let alone three, hot guys chasing him. These scripts keep treating dead behind the doe eyes, pretty faces as irresistible simply because they exist. Half the time he looked like he needed a nap.

The fix for this was actually easy: give the sun some heat, and make the main lead charismatic, even if less conventionally attractive, with a huge personality that actually earns all that attention. Then bring him in with a real crisis, make each of the three pursuers part of the solution, and build tension as he spends meaningful time with all of them so the audience is genuinely torn about who he might choose. Once he chooses the best friend, let the two who were not chosen share a moment or at least consider exploring something together. Then jump three years forward and show two happy couples who have become genuinely good friends.

Instead, there was no spark at all. The main lead needed to provide the reason, and by failing to do so, the entire premise collapsed. All three pursuers (and maybe the main lead) had depth and could have thrived in a more complex story, but that opportunity never came.

And what was the title even about? I thought maybe it was a reference to everyone being trapped by their attraction to his peach (the behind being called peach as slang), but once I started watching, there was no real sexual tension anywhere except with the best friend. So what was the point of that title?

As it stands, the fruit here was rotten.

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Like Reply 1998... but not quite

Mixed feelings about this one.
I watched it after Love in the Clouds with Hou Minghao and wanted to see more of his work.
At first, it felt like Reply 1998 - youthful, nostalgic, and bittersweet. The leads’ chemistry was great… but from episode one, when Lu Xiaoxiao loses his chance at the entrance exam, I immediately sensed some Shonda Rhimes–style drama coming.
Thankfully, it wasn’t that tragic. The show just shifts from reply 1998 vibes to a When Life Gives You Tangerines tone, ending with a very Inception-style “wtf just happened?” finale and, by the end, I was just as confused as at the start.

The characters are interesting because they have flaws and we get to see their growth. I especially liked Bai Li and her struggle to be "free," which felt very compelling. However, the writing often fails in storytelling. Some characters are introduced and developed, only to be forgotten halfway through the plot, leaving their arcs unresolved.

In short, it’s a captivating series that keeps you watching, with a ML and FL, though the ending feels rushed and some characters are simply written out.

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Potentially Sweet

I found this drama a bit on the dredging side and a bit on the “what the heck?” side.

First: the transition between many of the episodes was nonexistent. At the end of one ep you’d be left hanging and then it was completely forgotten about in the first half of the eps. Then they were added for the last half.

Second: Bad camera work in spots - there was a scene where there was a close-up of feet running on a dirt road in the mountain during the earthquake. When the feet got closer to the viewer on the screen, you could see the ground bouncing like they were running on a piece of plastic. That was a huge fault. the second problem in this area was the lack of sound control in many of the scenes you can hear background noise that is completely unrelated to the drama. For example, when the new chief was introduced to the crew at the firehouse, you could clearly hear, military, marching or some sort of police training or fireman training in the background it was very vocal and very loud.

a third thing I noticed was some bad CGI replacement of when one of Dayin was climbing the cliff to rescue the boy after the earthquake, when you could see his feet moving on the side of the mountain, but he was not moving at all up the mountain. It was like he was crawling on glass.

While you never know what parts of the episodes get cut during censoring, there was not really a whole lot of editing to replace that smoothly. The story seemed to jump a bit and events happened that caused things that you saw, but you had no idea how they occurred in the first place.

On the Upside:

Overall, the acting was not bad considering the material they had to work with. There were many scenes of shy faces from the female lead and angsty faces from the male lead (but let’s face it Gong Jun is not hard to look at so that was not too distracting 😍).

A lot of the character development in all of the character rolls was either left out or censored out, so it was hard to adjust, watching the sudden change in many of the characters. There was also problems with concluding issues that they brought up with some of the characters, but never addressed. Again, those could have been left on the cutting room floor.

well many people have complained about the druglord being busted in the ending of the drama, it was something that needed to be done to clear the past from the male and female leads. In order for their relationship to actually function properly the mail lead really needed to let go of what had happened to his father and his guilt associated with that. Even though he was not responsible. He still held onto the pain from that event, and it kept him back in being able to fully commit to the female eat.

He also needed to get past the issue with the villain/toxic drug manufacturer who had harassed and bullied him in school. The events that took place with that person left a lasting impression on a kind and gentle person‘s heart, and he needed to deal with the trauma and the pain that was associated with it in order to again be able to be happily married with his new girlfriend.

as for the female lead, I had not seen her before, and found her acting quite good. The only issue I had with her character was that she was almost a split personality, where she would be extremely strong and determined one moment and then the next completely helpless and leaning on anybody and everybody to fix her fragility. That is not anything against the actress herself, it was just a flaw of the character. She did what she could with the role and made it her own.

Another good part of the drama was the endearing and trusting relationship between the brothers of the station house and the medical staff. It was good to see that their cooperation during the earthquake helped all of them to mature in some ways and others to gain more experience and understand that not every job that is out there is something that they should take lightly or assume to be something heroic when it actually can be quite laborious and very tiring.

the villain played his part very well. He was easy to spot from the very beginning, and he was very oily his personality, oozed crook and deceiver.

I appreciated that the family members were not hysterical or bossy or overbearing for the most part and no one snuck into anyone’s apartment and dug through their belongings to find personal things that they as parents thought they needed to know about their adult child’s life. it was nice to see a drama, where most of the parents were supportive and communicated well with their children.

as for the main characters in the drama, the male and female leads both did a good job for train two people who fell hopelessly in love at the beginning of their meeting and got together too quickly, and they had to navigate through adjusting to having someone in their life outside of themselves. It was good to see that their communication for the most part was open, and that they were willing to work with each other to get through the problems and overcome them for their future.

well I may sound very critical of the drama. These are things that annoyed me, but they did not detract from the fact that this was a very sweet drama that explored relationships on many levels and the consequences of not dealing with things that have traumatized you or victimized you or caused pain in your life when you encounter someone else. Be that male or female friend or in a relationship it’s important to learn how to look past your own prejudice and filters on how you view people and see them for who they are and not for who you think they are.

I would definitely watch this drama again at some point, but it won’t become one of my favorite comfort dramas - strictly for the fact that the story transitions just jumped all over the place and that it seemed like a lot of things were cut out.

I would suggest if you were on the fence to go ahead and watch the drama draw your own conclusion about the storyline and the characters and just let yourself enjoy the sweetness and silliness that comes with life and the interactions of other people.

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Where it all went wrong....spoiler heavy post series review

How did this even get greenlit? What a complete waste of a stellar cast. The real failure here was the script: cartoonish plotting, endless fake-outs, and character arcs that made zero sense.

Offroad’s Pheem should have stayed the menacing black flag he was in the first three episodes. He should have used Than and discarded him (without yet another fake death!), setting Than up to take him down and reclaim his badge. The moment Pheem shot Than in the back, their relationship potential should have ended. Instead, we got redemption after redemption, each more nonsensical than the last. I found myself wishing they had killed him off, for real, sooner.

The script had more holes than Swiss cheese, and the cast’s talent far outmatched what they were given. It is infuriating that this script got funded while so many good ones never make it to a pitch. And truly, there is no excuse for any agent to read this and think, “Yes, let’s send this to D/O.” without major revisions. The premise is there, the cast is there, the story simply wasn't.

Then there is the secondary couple, Chet and Phak, who were criminally underdeveloped. Waiting for them to finally connect romantically was the only thing keeping me going, and they fumbled that ball as well.

D/O didn't carry this the way they should have, not because they lack talent (they have improved!), but because the screenplay needed a better treatment. Frankly, they have more chemistry on their social media than they ever got to show on screen in this mess.

They need to vet their scripts better, find a new agent, and take this as a lesson learned. This was a joke.

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Important messages but with lackluster execution

When I started watching Typhoon Family, I was initially hooked by its premise. I am a big fan of media that cover real events and ever since I got into kdramas, I've been interested to learn more about Korean society. As someone who comes from a country (Greece) that had experienced a big crisis a decade ago, I was immediately pulled by Typhoon Family's plot, which centered around the IMF crisis in the 1990s.

The first episodes were engaging and gave me everything I needed in order to keep watching. We got introduced to Typhoon Trading, its employees and Kang Tae Poong, the main character who's the son of Typhoon Trading's CEO, Kang Ji Yeong. As tragedy hits the Kang family after Ji Yeong's death and the declaration of the IMF crisis, Tae Poong must learn to navigate through life and provide for his family. In order to do so, he becomes the CEO of his father's company. And this, his journey begins.

Tae Poong was an interesting character, one who won me over from the moment he got introduced. From very early on, the writers had established his contrasting personality: although he appeared to be a playboy and reckless person, he was very sensitive and he cared about his family. He had inherited a passion for flowers from his father and he owned his own greenhouse of flowers, which he wanted to share with his father. But death came soon and Tae Poong had to move quickly.

I liked how the drama showed him taking action immediately after his father's death. Tae Poong might have appeared to be hot-aired but the moment the circumstances required it, he took responsibility and acknowledged his duties as a son and as the future Typhoon Trading's CEO. He wasn't the cliche main character who starts off as a jerk and warms up later. He was always kind hearted and he always cared about his closed ones.

Throughout the whole series, Tae Poong undergoes lots of trouble. While trying to find his footing in the company, his plans weren't very successful and he suffered great loses. But his loss made his determination stronger. He didn't give up and he always found a way to save the day with one way or another. His resilience and optimism were inspiring and made me root for him to succeed.

Mi Seon made for an equally interesting female lead. Her quiet yet determined nature made me love her from the beginning. She was clever, competent and she was always there to help Tae Poong and the company. Her loyalty towards Tae Poong's father and Typhoon Trading in general was so compelling, I could feel her desperation to save the company and how seriously she treated her duties. It was touching to see her care so much for those around her but at the same time, watching her neglecting her own dreams and bury her feelings broke my heart. She was a giver and a protector who provided for everyone except herself. Her development was so pivotal because she needed to learn not only to stand up for herself but be more open about her own wants to.

Alongside Tae Poong and Mi Seon, the rest of the characters shined as well. I love character driven stories and for the most part, Typhoon Family did not disappoint in that aspect. Although the main plot revolved around Tae Poong and Mi Seon, the secondary characters quickly became the heart of the show and I always looked forward to their scenes. Their relationships and heartfelt moments made my heart melt and I became very attached to my found family.

One of my most favourite secondary characters was Tae Poong's mom. I am so happy that she wasn't portrayed as a stereotypical strict and abusive mom, the type we usually see in kdramas. She might not have had a business-like mind like her husband or son but she was equally strong. Her development was so good to see. She saw her life crumble before her eyes and she needed to say goodbye to her old lifestyle. She had to work for the first time in order to survive and she had to share a house with strangers, once she and Tae Poong went to live with Mi Seon's family. But despite all that, she remained strong and kind.

I adored her interactions with Mi Seon's family. Her bond with Beom and Mi Ho made me feel so warm, she became the mother figure they needed and she accepted them without a second thought. As for Tae Poong, I loved how she always supported him and cherished him. Tae Poong needed this type of support and love and she gave it to him.

Speaking of Mi Seon's family, they were one of my most favourite parts in the drama. The siblings relationship between Mi Seon, Be Om and Mi Ho was so realistic. I appreciate that the writers did not depict Mi Ho as the typical bratty younger sister. The two sisters couldn't have been more different and yet they cared about each other so much. Mi Ho did not want Mi Seon to sacrifice her own needs in order to help her and she wanted to contribute to the family instead of relying to others. Their teasing and playful bantering felt like a breath of fresh air and their moments added a more domestic tone to the story.

There were other characters that I enjoyed seeing, such as Nam Mi, Tae Poong's best friend and Typhoon Trading's employees. All of them had to fight their own demons amid the crisis and I couldn't help but root for them. Not everyone was perfect and I understand that not all viewers would be able to sympathize with everyone.

The most prominent example is Ma Jin, who was misogynistic and diminishing towards Mi Seon during the Thailand episodes. A product of his time, Ma Jin felt insecure seeing Mi Seon handling all these trades and he projected his insecurities in his words and behavior. And yet, the series showed him learning from his mistakes and becoming a better person.

Through the characters' lives, we viewers got exposed to the hardships during this era. We see them getting deceived, beaten down, feeling desperate and lost. Everyone had their own demons to fight. But despite everything, there was always a small light of hope. With each loss, came a small win. Dealing with the hardships together, the characters came closer together and became something more than a simple team - they became a family. The drama highlighted the importance of human companionship and it showed that when we stick together, we are bound to overcame most of our problems.

Although I am not a huge fan of romance oriented stories, I found the romance in Typhoon Family to be well-crafted. Tae Poong and Mi Seon's development was nice and it felt natural thanks to the actors. Both of them complimented each other and played a fundamental role in each other's growth. While Mi Seon guided Tae Poong during his first steps as a CEO and helped his with the trades, Tae Poong brought a light into Mi Seon's life with his playful jokes and his acts of service. Watching him acting like a puppy around her was so funny and charming. They were different and yet they fit together perfectly. In other words: they became each one's cosmos.

The secondary couple, Mi Ho and Nam Mi, managed to steal my heart. Their relationship progressed faster compared to Tae Poong and Mi Seon and yet even with their brief scenes, they made me care so much about them. They cared about each other in their own way and although they started as a typical, young couple, they matured and grew alongside their love.

Of course the characters would have never been able to come to life without the performances from the actors. This was my first time watching a Lee Jun Ho and Kim Min Ha drama and it certainly won't be my last. Jun Ho was very charismatic, he embodied all Tae Poong's traits effortlessly and he delivered a very good performance. He showcased a variety of emotions and he perfectly encapsulated Tae Poong's kindness and determination.

Kim Min Ha on the other hand was equally great, I loved the way she used her eyes to convey Mi Seon's emotions and how she carried herself. She was very good in some emotionally heavy scenes too. The scene where Mi Seon finally broke down brought tears to my eyes, Kim Min Ha delivered a moving performance, one that certified my interest to her.

I appreciated the ode to the '90s and how accurate the whole setting was. The songs, the clothes, the buildings, everything was so accurate to this period. I loved the usage of Korean songs from this decade, needless to say my playlist got updated with many new songs (I'm still jamming out Black Cat Nero). You could tell that the budget was high in order to bring us back to the times of the crisis and the effort they put was clear enough.

I also liked the colour grading, it was mundane and vibrant at the same time, perfectly capturing the contrasting vibes and emotions throughout the series. The cinematography was equally well-made and there were many beautiful shots in every episode.

The soundtrack was another good aspect. It was cheerful, nostalgic and hopeful. It perfectly captured the emotions of the drama. Lee Jun Ho did an excellent job delivering it, he was the perfect choice and his voice was really pleasant to listen to in the background.

As I mentioned at the beginning, I was initially very excited for this series. The first episodes delivered everything I was expecting and some more which motivated me to keep watching. I had very high hopes and I started preparing myself for declaring Typhoon Family one of the best kdramas I would have watched this year.

Alas, my hopes crashed just like Typhoon Trading.

The first half of the series, especially the first episodes were very good. The series focused on Tae Poong and his journey as a CEO but at the same time, it brought light to the events that happened during the crisis and how they'd affect Koreans. The drama combined optimism and reality and it gave us many emotional moments that reflected the state of South Korea during IMF crisis.

Unfortunately, the second half felt like a totally different drama. The more the story progressed, the more I felt it started to lose its humane touch. The plot became too repetitive and formulaic to the point I was less engaged to it. I continued watching the drama but without the enthusiasm of the first episodes.

One of the biggest issues I had with the writing was the way the plot was handled. It started following the same pattern over and over again: Tae Poong would land a trading deal, Pyo family would create a scheme or something random would happen and the business wouldn't go smooth and Tae Poong would find a solution, even if it wouldn't be enough. It's understandable that the writer would create all of these problems. South Korea was under a crisis, therefore it was expected that the drama would highlight the hardships the heroes had to face. My issue wasn't that. However, if you want to create problems in order to establish the ground for further development, you ought to do it better.

The drama was about the crisis, therefore there was no need to rely on the villains' schemings in order to make the characters' lives more difficult. The problems should have been related to the crisis, not two boring villains and random exterior forces. By doing so, the story lost its dramatic tone. I no longer felt anxiety, instead I started becoming fed up and wish to be done with it once and for all. The escalation of the events became too over dramatic, instead of watching a well rounded story, it was as if I was watching a soap opera. The plot became boring and it dragged for so long, although I didn't heavily dislike Typhoon Family, it became a chore to resume watching it.

I want to address the elephant in the room and clarify that the problems themselves weren't bad. The problem was the villains who caused these problems. As many people have already said, the Pyos were one of the weakest links in the series. Instead of making them intimidating and engaging, they were like caricatures, whose sole purpose was to make Tae Poong's life miserable.

Pyo Hyun Jun is by far one of the worst villains I've encountered so far in terms of writing. There were barely any remarkable qualities about his character. He cameacross as a mere brat who antagonized Tae Poong and who was obsessed with bringing him down. It's such a pity that his character got to waste because the writer's intentions in making him more complex were promising.

Hyun Jun could have made for an interesting complex villain. Throughout his whole, it was implied that he lived under Tae Poong's shadow. Tae Poong had everything: loving parents, money, admirers, friends. Hyun Jun was jealous of that and his jealousy shaped up his insecurities. On top of that, he constantly tried to prove his worth to his father, Pyo Bak Ho and earn his approval. His father's dismissal was a catalyst for Hyun Jin's downfall but in the end, he was very underwhelming simply because the writer didn't invest in his character.

Pyo Bak Ho was equally bland and uninteresting to watch. The secrecy between his connection to Tae Poong's father and the source for his motive to get Typhoon Trading became too tiring and dragged the plot. His character could have also been written better but just like his son, he came across as too one-dimensional.

When it came to the writing, another issue was the inability to establish a proper tone. There were some shifts among the scenes that ruined their emotional impact. An example I can think of is the moment when Tae Poong's mom decides to donate her wedding ring. It was an emotional scene, one that almost brought tears to my eyes but the impact was quickly lost because not long after, a comedic scene followed. The writer seemed to struggle with this aspect and thus, I failed to feel moved during some scenes.

Another complaint of mine was the writing of the secondary characters - or actually, its lack thereof. During the first half, although Tae Poong and Mi Seon were mostly the center of attention, the drama gave other opportunities to the rest of characters to shine and showcase their interactions. After the first half, we were getting fewer and fewer scenes of them. At one point, we stopped getting scenes between Tae Poong and his mom or Mi Seon and her family, which robbed us of some quality moments between the families.

I am aware of the difficulty that comes with tackling so many different characters simultaneously. Since this was the writer's first major project, I'm willing to cut her some slack. Even though I respect the ambiguous attempt, the result remained underwhelming. It would have been much better if we had seen more of the development of the secondary characters and if we had more balance between them and the main pair. Some of their scenes in the later half felt like fillers instead of vital moments to push the story further and it pains me so much to write this.

There were so many missed opportunities regarding the personal growth of the characters. I loved Tae Poong's mom and her kind and loving personality but it was as if that was her whole personality. The first episodes had done an excellent job portraying her struggling with adapting to a new lifestyle and having a job to provide for her family. I wish we had gotten to see more of that aspect, it would have been nice to see her balancing her new life as a caretaker and an employed woman.

Despite its flaws, Typhoon Family remained an intriguing drama. It deals with a heavy topic but it reminds us that after dark times, we will always be able to see the rainbow. Typhoon Family wasn't a story about the growth of a business. It was about human relationships, community and love. It's about not giving up and trying to survive even when life beats you down. It's about finding the beauty among those whom we cherish and (most importantly) inside ourselves.

All our flowers are here.

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What happened?! Post-production crew working drunk is the only explanation!

Seriously, what happened ??? With the star-studded cast they had, all the production crew and project decision-makers should make amend ! I raise serious question on the sanity of the people who validated the post-production work done on this drama... So much was wrong that I will not go through one by one but still list a few (un)honorable mentions...

First, why make it so difficult to introduce characters and relationships ? Instead of laying out the story set up in the last episode, wouldn't those 5 minutes be more useful at the beginning of the show ?

Second, why bother speaking about 12 "angels" if the focus is on a unique protagonist : Taesan, chief tiger? Not even the most interesting character, you got around his personality in very little time and then it is only fights, grumbling, and being in leader mode but without any dialog with his team members.

Third, why are all of the fights scenes blurring together in a really uninteresting manner? The fighters have almost no specificity in their fighting style nor special power. The few elements that differentiate them are too little, very superficial and never explored in relation to the others...Snake cannot speak, Pig is hungry, Monkey is good willing idiot, Dog is people pleasing, Horse is a fighter... That's about it. How is the viewer supposed to care about any of those characters ?!

Fourth, why have a romance so bland and so late in the story that instead of being a motor for the emotion it feels totally devoid of meaning ? It lacked chemistry and it should have been set up much earlier to have any kind of pay-off.

Fifth, where did you use the budget? Certainly not on the writing team nor on the costume department. It was mediocre at best. It takes a very specifc kind of individual to manage to make Park Hyung Sik look bad...So congrats I guess for this "achievement"?! More seriously, there were a obvious lack of care on the costumes and styling department, with wigs that felt of very poor quality, white ghostly makeup not matching neck, and so on...I'm left to ponder if all the budget went on casting big names and publicity rather than anything else...

Unfortunately, casting cannot save by themselves a drama. Writing was bad but most of all the editing of the scenes, the fact that fights or emotional sequences were cut by other non-relevant scenes, the pacing and the way the story was organized : nothing worked !!! Even the acting of actors I like and find usually good was lacking and disappointing... Among the very unsatisfactory production and post-production, the saving grace was the soundtrack with the track Salvation that I enjoyed when played at the end of each episode, mostly because it is a good song but potentially also because hearing it meant the end of an episode...

I would definitely not recommend this. If you are looking for a great ensemble cast incarnating heroic characters and gripping villains, go watch Moving. Or even The Uncanny Counter. This is so full of flaws that I still cannot imagine how it was greenlighted as such !

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Tell Me What You Saw, because I’m still processing whatever that finale was.

“Tell Me What You Saw” is one of those dramas that had me conflicted from the first frame to the final credits — and honestly, that’s probably why it lingered. On the surface, it’s your classic OCN stew: gloomy visuals, messed-up villains, and a profiler whose trauma is practically a supporting character. But underneath the genre packaging sits a surprisingly messy meditation on ego, trust, and betrayal.

First off, the poster already had me side-eyeing. Why is everyone standing like they’re shooting a Vogue crime spread? The man spends half the series in a wheelchair, yet the promo pretends he’s training for a triathlon. A simple face-only poster would've worked. The disconnect is wild.

To its credit, the show came armed with a blur tool — thank you to whoever was responsible for sparing my retinas in the first half. You deserved a raise. But why did they suddenly stop blurring things in the second? Budget cuts? Lost the blur filter? And don’t get me started on that constant wind-turbine sound humming loudly and incessantly through every episode. I paused my TV multiple times thinking something was wrong with my house. Apparently not. Just the sound design gaslighting me.

Now on to the characters. Hyun‑jae was cool as hell in the beginning. He is the perfect encapsulation of this drama’s contradictions. Early on, he’s magnetic: the haunted genius weighed down by grief. But peel back the layers and his brilliance is welded to ego. Choosing to chase the killer instead of saving his wife was his defining moment. It was a damned‑if‑you‑do, damned‑if‑you‑don’t dilemma, but it revealed his priorities: justice over intimacy. And then he suddenly starts fighting like a ninja, climbing walls, roof-hopping like Spider-Man — only to completely choke in the finale when the guy who can karate-chop a dozen men can't take down someone tied up and half-dead. Make. It. Make. Sense.

Soo‑young, on the other hand, surprised me. I thought she’d be a goody two shoes, stuck in the shadow of her mother’s death, but she grew into someone resilient and sharp. Her disbelief at the killer’s true nature mirrored mine — he was written so charismatic that even I caught myself shipping them for a hot minute. That betrayal hit hard, because it wasn’t just her trust that was manipulated, it was ours too. Watching her evolve from rookie to survivor gave the drama its emotional backbone, and by the end, she felt stronger than Hyun‑jae himself.

As for Leader Hwang—why is she alive while Detective Yang isn’t? Universe, we need to talk. She’s not corrupt, no, not like Director Choi or the Deputy Commissioner, sure, but her motives are questionable enough that I was grinding my teeth. That said, even if she didn’t say Han Isu’s name, that woman was doomed; the killer was forcing her hand from the start.

Speaking of the killer, he is the drama’s worst and most fascinating creation: a natural born psychopath who started young, gathered like-minded monsters, and perfected the art of guilt-weaponizing. He forced everyone to shoulder responsibility for choices that were never theirs. Even in the end, tied up like a discount Hannibal Lecter, he was still manipulating. Still blaming the world for what he chose to be. The show made him too charismatic for his own good. Charismatic enough that corrupt officers protected him, colleagues overlooked red flags, and even people who wanted him dead kept fumbling like they’d lost the plot. But here’s the problem: after all that buildup, the ending felt anticlimactic. Like, that’s it? After all that tension, they wrapped it up with a shrug and a fade-out?

So yes, the drama frustrated me. But it also entertained me, challenged me, and occasionally made me laugh in disbelief — especially when Hyun-jae launched out of his wheelchair like he was starring in an action movie no one else was watching. It wasn’t perfect, but it was layered, and it left me thinking long after the credits rolled. And apparently loud enough to haunt my living room.

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it’s cute but the ending was so rushed

The entire thing was not top tier or anything but I genuinely enjoyed it. I especially liked the way they portrayed the story, in the end the king was maybe bad, but even if he wasn’t he still would have been known as bad because that’s what the winner (prince jesan) decided. In the end, the ones who win are the ones who tell the story how they want. So I found that nice honesty.
Acting was good, both FL and ML played their roles really well for me.
The cooking aspect was enjoyable, I don’t know about other Kdrama watchers but maybe anime influenced me in this aspect so it felt like a slice of life cooking kdrama which made me unwind if anything.
However the ending… Ending it with “how he came to find me is not important cause now we’re together”..is very annoying. I don’t what happened with the production to want to wrap it up like that or maybe that’s how it was meant to be, but 1 more episode could have explained a few things, like what happened to his people who took over the palace? , like how he came to future? , and when he met her in the restaurant he was already well dressed in a normal outfit so how did that happen? , how did even find her?
So yea I enjoyed a whole 11 episodes of this, but the last part was so rushed it frustrated me.

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This series was absolutely wonderful — far above the usual fluffy BL shows. These two have genuine chemistry, and you can feel how comfortable they are with each other, which makes every scene flow beautifully. The result is a mix of playful moments, heartfelt romance, and love stories that feel real and warm.

The script has just the right amount of depth to keep you hooked without ever feeling heavy or boring, and the actors (meaning the full cast not just the 2 ML) bring it to life with a truly lovely performance. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for any future series they do together — I already know they won’t disappoint.

100% recommended: great fun, captivating from start to finish, and full of beautiful people from the 2 ML to the rest of the cast, with beautiful energy.

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Stellar Story, Mediocre Acting

I cannot lie, this was probably one of the best storylines we've gotten out of 2025. The setup, the twists, the outcomes, literally everything. A horror BL done right cause it doesn't center the BL and it works so perfectly for this. Khemjira is stellar, I was kept engaged despite my dismay of the runtime, and I was thoroughly impressed. Unfortunately, the acting is where this takes a large stumble for me.

Let's Dive In.

I liked that Khem and Paran are a slow burn. Not because it's my cup of tea, but because it works so well into the scheme of things with Paran being a shaman and not allowed to really fall in love, and then we steadily see him fall for Khem more and more. I'll be honestly, I was not impressed with that last NC scene. I think there's a certain point when things are dragged too long, and that was just tooooo long. I also kind of don't really see why Paran fell for Khem. I understand for Khem because, Paran is a fucking greek god, but outside of their past soul's love lives, I just don't see what about Khem is to fall for. The fact that he's making your life harder...?

I enjoyed Jet and Charn a lot more than the leads. I liked that Jet realizes how beautiful Charn is after he gets wet and looses his glasses, and I just love Charn altogether. The topics that are brought up amongst them as they progress into a relationship are spectacular, give me more of that.

The plot was just splendid. The village, the people, the workings of the shines and the magic, the two little kids, Ramphueng. Like, wow, just so good. Obviously the CGI is a bit shit, but it's not so bad that I can't stay intrigued in the plot. We learn a lot of Thai culture which I appreciate, and I love that the longer I watch Thai BL, the more I pick up on the lingo, the honorifics, and I realized a lot of how that stuff worked in this. Bravo.

I won't lie though, this was entirely too long. There was no way I could watch this in regular speed, so each episode was watched in 1.5-2x speed, and it honestly felt like it was going a normal pace. There are moments, like always, that just aren't needed.

The acting...sigh. It's not so bad in certain part, but our main guy cannot cry for shit. You know those moment you can tell when someone is crying (real tears, red rimmed eyes, puffy cheeks, etc.) and then when someone put water drops in their eyes? Yeah... But it wasn't just Namping, I wasn't really impressed with anyone's acting outside of Firstone's acting. These guys are pretty new to this (Not Keng though, he worked with Jeff??? Jaw on the floor), so I'll give them slightly the benefit of the doubt.

Ratings:

Story: 9/10 - good and strong! Flowed nicely, some parts dragged a bit, but otherwise it was good. NAMMON.

Acting: 7.5/10 - Namping could be so good with just a little more practice, I wasn't impressed really at all with anyone's acting.

Music: 5/10 - didn't pay attention to it.

Recommendation Value: 7.5/10 - This might not be everyone's bread and butter. It's a little on the scary side, kind of traumatic, and lots of jump scares. But everyone needs to see Keng in a wet white long sleeve with a back tattoo, so go for it!

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Not your usual zombie movie

but this shouldn’t deter anyone from watching it. It’s true that the focus of this movie is a lot more on the family and their relationships and how the situation affects those than the focus is on the zombies. The tension is felt rather than just seen and it’s a key point of what makes the movie so good. It’s the type of movie that might not seem grandiose but that’s cause it doesn’t need to be. Everything that happens very much shows the different sides of humanity and the cracks that show under such a crisis. I would definitely recommend anyone who wants to, to give it a fair chance. It might just surprise you as much as it did me.

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