Reviews

Monstrous in its humanity. Humane in its monstrosity.

Money. Family. Despair. Desperation.

Stray too far... and there's no going back to the moment you once felt whole.
Family? You're probably better off with them... but also kinda not.
Trust? Who will you trust... and who will trust you?
What do you follow; your instincts, or the instructions hell handed you?

I loved the twists, the turns, the unexpected coasters of trust and betrayal.

"People like us don’t get happy endings."
Yeah, once you get your hands dirty, there's no return. No redemption slip.
Happy endings? Forget even the ending; you'll be stuck craving just that.

And dying without ever knowing why...
That’s the cruelest kind of mess.

Still; hell of a ride. The lightning, the music, the camera work, the scenes, the performances, the plot; everything was stunning.

Yeah, there were a few loopholes here and there, but oh? Negligible, if you just dive in and let it pull you under.

And just like most Netflix shows... that one nude scene was painfully unnecessary. Like... why?

...And yet, despite it all; what a thoroughly beautiful, brutal ride that was.
That's life.

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Started good but it became dragging

The Prisoner of Beauty started off strong with a promising premise, intriguing political tension, and some entertaining characters. I especially loved General Wei Liang — his character brought comic relief and depth, and his scenes were often the most engaging. His personality gave the story a unique charm.

However, the series eventually became dragging and uneven, especially in the latter half. I had high expectations for Wei Zhao, the male lead, but unfortunately, he fell short. Despite being labeled a general, his fighting skills were unimpressive, and his war strategies lacked depth and believability. It’s genuinely puzzling how someone with such mediocre leadership was written as a top military figure. His character felt underdeveloped and failed to live up to the potential his role demanded.

On the other hand, Manman, his wife, was portrayed as perfect — intelligent, capable, and consistently outshining everyone, including Wei Zhao. While strong female leads are always welcome, it felt unbalanced. Manman overshadowed Wei Zhao to the point that he appeared below average, which weakened the couple’s dynamic and left his arc feeling incomplete and unfair.

In short, the series had good elements, particularly at the beginning, and Wei Liang made it worth watching. But the poor treatment of Wei Zhao’s character and the dragged-out pacing in later episodes held it back from being great.

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Not Just a Medical Drama, But a Warm Hug in Scrubs

Honestly, I hit play because of Go Younjung (as one should), but Resident Playbook gave me so many more reasons to stay. 🥹✨

My absolute favorites? The chaotic, lovable squad of 1st-year residents:
🩺 Oh Yiyoung – calm but quietly dependable
🩺 Kim Sabi – lowkey genius with unexpected charm
🩺 Uhm Jaeil – sunshine boy energy and everyone's emotional support
🩺 Pyo Namkung – MY HEART. Just. HER.

These four stole the show for me. Watching them struggle, grow, cry, and laugh together? It felt like I was right there with them, pulling all-nighters and eating snacks in the break room. But if I had to pick one who tattooed herself into my soul, it’s Pyo Namkung. Yes, she's the crybaby of the group, but don't be fooled. That girl has heart, grit, and the strongest spirit. Her character arc? Beautiful. She's the kind of person you root for so hard because even when she breaks down, she gets up stronger every time. Honestly, she’s the most promising among the bunch, and I just adore her.

Resident Playbook isn’t just about medicine — it’s about found family, silent battles, and all the little moments in between that make the struggle worth it. Whether it's scrubbing in or breaking down, this drama gets it.

Highly recommend for soft hearts, tired souls, and anyone who’s ever needed a reminder that they’re doing okay. 💙🩺

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A Soft, Stirring Masterpiece ❄️

If you're looking for a story that gently breaks your heart and combines it with so much warmth, The First Frost is it.

Wen Yifan completely stole my heart.
She’s the character you feel with your whole chest — strong-willed, silently hurting, yet still standing tall. Watching her slowly find the courage to face her past, her fears, and eventually herself? It was just... beautiful. No over-the-top drama. Just raw, quiet strength.

Honestly, she’s someone I’d want to protect at all costs.
Like if I were in Sang Yan’s shoes? I'd do exactly what he did — protect her peace, cheer her on from the sidelines, and hold her hand whenever the frost felt too cold. His love for her? So subtle, yet so steady. A total green flag boyfriend fr.

Favorite part? Seeing Yifan slowly learn to accept not just others, but herself. That quiet bravery? That hit hard.

The First Frost is not just a love story — it’s a story about healing, choosing yourself, and learning that some winters in life are meant to teach us how to bloom again.

Highly, highly recommend. Bring tissues. And your heart. 🥹💖

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it does smell nice: an ode to apo

it is i, the niel.

it took me a looooong time to finish this show. literal months. at first, the storyline was intriguing, but, like most bls, just started adding in random elements to pad the runtime. it certainly is a high-quality production. gotta give it its flowers, because it was the bl that caused the genre to shift in a more mature direction away from high school/college fluff. the actors did a good job, the scenes were shot well (lots of variety in set locations), music was great, and overall, it was well-made.

however, there were issues with the tone of the story at times. within seconds of certain scenes, the tone went from serious to goofing around in a very jarring way. this can work in certain shows, but i was caught off-guard every single time. after having watched the show, i can go back to the goofy scenes and laugh at them, but as i was watching, i just sighed every time. the product placements were giving unforgotten night, which works great in a show like that, but not this one.

porsche, as a character, was generally a likable guy. but, i think that apo plays porsche in such a way that makes viewers look past his inherent flaws, because apo is just a charismatic dude. porsche's motivations are slightly contradictory at times. for example, he claims to be doing this job to protect and provide for his younger brother. however, by doing so, he essentially abandons chay (a minor) in the process, which then leads to him getting groomed (well, yes). at times during the story, he had opportunities to leave, but he chooses to actively stay with kinn as a bodyguard, which is not in the best interest of his brother. i'm not saying all of his decisions should be based around chay, but bro is in high school. porsche is literally his legal guardian (uncle gone). i don't think that porsche starts off as a selfish character, but he slowly becomes a selfish character, and that honestly isn't acknowledged.

every single relationship in this show has a basis that makes it impossible for me as a viewer to turn a blind eye to their relationship dynamics. there are factors in all 3 couples, at least at times, that make it legally/morally impossible for one person in the couple to give informed consent. vegas and pete, foul. kim and chay, deceitful. kinn and porsche, hr violation.

way too many scenes of SA or nonconsensual interactions. in all of them, the show tends to justify the sexual violence in some fashion, or fails to make the couples acknowledge/address it. woof.

on a positive note, i think back on the bread product placement scenes fondly. like i said, apo is a chill dude. the actors did a great job with what they were given. it's not their fault that the script was sus at times. overall, it's a refreshing change of pace from what we had seen from prior thai bls. it's worth watching, if you're okay with darker themes mixed with nonsense. also, a lot is left unresolved by the end, which might be frustrating for some viewers. i don't think i'd rewatch the entire thing, but some scenes were good enough for me to go back to. kachow!!

best,

the niel.

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A bit too much politics and a bit too less passion.

Started off with a bang—pace, laughs, emotional beats, and a generous dash of every genre . Each element was served with flair and honesty. In previous life , our leads' married life was destroyed by politics and misunderstandings so to face that trouble , the plot got hijacked by politics somewhere around ep 12 . And not fun politics like Game of Thrones-style politics—just straight-up bureaucratic overload, 'typical'. Now, I don’t mind politics in a story, but when it starts choking out the plot’s charm? Yeah, no thanks.


I genuinely felt there wasn't enough character development around the main leads’ personal arc. Like— to resolve the misunderstandings that growing on you for twenty years, it must have taken a lot more than just jumping out of her carriage and running in opposite direction ( who watched the show will know what I am talking about ). The Real emotional payoff was lacking a big time and suddenly we see them making out in the pool. The whole love trajectory felt about as convincing as my cat saying she wasn't sheepishly trying to throw the glass off the table ( as I am writing this review). Honestly I would have preferred them writing a new love story, knowing each other from the start and giving proper closure to the hanging loops from their previous lives.

The parallel leads? Practically ghosted. Their entire storylines were shoved into the last two episodes like leftovers on a Sunday plate—rushed, half-cooked, and barely satisfying.

But credit where it’s due— the feminist undertones in this drama deserve applause. The contrast between the caged empress and the fiercely independent princess-turned-ruler was chef’s kiss. And the side female characters? One's a badass general, the other’s a resilient, whip-smart aide. All three women nailed the art of keeping their professional lives separate from the chaos of love triangles, family mess, societal nonsense, and emotionally unavailable men. KUDOS TO THE WRITER for giving us some actual role models in historical robes.

Now… that villain.
Don’t get me started. The dude causes multiple rebellions, sets the kingdom on fire (almost literally), and our leads still go, “It’s not too late to come back”. EXCUSE ME? What’s next—send him a muffin basket and a “get well soon” card? They gave this two-cent villain a fancy, poetic exit like he was some misunderstood anti-hero. Nope. Not buying it. Over-generosity? Or stupidity pro max? You decide.

As for the cast—ZLH? Absolute perfection. The role fit him like a glove dipped in charisma. Maimai? Stunning. She pulled off her 39-year-old character arc with grace and depth. Chemistry? Check. Sparks? Mostly. Side cast? Passable. They showed up, they acted, they left.

BGM? Meh. The soundtrack felt weirdly modern for an ancient setting—like someone accidentally played their Spotify playlist in the background. Fight scenes were few, but tolerable. The real tragedy? The dialogue in the final episodes. Monologues for days. It felt less like a dramatic showdown and more like two emotionally constipated characters (FL & VILLAIN BOY) hosting a midnight podcast.I mean every time the FL and villain come across, there are long segments of monologues from both sides, she talked to him like the entire last night .. then next morning he comes to rebel in the palace and bam another coffee session between them .. 2 hour later ML defeats him in a sword fight .. guess what ??? The same conversation again..huh!

Special shoutout to the inventor of the skip button—you’re the real MVP.

Overall?
It was… okay. Could’ve used more fluff in those dry case files and way more depth in the love story. Oh—and did they ever tell us if the main couple had a kid? i remember she was announced pregnant before the three year leap ..did it missed something?

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awwwwwwww

I couldn't get into this at first so I was just skipping through until ep 9 when things finally clicked, then I awww'd alll the way to the end. what a cute little drama! the cp had buckets of chemistry and sparkly tension and the fl's performance especially was lovely. the ml was so sincere it was impossible not to root for him, also I loved all of his clothes, great wardrobe! its nice to finally see that actor in a ml role, hope his success continues, and the actress too.
ps: she should not have been anywhere near his set after the docu was completed. she's his girlfriend not his assistant, and it caused so many problems
pss: totally random that her and her bestie just lived alone in that mansion, but it worked for *aesthetic reasons*
the scenarios are a little silly hence the low score but yea, its good for a one time watch.

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A draggy Thai Makjang with a lot of useless meandering nonsense.

NOTE : This was originally a comment I edited which I decided to erase and post in the review section since as of now, there’s only one review about this show and the comment was overly long.

Note 2 : If it’s too long for you, skip to the conclusion.

LONG A** REVIEW AHEAD

Apart from the very draggy middle (a staple for Lakorns apparently) , I think this drama's biggest flaw is how cartoonishly evil the Uncle is. He's so one-dimensional, at some point my irritation level got so high, I had to remind myself, this was a drama, and I could drop this if I wanted.
After all no one held me at gun point, there was no need to subject myself to voluntary raise my blood pressure IN MY FREE TIME.

BUT, since I’m an idiot, and I’d already dropped ALL the thai dramas I tried to watch since last December, I held on. As mentioned, I am an IDIOT after all.

Otherwise it's actually a pretty good show compared to most lakorns I've attempted to watch. Notice that I’ve wrote “compared to”.

I think their storylines are interesting as long as you're not allergic to toxic MLs but they always include some draggy meandering nonsense in the middle.

The ML is not toxic here but let's just say, there's quite a number of romanticized problematic behaviors in lots of Lakorns (to be fair MOST romance in fiction almost always include some problematic behaviors especially in Asian media, it's just that I find it's even more the case for Thai content compared to their Chinese/Japanese or Korean counterparts)...

I'm a sucker for toxic MLs IN FICTION ( gotta stress that one really) so fine by me but I have more trouble with the draggy additional useless plot points that often comes with the genre.

I think this explains why the overall ratings here is 7.5.

Also, the romance aspect is mostly during the first half of the series... Once Mind learns the truth, the series has a tonal shift and the romance just takes a huge step back. The Lakorn only focus on how they bring down the villain but almost all the romance is out the window... Which is too bad because both actors had great chemistry in the beginning, and I think most people would tune in for the tension between the lead especially during the period where Mind doesn’t know who he is…

They could have made such a great enemies to lovers story there… With Mind being attracted in spite of herself to her nemesis, believing he’s her mother’s murderer and the son of her fiance’s killer, as well as Pat believing the love of his life betrayed him for money and had decided to join his murderer’s family when he literally crossed the ocean to get her back. It could have been SUCH a powerful inner conflict (to be fair, the drama gloss over it… when it should have been the most important conflict – and appeal - in my opinion).

SUCH.WASTED.OPPORTUNITY.


It could have been a great thriller with romantic tension... and instead we spend most of our time with the evil uncle and his evil assistant so it ended being a poor attempt at both genres.

I love Film though and it was my first time watching Min. Both were great in their roles… which is why I’m really saddened we didn’t get more of the sizzling tension of the first 4 episodes.

The character of Emika… was very well written up to episode 15… and then she took a turn for the worse. While given the circumstances, one can understand why she made that choice… needless to say, the Uncle and his right-hand man Phasu were already irritating enough, I don’t think we needed a good character to play against their own team for some last ditch plot point to lengthen this overly long series especially when this choice of hers led to heavy consequences which could have easily been avoided if she hadn’t acted so selfishly.
There’s nothing wrong with a good character being flawed… but the way she’d been written by that point, guilt should have driven her to quickly change her stance as soon as faced with the heavy consequences of her action… But contrary to how she’d been portrayed i.e a caring and loving wife who’d stand by her husband no matter what even if she didn’t understand his choices, she felt no guilt and kept on her charade. Funny how she turned as controlling of her husband’s nasty piece of sh*** of a father once she understood things would not go her way. Again she had a good reason for it, but it ran contrary to her character. Fortunately, the drama was almost finished by then so that last ditch nonsense was quickly resolved before they had the chance to make stray too far.

#You_ruined_Emika_but_I’m_so_tired_already_I_don’t_care

This character deserved better. But I guess, they needed to ruin her image a bit so that we could root guilt-free for the main pair to get together by the end… as if they needed that for us to root for them but whatev.

Ah yeah, almost forgot… There’s a second couple nobody gives a fudge about. I don’t even understand why they tried to force some romance between both these characters if it wasn’t to deliver on it after but whatever… I guess it made the episodes longer. These two had literally NO chemistry whatsoever. Maybe they wanted to add another couple to try to justify the romance tag… Because I sure didn’t get my dose.

It's quite a stressful watch though albeit predictable. Some stuffs made me raise my eyebrows to my hairline as well (such as one character being hurt at the head and being shown being "operated on" [the whole intervention looked SO FAKE]… on his belly with no head wound visible) but as the first reviewer wrote “It’s a Lakorn so why not”… so errr. OK I guess.

Not like this series was really aiming for coherency in the first place. It’s a “just watch, enjoy the ride and don’t ask too many questions” type of show.

Pretty reminiscent of early K dramas of the early 2000s ( I remember Memory loss being so overused back then, it became a private joke between K drama aficionados)

I wouldn't recommend that one unless you're the type of person who doesn't mind fast forwarding episodes.
I’m not… so I’ve watched every single second of that show at normal speed, and I can tell you, past episode 6, it starts to slow down and after that It’s a draggy journey to the finish line.

By the time I finished the drama I was just exhausted of the whole ordeal with none love left for the show.

Also not the kid's fault but I hate whenever he had to talk. It's very obvious he was reciting his lines. When you have to make such a young child act, it's better to avoid making them talk too much. He's supposed to be endearing, yet he just comes out as being irritating and whinny…

The whole “Mommy” and “Daddy” thing... when It’s obvious, this kid doesn’t speak a single word of English, was reaaaaaaaally awkward. That didn’t help the ordeal either. He speaks entirely in Thai anyway. Let him call his parents แม่ and พ่อ like every Thai, that would have been way less cringe.

I almost skipped his scenes all together.


In spite of me writing more about the bad points, the show had this going for them: It definitely was not boring. Most episodes were around 50 minutes instead of the usual 1hour 10+ minutes episodes I’ve seen in quite a lot of Lakorns so that made the series more easily accessible.

It’s not that there was nothing happening. Rather TOO much happening, for absolutely NO overall progression plotwise. As written above, it was a whole lot of meandering nonsense which only point was to show how evil and manipulative the Uncle is… but the main conflict which was… how to bring down the villain, goes round and round 13 episodes out of 18.


CONCLUSION


So… Would I recommend that one?
NO.

Not even to pass the time. Main issue is: It’s too draggy for a suspenseful thriller and there’s not enough fluff for romance lovers.

It fails at both.

The only reason I would recommend this show is if you’re a die-hard fan of Film or Min or you’re really into Korean Makjang.

You know the type. Old family dramas of the 2000s, with secret births, lots of twists and turns that go nowhere for 50 episodes, villains getting away with literally everything and a whole lot of suspension of disbelief needed. ( I assure you though… the main culprit here get what he deserves… BUT some characters who contributed to his ascension literally get a free pass… and one who was especially vile even get some form of sympathy pass from the drama [YEAH… SURE]).

Makjangs are not necessarily bad… But the issue is if it’s a lot of twists and turns only for the sake of shock value but without any or little progression plotwise for too long, the audience can grow tired and end up disconnected from the show… Which is what happened to me here.

This being said, there’s efforts made to keep viewers entertained… I haven’t seen enough Lakorns yet to judge how it fares compared to others… but compared to K dramas (not the makjang type)…

Well… Even being generous… It’s difficult for me to rate that one above 6,5 . AND… I don’t feel generous at present. So that’s a 6 because of how I got a whole bunch of nonsensical plotpoints and not enough fluff between the leads to make this whole ordeal worth the 18 hours of my life I wasted.

If it was a K dramas… I’d probably rate this between a 3 and a 4.5… Or rather I’d probably have already dropped it by episode 11/12. Only reason why I hung on was because of my “language quota” (long story).

But Thai productions, albeit for a few exceptions, are not yet on par with China, South Korea or Japan… so I feel it would be unfair to rate them based on the same criteria…

Also I have read it somewhere else but somebody suggested an "enjoyment" bar should be added to the ratings on MDL because you don't need a masterpiece to have a good time and while I found this show overly draggy, I still enjoyed myself enough to finish it because both main actors really made me root for their characters.
That's the only reason I ended up not being too harsh on this show. The overall suggested ratings here is 5... But considering the most important criteria for me which is "enjoyment", that's definitely a 6... There were times when it dropped to a 4... But no matter how much I think about it, I don't want to give it less than 6... because yes it was draggy, but at least they tried and resolved all the plot points they threw at us by the end of the show... Something, lots of dramas fail to do betraying their audience.

I’d probably would have rated it a 7 or 7,5, if we had 10 less episodes… But I guess it wouldn’t be a Lakorn otherwise.

THIS BEING SAID, I hate Makjang in general (unfortunately there’s no « Makjang » tag on MDL otherwise I’d have avoided this show). If you’re the type to appreciate the genre…
You’ll probably enjoy this so don’t let my long rant deter you for giving it a try…

However if you’ve started this and you feel the same as I by episode 7/8…

Well, just so you know. It doesn’t get better, so trust me, and save the remaining time for a better show.


PS: Also... Dunno who is the stylist, I usually really don't pay attention to fashion overall but I did notice that Min's clothes were just all the time pretty gorgeous and fitted her figure pretty well. Gotta give credits when it’s due.

PS2 : As per usual in most Thai dramas I’ve watched… the sound quality was awful especially when characters were shouting. I don’t know the expression in English but the sound felt « saturated ». There were even times when when characters talked, you’d have some additional parasitic sounds on top which was even more noticeable when you had music in the background.

PS3: Also Thailand… Can you please stop casting dark skinned actors only in negative roles? My God, I’m so tired of all that Colorism nonsense.

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Team Big Brother all the way

At the beginning, I thought this was going to be a strong 7 and then as it progressed it went down to a 2 but I’ll settle with a 4.5 because it wasn’t a complete disaster but it was problematic.

Firstly, I am team big brother. All this righteousness and moralistic viewpoint actually stopped anybody doing anything.

The villains can plot and scheme and try and murder, rape and do what they like with impunity. Because all they say is let bygones be bygones..

I have to talk about the young Masters boyfriend. He plotted and schemed and murdered innocent people and actually date raped his love, even deceived the old master to get married to her daughter and put her into a coma (which she died from, not his fault by the way) but they were all crying for him when he died. The music was all sentimental and were we supposed to feel sorry for him at this point?? because he was a despicable character.

Big brother was the only decent character who tried to right the wrongs of his past for his family being slaughtered where his brother, our male lead was serving the people who ordered his family‘s execution without any grievance whatsoever.

The ending was totally useless.

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Dai Gao Zheng

I will shamelessly admit I watched this drama for the ML Dai Gao Zheng. Standing still with those smoldering, soulful gazes and his kissing scenes. He's simply gorgeous. The SML and the brother were easy on the eyes as well, but their characters were not appealing to me at all.

Equally unappealing was the FL. Whether it was the way her character was written or her acting, it's hard to tell. There was very little chemistry between she and the sizzling ML. He carried all the intimate scenes on his own. After a while I wished I could have muted every time she said his name (which was almost the entire dialogue for Episode 22. The writers must have run out of lines for her). The character was silly and clueless and just plain blah, and she played it that way.

The story itself had promise, DGZ could have done a little more acting and the villain could have been a little more dimensional than he was. He was just so bitter I couldn't feel any pity for him. And the female character attached to the brother was kind of one-dimensional herself. Not interesting at all.

So... if you're looking for a riveting story with award-winning acting, this isn't it. However, the eye candy is well worth it, and there is a lot of that!

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it’s a cute short drama

I binged it in two days. A preview popped up on my feed and I got curious. It captivated me from the first second on. Despite the fl being a bit annoying. She was very cute and her acting was good. Just the character and her storyline was a bit annoying. Ml was great. I loved the second couple more. They were so cute together. Great actors, both of them, I hope to see more of them in the future. The Mbff of the FL was great and deserved a lot more than what he got. I loved how the personal traumas of both leads were woven into the storyline without being overly dramatic! Overall its a 10/10 for me and will rewatch it when I have a bad day because this is definitely something that will make you feel better

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I refuse to believe that anyone watches this for anything but the NC scenes. I don’t even understand how anyone can enjoy these NC scenes. Where’s the plot? It’s so insanely bad and the storyline? What even is this? NC scenes are usually more likely to be romantic, hot or extra to the relationship often in a good way which is much more nice to watch, but these NC scenes truly disgust me. I don’t understand what people see in those scenes, they’re so unnecessarily aggressive, disgusting and honestly just too much. Not worth even giving a chance in my opinion.

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Something very special about this drama

Something very special about this drama
Such cinematography, such ost, such bgm.. something I will never forget! Something I really was touched by !
By very first scene I was sure there a piece of art waiting.. but I was not expecting this much ..
I really really love how they capture emotion , the cinematography ,there something special about this! In some scenes the subtle slow motion of their laughter , their eye language, their kisses , the music
It feel soo melancholic so warm !!
The first thing I thought when I saw the drama was if studio ghibili has a drama this how it would be !

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In retrospect, there wasn't much going on with the overall plot. Good one and done watch.

I think "The Double" is my personal favorite example of a slow burn CDRAMA which has a plot that makes you want to keep watching aside from the romance.

Sometimes the flirting and emotional development between the leads in Prisoner of Beauty can feel a bit awkward, even childish. For example, the male lead doesn’t go talk to the female lead himself but sends his guards to deliver messages — you kind of have to be mentally prepared for that kind of setup. When the screentime is just the two of them, it is a lot of back-and-forth obliviousness between them. And this is a majority of the screentime for the show.

The strength of this drama is the character building it goes through with the main leads. It's also not a typical palace drama. It’s set in a fantasy world with no emperor, just different territories vying for power, so the political dynamics have a different flavor. The male lead’s goal is to unify the kingdoms by building water canals and improving people’s lives. But this really didn't need 36 episodes.

As for the romance between the leads —The female lead doesn’t really start to fall for him & trust him until after episode 20. After all, they were from enemy clans to begin with. I think if you are watching this for romance only, it takes too long to get to the better parts, and otherwise the overarching plot is drawn out too long.

Wei Yan(actor Liu Duan Duan from Joy of Life !) was an interesting character who had plot twists I never thought would happen, but he felt under-utilized altogether.

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