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1This is NOT 9.5/10 show… but it is. Let me explain.
Technically speaking, the show was quite a mess. The editing, directing and pacing were all over the place, but Fightor storyline was close to perfection, and even if you don’t want to watch the whole show, watch Fightor. As far as I know, they are one of the best BL couples up to date with the most fresh and not stereotypical personalities. Or rather, nice twists to the boring stereotypes we know.LET’S TALK ABOUT ACTING
While most of the cast did a good job, I want to focus on the talent Zee showed. I rarely ever get amazed and impressed by acting in BLs. Often I see the imperfections that make me feel less emotionally attached to the characters, because I don’t see them as real people. Meaning, I don’t immerse myself in the story completely.
Not here, though. Zee’s eyes… oh his eyes spoke volumes! I like to call them "Fighter's searching eyes". While his whole presence showed more of a cheeky and confident side, his eyes showed all the insecurities he had. He was also really good at controlling his microexpressions. Sometimes less means more and makes the performance seem realistic. Viewers are not blind. An actor does not need to make full theatrical gasp with a hand up to their face and huge eyes, for us to understand that they got scared, surprised or taken aback. Simple, short intake of breath is enough. The split second of a reaction, but that’s all we need. I appreciated these small things a lot in his acting.
Overall, he makes these small decisions while acting - when to close his eyes, when to open them, when to fix his gaze and when to make it unsure, when to swallow or take short intake of breath, perfectly timed and telling viewers so much about Fighter’s character.
Both Zee and Saint are also masters of using pauses for their advantage to make the storytelling even more believable and engaging. It’s a perfect example how sometimes not doing anything can enrich the portrayal of the character. With Tutor, the pauses are more intentional for the character, it's his time to "decide", think about the consequences of "what if you push forward a bit more" and with Fighter it’s not intentional, it's him not being able to get back to reality, not being aware whatever happened or was about to happen, ended.
Tommy aced his role. His overreactions were still natural and did not feel theatrical. As the story of Zon and Saifah progressed from comedy to romance, I was able to appreciate more of his subtle acting, with shy smiles and joyful laughter. The potential he has and the flexibility in this craft to fit different genres and moods of the story impressed me a lot.
Jimmy did well for his first role. He did feel more inexperience and his performance fell flat compared to other cast members, but I could see how much of a progress he makes in every episode.
TUTOR AND FIGHTER: DYNAMICS OF LOVE
Ever changing dynamics of their interactions were simply beautiful and amazing to watch, to the point I could write a book about it. Tutor is nothing like your usual stereotypical shy, confused, passive bottom and Fighter is anything but the dominant, overconfident, possessive top. Tutor does not let Fighter get away with the teasing and always questions his behavior, demanding answers and explanations. They pull and push, but never cross the line if the other person is not okay with it. THE CONSENT ladies and gentlemen was a recurring theme. Always giving each other space and time to back off and stop whatever was happening. I wish I could say no forcing yourself on the other person after you've been pushed away, but I guess (?) that was an important part of the plot and the development of the relationship.
THAT SAID, while the behavior of a character was definitely wrong, the way the writing and editing portrayed it was close to perfection. It was a situation that should never take place and the editing and acting surely did NOT make it look like a romantic behaviour. It was not one of the “force it till the other person gives in and starts to enjoy it”. Was it painful to watch? Yes. Was this scene well done? Yes Was it necessary? Yes and no. It showed the mental state of both characters in a raw way that could not be achieved in any other take. Sadly, because the writing of the show, up to that point, didn’t explain enough in how bad of a mental place one of the characters was, this behavior might have felt out of place. In my opinion, they could have mellow it down and not go that far, and still convey needed emotions, desperation and broken state the characters were in.
To sum FighTor up - it’s hard to describe the depth of what was happening between them without quoting specific scenes, but you can see so much through the acting. How both characters struggled with internal conflicts and the feeling of unsureness. And yet, they gravitated towards each other.
PROBLEMS WITH PACING AND EDITING
Shall I say the pacing was a clusterf*** even before the COVID-19 happened and I literally laughed at how confusing everything was? Coz that’s how I felt. But then I just said: wherever, let’s just enjoy this acid trip.
While I was in love with how they handled Tutor and Fighter’s story and the pacing was everything I might have wished for, the fact the drama focused on them so much made the other characters suffer. With the overload of characters and couples, it was doomed from the start - not gonna make it. How can you have well established and developed 5+ couples with their own side-stories? Goal impossible to achieve.
Zon and Saifah... where to even begin. Zon the first half of the episodes had 10 different personalities, I was confused. Because the director did not spend enough time showing us the gradual change in Zon’s perception of his situation and relationship with Saifah, everything just came out of nowhere. There were not enough scenes showing us how Zon went from panic to soft. Which was a bummer, because their sweet story could perfectly balance the drama happening between Tutor and Fighter. We were robbed of such an amazing story it truly pains me.
Don’t even want to talk about Hwahwa. Poor girl makes no sense, her feelings change every second. Just sad. Justice for Hwahwa and her beautiful hair flip.
It’s hard to comment on other characters and their plot lines since they were just dropped here and there without much linear progression nor explanation.
The audio editing was distracting. While the use of some comedic sounds was fine and brought a smile on my face, they definitely overused them. The scenes would be funny even without some random sounds dropped every few minutes. Video editing suffered quite a lot because of COVID-19. In later episodes there were some black screens showing up, the subs were missing, we got the same action done by characters shown in x number of angles, just to stretch the scene a bit more. It was not tragic to the point I could not focus on the plot, but the difference in the quality in the first and second half was quite obvious.
BACK TO POSITIVES
What this drama does have though, is an amazing message. While, in default, most BL dramas are supposed to promote - love is love no matter what gender, Why R U does not shy away from talking about it in a straightforward manner. Calling out and questioning homophobic characters, explaining to them how they are wrong, showing how being heterosexual does not mean your love it perfectly good and will never fail. There were quite a few scenes that deserve to be called “iconic” in BLs realm for how well written the dialogues for them were.
Overall, Fightor is life and perfection. I was legit obsessed with them and rewatched their scene every week. I was never as invested in any couple in drama ever (and I have seen quite a number of them). Watch their story, fall in love and let’s all fangirl together.
PS. While my rating is extremely biased and subjective, I tried my best to be more objective in the review itself. Hope it worked out well-ish :)
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When it started, WhyRU had an air of meta brilliance. But whether due to bad writing, poor planning, or the Covid19 shutdown, it became instead an inconsistent tonal mess that isn't really about anything. I don't know what Why RU is or is trying to be. I don't think the writers and producers do either.
At the beginning, the story - about a University student, Zon, with a Fujoshi sister who believes himself cursed into a BL novel - danced on the edge of brilliance every episode but never quite made it. As a concept, the idea of him finding himself stuck living tropes and cliches from a BL novel had a lot of scope for humour. It meant the show could provide an old-school cliched BL love story while simultaneously parodying exactly that. And yet the show never quite nails it; being often slightly too serious about all its tropes for its own good. At its best, Why RU is like an over-the-top BL pastiche that will make you laugh out loud. At its worst, it degenerates into the genre it was supposed to be parodying.
And while the core relationships that underpin it are quite good - no harassment, stalking, assault or sexual violence and the two couples talk to each other and seem to genuinely like each other - the two clash tonally in a way that embodies the drama's tonal problem overall. Fight and Tutor's romance doesn't just seem to be happening in a different show - it's almost happening in a different Universe. One that really really wants us to visit Thailand's beaches.
Is Why RU a BL parody? An homage? Or just another standard show in a market that's close to saturation point?
It does help that the show is anchored by two strong young actors - Saint and Tommy - who can somewhat make up for the clunky and green performances of the other leads. Zon's increasingly funny freakouts as he tries to avoid being forced into BL scenarios with his designated love interest, Saifah, are by far the show's best aspect but these are jettisoned quickly in lieu of a standard Yaoi romance, albeit a super-cute one and a super-sexy one.
While a great deal of laughs can be had by e.g. a confused TharnType wandering through and monologuing randomly to the camera at one point or Zon exclaiming that Saint's character, Tutor, "isn't himself", the premise is never quite milked for the humour it could provide. The show never entirely commits to its premise and instead starts churning out a standard University BL instead.
Whether because of Covid or because the writers didn't really know what they wanted this show to be, the back half is a yawn fest with the thinnest of plots that culminates in a final episode that will leave you scratching your head as to what the show's plot even was. Other than an excuse to have cute boys make out in exotic locales.
It's a shame because this could have been very funny, very self-aware and delightfully meta BL.
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Very poorly developed storyline
Honestly, I don't have much to say about this series. I knew some of the actors, so I decided to give it a chance. I will only expose my opinion, but I want to make it clear, that I really respect the personal opinion of each person, and also respect their tastes and preferences, regardless of the genre of the series, being BL or not.This particular drama, I did not find interesting, even the issues addressed, in fact, is like any other BL series, it's more like they copied a scene from each series and made an adaptation, and see, I watched very few. The story had nothing different or innovative, and was even confusing in some moments.
Chemistry? There were indeed moments when Fighter and Tutor showed chemistry by their reactions, however, their relationship seemed to have more lust than love. I believe, that they should do more work on this storyline, and honestly, the pandemic is not an excuse for a failed storyline. The second main couple may be considered cute, but there is nothing interesting in their story.
In this Drama, there was absolutely nothing that hooked me.
As I am fair with my evaluations, from my opinion, it is worth pointing out that Zee was expressive in his character and Saint's acting, improved a little, he acted better as Tutor than as Pete, but he still has a long way to go, his acting is good, but not great, maybe because the characters he plays have some similar characteristics. The moments that he stood out for acting with a different characteristic, were in the Hot scenes and only! But for me, sex scenes are irrelevant, I consider the content more. Even if they have many hot scenes between the characters, it's not a problem, the main issue is when they emphasize too much these intimate moments between the characters, than to show how their relationship develops, for me the chemistry between FighterTutor only came down to sexual desire, and only this is not enough.
The second main couple, I can't tell, but in many moments they seem like beginners to me.
Regarding the rest of the cast, what is the need to adapt many couples? There is no point in having a great cast and good actors, if in the end, the story of none is well worked out. This storyline failed miserably!
An interesting point that I have observed following the comments, and the reviews, is that a great part of the public, are not totally fair in their evaluations.
Particularly, I can honestly say, that the BL industry is successful only with fanservice, ships and hot scenes, because it seems that many consider the chemistry between the characters only in these moments, and do not consider the plot itself, because most BL Dramas, can be considered toxic, there are only a few that really have a good story and are worth it.
I believe that the overall rating should be considered for the overall performance, taking into consideration the plot, and the acting of the entire cast, not just your favorite actors. I confess, if I were to consider only my favorite actors, my feedback would be much more positive and my ratings would be much higher. But actually, from my observation, considering the ratings, people only support ships and their favorite actors.
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EYECANDIES
While i cant say anything bad about the 4 main cast, who may be some of the best looking cast in any BL show, the story and the execution is a bit lacking.The plot is a typical Thai BL setting - boy hates (or pretends) to hate another boy only to fall in love in the end - whats worse is this time we got 2 of that (or 3 or 4 if you count the side characters). There is no real climax to the story except to make these guys fall inlove with each other - there was very little time for the characters to grow. Initially they were trying to tell the backstories of Zon and Tutor, only for all of that to not matter in the end. There was no antagonist and no real (or very little) conflict and the finale felt like it was really rushed - nothing really happened in the final episode, other than Saifzon's first time.
If they didnt try to be so serious in the beginning and just made it a completely light hearted romance drama, things would have been better.
Saint is always amazing but for me Zee stole the show. The way he cried when they broke up and the way he begged Tutor to take him back broke my heart too.
Thank god Tommy was cute enough that even if his character is so annoyingly written I cant still hate him. Jimmy is just charming and cute as hell. These 2 deserve a better series of their own.
Will i rewatch the series again - maybe, only for the EYECANDIES, and if i am locked down again at home for a long period of time. Otherwise not at all.
I do understand the pressure of finishing a show in the midst of the covid pandemic - we all know that the production was heavily affected by it. And because of their effort to not hang the fans in the middle of the show, im still giving the show a 7.
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This review may contain spoilers
STILL A HUGE NOPE
OK so I had huge expectations for this BL series.Because I was in love with Saints acting in Love by chance and this is the second drama where he is featured.
Before I write more about this, even thought the series is now done, I am still on episode 9 as I could not find the motivation to watch on. SO i guess that only means I won't be able to spoiler the ending. However I do plan on finishing the series when I can bring myself to, so I do say that i could make chances to my review then.
OK I forced myself and finished it, but this review still stands and there is just nothing positive to add.
If one doesn't wanna read all my rambling, here is my recommendation :
Dont watch this. Honestly just watch a compilation on youtube and be done with it.
And I did write some of this review after I had only watched like 5/6 episodes.
Let me start with the positives :
1. That one side couple with the cats is super adorable and so well acted. Their chemistry is really natural and I wish they would have more scenes.
2. The kisses. The kisses so far have all been super well acted ( expect for like the accidental one at the beginning but I don't think one can act that well, its just always a bit awkward)
OK now to the negatives and given my rating right now, its obvious there will be a few more.
1. character development. This is just my standpoint but who even are those people I am watching. I felt like Tutors and Fighters supposed introductions to their backgrounds was just missed. The introduction to ZON was super weird. It gave so many unnecessary and annoying details about him but they are never mentioned again. Like him wanting to be a serious writer and having problems at school. Till now I have not seen that impact his behavior or the story at all! And they wasted an entire episode on that! And now the parenst just seem to completely changed their minds ….
And who is Saifa (probably spelled that super wrong) Like we only see him in scenes with ZON. Who is he? What does he want? or Think? He seemed cheeky at first but now behaves like a lost puppy.
Ok but back to Tutor. Like I watched the series I didnt skip or anything. But like WHAT ? He has the most complicated backstory and even had his sister visit who mentioned his mother. But I was like. Wait he has a sister? Why wasn't he going to her for help in the first place? What is going on with the mother? Is she sick? Why was this not the first episode?
Ok here after I finished it and I wanna say what even is Tutors character. He has like 20 character changes from sassy to super soft to outright dumb to outright mean and unnecessary. I mean parading a new guy in front of his ex !! For no real reason ...? Just so he'd really get the message? But also not being courageous enough to stand up to the dad or tell the bf the truth ?
And Hand in hand with that goes the father character. The entire series he was shown to be hard headed and only focused on what was in his best interest. I mean he made his own son date the daughter of his gf/ business partner ? That is pretty messed up and then he also made his son and bf break up.
But one confrontation with the son and yep he has completely changed his ways. Do we see a reason for that or even get to see how it happens ? OHHHH NOOOO. We just get to hear about on a FaceTime call !?
Also Zon just has a character change ok ? From totally not into S to totally into him. Way too fast.
Ok also another point about the characters. there are a lot! But so many aren't introduced properly! I am still learning names and I was on ep 7. But I am still like : Right who was that guy again ? ( Yeah these characters never really come back but I don't blame them for it. )
2. The editing! Omg who is in charge there. they need to go. Most scenes go on wayyyyy too long and get draggy or annoying. Some shots are also really unnecessary. It overall drags the quality of the drama down. Its only little things but with almost every scene I am yelling cut at my screen for about 20 seconds before the scene ends.
OK I am just gonna edit this until I can actually post it. So new episode was the one with Fighter and Tutor at the beach and the editing in the first two seconds just killed me again. Because there was a random black screen? WHY?
3. the acting. OK this might be one of my biggest disappointments. Like what is going on? Did they sometimes only have time for one take? And even if it was terrible they were like: Ah we will take it!? I don't totally blame the actors for this and as the series goes on I am seeing an improvement in the quality of acting. But there was this one scene, where S. didn't want Zon to leave and he said with the most monotone voice : Don't leave or wait.. and then got up, turned around, sat down, put his guitar away ..... looked AT the camera and the looked at Zon. It just looked more like what you would see in a student theater then in a series which wants to be taking seriously. Also Saints acting especially in the crying scene didn't really touch me at all. I mean like one tear ... fair enough. But the reason for that could also be that I didn't understand where the character was coming from.
OK now with a few more episodes under my belt, it seems the acting is just gonna stay meh the whole time.
Btw I do think the kissing scenes are relatively well acted for both couples. However having watched many Bl and also gay storylines from all over the world, I feel like even the kissing scenes aren't world class.
4. The cliches. OK I get it you wanna parody other BLs but in my opinion it would have been better to parody with an original story and not with one of the most basic storylines out there. The cliches don't seem out of place and funny, they just remind me how much better that scene fitted that other series. And I don't think thats what they wanted to achieve.
I think they are starting to completely give up on that so ….
5. The directing/ scriptwriting As I said before scenes go on for too long. But also the dialogue is just weird and so choppy sometimes. It feels like they only focused on the end goal and didnt care to make the conversation natural or anything. However i can't completely judge as the subtitles have been off a lot. But this is also a negative point. Giving correct subtitles is hard (tell me about it, I am writing this in my second language) but that isn't really an excuse to put out wrong and off subtitles. It would have been better if they took their time with subs and had them released when reviewed instead of releasing subs that sometimes sounded like it was just put in google translate.
This is also getting better and I don't think there was an issue in the last episode I watched. So it is getting better on that front. Yep got a lot better. Seems like the sub issue is solved. So definitive positive there. I do respect that they fixed it and it appears there was no more issue until the end.
6. Also the errors. I usually don't mind them. Like first cut papers on the table, second close shot no papers anymore. But i have sometimes seen like 5 small errors in one episode and they should really try to pay better attention to those details as it takes on out of the series.
Ok I will say the animation is really creative. Not really necessary but fair enough.
7. Another thing I dislike at this point is the time management. Like I have sometimes no clue what time it is or why a character is where they are right now. This became really difficult for me to bear. Like ZON was at uni having a talk and suddenly he is on the street in a different outfit and hangs out with S. Like why are they there? Cute scenes but didnt you guys like not get along 5 min ago? Why the sudden montage? Is this also a joke/parody?
It kind of feels this series is sacrificing good dialogue, story and character development for comedy/parody. The issue is that in the end its not that funny and one is left very confused.
8. Ok now the overly gay sidecharcters. Anyone who has watched Bl knows about them. And i usually really dont mind them. I would like it if they weren't just used at comical relief and instead could get some more character depth but you know...... I will take what I can get. But in this series they aren't funny because there is too much. There are the four friends who scream all the time. Then there is Tutors first boss and Tutors second boss. Almost everybody they meet is overacting all the time! It gets so annoying that it really frustrates me sometimes.
9. I will add another point of dislike and that is how the screentime and the episodes are divived. The first episode was all about ZON and kind of gave the feeling that he is the only main character. Then we had two / three episodes with so many characters and couples that it was impossible to keep up and now the episodes just focus on either one of the main couples. Even though I do prefer the style they are going with now (focusing one couple for development) it just kind of feels like it was 5 directors working on this thing and for each episode someone else got to call the shots. It just doesn’t feel like one piece. Also I have forgotten most of the side couples and I am wondering why they were introduced in the first place if they aren’t gonna be at all developed.
Well this didnt really get better, but I do get that some scenes weren't shot in time and with the pandemic going on that completely understandable. Please reader do keep in mind that I wrote this on episodes even before the corona issue turned up, that is why I am leaving it in.
10. The plot. What is the plot? I am just lost on this front and I also don't quite get where the series wants to go with the characters and the whole: he believes he is in a gay fan fiction. Btw i would have liked it if he didnt just meet random gay couples in only the first two episodes. It would have been great if that feeling would have pulled through.
OK now I am still not sure what the series is trying to get across. It again feels like they either had no message or just too many to really get anything across. Probably have to finish the series to really make this point, so take it with a grain of salt.
Nope finished it and I am sitting here, thinking what a waste of time ! I mean what was the message ?! Also the whole break up thing was terrible and we had to have it. A small sexual assault !!!! I mean come on, it was the only thing i could still give the series credit for, but they went and did it anyway !
9. Now the thing I HATE about this series which actually made me write this. THE SOUNDEFFECTS. NO! There are too much, they are super annoying and its gotten that bad that i sometimes mute the series as I just can't with whatever the sound team is doing. The effects are placed randomly and without thought or sense. Like we would have this serious moment interrupted by a squeak! And some other random noises! I could pretty much bear with all the other flaws of this series but this is the main reason for it to consider one of the worst bls i have ever watched. Ok add on for episode 9, please for the love of god. The first 5 minutes and anytime someone moves their head its accompanied by a squeak! It does get a bit better but not that much. It really feels like the sound team was hired for a childrens cartoon and the just got the wrong series. OK and I think it was in episode 8 there is a random fart noise.. no context! My friend and I replayed that so many times and it is getting to a point where this drama is its own parody.
This is my most important point. Its just makes it so hard to sit through the episodes and it even makes me sad at this point as it kind of ruins any positive emotions i could develop in a scene.
The terrible sound effects in this series have even had an effect on me watching bl. As I said i haven't completely finished it, because I took a break from the whole genre as I could not take this series anymore.
I finished it and this is my most important point and the reason I wouldn't want anyone to watch this series. It can ruin your enjoyment of the BL world. BL series do like to overuse music or sound effects but this actually got me so mad.
OK If you made it this far, congrats....
Again I would like to say, this is my opinion ´.
I have seen a lot of people praise this drama to the moon and back. So i just wanted to give my two cents. And before anyone comes at me, like : you don’t have to watch it.. Yeah I know but I live to critique <3
The drama isn't finished for me so some things might change and some things might be wrong ( or I have misunderstood)
This is not intended to hate and its completely ok if this is your fav series for them same things that I don't like but this is my personal review.
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i really dont get why it has a lesser rating than 2gether the series and all that because this is honestly so good. the plot description sounds kinda weird but trust me it has nothing to do with the series.
STORY:
this is basically the story of tutor and fighter and the best part about this entire series is the fact that the main leads get majority of the screen time. but there is also the second couple yo also wanna watch with the right amount of screen time too. but honestly the 2 main leads portray their emotions so well its absolutely diificult to take your eyes of them. honestly the plot only gets better and i dont wanna ruin the story for you but this is a definite msut watch with one of the best on screen chemistry just as good as mewguf;)
ACTING:
Acting is absolutely done right from the 2 main leads and second main leads. OH AND THE CINEMATOGRAPHY IS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!
MUSIC:
The unique thing bout why r u is the fact that they dont try to drown the emotional scenes with the music. instead let the mood and atmosphere be its own music just like they say sometimes silence is the best music. but the theme song and there a bunch of other songs which are just very nice to listen to.
AND I WILL DEFINITELY WATCH THIS AGAIN.
hope ya'll find this useful. and please do watch!!
I'M WAITING TO WATCH THE LAST EPSIODE AIRING NEXT WEEK BUT EVERYTHING Z GOOD ALREADY. THE LAST ONE WILL JUST BE A WRAP-UP.
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Plus: a little bit of acting from all actors. Comedy in beginning eps which is quite gd. Zon's dilemma between novel & reality?. Sis acting.
Minus: 70% is abt tutor - fighter when their story is basically nothing. Senior falls in love with junior but denies it & junior also fell for him & idk when & how?? They just kiss randomly when they still don't know their feelings. More steamy scenes in last eps like 2 scenes per ep.
No story literally. Hwahwa fell in love with Day just like that in 2sec after breakup with fighter.
Last eps r clumsy as we don't know how everything was solved.
As a bl fan who watched Tharntype before this series it's just bland. For me there's no story & clumsy with nly steamy scenes & half of the series fighter basically don't wear shirts. I didn't like the series as it destroyed my hopes. I'm not going to watch it again.
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You know, most BLs (that I've seen) lack one very important thing - chemistry between the couples and good acting. But thankfully and quite surprisingly, both things are present here. There aren't enough words to explain how much I loved Fighter and Tutor. The chemistry between them was UNREAL. Like, how can they be so natural? I've never, EVER seen any BL couple being this natural. The kisses and touches their shared called me single in thousand different languages.
Of course props to the actors who portayed them, both Saint and Zee did a brilliant job. Well, Zee definitely stole the show for me. I swear to god, I could never tell that this man is acting. He always looked so sincere and I believed every expression of his. I'll definitely follow his future works, he's a treasure for sure.
The second main couple was adorable, too. Well, the screentime they got was a bit... offensive lol. I completely understand why some fans of Saifai and Zon were so angry. Personally, I prefer FighTor and I believe they were the more interesting couple. I couldn't get into Saifai and Zon at first, it took me around 6-7 episodes to start fully enjoying their scenes. But the chemistry between the actors was nice too (not on Zee & Saint's level , but still nice).
Well, I'll just briefly mention the flaws this drama has, but don't focus on them, because as I said above, the drama is veery enjoyable even with them. The directing and editing wasn't the best. The editing was horrible, actually lol. The writing was so-so, there was some cringe-worthy scenes, but also some very beautiful and touching scenes so who cares. Of course some problems were resolved pretty quickly and they made all the useless drama even more useless. Well, what is a BL drama without some melodrama? There has to be something to shake the things a bit.
Why am I giving 10/10 for rewatch value? Because I'll rewatch this for sure. I'll rewatch it million times. I already want to rewatch it. Because it simply made me happy. Because it has very nice and sweet moments that made my heart flutter. Because Zee is hot as fuck. There are million reasons why I would watch this show again and these are the reasons why you should watch it, too.
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This review may contain spoilers
Ugh, I have so many mixed feelings about this show. Where it really excelled in some arenas it royally dropped the ball in others. Honestly, I wish this were a parody then I could laugh and give it a 10/10. I'll start with the things that I enjoyed.I have been a fan of Saint's since LBC and truly he has grown as an actor. I really enjoyed his portrayal of Tutor I'd give him a 8.5/10. I liked Fighter a lot, more than I thought I would based on episode 1. Zee is really a very talented actor. I thought their chemistry was incredible and overall enjoyed them as a couple although I hated how hot and cold Fighter was in the beginning. Tommy did a great job as Zon although I thought from a writing standpoint that his character was so so. I think all the actors did a great job with what they were given. I also really loved Japan, but felt that it was such a terrible waste to include him in the show. The production was out of this world. It was so good that it makes me more than a little upset that the rest of the show did not live up. I had to chuckle because someone said the show seemed like an advert for Thai tourism, and while I needed no persuasion to visit Thai beaches, I can see how it comes across that way. I personally enjoyed the scenery because it's more than I can say about the plot.
Which leads me to where is the plot? Really, look at the show past it's shiny exterior of attractive actors, production, and scenery... the plot does not exist. Rather what we have is a premise (Zol writes a BL that comes to life) and no delivery of any plot. I think Zol only appears once after episode 4 and they only make vague references to being in a BL novel after like episode 6. The writing and direction is where all the problems lie in this series. From episode 1 we are led to believe that Zon will be the main character (so subsequently his pair will be the main pair) but Saifah and Zon's storyline take a HUGE back seat to Tor/Fight. It's hard to have two main couples and give them equal screen time so I really for the life of me cannot understand why they felt the need to have SO MANY tertiary and quatenary couples. At times it didn't even feel like Tor/Fight and Zon/Saifah existed in the same universe. They really felt like 2 completely separate storylines. As I said I thought Tommy did a great job, but Zon's character was poorly written in my opinion. The complete 180 in Zon's character from episode 2 to 3 still has me scratching my head. The enemies to lovers trope is so old and I have never seen it so poorly executed. I feel bad any time I have to bring up the quality of subtitles in shows, it makes me feel ungrateful, but the subtitles in episodes 1-5 were a special kind of terrible. Not to mention that there were entire exchanges without subs at all. I was really dumbfounded I couldn't believe that with a seemingly decent sized budget that was the best they could do for inter fans. I also felt like the directors tried too hard to make this show compete with Tharn/Type. The bed scenes were INTENSE. A little too much for me personally. I'm sad for the way the show was impacted by COVID-19, however, I'm not persuaded that the last 3 episodes would've flowed any better or that the show would have had a better ending otherwise.
There's a lot more I could say, but I don't like my reviews to be crazy long. I'm not saying don't watch it, because it definitely has it's moments, but it really was an underwhelming show in my opinion.
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This review may contain spoilers
before reading this, beware that i'm writing this at 2 am and my thoughts are not that coherent (are they ever? the plot thickens)so once upon a time... in a university setting we are familiar with , we are met with a chaotic frantic fred (zon), hardworking and intelligent joe (tutor), a charming and troubled brad (fighter), a charismatic and flirty edward (saifah) and other side couples that we only got to see snippets of because hA does there have to be a reason for multiple side couples except to sprinkle some filler scenes here and there? the side couples are cute but hmmmm it just didn't feel necessary to have that many side couples
the pacing of the story.... it was not good... it started with zon and worked its way to bring in fightor then we head to saifahzon town.... they turned into a rocky road then because we didn't get to see saifahzon much and it honestly felt like saifahzon became one of the side couples even though they're also a main couple...
liSTEN i love fightor with all my heart and soul and i understand that there was depth in fightor's story but damn did it pain me to see saifahzon's story underdeveloped :(
things i'm annoyed about:
-freaking teens
-tutor's phone not having a gosh darn password
-fightor never locking their door (you idiots will get robbed i stg fighter u rich af please lock the door for once)
-fighter's dad (yes he apologised but he looks like squidward so no forgiveness for u)
-that freaking kid
what i liked:
-saifahzon
-zee's acting
-fighter being wild af
-fightor switch
-kae the chef dude
-guest roles (it was kinda cringy but hilarious nonetheless)
-the ost !!! (y'all should watch tommy, zon's actor singing)
final thoughts? if the pacing was done right, i feel like fightor's story would've felt more whole and made much more sense and in the same way, saifahzon didn't feel so out of the blue.
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This review may contain spoilers
This show is a bit all over the place. Questionable editing, awful music and far to many of the ‘comedy’ sound effects and the plot? - well the it completely lost the plot. It kept cutting to black for a second - what was that all about? Worst of all is when they show the same shot from 3 or 4 different angles. It’s annoying and an obvious time filler. This show could easily have been 10 episodes and cut all the crap out. Up until episode 9 the show was haphazard but enjoyable. Then Fighter and Tutor go to the beach, and yes the sex scene is very hot, but the rest... I thought they would never leave the beach! Zon and Saifah don’t make an appearance for nearly two episodes. Episode 10 was so boring I almost turned the whole thing off never to return.
There were just so many loose ends. I liked Hwahwa, but she lost her way half way through and got over Fighter in five seconds flat as soon as Day batted his eyes lashes at her making her seem completely shallow. I liked the idea of her and Pete’s friendship and would’ve liked more back story there.
I found all four of the main boys quite engaging. Saint is the only actor I’ve seen before and he was so much better in this that in Love By Chance, probably because his LBC character was a Mary-Sue. In this show his character had a lot more depth, though they needed to build on that more I think e.g. his family are broke but his mother still had enough cash to buy him a condo - you don’t just go around buying your kids condos if you’re bankrupt and having to work off your debts as a cleaner or whatever it was she was doing! Fighter won my heart in this one - and although it’s cheesy, all the shots of him taking off his shirt find no complain from me... very nice happy trail! The chemistry between Fighter and Tutor is sizzling.
The second couple, Zon and Saifah were cute and both very pretty - but I didn’t feel much chemistry and it all seemed a bit awkward. The whole idea that Zon had fallen into a BL novel didn’t work as they didn’t use it enough, which is a shame as it couldn’t been a more unique twist on the genre.
I can’t leave this review (or is it just a rant, idk) without mentioning my disappointment at the lack of development of some of the side characters. Japan and thingy were totally forgettable but let’s talk about little Blue... and Dew... and Champ. Totally being lined up for a three-way/love triangle? All we got was Blue inviting Dew into his house with a really naff ‘oh yeah’ sound effect. What the heck? Champ clearly had the hots for Blue as did Dew and the three of the together... Does a threeway relationship overstep the Thai BL boundaries? Maybe. Still. I’m annoyed the whole thing fizzled to nothing. Why bother with the side romances if they are just going to be unsatisfying filler?
My rewatch value for this show is almost nothing. Since I discovered this genre I’ve rewatched SOTUS many times, and I can’t stop watching 2Gether as it’s like comfort food, but there’s nothing about this show that would make me watch again other than Zee/Fighter taking off his shirt and I am sure I could find a compilation of that on YouTube. It’s definitely worth watching the one time though, you can always cook your dinner while episode 10 stutters along!
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