Absolute Zero (2023)

absolutely needed better writing (watch suggestions)

Overall: I enjoy a series with a different premise, but unfortunately the writing/world building/pacing did not work for me. 12 episodes about 50 minutes each. Aired on iQIYI. Re-aired on Studio Wabi Sabi YouTube channel.

Content Warnings: past death/grief, dub/non con touching, 10 year age gap with a highschooler*, manipulation

Watch suggestions: unless you enjoy very slow pacing, characters doing nonsense things, a bunch of crying and untold flashbacks here is my suggestion
1. Watch episode 1, at the end tell yourself that Ongsa died
2. pretend that Suansoon goes back in time and tries different things like having Ongsa avoid that location/day/time but none of them work, so then he tells Ongsa to not meet him at the movie theater
3. Ongsa ignores him, watch episode 7 (basically a retelling of episode 1 from Ongsa's perspective)
4. watch episode 8 where Ongsa learns the only thing to do is for them never to meet when in high school
5. Ongsa time jumps to the present, start watching episode 11 at 19 minutes (although there is a cute high school moment at the very beginning of episode 11)
6. Watch episode 12

What I Liked
- mysterious vibe/present
- how what happened in the first episode related to later episodes
- sweet moments
- Karn (Dear Doctor I'm Coming For Soul) in ep 12

Room For Improvement
- character actions didn't make sense, if Ongsa had actually died and then Suansoon went back and told Ongsa not to drive that day and he didn't but still died and we see Ongsa repeatedly going back trying to change things that would be interesting (like The Butterfly Effect) however Ongsa wasn't even dead and instead of being by his partner's side Suansoon started a romantic relationship with high school Ongsa in the past...
- *age gaps generally don't bother me but the adult Suansoon actor is 36 and he looked like it, past Ongsa is in high school (actor is 25 but looks much younger), it was very uncomfortable to see the adult Suansoon in a romantic relationship with a teenaged Ongsa (who didn't even know that they end up together for quite some time), and Suansoon touching Ongsa when he was sleeping was not romantic but came across as creepy, in general they should have shortened this time and focused more on young Ongsa/Suansoon and older Ongsa/Suansoon
- nonsense stuff, how did no one say anything about a highschooler romancing an almost 30 year old??? why wouldn't in the present Suansoon call Onga's parents/go to their house/look on social media/talk to mutual friends/do an internet search/hire a private investigator/hang up fliers/go to their old hangouts....he just cried
- slow pacing, there was a lot of hanging out in a coffee shop and crying
- a bunch of flashbacks
- really poor world building and a ton of "because the writer said so"

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Lack of logic drops the rating

It really isn't easy to write a review for this show, at least for me.

First of all, i would actually recommend this show!

The rating is low, but that's not because the show is bad. I enjoyed watching it and I like it a lot, actually! The problem here isnt the acting - because the actors did a really really great job! I especially fell for Tor, because he is so cute and cheeky. But also Toey did well. He managed to keep those cheeky, flirty attitude of Tor so well. Both adult actors nailed to keep the charme of the characters. I totally saw the younger versions of them in the adult actors and that's really nice to see, because they worked hard to achieve this. They talked about this in the special episode and I am just happy that they succeeded and delivered just fine! So the criticism for the show really doesn't have anything to do with the actors. Besides the acting, the OST is also beautiful. We also get to hear the OST from Until we meet again a few times, and for someone who watched UWMA, it's a cute and quick nostalgic trip. Especially if you know what the lyrics mean. They somehow fit for this show as well as they did for UWMA. (I really love when the OST is telling the story through a song and the lyrics here are so beautiful. I listen to OSTs a lot and i love to think back to a show while listening to their OST and if the lyrics are so matching, like it's here the case, it's even more emotional.)

Coming to the problems of the show and the reason for my low rating: the lack of world building and therefore the lack of logic. This show is a hot mess, when it comes to this point. There are literally no rules explained, so they can just do what they want, because if you don't explain the rules, no one can say you break them, right? I was so confused since episode 1, because I kept asking myself "how? why? that doesn't make sense!!!" :'D They really didn't care to make things make sense. And that's the biggest weak spot of this show. The time travelling plot is just full of plotholes, because they just went with whats convenient, not caring about the lack of logic. Another small criticism I have: I would kinda wish to have seen even more of their lovestory. It gets displayed as tragic, deep, dramatic and epic. And I kinda get it. But it fails to touch me emotionally, because they don't SHOW me, but just tell me. Ah, it's kinda hard to explain. But..I feel like it's a bit of this "Show, don't tell" problem. Maybe it's just me. I wasn't as emotional as I expected. But that's also because of the lack of logic. I was so frustrated and f*cked up almost till the end, so I was busy with ranting, instead of crying. :'D

Overall, give it a try. Don't let the bad reviews make you hesitant. The actors are great, the OST is great and if you can just accept the fact, that they really failed with the world building, it is indeed a heartwarming and comforting show.

All my love goes to Tor and Toey. <3

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