EllisInRealLife
This review may contain spoilers
Not Me started off as a slow burn but eventually expanded into a huge flame that, unfortunately, lost a bit of steam near the very end. While I enjoyed the gritty ambiance and production value from the very beginning, I don't think Not Me will have every single one of its viewers hooked from the start. It takes times for both the plot and romance to really get rolling but once it does, this series proves itself to be one of the best Thai BLs as of late.
Maybe I am speaking from a subjective standpoint but I think that Sean/White's slow burn enemies-to-lovers dynamic is one of the best yet. I really enjoyed seeing them and seeing how they gradually became lovers in a world where they prioritize social justice over their own lives.
There are decisions in Not Me's writing that I think could have used some fine tuning. For one, I find the whole "Parent Trap" arrangement to be completely unrealistic. It would have been easier to believe if Black and White had occasional reunions throughout their years apart. It could have easily been explained away with saying that Black visited his brother and father in Russia on certain holidays; that way, it would still be justified that Black's gang had no idea about White and it would have made the scene between White and his mother near the end of the show more impactful. Tbh, that entire scene between White and him mom felt shoehorned in, considering he never concerned himself with the whereabouts of his mother, nor was it mentioned beforehand that Black and his mother were on bad terms. With 14 episodes, they could have easily explored that relationship deeper.
And don't even get me started on GramBlack. As much as I was rooting for a GramBlack relationship, I'm not faulting the writing for the bait-and-switch with Eugene being Gram's endgame. I just think it was overall sloppy writing that the audience was given the illusion of Gram and Black being best friends. After Gram was done with the exposition dumping and being used as red herring for hurting Black, it's as if he never had a friendship with Black at all. Gram didn't seem to care about Black being hospitalized for weeks, or the fact that he kept his twin a secret for their entire friendship. Any chance that I had for liking the Gram/Eugene pairing was ruined when the flawed execution presented itself.
And, lastly, I thought the entire final arc of the show could have used a different direction. For a show about a gang conspiring corporate espionage, there was very little action in the last episode. The scene in the van was tense but it soon fizzled out right after the gang got saved. While I do understand the message about how the fight against an unjust system isn't over but has just begun, I think the last arc could have used a big bad. Other than Sean and White's relationship, everything about the final episode felt underwhelming.
Still, despite all of that, I still think Not Me is one of the best BLs yet and I highly recommend it.
Maybe I am speaking from a subjective standpoint but I think that Sean/White's slow burn enemies-to-lovers dynamic is one of the best yet. I really enjoyed seeing them and seeing how they gradually became lovers in a world where they prioritize social justice over their own lives.
There are decisions in Not Me's writing that I think could have used some fine tuning. For one, I find the whole "Parent Trap" arrangement to be completely unrealistic. It would have been easier to believe if Black and White had occasional reunions throughout their years apart. It could have easily been explained away with saying that Black visited his brother and father in Russia on certain holidays; that way, it would still be justified that Black's gang had no idea about White and it would have made the scene between White and his mother near the end of the show more impactful. Tbh, that entire scene between White and him mom felt shoehorned in, considering he never concerned himself with the whereabouts of his mother, nor was it mentioned beforehand that Black and his mother were on bad terms. With 14 episodes, they could have easily explored that relationship deeper.
And don't even get me started on GramBlack. As much as I was rooting for a GramBlack relationship, I'm not faulting the writing for the bait-and-switch with Eugene being Gram's endgame. I just think it was overall sloppy writing that the audience was given the illusion of Gram and Black being best friends. After Gram was done with the exposition dumping and being used as red herring for hurting Black, it's as if he never had a friendship with Black at all. Gram didn't seem to care about Black being hospitalized for weeks, or the fact that he kept his twin a secret for their entire friendship. Any chance that I had for liking the Gram/Eugene pairing was ruined when the flawed execution presented itself.
And, lastly, I thought the entire final arc of the show could have used a different direction. For a show about a gang conspiring corporate espionage, there was very little action in the last episode. The scene in the van was tense but it soon fizzled out right after the gang got saved. While I do understand the message about how the fight against an unjust system isn't over but has just begun, I think the last arc could have used a big bad. Other than Sean and White's relationship, everything about the final episode felt underwhelming.
Still, despite all of that, I still think Not Me is one of the best BLs yet and I highly recommend it.
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