Sometimes, when you try to be too many things, you end up not being great at any of the things, or things may start falling off. Was this series too ambitious? I don't know. I can say I stayed interested every episode until the very end. I cannot say the story was a masterpiece for me, but I think the series ended up balancing everything it had going pretty well for the most part. Were there some things I wished we spent less time on or more time on? Yes, but I don't think it took away much from the series, personally. I grew up on mythologies and folklores so this was an eventual watch for me. Took me a while to get to it, but I'm glad I did.

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● SHORT REVIEW
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LIKES:
-- The world is very complex, and this series touches on that subject very well, especially in a case which shows the clash between the idealistic and the realist viewpoints on the justice system
-- I loved cute teasing/flirty moments and the chemistry between our main leads
-- It was very engaging to watch between the crime cases, the supernatural aspects, and the love story.

DISLIKES:
-- We didn't really get to explore the love story of Tharn and Phaya in their past life. It was skipped over to focus more on the aftermath and conflict rather than the process of falling in love.
-- In the end also didn't get to see Chalothon finally letting Tharn go. It happened offscreen and we only got the backstory told to us through Tharn via dialogue


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● IN-DEPT REVIEW
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[ --STORY/PLOT-- ]

I think combining a mythological aspect into a mystery/thriller crime drama is a cool idea. The myth/supernatural aspect and crime solving are the two main components of this series. Tharn and Phaya's romance is intertwined in both of the components and tie the stories together. From a narrative standpoint, I think they could have removed the police work and it would not really have much, if any, impact on the overarching story of the fate between Phaya, Tharn, and Chalothon. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about that. On one hand, the crime part of the series made it a lot more interesting to watch for me. However, I feel that some of it could have been cut to give us a little more on the backstory The Garuda King and Wansarat's love story. We get a flashback to their past incarnation but the flashback focused more the conflict between the two tribe. It skips over the process of Wansarat and Phaya falling in love. The ending also could've use more time. Tharn gets taken away by Chalothon and he reappears later. Instead of seeing the process of Tharn convincing Chalothon to let him go, we just get some dialogue. While the criminal cases add some action and intrigue, they weren't all memorable or significant to me. I feel like some of the detective work or story there could've been shortened or cut and we would still be fine.

On the topic of criminal case and a little bit of tangent, I very much liked that the series touched on the subject of a corrupt and flawed justice system in their first official case. It's a very good topic to be aware of and discuss as that's how change begins. Sometimes, the justice system fails the people and that's sad. But vigilantes taking justice into their own hands is also a very dangerous idea. If not for the fact that the vigilantes also forced innocent traumatized victims to kill/murder, I can see being a very blurry line of who's side to be on. In the last case (special episode excluded), the topic is also briefly touched upon again in the interrogation room as a reminder that the system is corrupt.

Other the what I've already listed before in the short review, I also adore the friendship of the unit. The friend group had each other's back and that will always be something I love seeing in these series. I especially love Yai. He was shown to be caring, protective, and encouraging. A total shipper of Tharn and Phaya, but also protected his friend when he needed to. He always had Tharn's back and was a great example of a true friend. I also thought Chart's character was interesting, and I wish we got to explore more of him. We were introduced to him in the beginning and then don't see him again until towards the end. I would love to see his character growth, especially during and after becoming a spy for the captain.


[ --ACTING/CAST-- ]

Overall, I very much enjoyed the casts. They are all very good looking and very talented. The supporting female characters were also very great and very pretty. This series put the actress for Sand (Yai's girlfriend) on my radar, and I will try to see if there anything else she is in that I'd be interested in watching later. Very shallow of me, but I thought she was pretty. When it comes to the chemistry between the main actors or any of the emotional scenes, I think they did very well. I felt the feels whether it was butterflies during their romance scene or the sadness during emotional sad scenes.

None of the fight choreography or gun action scenes really wowed me, but I didn't think it was bad either. I think my least favorite part, acting-wise, in the series was during the flashback to their past lives. I don't know, I was not feeling any of the chemistry there and I'm not sure why, because I can definitely see/feel it with their modern day counterparts. Even the angst from Chalothon didn't feel convincing to me. Also, in regards to Chalothon, I never really felt he loved Tharn. He just felt angry and resentful to me, but this is probably more of a character thing and not an acting thing.


[ --MUSIC/OST-- ]

I like the soundtracks. Nothing I feel super strongly about, but all very nice to listen to. I don't know much about Billy or Babe so it was a pleasant surprise to find their names on a lot of tracks. Very sweet songs. The opening song The Sign was also very epic and fitting. May look up more songs from Billy and Babe in the future to expand my Thai playlist.


[ --REWATCH VALUE-- ]

I might watch this one more time. Since there is a lot going on between the crime cases and the love story, I'd be interested in going back just to see if I missed anything. Plus it might motivate me to workout as I get jealous of some of these bodies...


[ --FINAL THOUGHTS-- ]

This series was a fun watch, a nice break from the usual fluffy romcoms streak I've been on lately. Steamy love scenes, cute flirty moments, emotional drama, but also funny, action-packed, mysterious, thrilling, fantastical...this series is so many things. There was no struggle in finding things to talk about. The real struggle was deciding where to start. I will be looking into some of the other works of these actors/actresses because I think they did an amazing job. I would recommend giving this series a try.


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● NOTE
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I'll always conclude my review by saying that ratings and reviews is not really a indicator of whether you may enjoy something. We all have different criteria and standards. Don't let a bad rating, review, or comment discourage you from watching something. My advice will always be to give something a chance if the premise interests you, and only use the ratings/reviews to determine priority if you have a list, or if you're deciding if you want to continue it due to time limitations.

♥ Thanks for reading my review! Feel free to comment or hit me up if you want to discuss anything ♥