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The Luminous Solution thai drama review
Completed
The Luminous Solution
7 people found this review helpful
by cdvmty
Jul 2, 2023
6 of 6 episodes seen
Completed 1
Overall 5.0
Story 5.5
Acting/Cast 5.0
Music 7.5
Rewatch Value 1.5
This review may contain spoilers

Such a complicated mess

No idea where to begin... I never expected this series to be any good and I was not mistaken. But, I also never expected 6 episodes of confusion and more confusion combined with poor acting, terrible directing. This has to be one of 2023's weakest BLs and we've had several disasters this year... here's why:

1. Gun Napat simply cannot act. I'm sure he is a charming person in his everyday life but he either never listens to his acting coach or he just can't produce any leading role material. He was the funny character in the quite disappointing "Love by Chance 2: A Chance to Love" and then he was lead role in the mediocre "Golden Blood" and his acting remains almost the same. No improvement over his silly way of delivering lines without any particular emotion and always crooking one side of his mouth when he smiles or when he is angry or when he is sad or when he cries. I'm not sure if it's a nervous tick or he has an issue with his face but it is always the same. One side goes up no matter what so he seems to be smirking when he is crying and that, to me, is so distracting. He is also the least believable doctor in the entire world, but that is not his fault... that is the production and director's problem to cast him in that character.

2. The plot twists were so much it was making me dizzy, especially in the end. Mai turns out to be Thana, Ryou turns out to be Phatit and from what Dena narrates near the end of episode 6, Nack turns out to be Naphat. So, this story seems to convey the message that nobody was happy with their situation so they all had to resort to wishing in a mysterious café first managed by Kaownah and then managed by Kaew (I think that was her name). It is a never-ending train of persons who are unhappy and want to wish for something else. Ryou wanting Mai to love him, Nack wanting to kiss Ryou, Thana wanting to find a job, Kaew wanting to see her son again. All that would have been fine, but the jumps in timeline from the past to the present are so confusing at times that I don't know what wish are we on or who asked for it.

3. Forgettable characters. None of the characters is really likeable... maybe Ryou saves himself but then he goes and wishes someone to "love him forever" (as if that is something you can just unilaterally wish for). Nack is a bully to Mai because he is jealous that Ryou likes Mai instead of him. We think he is the one that locks him up in episode 1 but it turns out to be Dena who is also jealous because she likes Ryou but he thinks of both her and Nack as best friends. As a result, they also go to the café to wish for something but I nearly had to pull out a board to write down who was wishing what and what timeline was it happening. Then, Kaew takes over the café and we see Dome (previously seen in 2Moons2) appear and at first I thought he got Kaew pregnant during their high school years so I was confused. Later, I realized he is the son of that relationship who Kaew gave away for adoption and the father looked exactly like the son... I mean, they could have used another random actor to portray the father instead of having Dome play both roles (and considering he was one of the weakest in 2Moons2, his acting is not exactly prize worthy). Bhu (who we saw in "Manner of Death" and "Nitiman") and Ryou seem to have the most chemistry between them but I felt both were a bit subdued in their roles and didn't give us more memorable moments... probably because of...

4. Poor directing/writing. The concept of the show is not that original but the execution could have avoided this confusing mess. Situations that were never explained as, after finding out that Mai and Ryou are Thana and Phatit, we ended up jumping from the past to the present to see all the things that led each of them to wish in the café. We fell into the usual clichés of Mai not wanting to be gay because of his parents but then contradicting himself when he almost rapes Ryou. The usual jealous third wheel that tries to sabotage a relationship like we saw Dena try to do by locking up Mai or Nack try to do by bullying Mai. The common love triangle with Ryou being the center of attention as both Nack and Dena like him but he only has eyes for Mai. The cheating moment with the lead couple with Thana getting oral sex from Time only to be discovered by Phatit and then the most ridiculous conversation happening between them with Thana asking for forgiveness and Phatit suggesting that if a couple stay together for a long time, cheating is bound to happen so his "brilliant" solution is proposing an open relationship so Thana can have sex with whoever he wants as long as he tells Phatit about it. If all relationships went like that, well, I'm sure it would be a disaster for many. Most of the situations in the show were poorly handled which led to more confusion and things that had to be solved near the end of episode 6.

So, in the end, a disappointing series that at least ended after 6 episodes instead of torturing us for 12 like others have done in the past (see Love Syndrome III with Frank for an example). A shame because now for every decent BL series we have, we seem to get 4-5 mediocre ones and 1-2 complete disasters.
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