This review may contain spoilers
Brillant Story
Triage wins the "best Plot" award of 2022, and I'm already writing that down for when I do my "Best and Worst of 2022" list later this year. Wow, what a freaking ride. From beginning to end, the audience is thrown into the life and loops of Dr. Tin, who fights to save the life of a man he deems irresponsible when they first meet. Triage is a deep and tear-jerking drama that deals with a complicated plot in the best way I think I've ever seen done in a BL series.
Let's Dive In.
Triage was directed and screen written by the same amazing man that make "Manner of Death" in 2020, with us even getting a few cameos with the leads from MOD's themselves (which at the end, it may imply a season 2 or a spinoff of both series combined). He did the same thing he did over there, which is to focus more on the storytelling and the overall appeal of the storyline than the actual BL of it all. And I think it works pretty well in this, except for the fact that Tin and Tol's romance isn't as strong as it could be. But no wonder why Triage is as heart-wrenching and as thrill-packed as was in MOD.
There is just no plot like this one. Tin has to continue going through loops until he can save Tol's life, on top of trying to see if he can save the other's lives around him. It's magnificent. At first, I was scared that with so many different conflicts going on in the series, it would leave plot holes or forget key details, but it never wavers. We get the complete story of Rit, Mai's mom, Dr. Sak, Dr. Doi, Fang, etc. And nothing felt rushed or last-minute, it was all told with very keen detail and in a timely manner. I think the best part is when you, as the audience, finally got enough detail to put two and two together and you can figure it out as Dr. Tin does. I also like that they switched things up and made Tol fight to save Tin's life. Everything was crisp and clean, fun and entertaining, and as perfect as it could be.
The character development in this is so good. Literally the best part. Tin is this very stoic man who hates drunk drivers after his accident with his sister, and he doesn't appreciate his life as he use to until he's put into this predicament where he has to learn the value of living and surviving and we see such growth in him that it's very obvious by the end. Tol is almost the same way, with him being very brooding and harsh, but through all of this he learns to be kinder. Growth is evident in each character, Mai, Heart, Rit, Gap, Sing, Fang, literally everyone. And even some not-so-good growth that we see with Dr. Doi when he goes crazy.
Moving on to the romances in the series, let's start with Tin and Tol. Now Tin has to continuously see Tol die in every loop that he goes through, and the only way to get Tol to not drive or "drink" is to get closer to him, and even come up with the conclusion that Tol needed to fall for Tin so that Tin could get him to not drive, or not do too much to his heart. It's the perfect setup for a deep romance - imagine falling for someone and having to have them fall in love with you all over again and again -- seems pretty harsh, but the premise of it all is genius. But I think it was probably the weakest in terms of plot. Their first kiss seemed a bit off-putting since we only see Tin trying to stop the incident from happening and not so much trying to get Tol to fall for him. I feel like there was only one real moment in which I could really feel the connection and the yearning to be with one another, other than that, it kind of fell flat for me. The ending is satisfying though, and I loved seeing Tae and Tee as a paring again.
Moving onto our other side couple, Gap and Sing. Due to the loops, Gap and Sing end up together during the last loop, so we get to see them being pretty cute and domestic. Before then, Gap just had a very minor crush on the doctor, and Sing was pretty much just a straight-up asshole who didn't know how to go about his feeling for Gap. In fact, I think it was a bit too harsh for me to wish for them to be together. If anything, I was rooting for Gap and Rit for a while since it seemed that Gap brought down his stern walls to really open himself up to Rit. But in the last loop, they were pretty cute, so I'll give them that.
All the supporting characters did so well, even down to the ones with very few lines. I loved Toi and his supportive and energetic aura, Jinta was by far one of my favorite characters, and he pulled the cynical, yet helpful angel role off perfectly. Dr. Doi is so evil that I practically loved him. He falls so much into his schemes with Dr. Sak that he goes insane. Perfect. Art was the cutest, and I really wish that they would girl Mild another leading role. For the characters that I didn't really care for, would maybe have to be Heart and Mai, or really Mai's story in general. Of course, without her, there wouldn't be any plot, but I couldn't understand why Tin was interested in saving her mother when it wasn't necessarily his responsibility. Save Tol and move on. I could say the same for Win and Lookprae.
Ratings:
Story: 9 - Very crisp and very detailed. Nothing was left out, everything was covered, and it moved in perfectly formatted waves. I think the romance of Tin and Tol (even Gap and Sing) could've been better, so I'll take a star off.
Acting - 8.5 - Everyone did great, but Morris (Jinta) and Tae (Tin) stood out the most. I think Gap's actor was a little weak at times, and so was Mai's. But overall, acting was one of the better parts of Triage.
Music: 7 - I didn't really pay attention to it, so it was there.
Rewatch Value: 3 - definitely something I could rewatch if a season 2 is to happen.
Overall, a very entertaining watch, and I look forward to a hopeful season 2. I definitely recommend this to anyone wanting a complex plot or something action-packed.
Let's Dive In.
Triage was directed and screen written by the same amazing man that make "Manner of Death" in 2020, with us even getting a few cameos with the leads from MOD's themselves (which at the end, it may imply a season 2 or a spinoff of both series combined). He did the same thing he did over there, which is to focus more on the storytelling and the overall appeal of the storyline than the actual BL of it all. And I think it works pretty well in this, except for the fact that Tin and Tol's romance isn't as strong as it could be. But no wonder why Triage is as heart-wrenching and as thrill-packed as was in MOD.
There is just no plot like this one. Tin has to continue going through loops until he can save Tol's life, on top of trying to see if he can save the other's lives around him. It's magnificent. At first, I was scared that with so many different conflicts going on in the series, it would leave plot holes or forget key details, but it never wavers. We get the complete story of Rit, Mai's mom, Dr. Sak, Dr. Doi, Fang, etc. And nothing felt rushed or last-minute, it was all told with very keen detail and in a timely manner. I think the best part is when you, as the audience, finally got enough detail to put two and two together and you can figure it out as Dr. Tin does. I also like that they switched things up and made Tol fight to save Tin's life. Everything was crisp and clean, fun and entertaining, and as perfect as it could be.
The character development in this is so good. Literally the best part. Tin is this very stoic man who hates drunk drivers after his accident with his sister, and he doesn't appreciate his life as he use to until he's put into this predicament where he has to learn the value of living and surviving and we see such growth in him that it's very obvious by the end. Tol is almost the same way, with him being very brooding and harsh, but through all of this he learns to be kinder. Growth is evident in each character, Mai, Heart, Rit, Gap, Sing, Fang, literally everyone. And even some not-so-good growth that we see with Dr. Doi when he goes crazy.
Moving on to the romances in the series, let's start with Tin and Tol. Now Tin has to continuously see Tol die in every loop that he goes through, and the only way to get Tol to not drive or "drink" is to get closer to him, and even come up with the conclusion that Tol needed to fall for Tin so that Tin could get him to not drive, or not do too much to his heart. It's the perfect setup for a deep romance - imagine falling for someone and having to have them fall in love with you all over again and again -- seems pretty harsh, but the premise of it all is genius. But I think it was probably the weakest in terms of plot. Their first kiss seemed a bit off-putting since we only see Tin trying to stop the incident from happening and not so much trying to get Tol to fall for him. I feel like there was only one real moment in which I could really feel the connection and the yearning to be with one another, other than that, it kind of fell flat for me. The ending is satisfying though, and I loved seeing Tae and Tee as a paring again.
Moving onto our other side couple, Gap and Sing. Due to the loops, Gap and Sing end up together during the last loop, so we get to see them being pretty cute and domestic. Before then, Gap just had a very minor crush on the doctor, and Sing was pretty much just a straight-up asshole who didn't know how to go about his feeling for Gap. In fact, I think it was a bit too harsh for me to wish for them to be together. If anything, I was rooting for Gap and Rit for a while since it seemed that Gap brought down his stern walls to really open himself up to Rit. But in the last loop, they were pretty cute, so I'll give them that.
All the supporting characters did so well, even down to the ones with very few lines. I loved Toi and his supportive and energetic aura, Jinta was by far one of my favorite characters, and he pulled the cynical, yet helpful angel role off perfectly. Dr. Doi is so evil that I practically loved him. He falls so much into his schemes with Dr. Sak that he goes insane. Perfect. Art was the cutest, and I really wish that they would girl Mild another leading role. For the characters that I didn't really care for, would maybe have to be Heart and Mai, or really Mai's story in general. Of course, without her, there wouldn't be any plot, but I couldn't understand why Tin was interested in saving her mother when it wasn't necessarily his responsibility. Save Tol and move on. I could say the same for Win and Lookprae.
Ratings:
Story: 9 - Very crisp and very detailed. Nothing was left out, everything was covered, and it moved in perfectly formatted waves. I think the romance of Tin and Tol (even Gap and Sing) could've been better, so I'll take a star off.
Acting - 8.5 - Everyone did great, but Morris (Jinta) and Tae (Tin) stood out the most. I think Gap's actor was a little weak at times, and so was Mai's. But overall, acting was one of the better parts of Triage.
Music: 7 - I didn't really pay attention to it, so it was there.
Rewatch Value: 3 - definitely something I could rewatch if a season 2 is to happen.
Overall, a very entertaining watch, and I look forward to a hopeful season 2. I definitely recommend this to anyone wanting a complex plot or something action-packed.
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