The worst possible solution

Even if the only way to solve a problem or right a wrong is to go to a magical café and make a wish, please don't go about it like all the characters did. I know it's fiction but oof-

The story was confusing from the beginning to the end, despite the fact that they revealed almost everything and answered most of the questions that built up during the beginning in episode six. I watched all the characters make the messiest decisions and then immediately run to the café to fix the result of their actions, without ever knowing how the magic and wishings of it worked. Understanding that part of the appeal was the mysterious aura they maintained around the café, it still would have been engrossing for the viewers to have the world building revealed bit by bit in each episode as opposed to revealing everything in the finale. Long story short, they either needed more episodes to fully delve into the mysteries of the café, the beginnings, turmoils and eventual conclusions of all the characters and romances, or they needed better, more crisp writing that focused on the important aspects instead of giving backstories and screentime to characters who were only present, in a way, to fuel the decline of the leads.

None of the characters were especially interesting, no one could be deemed likeable, and the romance between these characters was as likeable as they were.
I wanted them to showcase a situation where the adult leads are caught at a crossroads, going through a bad phase in their relationship, a slump in their careers, that's what the summary promised! Instead, I got a mess. I didn't want to see a loving relationship but they kept pretending that everything was hunky dory, then all hell broke loose, and boy how! Thinking about how to explain their relationship is making my head hurt, it was that kind of a mess. I never got why they were a couple until they made that reveal in the finale.
The other couple was much better, and despite the lack of proper development (which is a recurring theme with everything in this series, nothing is developed or explained well until the last episode when it's all dumped on us in an information overload), they had me rooting for them. Until, of course, the reveal in the finale ruined their story as well.

The big reveal that we were seeing the same characters as their younger and older selves didn't work either, this was the only thing that became glaringly obvious as I watched and it should have been the biggest plot twist. They tried several others too, but at that point, I was too exhausted to care about some half done suspense. The cherry on top was the fact that when everything suddenly made sense, I just hated it even more. It was such a tedious process to get answers that simply made me angrier, and then just tired because of the realisation that an interesting premise had been melted beyond recognition and turned into a steaming pile of nonsense.

I'll be outright, reading this review will make it seem like this a series you need to watch to understand but even having watched it, I'm still confused. And a little nauseous because of how confused I am. And furious to the level that some of this may make no sense, but at least that's in keeping with the series. Give yourself a break and don't read too much into anything that you watch in this, and if you're as confused and angry as I am when you finish it, you know this review is here to help give you a little more clarity.

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The actual lead isn't listed

It's coffee. I learnt more about coffee than I did about either of the leads.

This is a concept that should work on paper. A song writer with writer's block and café owner who's lost direction of his passion. A man with a scarred heart and a man who can't write a love song, tell me this doesn't sound good as a concept. The thing is, this story would have worked much better as a melodrama as opposed to the comedic route they took. Even then, they didn't really know how to pull off the angst that is guarantee when you have a drama with two lost individuals.

Even if it doesn't work as a slice of life/melo series because it may be too long or have too many inconsequential scenes, it makes no difference. It's not like that's what they didn't already do with this. Put aside the concept and this was just.. boring.

It says a lot about a show when you would rather watch the side couples who barely have screentime over the leads. The leads didn't have much screentime together either, but I'll get to that in a while. They were cute for a while, all the blatant flirting was bound to come home to roost though because after the initial episodes it was conflict upon misunderstanding upon conflict. They even had the ex return for a conflict that ended as weirdly as it began. They didn't talk to each other and when they did it was all very surface level deep. The more I describe it, the more it sounds like angst, but it just didn't work.

Instead of spending time on developing their relationship though, they spent so much time on the band, their label, the coffee shop. Even though they were integral locations for each of the leads and several of the supporting characters, most of the scenes and characters in those locations felt like filler.

I did however love the friendship between Yi and Jao, the one between Nuea and Plaeng, all the friendships in fact. The band, Gene and Plaeng, the employees in the coffee shop, I loved it all. I also liked Yi's family, again not showcased much but realistic and supportive.

I don't mind the ending as much as I should since there is a special, but that was indeed a weak ending to a weak story. At its core, it was indeed a filler series.

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Behind the screen

Starting this series, I never imagined I would be feeling and writing half the things I did and am about to, but here we are.
One thing before I say anything else: this is an extremely slow drama. Not slow burn romance, just the pacing is extremely slow. The story is actually quite simple and could have been done concisely, and after the first few episodes when I didn't think it would ever pick up, it did.

The principal reason why I actually began liking it as much as I did, was because of the leads. Two green flag leads who communicated, supported each other and never argued. Well, they disagreed, but instead of having full blown out fights, they stated their point of view, expressed their support and love for the other person and just moved on. And even better was when every other character in the drama was just as much as a green flag as the leads. Just as supportive and kind and reasonable. One of the very few dramas where it's entirely reasonable to love all the characters. Of course, there were a few people who were incredibly annoying, but watching the rest of the characters deal with them with the utmost poise and integrity made it better. For a series so focused on romance and interpersonal relationships, they nailed it.

I was kind of let down by the rest of the story though. They tried to tackle so many difficult and relevant topics and kind of addressed them only halfway. By the end of the series I just asked myself, “Is that how they really tied everything up?”, because I was dissapointed. There was was a proposed "solution" involving the app, and let's just say, I was left wanting more.
Building upon that, the app that pretty much set up this story, was way underutilised. It was barely mentioned at the beginning and just when they needed it to save the day, they brought it back in the script. It genuinely could have been used several times during the series, but oh well.

This was the one thing I wished they had done better, because otherwise this was a pretty good (albeit slightly slow) series. The couple was genuinely green flags all around, in addition to being incredibly cute and just all around amazing, the characters felt well rounded and were likeable and the romance really hit. It was worth giving a shot on a whim and I quite enjoyed the watch.

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Keep giving it a try..

This review is also a LONG time coming and this, like Senior High 2, is a continuation of my review of Senior High. In that review, I mentioned that both seasons had sort of become one in my mind because I watched them at a stretch, but that I did vaguely remember where they made the cut. Now I can also say why my rating has reduced if both seasons really did feel like one.

⚠️ CONTENT WARNINGS ⚠️
The show contains depictions of bullying, violence, SA, murder and much more. I found it pertinent to include this because the depictions are rather explicit, and caution may be exercised before watching.

The reason my rating went down is because like a lot of school based series, Senior High took the decision to have the adults be more involved in the story. Season 1 mostly focused on the students and the school itself, but suddenly you have the adults thrown into the mix in much larger roles, which here meant all the horrible scenes from season 1 were happening double fold.
I always noticed that the viewing experience is brought down significantly once adults are throw into the equation in a thriller set within a school or university, and this was no exception.

All of a sudden, the content was much more explicit, the plot twists that much more improbable and the characters much less likeable. The feeling that they were probably dragging this along far too much started to creep in and by the time the finale rolled around, it was a little dissapointing since a lot of the story had become predictable.

While dragging out the series may have made it a bad, it was still engrossing most of the time. To even out the truly horrible scenes, there were ones that weren't as horrible, and maybe even kind of nice.
It was kind of a step down from season 1 for me, but not by much.

Once again, give it a try and see if you like it. If season 1 was your cup of coffee, this may probably be as well. Maybe it will surprise you just the way Senior High did.

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Food and Love

There's something incredibly beautiful about watching two people already in love developing their relationship, handling issues together and just being incredibly in love. It's even better with food.

There isn't anything to say when asked what I didn't like, it's just that sort of wholesome vibe you get when you see a couple who've been together for a while and are just comfortably in love now. Yes, they have their issues big and small, but you get to watch with the confidence that there isn't going to be some overly dramatic, long drawn out fight. You can watch with the confidence that the only overly dramatic moments will be their reactions.

Above anything else, it tackles a lot of relevant and personal issues with a lot of nuance and sensibility. I loved seeing that.

A really sweet movie and a worthy sequel.

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A few ups and downs, but mostly serves

Man Suang is a solid production.

Though this may be a fictional story, it is intricately connected to the events of the time period, including the societal norms of the time period. The movie also showcases the political and cultural landscape of Thailand in a realistic way. When you produce a fictional account set in a very real and turbulent political and historical period, it is bound to get confusing at times, but for what it's worth, they did an admirable job.

Coming to the actual story, it was quite predictable. Like I mentioned, historical stories require a certain amount of explanation and background to be fully appreciated, and while I would have preferred that, the storytelling was solid for the most part. The characters are well fleshed out, the motives were clear and despite the fact that the mysteries were easily solved and the plotlines were succinctly wrapped up. The ending left something to be desired, but I guess that's what the sequel's for.

One thing that needs to be cleared up: there's no romance. This is a political thriller through and through, and even with the occasional glances, I'm glad it didn't develop into a romance. Including a full fledged romance would have taken a lot of time, and this was already chock full of events that including more scenes would have messed up something that already felt like it lacked a few things.

I probably wouldn't re-watch this, maybe if I wanted to see if I missed some details. More than anything, it was a pretty good watch and it will keep you invested.

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It's a wide universe..

First off, with the sheer amount of stories, they probably should have aired two episodes a week. It is an anthology, but several characters appear in multiple stories and there is a sense of continuation to them all. They are set in the same universe after all.

While there wasn't anything extraordinary about these stories, some of them were mildly interesting, others were plain boring, and some seemed borderline criminal (before they changed the synopsis), but something they all had in common was the fact that the premises were kind of interesting. This seemed like a set of pilot episodes to determine which one would garner the most attention and love, that would then be developed into a full length series, like an En of Love type of deal. Fair, but considering they had neither the airtime to fully develop most stories, nor the fact that they didn't realise if they weren't going to fully develop it, there wasn't a need to extend it for as long as they did just to fill the runtime was a huge misstep on their part.

That isn't to say that the anthology didn't have it's moments. I enjoyed several stories that had the hints of a good plot, solid acting and most importantly, potential to be done better, in case they do. While the rest didn't lack in potential, they failed to capture my attention because of repetitive and boring scenes, weak acting and poor execution.

I would definitely watch stories like Marry Go Round (although that's mostly for the leads), You Are My So(ul) Mate, Lucky Love and The Camp Fire if they were developed into full length series', as is. As for the rest, even though I'm interested in seeing if they would be remade, it'll take a great executional overhaul for me to give them a try.

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Mirror mirror on the wall..

Why weren't you used at all?! I genuinely thought the mirror would play a bigger role than simply making all the characters dream, but I'll let it pass because they did actually use it to set up the story.

I Wish You Love is the story of Pond, who takes extreme pride and caution in his looks and the way he presents himself. Naturally, he has a huge collection of mirrors and takes extremely good care of them. When he accidentally breaks one of his mirrors and obtains a replacement from a second hand store, he discovers that he can see his old junior Marwin in his dreams.

Initially terrified and later curious, he visits Marwin in person and finds that he's sick and confined himself to his house. Seeing all this, he decides to help Marwin step outside and hopefully fulfill some unresolved wishes he has.

The rest of the series pretty much follows all the things Marwin wants to do, and them doing it which is sweet yes, but.. that's it. It's difficult to create emotional depth and a steady story in two episodes, but it's definitely possible. While the message they tried to get across with all the scenes was obvious, it only managed to be displayed in bits and pieces. There was a lot of time wasted on unnecessary scenes, heavy dialogue that didn't quite cut it and a plot that was half baked to give room for another plotline. This is the kind of story that required either a longer runtime or more episodes, but in a bid to keep it interesting and short, they messed up the execution.

They tried to do the best they could and you can see they put some effort into it, but unfortunately it was just missing that spark that takes it from an okay story to "okay, this story is heart breaking and amazing".

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Pluto, Black Holes and Revolutions

This was actually a pretty poignant little story, just like the previous miniseries in this anthology. A story about separation and fledgling feelings, done in a different way than expected.

The story is from the POV of Tod from Pisces of Love, his experience since he moved to Khon Kaen at the beginning of the previous anthology, and his memories involving Nick, his tutor in Bangkok, and someone he left behind. Through flashbacks and narration, we see the events that transpired from the moment they first met to the moment they separated.

What's incredibly obvious is that they're both very important to each other. Nick definitely sees Tod as a younger brother, and whether Tod sees him as something more is left upto ambiguity. Regardless, they have a huge significance in the other's life. The ending is bittersweet and kind of open, since this was more of an exploration of their feelings and thoughts more than anything, it made sense.

A good miniseries, slow at times and not really one that has a plot per se, but compared to the way they marketed this, I'd say it's a relief they took this approach.

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Friends Forever

What could have been huh? There's no telling though because absolutely nothing happened in the two episodes. It took an episode and a half for the contents of the synopsis to take place, leaving no room for anything else to happen.

What followed was a whole lot of flashbacks, which would've been understandable if this was a long format series with a lot of twists and turns and actual intrigue and suspense about who the murderer is. Unfortunately, since everything is incredibly obvious, the flashbacks play no role. It would have at least made sense if they were just showed once, but one scene was shown as a flashback multiple times, and this applied for several scenes.

It's a shame though, because there was absolutely no story beyond the synopsis, no proper genre you could think it is, and not even a proper conclusion to what could have been a solid miniseries.

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Over a bowl of hot soup, let's warm our souls and heal our hearts

Watching this miniseries was like getting a hug. Stories about people healing and finding new purpose in life over good food always holds a special spot for me, and this was no different.

Meen and Jeng go through this journey after Meen breaks up with his, for the lack of better words, POS ex boyfriend, and after a few fights and arguments, they find common ground over Jeng's signature dish. With each bowl they share, they flirt and they fight, and they start to figure out that there's something there. The story could have been developed way better with more episodes, there is the notion of wanting to pack an emotional punch and provide proper backstories and emotional arcs for the characters, but it's hard to do with 2 episodes.

Nevertheless, there was definitely a lot of special things about these episodes, and the prospect of the two of building a loving relationship after a few hardships and just a few days together really solidified the depth of their bond. A beautiful story

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A cute tourism ad, that does what it should

For 6 short episodes, each under 10 minutes, there isn't much to expect, but it does what it needed to do while giving us some cute, and some genuinely romantic scenes that pull on the heart strings.

The series itself is an anthology of stories promoting tourism and sustainability in Thailand, and they did a wonderful job merging the values with the story without making it seem too much like an advertisement.

The stories themselves are short, there isn't much backstory, but you can feel the connection between the leads and they're really cute. There are some sudden changes in genre, but that episode ended up being my favourite.

A short and sweet series.

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Highly ambitious, but faltered along the way

The Sign has everything I adore in a series: romance, mystery, action and that infallible touch of mythology, which is my weakness. Under these circumstances, my rating should be higher, also considering the story is interesting, the plot is airtight (plot holes are one of my peeves), and the chemistry genuinely chemistry - fies.

Not that this is a bad rating, but again, I would generally rate something like this much higher. So let me explain my thought process, starting with the mystery/action aspect. It's solid, it truly is. Albeit slightly predictable and simple, it was consistent. I genuinely loved that they solved multiple cases that umbrella - ed as one big case, and as far as I took note, there were no loose ends or plot holes. Every case they worked seamlessly tied up with the major case through the players, and it even seemed like they would link the mythological aspect to this plotline.

That's where I was wrong. Let's clear this up first: I know it's difficult to incorporate mythology/history into a fictional account. It requires tons of research, poring over books, journals, documents, and so much more. I also understand that when you're working with mythology and history, it's a difficult situation to maneuver, (especially when you're talking about two major characters who's stories have wide and varying interpretations). But there's still room to work with. Without giving away too much, let's just say I expected more. They promised grandeur and complexity, but what we got was absolutely none of that. The entire mythological plotline was tied up to the romance between the leads and not much more.

Which then leads us to.. the romance. I'm going to be completely honest, Billy and Babe, they have chemistry. I did say the chemistry chemistry - fied, and I wasn't lying. They have a hot and cold relationship in the beginning, which I'm going to chalk up to a genuine plot point, it was understandable. Even when you felt they were being bratty, frustrating or just a teensy bit hypocritical, they turned the situation around pretty smoothly and soon. It's really too bad we didn't get to see enough though. This is a totally subjective opinion, but they spent so much time focusing on solving the cases, and the mystery of their past that there was barely any romance. At least for me. And I know it's ironic because I said I appreciated the well developed story, but I wanted romance as well. That's more of a me thing, but I just wanted to mention it.

Let me segue back to my rating now, because despite the positives, I did kind of end up saying they could have improved upon it. That is the reason for my rating.
The truth is, I genuinely enjoyed watching the series. The plot was innovative, the characters were endearing and you all know that I already have a slight bias because of the mythology plot they used. When you watch the series, you can tell they put a ton of effort into this. The cast, the crew, everyone. But I just wanted that little bit more. Again, that's a me thing.

While I do wish they had changed a few things, tied up the loose ends that inevitably cropped up, it was a decent series, and truly one of a kind: I don't see a lot of mythological BLs and it was a rare treat in that sense.

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Chaotic, heartwarming and entertaining

A truly underrated series if I may say so. Based on the synopsis alone, the actual emotional depth of this series is barely depicted.

A wager between roommates to set one of them up with their crush after a round of Never Have I Ever, leading to outlandish schemes, team work and tons of chaos, but what also followed was an unapologetically sex positive series that highlighted consent, pleasure, sexuality and much more. All while keeping comedy and romance at the forefront, giving us the perfect mix of emotions.

Both the pairings in here have my heart, so different in dynamics between the pairings and between the people in each pairing, and they worked so well together. Communication, honest conversations, trust, they had it all. Above all, it was just how much they understood their dynamics with the other person in the relationship. It may have been frustrating as a viewer and sometimes even for the characters, but there wasn't a single moment where each of them didn't make it a point to visualise a clear picture of what their relationship was like at that point. The chemistry was dazzling and the angst, oh the angst. You can't help but root for them.

And I mean all of them, because the bond between the four of them was highlighted no less than the romantic relationships. What may have started out as a bet, eventually developed into a kind of brotherhood where they could always go to each other for advice, talk freely and trust in the fact that they would always be there for each other. All the supporting characters were no less, each of them had their own distinct personalities much like the leads and it was chaotic and fun to watch all of them interact.

This was thoroughly entertaining, start to finish, and it is truly underrated with well written characters, a solid story and not a single scene that I had to skip. A gem indeed.

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