Watch at your own risk

I loved this drama during its first 13 episodes: the story was not especially original but the execution felt much better than other xianxias with the same kind of plot, in terms of visuals, pace, camerawork, music. I was constantly amazed at the shots, the colors, the costumes, and i felt like the show managed to hit all its emotional beats.

Then the dream arc happened, with more one-dimensional characters and more frustrating/unrealistic character actions to drive the plot forward. For the next 20 episodes, the drama kept doing good stuff, then throwing in a very predictable/avoidable/aggravating turn or misunderstanding, and undoing all its progress. Wash, rince and repeat. The main relationship followed the same pattern. By ep 35 I had no reason left to root for the main couple anymore and honestly thought they would be better off separated. Tantan Jin's obsession for Ye Xiwu was more disturbing than moving to me, and Ye Xiwu hated him enough that it seemed their relationship brought more more pain than happiness to her. All things considered Tantan Jin finding a temporary family in the Hengyang Sect around eps 30 was one of the things I enjoyed watching the most. Then the story took yet AGAIN a direction that I didn't like and I couldn't continue. If I needed a word to describe this whole watching experience, unrewarding would definitely be it.

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A very entertaining watch :D

I really liked watching this drama. The first and last episodes were, to me, ridiculously over-the-top in a very « cheap lakorn » way (featuring overdramatic BGM, disjointed, jarring editing, cheap cinematography) but the in-between ones were really good, hitting a perfect balance between action and emotion, realism and romanticization.

The show had many strengths, first of which its main couple. Charn and Tinn were really compelling characters and both their individual development and their relationship progress was organic and rewarding. The acting elevated everything and the chemistry was incredible. The supporting characters orbiting around Charn and Tinn were all brilliant: Grandma, Rose, Maya, Nawin -, a performance of acting and writing which made love all of them individually and watch for them just as much as I did for Tinn and Charn. The main plot-line was engaging (baring some glaring plotholes) and the well-handled pace kept it interesting.

The second love line was, in my opinion, unnecessary, and lacking in writing and acting. None of the characters on the Thatthep side of the story managed to catch my interest, despite Thaenthai’s initial potential as a complex, multi-layered character, but that did not impede my enjoyment of the series in the slightest.

A recommended watch!

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A dangerously badly written romance (review up until ep 7 - spoilers ahead)

This series initially had a lot of things going for it: good main and supporting actors, sleek cinematography and camera language, gritty vibe.

Unfortunately, I found its writing terrible (at least up until ep 7, when I dropped it). It's like 3 or 4 people were hired to write this story and never consulted with each other about its tone, the message they wanted to give, or just most basically, the plot and the characters.

The first 2 episodes were rather dark, with a cinematic camera language and realistic acting. The opening offered social commentary on (in)equality and the show tackled the serious issue of bullying, looking for all intent and purposes like it wanted, over its course, to make a statement, or at least was aware of what it was saying.

And then ep 3 happened and, out of nowhere, the show turned into a fluffy rom-com about a struggling student and his school tutor, instead of the bully and his victims it started as. I seriously have no idea where Sailom and Kanghan's romantic feelings for each other came from. It simply happened and I did not feel privy to the reason nor process.

The same went for Kanghan's behavior: from one day to the next, Kanghan stopped bullying anyone, stopped abusing his privileges as the rich school sponsor's son, and started spending most of his time with Sailom, joking and smiling like he was not making his life miserable just the day prior. Everyone acted like this was completely normal, even the bully friends he started spending less time with in favor of their nemesis, and it was almost like the bullying did not even happen. Everything was swept aside, everyone moved on and no one held Kanghan accountable for his actions. It sucked in terms of character development, and it sucked even more as a way to tackle bullying.

Romance-wise, it’s like the writer couldn’t decide on what they wanted and went for a new scenario every two episodes. Kanghan had feelings for Pimfah (and Pimfah for Sailom) out of nowhere in ep 5, despite Sailom and Kanghan making heart eyes at each other for most of ep 3 and 4. He rejected Sailom’s confession in ep 6, after taking his time to consider it, only to kiss him not 10 min later out of jealousy. There was zero explanation as to what changed his mind, or what prevented from saying yes to Sailom right away if seeing him play with his friend was all that was needed. Sailom accepted Kanghan’s confession and never questioned it, like he had not even been rejected in the first place. Most of the romantic developments from ep 3 to ep 7 sent me on a fit of perplexity and hair-tearing, which made it hard for me to believe in any of the characters’ feelings.

The acting was neither Perth nor Chimon’s best work in my opinion, which is not surprising given the script they had to work with, and I found their chemistry either really good or almost non existent, depending on the scene.

Overall, I felt like I was watching something very disjointed, in tone, in actions, in behavior.

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A disappointing show

Basically almost everything is subpar in this series, if not downright bad. The cinematography is standard, neither good nor bad, and so is the editing. Some sound effect/music choices during the episodes are confusing but I love the ost and all the songs produced for this show - Joong and Dunk are both really enjoyable singers.

Writing-wise, the premise is pretty simple -  a boy requests a friend's help to hit on his crush and ends up falling (requitedly) for his friend instead - but the writing fails at carrying it out properly. Starting from ep 5 onwards, the « plot » abounds with fillers, and there’s no sense of direction. The story does attempt to tackle complex themes such as family relationships in its last episodes, but their handling and resolution ends up oversimplified.

The secondary characters are either entirely functional (Pat, the other friend), or criminally underused (Pok, Jeng, Nita), which is mind-boggling considering all the time dedicated to fillers in this show, which could instead have been used to develop them and their storylines. Joke and Zo’s relationship, despite being the main focus of this series, still needs work by the end of the 12 episodes, and I could never fully engage with Joke and Zo as characters (in Joke’s case, because he’s too pushy and too entirely defined by his love for Zo - and in Zo’s case, because I didn’t understand what he was thinking half the time, which is both a writing and an acting issue).

I like Joong’s acting but I felt like he was at 50% his capacity half the time. Dunk's acting, while slightly improved since SIMM, still needs a lot of work.

Still, some moments managed to capture my heart in the few occurrences when good writing and acting came together to deliver beautiful scenes (most of ep 3 and 4 for Joke/Zo, ep 7 and 9 for Jeng/Pok). Joong and Dunk’s chemistry is also amazing and the kiss scenes were all brillant.

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A most recommended watch!

I LOVED this series. It's honestly a great piece of work. I loved how nuanced the writing of the characters was; the show presented us characters that are flawed and pretty unconventional but they took care to contextualize those character traits (we know right from the start for example that Hira has never felt real interest or attraction for anything as he grew up, that he saw doctors because of that) and they actually tackled those issues in the last episodes. I was fully expecting them not to do it, as I have seen SO MANY shows romanticizing "problematic" behaviors without ever shedding light on their problematic aspect, so I was overjoyed when they did.

This show has a lot of depth, and a psychological dimension that I did not expect at all. Watching it is like peeling an onion: each episode uncovers a new layer of depth and give us a better understanding of the characters. It is very moving and beautiful.

The music, camera language, lighting are also expertly chosen and contribute both to creating atmospheres and to building further Hira’s characterization in subtle yet powerful ways (the two gun scenes from ep 3 left me mind-blown).

Finally the acting from both main leads is absolutely perfect - and the more you get to know the characters, the more you understand how on point their acting actually is.

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I came for the romance, I stayed for the found family feels <3

I checked out this drama as a fan of the original Addicted Heroin, curious to see what they would be doing with this remake, and I ended up quite disappointed with the romance. I have absolutely no problem with shows selling me romance in a subtle and non-explicit way - WangXian is still my Chinese BL OTP til today, and Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei are not far behind - but it does require remarkable acting and chemistry to sell it, which was, in my opinion, not the case here. I rarely felt like the actors actually conveyed the romantic dimension of their love towards one another, except towards the end. It was obvious they were extremely close and cared a huge deal about each other but the chemistry was, most of the times, more brotherly than romantic to me.

It did not prevent me from enjoying their relationship at all, as I soon came to discover that Stay with me, unlike Addicted Heroin which was more romance-focused, is a family series. Family is not just a plot device here, it's the overarching theme of the show, what drives most of the characters' actions and what they find meaning in. Both Su Yi and Wu Bi working through their complicated family relationships, and Wu Bi finding his place and his family in Su Yi's own, were some of the most wholesome journeys to watch this year. This drama is brilliantly written and acted when it comes to family relationships, by the main leads and the supporting actors alike. The actors playing Shu Yu's father, Aunty and Duo Duo in particular gave stellar performances and I loved their characters. The pace, the camera language, the music choices also complemented the series well.

All in all, it was a warm and full of heart watch.

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This review contains spoilers

Never Let me Go was kind of a mess for a character-driven viewer like me.

Its cinematography, camera language, colour grading, editing and choice of music were all really good. The drama was a sight to behold most of the times.

But I personally found the drama lacking when it comes the writing and the acting which are - to me - the backbone of a show.

Writing-wise, I lost count of the plotholes and the number of times the story made no sense - there are many examples of such occurrences in the comments.

Worse in my book (because I'm unfortunately used to suspending my rational thinking when watching dramas), the characters were sometimes inconsistently written, Nuengdiao particularly, who was at times shown as someone who knew how to easily navigate the dark side of being from a wealthy/influential family (when he used his influence and connections to get Palm's mom and dad released for example) and at times being completely incompetent or unknowledgeable at it (when he did nothing at all to prepare for his uncle's attack in the second part of the show, though he knew it was coming).

Some actions also made no sense from a character's point of view (such as Nuengdiao enjoying himself on an island with Palm while not knowing his shot-to-death mother's condition, or the way Palm announced his mom's death to his father, not even taking him apart to tell him the news, not even taking any caution while doing so).

Acting-wise, I know Phuwin and Pond didn't have a lot to work with, given the way their characters are written, but I still think their acting needs improving, especially Pond's in highly emotional scenes. Nonetheless, their chemistry is great.

Relationship-wise, I could never quite truly engage with Palm and Nuengdiao's relationship. There's being boyfriends and there's being actually willing to sacrifice your life for one another, and I never quite understood how we got from one to the other. I also constantly felt like the show was telling me one thing (how their relationship was epic, one of kind, unbreakable despite the challenges etc.) and showing me another (Nuengdiao and Palm breaking up two times instead of working through their difficulties, or failing to work as a team in high-pressure circumstances). I also would have loved the show to work its romance more within the plot because some romantic scenes of the last eps (the restaurant scene for example) felt really tonally jarring to me in the context of an imminent attack from Nuengdiao's uncle. All in all, I never felt Nuengdiao and Palm were the mythical OTP they advertised.

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Amazing series <3

This series is definitely an outstanding BL to me. It was a rollercoaster of emotions and life lessons, carried by remarkable acting and chemistry - from the two main leads especially - and top-notch writing. Afterday, the writer of the novel this series is adapted from, is also the one who wrote Bad Buddy, so the writing quality is unsurprising ;)

The series successfully explores themes such as being a teenager, introvertedness, being gay and coming out, growing up, loving, grieving etc with a realism that makes everything incredibly relatable and moving.

The only thing I could see improved would be the pacing, which was at times slow, and the camerawork - very plain at the beginning - but honestly that faded in the background of everything that is great about this series, and didn't make much of an impact as I binged watched the show instead of waiting 1 episode a week.

I am grateful to everyone involved in this production and to Santa and Earth for their wonderful job bringing Cake and Eiw to life <3 I will definitely rewatch it!

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