I very much appreciate when BL dramas have a unique premise that stands out among the others. In Triage, Tin is faced with a choice in the ER. Which patient to treat first? Either treat a young 22 year old patient reeking of alcohol when years prior Tin’s sister died by a drunk driver. Alternatively, treat an old man also in critical condition. Tin is criticized by the hospital director (Dr. Sak) for being biased in his choice. Like many doctors, he disengages his emotions from his work. After all, people die all the time. This is a significant moment because Jinta “the hospital angel” puts him in a time loop to force him to replay that scenario over and over again when all he wants to do is go home to his cat Zebra. I LOVE ALL THE CUTE CAT MOMENTS. In order to get out of the time loop he must save Tol the 22 year old patient. The story goes on from there.

What fell for me is a few things. There is an age gap. I understand that they are both adults but it still didn’t sit right with me. Tol is still in university and Tin is in 3rd year residency at the hospital. I thought I could just ignore it because this happens a lot in BL and I wanted to give the story a chance. Tol is baby to me and he is in a time in his life where he is learning to figure out who he is. Tin sees the mistakes Tol is making in his choices and as he is older and experienced so he teaches him to make better choices. There is an imbalance there as they aren’t portrayed as equal level peers. At some point Tin’s objective is to make Tol his boyfriend and it’s an odd thing to see played out. It’s like Tin is raising Tol by teaching him how to choose right from wrong, tutoring him, and even teaching him how to cook a fried egg and eventually raising him to become a romantic partner. It was weird to me.

There are so many other reasons but the other 2 that stood out to me is the music and the ending. Towards the end of the drama in the most pivotal tear jerker scenes which I won’t spoil here the music didn’t fit right with the scene. It got to the point where it was too distracting for me that it took me out of the moment and all I could hear was the mismatched music swelling in the background. I lost the emotional thred because I was so distracted by the music. And lastly the ending was a mess and it was very rushed. To move the plot long they needed Tol to unlock Tin’s memory (why did Tin lose his memories? Reasons you’ll see when watching the show). Tol tries to make it happen through touch, to failed kiss attempts, and to conveniently make the notebook (filled with records of all the time loop attempts) available and accessible to Tin who looks through it where suddenly visions impress on his mind. It was too easy. Tol was failing to succeed in his mission in helping Tin remember so these things were put in place to moved the plot along. I wish this was done differently and that Tol was smarter about it and had more of a hand in unlocking these memories. Also to shift gears, Dr. Doi descending into madness and insanity didnt makes sense to me at all. Like what? And that whole hostage scene was frustrating to me with Gap who was foolish enough to “rescue” Sing with no strategy or backup. I was also confused how the good guys ended up winning cause the Dr. Sak’s plot line played out off screen. And jumping further to the end of the drama when things calm down the sense of time was confusing as heck. Did months pass? Years?

It feels like I have more issues with this then positives but I do truly think it’s an interesting story just executed poorly at times. I still give it a high rating because I’m glad I watched it and I think the actor’s performance were great. I’m glad I got to see Tee play a main role. It isn’t a perfect drama to me and I don’t think its rewatchable. But, I still think it’s worth your time to watch despite the issues.