Slow burn that abruptly fizzles out

The pacing of the story is that it's a lot of set up that ends right where it's finally going to pay off. Soo Hyuk and Yoon Dae uniquely understand the family baggage and trauma they each have. Soo Hyuk bears so much pain and hurt with his hard earned money just feeding endlessly into his father's vices. Yoon Dae keeps looking for someone to offer him stability and care. Even though the pair are mutually attracted to each other, it's hard to root for them without some meaningful change from Yoon Dae other than a confession. I want to see him step up for Soo Hyuk. There is a little set up that Soo Hyuk's co-worker might potentially be interested in him too, but everything just suddenly ends.

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Romance with a side of realistic work stress

Dohoon and Yoonsoo have separate work lives that are well illustrated which allows for interesting contrasts of when they're together and how they intersect. All the work woes and utter exhaustion from both are very relatable. The show also shows well how Sangwoo could be a legitimate possible love interest for Dohoon, they would have been the leads of a different kind of workplace romcom had they met before reuniting with Yoonsoo. Good on him for helping out Dohoon even when Dohoon does not reciprocate his feelings. It's nice that for the most part they are all mature people who get into spats when they get stressed out, but they work things out. Dohoon eating all the kimbap that fell on the asphalt deserves some pity points. If I were Yoonsoo, I would be very concerned he did that lol. The kimbap does look very delicious. The subjective memories of the university days is nicely done to show how hilarious unaware Dohoon is, a point that he himself is aware that he's unaware at least. I like that Yoonsoo lived his own life and dated other people between university and running into Dohoon again. All in all the drama was an interesting watch.

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Soapy Fun

Over the top camp played seriously, everyone knew their assignments and did it well. It's an old school soapy drama style coupled with the still relatively new school conceit of gay characters and gay couple at the heart of it. Film in particular is fantastic as Charn the cunning and seemingly soulless lawyer with the evil smile whose facade is broken down by the humble, hunk Tinn.

Charn's flashback of what happened to both his mother and him and the scene of him unable to lie to Tinn on the tarmac were the show's highlight's. Fantastic acting by Film. It's too unintentionally hilarious though that throughout the show he gets shot and he's never bleeding from the gunshot wounds, so when he got shot in the end I'm just thinking he's impervious to bullets even before he reveals the bulletproof vest. I love that there is time set aside in the finale for Charn and Tinn to get married and live their domestic bliss with Tinn accepting that Charn needs time to change fully. When Tinn proposes and Charn brings up that there is not law for gay marriage yet, I'm so happy in a meta way for them that they can be legally married less than a year after their marriage in the series which was September 2023.

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Tasty though not completely filling

It's always interesting to see high concepts play out for romantic dramas, immediately kicking into action with high stakes, date or die. For a fantasy to be immersive without too much distraction, there needs to be in world explanation for important story elements.

Setting up the rules for kissing the birthmark that was the wound site from a previous life to calm some sort of pain that activates is interesting. It is unclear if it's their proximity only that sets off the pain or if Dong Baek always had that pain and only Yudam can cure it. And so much more like a there needs a clearer explanation exactly what went wrong and got Yudam and Dongbaek cursed, was Yudam alive for 300 years consequtively or was he reborn with the same memories, who's the spirit that possessed Dong Baek, did Dong Baek have other life times in between the first and the current, is the heart shaped mark from a different stabbing from one of those other lives or else how did Yudam know about it, is Denis the assassin that killed Dongbaek, why is Denis calmed by Dongbaek, why is he obsessed with him...etc. It's a really fascinating premise, but a lot felt like it was left on the cutting room floor. I like how the past life scenes show Yudam as warm and kind, juxtaposing with his self 300 years later after he has been living on autopilot, how he's been thawing with his time with Dongbaek, and finally he's back to how he was in his first life after he forgets Dongbaek. It's a bittersweet ending that Dongbaek gets to remember first by keeping his memory in this second loop, but Yudam is already interestested so they can start over with Dongbaek explaining what happened to him eventually. They're even that way with Dongbaek not remember their first life either, neither will have the trauma from that life, though Dongbaek will have some from dying in the first loop of the current one.

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Sotus next gen

This is not the gl version of a legendary bl that kicked off the mainstream popularity of the queer romance dramas, but it does feel like a spiritual successor showing how the sentiments have changed regarding university student bonding activities. It's nice to see ladies in STEM get some representation also to have lots of women in main roles as well. There were a couple supporting roles that should have been played by women as well, such as Manaeow's bestie and P'Pure. I liked the flashbacks revealing Gyoza's journey with the Engineering program's SOTUS orientation exercises, she worked hard rallied to change it to something less traumatizing her incoming underclassmen. I also liked the use of the Engineering program's distinctive shirt jackets to indicate the passage of time. Gyoza and Manaow are lovely together and acted well. The couple gets into fights, but I can understand them snapping from being strained like an over twisted guitar string from being ridiculously busy with a full university workload and also having to tutor so many people including highschoolers, organizing events, etc. The two instances of the homophobic cars hitting Gyoza and Warang out of nowhere were quite silly as was the selective memory loss, but the later plays out okay. The second couple is cute, I'm glad Warang got over herself because her entitlement over Gyoza was not. Thida is the emotionally mature queen and best friend vip. I like that while the characters are sexual, they are not sexualized. I think it probably makes a big difference that the director is a woman and from the queer community as well. All in all, I hope that this drama is a sign of more fully funded, full length gl/queer storylines lead by women to come.

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Miscast and imbalanced romance to typical kdrama issues ratio

Camera angle kiss again in this day and age shows the lack of commitment from one or both of the actors and it really breaks immersion for the viewer and the production is at fault as well for letting this situation become so. The role or roles could have gone to better actors that would commit fully to portraying the characters. The complicated and toxic tinged relationship between Han Joon and Yoo Jae has so much potential to explore with Yoo Jae not wanting to date Han Joon, but not letting Han Joon date or even be close friends with anyone else either with the hints of Yoo Jae's dependency on Han Joon with him being the closest thing to a loving family member he has because of his troubled homelife. He wants Han Joon's attention and physical closeness all to himself and I like that Han Yoon calls him out on it which unfortunately only leads to the aforementioned very anticlimactic camera angle kiss. Also, every romantic benchmark is a big deal with this intense set up, but it's always abruptly undercut in the editing of this drama. That would mean more actual kiss scenes or something that would organically be the expression of the two characters. I do like the scene where they went out for ice cream and held hands. They got to date for five seconds before it all ends. If only there was committed acting, it would be a lot better, but it's not so there are better options to watch than this drama.

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Still budding

The production is competent for it's low budget, especially compared to other independent low budget series. I don't mind the lack of extras because of the budget, it's a very nitpicking point people take such personal umbrage with. I like the show's creative use of the spaces that doesn't need to utilize more people like the library, which is also an intimate space. Where it needs improvement is definitely the pacing and writing. The actors are okay, but for so much of it the main characters Min Jae and Yoon Chan seemed to be on the opposite mental age spectrum with Yoon Chan who I suppose they wanted to be innocent, but was giving more of a early twenty something with a stunted mind of a 5 year old. He's too old to get away with thinking that friends kiss and flirt like that. Also while it's a good thing the actors are committed in acting kiss scenes, sometimes they go on for way too long in the edit. I did like the professor character being a mentor figure and they actor is good, up until the weird cousin loving story. It's actually pretty harmful and messed up to use that as the parallel to a same sex relationship, it's literally the type of thing bigots use to falsely accuse lgbt people with. I'm pretty disappointed with Strongberry for not clocking that in their script. Despite all the flaws, I'm rooting for them to do better in future shows and in this show if it gets another season to finish out the cliff hanger.

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A bit discordant

The production looks nice, the cast is okay. The blue hair character Do Yoon is the funniest, I had to rewatch when he pushed Tae Yi off to the side to hug Se Heon, the comic timing was great. The edit pace overall is really slow. Since this is from the same screenwriter/director from a previous drama that totally failed in the romance department, the main couple's romance here is an improvement, but there is still room for more. The characters kissing people without consent is not good, but at least they apologized I guess. I've seen complaints, but the light kissing during the high school times are both age appropriate for these characters and kudos to the actors didn't look jpeg. They also showed their grown up kissing three years later after high school, it's fine ya'll lol.

There is a concerning amount of bullying consisting both of beatings and of a sexual assault nature that are forgiven way too easily. Especially concerning when Tae Yi falls into this category. He deserved to be kicked between the legs for what he did to Se Heon. I get what they were going for in the second couple, but that reconciliation, even just as friendship was way rushed. Joo Ha needed to do way more to make amends for being the violent terror that he was toward everyone. Do Yoon deserves so much better. The reveal about Se Heon and Tae Yi's brother was sad and the conclusion to that felt a bit abrupt as well. The storylines weren't spaced out very well. They should have given a bunch of the time dedicated to bullying to develop the interpersonal storylines instead.

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Atmospheric and ambitious modern dark fairytale

Singto and Fiat are the acting standouts with Singto carrying the whole show wonderfully as Dan and Fiat as Trin who is Dan's opposite and parallel. It's so fascinating that they set the Catholic side as the scientific sceptic against the Buddhist side with the practical solutions to Dan's supernatural issues. There is also the shaman that takes no one's side. The Catholic boarding school lends to the gothic imagery and the color grading is nicely done with care, with skin tone and clothes popping over the gray instead of just a bland gray wash over everything. The music is also very good, the mdl credits list the actor who plays the murderous bully Anan doing double duty as the composer as well. The opening credits is stylish and fun to watch before every episode. The slow burn nature of the story works best when the editing is strong, with the ghosts shown in restraint, their ability to commune directly with Dan limited. I also like how Dan and Nai's ability to see the supernatural is different. It slips during the over long fun house segment that spans the end of one episode and the beginning of another. Other weak moments of the story is Nai never reporting the pedo teacher Yada who has been having sexual relations with Anan, merely using the photo evidence luring him into the funhouse that lead to nothing but him attacking Dan for the billionth time and the whole plot with brother Anurak being the one armed man. Brother Anurak's was innocent regarding the university student's deaths in the past but acting really shady and keeping the student's remains inside the statue pedestal. What was well done was hiding in plain sight that Brother Anurak had a hand cast the whole time.

The story is not a bl, but does have gay characters. The romance is limited to the messy crushes among the four friends. Both Nai and Chaaim likes Dan, but Dan rebuffs both. Nai is lucky to get a dance date from Dan though while Chaaim settles for shady Josh who will smack talk Dan at a drop of a hat. Dan meanwhile does like her, but as much as he likes the creepy shadow creature. Though fearing it for much of his life, the increasing power of the shadow to manipulate what he sees in dreams made Dan see it as more of a comforting presence. The scene where he decide to hug the shadow was a fascinating moment. Then soon after the shadow makes it really weird, taking advantage of Dan physically for the first time when he's high, then again in the middle of the school day when Dan is just not feeling well. It's mirrored by how teacher Yada takes advantage of Anan. At the very end it's revealed that his terrible father made a deal with the forest spirit who is the shadow to have Dan in order to keep his abused wife with him. The shadow seems want Dan to itself like Hades wants Persephone. The solid form of the shadow didn't really work, probably would have been better just as a shadow the whole time. As soon as Dan started speaking in a deeper voice, I knew that it was Trin in Dan's body, then doubly so at his joy to see teacher Joe drop by. Teacher Joe was the only authority figure he didn't have an issue with, but unfortunately was an adult he had a huge crush on. It's a low bar that it's commendable that Teacher Joe turned him down.

The open ending with Trin's body reappearing and having drowned for a few days makes it possible that either Dan is still trapped separately in the other realm or Dan had also returned in the wrong body in the middle of the lake and drowned to death, with Trin living on in Dan's visage. I felt sorry for Trin who didn't have people looking for him in the way that Dan has even though he's surrounded by the same people. Trin doesn't accept that status quo for what it is and looks beyond it and he tries befriend and defend people that are picked on. He managed to encourage fellow students to be curious in history and question the teachers on why they aren't teaching them something that is common in books and at other schools. I really like the scenes where Trin and Brother Anurak actually has productive conversations about what Trin is advocating for and why it doesn't work like the bathroom improvement issue. It shows Trin is still naive to things from his youth. He gets understandably overwhelmed by seeing the shadow in the second part of the ritual. Fiat played Trin's strength and vulnerable moments really well. The final scene of Trin smiling in the mirror reminds me of the Twin Peaks "How's Annie?" moment. He looks sad though in the final seconds. I hope Singto signed an excellent contract with his return to his former management company and a season 2 of Shadow can happen. There's is so much potential of Dan and Trin actually interacting in regards to their ideals and other things.

Overall a good watch and I hope there will be more to continue it. Otherwise the ending it still works as a dark fairytale, where the terror of the supernatural is but a symptom of the horror of what humans do to each other in life.

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The execution is not the scandalous nature the premise suggests

The way that Milk and Choco's respective cat and dog personalities are translated very well into their human forms. I really like how it's just the particular fixations like they way they stare at Jung Woo or like to play with strings that are kept rather than moving around on all fours, meowing, and barking like other stories do. They are in human bodies, grown adults, and fully articulate and understanding of the culture and has understandings of human social norms which Milk is way better at following than Choco in certain situations. The longer they are in the human realm and as they are more acclimated as individual human beings, only then do they start developing feelings towards their respective love interests other than what they had as pets.

It's really great to see Yeon Seung Ho appear as a guest star. He was one of the leads of Strongberry's Long Time No See, their action romance drama, their strongest and my favorite of their productions to date. It's one of the OG korean bl dramas with a positive ending as they are today, a huge turning point that deserves more recognition.

Though the episodes are short, the pacing of the scenes are a bit slow. The stakes could have been explained a bit better, like what exactly does "disappearing" consist of, does it mean their souls will disintegrate forever? How do they know they had 50 days on earth? At first I thought they were rounding up from 49 days, but then they come back for double the amount of days. I feel like the ending was fine as it is for this story, though if there's a season 2, it would be nice if they could elaborate clearer on for what the stakes that Milk and Choco are dealing with.

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Uneven quality but still interesting

It's really cool to see a story that utilizes Thai mythology, the action scenes are well done, the visual effects look good, the leads playing Phaya and Tharn are good, and the supporting role Yai is effective at both comic relief and serious scenes when needed. The Yai hand heart scene with him accidentally interrupting the two diver's conversation is the most hilarious scene of the series.

The pacing of the scenes are a bit slow and the writing introduces a lot of story beats but they disappear abruptly or is explained as something that happened off screen, like whole Montree storyline, Mayris disappears, Chart never getting mentioned after he ended up in the hospital after blowing his cover trying to help them, and the worst instance is the ending where instead of seeing Tharn and Chalothon's discussion, it's just quickly explained away by a Tharn who suddenly reappears. We don't get to see him reuniting with everyone else who has been looking for him and how the conversation went for the whole IDF to be on board with Tharn is missing because of being taken by supernatural forces. As elite officers, Phaya and Tharn aren't very professional a lot of the times. Phaya is also the worst at explaining why he finds someone shady, which is a crucial ability in his line of work. He was also cognizant when drunk Tharn mentioned the amulet, but he just totally forgets about it by the time he goes to the temple. Then there is an epilogue that seemed to be setting up for a 2nd season, but is actually for a special episode for a paywall live in person event.

I appreciate the ambition of the show. It would have been nice if the script was further polished and there was either more episodes or runtime to flesh out certain story points or shaved some off to film some important missing ones. Overall, it's still worth a one time watch.

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Excellent

For those unfamiliar with kdrama, 16 episodes is the typical episode order of Korea tv dramas, so both parts of The Glory is part of the same series/season and one continuous story arc rather than being two separate seasons. The writer is a veteran of addictive hits that are hits and misses in terms of quality for me personally, but The Glory is an objective masterpiece. I wouldn't call it a fun watch considering the painful subject matter, but it is a most cathartic one. The acting is wonderfully led by Song Hye Gyo in her best work to date along with the writer and wonderfully supported by Lee Do Hyun who is Netflix's Sweet Home alum, and all of the support cast on either sides of the revenge accomplice and bully spectrums.

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Watchable mixed-bag and signals

I enjoyed how the different focuses of each story flowed from one to the other, but the pacing was all over the place. I liked how certain actors in the main pov role were giving a chance to play against the their usual typecast parts and that the main characters being in the wrong is actually shown as being so, whether the respective actor was able to carry the screen time with their acting though is different per case. For a show that sets itself up to show the underbelly of the industry, it doesn't really do much of that aside from showing Pan being sold by his manager to creeps. Most of the storylines involve actors being ruthless to get their time in the limelight rather than the larger systemic issues. Even when the show mentions other issues in the industries like how it's reliant on nc scenes and "service", the show merely lampshades but doesn't have anything in particular to say about it since the show itself is complicit. It literally asks questions it doesn't really answer in form of their own gossip girl type social media account that's featured throughout. There were also fangirl inserts in the form of two characters. The writing for the live comments from both Thai and international fans were eerily spot on and added well to the tension of the scene as you tried to read the reactions and watch the scene at the same time. It was one of the most well done of this kind of storytelling device I've seen so far, so kudos to the show for that. Some of the twitter trends featured were pretty fun to see like how the changed up the names of real people and events that trended regularly in Thailand like dogexpo7 instead of catexpo9. The actor First again is the stand out of War of Y as he was in Y Destiny and props to Toru as well. Both of them carry zero ego when it comes to acting and are fully committed on top of being actually very good at it which made their storyline the most enjoyable to watch. All of the main pov characters are unlikeable though humanized and Achi was the one who got away with the least comeuppance, which is ironic considering how he complained about how Peek was getting that special treatment in Y Idol. Achi is also a rich kid with a nepo safety job waiting for him for insult on top of injury. First really did an amazing job to make Achi bearable to watch. I liked that none of the couples end up happily together. The ultimate winner and this series' gossip girl, ends up to be none of the featured pov characters, but P. Attichon who seems to have some weird unresolved negative tension between him and the actor he's shipped with, but it's never addressed and he unveals his new series about marriage equality as well showing how he uses his social media savvy to stay on the pulse of what audiences want. Overall I appreciated the effort to do something out of the norm even though the delivery didn't exactly come through, it's still more watchable than most other current Thai bl offerings around the time of it's airing.

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A mixed bag with a rewarding bright gem in the midst

Y Destiny varies wildly in quality like a lot of anthology type storytelling, there are many lows, but their high point is well executed artistry. The Kaeng and Puth storyline in Eps 9 & 10 that's wrapped up in ep 15 and their own special 10 minute epilogue is stunningly compelling. I would also suggest watching their scenes as supporting roles in episode 5 & 6 for a extra context of their state of minds as well as their Dear Friend cover music video done in character that's a beautifully aching encapsulation of the relationship.

Though I would rate the show at a 5 and the Kaeng Puth storyline separately at a 9, there are things I liked about the show such as the conceit of having the characters take turn being supporting characters does add additional dimension to them outside of what he see when they are in their romance plots and seeing events from a slightly different point of view as a when scenes from one story happens before or concurrently as a plot point from another story. The contrast of genre tones of the other couples worked well to compound to tragic reality at one point in the KaengPuth storyline in particular. I really enjoyed the styling, such as the creative take on the university uniform for both the general one everyone wears to the personalized takes the characters have and their personal wardrobe and color schemes also feel intentional and adds to the characterization. The use of flashbacks of new scenes to add additional information is also efficient to add more development in the limited episode time.

A review of each storyline on their own before the strongest one:

Tue Ake Ep 1 & 2 The key part of portraying them growing feelings for each other was a miss in all departments.

Nuea Sun EP 3 & 4 features actors Max and Nat switching up their dynamic with Nat playing the confident one and Max playing the cute one works really well.

Team Mon Ep 5 & 6 On it's own it's about a naïve freshman being having his emotions played with for a game by a older Scorer, which also sets up the complications for Kaeng and Puth later.

Thur Pao/Pae Ep 7 & 8 is where supernatural and magical elements are introduced as being real in this world. It almost gave Thur a bit more complexity as a character, but it didn't and the way he is both meeting and reuniting with Pae has no impact because he's a totally different person in life than he is in death, they didn't lay any connection to make it a meaningful story.

Sat Choke Eps 11 & 12 A magical realism episode with time travel through that's inspired by 13 going on 30 expect this is 11 going on 18, which gives very disturbing feelings while watching this 11 year old in a adult body doing adult things.

Masuk Tir & Jia Eps 13 & 14 The final story was a swing and a miss. I understand the intention of a moving portrayal of handling grief, the but the execution was atrociously done. It was also a missed opportunity they didn't bother continuing with or building on any of the set up about spirits and the spirit world that was introduced in Thur's story.

Kaeng Puth Eps 9 & 10 They have the heaviest relationship development despite the friends with benefits set up. The storyline is incredibly well acted by respective actors who are refreshingly committed to their characters without any personal ego and has the skills to to disappear into them on screen. 10 out of 10 score just for them. Extra shoutout to First who was just 18 or 19, not many actors his age has the capability. The storyline is intense, mature, and realistic, not just in terms of the sexuality that is depicted but the layered emotions and the complexities of the relationship . Their story has the most build up from the sidelines of the other stories, particularly Mon's where their appearances inform the history of their story. There are so many intricately placed meaningful details of the story that span from their support appearances, to their main episodes, show finale, and their epilogue that totally respects the audience's intelligence, which is good writing, well directed, and edited as well. The whole KaengPuth storyline is the very rewatchable and worth revisiting.

In a show with ghosts and time travel, the most compelling story is of the complexities of human relationships.

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