Reviews

most disastrous fall-off since Game of Thrones

God, where do I begin. I guess I'll say that at the start, I was enjoying myself. Sure, it was a little contrived and there were always pacing issues from the episode 1 on, but there were enough interesting elements to have me willing to go along. Over the following three months, I then experienced what the proverbial frog being boiled must have felt as around me the waters got hotter and hotter until I was being turned into rancid jelly.

Quick premise recap: Through a series of contrivances, Jack and Joke meet as youths (Joke is somewhere around 20, Jack is 18) and bond. Jack runs into Joke while Joke is robbing a bank, Joke approves a loan for him, then Jack gets accused of participating in the robbery, Joke turns himself in and goes to prison for 5 years while Jack ends up working for a loan shark referred to as Boss. Time skip forward, Jack is out of prison and wants to go apologize and is upset to find out that Jack is no longer the sweet kid he remembers but instead a (seemingly) brutal debt collector. He teams up with two of Jack's friends to steal Jack's parents' ring from Boss, which he's been using as leverage to keep Jack working for him, and free Jack from this life.

Okay. That seems fine, right? Except from there the plot proceeds to introduce more and more elements, getting increasingly out of control as it goes. I should have known it was doomed the moment they introduced The Evil Crime Boss monopoly game in a scene that must have taken a solid 10-15 minutes but felt more like an hour. I doubly should have known when in, like, the next episode they did an almost identical scene but with a digital game of Chutes and Ladders. In case you didn't get it, these rich people see the poor as their playthings. Do I understand what any of these people actually do? Nope!

From there, it just gets more comic book before reaching absurdist heights with a final episode that includes three characters handcuffed to video game consoles with bomb collars on while for some reason they're forced to play hangman in one of the most excruciating sequences of television I've been subjected to. And then it's revealed that all the danger the characters were allegedly in didn't actually matter, because the escalating events of the past three episodes were actually all just the Four Horsemen screwing with Boss. Which thematically, yes, makes sense, but also negated 90% of the character decisions that had come before.

It's hard to describe what a letdown this show was. It started with a promising premise and themes of the cycle of poverty and self-interest versus self-sacrifice, all to abandon that for a poor knock-off of Squid Game. Character arcs are introduced and dropped at the speed of light, interpersonal conflicts that should be a major problem are resolved in a few lines, and plot points that seem incredibly important just disappear into the wind.

Things that were good:
- War is still a great actor and manages to pull genuine pathos out of an insane script.
- Yin and War have the chemistry and heat to convince you of Jack and Joke's attraction even if their romance arc felt pretty anemic towards the end.
- For the most part, it looks great, and the early fight scenes especially are fun.
- Victor, perhaps the only actor who truly understood what genre he was in, chewed the scenery to bits and left no crumbs.
- The first heist involving the fashion show was pretty fun.

Things that were bad:
- Almost everyone was hopelessly incompetent. If you were looking for a fun, slick heist show, this is not it because no one is good at anything, including Joke who is allegedly a master thief even though we are given absolutely no reason to believe this.
- Wildly inconsistent pacing and tone. Perhaps the Saw traps at the end would have felt more fun and camp to me if the first couple episodes hadn't been relatively grounded.
- Character motivations bounced all over the place, especially for the antagonists. We're told in a two line exchange in episode 10 that Boss is actually doing his hostile takeover of the Four Horsemen as revenge for his parents, which is given no further explanation or depth aside from another single line in the finale that has no relevance and is never mentioned again.
- Characters and plot threads were dropped for multiple episodes. Side characters Save and Hope, who have a lot of bearing on the plot as minions for Boss, straight up disappear for like three episodes straight. Tattoo, Arun, and Hoy, who all seem really important at the beginning, also have arcs that are completely dropped.
- People/the show seems to conveniently forget there are guns for long stretches of time, or just forget how basic physics work.
- One of the most poorly executed twists of all time because we have no information about the people involved in said twist. You have time to make Jack bark like a dog for like five solid minutes but can't give us a Mean Girls-style rundown of the Four Horsemen? Please.

I think the most frustrating thing is that there were absolutely seeds of a good, fun show, but it was buried beneath ten layers of nonsense that should have been cut in the first round of edits. Like, not even. It should have been cut at the outline stage and then thrown into a fire never to be contemplated again. I am willing to accept a lot of nonsense in my media, I am able to suspend disbelief, and I have watched a lot of objectively bad television, but this manged to hit my threshhold on everything. Even watching it with friends didn't help; we ended up setting the finale on 2x when we realized there was still half an hour left after watching people mess with an ipad in a cheap-looking warehouse set for an hour. I guess I'm glad other people enjoyed it, because I like Yin and War, but kings, this one should have gone back to the drawing board.

Leia Mais

I had so much hope, but I'm disappointed af

I thought we will get a nice action show with some romance inbetween. But we got some action and often with excessive brutality and not much romance at all.
I thought we will get a good script, but we did get a really bad script.
I thought we will get good acting, but with such a crap script, they did the best they could.

The finale was especially painful to watch and for me the worst episode of all.
I can ask myself only, why do so many people like this show?
The characters are comically, especially the bad ones, one-dimensional with no growth, abnoxious or bland. The plot is from a $1 trash-novel and there is not much of romance at all, just egos clashing with each other, without meaningful conversations. They only did try with Joker and his father, but it was not as deep as it should be. The solution was lazily written and done in 5 minutes and that was the highlight of the series. A series with a runtime per episode of ~80 minutes is too long if they do not tell a story, develop the side characters. There is no feeling at all that the pairs grow together except Tattoo & Hoy who are together before the sereis started. :) It just gets boring . There were lots of time to develop a deeper partnership, more cuddles, more kisses between all pairs but instead it was wasted with a meaningless plot.

The only believable person of course was granny :) She had me from the beginning. But the rest is too forgetful. The best thing was the soundtrack, but it was wasted on this series, because there was no suspense in the story only in the music. I can't even say the direction is bad with the script which was given.

As with most shows, it starts with a strong first episode and then it goes down the drain.
I will not watch this again and I hope you have not wasted your time with it too :)

Leia Mais

The boicot in The Heart Killers

This series went from ★8.3 to ★6.3 in the time of four days since its release last week.

There’re people saying it’s because it’s bad, others are saying it is because it took Jack & Joker first place in IQIYI, and there’s also people saying it is too s3xual for it to be on screen.

So, no matter what the reasons are, when you come to watch a series, you must know where you’re putting yourself in. No matter what the series is about, you should value it as a series of such gender, such as action, romance, politics, horror, suspense or anything. If you’re gonna leave a bad review, these is probably not your series so what might be better is for you to stop watching.

Let’s give these series a chance to be great, it only started and I really hope I can say at the end, it was amazing.

Leia Mais

JoongDunk and FirstKhaotung

I like how the story started as the two relationship between Bestfriend and Brothers introduce in the first episode. I like the cinematography as well because it gives me like I'm watching an American movies especially the vintage cars, the house structure and the design of heart burger. I also love how the characters dress up. Not the typical one especially for Style who obviously the fashionable one. I'm a JoongDunk fan but I love how I am getting excited with FirstKhaotung scene as well that I didn't have to skip the scenes just to watch JoongDunk part. Ended the series has a lot to offer and I'm very excited for the next episode

Leia Mais

just incredible

from the very first episode of this show I knew it was going to become my favorite BL, and I was 100% correct. this review is going to be all over the place because I dont even know where to start. everything about this show is just perfect. the casting is so well done -- each actor fits their character so nicely and I couldn't imagine someone else in any of these roles. specifically, the actors playing tattoo, Arun, carbon, and hope did an amazing performance and executed their roles so well, I could tell they were all committed to their characters and there wasn't one scene I felt like they were lacking. and of course, yin and war as jack and joke. I don't even know what to say about them because both of them are such talented, passionate actors who could not have done a more incredible job. every scene between them was passionate and energetic. I was on the edge of my eat every time jack and joke were alone together because yin and war's chemistry is something I don't think I have ever seen before. what may have been small or boring moments in other dramas with other actors were exhilarating because the natural chemistry between them was SO apparent. in particular I want to talk about war. he delivered an Oscar worthy performance as joke, especially in episode 11. I could literally feel the emotions coming off of him because he was completely immersed in his role as joke. as for the plot, I was a little worried because the episodes being an hour/hour and a half long each leaves a lot of room for many boring fillers. jack and joker did not have that once. I truly cannot think of a time while I was watching jack and joker that I was not glued to my screen, even in the more funny parts which I still loved. I think it had a perfect balance between being serious and comedic. everything flowed together pretty coherently, however there were a couple confusing parts/plotholes in the last two episodes but that's bound to happen and they were very minimal so it didn't influence my rating or love for the show that much. jack and joker is ABSOLUTELY one of the best if not the best BLs released this year. I hope that yin and war have even more productions to each other, because jack and joker is something so one of a kind and I do not think any BL will top it for me for a very long time (if ever). thank you yin and war for this absolute masterpiece of a show that I will rewatch 100000 times <3

Leia Mais

This show came out of nowhere and I am literally obsessed!

I started this show a couple of weeks ago honestly because I didn't have anything else to watch and I am so happy I did. I went into this show with zero expectations but oh my goodness it was so amazing! I really enjoyed that the first couple of episodes were different stories and then they reveal that the main story is focused around the actors who are playing those characters. The emotional range of the main leads was truly amazing and I honestly cried so much. I am so excited to see Top and Mick in more shows and hopefully they are together because their chemistry is insane!

Leia Mais

The Heart Killers has been the best series I've ever seen (i love wednesdays)

There are really no words to describe this masterpiece, even though only one episode of thk has passed, it has made me come out of the bl block and love this series with all my soul.
Cinematography, history, characters, music, everything in general is art <3
I waited all year for this series since my favorite couple is Firstkhao and it has not disappointed me, it is meeting my expectations<3
Seeing my firstkhao playing kantbison showing new sides of them is beautiful :3 (ily bison)
It's the first series I've seen from Joongdunk and I love it, I'm loving fadelstyle immensely.
My Wednesdays are the best since the start of this series <3 I love you the heart killers, ily firstkhao :3

Leia Mais

where do find this bar…??

i think i saw somewhere a long time ago, people talking about a show or a movie about a bar appearing out of nowhere and the bartender listens to everyones struggles. i was always intrigued by this plot idea and wondered if it would ever come to life. much to my surprise, netflix recommended me this show with the exact same premise and of course i had to watch!!

first of all, if you watched the k-drama ‘tomorrow’, it’s almost the exact same. people come to them and they settle grudges, in tomorrow, the ‘entities’ find people who are on the brink of giving up their life and save them. it’s essentially the same idea, and since tomorrow is one of my favourite shows, this was really nice to watch and made me have a feeling like i was watching tomorrow’s twin show!

i liked everything about it. the plot, the comedy, the reveals, plotwists- you name it.

even the characters were cool! i really have nothing to complain about. although i have to admit, some of the major reveals in the show were so easy to spot so they didn’t really come off as shocking lol…i was more so happy and excited everytime i got a guess correct.

such a wonderful story with a beautiful message! i recommend it!

Leia Mais

Did I go in with too high expectations?

When I watched the first couple of episodes of this show I was absolutely sold. It's the most excited I've been about a show in a long time. I felt like it had everything: action, chemestry, production value, excellent performances.
Unfortunately for me, around episode 3/4 the story/writing started falling a little flat for me. It didn't focus enough on building the relationship and tension between the leads and instead focused on what felt like kind of random plotlines. The changes in tone also mostly didn’t work for me.
That being said, I really loved most of the performances. Grandma alone might have added a star to my rating. And the actor who playes Joke is a revelation. I really hope I get to see the main actors again in something with a story and writing more to my taste.

Leia Mais