brokenendings
Nexus of Life
Save yourself time and read the manga instead
I read and loved the manga of this story, and I wasn't expecting an exact adaptation because I understand wanting to make a new experience for the audience. But everything that's different from the original just makes the story and the characters weaker.Literally all the reasons I like the manga are absent from this show. The acting feels awkward and forced, and the writing isn't great either.
I'm surprised I watched as much as I did. I guess there was nothing that made me outright hate it. It was just a forgettable disappointment. I stopped when I realized I'd have more fun just rereading the manga instead of finishing the show.
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Everything was decent...EXCEPT the romance
It’s funny because the only reason I tried to watch this was for the romance premise. But the romance was the only part that truly sucked. The plot is interesting and the writing and acting are decent.But the “romance” has very little to do with the characters falling in love. It’s nothing more than a series of cliche moments of physical proximity that are drawn out like queer bait thumbnails.
You don’t have the push and pull of conflict or the characters coming to terms with feelings. Even though the acting is okay, I just don’t feel any chemistry between the leads. There’s no urgency. It falls flat and they just don’t convince me that their characters have feelings for each other. So I guess that part of the acting is bad.
I may have gone a couple months in between episode 3 and episode 4. But I watched episodes 4, 5, and 6 all in a row and all of the above became clear.
Honestly the show was a little better before the romance aspect was introduced.
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Why I dropped a show with a good story
Watching BL shows and dropping BL shows I've figured out what is first and most important thing to me.The acting and the chemistry between the lead characters.
You can tell in the way they touch each other in scenes and the looks in their eyes. So far, there are only three pairs of actors where I can say with no doubt that they make the love feel real between the characters (see my "good pda" list).
The actors don't have to be perfect, but I need a significant amount of moments where the love feels real. The initial interactions can still be awkward because it makes sense getting familiar with a person. But I want to be able to feel the want from both characters' emotions. I've only completed 10 shows, but everything I've given good rating has the kind of acting and chemistry I'm looking for.
I wanted to like this show. The premise is amazing and the writing is good. The music for the important moments is very moving. The problem is that both the past life couple and the present life couple, the love didn't feel real. It felt like acting. And maybe my criteria is harder to meet than I realize. But more than 50% of the shows I've watched have the acting I'm looking for.
I know this is a highly regarded series, but it misses the most important thing I'm looking for: the comfortability between actors.
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This series' reputation preceded itself.
Boy, did it deliver, in way more ways than I expected.Only minutes into first episode, the production and music both proved to be top notch. The cinematography is gorgeous to look at. By the end of the first episode it was clear the actors and writing were quality as well. With writing, it's hard for me to tell how much of the quality is the original script and how much goes to the translation. Maybe it's a combination of both.
The characters behave logically, and their motivations feel believable, even if they're immoral choices. It's incredibly satisfying watching the character arcs, and the tension built between characters flows smoothly. There is so little to complain about in every aspect of this show that I thought it'd be a sin not to leave a review.
It's remarkable how the writing transforms your opinions of the characters too. You might start out feeling one way about a character, and before you realize it you feel the opposite way about them.
Something is to be said for the little moments of humor. I didn't expect them with the tone of the show, but not only were they welcome but they fit perfectly when they happened.
There's multiple couples explored and all of them are very different types of relationships that explore very different obstacles. I feel like they were balanced well without detracting from the main storyline. All of them have chemistry too.
I'll say one thing, based on its reputation, I was honestly surprised there weren't more love scenes (and I watched the La Forte version). The way people talked about it, I thought it might be one of those 'every episode' kind of shows, or 'every other episode,' but that was not the case. I will say the scenes lasted longer and went farther than any other show, but to me it added to what the show has to offer. It's not graphic, and it's not so often that it feels excessive. The scenes are carefully placed in terms of the evolution of the characters involved. And I'll reiterate here: the cinematography is gorgeous in these scenes as well.
Without spoiling anything, my one wish is that certain characters had a more conclusive onscreen ending. It was left a little open ended without making it clear to the audience what might happen next between them. But honestly that is one of the only missteps I can think of, but the only missteps happen at the end of the last episode.
Literally everything else, I can sing nothing but praises.
I thought Manner of Death had high production value, but this one was even higher.
Watching this honestly felt like watching an award winning show/movie. Every little thing just fell into place in an amazing way that was extremely satisfying.
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Great Premise but Lacks Chemistry
I've completed eight different BL series now, so I feel like I have a handle on what constitutes performances with good chemistry. It's hard for me to tell if the writing is weak, the acting is weak, or both are weak. Whether it was an okay script with poor performance or a poor script with a decent performance, I can't quite tell, but I feel like it could be one or the other.The story was interesting, but not interesting enough to overcome the weaknesses in actor performances and their chemistry. It truly felt like everybody was just reciting their lines and perhaps even overacted in some scenes. Episode 9 was my breaking point. I might have dropped it at episode 8 if not for the cliff hanger.
But sadly it's enough. It's a shame because I like the premise here. The cop and the mobster. But all the character interactions leave me wanting. I actually started and finished watching two other series while trying to get through these episodes. I feel like that communicates my watching experience the best. The two series that trumped this one were Manner of Death, and We Best Love: No. 1 For You.
So despite its high overall rating, if the most important things to you are acting and chemistry then I'd recommend you skip this one.
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No tension and weird pacing
The premise was pretty interesting so i thought this would be good. On top of that it's BL meta, so i felt like it'd be hard to mess up.I was wrong on both accounts.
I just don't want to sacrifice my time watching a series that doesn't adequately hook me by episode 3. Not to say nothing progresses but there's just nothing that leaves me wanting.
I don't want to hear "it gets good by episode 6" or something because that means suffering through 2 more to get there. It's not worth it when there's shows I've already found that are painless.
Either because of writing, acting, editing or cinematography, but the feelings of the main characters just don't come across onscreen. Because i don't know what they're feeling at any given movement, as a result i don't feel anything. The music felt out of place too.
I watch romance to feel something and this show just didn't do it for me.
You can't tell "character a likes character b" because of their feelings, only because of stereotypical actions which come across with no emotion.
There's also a small flashback they waited too long to reveal. The timing should have been way sooner.
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Was too much work to watch it
If watching a series starts to feel like work and isn't fun, that's my time to leave.Despite being a high production value with good actors, the fact that it was multiple short stories and that nobody had amazing chemistry just made me slowly lose interest. It should have been multiple miniseries instead of billed as one long show.
The stories are so separate that I kind of fast forwarded through chunks of the first story cuz I was sort of tired of the premise. But I wanted to see what happened because I knew the second couple were side characters in the first. Didn’t really matter much in the end.
I ended up skipping 4 of the 5 episodes for the second couple (episodes 7-10). I don’t like elaborate and manipulative setup, machination plots. It was the reason “Together With Me” disappointed me despite its strengths.
Episode 11, the start of the third story just wasn't interesting enough to make me want to continue. And because the first three stories disappointed me in different ways, it made me have no interest in trying to watch the fourth story. For all I know that could be the only good story but I've just lost any desire to try it.
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Unnatural Character Development
This was the first show to give me whiplash with a character's actions. The show wasn't even that deep or detailed but Rain's character in the middle of episode 2 instantly felt OOC. You can't establish a character and then have them break character instantly. It deceives the audience's expectations. There has to be foreshadowed progression.I'm not even done watching episode 2 but because of that one scene i can't take it seriously anymore or even pay attention to read the subtitles.
I never thought that a show that seemed decent and promising in episode 1 could turn me off it in the next episode. Even the more bland shows, i watched more episodes then this.
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Why I dropped something I gave a decent rating
The show is alright, though the characters are over-the-top at times. So far this is the best BL meta I've seen.But I also dropped it.
Not purposefully.
I just started watching "I Told Sunset About You" before I finished the show, and after finishing the other one, I had no desire to take the time to finish this series. "I Told Sunset" was just worlds better in every way that I couldn't bring myself to finish this series, which I knew was inferior.
I'd rather spend the time looking for another series that gets to me the same way, rather than settling to finish watching an "okay" series for the sake of finishing it.
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Interesting Premise But Weak Execution
I don't know if it was the writing, or acting, or directing, or cinematography, or editing, or maybe even some cultural differences in perception--But all the scenes read very bland to me.
I don't think the actors were doing a poor job in believability. But there were no deeper emotions attached to their actions in the scenes. Even when some stereotypical romance setups happened, it felt like i was only watching it happen. I couldn't feel what either character was feeling at any time. Rather than a piece of fiction with developed characters, i felt like i was just spying on these events happening to real people. I was missing the emotion. It seemed absent
I gave this series the old college try and watched 4 episodes. But at this point i don't think there's anything the series can deliver me that will make it worth finishing.
It's a shame because the premise of the series is still quite interesting to me. Only the execution is lacking.
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Every scene is at a snail’s pace
The way the series was shot and edited makes every single thing that happens feel like it takes so long. Just a character sitting down to do something or getting up. They’re single shots and there’s no edits or cuts. You’re literally just watching the actors move in real time. Watching feels like you’re constantly waiting for something to happen, anything, but nothing does.it is so agonizingly slow that even watching it 15% sped up still feels slow.
The actors also speak so slow that even when sped up, their speaking still sounds normal.
I watched the whole 1st episode and if you removed all of the walking, entering and exiting rooms, and adjusting themselves to sit down or stand up, the episode would be 10 or 15 minutes long. But it’s 40 minutes long.
Watching the first episode gave me bad college film flashbacks.
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Not intrigued enough to continue
There's nothing immediately bad about it. This time it's simply that it's too average for me to continue.The story is mildly interesting. The acting is average. The pacing is kind of slow and it just feels like a lot of talking and nothing else.
It doesn't help that the frame-rate of the video is too high so every shot looks like a soap opera. I need some motion blur. In order to get past that technical preference of mine, the show has to be better overall to be worth continuing. And so I'm dropping it.
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With such a high rating I expected better
Usually BL shows with ratings higher than 8 have been really good and worth my time.This one, I couldn't even finish episode 1.
The plot line is mediocre and everything feels over-acted. Good series like Bad Buddy, the dialogue feels natural with only brief comedic moments that might be overacted.
The only "supposed to be romantic" moment was awkward and forced.
I was almost going to force myself to finish the episode, but then I asked myself "Why am I forcing myself if I'm not enjoying it?"
A show that can't interest me in 30 minutes isn't worth my time, and I've watched a few dozen BL that actually did manage to interest me in that much time or less, so I'm going to pass on this and find something better.
Also going to stop trusting the ratings on MDL. It's a little too weighted if it only reflects users who watched half of the show or more. All the ratings will be higher because very few people will finish a show they dislike.
I'm starting to the think GMMTV is only able to produce so many BL series because they don't worry about quality. They make a formula and plug actors into it, regardless of how boring it might be.
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