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  • Laatst online: aug 9, 2023
  • Geslacht: Vrouw
  • Plaats: At Lotus Pier
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  • Verjaardag: March 19
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  • toetreden op: maart 21, 2021

Chris

At Lotus Pier

Chris

At Lotus Pier
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I Told Sunset About You Part 2
3 mensen vonden deze beoordeling nuttig
met Chris
jun 26, 2021
5 van 5
Voltooid 0
Geheel 8.0
Verhaal 5.0
Acting/Cast 10
Muziek 9.0
Rewatch Waarde 5.0
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It’s always you in the end….I guess

Before I get into this I feel like many will not like my thoughts on this review but please remember that this is just my opinion. I also will be comparing this to ‘I Told The Sunset About You’ because this is its 2nd season.

General:
I was very excited about this show and I even re-watched ‘I Told The Sunset About You’ to get into the storyline again. I still questioned it because I was wondering how can this show live up to what the first season set up. Many people called the first season a masterpiece. Which when you have reached the top the only way left to go is down or stay stable. Which to say the least this drama went down in some ways.

Characters:
What I loved about ‘I Told The Sunset About You’ was the characters and the storyline. I felt that I could see both of the character’s perspectives while watching the drama. The storyline of struggling with your identity and with this also taking place during high school I related to.

I started the first episode of ‘I Promised You The Moon’ and with Oh-Aew’s character I felt an immediate disconnect. I still justify that as I’m not in college and I most likely won’t go into college with a relationship. Honestly, I know some people can relate to how Oh-aew was feeling at this time (lonely, homesick, etc) and some can even relate to him later on. I just personally can’t and the same goes with Teh’s character. Just because I can’t relate to the characters doesn’t make this series bad although but I still thought I would point it out.

The characters (Oh-aew and Teh) changed yet they didn’t change. As I said with my disconnect section they have changed slightly which in a way I expected. Oh-aew changed his style, friend group, and interest but the same thing could be said about Teh. They also became more career-based which is understandable with them being college students now. Which based on the first two episodes if I didn’t know where it was going. I thought the story could go in the direction of them growing from what they were in ‘I Told The Sunset About You’ which leads them to distance themselves from each other. This honestly seems very realistic (to me personally) as only 2-5% of high school relationships last throughout college. Their decision-making as to when it came to their relationship was what didn’t change to me. Their relationship didn’t grow either even though both characters seemed like they wanted to stay in this relationship but it had seemed like they had decided to put no real effort into it.

‘I Told The Sunset About You’ was mainly about Teh and starting with the first episode of ‘I Promised You The Moon’ it did seem like we were going to focus on Oh-aew now. As you got into the show it became Teh again who became the center. I don’t hate Teh’s character but yes I do agree that what he did was wrong.

Plot:
This is what the major fall for me is, the plot. I’m not here to say the whole relationship between the characters is fake/something that would never happen as some people may have gone through similar situations. I am here to say that they took on too many points they wanted to make in a short five-episode drama that takes place over 4-5 years.
Points they tried to make:
-Being in a new city and not knowing anyone (Homesick/lonely can be added to this)
-How the main characters relationship has changed know they are busy all the time
-The struggles of being an actor and the toxic standards the entertainment industry holds
-Questioning the future and questioning if this is the major you want
-Making the decision between if you are going to be more career-based or relationship-based
They also tried to bring in some more plot points but these were the main ones I had noticed.

Which even in ‘I Told The Sunset About You’ took place over years as we saw them as kids and now they were high schoolers.Which in my opinion ‘I Told The Sunset About You’ was more cohesive than this as we had only one main time skip. Then we started following them and watching them grow as characters.

This season fell through in certain ways because of the multiple time skips. I don’t hate time skips but sometimes they are a huge hit or miss. This was a miss honestly. They would start to branch out into these tropics or they would start to elaborate on these subjects and then time skip. At the end of the time skip, they would be completely over it (Mainly Oh-aew would be and Teh was halfway over it) and it wasn’t brought up again maybe only once or twice more it was brought up (Which mainly Teh would bring them up again).

They also tried to carry out YEARS of their life so we never really saw them grow as a character. Their changes/’growth’ would come out of nowhere as when we would go to the next year so they had changed as characters.

Honestly, by the end of the 3rd episode, I just wanted them to be broken up and then see them as people who grew from that relationship now that have their own lives. Which I thought that must be the way it’s going to go right? There is no other possible way for them to go besides breaking up and maybe becoming friends in the future (maybe) right? Wrong, because when do they not end up together in the end?

Other details:
Even though I have been talking about this very negatively there are many positives to this drama. They all are minor things to me but maybe much more important to other people. Things like the acting, music, and cinematography were impressive plus good quality. There were some amazing shots during these five episodes. The neon/city colors were also so vibrant and especially during the nighttime scenes.

Conclusion:
Honestly, I think I generally as a season it’s not a terrible thing I have seen. I think as a sequel to ‘I Told The Sunset About You’ it’s less than desirable. I mainly gave it the rating I did because of the last episode and I debated for half a day if this was 7.9 or 8 stars. I ended up giving it 8 stars out of pure attachment.

If you are reading this and you haven’t watched it, I don’t know if could say to go watch this or not. I feel like you should read up on it and then make your decision. This second season obviously has some people who are going to like this and some who aren’t. I would say I personally fall into the middle latter of this.

In the end, this is the end to a series that I will never forget and I think a lot of people may feel the same way.

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My Engineer
1 mensen vonden deze beoordeling nuttig
met Chris
jul 17, 2021
14 van 14
Voltooid 0
Geheel 9.5
Verhaal 8.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Muziek 6.0
Rewatch Waarde 9.5
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Honestly, I didn’t believe in love until I saw RamKing...

General:
I never really write reviews for shows I like as I find it hard to form words on this topic. After my fourth time watching this show I was suggested that I should write a review as I have seen it so many times.

Some general knowledge about me and this shows the relationship is I didn’t like the drama at first. After I had finished watching the show I had rated around 6 stars which I think says a lot now that it’s currently 9.5 stars. Also, a fun fact about me is that I hate romantic comedies (I think you can tell by my ratings for some dramas I have watched) but of course there are some exceptions.

Characters:
I’m also going to be splitting this up into pairs just like my y-destiny review as there are four main relationships in the drama.

BohnDuen:
I think they were the main reason why I didn’t like the drama at first. When watching for the first time I thought they were annoying and toxic. I understood the character’s motivation of why they wanted to start dating but it still was shaky especially on Bohn’s part. I just never understood why Bohn acted like he was always mad at Duen. When he knew ‘being mad’
would hurt Duen. Was it just to get a reaction out of Duen? If so, why not just try a different way that wouldn’t hurt Duen. Still, I think they are toxic to this day and one of the main reasons this will never be a 10 star (and I don’t think it deserves that). The Tom and Jerry dynamic is something I can work past if the characters grow past that in their relationship.

Going off-topic for a bit as I feel like this is important to understand why I hate romantic comedies (all of this is my opinion and I know many people love this genre (which I respect but I just can’t find myself to love this genre as a whole)). In some cases, they overdo it with the comedy aspect of the drama. Which can lead to the serious moments of the series seeming like they are not serious. In these types, they take the relationship too lightly. In other cases, I’ve seen good balance but the characters lack motivation and growth. There are great ones but it’s just the majority I have watched are like this.

You may be asking are my thoughts are on the ending of these two. Did they show any growth and that’s why you were able to get immune to them? I think the reason why I was able to get by them is that I have watched the drama four times. They are not something that I think the majority can get past in their first or second watch. To answer the other half of the question, I would yes and no that they showed growth. The reason I said yes is that the characters show potential to grow and seemed like at the end they were going to start taking their relationship seriously in the next season (which at this rate I don’t think we will get). The reason I say no is kind of the same reason the growth potential was too late. It wasn’t worth it to go through 14 episodes for last-minute potential and with little to no hope of a season two. Honestly, my ideal season two would be to watch these two have personal and relationship growth. Maybe Bohn finally learns that he can be vulnerable and can get Duen’s attention through other ways. He also learns to give back to Duen in some type of way and being caring towards him. I think for Duen maybe he could become a more mature person through this relationship as now he has more responsibility besides school.

MekBoss:
I’m very much in the middle about them as I like them but I wouldn’t go to say they are my favorite couple in this show. I don’t mind Mek’s character and I don’t mind Boss’ character. I think they set a decent example for if you want your relationship to have its deep moments but still want it to be funny at times. As you go through the story it gets deeper with Mek and Boss but then the series gets back to being funny. It has its highs and lows of being funny than being deep.

I think it maybe could’ve gone deeper with Boss trying to hide his feelings and dating other people. That would be my only complaint about their story and how its pacing went. Let’s talk about the elephant in the room, the voice-over for Mek. I don’t personally mind it but if you are watching for the first time it may throw you off for a couple of episodes. For season two, I don’t want them to make Boss have a girlfriend as I feel like that would be too big of a turn unless they pace it correctly. I don’t know what I would want if they just recast Mek and continued the storyline. Maybe they could add a ‘Robbie’ archetype. (T//N: The Robbie character is an inside joke between me and someone. The Robbie character is the character that tries to win/steal one of the characters in the couple creating a love triangle but the Robbie never has a chance. Examples of Robbie characters are Mill from 2gether, Folk from My Gear and Your Gown, and Frog from My Engineer.) I was thinking the Robbie character could go for Mek and we mainly follow Boss’ perspective.

TharaFrong:
I honestly don’t have much to say as the story started to progress so late into the series. I think though that they would make interesting characters/relationships. I like the dynamic of the really sassy, fashionista, but secretly has a sweet inside/storyline falling for the sweet, caring, and eccentric character who has no clue. I liked they took this side relationship really slow because when you have a Robbie character they always end up with someone but that storyline happens at times very quickly. Also, Thara saying that they were brothers felt like when you get a sticky note slapped on your forehead so you don’t forget something.

In my ideal season two, I think it should start with Frong should try to get closer to Thara and start trying to drop hints to him. I think this should go on for a while but Frong’s hints get more extreme and obvious as time passes. I don’t why Frong getting in an accident and having to be in the hospital came to mind but it did. I think this could work for a breaking point like Thara realizes that he has started to develop feelings for Frong that are more than brothers. I think this could also work out for Frong giving up because he is now in the hospital plus he is getting no response from Thara. Now, Thara has to start chasing after Frong to kind of win him back.

RamKing:
Where do I even start with these two? If you take one look at my page you know I love these two. I do have my reasons but I will get into those later. Talking about the characters I love their slow burn of a storyline. It took them a while to get to know each other and they put in the effort. I will say that King put the most effort into getting Ram to talk to him but you could tell if you re-watch Ram liked (platonic or romantic) King from the start. They are quite opposites but I think that’s what made each of them curious about each other. After watching it four times I could tell that King liked Ram because of how much he treated him with care. He knew Ram had a vulnerable side and he accepted Ram’s vulnerable side. King gave that indirect advice without needing to know what happened. Which I think is why Ram knew that King was the one who understood him the most. I didn’t realize this until Perth pointed this out in a youtube video of him reacting to RamKing moments. King always compares Ram to a plant and King loves/adores plants, so he has so many. I heard that and paused the video and sobbed because I had watched the series three times at that point. I had never realized that before and when it was processed I wasn’t prepared, to say the least.

Just like the header said I didn’t believe in love until I watched these two. I won’t go into great depths into this because it can be a quite personal topic but I think this helps to add the context to why I love RamKing so much. In short terms, I kin (T//N: If you don’t know when you kin a character, you embody this person to the next level) Ram. I’m a quiet, reserved, intimidating, and parent type of friend. I also relate to him on a more personal level with having issues and feeling like you can’t tell your closest of friends at times. I’m so glad that Ram had someone that was there for him even when they didn’t know what was going on. With everything that had happened to me, I didn’t believe in romantic love anymore but after watching them something went off. It felt like when you are waiting for an embrace but then you finally get it and it’s so warm. Then everything comes down that you were holding up for so long. ( why am I cringing at my own words?) They became such a huge comfort couple of mines which has led this series to be a comfort to me also. This is why this series has risen so high in rating since I watched it a year ago.

Honestly, I haven’t thought of what I wanted of them in season two beside them getting together. Besides that though, the Dad topic is going to have to be addressed by Ram coming back home after the camping trip. This may lead to Ram reclosing back to King’s place which I think could create conflict because King may be slightly upset that Ram hasn’t addressed what happened that night. This could create mixed signals to King in some ways which could lead him to distance himself to Ram slightly. I think we should also learn something about King more or something that happened in the past as I think it’s quite interesting to learn more about King.

Other Details:
I remember watching the intro for the first time and having to pause cause I couldn’t handle the editing. The editing at times was interesting, to say the least, and the fact that this story takes place throughout a little bit over a month is questionable. Also announcing that a season two will come out and it’s been a year and it hasn’t even started production I think says a lot.

Questions:
Do you want a season two at this rate?
Yes and no, I want to see what the official people are going to do with the story, and far off it is from who I imagined it. At the same time no because with all these issues that have happened I think we should just let it go and imagine how we wanted it.

Would you recommend this?
I have a hard time recommending this to people because I know this series is not for everyone and I think the majority of people don’t like it. If you reading this and thinking about watching it because you want something brainless then go right ahead.

Are you planning on watching it for the fifth time?
Not right now but with me never say never. I think this series as bad as it is it’s something that I will never forget and a huge comfort so I most likely will return to it.

Ending:
I type my reviews on a google doc and then paste them into the review box. This is is four pages worth of me ranting about this series. If you read through this all then you deserve a cookie.

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The Mystic Nine
0 mensen vonden deze beoordeling nuttig
met Chris
dec 27, 2021
48 van 48
Voltooid 0
Geheel 7.5
Verhaal 7.0
Acting/Cast 7.0
Muziek 5.0
Rewatch Waarde 1.0
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“If there is an afterlife, I must find you again” -Yatou

General:
I decided that I was going to watch the whole The Lost Tomb franchise in order. The Mystic Nine was first with it taking place in the 1930s. This series gave you the context of the nine families within The Mystic Nine and background information.

Going into it I had few expectations and I’m not saying that in a bad way. I just did not know what I was getting myself into with The Mystic Nine. One thing I did expect was seeing tombs and getting more detailed information on the lore. It’s a show about tombs and nine important families, where could it go wrong?

Production:
The very beginning of the majority of dramas starts with an intro. The Mystic Nine does not hold back with their intros. Every two to a couple of episodes the intro would change. My favorite intros come from episodes 25, 28, 33, and 38. The intro changing so many times during the drama was odd to me. Many dramas do change their intro, for example, S.C.I (a Chinese drama) would change their intro when their investigation case changed. The Mystic Nine, on the other hand, would change their intros like rapid-fire and to me, there was no big reason. The only reason I could assume was to add more characters in the intro but still, they wouldn’t need to change the intro that often.

Moving onto the camera work, it was nothing that special nor did I have the expectation it was going to be. There was never really a moment that made me go, “wow, love that camera work”. Overall, it wasn’t that bad and I feel neutral about it. Now, the CGI is a very different story. I always have low expectations going into a show with many CGI scenes and I don’t even think The Mystic Nine even met my low expectations. Out of all the CGI scenes, there was only one good moment. In episode 36 the CGI hit rock bottom, I thought it couldn’t get worse but it proved me wrong again. It felt like they knew the end was coming near and felt like they were working on little time. The CGI after episode 36 until episode 48 was worse than episode 35 plus under.

There were some bad moments in the production but I didn’t discredit the show for them as I found them quite funny. For example, at the beginning of the series, Zhang Qishan kicked down a door that flew off its hinges. Based on the look of Lieutenant Zhang that door seemed like it was not supposed to fly off the hinges. Another scene was when Zhang Qishan, Lieutenant Zhang, and Ba Ye were walking along the railroad tracks. Zhang Qishan accidentally stepped in between the two boards in the middle but they just kept rolling. Another moment was when Lieutenant Zhang lifted a casket from a tree in episode 31. I remember thinking to myself, “I knew he was strong but how strong is he really?”.

The music was nothing special either as it was forgettable. Music is something that I usually never take off points for. It takes a lot for me to hate the timing and music being played. The Mystic Nine didn’t make me hate the music being played and I guess that could be considered a victory.

Plot/Setting:
The plot of this show is where I have some mixed opinions. While there were some really fun/interesting plot points like searching through the tombs, the auction, the look for Fo Ye, and the lore of the Zhang clan. Other moments of the show felt like they were slightly dragging and gave me the feeling that we were running in circles. Some of the other reviewers have stated that “Even after so many episodes it felt like there was no growth or progress”. Looking back I wouldn’t say that there was no progress as there was some. The drama just took so many detours which led to the central plot of the story getting pushed to the back burner. An example of this happening would be when they wanted Er Ye to go to the tomb with them. They had to take a long detour because Er Ye wouldn’t leave his sick wife’s side. This detour consisted of the auction and getting the medicine for Yatou.

There were also many detours due to the villains/antagonists of the drama. This is more typical in dramas or stories in general. The villains/antagonists are supposed to go against the protagonist/hero. Which would lead to the protagonist/hero having to do something about it. Relating to The Mystic Nine, when they (Fo Ye, Er Ye, Ba Ye, and Lutentinent Zhang) had to go back into the tomb for a second time to try and stop the antagonist from finding what they wanted to. This leads them to get stuck in an illusion.

While the pacing was off because of the many detours we had to take. At times the pacing was naturally off, especially with Zhang Qishan and Yin Xinyue’s relationship. While I will not get into detail on how I felt about their characters their pacing was just off. The start of their relationship started fine until Fo Ye got severely ill. This was caused by Fo Ye going into the tomb the first time around. It was claimed that the devil side of his heart had taken over and he couldn't escape it. That was until they went back to the Zhang clan’s old stomping grounds. This is when Fo Ye woke up and seemed like he had always loved Yin Xinyue. While you could argue that this is because Fo Ye had a near-death experience. To me, this was odd because even if he loved her all along it was such a sudden shift it threw me off the course of their relationship.

The ending for the series threw me even more off as the last couple of episodes left me feeling unresolved. The antagonist of the series either had a not-so-detailed death, disappearance, or forgiveness (by the protagonist from the story). While ending with the Battle Of Changsha which started in September 1939 (autumn of 1939) was good clarity for when this series took place in the 1930s. Off-topic, the outfit for the period seemed fitting (I am no expert so take that with a grain of salt).

I debated including this in the character section but in this series, it was used as a mere plot device. Around the last sections of the series, some moments had a voice-over. I am not referring to the voiceovers that were over the characters (as that was a constant recurring thing in the drama). I am referring to the voice-over narration that took place. According to a website called perdue, “In voice-over narration, one hears a voice (sometimes that of the main character) narrating the events that are being presented to you.” This is what occurred. This narration confused me as the information at first seemed like it was giving context. Yet, the information was knowledge as a viewer we already knew or could assume based on the plot/dialogue. This made me think, is this a retelling of this story? If so, then who and why? I guess we’ll never know

Acting/Chemistry:
This will be my shortest section as always. I rarely have things to say about acting the majority of the time, as usual, it is subpar. This drama is no different from the best acting performance coming from Zhao Liying (Yin Xinyue). While I wouldn’t say this is the best acting performance out of all the dramas I have watched this year. I would say it is the best one from The Mystic Nine. I honestly expected Lay (Er Ye) to have the worst performance but he did decently.

The chemistry between the characters was there also. The most obvious ones are Fo Ye and Yin Xinyue. Also, Er Ye and Yatou are the obvious picks for good chemistry. For me though, the best chemistry comes from platonic friendships/dynamics. Like Fo Ye and Yatou, I bring them up because of the gate scene at Fo Ye’s house. Even though there was a minimal discussion between the two you could tell that Fo Ye cared about her (in a platonic way). A review from me wouldn’t be from me if I didn’t bring up a bromance. The bromance between Ba Ye and Luteninent Zhang was really good. This bromance started from the beginning but it was truly aforementioned during the hunt for Fo Ye.

Characters:
While I have been talking about the protagonist of the story for the majority of this review. I am going to be talking about them a little more. Starting with Fo Ye/Zhang Qishan, to state it simply I liked his character and was interested in his family history. I think his strongest point would be his willpower to achieve anything even if that means losing everything. He is the character that takes action and is one of the characters that help progress the plot. His Wife, Yin Xinyue was also headstrong and I liked her character for this. She would call someone out in a heartbeat and would always do what she thought was best.

I have noticed that some Chinese dramas specifically Chinese republic era dramas are that you sometimes have a ‘golden trio’ as I call it. This trio has three types of people: the leader (and usually one of them or is the main character), the wingman (they are usually smart or strong and actually very helpful), and then you have the comic relief character. We see this trope with Fo Ye, Luteninent Zhang, and Ba Ye. This trio is usually one of my favorite aspects of these types of dramas. A character that always has a 50/50 shot of failing for me though is the comic relief character. In which the character that has gotten the role of the comic relief is Ba Ye. I had a hard time liking his character as I found it difficult to like him as comic relief. I only started liking him once the hunt for Fo Ye Arc started. The bromance/chemistry between him and Luteninent Zhang helped me like his character and how he was actually reliable. Now, the best character in The Mystic Nine is the one and only Luteninent Zhang. Something drew me into his character from the get-go. There was also much history with him also being from the same clan (I called it the Zhang Family but I think that is incorrect wording so I’ll call them a clan) as Fo Ye. I just generally liked how the character acted and how the character carried himself. He was a character that came off cold and always doubted until proven. He also carried lots of dedication for Fo Ye but also he was able to have his moments of letting go. This especially happened with Ba Ye as you saw more of his inner personality.

Er Ye, you could say that I liked him the least out of all the protagonists but he was also the character that went through the most due to his wife’s death. I saw him as irresponsible but knowledgeable. He was helpful in the tomb episodes mostly but was easily sidetracked due to the illusions of the cave. Yatou was shown more than the female lead even though she was dead for the majority of the time. I had no big issues with her character and liked her character as she seemed like such a nice person at heart.

The antagonist was to put shortly ‘a piece of work’. These characters had motivations even though they were all different. In certain dramas showing the villains, when they are not our main characters/focuses makes us aware of the villain’s plan and makes the plan lose its meaning. My least favorite out of all of them was Chen Pi. He became a villain through manipulation and he sought revenge without knowing the full story of why Yatou died. Mr.Cox plays a huge role in this with his words that seem to go over Chen Pi’s head. Mr. Cox once stated, “Knowing yourself and your enemy” while trying to convince Chen Pi to join their side. I scoffed at this line as I described it in my notes as, “Chen Pi is such a dumb person. He doesn’t understand what is really going on. I find it interesting that Mr.Cox talks about knowing yourself and your enemy when Chen Pi doesn’t know either.” Chen Pi was also the only villain to get a full backstory. The backstory happens in the later second half of the drama. At that point, I had no sympathy for his character

While Mr. Cox and Lu Jianxun were just massive manipulators with different motives. These characters were also introduced very early on as what Mr.Cox wanted was jumped right into in episode one with the train. As we later find out that what the people on the train were looking for was the meteor which we find exactly later on. Lu Jianxun and Huo Jinxi just wanted power and that was enough motivation to try and take out Fo Ye. I simply was annoyed with the characters by episode 26 and at that point, I had so much left to go. Also getting left with their endings being open was more annoying.

Conclusion:
In the end, I am glad that I watched it but I wouldn’t go out of my way to rewatch it. I would only recommend you to watch this if you are dedicated to getting some of the background information to the present characters.


I would like to end this with my tweets while watching the series:
“The romance between Zhang Qishan and Yin Xinyue in the mystic nine got me in a chokehold…”
“Okay but Lieutenant Zhang sir what’s your ring size?”
“If Lieutenant Zhang dies at any moment…this drama’s rating about to go DOWN ”
“Not Lieutenant Zhang taking the blame :( I love him ”
“OMG MY MAN IS A PART OF THE ZHANG CLAN I DON'T KNOW WHY THAT MADE ME SO HAPPY LIKE???”

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Blacklist
0 mensen vonden deze beoordeling nuttig
met Chris
jun 15, 2021
12 van 12
Voltooid 0
Geheel 6.5
Verhaal 7.0
Acting/Cast 6.5
Muziek 5.0
Rewatch Waarde 2.0
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Maybe I’m thinking about this too technically

This is my first review on MyDramaList so I’m sorry if this seems messy and has any errors. I also tried to split this into sections so it could be easier to read.

I was interested to watch this show because of Drake and Ohm. I am also a huge fan of thriller and mystery concepts so I thought “What could go wrong?”.Well, a lot apparently could go wrong.

Plot:
I think the plot of the characters trying to find who the ‘The God’s Hands’ are and how does this relates to Traffic’s sister is the most interesting thing about this show. The ending though was a monstrosity, to say the least. There were many plot holes and just as many unanswered questions. This show also relied on many plot twists that you could see coming as everyone was suspicious. Some of the plot twists were very weak at times that I even saw them coming before the characters realized. I even said out loud when Title ‘became’ a The God’s Hands member, “If anybody in the Blacklist was working on the inside it would be Andrew” and I was right.

The decisions the main characters made were laughable at times and were quite not logical which made it feel like it was dragging at times. Around episode nine is when the episodes started to really drag. I just wanted it to be over with it at that point and I wanted to move on.

Characters:
I have very mixed emotions about the six main characters (Traffic, Highlight, Andrew, Title, Jim Bae, and Bantad). While looking back at them in general, I didn’t mind them, but I don’t like them when I look at them closer. The characters had basic personalities and weren’t given much characterization beyond that. They also had very weak motivations (besides Traffic) of why they wanted to join ‘Blacklist’.

They tried to characterize the characters more through their romances with the veggie gang/other female characters. Which felt like a cheap cop-out and didn’t work as some of the romances were unbelievable. The romances between the characters also seemed very forced and rushed. There were times where I was cringing out of disgust at some of the lines they would say when it was supposed to be romantic. The love triangle of Highlight, Orange, and Title was quite interesting though but was also underdeveloped. The love triangle could’ve been developed more and would’ve been great at developing tension between some of the members of Blacklist.

I don’t mind the veggie gang or some of the other female characters but they could’ve been used more wisely in the plot of this show. They seemed like they were only there to give off hints to move the plot forward and also to give the main characters a love interest. I wished they had joined the ‘blacklist’ after a while and help the main six find who is a part of ‘The God’s Hands’.I also wished they were given personalities besides kinda being randomly snarky but still playing up to the damsel in distress. The only female characters that had some personalities were Orange and Laila. That is only because we saw more of them compared to the other female characters.

Comparing to ‘The Gifted’:
I was thinking about not even comparing it to ‘The Gifted’ as their differences to me have more weight than their similarities. I made a Venn diagram to figure out my thoughts on their similarities and through that, I’ve found that they have three similarities. They are both a group of high school students, they are both trying to expose the school they attend, and they have a similar cast.

I don’t have a review of ‘The Gifted’ but I am going to be comparing based only on season one of ‘The Gifted’ as I haven’t seen the second season. One thing I liked but also disliked about ‘The Gifted’ was the episodes that centered around one member of ‘The Gifted’.I liked it because the characters were very characterized but I disliked it because when it leads me to the central plot I didn’t care as it had spent so long on the characters. ‘Blacklist’ is the complete opposite as it focused on the plot which leads the characters to be less than desirable. ‘The Gifted’ is character-based and ‘Blacklist’ is more plot-based which is just based on this it’s hard to compare.

I would have to get more technical about cinematography, lighting, loose strings in the show, etc. Which including the technical aspects of the show then ‘The Gifted’ is better than ‘Blacklist’.

Would I recommend and would I re-watch it?
I wouldn’t really recommend it unless you want to watch it and a word of advice is don’t watch this right after ‘The Gifted’. Maybe wait a month or two to watch so it can be properly processed. I also wouldn’t personally go out of my way to watch this again even if was with someone. I would just be like, “You’re on your own for this one”.

General ending thoughts:
Honestly, this is not the worst thing I have watched in general and I don’t even think it’s the worst thing from GMMTV. This definitely one of those dramas that’s a hit and miss between its viewers.

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met Chris
jul 12, 2021
15 van 15
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Geheel 5.5
Verhaal 5.0
Acting/Cast 6.5
Muziek 6.0
Rewatch Waarde 2.0
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....Well... that was a mess


General:
I honestly was mainly excited for this show because of Perth and Talay. The only things I knew were there were 7 couples, one person in the couple represented a day of the week, and what happened to Perth.

This review will be different from the rest of mine as I’m going to be splitting it up into each pair and the order they came out in. I will also give off some recommendations because I wanted to add some to the previous reviews.

Episodes 1&2: Tue and Ake
Review: These two honestly did convince me that they did hate each other but I wished they had stronger motivations for hating each other than just cutting the line. Them liking each other didn’t surprise me, but I think that fades to the plot moving too quickly. You would look away for a minute and the next thing you know they were close. I think this plot could’ve benefited from either slower pacing or a longer series so they could have slower pacing. The acting was okay at best but I did like Chap’s (Tue) acting but maybe that’s because I’ve seen him act before (Lovely Writer) or I’m just biased.

Recommendations: If you’re looking for sports, I’d say Mr.Heart and Project S: SPIKE. If you’re looking for enemies to lovers, I’d say I Told The Sunset about you, My Gear and Your Gown, Kiss Me Again/ Dark Blue Kiss, We Best Love: No.1 For You, and Sotus/Sotus S.

Episodes 3&4: Sun and Nuea
Review: The relationship was generally healthy and had some good progression. It seemed like they realized that the first two episodes were way too fast and decided to make this one slower. In my personal opinion, it was slightly too slow and Nat (Nuea) being so flirty threw me off for a minute. I will say though that Nat’s (Nuea) attire in the two episodes was fantastic. In every scene, I was like, “Wow, Nat looks really good”. Whoever styled him deserved a raise with those outfits. I think their acting skills showed more in the second part as the second part was better than the first. I do like MaxNat (Is that what we call them?) overall and I wish to see them (or one of them) have their series where they are the main(and it's actually good).

Recommendations: WHY R U?, My Gear and Your Gown, and My Engineer (This one is a stretch as it’s very little of the plot)

Episodes 5&6: Mon and Team
Review: I think the most annoying thing about these two episodes was the fact I knew someone like Mon. They were going after this person who would tell me(and other people) that he hated her but in front of her he seemed to like her. I knew from the get-go that this was going to be a very toxic relationship. I was right and honestly, I hated the storyline because they ended up with each other. To talk about the positives of these two episodes is Thurs and cohesiveness. I think honestly that Thurs was a great friend and I would like to say I liked him more in this than YYY. I would also say that these episodes were more cohesive than the other two.

Recommendations: My Gear and Your Gown, TharnType 2: 7 years of love, En Of Love: Love Mechanics, I Promised You The Moon, and We Best Love: Fighting Mr.2nd

Episodes 7&8: Thurs and Pao/Pae
Review: Comparing to the other four couples that have been stated previously I think this pair shines more than them. The couple had great chemistry in my opinion and I loved the story behind the couple. I may be biased as I love the spirit dramas but I think the plot of this was good and cute. I liked the whole thought of it being someone you will meet and the future and this one I could see being turned into a full-length series where it could be more emotional.

Recommendations: The only ghost one I’ve watched is He’s Coming To Me (which I highly recommend). There some shows like Hidden Love that I haven’t watched. Someones haven’t come out like Something In My Room and Peach Of Time.

Episodes 9&10: Puth and Kaeng
Review: This episode I had high expectations for because of reviews and to me, it was just okay. I agree, that it’s quite realistic and is something that could happen but other than that it was just okay. I will say though I liked their development throughout the story and I think this one has the best development out of all of them so far. Maybe I was just expecting too much?

Recommendations: My Gear and Your Gown, En Of Love: Love Mechanics, and TharnType 2: 7 Years Of Love.

Episodes 11&12: Sat and Choke
Review: I think this one fell flat because I got what it was trying to do with the 13 going on 30 vibes and it had source material. There have been multiple things like this that were just better in the end. I was also very disinterested in the story in general and they seemed quite forgettable. They were cute and they did have chemistry but I just felt like the story was lacking. I was also at times confused and slightly taken aback.

Recommendations: Since there is no Bls with the 13 going on 30 themes The closest I can think of are things that deal with reincarnation like Until We Meet Again and The Untamed. If you have any recommendations like 13 going on 30 then comment them cause I'm actually interested.

Episodes 13&14: Masuk, Jia, and Tir
Review: I may come off as biased because I was expecting these two episodes. I’m going to be real with you, it was just okay. Yes, it is better than some of the rest of the couples and I knew the chemistry already so I had expectations. My expectations were slightly met while watching these two episodes. Talking about the last episode mainly, I just didn’t understand why Perth had to be there in every scene? It made me feel so awkward in so many ways I was like please move on I can’t anymore. Talay's character threw me off for a minute also. It all just took me a while to process everything.

Recommendations: I haven’t watched anything like this before so I asked my friend and her recommendation is One Spring Night. If you have any other recommendations just place them in the comments.

Ending:
In general, this series was not really that good, and honestly, if you are looking to watch something like this then you should just watch ‘Close Friend’. Which ‘Close Friend’ is not really that amazing but you get the same (and maybe even better) execution but is shorter than these long 15 episodes.

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