Pastsenger (2023)

CREEPY CREEPY ENDING

I couldn't emphasize enough how that ending is giving creepy sexual predator vibe.

This fantasy-scify has a very unique main story. A guy from the 90s is transported to the present after offending a local deity (or priest). The story revolves around his adjustment to the present time and his quest to get back to his own time, all while meeting his old and making new friends, and of course it wouldnt be a BL if theres no romance so finding the unexpected love of his life is a given.

The end. Or actually that should have ended it.

First of all, whoever thought that title Past-senger should be given a raise, because thats the only witty thing in this series. Title alone summarizes what Kiew is - a traveler from the past and the first few episodes has also successfully explored the concept of a time traveler adjusting to his life in the present. However things got boring so fast and the slow and repetitive pacing bored me with almost nothing significant happening in the middle episodes.

The whole series screams low-budget. The cinematography is giving an old tv soap opera vibes and combine that with poor makeup is a total disservice to the artists. Here we are bombarded with a lot of close up shots that exposed the actors in a bad way.

I also dont know if anyone noticed how grating the background sound is - that monotonous guitar strum will sometimes be exchanged with an equally annoying piano or musicbox melody that only highlights how much they spend on music. These background music were utilized so unfittingly that it gives me headache and muting the show became a necessity.

Seriously, can anyone raise theiir hand if you think literally tripping or falling over someone is romantic? I have never known any couple in real life with that experience and to see that happen in almost every other series out there is so infuriating.

I can forgive the script (i will blame it on the poor translation) and i think the actors did what they could with what they were given. There was a few story arc (and quite a few tropes) that i wished they didnt do and the young stars is in need of major acting workshop.

I, however, liked the fact that they almost respected the concept of the time travel paradoxes (as they did it much better than a certain series with 609 in it). There were a few lapses but they are bearable.

The biggest issue is when they added that ending scene, where the present day Kiew meets Bamee again. There is an air of almost predatory creepiness in it and i think they could have handled that a little better.

Finally, I should also call out producers in Thailand to please please give Cooper a good project. This guy deserves a big break and maybe a partner who will elevate him into a bonafide star.

This series, although not exactly A-class is admittedly a guilty pleasure watch every Wednesday night. Would i re-watch? Oh hell no! Unfortunately, no matter how much fun, well intended and lighthearted the series is, it is still hard to recommend.

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Loved the series, but not the ending.

The series was a lot of fun to watch, seeing the chemistry of all the actors was great from both the adults and young adults. Love the timeline story. The couples fit together great and it kept you smiling, crying, and laughing throughout the episodes. The lead couple was great together. The only down part for me was the rushed ending. The ending I felt was very rushed and did not really make sense or fit the story. I am fine with the older and young dating if the story started like that but, sadly I was disappointed with this type of ending, I was hoping he would have stayed in the future and made a new life, but I love the series and the chemistry between the actors. The only down part was the ending, it did not work for me and did not fit the beautiful chemistry.

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Not good.

3/10 dropped, disappointed.

I wish the boy stayed by him........so bad......ending...i donk like that ending....it was weird.....
i would have liked to see much more of the beautiful main couple. I was very disappointed afterwards.
If the series had been implemented well then it would have been something. The potential was definitely there.

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Not entertaining and simply disconcerting

This series is misguided, misconceived, and misdirected. It other words, it missed. The entire series was so unfocused and presented in almost a cartoonish manner that I did not know if this was to be taken as a comedy, drama, fantasy, or romance. So how did this series fall apart? While the concept of the story itself was interesting, it never fully committed itself to seeing it to its completion. Was it a comedy? A drama? A fantasy? A romance? It tried to be everything and failed at all of it. This series went for cuteness but did not understand the price it paid to get to that end. It sacrificed a lot of integrity to get there. I found its underlying message subtly abusive and disconcerting, not funny, and mostly sad. And very little understanding of what it is like to be gay. Its negative message overpowers its cuteness and slight humor. Personally, I cannot dismiss so readily the attempted rape, the bullying, and its cringeworthy ending that made me feel uncomfortable.

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CRINGE CRINGE CRINGE!!!! CREEPY ENDING!!!

GURL.. I- *takes a deep breathe* WHAT WAS THAT ENDING?!?!?!?! Thailand... We are gonna have to have a conversation because this series WAS NOT IT. At first I was like "let me give this a go" and it did grow on me a little bit and I tolerated the bad script, hot mess scenes (there were a lot of them!!) so I could finish til the end. After like episode seven, it really started going down hill. The only thing that really kept me watching was because of Cooper and Marc. Cooper wasn't bad in My Engineer (at least I think so) but after that, he just kept getting crappy roles (My Bromance was just...) Marc is a good actor to me as well. The difference between his character in Chain of Hearts vs this one, I can tell that he has potential! Please Thailand, our baby Cooper needs a break! He needs a good series.. Anyways back to the review. Even though a lot of scenes were super cringe, I watched all the way through anyways. Filled with every cringe worthy BL trope you can think of. A lot of the scenes did not make sense. The acting was very off and there wasn't much chemistry between the characters. There were a lot of cute, fluffy moments and that saved the series a little bit. The friendships were very wholesome! I loved the connection between the characters. They were there for each other and supported one another. I also liked the fact that Kiew's friends in the future really resembled their past selves, so I was really happy with that. This series had the potential to be great, especially with the concept and what it was about. I love shows about time travel (I guess that's just the geek in me), so it had the means of being great, it just wasn't executed very well.

The ending... THAT. BOTHERED. ME. SO. MUCH!!!!!!!!! I literally closed my eyes and paused the show idk how many times during that whole scene... I was like "NO NO NO NO NO NO" the whole time. It was very unsettling to watch. That ending could have went a whole different direction. To be compeltely honest, it would have been better if both Kiew and Bamee forgot each other. I mean yes, that's kind of sad but at the same time I would have stomached that a lot better than 40 something Kiew still in love with 20 something Bamee.. Yes, age aint nothing but a number but sheesh man.. this was just cringe. Also I wish they didn't have the actor playing 40 year old Kiew staring at Bamee like a creep.. I mean he was staring at him more like a predator than someone who's "in love".

I am glad that Bamee's dad was alive. That's about the only happy thing about that ending. Really should have just had Kiew and Bamee forget each other. Kiew should have been able to keep his memories either. I mean what is that?? He keeps his memories but everyone else doesn't? Dont get me wrong, I do understand why they had to forget, but still SIGH..

Anways this was just not all that great. I wish Cooper the best. He really needs a boom a** series to break this trend he's got going on.

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I dreaded the ending from the start

The plot seemed interesting, especially because Kiew ends up being thrown into the lives of his friends and their children. He must navigate between two generations, while adapting to all the changes that happened since 1995. It had potential to be quite messy, but that was not really the route they took. Don’t get me wrong, there are situations that were not handled well, but it wasn’t as terrible as it could be.

Generally speaking, I liked the series. I do think that they really did a good job at making Kiew act like he came from the past (not knowing how to use cellphones and being amazed by technology, etc.). I was a lot less impressed by his view on LGBTQ+ community. His comments and reactions were hard to swallow at times, but it is also something that gets addressed as problematic in the series, so that is something I liked.

The characters mostly seemed realistic. I like both friend groups, and poor Kiew having to navigate between the two. The dynamics of each group were nice, but they did seem like a copy paste of one another. I think it wasn’t as obvious, as we didn’t really get a good feel for how the “old” group was when they were younger, but we only get to saw their mature versions interact. I do like how the older version of Kiew’s friend group do look similar to their younger versions. That was a good casting choice.

Kiew & Bamee: I really like the chemistry of Cooper and March, not that I expected anything less from the two. Both of them have done great with emotional scenes, and they portrayed a lot through their eyes as well. Kiew and Bamee have an enemies to lovers story going on, and I was really enjoying their bickering at the beginning. I think Kiew struggling with his feelings was more obvious than Bamee, but the latter was not as indifferent as he wanted to appear.

Plawan & Mudaeng: a pairing I didn’t know I needed, but they make so much sense. I am not happy with how fast Plawan seemed to move on from his crush on Bamee (especially to his brother), but that is also something that is in a way brought up. So, kudos for that. I really love the way the two interact, they are very lovey-dovey with one another and super cute. I found Plawan kind of childish and Mudaeng can be quite mischievous at times, but I think they match each other well.

There are things that don’t really make sense to me, plot wise. Especially towards the end when Kiew is trying his best to return to his time. Wouldn’t it be a lot less painful for those involved to do things differently? If you have to leave, people not remembering you would be best. Because remembering you would mean missing you. And missing you would be painful.

I do think the makeup was not really done well in a few scenes. And the camera panning in or out was done in a strange way. I don’t really know how to explain it, but it didn’t feel right. I do like the OST though.

One thing I have dreaded since the start, was the ending. No matter how I look at it, no matter how it ends, it knew it won’t be a happy ending. Kiew will either not go back, meaning he won’t be able to fix what he wants to fix. Or he will go back, breaking both his and Bamee’s heart in the process. Either way, it didn’t look good (I do know how it actually ends; I’m just not saying anything). I do not really like how it ended though. It did ended up being creepy, and not romantic as they were probably going for.

So there is one more thing… I might be reading too much into it, but the way Kiew talked about Art (Bamee’s dad) made me think that he might have had a crush on him. It is possible that he wasn’t fully aware of it or that he was in complete denial. For whatever reason, I found it really uncomfortable how he would always compare Bamee to Art (e.g. both not liking taking pills). It made me think that in a way, he transferred the feelings he had for Art onto Bamee, and with gay relationships being more accepted in the modern world, he was only then able to show his feelings. But who were they actually for? Bamee? Or Art? It might be just a silly theory of mine, but it’s been bugging me since the start.

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It should have a sad ending and then everything will be alright

I am trying to think of the series as a whole thing and judge it based on all the episodes. But I just can't, the ending killed every little good thing about it (and there weren't that many, to begin with). The cast was good. I think they fulfilled the roles they were given, but I admit it wasn't anything exceptional. Since 5e whole plot is travelling into the future, you are prepared from the beginning that there is a big possibility, that it won't end well. You have a mother who died after her son went missing so of course he has to go back. But the fact that many many years later he still approaches a teenage guy like that really didn't sit well with me. He should have cherished him as a beautiful memory and even if they met so many years later he should just step back and watch him from afar. I admit the ending was kinda making me a little Ill. Maybe it's thanks to the fact I am now over 30 but relationship where there is a big age gap and one of the couple is still a kid, it just doesn't sit a well with me.

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I’d like to travel to the past, to keep them from making this show

Okay, that title may have been a bit harsh. It’s not that bad, at least not the first half of it. The second half is absolute garbage, but let me elaborate.

The first thing that irked me about this show was how they dealt with the whole time traveling thing. I don’t know how you’d react if you suddenly traveled over 20 years into the future, but I sure as hell would freak out. I think that would be a very warranted response. However, Kiew barely even reacted when this happened to him. He was seemingly more freaked out about the existence of iPhones than the actual time travel part itself. The people he told also reacted extremely calmly, and believed him pretty much instantly. This wasn’t a huge flaw, but I just found it silly. For the fact that everything else in this show feels very cartoony, they could’ve definitely gone with a more over the top reaction in my opinion. But this was one of the smaller offences.

Like in many recent BLs, the much bigger issue was, sadly, again the chemistry between the two main characters, or rather the lack thereof. Cooper is great as Kiew. He’s very charming and adds a natural charisma to the character, which makes it easy to like him. He’s not really a fully fleshed out character (none of them really are), but he’s enjoyable to watch nonetheless. The one I take issue with is Marc, in the role of Bamee. For most of the time he’s on screen, he looks constipated or like he’s in permanent pain. Granted, this expression suits the character in some scenes, since he’s not really supposed to be bubbly or a happy go lucky kinda guy. The problem is that even in scenes that are supposed to show the two characters falling in love, or Bamee being at least somewhat happy, he still looks like he’s constipated. As does he in scenes, where he’s supposed to be angry. Marc really struggles getting the needed emotions across, leaving Bamee to look about as intimidating as a cupcake, even when he’s supposed to be furious. I don’t know if this is an issue within his acting itself, or if there was simply poor directing. But I saw him in My Gear And Your Gown, and I vaguely remember having had similar thoughts. So maybe he just needs a little more practice (or a lot).
I think the lack of romantic chemistry between Kiew and Bamee resulted from this subpar acting. Kiew was able to portray at least some sort of chemistry towards Bamee, but sadly, that wasn’t enough. I think if Cooper was paired with another acting partner, I could’ve enjoyed this much more than I did. But sadly, that wasn’t the case. I actually liked the bond Kiew and Bamee formed over time, I just didn’t feel the romance at all. They radiated big sibling energy to me. So I think the show would’ve actually been better if this was a tale about a platonic friendship, rather than a romance.

I usually suffer from side-couple-syndrome. So I was hoping that maybe they would knock it out of the park, and make up for what was lacking between the main couple. Sadly, this also didn’t happen. They had no solid build up, and while they had more chemistry than the main couple, there also wasn’t a lot of it. On top of that, the only thing they did, was talk about Kiew and Bamee, which felt strange. Especially given the fact that Plawan used to have a crush on Bamee, and also kinda sorta on Kiew, I think. (Don’t blame me for not being sure, even Plawan himself didn’t know what the writers were trying to do with his vague feelings towards the two main leads.)

One thing I did massively enjoy though, was the whole dynamic in their friend group. They had a very sweet and supportive bond, which was very nice to see. I also liked how much time we actually got to spend with the squad as a whole. Again, I think this show should’ve just been about their friendship, rather than adding in these lacklustre romances.

This show is filled to the absolute brim with cliches and tropes. There’s so many in there, you lose count. If you made a bingo card with all the BL tropes and cliches, you’d definitely get bingo at least twice! There’s the painful trope of mistaking the love interest’s brother as their boyfriend. There’s a scene of the main couple getting soaked by the rain, and then Kiew drying Bamee’s hair. There’s an injury that happens when the couple is cooking together. And of course, because this is a BL, poor poor Bamee was then unable to do anything by himself for like a week. He got burned on one hand, but apparently he forgot that he had a whole other functioning hand, because Kiew needed to feed him for days. And obviously, he needed to help him wash his hair too. At this point I wonder how these BL boys would live, if they didn’t have a boyfriend to take care of them. If one gets a minor injury, they would just die, because they cannot seem to figure out that it only takes one hand to eat with a spoon. Anyway! You also have the accidental falling into a kiss scene with the side couple. For good measure, throw in a scene of one love interest wiping the other down with a towel. Oh, and don’t forget drunken kissing that one of the characters doesn’t remember the next day. Add a spoon (or bucket) full of jealousy into the mix, and you got yourself a recipe for the most standard BL ever. One would think a story about time travel has more to offer than that, but sadly, it didn’t.

If you’re into science, I recommend you don’t watch this, because you might get a heart attack at their stupid plan of sending Kiew back to the past by literally zapping him with lightning. I’m not kidding. They attempted to generate as much electrical power as a lightning strike, and zap Kiew with it, hoping that would get him back to the past. I mean, sure! But he would’ve arrived there like a roasted chicken. Also, the subtitles kept talking about the electric power of thunder. I hope that was just a mistranslation, and they were actually talking about lightning. Or they really weren’t aware that thunder is only a sound, while it’s the lightning strike that holds the electricity. I don't know much about science, but I know at least that.

The show started to drag by episode 6. But it was a decent show up until then. Nothing mindblowingly good or bad. I would’ve probably rated this a solid 6 or 6.5 at this point, because it was entertaining enough and not offensively bad. But then episode 9 happened, and I was so close to just dropping this completely. If it weren’t for Cooper carrying the entire thing, I would’ve just given up.

You see, in episode 9 an incredibly forced, dumb and out of place amnesia plot line happens. I generally dislike that trope, especially since it’s never really done in a realistic manner. But this one was just especially poorly done. Because the plot needed him to, Bamee conveniently remembered everything aside from Kiew himself. That was the first dumb thing, but I was willing to look past that for the most part. But the way they handled it all was just horrible. Bamee’s step-mother, brother and friends all tried to pressure him into remembering Kiew. This went so far, that the step-mother actually made Bamee live with Kiew, despite not remembering anything about him. Imagine you’re suffering from amnesia, and your mother makes you move in with someone who is a total stranger to you, against your will. That’s horrible. Plawan was equally as bad, suggesting Kiew forces himself onto Bamee, thinking that maybe if they were intimate with each other, that would bring back his memories. It all was in such poor taste. Bamee acted like an asshole with his partial amnesia. That wasn’t really a problem, because that can actually happen. But when he regained his memory of Kiew, and kept pretending not to remember, I almost lost it. He played not only Kiew, but also Soda whom he had given hopes to. It was very messed up if you ask me. Obviously he only did it to keep Kiew from going back to the past, but it was still an asshole move.

This whole amnesia storyline felt so out of place. It’s like the time traveling plot came to a complete halt while this was happening. It felt like the writers had two ideas for two different series - one about time travel, the other about amnesia - and then they were forced to somehow morph it into one show. Which resulted in one big mess that sucked the life force out of me. It had one positive though! The scene where Franc (the former villain of the show) was pretending to date Kiew, in order to get Bamee to confess that he has regained his memory, had me laughing out loud. Franc and Kiew had more chemistry than Kiew and Bamee, if you ask me. They should’ve just ended up together, honestly. That would’ve been a brilliant plot twist and I would’ve definitely rated the show much higher if they had pulled that off. The other parts of the Franc storyline were problematic at best. Baiwan eventually falling for Franc, who had harassed her for a really long time (to the point where she needed to get a fake boyfriend and her friends needed to protect her), was pushing a really problematic message.

In my opinion, they should’ve cut the entire amnesia bullshit, and made this into a solid 6 to 8 episodes of time travel silliness. Because it was so dragged out, there was never a real sense of urgency about Kiew getting back to the past, even if we knew his mother’s and Bamee’s dad’s lives depended on it. It felt like even Kiew himself temporarily forgot that he was supposed to travel back. Altogether, you shouldn’t think about the whole time travel plot too much anyway, because hardly anything is explained.

The ending of the show was extremely weird. I feared that this would happen, but hoped it wouldn’t. But it did. If you saw it, you know what I’m talking about. If you didn’t, I’ll spare you the weird implications the end of it all had.

On top of all that, the background music was horrible. It sounded like elevator music, or the jingles you hear when you’re put on hold while calling a company. Once you hear it, you cannot unhear it, and it gets extremely annoying.

If I had dropped this after half of the show, I would’ve rated this a lot higher than I do now, after finishing the whole thing. Cooper was definitely the one carrying the show with his natural charm. He deserved a better script than this. If you’re a fan of Cooper, you’ll probably get some enjoyment out of this show. If you’re not, I wouldn’t recommend watching this. Or you might also wish you could travel back in time, just to undo your decision of wasting time on this.

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Starts with good potential but the development isn't always good

First of all, the time-travel premise is fun but not very well done. Why would a spirit transport Kiew to the future as a punishment? Nevertheless, there is a compelling conflict: Kiew falls in love with Bamee in 2022, but is also morally obliged to return to 1995 or his mother will die of grief, so it is going to be a poor decision whether he decides to stay in 2022 or return to 1995. (Yes, he actually does have a choice because he can return to 1995 as long as he fulfills his promise to the spirit).

Unfortunately, neither the time-travel premise nor the conflict is fully exploited. Sometimes the story veers into illogical or frivolous developments. For instance, the about-turn in the character of Bamee's stepmother is not logical at all. Then there is the time when Bamee suffers from amnesia--it's understandable that he would become cold to Kiew because he can't remember him. However, it does not make sense that his character would be so different that he would do things without thinking about the feelings of the brother he dotes on and still remembers. The beginning scene in which Kiew dreams of kissing Bamee even before he has travelled to the future where he meets Bamee is also not explained.

Overall, Past Senger isn't a totally bad BL series, but I would find it hard to come up with a strong reason to highly recommend it. If you are bored and have watched all the better BLs, why not? But there are probably more interesting things out there.

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