Underestimated the importance of pacing and plot building....

I'm not going to complain about acting or CGI here, it didn't fail in those departments, although it didn't wow me either. For me, the reason this movie fell short, and the reason I glazed over at least 20 minutes skipping at different points, was because the movie tried for too much, in too little time.
It aimed too high for emotionalism, sentimentality, failure/success, soldier camaraderie, love, loss, life lessons, moral of a story, rivalry and of course, painting the fighter jets in a flattering light, all in the span of 2 hours. The issue with that is it doesn't work. Movies with that much content and that many characters, have, at bare minimum, sequels, or more commonly now, trilogies and even rarely whole sagas (e.g Fast and Furious) in which they build up their characters (especially their main character/s) and all the relationships around them with feeling and over time.

Even as a fan of WY, I was once again left not actually feeling bad for his character when he went through hardship, especially because he went through so many separate instances of hardship in 40 minutes and then there was no time for character development or feeling to set in before someone (of forced) 'importance' died, and we sat through several minutes of funeral stuff for this guy and then some other stuff, and then time skip, Lei Yu healed and boom, he goes back, says a line, and he's one of the guys and they're all best friends. They hadn't even been much of friends to start with.

Nah, nah. Not for me. I need to actually care about at least ONE character, and I can't do that if a movie shoves ten main characters in my face in 2 hours. Ten main characters in a ten episode long series? Sure, it can be done. Ten main characters in a movie or book franchise spanning several installations? Yep. But in 2 hours? Nope.
Best to keep it tidy, have at most 2 main characters, some support roles, and easy on the 'big moving moments' so they actually have some impact. Anyway;

THE (generally) GOOD:
- I don't personally care for CGI being perfect, as long as it's watchable, this was watchable.
- Acting was fine, although the scenes went by far too quickly to really allow any acting to resonate or stand out.
- There was some humor here and there, which landed nicely, except again, went by too fast, lost in the scenes changing to accommodate all the stuff going on.
- I liked the bird strike scene, it was probably the high point of the movie for me if I have to choose one.

THE (generally) BAD:
- Unmemorable movie over all. I ended up skipping the filler between scenes and even the last fighting scene, I didn't care about a single character and I wouldn't recc this to anyone. Not even Top Gun or Army movie fans.
- I don't think this movie actually had a plot, or if it did, it was weak sauce. Lost in translation, too much excess dialogue about stuff and things that I barely remember.
- Quite a few parallels to the latest Top Gun movie, which achieved a high pay off in 2 hours, but lets not forget, it's the second film released as a highly anticipated sequel to a movie that is a long standing classic and Maverick is an established, well liked character. Lei Yu, with so many other 'mains' in need of screen time and attention, was barely allowed to be interesting.

Nothing ugly here, but nothing worth reccing either. As a person who enjoys military theme movies, this wasn't particularly entertaining. I haven't fallen asleep during a movie since Blade Runner 2017, but this movie had me feeling sleepy.

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Quite a good start, shaky mid stretch and ultimately a bland finish.

THE GOOD:
- The show has an overall 'niceness' going for it in terms of production, budget and casting.
- An interesting opening with a main character who had some emotional hang ups after a bad break up that he needed to get over, a simple but very realistic story line that had the potential to unfold in many ways, especially when a new admirer entered the scene.
- I liked the female friend/coworker. Nice to have a normal female character in the picture.
- Ha Ram is very grounded and doesn't overreact to every little tropey problem that would usually lead to a predictable misunderstanding to drag out the drama.

THE (kinda) BAD:
- It got boring fast. Like, the date mate thing was lame, because it's still literally just dating, so that seemed pointless. Then even when the ex showed up, I was just waiting for Lee Jun to tell him to simply f*ck off and be done with it because I didn't want to watch anymore scenes of Do Kyung (in general) and Lee Jun staring silently for too long and not actually standing up for himself. I was just over it.
- The kiss in the final episode between the ML's actually made me blink, and then laugh...and then cringe. The director decided that extending the length of the scene would account for the awkwardness and NO. No thanks. Let them not kiss at all. It was just weeeeaaaaak. It was worse than Unintentional Love Story's final kiss, which was weak, but thankfully much shorter.
- I'm not a fan of the 'simp' story line and Ha Ram was walking that line 9 times out of 10 while Lee Jun just didn't seem worth the effort to me. If you're gonna' have a character simping over a love interest, that love interest better be XIE LIAN or WEI WUXIAN levels of worth it, or else I'm not buying what you're selling.
- In the end, it was so blah. I'll forget about this pretty quick.

THE HIGHLIGHTS:
- The guy that met up with Lee Jun in Ep 1, the one from the app. He was only briefly there, but I would have taken him as a MC or ML easily, any day.
- In episode 7 when Ha Ram goes to comfort Lee Jun at home, there was an instrumental song playing which sounded like Damien Rice's song Cold Water, which incidentally really suits the tone of episode 7.

That's it from me. If you don't watch it, you're not missing anything. It's pretty sleepy. ✌️

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Not a wasted moment in 40 episodes

I'm reviewing this as someone who hasn't read the novel or watched the animation. I discovered this show because Netflix recommended it to me. I didn't know any of the actors, and while I do like video games, I first gave it a skip for a long time because of other shows. But then I eventually decided to watch it and I was not disappointed. All the things I thought would be in it and would irritate me, failed to happen. It was fantastic.
To keep to the point:

PROS:
No drawn out excess filler in the episodes
Great characters (male and female)
Great character development
Great character relationships
Great acting
No romance (thank goodness, because it generally makes the characters behave like idiots and doesn't contribute to the plot)
Not too predictable at all
Exciting
Good feels
Humorous
Some suspense
Great OST
Great pace
Great action/CGI fight scenes for the in-game play
Clean, attractive sets
Great casting all around

CONS:
'Happy' is a really lame name for any sports team (but it's hardly a dealbreaker and doesn't change how great the show is)

I'd recc this for anyone who likes video games and also good shows that represent a good balance of fun/humor/drama/plot with consistent acting, and I'd probably watch it again sometime. Looking forward to a season 2, I hope they stick to this formula though, or it'll lose it's great vibes.

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There was a plot to this, it was just very badly executed.

I think this story suffered from contrasting story perspectives behind the scenes. It may have been one person who came up with this story, but as it played out it felt like two people with different ideas were involved. On one side, there is the humorous somewhat pseudo-serious unraveling of quirky villainous events and odd supernatural powers, then on the other side there's a few cliche love stories. Unfortunately, these contrasting things are not well balanced, and that results in a messy narrative where the scenes go from following a linear plot with some action/comedy and superpower/bad guy reveals, to girls and guys falling in love (very quickly) and then lamenting over their poorly or barely developed relationships in every other scene.

The creator of this show, who clearly felt it was necessary to couple off everyone by the end, should have done a better job of managing the romance. They had 24 episodes, which was not much considering the intended plot idea of this show, and with those 24 episodes they should have chosen their romance moments more wisely. As it stands, the romance and filler side scenes took up so much screen time, that the actual plot wasn't tidy enough and fell by the wayside.

The acting of this show was okay, nothing special but for the roles they had, they did well enough. It was both funny and too obvious that Wang Yibo (Wei Yi Chen, the literal main character) was filled in with a body double in quite a few scenes (important and filler). I can only assume WY was not able to be present for filming, but I found it funny anyway. It honestly didn't change much or affect the story in any major way.

And I don't usually care much for the OST of any show, but this show had like two songs and they used them over and over which was really lame. Same with the wardrobe choices. It was fairly easy to tell which scenes were all filmed on which days by what the cast was wearing. There were also continuity issues. Also, I'm not sure why it's tagged for bromance, when Duan Mu Hao and Wei Yi Chen barely got along 90% of the time. Same with the strong friendship tag, makes no sense, by episode 24 I didn't get the feeling that the five of them were particularly close to each other, not even the couples. They felt more like five people who circumstantially ended up spending time together occasionally.

Eh, over all, I'd say it's okay to watch if you have some free time. The first half of the show is better than the second imo, and it was pretty funny in many places. I didn't have trouble watching it in the end, it wasn't a struggle to get through the episodes, it was just a bit jumbled up, but it wasn't horrible.

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I'll take Episode 77 as my ending. PS: WOW I LOVED IT [9.9/10]

I'll take Episode 77 as my ending (or ignore the last 8 min of episode 38 in the new format)
It was really thoroughly enjoyable, I loved it. Everything from the acting to the complex plot of the game levels to the music. Def rewatchable for me, I'm already rewatching it with someone.
As for the GOOD, it was actually GREAT, and there wasn't anything BAD in this.

I've rounded it up to a 10 rating because I've come to terms with the ending.
But my non-MDL rating remains 9.8 because, while I love ambiguous endings, I think endings to stories where you end up having to wonder if EVERYTHING you saw in the series was meant to be real or just the MC's dream/imagination, is just lazy writing. These kinds of endings would honestly generally raze any and all feelings I had for the show under normal circumstances.

That said, even after finding out that Lanzhu was an NPC, I found myself still entirely invested in discovering the outcome, I wasn't actually irritated at all, and quite outstandingly, I enjoyed the subsequent episodes as much as all the previous ones. I was surprised by this, because generally out of sheer irritation, I'd drop a show that springs the nonsense on me of a very VERY important MC not even being real three quarter way through a series (this long too). But I didn't want to drop this because I was really interested and invested in the plot and characters and after finishing it, I can honestly say don't regret anything I felt or thought while watching this, and it's very, very rare that I shed tears watching a show, but I did for this, so I'll give it a 10 to round up, but if MDL allowed, it'd be a 9.9.
Overall, I'm walking away satisfied.

Also, I choose to consider the mini episode of 78 optional because I think it was unnecessary, especially since 77 was far more solid as an ending for this series. 77 ended on a much, much more engaging, strong and ambiguously positive note.
So for me, Ep 77 was the close of this series.

HIGHLIGHTS:
- Too many to mention all of them, but I enjoyed the Sanatorium Door and the Box Master Door SO MUCH and I love the ost song The Door by Xia ZhiGuang.

As for the BL aspect. The censorship is hella obvious, we're all too familiar with it now in Chinese BL's, it's always so clear, what with how the ML's don't even so much as hug each other even when they're emotionally staggering specifically because of something going on between them, but they're touchy feely with everyone else ? This is as common and unrealistic as ever. BUT the emotionally charged conversations between Lanzhu and JiuShi are SOMETHING ELSE. Really. As well as some of the scenes in which the way LanZhu looks at JiuShi is very intense. There is a quality to those moments that carries beyond the censorship. This show definitely goes beyond bromance, their feelings for each other, especially Lanshu's from very early on, is pretty obvious and only become more obvious as the show goes on.

I always briefly think it'd be great to see these shows redone without censorship, perhaps not by China, I thought the same thing about The Untamed a long time ago. But then I realize I don't ever want to see characters like Lan WangJi, Ruan NanZhu, Wei WuXian and Lin QuiShi played by any other person other than the actors in the Chinese version, and I quickly forget about that idea. When casting is perfect, it's perfect, it is what it is.

Edit: After finishing the novel and I gotta say, the ending of the book is 11/10.
That said, where I usually think the original is best, honestly, I'd say I prefer the series in more ways than the book.
Comparing the two;

Book preferences-
The Ending
Some of the door events and conclusions
The relationship (BL) duh

Series preferences-
Basically everything else
I even prefer the characterization changes and choices in the series when compared to the book, which almost never happens for me. What they did with the series actually added gravity and a lot of emotion to the plot that I didn't feel reading the novel.

Also, imo, I don't think this is bromance at all. I've always taken that label on Chinese BL's with a grain of salt, we know the original is not bromance and they basically HAVE to call it that, it's almost like a bad joke.

So, yeah, whether you like BL or not, I would recc it!

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Great Follow Up!

[REWATCHED 2023]

I still think it's a pretty smooth follow up to Together With Me , considering the order in which things were filmed (and if you ignore how terrible Bad Romance got toward the end with that Beauty & Tanguy drama). The Next Chapter is a more matured and more developed story line and continuation. The acting was good before and it remained consistent in this season, matching the slightly more serious plot but still maintaining the humor here and there. I'll admit I found Korn's character to be very ooc for a brief but major part of the plot, but it was interesting to watch how it unfolded, and it added some new dimensions to the story, especially seeing how dedicated Knock actually is to Korn, which was a nice change from the previous series' where Knock is such a douchebag most of the time. Everyone's else's stories were interesting as well.
This next show is just really good over all. I wasn't disappointed.

The only reason I won't give it 10 is because the writers sacrificed Korn's character to develop Knock's.

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Walks the line of 'No Hetero Explanation' with a Balancing Pole called Hǎo Péngyǒu (好朋友)

Nice show, the pacing (considering it covered 2 years in 24 eps) is actually great and if you're not expecting some over the top drama fest or action and you're settling in for a fun, funny, easy to watch, high school slice of life, then you'll enjoy this a lot.

THE GOOD:
- The acting flowed. Sometimes there were some highly cheesy friendship and character personality moments reminiscent of early PG13 Japanese animes, but they played out well enough.
- Likeable characters ALL around, shit, even that d*ck Gu Fei turned out to be alright once he got his crazy in check.
- Good humor, it's funny all the way, and cute too.
- Production costs hold up for all scenes, from the school, to their houses to where they hang out.
- The school theme doesn't drown out the characters, even though it's a huge part of the plot, well done.
- Nice OST music, catchy (albeit over used in too many scenes, as many Cn dramas do with their music)
- The actors are not teens but fuck me, I wouldn't have known they were in their twenties if I hadn't looked it up. Good casting.
- Side characters and couples didn't overwhelm the story either.
- A variety of things happen in this, all quite entertaining moment to moment.
- Consistently enjoyable from start to finish.
- The AI subs don't actually suck.
- Dusha is obvs the typical female no-homo buffer between Jinzhan and Yushu, but she's harmless and likeable.
- If someone REALLY wants to ignore the obvious censored BL coded scenes in this show, they can do so by slathering on a nice layer of Hǎo Péngyǒu to appease their no-homo needs. They're teens after all, so that somehow makes Jinzhan and Yushu's 'friendship' completely understandable. (in Asia? I'm not Asian, I don't know if teenage male friends are really like this in Asia, if so, let me know kay?)

Nothing BAD or UGLY.

The HIGHLIGHTS:
- Jinzhan! aka OUDOUDOU! What a great character, such a dilly, sweet kid.
- Jinzhao! Jinzhan's brother is just such a vibe and a mood all at once, the kind of sibling who'd be exhausting and embarrassing but great to grow up with.

9 (because all high school dramas test my attention span on some level)

I recc it for a one time watch for sure, two times if this genre is up your alley!

--------------------------

Personal side note:

Maybe it's just cause I'm western, but as with other forced bromance Chinese dramas, the way these MLs interact ain't how male best friends behave with each other as far as I have ever known or experienced.
But anyhow, in an ideal BL world, censorship in Cn would finally drop and we'd get sequels to so many forced bromances. This would be one if them, I'd hope, because I'd really enjoy watching a college based series of these two figuring out that they're not just friends.

I do think this series got away with A LOT more physical touch between the ML's than other 'bromances' because firstly, being teens in high school apparently means it's friendship for two boys to be so close and touchy, and secondly, this show isn't well known, hence not drawing too much attention to it which has proven to be a problem with shows like Justice in the Dark (pulled off air), The Spirealm (pulled off air but rebroadcast outside of China) and Blue Canvas of Youthful Days (pulled off air but rebroadcast outside of China) so it didn't garner a lot of attention and over trigger the censors. Thirdly, they obviously DID cut some scenes between the MLs to get this broadcast, it's obvious (and regrettable) and fourthly, they chased every other close moment between the MLs with Hǎo Péngyǒu' and an extra character showing up like their broadcasting rights depended on it...oh wait.

Hehe.

But ya'll, of all the moments in the show, in the end and in my opinion, there is no hetero explanation for ep 24 @ 26.14 to 26.23, as well as how YuShu's looking at Jinzhan at 28.00. No friend I've ever known acted that way around me ? and if they had, shit would have been AWKWARD, unless, well, you know, someone's into it.

Ah well, fight me.

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It feels like the survival monster story plot took a backseat to some emotional bulls*it...

Worst of the 3 seasons for sure.

They sacrificed a lot of time they could have spent focusing on defeating the monster threat and developing the strongest characters survival stories stalling with other filler nonsense. They also sacrificed time they could have spent explaining and showcasing the various types of infectees strengths and weaknesses, to instead focus SO MUCH time on pointless emotional character expositions and discussing or portraying relationships that were barely existent/non existent in the first 2 seasons. I assume they were trying to focus on pulling viewer heart strings or some nonsense like that, but I felt nothing for anyone by the end, not even the 'victory' for the leads felt good.

They also sacrificed a lot of time for some very, very pointless dialogue and trying to make the neo human/leads look 'cool' and act very smooth and collected and exchange 'cool' lines and looks at each other at the most ridiculous times, interrupting the pacing of the series in many places, and their attitudes contradicting everything previously felt about those particular characters struggles. Also, many loose ends were not even remotely addressed, there was no actual showdown between the main threat and the leads at the end (major cop out and waste of all that CGI) and all the wrong lead characters died while some really useless ones survived.
Anyway:

The GOOD:
- The acting and casting.
- 90% of the CGI.
- The fight scenes.

The BAD:
- The plot. Total waste of the previous two seasons. Very, very weak wrap up.

HIGHLIGHTS:
- Lee Si Young was excellent as always (they wasted her appearance in S03 completely, might as well have killed her off in S02)
- The soldiers never failed to be interesting characters in S02 and S03, they also served more purpose and carried more weight in the story than the leads in S03.
- Hyun Su looked pretty neat with neon blue eyes.

Season 3 was the furthest removed from S01 imo, they took this in a different direction in a bad way, it didn't match the intensity, energy and fast paced action of the first two seasons which made engaging with the content and being invested in the characters survival feel very blah.
Over all season 3 was a let down for me.

Because S03 is such a let down and S02 will leave you expecting a third season, which will disappoint you, I'd suggest people just don't watch past S01, because S01 can actually be considered stand alone just fine and it was excellent.

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Tell me it's a subtle South Korean Hannibal without telling me it is...

I suppose only people who have watched Hannibal will see the parallels, and I saw them all. The context is so different, but the key moments and characters are all there! I won't go into detail about how the shows line up because this review is meant to be about The Devil Judge, which is just fantastic in the same visual, emotional, indulgent and treacherously intriguing way that Hannibal NBC was, while being an entire treat by itself in it's interesting story. I did not mind a single second of all 16 eps.

I don't know if the writer of this has actually watched Hannibal or if the energy of this show was coincidental, but either way, it was a hell of a fix and a damn good watch.

That said, this show checks ALL of my boxes, so it may not be to everyone's taste and my review is totally based on my bias.
For those who like a clear line between good and bad, this is not for you, the 'good guys' are not the focus, but the 'right guys' on the other hand...

All GOOD, no BAD or UGLY. I've already rewatched it and I will do so again.

This show made me a FAN ya'll. And Ji Sung is perfection.

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[REWATCHED IN 2023]

Rewatching this after so many years and after so many new high budget, 'fancy' BL series, I can honestly say TWM is still better on almost all fronts and in almost all ways than new BL's. There are few other Asian BL's I enjoyed as much, let alone got so attached to all the characters. Especially Korn ❤️
Now that I've watched it again I was able to enjoy it even more than the first time.

If you want a show that's not overacted, over make up'd, over written, over bleach white, over messy and just overdone in general, with an entire cast with great chemistry, some easy flowing humor and of course, MaxTul®, this show still holds up in my opinion.

I'm changing my rating to 10.

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Fluff Done Right

As someone who has dropped/passed over many JBLs, this year, 2024, I resolved to try them and stick them out. I have been only mildly successful, but there have been a few good ones. Sugar Dog Life is one of them! And in fact, I enjoyed it over all and completely enough that I even added it to my recommended BL list. First JBL ever on there. I still wasn't able to give it a 10 because it really is very basic, there's no depth, but it's a satisfying watch from start to finish!
On to:

THE GOOD:
- Nice casting and acting, everyone looked good and played their roles smoothly, while not being over makeup'd or acting like anime characters, and the shows LUT choice was bright with just the right amount of saturation to make things pop without being too hard on the eyes.
- A nice, smooth portrayal of an older and younger guy getting together.
- Great pacing for a friendship to attraction development.
- The food they ate actually looked edible, all of it.

There wasn't any BAD or UGLY in this, but perhaps-
THE MISSES:
- It did include one silly thing, which was the 'running to each other' trope, common in JBLs, which is always so stupid, but this one was at least short and pointed, as it was they didn't live far from one another and were always walking around to everywhere, so it wasn't overdramatic like in other JBLs where I can't help thinking 'just, take a cab bro'. So it didn't annoy me.
- If it were a deeper show, we might have seen more of Amasawa's narrative on realizing he'd been developing an attraction to Isumi, since it only seemed to hit him after Isumi confessed and then he put the pieces together of his own interest. I am a sucker for a psychological angle on character motivations though, so I would have enjoyed that, but it's not something the show needed per se.
- An episode 10 could have fleshed out their couple moments a bit more, but JBLs have often either gone full fluff or full tilt with the physical stuff, they've hardly really managed a great balance aside from a few exceptions, so I wasn't surprised to just get a few sweet kisses. No expectation, no disappointment.

THE HIGHLIGHTS:
- Amasawa-san telling Isumi to call him Kyosuke! At the end-end, after the short couple montage, when Amasawa said that, I grinned and mentally fist pumped :D I have always disliked the lack of use of names between established in couples in Thai, SK and Japan BLs, so when he said that it soothed a LONG standing irritation I usually feel for that kind of thing.
- Isumi as a character was very likeable. 'Bottom' characters are a miss more than a hit for me usually, but like Taichi from I Hear The Sunspot, Isumi in Sugar Dog Life was just so damn likeable.

Since I enjoyed every episode and have no complaints about anything and it's a VERY pleasant watch, it's 9.5 from me.

This BL doesn't ask for much because it's simple and sweet, it flows well and the MLs acted well. It will suit those who particularly like the 'everything is beautiful and nothing hurts' type of show.
Would recc it.

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The first BL that touched on an Epic plot theme and did so quite successfully.

Over all a solid show with a solid closing. How a show ends can make a lot of difference and The Sign managed to bring it home nicely and on a 'happy ending' note, albeit a little rushed, it was still satisfying. So,

THE GOOD:

- The action scenes in all episodes were enjoyable.
- The same can be said for their intimate scenes, especially the final one in ep 12. I enjoyed the soft intimacy of it the most, the talking, touching and closeness was ? Many BL shows underestimate how much weight non-sexual intimacy and simple kissing carries but the The Sign really served in that department many times. We got plenty of non-sexual intimacy in this show, which was really awesome. That said, their sexual scenes (and the actors chemistry) was on point too. They rate third for me in BL actor male lead chemistry after watching this series.
- All of the cast really did a fantastic job acting.
- The portrayal of them being cops in physical fitness, fight scenes and weapons handling was very well done, I really enjoyed that aspect this show!
- I was also fine with the CGI, I'm not overly picky about that. I don't much care about how good/bad CGI is as long as it's passable, it's more about a story for me. CGI passed muster though, by a good margin.
- I like the mythical Thai culture story in The Sign, my first time learning more about the whole Naga origin thing (outside of fanfiction), and it was quite enjoyable.
- I loved how fluid Tharn (Babe) moved in the deep water scenes! I felt like he really gave water-being vibes! I'm not sure if it was edited that way, or if Babe is just a good swimmer, but it was really well done.

Nothing bad in this, so I'll say -
THE WEAK POINTS:

- Well we all know that the police work was often abysmal in this ?
- I am a bit disappointed we didn't get a bigger final fight scene between Phaya and Chalothon in the final, just a bit of a struggle, but it was still a great scene, quite intense, emotional and meaningful.
- On the topic of this being Babe's first role, he really did a great job. However I will say, that while Babe really nailed his heavy emotional/crying scenes, I do think he could improve a bit in the verbally and visually expressed anger/affection/shock area. In some instances when he was angry or shocked or affectionate, I found it was a little lacking, but not in anyway that badly affected Tharn's character. Perhaps because Tharn's character was meant to come across as quite level headed and a bit reserved, so it wasn't overly noticeable.
- Billy's facial hair shadow is ep 12 just did not work ya'll, his face kinda looked dirty ?
- Dujdao. I'm still not sure what the purpose or dead-like portrayal of this character was intended to represent.
- The final 2 eps did feel a little rushed.

There are no ugly points in this show, so next is,
THE HIGHLIGHTS:
- YAI/GAP!!! I was both attracted and experiencing body envy when looking at him.
- Billy's acting. My first time seeing him and I think he emotes very well honestly, across the board of emotions.
- The fight scenes! Super power/video game-esque and visually appealing!

There are unanswered questions and open ends, but HOPEFULLY that means we'll get a S02 and since all the main history and character intros are largely out of the way, we might get a more fleshed out story on the main characters, and even some insight into the history of Garuda Sakuna and Wansarat. I could easily go for more fight/action scenes tbh. That would be fun! I also wouldn't mind seeing more about Yai and Sand, I mean, we got Khem and Thongthai's backstory, now I'd like Yai and Sand's getting together story and more scenes with them. Their reunion scene in ep 12 was ? I would love to see more.

All said, I have no regrets about watching this, I would absolutely rewatch it in future and would definitely recc it IF someone is into action themes and supernatural plots! The Sign has met the latest BL standard (for me), which was set by IFYLITA last year.

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If you like a plot that expands and progresses and escalates, S02 is for you...

...but if you're watching this because you just wanted to see the main actor on screen 98% of the time being a boss, or just because you want to fangirl/boy over the attractive actors you liked in S01, you should tap out.
As someone who has no particular affinity to anyone in this show (except for Lee Si young because the actress is amazing and so is her character), as I usually do, I wanna' cover the good, bad and ugly of this season's offering;

THE GOOD:
- High action and developing horror and drama right out the gate, and it stayed that way for at least 80% of the season, no holds barred, humanity at their best and worse, chaos and entropy and monsters abound. S01 covered the basics, which, great, it let us get attached to the respective characters as one must in order to continue watching something, but would I want to watch a whole other season of the same characters doing the same shit? No thank you. S02 brought the broader scale of shit hitting the fan and escalating, we saw the reality of a dystopian world crawling with monsters really impact everyone. The fact that so many people are complaining about S02 baffles me. To viewers griping about deaths of MC's; come on! People would DIE, whether they are popular, good, bad, kids, attractive or ugly. So many shows from other countries based in violent, supernatural horror worlds, cling to their full set of MC's (*coughs* The Walking Dead) to the point where it's eye rolling. I don't want ALL the main characters to survive and be besties, that's BS, because it wouldn't happen that way. Sweet Home was merciless on this front, I loved it (PS: I would have been super mad if Yi Kyung died tbh but I would've gotten over it and still watched S03)
- The story unfolded on a bigger scale, which gripped my interest immediately. They did a good job of showing the peak of escalation and loss the beginning and then the time skip was just long enough to show the bare minimum of what was salvageable, and how unstable it all was.
- They introduced many new characters living in the stadium, most of which I assume will come in handy in S03 for deaths and monsterization. Useful trick to stop killing off your entire main cast in your final seasons. They also set up old characters and some new characters to really shake things up in S03 with gruesome comebacks and they highlighted them well too.
- The acting is ON POINT for everyone. Seriously, everyone brought their A game.
- Lots of foreshadowing, probably the groundwork for S03 plot twists.
- The clever broadness of monster capabilities being based on their desires and hates also really leaves a lot to be explored.
- Hyun Su going dark under his monster because of pain is the PERFECT precursor to when he breaks out of that lapse. I am keen to see him take back control and throw down.

THE BAD:
- The thirstiness of the female characters in Asian shows. I don't think this is a Sweet Home problem, I'm not sure if it's a culture thing, but characters like the chief's daughter and that loopy chick with the old man, that borderline stalker sexual harassment vibe they give off is ick, I could really do without that. What's wrong with them just being flirtatious instead of obsessed with the singlemindedness of a small brained creature in need of love and marriage? Hard no.
- I think the writers are trying to make Eun Yoo likeable, which, PFFFFFT ????? no. just no. They already made her the most dislikeable wench possible in S01, uh, what do they think changed? Nothing, she could have died in S01 and I would have forgotten her, like I forgot her brother.
- The monster CGI is...passable-ish. But I wasn't expecting it to blow my mind so it's whatever.
- The survivors looked pretty healthy despite living underground and eating minimal rations and barely going out (if at all for some of them). So that was a ball dropped, but it was small ball.

The UGLY:
- If S03 involves any romance, it's gonna be a gross joke. There is no reason for it and zero sexual chemistry with literally anyone in the show so far. Even Uen Yoo and the nice soldier guy don't bring those vibes enough for it to come to fruition. So, that would be ugly. I hope they skip right over that shit idea. I want nothing less than to see any of these characters kiss or touch each other, ever. Not only because it's unnecessary story wise, but also because everything is unhygienic and filthy and it would be high key disgusting to see any physical sexual contact of even the barest kind when I could barely stop thinking of how badly everyone must stink in every way.

THE HIGHLIGHTS
None in particular, the show had too many moving parts for any big, standalone moments, but I'd say the acting was for sure a really great thing for this season.

Overall, I enjoyed it just as much as S01, I have no complaints and I am keen for S03.

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It's not some memorable masterpiece, but in the end I gave it an 8+ because...

...of THE GOOD:
1. It's an original story concept insofar as the average BL's go, while also tackling the difficult task of telling a non-linear storyline AND executing a totally unexpected plot twist SUCCESSFULLY. I don't think anyone watching this series saw that last ep plot twist coming. I certainly did not.
2. With the exception of the actor who played Phatit (sorry hard fact, but he doesn't rate, really needs an acting coach or a new vocation), the acting in this for all the rest of the cast is actually pretty good.
3. The writers were clever, using a 'second pairing' trope, when in fact, there is only one pair that the story is focused on.
4. The writers WENT THERE and most people don't like that because they want their happy ending BL story, but they made a BL story with a seemingly 'great' partner who is revealed to have major character flaws and he ends up cheating, which yes, it happens quite often. And even though the story is intermingling with supernatural elements which could be argued to have affected things, it turns out the wishing doesn't really have anything to do with it, people are just weak, and the main pair still had to struggle with the infidelity and other issues and they did NOT make it through like nothing happened. No blatantly happy ending. Only a little. Refreshing.
5. They tied up ALL the loose ends. Even Mai being so aggressively sexual as a teen suddenly made more sense when we compare it with Thana as an adult being a sexually aggressive and impulsive dumbass. And this story certainly wasn't rushed, in fact, six eps was more than they needed. (I won't list the details they tied up, but if anyone is confused about the story, I'd be happy to help with some answers)


So...The DRAWBACKS:
1. The unexpected plot twist could also be attributed to the fact that the casting for the teenage 'Thana' (Mai) and 'Phatit' (Ryou) didn't resemble the adult version even remotely. I don't know if the reason why they cast two sets of totally dissimilar (in appearance) actors was in order to bury the plot twist, or if it was just poor casting choices on the real, but truly, that was really not great. The same can be said for the adult versions of the school friends, ZERO resemblance. That said, the young and older version of the cafe' lady was well done and yet still, didn't really suspect that.
2. It was a bit long winded, which made eps 3 to 5 drag a bit, and so the pay off of episode 6's plot twist didn't hit quite as well as it might have, had the build up to the infidelity and the reveal happened a bit faster.
3. Was it messy? Yes, a bit,, because it's non-linear and it's past and present and they're trying to not let anyone catch on, but was it a total mess? Nope.

Overall, this is worth a one time watch.
NOTICE FOR: Anyone reading this who hasn't watched it yet, just be warned that it's a little slow to the point and heavy handed on some unnecessary scenes. Episode 5 was nearly a deal breaker for me to be honest, but I'm glad I hung in there.

Maybe it's just me, but I appreciate something that doesn't try to sell me a flowery story just to be a people pleaser, because honestly, if people had the ability to make wishes and have them actually come true, the amount of f*ck ups would be endless.
At the very least, if you're a patient person, give it a try.

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Back to Basics. Simple and sweet with a little cheese.

It's really simple and straightforward, without any unrealistically convoluted story lines of revenge or dangerous people lurking around doing weird things. Also, there are no toxic story lines of backstabbing or blackmail or devious characters and there are no non-con elements either.

It's very, very normal really. Not much drama of any kind and the characters are ordinary, everyday sorts of people with normal feelings, which may not be everyone's cup of tea. If you like something with more action or drama, this will not satisfy you. The two ML's have over all good communication, there wasn't too much delay or hemming and hawing about their feelings and there were some valid reasons for their hesitations, like emotional, social and family considerations.
Aside from that it's very soft and fluffy and sweet, also very bright (I had to dim my screen in some scenes because of the lighting) and there are many softness effects.

I don't mind this kind of show at all, and I might have given it a 10, but I don't like the 'simp' vibe they gave Tae Sung, it annoyed me. I don't enjoy the 'give up one's whole life' for a lover/partner idea. It's too desperate for my tastes.
That's my only complaint.

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