Am I rating this a bit higher than it probably deserves purely because YinWar's chemistry is just so dang good? Why yes, yes I am. But to be honest the two of them are the only reason I tuned in to watch this show in the first place and their performance did not disappoint. Alone they each carried their characters with strong masculinity and incredible depth of emotions that brought the two men to life and made you as the viewer root for each individually. But man together, those two delivered so much magnetism where even scenes where they were fighting felt like flirting. The show is tailor made for them and their acting ability shines in these two roles that portray them in more mature characters than they have done in the past. The emotion they carry in their eyes and their ability to really make you feel what they are feeling. I am in love with these two actors and this show will be popular purely because of them.

Now for the plot and other characters. The show begins really strong with the presentation of their respective backgrounds and initial meeting. The first episode is one of my absolute favorite among any shows I have seen. At the end of the first episode you see what led the two characters in the directions they went and are greeted 5 years later in the second episode where the remainder of the show takes place. Joke, who accidentally incriminated Jack after making a bank heist immediately sought to rectify his mistake by turning himself in. After five years in prison he comes out determined to make it up to Jack by apologizing in any way he can. Those five years have not been kind to Jack however and he is now a debt collector for the shady Boss of his home town where he must do things and behave in ways that goes against his character.

The explosive first meeting between these two after five years begins to crack at Jack's facade and cement Joke's determination to help bring back the gentle Jack he met many years before. This determination will lead Joke to another heist to try and free Jack from Boss. And this is where that saying "the best laid plans' comes in to play. Where no matter the effort there is bound to be problems.

The show makes an effort to highlight different aspects that you don't see in other dramas right now. The portrayal of extreme poverty and the toll it takes on people and community. How it snuffs out dreams and will undoubtedly lead to behaving in ways they may not have chosen if given any other option. Like Tattoo who despicably cheats his friends in order to get himself out of debt not once but twice. His desperation to leave his situation is seen in most the characters of their community. And then on the complete opposite side you have the Four Horsemen or the wealthiest families that lord over the common folk and treat them as pawns in games they invent. Their over the top behaviors showcase their complete lack of humanity because of their wealth and privilege. And then there is Boss who is the main antagonist in this story. Greed being his driving force that makes him lose touch with reality and continuously become more and more unhinged.

As an overview and understanding of what the writers wanted to portray I do get it but I also think that the show was not completely successful in actually doing that. Most the characters have no real character growth (with the exception being Rose who began to see her privilege through her interest in Jack and started to change as she was exposed to their world). Many of even the supporting characters also felt cartoonish and over the top making the heavy subject matter not hit as well as it could have such as Hoy and Lompran. These two characters were practically the same just on different sides. Hoy is the uneducated and dopey for the commoner side while Lompran is ridiculously overconfident and silly for the elites.

Slight spoilers below:

The plot holes also become very apparent the further you get into the drama and by episode 11 you are rolling your eyes a bit. While the show touches on serious subject matter it tries to do it lightheartedly with silly humor which felt forced and cheapened the story a bit. I think by removing some of the more ridiculous storylines towards the end then this would have been an absolutely brilliant drama. The harm of a child and the sidekick friend groups plans A through E were used as plot devices to create tension and then give comedic relief but both scenarios could have completed the goal if done differently. Exposure of Joke's betrayal by stealing again could have already created the division the plot wanted between the two main characters without Toi Ting and the sidekick scene could have been removed all together in lou of an actual well thought out plan from Jack or Joke with them instead that would have felt more realistic and flowed the story better. Boss's power play also felt very immature for a supposedly lucrative crime boss that had been at it for many years.

All those things aside I still enjoyed watching this show and applaud Yin and War on their performances and will probably rewatch many of their scenes throughout the drama. While there are plot holes and over the top storylines this is still a better drama than many others I have seen both from BL and from Thailand even with its low budget. Kudos to the whole production for that.