Melodia do Café (2022)

A melodia é boa, mas o café é descafeinado...

MÚSICA
Vamos começar pela parte boa: a música. A música da abertura ficou definitivamente na minha lista de favoritas e eu escuto sempre. É relaxante e gostosa de ouvir. O cantor é o ator principal e ele realmente fez um ótimo trabalho cantando a música da abertura.
ESTÓRIA
Infelizmente, a trama não é boa. É lenta, cansativa e não dá vontade de saber o que acontece depois. Eu empurrei pra ver até o fim porque não gosto de dropar dorama, mas foi bem difícil. Na minha opinião, as personagens secundárias são mais interessantes do que o casal principal, mas nenhum deles tem o desenvolvimento que merece.
Eu também fiquei decepcionada porque esperava mais da parte sobre a cafeteria e achei que ficou muito forçado. Ele devia ser barista e não confeiteiro, mas ele parecia gostar mais de fazer doces do que de fazer café. E o café especial que devia ser personalizado e feito só depois de conhecer o cliente muito bem, na verdade era bem comum e podia ter sido feito pra qualquer um.
ATUAÇÃO
Eu deixei pra falar sobre o romance no tópico da atuação porque, pra mim, embora o romance realmente não tenha sido bem desenvolvido no roteiro, se os atores tivessem feito um trabalho melhor, não teria sido tão difícil de assistir esse dorama.
O casal principal não tem química nenhuma. Não dá nem pra acreditar que eles estejam atraídos um pelo outro, quanto mais que sintam paixão ou amor. Mais uma vez, as personagens secundárias fazem um papel mais convincente nesse quesito do que o casal principal, mas não são o suficiente pra salvar o dorama.
VALE A PENA VER DE NOVO?
Não vale a pena nem ver a primeira vez. Eu desveria se pudesse. Tem um episódio especial e eu não suportei nem tentar assistir.
IMPRESSÃO GERAL
A única coisa que vale a pena é a música da abertura. Coloque "BENZ Coffee Melody" na busca do YouTube e você vai encontrar. Mas a parte boa acaba aí.
Se você quer um dorama sobre uma cafeteria (que era o que eu queria quando decidi ver esse dorama), eu sugiro que você assista COFFEE SHOP do Vibie Gen no YouTube. É um doraminha curtinho com episódios pequenos, cada um tem como tema uma bebida feita com café e gira em torno de um problema romântico de um casal diferente. Não é uma obra prima da dramaturgia, mas bem agradável de assistir e entrega o que promete.

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Very sweet, but too slow.

So, I loved the fact that couples were not messed with or manipulated by jealous, bitchy females. I hate that trope and it's far too common these days.

This show is cute, sweet and fluffy but excessively slow. There are issues, but they resolve quickly. Most of the issues wouldn't even be blips on the radar of other characters in other shows, which just proves how desperate they were to keep this very soft.

There is minimal character development, growth or change but at least they are good at sharing emotions and hopefully the audience looks at their own lives to find happiness like the characters did.

I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. I did really enjoy certain parts and then was quite bored with others. It was a give and take in that regard. However, if you're looking for a fast, easy watch with little investment then this is perfect.

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Boring!!!

So Sad, Another BL that is so boring it's frustrating to watch. Use your Fast Forward Speed, you won't miss anything.

I am not familiar with these actors, but they don't seem to have a very good skill set and NO ONE in the entire series shows enough emotion to make me believe they have feelings for anyone. That combined with a very boring story and "this has all been done before" plots, makes this a series that pretty much everyone will forget the next day or sooner.

The Music is pretty bad too. I don't think anyone in the series really plays an instrument or sings well. There are no outstanding backgrounds or scenery, just really nothing good to write about.

I'm sorry to be so blunt, but if you have not watched this, it's better to know up front that it's not too good. Yes, there are a couple episodes left, but I probably won't finish them.

It's sad you know, we all look forward anxiously for a new bl to come out, but shows like this one as well as Even Sun, Check Out, LaCuisine and a few others from 2022 are almost enough to make me give up bl series.

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Dull and Disappointing

Sometimes a total disaster of a series, like Unforgotten Night or So Much In Love, can be more entertaining to watch than a thorougly mediocre one. Coffee Melody aspires to be the most mediocre it possibly can without falling over the line into being bad. There are many things that can be individually critiqued, but the quality of this series that most stands out is its dullness.

Part of this is the limp script. Nothing really happens. The main pair meet and like each other and enter into an unearned relationship, there are a couple of minor bumps, all externally driven, and everyone lives happily ever after.

But even then, a featureless script can still create a series that's entertaining - but this production lacks any passion. Was Benz even playing a character, or just being himself? Pavel Naret was apparently neutered, given bad hair, and then directed to be as blandly nice as he could possibly be. The style department couldn't even be bothered to make Titnuea's hair a consistent color - one moment it's deep red, the next it's light pink. That's almost certainly because of the filming schedule, which is based on location, not the story's chronology, but that's the sort of sloppiness that's endemic to this series.

It's largely about musicians and music, but there isn't any until past he halfway mark, and it was underwhelming when it appeared. The sound editing is poor - sometimes the music drowns out the dialog, and other times you can barely hear it. Nobody could be bothered to write or obtain decent background music, so the just played easy-jazz piano Christmas carols.

In the end, this story has nothing to say. Even the difficulties of maintaining a long-distance relationship is papered over by having someone move abroad, and then move right back 5 seconds later. Presumably time has passed, but it was so poorly set up that it came off as unintentionally funny, and his boyfriend reacted as if he'd merely been on an overnight business trip.

There were a few positives: whoever wrote this has a love of coffee that came through, Palm Veerapat who plays Jean was adorable and engaging, and some of the ad-libbed scenes, mostly with Duean Yi's parents, were quite charming.

This isn't terrible. But it's so-so in the most boring way possible. I can't recommend it, and it saddens me, because I was excited Pavel got a role, and I hope this doesn't damage his chances of geting another one.

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It Falls Flat on Many Levels

I placed a spoiler alert at the end of this review.

Thankfully this just had 10-episodes. That being said, this easily could have been a 6-episode series instead.

Overall, the series was cute but was really not that interesting. The ending was very lackluster and anticlimactic. The main story concepts are ok, but the script is greatly underdeveloped and falls short on execution. There were many times it seemed they just had the actors improvise their lines. For the most part, the acting was ok. There are a few actors that excelled from the others. The rest of the actors are not bad or good, they just need to work more on their skills. After a while, I found Plengrak and Duean Yi’s storyline exhausting. Especially the second to last conflict they threw in. See potential spoiler alert at the end of this review if you want more info. It also has too many supporting cast members. There are some audio/sound problems throughout the series. The cinematography is good, but there is a lot of misuse of screen time. The few songs in this were good.

Random Note:
I did not have high expectations before watching this series, but was hoping to be proven wrong. Unfortunately, I was not. The quality of MFlow’s previous productions are not the greatest. They always fall short when it comes to the script and production.

I could be wrong, but I’m sure the “movie” in episode 3 was Second Chance (an earlier production from MFlow Entertainment).

The English subtitles on Viki are ok, but they kept spelling some of the characters names wrong midway through the series. I was getting confuse at first as to who they were talking about.

******Potential Spoiler Alert******

Plengrak and Duean Yi’s relationship conflict in episode 7 was the most annoying. Instead of letting Plengrak explain what was going on, Duean Yi was very immature. This also had a half-baked resolution that does not make sense.

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Wasted Potential i'd say

Well.. what should I say. The story had potential, I enjoyed the show for the first few episodes (max. 5th episode) But i got kind of bored of it afterwards. I ended up putting the speed level on 1.25x to get over with it faster - sounds harsh but sometimes it even felt like it would be at normal speed since they were talking quite slow in my opinion.

What bothered me too - not really something that has something to do with the storyline or the acting - but why did DY had no bed?! Like he had the frame and everything but there was no matress and he either slept on this mini sofa or the floor.

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Coffee Shop done right

Coffee Shop AUs are such a popular genre when it comes to fanfics. Take two guys, put them in a coffee shop, et voila, magic happens. I've myself consumed hundreds (not an exaggeration) of such stories on AO3.

So why does the Coffee Shop AU doesn't translate well when it comes to BLs?

My excitement for the Oxygen series (Thai, 2020) was out of the roof, but the final result was extremely poor. So it took me a while to actually focus on another barista-centred show.

In the past I saw two decently done coffee shop shows: short film One Last Order (S. Korea, 2019) and the coffee shop side of Dark Blue Kiss (Thai, 2019) with Plapodd and Gawin. One Last Order was too short to fully appreciate it, and with Dark Blue Kiss I didn't enjoy the incosistencies with the previous parts.

But here, with Coffee Melody, I'm finally satisfied how the coffee shop story was being played out.

STORY:
Rather basic and not very surprising, very very predictable. Two guys put in a coffee shop. You get the tropes very typical for Thai BLs, jealous exes, miserable parents, annoying friends, shippers. What is missing is a gay crisis, annoying woman chasing the male lead and homophobic parents, and the fact these tropes are not there naturally help the story.

I really enjoyed the fact that the creators focused on fewer pairings and had time to actually develop characters in a proper way. With many BLs taking the attitude "The more couples the better", Coffee Melody takes a different approach and it benefits greatly from this.

What I especially liked is that the story actually does take place in the coffee shop for the majority of each episode. This is what a coffee shop story should be about, after all!!

ACTING:
Ok. Could be better, could be worse. Pavel's decent in the cute sweet barista role, but his crying requires more work. Does he hold as a male lead? Not fully, but Benz's character is more expressive and it helps this couple. Chemistry between Pavel and Benz is passable, but there are no sparks on the screen when they are together. The rest of the cast is doing their role ok, but there are two actors who are stand out:
Palm Veerapat (Jean) and Minty Chuthikan (Chanchao). Palm is not only cute and subtle as Jean, he's possibly the best actor in this show. With Minty I especially liked how she showed her character's development and engagement with other actors.


MUSIC:
For a show with the word "melody" in the title, I was actually very disappointed with the music. Stock background tunes take the majority of the screentime. Even the actors singing "happy birthday" are muted and background music is exposed. The main tune is nice, but nothing that stays in the memory for longer. And it is clear that Benz, despite playing a famous composer, has no idea how to play the piano. It shows, but it's a minor detail.

PRODUCTION:
Also decent. Subtitles available in English for those interested. Last 2 episodes not available on YouTube, which is sad. You get the same props every 2 scenes but again, a detail. Perhaps the budget was low, on the other hand you don't see any product placements/commercials within a show, and this was definitely refreshing for a Thai show, so I'd rather take this over luxurious clothes/cars etc. The coffee shop itself looks lovely fresh and airy.



OVERALL:

I'm not saying that Coffee Melody is the greatest BL to ever BL, but it's a nicely done show, which surprised me in many ways. Solid 7/10.

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What was this?

I love BL shows, and I wish we had them when I was growing up! I am addicted to watching them now, but this was not good! Oye! The acting was so bad; the story was boring, and the overall it was ridiculous! I have enjoyed some of Gameplay's work before, and I really think Nammon needs his own BL, but this show I guess was for the money? I have no idea! They tried to be funny, but fell flat! Some of the story lines were ok, but there was more growth with other characters. I did not even understand when the main couple actually decided they loved each other. It was odd! The weirdo wedding at the end, and the sudden change of the grandfather left me wondering if they had ran out of money and needed to wrap up production. I usually like to leave good review, but this one fell so short!!!!!!!!!

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Light-hearted and comforting

Coffee Melody is light-hearted and comforting. Worth watching if you are looking for something that isn’t too heavy or complicated. However, those who are looking for lots of drama, action and tension will definitely struggle with this. I did feel that it was drawn out too much towards the end and episodes could have been condensed. It was awesome seeing how supportive Duean Yi’s parents were of his career in music and his relationship with Plengrak. Duean Yi standing up for his brothers passion for music was also nice to see. All in all, a nice show that has good chemistry and relationships.

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Good "in-between-BL's" watch

Binged in 1 evening. Not because it was that entertaining, but because I had nothing better to do. And that's the perfect time to watch this BL drama. There's not much substance, there's not much story, there's nothing iconic. It's just nice.

What I liked:
The developing romances are sweet and steady. Some might say slow and boring, but I prefer steady. Again, nothing extreme except for the odd butterfly.
Some of the plotlines are cringey because overused tropes, Some scenes are unnecessary and unnecessarily long. There's a skip button for that. Just FF to the next romantic stare, tease or little kiss and you'll be fine. I loved the sweetness in the couples. And the fun they had together. Thats always so overlooked. Couples should have fun and frolic as much as possible. They are newly in love after all.

What I didn't like:
I have no idea when or why the shirts came off. Surely not just for sleeping? But no hints to anything else happening. Weird. Decide to have a love scene and passion or decide to not have that. This innuendo (if you can even call it that) is stupid. The ex showing up and then no room for communication or explanation just a storm-off while there was not even anything really happening? Stupid. Giving the Record Boss the time of day after his toxic behavior? Stupid. Giving us a return scene of 1 minute? Stupid.

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Nothing special but a good binge watch

I'm finally getting around to write a little review for this. It won't be very long but there are some points I feel worth mentioning.

I finished this show a week ago when it was already done airing. It's nothing special really. The acting was alright, enough to make you believe the romance; there was definitely some chemistry.

The first 3 episodes started off really good. Instead of having a shy lead we had a man who knew what he wanted and went for it aggressively. It was a fresh wind honestly. In a lot of BLs, one male lead gets depicted as the "feminine" one and is shy without any desires, which is rooted in patriarchy and misogyny. But this show had two confident gays, which was a redeeming factor.

The story was dragging though and nothing really happened. The story arch was a simple quarrel that could've been solved with better communication. Not having lots of story going on isn't always bad if they focus more on the characters development of feelings and themselves. But that didn't really happen either. Both of them were the same at the end of the show just like we met them the first time.

Overall, this show did nothing WRONG. Im not mad at it and I'm also not mad about the time I spent watching it. It's a good binge watch with not a lot of impact. I had this on while cleaning and working :D

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On Hold - Coffee Melody

Overall: the series is very slow and the cliche plot point at the start of ep 7 has made me put this on hold. I'll wait until it finishes airing and maybe pick it up again then. Watched on Viki.

Content Warnings: non con picture taking, gaslighting (from music boss)

What I Liked
- I appreciate an aggressive/obvious flirt
- cute moments like with the cake
- the rainbow poster in the background when the band is practicing
- Duean Yi's family
- (neutral) it has comedy sound effects

Room For Improvement
- wasn't hooked in the first scene
- the fangirling thing
- slow, I watched at 2-3x speed
- cliche plot point at the beginning of episode 7
- I didn't mind the cartoon flowers but I didn't like the cartoon music notes from the piano
- choppiness between some scenes
- random characters like those tween wannabe pop stars
- odd yellow/purple lighting in his room
- that jerk music boss

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