Hospedeiro Fantasma, Casa Fantasma (2022)

Didn't Fulfill the Potential it Started With

The set up in episode 1 was very well done. Interesting plot, slightly creepy tone and side characters, a likeable lead, but all that disappeared from episode 2 on. While this wasn't a bad drama it could've been so much better. The ghost angle, which was so unique in the beginning, fell by the wayside as the series went on. The family became minor plot points, and while they were interesting they just didn't make much of an impact for most of the series. This drama begged for themes of grief and loss to be explored, but it was only paid minor lip service. A few brief scenes about cherishing those you love were included, but it didn't seem to affect the characters or even be the overarching theme. The writers really missed an opportunity to make the viewers feel more sympathy for all the characters by not showing them really reacting to and coming to terms w/ death and loss. As a result all of Kevin's interactions with his family seem hallow and their eventual leaving seems to make little impact on him.
Throughout the series there are also plot points that would've benefited from some more details, like Jake, Kevin's relationship with his father, See-nam's love, See-foon's abuse at school, the unhappiness within the family (Kevin's dream), the fact that no one told Kevin's mom that her sister and family had all been killed! (like really, the police knew they were dead). All these minor issues were not individually bad, but added up to make the story much weaker.
I've watched much worse dramas, but a combination of the above along w/ dragged out scenes and dialogue made the entire series fall a bit flat. There were a few interesting and heartfelt scenes, but for a series that dealt with ghosts, death, grief, and loss it left me feeling unfulfilled.

Leia Mais

Poteva essere carino e divertente ma non riesce a essere nessuno dei due

La storia non è nulla di nuovo, ma l'idea iniziale di una famiglia di fantasmi che protegge un umano e si finge umana per lui è carina, gli attori sono tutti carini e simpatici, le regole che hanno i fantasmi sono interessanti e hanno un senso logico (cosa rara in un drama), ma la recitazione, la sceneggiatura e la regia non funzionano. Forse la cusa del problema è solo una di queste tre cose e le altre due ne hanno subito le conseguenze non lo so, fatto sta che il drama seppu dovrebbe essere divetente come tono è lentissimo. Non sherzo ci sono pause enormi nei dialoghi i dialoghi a volte sono del tutto inutili e tutto il ritmo della nrrazione che dovrebbe essere spumeggiante è invece piatto e lento troppo troppo lento. E ripetitivo. Ed è un vero peccato perchè il potenziale c'è e ripeto tutti gli attori sembrano simpatici, ma mi sono adormentata più volte guradanolo. Risulta soporifero.

Leia Mais

presently surpised

Even though it was just 8 episodes, I felt like the plot and characters were really well developed and fleshed out. No gaps and everything made sense. I love that it’s not an overused plot line and is actually done well because other ghost/horror BLs I’ve watched have been either really confusing or just weird. The two ml actors had great chemistry and everything seemed natural, they did a great job, I’d love to see them in another show together. The relationship development wasn’t rushed and the characters actually had time to mature and develop before being rushed into a relationship. The 3yr time jump at the end actually felt like the characters had went through 3yrs of life unlike other shows where you can’t feel the difference in time, so usually i feel like the time jump is unnecessary but this time i liked it. It was beneficial for the characters and made sense for the plot. Overall this is definitely a must watch, i went through every emotion and the story and characters were able to keep me invested enough to shed a few tears.

Leia Mais

Ghost? Yes! Horror? No!

This started off with a great premise. I was hoping for something like Let's Fight Ghost. A protagonist who is able to see ghosts and fights with them or tries to understand them with their skills and give them a befitting send-off. But how sadly I was disappointed.
The MLs are surprisingly good looking, and are decent actors and have nice chemistry. But I really wish they had chosen something more fulfilling in terms of their roles. The plot of the series kind of throws a spanner in the whole running of it. Started off decently well. Kawin comes back to Thailand after 10 years to his aunt's house. He is vlogger, and runs a live ghost-busting show. His idea is to see if he can see the ghost of a 'friend' he lost. Later references sort of make it clear that he was more than a friend. In Thailand, he finds Pleum, who works in his aunt's house as a man of all trades. Feelings develop between the two, and Pleum falls really hard for Kawin. He becomes a support system for Kawin when he realises that his entire family are ghosts. They have been dead a while. Kawin and Pleum work hard to give a proper send-off to everyone.
But the whole plot disappeared from there. Why and what exactly happened to everyone? Why did Pleum so easily forgive everyone who was possibly his father's killer? Why was Kawin so obsessed with his 'friend'? I hated that he left Pleum without saying a single word. He let Pleum find out through a live 7 days later. If you are in love with someone, you don't get intimate with someone else. You don't use the same endearments as you did with your 'ex'. And I hated Pleum for being so forgiving. If it was me, I would have never forgiven someone who hurt me this badly and walked away without a single thought as to what he was leaving behind. And then he had the audacity to sort of confess, while letting him know that he had no plans to come back.

The one and only amazing thing about this series, Tod's really cute shorts!! No wonder Pleum could not keep his hands off him!! NCs were well done, especially the last. Kisses were spectacular!
All in all, I hated it. This could have been so much better.

Leia Mais

Slow, Childish, Unrealistic, Extended

I literally watched this series at 2.2 speed on average, it was too dragged, director and editor didn't do good work at all.
While the base story was good, the script lagged a lot of things, everything seemed to be just incidental, and nothing mattered in the next scene.
I liked the acting of Boy Nattapon at times but I think the direction went too wrong.

Leia Mais

A series with paranormal elements and mystery that was largely ignored

Why was this a romantic comedy with hints of horror when this could easily have been a thriller drama with hard hitting plotlines? If only the makers had the wherewithal to go that extra mile and show the grittiness about life and death.

The story is about a ghost hunter named Kevin who live streams his explorations. His fascination with the dead stems from the fact that he lost his boyfriend to a heart condition and wants desperately to meet him. His pursuit brings him to Thailand where he stays with his aunt, uncle and 2 cousins while still on the lookout for hauntings. Here he meets a hard-working guy named Pluem who lost his father to an accident and has been taking care of his sister. Although he is scared of ghosts, they both bond over multiple interactions. There is however a mystery about the family that Kevin is staying with. Will Kevin figure out the hidden fact about his family and will his relationship last with Pluem while still holding on to the feelings for his ex?

This series had all the potential of being serious with a mystery element to it. Instead, the makers decided to take the easy route and turn it into a comedy. The mystery is known to the viewers during the 1st episode so there goes all the thrill of finding things out. Kevin’s ex is revealed so late in the series and is just a passing mention to create unecessary drama. The relationship between Pluem and his father is not developed well let alone the members of Kevin’s family. Every plot and character development is a half-assed attempt and you are left asking for more explanation. The last episode of the series is just a fan service with no story and made me dislike Kevin a little but that I can chalk out to translation issues.

The story has all the potential of being a great thriller. We have a strange family that Kevin enters into oblivious to anything, meets Pluem and as the series progresses, they slowly peel away the mystery behind this family while the details of Pluem’s father’s accident become apparent. This, along with the Kevin’s obsession to meet his dead ex starts causing a rift between him and Kevin. The climax should have been the family’s secret being laid bare in front of Kevin while Pluem makes peace with his father’s death and his relationship with Kevin is salvaged by Kevin’s final decision.

There are certainly many positives in the storyline. The series did explain the rules of the dead and how they can leave this world and enter the after-life or re-birth. They made a good connection between Kevin’s family and Pluem’s father which in my opinion was a good take and there are genuinely emotional moments between Kevin and his family. The actors playing the aunt, uncle and the 2 cousins did a good job and so did Kevin. Pluem is certain scenes looked uncomfortable and his acting was not convincing.

In conclusion, if a paranormal story is your thing with a good bit of romance and comedy sprinkled in it then do give this one a watch. In my opinion this should have been more than what the makers decided. They had an opportunity to discuss about life and mortality and learning to let go instead of choosing to make a lot of these scenes humorous.

Leia Mais

Unique Storyline with loveable cast

Kevin/Kawin (depends on subtitles) comes to Thailand to visit his aunt, uncle and cousins after 10 yrs. He's a ghost hunter on social media because his ex suddenly died while he was studying abroad and he wants a final conversation. Kevin's relatives are all ghosts who died right before Kevin's arrival-which he does not realize. Due to ghost rules they can't leave the property so they hire Pleum to do errands and help around the property. Romance is sweet between Pleum and Kevin but of course issues arise. More than kissing but not NC stuff either. The director's cut, a separate final episode, has a more sensual scene than the initial final episode. The whole cast did well, the ghosts have their own things to settle in this life as well. Some sadness but ends in a nice way.

Leia Mais

A Simple and Enjoyable Series

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

As I’ve stated before, I love series with a paranormal storyline. It had a great story concept, but the script is not perfect. However, the weak parts of the script did not stop me from enjoy the series.

The positive: The main thing I like about the script is it’s a ghost story that incorporates the BL couple development. The acting is decent considering most of the cast members are newbies. I also like how they portrayed their characters.

The negative: Unfortunately, the script started off very strong but begins to unravel by the middle of the series. This is where the plot holes become visible. There are also some aspects of the script that are underdeveloped. The last episode was a bit of a letdown which also has the 1 story element I hate. See potential spoiler alert at the end of this review if you want more info.

The in-between: The cinematography was good, but the special effects and make-up could have been better.




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

The script introduces one too many side storylines for an 8-episode series. They should have added more episodes to develop them properly or not introduce so many in the first place. I wish they picked a few key storylines and fully develop them. Although the last episode has a happy ending, it was weak. It also had an unnecessary time jump (3 years) which did not help the series.

Leia Mais

It's adorable!!!!

I don't understand how so many people disliked this series. I think it's important for us to have cutesy and diversified content for the LGBTQ+ community. I'd like to offer a few points here:

1) We can't either/or content. We need the cutesy stuff that explores deep issues but still remains light and fun. We can't have all intense or all light or all inoffensive or all controversial content.
2) We have to stop expecting LGBTQ+ content to be centered only around community issues. I'm queer as well, and as someone from the community, someone who's tired of having to watch straight content when I'm craving a particular genre, I LOVE shows like this. And, I love that Thai content creators are giving us so much diversified content without the need to make it only about the community. It's important to raise awareness, but it's also important to stress that most queer folx live just regular a*s weird lives. And, we need to embrace all of it.
3) There WAS a story. Did yall miss it? The story was that despite all of the pain and loss, two cute boys found each other. And, that we all go through difficult things, but we also find the good in our lives. Is that so hard to accept that the story is a meet cute horror flick? There's plenty of "straight content" that's like this, why's the objection only being raised with queer content?
4) They fell in love because they were both cute and attracted to each other. Please let's stop acting like dramatic things and moments need to happen for people to like each other. Can't we just be happy for the adorable stories.

Overall, the story was so cute. I could totally rewatch it. And I'm so glad I went ahead and watched it despite the negativity surrounding it.

Leia Mais

Not the greatest but not that bad either

From the trailer I kinda had hopes for this drama but it was okay. I mean..if you want to watch something light..then this is for you.

The story is nice..it's just the development of the story is slightly off. The actors are cute and the family as well encouraged me to continue this drama.

The main thing for me that I didn't like/understand is the fact that the reason why Kawin decided to do ghost hunting. It was only briefly explained. His friend who died had zero to very little importance in the story. Him being in it or not at all didn't make any difference to the story. So I wished on that point it was elaborated even further so that we could understand how Kawin felt when he left pluem thinking the same situation that happened with his friend would affect his recent relationship.

Right now, to me it felt quite foolish that he went away without saying anything to Pluem but then they meet again but there was no conversation about that situation.

But other than that, it was okay...I liked the interaction of the family and their sweet moments.

Leia Mais

Love the happy ending.

For me it was interesting story I really enjoyed. I definitely loved that happy ending, because who doesn't right. Also I enjoyed the fact, that it was not too spicy (you know what I mean), and just romantic. About acting... I think I have nothing to say, because it was really impressive in my opinion. All of them made great job. Anyway, I guess since half of 7. episode till like quarter of 8. episode I was ABSOLUTELLY confused. Like literally confused when in the beginning of 8. episode I went back on the very first second to make sure I didn't miss anything, because it was very confusing and in parts didn't make sense to me. I think it was mostly because it was too short for that kind of story, which in my opinion needs way more episodes to cover everything and explain the story properly. Especially those different stories in between. I need more details, ok? Like how is it possible Kevin's parents didn't know that aunt and uncle with cousins death. Or did they knew, but were like: "meh, let's not tell him, and let's send him to live with his relatives, so he can find out they are actually dead. Like what can go wrong". Another thing I need to know is the story of Piam and See-nam (hope I wrote it correctly). Like I need more answers in this and the rest of story in general.
In any case, I enjoyed it very much. It was cute and for random find when I didn't knew what to expect, I definitely was not disappointed. So yeah, I would recommend to give it a shot.

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