Give that Dog an Oscar

I want to try to be kind. But it's nearly impossible. As a victim of cutie pie the series the year before, I have to say that I knew better and blame myself fully for watching this. I take full accountability for my bad decisions. I'd read both novels so I had a general idea of the plot and back story of each. And yes. The novel of naughty babe is just as bad as this. In fact I'd reckon the series is better in some aspects.

Story
There is none. They had good comedic timing in the beginning but while watching i came to the realization that i was using what I'd read in the books to fill gaps and explain away my confusion. Or maybe my brain is foggy from my old age. I still feel like I'm missing hours of my time from watching this. The cast was very attractive. The filter was a bit brighter. The product placements were a thing of beauty. Tell me a word for shameless in your language. Bills must be paid.

Acting/Cast
We need to retire this ship. Come for me, disagree if you want but since the whyru days of maxnat. I have always had a problem with an underage boy being paired with a twenty nine year old adult. I never liked it but seeing them in cutie pie I learned to stomach it. At least in my mind, nat was old enough to consensually do...those things he did. But let's be honest. NAT IS A TERRIBLE ACTOR. He has two default modes of expression; opening his mouth and widening his eyes. His enunciation sucks. He can't cry. He looks juvenile when being sexy. It's been almost five years and he's still this bad? At least Kuea Keerati gave us range. Max was okay. He looks mean naturally so he didn't have to work too hard. zeenunew were zeenunewing as usual with the cringe.
The Dog was the real star. He was obedient, he was cute, he looked great in his outfits. I mean...he was a better actor than the main leads. Carried the show on those four spindly legs.

Rewatch Value
If you want to lose your mind. Go right ahead.

Edit: Finale
It was definitely a ride. Even with all the complaints it had a lot of good moments. Dont take it too seriously and you'll be fine. Well done khun diao and hia yi. Enjoy your success

Leia Mais

I was praying for her downfall

A semi- rant

For the past 15 years the whole world has been trying to navigate this social media world with no sort of modicum of dignity and a little bit of sanity. Sadly the reality of today clearly shows that the power of online personalities and their pull on the minds of consumers. These influencers are deem powerful with their ability to sell you a life you don't need but you've been convinced you can somehow afford.
Watching the celebrity didn't teach me anything profound that i didn't already know fr. People living fake lives, because it seems that's the only way they can earn a living while the rest of us judge them from the comfort of our phones. Proclaiming how we're all better than that, smarter than that but still encouraging them by watching their videos, liking their feeds, buying their products and using their promocodes.

Seo Ah ri is a self-righteous hypocrite. Her disdain for the other influencers showed that she did in fact have a superiority complex. From oh I don't have social media, to oh I just fell into it cos I have a short bob and cute style? to, oh I'm too good to be an influencer for money, to oh I can do whatever I want and not expect any consequences, to oh the consequences came but I'm too good of a person. How? ! just how am I suffering this?

Her character felt like some sort of caricature. She is supposed to represent what being a true internet celebrity is about all noble, witty and pure. She's supposed to be different. Then she wears people's clothes and goes into drug dens and threaten people about their private lives and somehow we're supposed to think she's the good guy? She' did exactly what the others were doing except she always lectured us about it after the fact. No successful celebrity got to the top without stepping on heads. I don't care how wholesome they seem. That's the unfortunate way the world is. People will use, manipulate and destroy you for money and fame.
So who is seo ah ri, to think that by herself? That She could bring down all of these people? If she was that great from the beginning,she wouldn't have to do those things. So how come she's the only one that gets a happy ending? When the others also had to be ruthless to stay on top. They did all that to protect themselves.

Her relationship with han jun kyuong wasn't needed. His character didn't have any bearing on the story, he really felt corny. She achieved most of everything without him anyway. That trope of princess maker is outdated (gu jun pyo called and he says it's not 2009) and come on, the harassment at the beginning was getting on my nerves. Will his parents agree to him marrying an influencer? Probably not.

Her bestie. Poor thing i even forgot her name. But she was the realest character. Her sacrifice for her so called friend and the jealousy and anger where ari started being low-key bitchy. You're judging her? You treated her like a personal assistant and is surprised she'd stab you in the back?

I wish they never revealed who _bbbfamous was. Or made her so crazy. She wanted revenge for being treated like crap? or being made to feel like crap? her character represents majority of people that despise celebrities for the life they live but most of these hate sites are never caught. Most live in the shadows and It was laughable how she jumped out the window. Why didn't they call the police? Why did ah ri and that lady confront her like that. She made you who you are but you're butthurt cos she stabbed you in the back?

The story would have had more impact if it was more realistic. It didn't need a love triangle. I would have appreciated if they had showed a more organic rise to fame. Maybe by her promoting those cosmetics that she sold in the beginning and then her defending what she worked for honestly. That would have been more reasonable.

Leia Mais

.....so this was all a game

I hate that boss man. Genuinely waited for a crocodile is swallow him up. Don't ask me how but he deserved a painful death for being so annoying
Sir. He wants to be a movie villian so bad urgh

McSexy Feat. McHottie
That's my nickname for yinwar. They make a very cohesive and attractive pairing. Both being very good-looking with striking constrasts. If not for anything they'll continue to be successful because people genuinely enjoy watching them on screen. Good chemistry and palpable sexual tension.

Story
There are glaringly 3 main problems I've encountered watching this. The first one being ;

1. The story's writing. I could see the vision. Jack being bamboozled (big word for scammed) by Joker and forced to work as an enforcer for a criminal. Joker coming out from prison to help jack pay off his debt as restitution for destroying his life and ruining his future. The both of them growing as people and falling in love while taking down the big bad boss.

This is a good plot that would have worked with better writing. Watching the episodes singularly you don't notice the deficiencies in the plot as a lot of the situations simply made no sense but as i binged, I realised that the pacing was either too fast or too slow a lot of times with scenes being jumbled up with poor continuity as it moved from an episode to the next, with the same characters repeating the stupid mistakes they'd made and resolved 2 episodes ago .

2. Character development
I'm sure i will get pushback from this. But I didn't see any growth. The deficiencies were right from the beginning as both characters should have been edgier, darker, gritty 555and jaded. That would have raised the stakes and heightened the tension.

Jack was the same naive fool that had been tricked 4 times in the span of 10 episodes while his love interest, a reckless bull headed idiot (that thought he was a genius) that escalated situations for the worse. They never changed as people, as already since the beginning, they were portrayed as being kind, understanding and a bit misunderstood. So it made perfect sense that Joker felt guilty for his past actions and Jack was still unable to commit to being a heartless gangster.
I didn't see neither of them learning from their past actions and trying to move different. Joker still often times resulted to being a thief to solve problems. And that's why the story fell in a loop as they always ended up in the same situations again and again.

3. Love story
The reasons why i praised yinwar for their ship earlier, is because they're damn good ship. Better than most I've seen this year because, you actually can see them in your head sneaking off somewhere being in love or just being friends. They sell it. And they sold it. Even in the worst of moments that this show befuddled my mind (confused) me and had me fastforwarding a lot of useless scenes, I was rewarded with a cute scene or two per episode of them just being them. I wanted the satisfaction of just seeing them lock eyes and say the "i love yous" and kiss till the panties started dropping. I always looked forward to their scenes.

But that doesn't erase the obvious fact that the buildup to them falling in love was quite rushed. There was no real resolution of the past between them, no earth shattering realisation, or the unimaginable mental torture that would justify jack forgiving joker for fucking with him, and then later falling in love with him, after hating his guts for so long. That is what i didn't understand.

Then there's hope and save. Just throw those two away. Wasting precious screentime that should have gone into arranging this story.

Acting
It had some good solid moments. A lot of heartmelting scenes that reminded me of human resilience in the face of.....err oppression? Or their mistakes
Zorzo is gorgeous as always. I enjoyed scenes with her. A lot of the side characters were...underwhelming in their delivery but I'd have to applaud the older actors (boss man made me despise him fr) for doing great jobs. Nice to see Mark Siwat in a new role as well.

Rewatch Value
I felt the most relief watching the boss and that psycho sidekick of his get defeated. So satisfying. But I'd say that the ending was a bit silly in how every character had a side quest and were cosplaying the squid games. The journey to freedom was arduous and perilous and I dont want to be put through that again.

I think all in all with its mistakes it still rounded out to be a fairly good show that made you root for the underdog. I see the excitement for yinwar and they carried it as best as they could.

Leia Mais