TRIGGER WARNING.
Not every manga, webtoon, or novel needs to be adapted for tv. This is so cringe. Before getting into the plot just objectively this is not a good show. Without having read the synopsis for the book I first just found everything lacking in the show. No offense to Frank but I expected more. To his credit, Itt seems like a truly very difficult character to play given how incredibly annoying he is. Neither Frank nor Long is a rookie, but really I've been following Frank's career from the beginning so I know he can do better. The characters just seem to lack depth. The production is not good. A lot of the editing decisions were iffy. Chunks of dialogue don't have subs and even when they do sometimes they're so confusing.
Day is so cruel and abusive. All the spicy clips from the show in context are actually giving sexual assault. The preview was giving toxic but it wasn’t until I got to ep 5 that I was like this is incredibly cringey and deeply disturbing. I understood why after reading the synopsis of the book. A lot of people have commented on the first 2 books not having screen adaptations, but truly if this show was done well all of our understanding wouldn't be hinging on having exposure to the other 2 books. And clearly, this is the most palatable (yikes) of the books. I had higher expectations because I wanted redemption after being disappointed by unforgotten night, since they exist in the same universe, but I’m really having a hard time deciding to finish this. Rape is one of my most hated tropes in BL. This show unsettles me.