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Journey With You (Chinese Series)

By Golu
I've always had kind of a love hate relationship with Chinese historical BLs. Some are genuinely excellent, but then there are others that cram in so much plot that keeping track of all the layers of betrayal and scheming gets exhausting, and I end up checking out mentally. Part of the issue is also just how much content is out there in this space, so something really has to stand out to keep me hooked. In this case, the production value is genuinely impressive, top tier stuff, but story wise, I just couldn't bring myself to actually care about these characters. There's a ton of political scheming and backstage manipulation running throughout. Somewhere in the middle of all that chaos, a hostage ends up falling for his own Prince Charming. The show runs eight episodes, each around 50 to 60 minutes long. After spending three years guarding the border, Fifth Prince Yin Qi gets called back to the capital because of a secret letter, only to end up walking straight into a deadly...
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Knock Out (Thai Series)

By Golu
The backdrop of the show is quite interesting. A whole BL series centered around boxing is not easy to make, so kudos for that. The problem is that the things strata to get repetitive very soon. Problem arise, someone fixes it, there is amount of happiness and the craziness starts again with one more layer of bad guys now joining in. It happens multiple times with our lead couple always at the center of it all. Also, another problem is that there are way too many characters to keep your focus on and they keep coming in. So, for a series that started off quite well. I found myself losing interest by the time 6 episodes were done and then I just wanted it to end sooner than later. The show has 12 episodes plus one special of about 50-65 minutes duration.

Keen is a young boy who suddenly loses his cop father in a mysterious death. Left alone, his father's friend offers shelter in his boxing club. Loan sharks are after his life and they wont leave him alone, so he has no choice but to go there. Thun is the star boxer of this boxing camp who, for some reason does not fight anymore and there are other bunch of characters like owner's son and another boxer who is his boyfriend. The group has financial hardships, so Keen, who is the smart kid, comes up with an idea for a boxing fight with Thun leading. He manages to convince Thun and the first fight happens to be with rival group's best boxer (who used to be Thun's closest friend). There are 2-3 rounds like this, where Keen come sup with a brilliant plan to keep them afloat, fights happen, but villains come in the way and they are back to basic. Eventually Ken comes up with an idea to reach out to minister of sports and sort of start a league with boxers. Everyone loves the idea but this is where a cat and mouse game of receipts begin. The minister has a lot of ulterior motives than one could think of. Turns out, he is the super villain ho has been orchestrating this whole thing right from the time when Keen's father was killed to this very moment. Of course the good guys eventually win. Oh, I forgot to mention that in between all this , of course, a love story develops between Keen and Thun. The love story between them builds slowly at first, built on tension, bruised egos, and trauma. But they aren’t the only ones caught in the storm. There is another couple (Owner's son and another boxer). They have much less time but somehow there's is more raw and humane.

There’s a genuine effort to tell a story about healing and survival, about how people crash into each other at the worst moments and still manage to pull something beautiful out of the wreckage. But sadly the flaws, for me, outweighed the ambition and heart of the show. Too many characters to focus on makes the show very convoluted. Some transitions are jarring, a few romantic scenes feel more staged than sincere, and there are moments when the production could have used a tighter grip. the storyline didn’t seem to offer many opportunities for the protagonists to truly form bonds, feeling a bit superficial from the start and never able to tame that trail into genuine relationships. Instead, it just pushed couples together in less-than-realistic situations and left them to it. The show started off as a "saving the grieving guy from loan sharks" but it dipped into doping, underground boxing rings, gambling, and even corrupt police/murder cover-ups. There's just too much going on and it took away from the viewer's experience. There needs to be a more clear story, with a clear enemy, and then you can map out a complex storyline around it. Also, whats up with Keen. How does he have a magical solution for every problem? There is no logic on how he convinced Thun for the first match. It just happens. The actors do a decent job, but the whole aspect of recycling similar events with more and more villains do test your patience eventually. Love making scenes between Keen and Thun seemed all forced to me. The severity of the situation was not matching their hormones level. Brownie points for trying a different environment and investing into something more. But this one needed more polished scripting and much less characters. (4.5/10)
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