Studio Wabi Sabi’s new adaptation “Absolute Zero” premiered on IQIYI last week to high expectations; depicting the story of Ongsa and his boyfriend Suansoon on altering time-lines. Their relationship begins during their high school days and a decade later, they are still going strong. But an accident occurs Ongsa’s birthday that incurs a crack in their fates.

Veteran BL Director New Siwaj’s latest adaptation based on Salil’s novel “Absolute Zero Ongsa Sun” is a vibrant series. Relying on a well thought out music score to fill in for the minutes where there is no spoken dialogue; we watch young Suansoon (Mix Wanut) drift through his life leading to the death anniversary of his parents. It felt like watching a long music video as he simply exists. The problem for me was that a music videos typically last 3 to 5 minutes. But this one lasted 30 minutes, punctuated by random moments of dialogue with a daughter-father duo from the DVD rental store that acts as the source of distraction from his solitary life.

When he meets Ongsa (Tor Supakorn) at a special events movie (in lieu of sitting at home with DVDs), I thought for sure this would be where things picked up. But the pacing for the series premiere as well as the writing didn’t do justice to this pair, as far as the romance goes. Instead, we get four randomly dispersed scenes of them (talking between more music driven exposition shots), before they decide to be boyfriends.

At this point, the show switches to their adult versions, Suansoon (Teng Kanist) and Ongsa (Toey Punawat), who have all the chemistry, and even a kiss that their younger selves didn’t have. Ironically, their story arc seems to be where all the drama is, as the DVD shop owner dies and they attend his funeral. And then Ongsa doesn’t return home for his beautiful birthday dinner that Suansoon made for him.

Ok, before I dive into the next episode, I wanted to take a second and explain in more detail my reasoning about the pilot.

I get it, Suansoon is a lonely boy with seemingly no friends, mourning the loss of his parents and continuing their love for films by watching them. That I get. But basing a large chunk of the premiere episode with very little character building for him just felt weak. The boy is living alone in an apartment with no job, going to school and renting movies. It’s like he’s an empty cup waiting to be filled with plot.

A plot Ongsa would have been if they had actual dialogue instead of seemingly random moments where they discuss things in the different times: neither correlated, nor they display the passing of time. Yes, Ongsa randomly pops up after the first time they watched a movie together. And holds up 3 or 4 tickets for times he had gone to the movies without Suansoon hoping to see him (cute) but due to the lack of any preceding indication of the amount of time passing, it just felt like lazy writing; which is my problem with the first episode. The script felt so lopsided with regard to the younger versions versus the pacing. The adult versions got coherent scripts but were shoved to the back end of the episode so it was over before you could appreciate it.

Meanwhile, the second episode starts in the days following (adult) Ongsa’s accident. Because again, who needs any indication of time passing with regard to a narrative story? He is laid up in a hospital bed, having been in a wreck. Suansoon is by his bedside. Ongsa’s parents send him home to change clothes, rest and eat. The acting, lighting, and close shots are perfect. Suansoon sees a shooting star and makes a wish while on a taxi ride back home; when he gets out, he has time traveled a decade in the past. It happens just like that. I did have prior knowledge of time traveling and was curious as to how it would happen. But for it to be so happenstance was just so…I don’t know. But it’s a BL drama, so we are going to suspend our disbelief. Suansoon wanders not long before seeing the teenage Ongsa and their interactions are so confusing.

Suansoon is understandably shocked to see the teenage version of his husband. But then it takes a comical turn as he allows this young boy to lead him to a police station. His flimsy story about memory loss doesn’t hold up, the police officer just allows the supposedly amnesiac man (who was led to the station by a high school boy in full uniform) to leave, no questions asked only for Ongsa to reappear and take him along. Now I want to reference the first episode because it does have moments where it makes sense. But having a high school boy take a random stranger (who knows your name, having never met you) back to the cafe where he works dumbfounded me. The episode continues down this vein and by the end of it, it’s clear what’s happening.

Younger Ongsa has a crush on his future husband. A crush I can’t logically believe Suansoon doesn’t realize is happening. And further more seems to be reciprocating as he takes a private moment to stroke the boy’s hair while he is sleeping during a study session because Suansoon is tutoring him. Ongsa’s Boss, is the owner of the cafe where Suansoon is renting a home. Again, no mention of how he survives in that era, because obviously he isn’t working and has no money to fall back on. The boss quietly watches their clandestine meetings with a smile on her face. Happy that her employee has a caring friend.

Something that is further acknowledged as Ongsa calls his friends come to the cafe so they can be tutored by Suansoon. The friends are justifiably suspicious of why they are being tutored here until they see Suansoon. They make wild guesses about Suansoon and Ongsa’s relationship while teasing them. The boss playfully tosses her hands and says something to the affect of see for yourself while Suansoon beams (it was cute, I’m not gonna lie in a typical yaoi romantic way). The episode ends with the cliffhanger of Ongsa asking Suansoon on a date. And Suansoon realizing the significance of the situation, they both are in.

Ok let’s get into the second episode-

This show has a very entitled way of being written. Not giving precise indicators of time (passing them off with numerous amounts of scenery shots and music) felt very indulgent to me; like watching a Sofia Coppola movie. The way it just pauses for these scenes and then picks up the dialogue in random places made it feel like they have a serious pacing issue honestly. If the script was written in a way to give the viewer a more distinct view of the times, the words were said, I would have felt more satisfied. Instead, this show about time travel with no coherent line of timing made me feel a bit like Sherlock Holmes. I had to go back to episode one to observe the stranger who spoke to Suansoon, convincing him to get out and meet people. Right before he met Ongsa for the first time, only to have Suansoon pop up in the past before the event in episode two, along with the mother saying that Ongsa had spent days with Suansoon, shows me that Suansoon meets his younger self later than episode two.

The beautiful sets, intriguing premise and great acting from the whole cast for the time they are on screen does keeps me coming back. But I’m curious about why it’s written this way. As well as the pacing, as if it’s all going to pay off in the end (in regard to the script that felt random in many places). I am curious how far young Ongsa and adult Suansoon’s blooming romance will go?

I’m very curious about the adult Suansoon in general. He knows he isn’t dreaming. He is ges to experience young Ongsa’s affection. Is he being self indulgent in a way that he has forgotten about his husband lying in a coma in the present day? Again, thanks to the script, we have this perception of our time traveler who doesn’t seem concerned about having time traveled at all.

Rating- 3 out of 5 stars (because it is well acted, shot and the music is lush even if the script makes no sense to me)

Streaming on- IQIYI