I am sure that I shall have my official passport granting me entry into the BL world revoked for this review, as I know this series is universally praised as exceptional. However, I honestly was not enamored with this series. I have a difficult time with movies and series trying to make gay life ‘perfect’. This even went beyond that. It gave an individual an opportunity for a second chance to relive his life. A do-over. What the series called a reset. But frankly, I was unsure why he deserved a do-over nor did I think he deserved one. It was simply baffling. He reached a pinnacle in this life for which most of us will never accomplish or attain or even dare to dream about. He found out that individuals around him were nefarious and murderous. Too late. My cynical and questioning mind then asked: So what and why him? What was so special about Armin?

My issue with this series has nothing to do with the acting, per se. Well, let me modify that a bit. This is an exceptional series for Pond Ponlawit as Armin. His performance is bewitching. In this fantasy world, he gets a reset of his life to try and correct the mistakes he made on his journey to becoming a great actor. Pond’s acting is nothing short of phenomenal. Every aspect of the character Armin is laid out before us in full view. Pond is an exceptional performer who brings Armin to life and makes him to some degree larger than life. Subjectively thinking, I do think that Pond Ponlawit is one of the finest Thai actors I have seen. The naturalness he projects in his roles and ease and transitions between emotions is pure artistry and a gift that not all performers have or can display with such grace.

Yet it is the supposition itself I have a problem with. There are the same players in Armin’s previous life as there are in his reset life, save for several major twists. One of the most impactful individuals from his previous life, known as TD, was a secret admirer and supporter whom Armin never met. But in this reset life, TD becomes much more involved, active, and significant. He becomes his benefactor and paladin. TD is Tada (Peterpan Tadspon). For me, Peterpan’s portrayal of Tada is just not that impressive, and he was overshadowed by Pond. I also found Peterpan Tadspon as Tada flat and rather one dimensional. Sure, he is written that way, but Tada has no discernible personality.

The remainder of this saga is predicted on the unrequited love for Armin in life number one coming to fruition in life number 2 for Tada. I found the reasoning for Armin’s reset unclear until the end when it did seem to me that perhaps it was a combination of wishful thinking of both Armin and Tada for it to be so. For me, it was important to understand ‘the reason’ because the cast of characters is all frankly unscrupulous characters. So, I wondered, perhaps pondered, why should he be given the chance at a second life? Indeed, it was, or at least it appeared to me, to be the power of unanswered love that ironically needed to be fulfilled.

Tada became fixated, wrapped up, enamored, and possessive of Armin. He began to almost worship him as an ideal, which I found unhealthy. It was not love but a fixation. Meanwhile, Armin, hungry for stability in his own life, gravitated towards his enabler and comforter. And Armin had this compulsive need to change or forfeit his previous destiny. For me, it seemed more like a co-dependency relationship rather than one of true love. Both were in love with being in love and each saw in the other what they wanted to see as an ideal partner. I am sorry, but I never found anything coming close to those two being in love. In essence, they hardly knew each other! Tada had virtually unlimited money and power which gave him enormous advantage to change the direction of Armin. Unquestionably, money and power are exceptionally seductive and spellbinding.

They fell into the theatrics of loving and all that goes with it rather than love itself. To me, their love story was cheesy. Their love scenes, while prolific, were well-rehearsed with an effective soundtrack in the background. For me, these scenes did not feel genuine or have a sense of honesty about them. It all seemed like performative art.

One must begin to question what were we watching then? Did it feel real? I had to decide that it obviously was not and therefore this was all a dream, an illusion. How else do you explain its fantasy ending with everything being corrected in a way that was a destiny of wishful thinking? Regrettably, I never bought the relationship between Tada and Armin. It was too perfect; too quixotic.

Who I think put his heart-and-soul into his role is none other than Bom Tanawat as Thiwthit. Deliciously evil, he is so over-the-top in many scenes. While drop-dead gorgeous in a boyish manner, it was hard at times to reconcile his innocent charm with his sociopathic tendencies. It takes a while to figure out why until we realize that he was and is deeply in love with Tada and wanted him. Although they are stepbrothers, Tada is not interested in him or easily spurns him. Yet their story is incomplete and parts of it felt cryptic. Both he and Tada have an archrival working relationship when it came to the development and management of performers. Is Bom sometimes a bit overly dramatic in his role? Of course, that is what made him enjoyable. Since I felt he brought an intense representation to the role and was such a diabolical antagonist, we knew he was not real. That is what the production wanted and that is what he gave us. I rather enjoyed his performance. He, admittedly, made the series entertaining.

Overall, I simply found this series rather predictable and at times trite. What were you expecting it to be otherwise? I was just not impressed with the theatrics of it all. The portrayal of Tada’s personality always reserved and unemotional became an excuse for his character not to grow at all. We never get to see what makes Tada ‘tick’. Bluntly, I found his obsession with Armin creepy and unnatural. Both in version one and even more so in version 2. And the whole series, while it was supposed to be cathartic and redemptive, seemed dark, brooding, and had a feel that any minute ‘the other shoe was going to drop’.

While I know there was good cause for Tada to be precautionary because of his stepbrother, it was laughable how easy it was for Thiwthit to get to Armin and then the both of them at the end. With all that security, there is no way it should have been that effortless for a penniless, rather loud-mouthed dolt like Thiwthit, suddenly preened, NOT to be noticed, given the resources that Tada had at his fingertips. That made no sense to me and logically was a giant hole in the evolution of the story and frankly is an incredulous weakness in the plot. Additionally, Armin seemed to have had a second miracle happen to him.

Again, for me, I thought their relationship in version 2 was unhealthy and toxic. Too much of ANYTHING is spurious and to portray it romantically sends the wrong message. No relationship is pure bliss and to project that if life is given a second chance to do over again, one can make things ‘right’, is lame and cliché. I did not buy it, and I could not buy their relationship was this intense magical romance somehow written in the stars with fireworks going off every week. Thus, it all seemed like a giant illusion.

Obviously, I understand the attraction this series has, which was enhanced by Pond’s fantastic portrayal of an envied superstar being given a ‘second chance’ just at the pinnacle of his career. There is something so hypnotic and enticing about watching Armin perform that I could see how TD could easily have become obsessed with him.

I simply saw all of this as an elaborate illusion of a grieving Tada thinking back on what could have been but never was. It is fake, sad, and rather pathetic. I simply could not accept any of this as discerned in the real world. It became too much like a gay soap-opera.

I want gay romance to be based upon a strong sense of in-your-face realness in this life; not some fantasy reliance on do-overs or resets as the only way to romance or love. One must make it with what you have been given- sometimes along difficult paths. In that way, it is all yours.

Rating- 2.5 out of 5

Streaming on- IQIYI