Cutie Pie (2022)

A Hot Mess!

Gosh, I don't even know where to start. This was one of my most anticipated BLs of this year, and I am so disappointed.
Let me start with the good. I adore Zee. I have been following him since Why R U? and he is literally why I was looking forward to this drama. His acting did not disappoint, and I was pleasantly surprised by NuNew. For a first-time actor, he did a great job. There were a couple of scenes where I felt like he could have delivered more, but overall them and the rest of the cast did a pretty good job acting-wise.

Another thing that actually led me to finish this instead of dropping it, is the side couple. Syn and Nuer. OMG. They are just the cutest lil beans I have ever seen in my life, and if I had to watch an entire drama of them just staring into each other eyes, I would!!!!

Finally, the music. I will be honest and say I don't know much about Thai music, but this drama introduced me to so many great songs that I have been listening to on repeat.

Now let's move on to the bad. The story was a complete mess! And honestly, calling it a storyline, is a bit of a stretch. The same plot was dragged and spun for the entire twelve episodes and the characters just kept lying and deceiving each other. Not to mention, the pacing was so hard to follow. I felt like I had no idea what was happening half the time. I get that the whole point of this drama was to watch them grow and learn to communicate, but I still feel like they haven't. In fact, this show had some of the most stagnant characters I have ever seen. There was little to no character development for both of them, in the end, they both found out each other's secrets, did nothing to resolve the miscommunication, and continued on in their lives like nothing was wrong, but NOTHING CHANGED! There are so many things that I felt went unaddressed. The show should have focused less on being preachy and more on actually writing a plot with substance.

Hot kissing scenes are always fun to watch, but it's not going to save a drama with a boring messy plot or boring stagnant characters. The saddest thing is, this had the potential to be so good. A stellar cast, a good budget, and an established fanbase. It had everything going for it. Unfortunately, it just couldn't deliver.

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A Waste of Time

Honestly, this show was a huge letdown for me all around. The production value was great, the acting was overall pretty good, but the story? The relationships? A big, hot mess that never truly got solved by the end.

We can start with the positives. I liked the actors (for the most part— to be honest, New's crying scenes felt inauthentic at times), and the chemistry between the couples was pretty good. Not mind-blowing by any means, but enough for me to buy that they were actually attracted to each other. I loved pretty much all of the friendships, as well! Kuea and Kon-Diao were great best friends, and actually supported each other equally in a way I feel I hardly ever see in fiction. I also really enjoyed all of Kuea's school friends— they were hilarious and so much fun to watch on screen. And honestly, Syn and Nuer's little side relationship was the best-executed plotline in the whole show. The last positive was Foei, who was a side character that stole the scene every time he showed up; I enjoyed the comedy he brought immensely.

And now, the negatives. For starters, a lot of the storyline and plot felt very, very nonsensical. The arranged marriage aspect felt very forced, because there didn't seem to be an actual reason for Lian and Kuea to be arranged to be married. It was like the writers wanted to make us see that they were really in love and not actually being forced into marriage, even though that's the whole point of an arranged marriage plotline. There was also so much weirdness around how Lian and Kuea had known each other since Kuea was a baby, and yet at some point (we never find out when, because why would they ever give us any answers??) Kuea starts acting like a "perfect little doll" and hiding who he actually is. But it's also pointless because the viewer learns early on that Lian knows everything Kuea is trying to hide from him— so what is the point of Kuea hiding it? Why don't they ever just communicate about anything ever?

And that's not even starting on the mess that is the Yi/Diao plotline. Somehow, that one makes even less sense than Lian and Kuea's, since Yi and Diao aren't even together prior to the start of the show! It's weirdly written where it's made to look like Kuea and Diao are in the same situation of pining for their fiances while they think the Hias don't actually love them back, and yet it's not until way into the show that we find out that Yi and Diao aren't anything like that. And pretty much nothing about them and their situation is ever explained, presumably because the writers want to do a sequel series surrounding them.

In the end, the only way to enjoy this show is to just not think about anything and enjoy each scene for what it is rather than as it should be as part of an overall narrative. I wouldn't recommend watching it, as pretty much every other drama I've watched thus far has a more cohesive storyline with relationships that actually make sense.

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