BLISS RATING: ★★★
“Fate decides who comes into your life; your heart decides who stays.” – Quote from The Random Vibez
Confusing. Best description I can give this series. It is yet again another BL series that hooks you in the beginning and then crashes and burns because it cannot come to logical conclusions that can be discerned in the real world. Part of the acceptability factor is that the story itself must make some sense; this does not, although it tries hard to make it so.
Essentially, you must buy into the premise that our physical brain will cease to function after 4 minutes without oxygen. This of course, is a truism. But what this series then does is push forward a premise that during those 4 minutes without oxygen, people who are experiencing that trauma, relive ‘life’ in various manners within that 4-minute window period. For some, they can perceive events that will occur 4 minutes in the future.
Why this series is so confusing is that it attempts to project too much story with too many people. Admittedly, I am old, and I have a difficult time following a train of thought for one individual and I am pushing it for two people. But when you have multiple people affected by the advancement of 4 minutes in the future with a number of different alternatives for each, my mind begins to jellify. Logic becomes inoperative here. Everything makes sense because nothing actually does. It depends upon the time frame you are currently in. Therefore, there is no logic. Consequently, I am lost.
The story centers around Great (Bible Wichapas) who is a son of a very wealthy family and seems to be the outcast of the family. The family appears to be a quasi-mafia-type configuration in a sense of the way they conduct business and acquire money by illegal means. Great’s stepbrother, Korn (Bas Asavapatr), has recently been placed in charge of the aspect of his father’s company that is a conduit for the illegal activities for gaining most of the family’s money. Korn has been in a loving relationship with his boyfriend of many years named Tonkla (Fuaiz Thanawat). As brothers, even though they are only stepbrothers, Great and Korn are very close.
Great, through a series of misfortunate circumstances based upon his recent ability to be able to see 4 minutes into the future, meets Tyme (Jes Jespipat), a very handsome young doctor soon to become a surgeon. Instantly Tyme is attracted to Great and Great, because he has clairvoyant skills, cognizes somehow that the two of them will be together.
Here is where the story begins to completely go off the rails. Depending on who Great is involved with, he experiences different timelines depending on which path he chooses to take during the ‘4 minute window’ he is given to relive the event. So, the series goes back and forth. Past and future. To the point the story became a hodge-podge of intricate webs, way too convoluted to figure out. I could never quite figure out how he got his original 4 minute ability in the first place and in actuality how ‘long’ that 4 minutes in essence really lasted. It is all made to fit neatly into a conclusion, except that it genuinely does not.
Great, by any standard, is not an upstanding figure and can be considered a nefarious individual. Korn loses his self-worth and burns years of hard work to make a loving relationship work, for the sake of his family business. People descended into killing either others or themselves as easily as if one switches on and off a lightbulb. The story got so deep into the weeds that I could not tell who was ‘bad’ or good’ and even when. Individuals were jumping timelines all the time. I detested that as it makes for no continuity in storytelling.
This series is difficult to see as a BL and it honestly should not be. It is more in line with a LGBTQIA+ story as the relationships are merely tools or products of lust. It is filled with hot steamy raw, rather graphic sex scenes that, while not pornographic, left little doubt as to what was happening. I have no issues with any of that and in fact, I found that to be quite a refreshing departure from the sanitized romantic trite stores of most BLs. It was pure sex.
Even at the end, when there is a concentration on the relationship between Great and Tyme, the story got in the way of any meaningful development of a relationship. Sure, they had stunning sexual escapades, but the story is so convoluted and so into itself that any love between the two had to be implied and what little there was, was only superficial. I did not for once think they had anything close to a meaningful relationship. Besides, both suffered incalculable losses that they must deal with. Each on a personal level. That at the early moment in their developing relationship, must take precedence. There is a lot for the two of them to recover from. Besides, we are not even sure if they are even real!?
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? There is a plethora of characters in this series but one really stands out for two reasons. One is for the depth of the performance of his characterization and two for his range of emotions that he showed. He is an astonishing actor for someone so young. It is Fuaiz Shinawatra as Tonkla. This young man is not only astonishingly handsome, he is breathtakingly so. And boyish. To address the ‘elephant in the room’, he was no doubt under the age of 18 when he made this series with its adult content. And some of his role was indeed quite adult in nature and content. Obviously to play this role, he had the necessary permissions. Therefore, critiquing him on his acting skills, he was convincing. If I had not looked, I would not have known. So, he portrayed the adult role with complete conviction and realism and was alluring all at the same time. To watch his range of emotions is truly a work of art. The closeup camera on his face captured his emotions in great detail. You could see and sense his loss to the anchors of moral and societal standards when he realized that the killer of his brother would not truly be punished. The way he played and toyed with both Korn and the inspector assigned to his brother’s murder case, Win (JJay Patipham) is acting par excellence. Pretending to be superficial but in reality, being deeply and profoundly intimately emotionally connected. Truly loving Korn, we still see his breaking point. There is also a deeply dark and destructive side to him that becomes lustful and lascivious. He loses all sense of touch with reality and in essence hope. Fuaiz played this part with such a strong sense of who the character was. Tongla was gone from humanity. He is the only one in this series that I believed was real. That is how strong his performance was.
This story at least for me falls flat. It gets lost under the weight of its own story. The plot is too complex. The story is silly. The couplings are to be sure erotically hot but not sustainable for any type of long-term loving relationships. The antagonists are right out of a trope playbook. Sure, this series does take risks in the sense that it does present more eroticism to its loving making, but honestly it is wasted and pointless. Sometimes it seemed more for shock value than for leading to anything meaningful. While I love to see astonishingly handsome half-naked men, there has to be something behind the scenes to make it more sustainable other than a beautiful body. Or then, it becomes voyeuristic.
I am bemused by criticism of this series from people who state there are too many NC scenes. I did not see any, so I am not sure what they are talking about. For those who read this, this IS an adult series with an adult theme. There is nothing pornographic or even sexually offensive. If you find it so, then stop watching. Do not impose your standards on others for that will become a dangerous precedent There are way more obscene subject matters such as infidelity, murder, suicide, illegal gambling, bullying, abuse, and yet we are concerned about a few scenes of two guys laying in bed semi-naked? Incongruent, silly, and cretinous thinking.
My issue with this series is that it is disjointed, confusing, lacks a clear point, and tries to wrap things up at the end too neatly and quickly. It just does not work and is not very effective despite the fact that it does have stunningly handsome actors. That is not enough to sustain it – with or without clothes on. That is not enough to sustain it – with or without clothes on.
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