SOTUS (2016)

Stole My Heart From the Beginning!

This show— god, what a wonderful show this was! It was one of those quiet ones for me, where I didn't realize how much I loved it until I was head over heels. It sucked me right in and made me fall in love alongside Arthit and Kongpob.

It took me a little while to understand the whole SOTUS-hazing-thing, mostly because the concept of hazing is very different in the US. It did take me a bit to stop cringing when the terms 'hazing' and 'hazers' were used, just because of the stigma of hazing that I'm so familiar with. The hazing in the show isn't nothing, per se, but it's nowhere near as dangerous or problematic as the kind of hazing I've heard of before. If that's something that is deterring you from trying this show, I highly recommend you try it anyway.

I LOVED the giant cast of characters in this show. Though Kongpob and Arthit are absolutely the main characters and their story was the most gripping of the show, the supporting and side characters were so fleshed out. It was so easy to care about them all and enjoy their time on screen, which is something that I can't say for many other series I've seen. I would have loved to see even more of any of these characters– that's how much I enjoyed them all.

The soft moments made me ache, the funny ones made me laugh out loud, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself from start to finish. Krist and Singto had great chemistry, making their love story so believable and overall a wonderful time. I can't wait to rewatch this show in the future because I absolutely will rewatch it sometime soon.

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This definitely wasn’t what I expected. I expected the usual university romance and little more but as it turned out, it was actually a story about friendship and traditions, about learning how to be respectful and how to cooperate with other people. All the characters were great, the writers actually paid attention not just to the leads but to the supporting ensemble too! I’ve rarely cared about a Thai drama as a whole, not just about one specific storyline, before but here I did.

I watched the series mainly for New Thitipoom, my Thai bias, who played M, the lead’s, Kong’s, best friend. And I loved how his character turned out, he was just precious, sweet and goofy and so nice! He made me root for M and May and it was too bad that after M’s love confession, May simply disappeared from the show, M was just seen talking to her on the phone and that was it.

What surprised me was how soft Arthit turned out to be. He as the head hazer seemed so hard and vengeful, a real bully, only for us to find out about halfway through the drama that he actually hated his role, he hated shouting and being so harsh to the freshmen, it just didn’t sit well with him at all. That was a really nice surprise.

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The ost may not be in my best interest but the series got me hung up waiting for new episodes every week and I’m just writing this review now and idk why. I like how the story is developed from beginning til the end. I think this series started the pink milk tea. Then afterward I start seeing other series using pink milk tea too. I love a story when 2 main leads doesn’t get along at first but as time continues they get to know each other more and then start to develop their feelings slowly. I’m not really into story that rush to the scene where the main leads get together that quick in just 1 or 2 episodes. I rather take it slowly. If you are interested in this series, go check out the sequel. It shows more of their after university life and how Arthit learns to develop more love towards Kongpob but he take his time to do this because there are conflicts he have to face.

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This show is bad. Even if we ignore how incredibly toxic SOTUS is as a concept, which I'm glad is banned in many places, the show is still mediocre. We didn't have enough interactions between the leads to believe that there is genuine love between them, which is ironic since this is pretty much a slow burn, the chemistry was not that good, the characters were badly develop and I was never able to fully connect with them, the show's is so very badly done, the use of colors is terrible and the sound it's somehow even worse and I hated most side characters but the worst part is how liked is this show. Arthit as a character might be the only things that I actually enjoyed, not the couple itself, Kongpob lacked development and also I don't know if this is on purpose, but he seemed kind of creepy sometimes, the way he carried himself, idk. The soundtrack was.. I have no words to describe it, there is only one song I actually don't mind listening to

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Kongpob's Evolution and Arthit's Emotional Development

For me, the series started well. I had no expectations for the series, good or bad. I liked the Kongpob character very much right away. I watched the general story with love and pleasure. But after a while, the progress in the relationship of our main couple decreased so much that it started to make me feel like I was watching a youth drama instead of BL (at this point I started to be unhappy). After all, I came here to watch BL. If the system, school events, etc. are not too disturbing, I usually don't care. I look at the realism and passion of the love presented.

In the first episodes, Kongpob's rebelliousness and small-scale flirtatiousness and secret anger was what excited me, but this gradually started to diminish. He started to become more of a normal, good student. I wanted it to get deeper. We should have seen more details about the character.

Arthit's suppression of emotions in the first chapters and his hiding that he was affected by Kongpob amused me, but after a while this progress stopped, as if there was no increase in his feelings.

Imagine that you are in control and everyone is afraid of you.
A first-year university student challenges your authority: REBELLIOUS. The favorite of the whole school, everyone who knows him/her loves him/her a lot: POPULAR. Probably the teachers will like him/her very much: STATUS. You insulted him/her, and now he/she is using that insult against you and flirting with you: ATTRACTIVE. Has excellent grades, hardworking: INTELLIGENT... This list can go on and on.

When you have such a person in front of you and this person respects you, you fall in love very seriously with jealousy, anger and feelings of total possession that accumulate inside you. This is where Arthit was supposed to take on an obsessive character and desperately crave Kongpob, but it didn't happen. In short, it was supposed to be Arthit, not Kongpob.

So how to say, the story is very suitable for being much more passionate and intense. But overall a good story especially the first half but the series is not memorable for me.

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oh but love grows where my rosemary goes

The music goes absolutely crazy. This was really goddamn good. It doesn't get enough hype now because it came out in 2016, but this was crazy good. Arthit and Kong's dynamic was good, in the last few episodes, the tension between those two went crazy. It was so good, and the kisses became more and more emotion-filled and really good. The first few episodes were kind of repetitive, and not a lot of romance happened between our two main characters. Arthit was getting on my nerves; I was getting really mad, so the acting was good. I will probably watch some scenes, but I won't rewatch this whole thing. It was good. I enjoyed it; the average was an 8.6, so I made it an 8.5. good drama overall and good acting. Okay, bye. The wheel chose this one, and I am glad. the wheel chose until we meet again next, so let's do this.

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SOTUS is amazing

SOTUS is amazing. It was the 3rd BL series that I have watched since I started to enter the Thai BL world. The acting was so pure even though some scenes are not true to life, especially some parts of hazing (which was clarified at the beginning).

It never gets old for me. Krist and Singto have this unexplainable charisma and chemistry with each other. I believe they have played their role excellently, but of course, room for improvements must be considered on their side.

I recently rewatched it last week after 6 to 7 months. It still gave me the chills while I watched it. I really hope that there will be season 3 for this.

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SOTUS THE SERIES: In my opinion, some scenes of freshmen and mentors are far-fetched, downright embarrassing, reminiscent of the buzzing of greasers and pheasants in the army. And on top of that, university students in Thailand have to pay tuition, walk around like a herd of donkeys in uniforms and put up with these humiliating idiots. The "story" is somewhat stretched and the famous Asian naivety is also present. Therefore, my rating of the story is the lowest of all criteria, it is definitely not out of ten.
On the other hand, both main protagonists are very original and are the backbone of the series, which attacks the soul (heart) more than the physical (maybe there could be at least a drop of it). If I evaluate both actors, then apparently, unlike the majority, I lean towards the character of Arthit, who gave more space for acting skills, and in the last parts of the first series I enjoyed how suddenly Arthit "became mad" with an undisguised love for Kongpob, whose character is more unambiguous and my "suspicion" that Kongpob is actually older than Arthit in civilian clothes was also confirmed. But overall, good above average. Czech baalberith subtitles for the first series are very decent.

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I am not sure this is the write place for it, but I am not aware of any other platform to comment, so I do it here.
just finished re-watching this delightful drama [of course while eliminating all kind of unnecessary background noises], and I suddenly noticed something that really disturbs me.
on Krist's board in his room there was hanging very proudly the picture of no other than CHarles MAnson. for those of you who dont know who he is- he is a bloody murderer from the 1960's. and somehow I cant take it as a honest mistake of the production. ignorance more like it.
but it doesnt end here. to add insult to injury
on another episode, for the better half of the episode, the same Krist is wearing a Che Guevara shirt.
now really, whats the matter with you people of the production? not enough to idolise a "simple" murderer, but to idolise a mass murderer as well? and no, Guevara is not a freedom fighter as many tend to think, and he is not even Cuban. he is a mass murderer.
you should at least make a little research, to google 5 minutes and the truth is revealed immediately.

apart from it, i really enjoyed the drama. one of the best of its kind

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I love Arthit and Kongpob

I was hesitant to watch this because of the hazing thing and I didn't think it could be romantic. But I was so wrong and I realised that after watching it. So basically Kongpob is a freshmen in the university where there is a hazing tradition, Arthit is a senior. Whenever something unfair happens Kongpob can't help but argue for the sake of his fellow freshmen and this lands him in a weird spot with Arthit. Now, I had no idea how the falling in love would happen but it was so well executed and everything was really understandable. So Kongpob realises the truth behind what the seniors do and he see's the other side of Arthit and then Arthit is understanding with Kongpob. I love the respect and understanding. They both waited for each other and they got each other. Oh god, this series was just so good I loved it. The music was also really good one of the Ost's was so good I regularly listen to it. The acting was perfect like literally, you could see everything in the posture and facial expressions of the characters, for example Arthit's nervousness was really well conveyed. I took off half point for some of the cringe sentences (if you've watched it you'll know what I am referring to), I am really bad at dealing with second hand embarrassment.

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