SOTUS (2016)

A masterpiece.

I was way too old when I realized that not all cultures have some kind of initiation in college where people make you do weird things to gain that "team spirit". In Portugal we call it "praxe", in english i believe the word is - like i said - initiation. That may have helped with how accepting I was of the beginning of this series. Even though I didn't participate in mine when I was in college because I don't really agree with how it works, I ended this series wishing it was as well thought off as this one.

However, I can't tell you enough how at first I thought this would be that type of story where a bully falls for the person he's abusing. After watching big names in the BL community like Tharntype and Theory of love (with the amazing actors Off and Gun) I was scared to watch this one.
Not only because it's older but also because no review could tell me exactly what to expect. I was afraid, from the summary that it would be something way too complex and not just something fun to watch like I wanted. I was also afraid that it would be too sad since the poster is also different from other series (darker like it's a thriller or suspense series).

And now, I thank the community for not spoiling me anything.

This story was a rollercoaster. Everything is so well thought. The SOTUS acronym is pure genius.
Both characters bickering made me blush. Even the side characters are interesting!
This might be the most well written Thai BL I've ever watched.
I'd even say this one went instantly to my favorite asian drama list.
I don't want to give spoilers to anyone, but this one is a true masterpiece.
SOTUS will make you rethink every review you've ever done, every rating you've ever given. That's just how good it is.

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Beautiful Love Story if you can get past the Hazing

SOTUS might be confusing if you're not Thai, but if you can get past understanding the hazing it's a beautiful love story.


~~ STORY ~~

According to the series, S.O.T.U.S. (acronym for Seniority, Order, Tradition, Unity, and Spirit) is a system at the University where 3rd year students welcome the freshmen students by hazing them with different types of teamwork related activities. The freshman are punished if they cannot complete the tasks.

If you are unfamiliar with the S.O.T.U.S. system it might be hard to get through the first few episodes. Arthit and Kongpob are literally in each other's faces since the first episode, and to top it off, Arthit and the other hazers are quite mean. The hazers are supposed to be encouraging teamwork and unity, but the hazing doesn't come off that way at all. It looks like the 3rd years are just abusing the freshman. Even after the big teamwork angle was revealed it doesn't come off that way at all. Due to this, those that are unfamiliar with the S.O.T.U.S. system might be put off by the hazing.

If you can get past the weird hazing, then there is a beautiful love story. Kongpob, a cheeky freshman, has caught the attention of Arthit and the other 3rd year hazers due to constantly standing up for himself and his classmates. Dubbed the "hero," Kongpob is always challenging Arthit's authority as the head hazer. Without either realizing it, Kongpob and Arthit take a liking to each other, even if Kongpob is always a cheeky little torn in Arthit's side.


ARTHIT x KONGPOB

Arthit is a 3rd year and head hazer. He is initially very hard to approach since he has a cold exterior and seems to always be looking for ways to torment the freshman. In reality, Arthit is easily flustered, self-centered, and can't express himself well. Meanwhile, freshman Kongpob is very confident, and believes in doing the right thing. He has been dubbed "the hero" by the hazers for constantly standing up to them.

Arthit and Kongpob's relationship starts off very rocky. They are the epitome of the "enemies to lovers" troupe in BL. However, after Kongpob's famous, "I'll make you my wife," speech and seeing Arthit get flustered, he takes a liking to Arthit and does everything he can to catch Arthit's attention. Arthit, on the other hand, just wants to avoid Kongpob since he keeps ruining his image. As the series progresses, you start to see why Kongpob grows on Arthit. Kongpob is the only person who can really keep up with Arthit's self-centeredness. He's also very cheeky about it, so it's hard to hate Kongpob.

Arthit and Kongpob also have the "opposite's attract" thing going for them as well. Arthit isn't very open with his feelings, while Kongpob is very expressive. Arthit would prefer no one knows about their relationship, while Kongpob doesn't care who knows. Kongpob won't go around flaunting his relationship, but he won't hide it. His only concern is that Arthit is comfortable, so while he won't openly kiss Arthit in public, teasing and constantly being around Arthit is fair game.

Kongpob is probably the best boyfriend anyone can ask for. He's caring, understanding, and not afraid to flirt in public. However, how he considered Arthit's feeling and comfort is what makes him first class. Realistically, while Kongpob could do a lot better than Arthit, Arthit needs to get some credit for how he deals with Kongpob's constant cheekiness. He also deserves some credit for accepting Kongpob's feelings without going through the "Eww you're gay! Get away from me!" phase. Arthit takes Kongpob's feelings and just accepts them without going through much drama. They really are a great couple.


M x May

The hetero sexual couple of the series, M and May are adorable. It's cute watching M get flustered and jealous of May's interactions with Kongpob and the other boys. They give off the typical college couple vibes and it's adorable.


~~ ACTING ~~

Krist and Singto are amazing!! They are really great actors. There was never a moment where they broke character. It's amazing to see such young talent!!


~~ OVERALL ~~

Go watch SOTUS!

SOTUS is the BL that started the BL drama trend and brought it to the mainstream.

If you can get past the hazing and just focus on the couples, you won't be disappointed. Some of the troupes might be cliche now, but this is the start of BL dramas, so they are the originals.

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This was aired 7 years ago????

If I watched this 7 years ago, I would rate this 9/10. Sorry, I have watched a lot of school-based BL dramas lately.

But considering that this series is one of the pioneers of Thai BL drama, I appreciate how solid the plots are. The early plots focused on the hazing and the mid-to-later plots focused on the main characters' relationship. The hazing made this stronger and unique in comparison with other school-related series which I like the most in the entire series. I came here not knowing the meaning of SOTUS. And now I realize, SOTUS is the perfect title for this series.

I really like the balance of plots. When the hazing plot starts to end, the romance starts to bloom. The romance in this series is slow-paced but very reassuring. PS: Can someone remove the comedy in genre? I binged-watched this but I didn't notice any funny scenes at all.

One good thing I want to point out too is that there are dozens of characters, but they made it sure that the story will highlight the main characters. It is nice and refreshing to see a lot of actors that I have seen and enjoyed in other series.

I recommend everyone to watch this series. Not a must-watch but watching this is worthy. This is my strongest 8/10 BL drama for sure.

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I've been passing this series by for a long time because of all that hazing stuff. As an European I will probably never fully understand it however I respect the fact it's a part of Thai uni culture. I was so pissed off during some "punishments" since I hate injustice, but well - it was a part of the plot so I tried to depersonalize myself and just watch for the show. I am a fan of good enemies-to-lovers stories and this was one of them. I personally liked the first half more. The chemistry of MLs was much better when they were "enemies" than in the second half when they started to build their romantic relationship. Or should I say romantic relationship WITHOUT romance... Their chemistry as a couple was totally absent. Especially Krist looked like someone forced him to play his role. Their kisess were awkward so I was rather glad there were only 2 kissing scenes. I remember Singto's kissing scenes in He's Coming to Me with Ohm were OK so I guess it had something to do with his co-star. I am wondering if I should watch SOTUS S cause I am afraid their chemistry won't suddenly magicaly appear in it. But as I know myself I will probably torture myself and give it a try some other time.

Overall if you're going to watch it bear in mind it is one of the first BLs. So the "romantic" part is not that developed and performed as in todays series. Which is a shame because with better script and chemistry they could bring us much much better outcome. If they would remake it one day I would watch it for sure - I am curious how the whole plot would be executed now - but with ACTUAL chemistry between MLs and with some of my favorite actors.

PS: I loved Off here - after watching maybe 30 minutes of one of the Safe House episodes on Youtube I am sure he was playing himself :D (I mean when the hazing team was relaxed and not giving orders to juniors).

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Unwatchable for people over the age of 13

I remember hearing about the series when I was younger and it was fairly hyped so I, as an adult, decided to give it a go, mainly because I’ve been getting into watching BL series.
SOTUS has been by far one of the worst series I have ever had the displeasure to watch, so much so that I couldn’t finish it for a long time (I forced myself to in order to give it the benefit of the doubt until the end)

#1 Acting

Was decent at times, but mostly amateurish, I blame it on the lack of chemistry between the leads and the overall exaggerated situations, which is the biggest flaw of the show

#2 Story

Horrible. I understand exaggerating an aspect of reality in a series or a movie, that is normal, but the lengths that the writers go to make Arthit the most unlikable character in history while simultaneously putting all the characters in ridiculous situations that could never happen in real life is insane to me. It’s not about not being realistic, it’s UNBELIEVABLE, the hazing scenes are insane and the fact that there are little to no consequences for the horrible things the older students do baffles me. No redemption arc was good enough for that piece of shit.

#3 Main leads
I felt that they were bros but there was little to no romantic energy, their kiss was laughable (to be fair at that time all bl kisses were shit, but most of them had somewhat of a chemistry). Arthit became unbearable to watch and he acted like a 12yr old girl most of the series, I just felt like no adult would act in such weird, cringe and horrible way. It was unrealistic and hard to watch, had to skip a good part of the show because of that


#4 It was good for its time
I understand why it was a hit back in the day, people really didn’t have much content to choose from in the bl world so it made sense. However, if you compare it so bad buddy, I told sunset about you, A tale of a 1000 stars or any of these very good BLs, it would be impossible to point out any positive traits of this series. It’s just not good.

SUMMARY: Don’t watch it if u want to watch something actually good, only for nostalgic purposes

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I heard a lot of good things about SOTUS. To be honest it's one of the smarter stories out there. I'm not familiar with those university systems. It seems it was highly exagerated in the series but something similiar does exist in Thailand. It really was interesting to see how someone like Artit seemed to be the bad guy, but at the end there were no bad guys. It was really touching, intelligent and you can learn some life lessons. To see the diference between the senior Artit and his self in private was really cute. He was such a different person. The love story makes your heart beat faster, that's also a plus. My only complain: Such characters like Kongpob who can do EVERYTHING (intelligent, talented, righteous) are getting boring fast. I'm not a fan of the actor either. His facial expressions were always pretty similar. He was a tipical nice guy and that was it. I don't need bad boys but I prefer characters with more interesting personalities and more conflict going on in their mind. Overall the series is as good as people say. For me a bit to cheesy at the end but hey! Ohters will like it. A big plus: I didn't feel like skipping parts even though the series is pretty long. It was really well done. They all looked like models and it was very "polished" which I don't prefer so much, but well, why not.

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I jumped into BL one night during the pandemic lockdown of 2020 after watching a multi couple edit video on YouTube one night. I started with 'Why R U?', but when I realised that it hadn't finished being made, i abandoned it (temporarily) and watched 'Until We Meet Again', 'Love By Chance' and 'Theory of Love'

After taking this deep dive into Thai BL, I found MDL and read a lot of discussions and comments and watched even more multi couple videos on YouTube and found my way to SOTUS.

Before I start, full disclaimer: I am not Thai. Nor am I Asian. I am a white Australian. Therefore I may be seeing some things through the lens of my culture and upbringing which may not seem right to someone who is Thai.

SOTUS (an acronym for Seniority, Order, Tradition, Unity and Spirit) is a system that freshmen in the faculty of engineering go through to earn their gear and be officially recognised as juniors by their third-year seniors. Arthit (Perawat Sangpotirat aka Krist) is head of the hazers, as the seniors are known, and he has a tendency to abuse his power.

The freshman are basically required to do anything asked of them by their seniors, which skirts a very dangerous line between hazing and outright bullying. At least one student collapses during one of the activities.

A freshman named Kongpob (Prachaya Ruangroj aka Singto) joins the university and the SOTUS program and immediately defies Arthit, standing up for himself and his classmates against the bullying. And it is actual bullying in a lot of cases. One moment that stands out to me is Arthit ordering Kongpob to stand on a table, shout at the top of voice that he likes men, then go and ask three other males students to be his boyfriend.

It was very hard to watch. Making the freshman run laps, do push-ups or sing and tasks of that nature are relatively okay, but what Arthit had Kongpob do went way past simple hazing. People's sexualities, whatever they may be, are not something to be used for public humiliation.

If you can get through the first three or so episodes, things do improve. Arthit and Kongpob being to understand one another better and each other's perspective on things. They begin to develop mutual respect and then that deepens into something more.

There is not a lot of physical contact in this show. Arthit and Kongpob kiss twice, maybe three times, and that's it. There's no skin shown and no heavy makeout scenes.

There is a now famous scene that takes place on the Rama VIII bridge in Bangkok, where Arthit and Kongpob kiss for the first time, and both the scene and the bridge are now so entwined with Thai BL that they are reference in other BL shows.

SOTUS was released in 2016 and can be considered, along with Love Sick, the show that really pushed Thai Bl into the mainstream. Both shows are on Netflix, both shows are referenced in other BL series (characters are seen either watching the shows, or the couple will go the bridge, or someone mentions/orders pink milk) and both shows set up ideas about what Thai BL should be.

Thankfully, in this series, there is no sexual assault (another trope used quite frequent in BL - from many countries) and once you get past the first four or so episodes the hazing becomes less egregious. If, like me, you were bullied in school, you may find some of the scenes triggering.

All in all, this is not a bad series. The acting is very good. Singto, especially, is an excellent actor (if you like him, do yourself a solid and go watch him in 'He's Coming To Me') and Krist is no slouch either. The supporting cast is also very good (keep a lookout for pre-Kiss Me Again and Dark Blue Kiss actor New Thitipoom and pre-theory of Love Off Jumpol.)

I love the opening titles song.

I don't rate this as highly as other shows, but it's still worth a watch if you haven't, just mind yourself if bullying is a trigger for you.

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*The story is amazing and very compelling. It is perfect for this generation since they showed that LGBT relationships are not a huge issue anymore, that bisexual must not be ashamed of who they are and whom they wanted to be with.
*The actors are REALLY GOOD. Their acts are magnificent. Perfect in every scene. It only showed that the director is excellent. I commend the director for a job well done.
*The theme song is perfect for the story. The musical scores are dragging. The best.
*I personally watched the entire series many many many times, like 8-10 x? Is it not enough to justify why I rate "rewatch value" 10/10?
OVERALL: THE BEST!
I love that you decided to make a part 2. Gosh. Thanks a lot. You made your viewers really happy. LOVE YOU ALL CASTS AND STAFFS of SOTUS and SOTUS S.

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Perfect, immaculate, amazing, ideal, a masterpiece

the title says it all, i loved the whole two seasons, arhtit and kongpop are literally lovable, and their "enemies to lovers" trope will make you not stop watching. I didn't really mind the lack of skinship, honestlyi love and rewatch all of their scenes just because they are adorable. I may be a litte biased because it'smy favorite series, but i can understand how some people can be bored by it because the plot moves really slow. I personally love and adore this story, it's literally my comfort series. Their story isn't toxic it's realist. I personally cry everytime i rewatch both seasons. If you want some soft series to binge i recommend this a lot <33

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One of the first popular Thai BL dramas, but doesn't hold up as well today

NO-SPOILER REVIEW

Before watching this series, keep in mind that it was one of the first Thai BL dramas ever made. Because it was a pioneer during its time, certain stylistic conventions hadn't been developed yet, so some parts may feel off compared to more current BL dramas. Other dramas owe a lot to this drama for helping the BL genre take off. For those who watched it when it first came out, they remember it very fondly. For those of us who are watching it after the fact, it may not hold up without the nostalgia factor. I wanted to like this series but unfortunately, it left a lot to be desired.

Pros
- The series portrays relationships between characters in a relatively realistic and mature way. No drama for drama's sake.
- The cast is good and the acting is on-point.

Cons
- The overall pacing is very slow. Multiple scenes could have been condensed. The overall development of the relationship takes a very long time to develop.
- It was a bit hard for me to believe that the main couple would have feelings for each other given the types of interactions they had on screen.
- There is a heavy focus on college hazing that ends up dominating the series. This becomes very tiresome and repetitive and can be off-putting for some.
- Potential side couples/relationships weren't ever really developed.

Overall
- Most fans of this series seem to love it for being one of the first big Thai BL dramas. It's still an ok series worth watching today, but unfortunately, it just doesn't hold up to other modern series.

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