City of Stars (2024)

two green flags, could have been a 9.5

Overall: the leads were mutually interested, sweet and flirty so this could have been a 9.5 with some changes. Series got better as it went on. 12 episodes about 45 minutes each. Aired on iQIYI. Re-Aired on YouTube. Star Hunter Entertainment also produced: Big Dragon, What Zabb Man, Gen Y, My Mate Match and The Moment I Need You

Content Warnings: non con recording/sharing, cyberbullying, past death, homophobia, sexual harassment, transphobia, manhandling, unwanted public outing

What I Liked
- dynamic between the leads including: mutual respect, communication, ongoing physical affection (although Krom needed to work on his communication skills, even at the end)
- sweet/cute moments
- a few funny parts like the bubble tea catch
- supportive friends (although the 1 friend put his friend into unnecessary pain with his "plan" in episode 4)
- worked in anti-smoking messaging in a less preachy way, also added other messages however the 'respect a person's privacy' was undermined by Krom's friends taking video/sharing without permission and spying on them
- the interaction with his fans in episode 3 made me tear up, very sweet
- a trans character that felt like a real person instead of the stereotypical characters that we normally see
- excellent dreams
- good intimacy
- conversation about preferred position, willingness to adapt to a partner's needs
- avoided ep 11 curse

Room For Improvement
- too many comedy sound effects that actually detracted from the comedy (seemed less prevalent in the second half thankfully)
- the second couple needed more screen time and he needed to mature more
- several exposition dumps, the voice overs were used too much to tell the story
- too much time spent on the talk show stuff in episode 3, overall this could have had tighter pacing
- nonsense stuff: why didn't his (obviously not American) coworkers use AI translate apps/websites?, someone else filling a person's prescription, an allegedly good friend letting a very drunk person go off with that guy, not coming up with an obvious solution to the problem shown at the end of the series, etc
- how much time passed was unclear at times
- showing a character texting when using the bathroom

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Not awful, but not amazing.

I was suitably amped up to see Kimmon in a drama again, albeit in a supporting role. From the trailers and teasers I expected a bit more drama and more exciting plot pacing.

I don't regret watching the series so far and I will finish up with the final episode when it airs on iQiyi tomorrow. I may edit this review if anything in the finale changes my mind.

The pros:

This series had a glorious lack of the typical borderline cheating/doubting feelings to the point of disrespect that some series display. I was very happy with the relationship dynamic of the leads.

I love, love, love the inclusion of a trans character that is authentic and not simply included as a plot gag.

The friend group dynamic of both lead characters is warm and supportive. I appreciate the lack of "playful" disrespect towards their relationship.

The cons:

I am not a huge fan of the quick and easy plot fixes. I feel that there was little to no actual tension building in the storyline. The fan backlash lasted what seemed mere seconds. The disapproving mother is suddenly okay with the boyfriend after one very underwhelming conversation. The money hungry ex has a sudden change of heart. Overall everyone just seems very okay with everything. Which is fantastic from a real life outlook, but makes for a dead dull drama plot.


I feel that the leads could have benefitted from a more intensive workshop for the intimate scenes. I quite like them both individually as actors, but when they had to come together in those moments there was a definite stiffness and breakdown in their chemistry.

The dialogue, just wasn't as good as it could have been. I think I could have overlooked the lack of chemistry in the romantic scenes if the scripting had been a bit more dramatic. Or had there been any type of displayed character development. We see the programmer go from detesting the actor to adoring him in a couple of episodes, with no major conversations to show the cause of that sudden transformation.

Overall, I enjoyed the series enough to finish it. But not so much that I was counting days until the next episode release.

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Read the novels, currently regretting that I did before watching the series.

I read both the novels and they might be my favourite Thai BL novels EVER.

Novel spoilers ahead————————————————-

It touches on SO many topics, like shipper culture, homophobia, the toxicity of the media, the loneliness of being a celebrity and there were conversations about being gay potentially ruining Fueang’s career, Krom being potentially pan etc etc.

I am not sure if all of the above topics will be mentioned, I’m not hopeful for very obvious reasons. But 2 episodes in, I am pretty sure I need to manage my expectations.

The acting is mid at best, they all seem like they are reciting lines. The comedic undertone and overusage of comedic sounds… The tropey accidental falls ?

I am hoping that they get more comfortable with each other over time and that they are not going to stray TOO far away from the source.

I loved the novel, I highly recommend it to anyone who reads source material! It’s available on MEB.

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Behind the screen

Starting this series, I never imagined I would be feeling and writing half the things I did and am about to, but here we are.
One thing before I say anything else: this is an extremely slow drama. Not slow burn romance, just the pacing is extremely slow. The story is actually quite simple and could have been done concisely, and after the first few episodes when I didn't think it would ever pick up, it did.

The principal reason why I actually began liking it as much as I did, was because of the leads. Two green flag leads who communicated, supported each other and never argued. Well, they disagreed, but instead of having full blown out fights, they stated their point of view, expressed their support and love for the other person and just moved on. And even better was when every other character in the drama was just as much as a green flag as the leads. Just as supportive and kind and reasonable. One of the very few dramas where it's entirely reasonable to love all the characters. Of course, there were a few people who were incredibly annoying, but watching the rest of the characters deal with them with the utmost poise and integrity made it better. For a series so focused on romance and interpersonal relationships, they nailed it.

I was kind of let down by the rest of the story though. They tried to tackle so many difficult and relevant topics and kind of addressed them only halfway. By the end of the series I just asked myself, “Is that how they really tied everything up?”, because I was dissapointed. There was was a proposed "solution" involving the app, and let's just say, I was left wanting more.
Building upon that, the app that pretty much set up this story, was way underutilised. It was barely mentioned at the beginning and just when they needed it to save the day, they brought it back in the script. It genuinely could have been used several times during the series, but oh well.

This was the one thing I wished they had done better, because otherwise this was a pretty good (albeit slightly slow) series. The couple was genuinely green flags all around, in addition to being incredibly cute and just all around amazing, the characters felt well rounded and were likeable and the romance really hit. It was worth giving a shot on a whim and I quite enjoyed the watch.

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Too much of this, too little of that

Well, this must be a first. I usually complain about needing more eps for the story to be properly told, but in this case I could have done with (far) less eps. 12 (and a half) was just too much!

Reason for this was mostly the copious amount of fille scenes. The supermarket scenes were mostly uninterestin and unimportant, The scenes in the "USA" (where nobody seems to speak proper English) could have been anecdotal instead of literal. A lot of small scenes could have been shorter. All of this would have benefited the story and the pacing.

The lead couple (New actors foer me) did a decent job. The characters were a little too flat, all mischief came from the best friend Kor, played by Kimmon. His part was interesting, and he did very well. I liked tha fact that he has a relationship with a trans woman. I would have liked this relationship to be less vanilla though, but that's me.

Overall this was really cute. The NC scenes were aplenty (maybe even a little too much) but very well done. Tastefull and loving.

Due to the flaws as described, this does not exceed a mediocre rating for me. Could have been better, but certainly not bad.

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One of the Best!

I’ve never written a review before. Not even for my favorite series. But I had to do it for this one. I absolutely loved City Of Stars! It had the healthiest relationship I have ever seen in a BL. Fueang was the greenest of the greenest. & it was so adorable hearing Krom say “P Fueang”. If you have doubts about whether to watch it or not, I say go for it! You’re gonna love it as well ? Job & Porsche did a great job as Fueang & Krom. The 2nd couple also had a beautiful story. Definitely worth the watch. City of Stars covered so many important topics concerning artists & their personal lives. Will definitely teach you a lesson or 2.

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Tried Too Hard

Sometimes the characters went deep while at other times, they were clones of other BL stories. While the overall story is a rather interesting one, its execution was just plain awful in places. The story creates too many side issues to prove that these two young men are worthy of our attention. Yes, they are, on the whole, good guys, and one does not need to constantly and continuously provide evidence that they are. They are morally decent guys who occasionally have fallen down, pick themselves up, brush themselves off, and move on. This series is a good series. It is just not great.

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Suprisingly Boring

Based on the premise, I really was expecting something with a decent amount of plot, but somehow, no matter what happens in an episode, it still feels like nothing happened? Its almost impressive because each ep is nearly an hour long but devoid of....anything.

The acting leaves something to be desired, the sound effects are overdone/overused but dealwithable, but the primary issue is just the lack of any stand out moments. Krom supposedly hated Fueng but that cleared up so fast I forgot it was a plot point at all. The fans hated Krom (for.....no reason? Like no reason even for mob mentality fans) and got over it in seconds. All conflicts/obstacles are solved before they even dream of building tension. I wanted to wait to review until episode three as the first two episodes can be rough in any BL, but I'm still extremely underwhelmed. I'm not sold on the romance or the comedy.

Even now, I'm trying to figure out what I've liked about this show so far, and I'm blanking. There's nothing hateable either (though there definitely are unlikeabke parts) it's all very mild? It's boring. A literal bomb goes off and it's still boring. I'm happy to see Kimmon again, so thats a plus. The humor in this one didn't really land for me even one time or, if it did, it wasnt memorable. I think I'll give it another two episodes and then decide whether to keep or drop, but I'm thinking this might just not be my type of Rom-Com.

EDIT: One episode of two down. Epispde 4 is easily the most interesting of the released eps so far
A lot of manufactured bullshit, but things occur...kind of? I stand by my decision to decide on dropping next week if only to see if the new dynamic makes the story better or not.

EDIT 2: Just finished episode 5 annnnnd.... I'm dropping this. I added a star because I've watched much worse shows than this recently, so 2.5 seemed a toucb harsh, but we've returned to form since nothing really happened in this episode. There's a love confession that literally made me flinch backwards because, to the best of my knowledge, it's been days since they started talking. I really disliked the Krom's immediate willingness to distrust Fueng and trust Kor for....no reason?? They just got together and now he's happy to look for reasons to break up. It's also just brushed over as a cute lil thing, but it rubbed me the wrong way.

The kiss scene was cute or whatever, but I really don't think I needed 2 minutes of it? Or that many lip smacking foleys, but I digress. This feels like a specific class of BL that's "plot" is just scaffolding for kiss/love scenes to bring in fans. I'm bored. I'm bored to tears. Definitely wouldn't recommend this, but I also wouldn't advise someone not to watch. Idk, it's just meh.

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Sweet and Beautiful. This series is a 10 not a 7.4

My recommendation: Give this series a chance but this is my opinion regarding whether it will be a 10 or not for you.

If you are looking for a cute series, where MLs respect each other, there is communication, with just enough drama to hook you and not overwhelm you, this is your series. But if a stellar acting and a full-size production are important to you, then it won't be a 10. In my opinion, I would say that as the series went on, the chemistry increased and everything felt more fluid/natural between the MLs so there are things that can be ignored at the beginning of the series because the rest of the elements in the series make it beautiful from start to finish.

Now my review: I simply loved this series... it's one of those types of series that leaves you with such a beautiful feeling and makes you believe in love.

The chemistry of the MLs is very beautiful, Fueng and Krom are both a giant green flag... they always supported each other and got out of problems together, simply a very sincere love.

The secondary couple (Kor and Namson) also had a very cute and pure story with him being an actor and she being a transgender woman, such a pure love.

The supporting actors are funny and great friends. Showing not only what a good romantic relationship should be but also how a healthy friendship should be.

I think this series touched on many important topics like: 1. ships and how they play with the audience 2. How for actor/idols having a partner outside that world or even your past can ruin your career and 3. How harmful can social media be with stars and the suffering it brings to the actors and the people around them... but precisely how having the right people by your side is decisive in getting out of that dark place.

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