Oxygen (2020)

We Support Healthy Relationships in BL

I loved this from the beginning. The relationships between the main two gay couples were some of the healthiest I've seen in BL. This is something I want to see more of. I could have absolutely done without the Doctor and Khim plot, though. We did not need it honestly. Would have loved to see something more for Khem's character, though. Loved Phu and Kao. Their scenes got better with each episode. really fell in love with the characters and the actors playing them do such an amazing job. I also loved Solo and Gui and the way their relationship worked. They really take advantage of the nonverbal attraction that is there in those first couple episodes and that was such a nice way to go while having Kao being the verbal flirter when it came to Phu. The couples were so different and it brought a nice balance to the sow. Like I said before it didn't rely heavily on toxic elements like some Bl I have seen or try to romanticize problematic relationship behavior. The emotional stakes are raised through external things. The family aspects particularly and working through past traumas together. The ending did leave a little to be desired in that I wish the conflicts were solved differently but not to an extent that it dampened my love for the series right now.

Trigger Warning: One issue I did have is there is drugging and attempted sexual assault scene that sort of gets brushed over. I wanted repercussions for that to happen.

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Oxygen

First of I will talk about the acting

Yes they didn't do a 100% what people are looking forward to have seen but hey this are new people we see on screen.

I will not lie I almost given up on the 2nd episode but I kept going around episode 5 I got used to the why they act and it became real then the first time I have seen the drama

What a drama ful of handsome people lol. Solo and Gui my favourite couple and they are both so adorable and cute together.

The story was good I wish they was more but I enjoyed watching it and following them in this journey till the end. They where some parts I wish they revealed more of the story but it is what it is.

You need an open mind to enjoy this drama fully, they are some parts where solo's father is so rude and heartless but in the end we find out he was a good man who loved and took care of his son and his feelings, yet the test he had given to solo and Gui was painful.

I liked the ending even I wish I had seen moreof Solo and Gui.

The music was nice.. You are my Oxygen by Solo my favourite.

I wish they make a season 2 so we see what happens to the 2nd couple. And Mybe will see Solo and Gui being more romantic with each other.

I did see much of Solo and Gui being romantic this my thoughts don't mean they did do good.

Good luck to you who is are about to watch this, again patience and open mind will help you enjoy fully. And yes it has the Happy ending. I love happy endings after a fight for true love. Don't you agree :)

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Give it a try

Ok so where do we start? I have seen many people having many different opinions about this serie. A lot of people say it's boring and I clearly see why but I have to disagree a little bit. I myself wasn’t very into it at first because nothing really happened? The characters didn't have much personality and it felt overall pretty boring and dragged out. However I personally came to realize that this serie takes some time to kick off, maybe a little too long though. The characters as well, they all grew a little stronger later on and I started to see more colors in their personalities.
Sadly this took way too long and most people got bored before getting to the better parts. I can't exactly blame anyone because I was very disappointed as well but with a bit of understanding and lots of time I eventually got very attached to the characters somehow.
I did not get into the straight couple though (not because they were straight ofc) but their story just felt confusing, toxic and I just did not feel any development or emotion watching them. It was mostly uncomfortable.
At the end of the day, Oxygen actually had very loveable characters if you're willing to give them some time. I did not like how long it took for that to happen though, it was way too slow and dragged out in scenes where nothing really happened. But after finishing the show I really came to adore Sologui and even more, Phukao.

ACTING:
I am not sure how to judge the acting. I'm gonna be honest and say the acting could be a bit too stiff. Especially from Petch who acted as Gui, but considering it was his first acting job it seems understandable. I also believe his character were supposed to lack a strong or colorful personality. Okay but on to my favorite, Boss. Boss acted as Kao and I personally really enjoyed both the character and his way of giving life to it. Kao was a very kind, music loving guy with a confident but very understanding personality. The tone in his voice and face expressions suited his character well enough at least.

OST:
Here we have something I loved. The OST of this serie was amazing. Never skipped the intro even once. It was catchy and fitting to the serie. A nice melody with nice lyrics. Yes this is a song I will remember for sure.

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Soft & Fluffy

This show have been one of my most anticipated shows in 2020. When I first read the book, I was amazed at how lowkey and unproblematic it was. I got curious and excited for the show. And I wasn't disappointed. I first held off from watching until we were two episodes from ending and now that I'm here, I'm glad I did held off from watching. It was a good, soft and fluffy show to binge-watch. I'll try my best to keep them spoiler-free but if a few slips out, I apologise in advance!

/May Contain Spoilers/

Story
The story is practically what I expected it to be except for the doctors and Linda. First of what I liked, the unproblematic relationship between Solo and Gui. They were soft and fluffy and there was no real fuss. I can definitely see how it would be boring to those who love drama, but to me, Oxygen was a show I'd watch when I want to relax my mind and experience the idea of a soft love. They were childish and young and it was a nice change of pace. And the secondary couple was amazing. Their storyline was beautifully written and it was really cute to see how they both came close together. I think if anything, I disliked the doctor's storyline. I didn't know what they were trying to do there but every time they appeared on screen, I didn't hesitate to skip them. Their storyline was just--weird.

Acting/Cast
I think the acting was alright. Solo and Gui were portrayed just like I imagined them to be and the softness between them is as expected. I think overall, given what the characters were, the actors did a great job. The same goes for Phu and Kao. I didn't read Nitrogen but I liked them acting the characters the way they did. There was some awkwardness here and there but that was to be expected. I also did raise my eyebrows at casting of the parent figures but I didn't really minded them much. Overall, it was a great acting performance to me.

Music
I loved it. I don't have much to say but I loved the OST of this series. I'll never get tired of it. It captures the sweetness of the show.

Rewatch Value
I would watch this again sometime in the future. I generally don't rewatch shows but this might be one that I'll come back to again someday.

Overall
A good show if you like fluffy, soft romances without too much drama and angst. And hoping for season 2!

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So like... nothing really happened.

Or rather, a lot happened, but no one truly reacted to it in any way. It's not like this show has been free of the usual over the top tropes. It's just the characters had little to no reaction to them compared to other series.

When I started watching, I was ready for the cute, sweet, unproblematic slower romance, and at the beginning it was more or less just that. Then, they added so many random plot lines to make it more "entertaining/dramatic", but everyone just reacted to them in such an unnatural way, I could not connect to it at all.

That said, Solo is my baby boy. I truly love this kid. He was adorable and, as far as I know, Nut did the best job acting wise. The rest of the cast was meh. I skipped all the doctor and Kim’s scenes. That whole plot line was a true mess. I know many people loved Kao and Phuri, but again... I didn't care that much. They just felt awkward most of the time.

I don't even want to talk about that Disney ending, that made the whole second half of the show a joke. All the characters did 180 as if they were different people, because resolving conflicts in a well written manner apparently is not the writer's thing.

The music was nice though. But this ain't Spotify, I need me some good plot behind that soundtrack.

Overall... the show was so meh and boring I have barely any thoughts about it. The last episode was tragically bad, and even though it gave us a cute ending, logically speaking it made no sense. Solo and Gui were cute and I truly suffered throughout this just for them.

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Very sweet

I can’t say that I did t enjoy this series because I did. The story was a good one - albeit following a well worn path. The two main leads have good chemistry and are both nice boys. I guess I like a bit more passion in my BL. Give me MaxTul or Tutor/Fighter and I am happy. Do I recommend you watch this? Yes, but don’t expect any passionate kisses. It’s a sweet, clean living, hard working king of series, with lots of feel good factor about it. It moves along at a good pace and 13 episodes is just about right. Maybe I am too old to appreciate the naivety and wholesomeness of it all? Good actors, good characters. Solo’s Dad is a very good character and very easy on the eye! ?

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Intriguing main characters and original side stories

The story did not have anything extraordinary, but the acting made it live. The drama is the type with a calm intrigue, which I usually avoid, but I felt like this one was different from the usual excitement of Thai BLs.

Like I said, the story is about a guy who meets a guy, very basic. But the characters themselves were really original, which did not tire me (over clichés). And something they REALLY well are the side stories. Original characters AND stories, in the first and second couple. You haven't figured out what is going on until you have. Of course, sometimes I felt bored and I skipped whenever I was not interested (I'm a skipper), but I liked the majority of the drama, main couple or not.

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In love with the story, but plot gets a little messy? I ALSO NEED A SEQUEL!

Phu and Kao ended up being my favourite side ship, they were such a beautifully worked-on pair, i always got excited when it came to their side story. "Bunny" Kao pressing his head against Phu as a sign of trust and love was so damn soft, many times I nearly cried from an overwhelming sense of adoration for the both of them. Please let there be a sequel, there's so many things I need to see wrapped up even more!
I need to see Kao and Phu meet up, need to see Kao and Pham interact. I need to see where Perth and Khem go as well as Khim and Petch and their new relationship. The finale did wrap up a lot of things so I wasn't disappointed, but there's this clear feeling that there's more to add in the storyline.
I adored all the characters and how they were built, their backgrounds, and how the actors and actresses played them.
Towards the end, the business storyline between Solo and Gui did feel messy (but still enjoyable), and there was a strange cut in the woods with Petch and Khem with his twisted ankle. Regardless, I'm in love with the whole storyline and would love a sequel in the future.

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Good, but nothing you probably haven't seen before

This series has its moments, but it really isn't anything new.

Solo, a freshman university student majoring in music, has been lonely ever since his mother died. His father is distant and controlling and has clear ideas about what he wants his son to be, regardless of what Solo actually wants.
One night, Solo wanders into a cafe and meets Gui, a fourth year engineering student (yes, again) whose kindness and caring start to open up Solo's frozen heart.

This had the potential to be really good but alas, it suffers from an overabundance of characters - most of whom I didn't like and couldn't bring myself to care about.

Instead of focusing on the main leads, and then one single side couple, this just had to throw in a ridiculous love square between Khim, Gui's co-worker at the cafe, Dr. Petch, his friend Dr. Perth and Khim's brother Khem. It's badly written, badly acted and painful to watch.

The side couple, Kao and Phu, are the best thing about this series. Kao is exuberant, ebullient, fun and mischievous whilst Phu is serious, solemn, sincere and upright. He even has a thing for rabbits.

Hmmm. I wonder who these two remind me of?

There was a rival for Gui's hand in the form of a junior from his dept., but he was there for about two episodes and gone again, so I don't even remember his name.

I try not to be critical of child actor as they are, y'know, children and are still learning, and little Moon was quite cute but I honestly wonder what his inclusion did for the plot.

Except....hmmm. There go those parallels again.

This series leaned full on into the terrible father trope, and then went even further with the catty love rival in the form of Linda, who was chosen by Solo's father to be his personal assistant and future bride even though Solo doesn't care about her at all and it's clear she's just after his father's money.

If you haven't watched a lot of Thai BL, and you're looking to get into it, this isn't a bad place to start. And I can't even say it's a bad series, it's just nothing new.

The main theme was kind of done to death, but I don't care because I love it and I want it on my BL playlist.

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cute but messy

well... what happened? who knows? i don't. that's for sure.

i haven't read the novel but the drama inserted multiple storylines into one that makes me recreate the mathematical equation meme with me as the confused goof.

from the start, it was refreshing to see completely new faces, very chill cute couples and a catchy ost as well. i absolutely loved seeing solo and gui develop their relationship, no running around in circles of their feelings toward each other. it was pretty clear they were whipped for each other and without confessing, they both can tell. that was a charming way to show the relationship between the two and i really thought i could sit my bum without having to sideeye things. however, this is the bl world and you're sometimes bound to see some problems here and there.

so.... what were the problems?
-no consequence to one's problematic actions
okay. picture this. you're chilling at a cafe shop with your bud and you catch the barista taking pics/making a livestream of y'all without your consent. a normal reaction is get pissed and call the police.
what did dr. petch do?
listen to khim's outlandish excuse that she's some lgbtq+ guru and that the he's the one in the wrong and soon some total A+ bs happens of dr. petch doing exactly what khim did, hurting other people in the process... and they fall in love.
don't get me started with the attempted sexual assault on solo and how it was brushed off without that girl and her accomplice facing consequences.

- "boys don't cry"
whew.... i don't know if this is a mistranslation but wow this line irked me. when will this type of mentality be erased? everyone deserves the right to cry their eyes out! the fact that solo said this to moon, a literal kid was astronomically disappointing.

-the father a.k.a dementor
i'm still flabbergasted about how solo's dad literally stalked him for years and then when he was beginning to find his source of happiness, this dementor dude emotionally abuses, locks him up and starves him. is solo his son or a prisoner?
also, you're telling me he made gui suffer along with his son as a test to their relationship? nope. bye.

the main leads are not entirely bad actors as seen in emotional scenes such as the death of big mama and when solo got locked up and also the card denied scene. those were pretty good performances. this then makes me wonder why the acting seems out of place at times. the facial expressions can seem blank and not conveying any emotions at all. this also applies to phu's actor which i did love but was stiff at times. kao's actor was decent, the character was playful but also delivered well written lines.

overall, this can be a hit or miss. the storyline is quite messy (if only the doctors and khim wasn't dragged) with a bit of an underwhelming ending but if you like cutesy couples, this is for you.

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