Make It Live: On the Beach (2019)

This was disappointing, but a last-ditch effort at the end sort of saved it.

There was a sadness throughout the whole series (just 6 short episodes), with Tee and Fuse reuniting for their third anniversary together... except, from as much as we could tell, Tee and Fuse are attending different universities so they haven't seen each other that much in these three years.

Peak (Fuse) carried the series with very good acting, showing lots of emotion and crying real tears in just about every episode. Boom (Tee) was subdued pretty much all the time. At one point, we hear him speaking to his mother on the phone and, from what we can gather, Tee's mother is against his relationship with Fuse, with Fuse overhearing Tee's side of the conversation. Unfortunately, we get nothing from Tee regarding his own feelings... there's just an unspoken resolve that Fuse will break up with Tee, so that they can both get on with their lives.

In the last episode, Fuse tearfully says goodbye to Tee, but Tee stops Fuse from leaving. Tee calls his mom and says that he will stay together with Fuse and that's that. The series ends with video messages from many of the former Make It Right cast members congratulating Fuse and Tee.

The story was not well written. Sure, we can all understand the issues that young gay men often go through with their families, but it wasn't addressed at all.

Lukmo and Ess showed up to provide some levity (I'm not even sure why Ess was there), but their presence fell flat... the scenes with them felt awkward and forced. The very few attempts at comedy (Fuse/Tee shaving in the bathroom; a couple of fun moments with their friends) weren't enough to save the overall depressing feeling of the series. The video messages with the former MIR cast members did help to provide a somewhat satisfactory ending.

There is nothing wrong with presenting a drama here but, if that's what they the producers were going for, it just wasn't good enough. Too bad, because Fuse/Tee are a decent enough couple. Both actors deserved better, especially Peak (Fuse).

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Beginning or End; Making this relationship live!

If you’re a big fan df the “Make it Right” series you’ll overlook the technical challenges of Make it Live: on the Beach and be happy with the continuation of the Tee/Fuse story. As an overall storyline Make it Live: On the Beach falls albeit flat mostly because of its unnecessary length and poor writing. This is especially obvious when you compare Make it Live against the excellent short continuation series in the same Thai BL genre such as Our Skyy, which continues/ends the storyline of five beloved BL series’s, or ReminderS which weaves the three year later story of Phum and Noh from the LoveSick series with a new storyline with the cast from the Love By Chance series. Thankfully, the six episodes are short so you can live with the pacing but I can’t help feel that better writing would provide depth to the characters and the series.

The acting in Make it Live isn’t too bad. Peak’s acting has gotten much better from MIR. He does a good job of going from happy to sad and back again while still being the childish Fuse. Boom, on the other hand, seems to be about the same, not really developing from his MIR days. The central theme of the story was Tee’s conflicts and Boom had challenges achieving this, is that acting or poor material?

I think that the writers could have spent more time playing up Tee’s inner conflicts. In MIR they did this by setting us several scenes and concurrent plot lines to show what Tee was going through. Where as in Make it Live, it was way too superficial and Boom’s acting limitations (or the inability for the director to pull it from him) couldn’t make-up for the poor writing. Refreshingly, Peak was able to make his character show his. You could argue that Fuse always wore his emotions on his sleeve while Tee was more of an introvert. However my argument back is that there are myriad of short films and the aforementioned Our Skyy series, that do a much more effective job with their actors and writing to show this conflict, even with introverted characters - see Krist in the Sotus series. I think better writing would have elevated this series and warranted its length.

Usually in Thai series they leverage a second or third couple to add a bit of depth. Unfortunately, any scene with Ess and Lukmo were pointless. In MIR Lukmo was the comedic relief but in Make it Live he was just there. They both were just unnecessary fillers that didn’t do anything to advance the story which is too bad as I liked Lukmo in MIR. Ess and Lukmo weren’t a couple in MIR so the writers couldn’t randomly add them as a second couple/storyline. It would have been interesting to see what the plot line would have been if they got Ess’s or Lukmo’s respective significant other meaningfully cast if that second storyline would have added more to depth to the series like it did in ReminderS.

Even with the lackluster storyline and writing, there’s potential in this series and if you want a little blast from the past and relive that Tee/Fuse love it’s worth the time to watch. I think all of us are hopeful that this is a foundation to the continuation of this couple or maybe even an MIR 3 with the expanded storylines of the other couples.

My interpretation of the story below. There are some spoilers.

The storyline of Make it Live: on the Beach starts three years after the end of MIR 2, when Tee and Fuse made their relationship official at the conclusion of the series. It seems that both Tee and Fuse went off to different colleges. Although they stayed together as a couple, the distance and college commitments meant that they didn’t spend a lot of time together. The trip to the beach was a celebration of their three years together but also a possible end to their relationship as Tee, as we find out during the series, was receiving pressure from his family to end his relationship with Fuse and presumably marry a girl to carry on the family tradition. The trip to the beach was their way to hopefully make their relationship live.

These competing emotions (celebration and end) are played out through the six episodes. Both Tee and Fuse spend the trip validating their relationship and professing their love for each other while a cloud of dread hung over them of the reality that their relationship would come to a forced end. Fuse had all but embraced the fact that their relationship was ending and was making the best of the time that he and Tee had together. Tee, on the other hand, was fighting the battle of his heart and family obligation. The ending scene of the couple walking on the beach during sunrise and Tee making his decision to stay with Fuse after flashbacks is a bit cliche and rushed. I was not convinced that moment was the tipping point for Tee.

I thought that the congratulatory appearances of the other MIR characters beyond Ess and Lukmo were a nice touch and a nod to the ending of MIR2 when Book and Frame were being congratulated by their friends on their engagement. Book/Toey as the Director was also a nice surprise addition.

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Not What I Expected

So, I finally got around to watching this series the other day because I know it's sort of a 'classic' when it comes to Thai BL dramas. I had put off watching it to begin with because I heard about how problematic it is (the Make It Right series as a whole) and the reviews for it weren't great.

Anyway, this means I watched all of the seasons and this special thing within two days. Basically, even though the show had its flaws and I didn't rate either season above a 6.5/10, I was invested in TeeFuse and FrameBook by the end. What I was expecting in this special was a fluffy, cute, matured storyline. And no, I don't mean THAT kind of mature. I meant it in the sense that everyone is a bit older and therefore, may have matured in their acting capabilities.

Which brings me the biggest pro of this special for me; Peak's acting. I have to say that it has improved drastically and he had me full on bawling like a baby. Like WOW. He portrayed the right emotions perfectly for the character and scene every time (even if the script wasn't great to begin with.)

But really, if we remove his acting performance, then this doesn't have a lot going for it.

This special was, unfortunately, poorly written.

[WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD SO IF YOU DON'T WANNA GET SPOILED, STOP HERE BUT JUST KNOW THIS SPECIAL WAS LOW BUDGET, POORLY WRITTEN, LACKED DEPTH AND KINDA ENDED WEIRD LOL BUT GIVE IT A GO IF YOU WANT TO WATCH IT SOLELY FOR TEEFUSE]

It felt slow and lacked any sort of energy or depth until the emotionally dramatic scenes. Slow pace is okay as long as it's purposeful and the plot is well developed nonetheless. However, that's not the case here. The plot was undeveloped and rushed for convenience. For example, they didn't explain WHY Tee's mum was suddenly against their relationship or why she was pushing them to break up. And then after we go through all that emotion and drama, it's all solved by a measly phone call? That completely negated all the conflict in a way that felt lazy. Based off of Tee's character in the series, it wouldn't make sense for him to accept breaking up with Fuse in the first place. Plus, he saw how much pain he was in and you're telling me he could have just said no to his mum that whole time? It just doesn't really make sense and I felt a little offended to be honest. It just felt like they wanted to make us cry and that was the only reason for scripting those scenes - instead of for the intention of the story etc.

Plus instead of relying on their actors to be able to portray certain emotions, desires, or thoughts, they just inserted captions to explain them? I really didn't like this idea because it interrupted the scene too much and therefore, disengaged me as a viewer. Peak and Boom are pretty good actors, I don't think the story needed the inserts. Another con is the ending for me. It was a little... Weird? I don't know.

Overall: mediocre soundtrack that lacked any variety, badly written and scripted, disengaging, and honestly fell when it came to chemistry too (however, I'm going to blame the script).

In saying all of this though, from what I understand, they didn't have a big budget for this project and I think it was created more to celebrate the three year anniversary of MIR/TeeFuse than anything else. So in that sense, it was decent.

I wouldn't rewatch it though unless I was in need of a solid cry (however, I might just watch a sad edit of The Untamed if I want that)

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Waste of time

What a disappointment! We had already in Season 2, the three last episodes entirely dedicated to the childish expression of the love of Tee and Fuse have for each other without any events, any new steps in the story that could have been done in 10 episodes instead of 13-13,5... and here again "I love you", " I will love you forever", " How much do you love me?" etc etc for 6 short but SO slow episodes and when finally something happens, a new element in the story, the writers found the dumbest one, the less credible one: Tee parents wake up after three years asking him to dump Fuse ... when we know since season two, that Tee's mom left for London with her gay/bi gigolo of Tee's age... So why suddenly, this burst of prudishness???
What is also annoying is the total absence of physical attraction between the two: the most erotic moment is a kiss on the cheek (rolling eyes). I'm sorry but two guys who come to the beach to celebrate their three year anniversary, who are deeply in love and who don't see each other much during the year, the first thing they do is not to talk on the beach but to jump on the bed and enjoy each other, without these underwear they never removed (... even not to take a bath ... ). This is not only frustrating but also totally incredible in a gay story.
Conclusion: it's a quite boring sequel, badly written.

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Actually the series is so short. Each episodes doesn't exceed in 20 mins. I think it is intended to just show the very summary of what happened after 3 years (like Book and Frame being married, Lukmo and his partner are still together and the hardships of TeeFuse couple in their LDR). If you are an MIR fan you will truly appreciate the efforts they spent here. Yes, the story is kind of messed up and the pacing is very fast. But what I value is the nostalgic feeling the series brought me.

In terms of improvements, i think they are still awkward to engage in kissing ( or maybe their kissing scene is really intended to be that way). I saw some of their acting that might make the viewer feel awkward because the some of actings are kind of stiff. Specially when they focused the camera to fuse when he is trying to make himself cry. On the other hand both actors did improve since the MIR 2. Especially Tee i already got the feeling that something's going to happen with their relationship when Tee first showed up.

Again, if you really are fond with MIR you should watch it it will bring you nostalgia.

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I expected...... more?

Considering this came out 2 years after the Make it Right S2 marking their 3rd anniversary I guess I expected more from the storyline and actors. For the majority of the series, it was just Peak and Boom and the display of their relationship. I was definitely hoping to get to see a decent kiss from the couple but was disappointed. I can also let that pass because the actors are very young in real life and probably not experienced.

I scored higher for acting because Peak's acting had improved tremendously. The way he would express his emotions was heart-touching. Boom's acting felt the same as before. The actor paying Lukmo (Nice) has gotten more handsome and taller too with his one earring, he was looking hot AF.

The ending was good. They expressed their love for each other many times in words and a bit in action. Each love is different and each couple shows it a different way. Looking forward to seeing more of their work.

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This is a very short series, only 6 episodes, each approximately 15 min. long. But it’s my favorite Make It drama, hands down. Mainly because it focuses just on Tee and Fuse, there are no dumb jokes about bowel movement or stuff like that, it’s just them being domestic - and dealing with the fact that Tee’s parents found out about them and they are Not Happy™. As in, they demand that Tee breaks up with Fuse. Which Tee doesn’t tell Fuse, of course. And when Fuse finds out, it doesn’t go down well.

But what this series brings across wonderfully is how much Tee and Fuse love each other. You can almost soak up their love in every scene. And the love they have for each other is so different. Tee’s is quiet, reserved, he’s mainly focused on making Fuse happy and keeping all the bad stuff away from him. Fuse, on the other hand, is a big puppy, he can’t stop grinning when he’s around Tee and he wants to make Tee smile and cuddle him… It’s sweet and wonderful.

So, don’t expect some groundbreaking material, this is basically a slice of life drama, made on the cheap side. But, boy, do these two love each other!

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This whole special series speaks for improvement. I FUCKING SWEAR. I hate Fuse so much before this because he always in denial and Tee is always be the one that have to persuade him and convince him that the relationship that they have is real and it's not wrong. HOWEVER. GURL GURL GURLLLLLLLLL! This special series fucking change my whole point of view on Fuse. He has mature and he use his heart more when it comes to his relationship with Tee. And now, Tee is the one who having second thoughts about their relationship because of his parents wants him to break up with Fuse.

I am not kidding. I cried twice or is it.. thrice. lmao i lost count. When Fuse cried because he was mad Tee didn't share his problem with him eventhough they are a couple just got me WOAH. To be honest, they look kinda cute when they fought because they look like an old married couple but when Fuse just decided drastic decision to break up because its what Tee's parents one, got me like "OH NOOOOOOO". Then after he said mean things to Tee, he chase after Tee and said he is sorry. WOAH THAT PART JUST GOT ME LIKE "FUSE HAS MATURE A LOT OH MY GASSSSHHHHHHHH.". Never forget that in MIR, Tee is the one who always says sorry first even though it's not his fault. But in this series, i can feel Fuse's sincerity and it just hit me so hard.

At the end of the series, Tee finally decided that he will be with Fuse and they got together again which makes me really glad. Fuse looks so sincere in this series and he didn't hesitate one bit. Maybe because it's been 3 years they are in relationship and he knows what he wants.

P/S: Watch this series for a better closure that you need in MIR.

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There is undeniably hardly any plot here, but it's possible to get what is going on and feel for the characters even if you have not watched the Make It Right series.

It seems to be a misstep to reveal that Tee's parents want him to break up with Fuse only in Episode 3, the main source of tension in Make It Live. However, the mood is nicely built from the start: as the couple spend tender moments together, there is a clear hint and sense of sadness that something may happen to break them up.

Some may find that there is simply too little plot and much of the episodes consist of dialogues between Fuse and Tee. Nevertheless, it is actually watchable enough as time is spend showing how much the characters care for each other. Intertitles revealing their thoughts are frequently inserted as a contrast to what the characters are saying, but I find that they are used a little too often and are sometimes unnecessarily.

The story does have a happy if somewhat abrupt ending, with Tee calling his mother and telling her that he will not break up with Fuse. There's no indication of whether he will gain his parents' acceptance, but the point is that he won't give in to his parents even if they don't accept his relationship.

With the characters now older and and having been through more in life, their relationship can actually be taken more seriously than in the two Make It Right series. If there ever is a Make It Right 3 that continues from Make It Live, it might actually be the best series of the lot.

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I am still crying as i type this review haha. It was short, sweet, and emotional. MIR goes down as a Thai BL classic for me and it was amazing to see Tee and Fuse together again. Also great to see Fuse no longer being wishy washy. You could see so much improvement in Boom and Peak’s acting in MIR 2 and they have just continued to improve. I was ugly crying right along with Fuse in the last episode. They really scarred me i thought they were about to drive the ship off the cliff but it ended the only way that is acceptable. I just wish that Book and Frame got a cameo as a couple. If you’re looking for a quick fix see Why R U? Ep2 for a Tee/Fuse cameo. I love Boom and Peak and hope that somewhere down the line they’ll get to reprise these roles again with the whole MIR crew. Worth the watch and short enough to rewatch at least once if not a few times lol.

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