Love in the Air (2022)

Boy meets boy, thinks he can avoid his affection, doesn't work out, falls in love instead. Other story is boy is traumatized, falls in love, the rest is history truly. It was cute and I really enjoyed it, it was easy to watch, nothing too crazy, the main characters on both ends were just very sweet, I loved the chemistry but it was confusing at some points and fell short to me sometimes. Overall just not bad at all. I don't think I'd rewatch it but I wouldn't mind if it was on again. It seemed like it was going to be right off the bat toxic and horrendous but it wasn't anything like that. Definitely give it a try.

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A show you'd wish never stops

I recently started getting into asian dramas. I began watching a lot of Ancient Chinese-mainland dramas such as New life Begins, My heart, Oh my lord, etc. Recently I've just started getting into BL/Yaoi shows and I came across TLITA series on IQYI. For it to be my first show out of the many I've began watching this show is top 2 for me compared to Kinn and Porsche.

TLITA is a show that showcases a realistic view of how things are for the LGBTQIA+ community. The twist and turns from abusive past relationships, to misunderstandings, to the fear of trust others is something that many BL dramas haven't been able to replicate so far since I've began watching them.

TLITA showcases two couples P'Payu and Rain; P'Pai and Sky, both Sky and Rain and friends and same with P'Payu and P'Pai. They both have differences between their own relations with each other and how they've cultivated their relationships up until the end and even in the special episode.

THE SYMBOLISM IN THE RELATIONSHIPS
The relationship between P'Payu and Rain give you the glimpse of the naughty side of a relationship. From how they've met, to how they started bonding, to their current relationship status as of now they've been able to keep that side true to the characters. They both have a deep connection that surrounds this Dom/Sub sides of theirselves as its portrayed relatively in the series. P'Payu always teasing Rain and Rain always shy around P'Payu will give you the lighter view of the LGBTQIA+ community.

The relationship between P'Pai and Sky really showcases the very serious and common side to the community that, unfortunately, many people may deal with at times. Sky's abusive past is no strange too many people apart of the community as many of us are always objectified for sexual pleasures rather than being actually loved. Sky's past trauma is to bring light the many reasons why some people have hard time trusting others, and some may not be able to overcome that trauma or have someone out there like P'Pai willing to walk your path if you trust them enough.

If you are just getting into BL/Yaoi shows like I am here's my rating for a great show. Anytime you read one of my reviews and if you have a similar taste in mine then you'll trust my rating.

RATING
Symbolism: It's okay to not be okay, Be true to who you are, Love is strong, It's okay to trust again.

Plot/Storyline (9.9/10): The story that was told by the writers and directors are the best. With maybe one minor hole in the story such as how P'Payu knows P'Pakin, but overall the view of P'Payu and Rain to the very real traumas that was portrayed in Sky's character just makes it amazing.

Spicy/Hot scenes (10/10): They really showcase love between the later hot scenes when the couple has established themselves together. The motion between the actors, and some of the spicy language used during the scenes really shows an inside view on how sex really is not always hardcore and crazy sex.

If you love a show that going to make you fall in love with it TLITA is a show for you. It gives you everything that is needed for a thrilling, exciting, steamy show that makes you want so much more. If they make another season and its anything like the special episode trust me you're going to want to WATCH!

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Could have been a 9.5/10 without villians

It's so frustrating. You have an AMAZING show, with couples that have very good chemistry and overall their couple's lives are really interesting and character development is good. Not to mention it's all blazing hot.

But then they go and ruin both arks with the most lazy, most problematic writing for villians. Eventhough absolutely 0 villians would have made the show fantastic. I had to lower my rating so much cause the poisonous stuff is really going extremely overboard. I can only be grateful that at least those parts ruined "only" 1 episode per arch.

Have absolutely all red flag trigger warnings for all the "romantic-heckin'-no-it's-just-plain-out-r-culture-tropes" prepared. Though thankfully the great majority of them is NOT between the couples! When you see those parts, skip over them for the sake of your sanity till you see the couples interact again, then it's basically over and you get all the lovely fluff again.

Why they did this to the show and the poor actors, I do not know! But if the ppl in charge make anything in future, they better cut it out. Noone, absolutely noone, will have take anything positive out of those scenes. By being that graphic, these scenes just trigger survivors and show the wrong ppl how to be particularly destructive!! Why promote that? Why not keep it down? People with empathy will get the horros without the visuals and ppl who don't get it, won't get it even if you show them! They learn from personal or close family&peer relationships only!!


- So, 70% really top!
- 10% dubious and "it's only not stalking cause they end up together". Can you plz stop promiting it these tropes. In real live the outcomes are mostly bad so do not sell to survivors & ppl unsure how to pursue a crush, that they could have had happy endings this way! Not happening!!! Don't do it! Bad messaging, bad behavioural modelling!!
- 20% are "r you kidding me? Where's the antidote to this toxic mind-broken stuff??


I can only recommend to watch the legit fluff, not normalise anything that doesn't fall under true consent (if saying no comes with negative consequences, then it's NOT consent), and really skip the r-culture stuff!

(If you do not know what r-culture is, then think 'making light of abuse in physically intimate context' and you'll probably figure it out)

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Fell short of the mark

First 5 episodes were fairly good; I didn't love the dubcon in the beginning but it wasn't dragged for too long so I enjoyed watching the smut/fluff. Boss & Noeul are hot so that helps. Episode 6 is where things start to go downhill, the biker guy was so cringe and was probably the worst actor in the series. Him kidnapping Rain in Episode 7 was the most OTT thing I've ever seen, it was silly and I had to look away from the screen a lot because of how much I was cringing.

Now, whereas I tolerated the first couple well enough, I straight up did not like the second couple and the show got extremely hard to watch. Unlike how Rain/Payu had a clear 'mouth says no, body says yes' thing going on, Sky was being HARASSED by Prapai. He did not show interest in the first few episodes of their story, he genuinely seemed bothered. Also, there was no REASON for their relationship to happen. There was no reason for Prapai to fall for Sky. It just didn't make sense. Prapai had no character or personality at all.

LITA is only hyped for the NSFW scenes and yeah those are good, but it's not enough to hold up the whole show. I couldn't really enjoy the scenes because even though the chemistry was there, there wasn't anything actually strong about the relationships so I didn't feel as connected as I should have.

Acting: Ranges from bad to okay, but no one was good if I'm being honest. Some facial expressions were repetitive from each character although I guess the acting matches the low budget vibes so I can't complain too much.

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Sky has stolen my heart

I don't know how to rate this because I only love the second half. The first couple (Rain x Phayu) didn't work for me. I couldn't get over the non-con elements, their relationship dynamic was seriously upsetting to me and Rain was annoying.
I really like the second half of the show however. I've watched it three times already and it's probably gonna become a comfort show for me. It ONLY works as a fictional story! A lot of Prapai's actions would not be okay in real life. Also, the ending felt rushed, the story could have used another episode. But that being said, I really like Sky as a character, he feels very relatable to me and I totally understand his actions. I also enjoyed watching Sky and Prapai's relationship develop. I like the scenes with Sky's friends, their very buys college life. I don't know... this show (the second half) just works for me even though I am fully aware of it's problematic aspects. I'm a sucker for some of the tropes. Like character A comforting character B who's having a nightmare is probably one of my favorite tropes of all time. So yeah, it's not a show that I feel comfortable recommending to others because it's problematic af and potentially quite triggering but I will just quietly enjoy it by myself every once in a while.

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Plain, superficial, only good parts are sex and kiss scenes

I was excited when I first saw the trailer for this BL. The main couples are beautiful, the story involves motorcycling hot fuckboys, and the production looks of decent quality. Sadly, this BL falls short on pretty much every aspect except for the intimate scenes. The storyline is boring and barely existent. I tried to care for the characters but I ended up watching the rest of the episodes with the fast forward button.

The music is low budget, the acting is fine but specifically Rain stands out as awkward with his manga like acting.
Also, they should have renamed to title to fit the motorcycle theme beter. Love in the air does not describe this drama well.

It is a shame that such pretty faces are not doing much more than portraying some simple bad fuckboy story. I don't think the actors are to blame for everything of course, the writing also needed work. Not recommended unless you just wanna see some cute guys be gay, but an edit video is good for that.

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Just Missed Being Memorable

There is such a natural rhythm to this series, and I have to admit that all the performers were top notch. I applaud their level of comfort in showing us the love scenes with naturalness and intensity. They were not afraid to show us that they were in love, and I felt like they meant it. This is a remarkably impactful series that just missed being profoundly memorable. We needed to see, feel, and know the pain of being raped, physically abused and psychologically tortured from an early onset so we could feel it on a deeper level. Do not be afraid to take it one step further. There was a deeper message here. Show it all. But I applaud this series for the progress that has been made. I was deeply moved. I sobbed a lot in the last episode of this series.

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So this was better than it had any right to be.

Okay, let me rephrase that. While LITA wasn't on par with BBS (Bad Buddy the series) with its enemies-to-lovers goodness marred with family drama or Eclipse the Series which touched upon important issues such as mental health and homophobia, it still exceeded expectations.

I went into this expecting the typical plot and tropes and for the most part, I was right. Plus, MAME is notorious for incorporating problematic elements and tropes like many of their kind working in the BL industry. Still, I just wanted something that was good enough to occupy my mind and didn't require much effort to consume.

However, one thing I did not expect was how much the actors would bring to the table.

Noeul, Boss, Fort and Peat each did exceptionally well with the role they were assigned. The guys made their characters more likable than I thought they'd be which added to the viewing experience. While PayuRain's story was enjoyable because it was just a pair of young, virile boys being very much into each other and exploring their relationship in their own unique way, I vastly preferred PaiSky's storyline to theirs.

PaiSky's storyline had that emotional depth that I wish had been more present in PayuRain's, and Fort did an amazing job playing Prapai. I did not expect the reformed cheesy rich fuckboi to grow on me so fast, but he did. Fort's micro-expressions went a long way in his portrayal of Pai and added a lot of depth to this character. Peat also did a wonderful job playing Sky, and their chemistry was one worth watching as it played out onscreen.

Also, seeing them actually act like students was refreshing to see at once. I'm lowkey tired of Thai BLs claiming X person is from X faculty and then doing absolutely nothing to showcase the fact. Studies are a vital part of your character's life if they're in an educational setting and just think of the numerous plot points that can emerge out of it! Exhibit A, Rain breaking down in front of Payu regarding how mean his teacher was about late submissions. Or Exhibit B, Sky calling Pai over to help with his homework, despite the latter having no knowledge of architecture but still doing so because that's what you do in a relationship. I personally vibed very much with these instances.

However, that does not mean that there were problems. The writing fell flat in the second half of the show wrt to Rain's character. I know my guy isn't the brightest bulb in the box but to make him out to be the worst kind of airhead was not cool at all, Noeul didn't deserve that. Furthermore, the 'graphic' depictions of Sky's trauma felt more like they were there for shock value, rather than to add weight to the story. We understand Sky has trauma, you can just hint at it, there's no need to add such long scenes depicting it like that. My Guy has Issues and Baggage, We Get It. The only thing worth nothing in those scenes was the difference in how much Sky had grown, when he fought back against Gun the second time indicating a growth in mental fortitude.

Also, Sky and Rain's friendship was one of my favorite things about the series, but it went so stale in the second half, their interactions seemed so shallow and forced, which was very offputting. If they are besties, act like it!

Also, shoutout to Tonnam, who played Sig. I didn't expect to like the guy as much as I did, but Sig's character was quite refreshing and I really enjoyed his dynamic with Sky.

All in all, not a bad watch, but not exceptionally good either.

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i have a lot to say...

i don't like it, the history feels like a Wattpad book or somethig like that, i feel like it lacked development !!! above all the principal couple :/ omg idk if its the actor or the character (rain) but he makes me feel CRINGE the wat he acts above all the kiss scenes... It's like i read in other comment who said if rhis series didnt hace 18+ scenes it will a fail (sorry not sorry) :/ anyways the second couple is a little bit more acceptable (I almost forgot to mention the fact that what was the need to put the couples' story separately? It wasn't easier to show everything at the same time)

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Get's better the more episodes you watch

Honestly i started watching this based on the trailer and me shipping NoeulxBoss, and about what I've heard this being a good BL with alot of skinship haha. I think it is quite good they decided to split the first half of the series main in Rain / Payu and Second half in Sky / Pai, as i think the story of Sky / Pay is so deep it would be messy to go through the story of Rain / Payu. Honestly, from all the commotion surrounding Noeul / Boss i did expect alot more about their story and part in the series. In the end it felt merely like a rather standard story, cute and adorable but not necessarily refreshing or new. Then again, i was severely impressed with both the storyline and acting of Sky / Pai. It has a deep yet traumatic storyline and i think it is amazingly well played out, and some scenes really got to me emotionally. Deffinetly a great series, even if the first few eps aren't that deep.

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Annoyingly plain

At first I had very high hopes for this series because of what seemed to be the setting - I have never watched any series/film that revolves around street races, and since the teaser seemed to include both that and a good amount of romance, I was looking forward to it.
The first disappointment for me was exactly this: racing in Love in the Air is a minor device at best, and an aesthetic at worse. The characters are seen being involved in this illegal race that seems to be such a big deal for everyone, but the setting is explored so little that, now that I finished watching, I'd argue that Love in the Air is more about university life than racing. (Minor spoiler here: we don't even get to see Pakin in person for the entire series, he's only ever mentioned despite being such an important and powerful character.)
The second disappointment was finding out that this story relies on a handful of tropes that are just... handled in the worst way? There's multiple instances of dubious consent, assault, stalking, and other things that are heavily romanticised. I read/saw these tropes in BLs multiple times in the past, but it was about 10 years ago or so, and I really thought that we had gotten over bad writing in favour of good characterization and introspection. I guess I thought wrong. After realizing that the author of the novel this series is based on is also the same author of TharnType, I'm not even surprised.

Despite my disappointment, I decided to keep watching, in hopes that I would still get to enjoy the series to some extent. The couples are cute and they have some very romantic moments, but I'm afraid there isn't much more that I can say.
- Rain's character seems to be almost entirely undefined. At times he looks stubborn and decisive, then he randomly turns all soft and cute and well-behaved; at times he almost looks capable to think and make decisions on his own, but then he seems to just lose his brain. I feel like his personality changed at every scene, which was frustrating to see.
- The series did a good job with Rain and Payu, showing that they don't just live for each other, but they also have their job/studies to take care of which are equally important. Then the story decided that Sky and Pai only need to be around each other and think about each other at all times; Sky got to show a little more of his university life, but Pai literally seems to be a rich guy whose only task in life is to pursue Sky in any way possible.
- I'm not a fan of dubcon, but I was willing to let it slide in case the series tackled it well. And... it didn't. Not in a horrible way (I'm not expecting a series to teach me that something is Bad and Wrong), but in a very plain way. The most controversial tropes were handled in such an unoriginal way that I felt annoyed and bored.

In the end, I can say that the couples were cute enough to let me watch until the end. Rain and Payu were more interesting to me, while Sky and Pai's story (which starts at part 4 of episode 7) got boring very quickly and I ended up fast-forwarding the last two episodes. I can only recommend this in case you have nothing better to do.

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Daddy

The entire show is based on two tropes
1. He fell first but he fell harder
2. Trauma is fun
Phayu x Rain:
At first Rain wanted nothing to do with Phayu but after a kind of one night stand Rain wants to prove a point and make Phayu fall in love with him. Why would you make someone you have zero interest in fall in love with you??? you definitely have better things to do. Phayu is super manipulative because Rain does exactly what he wants him to do, and as expected Rain falls in love. Rain started as kind of an independent person and ends up becoming a mop. There is nothing better for a new couple then sickness and kidnapping.
Prapai x Sky:
I liked them much better, but that doesn't mean I liked them. Prapai needs to learn the meaning of NO. The chase is fun, but after a few episode it becomes uncomfortable. I actually liked Sky's character arc. The plot with his ex made me feel really sorry for him, and I liked how the relationship with Prapai helped him get over his trauma, but he still needs therapy.
Again, kidnapping is fun...but they need to find better plot points.

Rain and Sky don't feel like friends. They show wants to make me feel like they are besties, but they seem nothing more then colleagues. They need to talk to each other more... that can help a lot.

Overall, nice trash, motorcycles are cool, won't watch again, puns are my love language, Sky is the best.

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