Tonhon Chonlatee (2020)

Being perfectly honest, there was close to nothing I liked about this show. While at first, I liked some supporting characters, in the end, I was done with everyone except for Na.

Technically speaking, the plot is nothing new: guy who didn’t know he was gay, finds out he is gay and liked his best friend (ignoring the bullshit plot twist by the end). It’s simple, you can make it work, but not the way they did it here. The biggest problem was pacing. Good majority of the episodes showed Tonhon being a homophobic asshole, to magically be all “love is love” and accepting about his new found attraction in one episode. It was not gradual - he went from no homo to “love is love” in a matter of a few minutes of screen time and one day of drama time. Because of the poor directing and writing, the scenes that would usually indicate his jealousy (which would hint his feelings for Chon), truly just felt like he was angry at any gays getting close to him or his friends.
And don’t even get me started on “I loved you for a long time” bullshit, because I am about to (┛ಠ_ಠ)┛彡┻━┻.

Speaking of Tonhon… What a mess of a human being he was. The show tried to convince me that he was so homophobic, because of his dad, but I didn’t buy it. He was a grown up man, he was not living with his parents, no one from his circle of friends was openly homophobic, and looking at some scenes in the 2nd half of the show, only his ex-girlfriend was homophobic. This leads to one conclusion: he was ignorant, unwilling to learn or to change his mind. I already talked about his unrealistic switch of personality, but what makes it even worse: he gives shitty excuses after breaking a promise. The fact he kept claiming as if he did not cheat on Chon was laughable. You kissed your ex. That’s it. There is no excuse that would make it not cheating (in the scenario they presented). Except for his looks, he had no redeeming qualities. I have to ignore the revelation of him loving Chon since they were kids, because it contradicts everything that was shown in the previous episodes.

At first, I enjoyed Chon a lot. I liked how he did not judge people based on their looks, occupation and sexual orientation. He was a sweet boy with a massive crush on his best friend. But then a whole “let’s bait/force Tonhon to come out and admit his feelings, even though he is obviously not ready” plot hit me in the face, and the only thing I could think about was: this is gross.

Ai, Ni and Miriam are guilty of the same “crime”. Again, I adored their characters at first, especially Miriam. The more I thought about the situation though the more borderline toxic they became. One could ask, what was toxic about the adorable Ai and Ni? Well… For starters, they enabled Ton’s homophobic behavior. How the guy was supposed to learn that being gay is not bad, when even his closest friends were agreeing to every homophobic line he was saying and went with all the crazy ideas of “what a real man should do” he had? I call that being bad friends. Miriam was quite a busy body and one of the biggest supporters of forcing Ton to come out. Enough said.

Amp was just trash. That’s it. Nueng was trash 2.0. He tried to rape Chon is a toilet, when Chon was drunk. And no one had close to any reaction to it. Like it’s not a crime. Like what he did was not disgusting. I am so done with this trope, and the fact the perpetrator is never dealt with in a just way. Yes, let’s just ignore and not seek any punishment for attempted rape. No big deal in the land of many BLs I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

I liked Chon’s mom, but then she went “if husband and wife have a disagreement they should sit down and talk about it”. LADY! This is not a disagreement. The dude cheated on your son. Honestly, her whole speech about “don’t let that one woman ruin your relationship” was out of place.

And now, the only saving grace characters wise: Na. His behavior at first was a bit frustrating. He seemed extremely overconfident and too full of himself. The more I got to know the guy, the more I started to adore him though. From the beginning he was honest and straightforward about his feelings and intentions. He was clear about the fact he is truly going to “hit on” Chon, and for him it’s not about making Ton jealous. Even after he got rejected, he was the one to support and talk with his love rival, making sure he is ready to accept his feelings and it’s not too much of a burden to him. He was just truly a good guy surrounded by trash and semi-trash.

Also, can anyone explain to me why they censored Ni and Ai kissing scenes, because that was one of the most ridiculous things I have ever seen. It was so obvious Toptap and Mike did not kiss once during the whole show, and that’s why the scenes of them being lovey-dovey with each other were cut in such weird places. If the actors for any reason cannot kiss on screen, either don't write any kissing scenes for them, or recast the characters.

Anything else I enjoyed except from Na? The production value was high. The show was pretty. I also did enjoy the cute scenes we got by the end between Ton and Chon. Don’t get me wrong, I was still pissed how nothing makes sense plot and pacing wise, but it was cute for the few seconds here and there when I was able to turn off my brain. So yeah… that would be it.

And you know what is the worst? All the problematic things in the show were added, and they don’t exist in the novel. And I’m just sitting here asking: why? What is wrong with people?

Overall, this ain’t that guys. The only reason I finished the show was to see how bad it will get. And let me tell you, it got worse with each and every episode.

+ Can we talk about the fact Miriam is pregnant? Okay... no. I don't want to think about that ridiculous plot line at the end.

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frustration at its finest

tw// mention of rape

the trailer made me go, "oh! this doesn't look so bad! it looks cute and light! let's go for it!". well... the drama in its entirety is a hot mess. no, it's not the spicy good kind of mess that makes me look forward for more episodes. it's the mess that makes you wonder what went through the heads of the writers.

one thing that made me hooked into wanting to watch this is the actors from past dramas i watched. i honestly kinda feel bad for the the actors because it feels like they were trying their best to make up to portray their characters. sadly, there's literally no depth to the characters despite ton's dad brainwashing his son with such nonsense and misogynistic beliefs. the writers had the chance to give depth to ton's character and show his side of the story but we got absoluTeLy nothing! so, the whole time i couldn't help but detest ton because he was honestly being such an ass and made chon uncomfortable in the early episodes pressuring him about banging a girl to prove his masculinity.

three years with ai and ni.... not once did ton suspect anything going on???? i may be a clown but i haven't reached this level of clownery yet. i also couldn't find myself rooting for ai and ni when they forced chon to come out to them. another character that grinded my butters was nueng... what was the writers thinking making a rape victim attempt to rape someone????? honestly.... in each episode, i felt like i'd end up hating every single character. thankfully, characters like chon's mom, na, the nail lady and miriam exist.

the chemistry between chon and ton is not bad... but it's quite plain. the way their relationship developed itself is questionable. dude legit banged chon after confessing and chon, one who's known to always be the frantic type in such situations didn't flinch one bit. i honestly found ton unlikable and his possessiveness didn't appeal to me at all.

if there's another bl drama that features a revenge driven ex girlfriend after this, i'm officially teleporting to space because i'm so done with it.

overall, this is a drama that isn't anything new that does have a few charming points (comedic scenes and few likable supporting characters) but completely fails to keep my interest to the end.

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Enough with the misogynism and rape culture apologia, Thailand.
Just... enough.
This drama was terrible and then at the end they have a woman being whipped through the streets like some kind of mediaeval witch trial while her rapist friend gets off scot free and another woman being treated as an incubator.
I blame everyone who was melting down on Twitter about how romantic this whole thing was and convinced me to watch it when it was deeply problematic, deeply sexist and even normalised homophobia and excused sexual assault and cheating.
Just stop.
Stop.
The end.

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Worst GMM BL and that's saying something

This review is a personal opinion. It is not meant to sway or discourage anyone from watching this series.

I didn't think GMM could top the travesty that was 2gether...but TonhonCholatee makes 2gether look like it deserved an EMMY.

Who thought this was a great idea to put on the screen? These actors deserve better. I'm beginning to believe what some actors have "shaded" about GMM...how they don't know how to capitalize on some of their actors and instead gives them very little or crappy work.

This was TRASH...

All of the problematic topics were handled like crap. The script was weak, the soundtrack boring, the scenery lacking. There wasn't anything redeeming about this trash show.

Sorry...it's 2021...BLs have to evolve and some fans need to stop accepting these crappy shows.


HOLY SMOKEs...How did I manage to watch this for this long?

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ngl, one of the worst BLs ever

(This is by no means an objective or organized review)

I went into this series with a decent amount of expectation because I like the cast. And in most cases, I like the story of two childhood friends growing up being lovers. HOWEVER, I am seriously disappointed and pissed for the whole series.

1. SCRIPT: Definitely poorly written. I find almost all the interactions between characters, especially Tonhon and Chonlatee, very awkward. Their romantic scenes feel to me as too pushed. I understand this is a lighthearted series and the screenwriters are likely to want to make us laugh. However, some scenes are just down straight stupid.

2. STORIES: I have a lot of issues with the social responsibilities this series touched on. Of course, it does convey a clear message that all people are no less of a person because of their sexual orientation. And I firmly believe it has a good intention of de-stereotyping the LGBTQ+ community. However, here are some of my main issues with it:

- The moment Tonhon "realized" his love for Chon, the first thing he did was having sex with him. This makes this whole thing seems like THAT is what he wants (Not to mention no consent was explicitly shown).

- Tonhon’s dad’s character development process where: this is a character who can have a lot of space for development. Despite so many ways writers can make him realize his misconception, they chose to make him realize "gay people aren't all bad" under the situation of an accident, literally overnight. You may have different feelings about this scene but for me, it seems like Tonhon's dad just "forgave" them for being gay BECAUSE they helped him. There's no further open discussion about whether he actually isn't homophobic anymore.

- Women ≠ baby-making machine: the last episodes made me super angry. Tonhon's dad obviously never realized his mistake of viewing women as a utensil to make an heir. Miriam even became a surrogate mother because he wants an heir??? What in the world! I personally don't think surrogacy should be legal for many reasons (it facilitates human trafficking, surrogate mother's risks, etc.) but I understand people may have other views. However, here, while I appreciate Miriam's selflessness, the whole reasoning behind it is simply fucked up.

- Tonhon kissing Amp for his ego (to prove his masculinity???) and sure he apologized but did he realize his mistake? He literally tried to get Chon to trust him by expressing how long he has loved Chon. A person does not need to "prove" their gender expression or sexuality to other people ok? Not to mention that one's sexuality has nothing to do with one's gender expression. And Chon apologized to Tonhon even tho he did nothing wrong?? Smeh...

3. PACING: terrible pacing. Both about character development and the story going forward. There are a ton of useless scenes without pushing the plot.

I will not forgive this series for not addressing the issues above. There are many other problems that I haven't mentioned (like privacy and personal space, stereotypes about women, lack of well-portrayed characters, etc.) but these ones are what I'm most dissatisfied about.

Probably not an issue for most people, but I dislike the fact that Tonhon is just getting shirtless for absolutely no reason. I just don't need it lol.

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Where do we even start?

TW// mentions of sexual harassment/getting outed also use of strong language

Disclaimer: i only heard of the Novel, i've never read it // also this is just me ranting

Well what a shitshow.
What were the producers and directors thinking? This had the potential to be a feel-good drama. They really could've made a drama where the main couple is just learning to love each other without the whole homophobic plotline. They did Tonhon so fucking dirty, made him look like this jerk who hates people that are not like him even tho in the novel - he's just not like that. They could've made Tonhon this man who is just figuring out his sexuality with and Chonlatee just being there by his side and be the beautiful boy he is. This is really frustrating because there just could've been so much more. Also the storyline with Amp? So toxic, just like in so many other dramas, making women look like crazy, mean and dumb girls that don't know what they're doing anyways. Her outing Ton to his parents like that just just the cherry on top.
It's sad because Tonhons and Chonlatees actors seem to be really good friends in real life that are genuine and i was looking forward for them to have a chance to make something cute and wholesome. I hope they will get another chance to act with each other.
By the way, how is that one dude that tried to drug and rape Chon not in fucking jail????? My dude, my guy, how did Chon just walk away from that like it never happened??? And the story with Tons dad? My guy, we already have enough people on this world,,, you treating your children like breeding machines is just not it. Who even thought that that would be a good storyline?? If you wanna make him homophobic, just make him homophobic! Ton and Chon could've just worked around that because after the dad has a crackin' stroke, Tonhon just doesn't seem to be that worried anyways. I loved Chons mum though but i wanted to see her fistfighting Tons dad so bad.
When Tonhon kissed Amp in that one club or bar they were sitting in, i just knew, nah my guy, you don't deserve a happy ending. And to be honest, after all that i would've been very okay with not having a happy ending because he just didn't deserve it. Are you really that fragile, my guy? Do you really have to prove your EX that you're still into girls? That you're are so unsure in your masculinity, that you just can't let people think that there is a possibility you could be gay? You, my dude, are the weakest link! If you guys ever meet someone like that, RUN, or you will feel your braincells just packing it together and fleeing to another country.
I don't think i will ever rewatch this and i hope there are people getting back into studying film and screenwriting because this just ain't it.
Please, don't take me too seriously. This is just me ranting on an empty stomach and posting it without reading over it.
If you haven't watched this series yet, don't waste your time with it. Go rewatch your favourite BLs or something.

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GMMTV's Worst BL

I don't think I've ever seen a story that had an interesting premise go down the drain in 10 episodes. This is the worst show I've seen produced by GMMTV since Waterboyy and that's saying something. Heed my advice and don't watch this show.

First things first, I feel so bad for the original author of Tonhon and Chonlatee because I know it must've hurt to see your work bastardized in such a terrible way. Why the hell did they add toxic homophobia to a character who was never homophobic in the first place?

Tonhon was a male lead that I couldn't rot for in any way shape or form. It's time BLs move past the characters with toxic masculinity mixed with homophobia who suddenly realize that they're into men (or ONE man). Tonhon never atoned for anything of the hurtful things he said to Chonlatee or his roommates Ai and Ni or to any of the people he offended in passing. If anything Tonhon should've been left in the dust along with his homophobic father.

Chonlatee was an okay character, he had guts until it was time to check Tonhon on his homophobia. He was refreshing, in terms not taking shit from no one but I got tired of seeing Khaotung pull the same confused/constipated face everytime he was faced with an obstacle.

Ai and Ni were quite honestly strange and it was obvious they were a couple, Tonhon must've been dumb as hell to not see through that. Mike and Toptap have acted together and previously were each other's love interests in 2Together, so I was confused as to why the chemistry wasn't good as it was before. Their chemistry was sorta there but their performances left me wanting. Also what was with the cut scenes around them kissing lmfao. Did they not do it properly or something?

GMMTV definitely through this garbage together and thought they could feed it to BL fans with no consequences. The budget was not ENOUGH for this production, as it looked like they cut corners and shit. I know they pay well and are quite well known so I'm not sure what's up with the lackluster production.

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Problematic show

First of all, the background music is too sudden and makes tension scenes ridiculous. Plus, even though is can be funny at first, actors really accentuate their expressions and we can not feel invested in a serious scene. The show is overall disorganized and doesn't make sense sometimes like the homophobic dad that accept so easily his son, lmao it's just impossible regarding of the character.

Now all the problems:
-Tonhon is the definition of toxic masculinity, he takes Chon as granted and didn't feel sorry at all for cheating on Chon (TriNg To pROvE He Is a MaN) and even considered it would be easy to "win" him back because Chon has loved him for so many years, I still think Chon deserves better.
- Na have been used very rudely by his friends not considering his feelings
-Tonhon dad is transphobic, considers women only as wombs and homophobic but they still wanted to make him become the good dad at the end, it's just unrealistic
-BaiPai, who I loved, didn't hesitate to out Ai and Ni, it was not her job to tell his dad and it is not acceptable but make her a remarks about that
-How Miriam didn't have a character for herself, she was literally a hardcore fangirl (I hate this type of characters, fetishize homosexuals is wrong) and a comic resort but exists only through others.
-They slutshame a lot, Miriam is chosen to be the surrogate because she is a virgin by Ton's father, they consider it is a shameful condition and make fun of the girls there. Some are here because they do not have a choice and need money, others because they genuinely like it . In either case, it shouldn't be mocked
-The tentative of rape on Chon wasn't took seriously. Overall, Amp friend is really problematic, he forces himself on Chon by heavy flirt even though he can clearly see he was uncomfortable. He tries to rape him but this subject is taken lightly like if it wasn't cool but not that bad either.
- Also the actor playing Tonhon took off his shirt way too often. Don't get me wrong, he has a great body, but it was at such a point that it was getting annoying.

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Yikes

YIKES. This is the worst show I have seen from GMMTV. I hope the careers of everyone involved would be able to recover from this tragedy.

The show went on a freefall after the pilot episode. That Untamed spoof would definitely go down as one of the best prologues to a BL ever, but I could only hope that the creators invested the same amount of effort in filming/writing the rest of the story. The writing of Tonhon Chonlatee is possibly the laziest I've seen from GMMTV. Khao, Neo, Ciize, Mike, and Jennifer were all good but not enough to save us from this cringefest. Attack me if you want, but the PoddKhao tandem never worked. The two had no chemistry at all and they were just too... different. Podd had a much better partner (Gawin from Kiss Me Again/Dark Blue Kiss, who had the right amount of angst and tall enough to appear pretty beside Podd) and Khao is better paired off with someone his own age. Without any chemistry, I found it difficult to show empathy for either of the leads.

I especially hate those scenes where the characters were just seated in the living room. Absolutely zero creativity there. Their discussions did not go anywhere. I was also hoping that they showed us more of Na, who is probably the funniest and most three-dimensional character in the show, but apart from Episodes 7 and 8, he barely had anything to do in the series.

And that ending. DOUBLE YIKES. That was beyond bad.

I quite understand why we got this from GMMTV. The pandemic forced them to delay/abandon some of the most anticipated series they have for 2020, so they had to come up with "temporary fillers" quick: shows that are relatively easy to write and film amid the restrictions. But man, I have seen better fiction written by giddy teens in Wattpad...

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Trash. And not the good kind.

Imma keep it simple for y’all. This show is unwatchable garbage. The trailer might trick you to think otherwise but the more I watched this show, the more I hated the storyline, the characters, everything.
There’s nothing redeemable about this series, tbh.
Starting with the storyline, it was nothing new- Guy is straight, Guy meets another guy and realises that he in fact, is gay. This trope this sooo overused in BL dramas that it has now become a genre. But it’s okay, it can work if you do it well. Which was definitely not the case here. It is very evident that they intend to tell us that Tonhon is not homophobic multiple times on different occasions. (for eg., “Chon is a man and he should be with a woman. How can he be with a man?”). This dialogue hints that Ton doesn’t understand that there can be a relationship between a man and another man beyond friendship because of his homophobic asshole dad. But lemme tell you, they failed miserably. First, I don’t understand how a grown ass man who seems to know so much about the world doesn’t understand this concept? How dense can you be? and secondly, ??? it’s just so dumb. Majority of the episodes, Tonhon is just shaming and hating on gay people. And suddenly within a span of few minutes, he loves Chon, doesn’t hate gays anymore and is making promises to be with him, about living together forever and what not? Worst writing ever.
Tonhon was literally such a shitty human being in general. Sorry can’t find any other adjective to describe him.
He constantly hurt Chon, disappeared, came back when it was convenient for him and didn’t even think it was necessary to apologise. Also, gave pathetic excuses for kissing Amp constantly. He had the guts to do it but not to accept the fact that it was entirely his fault. He has no control on his thoughts and actions and it shows what a mess he is.
I always felt that the redeeming quality of the show would be dealing and overcoming homophobia but NOPE. They went ahead and ruined that too. They had such good opportunities to build Ton’s and Ton’s dad character, but they were not taken advantage of. AT ALL.
Ai and Ni seemed likeable in most the episodes but then they literally forced Chonlatee to come out to them when he evidently didn’t want to and kept encouraging Ton’s homophobic ways by agreeing to everything he said and did.
Ton’s sister seemed okay at first, but she thinks outing people casually without their consent is cool, so that went to trash too.
The only well written character in the show was Na. In the beginning, his character was introduced as the one the viewers were supposed to dislike. The one who “comes between” the two lovers and it was really convincing because he did seem to be overconfident and annoying. His character development throughout the episodes is immaculate. His clarity of thought, feelings for Chon everything was sorted. He helped Ton realise his feelings, basically held the show together for me. Speaking of good characters, I think I can mention Chon’s mom because she definitely is one of the best parent characters i’ve seen in a BL series. It did go downhill when she asked Chon to talk things out with Ton because I expected better from her. Ton cheated on her son but she clearly turned a blind eye to it but considering that most of the characters were bad in the show, she was still fine for me.
Onto the other things- Amp is the bane to my existence. She’s batshit crazy. She seems to have no self respect what so ever and she’s extremely obsessive. Basically, the worst woman character you can have in a show. I have no words for her. Nueng was the best companion she could have. And of course, his character was so necessary in the series to include the same trashy attempt to rape scene so that Ton could save Chon. When that scene was over, Nueng disappeared as if nothing happened (of course) and wasn’t dealt with at all, didn’t have to face the consequences of his actions, nothing. It’s astonishing to me how rape and assault is so normalised in the BL world.
Lemme talk a little about the horrid attempt to include that plotwist at the end, that Ton has always been in love with Chon. Only did it not make any sense, it invalidated all the things that happened in the previous episodes. I don’t know if it was supposed to be a wow moment, but it definitely didn’t work for me.
However, I did enjoy Ton and Chon’s moments together in the last episode but they were just not enough to make up for the 10 episode disaster that this show was. Also, the humour in this show was really not it. It was very over the top and unfunny. I didn’t laugh once and that means something for a show that is supposedly “lighthearted” and easygoing.
Lastly, the final sudden transition of the dad. It was the worst thing that could happen to this already disastrous show. Period. No further comments except for thank god this show is over because I don’t think I could’ve suffered anymore.


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Lighthearted and Funny !!

I was expecting some heavy topics based on some of the previous reviews. The mentioned homophobia is definitely a plot point for Ton (love interest). Although, it may not be fit for everyone's taste portraying a BL with homophobia, it's definitely real. You can't expect the entirety of a university to be openly happy-sunshine-gay.

The 'rape' or attempted 'rape' was pushed past because it's not a very deep topic on the show (of course it is in real life). It's a very go with the flow, style and pushes past issues which more dedicated watchers might not enjoy. Mostly everything can be played off as a joke and moved on, you might not want to watch if you aren't up for a go-happy vibe.

The protagonist Chon is very head over heels, ditzy, and awkward (not a bad thing !!). It's just the way he's written as a character, and nothing against it. I'm in love with his friend

My favorite part is the cheesy dramatic humor incorporated into the series. If your looking for some die-hard serious Grammy winning sh*t this isn't for you... :) BUTT, it's a great pass time. I would recommend it as a background show, not fully invested into the plot line, waiting on the edge of your seat type thing. It's more of a have a laugh with your friends about the cheese fueled acting and awkward encounters.

The ending (not a spoiler) is very cut short and impractical, but it is what it is. Overall, the fluffiness and bubbly feelings are because it's a chill series. Again, I don't recommend if your looking for a binge new obsession type show.

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