Enchanté (2022)

DISENCHANTED

The moment it was revealed who the mysterious Enchante guy is, the show started going down the drain.

Quick recap. Theo's granny died so he went back to Thailand to be with his family and continue his study. Hoeever, he found life is too boring, it is in fact too boring that while at the library, he decided to write on a French book in the hopes that someone will write him back because, why not? He is the star and people still go to the library nowadays, right? If you ask what are the chances that a Thai guy will read a French book in a library? It is very high, very high indeed. It was so high, that 4 most gorgeous campus guys took credit of writing him back as Enchante. The end.

Oh, wait.

The show started out ok, the first few episodes were engaging, and the connection between Akk and Theo is just full of goody cuteness. And then they had to go there - what was promoted as the selling point of the series was actually its weakest point. 3 of the 4 campus heartthrobs are shown as creepy stalkers, and were later revealed to be up-to-no-good delinquents and opportunists. Whats worse, in what the makers thought was the best twist of the series, they revealed that Enchante was in fact Theo himself! its as if, at that point, he isnt too self-absorbed enough. I could understand (a little bit) that he wanted Akk to be jealous, but to let the lie go on for that long is just downright egomaniac and borderline sociopath.

Ill be honest, by episode 4, i got tired of the story and even forget there are new episodes still to come. The Enchante reveal left a really bad taste in my mouth and unfortunately things got even worse after that.

I also dont understand how the show managed to lose what little chemistry Theo and Akk have at the beginning, and how almost all the characters become un-lovable by the end. Even the proposal scene at the finale was shot so poorly behind that too-obvious fake Paris background, and I just cannot feel anything from the actors by that point as any trace of their little chemistry is gone.

When the credits rolled i was just glad that its over, and hopefully the next Friday GMMTV series can live up to their better brothers.

Will i recommend? No. Was it worth the watch? Not really, it felt like a waste of time. The only consolation is Force, cause he reminds me so much of Tay Tawan, and i think he deserves to get another shot. And please, by the love of god, give Fluke Gawin a main role.

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All the puns on the series title are already taken, so I'll just say it's awful.

I'll start with the good:

There's a scene where Gawin is almost naked.

End of the good.

OK, not quite, although that's why I gave this a rewatch score of "3". I will rewatch that scene. Many times. Although there's a better Gawin naked scene in Not Me (and even without the Gawin nudity, one of the best scenes ever, period. But that's not important right now.)

Force does his best as a noob playing Akk, and has some real charm, although he leaned heavily on his sad-puppy-dog face, which is cute but gets tiresome by the end. To be fair, there are some cute scenes between the main pair - the scene at the LOL fake Eiffel Tower was a rare well-written moment - not fairytale perfect, but just right for people that have been best friends their whole lives.

On to the problems:

The writing is terrible. The entire plot (except for the last 2 eps which fling a series of non sequitur plot devices in the way of our heroes) hinges on Theo's hunt for Enchante, a mystery suitor who defaces a library book to leave one single message for Theo, which makes him obsessed with finding the guy. If they had several back-and-forths that were beautiful and meaningful, we could have invested in the idea of Enchante - but because this did not happen, it was completely mystifying why he cared about this, and since it's clear by watching the opening credits who Theo will end up with, it's doubly pointless, which makes the entire rickety plot unable to support the leaden weight of this series. (To be fair, they do give a solid explanation near the end why he cared, but it will make you hate him.)

This could have been at least partially salvaged by casting somene who can act as Theo. I hate to criticize actors, but Book is terrible. I will mitigate this by suggesting this series had poor direction and he was playing a truly awful character, so only the most charismatic actor could have made him remotely sympathetic. But I noticed that really talented actors like Gawin and Fluke weren't great in this series, so a lot of it is probably poor direction.

Which brings us to the character of Theo. Having a spolied-brat malignant narcissist as your main character is not a great idea. Theo is the most self-absorbed and selfish person I've ever seen as a protagonist in a drama. I can't think of a single thing he did for anyone in the entire course of the series. EVERYTHING is about him. His parents' marriage (the actors who play his parents are super-good - needed to throw that out there), saving the literature department, Enchante, it's all about him. He never once asks a friend how they're doing (even though his supposed best friend Akk looks tortured all the way through this) - he just seems to expect the entire world to revolve around him.

At one point, it's revealed that Akk knew about something that he was aware would upset Theo, but it was absolutely not his place to reveal it, and if he had, Theo would have rejected it and reacted even worse than he did. Theo is extremely upset that Akk didn't tell him about it and won't speak to him. The problem is that just before this it is revealed that Theo had orchestrated a colossal, monstrous lie designed to manipulate Akk and which caused him an immense amount of pain over a prolonged period, so the hypocrisy is so mind-boggling that it's LOL funny, after you first stare numbly at the screen until it sinks in that you did just see what you saw. Also, what Theo is upset about and how he reacts to it is how a pre-teen child would process this, not a 20-something, where it's so immature and self-centered that you wish he were an actual baby so that you could shake him.

At this point you actively hate Theo and hope he dies (or is murdered by Akk) so Akk can get someone way better (like Saifa. Or one of the hot football extras). This is made even worse by the lack of chemistry between the main pair, which is curious because they have it in BTS and other promotional material. Some of that is also directing. For example, there's a key cuddling scene where there's a huge stuffed animal between them so their bodies aren't actually touching.

Some of these problems, as well as a possible reason for the weak acting by Book, is almost certainly that a soft-fliter is used throughout the series that is so strong that I thought I had glaucoma. I think a lot of shadings of facial expressions are blurred away by the soft-focus. Note to Thai BL productions: We don't care if an actor's complexion isn't perfect. Nobody's is. We don't love actors for their perfect skin, we love them for their six-pack abs and chisled pecs. And their acting ability. And their muscled thighs. And gorgeous faces. Pert butts. But mostly their acting and the character they're portraying.

I can't recommend this. There really aren't enough redeeming characteristics to be worth slogging through the terrible writing and enduring Theo. I hope to see Force in a better production than this, so we can see what he can do.

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Disappointed but hope to see more from the Leads in the future

This show started decently. I loved the friendship that the main characters Theo & Akk (Book & Force) had, their chemistry was addicting to watch and it was what helped me get through this show. The motivations for the Enchante guys was so flimsy that it was hard to believe anyone would fall for their acts. The fact that Theo let them use him then acted hurt over their actions bothered me a lot. Akk was such a sweetheart the whole time and Theo let these other guys make Akk feel like he wasn't important even though it was all Theo's doing frustrated me. And this storyline wrapped up in episode 8 and focused on a new storyline that was even more frustrating for 2 more episodes.

I understand why Theo was upset since he based all his opinions of love on what he thought his parents had, but how he reacted to the divorce stuff was beyond childish. Taking it out on Akk because as a neighbor he knew they were divorced was uncalled for. It wasn't Akk's responsibility to tell Theo about them, but he was the one who ended up apologizing it was stupid. Also Theo basically not explaining who Sun is to him & not telling Sun that Akk was his boyfriend was unnecessarily hurtful. Why did Akk have to put in all the work to find a way to France make this relationship work is beyond me, Theo was selfish and that made me the most upset.

Overall it's easy to watch and ForceBook are a great on camera couple, but I wouldn't recommend this unless you want to just watch something easy.

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Désenchanté

I was so intrigued by the concept of this drama, the mystery of who Enchanté was, and the first half or so of the drama was decent while that mystery continued to unfold, but the moment it was revealed who Enchanté was, things started to go downhill fast and ultimately I found this drama to be a disappointment.

The story started out interesting, if a bit improbable. Out of all the library books in this huge library, someone happened to also select this French book and decide to write back to Theo. Alright, fine, I'll go with it. And then all four ambassadors of the school show up declaring that they are Enchanté. That's where things get both interesting and messy. Interesting in the sense that Theo and Akk's relationship starts to develop more. We get some really cute moments with the two of them. Messy because of the four Enchanté's, three of them turn out be stalkers/manipulators. And then eventually comes the reveal of Enchanté as Theo himself which I'm guessing was supposed to be seen as a brilliant twist, but was in fact a huge disappointment.

A huge part of the issue with this drama was the acting. The chemistry between the leads was hot and cold. There were a few scenes where I could feel a spark, but there were a lot of times, especially towards the end where it just wasn't there. Book, I'm sorry to say, just really didn't bring it. I get that he was playing a character that was a terrible human being, but I don't feel like he brought anything redeemable to the character and I think he could have if he had played it different. Force seemed to be relying on his looks more than anything. He does have some good moments, but he needs to work on consistency and engaging more in the scenes. Overall, nobody really stood out in terms of acting. It was all just very mediocre, which is disappointing, because with better writing, directing, and a more charismatic/talented actor playing Theo, it might have been a decent drama.

The only real likable character in all this was Akk. He's a genuinely good guy who cares about others. He's willing to help Theo find his Enchanté, even though it hurts him to do so. He doesn't even judge Theo when he finds out he was Enchanté that whole time. And when Theo runs back to France, he works his ass off to earn a scholarship to study there so they can be together again. He deserves so much better than Theo. Theo, on the other hand, is a self-absorbed narcissist, bordering on an egomaniac, if I'm being perfectly honest. I kind of get his reasoning for becoming Enchanté with wanting Akk's attention, but then again, he already had Akk's attention. It's how long he let's the lie go on that's the issue for me. He could see the problems it was causing so why did he let it keep going? I really don't understand it, and it just feeds the idea that getting what he wanted was more important than the issues it might cause, which, again, self-serving much? He's also just incredibly immature, blowing up at Akk for not telling him about his parents' separation, which as Akk tells him, he didn't feel was his place to tell him, and won't listen to reason. He really is just insufferable. The four false Enchanté's started out kind of interesting, but quickly became problematic and by the end, three of the four were left pretty much unredeemable. Natee was basically a stalker. How Theo wasn't more freaked out seeing his art exhibition, I don't know. Maybe being a guy gives a different perspective, but as a woman, I would have been full out panicking seeing that. Also the fact that no one else seemed to see it as weird or a cause for concern. Natee, Wayo and Phupha were all manipulative. Natee with finding a place for his art exhibition, Wayo with trying to hide the fact that he'd lost the team's money gambling, and Phupha with trying to get a scholarship without actually putting in the work. How exactly Wayo and Phupha figured they would be able to pull off their schemes without Theo figuring out what they were up to, I don't know, considering those aren't exactly minor things they're going after. Saifa was supposed to be the "real" Enchanté as requested by Theo. I honestly found him pretty forgettable other than he did have a decent singing voice.

The OST was okay, not totally forgettable, but also not super memorable.

Is this a drama I recommend? No, not really. If you have nothing better to do, then sure, go for it. It's easily bingeable and it does have a few cute moments, but there are far better BLs out there to watch than this one that I would recommend checking out first.

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Too much teenage drama for me to handle, slow pace

The story is just too much, quite literally too much teenage drama for me to handle.
The series is too slow, many unnecessary scenes were not removed during editing, and the ending felt incomplete, including for the side story.
The side stories are too detailed all of a sudden and they just vanish after their part is done of increasing confusion and not having a proper ending before the series end.
The story is just too immature, both the base story and the additional script.
Another thing to notice here is the structure or order of the scenes, it could have been a bit better if the order of the scenes were changed to better present their story.

Acting:
One thing I noticed about Theo's character is too many hand gestures, especially during the start of the series.

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Disjointed and flavorless

It’s hard to make your story engaging when the main plot is so weak and has so little impact on the characters’ lives and relationships. I mean, Akk and Theo’s conflicts at the end of the series had absolutely nothing to do with “enchanté”. That arc was resolved by episode 7 or 8 and then they just threw in some random conflics so they could reach the 10-episodes mark. The finale revolved around Theo’s parents divorcing!!! That’s peak boring. At least if they made each “enchanté” side-character interesting with their own plotlines with some depth to them, then it could’ve been more engaging. An actual side-romance would do wonders here to distract us from the lukewarm Akk/Theo romance too. The thing between Natee and his studio assistant, while remaining open, felt like it had potential to become some torrid romance.

Theo and Akk (their actors) had good chemistry together, but it didn’t help that their lovey-dovey scenes were so forced and cringey. Takes away from what could have been a nice and warm romance between the two. They had some good moments tho, but like meh I couldn’t care that much because the story was bland.

Not everything is lost tho!! The two OST’s were super good and this was a great oportunity for me to take several screenshots of Fluke Pusit, Fluke Gawin and shirtless Force. Oh and it served a few comedic moments too, like when Akk, in the final episode, said “I don’t deserve him”, when it’s clearly the opposite.

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Thanks, I hate it.

First, I have to mention that I originally dropped the series after episode 8 because a friend told me the last two episodes feel like a slap in the face. And boy, was she right. That being said, I'll start with the things I liked:

The cast. I've generally seen better performances from most of them by now, but it's always nice to see some familiar faces. I also adored Akk, and he deserved so much better (but more on that later).

The music. Thank you, Gawin.

That's it.

On to the problems I've had and to the reason I'm so frustrated with this series:

I really wish there was a cute couple to love or a good story to get invested in, but in my opinion there wasn't. The writing is terrible. There barely is a plot, but it hinges on a wild goose chase for some mystery love interest. Why? Force and Book are the main couple, that's painfully clear from the start, so why go through all the trouble and pretend there's some great mystery to solve? I don't get it. On top of that, everything else feels underdeveloped at best. The other “love interests” could've been interesting, but they hardly get any scenes without Theo. After ten episodes, you barely know anything about them, because the show wasted all its time and potential on the most unlikable main character I've seen in a while. And that's coming from someone who suffered through three seasons of Riverdale.

So yeah, the main issue I have with Enchanté? Theo is not just a terrible person (which could be fun), but also a terrible protagonist. He suffers from the most severe case of main character syndrome I have ever seen: EVERYTHING is about him and if it's not, he tries his best to change that. Again, this could be fun, but the series doesn't acknowledge it. In fact, the series NEVER acknowledges that his behavior might be hurtful to those around him, especially Akk. Seriously, I hate Theo so much, but I hate the fact that the writers tried to gaslight me into rooting for him even more. There's no character growth whatsoever; he acts like the most self-absorbed and selfish person ever and doesn't even get a slap on the wrist because somehow he's right and justified in whatever he does. Even after manipulating Akk for most of the series, he doesn't apologize once and there are no consequences. It's the worst, I hate this kind of writing so much.

And then there are the last two episodes … At this point, I can't even comprehend what I just watched. What the hell. The amount of forced drama in the last two episodes was as insane as it was unnecessary. And for what, to get some equally forced happy end for our main couple? Urgh. Let's just say I went from rolling my eyes to wanting to punch the screen (or Theo) really fast. Fuck this show – especially for trying to gaslight me into thinking Theo is a good person who would be more popular than Akk. He's not, and he wouldn't be. Akk deserves so much better, holy shit.

So, if you couldn't tell by now: No, I wouldn't recommend this. Call me petty, but I'm actually mad at this series for its terrible writing and all its wasted potential. We could've gotten a cute premise and some interesting characters, but we got “how to manipulate your childhood friend into wanting to be with you and destroy his self-esteem along the way”. Thanks, I hate it.

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Enchante

This harem series really was difficult to get through.

Plot: Theo moves back to Thailand after his grandma dies. He is reunited with his childhood friend Akk. The two spend the beginning of the show rekindling their relationship. Theo can be seen as a spoiled brat who pretty much is bored with his life in Thailand and decides to spice it up in the library by writing in a French book, Enchante, that he is looking for someone essentially to entertain him. As the series progresses, we see that Akk clearly likes Theo but won't say anything. Surprise! Someone responds to Theo's message in the book and now the rest of the show is dedicated to Theo trying to find out who the "Enchante" is. Akk wanting to help Theo, posts flyers all over the school asking Enchante to reveal himself. We get 4 guys who all happen to be the schools mascots? Like they are the lead boys in their departments. We soon find out that all of these guys approach Theo pretending to be Enchante; however, they are all wanting to use Theo for something: one wants to receive a scholarship, another wants to have a place to display their artwork, and another wants to repay their debt from money they stole. Meanwhile, Akk continues to follow Theo around trying to help him unveil who Enchante is. Surprise, again! This time, it is revealed that Theo is Enchante, and has been orchestrating this elaborate plan just to get Akk to notice him. From there all is good, except Theo's parents are getting a divorce, and this adult man cannot rectify that his parents have fallen out of love with one another. He runs away and moves to France to be with his mom who randomly decided she was going to live in France after the divorce. Then while in France, he notices a figure stalking him and it happens to be Akk who ran away to France to find him.

Cons:
Does the plot sound convoluted? It really wasn't. Basically, as others have mentioned Theo is a spoiled brat who really was shitty for putting everyone through that. What was his motive? He let 3 men use him all for? To get Akk jealous? Akk, also admits that he knew it was Theo all along...well then why did you drag that on for 8 episodes. The drama itself was quite boring and unfortunately there was no chemistry between the two actors. There were a lot of fan-servicing scenes. I think if you were a straight female, you might be interested in this, but clearly this drama wasn't written to expand LGBTQ+ repertoire and tell a story that would mimic reality. Which is fine. Not everything has to be realistic. It just was that Notice-Me-Senpai-Theo getting upset at his parent's divorce was a bit childish.

Pros:
I will say that I enjoyed the title song. It is charming.

Overall: I would skip this one. It doesn't really add anything to the plate. Also, GMMTV dramas are becoming more and more formulaic:
Episodes 1-2: Exposition on the characters and basic plot premise.
Episodes 3-6: We try to solve one of the problems presented in the first two episodes. Also, one of the characters starts to fall for the other.
Episodes 7-8: The other character starts to awaken and realize they too like the other character. By episode 8 they are together.
Episodes 9-11: We get another problem that now our main characters must overcome together as a couple. This could be a parent who is against their gay relationship, in this case it was a divorce. But by episode 11, the characters have either overcome their problem, or they have to separate.
Final Episode 12: The couples end up reunited by their separation and end up together living happily ever after.

This kind of formula means that no matter what the plot is, the story is the same. The setting is different. This makes boring stories.

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A good premise with a disappointing execution.

The synopsis of the show really drew me in. I like pieces of romance media where the love interest isn't actually set in stone. The idea of there being multiple possible love interests and watching the main character trying to find out which one he's looking for sounded really interesting. But they seriously fumbled it. It was obvious from the start who it was. I don't want to spoil too much but they literally could not have shoved it further down our throats. The ending was extremely anti-climactic. I feel like if they actually used the element of mystery that they hinted at it would be a good show, but it's hard to rank a show high on my list when they didn't meat the expectations that they set.

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I don't even know where to begin.

They tried to sell this plot where the main character wants to find out who his "Enchanté" is between the 3 most popular guys at school, with the help of his childhood bestfriend.

The two friends had chemistry and cute moments at the beginning, but it's somehow all gone by the end of the series.
I don't get why he was deceiving his friend for so long, it was tiresome to watch.
At some point I dropped the series around episode 4 and took me months to get the energy to finish it, only to regret it.

Enchanté turns out to be the guy himself... Which just makes him more of a worse main character.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend this series. It lacked an actual good plot, it sucked how they made all the 3 guys into opportunists who were just trying to use the main character, the main guys chemistry got lost and it just felt dragging.

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There are better Thai BL dramas out there than this.

STORY: Theo, who spent most of his growing up years in Paris, comes back to Thailand. He has a childhood friend Akk who lives opposite of him and also attends the same university as him.

While waiting for Akk in the library one day, he found a book named Enchanté and out of boredom, he casually wrote something in French in one of the blank pages at the back of the book. Surprisingly, when he looked at the same book again after a few days, someone else has written something in response to his comment and signed off as ‘Enchanté, this got him curious and as this replying became back and fro, it made him determined to find out who ‘Enchanté’ was.

Akk helped him to paste notices around the university and eventually 4 persons came up to him claiming to be the one who wrote the messages in the book.

Personally, I found the first 4 episodes quite slow and thought the story to be a little silly and meaningless that is, finding out who Enchanté was, was that really important? However, things started to pick up from episode 6. I think some reviewers have already revealed who Enchanté was, so I shall not say anything here, but it was unexpected to me, and that made me see that the storyline did have some depth after all but only that moment.

When I watched this drama, many a time I questioned the existence of the 4 guys who claimed to be Enchanté but all actually had ulterior motives for getting close to Theo because he was the son of the owner of the university. The drama’s title Enchanté in French means enchanted, delighted, overjoyed, smitten, or bewitched, but I wonder how this is related to the story, or to the 4 guys, they did not look smitten with Theo in the show and definitely not Akk, smitten with Theo wasn’t quite the right word although yes, Theo and Akk did like each other, lots of ‘close-up staring at each other’ scenes until I found them a little too many.

The 4 guys were uninteresting, most of them had their own secrets which of course were not properly developed given only 10 episodes, but they were also unimportant because the focus was on the relationship between Theo and Akk, which to me was not properly developed either because half of the time in the drama was focused on finding Enchanté.

ACTING: I find the ML Theo expressionless, or should I say always had the same expression, as a model he has good looks, but as an actor, it shows inexperience. And his character was self-centred. When he decided to return to Paris, he did not consult Akk in his decision-making process although they were already a couple, only informing him of his decision and simply left Thailand. He was only concerned about his own sorrow because of his parents’ divorce and did not put himself in Akk’s shoes.

Actually, I thought he might hesitate and not leave after all and eventually appear in front of Akk’s house or something or Akk might tell him not to leave or rush to the airport, but nothing of this happened, and next I know, Akk was in Paris on a scholarship, met Theo on coincidence (seems like) under the Eiffel Tower and then proposed to him. P.S. not Paris, it was just a studio with a Eiffel Tower picture...

I was hoping to feel more of their chemistry, but seemed lacking… I had wanted to see more development between the two, but also seemed lacking here. The story somehow lacked substance.

OST: It was forgettable.

REWATCH: For the romance and chemistry, there are better Thai BL dramas out there than this even if the story is somewhat different from most Thai BLs, but I wouldn’t go for the story.

Overall, something positive would be it was a very light, very easy to watch drama. I had watched many dramas where I just couldn’t seem to get past the first 2 or 3 episodes, but this one, I was already in episode 6 when I realized it. I guess there was not much emotions or angst in this drama, and probably the only two things that pushed me forward was wanting to know who Enchanté was and when Akk and Theo were going to confess their feelings to each other.

I do not think I will recommend this as a good Thai BL or BL drama to anyone, definitely not for first-timers and for seasoned watchers, I do not think so.

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It was kind of nice to meet you?

I placed spoilers at the end of this review.

This has a cute storyline, but there are elements of the script that are weak. See the spoiler alert at the bottom if you want more info. I will say they introduced way too many side stories for a 10-episode series. It also had some weird scene elements that seem out of place. However, the ending was charming. The acting was good, but it was not outstanding. It was cute that they had a scene in the café from Baker Boys involving two of the characters from the same series (Punn and Krating).

This is just a random observation, but I notice that Theo’s house was used in the Baker Boys Series and Akk’s house was used in the Something in My Room Series. I don’t know why but I get a kick when I see a familiar location used in different series.


********Spoiler Alert********
The weak elements of the script: There really is no explanation as to why Theo had to move to France in the first place. Theo’s justification for initiating the mysteries enchanté persona is very weak. This is one of the reasons that decreased the likability of Theo for me. Akk forgives Theo for the enchanté situation, way to quickly in my opinion, but then Theo gets upset with Akk for knowing about his parents. Theo then holds a grudge and takes a long time to forgive Akk. This is another reason that decreased the likability of Theo. What happen to the literature major that Theo was trying to save? What was the point of introducing this storyline if Theo was not going to stay at the university?

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