One of the best college BLs in recent times
With 16 episodes, We Are is an exception to the GMMTV BL rule. I’m glad they decided to go with this many episodes because, to be honest, I couldn’t get enough of this series.The trailer of We Are seemed a little lame and all over the place. I didn’t know what to expect from the drama except for a cliched “do what I tell you in exchange for what you want” plot, but I’m glad to have been proven wrong.
Pond and Phuwin never disappoint. They have found a steady rhythm blending romantic anticipation with playful rivalry. aheir relationship also develops like how any real-life relationship would. There’s a long period of ambiguity in their status, which is actually the best part of the show given their mutual attraction.
Even though the storyline was rather superficial and uncomplicated, it managed to capture the magic of young people falling in love. No bullshit, no convoluted problems. Just butterflies and affection.
The series was also unexpectedly humorous in its own way, so it left me both squealing and roaring with laughter throughout.
Verdict: A comforting and highly entertaining series that I looked forward to every week
Full review: https://asianblreviews.wordpress.com/2024/07/28/we-are-2024-bl-review/
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A Green flag story which calms you
This is my first time reviewing and this story is worth the review. I love how this whole story is full of green flags. This drama is very different to the manhwa so there are some plot holes(I am too blinded by love to see them). There should be more background stories about Fang as his POV is none, to be honest.This story is full of green flags, all the couples are so cute and I wish there were another season. Almost every Wednesday I would be kicking my feet in the air at how entertaining they are. Overall, I am happy with what I got to watch and hope others also enjoy it as much as I do.
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Review of "We Are The Series"
"We Are The Series" dives deep into the heart of university life, exploring themes of friendship, love, and the journey of growing up—common yet cherished elements in the BL genre. At the center of this narrative are Pond and Phuwin, whose on-screen chemistry is nothing short of captivating.Pond and Phuwin's dynamic is the series' standout feature. Their chemistry brings an authentic warmth to their interactions, making every scene they share memorable. Phuwin, in particular, has shown significant growth in his acting skills. His portrayal of complex emotions feels more nuanced and convincing, adding depth to his character's development throughout the series.
However, the series does have its shortcomings. One notable issue is the abundance of couples introduced. While this diversity aims to offer a broader perspective on relationships, it sometimes leads to a lack of focus, resulting in several characters and their storylines not being highlighted as effectively as they could have been. This scattered approach can make it challenging for viewers to form a strong connection with all the couples.
Another point of critique is the rather fictional and somewhat unrealistic way Pond and Phuwin's characters fall in love. While their journey is endearing, it stretches the bounds of believability, making it feel like a fairy tale rather than a plausible romance.
Despite these drawbacks, "We Are The Series" succeeds as a feel-good show. It avoids intense conflicts between the main characters, particularly in the final episodes, opting instead for a more light-hearted and hopeful narrative.
Overall, "We Are The Series" is a delightful watch, particularly for fans of the BL genre. It offers a sweet, uncomplicated story that highlights the chemistry between Pond and Phuwin, backed by Phuwin's notable improvement in acting. While it could benefit from a more focused approach to its numerous subplots and a more realistic depiction of its central romance, the series ultimately delivers a charming and enjoyable experience.
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Repetitive and cramped storyline, but the chemistry between the main leads makes it worthwhile
Considering the repetition in high school/university students falling in love storyline, it feels like the production company has given up on creative writing and storytelling. Having watched Never Let Me Go, this severely pales in comparison and it is laughable that Phuwin and Pond were given such a series to pursue. The series again fell into the major fault of making everybody date each other, which to me is sluggish writing.Despite the poor writing, I must applaud Phuwin and Pond for their amazing chemistry. Phuwin is generally a better actor and his character allows him to act and not just look pretty (in a similar way to Never Let Me Go). I find that Pond is a weaker actor but I appreciate that he never looks awkward when he's paired with Phuwin. Really love this pairing. They definitely deserve a better plot and setting to play with.
All in all, the production company needs to wake up. The BL industry is changing. Queer characters should be incorporated into drama series with a well-written plot and production instead of a basic drama with no creativity just to earn the BL bucks. (Shoutout to I Feel You Linger In The Air).
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We Are dolphins singing Symphony
It's plain happiness. It feels like we're dolphins and we're all singing Symphony by Zara Larsson together bcs it's really plain happiness. They don't have actual problems, maybe a little miscommunication but it's like, 20 minutes long, everything is simple and funny. If you want something to LOVE LAUGH LIVE, that's the series. It's just... how can you have 4 main couples, 1 hinted couple, and still, be so... empty? Also, it's unfair that ChainPun doesn't have development bcs in SIXTEEN episodes (really, for WHAT?) they have 2 proper scenes of them. TanFang and QToey being funny and cute saves the show bcs the main couple was so fucking boring... enemies to lovers? Like in the first opportunity, they're already sucking each other faces.Well, about the couples:
- PhumPeem (PondPhuwin): Boring... cute, but still boring. Points for Phuwin meowing. Points for them being the first BL couple that I watched who really have a flirting stage. They have a normal couple development but considering all the time that it took... it was a little too much?
- TanFang (AouBoom): SO FUCKING FUNNY they carried the show along with QToey, but they were very underdeveloped. Like you blink and they're together out of nothing.
- QToey (WinnySatang): Surprisingly, the best development between all the couples. They're the only of all of them who really have a history and reasons.
- ChainPun (MarcPoon): They didn't have screentime at all but when they appeared, it was fun. JUSTICE FOR THEM!
In resume: Sixteen episodes with basically every couple with bad development and hours of filler episodes where PhumPeem was just flirting when you could take that time to make proper character constructions. It's not a bad series, fr, it's funny and it's enjoyable. But it does have BIG screenplay holes, and it's such basic things that it just feels that they did a very lazy job. They really don't have proper problems and things like that, so, if you just want happiness, you will like it. But on a technical point: it's a LAZY screenwriting job. Like so fucking lazy.
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family can’t always be your safe space
I’ll admit I came here for Pond Phuwin but stayed for AouBoom.there is something so wonderful about a group of friends that love and support each other as much as the gang of We Are. I WISH I had a friendship group like this.
honestly this series is unserious a little unhinged and full to the brim with love and the world just needs this at times.
I was also very happy with the pretty much even screen time for most of the cast. when there is this many characters things tend tog tt messy and overlooked but that really didn’t happen here. I would hav loved to seen more marc poon, that would be my only complaint in the screen time category.
if you’re looking for a unserious, fun, full of love good time series I highly recommend it.
now how do we go about getting Aou and Boom their own series?
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not good but can be enjoyable
I started this series because of the cast, and at the end of it I realized that must be the only good thing about this series.There is no plot whatsoever and the script is kind of awkward and always the same. There's some dialogue that's been almost literally copied from another scenes. There's no conflict or something that drives the characters forward. There was so many drinking and travelling with no point at all? Not only that, but from my understanding they took out some things from the novel that should have been in the series at least to have some good conversations, like toey's asexuality that was completely ignored.
The music was placed terrible. The OST were not bad but they would put the CP song in every scene of those characters even if the mood was not right, and it was so underwhelming that I had to mute at some scenes to at least enjoy the acting.
The characters were ok, as I said the was no character development or anything because the script is horrible but at least the characteristics from the novel were kept and it was cute.
The acting is good enough, my favorite performance was winnysatang's in EP 7. The couples had chemistry so that was alright. My favorite ones were Tanfang and Qtoey because Aouboom and Winnysatang gave us some good new dinamic that was interesting to see. Phumpeem was kinda boring because I felt that the dinamic was almost the same as the other Pondphuwin series. Meanwhile Chainpum were kinda ignored the whole series, when they could have had some good friends to lovers plot there.
Anyway, I would only recommend this to people that already like the actors, because the performances were good. But otherwise? there's nothing.
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this was one big filler episode
And we are done. This headline sums this show up perfectly. I am watching the behind-the-scenes and then I will rate this. 8.59375 out of 10. So it is an 8.5 out of 10. Before I get into the spoilers and my thoughts on the show, I am going to explain what the description should have said and try not to be biased (I failed on this slightly but explained it well, also had to cut this down lol)."We are... friends, but we fight each other and like each other so much we might hit on each other." The description of this show said, which really depicts this show perfectly, but that "we are" consists of 11 people, which is a lot. It is 4 novels smashed into 16 episodes, hence the 4 couples. Phum and Fang are brothers and Fang is the older brother of the two of them (I think). The original friend group was Peem, Q, Tan, Chain, and Pun, and then Tan made friends in his major which added Phum, Mick, and Beer into it. And now on to the spoilers, because that explains well enough before they drop you off into whatever the start is lol.
(For every episode I did some we are... and it was funny so I will put those). We are humbled and now working on AP ART: Right off the bat all of the different outfits even if they were the same things felt so catered to the character and I think the show did such a good job on that. I noticed some voice changes to make certain actors sound more "innocent" and I talk about that A LOT. "I feel like I am smoking weed. Why are all 5 of them in that bed?" This feeling sadly never went away lol. Also, they did a good job of showing the relationships and dynamics in the friendships at the start and setting everything up. I was very confused but it was funny as fuck, which made up for whatever was happening.
We are slaves Ig: It was giving fish upon the sky and I loved it. It was giving the wacky vibe of it and it seemed like it tried to match that but it kind of failed.
We are weaponized incompetence and baby voices: This sums up episode 3 all the way to episode 10 or 11. The ships were cute and it had some plot, so that was good. I mentioned that Phum seemed very lonely and I was very right. There was a lot of weaponized incompetence in this and instead of pointing it out the other pair found it cute (Q, and Chain, dude). They were like oh how cute, I can help them, Q and Toey grew out of this, Chain and Pon did not and it got very old very fast.
We are remorseful and caring alcoholics who love to drink: "This review like the final review is going to be very hard to write because there’s nothing happening. So sorry future me, because present me, has no clue what’s even happening because there’s nothing happening" Took the words right out of my mouth me 4 days ago.
We are confused and all have the same haircut: Phum once again just wanted Peems company, he desperately wanted it, wanted someone who was forced to stay with him, who couldn't leave him no matter what. "Excuses to get him alone, love to see it." The friend groups finally collide because of Tan and that started the awesomeness that is the power of friendship in this show. "Fang and {Tan} are now dating, for some strange reason. Not enough plot lol. We are dating with no plot because the gods of whatever holiday this is said so." Okay true, but not exactly, they are dating because they were already doing that in the novel and they wanted to express how their dynamic was compared to others and introduce the idea that everyone's love is very different, early on. Also, Boom IS SO FUCKING FINE, I MENTION IT SO MUCH IN MY REVIEWS BUT HE IS SO FINE I ACTUALLY CAN NOT EXPLAIN IT. "There is some plot but is very much lacking. But it is fun to watch." I think the fact that they didn't overload this with a lot of trauma and hard-to-watch stuff and instead made it funny and quirky made this show bearable enough to finish (it did take me like 4 days but that is fine). Flirty Pond is what I live for, just his demeanor and looks are just so amazing.
This was my 900th episode watch which was cool. "I am not saying this is bad, I am just confused. It is a light watch but I am losing what little plot was there to start." Matt is the fakest fucking friend ever dude, but he furthered the plot so much and I don't know what this show would do without him and Beer. Pun comes up with the most diabolical plan that actually ends up working but can't seem to get his own love life into line. We had so many instigators in this shit dude and it was funny as fuck.
We are instigators and terrible friends: "Glad they are developing this more because it is actually pretty cute and I like the fun vibe it has." I started remembering the characters' names and they all started to become unique and it brought the show to life for me. Version 2 of me thirsting over Boom. "I guess that’s what friends are for to help you with your terrible relationship, to embarrass you, to not go on rides with you, to always have your back, no matter what even when you’re obviously in the wrong, that’s what friends are for." This show would go from funny hahaha to the deepest shit ever about friendships and relationships and I really loved the switch-ups. It goes into depth about whether you like someone or just the idea of them. That was the case for a lot of the relationships in this and they all showed that you can work through it in different ways, not one way is correct and not one is wrong, as long as it is love.
We are baby voices and different interpretations of love: "Low-key a good show, in analysis mindset." We meet Kluen and his main point was to just cause problems because the show remembered they had free will. Mick played this "stupid" character who would ask a dumb question and then ask the most philosophical shit and that was one of them. Peem, Beer, and, Q (sometimes with him) are the only ones who think about things logically in the show. Peem loves Phum or knows he is falling for him but he plays the long game because he doesn't want to get hurt. Beer gives some of the best advice to Phum on his and Peem's relationship and he was thinking about it logically but with an open heart and I think that was cute. "I guess Q does not understand what love is or his feelings and well that is not an excuse to treat someone badly, he does know where his feelings lie. He knows that he likes Toey, he just isn't sure how to express it." I ate up this analysis, "I guess this drama can be seen as a pretty interesting commentary on how different love works (I am doing homework so my brain is in analysis mode lol). Like with Fang and Tan, Tan is so in love with him and starts everything and Fang is just like okay. And Fang well I don't know if it is love or he just likes the attention, that's their interpretation of love. Peem and Phum are in a flirting stage at the moment, which can feel one-sided on both sides, and that makes it on both sides love, if that makes sense. With Phum inviting him over because he needs someone to be around and he likes his company and Peem not finishing his painting so the two of them can stay together longer. Q and Toey. This is a case of mentor x student. I guess he looks up to him a lot and I guess idealization and just admiration can blind his actual love for Q and that could be confusing. Q is just confused and acts very rashly and irritated because he does not really know how to do it otherwise, but he is working on himself. And that is what matters, right? Chain and Pun, have an interesting relationship because Chain likes Pun but I guess that could be seen as Pun using him because of their acts of service relationship, which is an interesting way to think about it. I think they are cute but also a case of weaponized incompetence, on Pun's part." Great episode and one of the best in terms of content and explanation.
WE ARE VOLUNTEER: "Jealousy is fun. Peem knows where his feelings lie and we as the audience do as well, so I just think this is funny." WE WHEN BOOM OH MY GOD OH MY FUCKING GOD, FINE AS FUCK.
We are gay and hopeless romantics: Peem and Phum's cuddling was so fucking cute and I loved it. Q went from nonchalant and not caring, to this weird hostile and that quickly turned into possessiveness as he and Toey got together, which was interesting. "They had a lot of random couples, hoping that it would stick and it did and I’m kind of mad at it right now."
We are way too many couples: "Episode 11 curse? But we have 5 more to go? Lol, I don't know, this whole thing is a curse." Phum and Peem, especially Phuwin with these looks again. He has this seductive ass face and I am just like damn. "Looking up at him like you are some helpless fuck, waiting for a man to save you." "I love cute kisses that aren't a big deal, they make me happy. Phum is a traumatized kid turned evil by society." His parents made him a villain and then sat there and wondered why they didn't like him and wondered why things couldn't get mended in just one day. Kluen and his condescending ass smile, only fuck, he was good at acting and sexy.
"Addicting as fuck dude. This show is doing something right because it is very addicting. Q changing for Toey and being a better person. Byronic hero core."Q and Phum could both be considered a Byronic hero because of their personalities and backgrounds, rich kids, one turned evil, and the other one was born evil.
We are singing, We are Alcoholics version 13, and We are the friends we made along the way: "They all come to support him and I love that. Those are some real ass friends. Pun, Q, Tan, and Chain. Those are good friends. Communication is the one thing this show is doing right. They have a lot of conversations about that and that is very good. Q is so messy and I love him. "He is probably with Kluen." Funny fuck. They are having very real conversations right now and it is scary. Very cute, very manure." And they finally got together after 13 episodes.
We are broke: "Kluen is low-key fine as fuck, just the way he talks and his mannerisms low-key make him so fine." Now that I think about it he was probably watching Peem and smacked him on the head on purpose. That is fucked up.
We are actually doing something right: "The holding hands shit I am still smiling about that. I wish more bl's did that instead of trying to force so many sex scenes (I AM NOT COMPLAINING I LOVE THEM) need to have more acts of service and cute moments like this. That really brings it home and I think that the cuddling, the hand placement, and the looks are just very cute." Also, they should have ended it here but they kept going.
We are photos: "Let's bring it home, I guess? They should have brought it home maybe four episodes ago, but I guess I will live. So many couples dude. Mick respectfully looks like a freak, like not freaky looking but like a freak in the sheets." They should make a sequel but it is only Mick being a freak. "They love going on vacation, missing deadlines, and alcohol." This is what most special episodes or filler episodes do in most shows, hence the headline once more. The whole thing felt like a filler episode and they were doing way too much with this show that they did not even have to do. “The mood change with his dad is so real.” I am actually kinda glad that even though he “forgave” his parents, it was rushed showing that things can just be fixed like that. I think they did that part good. They dealt with it in the final episode showing Phum doesn't need his parent's validation to be happy.
And that brings us to the end of that very long fucking review. Maybe if I wasn't a Yapper and an analyzer then it would have been shorter but it was also 16 episodes so not technically my fault. Would I recommend it? Yes if you just watched a show that ruined your brain psychologically and need a light funny watch. If you haven't go watch some sad shit and come back to this to appreciate it more. Then again I don't care if you listen to me or not. This was long and I am sorry. Okay bye!
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You can skip this one
GMMTV has a bunch of actors, writers, and directors in their roster, but doesn’t care for quality. If you like the male leads, go back and enjoy their previous dramas and ignore this one. They are cute and their relationship here is sweet and I can appreciate the lack of toxic characters, but that’s about it. The acting wasn’t great from the entire cast, but we could chalk it up to terrible writers who had no plot in mind. I don’t get how GMMTV goes from Last Twilight to something like We Are that was entirely aimless.And the side characters and their stories weren’t interesting either.
With everyone else who complains about Thai actors (except Jeff Satur) singing the same out of tune song, it’s in here too and it’s cringe.
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A nostagic piece from Thailand
I really enjoyed this show. It was slow to find its stride (I didn’t get into it until ep 7) but I’m very glad I gave it a chance.It’s a soft ensemble piece with multiple couples and very little plot, but I didn’t care because it’s not trying to be anything more substantial. Essentially this was a series of vignettes covering one year of uni for a queer friendship group finding love, new friends, and laughter. It’s not being harsh with us or it’s characters the way some offerings of this ilk have been (side eyes Friend Zone, Only Friends) nor did it tumble into Gen Y chaos.
In fact, this reminded me more than anything of a refined and elevated Love Sick - just with older characters and occurring with a genre that has matured too. It has that close queer friendship group meets earnest gentleness that made me adore Love Sick so much. In other words m, this was Thai BL at its finest, finding it roots again 10 years on, but also stretching upwards and showing us what it could do with that original seed. So? I loved it. Did it blow my mind? No. But it left me smiling and made me belly laugh quite a bit. 9/10
Technically it should probably get an 8/10 - too much singing, but I’m bubbling over with nostalgia rn.
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This review may contain spoilers
REALLY CUTE
⚠️SPOILER ALERT⚠️Firstly I’m going to say that overall this series was cute. I’m will give my opinion on each couple. Both positive and negative reviews.
PhumPeem:
For me they were good at first. It was like an “enemies to lovers” and I love that trope so much. Maybe Phum fell in love really quickly, but he was really cute and paid a lot of attention to Peem, and I loved that so much. For Peem, I liked him at first, until he kept rejecting Phum. When he first kissed Phum and at that time he was just shy and avoiding Phum, I understand that. And then he kind of accepted his love for Phum. He kept kissing him and they acted like a couple. BUT when Phum asked him to be his boyfriend, he behaved like he did at the beginning. We don't even know why. He rejected and ignored Phum. I felt bad for Phum who had been waiting for him for a long time. What's the point of acting as a couple and kissing if afterwards he continues to reject it? Peem finally bored me to be honest. And what's the point of them being a couple at the end of the series when their evolution has been the most complete since the beginning?
QToey:
THEY WERE THE CUTEST. OK, I LOVE WinnySatang SO MUCH, but I swear I'm not biased. I love tsundere like Q so much. Toey was so cute?!? They were perfect for me. There was no cringe, just cute. Yeah, I guess that’s it, REALLY CUTE.
KhaoTan:
CUTEST #2. They were always cute. I guess the only thing missing was their screentime. They deserved much more. I loved Tang so much. He was cute, a little cringey and funny. I love them so much
ChainPun:
I was disappointed. Not because of them, but because of their poor development. Their relationship only experienced a “big” development in episode 15. They had good potential but unfortunately they were robbed. Anyway, I liked them, they were okay I guess. Maybe I would have liked them more if they had more screen time.
IN GENERAL
Overall the show was cute, but I think they just tried to put PondPhuwin in the show as much as possible. I'm disappointed because PondPhuwin already has main role, unlike the others. So I thought this series was a good opportunity for the others. I was disappointed when I saw that PondPhuwin had a lot more screen time than the other one. No hate to them of course!
The series was also unbalanced. There was episodes where I was REALLY excited, and there was episodes where it was boring.
This series is made for you if you want to watch a nice bl, without difficulty of plot. I suppose it's a good bl and personally, I find it pleasant. 7.5/10
(I’m not a english speaker, please tell me if they are mistakes and be gentle)
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A polished multi-couple BL
Multi couple BLs often have the lack of screen time for each, like for example Y Destiny. We Are is a take on this genre. We are treated to 3 couples, with the 4th and a maybe 5th in the show. It did most the couples well, you can see their progression as to when and why they like each other. Most of them feels like real humans, with backstories fleshed out. Some would lament of the lack of adversity/ conflict in the show, but GMMTV knows what their audiences want: alot of FIN and fanservice scenes to make the fudoshi happy.Peem and Phum did not suffer the first couple syndrome: they were indeed very relatable and likeable characters, they grew up as the series progressed and they became more mature about their feelings. Thats good. But the slow burn was real. Phuwin and Pond's acting did not improve much, they had difficulty showing complex emotions. Hopefully this will improve in future projects. I am a fan.
Q and Toey's story was less nuanced and Toey's crying scene was one of the more better acting-intensive parts of the show. I think their story is not well fleshed out. Their characters characterization is not consistent either: their conversations were not tight enough. There was never any tension. Are they supposed to be the prankster couple? or the dom Q and sub Toey couple? or what? It fluctuates as the story goes along. I blame the script.
Tan and Fang's story is well fleshed out, though we never knew when Fang really fell in love with Tan. We learnt as the story goes that he's very Tsundere, the dynamic between the both of them is great. I look forward to this couple in their future projects.
ChainPun's ending was quite funny and I was sad that they did not have more screen time. I wonder if all the extra fanservice scenes like the one at the Beach could have been used to further their story. I did not mind how they resolved this thread though. This show was a breakout role for Poon. He was great, acting as that oblivious guy.
Overall, a great multi couple BL.
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