For Him (2023)

needed to see more Nail Him (watch suggestions)

Overall: started off strong but there were a ton of pointless flashbacks/stretching the thin plot to 12 episodes. I'm going with NailHim because that's the best ship name ever :P I can see how people would rate this lower, but I enjoyed the black nail polish in ep 12, NSFW scenes, and some things were so bad they were entertaining. Aired 12 episodes about 35 minutes uncut on iQIYI. Later re-aired on Y. Entertainment's YouTube channel but they cut out NSFW scenes. Y.Entertainment also created Unforgotten Night. Note that towards the end of the original airing, several actors posted on social media about non/delayed payment and harassment.

Watch Suggestions
- watch eps 1-3
- episode 4 watch the beginning to 12 minutes and then 33-34:30 minutes
- episode 5 watch 30-32 minutes for the side couple kissing
- skip episode 6
- episode 7 stop at 8 minutes, then pick it back up at 28 minutes
- episode 8 start at 32 minutes with the mom (note major content warnings if you watch the first 8 minutes)
- episode 9 watch the beginning to 6 minutes, then 14:20 to the end
- episode 10 watch 10-24 minutes
- episode 11 skip from when the credits start to 25 minutes
- watch episode 12
(if this watch order makes zero sense, know that watching everything likely still won't make a ton of sense)

Content Warnings: suicide (beginning of ep 8), self harm, violence, parental abuse/slap, homophobia, manhandling, mental health struggles, harassment, fight, non con picture taking

What I Liked
- Nail was awesome (especially at the beginning), he was assertive, sassy, intelligent, flirty, honest, he knew what he wanted and went for it, he tried to give Him space to talk to him when he was comfortable
- Nail's accessories and black nail polish (ep 12)
- cute moments
- NSFW scenes were pretty well done (except for eyes open during kissing and a flash of underwear where they shouldn't have been any)
- Nail mentioned having mental health struggles, sought medical help and continued to got to doctor appointments (thankful we didn't have a 'love cures mental health' trope)
- Nail's supportive mom
- the girl squad
- the het couple
- (neutral) comedy sound effects

Room For Improvement
- the start was confusing (it was a flash forward)
- choppy editing, a ton of flashbacks (scenes jumped from one to another in non-logical sequences at times)
- the 2nd m/m couple due to not nice relationship games and the other character's clinging/harassment
- it was odd that a certain character was all lovey-dovey and then the next minute went scorched earth and then the next day he apologized, pick a lane dude
- continuity errors such as ever changing root length and a character who gets a tattoo but no tattoo is shown
- nonsense actions like Him asked Nail to go somewhere where his friends were and he knew they would ask questions
- slow pacing starting in episode 4, should have been 6-8 episodes instead of 12
- lack of consequences for absolutely awful and abusive parents
- the extremely long behind the scenes to pad episode length
- Te was obsessed and then suddenly did a 180, all was well and he instantly got a new love interest?
- resolving extremely important things off screen and characters just saying what happened
- teasing NSFW scenes in episode 11 but not showing anything

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What a strange series

For Him had a promising start as the few first episodes were pretty good and intriguing. But then it fizzled out pretty quickly. The plot had several holes and inconsistencies, and small details really ruined the continuity. For example, the characters' hair colors changed scene by scene, and the flashbacks were easy to mix with the current events. Also the way some plot lines were not fully followed through or finished really made this drama very confusing and difficult to watch.

The weakest point here to me were the characters. Him was very odd, he didn't show much growth during the series and the way he treated Nail like he was a child or a doll he could own was extremely strange. The way he, in the beginning, was very consumed and haunted by the memories of Blue, but by the last episode he seemed to have forgotten his ex ever even existed. He seemed shallow, and like he was only interested in Nail because he was pretty. I don't know what the point of the Mean Girls type of girl gang was and why they were even included in the show because they didn't bring anything into it. I personally didn't even realise Te and Pae were two different people until the last episode, since their characters were so interchangeable and empty. Chao was reduced to over eager, horny sex maniac and Pie into a cold, disinterested artist and their whole plot and relationship was about the same yes-no back and forth. It was strange how they added that random guy to be Te's love interest in the last few episodes, when we hadn't even seen him before and Te had never shown any interest in anyone else than Blue/Nail, but suddenly he had a crush on this random guy we knew nothing about. Also that one guy who waved a gun around in the club just disappeared and got away with it, never to be mentioned again. In the last episode after Nail got his tattoo and Him started touching and kissing it, I almost screamed out loud. That would never happen in a million years with a fresh tatttoo and it really ruined the believability of it for me. When Him put his feet on the fresh tattoo, I could basically hear the infection starting to brew. And yes I know it wasn't a real tattoo but these sort of small details can really make a difference. The main couple didn't give us anything, Nail was a pretty himbo and Him was an obnoxious, kinda gross creep. The plot is full of holes and nothing is followed through or finished. What a confusing and frustrating watch.

Also, the last episode was just a 50 minute long advertisement. Almost every scene had a product placement of some sort, and nothing really happened. I also don't understand why most of the episodes were only 25-30 minutes long and at the end there was 15-20 minutes of bts, that could have been posted separately to youtube. It felt like they had lost interest in writing the show and wanted to fill out the missing time with bts clips.

The low production quality and bad writing really ruined it. If this show had a better production team and actually good writers, this could have been great. But as it is now, it really isn't worth it. It's too bad because the plot really could have been made into something super interesting and exciting.

This is not a good drama, and I wouldn't waste my time on this unless there was absolutely nothing else to watch. I am interested to see the actors in other projects, and see if they would be better working with different production teams. It's a shame this turned out so disappointing after a very promising start.

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An Absolute Mess

The more I think about it the more I'm convinced that the show that aired is not the show they intended to make. There are too many things that don't add up or that are disjointed to assume it was intentional.

I don't think the actors failed, necessarily. They didn't elevate poor material but I don't fault them for that. I know some of these actors are much better than what is seen in this series. The problem, as I can discern, falls entirely on the writing and editing (and possibly direction).

Trigger Warning: I will be discussing the suicide of one of the characters.

The first almost half of the series really builds up what happened to Blue. Him somehow holds some culpability in his fate, though only Te and Him seem to ascribe any blame to him. Chao and Dream, in fact, don't seem to know what happened to him at all. Early in the series there are comments made by various members of this group of friends that imply a) Blue is alive, b) something bad happened to him, c) not everyone knows what happened to him, d) but everyone DOES know Blue is still somewhere he can be reached.

I suspected early on that Blue attempted suicide at some point and that Him was somehow at fault for that. However I also assumed he failed in that attempt. A big reason for that was the way the characters who knew him spoke about him. The way Te spoke about whatever terrible thing Him did almost implied he was in contact with Blue at some point after the event, or even currently. Te had so much disdain for Him this entire series. Him had such deep guilt and shame this entire series. Until the last few episodes where Him was alleviated of wrong doing by the revelation that he didn't really do anything wrong (though he was kind of a dick to his very codependent boyfriend when his mom wound up in the hospital). And then Te just magically gets over his grudge. What?

My theory is that Blue was originally intended to survive his suicide attempt and come back later in the series. I also think Him was originally supposed to be more of a factor in why Blue made the attempt. However I think the plan changed at some point after the show began airing. Perhaps the original story for Him was too dark and someone felt he couldn't be redeemed properly for a happy ending. Perhaps they felt Blue returning made things too complicated to wrap up in the number of episodes they had. I don't know, I can only hypothesize unless someone involves in the production speaks about it and either confirms my theory or confirms this is what they intended to make.

We go from regularly getting 40ish minute episodes to getting 25-30 minute episodes. We get huge holes like the fight at the end of episode seven leading to an entirely different fight in the opening of episode eight and then everything being magically better later in that episode without explanation. The second half of the series requires you to assume a lot of things happen off screen and make up what exactly happens in those conversations. We also have the atrocity that was episode nine (I think it was nine), where the editing was clearly not completed and the audio is a disaster. Entire lines are missing from the dialogue track and you only know what was said because it was included in the English subtitles. I don't know what Thai speakers did to make sense of that episode. The plot very quickly runs out of plot around episode eight when things are magically reconciled and the entire show shifts to focusing more on Chao and Phai at that point. To me, all of this suggests they had to scramble to cut material that was already included in the final episodes and then had to shoot new material for the last few episodes. The finale was basically a throwaway episode for NC scenes.

Other than how very messy the plot was, my other problem with the series were the characters who made no sense and the terrible "relationship" between Chao and Phai.

Type was a caricature villain. What was his problem with Him? Was it really just an inferiority complex over his family having less money? Why was he so intent to fuck Him over and even hurt someone he didn't know at all to do it? Then we get the out-of-left-field plot of him trying to get back with Phai so he could sell a sex tape of him and him pulling a gun on Chao because he "thwarted" his plans by discovering them and telling Phai. What? This was cartoonish and poorly written, to say the least. Once again, I think there may have been a real reason Type hated his cousin that ultimately got cut from the series but I don't know.

Te. Just...what? I already covered how his hate of Him doesn't really make sense. Sure, he had a crush on his friend who he never confessed to and who ultimately dated his other friend. Blue was clingy and codependent and got overly emotional whenever he didn't have all of Him's attention. Because Blue got so upset Te got angry that Him was in a position to treat Blue poorly (in their eyes) in the first place while he, of course, would have taken better care of Blue. But this does not explain why he would doggedly pursue Nail. Sure, he's Blue's doppleganger and he resents Him because Blue chose Him and later took his own life for reasons that (from what we're shown) don't even really have anything to do with Him. Either there's way more substance to that grudge or he's way more unhinged and obsessed with Blue than we are ever shown.

Then we get a sudden alternate love interest for Te who just materializes out of thin air. This man has had no interest in anyone other than Blue or a Blue replacement for 10 episodes but here comes Piece and he's all for it. What? Piece didn't even appear in the credits until then, which reinforces my idea that he wasn't originally part of the series but someone added in later after airing had begun. We get an apology to Him that I don't think almost any of us would have accepted and then he goes off to flirt with Piece. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the dynamic between those two. They have good chemistry. But Te is a completely different person with Piece than he is at any other time in this series. It comes off as slapped on at the end to make Te palatable, to cover up rewriting the end of the series or to just fill time because they realized they didn't have enough material for twelve episodes.

Chao and Phai...dear gods, save me from obnoxious, intrusive puppies and people who can't reinforce their words. On the one hand, we have Phai constantly telling this kid he doesn't want to date anyone and they are just fucking, then on the other hand he also constantly allows Chao to run amuck all over that boundary. He tells him to sleep on the couch or leave but never makes him. In the last few episodes we see these secret little smiles implying Phai has finally succumbed to a form of Stockholm Syndrome and now finds Chao endearing.

Chao, however, knows how to do nothing other than doggedly pursue Phai, violate every boundary Phai attempts to place and just shove his way into a relationship. Phai says no so Chao whines and badgers until Phai gives in some small amount. Phai says he doesn't want a relationship so Chao repeatedly declares he wants to be in one with him. Phai doesn't want him showing up at various times or has plans with others so Chao shows up. If anyone is somehow unclear: THIS IS A RED FLAG PEOPLE! This guy is exactly the person you should never ever date and if they keep coming around you should report them to the police for harassment.

Did I eventually feel a little bad for Chao? Sure, I did. Phai very easily could have explained a number of things to Chao but chose not to. He even was willing to explain things (such as how he was definitely not getting back together with Type) to people who WEREN'T Chao. He brushes off Chao's emotions and requests for communication. He decides Chao doesn't need to be told anything even though they are in a sexual relationship with some elements of friendship. (This is also a red flag, people, it's just not one that requires police intervention.) He made things so much harder unnecessarily just because he didn't want to ever explain anything to Chao, as if letting him in at all would violate the boundaries of the relationship he was telling himself they had.

Don't get me started on Chao telling Phai in the finale that if he wanted to have sex they needed to be in a relationship and Phai suddenly just agrees after months of insisting it wasn't what he wanted.

Did we really need Pae and Somsom shoehorned in as a couple at the end? Did that couple even make sense?

This novel is long enough as it is and I think it says most of what needs to be said about this series. I would like to see the actors in other series with much, MUCH better writing. I think a lot of them could do really well with good material. I think there was some failing in direction here, but there was a much bigger failing in writing and editing.

It's a mess.
Do yourself a favor.
Skip it.
There is no rewatch value. It's a dumpster fire of confusion, loose threads and dots that don't connect the way they tell you they should.

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Idk what everyone is complaining about

This show has:
Two of the greenest flags to ever lead a show
A great group of friends that we get to see being friends to each other
Killer chemistry
An unapologetically femme lead who takes no crap
Side couples with a great and complicated dynamic
A whole Greek Chorus of girls ready to fight for their friend and also be hilarious every scene
Genuinely dislikable villain who are over the top but not cartoonish

What are you all so mad about? The plot was pretty clearly going to be bonkers-- not twins with the same face, evil not actually friends, evil-er cousin, and all wrapped around a lead couple that defines healthy communication (with the one little detail that hit withheld for a while, lol) and soft for each other.

Everyone's entitled to their opinion, of course, but I'll be rewatching this one.

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Pointless Drama and Over Melodramatic Storytelling

This series is marred by something, and I wrestled with trying to find the most appropriate word to describe that. A word that is strong enough and powerful enough to impart disconnect to what is happening in this series. Finally, I found the precise word: Eschew, which literally means ‘to keep away from or shun, avoid, circumvent, boycott, or dodge’. Quite literally everyone in this series does what he can to avoid telling the truth, or face reality, or abstain from communicating effectively, openly, or honestly. It seems to be the driving force of Thai BLs to be as evasive and elusive as you can to create artificial dramas. This is another sad example of that artifice.

Read the complete article here-

https://the-bl-xpress.com/2024/03/07/for-him-series-review-ep-1-to-12/

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the editing is all over the place BUT....

I can see why people are turned off with this show but I'm loving the chemistry
between the two leads. Like some have said that the editing is all over the place. With the editing they are leaving off scenes and its throwing what's going on off. Frankly I don't see how the person that got the job of editing the show. With the way the story is written for the side characters UGH its not worth the time or effort. I'm finding that female friend of Nail is annoying and got on my nerves in the first episode. She comes across as a good two shoes most of the time for me. Then there's the four females in the class with Nail. I really don't get the purpose of them being in the show. I guess they are supposed to be there for the "skank" effect. I did like it though when they came together to help Him reconcile with Nail. There are somethings at this stage 9 eps in that I'm baffled about. I don't get why Him is blaming himself for what happened to Blue. His problems wasn't because if Him. They all stemmed from his mother and father. Yes true Him could've been a better bf but there was nothing he could do about that situation that was going on with Blue's parents. Same goes for Te, I get why he's vengeful mostly out of jealously but I didn't see him going in trying to be there for Blue in his time of need. But 9 eps in I'm loving it because of the two leads and I'd watch it again just for the two of them.
Well reached the end and over all I liked it. Of course they could've done a better job with parts of the story. I What I didn't like it how they just had Te and Him talk and all was good. I was glad that they talked but that wasn't enough for me after all that Te had done. There really should've been more to him making things right. but at least they did try to do something. I also wish they'd had the guy Te actually liked around more. Having him come in at the end was stupid quite frankly. I think having him there would've gave the Te character more prospective on what he was doing. But in the end the lead actors chemistry made it all worth while and worth the watch. If it hadn't been for them I probably would've stopped eps back and put it on hold for a while. Dew/Tor did a fantastic job. I'll rewatch this from time to time because of the two of them.

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Kind of all over the place.

I liked the relationships of the characters in this show, but the show would have been better with more communication. Not to mention that I feel like there were a lot of missed opportunities with this show. They cut out parts that I think the viewers would have enjoyed seeing (glamping trip), and then there is a pivotal moment between the two MC and I had to go back because I felt like I had missed some of the episode but I hadn't. There was a lot of weird jumps that took me out of the moment, and the main plot of the flash backs kept me scratching my head for WAY too long.

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Downhill fast

This started out as a pretty decent story. I actually was interested in it before it started airing.

Since the 3rd episode to now the 6th it has drastically gone downhill. Too many long flashbacks that just set in stone that Him wasnt great to Blue. He so far didn't abuse him physically but ghosted him and basically set him aside when ever anything stressful came up. However Blue is very clingy and co dependant on Him.

Nail is confusing me cause he's heard on numerous occasions that he looks like Blue but when he actually sees a picture then he ignores Him? Like you should be going to find out whats going on.

The whole thing about where Blue is currently is getting old. Either say he died or he is actually somewhere other than "out west" especially since it seems Te is acting like he died.

Speaking of which, dont get me started on Te. That man is a red flag who needs to take a long walk off a short pier.

Overall the slowness of the episodes and the fact that I dont learn anything new and havent in at least 2 episodes is making me see drop the series until its finished. I'm no longer getting my hopes up to look forward to this show any longer.

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If it was me, I could wrap up this whole series in 4 episode

This series started out soo good. It was intense, suspense ,drama. I was really invested in the story. The acting of the cast was also promising. First, off all with the story. The writers had soo many options to put into the plot, they could have given us plot twist after plot twist. The story has the potential to do that. They could have given us such a suspenseful unexpected plot twist with the twin thing. Could have just made Blue alive or shown how and why Nail looks soo much like Blue. But there was absolutely nothing.

Unnecessary,characters and story made the show just a boring watch right after the first few episodes.

The running time of episodes shortened and BTS time increased to a point it felt like we had 20 minutes of episode and 40 minutes of BTS.

Nail and Him just forgave Te, when he literally tried to kill Nail... !! With a scooter (LOL!!) , but still tried killing and there was not any redemption or anything.

That guy Pai, on the earth doesn't looks like a tattoo artist. Please!!... There were like 0 tattoos in his body. Is that even possible?

Although I am really disappointed with the writers and directors.
I truly liked the acting of the cast. They were good and it can be seen that they took their job seriously and delivered well, with what they were given.

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