Nolan Peale

I still feel quite a bit of sympathy for Peak. I know its difficult, but I like characters facing conflicting dilemmas, and like lots of young people, sometimes I hate his choices, sometimes I think he's just trying to have his cake and eat it too, sometimes I think he's just naïve and dumb, and sometimes I respect that he's just trying to avoid a tragic fate. He is trying too hard, sure, and I don't know if his reasons for wanting to win are better than anyone else's reasons to win. But it is sad to watch him feed his soul to win in this industry that will never truly support him and doesn't actually want to make him rich, knowing that even if he does win, he won't suddenly be respected by his father. And even if he wins over the fans, the BL media has already labeled him a talentless hack, so its not like he's going to get much critical support either.

Now, I wish they'd come clean about his relationship with Kla, because its not clear to my why he's been rejecting every advance Kla makes. I can only guess. But its such a big part of the series that a little clarity would be helpful.

Well I'm finished with it. I congratulate everyone who stuck with it. There will probably be a soft comfy cloud for us to rest on in heaven someday. If they let BL fans into heaven. Which they should if they haven't done something unforgivable, like hiding 1 puzzle piece out of a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle that someone is painstakingly putting together to avoid going mad with boredom. Total dick move. I don't think that couple will last.

I wonder how different this series would be if Sun had done something normal early on. Like say "Hey, I think we met once one summer when we were kids. Do you remember. You left me a shoe." Had they bonded early on, Khim would have later done something reasonable, like trust his lover with the secret about the suspected murder and send him to safety.

Highlight had to be Sun kicking the ass of 2 thugs on his own. These are the worst thugs ever. All of them disabled by arrows and judo moves. Now if only someone like Phayu had remembered to bring his own handgun along. I would have been satisfied if Sun had died there, but sadly, no such luck.

Anyway, I'm free now to watch To Sir with Love. It can't possibly be worse.

The inside of that bookbag has to be the grossest bacteria and sludge bag anywhere. I'm surprised he is able to hand in papers without grease stains on them.

Not sure where the complaint is coming from that it has no plot. They have 30 days to fall in love and in 30 days, in the climax to the series, the straight uke will declare that he loves the gay seme. Might not be your favorite romantic plot, but its a plot.

At least its sticking to that plot and isn't, say, Oh my Sunshine Night.

Now, I wish they'd add in "Nhai at the end becomes a responsible adult and not a kid who needs constant supervision so he won't lick the light sockets" but its kind of late in the post Cutie-Pie world to wish that Asian BL fangirls will suddenly stop being attracted to boys who have piles of stuffed animals in their rooms well into adulthood, just like its probably too much to ask het men to quit enjoying dumb blonde with big boobs stereotypes. It is what it is. Its probably the most BL series of the 20 BL series currently out there. A good introduction to someone who is BL curious but isn't familiar with the genre.

The fans had no problem with those vids until Mean, Perth and Plan said that LBC was their last BL and Mean joked that maybe he'd do another one if he was old and desperate. Which fans decided made them all homophobes, because really, homophobia is the only reason why one wouldn't provide them entertainment. So fans went looking for signs that the actors were homophobes and strung together videos. That support for Earth then evaporated when he was paired with Santa and a good deal of that same fandom decided that Earth is a grooming pedophile predator due to an age gap with his shipping partner. Because it isn't at all that homophobic to accuse a gay person without much evidence of being a groomer, I guess.

Fan activist videos are never proof of anything.

Episode 3
The Good
-Damnit, Name. Why'd you have to do that. Who's crying. I'm not crying. I'm not. I'm not.
-What the heck is wrong with architecture? O.K. so maybe dad is sad because his son is leaving. But seriously, its like he got into university to study Lifetime of Unemployment and Poverty Studies. Or philosophy or something like that.
The Meh
-O.K. They've drained the acne issue of every last drop of effluence six zits can hold. I get that it can be traumatic, but at this point, the leads need to start having a story and not just be texting each other like its 2021 and COVID chat series were the rage. Move it along or fans are going to start dropping. This can't possibly be 12 episodes about two boys who never meet.
-Honestly, if anyone is interested, I'm going to set up a gofundme to finance a wig making business in Thailand. There's obviously a niche that no one is filling.
-Outside of Name, there really isn't a lot going on right now. I know that the point of nostalgia is to misremember the past in order to make sense of it, but honestly, 2008 or wherever we are in the timeline right now was not some golden age where life was simple and everyone got along. Like there were huge protests and violent counter protests all over Thailand during that time. (Although, to be fair, pick a year in Thailand and you're likely to find that). Hopefully their lives will get more complicated as they move to Bangkok, but we really are going to need some kind of conflict and tension and setbacks beyond everyone getting into their chosen faculty after waiting 24 hours. It can't just be about achieving life's milestones without anything bad happening.

I think he might be a year younger.

1) I was fine with the jealousy trope for a change. The idea that the "straight" guy doesn't know he's in love until he gets obnoxiously jealous is just repeated over and over in BL. BL fans seem to like that, but I think its off-putting. Here I thought it worked because it reveals how weak Cake is and how unfair he's being. And they allow Seeiw to not melt in the face of it. Seeiw likes Cake less for it and doesn't apologize for the things he's done to make Cake jealous. He doesn't find Cake hot and manly for being possessive.

2) Man, you're going to ruin Kung's happiness. aren't you? For years Kung has known that this relationship they have isn't "normal." They aren't just "unusually close friends." They are basically already a couple and don't know it. He's had to sit by and watch them beat themselves up and walk in endless circles around the elephant that they keep missing. Its been 5 years of suspense for him as the elephant is actually dancing around and trumpeting quite loudly now that it's hungry and isn't making any attempt to hide. That frustration needs a payoff for him. Don't deny him the pleasure of finding out that he was "right all along" and his relief that the poor elephant is finally going to get a meal.

Episode 3
The Good
-I liked the party scene for a change. I've found that club or party scenes in Thai BL never look like anyone is having a lot of fun. That's in contrast to US films where every gathering of young people is staged like its hosted by Emperor Commodus himself. This one is somewhere in the middle, and I'd probably regret not getting an invitation.
-I don't mind Park and Phong. They aren't any more out of place than anything else that's going on.

The Meh
-If it weren't for everything that happened in ep 1-2, I'd probably like the transition to a standard BL a bit more. So after all the smut potential, we get "pretend to be my friend for a month or so" which seems like the starting point for a rom com. I'll admit that I was hoping for a bit more conflict between the two, and would like to have a love/hate relationship with Mankorn. O.K. now he's a nice guy who talks about fireflies and buys noodles. Lordy, this is now kind of like 21 Days Theory with rape drugs taking the place of stealing a cab and flicking water on someone in the bathroom to get their attention.

Ugh. Sometimes I wonder if the concept of "White Lie" exists in Thailand. No need to concoct an entire scheme to get Putter away from Viva and go through with pretending to be sick. Tell him he's needed elsewhere and then let him know that Louis doesn't want him hanging around Viva. Problem solved. Ah, but it sets up an excuse for a sponge bath....now I get it.

I do want to tell the manager that somehow I don't think making your star into a ho is going to make her nearly as popular as you think it will. Especially in Thailand where sponsors will drop their support over far less than that. Seems to miss the point is that his job is to make her famous AND rich, and his cut comes out of the rich part. The fame part doesn't pay that well.

Episode 11 -
The good:
1) Santa, obviously. But Earth, too. That was a really good fight scene. It was needed if they were ever going to get to what has been bothering them. Seeiw standing up for himself was important. (Although I'm wondering - does Thai make a distinction between "I never want to see your face ever again?" and "I don't want to see your face right now?" or "Don't wait for me while I'm at rehearsal." vs. "Don't ever wait for me ever again?" Cake really started to put the worst spin on everything Seeiw said. But then they've never fought so they were both in uncharted territory. Hopefully they'll resolve this without Seeiw having to give up the autonomy he was so brave to achieve. Or we have another IPYTM where they never resolve the underlying issue an we're not satisfied that they end up together.
2) I really hope that Pinere and Peak get more recognition. These are minor roles, but they are so good. It has been a treat watching them grow up. Peak is so much better when the burden has been removed from him to be cute.
3) I was happy that during the time skip Seeiw had come out to Kung and Ney and probably Fee, too. That saves us from having to have another coming out scene. Sucks to be Cake being the only one, but he knows.
The Meh
1) Have there always been these Whiz Bang Zoom sound effects in this series and I haven't noticed them until now? If they have been there, they started to get intrusive and took me out of the drama this episode. Also, I was happy that we had made it so far into the series without diarrhea and vomit. It was like New was kidnapped and Cheewin took his place directing this episode. It just felt tonally out of place. While I want them to kiss next episode like the spoiler hinted, I'd kind of like Seeiw to say "hold up a minute and go brush your teeth. Better yet, lets wait until we're sure you're done vomiting." We've spent 12 hours waiting for a kiss and we get another vomit infused one. We can wait, thank you very much.

I've heard of people making drinking games out of BL memes, but never eating games. I don't know which would be worse. Taking a shot of tequila every time a boy trips and falls for now reason. Or scarfing down a Twinkie every time there's a sponge bath.

Yeah, that's why I thought "You know, it would be more interesting if the series was about this friendless, homeless kid, getting a break by working at a bar and finding a room share somewhere and that process being shown to being difficult, but possible if you put your mind to it." It has never been done before! But then, its kind of unromantic for a BL. Like in Make our Days Count, I was overjoyed when Yu Xi Gu finally had a place with a stove to call his own and would have been happy for him regardless of whether he moved in there with his boyfriend or not. And we all know how the authors felt about my joy at that moment. (If they didn't have a stove, they wouldn't have had to worry about salt and if they didn't need to worry about salt....)

I didn't say there was anything wrong with it. I would rather the outcome remained up in the air and would be o.k. if the story was more about him getting his life in order so he could live independently of his parents than about how he found true love after kissing a random bar manager to piss off his parents.

Episode 3
-While I like it overall, I can't quite figure out why Lang couldn't just introduce Xun An as his dentist. Lots of people have dentists.
-I'd be fine if the manager and the teen didn't get together. But its BL, so of course they will.
-There's too much trauma for a comedy. I was fine with the reasons he had for not going to see the dentist. Does he have psychotic breaks every time there is rain?

It does seem like three episodes into his story, I know less about Sky than I did before. Pai sometimes seems to be telling Sky who he is. "Oh, you're an only child. you must be lonely. Well I'll introduce you to my brother and sister so you won't be so lonely." Sky barely protests about that. So I guess he was lonely. Although he didn't seem like a lonely boy before Pai made that assumption. And now he's in love and is a giggling school boy. Huh? I know there's a difference between a public and private persona, and Sky is rather private, but it does seem that his characterization isn't that stable.

I was also confused from time to time about when they boys were on camera and off. Like the scene in the board room where all the boys were begging to be included in the special game, it seemed like they were behaving more like their on-camera personas than their off-camera ones.

Time to reevaluate Peek. I wish they wouldn't just rehash Bew with the "good boy" who has a an ambition plan that will hurt everyone. But they seem to be.

I guess without phones the managers have no way to contacting Peek to remind him that he's not there to win for himself, but to create their ship.

Pie was to desperate to get Phet's attention that he - almost killed Khim by serving him shrimp. If he was never into Khim, that's just really very cruel.

If it weren't for the side couples having sex, this could be shown in China without edits. Its just a bromance.