Nolan Peale

This used to be one of the series I was looking forward to. Unfortunately, its fallen prey to the kinds of things fujoshi love and find romantic that are old and tired. I get that part of this is to mainstream BL for non-BL audiences within a society where homosexuality is still taboo. But it does seem like we're getting a lot of stories about barely sexual adults who have somehow managed to hit 30. So really, Mahiro once moved to the city, has been aware that he likes guys, and because Souta once did something nice for him in high school, has never moved on from that? Just sat around for 12 years, dreaming about Souta and now when he's this close, worries too much about heartbreak to at least give it a go? I like him a lot when he was a young man with good ideas about being creative in finding new hidden markets for cash crops for farmers. Or when he was being resourceful to find all these rare ingredients to help and elderly member of the community learn how to cook new things. But now? Meh. He's just another stunted gay character. So fricking innocuous that the audience can't feel threatened by him. But I'm having trouble rooting for him.

I'm enjoying it well enough. If it weren't for the magical mystery cafe, it would be a fairly typical BL. Well, at least Ryu-Mai would be standard. BL tends to be about couples coming together, not breaking apart, so the main Thana-Patis storyline is different. Problem is, there's no reason after almost 3 hours to think that the existence of the Cafe is necessary. It just appears, the owner cackles, and then disappears. I have no sense of what will happen if Thana makes his wish. Is she really malevolent towards lovers? Will making a wish be a faustian bargain that everyone comes to regret? It probably would have been better to give of a sense of whether or not she has any power this episode rather than giving her a backstory.

Anyway, I really like Bank's role as bad boy Time. I've been waiting for him to show up in a more prominent role in a BL since Love Sick, since brave, heroic Mark was one of my favorite characters. At least he has something to do other than being someone's brother this time.

I was laughing because. The reason he needs to make instant coffee at home is that he hasn't gotten an invite to the magic coffee shop, where the price of a cup is free, as long as you have a wish.

I know that I should never read intention into Thai series where incompetence and lack of attention to detail is a more likely explanation, but I'm highly doubting that poor, poor, Minta was off visiting her mom in the hospital. "Oh, don't take me to the airport!" she says, and then comes back with 6 paper shopping bags in pristine condition with souvenirs. Uh, huh. You flown much recently? Ever seen paper bags make it through a flight looking like that after being crammed into an overhead bin? Or through security? Or carried through the airport when you're trying to drag along your carryon and personal item? Yeah, she's not set 2 feet out of Bangkok and "poor sick mother" is probably her 6'2" tall, beefy personal trainer.

She walked in on her boyfriend having sex with a man and was just in shock. And was deciding whether to grab something to stab them with.

The school either has very poor record keeping, or a very liberal enrollment deferral policy. Maybe in honor of the memory of their lost friend, someone wrote a "sorry I can't make it this term, but I'll be there next year, I promise" letter for him every year for 20 years.

They can. But it would have to be "I love you, but you must go have sex with that specific woman there or my future lover won't be born. Plus you need to have sex with that other specific woman over there so that our friend's son will have a boyfriend in 18 years." I don't know how they'd make it work with Kiew making demands like that.

I stopped watching this when the amnesia issue arose because that was just dumb. But I did tune in to see how they were going to resolve the issue they backed themselves into when they gave Bamee a tragic past. So was Kiew just going to let his friend drink himself to death? And what was he going to do when he met Bamee as a child? Anyway, they punted on all of that and it probably was for the best that Kiew moved far away once he saved his mom. Sucks to be Bamee's mom as Kiew probably could have told her to see a doctor or not be on the road the day she got killed (I can't remember how she died), but we never met her so we don't have to care. But it still would have been a better series had he returned to the past earlier so we could see him make those potentially questionable ethical decisions and decided to wait for Bamee rather than just moving on.

I was actually hoping that it was revealed that the reason Bamee's dad became an alcoholic was that he was in love with Kiew and never got over him. Of course, if we have them get together, Bamee and Mudaeng don't exist.

So how did Kong get past security? The mystery will never be solved. I'm guessing Chot let him in not knowing that their date didn't go well.

So the good:
-Chot I'm guessing was the long snapper on special teams. I do enjoy their interactions.
-O.K. I found the scene where Jeng remade his shrimp donuts to try to determine if he had too much celery in them rather hilarious. He's basically conducting a debrief after a negative client review.
-Whatcha making: OK lettuce with garlic and carrot. LOL.
-Like Pat's red sweater.
The meh:
-O.K. They probably should have given a little hint that Pat adores cute stuffed animals before making it a turning point in his romantic life. He was going to say "no" until sharky came out? Huh? Did I miss that he had a lot of plushies in his apartment? Maybe I did.
-I do think they need to pick up the pace here. We're past 1/2 way and if Jeng isn't the end game, they need to switch us over to Put.
-If he wasn't already spoken for, Chot and Pat would make a good couple. But I'm not messing with Krit. He had the courage to propose so he wins the prize.

Kong was there to create an issue that Put got him out of. And given the choice between MLM guy and actor ex boyfriend, I'd use actor ex to get rid of crush from America.

Man. Big marketing fail for a show about marketing. They weren't at IKEA. But a store called Design Square. If I'm the marketing director, I'm on the phone right now with Dee Hup complaining that they didn't feature my brand signage enough for the audience to know where they were. LOL.

IDK. I'm kind of hoping that this will turn into some kind of thing where since Dr. Goody-two shoes declared that he was going to go against his love destiny, he's pissed off romance-obsessed Aphrodite, and since Tai said that he'd never fall in love, but now that he has fallen, he's pissed off virginity-obsessed Artemis and the next thing you know there's some monster running around Bangkok, Tai has turned into a whiskerless cat, and all of Phat's co-workers at the vet hospital have turned into birds that shit bitcoins. The Greeks knew intuitively how to escalate these kinds of stories where the ending was already foretold by destiny. Sadly, your prediction is more likely than mine to be the next course of action. A misunderstanding that could be solved in 2 minutes on a phone will drag on for 4 episodes.

I'm fine with it so far, and I'm glad there is a clear end to act I where the lovers have revealed themselves. Had it been 10 episodes of Tai hiding the truth from Phat, it would have been old as dirt. Hopefully, they'll spend a little time with this idea that the soul mates have to be together because they share this random connection. On the one had, it would make life easy to know that your life partner has been pre-determined. Wait for it to rain while you're together, and if you can't hear them, you just break up with them since they aren't the one. On the other hand, who the fuck do the nameless universal bureaucrats who give you a disease and tell you who to be with think they are? The nerve. Do they know better? I think not.

Anyway, I'm hoping it gets messier, because if there is one thing more boring than two fated lovers hiding from each other in plain site for 10 episodes, it would be two gushy love birds eating steak for ten episodes.

I liked the leads and it was semi-fine until episode 10 and 11. Actually the problems started earlier when Cher decided to sacrifice himself for Ice and they had never taken the time to establish Ice as a character we should care about, someone who it might be worth Cher risking his relationship with Gun and his internship for. And that problem just resolved itself. Then episode 10 happened and we got a whole bunch of issues out for the main couple to solve without any time to solve them. Then one of the stupidest episode 11 breakups this year, but then all is forgiven and all the problems from episode 10 resolve themselves without Cher actually doing anything about them. Some hero. He didn't earn any of the happy ending he got because the script just resolved everything.

The series actually would have been better if Cher didn't get everything he wanted, but they decided to stay together anyway.

The actors are fine. I was meh about Gun because these kinds of "lonelier than thou" semes are a dime a dozen and a potted plant has more personality. I guess that's the ideal boyfriend. Is rich, quiet, has abs, and solves all your problems and because its you, he doesn't appear to have any needs of his own except having you around. Whatever. He has abs. And thighs. And a chest. So Force doesn't have to do much. He was on point with the dull character. I liked him better in Enchante.

I have to remember that Frigay series are apparently targeted to 11 year olds. So complaining about the events undermining the romance at every turn isn't fair, because that's not what that audience is looking for. Its like complaining that the villains in the Power Rangers are silly and the action pointless because the stakes are low and we know no one is going to get killed. Or that the mysteries in Blues Clues are easy to solve. So as a kids show, I guess I'll give it an 8/10. For everyone above 11, though, probably 6/10 based on the strength of Force's abs.

Some of GMM's high ratings I'm guessing are due to GMM inflating them. ThaiBLs that aren't made by GMM tend to have ratings in line with their quality.

I'm hoping that Jin Hwan is doing that thing where he says he has a crush on a girl, but its unrequited as a cover, because otherwise, those glances he gives Han Joon don't make sense, and too much of the drama is about two hot guys chasing a woman with a gay character looking on. That shouldn't really happen for too long in a BL.

It also would have ended the relationship. I’m surprised that Mahiro wasn’t a little pissed off to be pressured into throwing together a last minute dinner party. He’s a kind soul. But if he were asked to come to Tokyo and cook for 25 people in less than 24 hours, oh and you’ll have to find a kitchen and bring all of granny’s cookware because Souta’s place isnt set up to cook anything but ramen, he’d probably be more than a little mad. Heck, I’d be 2nd hand mad for him.

Yeah. I mean, I like Ae and all, and everything right now can be confusing. But announcing the pregnancy to everyone and then talking about whether she should have the baby was the opposite order I would do those tasks.

Maybe Grand Fjord gas stations are the most inconveniently designed gas stations known to man, and their convenience stores have shelves that are 20 feet high and aisles that are 6 inches apart, so that it would be impossible to film in one. It just seemed like an odd thing to disagree with the client on.