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Tonhon Chonlatee thai drama review
Completed
Tonhon Chonlatee
29 people found this review helpful
by Angie Shen
Jan 22, 2021
10 of 10 episodes seen
Completed 1
Overall 2.0
Story 1.0
Acting/Cast 3.0
Music 5.0
Rewatch Value 1.0
This review may contain spoilers

ngl, one of the worst BLs ever

(This is by no means an objective or organized review)

I went into this series with a decent amount of expectation because I like the cast. And in most cases, I like the story of two childhood friends growing up being lovers. HOWEVER, I am seriously disappointed and pissed for the whole series.

1. SCRIPT: Definitely poorly written. I find almost all the interactions between characters, especially Tonhon and Chonlatee, very awkward. Their romantic scenes feel to me as too pushed. I understand this is a lighthearted series and the screenwriters are likely to want to make us laugh. However, some scenes are just down straight stupid.

2. STORIES: I have a lot of issues with the social responsibilities this series touched on. Of course, it does convey a clear message that all people are no less of a person because of their sexual orientation. And I firmly believe it has a good intention of de-stereotyping the LGBTQ+ community. However, here are some of my main issues with it:

- The moment Tonhon "realized" his love for Chon, the first thing he did was having sex with him. This makes this whole thing seems like THAT is what he wants (Not to mention no consent was explicitly shown).

- Tonhon’s dad’s character development process where: this is a character who can have a lot of space for development. Despite so many ways writers can make him realize his misconception, they chose to make him realize "gay people aren't all bad" under the situation of an accident, literally overnight. You may have different feelings about this scene but for me, it seems like Tonhon's dad just "forgave" them for being gay BECAUSE they helped him. There's no further open discussion about whether he actually isn't homophobic anymore.

- Women ≠ baby-making machine: the last episodes made me super angry. Tonhon's dad obviously never realized his mistake of viewing women as a utensil to make an heir. Miriam even became a surrogate mother because he wants an heir??? What in the world! I personally don't think surrogacy should be legal for many reasons (it facilitates human trafficking, surrogate mother's risks, etc.) but I understand people may have other views. However, here, while I appreciate Miriam's selflessness, the whole reasoning behind it is simply fucked up.

- Tonhon kissing Amp for his ego (to prove his masculinity???) and sure he apologized but did he realize his mistake? He literally tried to get Chon to trust him by expressing how long he has loved Chon. A person does not need to "prove" their gender expression or sexuality to other people ok? Not to mention that one's sexuality has nothing to do with one's gender expression. And Chon apologized to Tonhon even tho he did nothing wrong?? Smeh...

3. PACING: terrible pacing. Both about character development and the story going forward. There are a ton of useless scenes without pushing the plot.

I will not forgive this series for not addressing the issues above. There are many other problems that I haven't mentioned (like privacy and personal space, stereotypes about women, lack of well-portrayed characters, etc.) but these ones are what I'm most dissatisfied about.

Probably not an issue for most people, but I dislike the fact that Tonhon is just getting shirtless for absolutely no reason. I just don't need it lol.
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