If you haven't seen this, drop everything and go watch it right now

This review is basically going to be me raving over this series for however many paragraphs it takes.

Take that as your first and final and only warning.

Where do I start?

The story is of two young men who are studying in different faculties in the same university. Pat, Engineering. Pran, Architecture. Historically, the two faculties have been rivals and several of Pat and Pran's friends take this all very seriously. The first scene of the very first episode is a bunch of Engineering students chasing down and beating up an Architecture student, so you know the rivalry is intense.

To make things even more complicated, the two young men grew up right next door to each other and their families absolutely loathe each other. We don't find out why until nearly the end of the series, but it's not a trivial reason, and the hatred on the part of Pran's mother towards Pat's father is warranted and justifiable.

Unknowingly, Pat starts courting Pran (it's a mix-up that does completely make sense) and, when he discovers who it is he's been exchanging notes and gifts with, he doesn't immediately have a meltdown at the mere though of liking a boy (which I half expected, because it's such a trope in BL), he doesn't punch Pran or accuse him of deception or any of the other things that happen in these situations in other BL's.

No, they pretty much agree to stop being rivals and start being friends, before things develop into more. They use bets and competitions as flirting and it is hilarious.

They have such good communication with each other. They talk about things honestly and openly and they both apologise to the other for their mistakes and they stick by each other when one of them is in trouble and....it's so refreshing and wholesome and good to see.

The acting is on another level, especially for a BL. Ohm (Pat) and Nanon (Pran) are both very skilled and it shows. I already knew Ohm was good, having seen him in Make It Right and He's Coming To Me (I recommend the Book/Frame cut of Make It Right if you haven't seen it, and He's Coming To Me is an excellent shorter series in which Ohm partners with Singto. It's a gem.)

I hadn't seen Nanon in anything else, though his resume is quite impressive, so I wasn't sure what his acting would be like going in, but I need not have worried. He's so good it's almost unbelievable. If they gave out awards for TV acting in Thailand, he should be up for Best Actor. His emotional range is impressive.

The chemistry and dynamic between Ohm and Nanon takes this series from great to excellent.

There are only two songs used throughout the series, and one of them is kind of over-used, but both are still lovely and the incidental music is good too. I like the fact that they avoided so many of the ridiculous sound effects that other shows tend to overuse. Moderation is key, and it's clear the director and editor agree with me.

Even the product placement, whilst definitely there and noticeable, has been toned down, which is so good to see.

And, to make things better, we get an actual GL second couple in this, even if their relationship isn't as developed as the main leads. There's talk of a sequel to this, and to be honest, I don't want one. I'd like a spin-off instead, focusing on Ink and Pa's relationship. There's a time jump at the beginning of episode 12, and I'd like to see how their relationship developed over that time.

REWATCH VALUE: high, high, so so high. I'm rewatching it now, in fact.

I've said in other reviews that no show is perfect, and this isn't either, but this is the only one that I've felt justifies the full five stars/10 out of 10 rating. I watched this and I didn't feel cheated, I didn't end up feeling like I'd wasted my time and the ending was satisfactory and fulfilling.

That, to me, is the hallmark of a great series.

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Another show let down by the ending

I'm going to admit straight out of the gate that I'm not the most neutral person in the world when it comes to this show. I've seen the original anime (though I've had no chance to read the manga) and whilst I started out being impressed with how closely this series was following it along, I stopped being impressed by the end of episode 12.

Firstly, all the acting in this was great. I always enjoy watching Singto bringing his 'A' flirting game, and this was no exception. He's such a talented young man.

Foei was great as Pooh. Not a complete carbon copy of his anime counterpart, but still giving off the same vibes. A sweet, naive, innocent man doing his best for his young master and his daughter (adorably named Piglet.)

Pluem put just the right amount of emotion into his Krating, and I really enjoyed his character development over the series.

Lee was just about perfect as Punn, the boss, and he has excellent comedic timing.

Those are the positives.

There were a lot of changes made from the original anime, and some of them are understandable because Thai culture is very different from Japanese culture, and some things wouldn't work.

I still don't like Weir's ex, and I'm in two minds as to whether it was better or worse that they changed him from a abusive asshole to a lying, two-timing asshole, but either way he was still there for at least one episode too long. I was already sick of him.

My biggest gripe with this show is the omission of the BL storyline. Antique wasn't a full BL, but the Japanese counterparts to Weir and Pooh did have a BL storyline. And this was teased in the earlier episodes, which was good.....except it was just a tease.

Production writers then gave the middle fingers to the viewers by having the guitar playing scene and then stopping the storyline right in its tracks. And Pooh ended up living with Piglet and her mum in the end and leaving the cafe.

Most people in the comment section were delighted at Weir and Punn being left alone together, and I'm happy their getting to the ship hearts fulfilled, but I'm also very disappointed at the same time for anyone like me (fi there was anyone like me) who wanted the original BL storyline represented properly.

I'm not going to say this was the worse series I've ever seen (that dubious honour goes to En of Love: Love Mechanics) but it just could have been so much better.

It does have rewatch value, though, if only for the first two thirds of the series where things are great between the characters and you don't want to scream.

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I've seen worse

The production staff on this series knew what their target audience wanted....and they delivered it. There's buff, ripped, hot male bodies on display everywhere. I really felt sorry for Gino when he was greeted at the resort by the shirtless yoga class....I wouldn't know where to put my eyes either!

This got really ragged on in the comments and reviews, and I can't say the criticism isn't earned, but I liked this for the short, sweet and fluffy series it was meant to be. I appreciated the fact that everyone seemed generally positive about gay relationships and there wasn't any homophobia.

Some of the dialogue got a little preachy,, especially in the last two episodes.

The series is only eight episodes and the episodes are only about 20 mins each, so the plot isn't complicated and the character development is a little rushed, but it's there. Alex liking Gino didn't come out of the blue, which I've seen happen in BL before.

The actor who plays Gino is not conventionally attractive. He's not unattractive, by any means, but he isn't what we've come to expect in a BL. He's got a slight tummy, his skin isn't flawless, his hair isn't always perfectly groomed and he's not tan.

And, honestly? I find that so refreshing. I don't think it's unrealistic for hot guy like Alex to fall for an ordinary bloke like Gino, and I appreciate that's what happens.

The actor who plays Alex seems to have no body issues whatsoever as every opportunity is taken for him to be shirtless. In the very last episode, we even see him fully naked (albeit when he's lying facedown) and that's something I haven't seen outside of porn.

Is this on the same level as, say,, Gameboys? Nope, definitely not. It's not even on the same level as 'My Day'. It's better than people make it out to be, though, and I'm all for encouraging productions companies to make these series - because practice does help and who knows what we may get to see in the years to come?

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Much, much better than I expected

Sometimes, something just defies your expectations and this series did that for me.

Because, being honest, this is another BL series set in a university with white shirts and black trousers and grown adults acting like they never heard of sex; and fundraising fairs and camping out visiting impoverished areas; and medical students and engineering students and freshmen with ties; and scooters and high end cars and huge houses that you would swear should have at least four bedrooms, but only seem to have one or two; and let's not forget the male character with darker skin (because colourism) with the high pitched voice and the limp wrists who ships the ML's.

This is, almost beat for beat, the same plot as every other Thai BL. All the stereotypes are here, all the clichés and tropes are here.

Except.....there's some differences.

The attitude of one of the MLs to the toxic and dangerous behaviour of the shippers, their page and their 'fans' is refreshing. Pi bluntly declares he feels unsafe with the way Mork keeps encouraging said behaviour in his attempts to woo Pi. And well he should, because these 'fans' not only butt into Pi's life, but drag his brother, his mother and his father into it and even threaten to invade his home to take pictures of his bedroom!

At one point, someone starts filming them without permission, and posting it online. At another, someone else has clearly been stalking them because pictures get posted of Pi standing on the balcony of his house.

This series comes down hard, and not even subtly, on the invasive and toxic social media culture that seems to permeate much of the world nowadays.

Pi breaks my heart several times during this series. He's a truly sweet, kind and caring young man who does not deserve the bullying. I can't help feeling that Mork should have opened his mouth and stood up for Pi a lot earlier. I also think that if Mork had given Pi that umbrella, then maybe things would have proceeded differently as well.

Differently, but for the better? Who knows? ::shrug::

I also liked the fact that Mork has pictures of Pi on his phone before his 'makeover' and that he liked him just as he was before Duen and his friends got involved. It would have been so refreshing to see Pi stay that way, but gain confidence as his relationship with Mork grew and let that confidence make him more attractive, rather than going for the 'ditch the glasses, get ride of the braces, fix the hair' kind of makeover that was used.

I really liked Bam. I thought she was cute and bubbly and fun and supportive of Mork....and then they had to ruin it with the stunt she pulled at Mork's birthday party. Why? Just why? It completely ruined her character for me. For god's sake, please stop doing this!

I also liked Muang Nan. Whilst it was clear he didn't like Pi the way Pi wanted him to, he wasn't cruel about it and he kept subtly pushing Pi towards Mork. He also had some good advice for Mork, which Mork should have taken. The cheeky reference to Mix's series 'Tale of a Thousand Stars' was amusing.

This even gave me pause when it came to my favourite pairing. A lot of times, in BL, I'll find myself preferring the secondary couple over the main couple, but here I found myself cheering for both of them. Duen is a great brother and a genuinely funny and likable character. His character grew over the course of the twelve episodes and I loved his fourth-wall breaking.

Meen is a complete cinnamon roll without, thank goodness, the childishness that often goes along with that kind of character in Thai BL He's a bit child-like, but not childish. He stands up for himself and tells Duen exactly what he thinks and feels and doesn't let Duen get away with shit. I approve.

The acting in this is good, especially by Pond, Phuwin and Neo. The editing is also good. The daft sound effects are still there, but are considerably toned down (thank goodness) and the product placement is still very obvious but also toned down considerably.

The only negative, really, is the scene with Duen dressed up as what I assume to be his idea of an Indian holy man. I didn't notice it until someone from that culture pointed it out and talked about how uncomfortable it made them, and I can completely understand why. it was only a brief scene, but it shouldn't have been there.

Also (and this is not a negative) I was confused by the ending. It supposedly takes place 2 years later, but how had Meen not seen Duen and Pi's room at this point? And have Pi and Mork just been abstaining from sex this whole time? It was just....baffling. Although the scene itself was very funny.

I really enjoyed this series overall, and I'm happy to recommend it and, since I'm re-watching it whilst I'm typing up this review, I state without hesitation that it has high re-watch value too.

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skip the first two episode, watch the other four

This is a series of six small episode featuring some very popular pairings from Thai BL. They are stand-alone episodes and only run about 15 minutes or so. Like everyone else, I'm going to just rate each episode and go from there.

EP.1 'Pretend to Love' starring Ohm Thitipat and Fluke Natouch as Pierce and Typhoon respectively. I don't know who thought this was a good idea. Pierce was an insensitive asshole and, as nice as it is to watch Fluke dial up the tears, all I wanted was for Typhoon to have more agency in his own story. I'm not sure what the writers were going for here, but they missed the mark by a mile. My Score: 3/10

EP.2 'Just Friend' starring First Chalongrat as Moo Joom (a cat, apparently) and Ja Phachara as Xin. I don't even know what to say about this. What the f*$k? sums it up pretty well. It wasn't clear at all what was going on. I have no problem with people being affectionate with their pets, but that scene in the bathroom? That went beyond "being affectionate" and into something else. I was so disappointed that this is the story they chose to give First and Ja. What a shame. It's better than the first episode, but still weird as all get out. My Score: 2/10

EP.3 'Willing or Not' starring Max Rujeerattanavorapan as Titan and Nat Uareksit as Mini. This one brought the whole series back around to good again. It was funny and charming and sweet and lovely to watch. Titan was so enthusiastic about teaching Mini judo and supporting him in the competition and Mini was all for trying to Titan save his club, albeit a bit reluctantly. My Score: 8/10

EP.4 'Just one Life' starring Lay Talay as XiaoPing and Yoon Phusanu as Peam. Continuing the rise upwards, this is another great episode. In this one, Peam has just been dumped via text and XiaoPing takes him through several rituals at a various places (a buddha statue, a maze, a mountain, a bridge) to try and change his karma and get his girlfriend back. This one is very sweet and, although I personally would have preferred Lay to act with Perth Nakhun, Yoon and he do have great chemistry and this episode is wonderful. My Score: 8/10

EP.5 'Dear My Star' starring Jimmy Karn Kritsanaphan as Night and Tommy Sittichok Pueakpoolpol as Mekhin (Mek.) I'll admit I'm biased about this one, because Jimmy and Tommy have had my heart ever since 'Why R U?' and I am on tenterhooks waiting for 'Middleman's Love'. I also love the fact this is set in 1995. For someone who was a teenager in the '90's, this was a heartwarming trip down memory lane. Night and Mek having to call each other over the landline and not having any privacy because there was only one in the house and it was out in the hallway or lounge where everyone could get to it....yeah, I felt that. This episode is what pushed the rating from a 5 or 6 to an 8 for me. My Score: 9/10

EP.6 'Imagine You' starring Kimmon Warodom Khemmonta as jedi and Copter Panuwat Kerdthongtavee as Ray. This was another odd one, but nowhere near the levels of WTF as episode 2. Mostly I was just left wondering if Jedi was talking to Ray through the VR or if Ray was imagining everything. Either way, it doesn't actually matter, because it's Kim and Copter and I didn't realise I'd been missing them so much on screen together until I saw them. My Score: 8/10

These all are what they are and, for the most part, they're an enjoyable little break from sometimes not-so-great real life. You can sit down and watch with the beverage and snack of your choice and just escape for a while. I'd still skip the first two episodes, but the last four are definitely worth watching and you wouldn't be wasting your time.

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A return to good form for Thai BL

In terms of writing and acting, was this the best Thai BL I've ever seen? No.

Was it better by far than some of the other show we've all been subjected to recently? Absolutely, yes.

This has so much going for it. There is no glaringly unsubtle product placement (yes, this series could've been sponsored by Jenga, but it's not constantly in your face), no over-the-top sound effects punctuating every other sentence, no scheming female characters trying to break up the couples and, thank goodness, the shippers behaviour was restricted to a bit of gossip and didn't verge on harassment and stalking.

The plot revolves around a group of students in their last year of high school. Paper, Tong Fah and Chris are all close friends. Chris has a crush on Jeno, who is being bullied by his ex, Arthur. Tong Fah has a crush on Paper. And another student, Near, works at a local gaming cafe and is being courted online through a game. He doesn't realise that it's his fellow cafe worker, M, who's doing the courting.

Now, this series can get a little preachy at times. Some of the dialogue starts to sound like inspirational speeches and it's sending a very obvious and clear message about how the end of high school should be approached and how to manage people's expectation of what comes next.

The bullying gets very egregious in parts, especially in the first three episodes, so consider this a warning if bullying is a trigger for you. Unlike other Thai BL's, though, where you wonder why the adults are even in it because they clearly don't care, this behaviour is addressed and the student being bullied is listened to, believed and supported.

The student doing the bullying suffers actual consequences and, even though they're not harsh, it's such an improvement on how other shows I've seen deal with abusive and violent behaviour. I'm sure I don't need to name names.

Also, the bully recognises his behaviour is wrong and apologises sincerely - again, character development we rarely see.

This is a small series consisting of only six episodes, all of which I watched in a day. The episodes are an hour long, however, so it isn't like you're left feeling short-changed and, even if Near and M didn't get the nearly the amount of screen time as the other characters, they still had plenty of development.

The pacing was fairly consistent, the editing relatively good (there were some parts where I was slightly confused because I was watching flashbacks that weren't differentiated from the present time in the story, but I did understand it all by the end) and the music is lovely.

The acting isn't so great sometimes, but given that for two of them it was their first acting job and for the others they've mainly had support roles, it's not horrible. There's some real talent in this cast.

This is a good series and I enjoyed it. It definitely has rewatch value and I'm happy to recommend it.

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cute and fluffy but overall very confusing

This series had a good a premise if you just go by the description given here on MDL, but the production staff took that premise, threw it on the ground, and then jumped on it for good measure.

The basics of it are there, I'll give them that, but that's it.

The thing that really ruins this BL isn't the budget, the acting, the script, or even the directing - it's the editing.

I don't know who was in charge of the editing or who was making the final decisions, but it's shocking. Scenes don't transition smoothly, the pacing is terrible and there were times I was genuinely confused about what was going on.

There is no excuse for this. I've watched five minutes fan edits on YouTube that are a masterclass in editing - if someone who isn't even in the industry can do it, the people behind the scenes for this production should have been able to do a much better job.

Honestly, this series is tedious and boring and, although it has some sweet moments and cute actors, it really isn't worth watching.

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better than expected

Knowing this was made on the cheap, so to speak, I was a bit hesitant about watching it. Not because I have anything against low production values, in of themselves, but because low budget can oftentimes mean bad acting. Which i something I find harder and harder to watch as I get more educated as to what good acting is supposed to look like.

Ko, an online singing star, has been in love with Teng for years. He knows it's futile, but he can't help but hope. His friends tell him about a holy man in the woods who can make a 'love poison' to change Teng's heart. He goes off and gets it, with some shenanigans involving ghosts, and then joins the soccer team so he can get close enough to Teng to get him to drink it.

Teng, in the meantime, is interested in Nuan and when Ko asks for his help to get better at soccer, Teng asks for Ko's help with singing so he can woo Nuan. Nuan and Teng start dating.

Ko is devastated, and gets drunk with his friends. They call Teng to have him take Ko home and Teng and Ko have sex.

Drunk sex is a thing in this series, because the side couple, Tak and Ko's brother Sek, end up doing the same thing.

Ko tells Teng they should just forget it ever happened and then starts dating Tak.

The rest of the plot is pretty predictable and there's a happy ending all round.

This series has no awkward product placements, no over-the-top sound effects and no disapproving parents. Ko and Sek's father accepts both their relationships and is a sweet and caring man.

The scenery is beautiful, too, because this set in the country and there isn't a university or an engineering student for miles.

The soundtrack is great, the acting is pretty good, the writing is surprisingly sharp at times and this is overall a good series. It's only eight episodes, too, so you can watch it in less than a day.

Overall, I enjoyed this and I think it's worth a watch.

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don't bother - just go watch the Pete/Kao cut

This was just....awful.

There's no other words for it. It was boring, slow and painful to watch. Most of the characters were horrible and unlikeable, the plot was ridiculous (more ridiculous than usual) and the acting was truly dreadful in places.

Also sadly, the Pete/Kao cut of this, which was officially created by GMMTV and posted on their YouTube channel, did not exist when I watched this, so I had to suffer through all 14 episodes to watch Tay and New.

The story revolves around the lives of five sisters: Sanwan, Sanson, Sansuay, Sandee and Sanrak, and their daily lives. It's definitely more soap opera than drama. The oldest sister, Sansuay, owns a clothing store and lives above it with her sisters.

THE BAD: oh, there's so much bad. Starting with just the show itself, the opening credits run for 5 minutes. No, that's not an exaggeration - I timed them.

Then there's the characters. Most of them are terrible.

Sanson is paid by Matt's mother to find out if he's gay (because he spends so much time with his best friend Pat) or not, and the way she goes about it is just awful. One of them is to hire escorts to grope him at a karaoke club. She butts into his private life in ways she has no business doing and not only does he forgive her he starts dating her. Pat is actually gay and has a small crush on his best mate and Sanson treats him terribly for it.

Sanwan is being setup for a relationship by her mother as the 'girl who is the best match for you' in cahoots with the prospective boyfriend/groom's father. The young man in question, only identified by the initial 'R', is supposedly a doctor, but he never seems to do any doctor-ing. He's also arrogant, rude, cruel and a bully. He tries to sexually assault Sanwan in the second episode, ffs.

And his girlfriend of the moment, Sinee, is jealous and possessive and can't let go of the idea that Sanwan wants her man, even though she rejects him soundly and decisively and wants nothing to do with him. Sinee even sets Sanwan up to be raped, which is just....I have no words for how disgusting that is and how reprehensible of a character she is.

Sandee is still the only sensible one out of the gang, and we all stan June.

The main BL pairing in this, as mentioned above, is Pete/Kao. I'm not a fan of the 'accidental kiss' and it wasn't done very well here (Saifah/Zon's in WRU was better) but these two have chemistry leaking out of their pores. So much more more than So and Sansuay.

We also get hints of Sun/Mork, although their relationship is developed more in 'Dark Blue Kiss.'

The BL plot is fairly standard, which means its the only one that really makes sense in terms of character development and plot beats. It's the saving grace of this series.

And Pete's dad is the best Dad in Thai BL I've ever seen.

On the whole, I would highly recommend you watch the Pete/Kao and avoid the rest of this dumpster fire. It wasn't worth my time, and it's not worth yours.

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I didn't know what to expect when I watched this, I just thought the idea of man waking up and realising he is in a world of BL, with all it's tropes and cliches, was going to be funny.

I wasn't disappointed.

The opening titles in themselves are worth a watch. The disco-esque song with the retro costumes makes for a great bop.

There isn't really a lot to say about this series. I enjoyed the acting, the music was great, the sets were a little low-grade but believable and, whilst I've become a bit jaded about special effects, the ones in this series (animated roses blooming around character's face and head and the other character apparently being able to *see* them) make sense in the context of the story and aren't over-used.

The series is comprised of four episodes, which are themselves comprised of three smaller episodes. They're clearly titled you know where you are in the story and the pacing is fairly consistent.

The show ended on a sort-of cliffhanger, so I hope there's a second season, but all in all this was a funny, charming and interesting little series that will take you maybe a couple of hours to watch, so why not?

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Another show so close to perfect....if it wasn't for that ending

I generally don't write reviews when I genuinely enjoy a show, because the shows I generally really enjoy are always, somehow, ones that everyone else enjoys and rates highly and is there any point in me just adding to that?

In this case, as with The Untamed, this series is damn near perfect. The casting, the acting, the music and even the plot (for the most part) is all excellent.

Let's get it out the way first, though, shall we? The ending. Hoo, boy, the ending. It let this series down big time.

The basic premise of this is that in the modern day, a rather arrogant chef, Jang Bong-hwan working at the Blue House (the official residence of the President of the Republic of South Korea) is set up by his boss to embarrass the President at an official dinner and then further implicated in corruption in food purchases.

Whilst escaping from the police out of his apartment building window, he falls into the swimming pool and drowns. He wakes up to find himself in 1851 in the body of Kim So-Yong, the future Queen Cheorin of Joseon (as Korea was called then.) What follows is Jang's attempts to not only return to his own body and his own time, but also to survive the court intrigue of the Queen's relatives, the Kim family, and their rivals, the Jo family, using only his wits, his knowledge of the past and his cooking skills.

Along the way, King Cheoljong genuinely falls in love with Jang and even compiles a 'Queen's Dictionary' consisting of all the idioms and modern slang that Jang uses regularly to try to understand her better.

Of course, when Jang and Kim So-Yong switch back about three quarters of the way through the last episode, I expected it but I was still disappointed. Even though it's made clear that both Jang and So retain some vestiges of each other's souls, even the King can tell she isn't the person he fell in love with.

And that is the real shame of it. They genuinely came to love each other and now one of them isn't really the same person anymore. It just....makes no sense.

All the kudos go to Shin Hye-sun for her performance in this. She effortlessly switches between Jang and So and you can always tell which soul is inhabiting the body. Her voice, posture and language all change completely to distinguish between them. She's a damn good actress. Nothing more to be said.

I fast forwarded through a lot of the court intrigue scenes. Not fast enough that I'd lose sight of the plot, but the court intrigue and the Grand Queen Dowager's brother being an asshole didn't really interest me.

The music is wonderful. 'Here I Am' is a beautiful song and 'bong Hwan A' is a brilliant rock song. Both make me wish I could speak Korean just so I could sing along.

This is absolutely worth a watch because the first 19 and a half episodes are great. The acting is on point, the music is brilliant and so much of it is so rewatchable.

if it hadn't been for that ending, this would be a full 10 for me.

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Slightly better, but not by much

This was fairly obviously an attempt by the production team to fix the problems that caused the barrage of complaints about 2gether. It was a good try, but it still didn't fix everything.

I don't believe these two are a couple. I know they love each other, miss each other and are happy with each other, and they definitely communicate with each other better than some couples in BL I've seen, but they are still two of the most chaste young men I've ever seen on screen.

Someone tell Sarawat that "I'll kiss you til you moan" implies actually kissing. This series, like the last, has exactly one kiss between Tine and Sarawat and, whilst it's better than the one from the first series, it's still not exactly filled with passion.

I know this, and 2gether, were made at an awkward time. The pandemic has f*ck%d everything, but I've seen other BL made during the same time period that manage to have more than just one awkward kiss. And some were made in Thailand, even.

I really, really wish that production companies would stop hiring actors who won't commit to the roles, and that actors wouldn't take roles they know they aren't going to be able to fully commit to and aren't comfortable in.

Because it's clear that's what's happened here. Bright clearly doesn't want to be kissing Win. Win seems a little more comfortable with it, and I suspect he'd probably be better if he wasn't acting with Bright but that's what he's got to work with.

I did like this better than 2gether, and I enjoyed seeing more of Phukong and Mil and them having an actual relationship. Green and Dim were very funny and sweet together, even when they were arguing and Type and Man made a lot of strides in their relationship and had several mature and honest talks which impressed me.

This has slightly more rewatch value than the first series and it's worth a watch if you haven't yet.

All in all, not a bad series.

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Oh dear. I really shouldn't have bothered.

I'm going to be honest - I read too much about this series before I watched it to give an unbiased review. I read a lot of comments on the MDL page, I read comments on the YouTube videos and I read a lot of speculation about why this series went off the rails the way it apparently did.

After watching, I'm halfway convinced there was no other way it could go.

The whole premise of the plot was overturned in the first half of the series, leaving it nowhere to go. The story started as a fairly standard one in BL - Young man A (Tine) is being pursued by Young Man B (Green). Young Man A has no interest in B because he's interested in girls, not boys.

Which he declares multiple times an episode whilst also making a point to ogle girls he considers pretty and try to date them. Because he's not interested in boys. No sirree. Not at all.

Young Man C (Sarawat) just might be the exception. He's the traditionally masculine, very handsome and talented young man that A recruits to fake flirt with to drive B away. Young Man B, as is the case with most Thai BL's, has a high pitched voice and feminine mannerisms and is, well, a raging stereotype.

Kudos to this series, though, for avoiding the colourism usually present in Thai BL - B is as light skinned as the rest of them. Now if only one of the leads was darker skinned, it would've completely subverted the trope which would have been even better. Baby steps, I guess.

Then it turns out, as we find out about halfway through the series, that Green hasn't really been pursuing Tine seriously. He had recently broken up with his boyfriend Dim (the president of the university music club that Sarawat and Tine belong to) and was using Tine to make Dim jealous.

Now, if this had happened later in the series, it might have worked out better, but it happened so early that the series had about six episodes to try and fill in and the writers couldn't seem to figure out exactly what they wanted to do. They could have given a bit more time to the side couples, instead of wasting the acting talents of Frank and Drake by having them appear for five minutes every episode.

No, instead we get this mess that just irritated me.

Here's the thing: when Sarawat agrees to fake flirt with Tine to chase off Green, he declares he's going to actually flirt with Tine. And then he says he's not. And then he says he is. And then he says he was joking.

And it continues on like this for most of the episodes. Poor Tine, who you can see is beginning to develop feelings for Sarawat (even if he has Wei Wuxian levels of obliviousness about it), doesn't know whether he's coming or going because Sarawat is....well, tbh, I'm not sure what Sarawat is doing.

It *looks* like he's playing shitty mind games with Tine, but I suppose it could just be his insecurity over actually getting the chance to be with Tine.

Then we get to episode 12 and everything goes to hell-lite because Sarawat forgot himself and Tine's, for some reason, lost all his confidence. Has anyone seen that, by the way? It was around for about six or seven episodes and then slowly slunk away somewhere. If you do see it, send it back would you?

Tine catches Sarawat in an embrace (a very clearly one-sided one) with his "friend" Pam and jumps to conclusions and gets very upset and runs away and cries, and then runs outside (where it is now somehow night even though it was daylight five minutes ago) where he runs into Mil and collapses.

Sarawat comes along whilst Mil is bundling Tine into his car to take him to hospital and he forgets himself completely and doesn't just get into the car (which he would've done two episodes ago.) He doesn't visit Tine in hospital, (presumably because he's still forgetting himself) and ambushes Tine outside of it and *still* doesn't just get in the car before Mil drives Tine away.

The ending consists of Sarawat singing a song for Tine and asking him, in front of all the extras they could hire for this mess, if Tine trusts him again. It's the perfect setup for a kiss. No, really,. Since the end of episode 2, Sarawat has been the one doing all the flirting (and then denying that he's flirting but, you know, you have to have something to deny doing in the first place, so it *counts*) and Tine's been acting all shy and coy.

This would have been the perfect moment for Tine to initiate something. To take charge. To lean in and kiss Sarawat and then say his line. And does he do that? No. They re-unite, happy endings all round, and do they kiss after that? No. Sarawat has been obsessed with grabbing Tine's 'boobs' for the last 11 episodes so maybe he sneakily does that? Yeah, no.

These are the two most chaste young men I've ever seen on a drama series. "If you keep looking at me like that, I'll kiss you til you drop."

Yeah, right, Sarawat. You kissed him a grand total of: once.

And he didn't drop.

I guess double high-fives are the new kissing?

In summation (because this got really long and rant-y but I'm not sorry because this had the potential to be so bloody good and it was ruined) - don't bother. Bright and Win 's acting isn't bad, though they are outshone by Frank, Drake, Toptap and Mike, and the soundtrack is great, but this show got lost in adaptation and whoever wrote this should just stick to original material and not ruin any more books.

If I sound like a bitter old person, about this it's because I am.

Bah! Humbug!

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not as good as its predecessor

I really, really wanted to like this series. I loved the first one and I thought sure, surely, the writing for this one will be just as good.

Sadly, I was wrong.

And it was the writing that let it down. All the acting was on point. The entire cast knocked it out of the park, so to speak, even if the script they had to work with was dodgy. The music was beautiful, the editing good and the story itself, if it had been translated into the script better, would've worked.

The plot involved Shi De and Shu Yi meeting again after five years. After unexpectedly having to stay in the U.S. for two years, rather than two months, Shi De comes back and runs into Yi's father, who has confiscated Yi's phone. He tells De, in less subtle terms, that he's not good enough for Yi, which brings back a whole lot of insecurities that De already had about their relationship and he agrees to stay away from Yi for five years.

Three years after that, De is running the successful Hua Cing Technology company on behalf of this mother, when who should walk in the door to oversee the company's merger with Cheng Yi Group?

What follows is the rekindling of Shu Yi and Shi De's relationship along with some incidental corporate espionage thrown in to make it all more dramatic.

My main problem with this series is the writing. I don't know what Lin Pei Yu was thinking with this. I was confused so many times about when scenes took place in the timeline. Non-linear storytelling is fine, but it needs to be clear and concise and this was neither. Scenes were just thrown in and we were just supposed to, what? Intuit that they were set in the past?

Also, whilst in a visual medium you always want to try and show rather than tell, you have to actually show things so people understand them. I don't want to just make assumptions - I want it to be clear that I'm making the *right* assumptions. And I shouldn't have to go on social media to find out what the writer is trying to show. I shouldn't have to reference other media to understand the one I'm watching.

Why did Shu Yi suddenly forgive Shi De between one episode and the next? Why did Pei Shou Yi go from (apparently??) rejecting to accepting Yu Zhen Xuan in the space of about five minutes? Come to that, why is Pei Shou Yi running a bar instead of being a Doctor? Did I miss the explanation for that?

Was that blonde woman actually Ashley? I assume so. Is Ashley Shi De's stepsister? Is she the nanny? My assumption is stepsister. Why throw in that special episode and answer no questions about it? Because Shu Yi has decided that he trusts Shi De (apparently out of nowhere) that means we, the audience, don't get to know?

Tell me how I did with my assumptions, show. Tell me!

A smaller, yet as important problem, is also the casual ableism that runs through this series. Yu Zhen Yuan has real feelings for Pei Shou Yi, but they are dismissed as him being "crazy" because Shou Yi thinks Zhen Yuan suffers from filial imprinting, paranoia (which we see no signs of) , Aspergers, mild depression and prone to autotomy (which apparently means Zhen Yuan is prone to cutting his own limbs off.)

Pei Shou Yi makes all these diagnoses despite the fact that he wasn't a psychologist and hasn't been an actual medical doctor in years.

It's like the writer just went for an out-of-date DSM and randomly picked things she thought would make the character as woobie as possible.

And, even assuming that all these diagnoses are correct, that still wouldn't mean Zhen Yuan's feelings for Shou Yi aren't real. To claim so is ableist and wrong.

Pei Shou Yi himself says he suffers from an affective disorder (but never specifies which one) but if he suddenly declared he had feelings for Zhen Yuan, nobody would call him crazy.

A third series was teased, and I'd like to see Bing Wei and Zhe Yu's wedding, because that proposal scene was lovely and they're the most sensible couple on this show.

I can't give this as high a rating as 'No. 1 For You', but I still rate this highly and I did enjoy most of it. It is fairly re-watchable and I give this my sincere recommendation.

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I jumped into BL one night during the pandemic lockdown of 2020 after watching a multi couple edit video on YouTube one night. I started with 'Why R U?', but when I realised that it hadn't finished being made, i abandoned it (temporarily) and watched 'Until We Meet Again', 'Love By Chance' and 'Theory of Love'

After taking this deep dive into Thai BL, I found MDL and read a lot of discussions and comments and watched even more multi couple videos on YouTube and found my way to SOTUS.

Before I start, full disclaimer: I am not Thai. Nor am I Asian. I am a white Australian. Therefore I may be seeing some things through the lens of my culture and upbringing which may not seem right to someone who is Thai.

SOTUS (an acronym for Seniority, Order, Tradition, Unity and Spirit) is a system that freshmen in the faculty of engineering go through to earn their gear and be officially recognised as juniors by their third-year seniors. Arthit (Perawat Sangpotirat aka Krist) is head of the hazers, as the seniors are known, and he has a tendency to abuse his power.

The freshman are basically required to do anything asked of them by their seniors, which skirts a very dangerous line between hazing and outright bullying. At least one student collapses during one of the activities.

A freshman named Kongpob (Prachaya Ruangroj aka Singto) joins the university and the SOTUS program and immediately defies Arthit, standing up for himself and his classmates against the bullying. And it is actual bullying in a lot of cases. One moment that stands out to me is Arthit ordering Kongpob to stand on a table, shout at the top of voice that he likes men, then go and ask three other males students to be his boyfriend.

It was very hard to watch. Making the freshman run laps, do push-ups or sing and tasks of that nature are relatively okay, but what Arthit had Kongpob do went way past simple hazing. People's sexualities, whatever they may be, are not something to be used for public humiliation.

If you can get through the first three or so episodes, things do improve. Arthit and Kongpob being to understand one another better and each other's perspective on things. They begin to develop mutual respect and then that deepens into something more.

There is not a lot of physical contact in this show. Arthit and Kongpob kiss twice, maybe three times, and that's it. There's no skin shown and no heavy makeout scenes.

There is a now famous scene that takes place on the Rama VIII bridge in Bangkok, where Arthit and Kongpob kiss for the first time, and both the scene and the bridge are now so entwined with Thai BL that they are reference in other BL shows.

SOTUS was released in 2016 and can be considered, along with Love Sick, the show that really pushed Thai Bl into the mainstream. Both shows are on Netflix, both shows are referenced in other BL series (characters are seen either watching the shows, or the couple will go the bridge, or someone mentions/orders pink milk) and both shows set up ideas about what Thai BL should be.

Thankfully, in this series, there is no sexual assault (another trope used quite frequent in BL - from many countries) and once you get past the first four or so episodes the hazing becomes less egregious. If, like me, you were bullied in school, you may find some of the scenes triggering.

All in all, this is not a bad series. The acting is very good. Singto, especially, is an excellent actor (if you like him, do yourself a solid and go watch him in 'He's Coming To Me') and Krist is no slouch either. The supporting cast is also very good (keep a lookout for pre-Kiss Me Again and Dark Blue Kiss actor New Thitipoom and pre-theory of Love Off Jumpol.)

I love the opening titles song.

I don't rate this as highly as other shows, but it's still worth a watch if you haven't, just mind yourself if bullying is a trigger for you.

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