My introduction to the world of BL drama started with 2gether. Soon, I started to realize that 2gether and SOTUS were two of the most popular and talked about BLs. Maybe my expectations were way too high, but I was severely underwhelmed as I dredged through this series.

There's not much that happens for most of the first 8 episodes. Arthit and Kongpop's relationship is the big appeal to the drama but there was hardly any interaction until episode 9. I'm not saying that I expect to see them making out by episode 2 but there wasn't a lick of genuine development for 8 of the 15 episode run. Every bit of interaction between them went like this: Kongpop says something flirty and Arthit yells at him. Once per episode. FOR 8 WHOLE EPISODES! Girl, bye.

Most of the plotlines before episode 9 were very forgettable. As I watched the show, I would sometimes forget things that happened in the previous episode even after just watching it. Simply put, there just wasn't much going on. The freshmen spend a lot of time talking about classes or how they dread being punished by the seniors and the seniors spend a lot of time trying to convince themselves that they haze the freshmen for the greater good. Much of SOTUS felt like a "day in the life of engineering students" documentary than an actual drama with stakes.

Thankfully, the show began focusing more on the lead relationship by episode 9. But tbh, even then, it wasn't giving what the hype said it was supposed to gave. They didn't give me enough cute moments. I wasn't getting the longing gazes and stolen glances that I've grown accustomed to from BLs. By episode 10, Kongpop admitted his feelings to Arthit and then the angst began. Sadly, it didn't feel deserved at all. Yes, it was technically episode 10 but the good stuff just started happening in episode 9 and now we were back to square one because Arthit avoided him for 2 whole episodes. I'm reiterating once again that I just don't get the hype.

Episodes 13 and 14 were great and is the show that I wish SOTUS had been all along. Most Thai BLs exist in a world that's free of homophobia and what I enjoyed about episode 14 is that Arthit speaks openly about his fear of dealing with homophobia from society. And then... nothing. Everyone accepts their relationship with absolutely no judgement and as sweet as that is, I was given a false sense of impending conflict that wasn't delivered. It would have been nice to see Arthit overcome such adversity in episode 15, especially considering that ep 15 was equally forgettable and uneventful. It was just fluff that held no weight and further emphasized the paper thin arc of the overall series.

I will say that the freshmen girls were given a lot of screentime in the beginning and I really had hope that they were important supporting characters and not just plot devices to cause conflict between the boys. But, of course, I was hoping for too much. Once Kongpop rejected May in episode 12, she disappeared completely. After so much time spent with her, it felt cheap that her only relevance onscreen was with Kongpop and M.

There was also a subplot involving Prem and Wad in the earlier episodes that led absolutely nowhere.

It's evident that any sideplot written in was just to run down the time a little more while providing little to no relevant development for Kongpop and Arthit.

And since I'm on a roll here, I should take the time to mention that the color grading and lighting for the show was never consistent. Some scenes would look washed out and then be much higher in brightness in the next shot, same scene. It was very distracting and drew me away from the show that I was already having trouble connecting with.

That said, I do love the chemistry between Krist and Singto and that chemistry alone is why I'm willing to checking out SOTUS S.