EllisInRealLife
One of the biggest appeals for me while watching Theory of Love was the nuanced portrayal its two leads. I see a lot of people saying how they hated Khai in the first half of the show but, personally, I thought he was still somewhat likable. I thought he was maybe a little inconsiderate at times but I thought that that he genuinely cared about his friends. He just had some selfish character traits that he needed to work on.
I love that the first half was from Third's perspective, and the 2nd half was from Khai's perspective. I think that was a very smart storytelling decision to make the friends-to-lovers execution believable. Third's unrequited love arc was both heartwrenching and terrifyingly relatable. Usually, when characters make dumb decisions in dramas, like trusting untrustworthy characters, it's executed in such a cookie-cutter and naive way. But in TOL, Third really struggles with how often he expects more from Khai, only to be disappointed every single time. But Khai is very charming and always seems genuine, so I never really got annoyed with Third's decisions.
Even though the show never dragged for me, I think that objectively, it should have trimmed some fat. It could have easily been 8 to 10 episodes instead of 12. Or, at the very least, we should have gotten a different story arc for the last 3-4 episodes. All 12 episodes should not have been dedicated to the romantic pursuit. The subplots probably could have used more substance too. Two's subplot was fine, I just didn't think that he had that much chemistry with Un. And honestly, I never really knew where or when his feelings for Un started to develop. I actually had no idea that there was even a romance between them until the later half of the show and whether that was intentional or not, it was poorly executed. Bone's storyline had a great resolution, imo, but the overall plot was meatless. His entire storyline could have easily been told in three episodes. I also didn't care for the cliched last-minute girlfriend. *Because there's no such thing as a happy ending without an unnecessary and shoehorned romance*
Don't get me wrong, my gripes with the sideplots aren't dealbreakers. I never actively disliked much at all about the show while watching it but upon reflection, noted most of my complaints written in this review. I think Theory of Love is very enjoyable and criminally overlooked in the genre of Thai BLs.
I love that the first half was from Third's perspective, and the 2nd half was from Khai's perspective. I think that was a very smart storytelling decision to make the friends-to-lovers execution believable. Third's unrequited love arc was both heartwrenching and terrifyingly relatable. Usually, when characters make dumb decisions in dramas, like trusting untrustworthy characters, it's executed in such a cookie-cutter and naive way. But in TOL, Third really struggles with how often he expects more from Khai, only to be disappointed every single time. But Khai is very charming and always seems genuine, so I never really got annoyed with Third's decisions.
Even though the show never dragged for me, I think that objectively, it should have trimmed some fat. It could have easily been 8 to 10 episodes instead of 12. Or, at the very least, we should have gotten a different story arc for the last 3-4 episodes. All 12 episodes should not have been dedicated to the romantic pursuit. The subplots probably could have used more substance too. Two's subplot was fine, I just didn't think that he had that much chemistry with Un. And honestly, I never really knew where or when his feelings for Un started to develop. I actually had no idea that there was even a romance between them until the later half of the show and whether that was intentional or not, it was poorly executed. Bone's storyline had a great resolution, imo, but the overall plot was meatless. His entire storyline could have easily been told in three episodes. I also didn't care for the cliched last-minute girlfriend. *Because there's no such thing as a happy ending without an unnecessary and shoehorned romance*
Don't get me wrong, my gripes with the sideplots aren't dealbreakers. I never actively disliked much at all about the show while watching it but upon reflection, noted most of my complaints written in this review. I think Theory of Love is very enjoyable and criminally overlooked in the genre of Thai BLs.
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