Sigh, the Drama We Didn't Need.

First, I'd like to say that I had a hard time watching this one.

Plot: Dao(nuea) falls in love with (Khab)Khluen in high school and confesses his love right before he goes to Germany to study abroad. He returns to Thailand for university only to meet Khluen again in the school's pageant. He swore he was over Khluen but after seeing him again, his previous feelings return. This is compounded by the fact that they're housed in the same room during the pageant's preparation. Khluen plays a quiet guy who seems cold, can't express himself clearly, and often times I wonder can he speak at all. Dao on the other hand, is full of emotions. He constantly tries to understand what Khluen is doing; "Does he like me? Or is he toying with me?" After a series of miscommunication's, the two finally admit they like each other, and get together.

Pros: Honestly, there weren't really any pros to this drama. I mean, the actor who played Dao is cute and I loved his voice. Hearing him speak was one of the things I liked about him. I also liked Maithee because he was basically hitting on every guy.

Cons: The story's plot made no sense. Khluen knew that Dao liked him in high school and knew that Dao was doing his homework for him but selfishly never said anything. He knew Dao had confessed his love for him and still never said anything. He played hard to get, played it cold, and really sent conflicting messages for most of the story for what purpose except for them to make the drama? It was just pointless. Like getting jealous of Dao flirting with other guys without ever expressing yourself was lame. Finally like I know the actor that played Khluen grew up in Turkey and that he might not be the best at speaking Thai, but h had ZERO emotion in this drama. He didn't come off as mysterious, he came off as just a bad actor.

The scene where he drops everything to save Gia instead of telling Dao how he felt was so stupid. It was like such a ridiculous plot scene. I've never felt so bored watching a drama since Enchante lol. I'm worried that GMMTV's dramas are going down the drain.

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Not Bad, But Not Great.

Plot: Kuea is part of a rich family who has close ties to Lian's family. Since the boys were young, Lian and Kuea were set up to be in an arranged marriage by Kuea's grandfather. In the beginning of the drama, we learn that Kuea has a second life that he keeps hidden from Lian because he's afraid that Lian will disapprove of his interests. He's created a different version of himself that he presents to Lian, but that is not the real him. Unbeknownst to him, Lian already knows all of his secrets but is waiting for Kuea to finally be brave and tell him the truth. So throughout the whole series we see Lian put Kuea in situations where he has to finally tell the truth about himself, only to learn that Lian loves him for who he is.

I usually have more to say about a drama and I usually dive into the pros and cons of each drama. I think that there weren't really pros or cons. It was just a blah drama. I liked Kuea's acting because he was quite expressive. But there were some troubling plot themes. Like Lian practically stalking Kuea at all times. Kuea doesn't know, but Lian basically knows every move he's made. And he doesn't tell Kuea at all.

It's as if the drama almost wants us to believe that the theme is that couples should have open communication with one another to avoid having problems. Lian loves Kuea, but by never expressing it, Kuea starts to doubt his every move. Kuea lies to Lian about his interests and never tells him how he's truly feeling. This theme may have worked if Lian didn't already know everything that Kuea was doing. Kuea has a secret house that he sneaks off to, to hang out with his best friend; Lian knows. Kuea is a famous bar singer named Kirin; Lian already knows. Kuea has changed his major; Lian knows. Kuea rides a motorcyle and fast cars on a track; Lian knows (this one was the most puzzling since he was going to Lian's best friend's racing track). What this does is it makes Lian's secrets come off badly. Yes Kuea kept secrets about his true interests, but Lian kept secrets about the house deed. He misled him when he told Kuea he didn't love him "as he was (which was the fake Kuea)." And the fact that he kept tabs on Kuea, in everything he did, was very weird. It was almost stalker-ish. It felt very unequal. I would have loved to see both of them discover things about each other. I think it would've made the drama make more sense. Both men were put in this arranged marriage, and they spent time away from each other. It would've been much more convincing to see both of them have these expectations of each other, and slowly find out that they were wrong. That, as they learn these truths that were opposite of what they expected, they actually loved their real selves much more.

Finally, the actual actors put a lot of time acting like they are in love with each other, but is seems that New is quite uncomfortable with the skinship. It's like Zee forces himself onto New and because there's a camera on, New tries his best to laugh it off even though he clearly looks uncomfortable. I don't like that at all.

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Cringy Drama with Some Good Messages

Plot Summary: Toh and his geeky group of friends (Khaojao, Daisy, and Som) belong to a tightknit group of friends who like to obsess and stalk their love interests, with the goal of secretly collecting items of their love interests, while keeping their distance. They take this laissez-faire attitude to their secret crushes by stating that they must always enjoy from afar but must never get fully involved or fully fall for their crushes because they could never be worthy of their crush's love until one day, Toh decides to make a move on his crush, Neua. This action to act on his feelings sets in motion the plot where the group is now thrust into the world of their seniors. Each member is then paired with a senior. The second main characters of this drama are Khaojao, Toh's best friend, and Sky, Neua's best friend, who also end up together. The two groups of friends deal with the challenges of not only being in same sex relationships, but the negative perception that the most popular group of kids fall in love with the geekiest group of kids. In the end, every character shows growth in accepting themselves in their new roles.

Pros: I actually think that the messages that this drama tries to portray were quite positive. I liked that a central message to the drama was to learn to accept yourself and that everyone deserves love no matter who they are. Each character goes through this evolution of sorts where they have to learn to accept themselves and not give a fuck about what society is saying about them. I think that it's a great central theme to the story.

I loved Som's character so much. The fact that she always stood as a voice of reason to her queer friends was beautiful. She was the GOAT in the drama making sure that her besties.

There was a lot of sex scenes. It almost seemed pornographic at times. If you're into sex scenes, this drama has plenty of it. LoL.

Cons: The acting can be quite cringy throughout the whole series. This was the first acting job for some of the actors and it did show--especially Sky. Toh's character is purposely cringy, but sometimes it was just too much. Other times I had second-hand embarrassment.

I felt that some characters didn't have focus in their interpretation. A good example was the scene where Neua discovers that Toh has been collecting all these things from his interactions with Neua and has all these secret pictures. Essentially, he discovers that Toh is a stalker. He has all these emotions, but in this moment he cried because he was afraid that Toh would leave him someday, and then Toh cries and says no, it's because I feel like you're gonna leave me...was a bit awkward. I didn't feel like either emotions felt genuine for the characters. And then, in bed Neua was always a bit perverted with his talking. Like his voice changed, and he became this dom suddenly, when his character tended to always want to please Toh. I don't know if I'm explaining it perfectly. But basically it felt out of character. In the bedroom he was this controlling dom, but in the relationship itself he was very subservient to Toh and practically did everything Toh wanted to do. It made for these weird scenes.

Overall: If you can get past the cringy acting, and amateur acting, it's an okay drama. Definitely not one you're going to miss if you don't watch.

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Enchante

This harem series really was difficult to get through.

Plot: Theo moves back to Thailand after his grandma dies. He is reunited with his childhood friend Akk. The two spend the beginning of the show rekindling their relationship. Theo can be seen as a spoiled brat who pretty much is bored with his life in Thailand and decides to spice it up in the library by writing in a French book, Enchante, that he is looking for someone essentially to entertain him. As the series progresses, we see that Akk clearly likes Theo but won't say anything. Surprise! Someone responds to Theo's message in the book and now the rest of the show is dedicated to Theo trying to find out who the "Enchante" is. Akk wanting to help Theo, posts flyers all over the school asking Enchante to reveal himself. We get 4 guys who all happen to be the schools mascots? Like they are the lead boys in their departments. We soon find out that all of these guys approach Theo pretending to be Enchante; however, they are all wanting to use Theo for something: one wants to receive a scholarship, another wants to have a place to display their artwork, and another wants to repay their debt from money they stole. Meanwhile, Akk continues to follow Theo around trying to help him unveil who Enchante is. Surprise, again! This time, it is revealed that Theo is Enchante, and has been orchestrating this elaborate plan just to get Akk to notice him. From there all is good, except Theo's parents are getting a divorce, and this adult man cannot rectify that his parents have fallen out of love with one another. He runs away and moves to France to be with his mom who randomly decided she was going to live in France after the divorce. Then while in France, he notices a figure stalking him and it happens to be Akk who ran away to France to find him.

Cons:
Does the plot sound convoluted? It really wasn't. Basically, as others have mentioned Theo is a spoiled brat who really was shitty for putting everyone through that. What was his motive? He let 3 men use him all for? To get Akk jealous? Akk, also admits that he knew it was Theo all along...well then why did you drag that on for 8 episodes. The drama itself was quite boring and unfortunately there was no chemistry between the two actors. There were a lot of fan-servicing scenes. I think if you were a straight female, you might be interested in this, but clearly this drama wasn't written to expand LGBTQ+ repertoire and tell a story that would mimic reality. Which is fine. Not everything has to be realistic. It just was that Notice-Me-Senpai-Theo getting upset at his parent's divorce was a bit childish.

Pros:
I will say that I enjoyed the title song. It is charming.

Overall: I would skip this one. It doesn't really add anything to the plate. Also, GMMTV dramas are becoming more and more formulaic:
Episodes 1-2: Exposition on the characters and basic plot premise.
Episodes 3-6: We try to solve one of the problems presented in the first two episodes. Also, one of the characters starts to fall for the other.
Episodes 7-8: The other character starts to awaken and realize they too like the other character. By episode 8 they are together.
Episodes 9-11: We get another problem that now our main characters must overcome together as a couple. This could be a parent who is against their gay relationship, in this case it was a divorce. But by episode 11, the characters have either overcome their problem, or they have to separate.
Final Episode 12: The couples end up reunited by their separation and end up together living happily ever after.

This kind of formula means that no matter what the plot is, the story is the same. The setting is different. This makes boring stories.

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Too Much Hype, Not Enough Sustenance

Before I begin, I will be spoiling a lot of key plot points in this review. Please read this after watching the drama.

Plot summary: Two men, Pran (Nanon) and Pat (Ohm), grew up next to one another. Even though they're the same age, like Romeo and Juliet, their families hate one another due to past bad blood between Pat's father and Pran's mother. The two had been secret friends since childhood, but once Pran's mom found out that her son was friend's with Pat, she moved Pran to another school. Years later, the two are reunited in university studying at rival majors: Engineering and Architecture. Once the two meet, they discover that not only are they in the same school, they also live across the hall from one another. The more time they spend together, Pat realizes that he's always loved Pran. Pran has always had a secret crush on Pat. The two decide to get together, but being from rival households and rival majors at school, they have to navigate carefully or else they will have to break up.

The overall plot of the story is quite easy to follow, as it's a tale that's been told a million times. So there's not much originality when it comes to the plot, except that instead of a man or a woman, they're two men. My biggest critiques about GMMTV plots is that they're predictable. Episodes 1-4 usually spend time on exposition. 5-7 the two characters start falling in love. By episode 8, they are usually together, and in episode 9 we start running into the 3rd and final conflict in their relationship which takes the remainder of the drama. Episode 11 usually wraps up the drama, and episode 12 closes everyone's story arch with (usually) happy endings for everyone. I've watched so many GMMTV stories that the predictability can be a bit annoying, especially with a well known plot like a Romeo and Juliet romance.

I will now discuss my X number of grievances with this drama in no particular order.

1. The side characters did not get enough time for what I think was needed for them to actually have a role. A pet peeve of mine with side characters is that if they aren't doing significant work in the drama to have them, why show them at all? I felt like Pa and Ink's addition to the story was quite welcomed. I loved having a lesbian couple, but since the story was not about them, we barely saw their relationship bloom and even focus on them after they got together. It was just like, they're together, but we don't have time to expand on how the two developed. Mo, Louis, Safe, and Chang had no reason to be in the story as they barely had lines and could easily be removed without changing anything in the story. Korn, got more lines in the later episodes, but he was basically unneeded except to start fights. Wai is probably the only side character that mattered as he becomes a villain of some sorts in the middle.

2. Half of the story felt like fanservice. Ohm not having his shirt on for most of the drama, or taking it off every chance he could get was well great eye candy, but was it needed for the story? I felt like they knew it would attract fans by him having it off. Like a lot of the extra things that the characters did with one another to me felt like it was to have us enjoy them having sweet moments together, but not because the characters themselves would have acted like that with one another.

3. I say this about every GMMTV show. Stop having actors sell products. It takes away from the drama. Figure out a way to sell your sponsors without literally praising how good the product is in the show. Like, every show has sponsors but at this point is to have it in the background enough times that people implicitly see it and recognize your brand. It's not for your actors to sell it in the show. It disrupts the flow of the show.

4. Pran has already known and accepted his feelings for Pat. He already knew he liked him. However, Pran up until episode 4, thought he was completely straight. I would have like more than the simple one-liner where he says something like "Love is love, and I can fall in love with anyone regardless of gender." I felt like this just a revision of the horrible, I'm not gay, but I just love you trope. Instead of just saying the character is outright gay, it's that they're in love with the person or pansexual, which is fine. However, to me, it reads as, we're still keeping the female fans by giving them a bone and making them fall in love with Pat's character because he could still be in a straight relationship.

5. I read in some other review that this drama was made for the LGBTQ+ community and I couldn't disagree with this comment more. I felt like it was quite targeting to women and not the LGBTQ+ movement at all. As a gay a man, I would've loved to see more actual support for the community than fan service to make the girls fall in love. Being openly gay, or in an openly gay relationship is quite scary even if you're in Thailand. I love to see the inner struggle that gay characters go through to be themselves.

6. The plot was a bit childish at parts. Like why are grown adults fighting like high school kids. I asked my Thai friends how realistic this was and they all said not at all. It's like, why are grown adults fighting on campus? Because of some stupid rivalry. Give me a break. Unfortunately, this plot takes the first 4 episodes which makes it so boring. Even the parents. Like, I was pissed at the dad, but this whole plot point was introduced and never really resolved.

7. The pacing was poor. We spent so much time, like 4 episodes, setting the fact that they all hate one another except Pran and Pat who secretly know each other. That needed one episode. The building of the two group's tension was unneeded since most of these characters have no importance in the plot, let alone lines. The ending felt rushed from episodes 9-12. It was like, we needed to tie up loose ends, so let's even jump ahead 4 years. Show that things are kinda changing but not really... Or, that tag at the end where they're 5 years into their relationship and playing a drinking game about what they don't know about each other, albeit cute, was just fan service.

What I did Like:

1. Despite having a lot of things I overall disliked, I did find the drama enjoyable. I do recommend people to watch it because Ohm and Nanon are both excellent actors. The two had great chemistry. Especially episodes 5-8. These episodes were really well-written and well-acted. The emotions were very raw and I related to it quite well.

2. Some of the plot was interesting, especially during the whole Wai saga. He became a super villain and I was all for it.

3. The cinematography was gorgeous. I loved a lot of the emotional night scenes.

4. I loved Pa and Ink's relationship. They both had chemistry. I wish they would have their own series. I think they're both great actresses.

Final Thoughts:

I liked it. I don't think it's better than some of the other BLs. But I think it's worth the watch, especially for the episodes where their acting really shined.

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Embarrassing to Say the Least

Plot Summary:
North some how falls into a coma (we think he is dead) after getting into a fight with his mom and jumping in a pool which we later see he is tall enough to stand on. After falling into a coma, he becomes a ghost that only Ongash can see. The two start to develop feelings for one another. We find out that North's mom is the principal of their school and she does not want the volleyball team anymore because there are trans individuals on the team. We have a bunch of gay side characters whose stories are irrelevant to the story. We find out North wakes up from his coma with amnesia and has to figure out how to stop his mother who is hellbent on getting rid of the gays and trans folks from her school because North's father left her for a man, and she doesn't want her son to become like his dad...In the end, she has a change of heart when she loses both of her sons because of her behavior, and then we get 2 happy ending episodes where everyone apologizes for acting stupid, and all is forgiven...

Review:
I have mixed feelings about the acting. I think it's admirable to hire and employ actors that might actually be trans and gay. Too many times in BL dramas, the actors are completely straight, and so they don't really give off the vibe that they actually might be gay. So I liked that I felt that. However, please invest in acting classes for them. I don't know who taught them to nod while other people are talking. Although we might do that in real life, I'm pretty sure we don't incessantly nod while others talk, it becomes distracting. Probably the two actors with most potential: Ongash and North and their story isn't even hashed out.

Whoever edited this show did a horrible job. Sometimes you can tell the voices were re-recorded post production but the video shows the character's mouth moving and saying other things.

I wish they would give more of these actors acting glasses because some of them did seem like they could identify as LGBTQ+ and I would love to have more representation in media.

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TharnType 2: 7 Years of Love

So to prepare watching this drama, I rewatched the entire first season since it had already been year since I had watched TharnType and I couldn't remember it well.

This drama uses a trope that I don't like: the everyone is in a gay relationship trope. It's like why is this one friend group all gay? Yeah, it can be funny, but it becomes distracting to the story because you end up diluting the character's relationships. Side characters' stories don't get enough time to fully develop and it begins to feel like everything is just fanservice.

For a couple that's been together for 7 years, they're still dealing with a lot of issues that first and second year couple's deal with: they don't seem to have talked about any of their problems that they had during the first series. So I wonder, how have they lasted 7 years if they still have miscommunication problems, jealousy, and completely opposite values?

The drama did attempt to show how as two couples grow older, they have to endure their work problems and how work can affect a relationship negatively. But for me, that felt like a weak reason for them to always bicker and not communicate. I'm so stressed from work, so I'm gonna create faux drama so that we fight. Boring.

I don't think you'll lose anything from watching this drama, the first one wasn't that great to begin with. Maybe if they cut the first 5 episodes from season one, they could make it better.

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How I Would Rewrite This Story:

So I will be spoiling the basic plot of the story and then make suggestions for how to better this drama. First though, I do want to say that I overall didn't dislike this drama. I laughed a lot. I think though that this drama was heavily marketed as a BL drama when in reality it's about the BL Shipper Pan and her coming to terms with how her shipping Way and Kim stops her from realizing that there was true love right next to her all along. So, this story is pretty much a straight story with some BL themes.

There was also that really awkward incestuous kiss where Pan, as Kim, kisses Khett, who is Kim's brother. We know that it's Pan kissing Khett, but still in the context of the bodies, it was a bit awkward to watch.

Plot Summary: Two girls, Pan and Soda, love shipping two boys, Kim and Way who attend their school. They write fanfictions about the boys and romanticize the relationship that the two may have. Then, Pan and Kim get into a vehicle accident. They both are in limbo. The angel of death says that she made a mistake and vows to send them both back. Pan gets sent back, but she wakes up in Kim's body. While living as Kim, she decides to help develop Kim and Way's relationship. Eventually, we find out Kim actually died, and Pan needs to decide whether to live the rest of her life as Kim or herself. She chooses to live as herself, and finds love with Khett in the process.

What I would change: I like body switching stories. I think they up until the part where they go to limbo was executed just fine. I think they should have both been brought back, bodies switched. It would have given the plot more to work with. While Pan is busy acting like Kim, she learns that Kim and Khett are brothers (this is already part of the story), but her purpose for learning it now is to help them repair their relationship, because Khett never discovers that Pan is in Kim's body. Instead, they play their parts well.

Pan in Kim's body spends more time with Way. At first, she's determined to make it happen even though there was implication that Way actually has unspoken feelings for Kim. By wanting the relationship to work, and by reading journals that Kim wrote, she helps them grow their relationship.

Kim in Pan's body realizes by speaking with Khett, how Khett truly feels about him. He regrets always ignoring Khett and by bonding with Khett. When he returns to his body at the end, he learns how to demonstrate to Khett that he does care about him a lot. He also picks up that Khett likes Pan a lot, so he helps nudge their relationship along at the end.

Of course throughout the drama, there would be a lot of tomfoolery because Kim being in a woman's body, and Pan being in a man's body of course would lead to funny interactions and awkwardness between the two. But those would be funny themes explored in the drama.

The overarching theme in this story though would be that after switching bodies, they learn things about each other, and help both grow as characters and come to their true self. Kim opening up about his sexuality and reuniting with his brother, and Pan discovering that she loves Khett.

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Too Short, but Great Nonetheless!

As the title suggests, this drama was too short, but still great nonetheless.

My only beef was that if it was going to be 3 episodes, that they could have added 20-30 mins to each episode, and extended the story a little bit more. Some people might think that the pacing was too slow, but for me, I like slow-paced dramas because generally speaking we tended to spend a lot more time watching characters develop, and it mirrors real life more. Fast-paced dramas are fine, but usually run into the problem of constantly introducing problems that are resolved in the next 20 mins and feel the need to constantly escalate the conflicts. Eventually, they reach a point of absurdity where you can't even believe the validity of anyone's feelings. That being said, this drama does not do that, and for me, that's a plus.

I liked that the cast was kept tight. There weren't too many side plots that we needed to be concerned with, and there wasn't an overtly convoluted story where you're left wondering wtf did I just watch? The plot was simple, boy has a crush for a popular boy in school, as they get closer, they eventually develop feelings.

The ending itself didn't bother me. Although I love happy endings, I know that in real life, not everything ends the way that you want it to. (Which is why La La Land's ending for example was one of my favorite endings in a rom/musical). I'm fine with them not getting together at the end. The only part that I felt could have been developed more, was that we had a 10-min montage at the end to see the story from Dew's perspective. If they had extended each episode by 20-30 mins each, we could have seen his perspective in real time. It would have had more impact I think on the ending when they both want to confess, but didn't have the courage to. We would know that Dew was already interested in Best. It would also have made Dew's conflict with his mother have value.

Overall, I liked the drama. I think it's a good short drama. I wish we either had 2 more episodes to develop them more, or longer episodes, or both.

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Confusing at Times.

This drama overall was like some reviewers mentioned: all over the place. This is an older drama having come out in 2018 when Thai BL dramas were still gaining popularity and you can tell that the budget at times can be a bit low. Especially the sound engineering was bad. If they filmed in public, you can always hear background noise and it's hard to hear what the people are saying.

I actually watched this drama because of Phuwin. After watching him in Fish Upon the Sky, I wanted to see him in another show (I've also seen him in gifted graduation, too).

The storyline is a bit weird. It feels like they purposely make the story overtly sexual to cause sexual tension, but for no particular reason except to keep others engaged?

The story includes Mork, an 11th grader who sells porn in his father's hair salon...why? And his father seems to support the business.

In one scene, Mork lends his friend his shorts that have "semen" on them. Why?

Another time, Tee complains about an erection and not being able to pee.

Another time we find out Mork had molested Tee when they were younger, and he molested him again to see if he had a boner while watching gay porn.

Tee also suddenly appears to save Mork or vice versa on several occasions but it never made sense how he could be there at just the right moment to do it.

In the final episode, they're forced to stay apart, and Tee refuses to open his door to say goodbye, and yet later he meets Mork to say goodbye? It just didn't make much sense, and I can't tell if it was with just all of the random jumping from place to place.

I think in recent years, we have gotten some really great stories that have told a beautiful story with an actual plotline, that watching older dramas leaves a lot to be desired.

Finally, the last episode never tied up loose ends. Tee is going abroad, and it's highly implied that Mork will follow him and that they will go together. Everyone seems to know this but Mork, and then the series just ends.

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Not Great, But Not Bad Either.

Where to start?

Short Summary: We have a typical college playboy, Jin who is presumptuously straight as we open the show with him being dumped by his gf Aim, fall in love with Bbomb, a boy from another faculty. Bbomb pursues Jin who eventually succumbs to his charms, and eventually accepts Bbomb. The two get together, have some turbulence, and we find out that Bbomb has always liked Jin--since freshman year. Aim ended up dated Jin, and felt guilty that she took her cousin (Bbomb's) love interest away and decides to have both friend groups work together in secret to help Jin fall in love with Bbomb.

Overall, the plot is quite mediocre and the acting sometimes is also mediocre. Sometimes, it seems like Bbomb couldn't remember his lines and they did several cuts and back and forth to make it feel less obvious. I think these two actors may be novices which is fine, but it reminded me a lot of Lovesick, where you could see that the actors were still learning how to act. Sometimes, I wasn't convinced about what they were talking about.

Some characters seemed quite random and really served no reason to be in the drama except to pair up with someone at the end?

Keam's character was the most bizarre because he seemed to be into Bbomb, then he had a gf, he seemed to be into Jin, and then he was into Ball? It was like, who is he into?

Song drugging Bbomb in one of the episodes was weird, especially how only one person in that group was upset by their actions, and everyone else was okay with it.

Bbomb forcing a kiss onto Jin was also weird to watch. What was even weirder was that after that kiss, Jin falls in love?

The ending was quite vague too. It tried to tie loose ends by giving everyone a significant other to pair off with. Which again was with each other. Is this like, a Thai drama's version of Gossip Girl? Where every character dates each other?

Finally, I didn't understand why both group of friends would agree to try to change Jin, who right when the drama began presented as straight and had never dated a man, suddenly force him to fall in love with Bbomb. Like, how would they know that Jin would be bisexual, or might be open to the idea of falling for a man when he never showed interest in men to begin with?

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Fish Upon the Sky

For a comedy drama, I laughed a lot and thought that this lighthearted drama was a fun escape on Friday mornings when it aired for me. It was nice to have something lighthearted to watch that wasn't so intense like A Thousand Stars. That drama had me crying at some points, so this drama made me laugh and kept things lighthearted indead.

I think Phuwin is still quite young and developing his acting skills. He wasn't bad, but still needs a little polishing. And I would say the same for Pond. I think this was his first series and he also needs a little more work. However, it wasn't bad to the point that it was distracting or anything. Not like the acting in Lovesick. (Does anyone remember that one? It was good at the time for what it was, but the acting was very spotty).

I know this is a comedy, but I do always question plotlines where everyone turns gay. It just seems improbable to me that all 3 brothers, and two brothers are gay, and that two sets of brothers fall for each other's brother. That kind of silliness is well plain silly. lol. I would have much liked to have some diversity. Again, I get that it's a comedy so that's probably why it was written this way.

My favorite scene, and one that I still remember vividly, was when they went to the cadaver lab at night and the lights turned on and off and their positions changed.

I hope they get another drama together and that they continue to hone in their acting skills. Very promising actors for sure!

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A Must Watch!

Both the first season and the second season were expertly told. I want to see more of this in Thai BL dramas than some of the same storylines that we normally get. Not once did I feel like I was watching a drama, but instead I felt like I was watching two young gay men discover themselves and bring two characters to life. Nothing seemed to be too farfetched or impossible.

I don't want to spoil too much of this drama, but I will mention that episode 3 seemed to piss off a lot of people who were appalled by a certain action. I'm not convinced that it was as bad and diabolical as most people painted it out to be. I do think that it was important for them to go through this since many couples will experience something similar, especially at that age.

I do want to say that the acting continued to be splendid. The pacing of this drama might feel slow to some because it doesn't move fast and every plotline actually has time to develop and grow. Things build up, things get worse and then better and then worse until finally it explodes. I think this is expert storytelling and I could feel the tension rise again and again. This drama definitely is worth rewatching. I'm going to take time away from it though to let me finish digesting this, but it's on my rewatch list for sure!

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Why is the rating so high?

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the cast/actors. I think like most reviews here, the actors did the best they could with the script that they got.

The story is crap.

Quick Plot Summary:

Nubsib has been in love with Gene since they were kids. Now he's grown up a bunch and is a BL actor, and he stars in the series The Bad Engineer which is written by Gene. Gene, for whatever reason, doesn't recognize Nubsib. Eventually, Gene finds out who he is, they begin dating, pictures are taken, and drama ensues when the shippers are angry that the writer of the drama and the main actor are together and not the two main actors. The company forces them to "break up," and then in the end they get back together.

Why it sucked:

1. Nubsib falls in love with Gene when he was around 5-6 and Gene is 5 years older putting him around 10-11 years of age. So basically a 1st grader falling in love with a 6th grader or middle schooler. Though Gene in the drama never admits he was in love with Nubsib at that time, it sure felt awkward the way they shot their scenes together as kids. With the age gap, they looked romantically involved, and it was made to seem that both of them had feelings for one another. So much so, that Gene's father questions their relationship and seems to send Gene away to separate the two. This felt weird and wrong. I could understand Nubsib falling in love for Gene, but I would have much rather liked them either being the same age, or a year apart. It would make sense in that situation for both of them to be mutually falling for one another, but yet still have that innocence of young kids not knowing why they have those feelings. That could have been explored, but instead we got a weird feeling of an older kid playing with a kid much younger than him, and essentially becoming best friends, and romantically in love. It just felt weird.

2. Nubsib recognizes and knows how Gene looks like, yet Gene never knew what Nubsib looked like after growing up. That also felt weird because their parents live next to one another (even though Gene moved away, his parents didn't. And neither did Nubsib's). Their moms are best friends. I can't imagine Gene going home for holidays and not seeing pictures of Nubsib, or going over to say hello to Auntie Orn, if their families are so close. Even if Nubsib was in the USA, there would be pictures of him everywhere. It just seems a bit strange and farfetched if you ask me. Also, I know people's faces change as they grow, but not enough to where they're completely unrecognizable (without surgery of course).

3. The company forcing them to "break up" was stupid because it wasn't even a break up. They just had to avoid being seen in public. They turned it into a huge deal like they had to cut ties completely. It made no sense. Even if that were the case, Nubsib made such a strong argument throughout the whole series that he had been in love with Gene since he was a kid, and that he could not love anyone else; yet, he let Gene decide that it was best for them to separate because of the faux drama. Both families are extremely rich, both Gene and Nubsib have multiple homes. Neither of them need the careers they have chosen. So obviously, if they loved each other that much, there was no logical motivation to break up. All they had to do was give everyone in that room a middle finger, stand up, and leave. The end. I think if they were both average living people or even poor, it would have caused more tension. Then, it would have been, this is their livelihood. This is their source of income and ability to live. Without these jobs, they can't support their families, they can't live freely. And then, the responsibility to earn that money, and push aside their love for one another would have been justified.

There are many other problems with the drama, and I don't want to nitpick it to death. I think these were the major 3 things that made me think, why did no one sit down with the writer and explain a basic plot diagram? The tension in dramas don't always have to be external, frivolous, sudden, outrageous BS. As a gay man, when I watch BL dramas, the thing that pulls me in the most is the internal struggle. It's scary coming out. It's scary admitting to yourself that you might be gay. It's scary thinking that you might lose everyone around you, and that your life might disappear. Even now, as a married man, my husband and I are scared sometimes to show affection in public (we live in the CA, USA). That's because of the fear associated with coming out. These are the topics that could have been explored in much depth in this drama. We know that a majority of BL actors are straight men, to appeal to the female readers who like shipping two men together. They're straight men who although do fan service by kissing other men, or pretending to be romantically in love with their counterpart, still project straightness to garner love from women. So in a drama like Lovely Writer, that was supposed to shed light on the problems within the BL community, they could have explored something as simple as, having a fear of really coming out and being a BL actor. There aren't that many openly gay BL Thai actors. (I'm not saying they need to come out if they are, but my point being that some people are still afraid of public perception). That could have been an internal struggle for Nubsib. Instead, we got a confident gay. Which is fine, but what happens is there was just no tension. Let's compare it to "I Told Sunset about You" where the main character Teh, is constantly struggling to acknowledge his true feelings.

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