I liked it!

Despite some of the negative comments here, I'm giving this one a 10. And anyone that's followed my critiques and ratings knows that 10s are very rare for me! Here are my pros and cons:

PROS

STORY. I found the story compelling, and different from the majority of BLs out there. I found myself genuinely anticipating each week's episode, and that's something I haven't felt from a BL in quite a while.

ACTING. There were only three regular actors in the series, and I especially liked Ellis Gage as Joshua. The other two were more than creditable.

MUSIC. I really liked the OST theme song.

ENDING. After the drama of Episode 6, I expected a happy ending (as is customary in Thai BLs), where somehow everything gets wrapped up in a nice ribbon and they all live happily ever after. Very glad they didn't go that route. Joshua already being married was a real plot twist! Andre was of course very immature, but I liked how the two of them separated but kept the lines of communication open. So, while it wasn't a customary "happy ending," it was a realistic one, combined with hope for the future. Kudos to the writers.

CONS

RELATIONSHIP. I guess you could call it an "enemies to lovers" trope, except that Joshua was the only unfriendly one at first. I didn't mind the slow burn, but found it odd that Joshua was feeling that Andre might be cheating on him (he wasn't)... especially when the two of them never really got past the friends stage. They never slept together or even kissed and, frankly, that's pretty much unheard of when dealing with two gay men in their late twenties.

But I'm sticking with my 10.0 rating. Hoping to see these two in other projects.

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What's wrong? Nothing... I just cry at everything.

From the trailer (and the first episode), I expected not to like this, but it exceeded my expectations. Here are my pros and cons:

PROS

SANTA. Hell yes... he's all I want for Christmas. This boy's got it all: looks, charisma, charm, talent. Fanning myself just thinking about him.

SOME FAMILIAR FACES. Nice to see Prem in a different kind of role, and great to see Peak (Fuse from the Make It Right series) after a hiatus.

CONS

EARTH. We get it, he's good at crying. But the directors decided that he had to cry at EVERYTHING. And the Eiw character was so ridiculously weak and helpless it just became annoying. He might as well have worn a shirt saying "Bully Me." Cake, what do you see in this guy?

MOM'S CAUSE OF DEATH. Sure, complications from second hand smoke can be real, but the explanation the doctor gave for Mom's condition was ridiculous. For one, there would be no way of knowing the exact cause of the cancer. If the writers were on a mission to bring the dangers of second hand smoke to light, then good for them. But it was still a very weak plot.

It's a 6.5 from me.

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A bright spot during a slow season!

I watched six different BLs during the summer of 2021. Four of them, at least for me, were extremely disappointing, but I watched anyway, due to the lack of content. Two of them were decent: Golden Blood (which was pretty good) and Light On Me, which was great. Here are my pros and cons:

PROS

ACTORS. I really loved all the characters, and the actors played the roles sympathetically and with commitment. All the boys were eye candy. Even the girl who played Sohee (whose character I couldn't stand) played the part spectacularly. Loved Taekyung's quirky personality, possibly modeled on someone with autism (?). Shinwoo was (eventually) so sweet and adorable, Daon, as the other member of the love triangle, managed to be so likeable... and Namgeung was the best friend everybody wishes they had.

STORY. I'll admit, I wasn't sold on the series after Episodes 1 and 2, I felt that Shinwoo was too cold and mean. But I am so glad I kept with it. My favorite BL of the summer!

TWICE A WEEK. I liked the concept of having two episodes per week, it was nice not to have to wait an entire week for a new episode.

HOMOPHBIA ADDRESSED. Of course, a lot of LGBTQ+ shows address homophobia, which is great and so necessary. I liked the way Light One Me handled it, by not ignoring it (like some BLs where practically everyone is gay and homophobia doesn't exist), or veering into full-phledged drama (which can be fine... but this series wasn't the right place for it). Kudos!

CONS (not many!)

SOHEE'S REDEMPTION. I thought it was too fast. The girl had major stalker issues, which evolved into purposely hurting people. And then, just within days, she is cured. Sorry, no. After a year of therapy or, at least, major soul-searching, perhaps. But I'm very happy that she and Namgeung did not end up as a couple, because it looked like that's where the story was heading.

TAEKYUNG AND THE PRINCE CONTEST. He won? How?? Okay, he wore cute clothes. But he gets up there and totally freezes for three minutes and, when he finally does say something, he sounds like he's being held at gunpoint to spew out one sentence. Sorry, not buying it. Were each of the other contestants in a coma?? Or maybe their talent was strangling puppies...

Still, this was a really satisfying watch for me, 9.5.

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I actually liked it. However...

Okay, I guess I'm the odd man out. Despite its many flaws, I enjoyed it. Here are my pros and cons:

PROS

DIFFERENT. They actually went there, exploring BDSM with young guys. It happens, folks. And, while many viewers were horrified by the young ages of the actors, let's remember that BurgerKing was just a cute little non-story, and SaintHida just involved a crush of one kid on his non-blood related stepbrother. It was all quite vanilla, there was nothing sordid involved with any of them. The BDSM triangle involved only the older actors, and even that wasn't particularly explicit.

ACTING. Okay, they weren't all good. But some were. The two nasty girlfriends did a great job, Art was a welcome addition, the veteran actors were good, and the boys did pretty well for being rookies. The awful trans teacher made us all hate her, so kudos to her!

CONS

STORY. That was the most convoluted mess I've seen in a long time. None of the couples had any connection with each other, other than being friends on some level, I guess. And who died?

ENDING. Big points off for ending with a "To be continued." We all know that many promises of a Season 2 never happen in BL (My Engineer, etc.), and it's unlikely that this series will get the 1 million supporters to make it happen. And we're left with nothing but questions. Unacceptable and shame on the producers.

I'm giving it a 6.5.

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Not bad!

I was so disappointed with the way My Extraordinary ended, especially because I had high hopes for it to be a really exceptional drama, and not just another "kill the gays" story based on homophobia. But, because I liked the cast of ME so much, I was happy to give this series a watch. Here are my pros and cons:

PROS

TRANS CHARACTER IN A DECENT MAIN ROLE. So happy that Jenevive, while a mostly comedic character, was given a main story line and, at the same time, a degree of substance and not just another joke character portrayal.

GOOD BALANCE BETWEEN COUPLES. So we had two LGBTQ+ couples and two straight couples. Fine by me. None of them were given short shrift, so good on the writers and directors.

ACTING. Some really good performances! Enzo was great (as usual), so were Nico, John, and Keijee.

THEME SONG. Absolutely LOVED the opening OST. Catchy tune, I was always dancing and singing along.

END SCENE. Loved the ending scene with Romeo and Jenevive. So cute! "Normal" and "happily ever after" relationships featuring a trans character are so rare... a trans character's story is usually "never gonna happen." This is progress.

CONS

INCONSISTENCY WITH STORY. There were issues. 1) Why was Markie such a dick to Clark? Sure, Clark was hitting on Markie, but he didn't do anything wrong. Markie was going along with it -- twice -- but then just insensitively dumped Clark the moment Daniel was in the picture. We were just supposed to ignore that, I guess. 2) The end focused on Miguel's homophobia against Markie and Daniel, but (other than a brief scene in an earlier episode), Miguel's hatred for Romeo and Jenevive as a couple was not addressed. Why just Markie and Daniel? What's Romeo's story? Always gay? We don't know. 3) The forgiveness of Miguel was just too fast. He was such a homophobic asshole through the whole series, then he sheds a few tears and all is forgiven? And mom is "proud" of him, within just a few minutes? No... just no.

JANICE. I'm probably in the minority, but I couldn't stand Janice, with all her "I'm more than just a beautiful face" and "I'm not just some trophy girl" comments. Gurl... you're not exactly Miss Universe, get over yourself. Total turn off. Both Mateo and Moises can do better.

MIGUEL'S STORY. I would have been happier if a little less time was devoted to the Miguel/Jane relationship and more to Miguel's homophobia. As it was, Miguel just came across as an ass who needed a lot of therapy sessions. A couple of sentences about his military dad's influence just didn't cut it.

Still, I enjoyed this. It was nice to see some of these actors again. I'm giving it 8.0 out of 10.

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This film seemed promising at the start, but ended up being incredibly slow moving and, in the end, disappointing.

The actor who played Toy was probably the strongest but, as the story continued, I felt less and less interested in Toy and Nack as a couple to root for. As a rule, I'm not a fan of the "I'm only gay for you" bullshit that BLs often perpetuate, but that's not why I'm not a fan of the film. For me, it was just boring and without a compelling plot/resolution.

I did enjoy the pool and swimming scenes. Thailand looks so gorgeous I will have to make it a priority to visit soon!

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Overall, this was really nice

I've been a big Earth/Mix since A Tale of a Thousand Stars, which is one of my all time favorite BLs. Moonlight Chicken was an interesting series, here are my pros and cons:

PROS

REALISM. Moonlight Chicken touched on some real-life topics in a refreshingly realistic way: deafness, semi-poverty, unrequited love, unexpected death in the family, the pain of a breakup, the fear of entering into a new relationship after having been burned, difficulties with parenting... these were all dealt with realistically and sensitively.

GAY CHARACTERS. Thank you!

ACTING. Everyone delivered. Fourth and Gemini were adorable, Earth/Mix/First were professional as expected, and Khaotung was heartbreaking in what I feel is, so far, his best performance in a series. The supporting characters were excellent as well.

CINEMATOGRAPHY. Beautifully filmed.

CONS

BORING AT TIMES. For me, some of it was uninteresting. I felt less invested in JimWen as a couple than LimingHeart, only because JimWen weren't all that fascinating as people, IMO. They just came across as very ordinary and -- dare I say -- not really noteworthy as main characters in a series.

ALAN/GAIPA. I was REALLY disappointed that the producers/screenwriters put AlanGaipa together at the end. Why? Because the story was so realistic up to that point. It felt (to me) like the writers felt obligated to put First and Khao together to satisfy their shippers. Alan just happens to be the same banker that Jim has, Wen's ex... and then, in a move that only be described as extremely tacky and insensitive, he shows up at grief-stricken Gaipa's mom's funeral to discuss business.... and Gaipa falls for him. It was unrealistic and totally took me out of the story which, up to that point, had been well written and thought out. I really wish the producers would have left that alone.

It's an 8.0 from me, which would would have been higher without the AlanGaipa intervention.

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A present day "Twilight Zone"

As a fan of old time sci-fi series such as "The Twilight Zone" and "The Outer Limits," I appreciated what Aan Anusorn attempted to bring to the BL genre here. These are my pros and cons:

PROS

ACTING. Of course, I was excited to see Art back after a long hiatus. From the very start, he proved himself a worthy veteran actor, far beyond what we normally see in BL. Michael brought his usual professionalism and talent as well. Best (as Golf) was a welcome and pleasant surprise, as were those in supporting roles. Strong cast all around!

UNUSUAL PLOT. As mentioned above, this reminded me of an extended version of a "Twilight Zone" episode. Is the plot realistic? Of course not, but neither were most of the stories of that classic television series. It was an interesting premise.

SIMULATED SEX. Yes, indeed! And it was hawt.

CINEMATOGRAPHY. Beautifully shot.

CONS

VIOLENCE. Why were the killers going around assassinating people, with just days before the end of the world? For sport?

THE END OF THE WORLD. Hard to believe that everyone would be so calm -- as opposed to freaking out -- knowing that the world was ending in a matter of days. And I had to chuckle at the amount of times I heard "for the rest of my life." Yeah, 48 hours or less.

GOLF'S TURN AROUND. He went from psychotic to perfect in like... 2 days, with no explanation.

ENDING. Art's dream? I don't necessarily need a Season 2, but I would like some answers. Or maybe it's better to just leave it to our imaginations.

It's a 7.5 from me.

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Beyond bad

Falhanruk is the story of two college-age boywhores who have drunk random sex with one another in the bathroom of a bar. They go back and forth in a toxic relationship where one of them constantly slaps the other in the face. At the end, the slapee confesses that he likes it and the two of them turn into Walt Disney characters as they ride off into the sunset on the Bangkok Transit System. The End. Here are my pros and cons:

PROS

MUSIC. The theme song perhaps the best thing about the series.

REALISM. Well... the truth is that most young gay boys ARE horndogs and indulge in lots of meaningless sex. That part of the series was believable.

PING CRYING. Although it got really old watching Ping in tears, I will say that he was good at turning on the waterworks. I got the feeling that the producers/directors had the actor cry as much as possible... only because he COULD.

CONS

STORY. There was a story. It was bad.

SHER THE SLAPPER. I wanted to bust through the screen and slap him myself. You know you did, too.

PINK. You're annoying, honey. And far too old to be buying into the whole "shipping" thing. Find a lover or, at least, buy a vibrator.

This was just really terrible. I'm giving it a 3.0, and the only reason it's that high is because of Ping's real tears.

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I liked it more than some viewers, but...

Like many of you, I looked forward to OMSN because I enjoyed Ohm/Fluke in Until We Meet Again. While I'm not sorry to have watched this series, it was frustrating from time to time. Here are my pros and cons:

PROS

FLUKE (& OHM). Despite a very weak script, Fluke still managed to prove that his acting is on a far superior level to most BL actors. It just is. As for Ohm, I was pleased to see a lot of growth in his range of acting, especially in the later episodes.

CINEMATOGRAPHY. There were a number of locations, both indoor and outdoor, which I found aesthetically pleasing.

PETERPAN. His role as Payoo was rather dull and static, but he sure is pretty to look at.

OLDER ACTORS. The actors in mature roles played their parts professionally.

CONS

STORY, STORY, STORY. Okay, I was willing to overlook that Sun relied solely on apples to combat his severe medical heart condition. (I just thought of him as a Christian Scientist who doesn't believe in taking medicine. And maybe the apples DID help.) And I accepted the really bad faking of playing musical instruments. I won't go into all the abysmal problems with the story itself, it would take far too long (and you can read all about them in the discussion boards). There were some interesting ideas but, far too often, they just got dropped. It was as if the scriptwriters began filming with only about 3 episodes finished, and then scrambled to write something as the series went along. Really bad.

LENGTH. It was six episodes too long. WHY?? (Until We Meet Again suffered from the same treatment, even though it was a much better series.) Unless each episode is riveting and significantly advances the plot (which was not the case here), it just pisses viewers off.

KIM'S UNDERWATER MEDITATION SESSIONS. His ability to hold his breath underwater put every synchronized swimmer in the world to shame. Don't try this at home, kids.

THE RAIN CHARACTER. I know I'm really in the minority, but I did not like Rain at all. I found his character boring, spineless, and totally lacking in charisma. He led Shun on to make Payoo jealous and then just dumped Shun with no real explanation. A big yawn from me. I would rather have seen Payoo end up with Shun. Rain can go become a Buddhist monk for the rest of his life.

This could have been really good. Unfortunately, the writers and directors dropped the ball.

It's a 5.0 from me.

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Cute and wholesome

Wholesome. That's the word. I binge watched this and enjoyed it. Here are my pros and cons:

PROS

UNCOMPLICATED. After being disappointed with so many (mostly Thai) BL series this year -- with wacky and incomprehensible storylines -- this South Korean BL was refreshing in its simplicity. I like you, you like me, let's get together. Nice.

NICE FRIENDS. I enjoyed that the friends were supportive of their relationship, and there wasn't a big deal made of "ooooohh, you're gaaayy" [except for the villain, but he was disposed of quickly].

NO "I'M ACTUALLY STRAIGHT, I'M JUST GAY FOR YOU." Thank you for that. Thai BLs, please take notice. There was no past girlfriend that was trying to hold on to her man. And Taesung made it clear that he had no interest in girls and never did.

SHORT EPISODES. No wasted time. If anything, they could have shortened the series by one or two episodes.

CONS

SECOND HALF LESS GOOD. I really loved the series up until university. It wasn't bad afterward, just a bit less interesting.

NOT ENOUGH BACKGROUND DETAILS. They tried to give us the backstory, I guess. Would have liked to know more about Haebom's parents, how Taesung managed to go for THAT many years ignoring Haebom... I wouldn't have minded knowing more about the bully as well.

Overall, it was enjoyable and I liked the chemistry between the main couple.

8.0 from me.

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A fun series in the midst of a disappointing season

I hesitated before watching this series, as I thought it might be kind of... stupid. And in some ways it was, but a good kind of stupid! Here are my pros and cons:

PROS

FUN. Yep, this series was fun for me. I looked forward to it every week.

LUKE. Fanning myself here, Luke is just about as perfect specimen of a man as I could ever ask for.

CHARACTERS. I didn't dislike any of the characters. Special shoutouts to the actors playing Lucy, Decha, and PlaToo. I appreciated the representation of drag and trans characters.

ACTION SCENES. I thought they were very well done.

CONS

"PATTY." Luke, I love you hon, but no self-respecting drag queen would be caught dead with long sideburns and unshaved legs/armpits. Did the directors just choose to keep him "manly" looking for the sake of the straight couple thing? No matter, it didn't work. Lose the body hair, gurl!

NADIA. About as convincing playing a trans woman as Luke was playing a drag queen.

TOO MANY EPISODES. It started out advertising (I think) 12 episodes, then it went up to 14 and on and on until they finally ended with 22. Could have and should have wrapped up sooner, there were a lot of unnecessary and dull scenes that did nothing to advance the plot.

Still, I'm giving this a 9.0 because I just really liked it. This series was a bright spot amidst some really disappointing series (cough*Cutie Pie*cough) (cough*Star in My Mind*cough).

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I make it a point not to post a rating or write a review until I've watched a series to its completion. TGIF ended nearly 3 weeks ago and the final episode has not been subbed. I did watch it raw, but didn't get certain answers I was hoping for, due to no translation. Grrrrr.

Anyway... I can't say that TGIF was particularly good, yet I still enjoyed it. The actors were young, but adorable (especially Jump and Home), and the whole series had a feeling of sweetness and innocence about it.

The story had problems. For one, this "Friday Music Club" is made up of a bunch of high school boys that have no experience playing music. They go off to Khom Kaen for the purpose of improving, with their sights set on winning a huge music competition. (That in itself is ridiculous.) This was the whole premise of the story, and yet, we see no music competition, even at the end of the series. (I have no idea if it was mentioned in the final episode, because THERE ARE NO SUBS.)

Couples: as mentioned, I thought Jump/Home were adorable. Nana/Lun annoyed me, because Nana was such a bitch to Lun (and everyone else, too), while he followed her around like a lap dog. Por/Yong: I thought Por was cute (and a good actor), but I did NOT like Yong at all. I would have rather seen Por end up with Talay, who was a total sweetheart. The other couple was Thengthai/Giant, which was okay... they didn't get all that much screen time.

The singing in this BL was about the worst singing I've ever heard in any movie or series, ever!

Overall, I enjoyed this, it was cute... nothing more, nothing less.

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I somehow didn't get around to watching this until now. Since I've been watching WTD Final Call, I figured it was time to get caught up on the history.

For some reason, I thought this series would be kind of dorky and silly (sort of like Make It Right), so was surprised to find it a compelling drama. As for the actors, I love, love, LOOOOOOVE Strong (Oat) and was so amazed to hear that he sings the slow solo version of the theme song, at the end of the final episode (absolutely gorgeous singing voice). I do like OatPop as a couple. PreeRambo were certainly a handful of angst. I liked the actress that played Mo--a lot--but my biggest complaint here is that I couldn't buy into her being Pop's girlfriend at all. She looks like Pop's older sister by about six years, and is, frankly, way out of his league (not to mention being far more mature).

I give it an 8.0 rating.

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Well...

During the summer of 2021 the BL offerings were not the greatest. I found myself watching six of them and felt that 1) a couple of them were pretty good, and 2) the others were disappointing but I watched anyway, due to lack of other options. For me, Hometown's Embrace falls into the latter category. Here are my pros and cons:

PROS

CUTE GUYS. We had three main couples and, in my opinion, four of the actors were real eye candy.

MUSIC. It had a kind of "Tale of a Thousand Stars" quality that was pleasant enough.

TRANS CHARACTER AND HER "WIFE." It was at the very end of the last episode, but I appreciated that the writers broke stereotype by having the usual "seme" guy present himself as being the "wife," while the trans ladyboy would be the "husband." It may be rare, but this actually does happen in real life from time to time. Different strokes for different folks!

CONS

STORY. It was all over the place, it was really hard for me to keep track of what was going on, and why certain things were going on. The three couples looked to have established themselves without any real reason as to why. And whatever happened to the poetry writing guy and the ex-girlfriend of Mongwhatshisname?

LACK OF INTIMACY. I'm a gay guy, so I don't particularly need to see kissing and sex in BLs. However... this series was so weak, and the guys were (mostly) so hot, some kissing and skinship would have gone far to save it, in my opinion.

DULL. Much of it was boring. I found it hard to stay focused.

3.5 from me. Definitely not something I plan to ever rewatch.

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