This was a popular series, and deservedly so! As you can see, my ratings are all over the place, so I will explain why.

I loved the music. For me, Mew (Tharn) carried this show, with brilliant acting = A+. Mild (Techno) was great = A+. Gulf (Type) was really good, too = A. Kaownah (Lhong) was a great singer and a decent actor (although, with all the crying, some real tears would have been welcome) = A-.

The chemistry between Mew and Gulf was off the charts! (That ice cube kissing scene in the last episode was epic.)
Now, for my issues with the series (hence, some of my lower ratings):

Despite some great performances, THE STORY WAS SO BAD I nearly dropped it after about four episodes. Here's why:

1) THARN'S MOLESTATION OF TYPE, WHILE TYPE WAS SLEEPING (And yes, that's what it was.)
For someone who was supposed to be the "good guy," this was not cool, not funny, not appropriate. Can something like this be portrayed in a drama? Yes, of course it can. But it should be presented as what it is, a molestation. Not as something cute, that can just be dismissed as "oh well."

2) THE WAY TYPE'S CHILDHOOD RAPE STORY WAS HANDLED.
At first I was intrigued, because Type was obviously scarred, and his intense hatred of gays made sense. All good. Then, without any buildup, Type has no issue with getting a blow job from his hated gay roommate. Then, in the next episode, he comes out and asks Tharn for anal sex (with Type as receiver), just one time, to "get it over with, once and for all." Are you kidding me? This was a childhood rape victim? And, Tharn's going along with it was almost as incredulous.

I seriously think (and wish) that the author would have had a better story, had she simply made Type a bigoted homophobe who eventually came around. That in itself would have been dramatic enough. As written, the "rape victim suddenly turned gay" storyline was not only unbelievable, but incredibly insensitive and offensive to actual victims of childhood rape.

3) THE TIMELINE.
I was confused (and still am) about what the timeline was for this story. There was no "six months later" that I could see. So, even if we allow for some time lapses here and there, we saw absolutely zero development of Type's character. He went from understandably hating gays, to suddenly having sex with Tharn. So, how exactly did this happen? We got no explanation.

4) THE ACTUAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THARN/TYPE.
Not talking about the sexy hotness. That was there in spades, no question! But, it was never explained why Tharn was so taken with Type. Let's face it, Type was a hot mess on many levels. Did Tharn just think Type was hot? What in Type's personality attracted Tharn?

5) LHONG'S ENDING.
Why on Earth didn't Lhong end up in prison, or committed to a psych ward?????

The following were not dealbreakers, but I found them a little hard to swallow:

a) MEW PLAYING A 19 YEAR OLD. Sorry, not buying it. Mew is 28, and he looks 28. Don't get me wrong, 28 isn't exactly old, but it's nowhere near 19. Mew looks like a hot, sexy 28 year old. He looks like he should be a teacher in the college. (That said, I had no problem with Mew/Gulf. Gulf is 21 but could easily pass for 24-25. They look fine together.)

b) TAR LOOKED 14. (Apparently he's 25 or something, a few years older than Gulf. But that's not the point.) Tar looked completely juvenile and the idea of Tharn falling for him -- to the point of being destroyed when Tar left him -- was almost laughable to me. To go along with that...

c) THE BED SCENE WITH TAR/THARN WAS SILLY. Tharn was there begging for Tar to let him up when, in real life, I'm sure Mew could have thrown him off with almost no effort!

d) TYPE HITS THARN IN THE BALLS IN THE BAR BATHROOM. Why? Totally uncalled for.

e) LHONG/TYPE IN THE LAST EPISODE. Type looks like he could easily kick Lhong's ass, but he sat there being strangled, without fighting back even a little.

f) LHONG DROPPING THE GLASS. Really? It was dumb when Pete did it in LBC (especially since he and Ae had already slept together, but I digress... ) and it was dumb here. And then, Lhong uncomfortably makes an excuse and practically runs out of the room. Tharn and Type just shrug it off. Seriously? Was there anyone who didn't know right then and there that Lhong was hopelessly in love with Tharn?? Without the glass drop, Lhong's devious behavior would have been even more of a surprise.

g) THORN, THARN'S OLDER BROTHER. Not only does the actor who plays Thorn NOT look older than Mew, but he is actually younger in real life.

With all that said, I can't say I didn't enjoy the series. I did. There were really great moments. But, despite all the good, it had some real flaws.

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Despite the odd title (I have no idea what "Dark Blue Kiss" is even supposed to mean, or how it relates to the story), DBK is one of my top two favorite BLs for 2019! (The other: He's Coming To Me.) Here's why:

1) A very realistic view of what a young gay couple goes through. Not all shows have to be realistic for me -- I appreciate a good fantasy, as long as that's what it's intended to be. But if I'm being given a plot line that I'm supposed to take seriously, I want to believe it. DBK does this for me, unlike the large majority of BLs (which can still have good entertainment value).

2) Supportive parents and friends. Pete's dad, Kao's mom, and Rain were the heroes of this series.

3) The acting from the leads. Loved Tay (Pete) in this, and especially AJ (Non), who pretty much stole the show with his smarmy unlikeability. New (Kao) got a lot of flack from viewers for being too passive, but I thought he was just fine. As for the second couple, Podd (Sun) was a creditable actor (although I found his character a bit uninteresting) and Fluke (Mork) shows some great skills for a newbie.

4) The music. I loved the music for the opening credits! The OST sung by Fluke shows him to be a really talented singer, and another OST with Tay and New really shows off Tay's singing ability as well.

5) The story. From week to week, I found myself looking forward to what was coming next.

Highly recommended! (I only gave the "Rewatch Value" a lower rating because I rarely rewatch series.)

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As a big fan of Mean/Plan (and Tin/Can), it pains me to say that this is the lowest rating I've ever given to a BL series.

Why? The story is about as boring as I've ever seen, the Wish character is really unlikable and the Two character is just really dull. I thought they were pretty bad in ReminderS, but this series took them to a new low. I know that the actors are good, so this failure has to be a result of the poor material they were given. Yacht is a welcome addition but, again, just another uninteresting character. Perth and Gun make cameo appearances.

The only good thing I can say is that, at least, it was only two episodes. I'll wait for Tin/Can to come back strong in LBC2.

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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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Wow! I watched James in Great Men Academy, where he played Love, and he was very cute and sweet in that role. But nothing could have prepared me for his brilliant performance here as Boo. This was acting of the highest level... compelling, convincing, believable. As an actor, James is the real deal.

Along with that, I was impressed by the entire cast... not one weak link among them.

This was a no-nonsense depiction of teenage depression. I was particularly impressed that the writers kept it real, without resorting to the typical "and they all lived happily ever after" ending. While the ending was not sad, it was clear that Boo was not "cured," but was improving and remained hopeful.

My only complaint with the story is that I could have done without the Boo/Fern "relationship." I had no problem with Fern as a character, but to have the two of them enter into a pseudo-romantic relationship seemed not only unrealistic, but unnecessary. Along with that, making the Boo the cause of Mon's career-ending injury was overkill. For me, the first 4 episodes were incredibly powerful. After that, the direction the writers took gave the story less impact.

This is not a lighthearted story, but I highly recommend it.

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This was disappointing, but a last-ditch effort at the end sort of saved it.

There was a sadness throughout the whole series (just 6 short episodes), with Tee and Fuse reuniting for their third anniversary together... except, from as much as we could tell, Tee and Fuse are attending different universities so they haven't seen each other that much in these three years.

Peak (Fuse) carried the series with very good acting, showing lots of emotion and crying real tears in just about every episode. Boom (Tee) was subdued pretty much all the time. At one point, we hear him speaking to his mother on the phone and, from what we can gather, Tee's mother is against his relationship with Fuse, with Fuse overhearing Tee's side of the conversation. Unfortunately, we get nothing from Tee regarding his own feelings... there's just an unspoken resolve that Fuse will break up with Tee, so that they can both get on with their lives.

In the last episode, Fuse tearfully says goodbye to Tee, but Tee stops Fuse from leaving. Tee calls his mom and says that he will stay together with Fuse and that's that. The series ends with video messages from many of the former Make It Right cast members congratulating Fuse and Tee.

The story was not well written. Sure, we can all understand the issues that young gay men often go through with their families, but it wasn't addressed at all.

Lukmo and Ess showed up to provide some levity (I'm not even sure why Ess was there), but their presence fell flat... the scenes with them felt awkward and forced. The very few attempts at comedy (Fuse/Tee shaving in the bathroom; a couple of fun moments with their friends) weren't enough to save the overall depressing feeling of the series. The video messages with the former MIR cast members did help to provide a somewhat satisfactory ending.

There is nothing wrong with presenting a drama here but, if that's what they the producers were going for, it just wasn't good enough. Too bad, because Fuse/Tee are a decent enough couple. Both actors deserved better, especially Peak (Fuse).

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I'm giving this a high rating, because this two-episode series (less than 30 minutes) says more than many series with 12 or more episodes.

For me, the actor who plays Neung is fantastic. I hope we see him in more roles, he really is THAT good.

The story is powerful in a lot of ways. Neung has a girlfriend, he gets drunk one night with his friend Keng and they have sex. The next day they are hanging out with friends and the two of them are very awkward with one another because of what happened. In private, Neung and Keng argue and Neung claims he's not gay and storms out. Later, the two of them get together again and, after what seems to be some S&M foreplay, they spend the night together again. The next morning they are really happy and Keng gives Neung a key to his apartment.

Word gets around that the two of them are together and Neung is confronted by his good friend Tui (and two others), with Tui saying he won't be friends with someone who is gay... all three of the friends desert Neung, who goes back to the apartment, only to find an empty apartment and a note from Keng, saying he has to go to a new school, but he is leaving the apartment to Neung with the memory of the time they spent together. Neung is devastated.

Neung goes out walking near a bridge, and Tui and the other friends approach him and apologize. Tui is especially affectionate and he and Neung end up as a couple after that. The End.

I've heard some viewers resent the fact that Tui "suddenly turns gay" after he shuns Nueng. But I see it differently:
many young gay men in the closet are the first ones to turn against and make fun of other gay people, because they themselves are struggling. It's not nice in any way, but it's a process that a number of gays go through.

There is also a nice metaphorical touch, involving two fish in a tank at the apartment.

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Okay, I was all ready to give Season 2 an 8 rating, but I've dropped it down to 6.5 overall.

Why? Well... the cliffhanger at the end was pretty bad. I'm okay with cliffhangers, but this one was just kind of lame for me. I really didn't buy into the whole "Yo was absolutely scandalized by the pic of him with a hickey." I've read that, apparently, Park broke into sleeping Yo's room, drugged him and then raped him.

Please. I'm just not buying it. It's so unrealistic, I just don't care. Sorry.

But there were a lot of good things about this series! Loved Forth especially (total hottie and a good actor). ForthBeam were so good together. MingKit as well. I give the actor who played Pha a lot of credit... he didn't really look the part, but he pulled it off well enough. Wayo was very cute, his acting was just okay... the scene where he broke down crying was unconvincing... there were definitely no real tears.

I mostly liked it better than Season 1, but the writing was disappointing, in my opinion. Let's get the ridiculous "rape storylines" out of these BLs, unless they're going to make it into a major drama, bringing to light how horrible it really is, and sending the perpetrators to jail.

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This series is probably most notable for having popular actors Gun, Off, White and Earth. It wasn't one of my favorites, hence my low rating. I'll give my pro and con lists here:

THE PROS:

ACTING. Gun is always exceptional (I don't know of any BL actor who can cry on cue like he can!), Off was also very good... based on the way the characters were written, I have no complaints about any of the actors.

CINEMATOGRAPHY. Everything looked very professionally done.

CLOSURE TO PLOT LINES. Unlike some BLs, which often begin a plot line which mysteriously disappears (cough*Cause You're My Boy*cough), or build up a plot line and then kill it with no real explanation (cough*Love By Chance*cough), Theory of Love did follow story lines through to conclusion.

THE CONS:

THE LENGTH: For me, this should have been a 2-3 hour movie, not a 12 part series. One could easily skip from Episode 1 to Episode 7 without having missed a thing. Between Episodes 8-10, at least one of them could have been omitted. There simply wasn't enough story content to merit 12 episodes.

WHO'S GAY/BI/STRAIGHT? Okay, I guess we can assume that Third and An are gay because, while they don't come out and say so (why not?), they also don't ever discuss having an attraction to women. I suppose we can assume that Bone is straight, because he has the crush on the female teacher and ends up with a different girl at the end. But what about Khai and Two? Are we SERIOUSLY supposed to believe that Khai, who has had sex with more women than anyone can count--and with no mention of ever having slept with a guy, nor ever having a physical attraction to a guy--is suddenly horny for Third, never to sleep with a woman again, as they fall in love forever? Sorry, that never, ever happens! It would have made more sense if Khai was openly bisexual to begin with, but not this way. Same with Two... he spends much of the series salivating over women's "big boobs," and suddenly he's in love, physically, with An?

Come on... making a sudden change in sexual orientation is a HUGE moment in someone's life, and a step not taken lightly. At least give us some explanation of the transformation! All I can say is that this story must have been written by a delusional woman who enjoys nothing more than fetishizing men together.

THIRD: I know we're all supposed to feel sorry for and root for him but, for me, Third was the least likable character. At the beginning, he is obviously in a major depression over his secret love for Khai, but he's hardly blameless. Sure, Khai takes advantage of Third all the time, but consider three things: 1) Khai has no idea Third loves him, 2) Khai's other friends (Bone, Two) would have either said no or not cared that much one way or another and, 3) Third allowed himself to be taken advantage of.

When Third started standing up for himself, he claimed to want to remain friends with Khai but, instead, Third treated Khai with utter contempt and disdain, until the end of the series. Khai may have been an assho!e, but much of it was unintentional and/or out of naivete. Third was an assho!e on purpose.

PAAN: For me, she was very cold and unlikable. If Bone had just a physical attraction for her, then okay, but he apparently fell deeply in love with the teacher. Why?

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I just finished binge watching this, and I'm really glad I did.

At the beginning, I wasn't so sure I was going to like it. The girl Love character came off as really whiny and annoying (at least to me). Then there was the wish with the unicorn. Sure, I realized it was a fantasy but--seriously--if you had one wish, for anything you want, wouldn't you choose something like a long, healthy life, or great wealth... something really lasting? Okay, I get it, she was a young girl and crazy about Vier, but still... (I also found it weird that another girl, Rose, would have made the exact same wish just to get with Vier.)

But, of course, if girl Love had made a really sensible choice, we wouldn't have had a story, lol. Anyway, on to the characters:

Boy Love: I thought he was great, especially for not having all that much acting experience. His dance in the dress, in front of Vier and Tangmo, had me smiling a lot!

Tangmo: loved him. For me, the best and most convincing actor in the cast.

Vier: no question, the guy is smoking HOT. I thought he did a good job with the character and played some of the emotional scenes very well. He started off as this perfect, cool guy, but then turned into a villain of sorts. But we got his backstory and found out why he was such a jerk at times.

Girl Love: wasn't crazy about her at first, but I liked her more as the story continued.

Good: he was absolutely adorable. The scene where he discovers that boy Love is his sister (with a spontaneous hug) is so heartwarming.

Sean: he was okay. I've liked Captain in other things and, while he was fine here, there wasn't all that much to his role.

Rose: it was a small part, but the actress played it well.

Nuclear: mostly a smiley and cute supporting actor, but he really stepped it up when he confronted Vier toward the end.

Menn: no complaints, he was fine in his supporting role.

I liked a lot of the bit part actors, including Aunty, Vier's father, the teachers and the twin girls.

What I didn't like so much was the first part of "The Greatest" challenge, with the kidnapped girl. It seemed to drag on and on, and I found it extremely boring.

But I loved the final challenge and the last episode! The story brought forth a number of important emotional topics, which was great. And, except for Sean/Rose (poor thing), I'm really glad that everyone ended happy and staying friends.

Will I rewatch? Maybe (I've already rewatched a few parts). Do I recommend it? Definitely.

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I liked the actors, but this was WAAAAAAAAAAYYY too long, with 36 episodes. The story dragged on and on, it could have been done in half the amount of episodes.

What I liked: Noh and Phun have a good chemistry. Ohm is adorable and so are most of the other boys. The girl that played nasty Jead was really good. There was some beautiful cinematography.

What I disliked: the Noh/Yuri "relationship." I know a lot of fans found Yuri sweet and adorable, but I thought she was annoying. And Noh took way too long to end things with her (not that there was any actual relationship in the first place). The scene just after the breakup in the photo booth, where Noh was shown crying for something like ten minutes, was kind of ridiculous. First of all, he wasn't actually crying, there were no tears. Second, he was never into her. I get that he was sad that she was sad, but the reaction was overkill.

I'm glad that I was able to binge watch this, way after it aired, as opposed to having to wait for each episode, week after week after week after week after week after week...

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I liked it. Not my favorite by a long shot and I don't know whether I will rewatch it or not. But it was a fun, lighthearted comedy that I looked forward to each week, so I'm happy I watched it.

It's true that the plotlines and characters could have been developed more but, overall, I wasn't disappointed. In the end, Pond and Tee ended up together: so did Per and Jasmine. It was hard to tell the other guy couples ended up as actual couples but, at the very least, we knew that they were good friends and everyone was happy. Even Ball, the villain, finally got over Pond and looked to be hooking up with the teacher (not sure of his name). Overall, the story lines were wrapped up satisfactorily, which is more than I can say for a number of "better" series.

TBT explored the subject of homophobia with with the twins' sister, Pad. I'm glad they did this, but it was a bit over the top. Watching Pad beat her brother (not to mention her students) with a big stick was ridiculous... we're not in Saudi Arabia here. And what strong, adult male is going to just stand there and let his sister torture him? At the end, I guess we're supposed to believe that Pad had some sort of revelation after her time at the temple but, if so, I would have appreciated a scene where she apologized to her brother and students, really showing that she understood the error of her thinking. Unfortunately, it was just barely hinted at.

Still, I liked the comedy. The hints of sexual encounters (that really weren't that at all) between Jaet/Kao and Thor/his friend (name?) were hilarious. The Korean guy (posing as Jasmine's friend) had me smiling a lot, I loved him. I get a little annoyed by some of the cutesy music and sound effects used in a lot of Thai BLs, but I liked the ones here, it added to the overall enjoyment of the story (at least for me).

Other things that made me smile: the androgynous school friend with the hairclips, Tee's daydreams where he ended up in a kissing pose (or with his arms outstretched), and the deep, sexy "oh yeah" voice that would come on every time a hot guy was shown scantily clothed. The Korean guy was hilarious in the scene with the cockroach in the shower (although the subsequent cockroach scenes were a bit of an overkill).

All in all, I'd recommend this to anyone looking for some fun, lighthearted fluff.

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This was GREAT!

I was expecting to be disappointed with the supernatural story line (especially after the trainwreck of "My Dream"), but boy, was I pleasantly surprised. This is up there in the 3 favorite Asian series I've seen.

As someone who never bought into the SingtoKrist thing in either of the SOTUS series (although I did like them in Our Skyy), as well as not particularly liking FrameBook in Make it Right 1 & 2, my expectations were low. But I LOVED both Singto and Ohm in this. Their chemistry was undeniable, the acting from the entire cast was on point for the whole series and the storyline was really compelling... I couldn't wait to see what would happen next, from week to week!

My only complaint was in the last episode, where the grandfather admitted to everyone that he intentionally premeditated--and carried out--Mes's murder, for his own selfish reasons of wanting Mes's money... and everyone quickly just forgives him, with no questions asked. I mean, come on! He MURDERED someone and gets away with "sorry I murdered Mes, but since I feel really bad about that, I'll start a charity in his name." ...well, I guess that makes it all okay then! That was my only problem with anything in the entire series, which is why I rated the Story as a 9.0 instead of a 10.

Fantastic series, which I highly recommend!

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Well... this was different! (I put some of these comments down as a post, but seems appropriate for a review.)

On the plus side, I like Saint sooooo much better in this (I wasn't a big fan of his one-dimensional Pete character in LBC). Glad to see TinCan back together (ok, MeanPlan). Perth is always great. It's nice to see some favorite actors again. The story was just kind of okay. At least there were conclusive (and happy) endings.

On the flip side, Plan became kind of a dick, and I wasn't totally sold on wimpy, all smiles Mean. The writers/director pretty much went for the TeeMork storyline of Our Skyy... not too original there (and not nearly as good). Saint really can't sing. And, while it's not LBC, did they have to use all of the background music and the same songs? It's all just kind of... bizarre.

But it was an okay diversion.

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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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