Not Me? Must See!

When I have the patience, nothing beats a good storyline that happens to have romance in it later.

The twins premise is fascinating. The story and dialogue are solid. I love the characters and their flaws, and their emotions come right off the screen.

Without romance, it’s an interesting watch. With the romance, it’s even better. It happens naturally and gradually without bringing attention to it until it manifests.

That was the case in “Manner of Death” and “Tale of a Thousand Stars.” I’d say Not Me lies right in the middle of those two. Being a slower burn than MoD but quicker than ToaTS. It was just right.

If I had my own trope bingo card that checks all my favorite boxes, then this series does it, and does it well. The mistaken identity. The switching places. The pretending to be someone else. The enemies to lovers even if it’s unknowingly one-sided. Danger brings them closer. It’s all good.

And I can’t forget the side couple because they alone checked several more of my favorite boxes. Accidental savior. Intrigue at first sight. Artist bonding. Drawing each other. Secret identities. I have new respect for First because “The Eclipse” made me doubt his acting ability, but clearly it was that script. He shines in this side role.

By absolute accident, I ended up watching this right after Theory of Love. I had no idea Off and Gun were the leads in this too. But what a good change for them from that romcom. This really shows how well both of them can act, and it feels like their chemistry really evolved. I much prefer them in the realistic setting than the comedy. I have mad respect for them as actors.

Read More

Cutting corners? Or patchy writing?

I'm not going to read the novel, so I'm not sure if my criticisms apply to only the show or also its source material.

I'll start by saying there were many scenes that were well written and well acted. The show is much better than average BL in general. I loved the side couple.

My criticism comes in where i kept feeling that plot or character foreshadowing was going one way only for it to go a completely different way. Sometimes that can be a good thing if it's a certain genre. But it's the foreshadowing that makes the progress of story and characters feel more satisfying. So a good emotional romantic plot can't thrive so much with too many unexpected turns.

As a writer myself I always (on reflex) try to guess characters motives and goals and what kinds of things it would take to change a character's feelings.

The character of Khai was a well written jerk that had a solid characterization even if it was a cliche.

I think the problem came in that his jerk-ness was made so solid and consistent that there were so few options that felt like a believable way to make him fall for the lead character.

I spent half the show trying to figure out if Khai was indeed half of the main couple or if he was merely the object of desire which would result in the MC moving on and finding a healthy relationship because of his crush trainwreck.

I don't know if maybe the characterization evolved more naturally in the novel, but Khai's transformation was a little too sudden for how bad he was in the beginning. I don't like pairings where the success of the relationship hinges on one character's transformation. It's too easy to feel unnatural.

The side couple had a little more consistent buildup and characterization, but there were still confusing parts where you feel like they were suddenly replaced with a different couple and their one-on-one scenes together were for no reason. They had the better story, even if the show forgot about them multiple episodes in a row.

Even if i feel like i could've written the story better in many different places, it kept my interest enough for me to want to finish it quickly.

It also didn't rely on basic tropes with the same conflict and outcome. You think the same tired scenario will play out like every other BL, but then it won't. That was refreshing.

Read More

Good For the Light, Casual Viewer

There's very little focus on actual romance in this series. It's a sweet story. It's quirky and cute, and about the length of a long movie.

It's nice to see a nonstandard storyline with pets coming back as humans, and they don't make it weird.

The production value suffers a bit from being a short web series released on Youtube with few or no extras acting in the background and sometimes lacks a quiet soundtrack where a higher end production would easily have it. The silent scenes without music sometimes took me out of the experience, so there's definitely an indie or college production feel.

I'd say this series is a "PG rated" BL for Disney lovers. It has that chaste feel where they talk about love rather than show it in the way most BL fans hope for.

There's no serious story or overdramatics. It's simple and nice to have on for a break between those series that leave you reeling.

Read More

The Best Part Was the First 7 Minutes

The second best part was the end scene.

The tone change is pretty sudden in episode one. Honestly I would've preferred if they stuck with realism because the nonrealistic doesn't add anything. In fact it seems to detract from a dramatic story that could've stood on its own.

It feels like the emotional story was written and then someone else required them to add something "extra" to make it unique. But the weak attempt at making a unique plot simply weakens the meaningful parts of the rest of the story.

If you're into somewhat experimental filmmaking and whatnot, it might be worth a watch, otherwise you could probably save yourself 50 minutes.

I will say the kiss scenes were well done, if that's all you're looking for.

Read More

A Love Letter to Those Still in the Closet

One thing this show does well is treat both those who are out and those who are closeted with equal respect. It touches on the real world fears and that regardless of the reasons, each person has the right to take the time they need, if they aren’t ready to be out. It is their choice and other’s don’t have the right to choose for them.

It’s not revolutionary but it ticks a lot of boxes of things I look for in a romance. The starting out as enemies and the cohabitation: It’s nice slice of life. The characters and actors have great chemistry. Any BL that I like is one where you can feel the emotions of the characters, and this one delivers.

Please appreciate the end credit scenes. It’s the same shot of the mains are always watching a movie but their positions get closer and more familiar each episode and I’m all for it. It’s subtle but communicates so much. I like details like this. Make sure to watch each one.

Read More

Bringing You What You Longed For in Season 1

Everything that made the first season unique and great to watch was the fact that the pandemic kept them apart. Half of most romance stories (sometimes more than half) is about being in close proximity, lingering touches, wandering eyes. But that was impossible to do safely in a romance during the height of the pandemic.

Here we are with easing restrictions and the build up of them being apart is completely satisfied by getting to see them together. It's the next chapter we all needed to see. The movie felt like the perfect length. Hearing that season 2 is just the same with added scenes, I don't think there's anything that needs to be added. It felt just right.

This movie delivers the full fledged relationship of Cai and Gav. They don't just have good bantering chemistry. They have good physical chemistry as well. The love scene might be the best one I've seen to date in BL, the acting, the cinematography, the music. It was *chef's kiss*.

The side couple was cute though a little awkward. I appreciated them.

I hope we get a sequel because they certainly ended this in a way that would allow them to make one.
But I'm not unsatisfied with the ending either. It was realistic and hit good emotional beats.

Read More

True Piece of Art Because of Covid

This story both being about the pandemic as well as having the restrictions of the pandemic on the production, creates this special storytelling experience that never would have existed otherwise. The use of social media and perspective in video calls truly grounds the story in reality. It almost felt like you were part of the story, watching it unfold between your friends.

I could imagine the same story produced post restrictions where they could freely film multiple people with larger crews, so no one would choose to create this kind of limited production from first person cameras and phone screen closeups. It's because there were no other options that something this innovative was created.

Gameboys is an artwork born from the limitations of the time.

Floods of memories from quarantine and lockdown and pandemic restrictions came back watching this. I think I'm glad to watch it now where it's more in the past than when this was released.

The story is raw and real and definitely worth the watch.

Read More

The Best Harry/Draco Thai AU Fanfic You Will Ever Watch**

Enemies to Friends to Lovers:
Hollywood romcom meets lighthearted blackmail with a side of drama, in a secret relationship between two college playboys. #nsfw (though the fluff outnumbers the nsfw)

Yai=Draco Malfoy
Mangkorn=Harry Potter

I’m not kidding. If you read Drarry fanfic, this series is for you!
The dynamic is there and ripe. The lead, Yai is so much Malfoy it’s not even funny: spoiled, entitled and scheming idiot who’s obsessed with “hating” a guy. Mangkorn is a devious Harry, teasing Yai every chance he gets, but also genuinely intrigued by him.

Yai even has two idiot lackeys exactly like Malfoy. Once I made the parallel I couldn’t unsee it, and it made the series all the more enjoyable. Drarry was one of my first BL ships ever. It seriously feels like a fanon Harry/Draco story.

(Did tumblr write this? Because sometimes it flows so perfectly, almost too good to be true.)

This series does the best style of situational comedy. The timing is spot on and there’s no over the top Thai comedy for comedy’s sake. Every comedic moment either adds to characterization or advances the plot. This is truly a comedy of errors and miscommunication that unfolds in the best way possible to create suspense.

The occasional slightly absurd element doesn’t feel out of place because they’re not trying to pass it off completely seriously. But just because it’s comedic doesn’t mean it’s without serious moments. The characters react realistically in emotional situations, and you actually feel the tension between characters. The emotional scenes are quite honest and truly hit you in the feels.

The love scenes are done artistically with cinematography, editing and music. I actually suspect the actors might not have the best physical chemistry, but it’s impossible to know for sure because the production elements completely carried the scene.

If this series was an HP fanfic on AO3, I’m sure it would have thousands of kudos. Yet here a diamond in the rough is sitting in the average 7 rating zone on MDL.

Anyone who likes Enemies—>Friends—>Lovers will enjoy this series.

**Though upon finishing it, the end is kind of light slice of life, overdramatic. The series starts making you think it's hardcore like Kinnporsche, but it's not at all after the first conflict.

Read More

Shallow Start But Deep End

Originally, four episodes in, I was planning to title my review “Shallow but OH so Sexy,” because I was enjoying the series, but I knew it was nothing poignant about it. However, the writing turned it around, and had meaningful commentary about different outlooks in life. It’s not just erotica for the sake of erotica. There’s some meat to the ending in both the story and the characters.

Because there are so few BL series with truly “adult” content, I assume anyone looking for that content has already heard of this series.

But let me tell you that Mood Indigo does it well. The writing for the erotic scenes avoids being cringey, the acting feels like these characters are real, and the chemistry is the level of steamy that you need it to be. It’s way better than a lot of average BL that’s just PG-13.

Maybe the catalyst for launching the relationship is pretty unbelievable in real life, but when I read and watch BL, there’s a suspension of disbelief I carry that makes it believable enough in “BL land” that it didn’t bother me.

If you’re looking for a good mature BL series, Mood Indigo definitely satisfies. Though the few erotic scenes definitely go further than KinnPorsche does. KinnPorsche is more artistic cinematography, music-heavy, and without dialogue. Whereas Mood Indigo is a little more raw. (Think shorter versions of BLCD drama scenes).

But if you’re looking for eroticism, boy does this series deliver, and it’s actually good. I can’t believe Viki gives TharnType the same viewer rating as this series because Mood Indigo goes way further than it ever does. Their content is worlds different.

Good series, if you like erotica.

Read More

Showing without needing to tell

The subtext is palpable.
The chemistry is electrifying.
The emotions are raw.

I gave this a 10 out of 10 rating before finishing the 3rd episode.

The last 2 episodes could be crap and it would still be 10 stars based on the 3 episodes alone. Of course i waited until i finished before sharing my review. But as expected, still a 10 out of 10.

Instead of seeing stereotypical TV-movie romantic characterizations, both characters act and react in ways you really identify with. Their actions and words always feel like something you've done or thought of doing in real life. They don't rely on conversations with side characters to understand what the leads are feeling. There is no exposition of their feelings. There's no voiceovers. There's no need for it. Their actions are enough to know and feel exactly what they're feeling.

With writing and acting like this, the storyline could be the most boring thing and it wouldn't matter. Tv shows like this let me know that any old plot can make an amazing watching experience if it's written and acted well.

Do yourself a favor and watch this.

Read More

REVOLUTIONARY–in onscreen chemistry

Just as good the 2nd time through.
REVOLUTIONARY–in terms of featuring a gay romance
without the romance being the plot of the show.

For a gay romance, Manner of Death contains incredible nuances. We have a dark, real world, nitty gritty entanglement that feels inescapable. The romance is part of both main characters' arcs, but not central to the main plot itself.

The show does a romantic subplot better than most hetero romance subplots. The characters have realistic reactions. There was never a moment I wasn't rooting for them. Actors Max and Tul have incredible chemistry. They're the reason I found this series. I discovered them through their older series "Together With Me."

This series isn't for the faint of heart, as far as the psychological traumas, violence, and medical scenes. But it's certainly not as graphic as the worst Hollywood has to offer.

Manner of Death is complex and layered. The surprise reveals made sense and had clues leading up to them, even if I couldn't figure them out. The story revealed itself in a way, fooling me enough that I expected some of my predictions to be wrong. It left me second guessing in a good way that flowed well in the writing.

If you're looking for lighthearted, this certainly doesn't qualify. But watching the series to completion was truly satisfying for the well written mystery and the development between the main characters.

Read More

Incredible chemistry, BUT emotions ruined by excess plot

The opening scene is a freaking hook and i feel like i might watch one hundred BL and not find a scene as steamy.

I like the relationship between the main characters and I'd say displays of PDA were better here than the other two Thai dramas I've watched.

I like the couple but quite often one of them just isn't a very good person. He doesn't make decisions and as a result gets lead around by everyone else. He's also quite gullible and doesn't really think. But i guess a character who's willing to cheat at any point isn't going to be the best character. But i feel like he was overloaded with some annoying qualities and constantly put in the same situation by different people. It's fine if there's a character like that, but i just wish it wasn't half of the main couple.

I rated the rewatch value the lowest, BUT I am consistently watching fan videos of the mains because they're so good together.

SPOILERS BELOW:
*************************
My problem: the machination plot was just too much

It would've been a higher rating for me if it was just confusion and infidelity with real emotional reactions, but instead there's a convoluted plot where the girlfriend is manipulating everyone. She was honestly a decent character till that reveal. And I'm just not a fan of vilifying girlfriend characters to make the gay couple canon.

When it became gossip girl with all this puppeteering going on in the background i was just rolling my eyes. They already had decent conflict with the situation but the writers decided there needed to be more.

It also suffers a bit from the fact that it's a prequel to another romance show starring one of the girl side characters. Without ever seeing the original, you could tell this was a prequel to a different series when the "side" female character is the one who solves the final conflict to bring them main couple together. Without her they probably would've never made up. Even if she was the main character of the original, she didn't need to play such a big role here. Unless of course the original series and the actress were half of the reason this prequel got made in the first place, in which case i can understand the need for it.

This could've just been real and raw and confusing and conflicting emotions/choices, but no, they had to introduce hidden agendas and plots.

Everything would've been better if the "here's what's really going on" just didn't happen.
The PDA is top notch though.

Read More

Most of what you look for in a sequel

Of course I had to watch the sequel after how much I enjoyed 2gether.
Anyone who fell in love with WatTine will enjoy the continuation.

I feel like there's not much in spoilers in a sequel when there's no "will they or won't they." Anyone looking to watch this probably wants to know if they'll find what they're looking for from characters they already like.

To me, music was incredibly important to the original series, but it kind of misstepped here in the sequel. Ironically, the underproduced music from the original sounded better and felt organic. I believed the characters were singing in the scenes, regardless of if they were. For Still 2gether, the music was overproduced. You could tell we were listening to a studio recording, and it wasn't playing off-camera in the scene either. They clearly cut all audio from the music scenes and replaced it with the polished recording and sound effects. So the music was kind of a let down in that regard. Sound editing was incredibly lacking.

Being new to Thai culture, I had to learn what the sniff kiss was, because for a while I thought they kept teasing us with expecting a kiss and not getting one, before I learned its meaning and got it into my head that it seems to be the equivalent of a kiss in American television. That being said, while a little disappointed there weren't many kisses because of this, when they finally did have a legit kiss, that one was all the more powerful and satisfying because I'd been waiting for so long. So sometimes less is more. It was worth the wait to me.

I really enjoyed that there wasn't unnecessary drama introduced to threaten the Wat and Tine's relationship. The relationship was the conflict because relationships are hard. So I loved that it was just slice of life watching these guys navigate their relationship.

I think I didn't enjoy the side couples as much as the first series. The balance just wasn't quite there.

Sarawat and Tine still managed to be the cutest in how they express their love to each other, and that's mostly what I wanted anyway.

Read More

(Mostly) Accurate Adaptation with Satisfying Characters:

Watching Semantic Error After Reading It.

This is my 2nd BL Drama, and 1st Korean Drama, but I’ve been reading BL for 8 years now. I don’t know if my perception of the show is heavily influenced by the fact that I read the source material first, but I feel like I managed to keep an unbiased perspective.

1 TECHIE NITPICK:
The one non story related element that bugged me was the high frame-rate of a lot of the shots. That’s what causes movement to look weird and sharp, like cheaply produced daytime soap operas. If every shot was like that I might not have been able to watch, but it was only obvious in outdoor shots, super wide shots, and tracking shots on a dolly or jib. Sometimes I swear the frame rate was lower in shots because they felt more cinematic, but it might have just been there was little movement or low lighting. The fact that it wasn’t constant was a relief, but it took me out of the show every time I noticed it. Perhaps this is simply the style in all K Dramas that I'll have to get used to.

THE SHOW:
Honestly, story-wise and acting-wise, the first 7 episodes were true quality. I’d even say almost perfect in execution as far as the building tension between our lead characters. Both actors' attitudes felt like the characters had walked out of the pages of the webtoon. The OST also really leant itself to Jaeyoung’s characterization which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Obviously an 8 episode story can’t exactly follow its source material when it’s already 50+ chapters long without an ending in sight. But it picked and chose combinations of elements that made the show feel natural on its own without losing the essence of everything from the original. It felt like an honest adaptation, in the first 7 episodes.

I thought I might only take issue with episode 8 because of its divergence from the original, but that’s not the real problem. The problem is the source of conflict episode 8 relied on. After 7 episodes of character driven conflict, the final episode relied on plot driven conflict which felt out of place, like an interruption to the series.

***
VAGUE SLIGHT FINALE SPOILERS:
All the conflict in the original Semantic Error relies on character driven elements that come from within our protagonists, and that remains true in episodes 1 through 7. But in episode 8, the invitation and the conflict it caused is the opposite of character driven. The fact that they used plot to control the characters’ decisions for the first time is what felt off and foreign to me. It didn’t flow with the story or the characters.

It’s a shame that the writers could not craft a finale that suited the rest of the series, but considering the webtoon Semantic Error is one of the best ongoing BL out there, that’s a tall order. The ending fell flat but everything until then was extremely good.

Read More

The toxic beginning didn't make me drop it.

It was the forced writing near the end.

Some TharnType reviews about the problematic aspects almost kept me away from this series. But considering the raving reviews I’ve seen on other shows that I dropped, I decided I had to know my own opinion.

You don’t have to like everything a character does in a series in order to like watching. In fact, isn’t it often that we love to watch characters make terrible decisions because we would never make the choice in real life? We want to see what happens next.

Now my favorite top tier romances are the problematic free (or at least mostly) with realistic decisions and characters with amazing chemistry, where the writing and acting shine. But there is another form--that is a guilty pleasure. There’s always some problematic characters and portrayals. The circumstances and plot are wild, and characterizations are sometimes absurd and unrealistic, but they’ll still follow a semblance of logic. It’s just that the premise is so intriguing and the acting and chemistry holds it together enough that you keep watching.

The actions of the characters aren’t so abhorrent that it makes it impossible to enjoy. If you like the chemistry between characters it’s easy to bypass the brief distasteful parts and focus on what you like. Anyone who’s read and enjoyed a lot of BL has probably done it to some degree with at least one story. I’ve done it with many.

Honestly despite the flaws in how he was written sometimes, Tharn’s character kind of carries the plot. Type’s character would normally be incredibly insufferable to watch: stubborn and hard to sympathize with. Type has little characterization beyond “homophobic because he was victimized.” So the story is super reliant on Tharn’s opinions of him for the audience to not resent Type’s character. The power dynamics between them are also quite imbalanced, but not to such an awful degree. The beginning is an unhealthy dynamic that no one should strive to obtain in real life. But the development between the characters feels meaningful despite the issues in the writing. I think the actors carry and elevate what might have been a train-wreck otherwise.

You can tell in TharnType that someone was trying to make poignant commentary on homophobia and discrimination, but they must have gotten distracted by their convoluted plot and characters because whatever message they wanted to convey is nonexistent. You can’t even tell the point they were trying to make.

I don’t consider this a spoiler since it’s sort of in the summary, but I will say I hate how trauma related to being the victim of pedophilia is used as a catalyst for the character’s homophobia. If dealt with more elegantly and not problematically, the homophobia should have been on the surface as a defense mechanism, whereas the real fear is rooted in sexual intimacy, and perhaps more internalized homophobia rather than general homophobia. But none of that was even considered or mentioned. The motivation is a cardboard cutout with no depth.

There’s plenty of series I’ve dropped that did not contain problematic elements. But the problem was they were either boring or lacked chemistry. The two most important elements. So if I have to sit through some problematic portrayals to watch something both interesting and with good (enough) chemistry, then doggone it I’m going to do it as long as I can.

I went in knowing what to expect which maybe made it easier to get past. I can’t imagine watching the series cold and encountering the problematic elements unexpectedly. I could see that instantly turning you off the show.

The biggest detriment to watching was the side couple. I don’t know if I fell asleep when they were introduced but for 6 episodes I had no clue who they were and why I was supposed to care about them. I had to google to find out about half way through. And even once I knew who they were, their scenes were pretty uninteresting, and they only had one scene an episode. They appeared so sparsely that their presence didn’t make sense, and merely acted like a boring commercial break of the main story. Once their story crossed paths with the mains the plot really felt forced and cliche. It just made me tired to watch the new source of conflict, so I dropped it.

Read More