If you're going to make a mafia show, be brave and give us a mafia show. Vegas is the only character I'd come back for a second series for, but because I genuinely like Apo as a person, I decided to finish this series with the mindset of it being a standard BL series. I initially dropped it at ep.10.

/Finale EDIT~
The series actually gave me a little of what I wanted/expected in the last 2 episodes and it has been left with an intriguing plot twist that paves the way for a sequel, which is interesting. They must have been planning/hoping for a season 2 from the start. I felt like I had seen the end of Act 1 rather than an end to the series. This show LOVES plot twists and I wanted that from a 'mafia' theme, but it's very frustrating when the writers can't maintain a rhythm to execute it well.
Overall, if I had gone into this series thinking that it's just another Thai BL (or better yet, no expectations at all) I probably would have enjoyed this more, rating it more around 7. The noncon and repeated loss of plot would still have kept the rating down. As other reviewers have said, this show is wildly popular because of it's 18+ content and the intense idolisation of the cast and the new Kings of BL couples, MileApo who say they don't do fanservice but they very clearly do, Mile more so because it sells and it's working.
I'm exposing myself here as I do feel very emotionally drawn to Apo. I see a lot of myself in him and I can't help but want to cheer him on, so if there's a season 2 or whatever comes next, I'm likely to be back for him. Bible who plays Vegas, is another honourable mention. Only then I'll remember my lesson and leave my brain off. //


I started watching shortly after ep.2 aired and I'm legitimately devasted at how this has turned out and no, it's not because of the violent content. The trailer promised us everything we wanted from this show and I was hooked from the first episode. Heaven knows the BL genre has a routine. A system that works and after a while, it gets stale, frustrating and needlessly melodramatic.
KinnPorsche started off sexy, tense, violent, dangerous, everything you'd expect from a show classified as a 'Mafia BL' but each week as I've waited, the story gets less and less of what it promised and is just falling into the same old BL routine. The route that works. Drama for dramas sake.

I loved episode one. It was everything I thought the show would be. Two humanly broken characters trying to survive their world while colliding into each others.
/Finale EDIT~ I got that flavour back in ep. 13 & 14. If they can keep the plot on that level for whatever sequel is in the works, a lot more people wouldn't be left feeling so angry about this series.//

I can forgive the drunken kiss in ep.3. I'm an adult. I've gone to parties and been drunk. If you live your life, this will probably happen at some point. Understandable human screw ups and Kinn was shown to feel bad about it. Cool. I like that.

But then the first red flag happens in ep4 when a drugged up Porsche gets r*ped by Kinn. It doesn't matter that he was 'seducing' him or Kinn was holding back or that the piano music made it seem really romantic. It was r*pe. There could have been alternate scenes to this situation that would have given just as much sexual tension without involving this very toxic trope in LGBT+ media. But I was willing to wait it out and see how this was dealt with.
The next episode is spent torturing Porsche further while he deals with ptsd and Kinn feeling bad about it but not actually doing anything, and just rubbing salt into the wounds because he was 'distancing himself'. Then it's all forgiven because Porsche realises he's in love with Kinn and has put it behind him by the time Kinn manages to say something, at the end of episode 6 after their happy little vacation in a forest.
Am I surprised? No. Not shocked in the slightest. This happens a lot in BLs because when it's two hot guys, it's just rough sex. They're tough enough not to make a big deal out of it right?
Followed by lots of romantic fluff and the ever eye rolling 'return of the ex/third party' arc. Again. More drama for dramas sake because Tawan was only there to annoy you, as most third party arcs usually are, and Kinn didn't involve Porsche in his plans because we don't know what Kinn is going to do from one moment to the next.

If hot guys having sex, every where and anywhere is what you're looking for, cool. I'm a member of the LGBT+ community and every now and then eye candy is fine. But I honestly had higher hopes for this one. It really isn't as revolutionary as everyone says it is. A new standard in filming and sex scenes for the BL genre, absolutely, but revolutionary? Absolutely not.

----Further thoughts on story & characters----

The actors seem like really sweet people who are just trying to make the world a better place and they did the best they could with the script given to them. And personally, is one of the biggest reasons why I think this show is doing so well. They are talented, likeable people, and everyone has the hots for them. It's always a winning combination.

*Kinn could have been a phenomenal character. He is deep and complicated but we never see why. Only that he doesn't trust anyone because of an ex and is currently obsessed with Porsche. He's super rich and acts like every seme ever. He exists to be rich and sexy with a big **** and that's it. He's completely colourless despite always wearing red and some pretty nice suave suits. He just mopes about in his pyjamas drinking and being jealous in the first few episodes. We only see inside Kinn's head when it comes to Porsche and even then, it's glimpses. Kinn is as much an emotional fort to the audience as he is to the rest of the characters. What Kinn says is controlled by the writers. With the exception of the forest episode where he suddenly transforms into a love sick puppy, what he says and what he doesn't say is purely for drama and emotional tension which is lazy writing and infuriating for me as the viewer. He is also shown to be able to fight pretty well but that was only convenient once to ramp up the sexual tension between him and Porsche. You would also imagine a character like this to be exceptionally intelligent but this is never explored either. No intense out manoeuvring or mind games despite all the chess analogy. Oh yeah, and he forgets about Pete because convenience for plot, and having sex with Porsche is more important.
No real mafia business transactions beside once beating up an old man for vague reasons and to slightly injure Porsche to further his romance.

I honestly still don't know what the family does other than a very brief overview where even Porsche doesn't really care and falls asleep, so we see and understand very little about the family dealings. There was an Italian branch but they appear, disappear and then reappear to be slaughtered. No other purpose than to serve as a shoot out.

This is not a Mafia BL. It's a BL with a slight mafia theme.

*Porsche.
You can do anything when you look as good as Apo Nattawin. Can't lie. He is a stunning looking human being. Every shot, he's glowing, captured from every angle as the camera lingers over his sculpted features and abs and just teasing full frontal as the camera pans down some shower shots. Apo is the main visual in this show and the camera crew knew it. Unfortunately, his character Porsche, is frustrating and stupid. A little more depth than Kinn as the show is mainly his POV but the writers failed him. Hard. He started off strong, a sexy cool guy, a martial artist who took down armed men in minutes, an underground boxer driven by money problems, and escapes Kinn's kidnapping. A character who has raised his little brother from childhood with little help from a gambling addicted uncle who just seems to make things worse. He is understandably reluctant to join the mafia as gangs have ruled his life since his parents death.
Once he's with Kinn, this is all forgotten. He's bumbling, childish and annoying. Only every now and then do the writers remember he has skills and it's still never put to use. I was expecting a man fighting to protect his little brother, tooth and nail in a cold mafia world, with conflicting difficult emotions about his job, his role and his burgeoning love for his boss. Nope. We get a useless fool getting drunk, starting fights and needing to be saved from them, and suddenly, and almost randomly, in love with Kinn. Then he spends the rest of the show mostly in his underwear, doing something in water and having sex with Kinn.
Apo's body is more important than Porsche's story.
/Finale EDIT~
I cannot emphasise that last line enough. Apo may have seen this as a challenge as an actor but as the viewer, he might as well be made to do poster or calendar at this point. We've seen everything besides his genitals that are carefully hidden behind Kinn's arm and clever camera angles. Nudity is natural when the plot makes sense. This is just pure fan service //


Kinn and Porsche are obviously the main focus of the show. Their name is the title. But it really is just about Kinn and Porsche's romance and that's it. Everything else is an add on or a serves as a background. Two other couples are squeezed in for variety but neither really make sense.

Kinn's little brother, Kim and Porsche's little brother, Chay, starts out with an actual plot on Kim's behalf and has just developed into cringe. Jeff is the second visual in this show but he's not as sexualised as Apo since there's no sex so they're just focusing on his 'silent cool guy' persona, leaving him as a blank wall. Kim is clearly, and seems like the only, mafia brains in this whole show but there's so much time spent on Kinn and Porsche that we don't really see a lot of what he's up to or why.
Chay is sweet and innocent and to be fair, seems almost too pure for someone who has had the upbringing he's had. If Porsche worked that hard to protect Chay from the cruelty surrounding him, we never see the depths of this in Porsche's behaviour.
As adorable as Chay is made out to be, he is flat and one dimensional serving as nothing more than the brother of the protagonist and a chess piece for Kim's detective work. Much like Kim, there just wasn't enough spacing for their plot for me to be satisfied with it. It just seems like a rush to develop a romance and create more drama from it.

Then finally, there's Vegas and Pete. Stockholm syndrome. There's meant to be a relationship out of this one but I honestly couldn't see it. A very toxic and abusive one, yes. But the loving, romantic one that fans are hoping for. In the next 3 episodes? Really? I feel bad for the BDSM community because this is not how it works and I'll be really annoyed if we're using the word 'love' at the end of this.
/Finale EDIT~ I actually appreciate how this one developed. Unfortunately, they were using the word love after this, however, it was portrayed more for what it was, 'trauma bonding' but being confused as love. This twisted dynamic was almost what I had been expecting from Kinn and Porsche but the plot was still very rushed and again, left open for a season two. I would actually be interested to see more of this one, if it was done right. //

The rest of the characters exist to fill out the bodies. We know nothing about them other than they are the cardboard cut outs of the giddy, goofy friends but are still the best bodyguards there, or are the love experts for Kinn and Porsche because that's the only thing that matters here.
Porsche has two school friends who are so rarely seen, it's like the writers remembered them at the last minute and had to add them in during post.
The ep 9 & 10 plot twists were barely plot twists because we rarely seen the characters involved. I can't feel anything for a character who had no development, no interactions other than be bullies to Porsche, with 3 second cameos every other episode.
/Finale EDIT~ the characters in question are never spoken of again, further exposing how little the writers cared about them. //

Kinn's older brother Tankhun is another example of this is just another BL that just happens to have a mafia background. He's the camp character. Every BL has to have one for some reason because heaven forbid a gay show is taken seriously. There's no development for him either. He's supposed to be a damaged character which is why Kinn is the heir and not him but instead of letting us feel any pity for his pain, he's reduced to the whacky comic relief character with an outlandish wardrobe. I can almost let the cartoon sense of humour throughout the show pass but Tankhun is just too much and almost insulting 10 episodes in.

The cinematographer is the real hero of this show. They know what they're doing. They know how to capture the most beautiful shots, make use of lighting, colour psychology, framing, let everyone know there was a bigger budget than usual for the show with nice cars and expensive hotel rooms. There is a never ending source of beauty happening around the characters. There's no rating for them but if there was, I'd give them a 9.

This is meant to be 14 episodes and the pacing is like it were to be much longer. I would be guessing 50 if I hadn't previously known. I would be more accepting if that were the case but it's not. This show is all sparkle and no taste and in the end that's all it's going to be. All that budget, those gorgeous trailers/art films released before airing. It's all hype and it's a major let down.