Wow, that was as dull as dull can get.

This had a lot of good ingredients - it's well-shot, the central love story is reasonably coherent and realistic, and it's full of charismatic and beautiful actors. Regrettably, all except the main pair.

Soh starts out well - he's strange and awkward, but he ends up more or less unlikeable for the ridiculous cliche he's saddled with to generate drama near the end of the series. Mon is dull and tiresome all the way through. The problem here is that when you put two depressed, introverted emotionally distant people together, there's really not a lot of chance of chemistry or any sparks at all.

The character of Saint is interesting and different, and played by the etherial and beautiful Offroad Kantapon, who I hope we see a lot of in the future, but I'm not sure what the point of the character was - but you could say that about almost all the characters.

The cast is gigantic, with characters coming in, taking up some time, then disappearing without ever accomplishing anything., and somehow led to not even one secondary couple, which was desperately needed to contrast with the almost supernaturlly dull main couple. One of Soh's bandmates, Q, has an interesting interaction with Mon's youngr brother Micky that had so much more chemistry than the main pair that I wanted them together badly, even though Micky's a bit too young to date a college student - I hope we see more of the actor, Copper Phuriwat, too. He's adorable and charming. The characters Poon, Q, and Tack also made impressions, but the caliber of the supporting actors was in general high.

The problem with this series is the pacing. Not the pacing of the plot, but the pacing of each scene, more specifically the dialog. They are way too long, with people taking 45-minute pauses between each phrase, a strange virus that's infected Thai BL lately. The acting style of the genre is already very understated - adding to that an incredibly slow line delivery is just fatal.

This also had the misfortune of airing on the heels of the much better You're My Sky, another basketball series. Why is basketball the only sport allowed in BL? It's not even in the Top 10 of popularity in Thailand - far behind volleyball and badminton. I guess because it wouldn't be the same if ukes got hit in the head with a shuttlecock whenever they stray near a badminton game.

Anyway, I can't recommend this. There's no payoff for the time invested, and it's so boring that it feels dull and slow even set on 2X speed.

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A sweet slice of life

This is a really special 2-part short film that has a much more realistic feel to it than we're used to, yet remains in the BL genre.

Nobody is rich, the mother looks like a real person, and the setting is really beautiful without relying on the usual wealth and glamour - the director uses the natural setting to its best advantage.

The pacing is really good, managing friends to lovers in such a short span without feeling rushed or unnatural. The relationship is fluffy without being saccharine, and the chemistry between the two leads develops and feels real. The script is good, and a character's description of what it feels like to want someone is age appropriate and avoids the silly cliches like a kiss on the cheek is something shocking - these two want to touch each other, and the confused character is just the right amount of hesitant. Realistic dramatic tensions are not given overblown weight, and resolve in a natural way - it's refreshing.

The acting is superb - Mon has always been good, but Oak is really good in this and seems to improve with every project. And again, Mon performs the main theme.

I will certainly watch this again, and I'm looking forward to the next project.

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One of the best Korean BLs for sure.

I'll start with negatives to end positively.

First of all, it's time for Korea to break the love scene barrier. To me, a BL doesn't always need one, and in some cases it would ruin it. It really depends on the characters, and for these, I don't think nothing happening is credible. Sang Woo's attraction to Jae Young had a strong sexual component, and Jae Young clearly isn't the type to hold back on getting physical. There didn't need to be a scene with candles and blaring ballad - something like the way Sang Woo throws Jae Young down on the couch in the final scene but going slightly further would have sufficed.

Also, we really need to retire the triple-take shot for whenever anything important happens - it's mildly ridiculous and drains all the emotion out of the scene. We also need to retire the extremely wide-eyed reaction by whomever is being kissed. In a manga it works because it's capturing surprise. In live action, it's weird and creepy, and sometimes makes the kiss feel non-consensual (although not in this case).

So for me, this is marred a bit by too much BL convention and avoidance of physical love.

But the chemistry between these two was amazing. They certainly did hugs right - full body contact instead of maintaining a foot between them, and the sheer joy they expressed when they did this. Both actors are very capable - I think the Sang Woo role is more difficult, but Jae Young could have come off as a stalkery with a lesser actor. It doesn't hurt that he looks like that, of course. And Park Seo Ham's boyfriendy affectionate kisses were lovely, and the enormous size differential between the two was adorable - the way Sang Woo had to stand on his tippy toes to kiss Jae Woo.

The odd-couple plot worked very well - and one thing that I think is superior about Korean BLs in general is that there is never a useless uke - Sang Woo is every bit as tough and capable (and moreso) than Jae Young.

The humor is really funny, like when Sang Woo is researching deviant desires and hormone imbalances because he doesn't understand why he's so hot for Jae Young.

While I think the series held back too much to put this in the highest category, it's still one of the best Korean BLs, and excellent by any standard. It's largely forgettable, but very pleasant and something you can go back to in the future when you need a pick-me-up.

Story: 9 - While not ground-breaking or original, it was coherent and directed, avoiding the silly manufactured drama and miscommunication that mars so many BLs.

Acting: 9 - Both leads were excellent, generated a lot of chemistry, and didn't shy away from physical affection. Both inhabited their characters and made them relatable and believable.

Music: 7 - Nothing special, but never distracting, which is a good thing in my book.

Rewatch Value: 8 - I would definitely rewatch this - in fact I'm fairly sure I will if it's put out in movie version.

Overall: 9 - While it didn't offer much new, it was superlative at being what it was - a fluffy romance with interesting and likeable characters.

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Fluffy but shallow, has a lot of cute moments

This series got off to a strong start, with an age difference plot where a 17-year old (almost 18) aggressively pursues a man 10 years older. At first it's charming and fun, as Akira, the 27-ish owner of a local laundramat, is a bit scandalized that a high school kid is after him. The dialog and interplay between Akira's discomfort with the situation and Shin's cocky confidence that he was going to get his man was entertaining and cute.

But instead of dwelling more on what I would think would be the central conflict (the age difference), the plot devolves into an endless loop of both characters drawing back from each other - Akira because he's afraid that if Shin spends so much time with him his schoolwork will suffer and he won't get into a good school, and Shin because he doesn't want Akira to blame himself if Shin can't get into a good school.

The thing is, it's not zero-sum. Being with someone you love is energizing and their support can help you get through difficulty, so it just feels like the story is just forcing the characters into a holding pattern until Shin is 18 and graduated.

In addition, Akira has been harboring an old crush on his high school teacher, Sakuma, who is an interesting character - a bit hapless but mature and a real gentleman, an ably acted. The storyline was too long and dragged-out, however, like much of this series.

The other problem for me is that Akira is so immature and devoid of any impulse toward self-examination that there is no character progression - just a passive 2D character that things happen to.

The series really has nothing to say and follows a fairly conventional course, which is a shame given it's "forbidden relationship" elements. It's a fluff piece, with a lot of cute moments, but by the end the characters have been running in circles so long that I stopped caring what happened to them.

The ending is quite lovely and doesn't follow the usual fomula, which made it a delight because I wasn't correctly anticipating every line of dialog like I usually can in series like this.

If you like cute and fluffy, you may enjoy this. I don't mind recommending it - but you may want to give in to the urge to fast-forward though tiresome parts - you won't miss anything and it may make the show more enjoyable for you.

This would have benefitted from being about a third shorter - then the thin plot would have marched foward without repeating the same pattersn over and over, and the ending would be more anticipated.

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Good acting, but there's no point - just Earth crying-porn.

This is a little like a dish that has only the best ingredients, but then is overcooked and not quite what you were hoping for.

The plot is really repetitive, with Eiw being hurt and crying, and Santa cute-bullying him into not being angry with him (to be fair, that would totally work on me). Anyway, it goes around in circles for 9 episodes, and as we see in the Synopsis, we know it's building up to Cake leaving for a few years.

Eiw is the uke-est uke that ever uke'ed. He has no agency, is incapable of anything - there's even a scene where he has to run in PE class, and he literally only gets in three paces before the effort makes him collapse in a coma and he has to be hospitalized. He is wholly dependent on Cake in every conceivable way. Cake has a girlfriend, and this is endlessly painful to Eiw and so we watch him cry almost non-stop for the first 9 episodes.

So when Cake leaves, we're hoping to see Eiw blossom, become independent, and then when Cake returns, it's Cake who has to fit himself into Eiw's new life.

But nope, they just pick up right where they left off. There's no girfriend to make Cake cry, so instead, something randomly tragic happens, and the entirety of the last two episodes involves Eiw crying.

There is no point to this series. It's not about coping with loss, it's not about love, it's not about individual growth or coming of age. It's just Earth crying porn. The only purpose of anything is to make Earth cry. A man in his mid 20s, cast an adolescent who whine-cries for fourteen episodes.

And it's strictly G-rated, even when they're college grads. It's definitely a BL, but a very bromancy one - nearly chaste. They hug a lot, but that about it. A few sniff-kisses and one peck on the lips.

The acting is good, especially Santa, who is extremely talented and first-rate leading-man hunk material. And Earth has definitely mastered wailing and crying.

This is a qualiy production, but at the end of it I just don't understand what the point of it was, and I doubt I'll remember any of it in a month. Except for a scene where a doctor says something so outrageous that I burst out laughing. Even if you think this is the best series ever made, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. There's also the most horrendously-timed move made on a girl that I've ever seen. Another LOL moment.

Story: Meh. I'll give it a 4.5. It was pointless, but coherent, and kept all the characters consistent. Maybe too consisent.
Acting: 8.5 - quite good all around. Santa is the clear standout, but Prem Warat surprised me with his depth - he's so much more substantial here than he is as a stereotypical uke.
Music: I don't remember any of it, so not bad or outstanding.
Rewatch value: none. I would never rewatch this, and Santa doesn' really show us any of his hot body, so there's no shower scene to play on an endless loop.
Overall: 6.5. OK, but dull, repetitive, and forgettable. I don't think I would recommend binging it, or its repetitiveness will really stand out. If you're an Earth fan, you may like it. If you hate Earth, you'll definitely like it because he's suffering and crying for the entirety of the series.

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Pleasant and realistic, but a bit dull

The characters in this are well-drawn and not stock stereotypes. Han Ji Yu is a foodie/functional alcoholic who meets uptight chef Park Ki Hoon, who has an irrational hatred of alcohol. Their initial reaction to each other is quite finny and entertaining without being OTT. Han Ji Yu's passion for food and his unguarded pleasure it it charms Park Ki Hoon, who slowly opens up to him, and it's cute.

The problem is that it doesn't really go anywhere and it's barely a romance. Until KBL can get over it's homophobia it's never going to hit the high notes in Thai or Taiwanese BL - the dead fish kisses and the way they manage to keep a meter of space between their bodies even during intimacy makes it, well, not intimate. I think it's implied they had sex in the finale, but it's really unclear - they might have just kissed, or maybe they were just tired and rested with their faces barely touching, although it looked like a diffficult yoga pose more than resting.

Anyway, you won't resent the series for the time you invested in it, but you probably won't remember anything but the first episode a month after watching it.

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Big Disappointment

I read reviews of shows because I only have so much time, and I can't watch everything. I'd seen the hype over this show, and I was looking forward to it - but looking at other people's reviews here and having actually watched the show, I'm completely flummoxed. My only explanation is that many fans have read the novel and have carried their appreciation over to the series where their imaginations can fill the enormous gaps in the narrative.

This show is jaw-droppingly unoriginal, with every BL trope you can imagine - in fact all the characters are engineering, medical and music students, because nobody is allowed to study anything else in a BL. The tired and untrue-to-life seme/uke dynamic is in full force, there's a tiresome fujoshi, and there are no countervailing positives, at least not in the main pair. Substituting warm milk for pink milk is not originality, it's almost laughable cribbing. And the evil gf is apparenly on the way.

The premise of the show is that Solo's mother has died and so he's lost his smile - but did he also need to lose his entire emotional range? And shouldn't Gui have a contrasting personality? He's equally dour and unsmiling.

The problem is the lack of acting skill in the main pair, and this is underlined with force by the secondary pairing, where Phu is equally unsmiling - but played by a talented actor, he is with virtually no dialog and only a handful of scenes able to convey his character's loneliness, pain, and repressed longing. We get nothing from Solo except his creepily expressionless face and his dead eyes. Losing your smile doesn't mean losing all facial expression.

If PhuKao were the main pair, this would be a really compelling series - the two actors playing these characters are really impressive, and their characters are interestingly drawn, and I can't predict every word they'll say and action they'll take like I can for the main pair. Kao has to work to chip away at Phu's walls, and you can see it slowly working, which is wonderful and beautiful. Kao manages to make his whiney and annoying character charming and endearing, and conveys a greater depth than the surface characteristics of his character suggest. He's cute as f@#$, too.

But I don't see any motivation for the relationship between Solo and Gui. What does Gui see in him? They have no shared experiences, they don't know each other, Solo just stares at him with his creepy blank eyes, and occassionally does something really frighteningly aggressive, like when he backs him into a corner at the flower shop. If you'd seen desire in his eyes, it would have been hot - but instead you (and Gui) had to wonder if he was about to commit murder. For that matter, what does Solo see in Gui? I'll admit he's cute, but that's all there is. So is this a purely physical attraction? One doesn't normally fall in love with someone cute but dull because he boiled milk for you.

I think another problem may be that losing your smile works better in a verbal medium than it does in a visual one, where you get a sort of uncanny valley effect that makes Solo look Not Quite Right.

In Episode 8, there's a character played by an experienced actress that's ill and so also quiet and understated, with only a few lines of dialog, but the actress gives such a powerhouse performance that I was in tears all the way through the episode, which underscores how acting ability is so utterly important and so utterly ignored by Thai BL, at least for the main roles (with the hugely notable exception of I Told Sunset About You and mostly for 1,000 Stars). If Solo had been played by someone with 25% of her ability, this would have been a truly memorable series.

The positives of the show are compelling side characters (except the fujoshi), including one of the best pairings I've seen in PhuKao, and the music is way better than your average Thai BL.

EDIT: Also, if you're going to hire an actor to play another character's father, you should really consider hiring someone more than 3 years older (Solo actor is 27, his father is 30). The little grey streaks of hair dye and glasses aren't fooling anyone. I'm sure the reason is because it's strongly implied he's the lover of a much younger character and they wanted to make it less creepy. But it makes me crack up every time they show him. I will say that he's just as dull and expressionless as his son, so that helps make it believable.

EDIT: The acting issue may largely be the directing because Nut Supanut is amazing in Something In My Room.

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It's cute but repetitive

When this started, I loved it - the characters are interesting, with Aoki having cute freakouts and Ida being this sexy clueless overserious guy, and a series of misunderstandings cause them to accidentally draw together, and not the usual way where one trips and the other catches him and they stare at each other until they turn gay.

But then it bogs down into an endless cycle of very similar breakdowns in communication that reduces the story to running in circles to prevent the couple from getting together. The problem is that the crises are all so similar that I lost all sympathy for Aoki and wanted Ida to find someone less mentally unstable, and frankly stopped caring about whether or not they'd end up together. Either way would have been equally fine to me. I was actually more invested in the straight couple, which at least had a progression in their relationship.

TBH, the avoidance of affection starts to feel homophobic - I realize this is aimed at younger audiences, but similar stories with a straight pair don't have the same pathological aversion to depicting romantic interaction.

The quality of the production is high, the dialogue is cute, the acting is excellent, and the music is fine, if not particularly notable. I can't imagine rewatching any of it, since it already feels like I watched the same episode ten times. I'd recommend it if you like cuteness, but not if you think romance should be more than holding hands for about 10 seconds.

Story: 6 - too repetitive, although the starting premise is clever and the first few episodes are really engaging.
Acting: 9 - very good all around.
Music: 7 - it's appropriate and never annoying, but there's nothing extraordinary about it.
Rewatch: 5 - I doubt I'd rewatch it, although I might want to go back and stare at Ida and listen to him speak.
Overall: 7.5 - the "suggested" rating is lower, but I don't think it deserves less than a "C". It was cute and well-done, but it's just not memorable and I'll likely forget about it fairly quickly.

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What a disappointment.

This series started strong and I was looking forward to seeing where it would go. More or less nowhere, it seems.

I don't like to criticize actors, and it's possible it was the directing, but Kazuma was bad. When he was angry it was embarassing. Ren was a little better, but he didn't have to do much more than mope and be pathetic.

The directing drained all the life out of the story, and they followed the manga too closely instead of adapting it. But the writing was inexcusably lousy, so the screenplay might as well be too, I guess?

Example: a manga can give strong forward motion by portraying someone running for a panel or two. But when it's live action, you stop paying attention because your mind is preoccupied by two questions: if he's in that big a hurry, why is he running across Tokyo instead of taking a cab? And, how did he manage to do that in dress shoes and a wool suit without breaking a sweat? As if that wasn't bad enough, in the finale he did it again. Twice. (To be fair, the third time taking a cab wouldn't have helped, but I was still preoccupied wondering how Ren got past Kazuma to leave the building. The core where the elevator is would make him have to go past Kazuma, or at least run all the way around the core to the other side of the elevator lobbly.

The series is jammed full of tropes without giving us any compensation. Ren is one of the worst examples of a weak infantilized uke, who can't even defend himself against a falling-over drunk man that's at least twice his age but half his size. Because he takes it up the a$$ and Sanada is a man, I guess. It's ridiculous and offensive. A 12-year old girl would have been able to deal with Sanada, let alone a grown man.

The coincidences are absurd. The population of Tokyo is 40M and it's not a very dense city - so after search the world for 10 years and coming up with nothing, he happens to get a job at the same company? I took if for granted thta Ren arranged for Kazuma to work there, but nope, just a coincidence. Then Ren runs into Kazuma's mother. Then runs into Sanada when he goes to get his things. Why would Sanada go back to the office after going out and getting drunk? And in the brief window where Ren is there?

The relationship between Ren and Kazuma is passionless. At the end they spend the night, and don't even cuddle in bed - in fact Kazuma is actually holding Ren at arm's length so their bodies don't touch. Come on. It's 2023. They don't need to have sex, but they need to look like they want to. It's really sad and weird that the two child actors had way more sexual chemistry than the adults. And apparently more sex.

The end is totally anticlimactic. Kazuma's mother explains she was only upset because they were underage - so then why did she whack Ren across the face? It doesn't make sense. And why did she tell her maid or whoever that was that she's afraid if Ren and Kazuma meet up, they'll never part, but then in the next scene tell them she has no problem with them being gay. What? That makes zero sense - someone behaved completely illogically to throw a red herring at us to generate artificial and pointless drama that doesn't go anywhere and instead deflates like a sad balloon that wandered away during a party and deflated in some dark corner.

In the end, there's just no point to the whole story. What is it about? There were interesting dynamics set up at the beginning, with hints of Ren's depression and trauma, but it goes nowhere. This is just some weird fantasy of the writer to get a strong man to take care of her. Great.

I'd skip this. You'll like it at first, but it becomes a big disappointment.

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A master class in bad writing

This series had so much potential - a talented cast, good cinematography, scenic locations, and everyone involved was giving it their all. This is all wasted on a terribly written story. It's as if they were about to start filming and realized they forgot to get a script, so they sent an intern to go grab the first thing they could find on Wattpad.

The story leans heavily on the implausible-misunderstanding-caused-by-showing-up-at-just-the-right-second-to-misinterpret-something-causing-them-to-drop-the-token-of-affection-they-were-bringing-and-walking-away-sadly trope. If they were to show up one second sooner or one second later there wouldn't have been a misunderstanding. This happens many times, in every case a simple conversation would have cleared it up, and characters never learn from it and make the same mistake over and over.

Everyone behaves wildly out of character to suit plot points. Tai becomes a lying cheater, and the gentle veterinarian exhibits horrific violence. The discussion forum didn't seem to have a problem with this, presumably because Lomfon deserved to be savagely beaten for being a confused teenager. That there were absolutely no consequences to the violence is astonishing and disturbing, and Lomfon neither presses charges nor has even so much as a scuff mark after being the target of what can only be described as attempted murder. Again, lazy writing.

Lomfon, who is so emotionally constipated that he can't tell Tien how he feels, suddenly bursts into a long monologue, while Tien has just stormed off from seeing Lomfon's film, which explicitly and unmistakably showed him how Lomfon feels about him, yet he says he doesn't understand what Lomfon was trying to say with his film. Seriously?

People in general don't act like people. Patts doesn't seem at all surprised to see Tai in Chiang Mai and stands there expressionless for the entirety of Tai's long soliloquy.

There is an enormous number of extraneous characters that materialize out of nowhere, have no effect on anything, then are never seen again. In the finale, the friend who gives advice to Lomfon claims to be a close friend to both him and Tien, but we've never seen him before, or at least I can't remember him. He and most of these characters pontificate about love and life with the profundity of a motivational poster.

In the last episode, in a long and completely pointless sequence, Tai runs out of gas in front of a nice man's house. The man tells him it's very difficult to find gas in the area and that he should spend the night. His girlfriend shows up then they have a long conversation where the couple tell Tai the story of their love. In which THEY HAVE A FLASHBACK. Almost the whole flashback is a random character giving a long expository dump to a friend. The next morning Tai drives off, presumably having filled the tank with his overflowing love. None of this has the slightest effect on the story.

Perhaps most confounding of all, you can just sever your soulmate connection, which negates the entire story, the plot of which is based on destiny - without that, this is just a pile of stupid coincidences, like Tai's grandmother living next door to Patts since his childhood, and he and Tai even communicate by notes and kind acts to each other, but never meet. Really? Tai shows up at the precise moment to misunderstand Patts being kissed by his ex, but never ran into his actual soulmate for 20 years despite his living next door?

That's how awful and frustrating the writing is.

I loved the cast. Title is much improved, Pee is as good as ever, Suar is charming, and Copter is the MVP with a fantastic performance as the repressed Lomfon. I hope to see them in something better than this series.

I can't recommend this. I gave it a 5 because the cast was great, but unfortunately there was only enough material for three episodes and the rest is a jumbled mess that will cause you to dislike all the characters. Except, apparently, Patts, who is consistently called a big green flag - I guess becoming so enraged by jealousy as to try to beat someone to death isn't the red flag I thought it was.

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Not bad. Not great, but not bad.

There are a lot of good things about this - the acting is solid, especially from Hsiao Hung, who throws himself 110% into the role. His character can be a little OTT, but he pulls it off, and he has really good comic timing.

The story and writing are not the strongest aspect of this - it leans way, way too heavily on misunderstanding, which is a particular crutch of Asian drama. Shang Zhou's emotional constipation is well-supported, and it's clear his character was formed by an unloving mother, so I did buy that, but it's carried too far - there is a situation in particular that could have been solved by a "yes" or even a subtle nod of his head, and Shun Yu's misunderstanding of the situation is less explainable and comes off as forced drama.

This works well as a comedy, but the problem is that it veers to heavily into drama, which is tonally dissonant and none of the drama is sufficiently supported.

What might have worked better is to have made the mother a more central villain, and made her the obstacle that had to be overcome, rather than really stupid misunderstandings. That would aslo have made Shun Yu's "boss moment" in the final confrontation with her much more satisfying. It was very well-acted, and it was quite a moment to see him finally become confident in love, but if there had been more of a development arc to that point it would have had a larger payoff.

The interaction between the two as a couple at the end was some of the best I've ever seen in a BL, with both of them acting like men, and not shying away from affection, There's no sex, but the way they hug and touch each other is uninhibited and convincing.

I really hope to see Hsiao Hung again - he's really talented, not to mention beautiful and hot. That skin is like porcelain.

Anyway, there is a lot of frustration in the second half, but the payoff in the finale is quite good, so I can recommend this, although there are some parts you might want to ff through.

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Complete waste of time

This actually started out fairly well, despite the usual BL setting - it had a bit more grit, like people actually took public transportation instead of driving an obscene luxury car. It did a decent job of portraying unrequited longing.

But then a confession happened and the whole thing fell to pieces. There is nothing lazier and less satifying to watch than a story based on implausible misunderstanding. This silliness took me out of the slice-of-like atmosphere that had been set up and plopped me into a terribly written and edited slice of Swiss cheese. Once the manufactured drama is resolved, we skip around for 100 days into a relationship totally devoid of any hint of romantic chemistry or romance at all, other than a 100-day anniversary dinner which was going to go wrong in a totally predictable way.

The acting is uneven. Kim In Sung has some charm as Han Joon, but Zuho... well, he tried.

This would have worked much better if it weren't a BL - Han Joon could still be in love with Yoo Jae, but it would have been interesting if it really were unrequited love - but given Yoo Jae's family issues, he might have really needed Han Joon and found a way to make their friendship work - because they did have decent friend chemistry.

The first 4 eps were good, the next two got me a bit worried, and the final two were a real chore to get through. I really can't recomment this - it's forgetable and I doubt I'll even remember it in a few months, except for the lingering feeling of frustration.

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Charming and well-written

I loved this series, mainly becaus of the stellar main pair of Tinn and Gun, played by Gemini Norawit and Fouth Nattawat to perfection as teens experiencing first love.

The side characters are all well-written and acted, especially Tinn's mother, who is the school principal, and everyone has to love Mark Pakin as Tinn's best friend Tiw.

The story is wholly unoriginal, but it's the best realization of this type of plot.

The actors also sing all the music, which is always a plus., with Ford Arun being the standout, although Fourth & Gemini both have lovely voices too.

This is not a world where homophobia doesn't exist (although it only barely exists), and issues like parental concern over the future happiness of their gay children, or whether or not they did anything wrong, were all realistic and sensitively handled.

What prevented this from entering the top rank of BLs, however, is that although this contained one of the most breathtaking scenes in all of BL - the dance - you'll know it when you see it, and the progression of Tinn and Gun's relationship was magical, it peaked early and stagnated, leaving the second half at a lower energy level and at times quite dull. I don't need kissing in a high school story, but I know that I do not want an endless string of kiss fake-outs, which is cheap and started to feel homophobic.

The central dramatic conflict, that the music club's rules forbid Gun to date before a competition at the end of the year is contrived and the path to the context uninteresting, and the overreaction to a setback for the band was one of the only sour notes that felt out of character and lacked the authenticity of the rest of the series.

Fourth is so cute that there were a couple of time I cried a little just looking at him - that outfit at the prom was fatal. I'm really looking forward to seeing more of him and Gemini - they are both highly talented, and easily hold their own with more experienced actors here and even in Midnight Chicken.

I would rate the first four eps a 15/10, then declining to around a 7, hence the 8.5. The first few episodes were so good I thought this would displace all others and become my favorite of all time - but unfortunately it deflated a bit as it progressed. Still, I wouldn't hesistate to recommend this to anyone and everyone.

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It was so-so, except it had Force in it which is better than so-so.

This was much better than the disastrous Enchante, but it's still subpar in all but one regard which I'll return to.

The first half or so of the series was quite good - the characters were interesting, complex, and consistent, and there were several promising plot threads set up...

... all of which were left totally unresolved. Not one single plot point went anywhere. Tian's death, Thoop's conviction, Gun's problems with Time, none of it. Time never even showed up in the story again after the first few episodes, which is a pity because Drake was rather good in a darker role. Even Gun's mother instantly dropped her resistance for no apparent reason.

Instead, the story, such as it was, devolved into the usual GMM ridiculous and implausible drama, wherin Cher's best friend gives Cher completely, astonishingly stupid advice and Cher inexplicably follows it, even thought it's wildly out of his character.

Then the writers did the laziest thing imaginable and gave us a one-year time skip. If someone left you without explanation and then showed up a year later and got on his knee and asked you to be his boyfriend would you a) be overjoyed and immediately accept, or b) Tell him to go jump off a cliff? Can you imagine the emotional suffering and grieving Gun must have gone through? No normal human being would be OK with that. Think about how long a year is and how much changes in that time. Force would have to move on, probably need counseling, and would have had his trust shattered. For years after he'd had PTSD and fear Cher had left him if he was ever late or his phone battery died.

On the positive side, Force is so hot that it hurts a little to look at him. Besides being beautiful, with ridiculous eyelashes and a sexy voice, he has possibly the best body of any BL actor. He does a great job as Gun, playing him consistently and making him enthralling. He plays a quiet and introverted person, and yet he outshines the bubbly Cher by a mile. Book is not bad by any means, but his acting doesn't have a lot of depth. He can be cute and quirky quite well, but I never believed he had romantic feelings for Gun. Whenever they were touching, Book was always leaning away, as if a bit repelled by the proximity. Compare that to Fourth & Gemini in My School President where there's almost no actual sexual intimacy but they portrayed people totally into each other just by looks, leaning into each other, and touching each other almost illicitly. It's really not that hard. To be fair, that might be the directing - it's a well-worn trope that the uke only reluctantly gives in to the unnatural lusts of the seme in exchange for being taken care of.

Maybe being friends in real life is a negative - if you grew up with someone, it would have that sibling-esque quality that makes the thought of being with them kind of icky.

Anyway, Force has so much charisma and is so compelling that he really should be in something much better than this series - if he were paired with someone as good as he is it would be explosive. Imagine Force and Fourth, or Force and Gawin (actually, that might be TOO hot and kill off the audience).

This series was a bit of a guilty pleasure, just because I couldn't get enough of Force, and Book was cute. But it's not good, and it was carried solely by one person.

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Definitely the worst BL I've ever seen, and that's saying something.

There is almost nothing positive to say about this, other than that there are good-looking guys in it.

It's fine to have a drama with comedic elements, but when you intersperse cruelty and phyical and emotional torture with slapstick ladyboy comedy with truly oppressive sound effects, the tonal dissonance is intensely irritating.

As for the drama, it's so overwrought and melodramatic, with really bleak homophobia and a villainous and irredeemable grandfather (who is of course totally forgiven at the end because he just gives up) and nothing pleasant to balance it. I'm getting tired of being lectured by badly written BLs about how love isn't about gender, blah blah blah. The purpose of a drama is to SHOW us this, not have preachy characters rant on and on about what is already obvious to and accepted by the entire audience or we wouldn't be suffering through this to begin with.

The NC-17 scene is so out of nowhere and strange that I had a hard time understanding what I was looking at.

There are other terrible BLs, but this is the first one where I didn't enjoy anything about it at all.

If you're a Gameplay fan, do not watch this if you want to remain a Gameplay fan. For everyone else, just do not watch this. It's terrible and there's no payoff. I didn't think this group could make anything worse than Love With Benefits, but they succeeded, if for no other reason that LWB was shorter.

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