This review may contain spoilers
perthsanta have a magic that is impossible to put into words.. but i'll try my best
okay. i am SO not okay. this show was my everything for the entire time it was airing. from the day the first episode aired on march 14th (pi day to those who celebrate!!!) all the way to the very end, i was hooked. and yes, i will be the first to admit, i was mostly just excited for this show because it was perthsanta. everything they do together is amazing, literally everything. i knew the show was going to dive into mental health related content, but i still did not have the HIGHEST hopes in terms of a deep plot, especially since this is gmmtv like.. i love you gmmtv but its not lying to say you dont take anything seriously like EVER. however, i was more than just pleasantly surprised by how well thought out and complex the plot was. i mean like, the dark moments were not afraid to get DARK if ykwim. the backstory with sun/solar's mom made me cry more than i would care to admit. i felt really silly sitting in my bedroom at 3am sobbing uncontrollably over my glowing laptop screen because of some fictional kid named sun but trust me, seeing baby sun sad felt like a punch to the nuts (at least i think, i dont actually HAVE nuts..) however, while the dark moments were dark and were given their proper time, the bright, sunny, joyful moments were just as apparent, and the overall look of the show was very whimsical and fun to look at. i loved how vibrant all the sets were, and all the clothing was, its been really refreshing seeing all these bright colors in gmmtv as of late. the bright colors remind me a lot of the set design and wardrobe choices from boys in love last year, which i also absolutely adored. i think having fun colors incorporated throughout the show does a lot more for the overall enjoyment than one might think, but whenever i think about the older high school set bls with drab colors and everyone wearing the same muted uniform, i realize it DID feel a little sad.. but here, it was bright, it was vibrant, it was fun, and i sure as hell was having a great time.
i think the characters in this show were absolutely perfect, especially pobmek for perth. oh my god, you guys dont even know how refreshing it was so see perth as a character that was 100% a green flag like.. i havent seen perth in like a TON of shows, but he wasn't really great in never let me go as chopper, tawan in me and thee was an abusive asshole, and even yotha from perfect 10 liners (whom i absolutely ADORE btw) still cheated on gun and was lowkey aggressive and mean and avoidant at tiems so.. seeing perth be, for lack of a better word, a cutie patootie for once was genuinely so much fun. perth did a really great job with this role. of course his chemistry with santa was on point as always, but he really did bring out the emotions that come with caregivers guilt and the struggles of watching someone you love suffer. perth is a phenomenal actor, and he knocked it out of the park in this role once again. moving on to santa.. goddamn this boy can act too like whatttttt.. the talent of perthsanta is off the charts like im sorry for all the glaze but guys like its true. yes, playing pobmek was an extremely difficult role, but playing solar/sun was, in my humble opinion, 100x harder. the duality, the fine line in playing a person with an extreme mental illness with lots of stigma around it, that is HARD. and yet, santa made it seem effortless. i swear this man is so talented like let me glaze for just one second but this man can sing, this man can dance, he can rap, he can rap, and he also LOOKS LIKE THAT??? UGHHHHHH not fair not fair what the heck #ilovesanta #iamsantasbiggestfan #perthgetinline #typeshit anyways yeah santa did a really good job. i think he played sun very well, i think the character suited him and i think he played it in a way that was not demeaning or making light of the mental illness. once again, that is a HARD thing to do, so like yall lets put some respect on his name!! moving away from our main leads, all the other characters were fun as well. i really liked sadchuen, i thought she was really cute and a great positive support for pobmek and solar through the school, and i also REALLY loved jee, aka the gym teacher. i thought he was adorable, for one, and i also loved his dynamic with pobmek. i really did enjoy pobmek's backstory with his mom and how he was never good enough, and i thought having jee not be a dick was the right move. he was such a genuine ray of sunshine whener he was on screen, he made me laugh like a LOT, and he definitely contributed to the more light-hearted aspects of the show. of course, sammy and kay did a great job playing their roles as well. i liked all the mothers: pobmek's mom, sun's birth mom, and solar's "adopted" mom. i thought they all were played by their actresses very well, and i thought they all were pretty compelling. i do have some gripes with pobmek's mom, but i'll get into that a little later.
okay, hi, i know ive been glazing this show for the past however long youve been reading BUTTTTT this show isnt perfect, and i do have some issues. first, this might sound weird but like, i was sometimes uncomfortable when there would be even the slightest bit of intamicy between pobmek and solar (not during the flashbacks obvi) because i was really scared of solar not actually being solar but actually being sun. i know, that sounds weird and like such a nonissue, but especially after the episode where sun successfully disguises himself as solar, i was like, what the fuck.. idk, maybe its just my anxiety, but if i were pobmek i would be SO scared. but i guess like, i dont truly understand the mental disorder myself. like yes, technically that WOULD still be solar but like... ugh ugh ugh i dont wanna think about that anymore, all i know is i would be a little icked out when that would happen, but that could also be 100000% just me. ooookay moving on, sometimes the dialogue with the kids would be lowkey cringe. okay there i said it because SOMEONE had to. and yes, i understand, i am not fluent in thai to the point that i fully get thai slang, so i get it that there might be some local aspect i am missing. however, from the thai i DO understand as well as the subtitles that i was provided, everytime the kids would talk i lowkey had to like ignore the subtitles and not focus on what they were saying because like.. thats just NOT how kids talk. like at all. or at least, from my experience with kids (and i have a lot, ive been babysitting since middle school), but idk, i thought the dialogue and stuff was kinda corny and stupid, but of course it wouldnt be a gmmtb bl without a little bit of the good ol corn am i right (that sentence might have been more corny than any line spoken by a kid in the show, but i dont care im proving a point). okay lasttttt little gripe before im done with the negatives, i know i said i liked pobmek's backstory but.. i do think it could have been done better. i feel like the character that was pobmek's mom was suchhhh a cliche. she reminded me so much of tinn's mom from my school president, and no its not just because they're played by the same actress, but its the whole like strict mother figure comparing her son to other students and wanting him to go into a super specific field of study like idk i was getting majorrrr deja vu but i mean it didnt ruin the show by any means. none of these small gripes ruined anything about the show, these are the most nitpicky of nitpicks i could come up with about this show, because i always think that shows have room for improvement.
i want to point out two of my favorite things about this show super quickly before i wrap up. first, i really, and i mean REALLY, appreciated the college flashbacks to when pobmek and solar first fell in love. i saw a lot of people talk about how they wanted to see the romance develop throughout the show because, lets face it, most bls aren't about couples ALREADY in love, but i think the way the show handled it made a lot more sense. this show follows the guilt and hardships of dealing with a partner who struggles with mental health. it would be physically impossible to have a story like that when they arent even parters yet ykwim. in addition, solar and sun are supposed to be switching back and forth everyday, so it would be kinda icky if pobmek was falling for solar when he was acting like a seven year old half the time. ive seen a lot of people not wanna watch this show BECAUSE they are worried it would be weird and pediphillic and fetishy because of the age regression plot, but the way the flashbacks are set up and the way that perth and santa play their characters doesnt make it feel that way at all. im not tryna sound like a broken record here but god, this show had every opportunity to be weird, or insensitive, or icky, but due to the amazing performances by perth and santa, along with the very solid writing, it was a very wholesome and earnest show that i feel portrayed the mental illness it depicted in as respectful a way as possible. that actually leads directly into my second favorite thing: pobmek's guilt and somewhat resentment towards sun. THIS is my absolute favorite part of the show, becaues it is so raw and so real. i know i touched on this earlier, but its so important to me that i wanna discuss it more in depth. i myself have not been a caretaker to a person with an extreme mental disorder, but a very close family member to me has. she confided in me a LOT how much it took a toll on her, how she sometimes resented the person she was caring for, and how she absolutely hated herself for that resentment. seeing this aspect of being a caretaker portrayed even just the slightest bit was so special for me to see, and it literally made me so emotional yall dont even get it. that part of being a caretaker is so often overlooked, so seeing them take the time to depict the struggles of the caretaker as well as the person with the actual mental disorder was very powerful, at least in my opinion. however, as i said before, i have never actually been a caretaker myself, i have only heard stories secondhand, so i am not fully qualified to say whether or not this portrayal was perfect. however, i really appreciate the effort, and i think it was very imortant that it was part of the show and part of pobmek's arc and progression.
oh, one more thing: the seakeen cameo at the end genuinely made my heart so freaking happy!!! i am literally the #1 seakeen fan like trust keen has been my BOY ever since i first saw him in project alpha back in 2022 so like wherever keen is like i am RIGHT there with him! legit when i saw sea in the scene when he overslept i genuinely screamed, slammed my laptop shut, and paced my room for five minutes before i resumed because i did NOT know we were getting a seakeen camea. okay, now that im not that, time to wrap this up.
overall, this show was very well done. there were so many ways this show couldve completely dropped the ball and sucked and been weird and unwatchable, but it didnt do that. this show delivered a really great plot that had lots of fun moments along with lots of darker moment to keep the balance, and of course, as ive said probably 127 times already in this review, none of this could have been possble without the absolutely stellar performances from perth and santa. seriously, i dont usually comment bl actors like this, because quite frankly bl acting is often lackluster in terms of overall acting. but i am being so sincere when i say that they absolute nailed it in this show, every scene was incredinly well acted, every emotional beat was hit right on the mark, and every sensitive topic was handled with respect. please, if you somehow made it to this point and havent watched this show yet, do yourself a favor and run to watch this show. i promsie you, i PROMISE you, it will be an absolute blast. id also like to apologize for any spelling/grammar errors in this review, it is currenlty 3:18am and i am NOT proof reading this thing so if its rambly and incoherent i sincerely apologize!!! :)
i think the characters in this show were absolutely perfect, especially pobmek for perth. oh my god, you guys dont even know how refreshing it was so see perth as a character that was 100% a green flag like.. i havent seen perth in like a TON of shows, but he wasn't really great in never let me go as chopper, tawan in me and thee was an abusive asshole, and even yotha from perfect 10 liners (whom i absolutely ADORE btw) still cheated on gun and was lowkey aggressive and mean and avoidant at tiems so.. seeing perth be, for lack of a better word, a cutie patootie for once was genuinely so much fun. perth did a really great job with this role. of course his chemistry with santa was on point as always, but he really did bring out the emotions that come with caregivers guilt and the struggles of watching someone you love suffer. perth is a phenomenal actor, and he knocked it out of the park in this role once again. moving on to santa.. goddamn this boy can act too like whatttttt.. the talent of perthsanta is off the charts like im sorry for all the glaze but guys like its true. yes, playing pobmek was an extremely difficult role, but playing solar/sun was, in my humble opinion, 100x harder. the duality, the fine line in playing a person with an extreme mental illness with lots of stigma around it, that is HARD. and yet, santa made it seem effortless. i swear this man is so talented like let me glaze for just one second but this man can sing, this man can dance, he can rap, he can rap, and he also LOOKS LIKE THAT??? UGHHHHHH not fair not fair what the heck #ilovesanta #iamsantasbiggestfan #perthgetinline #typeshit anyways yeah santa did a really good job. i think he played sun very well, i think the character suited him and i think he played it in a way that was not demeaning or making light of the mental illness. once again, that is a HARD thing to do, so like yall lets put some respect on his name!! moving away from our main leads, all the other characters were fun as well. i really liked sadchuen, i thought she was really cute and a great positive support for pobmek and solar through the school, and i also REALLY loved jee, aka the gym teacher. i thought he was adorable, for one, and i also loved his dynamic with pobmek. i really did enjoy pobmek's backstory with his mom and how he was never good enough, and i thought having jee not be a dick was the right move. he was such a genuine ray of sunshine whener he was on screen, he made me laugh like a LOT, and he definitely contributed to the more light-hearted aspects of the show. of course, sammy and kay did a great job playing their roles as well. i liked all the mothers: pobmek's mom, sun's birth mom, and solar's "adopted" mom. i thought they all were played by their actresses very well, and i thought they all were pretty compelling. i do have some gripes with pobmek's mom, but i'll get into that a little later.
okay, hi, i know ive been glazing this show for the past however long youve been reading BUTTTTT this show isnt perfect, and i do have some issues. first, this might sound weird but like, i was sometimes uncomfortable when there would be even the slightest bit of intamicy between pobmek and solar (not during the flashbacks obvi) because i was really scared of solar not actually being solar but actually being sun. i know, that sounds weird and like such a nonissue, but especially after the episode where sun successfully disguises himself as solar, i was like, what the fuck.. idk, maybe its just my anxiety, but if i were pobmek i would be SO scared. but i guess like, i dont truly understand the mental disorder myself. like yes, technically that WOULD still be solar but like... ugh ugh ugh i dont wanna think about that anymore, all i know is i would be a little icked out when that would happen, but that could also be 100000% just me. ooookay moving on, sometimes the dialogue with the kids would be lowkey cringe. okay there i said it because SOMEONE had to. and yes, i understand, i am not fluent in thai to the point that i fully get thai slang, so i get it that there might be some local aspect i am missing. however, from the thai i DO understand as well as the subtitles that i was provided, everytime the kids would talk i lowkey had to like ignore the subtitles and not focus on what they were saying because like.. thats just NOT how kids talk. like at all. or at least, from my experience with kids (and i have a lot, ive been babysitting since middle school), but idk, i thought the dialogue and stuff was kinda corny and stupid, but of course it wouldnt be a gmmtb bl without a little bit of the good ol corn am i right (that sentence might have been more corny than any line spoken by a kid in the show, but i dont care im proving a point). okay lasttttt little gripe before im done with the negatives, i know i said i liked pobmek's backstory but.. i do think it could have been done better. i feel like the character that was pobmek's mom was suchhhh a cliche. she reminded me so much of tinn's mom from my school president, and no its not just because they're played by the same actress, but its the whole like strict mother figure comparing her son to other students and wanting him to go into a super specific field of study like idk i was getting majorrrr deja vu but i mean it didnt ruin the show by any means. none of these small gripes ruined anything about the show, these are the most nitpicky of nitpicks i could come up with about this show, because i always think that shows have room for improvement.
i want to point out two of my favorite things about this show super quickly before i wrap up. first, i really, and i mean REALLY, appreciated the college flashbacks to when pobmek and solar first fell in love. i saw a lot of people talk about how they wanted to see the romance develop throughout the show because, lets face it, most bls aren't about couples ALREADY in love, but i think the way the show handled it made a lot more sense. this show follows the guilt and hardships of dealing with a partner who struggles with mental health. it would be physically impossible to have a story like that when they arent even parters yet ykwim. in addition, solar and sun are supposed to be switching back and forth everyday, so it would be kinda icky if pobmek was falling for solar when he was acting like a seven year old half the time. ive seen a lot of people not wanna watch this show BECAUSE they are worried it would be weird and pediphillic and fetishy because of the age regression plot, but the way the flashbacks are set up and the way that perth and santa play their characters doesnt make it feel that way at all. im not tryna sound like a broken record here but god, this show had every opportunity to be weird, or insensitive, or icky, but due to the amazing performances by perth and santa, along with the very solid writing, it was a very wholesome and earnest show that i feel portrayed the mental illness it depicted in as respectful a way as possible. that actually leads directly into my second favorite thing: pobmek's guilt and somewhat resentment towards sun. THIS is my absolute favorite part of the show, becaues it is so raw and so real. i know i touched on this earlier, but its so important to me that i wanna discuss it more in depth. i myself have not been a caretaker to a person with an extreme mental disorder, but a very close family member to me has. she confided in me a LOT how much it took a toll on her, how she sometimes resented the person she was caring for, and how she absolutely hated herself for that resentment. seeing this aspect of being a caretaker portrayed even just the slightest bit was so special for me to see, and it literally made me so emotional yall dont even get it. that part of being a caretaker is so often overlooked, so seeing them take the time to depict the struggles of the caretaker as well as the person with the actual mental disorder was very powerful, at least in my opinion. however, as i said before, i have never actually been a caretaker myself, i have only heard stories secondhand, so i am not fully qualified to say whether or not this portrayal was perfect. however, i really appreciate the effort, and i think it was very imortant that it was part of the show and part of pobmek's arc and progression.
oh, one more thing: the seakeen cameo at the end genuinely made my heart so freaking happy!!! i am literally the #1 seakeen fan like trust keen has been my BOY ever since i first saw him in project alpha back in 2022 so like wherever keen is like i am RIGHT there with him! legit when i saw sea in the scene when he overslept i genuinely screamed, slammed my laptop shut, and paced my room for five minutes before i resumed because i did NOT know we were getting a seakeen camea. okay, now that im not that, time to wrap this up.
overall, this show was very well done. there were so many ways this show couldve completely dropped the ball and sucked and been weird and unwatchable, but it didnt do that. this show delivered a really great plot that had lots of fun moments along with lots of darker moment to keep the balance, and of course, as ive said probably 127 times already in this review, none of this could have been possble without the absolutely stellar performances from perth and santa. seriously, i dont usually comment bl actors like this, because quite frankly bl acting is often lackluster in terms of overall acting. but i am being so sincere when i say that they absolute nailed it in this show, every scene was incredinly well acted, every emotional beat was hit right on the mark, and every sensitive topic was handled with respect. please, if you somehow made it to this point and havent watched this show yet, do yourself a favor and run to watch this show. i promsie you, i PROMISE you, it will be an absolute blast. id also like to apologize for any spelling/grammar errors in this review, it is currenlty 3:18am and i am NOT proof reading this thing so if its rambly and incoherent i sincerely apologize!!! :)
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