Love of Silom Episode 3 walked in and quietly asked, “Why are we still pretending plot and chemistry are a pick-one situation?”
Because let’s be honest: most BLs spend three episodes building an entire cinematic universe and then forget to let the leads, you know, actually like each other. This show? Not that kind of show. It’s balancing the setup, the action, the comedy, the detective-mystery thread, and the slow-burn tension with the kind of ease that almost feels smug about it. And it knows.
Episode 3 had chaos, charm, simmering tension, and just enough emotional payoff to ruin my week in the best way. The Jujutsu scene? A choice. A correct one. The host stage performance? Genuinely deserves its own award. This wasn’t an episode doing the assignment. This was an episode showing the class how.
When a BL can give me story, chemistry, and entertainment without dropping a single ball, I’m not just watching. I’m seated, locked in, and taking it personally.
I don’t usually let myself hope for a second season. Sequels so rarely hold onto whatever made the first one matter, and the disappointment, when it comes, has a particular sting to it. But with this one, I find myself wanting to see where it goes anyway.
The reason isn’t complicated. Chinese BL has been surviving lately through what people have taken to calling “offshore” production, a workaround that lets these stories exist at all in the face of censorship. For anyone who follows the genre, that’s not a minor development. It’s the difference between a tradition that quietly disappears and one that finds a way to keep speaking, even if it has to whisper.
So when fans inside China start referring to this show by code names like “361” or “19 squared,” inventing a whole vocabulary just to talk about a show they love, something in me responds to it. Watching from a place where I don’t have to encrypt my enthusiasm, I feel a kind of obligation, or maybe just the pull of solidarity, to throw whatever support I can behind it.
The source material was never going to fit comfortably into a single season. And the actors who signed onto a project like this are taking on something real, which isn’t lost on me. I hope what they’ve done doesn’t turn into a quiet sacrifice that nobody acknowledges. I hope it gets the recognition it deserves. More than anything, I hope the story gets to continue. A second season, a third, whatever they’re willing to give.
What sets this one apart is the way it inverts the script you usually expect. Liuyi, the gang boss, the hardened one, is written as the bottom. Chusan, softer and more bookish, is the top. That single reversal reshapes the whole emotional architecture of the relationship. Add in the lesbian gangster character and the corruption investigation running alongside the romance, and you have something with actual weight to it. You can read it as social commentary, as gender subversion, or simply as sharp writing, but in any reading there’s more going on than the BL label tends to promise.
The scene I keep returning to is the one after the confession, when Liuyi is alone in Chusan’s room, rehearsing the words “You’re back” again and again, as if practice could conjure the moment. And later, once Chusan is safe, the quiet instruction: wait for me to come home. That repetition, that act of waiting, lingers long after the scene ends. And I don’t think it’s only the characters who are waiting. The audience is, too.
The pacing of this show is excellent, and both leads are killing it, especially Hori Kaito. He captures Ryo’s quiet longing in a way that feels effortless, and there’s a softness in his reactions that carries so much of the emotion.
I also love how the bet works as a shield, giving them an excuse to keep circling each other without having to say out loud what’s really happening. It makes every look between them land harder. Episode 2 had me hooked, and now I need Episode 3 immediately.
I’m always extra happy when we are watching the same series. Your comments are always so thoughtful and add…
aw thank you, that’s so kind 🥹 it’s always nice when someone else is watching the same show. and yeah, I really love these slower real-life kind of stories — there’s something special about just getting to walk through life with the characters. thanks for reading!
I keep thinking about that brother scene. The school form sets everything in motion, and then the brother’s visit hits like the deepest cut. The postcard at the end lands almost like an afterimage, which is exactly why the episode stays with me.
The school form looks so ordinary at first. It’s just Azuma helping his nephew, a high school student, figure out what comes next, what he wants to do after graduation, where his future is supposed to go. But in this story, that small form feels heavier than it should. It’s not just about choosing a school or a path. It’s about how much pressure there is to already know yourself, and how scary it is when you don’t. That’s why Azuma’s reaction matters so much. He’s not treating it like some simple paperwork thing. He understands, even if he doesn’t say it directly, that a future can feel confusing at any age.
Then there’s the brother’s visit, and that’s where the emotional weight really deepens. Kuji has always seen himself as the one who came second, the one who didn’t measure up. But the brother is carrying his own version of the story too. He believes their father favored Kuji, that Kuji was the one allowed into the study, the one who got access to something he never did. So when he opens that room and feels how stuffy it is, then sees the window and the view outside, it hits differently. It’s such a small moment, but it says so much. He’s realizing that what looked like privilege was also a kind of separation. He wasn’t inside that room, but he also wasn’t part of the father’s world in the way he thought he should have been.
And then the postcard about the grave relocation comes at the end, and that changes the mood completely. It’s such a quiet detail, but it opens up a different kind of loss. Kuji still goes to that grave, so the doctor still matters to him in a real way, not just as a memory. When the family says the grave has to be moved, it feels like even the place where grief has been resting is being disturbed. That’s what makes it hurt. It’s not just that someone died long ago. It’s that even the place tied to that person is no longer staying the same.
That’s why I like this episode so much. Nobody says everything out loud. The brother doesn’t fully explain his hurt, and Kuji doesn’t suddenly confess all of his guilt either. But you can feel both of them understanding a little more than before. Azuma is the same way. He never crowds Kuji. He doesn’t force a conversation, doesn’t push for answers, doesn’t act like grief has a schedule. He just sits there. That kind of quiet support hit harder than anything more polished could’ve. It’s also why the relationship feels like middle-aged love to me. It’s not about dramatic declarations. It’s about timing, patience, and knowing when not to push.
The whole episode feels like people circling around things they’ve never fully said. A school form. A brother coming home. A postcard at the end. None of it is huge on its own, but together it leaves this soft, painful aftertaste that feels very true to the show.
Episode 2 really gives the feeling that Rit was trying to win love in the bravest way he knew how, just not the right way. And Itt, by going along with the misunderstanding at first, ended up helping this messy little setup grow into something that feels like real love.
MDL really needs to add Tao Sor’s profile. He seems to have more than just anterograde amnesia, since his brother has to introduce himself and even explain his job to him. The first episode was decent, and I’ll keep watching.
Are we being nitpicky now? Yay, finally someone decided to do it, cause I kinda wanted to, but since I adore this…
Okay the infrared faucet is sending me 😭 a whole period drama undone by a bathroom sensor. And the Walled City looking like a tidy little neighborhood instead of the concrete tumour it actually was… love that descriptor btw. Fully stealing it.
…ok you stayed. fine on you.so the second boston started doing his little wise sage routine i was like. i’m…
Awww thank you that’s so sweet 😊 and YES Boston being OOC is killing me. They spent the whole season setting him up one way and then just… pivoted. For what??
…ok you stayed. fine on you.so the second boston started doing his little wise sage routine i was like. i’m…
Hahaha you’re right, I went full unhinged mode for this one 😂
And true, Boston does have lines he won’t cross. But that’s exactly my issue. The show keeps showing him being messy AND principled in the same episode, so it just feels inconsistent. Pick a lane!
Absolutely loved the first episode, though my only complaint is that it ended too soon.
For a fleeting moment, my mind wandered to Patrick Süskind’s Das Parfum: Die Geschichte eines Mörders. But I have full faith that Thai BL isn’t about to take us down that particular rabbit hole of darkness.
Then Palmy’s “ซ่อนกลิ่น” (Sorn Klin / Hidden Scent) started playing, and I knew this one is going to be mine. Years ago, that song single-handedly hijacked my playlist despite the fact that I don’t really do Asian pop. I had it on loop for days, utterly under its spell. Here’s hoping the rest of the series captures my heart just as completely.
if you actually loved this episode just swipe up. i’m begging you. for your own sake.i am about to be SO mean…
…ok you stayed. fine on you.
so the second boston started doing his little wise sage routine i was like. i’m sorry. WHAT. did the writers watch their own show?? bc boston did not change. like at ALL. you spent half the season reminding us he’s still a mess and now suddenly he’s beaming light out of his pores helping ppl find themselves????
is he the patron saint of gmmtv now???
first half i was honestly fine. mildly annoyed we got robbed of a jossgawin bed scene but whatever i’ll live. and then the ending happened and i had to sit there for like a full minute deciding if i was gonna let it go or absolutely lose it
reader. i lost it.
the buildup is just. not there. tua spent EIGHT episodes being quiet and bottled up and repressed and then jack tells arnold “dean wore tua’s shirt one time and tua detonated ONCE”
that’s the trigger?? a shirt??
then he sees the video and goes thermonuclear. tables flipped. screaming. relationships ended. world ended. i was sitting here like did he get hit by a truck between scenes and come back as a different guy. he just spends the rest of the ep going from room to room blowing things up. if gawin wasn’t acting his entire ass off i would’ve closed the app.
AND. the mouth wiping. why. WHY. tua is just out here with a tissue at all times. at the house. at the amusement park. constantly dabbing this man’s mouth like he’s a toddler with juice. you know what that scene reminded me of? nothing. it had zero intimacy. go watch vice versa and look at how that kind of moment is supposed to feel. tension. chemistry. weight. this was just. dental hygiene.
these two are supposed to be IN LOVE. give me anything else. literally anything.
and arnold. what did he even do this ep. let me check my notes:
– showed some skin
– got his mouth wiped
– apologized
that’s the whole list. you couldn’t have him show up at the house screaming?? drag boston out?? lose it once?? no. he just calls and sighs so boston can put on his therapist hat.
and JACK. okay. so we care about purity now?? sir. people keep saying dean sleeps around and i’m sitting here like. with who?? when?? this man hasn’t even kissed arnold. meanwhile who’s been sleeping with dean all season. JACK. it’s been jack. and i’m supposed to buy him nuking the relationship over a video where literally nothing happens?? no kiss no confirmation just vibes and a really active imagination?? if it was an actual makeout fine sure go off. but this??
and he just ends it. on the spot. ok.
raffy and rome i’m not even gonna get into bc:
last ep: scorched earth
this ep: actually i’m good :)
raffy listens to one (1) song and decides revenge is cancelled. rome walks in being mildly nice and suddenly everyone’s healed. this man was talking about ruining lives last week and now he’s quitting acting?? does rome have a spotify playlist with hypnosis on it?? what is happening
and the rehearsal scene. everyone is in shambles. people are screaming. relationships are imploding. and jack goes “ok guys rehearsal time :)” REHEARSE WHAT. this is a college theater club. real people would walk OUT. you’d be on your knees begging them to come back. but no everyone just. settles down. and rehearses. cool.
now boston. if you wanna redeem him then DO IT. don’t keep showing him being messy with arnold and trying stuff with raffy and then in the same ep have him giving out wisdom like he just got licensed. when did he get the degree. offscreen??
and i’m not even asking for much. give me ONE moment of hesitation. one crack. tua leans in, boston freezes, thinks of nick, pulls back. done. that’s all i needed. instead we get “you’ll regret sleeping with me i used to be terrible” plus those little interview cutaways telling me he’s a Better Person Now. stop telling me. SHOW me.
and then gameplay just. appears. no buildup no weight no nothing. shows up. hugs. leaves.
cool.
i was gonna wait til the finale to go off but this ep cracked me. the writing just does whatever it feels like that day. characters get personality transplants between scenes. no buildup no continuity no logic. genuinely starting to feel like the entire cast got hit by the same car and woke up as different people.
what IS this show.
i’m mad 😤
and of course. OF COURSE. it hit #1 trending in thailand.
Loving the show but two nitpicks from ep 8 (minor spoilers)
First off, I’m still really into Sammy’s Children’s Day. We’re basically at the finale now and I’m hooked on every episode. This isn’t a hate post.
Two little things bugged me though:
1. The show’s set in Kowloon, so why is there a left hand drive car in the shot? Hong Kong uses right hand drive. Small detail, but once you notice it you can’t unsee it.
2. In the scene where He Chusan is pulling glass out of Xia Liuyi’s chest, the shards are going straight into bare skin like he was shirtless. But earlier that same day he’s clearly wearing a shirt and a jacket, so wardrobe and SFX didn’t fully sync up there.
Still a great episode overall and I’m excited for the finale.
26 
38 
2 
3 
2 
1 
3 
2 
3 
1 
2 
15 
Because let’s be honest: most BLs spend three episodes building an entire cinematic universe and then forget to let the leads, you know, actually like each other. This show? Not that kind of show. It’s balancing the setup, the action, the comedy, the detective-mystery thread, and the slow-burn tension with the kind of ease that almost feels smug about it. And it knows.
Episode 3 had chaos, charm, simmering tension, and just enough emotional payoff to ruin my week in the best way. The Jujutsu scene? A choice. A correct one. The host stage performance? Genuinely deserves its own award. This wasn’t an episode doing the assignment. This was an episode showing the class how.
When a BL can give me story, chemistry, and entertainment without dropping a single ball, I’m not just watching. I’m seated, locked in, and taking it personally.
The reason isn’t complicated. Chinese BL has been surviving lately through what people have taken to calling “offshore” production, a workaround that lets these stories exist at all in the face of censorship. For anyone who follows the genre, that’s not a minor development. It’s the difference between a tradition that quietly disappears and one that finds a way to keep speaking, even if it has to whisper.
So when fans inside China start referring to this show by code names like “361” or “19 squared,” inventing a whole vocabulary just to talk about a show they love, something in me responds to it. Watching from a place where I don’t have to encrypt my enthusiasm, I feel a kind of obligation, or maybe just the pull of solidarity, to throw whatever support I can behind it.
The source material was never going to fit comfortably into a single season. And the actors who signed onto a project like this are taking on something real, which isn’t lost on me. I hope what they’ve done doesn’t turn into a quiet sacrifice that nobody acknowledges. I hope it gets the recognition it deserves. More than anything, I hope the story gets to continue. A second season, a third, whatever they’re willing to give.
What sets this one apart is the way it inverts the script you usually expect. Liuyi, the gang boss, the hardened one, is written as the bottom. Chusan, softer and more bookish, is the top. That single reversal reshapes the whole emotional architecture of the relationship. Add in the lesbian gangster character and the corruption investigation running alongside the romance, and you have something with actual weight to it. You can read it as social commentary, as gender subversion, or simply as sharp writing, but in any reading there’s more going on than the BL label tends to promise.
The scene I keep returning to is the one after the confession, when Liuyi is alone in Chusan’s room, rehearsing the words “You’re back” again and again, as if practice could conjure the moment. And later, once Chusan is safe, the quiet instruction: wait for me to come home. That repetition, that act of waiting, lingers long after the scene ends. And I don’t think it’s only the characters who are waiting. The audience is, too.
I also love how the bet works as a shield, giving them an excuse to keep circling each other without having to say out loud what’s really happening. It makes every look between them land harder. Episode 2 had me hooked, and now I need Episode 3 immediately.
The school form looks so ordinary at first. It’s just Azuma helping his nephew, a high school student, figure out what comes next, what he wants to do after graduation, where his future is supposed to go. But in this story, that small form feels heavier than it should. It’s not just about choosing a school or a path. It’s about how much pressure there is to already know yourself, and how scary it is when you don’t. That’s why Azuma’s reaction matters so much. He’s not treating it like some simple paperwork thing. He understands, even if he doesn’t say it directly, that a future can feel confusing at any age.
Then there’s the brother’s visit, and that’s where the emotional weight really deepens. Kuji has always seen himself as the one who came second, the one who didn’t measure up. But the brother is carrying his own version of the story too. He believes their father favored Kuji, that Kuji was the one allowed into the study, the one who got access to something he never did. So when he opens that room and feels how stuffy it is, then sees the window and the view outside, it hits differently. It’s such a small moment, but it says so much. He’s realizing that what looked like privilege was also a kind of separation. He wasn’t inside that room, but he also wasn’t part of the father’s world in the way he thought he should have been.
And then the postcard about the grave relocation comes at the end, and that changes the mood completely. It’s such a quiet detail, but it opens up a different kind of loss. Kuji still goes to that grave, so the doctor still matters to him in a real way, not just as a memory. When the family says the grave has to be moved, it feels like even the place where grief has been resting is being disturbed. That’s what makes it hurt. It’s not just that someone died long ago. It’s that even the place tied to that person is no longer staying the same.
That’s why I like this episode so much. Nobody says everything out loud. The brother doesn’t fully explain his hurt, and Kuji doesn’t suddenly confess all of his guilt either. But you can feel both of them understanding a little more than before. Azuma is the same way. He never crowds Kuji. He doesn’t force a conversation, doesn’t push for answers, doesn’t act like grief has a schedule. He just sits there. That kind of quiet support hit harder than anything more polished could’ve. It’s also why the relationship feels like middle-aged love to me. It’s not about dramatic declarations. It’s about timing, patience, and knowing when not to push.
The whole episode feels like people circling around things they’ve never fully said. A school form. A brother coming home. A postcard at the end. None of it is huge on its own, but together it leaves this soft, painful aftertaste that feels very true to the show.
And true, Boston does have lines he won’t cross. But that’s exactly my issue. The show keeps showing him being messy AND principled in the same episode, so it just feels inconsistent. Pick a lane!
For a fleeting moment, my mind wandered to Patrick Süskind’s Das Parfum: Die Geschichte eines Mörders. But I have full faith that Thai BL isn’t about to take us down that particular rabbit hole of darkness.
Then Palmy’s “ซ่อนกลิ่น” (Sorn Klin / Hidden Scent) started playing, and I knew this one is going to be mine. Years ago, that song single-handedly hijacked my playlist despite the fact that I don’t really do Asian pop. I had it on loop for days, utterly under its spell. Here’s hoping the rest of the series captures my heart just as completely.
https://youtu.be/wqJsZYibWcI?si=kV-cJIxl-oGyrHGg
When Promek asked Solar how he would comfort him, then turned around and offered Solar that very same comfort, my heart simply broke open.
And every time I think of all Sun has endured, and that we may be losing him soon, the tears find me again.
Yet once the crying settles, my heart feels warm and sunlit. What a gift.
so the second boston started doing his little wise sage routine i was like. i’m sorry. WHAT. did the writers watch their own show?? bc boston did not change. like at ALL. you spent half the season reminding us he’s still a mess and now suddenly he’s beaming light out of his pores helping ppl find themselves????
is he the patron saint of gmmtv now???
first half i was honestly fine. mildly annoyed we got robbed of a jossgawin bed scene but whatever i’ll live. and then the ending happened and i had to sit there for like a full minute deciding if i was gonna let it go or absolutely lose it
reader. i lost it.
the buildup is just. not there. tua spent EIGHT episodes being quiet and bottled up and repressed and then jack tells arnold “dean wore tua’s shirt one time and tua detonated ONCE”
that’s the trigger?? a shirt??
then he sees the video and goes thermonuclear. tables flipped. screaming. relationships ended. world ended. i was sitting here like did he get hit by a truck between scenes and come back as a different guy. he just spends the rest of the ep going from room to room blowing things up. if gawin wasn’t acting his entire ass off i would’ve closed the app.
AND. the mouth wiping. why. WHY. tua is just out here with a tissue at all times. at the house. at the amusement park. constantly dabbing this man’s mouth like he’s a toddler with juice. you know what that scene reminded me of? nothing. it had zero intimacy. go watch vice versa and look at how that kind of moment is supposed to feel. tension. chemistry. weight. this was just. dental hygiene.
these two are supposed to be IN LOVE. give me anything else. literally anything.
and arnold. what did he even do this ep. let me check my notes:
– showed some skin
– got his mouth wiped
– apologized
that’s the whole list. you couldn’t have him show up at the house screaming?? drag boston out?? lose it once?? no. he just calls and sighs so boston can put on his therapist hat.
and JACK. okay. so we care about purity now?? sir. people keep saying dean sleeps around and i’m sitting here like. with who?? when?? this man hasn’t even kissed arnold. meanwhile who’s been sleeping with dean all season. JACK. it’s been jack. and i’m supposed to buy him nuking the relationship over a video where literally nothing happens?? no kiss no confirmation just vibes and a really active imagination?? if it was an actual makeout fine sure go off. but this??
and he just ends it. on the spot. ok.
raffy and rome i’m not even gonna get into bc:
last ep: scorched earth
this ep: actually i’m good :)
raffy listens to one (1) song and decides revenge is cancelled. rome walks in being mildly nice and suddenly everyone’s healed. this man was talking about ruining lives last week and now he’s quitting acting?? does rome have a spotify playlist with hypnosis on it?? what is happening
and the rehearsal scene. everyone is in shambles. people are screaming. relationships are imploding. and jack goes “ok guys rehearsal time :)” REHEARSE WHAT. this is a college theater club. real people would walk OUT. you’d be on your knees begging them to come back. but no everyone just. settles down. and rehearses. cool.
now boston. if you wanna redeem him then DO IT. don’t keep showing him being messy with arnold and trying stuff with raffy and then in the same ep have him giving out wisdom like he just got licensed. when did he get the degree. offscreen??
and i’m not even asking for much. give me ONE moment of hesitation. one crack. tua leans in, boston freezes, thinks of nick, pulls back. done. that’s all i needed. instead we get “you’ll regret sleeping with me i used to be terrible” plus those little interview cutaways telling me he’s a Better Person Now. stop telling me. SHOW me.
and then gameplay just. appears. no buildup no weight no nothing. shows up. hugs. leaves.
cool.
i was gonna wait til the finale to go off but this ep cracked me. the writing just does whatever it feels like that day. characters get personality transplants between scenes. no buildup no continuity no logic. genuinely starting to feel like the entire cast got hit by the same car and woke up as different people.
what IS this show.
i’m mad 😤
and of course. OF COURSE. it hit #1 trending in thailand.
obviously.
i am about to be SO mean and the swearing is gonna be unhinged ^^/
last warning. go.
First off, I’m still really into Sammy’s Children’s Day. We’re basically at the finale now and I’m hooked on every episode. This isn’t a hate post.
Two little things bugged me though:
1. The show’s set in Kowloon, so why is there a left hand drive car in the shot? Hong Kong uses right hand drive. Small detail, but once you notice it you can’t unsee it.
2. In the scene where He Chusan is pulling glass out of Xia Liuyi’s chest, the shards are going straight into bare skin like he was shirtless. But earlier that same day he’s clearly wearing a shirt and a jacket, so wardrobe and SFX didn’t fully sync up there.
Still a great episode overall and I’m excited for the finale.