Must-watch summer drama with a unique storyline, oozing with sweetness and filled with emotions

If you are looking for a cute, sweet, and funny romance drama with great acting, this is a must-watch!
(scroll to the bottom for the drama filming incident backstory)

Hidden Love is my favourite school & life romance drama this year, with a familiar type of storyline plus a slightly different twist from the usual. The story revolves around the main characters and how they grow individually to eventually become people suitable and good for each other.

The first thing I loved about this drama was how it did away with the usual sad-life female lead and a rich-with-everything male lead. This drama kind of flipped the roles around but both characters remained on equal grounds and treated each other with respect, with both of them equal grounds throughout.

Next, character growth was great in this drama. I absolutely appreciated how they portrayed Sang Zhi, from when she was young till she grew into a fully grown adult. If filmed badly, it could easily be sending the wrong message about childhood crushes and having underage relationships. However, the Hidden Love crew did fantastic by showing how Sang Zhi saw Jia Xu as a really nice brother and wished for him to be her brother instead, resolving any possible mislead. Same for how Jia Xu was portrayed, as they showed how he only treated her as a young kid until she was in university to prevent misleads. Props to the crew!

Lastly, the actors were amazing. Every sweet scene had me screaming, and every tearful scene made me sacrifice tissues. The actors made the scenes believable, and I could feel the happiness and sadness along with them through the screen. It was so heartening to see how all characters played their role seriously, working together to make the scenes relatable, no matter funny or emotionally heavy.

This summer, Hidden Love brought me lots of happiness and laughter in a short span of less than 3 weeks. As mentioned, there were tears involved as well, but it was all worth it. Although this might seem like a pure romance drama, I deeply appreciate the realistic parts of the drama to balance everything out. Jia Xu's character taught us how hard work can change things, even when your whole world looks like it's collapsing, and days will get better eventually. Sang Zhi showed us how we have to grow and mature as we age, to become our better selves, so that we can care for the people around us who matter.

Bonus; the OSTs were all so good, one of my favourite drama OST list by far.

Just to share, the original director of Hidden Love actually left the crew before shortly before filming started, and the drama faced problems with casting and wardrobe - they only had outfits to last for 2 days.
Lu Si (female lead), invited actors she knew (previous drama partners & friends) to take up the characters appropriately. Also, she went around looking for brands to sponsor outfits for the other characters and helped with their wardrobe styling as well. Lastly, Lu Si even personally designed Sang Zhi's character further by choosing accessories and props that fit the character well. Without all these efforts, the drama could have been unable to push through.

10/10 for the actors' efforts in scenes, 10/10 for OSTs, and 10/10 in my heart, there was nothing in the plot I wanted to deduct points for, so Hidden Love is 10/10 in all!

See you next time, peach

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A sweet and comfortable love story, ever so slightly heart-clenching

If you are looking for a minimal-stress, comfortable love story, this one's for you!

This is the most stress-free youthful love story in 2023 by far, with slightly heart-clenching stories that are not hard to watch. With a relatively simple storyline, it successfully showed us how a simple one-sided love develops into a lifelong
relationship, and tells the story of each character and how their surroundings sculpted their character while they grow.

In this drama, there are multiple layers of relations such as self-esteem, family, friendships, and couple relationships. Everyone had their own stories and struggles (not too dramatic), and I clenched my heart for every one of them when watching their stories unfold. This drama touched on some important life stories in the most lighthearted way possible, without dragging problems or conflicts on for too long in the plot.

The main casts were all great in their roles, and the whole drama was so comfortable and enjoyable! All of them could speak up at the right time and worked hard while standing up for everything they believed in. They were all so mature when it came down to important issues and could be playful when it was allowed. I cannot explain further how much I loved the way the characters were written.

Throughout the whole drama, I laughed (and cried a little) along with the characters. I could sometimes relate to their struggles, being sad with them whenever something negative happened, and feeling proud whenever they achieved something great. It was like looking back at my youth, and seeing character development (without too much of a heavy plot) felt really enjoyable as well.
Since there was nothing in the plot for which I had to deduct points, When I Fly Towards You fully deserves 10 points from me!

See you next time, peach

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Simple, interesting plot for pastime

A short suspense, investigation drama that kept me interested.
The main characters are efficient with their jobs, and whilst there is chemistry between the 2, it is not heavily emphasised and the main story flow is still focused on the case investigations. Although there were only 2 cases, they were really enjoyable and kept me immersed in suspense every step of the way. since it was only 12 eps, it was also just the right length to prevent people from getting bored and burnt out. I also loved the way scenes were filmed, with cinematography and colour grading just right to fit a suspenseful atmosphere.

1 point deducted for certain impractical scenarios and extra sound effects; Personnel related directly to the deceased and possible suspects could participate in investigations & some sound effects were very purposefully added. Another 0.5 point deducted was for the s*xual scenes that seemed really unnecessary (it did successfully give me goosebumps if that was the intention) which felt very extra and really stuck out from the plot.

The final review is that it's worth watching if you wish to keep yourself entertained with a show that is interesting and packed. But if you're looking for shows with deep-rooted plots and well-written background stories, this might be too short for you (after all it's only a web drama)!

See you next time, peach

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Breaking stereotypes, more than just a cute plot with cringey lines

A non-cringe, healthy, and progressive storyline that breaks Thai BL stereotypes. PatPran portrayed their emotions so well and I could always feel the emotions of the scene even without conversations. It's cute, serious, and funny all in one, and it filled my heart to the brim after watching their story. I love how the scenes just make sense from layering one after another and how some quotes can be used for multiple scenarios in the series. This show really showed how you can love someone in many different ways without having to verbalise in plain words, and also fully expressed how love is love, regardless of gender. no unnecessary drama, just full of great content, bad buddy is my series of the year. Extra shoutout to the OSTs, super cute and really expressed the POVs of Pran alone, Pat alone, and then PatPran POV together.
0.5 deducted cause of minor impractical ways the casts communicated (e.g. in the middle of stairs) and rare actors' lack of immersion making some scenes seem less realistic.

I personally loved it because this show broke stereotypes, and showed us that Thai BLs could be so much more than goosebumps-filled plots and scripted gazes. It was not only a show, but also an educational journey of acceptance and living in the modern era, not forcing society to accept us, but not forcing ourselves to conform to society.

See you next time, peach

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Went in with low expectations but thoroughly surprised

This was one of my best historical investigation drama finds by far. With a strong plot and great cast, The Imperial Coroner took me by surprise as I went in with low expectations. Although this drama did not have a high budget, it was impressive how the crew still managed to produce such great work.

Firstly, the plot was well thought out, with many objects or topics (伏笔) that were planted in early parts of the drama, only to be brought up again after the audience had forgotten about them almost completely. The plot also flowed smoothly, explaining how the characters meet realistically (no cliche romance trope), with each character having a strong background whether it was relating to friends, family, or colleagues.

Next, I really need to emphasise on the visuals — literally. The sketches, illustrations, and cute cartoon characters shown when explaining complicated concepts were very appreciated!! The team really considered their audience with insertions of these illustrations, making all those complicated concepts much easier to understand and also interesting to watch. Other than that, the realism of each scene was also great (e.g. night looked like night, getting stuck in fire & in the cave, etc.).

Lastly, one of my favourites was how every character had brains and could think and work independently or as a team. We could witness the growth of trust between XJY & CC , and how the team (XJY, JY, CC, LY, XJL) worked better with each other after understanding each other better. Each of them took the lead for what they were good at and did not try to act smart when it came to areas not to their expertise. It made the whole plot seem more realistic, similar to how people actually work in real life.

0.5 deducted just because the last 1-2 eps started getting slightly draggy trying to stop the antagonist.

This was a great drama that I immensely enjoyed. It's a well-paced story with (almost) no overly ridiculous romance and draggy scenes, along with complicated concepts that were made dummy-proof.

All in all, I loved it and shall pray for the day another drama like this comes along.


See you next time, peach

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This gave me confusing feelings

honestly, im only giving it 7/10 because of ramking and frongthara (who are obviously really cute). the main couple - duen and bohn just really didnt make much sense to me.. in terms of pretty much anything. i didnt feel like they were cute or that they had much chemistry. i get that some bl series might portray shy couples, but to the extend where even the kissing was so mild and rare, it just didnt make me squeal (like i did for other bl series). also, the drama between them was so repetitive that i just went "again??" when it happened. the trust issues were uncomfortable cause it just wasnt natural to have same issues happening over and over in a 14 ep series.

lets talk about the side couples. i loved loved LOVED the chemistry between ram and king. they started so subtly that just made it even cuter. the progression between these two were also appropriate, from the gradual attitude adjustment of ram, to the way king went from "im curious cause i think he's weird", to showing genuine concern for ram. it was so nice to see that the relationship wasnt rushed and was natural without weird slow-mos and "imaginations" that bl series often like to include. i honestly cant wait to watch more of them.

frong and thara were pretty good but not as cute as ramking yet (which im sure will change in s2). they left lots of space for character progression as well, which was okay, as we will get to see many more fresh sides of them in the next season. the way they met was a little abrupt to me though, so i got confused for a moment about what was happening. it was probably due to the way scenes were changed from one to another, and how a chunk of frong and thara scenes were inserted suddenly, so it was a little unnatural at the start. the other parts of it were fine though, and im also looking forward to them in s2, so its good enough for me as of now.

for mek and boss.. tbh they should be cute, but i just couldnt feel anything with that dubbing, so i wont be commenting on them cause it might be just my own issue lmao.

anyway, when s2 comes out i'll (TRY TO) watch and review it as well. hopefully we will see them tackling more bl stereotypes (like the top-bottom issue) which is, unfortunately, not recognised enough by people yet.

so, is this worth glueing your eyes to?
good for passing time (and watching cute boys), but if youre looking for a quality series targetting serious topics, this might not be for you.

thanks for reading!
love, peach

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