Fahlanruk

If this was a university project...

If this series was a movie-length, or a four-episode short series made as a university project, this could have been acceptable. However, as a full-length series, this fell quite short.

I see things through to the end, but this was a struggle. I could see so much potential, in not only the story, but in the actors as well, but it didn't meet expectations. The story really isn't bad. You get two people who just live day to day, and don't put too much thought or feeling into anything other than their own physical needs. Fah has a boyfriend, but sleeps around, and Sher is a habitual one-night-stander. They meet, physical sparks ignite, and each feels a tiny magnet pull to the other.

Where this series landed on it's face, for me, was the script... The constant cat/mouse games, followed by things going well, only to completely derail at the drop of a hat? The utter lack of communication (which, let's be honest, it on par with other BL series), was maddening. Fah needed a wake up call, and Sher needed a (non-kinky) spanking. Yes, I realize these are college-aged men learning the ways of the world, but jeesus... I'm a hopeless romantic and will always believe that love conquers all, but even I didn't want Fah and Sher to end up together. The last episode was the best of the series, but I'm not sure if that's due to content or if it's because it was the end of this whole mess.

And where the $#&% did Sher being an internationally known musician come from??? Make it make sense.

Gear and Prince was a cute and fluffy distraction. Tap and Ping took way longer than they should have to admit their feelings to one another. Neither of the side couples grabbed on to the spotlight, but I'm sure some of us only held on to watch the rest of the series because of them.

I will give it this: at least I wasn't bored. It's like watching a trainwreck, or an episode of Maury.

James could go far, with a better script. I see a lot of potential in him. Tonkhao needs an intimacy coach, bc I would have preferred no NC/kissing scenes to what we were given. First and foremost, I want a series with a good story and script. I do not need the couples to be all over each other and hella NC scenes to enjoy a series, but Tonkhao and James looked stiff and uncomfortable kissing each other. James looked like he was trying to put in more effort, but Tonkhao... meh.

Overall, with a better script and more acting workshops, I do think this series could have been better. As is, it's a 5.5 for me...

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Every Character Needs Therapy ASAP !!

Okay , the Tap and Ping situation is so lame and I’m getting hella tired of the lack of communication from Fahlan and Sher like wtf. I get why Fah is mad at Sher and Prince bc it’s like he told them the excessive touching and pda makes him uncomfortable and they continuously make it a point to do it directly in his presence. Also Sher not making it clear what their relationship is annoying af and I understand why Fah is frustrated but at the same time he needs to stand tf up bc how many times does somebody need to tell you AND show you that they’re not serious about you.
Overall after giving it some thought this show is BAD. Firstly the portrayal of a toxic and abuse relationship that’s seemingly normalized in this series and secondly the lack of communication in all three relationships but especially in FahSher and PingTap is damn near unbearable. And I mean I kinda get what the creators were going for with this storyline (that all relationships aren’t perfect or whatever trying to show more substance) but god damn they took it to an extreme bc why am I watching Sher beat on Fah every episode .. and Fah doing nothing about it but crying (also having no support) and his friends/ other schoolmates even encouraging him to make up with Sher ?!?!! Sher needs his ass beat , Fahlan needs some self respect and a backbone and EVERYBODY in this show needs to go to therapy expeditiously .. ughhhh

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Do not waste your time.

I’ve never written a review but felt compelled to stop others wasting their time. The story could have been really good but the way it was produced was very disjointed and quite repetitive. I was pee’d off in the first episode when a trans girl was misgendered for the sake of comedy, so I had my back up before the story really started. The lead actors were having the least convincing romance ever. Their kissing was comical! Actually I do recommend watching a kissing scene just for comedy value, I would describe it as two dead fish kissing each other. I can’t explain how bad it was without giving spoilers, so all I’ll do is recommend a much better, underrated BL to watch instead…….. why not give why R U? A try instead? It’s 100x better lol

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What happens when 2 toxic people like each other?

This series certainly doesn't answer that question. It is a convoluted mess of multiple characters all concerned about just one goal and that is to get the 2 leads to be in a relationship. The story line had so much potential but the writer just couldn't understand what to do with the 2 toxic leads and just added multiple characters with no other motivation but to hope and pray that these 2 seriously broken people fall in love.
To summarize, the story, is about two playboys who meet and decide to be friends with benefits. But the first lead (Fahlan) can't help himself from being jealous, become a push-over and get punched and slapped multiple times. Next we have Sherbert, who can't stop himself from fighting with Fahlan over everything, cry, drink, forgive Fahlan, have sex, rinse and repeat.
And then you have a wide variety of supportive characters who only talk about what Fah and Sher are doing. "Are they together? Have they broken-up? " OMG! find a hobby. So many characters have been introduced that you cant keep pace with what is happening. Fah's 2 friends, Sher's twin brother and his lover interest, and his half-brother, Sher's best friend and his love interest, a fujoshi and her love interest and other random set of characters that dont play any role in furthering the story. Instead they just tell you what you have already seen.
The strangest thing that I have seen in this series is the amount of time these characters go to eat or drink. In fact they just eat, talk, fight and drink and go back to eating. You can righfully call the food and drinks as supportive characters for how often its on screen and being talked about.
In conclusion, take heed from all the other reviews and either skip this series or watch it using the fast forward button like I did.

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Nong Sao's First Bad Boys BL

For all the attitude some of the young men throw, this is fluff and pretty tame. There's a lot of simulated drinking and drunkenness, which is one way of creating situation while avoiding plot beyond the relationships; a lot of badly simulated sex, which is another way of avoiding plot; gossiping, gossiping, and more gossiping; some violence and young men who either can't control their emotions/behaviours or struggle to express them.

As far as red flags go, these are comparatively pink, like a teenage girl's fantasy of bad boys. (And perhaps young fantasies, gleaned from screens rather than experience, of what supposedly constitutes passion and hot sex? It's not that sort of wasted movement head thrashing.) It does still romanticise common het tropes (and this is just het romantic drama recast with boys and extra shower/fake sex scenes) like being the one who'll change him - even if the one who does is another fantasy bad boy. So I'm both wary of what this normalises and aware that this is a drop in the bucket of what we all see.

When it settles down, it does makes some stabs at exploring the characters' emotions with a fair bit of intelligence. Points for that, although it's all brief. Friends give good advice, eventually it's listened to and poof, the magic of love prevails. After some more melodrama from the relationships of course, since that's what drives the story. It's not like there's anything else.

I lost count of how many katoey characters they wrote in to serve as bitchy girls (with suitable genitalia of course) to be defeated by the true love of our heroines, erm heroes.

Anyway, it has some good moments amongst the questionable ones but overall it's not great drama. James did deliver his girl-coded bad boy Sherbet reasonably well.

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This is the most toxic series I have EVER seen.

Show so toxic and bad it lowkey got me hooked. I'm not gonna lie, when I first saw all the hate comments I was taken back from watching it. I was very hesitant about watching this series due to it. The first episode is horrible, bad but after episode 4 it got meee. And yes, this is the most toxic show I've ever watched and I mean it. The description seemed extremely complicated but I had high hopes for this series. It never mentioned how toxic it was though hahaha. I defiantly wasn't prepared for that. I always have the mindset to just watch it before complaining even if the reviews are bad.

The first episode was so bad it almost got me quitting and dropping this series completely but I'm happy I didn't. I was really confused at first. First episode was an absolute mess.. I didn't know who played what and the introduction was messy aswell. Normally you get to know the characters in the first episode but here they just straight up go to the plot. I have to say I was enjoying it even if it wasn't... amazing. I was hella distracted and it bored me. What irritated me the most is that every 5 minutes a new character was introduced. After the whole first episode the first thing that came to my mind was "wtf was this about again?" I was really about to drop it but decided to watch at least 4/5 episodes. The fact Fahlan and Sherbet barely had any screen time in this episode is crazy even though they're the main characters.

I think around episode 4 that it started clicking. The plot was kinda repeating itself but that's actually what made me like it. It was just the whole time like: sweet love moment > someone has a crush on Fahlan > Sherbet is jealous, causes a new fights and says they're just friends > they make up but Fahlan is the one who fixes it. I love their relationship struggles because each time they keep on growing closer and it just makes it feel more natural. I have to say, I love how self aware SOME of the characters are. The character development is amazing and their growth as well.

I don't like Sherbet at all, he pisses me off. IDGAF that Sher has any trauma from his dad divorcing he is a red fag period, I love him being a red flag because it really made some extra tension and growth. I don't understand what is going on in his head at all, but the scene's really make you show his side as well. I get so bad for Fahlan who had to keep calling him or chasing him to get him back. I'm not gonna lie, after 3 times this would never be very realistic. Sher was pretty manipulative aswell.

Hot take: I saw people having reviews mentioning the bad kisses. Are you watching this pure for the NC? I feel like this show has way too many NC and I feel like half of the bad reviews are coming because of this. NC doesn't have to be 'good' to give the suggestion they did something. Pink was pissing me off with her annoying quotes in the beginning of the episodes. Not only that but her obsession over 2 guys feels like a fetish and I DONT like it. I just can't understand it when series add a role like hers. Fujoshi's aren't weird to me at all but when their whole personality is liking bl and

I love this and you don't have to but please give it a chance. I think there are to many people hating and lowkey... this is good.

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Cringe-tastic

I've watched a LOT of BL and I gotta say this one has left me with the most mixed feelings.
First 4ish eps were the best and I binge watched the entire series. After that it got confusing where they started adding in random/unnecessary characters, the same dramatics and pitiful smackdowns. The MCs literally argued over the same thing everytime and the facial expressions of everyone had me cringe mode! The "hickies" had me dying. It's clear everyone is a new and upcoming actor so with that in mind the series wasn't too bad. There's a lot of gay people at that college and I believe everyone low key has a drinking problem lmao
Wouldn't recommend but not so bad I'd drop it

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Mishap, over and over again.

The plot is there; but it kept being spoiled by drunken people, unnecessary intimacy moments and merely repeating bad plot twists. Repeating the same jealousy moment really did annoy me. "I understand how you feel" ee hia~

Part of me did plan to drop this story halfway; however, GearPrince & TapPing made me not to give me, as I wanted to know what happens to them. They are so adorable with each other. The drama was there; conflicts occurs and resolves it within short period - unlike the main characters.

I'll give it to James as he managed to carry two characters in the movie. He delivers them well by their own individual characteristic. Nevertheless all of them still need to somewhat amend their acting skills.

Their ost is nice. I loved it.

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I thought it was good... I was wrong.

At first, I only watched two episodes and took a looooong break from seeing BLs (as I always do), but the last note I wrote was "So cute and horny at the same time!!!"... I changed my mind, this series is a HOT MESS, some couples are cute like Prince & Gear and Ping & Tap, but them being so dependent of Fah & Sher to develop makes them worst, and let's not even discuss Fah & Sher bc this couple is so so SO toxic. The advertisement of thar serum was so on my face that always got me out of the fantasy of the show. A lot of couples, storylines and characters that should've been more developed didn't, like Pink & Tar, Sher's relationship with his father, Tam's boyfriend's amnesia (he was so forgetable, i'm sorry lol) and Charles. And another thing recurrent in these BLs, not just Fahlanruk, that I hate is putting femme boys as villains, there's not a femme one who isn't annoying or straight up evil, that's messy. Anyways, if it wasn't for those two other couples ' little development and Namwan being the smartest person in this whole show, this would've been a 1/10, unfortunately. Some of them are cute, and need another chance than THIS, even tho their acting skills aren't the greatest, but this is very normal in these shows.

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Main leads are super trashy, I stayed for Ping and Tap instead

Fahlan, the first male lead, is a walking red flag - he has no qualms gaslighting his lovers and exhibits alarmingly toxic behaviour when it comes to pursuing others. In the initial stage, it’s unclear if he really has feelings for Sherbet or just wants to win the game of pursuit.

The other male lead, Sherbet, is not any better as he’s drunk half the time. His personality is intended to be sassy, but comes off as arrogant and unlikeable. Both of them are constantly being surrounded by people but their hearts are empty, even if their beds aren’t.

At some point, I decided to fast forward the boring bits (read: all their lame misunderstandings) because their chemistry was nothing to shout about. For all its trashiness, the only reason why I stayed until the end was because of a side couple.

I’m a sucker for the friends-turned-lovers storylines so Ping and Tap. Ping thinks that his love for Tap is unrequited, and Tap does take awhile to come around. The process of how they came to acknowledge and act on their feelings for each other – starting from the small gestures and then progressing into more obvious behaviour – was really quite sweet.

Full review: https://asianblreviews.wordpress.com/2022/11/30/fahlanruk-2022-review-bl/

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