Tonhon Chonlatee

I mostly disliked this show, except for Top and Mike. The plot—a guy discovering he's gay and liking his best friend—was poorly done with bad pacing. Tonhon's quick change and cheating excuses weren't believable.

Chon's character suffered from a forced plot, and Ai, Ni, and Miriam were toxic. Amp and Nueng were terrible, especially Nueng's glossed-over attempted rape. Even Chon's mom's advice felt off.

Na was the only good character—honest and supportive. The censored kisses were silly. Visually, it was nice, and some Ton and Chon moments were cute, but overall, the problematic parts ruined it, making it a frustrating watch.

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Didnt love it but definitely didn’t hate it

Honestly I liked everything but the homophobia. I know it’s a common subject in BLs, rightfully so. And the writers did a sweep job of making us dislike Ton’s father. What really triggered me was that his family was so well off and highly educated and all that jazz, then why was surrogacy not mentioned when the mom realized he was gay at a young age. If having an heir was really that crucial, then y’all could have figured this out. Now you’re paying unnecessary hospital bills lmao. I LOVED Ni and Ai (best friends and gay roommates) their scheming with Miriam was perfect! Kept me laughing the whole time.

Would I rewatch, probably not but definitely happy I took the time to finish it. 7/10, would still recommend

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It's Not great, but not terrible either

It's cute. A little frustrating, but overall cute. It's funny and a little cringe at some points, but I did enjoy it.
Could it have been better? Of course, but I'm not going to say how or why since it doesn't matter anyway.
The way the story unfolds as a typical BL plot. It can be pretty problematic at times with secret feelings all over the place, and hidden relationships, though this is the first time I've seen setting with call girls 😅

TW attempted r@pe. which was unnecessary.

My favorite characters other than the mains?
Chon's mom, she will BEAT YO A$$ for talking about TonChon in any bad way 😂😍
Na, he's honest af. He annoyed me at first, but he grew on me haha
Miriam, this girl went ABOVE AND BEYOND for all of those boys like we all need a Miriam in our lives. She'll be your pretend girlfriend/wifey, stand up to your BF's crazy ex. And when the truth comes out and now she just has 5 hubbies she'd go up to bat for any day lol
Worst Character? You'll see. There's only the one B

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A cute funny drama but also a meh

This drama had so much potential. I liked the first few episodes. The concept of falling in love with his old best friend who is now very "straight" that he has to pretend he's straight as well while his best friend doing the gayest shit ever is so funny!

I liked Chonlatee's character very much. He is soft and cute but could also be fierce and savage if he needs to. The scene of him splashing water to Tonhon's ex gf is a scene that cleanses everyone's soul. He also doesn't easily back down. There's also this scene of him splashing a bucket of water at Tonhon even when Tonhon was being depicted as tired and pitiful after cheating showing how he doesn't get easily swayed and stands by his words that he hates cheating the most.

Just wished they made Tonhon more likeable from the start because when Na had a character development, I began rooting for him than Tonhon. I didn't get as satisfied as I thought I would be when Tonhon and Chonlatee ended up together because I liked Na more. And Tonhon kissing his ex gf just to prove his "masculinity" was a shitty writing for his character. His role was to show everyone that masculinity does not equate with sexual orientation or gender, but at the end, he cheated to boost his ego and disrespected his partner. How he also got back together with Chonlatee don't sit right with me. He explained that he also liked him even when they were still kids, and that doesn't cover up his wrongdoings but Chonlatee forgave him because of that.

The ending was good though. Na having a boyfriend that he met on tiktok, Miriam being a surrogate and a millionaire, Ai and Ni still a strong couple, and Tonhon and Chonlatee expecting a baby satisfied me. The side characters are also loveable! Pang being the bestest friend everyone needs in their life and Chonlatee's mom being the bestest mom ever in the whole bl universe!!

Just a few character writing issues but it was a good series.

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had potential

i was really excited to watch this because it has some of my favorite bl actors, and while the acting is pretty good, the writing is awful. tonhon is an awful, irredeemable person, he's so homophobic and oblivious. the stuff with his dad wasn't in the book so i don't know why they added it, it doesn't add anything to the story. ai and ni pretty cute, but the scene where they forced chon to come out to them was shitty. and it doesn't make sense that ton didn't know they were dating like he did in the book. it could have been a cute story about childhood friends to lovers, but it ends up as an awful hot mess.

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The pacing was terrible!

This BL is generic with the usual university and ex-girlfriend scenario. The issue I found with this show is the pacing. The build-up to this event is so prolonged that there is not enough episodes to explain and fully grasp the event. All of this drama being built up isn't suited for how many episodes this BL has. Ton's homophobia in this BL doesn't bother me, but the way they addressed it. Tonhon's character development was thought out poorly and the novel doesn't even contain that. If the character was going to portray this idea, at least not have it rushed at the end without any consequences. He didn't even apologize for his homophobia but brushed it off because Ai and Ni are his bestfriends. The only visual thing that showed that ton was changing his ways was the beach scene. I get that they tried to make it realistic, but execute it right.

Ton's homophobic actions shouldn't last half of the series then to have another arc of him realizing his feelings. We are on the last episode and he is still telling people they are actually dating. Where is the couple arc? Where is the relaxing? The acting/cast was great, but that can't substitute bad writing.

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A Secret Pleasure of Mine

This is such a feel-good series particularly currently. Honestly, I should not have liked this, but I did. It is slow, predictable, filled with the usual suspects but so much fun. I could not help laughing at its silliness and cuteness at the same time. If it were not for these actors, this would have been a total disaster. They made this series so real, so comedic, and just a joy to watch. I did not care that it had no depth to it or great message. It was just entertaining. It is a thing of beauty to watch. The ending is as unrealistic as this entire plot but so in synch with the rest of this series. This was a comedy and indeed has a happy ending (well you know what I mean). Everyone wins in the end. Do not read too much into this series. This is not a slice of life; it is essentially asking you to suspend your reality and simply enjoy a feel-good series about love between guys. There are a lot of flaws in this series from ridiculous characters, such as Amp, to crazy plot lines, like a surrogate pregnancy. But for me, it worked. Why? Because I believed the characters.
However, there were some situations in this series that made me shudder. One is the overuse of ‘hubby-wifey’ connotations. Again, I am NOT Thai, and I do NOT even pretend to know the Thai culture or customs, but for me these terms are simply cringeworthy. I am hoping we can stop using these terms to define gay relationships. I know that they might help make them more relatable to societal norms, but these terms are simply outdated and literally have no and should not have meaning in the gay world. They make it sound as if these are your assigned roles and duties, thus perpetuating the stereotypical roles of each gender.
The words that Chon's mother is so apt here and we should all remember them, “It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.” If you would like to review my full review of this series, it is posted on my free blog site at ppbongi.medium.com. I have to caution you that I actually liked this series, despite its flaws.

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A lighthearted comedy with unfortunate wasted potential

NO-SPOILER REVIEW

This series seems to have taken many shortcuts that unfortunately made for a less-than-satisfying execution on a story and cast that had lots of promise. It's still worth watching if you're a fan of the cast and as long as you keep your expectations low and enjoy it for the lighthearted comedy that it is.

Pros
- Plenty of entertaining comedic moments.
- Quite possibly one of the best mom characters in the genre.

Cons
- The series felt rushed, especially during the latter half. Some aspects were glazed over far too quickly which led to it feeling unsatisfying. Some of this may have been due to Covid-related issues.
- Lots of wasted potential in terms of the overall story and development of certain characters.
- Overly simplified dialogue and some tired tropes.

Overall
- If you keep your expectations low and understand this to be more of a casual and comedic series, this can still be an enjoyable series to watch.

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Coming Out ... Friendship...Love

I am not sure why this drama received low ratings, but I am glad I stuck to it. It is your normal drama whereby straight boy isn't sure of his feelings, towards boy next door, but as you carry on into the drama, it unfolds and you get to understand what happened.

The ML were not so bad, you could feel the chemistry and love between them, I liked how chon love didn't waiver when things got challenging for them, and the friends helped them along the way to realize they feelings for each other. Mairiam was really sweet and loving and funny throughout this drama.

The side characters were not so bad, I definitely feel that Amp should have gotten a bit more then what she deserved, and her friend who got away with almost raping the kid in the bathroom, and beating up the kid, these two characters should have a bit more punishments then just allowing to get away with the things they did.

The story itself the annoying ex- girlfriend, the father who didn't approve and many more. But that didn't annoy me as much as the damn pacing of this series! It started off with SOOOO much potential, stalled and then just went downhill with so much of stuff being stuffed in the last three episodes that if you blink, you may miss something from the story.

The epilogue 3 years later is so strange as well, was such a jump, and the pregnancy's and then their kiss at the end,

Overall: its was bad/but watchable

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Watch First Then Read the Reviews!! Great Acting, Lackluster Script

Tonhon Chonlatee has a great cast, but suffers from a terrible script. It's like whoever wrote the script had way too many ideas and threw them all together without thinking it through.

If you watch the series, I think you will enjoy it. You'll laugh and find a lot of it comedic. It's actually not that terrible to watch. The actors are good at acting, so they make up for the terrible plot. That being said if you just read the reviews without watching the series you'll misunderstand the series. It's not the greatest if you compare it to other BLs, but it's honestly not the worst series out there. I would watch this if you are bored or are waiting for your next BL series. I wouldn't expect it to be the next SOTUS or Love By Chance, but it's still a decent watch. It's really the actors that make the series a fun watch. Ignore the storyline and just enjoy their acting.

STORY:

Chonlatee has been crushing on his neighbor Tonhon since he was a kid. His mother and friends know of his gay crush and don't judge him on his sexuality. When he reunites with Tonhon he finds that Tonhon is homophobic and it stems from his father's parenting. Tonhon and Chonlatee end up rekindling their friendship, but after some questionable incidents at their university involving "misunderstandings" that Chonlatee is gay, Tonhon sets out to prove that Chonlatee is straight. While trying to prove Chonlatee's straightness, Tonhon is starting to get a little to overprotective of Chonlatee.

So.... I don't know where to begin. If you write down the main point of the plot you get what seems to be a decent storyline. However, when you start actually breaking down the story it starts to crumble. It's really like the writer tried to cram so much into this plot. There is so many things going on a once. It might just be easier to list out how many strange things going on.

1. Tonhon is supposed to be the mature, hotshot of the campus, but he acts like a kid under his parents thumb as the episodes past. What happened to the mature Tonhon from ep 1. By ep 10 he's so gullible, naive, and easily manipulated. It's quite annoying as he's a grown adult, not some kid in elementary school.

2. Ai and Ni go from gays who were clearly able to hide their gayness from Tonhon for 3 years, to being so obvious in their relationship that it's a wonder how Tonhon thought they were straight.

3. Ai and Ni's bromance? It's obvious they are a couple and that they are dating. The character themselves say so. That being said, it's a BL series. It's not a Chinese bromance. Why are all of their kisses sensored and cut out. The character were reacting to the kisses, but we never get to see even one kiss when Ai and Ni are obviously kissing in the scenes. Why? It's annoying not because we want to see the kiss, but because it's so out of place not to see the kiss when everyone is reacting to it. If no kissing is in the actor's contracts then shoot one actor from behind and make it look like they are kissing. It's not that hard to create the illusion of a kiss.

4. Mirium's entire existence in the series. While her character adds to the comedy and I enjoyed her in the show, her background and her being a gold-digger made everything kind of weird when you think about her friendship with the group.

5. We really didn't need the side plot of Tonhon's sister and her husband. That was a waste of time to watch and it wasn't even properly explained, so they created a plot hole. We also barely got any screentime with them, so no one cared if she was neglected or if he was gay or not. The ending with the cat and cosplay also threw me off. What did I just watch?

6. Tonhon's dad's homophobia isn't homophobia... If you watch the show you'll know what I mean.

7. Tonhon and Chonlatee actually getting together. First of all, they fight with each other more than they are together that it's a wonder why Tonhon fell for Chonlatee. Secondly, Tonhon's sudden confession about being in love with Chonlatee since they were kids was out of nowhere. If he loved Chonlatee from the start, he definitely didn't show it. Who takes their crush to a party and tries to set their crush up with a call-girl?

8. The ending!!!!!!!!! There is so much wrong with it. A, everything is so rushed that we don't even get to see Chonlatee and Tonhon actually make up and get together to solidify they are a couple. B, Tonhon's family, particularly his dad is strange. C, Mirium being pregnant? Show us the wedding first. I saw the wedding bands on their fingers, but it wasn't blatantly clear. I only saw it when Chonlatee was laughing. There was no ring only shot. D, the way they wrapped it up was cheap and rushed. All just sitting on the couch talking about what happened in the 3 years that passed. No thank you.


Tonhon & Chonlatee

I enjoyed watching them together. I won't lie though, it was frustrating watching Tonhon trying to prove Chonlatee is straight. Tonhon clearly had feelings for Chonlatee since the beginning, but was in denial since he was homophobic. Seeing Tonhon be so homophobic was really annoying. I don't know how Chonlatee, Ai and Ni could stand being around him.

Chonlatee was quite honest and loyal with his love for Tonhon, and was open about being gay to his family, but instead of the gay vibes, he gave me more of a "I'm gay for Tonhon" vibes. When other gays hit on him, he let Tonhon be very homophobic and I felt that was quite rude. Since the LGBTQ+ community is very small, one would assume he would at least stop Tonhon from being rude even if he wasn't outing himself.

The biggest issue I had with this couple was that I felt they didn't have chemistry. The plot was rushed, so when Tonhon said he loved Chonlatee I couldn't see it. Even the ending was rushed that I couldn't see them as a couple that dated for 3 years and was now expecting. I just can't see them as an endgame couple because they had very few scenes together where they were loving and caring to each other.

Ai & Ni (& Miriam)

I enjoyed this couple more than Tonhon and Chonlatee. They were more interesting than Tonhon or Chonlatee. I actually found myself excited for to see them. I know they didn't have a couple storyline and were literally just there to push Tonhon and Chonlatee together, but they were the best thing about this show. Even Miriam was a warm welcome. This was the golden trio and whenever they were on screen, you knew some shenanigans was going to happen.

Na (& Chonlatee)

I really wished Chonlatee ended up with Na. At first I thought Na was annoying, but every time he appeared on screen you could see he really was in love with Chonlatee. He was so selfless in his love for Chonlatee that I was kind of upset Chonlatee chose Tonhon. Na is really the perfect boyfriend and perfect friend. When he helped make Tonhon jealous and even talked to him to get Tonhon to show his feelings for Chonlatee, I was impressed. He pushed his love for Chonlatee to the side for Tonhon and even helped him open his heart. So selfless! Even though I'm disappointed Na couldn't date Chonlatee, I think it was for the best that Na moved on and got a new boyfriend. Na needs some TLC in his life and Chonlatee is obviously not good enough for Na anyways.


ACTING:

Tonhon Chonlatee has a decent cast who are all experienced in the BL Industry. All of the main cast have been in a series or two, so they all give nice performances. Even though they script was terrible, the cast did their best with that they got. It wasn't Oscar worthy, but their acting was literally the best thing about this series.

Ai, Ni, Na, Mirium, Amp, and Neung were great! Tonhon and Chonlatee were good, but they obviously are not ready to be leads yet. They lacked the chemistry, where as Ai and Ni had lots of chemistry and out shined them.

OVERALL:

Tonhon Chonlatee is a BL to watch when you're out of other BLs to watch. It's not great, but it's not the worst. I'd just watch it for the actors, not the storyline.

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Look past the bad.

Before watching, I looked through the reviews on My Drama List, and a lot of them were negative. I feel like this show deserves a little more. Yes, this show had a lot of homophobia and more old fashion ideals, but if you look past it the show was amazing. I spent the majority laughing, specifically at P'Ni, P'Ai, and P'Miriam. The show had a very good plot and there were loveable characters. The homophobia was mostly P'Tonhon's family, more specifically his dad. However, the negatives of the show were not enough to outweigh the positives. I really do recommend this show, it's really good!

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