Tonhon Chonlatee

Last episode kinda ruined it for me

So i just wanna give an overall review. You know i'm a simple person. I watch series to be entertained and i was. I know the plot was nothing unique even kinda basic but i still liked it.

The acting was alright and the characters were okay too. I still feel sorry for Na tho that he was treated like that.
The music was nothing special but catchy.

Now the part that ruined it for me. The last episode.
Like Ton's father obssesion with an heir and being totally homophobic and then he is suddenly fine with it as he hears about the surrogate idea.
And Miriam is suddenly pregnant and eughh...

All in all i think the story could have been better with a more thought out plot and characters. And maybe Gmm should have followed the novel more instead of creating non sensical ideas.

I'm not mad for watching it but i won't rewatch it.

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Solid BL

I'm really confused while looking through all the reviews and seeing many are rating this so low. What's even funnier is I recognize some of the accounts on here and the reviews they leave on other series that are absolutely trash but rate them very high simply because they have a cast that is attractive. Of course they won't ever say that or probably won't ever recognize their bias, but the bias is there. Many will deem a series or film worthy of their attention only if the cast is hot enough for them, which is sad.

Anyway with all that aside I will say that Tonhon Chonlatee has its flaws but overall it's a solid series. Both male leads performed very well, and tbh their acting skills were a lot stronger than many of these other BL couples out here. The closeted gay boy that falls in love with his "straight" best friend plot has been done many times before but they did a good job at reworking this plot. The writers were able to create something that feels different and a little more unique even though fundamentally it isn't anything new. I also really enjoyed the comedy aspect of this show which gave it a very light-hearted feel good type of vibe all while tackling deeper topics like self acceptance, homophobia and coming out.

While this series did have it's corny moments and started to lose itself half way through, it still was a pleasant surprise that entertained me up until the end.

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Serious social commentary wrapped in comedy wrapped in lakorn

Did all the reviewers panning this for depictions of bad behaviour fail to realise how many of them were called out, whether in the dialogue, reactions, context or consequences? Sometimes the call outs were gentle, like Chon's maa telling him something he did was wrong, sometimes they were bold, like Chon's maa in the last episode. Sometimes through consequences.

If you didn't see them, go back and look for them. Keep your eyes open to the variety of ways they're called out, explicitly or implicitly.

The series is a clear critique of toxic masculinity in several forms, including misogyny, objectification, peer pressure, outdated attitudes and of course homophobia. It's full of good messages and positive examples too.

This deserves to be watched with more attention than most here seem to have given it, including those who see it only as light-hearted fluff. It's laugh out loud funny, with the warm, open-hearted generosity of Thailand's best comedy, while also delivering important messages.

There's something else going on underneath, but it's left to viewers to put two and two together. Think about what we find out late regarding a key event in Tonhon's childhood. And then take that back in to something about him which is played for laughs and explained away as his being gullible.... It wasn't an over-used trope and sloppy characterisation, those two pieces fit together perfectly. And when they click into place, wow.

I've seen enough from the director to stand by these readings. He's very concerned with issues around sexism and parenting (another of his themes and the connection in a comment so it can go under a spoiler tag).

And he clearly respects viewers' intelligence too. Bring yours to the screen for this one.

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Worth a watch

I was originally put off watching this series by the bad reviews but after seeing clips apear on youtube i thought id give it a go and im really glad i did.

Its an easy watch romance series with some extremely cringey moments at beginning, especially when they talk about girls and sex. It is confusing that the main lead doesnt seem to be jealous of the other lead when it comes to women, and goes over the top about it but becomes enraged when he talks to other men but after a few eposides the cringe parts are toned down.

It is easy to binge watch with a happy ending so id definitely rewatch when im not in the mood for anything to emotional.

Dont be put off by the bad reviews watch it and decide yourself 😀

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It’s so bad.

I went into this knowing a lot of people said it’s bad. I just wanted to see if it was really that bad and omg it’s so bad. From the very beginning Tonhon is a homophobic a**hole. I really couldn’t believe his roommates/ best friends kept their relationship a secret from him for years because of it. As time went on I couldn’t understand why Chonlatee liked Tonhon so much. I understand the childhood best friend trope, but Tonhon turing into this person and Chonlatee completely ignoring Tonhons faults was so weird. Chonlatee and the roommates hiding who they are so they don’t disappoint Tonhon was so uncomfortable to watch sometimes. Despite all the characters having faults, the hatred I had for Tonhon was immense. DONT WATCH IT.

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its honestly not as bad as what people say

*WARNING THIS IS MY PERSONAL OPINION PLS DONT COME AT ME ;-; *

i went into this show blind and i thought that overall the cast did a pretty good job - especially the side couple and their wifey hehehe i'm just gonna list down some points abt this show and whether anot you want to watch is up to you !

the good points :

- the story is relatively easy to follow ,, nothing new nothing spectacular but not terrible either

- the SIDE COUPLE OMIGOSH srsly gmmtv gotta put toptap and mike in their own drama,,, their chemistry is just really good in this show !!

- OUR QUEENS : chonlatee's mom , pang and my wifey miriam !!

the bad points :

-

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The plot is barely moving.

This review was given before I have finished watching the show, so this is subject to change.

Note: I do enjoy watching this but this doesn't mean it's even relatively good.

Rewatching the GMM releases from 2019, I just realized how disappointing this year was. The only show I would consider "amazing" from their lineup from this year would be 3 Will be Free and Friendzone 2 Dangerous Area, and the one I would consider as "good" would be The Gifted Graduation. I don't think it is because of the condensation since Theory of Love from last year was already unique by itself. This year we had the slowest-paced shows ever, like My Gear and Your Gown and Tonhon Chonlatee is no different. Each episode is not that important, in which you can skip an episode an still be able to catch up. I Told Sunset About You showed such respect to each episode that basically skipping 20 minutes of an episode will throw you off the storyline. I am quite disappointed with this one as much as how I am disappointed with the upcoming shows (basing off from their trailers) and the only ones I had shown interest in were Bad Buddy and 51:15.


Now, let's talk about the issues about the storyline.

1 and 2. Sickeningly Sweet and Poor Two-Dimensional Characters
I get it, it's fluffy, but it's trying too hard. I know that SERIES-Ys are usually fluffy, but isn't this too fluffy. Even 2gether wasn't this fluffy, and I wasn't even a big fan of that one (especially considering the ending). The characters are too two-dimensional. It needs depth. Is Chonlatee capable of thinking literally anything else except for Tonhon? Is Tonhon just that plainly stupid? Is Chonlatee's friend (Pang) nothing more than a supporter? Doesn't she have a life? Does Tonhon's ex-girlfriend have literally anything else to do except for trying to make Tonhon crawl back to her? Is Neo (Na) that uninteresting that all his scenes are basically him tailing Chonlatee? I don't get it. The character here with the most depth is probably Miriam and she isn't even that amazing of a character.

3. That Damn Pacing
I've said this earlier and I'm going to say it again. Give respect to each episode! Each episode must have some sort of mini-arcs just like I Told Sunset About You. Take notes from Director Boss!

Update: I just realized how we're already halfway through the series and no character development has arose. They basically abandoned story structure for this one.

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It has some serious problems, but I liked&enjoyed it

Before I start:
1/ I don’t speak nor understand Thai, so I relied entirely on subtitles provided on GMMTV’s YouTube channel;
2/ all my comments and remarks below are about the GMMTV series – I didn’t read the book which inspired the series; for me the series is a completely independent work, not connected with the book, and it needs to stand on its own.

What I like about the series
1/ On-screen chemistry. Toptap and Mike work so well together that I’d be surprised to learn that off-screen they are anything less than good friends. But what I enjoyed even more was the chemistry between Pod and Khaotung; they sold me on Ton and Chon having genuine affection and feelings for one another. It was more than the absence of awkwardness; both actors seemed confident and relaxed in each other’s presence (for most of the time), hence their interactions (including the goofy ones) were believable. We deserved to see more of those two together; we got loads of cuteness and emotions, what we should have gotten more of was boyfriend banter (we got some of that, but more would be nice – Khaotung showed that his Chon can be shy, confident, loving, stubborn and angry, but also very sassy).
2/ Less non-problems than I feared. My prime example is Chon’s reaction to the kiss video in episode 9. Initially I was disappointed and thought Chon reacted according to BL-silliness (by which I mean that characters usually suspect and assume the worst, act without real reason, judge the situation without actual proof, tend to overreact and/or react to things no real person would bother reacting to; also, they don’t talk to each other). Then I watched episode 10 and saw that Chon’s reaction was much more grounded and relatable. Chon recognized Ton as a show-off prone to dumb stunts and actions which would give Chon constant heartache. Suddenly it made sense and the BL-silliness was gone; there was no fake problem – there was a real one and Chon was reacting to it.
3/ Showing homophobia’s still a real thing. We see LGBTQ characters fearful of how their friends and other people would react to their coming out/revealing they are in a same-sex relationship and we see homophobic characters with their stereotypes, prejudice and aggression. Pretending we live in a world were nothing stops LGBTQ persons from having a happy life would be bad. Glad the show writers didn’t do that. That being said:
- the way a gay character was presented in episode 1 (guy who followed Ton and Chon after they had lunch) was appalling and homophobic,
- Ton never apologizing nor even addressing his homophobia was a huge mistake of the writers,
- Chareon getting his wish fulfilled instead of being denied and ignored was an even bigger mistake of the writers – c’mon, guys! if you want to show everyone that homophobia is bad you can’t reward a homophobe!
4/ Very limited side plots. Compare “Tonhon Chonlatee” to, let’s say, “2gether”, where we got 4 couples: Tine&Sarawat, Type&Man, Dim&Green and Mil& Phukong (5 if we include Pear&Boss). Were they all necessary to tell the story of Tine&Sarawat? Did we learn more about the main characters because of these additional characters and their relationships? What purpose in the story did they serve? In “Tonhon Chonlatee” the side characters are acutely aware of their purpose; Ai explaining to Ni, that they are the protagonist’s sidekicks was on point and almost breaking the 4th wall.
5/ Miriam. Once she shows up she does a lot to push the plot forward – which the story needed after the slow-paced first few episodes. The character itself is likeable and a much needed voice of reason.

What I don’t mind about the series
1/ How character development of Ton was handled. The writing is rather basic and often clumsy, with a difficult-to-believe revelation in episode 10, but we also get a clear character arc for Ton. BTW: I liked that the show didn’t immediately explain why and how Ton got the idea of having Chon stay at his place and them two spending so much time together. Ton felt something for Chon and acted on what we were initially led to believe was instinct - I'm fine with that.
2/ Clumsy writing. (i) People condemning Amp after her rant in episode 8 - apparently students carry paper balls with them at all times (ii) The shoehorned beach scene at the end of episode 8 (I guess we needed that to illustrate that Ton made a decision, that from now on – instead of being a homophobe – he’ll fight homophobia, that he’s no longer afraid and so on).
3/ Unanswered questions. (i) How come Ton didn’t recognize Chon in episode 1 and what purpose did it serve? From a story point of view it would be better for Ton to recognize Chon right away, saying something like “Just the person I wanted to see. I’ve missed you so much. Let’s have lunch”. (ii) Who leaked the picture of Ton sleeping in episode 8? Was it Chon (he took the picture)? Was it Pang (she saw the picture and held Chon’s phone long enough to send the picture to herself)? We know why it happened (drama), but how? (iii) Is everyone allowed to see other people’s kites that hang if front of the Sam Muk temple? And to tamper with them? (iv) Don’t Ton’s parents have any social media accounts? Don’t they follow their son?
I can live without knowing these things.

What annoys me about the series
1/ How Ton’s attraction to Chon is explained in episodes 9 and 10. On reviewer (deetsy) addressed this nicely today, so let me quote: “In the end what we got was a homophobic story of "I'm not gay, I just love you". It worked well 5 years ago in SOTUS, but now I think LGBT community moved on past this narrative and deserves something better”. In short: why can’t Ton just be gay or bisexual or pansexual? Why the additional “explanation” that he’s attracted to Chon because they have had a special bond as children? Why the emphasis on Ton not being gay, on Ton “still liking women” and not feeling anything for other men? Maybe there’s something I don’t get about some BL series, but this wasn’t the first time I saw something like this. Did you notice the emphasis on past girlfriends, who don’t even have to appear in the show nor become villains (like Amp), but are casually mentioned? As if the writers wanted to establish that gay characters don’t exist and if two guys get together they are bisexual or pansexual at best. In “Tonhon Chonlatee” this applies not just to Ton, but also to Na, and you can see the same pattern in other series: a boy dating girls until he meets that one special boy he’s attracted to (see both Tine and Sarawat in “2gether”, see Tee in “Cause You're My Boy”, see Knock in “Together with me” and see many others examples).
2/ Chareon’s homophobia and “the baby solution”. Chareon is a homophobe and a domestic tyrant. Everyone is trying to make him realize he can’t separate Chon and Ton nor impose his wish to have grandchildren, but at the same time everyone tries to satisfy that wish: enter Nam and the surrogate mother idea. Why is this even in the show? Why did the writers decide to fulfil Chareon’s wish and disregard basically everything done up untill that point? Chareon was told he can’t force his kids to do his bidding and then he got exactly what he wanted. As much as I enjoyed the first part of episode 10, I was facepalming for most of the rest of it.
3/ Nueng facing almost no consequences for his assault on Chon. Nueng is a would-be rapist and almost nothing happened to him. Ton kicked him once, dragged him out of the toilet and punched him once – that was all, that was the whole “punishment” for what Nueng attempted. I’m not saying we needed a scene of Ton and Chon testifying at a police station, but something should have happened, e.g. Ai or Ni doing their sidekick job and telling Ton (e.g. a day after the assault) that the university announced Nueng was suspended and facing a police investigation. Instead we got Nueng on best-buddy terms with Amp, supporting her lies (I didn’t know would-be rapists hold the moral high ground to lecture junior students on splashing seniors with water) until she was revealed as a homophobe. The guy shouldn’t even be in the series at that point! BTW: remember how Chon was reprimanded for kissing Ton while Ton was asleep? If the writers (correctly) wanted to tell us that any form of sexual activity, even a kiss, needs to be consensual, they shouldn’t send conflicting signals like that.

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Wish There Was More Foreshadowing

I really this show. Not as much as others I've seen though, for a good reason. While watching Tonhon Chonlatee, I liked all of it, the characters, the hidden relationship of best friends, familiar actors, cute guys, the relationship progressions, all of it. Or well, most of it. The storyline...It was good until Chonlantee's confession arc. When Tonhon confesses back, like, it felt so forced? This whole time he had not shown any interest in him, he actually showed MUCH disinterest. It was less of a plot twist rather than a just okay-this-is-what-were-doing-now? I wish they would have foreshadowed it more. It was a bit of a hot mess with some themes though too. Like, Chonlatee in the bathrooms? Rape or sexual assault is not something to be taken as lightly as it was. Overall, I liked it, but there are many ways it could have been improved.

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It's not a bad watch at all, it's just not a good show

So the thing is, the main problem is that they should have chosen between 2 plots : either Ton loved Chon from the beginning, his father made them move because he feared he couldn't get an heir and then they reuinite and deal with the heir problem ( basic and easy choice ). Or, Ton didn't love Chon before, he has internalised homophobia and has a hard time dealing with his new feelings for Chon; in which case the show could have focused on him reflecting on his behaviour and opinions as well as escaping from his father's expectations ( much more difficult to pull off). But by blending those 2, it was such a mess. What do you mean he's loved him since the beginning?? He dissed gay people so hard it was painful it doesn't make sense, that's a bad portrayal of denial.
Other bad thing in the show is the whole character of Amp, and the banalised rape !!! P'Neung has been abused and goes on to do the same to Chon, apart from the fact that I hate those plot, this shouldn't be brushed off like they did !
At last for the negative points, the surrogacy plot was indeed a solution for a happy ending and I'm glad it was introduced, I'm also glad they choose Miriam but it's just too big of a thing to fit it in the last 2mins. It should have been introduced sooner and explored much more. They also shouldn't have shown the 3 years gap cause ain't no way they are ready to be parents it's so unrealistic. Just showing a scene where they ( Ton and Chon not his dad ) ask Miriam would have been great.

On to the good things : the characters
There are some really good characters in this show, starting with Chon and his mom. They are coherent, they have values and they stick to their words and beliefs, I really enjoyed that.
Miriam and Pang : they are amazing friend and I'm really happy Gmmtv showed good written female characters.
Na : He's part was rushed but his character was really interesting, maybe with a 12ep show we would have seen more of him and his struggle.

Overall I definitely didn't watch it for the love story but I did laugh several times and really appreciated Chon and Pang's friendship as well as Aunt Nam.

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I hate it and idk why im rating it so high but lemme try to explain

To start, who tf made this absolute shit of a show. we need to talk. The storyline is trash. First, Ton acts homophobic af and acts like a typical ignorant homophobe that knows or learns nothing about gay people but just says ignorant stuff. Then they switch to Ton actually liking chon from when they were little. MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL WHEN U LOOK AT THE PAST FEW EPISODES AND HOW HE HAS BEEN ACTING. It felt like they wanted to make a plot twist and just put the first thing that came to mind. then they go on with that stupid "im straight but ur the only boy i will love" like BTICGYHJ.

BUT. this drama is still pretty fun to watch if u take out all the shitty parts. a lot of the characters r so funny, i was laughing majority of the series. only reason i kept watching is for some of the characters.

Also whats with the part where chon almost got raped and they just let it go with a punch or 2...

Mariam was an amazing character but I hated the part where she kept calling herself a BL fan and was acting rlly weird whenever she seen Ai and Ni act lovey dovey. same with ton and chon. i get that they were tryna make her like a relatable character or whatever since this is literally directed towards girls fetishizing gay relationships but ew just let me watch it in peace.

hated it but loved it.

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