Enchanté

Akk is the ONE

What kept me watching this mediocre series was just one thing: Akk.

First of all, i felt like the plot was almost nonsensical, i disliked almost every bit of it, except for the scenes that included Akk. Almost every character was cringe or barely good enough to make me feel something... But Akk. Oh, Akk.

Force is an incredibly talented actor and he impersonated Akk's character amazingly. He made me smile a lot and have butterflies in my stomach, the character himself was the sweetest thing: he was funny, loyal and charming. I hope to see Force's future works soon, since he was so good in this series. He was the only one who saved it for me, otherwise i would have probably dropped it.

Anyway, if you're okay with a light series with a lot of cute scenes that Akk gifted us, go watch it!

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Expectations Weren't Just Ruined, They Were Destroyed...

When the 2021 lineup came out, Enchante was at the top of my most anticipated list. I remember thinking, "Wow, GMMTV is going to give us a series where we have little to no indication of who the main lead will end up with." I was so hyped and so sad that I had to wait until 2022 to finally watch, but I was hoping it'd be worth the wait. Unfortunately, it wasn't. I try not to go into too many shows with high expectations, but with this one, I really wanted to be surprised. But all that came crashing down before the first episode could even begin.

Let's Dive In.

Enchante is a uni-set BL surrounding our main lead, Theo, who had just returned from living in France to resume his life back in Thailand. He ends up reuniting with his childhood best friend, Akk, and they are back to themselves like in the old times. While at school, Theo writes out his feelings in a book that he thinks nobody will pay attention to until he returns again to find that someone had written a response back as Enchante. With the help of his best friend, they embark on an adventure to find out who is writing back to him through the possible 4 options that claim they are Enchante. The synopsis is what sold me on the series. A bit of a mystery, a slice of puzzle-solving (or what I supposed would be puzzle-solving), some fluffy uni tropes, and an endearing romance. Sign me up! But this series was a complete letdown and in so many different ways. There is a variety of things to do with such a unique concept as Enchante, and they don't take any of them. I won't blame this series too much, since the book is supposedly the real problem, but they had all the resources to switch things up. If GMMTV wasn't so worried about making money through this pairing, this would've been a hit series, for sure.

Getting into what I didn't like: Starting from the get-go, I don't think that this was the right novel to adapt to the screen. Granted, I've never read the book, but I was spoiled head-on before the second episode could even begin (it was a bummer, but oh well) I think as a book, the revelation of (SPOILER LARGE SPOILER COMING UP) Theo himself being Enchante might've been cool, but on screen, it feels like a waste of time. I love the concept of trying to figure out who is flirting with Theo through book pages, and it's a huge blow when it's revealed; albeit surprising for sure, but not in a good way. I kind of wish GMMTV or the director would've come up with their own similar version of Enchante, with it being obviously completely different than Enchante in all aspects, but still having that surprise element of who Enchante could be, without it being the main lead himself. Cause otherwise, after Enchante is revealed, the series to me just feels like a quick money grab and a waste of time and potential.

Getting into my problem with GMMTV, they basically told us who Theo ends up with without saying a word. With the amount of publicity that Book and Force do, it's evident they would end up together. Doing shows together, lives, interviews, and whatnot, it burns your soul that GMMTV doesn't give two craps about the concept of the plot just to gain coins from this new pair. Even when it's revealed that all the potential enchantes had a motive behind pretending to be enchante, it's still just aggravating. Cause before episode one can even begin, the plot, the mystery, the stakes, and everything in-between are just useless. Even if Enchante would've been one of the four who claims to be, it wouldn't have made a difference if Akk and Theo still end up together. The entire aspect of "who Enchante is" is now just taking up airtime for something else that could've been utilized. It's a sad c plot that was supposed to be the biggest part of the series. Cause imagine how much fun it would've been to watch five guys run after Theo and each week we try to theorize who'd he end up with. Sigh, wasted potential.

The series could just be very boring and bland at times. Getting through the first 4-5 episodes is difficult, and I would most of the time, end up falling asleep. I realized that when I watched, I would have to multitask so I don't drift off, but it shouldn't be that way. They do a decent job at the build-up of the world and the story, but it takes too long. Inevitably, this series suffered from a pretty tedious storyline.

Book and Force have good chemistry until they do end up together, and then it gets exceedingly awkward and cringey. I think finding two close friends to play a couple in a series has its good benefits, but also its bad ones. I would say they are in-between; whereas, in some cases, their closeness in real life plays out perfectly when they are just friends in the series, but when they have scenes where they have to be close and intimate, you can feel that tenseness they both present (sometimes it's mostly just Book) and it can be a bit too intense to even watch. There are some times when it doesn't feel like that, for instance, during their first kiss, and some moments when they do incidentally get close, but I felt it a lot when they kissed other times, and when they become boyfriends. Talking about incidentally getting close, there are some tropes that are way overplayed -- tremendously overused -- like the getting close trope. I love a good cliche trope if used right, but after the third time, I just roll my eyes.

The conflict between Theo and Akk in the end is such poor writing. It is so unreasonable for him to get mad at Akk, and it's even more unreasonable the obstacles he goes through to try and get his parents back together. Sure, it's a sad predicament most children have to face, but god, you're in college, handle it like an adult, why don't you. It was equally aggravating to see Theo going through all of that trouble of making up Enchante just because he wanted Akk to notice him when he could've just communicated his feelings. Of course, no story if communication were real, but wow, this is what you call commitment.

I was intrigued by Tan's little crush on Natee, but it's terribly executed. It feels pretty one-sided, even at the end when Natee wants him back, it feels more like he just wanted his friend back -- which is sad in Tan's case. But at least we got to see a healthy male friendship (kind of, sort of, not really).

Me being nit-picky, but I'm tired of seeing JJ (and AJ) always playing support roles. Please, JJ would've dominated as Akk, or maybe even one of the enchantes. God, please give the twins what they deserve.

What I enjoyed: While I would've liked for one of the enchantes to be the real enchante, I'm not mad when we find out they were all kind of using Theo for their own gain. I love a little bit of mischief and vainness, (but then we found out Theo is enchante, and by then, what's the point? Like, why did he do all of those things for them knowing he was enchante..?)

Gawin. That's it. and Jimmy, cause he's a dime to look at.

The ending is the saving grace for this series. I feel like I was a bratty kid who had to sit in time-out for acting up, but then I have a realization that I am bratty and I was acting up and I can't be mad for someone sitting me in time-out. Explanation: I was pretty aggravated that what I wanted to happen in this series didn't, but seeing how adorable they were in Paris made me realize that I should just appreciate what I got. And the little proposal was cute, I wish that Akk would've said something about France having legalized same-sex marriage before proposing, but it's still really precious.

Ratings:

Story: 6.5: Horrible execution of the Enchante plot. Especially when it's pretty much useless since we see who Theo ends up with. Just a bunch of tropey stuff between the leads, some villainess side characters trying to get their way, and sweet ol' Gawin. I'll give six stars for the parts that I did find intriguing (Tan's crush on Natee, some moments between Theo and Akk, Akk's sisters, Wayo and Natee's storyline and reason for pretending to be enchante, Phupha for maybe the first few episodes,) and a half star for Gawin and Jimmy.

Acting: 7.5: No one really stood out to me as the best, and everyone was pretty much on an equal line when it came to acting. There were a few times Force and Book gave us nothing in the expressions department, with Force probably being the worst out of the pair. I'll take two stars off for Gawin, cause as much as I love him, his acting felt weird in this one compared to the stellar performance he gave us in Not Me. Another half off for them using JJ as a supporting role for the umpteenth time. #thetwinsofGMMTVdeservebetter2k22.

Music: 8 - I quite liked it. It was super soothing and perfect for the tone of the series.

Rewatch value: 1 - when hell freezes over, I will watch this again.

Sadly, Enchante could fit into the same box of My Gear and your Gown, My Oxygen, and Water Boyy -- series forgotten for the inevitable sucky-ness of itself. I don't feel like I'm alone since the views of Enchante have been the lowest I've ever seen come out of GMMTV. I feel bad for the actors, and part of me wouldn't mind seeing Book and Force again if they can be put into a series that is well developed and actually going to follow its original plot. I really do dump on this series, and it's because I had high expectations that just came crumbling down, and it fucking hurt. I think my interpretation of how this series was supposed to be was completely opposite, and that's why the entire series threw me off with each episode. If anything, there were some really good parts that I don't mention just cause I'm so upset that I kind of look past it. But part of me does think this would be a fitting BL series for someone wanting a lot of fluff and nothing too serious.

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I don't even know where to begin.

They tried to sell this plot where the main character wants to find out who his "Enchanté" is between the 3 most popular guys at school, with the help of his childhood bestfriend.

The two friends had chemistry and cute moments at the beginning, but it's somehow all gone by the end of the series.
I don't get why he was deceiving his friend for so long, it was tiresome to watch.
At some point I dropped the series around episode 4 and took me months to get the energy to finish it, only to regret it.

Enchanté turns out to be the guy himself... Which just makes him more of a worse main character.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend this series. It lacked an actual good plot, it sucked how they made all the 3 guys into opportunists who were just trying to use the main character, the main guys chemistry got lost and it just felt dragging.

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Désenchanté

I was so intrigued by the concept of this drama, the mystery of who Enchanté was, and the first half or so of the drama was decent while that mystery continued to unfold, but the moment it was revealed who Enchanté was, things started to go downhill fast and ultimately I found this drama to be a disappointment.

The story started out interesting, if a bit improbable. Out of all the library books in this huge library, someone happened to also select this French book and decide to write back to Theo. Alright, fine, I'll go with it. And then all four ambassadors of the school show up declaring that they are Enchanté. That's where things get both interesting and messy. Interesting in the sense that Theo and Akk's relationship starts to develop more. We get some really cute moments with the two of them. Messy because of the four Enchanté's, three of them turn out be stalkers/manipulators. And then eventually comes the reveal of Enchanté as Theo himself which I'm guessing was supposed to be seen as a brilliant twist, but was in fact a huge disappointment.

A huge part of the issue with this drama was the acting. The chemistry between the leads was hot and cold. There were a few scenes where I could feel a spark, but there were a lot of times, especially towards the end where it just wasn't there. Book, I'm sorry to say, just really didn't bring it. I get that he was playing a character that was a terrible human being, but I don't feel like he brought anything redeemable to the character and I think he could have if he had played it different. Force seemed to be relying on his looks more than anything. He does have some good moments, but he needs to work on consistency and engaging more in the scenes. Overall, nobody really stood out in terms of acting. It was all just very mediocre, which is disappointing, because with better writing, directing, and a more charismatic/talented actor playing Theo, it might have been a decent drama.

The only real likable character in all this was Akk. He's a genuinely good guy who cares about others. He's willing to help Theo find his Enchanté, even though it hurts him to do so. He doesn't even judge Theo when he finds out he was Enchanté that whole time. And when Theo runs back to France, he works his ass off to earn a scholarship to study there so they can be together again. He deserves so much better than Theo. Theo, on the other hand, is a self-absorbed narcissist, bordering on an egomaniac, if I'm being perfectly honest. I kind of get his reasoning for becoming Enchanté with wanting Akk's attention, but then again, he already had Akk's attention. It's how long he let's the lie go on that's the issue for me. He could see the problems it was causing so why did he let it keep going? I really don't understand it, and it just feeds the idea that getting what he wanted was more important than the issues it might cause, which, again, self-serving much? He's also just incredibly immature, blowing up at Akk for not telling him about his parents' separation, which as Akk tells him, he didn't feel was his place to tell him, and won't listen to reason. He really is just insufferable. The four false Enchanté's started out kind of interesting, but quickly became problematic and by the end, three of the four were left pretty much unredeemable. Natee was basically a stalker. How Theo wasn't more freaked out seeing his art exhibition, I don't know. Maybe being a guy gives a different perspective, but as a woman, I would have been full out panicking seeing that. Also the fact that no one else seemed to see it as weird or a cause for concern. Natee, Wayo and Phupha were all manipulative. Natee with finding a place for his art exhibition, Wayo with trying to hide the fact that he'd lost the team's money gambling, and Phupha with trying to get a scholarship without actually putting in the work. How exactly Wayo and Phupha figured they would be able to pull off their schemes without Theo figuring out what they were up to, I don't know, considering those aren't exactly minor things they're going after. Saifa was supposed to be the "real" Enchanté as requested by Theo. I honestly found him pretty forgettable other than he did have a decent singing voice.

The OST was okay, not totally forgettable, but also not super memorable.

Is this a drama I recommend? No, not really. If you have nothing better to do, then sure, go for it. It's easily bingeable and it does have a few cute moments, but there are far better BLs out there to watch than this one that I would recommend checking out first.

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Not the BL harem drama I had hoped for. Classic vanilla, PG, Thai BL- A simple easy but boring watch

Story: The 2021 trailer promised a lot more mystery, intrigue and angst than what was delivered. I find Theo immature, selfish and sheltered (which is fine), but he never develops past that or barely learns anything from his actions. Akk is sweet and delightful, but that wasn’t enough for me to stay invested in the story. I feel like if I hadn’t watched the 2021 trailer so many times, maybe I wouldn’t have been so disappointed though. I can see others enjoying it for its simplicity and lack of negative vibes.

The whole Enchante concept, build up and payoff was extremely lacklustre and disappointing. Like first of all, maybe social dynamics in Thailand are really this way- But I couldn’t suspend my belief enough to think several dudes would fake being in love with Theo just bc his dad was a university CEO (and that’d be enough to get a lot user value from him??). Since there were barely any interactions between the potential Enchantes and Theo prior to their reveal, there was pretty much no real believability that any of them could organically have liked him and have been the real Enchante because of that. Basically how the Enchante concept was set up, it really didn’t deliver on anything and fell flat. You don’t really care about the Enchantes at all all bc their characters are mostly unsympathetic and one-dimensional. It’s pretty clear throughout that they pose no real threat to Akk and Theo getting together. Although I will say the actor for Wayo is freaking smoking and I hope to see him in more dramas lol.

The whole parent’s divorce storyline is incredibly boring as well. It feels like filler that was added to drag the last couple of episodes out as the Enchante was already revealed pretty early and the arc was realistically finished way before ep 10. It was just a storyline that showed how immature and selfish Theo was yet again.

Acting/Cast: The actor for Theo was pretty flat imo. His acting was fine, but I wonder if it was just because the character was so dull that I wasn’t that interested in him. Akk on the other hand is beautiful and charismatic- I really hope we see him in other works soon. Honestly if he wasn’t one of the male leads in this series, I may have just dropped it- it was that boring.

Music: Fine but nothing special, the French style vibes aren’t really my thing.

Rewatch Value: None lol. I can’t even think of a scene I would want to rewatch.

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There are better Thai BL dramas out there than this.

STORY: Theo, who spent most of his growing up years in Paris, comes back to Thailand. He has a childhood friend Akk who lives opposite of him and also attends the same university as him.

While waiting for Akk in the library one day, he found a book named Enchanté and out of boredom, he casually wrote something in French in one of the blank pages at the back of the book. Surprisingly, when he looked at the same book again after a few days, someone else has written something in response to his comment and signed off as ‘Enchanté, this got him curious and as this replying became back and fro, it made him determined to find out who ‘Enchanté’ was.

Akk helped him to paste notices around the university and eventually 4 persons came up to him claiming to be the one who wrote the messages in the book.

Personally, I found the first 4 episodes quite slow and thought the story to be a little silly and meaningless that is, finding out who Enchanté was, was that really important? However, things started to pick up from episode 6. I think some reviewers have already revealed who Enchanté was, so I shall not say anything here, but it was unexpected to me, and that made me see that the storyline did have some depth after all but only that moment.

When I watched this drama, many a time I questioned the existence of the 4 guys who claimed to be Enchanté but all actually had ulterior motives for getting close to Theo because he was the son of the owner of the university. The drama’s title Enchanté in French means enchanted, delighted, overjoyed, smitten, or bewitched, but I wonder how this is related to the story, or to the 4 guys, they did not look smitten with Theo in the show and definitely not Akk, smitten with Theo wasn’t quite the right word although yes, Theo and Akk did like each other, lots of ‘close-up staring at each other’ scenes until I found them a little too many.

The 4 guys were uninteresting, most of them had their own secrets which of course were not properly developed given only 10 episodes, but they were also unimportant because the focus was on the relationship between Theo and Akk, which to me was not properly developed either because half of the time in the drama was focused on finding Enchanté.

ACTING: I find the ML Theo expressionless, or should I say always had the same expression, as a model he has good looks, but as an actor, it shows inexperience. And his character was self-centred. When he decided to return to Paris, he did not consult Akk in his decision-making process although they were already a couple, only informing him of his decision and simply left Thailand. He was only concerned about his own sorrow because of his parents’ divorce and did not put himself in Akk’s shoes.

Actually, I thought he might hesitate and not leave after all and eventually appear in front of Akk’s house or something or Akk might tell him not to leave or rush to the airport, but nothing of this happened, and next I know, Akk was in Paris on a scholarship, met Theo on coincidence (seems like) under the Eiffel Tower and then proposed to him. P.S. not Paris, it was just a studio with a Eiffel Tower picture...

I was hoping to feel more of their chemistry, but seemed lacking… I had wanted to see more development between the two, but also seemed lacking here. The story somehow lacked substance.

OST: It was forgettable.

REWATCH: For the romance and chemistry, there are better Thai BL dramas out there than this even if the story is somewhat different from most Thai BLs, but I wouldn’t go for the story.

Overall, something positive would be it was a very light, very easy to watch drama. I had watched many dramas where I just couldn’t seem to get past the first 2 or 3 episodes, but this one, I was already in episode 6 when I realized it. I guess there was not much emotions or angst in this drama, and probably the only two things that pushed me forward was wanting to know who Enchanté was and when Akk and Theo were going to confess their feelings to each other.

I do not think I will recommend this as a good Thai BL or BL drama to anyone, definitely not for first-timers and for seasoned watchers, I do not think so.

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Too much teenage drama for me to handle, slow pace

The story is just too much, quite literally too much teenage drama for me to handle.
The series is too slow, many unnecessary scenes were not removed during editing, and the ending felt incomplete, including for the side story.
The side stories are too detailed all of a sudden and they just vanish after their part is done of increasing confusion and not having a proper ending before the series end.
The story is just too immature, both the base story and the additional script.
Another thing to notice here is the structure or order of the scenes, it could have been a bit better if the order of the scenes were changed to better present their story.

Acting:
One thing I noticed about Theo's character is too many hand gestures, especially during the start of the series.

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A good premise with a disappointing execution.

The synopsis of the show really drew me in. I like pieces of romance media where the love interest isn't actually set in stone. The idea of there being multiple possible love interests and watching the main character trying to find out which one he's looking for sounded really interesting. But they seriously fumbled it. It was obvious from the start who it was. I don't want to spoil too much but they literally could not have shoved it further down our throats. The ending was extremely anti-climactic. I feel like if they actually used the element of mystery that they hinted at it would be a good show, but it's hard to rank a show high on my list when they didn't meat the expectations that they set.

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A drama that got lost in it own story

I felt the need to write this review after seeing a lot of good reviews and I wondered if I had seen the same drama...

The basic plot and the trailer promised an interesting drama packed with romance, mystery and conflicts aaaand... It didn't deliver.

First, the premise of the drama is Theo looking for "Enchanté" but whenever one of the potential Enchantés approaches him and tries to get closer to him he either looks annoyed or puzzled, consequently, we know close to nothing about the four guys because we have no connection to them, no real wish to know them and wonder if they are the real Enchanté.
Moreover, Theo starts looking for Enchanté after three boring sentences written in the book, there's no connection between him and the mystery person, why would he begin to look for them with such little connection? It's explained later in the drama but still... it doesn't make sense at the moment where we see it in the drama.

Second, a majority of the characters are not pleasant, including the main character!! Theo is self-absorbed, selfish, rather cold, stubborn.... Natee, Phupa and Wayo are manipulative, creepy and opportunistic. We don't want to follow their story! the way they try to act as if they are Enchanté/ flirting with Theo is painful to watch (they're either stalker-ish or cringy)
I hated that Akk is always there for Theo but Theo is not there for Akk and takes him for granted....

Third, the pace is problematic: everything goes too fast or too slow. At the beginning, we are introduced to all these characters but we have no time to get to know them, some of them are already "out" of the story because they are revealed not to be Enchanté and we don't care because we know nothing about them.
And later in the drama, it got so slow! I really didn't care about Theo's parents' divorce and that part of the story dragged on for too long and it did nothing to make the whole story move forward.

So to those who liked this drama, I'm glad you did because I didn't and though I decided to finish what I had started, it sure was painful!

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Enchante Was Enchanting

This series was adorable. It gave me an unproblematic BL couple with a really interesting plot and side stories. I'm not sure what a lot of BL fans were expecting going into this? But it doesn't deserve some of the hate I've seen.

First of all, a Thai/French BL sounded interesting right off the bat. I know quite a bit of French myself being French Canadian and I've been binging A LOT of "Emily in Paris" lol. So I delved right into this. Hearing French dialogue was cool, they got a few people who were clearly French speakers to show up in this. Also Book who plays Theo actually sounded pretty good speaking French as well. Though I really wish they could've somehow had scenes actually set in France. Or at least make it look realistic instead of green screened at the end. It wasn't the worst, but there just could've been more convincing ways of doing it. However, this was made up mostly by the gorgeous filming locations they found in Thailand. That campus they used was stunning! As well as the music in this had French flair to it so it's fine.

I really liked the leads Force and Book's back-and-forth. It was really sweet and made Akk and Theo feel more real. It wasn't crazy chemistry like TharnType level, but I could rebinge this series just for the frosting on this sweet relationship. Also that first kiss had solid emotion in it so I believed it! The plot overall was interesting. Not super drawn out. I liked that even though I thought it was going to be Akk all along who was Enchante I was wrong. The series said, hey we're gonna flip it so it's actually Theo doing it to himself all along! Good job for that twist. I also liked that the fake suitors weren't just "villains" or depthless. They were fleshed out and had interesting side stories going on. The one (Natee) even got an implicated romantic interest so that was cute!

Theo's parents divorce plot was actually well done too and engaging. It's understandable he's upset at Akk for not telling him, thereby going to his friend for help and try to get his parents back together. Which is obviously not how it works, but I understand the thought/emotional response behind it. I wish though that this kind of drama wasn't always saved until the very end of a series. At least there was no stupid misunderstanding cheating scandal fight. Akk and Theo reconcile pretty quickly and even though Theo moves back to France, Akk follows him. There's a proposal and it made me think of a Disney movie in the best way! One that we all want, free the gay!

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A Tale Of a Spoiled Little Prince and His Caregiver I mean Lover...

This is the story about Saint Akk and The Spoiled Little Prince Theo... Who Go on an adventure to find Enchanté a mysterious creature who lives inside a book... ok not inside a book but a guy everybody wants to be so they can get close the The Little Spoiled Prince... If they only knew how much of a spoiled little brat he is they may change their mind...

The story itself is kind of new and pretty interesting ,the side characters and Enchanté wannabes are mostly skippable, except for Saint Akk´s family who is so sweet, fun, lovable and the icing for this drama . Especially Akk's little sister she is a just so cute, fun and bad ass, unlike her scary cat brother...

Spoiled Little Prince Theo start off pretty ok, but as the story progresses it becomes more and more obvious that we are dealing with a spoiled and insecure little prince in need of a lesson or ten in communication.... (both may need that lesson come to think of it).

The chemistry between the leads is good, there are A LOT of playful fluffy scenes... Akk is truly a fun character to watch 90% cool, fun, the type of guy who all people regardless of gender can dram of as he is both caring and entertaining giving us such lovely scenes as dancing in the shower or caring for the ill... He is also the most forgiving guy on the planet thus named Saint Akk...

In numbers:
Frustration: 9
Bingeabilaty: 10
Cuteness: 9
Annoying elements: 8
Lovable family members: 9

Deffenetly a drama I recommend, but you can probably skip all the scenes with the Enchanté wannabes and focus on the leads and their family.

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