Star and Sky: Star in My Mind

Repetitive & Stretched Story

The story is good but something that we have seen over and over again in so many series
Even as a sub-story and not the whole series based on it, why it needed 8 episodes to cover this is a good question from my side.
Many scenes are illogical and too dramatic.
This should have been a mini-series instead, anyone can say that the series was just stretched.

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What the fuck was that

No like really what the fuck was that ending. Episode 8 was really dragging and the ending was like how did you leave us on a cliffhanger. I was really enjoying the series and i thought it was really cute. However the story was really well written in the beginning but towards the end your like what was all of that for. It was quite dry. I just felt like they could've done more. I just can't believe how bad that last episode was. Oh all is forgiven because we loved each other the whole time and now we are a perfect couple. Its just kinda dry and overplayed at the same time. I want them to be happy but weres the emotion and happiness. To be honest it just felt like it was missing something. Maybe its because there is no real rival.

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Lumayan bagsus, tapi ; agak menyebalkan sih ...

Series ini menurutku punya cerita yang "agak menyebalkan". Bentuk alur dan konsep ceritanya memang lumayan bagus, namun secara pribadi saya kurang begitu suka. Menceritakan Daonuea yang menyukai kk kelasnya Khabkluen, mereka berdua bahkan berpisah sebelum salah satunya mengucapkan perasaan cinta. Hingga akhirnya mereka berdua bertemu kembali di universitas yang sama. Bagaimana kisah mereka akhirnya? saksikan seriesnya. Hal-hal yang saya benci adalah bentuk dari karakter Khabkluen yang terlalu percaya diri, tarik-ulur dan memperlakukan cinta sebagai sesuatu hal yang "gampangan", series ini menggambarkan bahwa segala sesuatunya mungkin akan berjalan dengan baik di dalam pemikiran khabkluen, ini membuat Daonuea menjadi kebingungan, tersakiti dan punya posisi yang paling tidak menyenangkan. Bahkan ada beberapa karakter pendukung yang menurutku lebih cocok untuk Dao, sebagai contoh Typhoon. Namun series ini memberikan gambaran yang buruk (dalam artian, sad scene) untuk karakter Typhoon, tidak hanya di series ini, bahkan pada versi ourskyy 2-nya. Typhoon yang berperan sangat bagus di sini dan punya hal positif untuk Dao tetapi akhirnya mempunyai takdir yang tidak menyenangkan, sedangkan Kabkluen yang terlalu banyak menarik-ulur Daoneua malah memiliki bentuk takdir yang indah. Ini terasa tidak adil, hal ini mungkin tidak masalah jika Typhoon mempunyai bentuk cerita yang bagus di ending, namun sayang - series tidak memberikan itu.

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When you order a #PinkMilk, but get #GuavaJuice instead

STORY : 7/10

It's your typical thai college BL premise. Boy has a crush on another boy (often from his past). Boy 1 doesn't think his feelings are reciprocated (spoiler alert: they are). Boy 2 is unclear about his feelings, which creates drama (often a female rival is introduced). All communication issues will be cleared and we'll be treated to happy ending, hopefully. If you've watched 5+ thai BLs already, you'll think you've seen this film before. Mutliple times.

Personally, I still enjoy this kind of plot. So instead of judging its uniqueness, I'll judge the execution of it. And Star in My Mind doesn't fare that well. Let's break it into parts. I will try to avoid spoilers as much as I can, but if you wish to skip it, head straight for the "acting/cast" part. To give you my overall feelings - start was great, upper middle quite bad, ending couldn't save it. Miscommunication seems to be the main conflict for major part of the show.

Episode 1-3 : 8.5/10

I adored this BL when it started!! Was there anything new? God, no! But it was really cute, really funny, dare I say well-written? The characterization was also good and consistent. We've got a bit of mystery and angst, too, on top of all the cliches. It was paced a bit faster than I expected, but not too fast. Nor too boring. If you're gonna watch this drama, stay for at least those 3 parts!!!

Episode 4-5 : 6.5/10

This is where it started to go wrong. For one thing, they rushed through the part I looked forward to the most!! Then introduced a non-fluffy filler. A lot of angst. Unnecessary conflicts-to-be. Characters were still consistent imo, but the acting is showing its limits.

Episodes 6-7 : 5/10

All the good things go to hell. Consistency? We don't know her. Rational thoughts? Never had those. A lot of stuff is reaching its climax and resolution without believable progress, pushed mostly by side characters and not-so-shocking rushed revelations (which felt made up just to patch some plot holes). The lowest point of this series. I hated it. Actors are trying, but they can't do much with this mess.

Episode 8 : 7 / 10

Mostly fluff and introduction to Sky in Your Heart. Perfectly skippable in my opinion. Since nothing important is happenning, it dawned on me that their acting actually hasn't been that great (the whole time, I presume), especially from one of the MLs.

POTENTIAL TRIGGERS (with minor spoilers included) :

Domestic violence - mentioned, aftermath shown in one scene. Not much has been done about it and it wasn't very graphic, but could be triggering if it's personal for you.

Consent in relation to kissing - It's flat out not there, vast majority of time. Even before establishing to each other that their feelings are mutual. Sometimes it's forceful, but mainly not. It might be uncomfortable and disturbing, but not exactly emotionally triggering in my opinion.

Emotional manipulation / Hiding one's true feelings - One character doesn't talk about themselves, at all. Other one is so emotional, they not only let other people push them around, but they also do things without thinking it through, hurting others in the process (whether intentionally or not could be debated).




ACTING/CAST : 6.5/10

I'll talk only about the mains, since side characters were your middle-of-the-road, good enough actors in this show.

Main leads look perfectly fine for their roles, as always in BL series. They are cute/hot just in the way they need to be. Their acting skills, on the other hand...

Dunk (playing Daonuea) is the newbie lead this time. At start, I considered him adequate for the role. But with added depth, cracks started to appear. If nothing else, he should really work on his facial expressions during emotional outbursts. Often I cringed so hard, it took me right out of the scene.

Joong's character (KhabKhluen) is controversial enough to claim Joong acted badly. Khluen is very stoic for the most part. Very blank. Doesn't require much acting. So when he shows more emotion, it may look out of character and wrong. I was satisfied with him, though.




MUSIC: 7.5/10

The song(s) they use are nice. A tad forgettable, but sweet. There isn't much of them, though, which hurts the overall variety of soundtack.




REWATCH VALUE : 7/10

Liked it once? You'll like it a second time. And third. It's the kind of basic story you can just play in background or when you don't want to be challenged. Problem is to fall in like with it in the first place. The plot isn't strong enough to encourage rewatching, but it's also not bad enough to prevent you from doing it.




OVERALL: 7.5/10

This is what you'll get when you purchase 2moons from wish.com . A faulty replica. Usable, but very disappointing. If they just took the content of first 5 episodes, edited it and added more context with filler, this could have been exactly what I wanted from SIMM. I'm giving it a bonus .5 points just for my love of cliché college gay love stories. But in the end, I wish I had gone somewhere else.

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Star in my Mess

I thought I had a lot to say about this show but I didn´t, it was too short for me to scatter in my brain for every single detail. This show started out well enough, but the star did not make it to its first year of being alive, honestly, this was a black hole. The fact that I was excited for this show, so much. I am disappointed at many things, the direction it took was way off of what I was expecting, and honestly, I just feel like GMMTV is remaking its past shows. I think they did try, but failed miserably. Star in my mind is for sure part of my "worst bls of 2022". GMMTV you better watch out because you have been doing 1 good and 20 bad shows lately so... YIKES.
For the complete review, with details, visit my blog! link in my profile! and here:
https://souvenirmyshyyange.wixsite.com/website/post/star-and-sky-star-in-my-mess

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Confusion In My Mind

I don't have high standards when it comes to bl series really, I mostly watch them to relax and when I saw that Joong is in this (whom I have loved since 2moons2) I thought "Well, whatever if it's not good, I am gonna watch it!"
Did I regret it? No. It was cute. Worth noting that I stayed up all night to watch this so maybe my half-asleep brain wasn't in a very critical mode either, but I found myself smiling at some of the cute scenes and I was invested in the plot, I at least didn't find it as boring as some of the other recent bls.

Or maybe I liked it because it has a nostalgic feel to it. I might've only made this association because of Joong, but it reminded me of 2moons2.
It wasn't a very original plot but that's not a problem for me usually. However. Oh, however.

The bl industry is changing. Series are getting a bit more socially-aware, better at lgbt representation and discussing how should a HEALTHY relationship look like.
This series... doesn't even try. And that wouldn't be a problem, but when we now have series like e.g. Bad Buddy, getting into watching something like this leaves you feeling like something is missing, or maybe it's not even that. It's just bad writing.

The characters were fine. Just fine.
Khluen was the most interesting, he was this typical cold guy but I still found his logic interesting and I kinda get why he did what he did. There were points when he annoyed me too because some of his actions were either dumb or uncharacteristical of him though. for example, and this made me really pissed:
Everyone thought that he and Gia were dating and he didn't tell Nuea that they aren't? Why?
Why, my boy, are you making your life more complicated than it needs to be?
"It doesn't matter what people think", he said, but this doesn't make any sense. People? Sure. Don't care about them. But Nuea? Who is your actual love interest? You're literally making yourself unavailable when you aren't.

Nuea was just boring. Like I legit can't say one more thing about him except his crush on Khluen. And yet eeeeveryone suddenly wanted to date him. Why? He had the vibe of those zero personality y/n self-inserts. (can I blame them though? Who wouldn't want to self-insert into dating Joong? haha, ok, i'm joking, please give your protagonists some real characteristics)

Not much about the others. Fah was nice, I love him.
Phoon was just annoying at some point. Poor man got second lead-ed so hard, he was just there to make Khluen jealous. I mean, at some point he says that he LOVES Nuea. LOVES him. The man whom he knew for what? Weeks? And spent actual one on one time with him like twice, and Nuea was having none of it? lol.
And then he didn't even show much emotion when Nuea chose Khluen. I guess he looked a bit disappointed. If I squint my eyes really hard, yeah, I can see a bit of sadness there, I guess.

Not much about the plot either. It was fine, I actually loved the scenes where it was only Khluen and Nuea, and them with Khluen's mom was adorable. The last few episodes, however, were a mess.
First of all, the scene at Khluen's apartment. He FINALLY explained to Nuea that he wasn't dating Gia. Yes! So that plot point is over, right? ....right?
No. Because Nuea still gets jealous and asks Khluen to CHOOSE between them. That was horribly childish. Oh, but then Khluen gets a phone call and leaves without explanation. I mean, I get that it was an emergency, but he could've literally told this to Nuea too: that Gia was in an emergency. Like a serious one. A mature person would've understood it. But then again, was Nuea mature?

THAT FREAKING PHONE in general, by the way. Every time the directors didn't know how to continue a scene where there was tension, his phone rang. Once it's ok. Twice it's... fine. But all the time? It's just annoying and lazy.
Oh, yeah, and there is a noncon kiss in it that absolutely had no relevance to the plot, was just awkward and cringe, and not something that most bl fans enjoy being romanticized anymore...

Overall it was still enjoyable. Wacky, frustrating, cringe, but I had a surprisingly good time watching it. Joong's little warm smiles made me melt. The acting wasn't bad really, they did what they could as mostly rookies and with a bad script so I guess that's one thing not to dislike.
There is still one episode left but I don't think it could change anything.

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I FELL IN LOVE

I absolutely love this show. From the very beginning I fell in love with the story, the leads, the chemistry that they share. OMG it makes my heart flutters with every single episode. The comedy of this show is so cute. I love it so much and rooting for Kluen & Dao. I have never re watched a episodes so fresh out as I have with this one. GMMTV you are doing a great job with this one. I can't wait for next week episode. Until then I will be re-watching the episodes until the next one is out. I will come back to update my final review of this show once it has reached it's completion.

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Big waste of money, time and Joong

Lazy, uninspired, lame. I think there'll always be space for the so-called "cliche" storylines to shine because we do deserve a break from the KinnPorsche's and Not Me's of the world (I love those!!!) But come on, that doesn't mean you don't have to put any effort in it. Some charm, some individuality, some uniqueness, anything to differentiate your show from the others. But this show neglects all of that to offer some of the most unimaginative stuff I've ever seen. GMM should know way better than to put out stuff like this, as the BL powerhouse that they are. We've seen this many times before, with the same conflicts, with the same dialogues, same resolutions. Incredibly boring! To make it worse, the whole "miscommunication is our only agent of conflict" trope only gave us two insufferable leads who couldn't do anything about their feelings. This type of situation might be realistic, if we think about it, but we're watching a TV show and things need to happen and be exciting. For that, they decide to add a 3rd wheel who will end up being an asshole and a fool. Then the ex girlfriend who's like "oh I was just being domestically assaulted! If I knew my ex was with you I wouldn't have bothered the two lovebirds uwu." Embarrassing.

I see something good in Joong. Love the power he conveys with his eyes. He can use them to emote well. But the other lead was like eeerrmm. It's crazy that I was supposed to believe that half of the cast was in love with his character when the character itself doesn't have any special charms and the actor doesn't necessarily stand out in any way, visually. His friends are as cute as he is. I won't say he was a terrible casting choice, though, cuz he and Joong do have some cute chemistry. If he improves with time, maybe they will deliver something better together (with better writers and a better director, obviously).

I don't know if I missed the star symbolism in the beginning, but as the one thing that apparently names the show, they could have made it more of a theme throughout the series (like 1000 Stars or To My Star did, for example). Would've brought something special to the story, perhaps? The way it was, it felt like just a very generic title combining words that are commonly used to name BL shows. Maybe that's where the lines overlap? Generic title for a generic series. Their minds!!

But nothing was more offensive than having the displeasure of seeing people calling this "a good well done cliche". That would be stuff like Bad Buddy, Crossing the Line, Kieta Hatsukoi. This is just crap.

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I had high hopes for this series only to be let down with disappointment

Okay, this is not going to be a long review. Just quick and to the point.

Story-6/10
I binge watched the first four episodes and...I liked them. The remaining four, I watched while they were airing and maybe that's the reason why I didn't enjoy it, I guess? (Besides the storyline loosing my interest as it progressed).

There were some scenes that I was not comfortable with. Like everyone just forcefully kissing Daonuea. That just wasn't cool at all. I would also like to add although I didn't like the character of Typhoon in the beginning, I felt that he shouls have gotten a happy ending as well.

I also felt that none of the characters were developed well, which really didn't add anything to the story.

Acting/Cast- 5/10
Unfortunately, no one really wowed me. It was just okay-ish. And i guess since I actually like the four episodes in the beginning due to me binge watching them, I will give thier acting a 5.

Music-8/10
The music is the only good and decent thing about this series. So for that, I will give a 8.

Rewatch Valu-3.5/10
I honestly do not see myself coming back to this series. Heck, I gotta come back to watch what ia foing to happen Daonuea's brother- Khaufah. I may wait for that series to complete or nearly complete before I decide to give that a go.

Overall-5.5/10
Overall, I give this series a 5.5/10. And I am so disappointed because it really did start off good and I was so invested in it. I just don't know what happened as it progressed.

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Wasted potential.

I don’t judge a book by its cover. The cover is the reviews I read before watching this. It turned out that I should have. Honestly, the main reason I started watching this is Our Sky 2, otherwise it wouldn’t make sense to me. I can barely tolerate this show…Was is created on a rush or something? I can not percieve this drama as a romance. Romance? Where did you see any sign of romance? Dao is the pivot around which everything turns here…This drama should have been named after Dao only. I used not to have high expectations from Thai dramas, but it has changed after I watched “A tale of thousand stars”, “the eclipse’’, “my school president”, ‘’Vice Versa’’ and other dramas that really captured my whole attention. THIS ONE IS JUST A COMPLETE MESS, but I felt responsible to plug away. Kluens favorite word ‘’nonsense’’ best describes this drama, so I decided to watch it at 1.5x speed.

Why does everyone have to fall in love with Dao? What are support roles are here for? Dao’s friends are here to meet their families so Dao could stay alone and had a chance to spend his time with Kluen. I couldn’t feel their friendship here. I didn’t feel anything at all. Who is Dao? A guy who is always lazy, but everyone has to get along with his unbearable personality. His character didn’t develop at all. He turns Kluen down, then goes to him and demands not to run to Gia, when she really needed Kluen. What is this if not selfisheness? Kluen told him how important Gia was to him, but Dao didn’t even give a shit about it. “YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE’’. THEY WERE NOT IN A RELATIONSHIP, WHAT CHOICES ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?’’.

I don’t get Phoon. His behaviour is egoistical to me: “I did that to trigger Dao’s feelings. I don’t want to be a loser”. WOULD A LOVING PERSON SAY SOMETHING LIKE THIS?

Kluen..His character is better than the others, although I wouldn’t call him reasonable either. What’s the incentive for not telling about his break-up with Gia and then getting jealous seeing Dao with someone else, trying to kiss him all of a sudden. I liked his short, but meaningful answers, he was not talkative, was more into observing people and actually DOING SOMETHING. Phoon asked Dao to give him one day for taking care of him and showing his true feelings. WHAT DID HE DO? NOTHING. In fact, he was not able to take care of Dao, because the latter agreed to give him that “one day’’ just to spite Kluen. “I gave him a payback”. The toxicity in every word uttered in this drama is suffocating.

Also PAPENG WHO INEXORABLY ASKS FOR CHANCES…But..Here I get the point. “Nobody likes to be rejected. I can’t do the same to her, because I know how it feels like (I don’t remember his quotes precisely, but here’s the point”. Yeah, gotta say that there was a moment I really liked: Phoon asked Dao to choose between mountains and sea, and it was obvious that the choice was not about locations, but 2 people.

The plot is a total horseshit. If only I could make such a mess and solve my problems leaving for Germany…
The support roles exist because it Is crucial for making a drama, that’s it. A side couple appeared for an instant (Dao’s brother and some fellow bumping into each other), but yeah, of course we don’t need to see what happens to them, because the drama is about one and only Dao.

The chemistry…I have already noted that ‘’romance’’ and “Star and Sky: Star in my mind” are antonyms. There’s no such thing as chemistry, but, frankly, the cast is well-chosen, the actors are good looking. Alas, this drama is wasted. 2.5/10

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This was pretty bad

This is the first time I couldn't finish watching a BL series. I honestly don't even know how I managed to watch up to ep 7. The plot sucked and the main characters were both equally as dislikeable.

So firstly we have 'perfect' Daonuea who apparently everyone likes and wants to be with. Then we have Khabkluen who is not only portrayed as having low emotional intelligence but is also terrible at communication. There is also Typhoon who just seemed desperate and would not take no for an answer. The final member of the love square is Phaphaeng who also begs for a chance to be with Daonuea as well. Everything about this storyline was flawed.

The acting was also mediocre at best honestly. Maybe if they had well-developed characters then they probably would have portrayed their roles better. I tried to watch the last episode to see whether the many questions I had were finally answered but by ep 7 I had lost all interest in this series and decided to drop it altogether.
I wish the actors of this series all the best in their future projects, especially the rookie actors. I have enjoyed quite a lot of GMMTV's BL series but except for maybe Not Me the series and A Tale of Thousand Stars, their recent BLs have been the same recycled storylines. This was disappointing.

+ I got curious and decided to watch the final ep and what a waste. I truly feel bad for the actors. Never has a series made me want to tear my hair from frustration. I feel bad for the harsh criticism but those are 8 hours of my life I won't get back.

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