My Secret Love

Park & Lee should be the main couple

Inconsistent yet good enough to consume in your spare time. It’s a good decision for the production company to change the set-up they provide from the trailer to improving it on the show itself. It became better but still has loopholes and dull moments that were honestly unsatisfactory. The plot started from the typical enemy-to-lovers sequel with the annoying campus heartthrob setting, along with the unlikeable abuse of power by the school teacher/shipper. The transition from school to entering adulthood in a professional field was too sudden yet it somehow provided something new and made a huge adjustment from the never-ending cliche from the college-based scenes.

Gratefully, the characters managed to offer an impact and entertainment. Kim and Mek are just so-so. They can be cute sometimes but from time to time, their story is bland. After they stopped making BL contents, the vibes turned to be more natural and holistic. In the Bomb and Bear case, it feels extra-delightful before both of them enter into a romantic relationship. Bomb has the fluffiest scenes with his one-sided crush and Bear’s comedic charm was loveable. The screen time of Tim and Mai is skippable since it was dry and uninteresting. The sister and brother bonding is deserving of two thumbs-up. A healthy sibling relationship. Both families are composed of open-minded parents who are proud that they’re sons choose to hold onto their happiness.

Park and Lee are worthy to be the main couple. The title itself fits their 7 years of a relationship without their friends knowing about it, the real 'secret love. 'They are the cutest in the show! That particular comfort room scene where they exchange uniforms lights up my attention and the beginning of centralizing my focus on them. Their first meeting was flawlessly adorable. They stole my heart more than any pair from the show. They were immersing, charming, and heart-fluttering. A boyfriend that executes great chemistry and abundant rays of sunshine. I am so happy that they got married in the end.

The 12 episodes have a mixture of good and bad elements that resulted in neutrality or average overall rating from the show. It isn’t particularly hateable but isn’t also specifically memorable.

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When the main couple becomes the least interesting one

I really enjoyed watching this one, the cast is nice, the quarrels between the characters were cute and the ending is great.

To jump straight to the point, IMO the main couple didn't deserve to be the mc, since their story was the most boring out of all the couples.

Bear and Bomb: Fan falls for Internet Star and they get into a relationship but face hardships since the Star becomes even more famous over time? Yes, please!

Lee and Park: Two grown men in a relationship of 7 years who are hiding the fact that they are in love due to personal reasons/issues, but want to mature and come out to their friends? So interesting!

Tim and Mai: A failed teenage confession because one of them was too dumb to realize his feelings, but learns how to love and cherish the other as time goes on? Give me now!

Kim and Mek: Generic Enemies to Lovers. Dragging story at times. Still cute tho.

To sum up, I would have enjoyed this series A LOT more if another couple would've been the lead couple. Mek and Kim's chemistry saved them though, so I still had a good time watching their relationship develop. :)

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Not a very ambitious BL, but it offers a lot of sweetness

If you are going to make a BL and you aren't too ambitious about breaking new ground but just want to make something cute and sweet, you make something like this.

The Kim/Mek story isn't all that impressive. In fact, I thought the series would end in Episode 6 as I was watching it. The turns in the story after that seem a little forced, but I'm not really here for a great story to begin with. Although a lot of people don't seem to like the way the series starts, I find the first six episodes more energetic and coherent. This fujoshi university chancellor (or whatever her position is) practically abuses her power to make Kim/Mek create BL content. There is some parody of BL scenarios, but the series itself is full of such scenarios anyway (like the couple falling down and kissing each other as a result). After Episode 6, the story remains lighthearted but seems to take a different turn. Nevertheless, the second half of the series isn't really bad either, especially if the main characters have grown on you.

Although I do like Kim/Mek, my favorite of the four couples is Park/Lee. Apart from one or two parts of the story when they have a silly misunderstanding, they are sweet and supportive of each other. There is a back story of how they met and why they keep their relationship a secret. For a large part of the story, they are the most mature of the couples.

It seems like a lot to have four couples in the story, but I think this is handled pretty well. Each pair is quite distinct and their lives are not so separate that you feel the jump when the story moves from one couple to another. This makes the series better than most series that feature so many couples. There is nothing truly exceptional about this series, but there is always a place for such a lighthearted, generally stress-free BL series.

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I would've given it a higher rating.

(DISCLAIMER: THIS IS MY OWN OPINION BASE ON MY OWN PREFERENCE)
I would've given it a higher rating, but 4 couples in one series is TOO MUCH. After like 5 episodes I couldn't care less for the 3 other couples because they are dragging the story for me 😭

Story : I honestly only know the story of the main couple bc I skipped every single scenes of the other couples. I love the story of MekKim, my rating 7.0 would've been higher if they are the only focus of the entire story.

Acting: They are such great actors! There's not that much cringe worthy scenes. And even though I didn't watch the other couples, they have amazing chemistry. I would definitely watch their story if it was separated.

Music: DUH? Of course it's 10.0. It's Jeff Satur babes. 🥴

Rewatch Value: I gave it a 7.0 even though I will never watch this again. But it's good though. Not the best but also not terrible.

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This was a hard watch for me to get through. The first two episodes in particular were a real slog to make it through.

The series as a whole is really obnoxious with the editing, sound effects, and gag jokes. It’s a very cringy slapstick-style comedy. The humor is immature garbage, and so are all the comedic characters. Mek is super annoying at the beginning, but he gets better. The chancellor is the worst out of all the characters though. The whole prank channel concept was horrible, but thankfully it was acknowledged to be problematic and the characters stop doing it. Every character’s content creation persona was ultra obnoxious.

The concept of a university chancellor shipping two students and forcing them to pretend to be in a BL relationship under the threat of not letting them graduate is so messed up that I can’t even begin to comment. She’s not even painted as a villain. She’s meant to be a comedic character. But it’s the whole basis of the plot so I just went with it.

Also, the whole obsession with followers and online validation that all the characters have is probably not the healthiest. Bear in particular is the worst. He only even likes Bomb initially because he was the only fan that paid attention to him specifically…their whole dynamic is a fan that idolizes someone and the idolized person who loves to be idolized. Mek even starts to like the idea of doing BL content because it gets him lots of followers.

Also, I know it’s just the norm in Thailand with BL content…but I can’t help but feel that the whole concept of people who are not actually romantically involved playing into BL relationships for the purpose of fan service, marketing, and ultimately money, is pretty messed up. Let’s stop encouraging parasocial relationships and shipping complete strangers. And let’s stop encouraging the need for online validation from complete strangers. People shouldn’t delude themselves into thinking these people are anything but actors and the industry as a whole should stop encouraging people to play into relationships for marketing purposes.

This was an ensemble romance, and the result was that there was inevitably not enough time spent on the couples I cared about and too much time spent on couples I didn’t care about. The main couple didn’t get that much more screen time than any other couple.

The only couple I truly liked was the established couple (Lee / Park). They’d been together for 7 years, and I love that there was a truly long term relationship showcased. Aside from nonsense miscommunication tropes resulting from bad writing, they were very supportive and loving to each other. They were equals, took turns leading, and had good consent, always backing off when the other pulled away or seemed uncomfortable or said they weren’t in the mood.

The Bomb / Bear pairing wasn’t compelling because like I said, it was just a fan that idolizes a creator and a creator that loves to be idolized. Bear is obsessed with having fans even in the finale, after a two year time skip. And Bomb is still obsessed with Bear, forgiving him for forgetting their anniversary for the sake of working on his YouTube channel.

The Tim / Mai pairing was the worst and the series would have been better without it. It was a big love square mess. Mai has been in love with Tim forever, but Tim rejects him because he wants to maintain the current friendship dynamic. The problem is that the current friendship dynamic is the result of Mai always hanging around Tim and catering to his every need because he likes him. And Mai lets this go on for years, even after getting rejected.

At the beginning of the series, Tim asks Mai to be his boyfriend and Mai says no…but I think Tim was just making a messed up joke there (considering he knew Mai’s feelings). He goes on to say he likes Kimhan and pursues / flirts with him, even wanting to do BL content with him. Mai finally has enough and says he’s tired of being taken for granted and that he should be able to live his life too…so Tim kisses him. Mai has been sticking around all this time because Tim keeps telling him he needs him in his life and wants him around forever, but he’s saying this with a friendship dynamic in mind. So when he kisses Mai, I think he was doing it purely because he thought it would be the only way to keep Mai in his life.

Mai walks away, but then he comes back the next day and says they can just be friends forever and it’s fine. He then starts to marginally pull away, though, and starts to stand up for himself and tells Tim that he has his own business and can make his own decisions. He starts flirting with Pete, but it seemed petty and not genuine because it seemed like he enjoyed when Tim would get jealous and be annoyed when Tim wouldn’t get jealous. And meanwhile Tim goes back to saying he likes Kimhan and flirting with him. When Tim finally asks Mai to be with him, I can’t tell if it’s because he truly genuinely wanted him, or because Mai kept pulling away and he felt this would be the only way to restore their dynamic. Also, when they get together, Tim comes and punches Pete for trying to kiss Mai. Mai was drunk, so maybe that’s valid, but then Tim kisses Mai himself. So either Mai was drunk and Tim took advantage of him just like Pete was trying to, or he was sober enough the whole time and was capable of making his own decisions with Pete.

And the main couple wasn’t that great either. First of all, the sisters (and parents) shipping and watching / posting BL content of their own brothers was weird. Kimhan had a semi-crush on Tim. More like a fan-crush, but he does visibly check out Tim shirtless after he and Mek are already romantically involved. He does always choose to spend time with Mek over Tim though, and doesn’t eagerly respond to Tim flirting with him. There an unnecessary ex-girlfriend jealousy arc thrown in, although it was thankfully much shorter than the Tim jealousy arc. I don’t know why the friends had to be involved and meddling in every aspect of their relationship. They were all present at their initial confession-gone-wrong scene, and Mek proposes at Lee/Park’s wedding (which is messed up but that’s another problem), and their friends are interjecting with their commentary there too. There were a couple consent issues too: Mek kisses Kimhan when he’s passed out sick, Kimhan kisses Mek when he’s passed out drunk, and there was one scene presented as comedic where Mek is trying to touch and kiss Kimhan but he’s running away and verbally / physically protesting. And neither are good actors…Kimhan’s crying scene was particularly bad.

There was all the miscommunication and self-sacrificing bullshit tropes left in. Mek gets a scholarship to study abroad, but then Kimhan confesses to him, so instead of responding, he says nothing. So Kimhan gets upset, and Mek proceeds to ignore him for the next week instead of communicating because he doesn’t know what to choose. He gets drunk and tells Kimhan the truth but doesn’t remember. Then he apologizes and tells Kimhan he likes him, and Kimhan accepts and they spend the next day on an extended date, and then Kimhan dumps Mek that night, telling him he doesn’t like him anymore, so that Mek will be free to study abroad. First of all, if Kimhan was planning that self-sacrificial bullshit, why did he accept Mek’s apology flowers and spend the whole day doing romantic things with him, and then dump him after the fact? Why didn’t he tell the truth about why he was dumping him? Why was long distance never an option even considered by either of them? And then we get a two year time skip, after which they reunite pretty much immediately, and Mek immediately moves back to Thailand and moves in with Kimhan. They get engaged pretty soon after too, all within the last episode-and-a-half.

I will say, all the couples had mutual affection without shying away once they got together, which I appreciated. There are a few NC scenes between Lee/Park and one between Bear/Bomb, but they were relatively short and chaste (shirtless kissing and implied sex only). None between the main couple or Tim/Mai.

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idek shortish

this aired around the same time kp aired so it took me a long time to enjoy this so long that i dropped this show when it was at ep 3 and picked it up around ep 6 reading that there was going to be around 4 couples i didnt know how they would wrap all their stories so they rushed some couples getting together. it took the 4th couple tim and mai 10 eps to even speak about their feelings and they had zero screen time im talking about like tutoryim kinda screentime. the established couple was my favourite bear and bomb were very rushed but still very annoyingly cute and the main couple just gave me nothing. music 10/10 its jeff satur you cant go wrong there.

plot wise i hated it the whole bl thing for the school the getting fans to follow the schools yt page it was very boring to me the main couples feelings were super rushed (but took them 28934928 years to actually get together idek if they did now that i think of it) i like a good enemies to lovers trope but this just wasnt it. the acting was messy fluk (mek) cant act there was nothing good about his scenes earth wasnt too bad but i hated his character a lot. the one thing i like is that they didnt make a big deal when it came to kissing like most bls they slow it down and play music where here u can blink and miss it. bear and bomb were disgustingly cute. i loved everything about park and lee and tim and mai. parklee>bearbomb>timmai >mekkim.

rewatch: id only watch parklee overall a let down i eat up the school tropes all the time but this didnt do it for me

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Too Bad

Too bad this series didn't do it for me, even though I really wanted it to. Earth was a big main reason why I was really rooting for this series, but this isn't the 2016 BL era anymore, and this series screams it.

Let's dive In.

Not only was some of the acting off, the script and the plot itself is so boring and irritating that it's hard to want to even watch. a fake BL couple and the person pushing it is their university president (or whoever she was) who had no business falling into the drama of her students but did anyway. Any plot that runs on the back of screaming BL fan girls/boys is not a plot I want to watch (and their sisters..??)

I also didn't care much for Kim and the guy-with-man-bun-whos-name-I-forgot. I'm not a fan of enemies to lovers, but usually, with some exceptions, I can appreciate it, but here, it's such a burden and tiresome. I shipped Kim more with his crush on Bear than I did anything.

The side couples kind of looked promising, but the series felt like a drag, so much so that my anticipation for how they would play out didn't matter, and it for sure did not encourage me to keep watching.

The only thing I could come to like was Kenji and Bear. Both are beautiful creatures.

This was not the comeback that Earth deserved. He moved on from 2 Moons 2 just to be stuck in some alternate universe of the same crappy storytelling. Sigh.

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Enjoyable, but not for everyone

I was initially quite excited about this since after the first 2 episodes I came to be under an impression this would be one of those dramas which doesn't take itself very seriously and mainly uses comedy to develop the plot. I wasn't completely wrong, but my impression also wasn't exactly on spot either.

First I have to say that while the comedy at the start is indeed the kind which half people will find absolutely hilarious and other half non-sensical and cringe, it doesn't really sell the drama well because in the later episodes the focus shifts on regular drama and issues between the couples. The jokes and exaggeration don't stop, but they're a lot more subdued in order for the plot to have an actual progression. The story itself isn't anything special in the classic school setting, but it can still be enjoyed as it's light-hearted and doesn't require too much thinking.

Rewatch value score is high, not necessarily because the drama is something most people would like to experience again, but because it's very difficult to remember the whole plot due to fast pacing and fast switches between the scenes. I personally prefer fast pacing over slower dragged-out scenes as long as the plot still makes sense and is properly developed, but in this case even I can't keep up with the speed. It really has fallen a victim to trying to develop too many relationships at once and as with many Thai BL dramas, there simply isn't enough episodes to do so without damaging the overall quality of the production.

Speaking of relationships though, I do actually quite like how they're being handled. Even though the scenes are sped up to fit everything in, the relationships themselves are getting a full development and don't seem to be progressing too fast or be incomplete.
My biggest appreciation in this aspect is that all the relationships are being treated as almost equally important and developed at the same time. Usually with multiple couples there's the issue of none of them getting an equal amount of screen time which earns complains from the fans who happen to like any other than the first couple. In this you get enough content of your favourite couple or can just be happy about the variety if you don't choose your preferred one.

As for the characters, you're absolutely going to end up disliking at least one of them at first, but all the problematic guys actually go get their short stories of self-realisation and improvement once their actions are confronted. Most of the characters seem to act overly childish, but at least these personalities of irrational students who are still learning how to deal with their emotions and communicate with others add an unique aspect to the otherwise standard conflicts.

There's quite an insignificant issue I still feel a need to nit pick at. I really wish the character design went through more work. For me with my face blindness it took 6 episodes to learn to distinguish between all 8 character which is the longest out of any drama I've watched so far. I might be the sole appreciator of Mek's ponytail, but I really wish more of them had a signature accessory or feature which could make them immediately stand out even without needing to recognise their face. I really feel like this distinction could help all the viewers since the story starts right away and not a lot of time is allocated to the character introduction.

As for the acting, the fact that these are all rookie actors can definitely be felt at certain parts. I wouldn't say all of them are doing a bad job or that someone is ruining an entire character, but there is certainly a room for improvement, for some more than others. I'd say the overall quality is quite average; the producers haven't hired 8 actor prodigies, but some of them are doing well and some have an adequate skill considering their lack of experience.

Last detail I want to mention is my appreciation for the lack of sound effects, that's something I'm always happy about when it comes to Thai BLs.

Final verdict: I recommend this to the people who enjoy light-hearted stories based around a school environment and don't mind exaggerated comedy. It's worth giving a try and sticking through multiple episodes if these are the kinds of stories which you usually have no issue sitting through.
The ones who should probably avoid this are people who are fed up with the school setting, prefer mature characters and stories or generally dislike comedy if it's not only used as an addition to an otherwise serious plot.

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Nope, Not in 2022

I placed a spoiler alert at the end of this review.

This had an ok story concept, but the script had one major flaw for me. I liked episode 1 because it was making fun of BL series using sitcom humor. However, I still noticed some red flags. The biggest flaws with the script pop up during episode 2 which made me drop it. See potential spoiler alert at the end of this review if you want more info. The acting is ok, but it’s hard to gauge this with the poor character/script development. I like the music and found it very catchy.

Random Note: Why does the show not match up with the poster and the description listed on here.



******Spoiler Alert******


The first flaw was there is no logic in blaming Kim for the prank when it is very clear that Mek was behind it. The major flaw for why I dropped this was the fact that a college administrator was forcing two students to became a BL couple. She was also the cause of the situation because she filmed and posted it without the student’s consent.

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My not so secret love

I just have one thing to say: Yes. A thousand times yes!
What a cute little drama this was. I enjoyed from start to end and despite doing one cliché typical from any other BL series, it made fun, avoided and even turned around other typical tropes in this genre.
The acting and cast were amazing. Their lines and dialogues didn't feel awkward and had THE best flow i have ever seen in any drama of this genre. Things didn't feel rushed nor slow and even if i really wish we could have more story for some characters, everything was nicely developed and it wrapped itself beautifully.
Totally and completely worth a watch and i will surely be happy to check it out again after sometime.

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