Tin Tem Jai

Plot? We don't know her.

The trailer looked really promising. It looked really interesting, and it seemed like we will get some forced proximity between our main leads, which I was really looking forward to as it has been a while since I watched a BL like that. The beginning of the series was, sadly, all over the place – we were introduced to a crazy number of characters who I didn’t get the chance to really tell apart, for whatever reason everyone and their mom is babysitting a niece or a sister or is leaving her with “friends” and strangers! What are all these little girls bringing to the story, to the plot?

There is no actual story to follow. There are also many inconsistencies with what is going on to the point that it becomes annoying. Like Tin meets his sister and then asks two of his friends to take her to his place – but he is going there as well, yet he takes much longer than the three of them! And the sister and other kids are waiting outside the house for Tin while Park and the rest of their friends are inside, yet not one of them said anything to the kids?

Also, how old is Tin supposed to be? At times, it seems like he is still a high school student, talking about what major he should pursue with his friends. He is childish enough to fit the age group well. And then at other times, he seems to be older, as someone who should already be in university or maybe even done with it. Especially considering that Park is working and seeing had to get a degree first, their age gap might be quite big. But that doesn’t really make sense to me with relation to their childhood. It’s confusing.

To be honest, I am way more invested in Pao and Khana. I think the two of them will make an interesting couple. Especially with them being so different, there is this idea of Pao being a golden child and Khana being the black sheep. I am excited about seeing more of their dynamics. I do get a sense that Khana doesn’t think himself good enough for Pao, which is why even after they have their moment, it feels like he is not happier.

I don’t like how the series addresses some very serious and sensitive topics. For example, the whole family situation with Khana when he seeks shelter at Park’s house was dealt with awfully. Yes, he is an adult who has probably done this before, but he is still the victim in this whole thing. Has been since he was a child. And to see how Tin (and even Park at some point) treat him is wrong on so many levels. Being cute afterwards does not make things okay.

It does deserve the recognition in one aspect though - I like how they adressed the fact that LGBTQ+ people are often held to a higher standard than others. It's true and it often seems that the world is just waiting for them to make the smallest mistake, so they can be condemned for it.

I am ready to drop this one. I really wanted to like it, but I am just not feeling it. The main couple lacks chemistry, the story is getting boring and very repetitive. There is also nothing really happening, no new developments in their relationship. I really wish they made Pao and Khana the main couple. And it would be nice if they didn’t include that many kids with no meaning to the plot.

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Mediocre and plotless

To be honest, I was not hoping this series to be something big or really good, but at least I expected to have something cute and enjoyable, it turns out it was only a plotless story that in terms of romance was so slow that it couldn't even be called a series full of fan service. There is no story, it is just a bunch of situations piled up together, they even treat important matters such as Long Lee's character's situation or even Tin's family problems.
The acting wasn't bad, but it was just plain and there was no chemistry, and the secondary couple did not have a decent development, so it feels somewhat uncompleted.

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Cute but pointless

Writing a review about this BL is not easy, since there is not that much to review. Why this series is 10 eps long is anyone's guess, it could have been done in 4. Or even none at all. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad. It's just.... not good.

I'm a generous rater and my 7,5 is used for average drama. This is below avg, so a meagre 6.0 is all it gets.

Tin is cute as a button although a bit too childish. The way Park goes from I'll kick you to I love you was so sudden I thought I missed a scene. But I didn't. Pao is supposedly a teacher but works at an office? There is a whole drugs depression and angst plotline there that could have been explored but wasn't. The whole brothers-to-lovers is never not weird, mainly due to the consistent references to parenthood. Chemistry is spotty, mostly in the beginning and with the PaoKana side couple. I get the feeling this was a practice run for the screenwriter (also the MC) and the actors. I hope they learned a lot.

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2nd time around:

Thanks to the New Years break in BL's I got a chance to watch this series for the second time.

My initial rating was an 8.
Second time around I did drop it down to a 7.5 rating.

You can check my Watch List and see that my ratings are pretty close to the average ratings of everyone else.
Some of mine do stray a little from the norm, but that is because I also factor in how a series makes me feel.

That being said, I don't understand why this show got such a Low rating.
I've seen bigger production shows that were worse and got better ratings.

This series had some bad editing/flow issues for sure. Blame that on the post production ppl and the director?

But the acting was really good across the cast! Everyone of them!

I felt that Tiger played his character really well. It wasn’t the usual effeminate role that is commonly played, it was more Innocent child like adoration.
I’m just putting this out there in case any of the cast or crew see it and know that at least ONE person Really liked this show!
I hope all of the actors continue to get work and that I can see them more.
Especially Run and Tiger.
Full disclosure: I’ve had a Huge BL Crush on Run and his younger brother Games since I saw them back when “With Love” broadcast.
Attack me all you want! I think it deserved better than a 6.2 rating.

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This was just so lackluster. I almost can’t even be bothered to have an opinion on it.

The dialogue was cheesy, the editing was cheesy, and the dramatic staring into each others’ eyes and random falling into each others’ arms was in full force. They have characters randomly talk to themselves outloud to show the audience what they’re thinking. The acting was downright bad, the leads had no chemistry, and the kissing / sex scenes from the main couple were awkward as hell.

There wasn’t even a plot, not even the romance. It’s just a bunch of characters having random conversations and doing random things that have no bearing to any sort of overall storyline. There’s a bunch of minor side plots — Tin’s relationship with his mom, Pei’s relationship with her parents, Pao’s drug overdose — but they were all short and unsatisfactory. Thrown in just for the sake of filling time. And there were a bunch of child characters that kept showing up and I don’t know what any of them were supposed to have contributed.

The drug overdose side plot especially annoyed me, because it was thrown in just for the sake of it, and it was done thoughtlessly. The show treats people that do drugs as if they’re the problem, doesn’t acknowledge that addiction is an illness, and even has the boyfriend of the one that overdosed punch him in the face for overdosing. And the guy overdoses and then never does drugs again and it’s never mentioned again, which just trivializes the issue.

There’s basically zero romantic progression between the main leads for the first six episodes. One of the side couples had good romantic progression at the beginning of the series, but after they kiss, their romance basically disappeared entirely until the special episode. It’s a shame because they had more compelling chemistry than the main couple. And there’s a straight couple that should’ve just been cut altogether because aside from being awkward as hell, the characters were barely connected to any of the other characters so it just felt disjointed.

The romance between the leads was lackluster, badly paced, lacked chemistry, and was honestly kind of creepy.

First of all, Tin acts like a kid. Not an immature teenager, but like a 10 year old kid. He’s constantly talking in a baby voice and acting cutesy in a baby-ish way. He literally still sleeps with his baby blanket. When he and Park get in a fight, he throws a tantrum and locks himself in his room with “I hate Park” signs taped to the door. Tin is a freshman in college, while Park is a nurse somewhere in his 20s. I’m not sure what the actual age difference is, but Park says there isn’t a huge difference between them at once point. But Park treats Tin like a kid, to the point that his colleagues say that they thought he was 7 or 8 years old, and Tin keeps saying that Park is an “adult” as if he isn’t one himself. Park spends the entire first half of the series calling Tin a child. The creepiest part for me was when Park said that he never thought he’d see Tin as anything more than a brother but then he started growing up and getting prettier…yuck.

There’s a weird part at the beginning where Pei, Park, and Tin refer to themselves as mom / dad / child. Like Pei calls Park “honey” and “husband” and feeds him, Park calls Pei “girlfriend”, and both treat Tin like a child. It was this weird flirty dynamic, but then it just disappears completely. Pei later reveals that she and Park had experimentally kissed one another but determined they didn’t feel anything for each other, but that kiss was before the weird flirty thing. I just didn’t see what the point of including that was. But calling Tin a child and treating him like one only to then enter a romantic relationship with him is, once again, weird.

Plus, Park practically raised Tin and very much acts like a father as opposed to a boyfriend. Tin feels the need to get Park’s approval before accepting expensive gifts, and Park scolds Tin when he gets home late or when he takes a job that requires him to skip classes. And when I say scold, I mean like a parent would scold a child. There’s even one scene where he says that if Tin doesn’t listen to him, it’s over. He even gives advice like a father would, saying that you can do anything if you work for it and I’ll support you, but I’ll scold you if you say you can’t do something without trying.

Park 100% financially supports Tin, paying all for all food, bills, and Tin’s tuition. Any time Tin wants anything, he asks for money from Park. When Tin finds out that his mom doesn’t send money to Park anymore and this is all coming out of his pocket, he feels guilty, but not once does he consider getting a job and contributing. There’s a point where Park is reminiscing about Tin being a baby and how he used to be so small that his hand wouldn’t even wrap around Park’s finger, which is creepy as hell to do as a romantic partner. And Tin straight up asks if he’s trying to be his father or his boyfriend in response.

Aside from the overall general creepiness, the pacing was also off. Park spends 6 episodes showing zero interest in Tin. He treats him like a child and a brother. Then someone else shows interest in Tin, so Park gets jealous and does a complete 180, declaring his love for Tin and suddenly vocalizing his emotions when he had zero ability to do so before. That happens in episode 7, but then they don’t kiss despite exchanging declarations of love until episode 9. And then there’s a speed run, because they get engaged in episode 10. Like what? It didn’t help that there were a bunch of useless side characters and it felt like the main couple barely got any screen time together for a large part of the show.

I wasn’t a fan of the jealousy arc or the fact that Park only showed interest in Tin because he was jealous. Phloen was genuinely nice and this series could have easily been rewritten with him as the lead teaching Tin to let go of his inappropriate one-sided crush on his guardian figure. But given that wasn’t the case, I didn’t like that Tin played into his affection while simultaneously declaring that his heart would always be Park’s. Because Phloen explicitly states his intentions, and Tin hesitates to shut him down. He even says his “heart fluttered” when Phloen said he liked him and wanted to flirt with him. Either you like Park or you like Phloen — I don’t like it when characters play both sides. Ultimately Tin ends up rejecting Phloen because he likes Park and doesn’t want to lead Phloen on, and Phloen accepts the rejection gracefully. But when Tin runs into Phloen later, he also seems disappointed when Phloen says he’s fine and has moved on from his feelings. He’s already with Park at that point and Phloen is never seen again, so what was the point of that reaction?

There are a several instances where Park deals with jealousy in a healthy way, but also a couple other scenarios where he definitely doesn’t. When Phloen initially was flirting with Tin, Park says that it’s up to Tin what he wants to do and doesn’t interfere. But once they’re together, when Phloen comes by to drop something off, he glares from the doorway with a knife in his hand until he leaves. He also interferes and prevents someone from touching Tin by pretending he’s checking their pulse. When Phloen is in the hospital, he doesn’t have a problem with Tin visiting him, but he does come into the room to make sure there’s no flirting. When someone hits on Tin in the special episode, he doesn’t directly interfere and instead walks away to indicate his displeasure.

In terms of physical affection, everything was very high-school-coded, which didn’t help with the impression that Tin is childlike. They get together in episode 7, but wait until episode 9 to kiss, even though they’re apparently already in love. Their first kiss is the quickest peck ever, and then Park asks if Tin will kiss him again on his birthday, because apparently a kiss is a big occasion. The birthday kiss is a proper kiss, and Tin gets embarrassed at getting a boner as if that’s something to get embarrassed about as an adult. There was verbal consent preceding both kisses though, and they stop when Tin wants to stop. There’s a shirtless make out scene in the finale and a bathtub sex scene in the special episode. In the finale scene, Park asks verbally if Tin wants to stop, but also follows up by saying that he won’t stop if Tin doesn’t stop him now. I appreciate the verbal consent check, but saying that consent can’t be withdrawn later totally negates the point of asking for consent in the first place. The leads also really lacked chemistry so both scenes were pretty lackluster. The acting was awkward, not believable, and repetitive — like they’d keep moving and kissing the same way / areas over and over. It didn’t help that they were in the bathtub in their underwear and they didn’t attempt to edit it out at all. And I was a bit disappointed that Park appeared uncomfortable when Tin tried to take the lead and immediately took over himself. There was a general lack of casual kisses as part of regular affection too. The second couple had better chemistry, and their make out scene and special episode bathtub scene were better, but they didn’t hide their underwear in the bathtub either.

Consent / boundary issues: Tin insists on picking up Park from work every day, even though he doesn’t want him to. Tin grabs Park’s arm and refuses to let go to prevent him from leaving during an argument. Khana punches Pao in the face because Pao overdoses. They’re already in a romantic relationship at this point and no one calls this out as domestic violence and Khana never apologizes for it. There’s also instances of characters touching each others’ hair in their sleep. There’s a scene where Pei starts taking off her clothes in front of Tin and Park, while both seem uncomfortable with it. She acts like it’s no big deal, making comments about them wanting to look at or touch her body. And then she pressures Park into unzipping her in a flirty way when he doesn’t want to. It was presented in a comedic light, but was clear sexual harassment. There was also the aforementioned questionable consent check where Park says that if Tin doesn’t stop him now, he won’t stop.

Other small issues I had: Park proposes to Tin in the finale, but gay marriage wasn’t legal in Thailand at the time this series aired, so I would have liked to see them both get rings since it’s meant to be the longterm state of their relationship. Despite getting engaged though, they refer to each other as boyfriends and Tin isn’t wearing the ring in the special episode. There was also a scene where Park acts all grumpy with Tin and says he just gets annoyed by seeing Tin’s face. And then it was never explained further why he was actually upset, or if he was actually that much of a dick that he genuinely was annoyed by Tin’s face. And Khana makes a sexist comment to Barbie about her being a bad mood because she’s on her period, and follows it up with another sexist comment about how she’s on her period despite her “manly” appearance. She’s not even manly or a tomboy — she just doesn’t dress like a girly-girl.

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It was cute

This was cute but very low budget. The story was confusing, the editing was bad, and I had no idea who was related to whom. They called each other mom, dad, darling, etc. I had no idea about some of them.

The actors were cute and they made it worth the watch. There were some pretty decent love making scenes. But plainly showing the boxers in the bathtub killed the imagination. I’d say there was good chemistry.

What happened to Pao that he missed the entire concert? If he had diarrhea the entire concert and dinner afterwards, he should have been taken to the hospital.

Not much else to say. Quick watch and I enjoyed it even though it had no substance.

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Mediocrity at its finest

I have many issues with this drama, which I'll go into later, but I think my biggest problem is that this drama COULD'VE been a 10 star for me. They kept dropping interesting storyline after interesting storyline and if this drama had properly explored even one of them, it could've been great. But they didn't. Anyway, here is my review of Tin Tem Jai.
Story:
So this drama follows Tin, a university student who lives with his long time crush Park. I actually really liked Tin as a main character. He was funny, caring, sassy, and just overall fun to watch. His storyline with his mom was also extremely interesting and I wish we'd gotten more from it. Seen his relationship with her before she left him with Park and his mother, actually gotten some exploration into Tins abandonment issues and his feelings on his mothers new family. We got crumbs but I wanted more. My problem was with Park. How do I say this? Park was boring. He had barely any personality, he had no hobbies, he had 3 facial expressions the entire drama, and he had the charisma of a twig. Together, these two characters had no chemistry. Enter the second lead, Ploen. He's got good chemistry with Tin, they share an interest, he's open with how he feels about Tin, and he's handsome. Literally they made the perfect love interest the second lead😭 I was so upset that Tin didn't pick him, I knew he wouldn't but I was grinning and kicking my feet for them only for Tin to reject him. As for the second couple, I feel robbed. We get build up, a hot sex scene, and then we never saw them alone together again until the special episodes. We see them together in group scenes and they both get a few solo scenes but I wanted more. I wanted what was in the special episodes to be in the main ones. Just them being a cute couple and that chaotic boyfriend calm boyfriend dynamic they had. They had the chance to make them stronger as a couple when Pao ods. It is said that Kana previously did drugs so if they'd given glimpses of him helping Pao through the rehab process (not that he actually went because tv doctors are stupid but hypothetically) would give them a chance to connect more. Another unexplored storyline dropped in for conflict. Speaking of unexplored, I want to know more about Bai. Her transition, how she built herself from a run away to a successful hair salon owner, and the tense relationship she has with her family. Because having family be unaccepting of your identity is a reality for many lgbtq+ people and it clearly had not resolved. Though her brother and her friends show her unconditional support, her parents do not.
Acting:
The acting in this show is fine. Not horrible but not going to win any awards either.
Soundtrack:
Fine, except during the sex scenes. Specifically for the main couple. The main couple has one sex scene in the 10 episodes and 2 in the special episodes. All have terrible music. Due to the actors lack of chemistry, the sex is kind of boring and awkward so the terrible music just makes it worse.
Rewatch value:
Haha, no. I will not watch this again, ever.
Overall:
I did not hate this drama but I was severely disappointed and underwhelmed. Personally wouldn't recommend

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well seriously this is not the best bl I ever watch

for the story it's not that intriguing but the flow is good so I watched it but the second couple has no proper ending and that's disappointing also the acting is so - so it's not that good especially the boy park he is a disappointment but I like his because of his character development in this series I kinda enjoy it but the story is lacking And that's why my overall score is 6/10
only the music is good other than that it's average
also the second main lead is childish but I don't find him annoying also the two main lead I can't feel there chemistry in my opinion I like the senior supporting character than the main lead which is park

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