23.5 (2024)

GL doux et charmant qui saisit la timidité et la magie d’une première romance

23.5 est une rom‑com pour ado toute mignonne avec une vibe à la Heartstopper. Elle raconte l’histoire d’Ongsa (Milk Pansa) qui, timide et maladroite, cache son identité derrière le pseudonyme Earth pour parler à Sun (Love Pattranite), la fille populaire dont elle est secrètement tombée amoureuse.

Ce GL a un charme simple et réconfortant : il ne cherche pas à révolutionner le genre, mais il sait capturer l’essence d’un premier amour hésitant, maladroit et profondément humain. La dynamique entre Ongsa et Sun est à la fois drôle et tendre, surtout pour ceux qui se reconnaissent dans la nervosité et l’enthousiasme des débuts d’une relation.

La série déborde de moments légers, amusants et doux, souvent portés par les quiproquos autour de l’identité d’Earth. Le casting est bien choisi, et les performances de Milk et Love sont très naturelles, ce qui renforce l’attachement que l’on ressent pour les personnages et leurs progrès émotionnels.

Bonus, le side‑couple Luna et Aylin est juste trop cute pour moi. Leur romance est rafraîchissante et naturelle, avec des interactions qui semblent vraiment à l’image des ados. Certaines scènes, notamment leur déclaration, comptent parmi les plus belles et romantiques que j’ai vues récemment dans un lakorn GL, et elles m’ont fait sourire à chaque fois.

La réalisation adopte un ton jeune, frais et réaliste, avec une mise en scène simple mais efficace et une photographie qui soutient bien l’ambiance scolaire et intimiste du récit. L’OST contribue aussi à ancrer l’émotion des scènes, avec des morceaux légers qui collent bien à l’atmosphère romantique.

Oui, c'est prévisible, mais toujours attachant, 23.5 devient vite une série confortable à regarder, avec des personnages sympathiques et une romance délicieuse qui donne le sourire. Et oui, ce GL ne se prend pas trop au sérieux et n’aborde pas de thèmes très lourds, c’est ce qui fait de 23.5 une série légère, tendre et facile à savourer à son rythme.

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Nice first try, lovey-dovey, but boring and with many mistakes

Caution: a very, very long review with, unfortunately, a lot of criticism.

As a normal series I would give it a 4 or 3 out of 10, but as in Thai BL-GL industry series I would give it a 6 or 7 out of 10. Frankly, I wouldn't dare give it less because I SERIOUSLY want more GL's to be made, I seriously want industries to know that there is enough audience to start GL's. But that doesn't mean it's okay to accept anything without any criticism. I find it really a shame, but often the first products of something are generally bad. Not to mention the first GMMTV BL's, which were, and I'm sorry, trash. So, don't get me wrong: if we compare this with Love Sick, 23.5 is pretty a masterpiece.

Things I liked: The color palette, View as Aylin (although I didn't really like how the subject was handled) and the acting of Milk and Love. Milk and Love's performances are incredible, they really shined. I particularly liked that Sun has a very thick accent, a way of speaking that Love created for Sun's character (that's great!) Milk is not far behind, her dramatic scenes (both comical and sad) could really produce feelings in the viewer. She took the center stage and never let it go. Milk and Love have my full support. But I think that is all. Sorry, I have a complaint to every element of this series.

Things I didn't like:

I didn't like the camera direction and the pacing. Too slow for so little story being told. I really don't understand why they didn't use the most used and obvious resource to show the passage of time, which is to record several takes in different spaces and with different costumes in different contexts. The series lacks the "show the passage of time" factor. Why is this important? Because it not only shows the quantity of time, but also the time they have to known each other. Although the viewer would feel that Ongsa and Sun had only known each other for 3 weeks, suddenly Sun was blindly in love with Earth (same with Ongsa, ngl). On the other hand, the Aylin - Luna couple, although they are cute and their lovey dovey scenes are adorable, I felt like they hardly knew each other until they "fell in love" as deeply as they did. They practically didn't even take the time to get to know each other. From my point of view, everything that happened in the series could have easily happened in 2 months, and it's supposed to have been just under a year.

The chemistry between Love and Milk was lacking, I felt like they had more chemistry when they were Ink and Pa in BB than here. But I don't rreally blame them, maybe it was the script. As the series progressed, I also felt some discomfort seeing them together. Like I know I have to feel like they have chemistry, but I can't feel it, which is frustrating.

The radical change in pacing between EP 1 and the rest of the episodes is dramatic and a terrible move. The first episode was incredibly dynamic, loaded with jokes, a hilarious Ongsa and loaded with action. However, that episode is behind us and the pace slows to the point that it produces a yawn. Why did they give so much emphasis to Tinh and Chaoren in the first episodes if they were then completely forgotten in the others eps? Why this change?

GOD the infinite shots. They could record just a character's face without any expression for 10 seconds. What does this say to me as a whole? That they had no more story to tell but they had to reach 45 minutes per episode. That's so frustrating. It's like stretching out flavorless gum until it becomes a thread.

It lacks a soundtrack. Scenes without any background music + a story in which essentially nothing happens couldn't be a worse combination. The lack of dynamism could have been compensated with a strong soundtrack to enhance the scenes. But long, boring scenes, no story, MORE silence? It is a combination that induces drowsiness. (Also, too many comical sound effects that after insisting stopped being funny)


Although P'Ton was the character that I liked the most (not saying much, because neither character was developed enough for me to be interested in any of them), or rather the one that made me laugh the most because he is extravagant, his time in screen with Mawin was a mistake. God, why so many scenes of them that led to absolutely nothing? Do you know how terrible, how frustrating, how annoying it was when MAWIN interrupted Aylin in her confession? God, what is he doing there and why did he interrupt her? Why is he on the scene? I repeat, the importance they gave to his character along with PTon's was a complete mistake. Having cut out all the time the pair takes up on screen, easily could have put in the scenes of Aylin Luna getting to know each other.

Something that was mentioned a lot on Twitter, and it's true, is that Sun seems like a secondary character. She seems to be as secondary as Aylin or Luna or P'ton. We don't know anything about her and until episode 10 she had no dreams or flaws at all. She was perfect the entire series. She wasn't a real person. Ongsa, although a little more faceted, we don't know much about her either. We know that she likes dogs, likes astronomy and that she has social problems (and that she is extremely coward). And that's it. The only characters who have distinctive traits (things we know they like) are Chaoren and Aylin. Luna? We know nothing, absolutely nothing about Luna. We know more about Alpha than Luna, and Luna is part of the secondary couple.

Wasn't Sun the most popular girl in school? Why does she seem like just another ordinary girl? Why on her birthday did no one but the protagonists say happy birthday to her and only a few went home to celebrate if she is supposed to be popular? Why does Ongsa have so many social problems? What was her life like before moving? Why did she move out suddenly? What was her relationship with her parents? Why does it seem like she barely knows her mother and is there a latent discomfort in all of her scenes? Are they blood family or are she and Alpha half-sisters? There couldn't be less chemistry between her and her parents. Through the screen, it is as if she has been living abroad and only in the recent year has she returned home. There is no family dynamic or chemistry, they are characters that were created, completely artificial and empty, placed in EP 1 to conform a family.

That's what this series is: hollow. It is somewhat hollow. Not completely, but enough to make it frustrating to watch the series.

Is really no one, no one going to mention the hair color change in Luna's hair? In a single episode, she had light brown hair in some scenes and dark brown hair in others. GOD, why haven't I seen anyone mention that blunder? Why they did that? I can let it go (although it bothers me) the change in haircut or hairstyle (particularly in men) because it is a mistake that its made in almost every series. But the hair color, really?

Do you know why I criticized the series so strongly, even though I waited for it to come to an end? Because I was waiting for this since 2022, and because the news that it was the first GL from GMMTV, the largest BL's company in the world, was exciting news. But here we are. And I'm so, so sad. I really wanted to love this show.

Nice try, really. although I am currently very frustrated, I appreciate all the love put into the series. Thank you very much for finally taking into account the GL's.

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