The Promise

GREAT STORYLINE AND CAST! FRIENDSHIP TURNED INTO LOVERS!

First of all Phu and Nun is so good and the chemistry is undeniable. On the other hand, Party, this guy...why always this guy is a minor character!!?? He got a lead role in one of the BL series i watched and i forgot the title because its forgettable (LOL), it;s because of the storyline and the characters around him. Boss is a great actor don't get me wrong! He has all the qualities of a good "TOP" (Lead), he's handsome, the charisma and oh my god the eyes and lips.... I just hope he will be in a better BL series where the story doesn't suck because a guy like him deserves much!

Going back to Nan and Phu, i always love this kind of BL where friends turns into lovers kind of thing. I love where Phu is so reserved and concealed about his feelings just to protect Nun and their friendship. He's feelings for Nun is like a volcano that's ready to burst anytime (well they burst in episode 10....together....LOL).
I just can't understand why this series is so underrated if not ignored on social media, because I couldn't see anyone talking about this masterpiece.

I just wish they could've stretched it till episode 11 or 12 where Phu meets his mum and introduce Nun or something like that. Their wedding could've been a great additional episode.

I'VE HAD A FAIR SHARE OF BL DRAMAS AND THIS IN PARTICULAR IS GREAT! IT HAS ALL THE ELEMENTS THAT A BL SERIES SHOULD HAVE. FRIENDSHIP TURNED INTO LOVERS IS SOMEWHAT CLICHE IN ROM-COM BUT IF THE STORYLINE IS GOOD, IT WILL SURELY WORK. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND "THE PROMISE"!!!

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One mistake in the storyline

A good performed and directed BL show, with characters dislplayed quite well, but not a real development in them. Professional created never the less. AND not the Thai Bl typical "oh no kissing" or shouting "pervert" or such when it comes to body contact. And thankfully no anoying female character interfering ... This is not meant as antifeminist statement! ... But the end ... I have seen another VL with MH17 in as reason for the end of that relation ... I feared the same here ... But luckily NO! But why the hell got Nan later home than the anounced missed flight which got off later, despite being upgraded to an earlier flight? A later flight would be logic! And about the change of flight Gigi could/should/must have known ... or is/was Ken not communicatiing the change after the news about a desaster???
That twist for drama in the end was useless and makes the the show less adorable and sorry less professional and logic. (Don´t tell me we need no logic in BLs) a propos drama ... why are Thai BLs or or Lakorns with seemingly no tears when the actors cry? I can´t remember seeing one actor sobbing and crying out their souls with tears ...

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Fun and loving series

The series is fun and has fluff and good drama and comedy. There is good chemistry among the cast and leads. You can feel the longing and love shared with Phu and Nan felt even after 10 he went missing. It's very light heart and does a good job telling the story and showing the development and growth. I am not too much a fan of Nan's other best friend Party always manipulates Phu to do favors for Nan and their job. The only real part that I really hated was the move to China, which was not needed especially when they just got together, that was messed up for the company especially when they know they were together. I felt that took away from the story and no needed drama. The ending was very surprising with the twist of development I will leave you to see that for yourself. I enjoyed this series very much was a sweet take on long last love and how even after 10 years will always find each other. Beautifully put together and I look forward to them coming together again.

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How slow do you like your slow burn?

Think the slowest burn possible. (Well, maybe Aziraphale and Crowley are slower.) But the thing about a slow burn is there must be a continuous supply of heat, and I do think these actor brought a great deal of warmth to this couple.

The settings and people are beautiful, and the simmering pain of being unable to ask for what you want is REAL. You can tell this is a cousin to KinnPorsche but with less crime and more coffee.

I'd have loved better pacing, some dramas could have moved quicker, and others slower. But for me, the payoffs were worth it.

There were some characters that were 2 dimensional and used poorly, but unlike so many BLs this had real space for some supporting cast. Grandma and her crew were perfection. And Where are all the awards for the kids playing the 11 year old Phu and Nan?

I can see there was an intention of a second season and I hope they come back to that idea.

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Too forced the finale…

I was really interested in the serie ar the beginning, but as some of you wrote, not much happened, or happened too slowly. But what most disappointed me was the finale…my goodness, going to China from Thailand is no reason for drama. There are planes, lime, WhatsApp, FaceTime, and of course, as said, planes. Also the situation created about the plane crash was really forced. We didn’t have the time to enjoy them as a couple. It seems unreal the end. I thought Nan was a ghost! Why don’t the writers, in those more matures BLs, write situations like prepare a wedding (wonderful in this series), the wish to adopt a child, matters that would be much more adult. Also, the side couples were barely solved at the end. Even Phu’s brother find the young guy.. Party, job…What happened to the farm…I felt frustrated. I am actually tired of the student bls, at universities. It would be nice to have sure young couples, but trying something better than untrust, people who want to destroy relationships and noisy people, like the end of the episode 9. I found the main actors gorgeous, but like Phu, I got tired of his slow motion, almost stoped. And Nan should have know why he disappeared and also the fact that Phu did the same university because of a promise to Nan’s father…things that would create better and not cheap feelings, with some drama of course. But I feel the situations created were sometimes incoherent and forced. I wouldn’t say to anybody not to watch the series, but I would like to see more BLs that give including more material for the legalization of same sex marriage in Thailand and other countries. There are already many good ones with more adult situations. This one failed for me… By the way, what I was referring before as bls with different content is like Papa & Dady, and I Told Sunset about you, among others.

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Made me feel good

Ok, I cannot gather my thoughts to write this review for last 10 days. So I will keep it very short. As short as I am capable of doing.

If you are picky BL lover this might not be for you. The Promise is somewhat in between when it comes to the quality. It is not a masterpiece nor massive produced soapy romance, in my humble opinion. Even though it goes toward soapy dramas. I honestly expected tragedy because it starts with – inspired by actual events...hopefully this one is just as 99% of BLs, the one with the happy ending.

Originality: Well 6 .5/10 – childhood friends future lovers plot but it brought me some sense of warmth

Acting: It was fine by me, I loved the chemistry. Kissing was so-so, but the last scene of intimacy kinda looked good

Flaws: Unbalanced plot, some unimportant things were dragged and some were rushed but they needed more development

Conclusion: I do not believe it is waste of time, because I cannot remember when was the last time I was watching pilot episode (in this case two episodes) that hit me with that warm and fuzzy feeling. It made me wanting to watch it so bad. My review is not harsh, I am solemnly focused on my feelings. I enjoyed the mood, I did not enjoy the waiting (so I envy the bingers now).

Overall, I ended up loving this more than I thought I would. This is a decent watch and I possible re-watch some of the episodes but not sure just yet!

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Unexpectedly good

when i started watching this series, i wasn't expecting much to be honest. However, it was surprising good and got my attention from the 1st ten minutes and i got really excited.
there were some scenes that made me laugh so loud. such as the slow motion school incident. it was hilarious.
it's just i wish that Fah had realized and confessed his love to Phu, i believe it would have been so much better and prettier this way.
there were 2 scenes that i felt it was laking more emotions. 1st, when they met again after 10 years, 2nd when Fah got bk to Thai after 1 year. it didn't really felt like they were surprised or excited or anything.
overall, nice series. good looking cast with great acting. give it a try

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The promise unkept

I was promised angst, and drama, and so much emotion. After the prequel, I expected that much. The kind of angst that is caused by well written conflicts and misunderstandings because, let's face it, we enjoy red flags in dramas sometimes. I wanted love triangles and squares, and a ton of aching and heartbreak, and.. nope. They delivered nothing but the misunderstandings. Not well done either.

There was definitely a mood shift between the prequel and the series, they added comedy (which completely unnecessary, one of the worst aspects they added, especially since it did nothing for the story), the characters were incredibly inconsistent compared to the prequel, it was jarring going from a moody and emotional couple of episodes to a sitcom kind of series.

The leads were fine together (the child actors were really good though, I have to say), but the chemistry was almost non - existant during some scenes, which felt frustrating since you would expect two individuals who have liked each other for 10+ years, being confused about their feelings, being seperated from each other with no contact for over ten years, you would think the passion and yearning would be overflowing. It just wasn't. Like I said, they never really got that angst right, despite it being readily available to implement.

One thing I did like, was several of the supporting characters. It's weird because most of them started out being kind of pushy and a chore to watch on screen, but ended up being solid individuals. I especially loved that none of them actually crossed any line when it came to the leads, whether it be confessing their love or providing advice or nudging the leads on to confess to each other, none of these characters crossed a line, which is something I see quite often.

Talking about the actual misunderstanding now, I did not like it. I wanted something complex and emotional, and even though the reason Phupha chose to leave was because of a valid fear for him, the wait period of ten years and the payoff certainly didn't work for me. 10 years with absolutely no contact because of his reasoning was just a bit too unreasonable for me.

I'm a little dissapointed with how this played out, right up until the ending. There were so many scenes which could have been cut out, or the time they were used for could have been used to deepen their relationship, and it's a shame it wasn't. This was a slow burn story that never really picked up the pace, and thinking about it, two episodes somehow managed to tell a better story than ten did.

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Derailed

This show had so much potential and I really enjoyed much of it. But it had too many annoying characters and just derailed completely in the end. This is all just my opinion.

The second ML, Phupha, was entirely too emotionally introverted and selfish for me to enjoy his character for ten episodes. His silence, horrible communication, and actions hurt Nan over and over again and that's just unacceptable, to me, in a romance drama. What got me is that he very rarely apologized which means the writers didn't see his actions the same way I did - as being selfish and utterly lacking in self awareness. This would have all be cleared up for me if the character showed growth from this negative place and earned redemption by the end. But that is not the case. Phu remained a selfish, emotionally introverted, bad communicator until the end. I don't feel his character had much growth at all.

Side character issues
- Gei Gei is supposed to be comic relief but I found her to be extremely annoying. The many times she stuck her foot in some mess and did absolutely nothing to get herself out of the mess but run away. That means somebody else had to clean it up. I just can't with that character theme. It's always a turn off.
- Party and KK - Lord have mercy. I understand persistence when you trying to get a man but come on! I was very close to fast forwarding through all of their scenes. I held on by a thread.
- Phupha's mother - WTH?? This woman managed to have a whole family in Melbourne and not exchange even pictures between her children?? She supposedly loves Phupha so much and yet there isn't a single piece of evidence to support that. Even knowing her child was traveling to Thailand for work, she never bothered to get in touch with Phupha and have them meet up?? I mean, she may not have been able to afford to go to Thailand but who would miss the opportunity to connect, in person, their children?? Make it make sense. This was weak writing at best and somebody should have caught this in production and made some changes.

While all of these are pet peeves really, the fact that the show derailed right at the last episode top the cake for me. I couldn't make it through episode 10 without fastforwarding. The fact that after nearly 30 years of knowing each other and ten years and sooo much emotional turmoil, they finally get together just to have Nan be offered a job in China and Phupha tell him to go!! I was utterly done! Horrible writing. This couple's relationship was given zero time to blossom and the audience zero time to get to know them as a couple. Even to the very last when they couldn't even have a night to themselves without the writers throwing in KK to cockblock them. That would have been fine if it was 2-3 episodes earlier but at the end?! This isn't a teenage BL, these are grown adults. You have to put more into building the relationship. The writers failed and turned it into silliness for no damn reason. It's upsetting.

In conclusion, this show was on a good pace to be a solidly good drama but it lost its way by the end and it badly handled some of the characters. It didn't show enough character growth especially for Phupha, and it didn't invest in the couples actual relationship. The ending was cluttered and took away focus from the main couple which is the opposite of what should be done in a romantic drama. I was left feeling frustrated, disappointed, and very close to feeling like I wasted my time.

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