Fourever You

Not even Pond could save this

I will admit it, if not for Pond Ponlawit, I wouldn't have even considered starting this, and I could have spared myself hours of bored suffering.

I do like the occasional Thai college BL; and didn't even expect much in the way of originality. But this one has several points I don't like, and in combination these are deadly for a series: stereotypical "top" and "bottom" characters, nonsense story, bad directing.

This will be somewhat of a rant although I tried to write it like I would for any other drama, so if you loved "Fourever You" and/or North and Johan's story, go back and stop reading *now*.

The four (potential) couples very obviously follow every stereotype there is: Each of the "tops" is older, richer, more popular, more into sports, taller, more masculine in looks than their "bottom" counterpart. The "tops" are also stereoptypically cold on the outside, while the "bottoms", at least the two we saw most of in the first episodes, are childishly over-the-top emotional.
That alone is a warning sign for me -- I do know that a lot of people like these dynamics.

The first couple -- Ter and Hill -- is at least mostly balance in their power dynamics, but that gets offset by Ter's 13-year-old mentality, which creates drama where there shouldn't be none. And where Ter is over-the-top, Hill is exceptionally bland; after six episodes with them at the center, I know *nothing* about him, except that he seemed to be in love with Ter since forever, and that he's quite well-off and does well in his studies. Their story is quite nonsensical -- we get told their backstory in short flashbacks; those are not shown chronologically, which would be fine on itself, but if we put the information together, it doesn't make sense! It seems that Ter thought Hill was dating a school mate at the same time as he had a crush on Ter's sister. Up to epiosde 8, we also saw two short scenes that don't fit into anything else. Maybe those wil be picked up again later, and I would love to know how this is explained, but it's not worth it to suffer through North's and Johan's story.

Because the second couple (North and Johan), which I have heard is beloved by fans, has the same kind of power dynamics that made me drop "Perfect 10 Liners" earlier: The "top" has some kind of power of his love interest, and abuses it to make him do things he would never do, like spending time with him, doing errands, making life decisions. Here, the power imbalance is a (fictional) debt of several 100 000 Baht North has to pay back to Johan, and it's made worse by the fact that North makes it very clear that his livelihood depends on the money he gets from his part-time jobs. Of course, super-rich Johan doesn't care, and keeps North away during working hours, which could have cost North his job. And no, Johan, buying your love interest an iPhone does *not* make up for your abusing your power.

So, I can deal with boredom, I can deal with nonsense stories, but I cannot nor will I ever be able to see how a mutually respectful relationship can ever come from a starting point like this.


And as a last point, the directing.
As I said, I started this drama for Pond Ponlawit. I noticed him first in "The Death of Khun Phra", and in "Century of Love" -- and after that I saw him in "180 Degree Longitude" and "Reset", as well as the short edutainment series "Criminal People 5G". In each and every one of these, I was blown away by how *different* the characters are. If not for the same face, I would never have guessed that this is the same actor. I wanted to see what he would do with a standard Thai BL "top" character.
So, I *know* he has talent. I *know* he has the ability to pull it off. But it seems that not even he could make a bland character without personality into something interesting.

And, watching him, it felt like Pond was directed to forcibly stop himself from acting -- sometimes there are slight movements of arms or the whole body that he stops, and then he goes back to an awkward stance with his arms hanging down at his side. This can only be because the director wanted it to be like that, I cannot think of another explanation. Maybe the director had a vision of the character that unfortunately the script didn't support (as I said, Hill has no personality at all)? I wonder what Pond would have made of Hill, if he could have acted the way he wanted under another director.

The same goes for Earth Katsamonnat, who also has shown his abilities in previous productions, although his character is already written as if Ter is a 13 year old girl, so he didn't have much leeway. And it's also very obvious that Bas Hatsanat as North did his best to give his character a well-rounded personality.

Which brings me to my last point of contention: This is one of those BLs that are very obviously aimed at very young teenaged girls, who can identify with the "bottom" roles and crush on the "top" roles -- which might make money and might also honour the heritage from Japanese BL manga -- but makes for such unrealistic behaviours that it's really hard to watch, especially if the rest is already making me want to drop it.


​

Was it good?
The only saving grace of the first five and a half episodes was Pond Ponlawit trying to make the best out of a character without personality.

Did I like it?
No. The drama uses stereotypes I hate, and doesn't even try to give them a bit of a twist. Once Hill became a background character, my interest droppped sharply, so I dropped the drama.

Who would I recommend it to?
I don't want to recommend this at all.
Okay, maybe to hard-core Pond fans.
And maybe to people who also liked "Perfect 10 Liners".

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A Dictionary of Thai BLs

I have compiled a handy guide to (most) Thai BLs, which I hope will prove useful to both seasoned viewers and newcomers alike. I believe it contains everything you need to know about this show -- and, alas, many others. For more on my ratings, and my verdict on the show itself, see below.

A: Accidents.
Come in many kinds, but the commonest is the fall-catch-kiss. Don’t try it at home, or you’ll end up in the A&E. Also used to kill off mothers in flashbacks.

B: Bisexuals.
Which every man is. And no woman is.

C: Couples.
Three is the standard. Two unusual. One rare. Go for four if you truly want to torture people. Quality of writing usually declines with, and for, each additional couple.
See Also: Love Triangles.

D: Drinking. Drunkenness.
A drop of alcohol is sufficient for the bottom to lose all inhibition, a glass of beer for the top. Both known to cause irreversible amnesia, particularly after professions of love or a night-time kiss.

E: Engineering. Engineers. Engineering Faculty.
The most acceptable setting for a Thai BL.
See also: Medicine, Medical School, Doctors.

F: Fake boyfriends.
Because, if there’s anything that’s going to get you out of a tough spot in this virulently homophobic world, it is pretending to have a gay lover.

G: Guitars.
Pathognomonic of bad BLs. The harbinger of all things abysmal. When you hear that first strum, run fast, run far.

H: Homophobia.
Generally absent, unless it can be (cynically) mined to manufacture a last-minute conflict. Where present, it's usually the father. It might be argued, however, that it is the BL genre itself that's ultimately homophobic, even Thai BL.
See also: “Don’t say Gay”, 11th Episode Curse.

I: Illness or indisposition.
Usually fever. Sometimes fainting. Often from a drop of rain or a glass of wine. Great occasion for piggy-back riding and dry towel baths.

J: Jest. Jokes. Jocularity.
Slapstick, often scatological. Growls of hunger mandatory. Throw in a few jokes at the expense of your effeminate (i.e., actually “gay”) and trans characters to show people how truly progressive you are.
See also: Homophobia, Transphobia

K: Kisses.
At least nominally present, unlike in KBL. Vary in range from fish-eye non-kisses to full on snog-fest. First kiss nearly always accidental. Common trends include underwater kissing & rooftop kisses.

L: Like. Love.
Used in such phrases as, “I am not gay. I just like you.”

M: Miscommunication and Misunderstanding.
The commonest and laziest way to manufacture a conflict. Usually involves accidentally hearing a half truth, and wilfully interpreting it against the other party.
See also: Forced Separation, Trips Abroad

N: Noble Idiot.
One of three acceptable ways to separate a couple. The idiot will run away from his love, in order to spare and save him, by making him, and us, suffer.
See also: Miscommunication & Misunderstanding, Homophobia.

O: Orphanhood.
A sure-fire way to coax sympathy. Achieved by death or abandonment. Mothers always die. Usually by accident or cancer. Fathers run away. Usually with another woman.
See also: Flashbacks.

P: Product placement.
An indispensable ingredient of East Asian BLs. Look out for rose milk, a make-up kit, or a carbonated drink.
See also: Subtlety (Lack of).

Q: Q-tips.
Essential to treat the whisper of a scrape, no more than the size of an ant, without which the submissive shall die of sepsis.

R: Reincarnation.
A way to bury your gays and have them too. Trades on cultural norms for acceptability. A premise that’s never put to good use.

S: Sexual Roles and Positions.
The difference between the dominant ("the top", "the seme") and the submissive ("the bottom", "the uke") must be maintained at all costs. The dominant shall be more aggressive, more violent, and the pursuer. The submissive shall be a shy maiden, who cannot be trusted to climb the stairs without falling down. The dynamic may be reinforced in many ways, most notably, age difference and height difference.

T: Towels. Towel baths. Hand Towels.
The occasion to reveal the perfectly sculpted and dehydrated body. Or to wipe out a food crumb from your lover’s mouth, possibly due to chronic shortage of napkins in Bangkok, or because our submissive has joined Riverdance and cannot use his arms.

U: Uniforms.
A bleached white shirt and a pair of blue or grey trousers. If at school, make the trousers short. If at university, add a grey jacket.

V: Varsities.
Basketball is unexpectedly the most popular. Followed by singing, since it always involves a national competition. Football & volleyball — sports that are actually popular in Thailand — are occasionally allowed.

W: Women.
Disposable. Usually limited to fujoshis and evil ex-girlfriends.
See also: Misogyny.

X: X-Rated (or NC) scenes.
More wishful thinking than reality. Usually involves one actor planking over another with minimal body contact. But, starved as we are, we’ll take it.

Y: Yikes!
Reserved for tropes that ought to be retired by now. You know what they are.
See also: A Therapist.

Z: Zzzzz… I’ve run out of ideas, okay? Much like Thai BLs.


Ratings:
— Story: Thai BLs have basically become an IKEA factory. We all know that. So, I wrote out this dictionary for fun, and thought to myself that, the more elements from it a show has, the less I'd rate it for story. (Of course, tropes themselves are fine, and when done well, fun. Tropes can also be subverted and made original. But left to itself, a trope becomes a failing organ and threatens the unity of the whole organism.)
— Casting: 5 for heat, 5 for acting.
— Music: If there's a guitar anywhere on the horizon, the rating instantly goes to 1. Otherwise, I tend to tune out most BL music. If it really stands out, I'll give it 5 minimum.
— Rewatch Value: Less than 5, don't bother. 5 to 7.5, yes, with generous skipping and skimming. Above 7.5, worth it.

Verdict:
Hmmm. I gave the first two episodes a proper go for Pond's sake, because I fell in love with him in 180 Degrees. However, despite that delicious opening scene, the rest of his presence in this series has been a grave disappointment. My poor fellow just walks around gazing at Earth as if his eyes had been dipped in formaldehyde by a taxidermist. If only he'd gaze at earth instead of Earth, who, in turn, has been told that blinking his eyes and twisting his face like a ventriloquist's doll is the same as acting. He needs to fire his agent, and his directors. People have suggested that I stay for Bas and Ngern, and I'm told that there is at least one scene in which Pond is half-naked: maybe I'll just skip to those parts.
I will say, even I couldn't have predicted that an entire show could be concocted from a dictionary I wrote to merely amuse myself. Indeed, I often felt as if I had travelled back in time, because everything about this show feels more 2015 than 2025. Poor Ngern. The handsome fella deserves better. I'm fairly certain I shall drop this one. It is already dragging by Ep. 3, and there are still 14 episodes to go. FourTeen! Yes, that kind of sophisticated word-play in the title should have been our first clue.
Update: Dropped. Couldn't make it past the first 15 mins. of Ep. 4.

***
This review is dedicated to Tim, one of my first friends on MDL.

***
Reader's Digest:
DO SAY: Gays4ever
DON'T SAY: Takes4ever

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It was a nice series overall but my interest between the two couples greatly differs!

I'm going to start with Hill and Ter as they are the first couple to start the series.
Their story started quite nicely but the fact that it relies too much on their past and that we don't have any proper flashbacks before they get together (not officially but still...) was a real problem for me because I needed to fill in the blanks by myself and, oh my God, I was wrong... Because I thought at first that the very first scene of the very first episode was just a dream from Ter's imagination - even though, it contradicted Ter's "hatred" for Hill (which we all know wasn't true based on his behaviour towards Hill alone...). And it was logical to think that because Ter was always saying that Hill couldn't be in love with him because he liked his sister or Mild, depending on the day. But, as the eagerly awaited flashback finally came out, it totally ruined their story for me because, from that moment on, I knew their story didn't make any freaking sense. It didn't make sense that Ter thought that Hill liked Mild or even his sister. Actually, their story started not to make sense from the moment Ter's dad interrupted them because after the argument with his dad, Ter is seen leaving his house to go straight to Hill to cry his eyes out but we learn after that scene that Hill was forbidden to see Ter ever again. So how was he able to see Hill at this moment? Again, Ter is seen calling Hill and blocking him for whatever reasons but they were supposed to be apart at this moment so it doesn't make any sense... Especially as Ter isn't even supposed to be working in his mum's café at this moment of the story. Or I'm an idiot and I didn't manage to follow their story properly but... they are a lot of nonsense in their storyline...
I would quickly add that, even though I like Earth as an actor, I didn't particularly like the faces he made throughout the series. It was particularly cringe... And how did Hill take all these photos that he has in his album?... Because it's impossible for him to have taken them...

I'm going to move on to my - but also many - favourite couple: Johan and North.
I already fell in love with Johan's character even before his story with North started as I love that type of character. And I also really liked North's character who, beyond his video games' addiction, is a really nice and friendly person. I liked the development of their relationship, even though it could've been better sometimes, mostly because of bad editing. I remember, for example, that we have no explanations as to why Johan increases North's debt. But what I really liked with this couple is, first, how they acted as a real couple, kissing each other with no shame or hesitation and, second, a coherent story (contrary to their friends...). And I really liked that we have one whole episode of their past story instead of several flashback scenes as we did for Hill and Ter's. I would've prefered 17 episodes of Johan and North instead of more than half of Hill and Ter...

As a whole, it was a nice watch. I'm not particularly interested in Tonfah and Typhoon and, even though, I like Arthit's character and actor, I'm not interested in Dao, so I probably won't watch season 2 (unless we see Johan and North in it!).

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A Cute BL College Romance

I'm going to keep this review short and simple.
First, do not take this drama seriously.. it's a light hearted drama, so enjoy it! Don't think about it too much.
Secondly... here's my review.

If you are looking for a light college romance BL, here you go. I am lovinggg these couples. I love how there are multiple. (I believe there will be a second season for the next couples we didn't get to see). The romance is so cute! One of my favorite things about BLs are when we get to see the characters backstory and how they fell for the lead early on. It's just one of my favs. We get to see plenty of that here.
Another fav trope of mine in BLs is a "bad boy" ML and a "softie/odd" ML as a couple. I absolutely loved them. We also get a second chance romance which I always love.

A couple of common complaints people are making is the lack of screen time for the "second" couple, (although they are considered a main couple). Which yes, I can see, they definitely could have gotten rid of a few scenes from our main couple. But I feel it was still wrapped up nice giving us viewers what we wanted. A cute romance.

Overall: A 10/10 watch. It got rid of all my stress watching this drama, and I certainly recommend.

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GIVE IT A TRY FOR JOHAN NORTH

If you like a series with simple plot but better actors and better chemistry then this one is for you.I liked all the characters all those actors have done phenomenal job specially Maxky and Bas these two feels like they were born to portray Johan and North (Chemistry is too good )I don't think I can move on from them that easily.I see many talking about Earth's acting and as a novel reader I saw him as EASTER not EARTH and according to me he did was easter was supposed to do.Anyway I hope the future viewers won't drop this drama( I know initial episodes are little bit slow and..) but trust me it gets better, North will make you laugh a lot while typhoon's longing eyes will make you curious about part 2 and Johan North of course BUTTERFLIES ^°^

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A romantic masterpiece

No exaggeration, I enjoyed this show very much. So much that this is my first review here, ever. I just finished the show I put it on hold when it was airing. Turned out waiting a week for the next episode is not my thing. I hardly could wait for Perfect 10 Liners to end airing. It will be my next one. So, Fourever You starts quite slow, confusing and strange things happen that you might think it's just not right. There are toxic characters as well. But... That's just the surface. Don't judge the show from the first couple of episodes because you will experience the biggest plot twists ever created. Here on MDL you have to rate the rewatch value. In this show it's a 10, hands down, because when it ends you immediately want to rewatch it. Because you know by then what's going on for real and you might want to see the whole show again with new eyes. So bear with it, even if you don't see any special in the first couple of episodes. Because with the 16th you will get the strongest episode a thai romantic BL drama could possibly create. I also wanted to vent that there are unfinished stories about other people but I just realized that there will be a season 2. And exactly with those stories I wanted to know more about. Siwaj Sawatmaneekul well earned the place to be my favorite director as he made lot of my favorite shows, like Until We Meet Again and Love By Chance among others. And now this one. I'm really looking forward for Perfect 10 Liners now...

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very good series

I really like this series, there is character development, storyline is really good, the actors chemistry, not only the cp, but the friends, like ter and north, johan and hill etc.
I'm not reading the novel yet, so I little confuse about the relation of North and Ter. Johan's character for me is too powerful, it's like he can buy a country for north. the last is about ter and hill, it's about ter thought that hill likes his sister, at first i thought ter lying to North so he didn't ask further, but when ter asking hill, and when watching the back story, it's like they know they love each other.

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