My Love Mix-Up!

A frustrating story that squanders its potential to be something great

It's frustrating because this show squanders its potential to be a great story. It never tries to be more than a cute, sometimes silly, low-stakes teen romcom, even though the creative team for this show had access to good source material, good actors, and even some good ideas.

Let’s face it. This show was written for Gemini and Fourth. Its purpose is to promote them, advertise merch by capitalizing on their popularity, sell products they endorse, reference their past work, and even showcase their talents. The characters and story suffer because of this.

Fourth portrays a teenage mess, albeit exaggerated, by putting in actual effort to create a character. Atom is frustrating and flawed at times, but also sweet and thoughtful. He’s the only one who shows proper vulnerability in this show. Fourth gives it his all in the conversations with the moms. In the final ep, he felt like the sole main character of this show.

The creative team, and to some extent Gemini, did the bare minimum to create the character of Kongthap. The screenwriters allow him to show some interesting sides for very brief moments but never actually fully commit to any of them, for example, him getting frustrated with Atom for the first time in ep 7, him getting jealous of Atom being close to Sin, or even his yearning for Atom. We never explore the “can’t leave people in need alone” part of his character as was part of the original story. In the end, he felt like a secondary character in the story.

The writers do not seem to understand intimacy. Small moments that make a relationship feel real are few and far between which is frustrating because they spend two whole episodes showing us the fact that Atom craves physical intimacy and Kongthap is comfortable with it. Long stares and head pats can only portray so much. Also, Atom takes all the initiative in their relationship. He even has to come out to Kongthap's mom for him which is a shame because a conversation between Kongthap and his mom would have given his reserved character some growth.

One of my favorite moments is in ep 10 when Atom holds Kongthap's hand in public on the train and gets all giddy and shy. This moment is consistent with what we learned about their characters and the story being told. I wasn't even surprised to find out that this moment was improvised because it was more intimate than anything the writers came up with.

At least this show is a positive watch for teen LGBTQ+ viewers as it deals with internalized homophobia and coming out, and does it fairly well. I will always support high school BLs because shows like these are positive representations of queer youth in Thailand and can provide teens like this who are figuring themselves out the proper language to verbalize, even indirectly, their feelings and identities. I just hope the characters and their stories are the priority for the writers next time.

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So... what happened?

I noticed the low ratings before starting to watch this series, so all my expectations lowered from the beginning. I wasn't expecting MLMU to be exceptionally good or exceptionally bad: I just hoped I would enjoy it at least a little.
In the end, I did enjoy it, but I also feel like that enjoyment came from a handful of different moments here and there, all engulfed of very long and draggy segments. Oh, and lots of different product placements - probably the most invasive case of advertisements I've ever seen in a GMM series.

I don't think anything reached its true potential here.
- The main plot points of Kieta Hatsukoi worked in the Japanese drama, which consisted in 10 episodes of about 20 minutes each, but it felt very diluted in these 12 episodes of about 40 minutes each. After enjoying the first three or four episodes, I started getting impatient and frustrated while watching, and often found myself too bored to even pay attention during the important bits.
- The characters felt flat. The acting was amazing and I'm not taking it back, but it was hard to watch such good actors work with characters written so poorly. At their best they felt like caricatures, and they felt like cardboard cutouts at any other moment.
- Kongthap and Atom felt more like classmates who get along rather than potential lovers, and even their friendships with other characters didn't feel as sincere as they should have. Some scenes were heart-fluttering, but they felt like they were put there to make the relationships work, when it should be the exact opposite: the rest of the story was supposed to make the romantic moments hit the spot, but they never delivered fully for this exact reason.
- There were multiple themes for the series that could have been included and explored much better, but they weren't. Whoever wrote this didn't put any true passion into the story and didn't care to fix any continuity issues.

In theory, this series is supposed to work. The director and the main actors are the same as in My School President, which I've enjoyed A LOT, and the source material is a pretty good Japanese BL. In practice, it really looks like the production team threw these elements together (Fourth, Gemini, several MSP references, and the Kieta Hatsukoi plot points) and just expected things to work fine without putting extra work into it.
Since I don't like to make comparisons between series in my reviews, I'd rather avoid making them here, but it's truly hard not to. The main reason why I felt so frustrated is because I've watched Fourth and Gemini in My School President and Moonlight Chicken before, so I know that they can truly shine when the production team puts actual care in the quality of their work.

If this is your first Thai series, or you never watched My School President nor Moonlight Chicken, this can work as a cute, low-effort rom-com, as long as you have no high expectations for it. If that's not the case, then you're probably going to be very disappointed.

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Simple, but cute

My Love Mix Up was super cute, light, and fun. Gemini and Fourth did a great job in these roles, and the side couple helped to round it out very well. No conflict was drawn out too long either. My only complaint is that it didn't feel like anything new, especially for Gemini and Fourth.

It's said that if you write your crush's name on an eraser, the more you use it, the closer you'll get to them. Atom (Fourth) has a crush on Mudmee (Pahn), a girl in his class, but when he asks to borrow her eraser, he sees Kongthap's (Gemini) name written on it. As he's using the eraser, he ends up dropping it and Kongthap picks it up - leading him to believe that Atom has a crush on him. To prevent his friend's feelings from being exposed, Atom has to come up with another way to tell Kongthap that he doesn't like him, but the more time he spends with him the more he realizes he might like him after all.

This show was a very cute and simple high school romance. If you're a fan of Gemini and Fourth, you'd definitely like it. Mudmee and Half (Chokun) were also super cute and fun to watch! I do wish that Gemini and Fourth would branch out and play different types of roles though, as this show felt very similar to My School President (though less singing), especially in terms of the main characters. Overall though it was very cute and fun to watch.

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Difficult to rate

I greatly enjoyed this series each Friday when it aired. To me its difficult to rate because the story behind all the product placements (both commercial and GMMtv own) is pretty great. However they do not give the story enough time to shine. Taking out all the commercial bits from the series leaves us with a lot shorter time to tell the story.

The story itself isnt the most groundbreaking or new, but it is feel-good and will definitivly make you laugh out loud in places. Sometimes you just wanna watch a story thats gonna make you happy. Creds to them for making a BL where the Het couple arnt hella annoying and manage to keep my interest. The best parts of the series are the ones that we have found out were improvised by Gemini and Fourth, which says something about the script quality.

The acting is good, the chemistry is decent and except for the directing and script, overall its a good series. Would I recommend you this show? 100% yes. But if you are easily annoyed by product placements then use the skip button. I probably will rewatch it again someday in the nearish future.

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It's A No From Me

I realize this is adapted from the manga, and not the Japanese series Kieta Hatsukoi. That being said isn't Kieta Hatsukoi also an adaptation from the manga.

My understanding is gmmtv is adapting 9 volumes of the manga but if what I saw in Episode 3 is from the manga I can see why Japan left it out.

Why would Mudmee (Hashimoto) be coaching Atom (Aoki) on how to win a man when all she's doing is writing that man's name on an eraser.

Hashimoto and Aoki were adorable and wonderful because they were so inept in the romance department. They provided one another comfort and friendship and bounced ideas off of one another and supported each other. They were best friends once Aoki realized she would never love him and Aoki realized Ida was his love.
So in conclusion I think gmmtv did what it does best in it's remakes. That is cast a popular pair that has amassed a large fan base that supports them no matter what allowing them to serve "questionable" script that will be accepted without question because it's Gemini and Fourth.
I will not argue my opinion because that's all it is, is my opinion.

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Better than the Japanese version.

This longer take on the original material is far superior to the Japanese version. In that one, there is a toxicity to how the main character treats his love interest that borders on homophobic. This version makes it much cuter, far more fair, and substitutes in friends and adults to add value and balance the story. The side couple is actually the one that is less healthy with a bit too much lack of self confidence leading to jealousy and bad choices. Overall, this is a more fun more relatable version with two actors who have become very familiar with each other in previous BL couplings.

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Don't expect anything

One of my favourite and most re-watched Japan bl series was kieta hatsukoi. May be that's why, I'm a little bit disappointed. I'm not saying this series is boring or something like that.. but the 1st episode didn't work for me..
May be I compared it too much with the original one..
But the chemistry was awesome and I love fourth as always.. and he tried to be cute as aoki as possible.. but no-one can beat Aoki for his cuteness..
In my opinion, Gemini was not like the original ida.. the confusing face was there but he was missing something.. I don't know.. but it would have been weird if he copied exactly like him, so some Gemini touch is necessary.
Sometimes I felt like they added the extra scenes just to make a 1 hr episode. Some did work and some did not (They could have executed a couple of scenes beautifully, but they didn't ) don't worry guys.. luckily the chemistry always works..
And the production also was not that good.. or may be because of the editing.. no idea, something was lacking
And the music was not that good in the 1st ep.. we expect the best songs from gem4th series and the original version is famous for their music.. so let's wait for the best to come in the next episode onwards.
Overall I like to see more of Gemini fourth and the stories of atom khongthap but also, I'm always comparing this series with the original one..
So those who didn't watched kieta hatsukoi, then it's the best series.. for those who watched it, then don't worry you get to see more of their hidden stories and Gemini fourth chemistry..
For me first episode was just average.. as I said something was missing, may be I expected too much.. but my review can change in the future, because I don't have any expectations from now on.. and I'm surely going to watch the rest of the series because of gem4th and I trust the whole team.
Oops forgot to mention mudmee and half, they were cute and lovely. Loved the whole cast.

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Not perfect but it's watchable

I think they wanted to copy the japanese style including some of the thai culture and elements but it was not really good??

I didn't watched the Japanese adaptation nor read the manga so I absolutely don't know the story and its characters. However, it's kind of disappointing when it didn't get my attention as expected and that in a BL, I was mainly happy and cheering on the side couple which is a hetero couple! I appreciate and enjoyed a lot Half and Matmi but I also like the friendship between Atom and Matmi.

Except the ton of product placement.. And Usually I'm aware of it and I don't mind it but this one was indeed a bit too much, I still find it funny, cute and somehow entertaining (although I found myself being on my cellphone playing some games and the episode playing on the background lmao). Not the best, not perfect but it's watchable to spend on my free time.
It also tackles some youth issues which are also relatable but I still don't think I'll rewatch.

The only thing that I love the most is the OST but also the couple of Matmee and Half lol

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Such a cute show

Now anything GeminiFourth I watch cause I’m so obsessed with them and they are so young and talented. When I heard that this show was coming out I was so excited cause my babies will be in it.

This was such a cute show and it was young, honest love. Just high school kids trying to navigate life, school and first love. Everything for them was firsts and they are trying to figure themselves out and who they want to be and it is just so amazing and I love the innocence of it all.

We are first introduced to Atom and we can see that he is a good person, overthinking and a little dramatic at times lol but his heart is in the right place and his always there to help his friends out even if it means helping them out with someone his starting to fall for to.

Then there is Matmi she is so cute and such a good friend, she already has a huge crush on Half and I love her character in this show it shows she is strong and dependable friend. Yes she may sometimes be dramatic like her bestie Atom but she is always there for her friends and ready to help.

Kongthap is such a smart, quiet caring person and I love that his character is just so laid and gentle. The way he treats Atom is so cute he genuinely loves and cares for his boyfriend. His a very supportive friend and kind. He too is also discovering himself so there are things he doesn’t know how to do or say but he is trying and putting the work to communicate better.

Half is just so cute and just a chill guy. Every one wants to date him of course but I live how his such a good friend to Atom and when Atom told him that he likes Kongthap he didn’t judge him but just accepted it cause that’s his friend and and it’s ok to like who you like.

Through out the show Atom and Matmi really were the stars in the show we can see that they share the same energy all that and they are so supportive to each other and they boyfriends of course. The moms in this show were so supportive and accepting. Even though this was an adaptation of the Japanese version with the same title I loved how they made it they own made it Thai showing the culture of Thai and making it there own so it was so refreshing and interesting.

Just watch this show it’s so cute and it has GeminFourth even though product placement was a lot but it was a show worth watching and it will make you feel giddy and excited 😊

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The Chemistry is GOOOOD.

We got another adaptation of a Japanese BL into a Thai BL in My Love Mix-up and I will have to say this – THEY ARE DOING REALLY GOOD SO FAR. I mean, the Japanese BL are still GOATED but these stories being adapted for Thai media is giving us more stories about the characters instead. They are trying to put their own culture into it so that is really commendable and it worked. The story still follows the love story of Atom and Kongthap. Kongthap accidentally picked up the eraser that Atom borrowed from his crush but this supposed love triangle was all a misunderstanding. I think we can all agree that this all started as a misunderstanding but it soon led to a really good bond between Atom and Mudmee while Atom was also starting his relationship with Kongthap. So, yes, we have two main lovers in the story. We have the main love story and the supporting love story which is just as great as the main. I don’t say that often but I will say it here – the love story of Mudmee and Half is really good. Well, let us start with the main lovers of the story which are Kongthap and Atom played by Gemini and Fourth. The chemistry is intense with these two and I love that for them. I feel like I have grown a bit distant with Gemini with what he said but I found myself forgiving him in this one because he really played the character of Kongthap really well. He played the straight-laced serious kid really well and giving him nuance that would make you slowly fall in love with him. I think we also need to highlight that people like these do exist and they will need more time to ease with things so I am glad that Atom soon understood that, of course, with the help of Khao Pan. Speaking of Atom, the star of the entire show for me is Fourth as Atom. He is phenomenal and I can’t ask anything more from him. He is the star of this show from the very moment the start to end. I will have to say that what really made me so much in love with the show is his friendship with Mudmee. I know that he initially liked her but the friendship that they were able to build here is the best among all the BLs that I have watched so far. Fourth played the character with so much facial expressions that I am so impressed with his acting. The more emotional stuff might need a bit more polishing but he gave such a wonderful performance that I can forgive him here because it was really entertaining from start to finish. I like how aggressive he is after accepting that he is now in love with Kongthap but still playing this fragile counter to his character. I like it so much. He was so fun to watch. He was so charming that I feel like it is hard to resist a guy like him and the bond that he was able to build with Kongthap did not even feel forced at all. It is a slow burn kind of love story where they became more friends and they are so much lucky to have an older gay couple guiding them through this new relationship that they have. It is not easy to navigate such emotions but the help that they got is really important if you will ask me. I wish that this happens more in real life where we can be more out with ourselves so that we can be in relationships that are consensual and loving. There is something so good about Young Love that I really want to highlight and that is what they were able to capture here especially when they were deciding in which school to study in. There is something so simple yet honest on how this is what they think will be their biggest problem in the world. It is so pure. It is so sincere. It is so romantic. I actually enjoyed it. I think the same can be said with the supporting couple. Half is very handsome. I just want to add that and I think that his relationship with Mudmee had repetitive aspects to it but the portrayal is still very good that I can really forgive them. I mentioned young love earlier and this is just another perfect example of that where they are still trying to figure things out and they are still so unsure of so many things that are happening to them that I think it is very much understandable for them to be confused with how they will be doing things. I think the confusion that they had is still understandable and it is still very cute. The acting is also pretty good that it is working well. I think these young actors did an impressive job with their work that they were able to fully embody these characters well and gave us a feel-good show to watch. I am happy with this and I enjoyed watching it so much.

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Cute but nothing groundbreaking

Idk why the reviews are giving this so much hate lol. It’s a perfectly serviceable Thai adaption of the manga/japanese original. Is it as good as either of those? No. There were things I liked about it and things I didn’t.

Kieta Hatsukoi relied on a combination of slapstick comedy mixed with heartfelt moments. This was far less slapstick and also removed some of the more dramatic moments from the manga (ie, the homophobic counselor). So it did result in it being less funny and less emotional simultaneously. Maybe it’s not fair to compare the two, but it is an adaption so it’s kind of hard not to.

I also hated that they turned the play into a musical lol y’all are talented but I can’t 😭

That being said, it’s just a sweet high school drama lol. Like perfectly mid imo. It actually follows the manga pretty closely, even the ending is pretty much identical.

If you’re just looking for something low-thought and cute, this fits the bill.

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