Memoir of Rati

Second Couple Paved the Way but we adore Thee & Rati .

I was waiting for this series eagerly , periodic dramas are always my favourite . This is my first Great & Inn show and somehow they impressed me a lot .

The storyline is good , after watching episode 9 , I changed my opinion about this drama. They portrayed each scene perfectly such as the struggle of LGBTQ couple in this homophobic society. Here Thee is a green flag , the way he always protects Rati ...wow .

Another excellent character is his majesty. He always gives us a calm ,safe environment.

Talking about the second couple Aou & Boom ...agghhhh they stole my heart in the first episode . I was literally skipping everything to watch their scenes . They have excellent chemistry . Their story was completely different too . In this drama , definitely they stole the spotlight .

The cinematography & visuals are top notch . Everything was looking perfect , in this budget GMMTV did a good job .

If you like to watch pure romance then this drama is waiting for you .

( Edited )

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Sticking Around for Mek and Dech, Because the Leads Are Just... There

This series? Honestly, pretty boring. I kept skipping through scenes that felt either irrelevant or just downright dull. The leads have this calming effect—too bad it just made me want to take a nap. Sure, they have some sweet moments and the usual funny jealousy scenes, but the plot? Not my cup of tea. In fact, the side characters are far more interesting and hilariously funny than the leads. Dech and Mek? Now they have chemistry, energy, and a storyline that actually keeps me watching. I just wish Rati and Thee had the same effect instead of putting me in a coma.

=====MAIN COUPLE RATI AND THEE=====

Rati stays in Thailand for a year to help Thai officials learn French, as part of an effort to strengthen the Thai-French alliance. Phi Thee, a marquis in the Ministry of Education, is the one overseeing Rati’s stay. Their love blossoms over time, but it feels too fast. Thee falls hard for Rati and relentlessly pursues him, sometimes forgetting that they live in an era where being gay is taboo. I’m going to be honest—I don’t care about their love story. It’s all sweet, gentle, and yawn-worthy; if you’re expecting some spicy romance or drama that actually moves, nope. Instead, you get a painfully slow love story that feels like a history lesson no one asked for. After fast-forwarding through most of it, here’s what I got: jealousy? Check. Rati's mom's issues? Double check. Thee’s engaged to a woman? Triple check. The fiancé seems very understanding — kind of like that. Grandma doesn’t like that her son is gay (I mean, can we blame her? This is set a long time ago).

Meanwhile, Mek’s dad is out to get Rati. That’s the only part I actually like. He brings all the fun factor and chaos. Honestly, every time Mek’s dad shows up, you know things are about to get wild, and I can’t help but root for his glorious downfall...... because, honestly, the guy’s stupidity is top-tier entertainment.

=====SECOND COUPLE MEK AND DECH=====

The second couple, however, is far more interesting. Mek is a hardworking, lovable character, while Dech is the son of an official who secretly participates in Muay Thai fights. He stands up to his father, calling him out for his wrongdoings, showing a lot of strength and moral conviction. Their love story starts as a friendship and slowly deepens into something more. They become each other’s safe haven, finding solace in each other's presence. They confide in one another about their hopes, dreams, and ambitions, supporting each other along the way. Their love is sweet and genuine, and honestly, that’s what’s keeping me watching. Not going to lie, they make this series so much better. They make you smile like crazy, and I can’t help but enjoy their moments together. Their chemistry is fire 🔥..........

I’m honestly obsessed and wish they got way more screen time. Dech constantly helps Mek improve his life—even when Mek suffers partial hearing loss.—and preps him for a French translator exam. (Thanks, Mek’s grandpa, for being a rare beacon of sanity.) And then there’s Dech’s dad—oh, the villainy! He makes me so mad, but I have to praise the actor. That water scene in episode 11? Pure gold. I felt their love deep in my soul. But real talk—did he seriously use turmeric to scrub Dech’s back? That yellow stain was hysterical. I’m still laughing, thinking about it!

=====FINAL THOUGHTS======

Would I recommend the series? Meh, only if you’re here for Mek and Dech. (Let’s be real, I’m just watching for them.) They bring the kind of heat and chemistry the main couple can only dream of—honestly, they’re struggling to keep up. The show seriously lacks that wow factor, but honestly, it’s Mek and Dech’s love story that saves this snoozefest from total disaster.

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Watch for Mek and Dech — the two absolute cuties!

Ok, at ep 7, the Thee x Rati story is getting to be mega repetitive. They are in love, but they are jealous of one person after another. Sometimes its Thee's fiance, sometimes its the prince, sometimes its the French guy Rati is friends with. I gotta say, the start was strong but the leads' storyline is getting hella repetitive and their relationship is boring to me.

HOWEVER, I am not ashamed to say that I am now watching Memoir of Rati almost ONLY for Mek and Dech. These two cuties have my heart omg. AouBoom are so cute together, and the storyline of a kind-hearted baronet and a sweet and scrappy peasant becoming friends and then eventually something more is an absolute delight. I love how their relationship is progressing, and the class divide (and the ultra A hole dad) is making it all the more delicious.

AouBoom absolutely NEED a series as leads, they are so cute together.

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Not hot or cold, lukewarm bland cup of tea.

So-so series. It's not good or bad. Middle of the road. Memior or Rati is not a terrible way to pass an hour if you have nothing else to do. But the story is not uplifting and it feels hopeless. I'm at episode 8 so maybe the story will get better.

I'm a big AouBoom fan. Just love them, I also enjoy GreatInn so it's not the actors or thier chemistry.

Must be the characters because the writing isn't the issue either. The production value is decent and the OST is fine.

Just can't put my finger on what's missing besdes the characters are bland and stiff. Except AOU, he could play a broomstick and I would still love him. AOU is one of the most underrated actors on the BL scene. He and Boom deserve thier own series. They don't need a bunch of other leads like the upcoming Only Friends series. GMMTV needs to put them front and center.

Sidenote:

GMMTV is not having thier best season. So far the 2025 season has just been ok. Good but not great. In my opinion Boys Love is the best 2025 series from GMMTV, so far The problem is there have been several amazing BL series this year and GMMTV is faling behind the competition. I hope they can turn it around because GMMTV as a great star rooster. Very handsome, beautiful, talented actors and actresses. Most of them can dance too. Singing well that's another conversation.🤣🤣🤣 They sing as good as me and I can't hold a note.🤣🤣🤣

Just joking, I like thier songs, I watch thier music videos and concerts. Very entertaining!😍😍😍

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Why am I watching?

I know it’s not a documentary, but still! Could we at least have a minimum of coherence, both historically and within the story itself? Early 20th century, with multiple LGBT people more or less openly living their truth? Unthinkable. A male couple holding hands in front of one of their fathers? Unthinkable. A low-class Thai man who’s never been to school—likely illiterate in his own language—yet learns French effortlessly? Unthinkable. Honestly, the story could be transplanted to 2025 without changing a thing. And what a story… it’s so bland! Nothing much happens—just nobles taking French lessons, endlessly repeating “Bonjour, comment ça va?” And unlucky for them, I’m French, so I can confidently say that Inn is not speaking the language at all. No effort there. No more effort in character consistency either, except for Thee, whose determination I appreciate, though it’s hardly believable for the era.

Truthfully, the real question is: why am I watching this? I know there’s an audience for this kind of series—a large audience that just wants harmless little love stories—and that’s perfectly fine. Maybe I just need to accept once and for all that GMM is no longer what it used to be: the leader of BL in every sense—scripts, actors, budget… I’d rather stick to my memories: the good series Dark Blue Kiss, Bad Buddy, 1000 Stars, Last Twilight, Friendzone, Sotus (1st season), Be My Favorite, and especially the excellent Moonlight Chicken. From now on, their increasingly identical and overly bland romance series just aren’t for me. In Memoir of Rati, they spare us the classic mutual hair-drying scene (there are limits to how unrealistic they’ll go), but don’t worry—you’ll get it in My Magic Prophecy.

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historical romance/drama

Overall: I'm into the historical setting. This is based on the book "Memoir of Rati" (จาฤกรติชา) by P.PICHA which I haven't read and am reviewing the series based on its own merits. Airing on GMMTV's YouTube channel everywhere except Southeast Asia https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb6_2JamS9iM2MJATWfoFPY-piHFDtvEC and Netflix in Southeast Asia https://www.netflix.com/watch/82056609

Content Warnings: fight, blood, past death, bullying

What I Liked
- historical setting
- tension/chemistry
- intimacy
- styling

Room For Improvement
- exposition dump to start the series
- unrealistic to volunteer him in episode 1
- the pacing feels a bit slow at times
- note: 6/3 is skippable

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Intermittent review: Annoying ML has redeemed himself slightly

I know there's only a few episodes released yet, but the way Thee has been written after the first 2 episodes annoys me so much. I liked him in the first 2 and thought he was perfect male lead material - caring, funny, witty, handsome - and then with the reveal that he's actually a nobleman with a lot of influence as the Deputy Minister of Education...WHOO BOY!

But then they suddenly butchered him? His caringness made him ignorant of boundaries. He is clueless of the prejudices that Rati faces and does very little to protect him or put the ones that are bullying Rati in their place (of course it was also not his place but he's supposed to be the ML so there has to be a moment where he's trying to stand up for Rati but then Rati says 'I'll handle this.' but that doesn't happen yet). I absolutely disliked him wanting to be friends with Rati because to me it came from a selfish place. Rati is rightfully angry with him and Thee is not doing much to prove he deserves to be friends by being all up in Rati's face. Even his apology felt lame and self-servicing (the physical touch, the insistence of helping -> crossing boundaries).

I'd much rather like it that Rati on his own accords would listen to Thee and then decide whether or not he wants Thee back in his life as friends, instead of all the pushing from Thee's side. It really rubs me the wrong way.

Especially also when sexuality comes to play into this. Like c'mon can you be any more obvious??? You're supposedly in a time and society where it is not accepted and where you are rumoured to swing the other way, and now you're implicating Rati in it too? The man already has to deal with the prejudices against foreigners and social status and now you're doing this? I hate that Thee's not doing anything to deny it either as if it's just a walk in the park...maybe it will become better later on but I'm not a fan of the script. It just doesn't feel authentic to Thee's identity and that saddens me.
EDIT: OKAY HE HATH REDEEMED HIMSELF WITH THAT MONOLOGUE IN FRONT OF THE SHRINE ALTHOUGH THE PDA WAS UNEXPECTED I REALLY LIKED IT!!!

I do like AouxBoom of course. Nothing of note yet except that they are simply adorable.

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An Ambitious Series Off To A Slow Start

This is an ambitious GMM series.

I’m all in for it to be successful, as anything to do with politics and military history is my bag, but I’m stumped they gave this significant project to someone with so few accolades as a Director in general and specifically to a production team with no BL success record whatsoever. Let’s see what they can pull off.

Will this be another GMM BL where the actors are expected to compensate for an otherwise weak creative effort and then take the blame when they inevitable fail to do the impossible? I hope not. This strategy is what GMM has largely been trading on for the last two or three years with very little success - yet they persist.

I don’t think we can discount that they’re trying to make another hit as big as To Sir With Love but I think they’re going need much more than aesthetics and expensive color techniques. TSWL has an accomplished Director and a technically strong, culturally confident, very senior writing team that really immersed themselves in every second of the translation of this story to our screens as their critical and commercial success attests. However, not even that entire creative team along with the two superstar actors who helmed the TSWL production have been able to replicate that level of success in a BL with a greatly reduced-in-quality script. This matters.

The Episode
Thailand has a very interesting and complicated history with the Imperial nations and though it was not directly colonised by Europeans it still had a tense relationship with them for hundreds of years. Thailand also had relations of domination with some of its neighbours and had its own imperial ambitions in the region so I’m keen to see how this plays out in the story. This should provide much of the foundational dramatic tension for the story, but somehow so far, it has not put in an appearance.

It’s good that they try to depict some of the cultural norms and past-times from that period which is pretty cool even if they’re mostly limited to extensive scenes of fighting arts. I hope they will expand on this area in due course besides the few seconds of a music theatre show.

It was very nice to see some familiar props, sceneries and even sets from TSWL and I think that’s a useful welcoming nod to a community that already has positive associations with these symbols.

When Rati describes himself as a Frenchman and Thee describes a few of Rati’s actions and instincts as Thai, I’m not sure where the politics of the narrative will take this but it suggests a core struggle for Rati’s character will be his own political consciousness as an indigenous person and this development is surely going to make huge impact on the choices he will undoubtedly have to make. Looking forward to this if so.

I’m hoping that they don’t do the usual rushed relationship that has become a hallmark of GMM TV flops because in the very first section of the first episode they seem to already be into each other which is not a promising start given a context that precludes it, but perhaps they have too few episodes to accommodate the depth and breadth of the original story? Let’s find out.

A few things that gave me pause:

Someone who looks like a stranger to the locals and is even associated with a European embassy at a time when France has violently colonised pretty much all of the immediate surrounding countries, is going to be beset by spies monitoring his every move and you can triple that during wartime. So Rati’s immediate bonding with a Thai stranger without a sense of his own security is very odd but again, maybe they have to rush it because they haven’t got enough episodes; I don’t quite understand, and the flashbacks don’t make this more compelling. A French-speaking operative would be regarded as a hostile, not a friendly, force in occupied Indochina and certainly with good reason during WW1.

These contextual oversights might help explain the forced intimacy which logically seems much too much too soon in the way it is introduced before the end of the 1/4 parts. This is usually the sign of a writing team that is not confident in its ability to maintain dramatic tension so they substitute for it with sexual tension instead - once more not great. The dramatic tension heightens all the other sources of tension, even some of the jokes might’ve landed if a modicum of dramatic tension could’ve been generated. Urgent sounding music scores do not make up for this lack.

As a brand new member of a diplomatic corps in a new assignment he/sh would be drilled to be on maximum guard. Even if attracted to someone sexually you have to regard them as almost an enemy, and losing a necklace doesn’t constitute such an extenuating circumstance that would make one abandon precautions that could literally save one’s life. If Thee’s trying to seduce Rati sexually, we haven’t been given even subtext that he is aware of Rati’s sexuality as a factor that could help him and not endanger him and his mission, so I feel Thee needed to have put in a bit more work in order to persuade Rati to let down his guard so prematurely, but maybe there’s more that we don’t know yet.

Let’s see what unfolds with episode 2.

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