Denied Love (Uncut Ver.)

The best GL of the year (so far), and maybe the TOP 5 GL of all time

What if your father forced you to marry a woman who is madly in love with you?
They've become my favorite duo #Enjoyjune
These two managed to win everyone over with their chemistry and humor, both on and off screen.

Khem made me laugh so much with her lines. She simply says whatever comes to mind without thinking twice, and most of the time, she's just thinking dirty things, hahaha.

The actresses have been friends since they were teenagers, so they get along really well on and off screen. Because of this, they have great chemistry. The dynamic between a cold heart and a puppy (speaking of the protagonists' personalities) is contagious. One is cold-hearted and the other is sassy, ​​it's just too good!

If you like the idea of a woman convincing another to love her through seduction, this is your GL. The only complaint about the acting (that I saw) is that they don't actually kiss, just a peck on the lips, but real Drama fans don't mind that, since we often watch 56 episodes just to see a peck on screen... here there are so many hot scenes and lots of kissing (just not a big one), and it's incredible! Unmissable!

P.S.: I think the actresses themselves asked for no on-screen kissing. To me, that's the most reasonable explanation, and I think it's nice to respect their wishes.

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Good Bones, Missing Soul

Based on the success of author Peony's novel of the same name, I was really excited to watch this series, and while I did enjoy making this show part of my daily routine, I can't help but think there was some room for improvement.

What I liked: The pacing of the series was done really well and the story remained very faithful to the novel. Sometimes, I feel like some aspects of the plot in some series can drag on for too long, emphasize side couples too much, or blur past important scenes that needed more context, but I really liked how the pacing was delivered here. For example, plot between Rin and Praphai/Kiri was paced perfectly, with just the amount of time delivered to their relationship as necessary; the relationship was only developed through the camera as a way to progress the main relationship between Rin and Khem. Additionally, I liked how they quickly wrapped up the plot between Kiri and Rin, which is a plotline that I thought dragged for a bit too long in the novel. Because of the good pacing of the show, the show was quite easy and enjoyable (for the most part) to watch. Outside of the pacing, of course, the overall plot is an interesting take on the arranged marriage plotline, which historically hasn't really been done on the screen, specifically in the WLW sphere.

What I didn't like: In my opinion, the romantic chemistry between the actresses was lacking. While the friendship chemistry between the actresses seemed solid in scenes that didn't contain romantic undertones (which, honestly, wasn't many), the actresses seemed unconvinced in their line delivery and acted as if they were merely reciting the lines they had been assigned. I say this because even after watching the entire series, where Khem and Rin are supposed to feel passionately about each other, the passion for each other was not there, and watching them interact romantically is what I imagine I would be like to kiss one of my close friends for work. While I cannot fault them for lacking romantic on-screen chemistry (after all, we're not all gonna have chemistry with everyone we know), I feel as though as an actress, one should hold themselves to a professional standard to at least convince the audience about their role and the overall drama, which I did not see here. Another thing I didn't really enjoy was the use of love scenes to further the plot; honestly the frequency of the love scenes seemed excessive, and though it is just a reflection of the dynamic between Rin and Khem in the novel, the love scenes seemed performative, and simply just added for the sake of garnering attention.

That leads into my last point, which is less so directly about the series adaptation, but moreso about the GL industry as a whole, but I'm including it in this review because I feel as though it is relevant to this drama. I feel as though there is a correlation between dramas with frequent love scenes and the popularity they receive, especially as the GL entertainment market is starting to become more saturated with content. While I recognize that the works that do portray frequent love scenes between characters who do identify as LGBTQ+ can have the effect of widening representation of LGBTQ+ love, I can't help but think that dramas whose main selling points are the love scenes in the show, are advertising a depiction of LGBTQ+ relationships that are little more than just relationships focused around sex. I think this is a damaging, reductive notion of queer relationships; queer relationships can be (and oftentimes are) more complex than just relationships built on physical intimacy. While this show does try to develop more of a relationship between Rin and Khem, I feel as though the complexity of their relationship (as well as queer relationships by extension) could've been better represented and explored in interactions outside of the bedroom, and I can't help but think that if new viewers unfamiliar with the dynamics of queer relationships watched this series, they would walk away with a very reductive idea of how queer relationships work, which is a shame because queer relationships (and more broadly romantic relationships) are beautiful in their complexity.

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