BL Drama Lovers Club

I’ve been reading everyone’s comments and really enjoying them. I want to respond to them all, but I just don’t have the bandwidth right now. However, I did binge-watch DFF, so here’s my review.

Dead Friend Forever - DFF (2023)

First of all, this is not your typical BL, especially for 2023. This is a teen horror movie bookending a psychological thriller. As a horror show, it has lots of jumpscares, excessive graphic violence, gore, and death. The ending is not happy. There are several BL couples, but the core of the story is betrayal and consequent violence. Trigger warnings: death of multiple main characters, multiple suicides, graphic self harm, bullying, difficult family life, teacher-student relationship, paranoid psychosis, drugging, hallucinations. There is one graphic NC scene.

The story is very cleverly structured, with a group of high school students who set out to make a horror film, only to have it come true. As events unfold, we learn that there are secrets and betrayal that have been hidden in the past. The middle of the series, which is an extended flashback to the past, takes the form of a psychological thriller as these secrets unfold.

Sammon, who wrote 4Minutes and Payback, was one of the writers of DFF. Like in her other works, the thriller part of the story is riveting, but disturbing things happen. Also, most of the characters are morally gray. At the same time, she gives complex backgrounds to these characters to explain the emotional challenges that have lead to each bad choice. One reason I watched this show was to fill the BL Watch Challenge “betrayal by a friend” category. This show has plenty of it. But because so much of the characters’ bad behavior is explained sympathetically, I found it very upsetting. This was not a show with a “bad guy” you can hate. The characters are complicated.

I did really enjoy the backstory and the unfolding of different layers of the past. The horror parts were too violent for me. Plus too many people die.

My favorite aspect of the show was seeing so many familiar faces. Ta and Copper played my favorite characters, but JT, Fuaiz, Us, and Barcode are there too. All the performances were impressive, but especially Barcode, who was only 18 or 19. His intense emotional delivery as well as subtle and rapidly changing reactions were just phenomenal. I had no idea he was so talented. His performance anchors the whole show.

The most annoying thing about the series is that they did not use a steady cam, so many scenes with motion are very shaky. Some of it even made me feel motion-sick.

I gave the series an 8.0 because it is cleverly written, the backstory was engaging, and the performances were excellent. Plus the horror part is self aware and meta in a way I really love. But I can’t say I really enjoyed watching it.

If you like horror and don’t expect much romance, though, I would recommend this.

(Wow, I wrote a lot. This show definitely got my brain working. Love that, but now I need a massive infusion of light and fluffy.)

dora:

I tried to make a poll but it didn’t work. Maybe it doesn’t work from a mobile device.

I have so many different lists of shows to watch next. Right now I picked these options. What should I watch?

Lost to Light

Life in Smokey Blue

A Dog and a Plane

Rearrange

Marahuyo Project

Remember Me

Easy answer for me. I stopped or dropped all but Smokey Blue. (7/10) 🤣💀😆

dora:

I tried to make a poll but it didn’t work. Maybe it doesn’t work from a mobile device.

I have so many different lists of shows to watch next. Right now I picked these options. What should I watch?

Lost to Light

Life in Smokey Blue

A Dog and a Plane

Rearrange

Marahuyo Project

Remember Me

a dog and a plane is cute, i enjoyed it (that's the only show i had watched from your list =D)

dora:

Dead Friend Forever - DFF (2023)

Wow, that's an extraordinary thorough and helpful review, as I'm realising that "DFF" is quite different that I had assumed (more lightweight). I'll make sure I'm in the right mood before attempting it.

dora:

What should I watch?

Lost to Light

Life in Smokey Blue

A Dog and a Plane

Rearrange

Marahuyo Project

Remember Me

Some very different genres here.

I got stuck in the middle of "Dog and Plane", not because there's anything wrong with it but rather because I got pulled away by the too many other things I'm watching - but if it were really irresistably fantastic, I wouldn't have gotten pulled away. I will definitely go back and finish it soon, most of all because of Tay & New.

I didn't try "Marahuyo", despite the mostly good reviews, because it seems to be about real-life LGBT struggles (which I've already spent a lifetime struggling with) rather than feel-good escapist BL.

So that leaves the two that I've fully seen:

"Lost To Light" (iQiyi) is a fluffy trainwreck, but I loved it for the cutie-patooties, especially the adorable main character Jeng. The two "special episodes" are even more trainwrecky, with the subtitles in the second special episode almost intolerably bad, and are basically a continuation to the BL HEA that should've been in the first five regular episode if it hadn't ended so abruptly. (Maybe they ran out of money?) The first 15 minutes of the first special episode are an absolutely pointless recap that can be skipped.

"Remember Me" has some major flaws in production (notably the wigs and make-up) and in the third and fourth storylines but with a lot that's really good about it. For the most part, I loved the series - but I'm willing to overlook a lot of weaknesses for the sake of what I like. The main story is about five boys (plus one penpal and one sister) and the relationships among them and with others (not only friendships and romantic but also family) as they go from young childhood to school to university to adulthood - so it's very different from other Thai BL series in many ways, including the large timespan (almost two decades) that the series covers. There are four main storylines within the overarching story of the bonds between the 5 + 2 main characters and how these drift apart and come back together over decades. Two of these storylines are unambiguously BL, and a third alludes to BL. Anyone who says "this series isn't really BL" probably hasn't watched the series to the end. This is definitely a BL series, not just bromance; there are no steamy bedroom scenes, but there is a lot of love that develops slowly over long periods of time before suddenly blossoming. Other than the laughably bad wigs and make-up (to age the actors over the long timeframe as well as for some other story reasons), the series is serious, emotional and very sentimental. The final episode also makes an explicit statement about marriage equality in 2022 Thailand.

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed right now with the JBL's. There are 10 currently airing and if I take them individually, all of them are decent to great for me. At least none of them have any hard or soft NO's for me.

It's just... has anyone noticed that half of them are based on the same foundation? Obsessed simp 'top' in love with troubled 'bottom' in which they help them overcome in various ways.

I'm not saying I don't love this foundation, but why drop all of these at the same time I wonder. At least now I can add another category to my JBL sorter. 1. Soft and Sweet 2. Horny and 3. Obsessed simp

Side note: Watched both episodes of Kiss or Kill and they were exactly what I was hoping for. It was better then I was hoping for tbh. The tension, the flashback, the plot! I might be overflating it, but I needed that palate cleanse. Like when you spend the whole day with children but now it's girls night and you can cut loose. 😆

dora:

Life in Smokey Blue

This was my top rated JBL so far that I have ever watched. If you are in your 30-40s it is very relatable in so many different ways, however this is also the shows weakness. From me though this gets a very high recommendation. I have a review of this one on my page if you want to check out some more info.

dora:

Dead Friend Forever - DFF (2023)

Nice review ! I enjoyed it, and I have pretty much the same opinion about the pros and cons. Not having a character to hate was sometimes frustrating, but it was interesting to have so many morally grey characters, since that's not very common.

dora:

Sammon, who wrote 4Minutes and Payback, was one of the writers of DFF. Like in her other works, the thriller part of the story is riveting, but disturbing things happen.

I didn't know that ! I always forget to check that kind of thing, but now that I know, I'm not surprised.

ElementalStar:

It's just... has anyone noticed that half of them are based on the same foundation? Obsessed simp 'top' in love with troubled 'bottom' in which they help them overcome in various ways.

I'm not saying I don't love this foundation, but why drop all of these at the same time

I think when all of these are over, we'll feel a void and miss this trope, especially Mr. P since he loves that trope and is watching all of them at the same time. 😆