This review may contain spoilers
This Show Is Terrible In Every Shape & Form
So, who wrote this show? Cause your writing and scripts are trash, and you need to never write a BL again. Nothing about this show's plot and lore makes sense, you can't even turn your brain off to watch this, cause nothing here is good enough to warrant that. Any questions I had about this show have either gone unanswered, or were vaguely answered: Where does the Golden Blood come from? Why isn't it golden? What are the vampires' abilities? Do all vampires have special gifts like Thara, Mark, and Nakan? What exactly does the Golden Blood do? Does it enhance a vampire's abilities, or does it slowly turn them human?Also, the way that this show simply did not want to acknowledge its plot and instead made its unbelievable romance arc the main focus, but JossGawin's unbelievable chemistry did not help sell or even make the romantic scenes watchable or enjoyable.
This was one of the worst BLs I could have watched this year.
The acting? Bad from everyone across the board
- Gawin can't give more than grumpy, confused, and stupid in any scene he's in. I haven't seen any of his older stuff, so idk if he can do better than this, but god, none of his more emotional & serious scenes held any weight to them.
- Joss simply gave angry, stupid, and looked like he was high in every scene, and idk if that was because of his eyebrows or simply because Joss is that bad of an actor, but fix it and do better or go be an underwear model cause they tried to distract us from his bad acting with him being shirtless or flexing in every other scene.
- Mond didn't even try to give a good performance, but idek if he could give one before this, cause he was pretty meh in Only Friends too.
- The lady who plays Thara is one of the most emotionless actresses I have ever come across; it was like she was simply reading her lines each and every time. Because of her bad acting, the "big twist" of her being the actual main antagonist was both predictable and boring.
- Neo did not need to be in this show, even though he was not in it for that long; you could take him out, and nothing would change. His death? Meaningless, considering it is only acknowledged two times after it happens, and Gawin couldn't even deliver a good performance to make you believe that he was grieving his death. His entire character was nothing, and the only thing that intrigued me was a potential dark romance between him and Nakan... which they didn't do.
This show felt like a poor attempt at promoting Gawin's music career with the bland OST and that forced scene where it came on in that car scene.
Sooo all in all, go ahead and wrap up JossGawin and this show because they and this show sucked in every aspect. I have no faith in whatever they are going to bring in, Only Friends 2.
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This show needs a lot of work
Once I finish this show I’ll post my full thoughts and opinions (with full spoilers) about the characters, story, and lore + the romances. There will be some minor spoilers below!But what I have to say currently is that nothing in the span of six episodes has endeared me to the main couple or the side ones.
Phurit comes across as a Neanderthal who desperately wants to get in Nawa’s pants (to which he harasses him constantly until Nawa finally throws him a bone) and the chemistry between their two actors isn’t really that good to warrant you wanting them to get together outside of plot reasons. Even outside of Nawa there’s nothing that endears me to him + the actor’s performance isn’t the greatest to really sell that he’s actually interested in Nawa romantically.
Speaking of Nawa, he’s such a nothing burger of a character… he’s kind of just there and does nothing but either let others make decisions for him or stand there looking like he’s not even thinking or simply staring into space and looking confused/lost. Idk if it’s because of the actor’s performance of the character or that’s just how the writers wrote him but I don’t really care about him or anything related to him since he doesn’t have much weight to him outside of his backstory and being one of the main characters.
Phraphai is a mixed bag for me. Some of his actions I do understand but then there are others where I’m like why did you do this? What do you gain from doing this? Him being protective bordering on overprotective, i understand because of how the narrative is framed with the history between merpeople(?) and humans, especially with what happens at the end of episode six. However, I will also say that some of his actions regarding Nawa are a bit odd? Another unpopular opinion but is actually popular with what has been said in the comments but the reasons why Phraphai and Nawa would have been better suited for one another is because:
1. The Actors have more chemistry than the actual main pair. Even with how the show tries to frame their relationship.
2. Phraphai actually shows that he is interested in Nawa romantically and doesn’t see him (at least through the acting) as a simple lay. Yes, Phraphai does act weird at times and make even weirder decisions regarding Nawa, I can see where he’s coming from even if I don’t agree with them.
The side characters, okay so minor spoilers but there was no point in giving Phana a girlfriend if you were just going to pair him with Ping… but even then while there is chemistry between the two, they’re very boring and underdeveloped. The third couple… idek why they were introduced, like how are we developing this in the last two episodes? I do like how the show frames Ping’s secret as an allegory for homophobia.
The shows lore/worldbuilding is contradictory and incredibly counterproductive… like why aren’t there mermaids? Why are there only mermen? If the island is trying to be protective and secretive of the last mermen… why is the island such a big tourist attraction/destination?
Lover Merman could be a better show if more effort and time went into it. I’m not saying it’s unwatchable but it’s not the best show either and it’s not even because of the special effects and costuming with the tails (even though that in and of itself is kinda bad but it seems like this show had a budget so work with what you’ve got) but the acting performances from most of the main cast outside a few, the writing and pacing, and uninteresting romances are what makes this one of the lesser BLs to watch this year. Most of the actors are good to look at though!
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This review may contain spoilers
Ton Ain’t Shit and Chon/Ai/Nai has no self respect or love for themselves. Na deserved better.
This show just goes to show how far GMMTV has come even if not by much cause wow is this a shit show. Ton is one of the WORST tops/ML in a Thai BL like wow: first off you’re homophobic and misogynistic, two you’re actively assaulting men who’ve made their intentions known about Chon (sure Nueng deserved it the second time considering what had happened) but what did Na deserve that punch for cause you’re an emotionally constipated idiot who can’t tell you’re right foot from your left and he ain’t even bi frl considering he’s only into Chon. The excuses made for this man and his bigotry + the fact I know what’s going to happen with him and the ex, yeah Chon should have woke the fuck up and realized he could have had it made w Na but no he doesn’t love himself enough to make smart decisions about his love life. Love Podd tho and sad he got stuck playing such a terrible character. He didn’t need to be shirtless in almost every scene but I enjoyed it, that’s the only thing I’ll give Ton.Chon. I don’t have much to say about him, well considering there ain’t much to say about him, he’s a passive non self respecting/loving loser who allows people (specifically Ton) to walk all over him. Khaotung’s acting was weak here but I’m glad he’s developed from playing this abysmal character. If you’re noticing a pattern, I hated every character in this show besides Na.
The chemistry between them is weird too btw and idk if it’s because of the script but sometimes I genuinely wonder does GMMTV do chemistry reads before they even make these shows.
Miriam, Ai, Nai, and Pang + Amp and Neung and TonChon’s parents and family can go to hell. No self respecting gay would be as dumb and stupid as Ai and Nai were. Everyone here is terrible for what they did to Na and Chon and I genuinely wish unhappiness upon them all.
Also Mike and TopTap chemistry were weird here.
Na. My beautiful baby, you deserved better than falling for Chon’s dumb self hatred having ass. You could have treated him right and better than the Bitchless Manly Man that is Ton and then for them to give him a random bf at the end just to get rid of how he felt at the end.
This show can go to hell and whoever let these Lakorn people write this BL and make shows needs to be fired amd never allowed in a writers room again.
Also let’s talk about how Tonhon and Amp are basically the same person in different fonts. But we’re going to ignore that cause she’s the ex from hell trope and he has “changed” even tho Tonhon is just Chonsexual.
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