KHarganne

I really enjoyed eps 1-7. They are quiet and slow, with a focus of “show, don’t tell:” there was not a lot of direct exposition, instead you gleaned info from lingering glances, acts of devotion, and double meanings. However when the boys did talk, I loved that they could speak honestly and rawly with each other. Thanks to their uneven social standing, some manipulation, and borderline unhealthy attachment to each other, eps 1-7 walk along the edge of being a dark/psychological bl and I really enjoyed those tantalizingly painful elements. Hanjoon’s acting was fantastic especially in those difficult scenes.

However, the second half of ep 7 and then all through ep 8 just felt off. I don’t think Yoojae groveled enough (if at all) and then they were too cutesy too quickly. This cop out happy ending retroactively made the dark intrigue of the first episodes feel callous instead of thought provoking. I also dislike the perky happy music chosen for the theme song and outro, it really didn’t suit the more somber story told.

I would rate eps 1-7 an easy 9 (if you like pining and angst) and eps 7-8 closer to a 6.

I feel so so about this drama. As a longtime viewer of mainstream Thai bl, this show was refreshingly different when it came to showing a gay relationship on screen. I really loved seeing older characters and actors, and I loved that the main focus of this show was on the thriller/mystery elements while the relationship developed in the background. I liked the mention of marriage at the end and how the show made sure to point out that gay marriage is a matter of civilian equal rights, not just a romantic ideal. I especially appreciate the respect with which the characters call each other samee instead of pua (if you have seen a Thai bl lately you will know that pua is becoming this whole Thing™). I enjoyed the side couple’s story but I didn’t like Tanthai’s acting so it was difficult to really get into them.

This show is solidly in the soap opera world of lakorn, which means every element of the show is done with panache. I found this a little off putting because I am not used to the large mood swings, bombastic background music, and the excessive drama, but by the end of the show I was enjoying it more. My main gripe is that I think the inciting incident of this show is too dark: the characters seemed to bounce back too quickly and many scenes had light hearted music which made it feel like I was watching a romcom and I wanted to throw something at the screen because “shouldn’t you still be grieving?? how can you be this happy and carefree so soon after?”

TLDR: A fun watch but it had some plot holes and tone inconsistencies. I really enjoyed how smart and devilish Charn was. I grew to enjoy the soap opera theatricality and will definitely be trying out the mains’ other show, “To Sir, With Love.”

Quite the rant there. You missed my point though. I completely agree that Ton did some shitty things in the show. However, I think Ton was unfairly singled out compared to everyone else in the show who also did shitty things. There was an uncomfortable undercurrent in the show that Mew was perfect just because he was a virgin and that Ton was a bastard solely because he slept around. Even after Mew starts having sex, even after he starts partying and doing drugs and honeypotting and doing all manner of douchebaggy things, Mew is still portrayed like some angel on earth and all his friends band around him to cut into Ton. So many characters cheated on their friends with their friends (Ray and Sand on Mew, Ray and Mew on Top, Mew and Boeing on Top, Mew and Gap on Top, Nick and Gap on Ton, Nick and Dan on Ton, Sand and Boeing on Ray, Boeing and Ray on Sand, Boeing and Top on Sand; the list is literally endless) but no one else in the show is villainized for it as much as Ton was. I think that inequality in the writing and treatment of the characters was unfair and uncomfortable to watch.

I didn't write my first comment to try to excuse Ton’s assholey behavior in the show. I wrote my first comment to say that I wish that Ton had been given a happier story line and that he had found someone whose relationship wants and needs had aligned better with his own. It sucks that characters in bls who like sex are so frequently portrayed as an antagonist. In a show that sold sex like Only Friends did, I wish they had sold it in a positive light, rather than once again falling into the old stereotype that enjoying sex is immoral. That is my point.

This show came out of nowhere and blew me away. The art direction was gorgeous: showing Thailand with all its lush flora and beautiful waterways, and all that green and blue is contrasted with the marigold of the temples and the pops of red, just *mwah* chef’s kiss. The first episode was a bit much, but the show soon after settles into a very charming story of two guys who slowly grow to understand and care for each other. Noey as a hard-on-the-outside-soft-on-the-inside romantic was my favorite element of this show. Thi’s acting was a little subpar, but charming in its own way. And not to hate on GMMTV or any of the more mainstream Thai shows, but it was really refreshing to see here a wholly new cast of actors with a soundtrack that didn’t use the same old bgm and a plot that didn’t rely on common cliches and tropes.

I do admit I found their 5+ year age gap a little off-putting at times, but it was handled well in the show and by the end my worries were allayed.

Definitely give this show a try if you like slow burn and a focus on developing a good friendship prior to developing a romance!

I will join the ranks of fans questioning how the mdl rating is so low!? This show has some of the best production value (sets, lighting, actor quality, story and pacing) I have seen out of a kbl yet. It has that polish that we all love and expect from mainstream (straight) kdramas. The story is sweet and the characters charming, balanced with a good dose of more serious issues that are handled well and discussed clearly. This is definitely going on my rewatch list as a cozy comfort show!

The Boulder feels conflicted about enjoyment of this show. On the one hand, the show is very pretty (actors, sets, lighting, color palette, etc), it touches on some interesting topics (Thai gay marriage act, abuse, depression, gossip, social pressure, etc), and the main and side couple are adorable. On the other hand, it feels like a whole lot of nothing happened because the story is all over the place with time skips happening willy nilly and the characters change personalities frequently. Were the main characters strangers? Friends? Fwb? Lovers? Who knows? There were many plots that we didn’t get conclusions to and some plots we did get conclusions to but they weren’t satisfactory. Overall I did enjoy the show and I grew to really love Book as Cher, but I am also just sat here feeling a little befuddled like my brain melted a bit while watching this.

! Thank you for the info!! Off to watch~!

Cutie Pie has a season 2???

I have seen this twice now: the first time during airing and again this past week. I was a bit let down the first time I watched, finding the plot a bit messy and the story short. Guess what? I LOVED it this watch. I found the show absolutely hilarious and was having so much fun with all the glittery ridiculous romcom shenanigans they threw in. As a French speaker watching Book pretend to be foreign was so charming (*ahem* goofy but so cute!). Akk and Theo’s friendship is so fantastic and is the stand-out element of this show. I enjoy ForceBook a ton here and I definitely prefer these lighthearted roles of Akk and Theo over their more serious characters of Top and Mew in Only Friends. This show is plain fun.

I wish that the show hadn’t fallen into so much slut shaming of Boston. The show had the opportunity to show a sex positive relationship where Ton found someone who was interested in the same kind of open lifestyle that Ton was, but instead the story chose to continually shame and chastise Ton for sleeping around. Yes, I know cheating is bad, but like, other characters cheated too and they weren't as brutally castigated for it. For the most part Ton practiced safe sex with enthusiastically consenting guys. I don’t think he deserved to be as cruelly condemned by his friends as he was. It kind of sucks that the redemption arc all his friends expected of him was to deny his sexual preferences and to be monogamous, rather than him just sincerely apologizing for breaking their trust and being allowed to live his sex life as he felt comfortable. For a show that sold so much sex Only Friends was surprisingly puritanical in this matter.

I wish the stakes had been higher. The actors are all fantastic and the tension and suspense they build as their school duty relationships, friendships, and romantic relationships progress are top notch. However the base conflict of school rules feels like too little an issue to warrant such dramatics. So I wish that the abuse and conflict in Suppalo had been much darker than it was because then the story would feel much more compelling. The protests are based off the real-world school uniform protests that have been happening in Thailand since 2020 and I feel like their inclusion in this story was unnecessary. We didn’t get to know the kathoey well enough to really sympathize with them: these characters either needed to be much more fleshed out to gain our interest or they should have been left out entirely and the plot been solely focused on the abuse in the school. Including both social issues and abuse issues meant that neither plot was well fleshed out, and so both felt a bit shallow.

TLDR: Really compelling acting and the progression of both the main and side couple’s relationships were well written and interesting to watch. I liked how both Akk and Kan had to face some internalized homophobia and that they had to do so while handling the more public battle of homophobia on school grounds. However the central conflict surrounding school rules is paper thin and that cripples how much you can really get immersed in the plot and how much you can suspend your disbelief when trying to enjoy the suspense. 7.5/10 for me.

This uncut version does include more and/or longer sex scenes than the cut version, as one might expect. I didn’t notice every difference, but I did notice that the cat play scene in ep 6 is extended and we see a tiny flash of buttkins, and the hot tub wine scene in ep 10 is only found in the uncut version. The uncut version is currently available on iQiyi as well as Viki, whereas the version on Gaga is the cut one.

There is a scene in episode 3 where Cake hears the voice of Seeiw ringing in his head, calling for him like a hungry ghost, and he feels like he is going crazy. “Cake, Cake, Cake, CaaaAAaAaake…” And I feel the same way! According to my rough count, Seeiw calls for Cake about 260 times in this series.

I enjoyed this show a lot. It is a very slow slice of life about two friends going through a rough patch. I loved seeing how deeply both boys cared for each other and I cathartic cried through most of this show because of it. The fluff in the later eps felt well worth the wait! The show is beautifully shot and you could tell a lot of effort was put into the art direction. The nostalgia factor was there for me too: I can remember my first flip phone and watching Love of Siam with my jaw on the floor!

Definitely give this show a try if you like slow burn friends to lovers with mild angst!

The brother, Phojay, was the only big con of this show. The writers made him a brocon who has mood swings as wide as the Pacific and so even though he had his sweet moments you just couldn't root for him because he was such a jerk to both Tag and Phumjai.

So much more fun than I expected! The loud comedy is balanced with great set dressing and cinematography, so the show doesn't feel tacky. I loved the unique setting and the language/culture barrier shenanigans. The characters were very mature at times (I especially loved Yanfeng defending his ex's right to date other people) and I loved the different sibling, friendship, and romantic relationships that grow throughout this show. This is a must see if you like comedies!

This show was a very cute office harem romcom that had a sprinkling of unexpectedly mature/erotic flirtation throughout. It lacks any real depth though so the story is mostly forgettable. For me the most interesting storyline was the history between Lee Jun, Hyunjae, and Simeon. I think those three actors had good chemistry together and I would have loved a show based entirely on their plot line.

This is the second time I have watched the show and so I knew most of the twists and turns in advance this time. Compared to my first watch where the suspense kept me hanging on every scene and I gobbled the drama down without much thought, I was more chill this time and I watched the show more analytically: I noticed very few moments of foreshadowing about plot twists. I think a rewatch would have been more enjoyable and the characters more intriguing if things had been hinted at earlier on instead of coming so out of the blue: it would be like easter eggs for the rewatcher to find. There are also various plot holes in things which I missed during the first watch but seemed really obvious the second.

This show proved to still be very funny, sexy, and luxe to watch a second time, but the story appears quite riddled with holes or non sequiturs once you know what to look for.

At the start of the show Zongyi is 17, we see Ai Di turn 18, Chen Yi turns 21, and we know Zherui is older than all of them (presumably mid-20s).

This show has shot up to damn near the top of my favorites list: the chemistry between the mains is fantastic, the suspense is enthralling without being terrifying, and every trope, setting, and scenario that you could possibly want is in this show. Want “only one bed”? Unexpected roommates? Teacher/Student? Mafia? Coffee shop au of your fanfic dreams? Age gap? Sibling dynamics? Identity shenanigans? Tending wounds? Accidental kisses? A plethora of falling into each other’s arms? Feeding each other? Domesticity? Intimacy? Heat? Not just one, but two different flavors of amnesia? Long lost secret family? Found family? It is all here folks. Non sequitur af with iffy editing and audio and yet I loved it so much.

Thank you for the reply! But uh oh, I hated Forecasting Love and Weather lol! I will give this show a try.