Pincolino

Ton is obsessed with Top, that's not normal, why does he even want him? Because he is the top guy? His jealousy is making him crazy. Nick is even stalking Ton, that sure is not normal either, despite them having only a fuck-buddy relationship, and Ray is obsessed with Mew, since he is most likely his only friend who ever cared for him. After so many years, he is still trying to kiss him? Didn't he get it by now?

It's honestly annoying how they can't let go, and I'm not sad for them at all. They dig their own grave for no good reason.

I loved this because of Tagon and Taealha. I was never very fond of the Eonseum character, of Saya and Tanya. So I thought I wouldn't mind if they changed actors. But now seeing the new faces ... it's hard to adjust. For some reason, I miss the actress who played Tanya the most, which is funny, since I often thought another actress would have done a better job.

"They're making their lives unnecessarily complicated."
Exactly.

This is a series about obsession. Ton is obsessed with Top, Ray is obsessed with Mew, Sand is getting a bit obsessed with Ray, Nick is obsessed with Ton, Top is obsessed with Mew. It's just strange why they are into each other - or why they aren't. That makes the drama difficult to hit, because I'm not very invested in their feelings.

The issue I have with this series: Except for Ray and Sand, I find all the other characters extremely annoying, especially Mew and Boston. Top is not even worth my annoyance, and Nick gives me serial killer vibes. Just fuck yourself, or fuck each other. Whatever makes you happy or unhappy. As if anyone of those guys would ever end up in a loving long-lasting relationship. They are too problematic.

Make Our Days Count had a bully plot. Many, many Asian dramas have bully plots.

Watching this series is a strange experience. I swear I have already seen every damn scene they show us in another BL before.

Okay, the main character is still bad, the actor is miscast, the romance with the girl is cheesy and uncalled for. Everything else is SUPERB. Binge worthy and made me think a lot about life. I thought it was slightly better than the last season.

I loved the first episodes. Now I'm suddenly losing interest. Mostly because of the characters. We have the hot-headed, naiv, but good-at-heart guy, the calm, serious and smart guy, and the power-woman. I feel like those characters are soooo cliche. At least I have seen then countless times. I was hoping for a twist like in Mouse, but I don't think they will go down that route.

Well, the plot is not the problem. It's the execution. It's ALWAYS the execution in most Thai BLs. The series is pretty deep at the end of the day. But it's not presented in an artistic or intelligent way. It's a cheesy soap opera that's sugarcoating everything. How they mention Orwell's book. They only scratch on the surface. They don't have the balls to go down the rabbit hole. Because they have to make a cute and fluffy BL at the end of the day. Like some pointed out: Look at the first trailer. It fitted the atmosphere and story better. If people engage in this story, then only because the boys are cute, the chemistry is good, and it's GMMTV after all. Imagine this series without a (BL) love story. Just a stand-alone thriller. Nobody would watch it. The school, the cult, the psychological aspects - it's not intense enough. In every part of the world we now experience how a totalitarian system and a "cult" is established. Maybe they have to make it so cryptic and focus on the cute lovestories, so they don't get cancelled. No idea. It's bold to make such a series in such times. How they make those protesters gay is also interesting. I lately feel they use the whole "support the LGBTQ community" topic as a metaphor. They did that in Not Me too, where I thought this wasn't about being a minority and being gay. It was about the people against the cooperations. It's the same in The Eclipse. It's about the powerless against the powerful.

His eyes and mouth were always like that. But his nose and overall face is very narrow. Perhaps a nose job and most likely a jaw reduction procedure.

I enjoy this a lot, no doubt. But I would appreciate it, if GMMTV invests a bit more in the editing, film-making and writing. In recent years they try to give us more than the typical boy-meets-boy in a highschool or college environement, and I really like that. I also think it's great from GMMTV to tackle some social issues. But at the other hand they are playing it safe. At the end of the day this is just a soap-operish BL series with cute boys and their love struggles. That kind of story draws the most viewers in, so I get why they are doing it. But it would still be nice if they hire some more talented stuff and get to a higher level of filmmaking and storytelling. So what bothers me:
- The editing! The transition from one scene to the other ist not smooth most of the time. They stop somewhere and start then somewhere else. The characters have an important conversation, then you get a new scene where the restart the same conversation. It's repetitive. Ayan and Akk did that several times. I lost count of how many times Ayan asked Akk to tell everyone who is behind the curse. Same dialogue, no progression, just different scene. This is also a writing issue.
- The writing! The plot has potential, but the dialogues are so redundant. It's almost unbelievable. They reversed the classical "show don't tell". There is too much talk about everything. The friend group often points things out the viewer already knows. This series is very easy on the mind in the sense that you don't have to think for yourself, because everything will be told again and again. This applies especially to AkkAyan. Their dialogues and Ayan trying to get through Akk is very repetitive. So is Akk's rejection and his stuborness.
- The plot itself! It's very simple and straight-forward which I think is not bad. This plot would work perfectly for a dark thriller movie. But for a 12-episodes long BL series there is not enough story to tell. It seems to me, the plot is well thought out in his entirety. But if you look at the details, it seems silly. Many pointed out how strange it is that highschoolers believe in the superantural. I think Asian people tend to believe more in that kind of stuff, so I'm okay with it. Still you can't feel the threat of the "curse". You can't really feel what's so bad about the school and the rules either. This is not like they hit you with a stick on the fingers when you answer wrong in class, or you have to stand in a corner on your toes, face to to the wall, as punishment. They just tell you to take away your phone! Sure this is not an environment that encourages young people to think for themselves, but it's still not that bad. Even the bullying is not that serious. Some students are just bad-mouthing others. No one gets hit, no one steals from the other, no one does something bad. They are all very polite. Even the protesters don't get much hate. Now to my last point:
- Everything is too nice and soft. Despite everyone being hostile and suspicious about Ayan at the beginning (for no good reason, by the way), they all became friends very quickly. Took them only two episode to call him "Aye". Ayan is liked by everyone! They all have nice and encouriging words for each other. Even the bad stepdad turned out to be a cool guy. I enjoy the softness of the series, but it's a bit misplaced. So at the end of the day you wonder what they even try to do with this series. How Ayan wants to save Akk with his love is a bit cheesy. He will wait for him? They barely know each other! I liked it more when there was sexual tension, some obvious attraction but hesitation on both sides. Now suddenly Ayan is 100% committed to Akk. How he was asking him if he can kiss him, or if he doesn't like it he will stop - on YT someone callled Ayan the "consent king" which was obviously a compliment. But that kind of stuff really makes a story too cheesy. The whole "consent" issue became too prominent in recent years. It's so unrealistic, really. If this contiunes everyone will need to sign a form before kissing or doing more, so that the consent is legally established. This is getting out of hand. It really takes away all the passion. But GMMTV is known for killing passion. It seems they again follow their formula of two kisses, one in the middle of the series and one at the end. Don't show passion, let them talk about consent instead! Passion is bad! Love has to be pure, and kissing is of course a very dirty thing! So the less the better! I'm sarcastic, obviously.
Well, if you look at it as a nice BL series to kill some time with good looking guys with great chemistry and good acting skills, this is a success. Mission accomplished! At the same time I feel there is a lot of wasted potential to make something truly great and unforgettable. But they obviously went down the soap-opera route. I wish them the best, and I hope FirstKaho team up again. They are a great couple. But I start to understand that you can't expect more from GMMTV.

My point remains the same: Others get hurt because a character cannot make the right decisions or is unable to behave in the right way, and we are supposed to sympathisize with him, because he is a poor disturbed soul. The only thing I agree with is that Ji Woo was an adult. But Akk's behaviour is really unaccusable in many ways. Not only towards Ayan. It just shows his bad character. He was willing to hurt (physically!) other people with that curse to keep the authority in power. This is not a problem of understanding, it's again a moral question like it was back then in To My Star 2. I don't think the writing is bad, and I know what kind of story they are trying to tell. But it's difficult to root (for me) for such weak and annoying character like Akk. He is the kind of guy a totalitarian system needs to establish itself. At the end those guys will say "I didn't do it. It's them who told me to do it". It's the "banality of evil" Hannah Arendt was talking about. And that's EXACTLY the point of the writers. But since this is BL fiction, Akk will redeem himself and, well, come to the light, haha.
Ji Woo's sorrow was also the motor of the plot. In fact it was the whole plot! The core idea was that one always has to love more and work harder in a relationship. I'm not a fan of that message.

This reminds me of the conversations when To My Star 2 aired. Many tried to explain Ji Woo's behaviour and were understanding. Having your issues is just not an excuse to hurt others in my moral view. I don't hate Akk, but the character is not very likable at the moment. If he keeps this behaviour up and continue to avoid Ayan it can hurt him badly - and I think they showed us in the last episode that Ayan is indeed taking this to heart. So yeah. Hurting others and treating them like trash because ... I HAVE ISSUES! I'm not a fan of that.

Such fan vids promote the series much more than anything else. I lost count of how many series I started watching or I heard of because of some fan vids that popped up on my YouTube page.

What's there to be revealed? We know about the curse and who is responsible for it. The reason for Dika's suicide can be told in half an episode. Since there was no crime committed they don't have to catch a criminal. This is a more psychological series, so we will get some emotional scenes and that's it.

I think there is not much story to tell. This kind of plot would work perfectly for a movie, but they decided to do a 12 episode series instead.

Thank you!

I see people not trusting the older brother and thinking he is the culprit. I HOPE NOT! That would be too cliche, really.

How long does it take normally? I just started yesterday with this drama and I'm HOOKED!