EVERYONE

HALF realistic, half fantastical, but very cute

LOL at the “mosquito” scene:

1. it was not a mosquito by looks
2. it is not how it sounds, either
3. the lad would have certainly both felt and seen this fly immediately and shoo it away reflexively, so nothing else would have happened
4. the other lad was approaching as if he wanted to catch the fly by his lips and eat it

This is what happens when “romantic” cliche are too warn out so scenarists have to come up with something about as senseless still.

Of course, the dynamics of both couples is not believable, especially the second one, though this is typical for the genre.

The ending is purely fantastical as nothing like that happens in the industry.

OF COURSE, this all is super cute.

Details are in a comment with spoiler tags below.

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NOT A BL, but a fun watch for the fans of the actors

NOT A REAL BL, but rather a BL-flavoured episodic exorcist series. The ending exposes a major but avoidable misunderstanding, which is a lame plot vehicle.

Reminds me of countless manga, anime, cartoons, TV shows of this genre, even a couple of widely popular mystery GMMTV series from the late 2010s.

But this one is made pretty good and fun. And if you are a fun or the actor, it is totally worth to watch.

It is also interesting that the leading couple took the roles that would naturally fit them more versus their pairing, famous for its unusual setup where the smaller lad is meant to be “top”.

Production values are great. Make up is mostly good, costumes, props and set designs, music etc.

A WARNING: never substitute peas or any other legumes with fake ones made of just some protein powder because those powders most often are made of legumes. They often put legumes even in powders that are labelled whey or other proteins. Only use powders with zero legumes and a guarantee they do not use legumes for other batches on the same production line so they would be no trace amounts.

A REALITY check: see a post with spoilers tags below.

THE NARRATIVE is also typical for GMMTV: about how rich and powerful elites — that actually rob common man — are somehow good and kind, even though it almost never reality, including young heirs. They just had a series like this in 2022: Never Let Me Go, where Phu was playing too-good-to-be-true heir.

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SOAP OPERA nonsense is unbearable, but worth it if you like the lads

Love Mechanics?

Sounds like a name for some hot pron video, but that is not it. Though cute actors and their play is basically the only merit in both cases, considering how much of the story is not making sense.

HAD TO DROP it after episode 4 because they have expanded the original “En” short story from 2020 into idiotic soap opera drag that grates me to no end. The script writers are using every lame way to stop the plot from moving, and after a random “jump the shark” accident I could not bear it any more.

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The series is using a trope that is not believable at all: drunk people who can still communicate confuse the person whom they love with someone else, which is not a thing in reality. Face recognition is the most reliable neural network in the brain, especially if the love is involved.

What really happens in stories like this is that a drunk person is not drunk enough to be sedated, so he still wants to have fun and does not mind if a person providing it is not the one whom he loves. “I thought it was you, my love” is the lie cheaters come up with when they get caught. (No cheating here, though.)

More details in a comment with spoilers tags below.

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MADE me laugh, though it should not be possible

WOW, it is usually nearly impossible for any “comedy” to make me laugh, but this series has forced me to LOL twice in the episode 9.

Pond’s character is written to be silly because he does not explain to Phu’s character that they do not compete for Mix’s character. The drama is out of thin air.

A fellow male would never endanger your most important parts, the most so if he likes you, so this event in the story is not believable.

The “medical” “care” Pond provides to Phu is laughable, you could only facepalm if this was anything more than silly and cute series.

Universities of any kind have local first aid medical facilities so there is no need to wander around outside in search for bandages etc.

Drunk people do not confuse one person for another unless they on the brink of losing consciousness, so this plot move is not believable.

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GREAT acting, faulty script

EDIT: I decided to watch it complete, after all. I am watching it for the lads, so still worth it. 7/10 rating is positive, and it is because of them (lots of issues with the script).
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I AM BAFFLED.

Some say this series is a masterpiece and others say they could not survive it pass its second episode, and there are lots of issues with the script (what happens makes no sense in nearly every way).

I am watching the first episode now, and it is an awkward production due to low budget, uneven sound accompaniment and some suboptimal direction choices. And one of the actors might be too old for his role, though he is playing well.

But maybe it somehow becomes incredible later on, will it? Or maybe people are just too mesmerised with the leading couple because they are really good actors (and they are, I know one of them from What The Duck series)?

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TOO many believability issues, but good acting and scenery

Turns out IT IS A FAKE BL drama (for those who do not know, why, the explanation is below in a hidden response).

As nearly every series that starts with a unfriendly state between the main couple, it lacks believability because in real life those lads would have “target assessing” glances on each other (though not openly), instead of being just annoyed. However, this is never showed because of the nonsensical formula that they are straight until they suddenly turn gay some time later.

In Thailand stationary militarised outposts are made of standard blocks that provide things like showers etc, so the show is taking liberties here for a bigger dramatic effect. Or the timeline should have been rewinded back ten or twenty years back.

It is great that they have decided to film in nature, and they even have some dark scenes with fire that look beautiful. NOT a school/university series, so it is already good. Showcases corruption of the elites, which is great. But too many things in the series are not believable:

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LADS rule, but the relationships still make no sense

Yes, this is still worth watching despite the criticisms.

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WAIT, why they are still celibate even a year after? This is the most ridiculous “relationship” I have seen in a BL series.

There are zero chances that two healthy young males would ever miss the opportunity to have fun with each other. Every day or more often. There are no headaches, “I am not in the mood”, periods that poor lasses have. Males ALWAYS want to have fun.

Yet the series (well, starting from the original series) shows Win’s character pushing Bright’s one away, even though in reality he has about as much or even more desire to have fun. Win’a character does not even watch pron.

The main couple has only had one drunken half kiss in the original series. This franchise is chasing China in censoring BL.

No wonder some complain about the lack of “chemistry”. The couple is afraid to express even most basic behaviours dating people do.

So maybe Win’s character was castrated due to a trauma or an illness, and this is the key to understand the their relationship? In fact, this would have made the franchise way more interesting than what we have. People with such issues do exist and their plight is never explored.

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NOT believable characters, fake drama towards the end, but still worth watching

Why? Because of the lads. Not even their acting, which is not quite nuanced, just the lads. The only reason I see to watch the series, but it is more than enough for me.

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IS IT THE LAW of the genre that at least one of the lads is the straightest thing until he meets “the right lad” and all of a sudden turns gay?

Yes, it is. But no matter how often I see it, it does not cease to be ABSURD. This is the same idea that some ignorant parents have when their sons say they are gay: “you just did not meet the right woman yet”.

In reality no matter how good and “right” a lad or lass is, s/he can never change the sexual attraction the lad has. It is fully hardwired in the brain by puberty as the latest threshold, so you can never discover attraction towards a different gender than what you were attracted to initially at any later point. It is medically impossible.

The only believable scenario for all of those countless BL series with this nonsense is that every person within every BL pair has always felt the same sex attractions set since puberty — be it gay or bi — but the difference could be whether he was embracing it or trying to be in denial.

But whatever comes later can never be a surprise in the lads’ ages those series explore. The stories are not about 14 years old, except for maybe Love Sick (2014; 2gether is the same story but from a competing film studio) or Cause You Are My Boy (2018) with some characters.

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SOAP opera drag, but historic

This series, the first season of it, is the progenitor of the whole Thai BL series industry.

The series has maybe the worst first episode of any series I have ever seen. It should be studied in film classes. But if you can survive to the episode’s end, it becomes quite good later.

The popular dubious tropes are already there, including lads discovering their gayness years too late, one of them repeatedly claims he is not gay except for the other lad, sponge baths, a bad girlfriend to hate, and the necessity to get money for a school club, which has latter appeared in Why R U? and My School President, among others.

But this series still had a good number females in it and hetero pairs, some are realistically messy, which was the first and the last time, apparently. The story was a bit more mature and physiological than platonic GMMTV series.

The series also has an equality advocacy, which is not a thing in the BL genre after that, though it is also because Thailand was pretty good about this and has become even better since.

And it was “toxic” because the main pair was dating lasses when they have first engaged. Besides the ridiculous premise, how love happens, not just fun, is shown accurately in the first season.

EDIT: some spoilers added in the first commentary to this review.

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MAJOR issues, though not horrible

1. Yes, do not kiss gay haters or anyone else without consent. If in the series the main lad does not apologise to the other one for this, then the series does not reach a good lesson as it confirms the myth that gays will take advantage of you.

2. The show js saying that the bullies are like this not because they are bad people (which they are because no circumstances force you to be a bad person towards innocent people), but because they were raped by paedo gays.

3. The show is saying that a person has become gay himself after being raped in his childhood, which is another unscientific myth.

4. The raped lad has only ever shown interest in women, but all of sudden is converted to become at least a bi in college. This is also an absurd unscientific nonsense because people can only understand that they are bi or gay no later than puberty, not even remotely in college. Besides, this is the same myth some straight people tell to gays: that they simply did not yet find that special hot female that would make them straight.

5. The raped characters seems to only have two modes of operation: angry and soon to be angry. Not sure why lots of fans have shipped this pair and even got bitter when the main lad’s actor Mew has announced his real life partner.

6. Why did Tharn hide the issue with his ex and has event went to severely meet him? Why the police was not involved? Why is not criminal not in a life long imprisonment for his many severe crimes? This writing is really silly, the whole drama at the end is STUPID.

7. Basically,the main characters are not good people. Lhong is the cutest visually, though is the most evil. Techno and Tar’s brother are maybe the only two good characters.

8. Lots of characters are recast versus the previous series, Love By Chance. Some of their stories were changed.

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Not believable in a key aspect, but CUTE

There are parts of the story that are way more realistic in this series than most other BL.

However, in one crucial aspect the series destroy its credibility and pulls you out of the submerging into the world the authors are building.

Namely, the lads’ celibacy, which so radically laughable that I was literally LOLing when the show has presented this point.

If you know how males work even the tiniest bit, then you understand that they think of engaging with any and all attractive potential partners nearly 24/7. This is just a hormonal thing, and it is even stronger for teens.

It would have been actually way more painful for the lads to be in the proximity of each other and not do anything than being apart.

The drive to engage is so strong that it makes the brain to flare up with desire and to stop most other thoughts or activities. Especually if the pair is a couple.

Absolutrly impossible to imagine the lads all of a sudden being abstinent. This whole plot line looks as if it came from censorship pressure.

Additionally, as basically everyone has mentioned, the script and direction often feel disjointed, and the sound quality is horrible too often.

Most actors did quite well, though some youth feels like not have a range as actors. Not the main couple, though. The thick eyebrows lad looks very interesting: as if he came from Dargon Ball manga.

Overall, the show offers so much cuteness that it is worthy to watch and rewatch.

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A dragged out student project

This is a middle-tier performer among series, I gave it 4/10.

The story is only for an hour, but it lasts four hours. So unless you specifically like the main couple regardless of what is happening, there is nothing much to watch.

The project is filmed with phones and blue LED studio light that make the picture look really bad.

The show was made for $1000 in total or something, but the scenario weakness is inexcusable. Even film academy students do better, the professors would just not accept the scenario like this.

The actors in the project actually did a passable job, even though they did not have much to do. I only gave them a middle grade because of the film itself, not because of their abilities.

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BETTER than Not Me or Theory of Love, but still flawed

Theory of Love has lots of realism to it, but it has a big Off’s character redemption arc that it not believable for multiple reasons, so this makes the series way less realistic that it could have been for the sake of fairy tale happy ending typical of the BL genre.

Not Me (2021) is unique and outstanding conceptually for many reasons, but the details of what and how it happens are not believable, they demand lots of “suspend disbelief”.

This series, being also faulty, is not even a BL:
1. No multiple couples
2. No stupid sound effects
3. A love triangle.

And it is way more real than nearly everything out there.

In regards to the question of the “AI”, which is actually just neural networks (JNN), versus art.

I call it all JNN because they can not reason, derive causality, understand anything. There are attempts to combine them with algorithmic logic to imitate thinking, but this is a rigid thing that comes from the 1980s and it is nothing alike to what an actual person can do.

In the future alive human artists will still have a niche as performers who can draw quick sketches or even bigger works in real time in clubs and galleries. Of, at the very least, have their works in expositions with certified multi-angle video shoots of the whole painting process. Maybe even some analogue or provably simplistic digital cameras will be certified and offered for rent to artists to prove the authenticity of their work as being done by their own hands.

The “AI”, as described above, can not think, it is just an aping of parroting tool that can rehash what it was trained on. It can produce works that can be perceived as made by a human, but it is not different from e.g. stones in nature randomly situated in a way that can be read as meaningful.

So if we define art is an act of an artist that includes thoughtful consideration, the neural networks can not do it. But if we define art is some object itself, then it does not matter if a human or nature or a neural network has made it.

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Details and drawbacks are noted in a comment with spoilers below.

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