Say what you want about this episode - and I can say a lot mean, nasty things about the editing, the writing, the performances etc. - but Joss as Mark can be cute and adorable, like a big, beautiful dummy, slowly realizing what's going on. Was is presented in a clever or interesting way? Nope, they used voiceovers, the clumsiest trick since silent cinema. Was it placed within a well-crafted story? Gosh, no. Still, the scenes with Gawin and Joss were the best in this mess of an episode.
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Not entirely sure the writers knew what they wanted to do in this episode; the whole human friendship thing was so vague that I assumed it served as 45 minutes of filler before the kiss. While the writers seem to be responsible for some of that, Joss and Fluke are to blame as well - their performances were lackluster and uninteresting for most of the time. If this episode was to mark another step on Mark's and Tong's way towards relationship, if all this friendship talk was to hide their mutual confusion about what they feel/start feeling for each other, than it was conveyed very poorly. I'd also argue the university setting, known from "classic" and most generic BLs, didn't help.
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It's not the first time I discovered that a show can be both boring and irritating - these two qualities are not mutually exclusive (as one might think). Here it's mainly the story (or the excuse for it) responsible for the boring part: it's BL fluff with no substance, no actual problems that need solving, no relatability either - it's escapism in its purest yet dullest form. I'd say the story and performances are equally responsible for how superficial it all feels. A good performance can elevate a weaker story and/or an underwritten character - here we have only bad performances: plastic, fake and inept. What annoyed me were the clumsy and dumb attempts at comedy; without them this episode would just be a boring piece of BL about nothing - with them it got even worse than the original series.
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Sweet Tooth, Good Dentist Episode 1
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I enjoyed this first episode of a long awaited (announced like one year ago) BL, which puts both Mark and Ohm in the spotlight for the first time. Mark - one of my GMMTV favourites - hit the ground running, but Ohm wasn't behind him. Obviously the show's success will depend on the chemistry between those two, as the lighthearted tone and writing probably won't provide any other aspects of the series the audience might focus on. What did surprise me was how short this episode was - 45 minutes including intro, ads, previews and outro, so there was only about 40 minutes of actual action. This left me feeling that there wasn't enough content regarding the main (or only) couple for a full episode, that the storyboard was somewhat empty, that something was missing.
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PROS: (i) main couple spending more time together, (ii) vampire setting/lore seems to be in service to the BL (serves as a pretext for Mark and Tong to come closer), not overshadowing it (at least for now), (iii) Fluke's performance was entertaining (despite weak writing), (iv) Mark's eyes seemlessly turning from "beast mode" to "human mode" when he was following Tong, run into Thara and had to compose himself. CONS: (i) exposition dump at the start of episode (indicative of lazy writing), (ii) Mond's performance, (iii) vampires (so far) being surprisingly unattractive and emotionless (except for Nakan, but his portrayal is weak). Joss' performance - again - was a mixed bag. There were moments were he radiated a quiet, calm confidence or appeared cool and collected (which contrasted nicely with Fluke's antics) - but there also were moments were he seemed lost and confused about what to do. Not sure the "strong and silent" type was ideal to portray a vampire - who (I would imagine) should be passionate, emotional and a little unhinged. Not sure what to think about the tone of the show either - is a badly veiled rom-com? Is is supposed to be serious? Scary? I really don't know.
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ThamePo Heart That Skips a Beat Episode 12
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This episode kinda tries to tie up some loose ends - like the one with Earn or Mick - and prepare everything for the series finale. That's all fine and dandy, but I also got the feeling that with slight changes in the writing all of that could have been included in earlier episodes. I got used to "ThamePo" having a bit shorter episodes than other BLs, but this one felt shorter than usual - maybe due to Thame being almost entirely absent and due to "Mars Diary", which felt like pointless filler. All that left me with the impression that ep. 12 was unnecessary, almost forced, that the story progression was deliberately slowed down to justify one more episode.
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ThamePo Heart That Skips a Beat Episode 10
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Eight months after ep. 10 of "Only Boo!" aired "ThamePo" retreads its steps: no dating when you're an idol is the rule. Try to fight it - against fans, your company and everyone else - and you'll lose your job or your faen. Or they will make the choice for you and take themselves out of the equation - because they love you. The breakup here isn't as painful as it was in the memorable train scene with Sea and Keen, as it hits further from the heart. Still, the company going into damage control mode and throwing Pepper under the bus to protect its most valuable asset (and Pemika admitting it) shows we're in adult territory now. It's a warning for the main couple and, possibly, a sign of things to come, foreshadowing the uneasy reality of dating a celeb - a reality we were spared so far, submerged in blissful goodness of WilliamEst, all safe and happy. Buckle-up, everyone, it's gonna be a bumpy ride these last 3 episodes.
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The Boy Next World: Uncut Episode 5
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Watching ep. 3 I began suspecting that Cirrus is not from a parallel universe - instead he has Dissociative Idenity Disorder (DID). Well, looks like I did get the first part right (no alternate/parallel universe) and some of the second part (the "parallel" world was just in Cir's head), but not entirely. Finding out that there isn't anything special about Cir, nothing supernatural nor otherwise interesting (not even DID), that there's a mundane, ordinary explanation to what we've been seeing Cir going through (he's a coward - that's what the show itself calls him - who lived in his dreams) - all that feels upsetting and seems to be a piece of uninspired, dull writing. I guess it fits MAME's clumsy and unimaginative style. The show itself is quickly devolving from having something intriguing and mysterious about it to an ordinary BL plot - this time with evil mother as the obstacle for the main couple. I'm not giving up though, hoping for a twist restoring some magic to this BL.
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Perfect 10 Liners Episode 15
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So, GMMTV is going towards non-consensual stuff now... I had to double-check that this show is based on JittyRain's writings, not on MAME's. We already had emotional manipulation of Gun by Yotha, and now we got Yotha exploiting Gun's hesitation and indecisiveness to satisfy his lust. What a wonderful main character Yotha is, an example not to follow and a huge red flag - not because of what he was doing before, but because of what he's doing now. And what about the absurd "love will heal a trauma" trope being used in this episode? Crap like this is not just stupid, it's dangerous - someone might actually believe this nonsense (btw: this - again - smells like MAME's clumsy and incompetent writing).
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The Heart Killers Episode 10
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The show continues it's downright spiral, with bad writing becoming even worse and performances of the entire main cast being disappointing. This episode offered - at least on paper - several opportunities for emotional scenes with main characters. I mean you can ruin almost every scene that requires subtle acting (especially if you can't act) or even proper delivery, but to ruin a textbook tearjerker? That's a new low.Go home, THK, you're drunk.
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I'm okay with homophobic characters in BL - real world is still full of these idiots, so including these scum in a story is acceptable for sake of realism or to create an obstacle for a same-sex couple to form a relationship or stay together. What I'm not okay is having such a character presented as being justified, having legitimate concerns or voicing an opinion or point of view in a debate. Homophobia is evil, plain and simple, like racism or antisemitism. Any show, not just a BL, cannot leave any doubt about it. Homophobia is never justified and indefensible; presenting it in any other way as literal evil (regardless of where it comes from - outright malice, ignorance or stupidity, it doesn't matter) is not allowed. This episode does exactly that, presenting Teerak's father as an idiot, but acting in good faith (actually acting out of seflishness, which the show also fails to point out), and going so far as defending him: Teerak's mother saying "I know you’re disappointed. So am I" is inexcusable. It's 2025 for crying out loud, and this is a show made in 2024 - sounding like one of those idiotic early BL's from 8-10 years ago. Whoever allowed this crap to be aired should be fired on the spot. I gave this episode a rating of 1.0 because MDL doesn't allow a lower rating to be submitted.
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I'm okay with homophobic characters in BL - real world is still full of these idiots, so including these scum in a story is acceptable for sake of realism or to create an obstacle for a same-sex couple to form a relationship or stay together. What I'm not okay is having such a character presented as being justified, having legitimate concerns or voicing an opinion or point of view in a debate. Homophobia is evil, plain and simple, like racism or antisemitism. Any show, not just a BL, cannot leave any doubt about it. Homophobia is never justified and indefensible; presenting it in any other way as literal evil (regardless of where it comes from - outright malice, ignorance or stupidity, it doesn't matter) is not allowed. This episode does exactly that, presenting Teerak's father as an idiot, but acting in good faith (actually acting out of seflishness, which the show also fails to point out), and going so far as defending him: Teerak's mother saying "I know you’re disappointed. So am I" is inexcusable. It's 2025 for crying out loud, and this is a show made in 2024 - sounding like one of those idiotic early BL's from 8-10 years ago. Whoever allowed this crap to be aired should be fired on the spot. I gave this episode a rating of 1.0 because MDL doesn't allow a lower rating to be submitted.
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ThamePo Heart That Skips a Beat Episode 7
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Nut is delicious in this episode as the plotting Junn trying to separate Thame and Po, while William's Thame carefully plays his love game - subtly hitting various tones ranging from jealousy through sulking to letting his man know he's important. Est's Po is at times naive and confused, but mostly gets what's going on and lets events unfold. What we get is an interplay rarely seen in BLs. Good to see that ONER is no longer a cartoonish, moustache-twirling villain of the story, but a reasonable company interested in doing business. Also, it's always good to see Joong.
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Perfect 10 Liners Episode 13
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The ForceBook portion of this series was mediocre, but somewhat consistent - the delivery was what we came to expect from both mains (Force - wooden and emotionless, Book - lackluster and boring), the writing was weak, none of the characters had any depth and most lacked any characterization. This was already looking pretty bad, but turned even worse once PerthSanta took over - and this episode is a fine example of that. What we have here is: 1/ MAME-level of bad, cringy writing - meant to generate involvement and induce emotions in the audience, it instead annoys and sends all the wrong messages about non-consensual behavior, using violence, lack of communication etc., 2/ laughably bad performances - the only guy in the entire cast who can actually act (Aungpao) was again relegated to some pointless and utterly unimportant background character, 3/ a horribly mismatched main couple, with Perth visibly uncomfortable with being in a BL. I'm not saying this is a new low for GMMTV - this is still watchable (unlike "We Are", "Never Let Me Go" or "Enchante" - to name just a few dreadfully bad BLs by this company), but it gets worse with each episode.
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ThamePo Heart That Skips a Beat Episode 6
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Loved to see my LYKN bias - Tui - get more screen time in this one; his "you dumb" was on point. Thame's and Po's walking back and forth from Po's flat to the bus stop reminded me of something from my mother tongue. One of the ways to say that you're dating someone is to say that you are walking with that person (or that you're walking with each other) - that's exactly what we got in this episode. That being said, I do believe it's time that we see more of Thame and Po - and less of MARS.
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