As usual, I opted to wait until both episodes were available. The first, which sets up the story, is slightly more interesting than watching a flowing river. One boy has hired another boy to go birdwatching with him in a national park without a mobile signal for a few days. Coupled with wooden acting and too many flashbacks, we find out the two boys had trouble with their respective female partners and spend most of their time questioning each other in an attempt to understand who they're with. There is little chemistry between them.
The second episode replays the last 7 minutes of the previous one before getting underway, where we find that the two girls have followed the boys to the same park and have fallen for each other and the boys soon realise what they have done. Much discussion ensues between each pair. The girls regret what they've done then they all leave.
So where was the BL in this? It was basically absent. In the course of their time together, Pai touches Third every so often, warming towards him, so by the end, we can infer that they've both left their girlfriends and may perhaps test the waters to see if they really 'like' each other.
All in all, this was one of the weakest episodes of the anthology.
After watching the first episode I debated with myself whether to continue watching and decided I would, gradually warming more and more to this over-the-top romantic escapade with an MC who is one of the least romantic main leads I have ever seen but who carries his manic role with conviction as we follow his rocky love life from happy solitude to suddenly becoming the object of desire from two men and one woman until he finally ends up with the man he loves. It may not be to everyone's taste but it is often funny, has a terrific cast, is well-written and keeps one enthralled to the very end. Above all, it has a lot of heart. Go along for the ride. It's well worth it.
Did they kiss each other on two separate occasions or was it the fevered imagination of one of them? I'm not sure. BL series these days have a habit of letting a scene play out and then immediately doing it again with a different outcome so you have to assume the first one was in the imagination, at least, that's how it appears to me. What do you think?
The fact that you dont think Zouey and Teena are disturbed worries me...they may not be on the same level of crazy…
Okay. You're following it much better than I am. There are too many characters, they're all doing so much in so many scenes it's difficult to keep up and remember what they're all doing. You also have to be invested in them, which I'm not. I made my comment about these two after that lovely scene and not remembering any of the other stuff.
Day's mom is indeed overprotective and her parenting skills at times leave much to be desired but in Ep. 10 she sinks to a new level when she fires Mhok claiming he could have been in danger during their trip to see the sunset when she also knows that Mhok is very protective of Day and wouldn't let any harm come to him, not there was much chance of that anyway, and Mhok didn't even try to justify his actions, he just accepted it and left with barely a word. Then she took Day's phone and changed the WiFi password. That was a step too far. Not only did that make Day not want to leave his room but he couldn't even communicate with anyone or do anything on the computer. What I find particularly shameful is that she can see that once Day wanted Mhok as his caretaker and nobody else would do, Day became happier and less of a recluse. By the time she decided to fire Mhok, they had become boyfriends. With all that, she still insisted and believed what she was doing was correct and even Night couldn't persuade her to change her mind.
Then we come to Christmas and Day manages to come to Mhok at the restaurant he's working at, when suddenly they're interrupted by the entrance of his mother and Night with the news that an eye is available for a corneal transplant, something we were all expecting at this point in the series. Realistically, even if the surgery is successful, he'll never have 20/20 vision again but at least he'll have better sight again in that eye which at least is something to be grateful for.
On the merits of what I saw, I found this to be one of the better BL offerings of 2023 and it ended on a happy and satisfying note. That's good enough for me. My rating: 8.5 and well deserved.
The only couple I like are Zouey and his muse Teena; the rest are mostly disturbed individuals. As for the plot, all I can say is: what plot? The whole thing is tawdry and a bit unhinged. Half way through and it'll be an effort to watch the second half.
Just finished watching this mini series and having looked through the latest comments where everyone said it was funny and how perfect it was, I can't help but wonder if we were all looking at the same videos. I kept thinking the two leads were overthinking everything to the point of being neurotic while keeping their true feelings to themselves and not disclosing they like each other till the very end when finally I was hoping for a proper kiss, something they talked about a lot and did - sort of - once, when their lips touched, it continued to hang in the air until the final scene, however, as they were about to kiss, the end credits began to roll. I was so annoyed that I reduced my rating from 8 to 7.
It took me four days to watch the series in full, one of those shows that kept one glued to the screen, wondering what was going to happen next. On the whole, I thought it was very good except for the last two episodes, which was a shame really. The ending of Ep. 12 which had Dan playing Hamlet on stage, seeing him about to shoot himself in the head with a gun was frankly ridiculous, considering the period in which the play is set and Hamlet doesn't kill himself anyway, he is stabbed with a poisoned blade by Laertes, Ophelia’s brother. Ep. 13 opens with an entirely different scene on stage which has nothing to do with the play. From there, things don't improve much. We find out about the massacre of the university students on campus, a reveal about Brother Andurak, Dan's decision to remain in the spirit world of the shadow and a lot concerning Josh and his girlfriend Chai'aim, the main love interest. Indeed, you could barely call this BL. Nai comes out as gay early on and in Ep. 10 gives Dan a little kiss. Dan himself appears to be asexual though he becomes Nai's date at the prom without any repercussions from the school, which is odd considering it's a Catholic institution, but they did it in such a way that it doesn't draw anyone's attention except Josh and Chai'aim, who all stayed together for the duration. After that it gets very messy, with both Dan and Chai'aim landing in hospital unconscious; she emerges from it, he doesn't and later ends up dead, but Nai is sure he can be resurrected. This is somehow achieved after Nai destroys the pedestal in which the students' bodies are hidden and once again, Dan finds himself confronting Trin on the shore of the lake, whose body is eventually retrieved from the depths. So, all is harmonious again with our four main characters, but it's Dan in the final moment that provides a very strange occurrence when he goes to the bathroom to wash his face: one moment he's Dan, then the next he's Trin. I don't get that at all. After the credits, there's a brief scene where we observe that the shadow was a presence in Dan's life right after he was born. Fine. Not that important but it does leave an open ending.
I'm in two minds about August kissing Day. As badminton buddies before Day became almost blind, they were close and Day had a secret crush on August. I mean, who wouldn't, he's exceptionally handsome. Whether August knew of Day's feelings is doubtful. Fast forward to the birthday party, August gives Day the headband, puts it on him and then kisses him. Thinking that August likes him, Day puts both hands on his face and kisses him, only to have August withdraw, much to his dismay. Enter Mhok who chastises August for what he did, which leads August to confess that he can't consider Day more than a friend, which begs the question, why did August kiss him in the first place? He said that he wanted to make Day's birthday memorable, but it got out of hand when Day kissed him back. I can only surmise that August didn't think through his actions properly. It doesn't make him bad. His initial intention was good but he failed to realise that Day was in love with him.
I was in no rush to see this series and having now watched the first episode I can see that my hesitation was not justified. It's good to see OffGun in comedic roles for a change and are aceing their characters but even better is having Neo as Fire in it and his perfect foil Aungpaoy as Dynamite, who is new to the BL universe; having such character names means they're meant for each other, despite Fire playing hard to get from the beginning. Neo's star first shone in Fish Upon The Sky (2021) where he played Duean, the brother of the ML, providing much of the comic relief. He then played Boston in Only Friends (2023), a less savoury character. Now he's here, forever bickering as Fire with Dynamite, initially interested in a girl he will get nowhere with if Dynamite has anything to do with it and he is going to pursue Fire until he's in his loving embrace. This has all the elements that have been missing for a while in Thai BL series so I welcome this series wholeheartedly.
Jade was obviously thinking of the brutal breakup he experienced during his high school years when his one-month lover told him he didn't appreciate him being so jealous and trying not to show it when he saw Gus fussing and fawning over Mai, so at the end of the episode when Jade apparently saw Gus kissing Mai, then Mai looked up and saw Jade, it possibly gave him pause to think whether Mai really loved him, so he was right not to commit to being his boyfriend. If it weren't that, it would be up to Mai to extricate himself from the misunderstanding. We'll find out next week.
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The second episode replays the last 7 minutes of the previous one before getting underway, where we find that the two girls have followed the boys to the same park and have fallen for each other and the boys soon realise what they have done. Much discussion ensues between each pair. The girls regret what they've done then they all leave.
So where was the BL in this? It was basically absent. In the course of their time together, Pai touches Third every so often, warming towards him, so by the end, we can infer that they've both left their girlfriends and may perhaps test the waters to see if they really 'like' each other.
All in all, this was one of the weakest episodes of the anthology.
Then we come to Christmas and Day manages to come to Mhok at the restaurant he's working at, when suddenly they're interrupted by the entrance of his mother and Night with the news that an eye is available for a corneal transplant, something we were all expecting at this point in the series. Realistically, even if the surgery is successful, he'll never have 20/20 vision again but at least he'll have better sight again in that eye which at least is something to be grateful for.
Can be seen setting VPN to Netherlands. I use Proton which is free.