idontwanttothanks

Well, it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, but I'm not sure that it means that it was good, either.

Things I loved: Na and Miriam.

Miriam was a joy and lit up the screen every single time she was in a scene. She made me laugh a lot. This is the second thing I've seen Jan in and the second thing she's been a highlight of.

And Na was hands down my favorite character in the entire drama. He stole the show from his very first scene. I have to say that I have not given Neo enough credit even though I have seen him in several things by this point. But after watching this I am a fan. Na was a general blast and also an unexpected sweetheart, and I shipped him with Chon to an insane degree. Now I want a Khaotung/Neo pair up because their chemistry is very good and I think it would be fun. Maybe they can have angry makeouts in Only Friends? As a treat to me specifically.

Things I liked: Chon, Prang, Ai & Ni, Chon's mom

This was a fairly decent friend group. I liked that Ai and Ni understood and stuck by Ton even when he didn't especially deserve it, and I love how fierce Chon's mom was in defending her son, and how little she cared that he was gay. Petition to keep casting Khao in roles where he has a great relationship with his mom, please.

One thing I was a fan of was that Chon had a spine in him. So often when you get these pining romances the piner lets themselves be pushed around for love, and it always annoys me. I like that Chon didn't let himself get walked all over. Good.

Although…to be honest, I felt like both Ton and Chon were kind of nothing characters. Oh, both actors did what they could with what they were given (I have never seen Pod in anything else, but Khaotung I know is excellent so I blame neither of them for this), but they just…weren't given all that much. Despite the story being about them, I honestly felt that characters like Miriam and Na got way more development. Hell, even Ton's sis and her hubby got more than I felt Chon and Ton had. It was especially annoying in Ton's case, because there was a lot to work with there and I do think, based on what I was given, that the actor could have handled a more nuanced character. I feel like the main problem with this drama is that it didn't know how to walk the line between comedic an serious, and a lot of potentially good story was lost in the process.

Things I did not like at all: the attempted SA plot and the way that it happened and then was never brought up again (and also the way that Amp was somehow made out to be worse than the dude who actually tried to SA Chon, like he gets a free pass on that because oh hey, she really is a homophobe after all. No, sorry, both of them were vile) and the whole dad and babies thing. I also kind of hated that the second dad gets his way he's suddenly all remorse and solicitude.

The last thing that really rubbed me the wrong way was Ton kissing Amp as some sort of proof that he's still a man or something? What? Not only was it completely inconsiderate of Chon and his feelings (and good on Chon for directly calling him out on that part because what the hell, my dude?), it's also completely nonsensical. I get that it all tied back to Ton's ideas of what makes a man and the way he was raised by daddy-o, but again, the show did nothing with it. It felt like in the end it was just there to cause some drama and give Ton a reason for his big "I've loved you all along" confession, and honestly there are other ways we could have gotten there. As it was it just made Ton look like a meathead who would go around cheating whenever someone challenged his precious manhood with no regard for what it might do to his relationship.

I can't say I regret watching it, but I can see why so many people really don't love this show, ha. For me it was middling, and the problems outweigh the good points, so I probably will never find myself with the urge to rewatch. I am not what I would call a connoisseur of the best BL - I have been known to adore trash and I make no apologies for it - but this one just didn't manage to hit enough correct notes for me to remember it with fondness, nor enough bad ones to make me mad enough to remember it for that reason.

In summation, this is a show that exists, and I'll probably forget it in an hour or two.

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So I just binged S1 of Gay Ok Bangkok and a thought occurred to me.

I enjoy all of these characters. I see their flaws and their strengths and I love them because of both, because these are people I know. I'm friends or have been friends with all of these people - I resonate with some more than most from my own experiences, but I could point to people in my life that remind me of all of them easily. They're real and lived in in a way that I'm frankly unused to seeing from most of the dramas I gravitate towards.

They make mistakes I've made, mistakes the people around me have made, and they break and they fight and they come back together in ways that I've done with people I've loved.

The Bangkok crew (aside from Big) are all past or starting to get past that point in their lives when the future seems both daunting and very far away, and everything is all immediacy, but they're still searching. Whether it's Pom who just wants to find love (and I don't want spoilers for S2 but I love that season 1 ended with him learning to appreciate himself as an individual more - the facebook posts were a nice touch and a great way to show his state of mind as we went through the show), Aof who is trying to find a person he can take care of (and balance his dwindling interest in sex along with that need - he interests me so much tbh because so much emphasis does tend to get put on sex in relationships and it's a real struggle when it just isn't the thing you're after but everyone assumes that you should be, or wants you to be, or needs it from you (disclaimer: there's nothing wrong with either and I'm not trying to imply that but I want to see the navigation between his needs and Big's needs, or his needs and the needs of whoever he winds up with)), or Arm who is maybe the most aimless of all, wandering between relationships and jobs, staying with Pom when he gets dumped but unable to help foot the bills because he doesn't want to be stifled by a regular job. Arm strikes me as the friend who just doesn't want to grow up, but adulthood comes for us all in the end.

And then there's Nat, who I think is the most settled of the bunch, possibly to do with his HIV + status, or maybe it's just him. Whatever it is, I adore him. He's got his head firmly on his shoulders and he knows what he wants, but that doesn't quite stop him from taking a chance on Arm, who he knows is a risk but who he hopes will be for him anyway. But he has enough strength to walk away when he realizes it won't work.

Am I still kinda rooting for Arm and Nat to work things out? Yes. Will I be upset if they don't? I don't know. If there had never been a season two I think I would have been fine with how it all shook out. Frankly, this is the kind of ending I want from OF - one that feels earned, and logical, and not like they threw a pat, unambiguously happy ending at us for no reason (no, I am never getting over the end of The Warp Effect, don't @ me I don't want to hear it).

But even more than the romance, what I really loved is the friendship. The sense of community. Yes Arm and Pom fight when Arm makes a move on Pom's crush, yes they are petty and mean and say awful, hurtful things to each other in the moment, but in the end they're still friends because they know each other and care about each other and because to be quite honest, in a community as small as theirs (and I can't speak to Thailand because I'm from the West, but I know that where I'm from you see this kind of thing a lot. We have more legal rights here than there, I know that, but our community is still smaller and everyone kinda knows or knows of each other) you don't just drop the only people you know who get you over that kind of thing. You just don't. I was as invested in Arm and Pom making up as I was in any of the romantic couples working out. More, maybe.

I am also extremely glad to see the show address sexual health. Suck, fuck, and get tested! Words to live by, honestly.

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The idea was better than the execution

First of all, I love office set BL. Highschool often feels a lot too young for me anymore - I'm at the age where too much drama feels forced and too little feels saccharine, a real goldilocks - university is better, but adults living in the adult world is best. I will watch just about any BL that has this element, and I love me a good office romance.

And honestly, that is where this drama excels the most for me. Because it didn't shy away from the reality of what can happen when you date the boss. The way that things mostly fell on Pat was realistic and very sad. Yes, Jeng had pressures too, but the reality of situations like this is that his head was never going to be on the chopping block. It was always going to be Pat who bore the brunt of their relationship, and I thought that the show was fairly realistic in portraying just what that looks like. I don't blame Pat for finding it overwhelming (and for being worried that he was getting opportunities for sleeping with the boss rather than because of his own abilities. That's what people will think regardless, and those kinds of rumours can and will kill a burgeoning career before it even starts, depending on how high they go). And while I was furious at the meeting with Jeng to discuss how his sexuality will negatively impact the company, that is real too. Real and disturbing, and I do appreciate that it was framed in a way to (hopefully) piss off the viewer, too. Because it isn't actually cool to tell someone that they should be in the closet so that your company's stock doesn't plummet - or cool that it should make the stock plummet in the first place, or that it will make people pull out of working with you. It's horrible and bigoted and it should be pointed out as a bad thing.

I also liked the chemistry between Pat and Jeng, especially at the end when they didn't have to worry about the job stuff.

I was not bothered as much about Pat's lack of maturity at the beginning as some - dude is barely out of college and he seems to just be a little sensitive in general - which is fine. He mostly managed to hold it together when he had to, and I'm not against sensitive or emotional characters as a general rule. That said, I do kind of wish that he'd been a little less like the Pat that left in episode 11 in episode 12. If we're doing the 2 year time skip thing then I would really like to see some growth out of both characters - we definitely got some out Jeng, in his new willingness to displease his father by forging his own path. But I felt like Pat was still where he was before, and that was a little disappointing.

I also don't know when Ying suddenly went from being one of the worst pains in the office to being on the core team and a major support for Pat during the rough times at work. It's definitely not something I am opposed to, but I want a character arc to have an arc, not just for it to happen all of a sudden. I don't know, maybe I missed something.

Chot was a delight and he should have been in every scene.

I was sad that the second couple didn't work out, but also I thought that it was realistic in a way you don't often see. Sometimes things just don't work, sometimes you can't put broken relationships back together. I'm unused to seeing a broken relationship stay that way, too, so it was a nice change even if I'd really rather it not become the norm.

Overall I feel like it was fine. I liked what it did with the office romance trope and I think I would like to see the leads in another show that has a tighter plot. But I probably won't watch this one again.

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Not really for me

I waffled about writing this because for me, this show was mostly style and no substance, a slick nothingburger that I ate happily enough while I was there but an hour later was hungry again with zero memory of what the burger even really tasted like (the tortured food metaphor feels appropriate here, lol).

First, what I liked: the set and styling was great. I enjoyed it. Everything and everyone was so pretty. The acting was mostly great as well, with special standouts being Joong as Fadel and First as Kant. Joong especially was a force as Fadel, most of the stuff I remember is his. He did such a great job showcasing Fadel's hard outer shell and the vulnerable man underneath who really does just want to be loved. For all the talk about Bison wanting that, it came across to me way way more with Fadel. I just wanted to gather that man up and tell him that it would all be okay, but at the same time I did believe that he'd be capable of cold bloodedly killing a dude and just sort of tossing the body into his jeep to dispose of. Kudos to him for that.

And First as Kant was great. He had to walk a really thin line there for a while - we the audience had to be able to see through Kant's mask while but still find it believable that Bison would not, and then he had to slowly work in Kant actually starting to feel things amidst all the lies. And he did so well. No one does subtlety like First Kanaphan, but I do hope that he gets to be more expressive, if only because I sometimes think having to play all of these reserved or subtle characters all the time makes people think he can't act. And I would be horribly remiss if I didn't call out the boat scene specifically, because my god was that a masterclass. Just...whenever I see him do his thing I am so impressed.

The chemistry was on point, too. Say what you will about the speed of their love or whatever, but JD and FK never miss when it comes to this.

Now the stuff I was less into: I'm just going to get it out of the way right now - I thought that Style is the best Dunk has done yet, but yes, he was still the weakest of the four. He is improving though, and i think that he does much much better when he's not being pigeonholed into the sweet, naive little virgin roles that he was getting for so long. My biggest critique for him as Style was that he sometimes overdid it.

The really unpopular opinion I have though is that I thought that while Khaotung was good, it was the weakest performance I have seen from him to date. Now I'm not a particular fan of Khaotung's (I like him but I won't watch a show just because he's in it) so I've not seen his entire backlog but Bison is not his best work of what I have seen, in fact it's my least favorite. I didn't believe him most of the time, and the line that he was suppose to walk between charming and chilling never worked - I found him to be more charming more successfully but chilling never landed for me, and I think he overdid it about as much as Dunk did, which was very obvious whenever he was in an emotionally charged scene with someone acting more subdued - notably the boat scene and the scene where he and Fadel find out about Lilly. Oh, and the beach reconciliation scene with him and Kant. An actor can mostly only act as well as the character is written and so I mostly blame the writers, but I wish someone would ask him to dial it back just a bit, sometimes.

Also, speaking of Bison, the betrayal from Kant never landed for me the way it did everyone else. I didn't hate Kant or think he needed to die for what he did or apologize and grovel for years. Bison and Fadel kill people but the show and the fandom wanted me to believe Kant was the horrible one? I couldn't help but find that amusing.

I was also deeply annoyed with some of the structure. I noticed this in OF too, so it's not a new thing, but it felt sometimes like things just happened to happen. And the way that plots were just dropped or ignored the second they became inconvenient. Kant is being blackmailed with his brother's safety to work for the cops? Suddenly a non issue when he makes up with Bison. Kant's water trauma? Totally not made worse by Bison nearly drowning him, nosir, he's over it now because love. There are other examples I'm sure but like I said, a lot of this show left my head directly after I watched it.

Last but not least, everyone was so incompetent. The cops couldn't manage to take down two assassins that could barely find their own bums with both hands (seriously, who forgets GLOVES), Kant clocks the CCTV at Fadel and Bison's house but I guess immediately forgets it's there, Bison was literally being photographed from three feet away, cops standing there bold as brass, and he noticed not a thing...literally the only two people who got their jobs done with any degree of competency were Lilly and Style.

I had decided not to watch because the novel was so bad but I am weak for First Kanaphan, okay, and I caved. I'm not sad I did the thing because it was better than I expected, but I also feel unsatisfied and disappointed. I will not be coming back to this one.

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