jaydeejay

Thanks for the explanation!

I do understand and have noticed what the screenwriters have been putting down for us to pick up on: that Lian is trying to get the truth from him (even though he already knows the truth) and is also trying to show him that he doesn't have much issues with him being a singer or liking cars and racing. However, what they've failed to explain thus far is why Lian is going about it in a mean, awful way. *That's* what I'd like to know. I understand that it's hard for Kuea to open up to him, but resorting to forcing Kuea to live with him when Kuea very clearly despised the idea is not the best way of going about it- alongside all of the other awful and basically abusive things he has said/done. They still could have written him as attempting to be as understanding as possible and gentle in a round about way with his approach, but instead they wrote him to be an asshole who gives Kuea (and myself lol) immense whiplash with his actions that constantly flip flop and contradict themselves. All of that plus them trying to romanticize a lot of his actions- it all just rubs me the wrong way.

It's interesting because what they've been doing with YiDiao is what they should be doing with LianKuea since the latter is the main couple: Yi actually attempting to understand Diao by getting involved with his hobby and becoming one of his students. I expected to see this with LianKuea, but we got it with the side couple first.

If you have any more thoughts on this way of exploring Lian's character, I'd be down to read about it. Because I'm legit confused by their writing choices.

I still don't like Toh, but the chemistry between him and Nuea is great. The chemistry between their actors is also insane. I would love to see them paired up in another drama. They do such an excellent job at acting out the more sexual scenes. It's pretty rare to see screen pairs in BLs that seem that comfortable around each other.

I still love SkyJao! I love that Sky continues to be body positive, it's so nice to see especially in a BL. Overall, they're very cute and I want way more screen time for them. I'm now very curious about Touch and the eventual TouchDaisy (hilarious pair name btw) that'll happen. I've been saying since ep1 that Daisy deserves his own romance. It's SO rare in BLs to see a very feminine male character who isn't just comic relief and gets a cute romance.

One major problem I have with this episode is that they *really* needed to clarify what the fuck happened with that sex scene. Because they kept saying Toh was either drunk or not actually drunk but kind of like it?? It was very confusing and they made it seem like Nuea had sex with/basically assaulted someone who was drunk/unable to fully give consent. Which is disgusting. I'm assuming, however, that it might have been another one of Toh's raunchy dreams. I'm hoping that the case.

And as always, I love the wardrobe department for this show. The attention to detail and individuality is SO AMAZING.

Ep.5
I've already talked about how toxic and gross Lian and Kuea's relationship is and how awful it is that they're trying to make it cute. So I won't go into that yet again.

Instead I'll state how surprising it is that they have yet to give us a good hint as to why Lian is like this and doing all of these things. Unless I'm missing something here, but it just feels like he's an asshole for no reason whatsoever. Which just makes everything about the relationship even worse.

Unlike Lian, they have given us some good hints as to why Yi is the way he is. They've even done a decent job at showing us that he does certain things but doesn't quite seem to mean it the way it comes off. At the end of the day, the stuff he has done and said were gross and basically inexcusable, but we can at least see there's something else past the aggressive behavior and that it might be the fear/anxiety that's making him this way and not because he's this way for no reason. This pair is the only pair I'm interested in for now. Yi is still on thin ice for me, but at least he isn't drowning in freezing water like Lian is.

I still don't quite get the appeal of Syn and Kuer, but that's probably because next to nothing has happened with them. Kuer's actor is hot, I will say that much LOL. I do like the trope of awkward/weird guy with cool and handsome guy, but I don't know yet what's going on with these too.

I used to like Foei, but them using him as a representative of how the audience thinks and feels has me disliking him. He gushes over Kuea and Lian, but I can't relate to that at all, so now I don't find him all that interesting anymore.

The highlights for me this episode was seeing Diao with that adorable Golden Retriever, and Perth (Jay's actor) in that shirt. He looked SO good in that top, WOW.

This! Also compounded with the fact that toxic traits have popped up so many times in BL dramas and comics that it's no surprise at all that a good chunk of the audience unfortunately views these traits as sexy and a good thing. They're so sexualized and glorified that a lot of people think there's nothing wrong with these actions, and that is worrisome. I used to think this way and it took me quite some time to unlearn these dangerous views.

Yes!! I also expected an enemies to lovers thing with those two!

I'm hoping for a little more with Saifa because his character turned out kind of...........anticlimactic.

And I was very curious about Aou. His acting was pretty good in this show, but I also felt like if given an even better character, he'd do a amazing job.

I thought he was the creepiest at first. And then Natee showed up and he took the crown. And then Wayo attempted to get Theo drunk, and HE took the crown after Natee LOL

I did think Sun showing up would make for a great little plot twist! I had this idea early on where Sun would pop up and then Akk would get jealous. But then my friend pointed out how it'd be better if Theo was the one that got jealous, and I agree! He sees Sun and Akk having a great time and it makes him realize that Akk could very easily leave him at any point and not deal with his Enchante nonsense.

I thought Sun was his friend? The guy he spoke to on the phone when he was in France? And again when he was back in Thailand and telling him about Enchante?

Oh, I thought he was Sun? When Theo was video calling Sun.

I agree with the 2nd half!
I had this theory very early on that maybe Saifah was there because he had a crush on Wayo and wanted to get closer to him by joining in. Eventually Theo and Akk find out and they help him out, and in turn Saifah helps Theo out with his eventual confession. This was way before Wayo's reveal, though.

And as much as I love some slo mo scenes where the characters gawk at each other for what feels like 10mins, I do agree that there were one too many scenes like that. It began to feel like they were just trying to fill up time. It hits different when we know from the very beginning that the characters like each other and will end up together. It starts feeling very redundant and repetitive.

I thoroughly enjoyed this show! It was a little slow at the beginning, but it was a great watch and it was fun trying to figure out if any of the 4 guys were manipulators, and if they were, how bad they were.

This show is written using the formula where the audience already knows the ending; they already know that Akk and Theo are going to wound up together. In scenarios like this, it's about the journey, not the destination. And I felt like they were doing a pretty good job with the writing so far!

However, I do find it disappointing that it was Theo all along. It makes *a lot* of sense that it's him, but because the journey matters the most, I feel like it would've been great to have had it be Akk all along instead. Akk utilizes the book as a way to awkwardly get close to Theo, but eventually realizes that he doesn't need an excuse to be with Theo. And we see this exploration where Theo realizes he's had a great friend all along and could break out of his shell and get closer with Akk.

But instead we learn that Theo knew basically the whole time Akk liked him, and he likes Akk but instead of approaching Akk himself, he kept up the charade until Akk finally confessed. I've never been a fan of the trope where both characters like each other, but Character A knows that B likes them. But A thinks B(always the top or the man of the relationship in het couples) *has* to be the one confessing. Why can't either of them confess? Why put the other person through all of this heartache when you can just confess yourself? I never understood why this was a popular trope in romance stories to basically drag someone around like this.

I actually wish they further explored Theo's loneliness and odd entitlement he had at times. I always found it interesting that he hates being treated different because he's rich, but then he'd turn around and say/do some things that a typical rich person would say or do. Especially since they seemed to constantly highlight the fact that Akk doesn't come from money like he does. So I was expecting so much more from about this issue.
And I suffered through loneliness as a kid to my late teens, so I actually related to Theo quite a bit at first. The whole thing where you have someone right beside you but you still feel alone is very real. Instead they had him be a manipulator and do all of this. And I understand that for some people, their loneliness can make then say and do shitty stuff. I'm just saying they could've had more interesting character exploration rather than what they ended up with.

It's just...weird. Seeing, in hindsight, Theo get (understandably) mad at Natee, Phupha, and Wayo for manipulating things and using him when in turn he like...*basically* does the same thing. Obviously what he did was not as bad as, say, Wayo's case. But still. Weird.
EDIT: Actually, you know what? Even though what Wayo did was awful, he has a valid explanation, and it's that he has an addiction. Addictions are very hard to control, so him going this far makes sense. Phupha has an abusive mother where he has to use his own money to keep them afloat. So him doing this is understandable- not excusable, but we get it. Theo, on the other hand, doesn't actually have anything going on that excuses or explains why he did what he did. Sure, he was lonely, but the problem is that the writers never really explored that side of him. If they did so appropriately, then his actions would've been understandable, in my opinion. Instead, he basically comes off as entitled in a way.

I will say though, I was glad that Saifah did not turn out to be a creep! I was actually worried he would end up just as wild as Natee or Wayo.

And I do think both Book and Force's acting were very good! All of their acting is very good.

Now, what in the world are they going to do with the last two episodes...?

Isbanky (left) is the one who sang the main song and a couple of the other songs. I don't recall the other actors name, but he plays as Daniel, the kid who looked up to Pok and won the medal that Pok would've won if he wasn't beaten up by Saendee's thugs back in S1. I believe we only see Isbanky show up in S1, and Daniel briefly in S1 and S2.

I'm glad you liked my review! Haha

As much as I don't mind this type of stuff being used in stories, I'm always iffy about it being used in BLs, to be very honest. Because at the end of the day, BLs (in any form of media) almost always prioritize the kissing, sex and teasing moments and place the story at 2nd or 3rd place in the list of importance. And what happens in cases like this is when they present something that should be handled with care, it very rarely is. So while I'm willing to give this series a chance to wow me with Lian's story, I honestly expect next to nothing in terms of it being handled carefully. It would be a great surprise if they did. And I do like how they handled the car scene a lot; I admit that it shows some potential for the show.

And your comment about control and abuse: I 100% agree! I have a close friend who's mother was very controlling and abusive. Which is why a lot of the things Lian does and says is stomach churning for me. Even the stuff Diao says where he seems to genuinely believe that Lian loves Kuea is also something that happens to abuse victims where they end up defending the person to some degree.

I think them *finally* having this moment with Yi somewhat early on was a very good idea. Because now we're willing to give him a bit of a chance. I think they should've had a similar moment with Lian so that if the point of Lian's character is that it's not really his fault that he's an asshole, then giving the audience a good hint of that early on would've worked out. Most of the audience would be willing to give him a chance, but instead most people (at least here on MDL) hate Lian to a degree, and he makes the show hard to watch for a lot of people- myself included.

And that's interesting about Sin! I'm not too familiar with Thai culture, but I'm very curious about his character in relation to it. My friend who's more familiar than I am did not like him at all LOL

And YES about Jay! The moment I saw the face he made when he signaled Lian to take very drunk Kuea home, I didn't like him from that point on. And then he got progressively worse. I'm mostly disappointed because I like Perth, his actor. And I expected him to play a nice guy, but NOPE. However! I think the idea that just about everyone around Kuea is awful is *very* interesting. Sad, but intriguing. So I don't mind that Jay turned out to be mean, too.

But YEAH, I'll keep on with this show for a little while longer. We'll see!

Has he seen him doing weird stuff? And by weird, I mean the whole collecting stuff.I know he's seen Toh get all nervous around him, but I honestly don't recall a single scene when we see Nuea watching him collect his stuff. Toh waits until he leaves (and we see Nuea leave the scene) to then continue his gross behavior.

There's even a moment in episode 2 when Nuea was giving Toh water and the bandage and Toh was acting very weird. If you recall, Nuea made a grimace as he left.

The only time I can think of when Nuea saw him collecting something (and this was recently confirmed by Nuea) was the orange incident in ep1. However, seeing someone remove a gift from the garbage after being harshly declined isn't that weird, in my opinion.

Oh man, where do I even begin?

Well, I've noticed the past one or two episodes that we've been getting less and less Creepy Toh scenes where he steals stuff that Nuea has touched. And that coincides with the fact that the two of them have gotten closer recently. In episode 5, for example, we had one small scene where he collected the straw Nuea used. Still creepy and cringe as hell.

I fear that they might be trying to eliminate the stalker/collecting thing altogether without properly and appropriately acknowledging the Major Red Flag that is Toh's obsession. I say this because they gave a quite a few, dare I say, cute NueaToh scenes in episode 5. The bed scene alone made me forget that this was a show about a gross stalker, and I actually found myself enjoying the scene.

Which is a major problem.
This is one way romance stories try undermining serious issues in their stories: by swiftly, but secretly, brushing the problem(s) under the rug as to not face the issue directly as they should. And the rug is usually cutesy, funny scenes.

However, at the same time, I still somewhat hold out a bit of hope that they address Toh's bullshit behavior. It's pretty obvious at this point that Nuea isn't aware of That Side of Toh. And we've gotten to see some good conversations between him and Sky. And the writers did a pretty damn good job at addressing Jao's body image problem. So with how they've tackled both of these things, I think they might be able to address Toh's problem.

Maybe.
Hopefully.

Speaking of Jao: the part where he and Sky talk about his body image problem was amazing. I actually nearly teared up! I've been dying to see more variety in body types in BLs, and while Jao's body type isn't anything crazy, it definitely is for a character who's a bottom. Bottoms are "supposed" to be thin and dainty, easy to pick up. So seeing Jao who's a little on the chubbier, definitely bulkier side was refreshing! And I absolutely noticed that Sky is thinner than him.
So in my head, they have a moment where Sky unabashedly cuddles him and showers him with kisses. But I honestly didn't expect to see anything like that happen in the show.

Until Sky approached him about it and said all the right things. Especially when he said that he'll help Jao lose weight if he wants to, but that it's also fine if he can't change himself. I almost died.
95% of the reason why I'm watching this show is for this pair. The remaining 5% is for all of the characters- except Toh. I can't bring myself to care about Toh whatsoever. But I like all of the other characters and wardrobes and set designs.

This episode was great for a lot of reasons, but also bad for a lot of reasons.

I'll start off by saying what I've said before: I have no issues with writers utilizing toxic behavior and whatnot in their stories. The problem stems from *how* they use it.

This episode really bumped up the creep factor like crazy. It was really sad seeing Kuea attempting to wiggle free from Lian's grasp, only to fold so easily. He more than likely did because lets be real here, he doesn't know how to navigate his life without someone or some people controlling it. So for him, it's easiest to try and figure out Lian's secrets while being forced to live with him rather finding out his secrets from outside. It's depressing. So much so that I have *no* idea how they're going to turn everything around and make Lian seem like a decent person in the end.
I feel like if they hadn't gone this far with the whole controlling thing, then there *might've* been a chance to redeem Lian's character.
I try not to skip scenes in shows, but MAN was I tempted as hell to do so during the Lian and Kuea scenes.

Surprisingly, and thankfully, Yi doesn't appear to be as bad as Lian. I mean, his controlling nature is still awful regardless, but still. I don't think I would've been able to have two characters with the same exact level of creepiness as Lian, fuck no.
It seems as though something terrible must have happened to Diao that's made Yi overprotective and controlling now. I'm still mildly curious about their past.

Sin weirds me out, but I really liked seeing him attempting to defend/protect Kuea. But him getting flustered over the very obvious shitty character? Sin, you could *absolutely* do better.

Jay gave sound advice, but he's still an asshole.

Diao riding his bicycle was the best part of this episode. He looked so adorable.
I will give the production crew kudos for using the right tone and music during certain scenes this episode, but especially during the car ride to Lian's house when Kuea was crying. The cinematography and locations/set designs are still very good.

MarkKit Recap Episode:
https://www.iq.com/play/gen-y-the-series-season-2-12th70d7uck?lang=en_us

ThanuWayu Recap Episode:
https://www.iq.com/play/gen-y-the-series-season-2-118jsekft5w?lang=en_us&sh_pltf=4

Exactly. I did find a comment by the author (I posted what it said above) saying the adaptation will have changes. Which is to be expected, since it'd be very hard to make a PWP BL drama. Though, according to the trailer, it doesn't seem like they're going to change the noncon/drugging stuff.

This is great, thanks! I was trying to find a good translation of the TWs.
For those who don't have a wattpad account, this is what is shown in the Prologue:

The person who translated it took a screenshot of the conversation with the author where the author says it has violent content, use of aphrodisiacs, "semi-consensual" sex (aka noncon*), "Characters behave inappropriately sometimes", and "70% of the novel's content is PWP Porn without plot Comedy Erotic something like that". The author points out that the drama adaptation will be modified. They don't specify in what ways, though.

* - this is my personal note, not the author's

You can check out the source material here:
https://www.readawrite.com/a/271f89a9b47f9b175f1d63e4613a5549

NC typically stands for noncon.
It's originally meant to be a PWP story. But seeing as they're making it into an actual drama, I can kind of see them making some changes to the SA stuff? But since it's BL, I'm not really expecting them to change it.

We have reached the end, folks! What a wild, bumpy ride. But a ride I enjoyed, nonetheless.
I do plan on making a full review for the entire season some time soon!

Alright, let me get right into it:
❤ThanuWayu

We start off with a small scene where Thanu explains what happened between him and Padbok. I will talk more later about my feelings on the explanation and Padbok's appearance, but thanks to Wayu, they get to talking again. It being Wayu to try and get them to talk again isn't surprising, especially after all the stuff that happened in S1.

There's a lot that happened this episode that I anticipated, but I didn't expect there to be one final mention of Pha at all. Yes, the tombstone looked awful, but I already mentioned my problems with the props and set design for the funeral scene back in Ep 10; they more than likely filmed this one with that one, so I'm not surprised about an off looking grave site.

But anyway, I loved that they included a scene of them visiting his grave. And specifically them harking back to the first season with the little Frog Prince figuring Wayu had from Pha. The moment I saw him holding that, I did nearly weep. That was a great touch.

I wasn't expecting too much for Thanu and Wayu's first/last sex scene, considering it was both Dun's (Thanu's actor) and Bas' (Wayu's actor) first time filming one. It was fine- except for that god awful spot light!! I hated that thing in MarkKit's sex scene, and I still hate it now. I don't know what kind of effect they were going with for it, but it didn't look good to me.

All in all, solid ThanuWayu scenes.

❤ Padbok
If you are curious about the potential behind the scenes drama/issues with Junior (Padbok's actor), then check out my Discussions post.

With that being said, I didn't expect much for the explanation simply because we did not have enough time. What they came up with honestly doesn't make too much sense, but it is what it is.

I did love when Padbok mentioned that Thanu was the friend he loved the most. I feel that despite the lackluster reason behind everything, having him say that really drove home the hurt he felt, in my opinion. See the for them hug was very sweet though.

Did I want Thanu and Padbok to makeout right then and there? Yes LMAO.
I'm glad that Junior's final scene in Gen Y and more than likely with the company was this one.

❤MarkKit
A LOT OF FLUFF.
Oh my God, so much fluff. Very cute, but I felt like they had one too many MarkKit scenes. Their last scene, the one where they went back to Mark's dorm, could've been replaced with just about anything: another PokTong scene, a scene with Mark and Wayu catching up after not really talking the last 7 episodes.

Though I do like that they had them talk about their definition of love in their first scene together. I love that they kind of brought everything full circle with that conversation. That was great!

❤ JackKoh
My favorite second thing about this episode were their moments!

Though short, they were chock full of sweetness. I do wish we had gotten a good make out scene with the both of them though. I do think that it's a little odd that 3 years later, they're still apprehensive about being seen together in public, but some couples are just like that, so it's whatever for me.

I've loved that the entire time they seem like a verse couple; there were never really clear cut proof that one of them was the top. We need more couples like this in BLs. We got to see moments where either one had intense top energy, and others where either of them had intense bottom energy. I t was great.
It seems like both of their actors may be working on something now? I hope it's another BL with them as the main couple! If so, I'm definitely checking it out.

❤PokTong

Out of everything, I was the most nervous about these two. Every since S1, I wanted them to have a lengthy scene where they discuss everything that happened between them and to them. Where they both acknowledge the flaws and whatnot. Especially with Pok apologizing and so on and so forth. However, I also know not to expect too much with BLs, so I was afraid they would have a very half assed scene with them and then they fuck.

But they didn't! The conversation could been a bit better, but I'm honestly pleased with it! There's a comment Pok makes where he was like "I wish we can go back to the past, to when I'd make you angry and coaxed you." Something like that. There have been odd translation issues all season and even in this episode. I was put off by this comment, but I think what he meant to say was something like how he used to tease Tong and how Tong would roll his eyes but seemed to enjoy it. Things like that. Though I could be wrong.

Having them mention things from S1 was great. For anyone who may not know: Bank/Tora (Pok's actor) and Bonus (Tong's actor) have a hashtag that fans of them use called "dom25". The 25 comes from the fact that they both were born on the 25th day; November 25th for Bank/Tora and January 25th for Bonus. So Pok saying he remembers the first answer being 25 had me reeling LOL I almost lost it. I thought that was a fantastic touch.

Looking at them during this conversation was pretty reminiscent of how they were prior to Saendee fucking things up, and I loved that. I mentioned in my last review that we've been seeing Tong slowly becoming more confident and standing up for himself again, the version of him that was lost once the Saendee stuff happened. And we see it again in this scene. And Pok had some moments in S1 prior to The Saendee Incident where he was careful and pretty much respectful of Tong and his space; and we see that here too.

Also, Tong asking him the 5 questions as though they were test questions was great, going back to the whole tutoring thing.

I do wish we got oneeee more scene with them, though. It doesn't even have to be a sex scene. Though there are pictures of the actors making out pretty intensely during an acting course, and I was half expecting that to show up in this episode. Maybe it's for their other show, What Zabb Man.

And I could go on and on about this scene, but I'll refrain. Just know I'm happy with what they were able to give us. I did rewatch the scene and did tear up a bit LOL

❤Saendee and Phai

I was hoping since S1 that we would get scenes where it would show the Juniors warming back to Saendee. Or maybe the don't. I actually have a headcanon where it takes a while longer for them to even begin warming back up to him. So the fact that they do so quickly AND off screen sucks. But it doesn't surprise me.

I also had a headcanon that by the end of the story, Saendee and Phai would not end up together. After everything Saendee did, it makes sense that they wouldn't. However, if I were the writer, I would end it strongly hinting at the fact that at some point in the future, they may more than likely will end up together.

However! With how BLs work where they usually want to appease the fans of screen partners, they'll usually have the characters end up together anyway.

But they didn't. And THAT was shocking to me.
I follow a lot of the cast on social media, and even though I don't follow BankPon (Bank is Saendee's actor and Pon is Phai's actor) activities, I just realized that they haven't really been around each other that much lately. Maybe they aren't screen partners anymore, and that's why SaendeePhai didn't happen?

Any BankPon fan who follows their stuff can correct me if I'm wrong!

❤Time Skip/Graduation

I knew for a couple of weeks now that there was going to be a time skip. I saw a BTS picture of some of the characters in graduation gowns.

Now, all season, but *especially* in the second half, editing has been rough around the edges. The editing for this episode wasn't that great, but it especially showed in this part. It was almost as though they could only get one or two takes per scene.

But outside of that, I would've been fine with the show not ending in a time skip. So I feel neutral about this choice. However! This show was a massive beginning for a lot of the actors; some them even got to play in other shows and will play in other shows hopefully. For a lot of them, they've never acted before and more than likely would've never gotten the chance to if Star Hunter didn't pick them up. For a lot of them, this was a a great opportunity. Even the company itself had some rough beginnings, and rough moments (Junior, scheduling issues, last minute script changes, etc etc) filming this show, but especially S2.

So in a way, the graduation isn't just for the characters, but for the cast and crew as well. To move on to, hopefully, bigger and better things. And it's very touching to me. I gained massive fondness for both the actors and the production crew.

------------------------
So while there were issues with production that I have mentioned in all of my episodic reviews up until now, I can't help but still be proud of this small company for attempting such a big feat that is Gen Y. Especially after the problems they had with 2 Moons.
I don't expect there to be a season 3 to be very honest. At first, I could see them doing a time skip season, like with TharnType. But the ending seemed very final. I will honestly miss these characters and the story, but I'm excited to see what else SH has in store.
I wish the company, crew, and cast good luck in future endeavors!