This review may contain spoilers
Very unfortunate for the actors (and for me)
I want to preface this by saying that in general I have NO issues with amateur work. Be it amateur acting, directing, so on and so forth, I have an appreciation for the people who put in the effort. I don't need top notch skills to enjoy something. Hell, even mid writing can be good at times.
However, this was NOT it, and it makes me sad for the actors involved. I found myself yearning to see these actors together, but in a completely different story with competent writers and directors. It honestly hurt to see them in such a terrible story, especially Bank (Nu). I'll talk about this more later.
--WRITING
The story initially was fairly unremarkable. Which I don't mind: sometimes having something easy to watch is great. It's your typical Nerdy Type Gets With Popular/Bad Boy Type story and some drama ensues. Nothing to write home about. However, there were bits of the story that I actually liked.
For example, I thought the tension in Sun's friend group was interesting. They introduced Chain who seemed to be the best choice for Nu. Until we learn from Sun's group that he's not as kind as he seems: he made out with Sun's ex girlfriend and also "got with" Jon's ex girlfriend- we will talk about the latter later. Instead of having The One Good Love Interest and The One Bad Love Interest, having two love interests that seem somewhat awful in their own ways is fun to me. Sun is annoying and somewhat aggressive while Chain gets with his friends' partners and even tries to get with Nu when Sun's obviously trying to date him. How will they redeem themselves for our boy Nu? WELL...LET ME TELL YOU...
Initially, it seems like Sun would be the one to have the biggest rivalry with Chain- I mean, it makes sense. Chain also wants to get with Nu. But then they have Jon, one of Sun's friends, who HATES Chain. Waaaay more the Sun does. And this is odd because....why? Who cares? It gets to a point where it doesn't make sense as to why Jon hates him THAT much, especially after we learn that all Chain did was talk with Jon's gf- and Jon witnesses this himself! There was nothing flirty, she just needed someone to vent to, and seeing how borderline insane Jon is, it makes sense she'd go to literally anyone else. At times, this feud overtakes the rivalry between Sun and Jon and it gets annoying and confusing.
Now, I was aware that Chain and Jon's actors were coupled up. So I sat here wondering how in the world were there characters going to link up. The more the show went on, the worse their situation seemed to get. How in the world were they going to get involved romantically??
Well, DUH....with rape and sexual assault of course!
YES you read that right.
This is arguably THE worst thing about the writing. I've been into yaoi/BL for a couple of decades now and this has been trope I've always hated. The "Toxic-To-Rape-To-Romance" pipeline. It used to be so prevalent that I had to stop reading yaoi for a number of years. So imagine my surprise when I got into Thai BLs a couple of years ago and barely ever saw this. And then imagine my surprise when I saw shows like KinnPorsche bring this back. And then it seemed to pop up more afterwards.
This isn't to yuck anyone yum, so to speak. But in my opinion, with the way the story was going, this was so unnecessary. Jon kidnaps him and takes him to a room and forces Chain to live there. He eventually assaults him and then lets him go. The sudden tone shift from Simple Story to Crazed Kidnapper Thriller gave me immense whiplash. It's like they took two seemingly different stories and forced them into the same show in a terrible attempt to cash into renewed interest of toxic yaoi. Even the cinematography and lighting was massively different! Why not just make a separate show for them??
Hell, there's even a whole OTHER story that has not a single thing to do with anything. It has even LESS to do with the bullshit sexual assault couple, and it's the plotline with the high school kids. Now, it's normal for Thai BLs to have different subplots, even one that eventually links up with the main plot in some way. But I have no clue what these kids had to do with anything. I *think* Sun's younger sister was one of the mean girls...? But that connection is so flimsy that it doesn't even matter.
Why was it added? Why did they keep showing them every episode? This show has 3 very different stories forced into 1 story and it's taped together with painter's tape, hopes, and dreams. It's awful. Don't get me wrong, the acting for the main couple in the high school subplot was very solid, especially Gundam's acting. It's very clear he has some acting years under his belt, and without his actor, I would've hated every mention of the high school kids. But there's only so much good acting can do for a story that's shitty in every other way.
Don't even get me started with the main couple's writing. Like I said: okay at first. But it becomes very evident that they needed more and more drama. So things would happen that made no sense. For example, at the end of ep5, Sun makes out with a girl. Why?
Because they needed filler for ep6. There was no reason for him to do that. It made no sense for what they had worked on up until this point in their relationship. Chain is STILL trying to go after Nu for some reason. And Nu is STILL accepting his approach because Drama. It's stupid.
And this leads me to my final point:
--ACTING
I'll say it up front: these actors deserved a way better story. I found myself over and over again wanting to see them in literally anything else. I think the chemistry between all the pairings was pretty solid, some better than most. I'd argue that Jame (Chain) and Folk (Jon) were the best ones, despite the bullshit story they were handed. I hope they're able to team up in something else.
The one actor I felt the most sad for is Bank (Nu). I've been following Bank's career for a few years now. He was stuck with a shitty company named Star Hunter Entertainment, one that treated their actors poorly and were quick to shove them aside with very little to no projects. If I remember correctly, there was even a time when some of them had to get their own acting classes. It was very sad, but I was extremely happy to see them leave the group one by one. So I had high hopes that they'd go back to acting and get projects that work well for them.
Bank's acting has improved, and he's always been one to try something new, so I was excited to see him this role where he plays someone that's pretty opposite to him. He's play tops before which fits his whole vibe, so him playing a soft hearted bottom was interesting. I think he did a pretty decent job, though some moments were a miss. I was hoping this show would be a stepping stone into progressing his career.
But no. I'm afraid that it might've soured some things for him. Maybe even ruin the chance of having a Season 2- YES, the show ended on a cliffhanger. Can you believe it?
It sucked seeing the ratings on here go from around a 7.2 to a 5.9 and more than likely lower once episode 5 dropped (the one with the rape scene).
Like I mentioned in the beginning: I don't mind amateur work. I don't need every BL to have the same quality as KinnPorsche or any of GMMTV's shows. It's okay if the shows are rough around the edges. But amateur does NOT excuse poor writing at all. They did these actors so dirty, and I hope it's not enough to ruin any future project they might've had. I'd like to see these paired actors again in something much better than this.
New and Bank could totally work for a Bratty/Soft Top (New) x Serious Tough Boy Bottom (Bank) trope. Jame and Folk would do wonders in an actual good Enemies-To-Lovers story. I could honestly see them in something like PitBabe and I didn't even care much for that show. Hell, even Kokliang(Gundam) and Gino(Frong) could probably do anything and be good at it.
It's a shame, really.
However, this was NOT it, and it makes me sad for the actors involved. I found myself yearning to see these actors together, but in a completely different story with competent writers and directors. It honestly hurt to see them in such a terrible story, especially Bank (Nu). I'll talk about this more later.
--WRITING
The story initially was fairly unremarkable. Which I don't mind: sometimes having something easy to watch is great. It's your typical Nerdy Type Gets With Popular/Bad Boy Type story and some drama ensues. Nothing to write home about. However, there were bits of the story that I actually liked.
For example, I thought the tension in Sun's friend group was interesting. They introduced Chain who seemed to be the best choice for Nu. Until we learn from Sun's group that he's not as kind as he seems: he made out with Sun's ex girlfriend and also "got with" Jon's ex girlfriend- we will talk about the latter later. Instead of having The One Good Love Interest and The One Bad Love Interest, having two love interests that seem somewhat awful in their own ways is fun to me. Sun is annoying and somewhat aggressive while Chain gets with his friends' partners and even tries to get with Nu when Sun's obviously trying to date him. How will they redeem themselves for our boy Nu? WELL...LET ME TELL YOU...
Initially, it seems like Sun would be the one to have the biggest rivalry with Chain- I mean, it makes sense. Chain also wants to get with Nu. But then they have Jon, one of Sun's friends, who HATES Chain. Waaaay more the Sun does. And this is odd because....why? Who cares? It gets to a point where it doesn't make sense as to why Jon hates him THAT much, especially after we learn that all Chain did was talk with Jon's gf- and Jon witnesses this himself! There was nothing flirty, she just needed someone to vent to, and seeing how borderline insane Jon is, it makes sense she'd go to literally anyone else. At times, this feud overtakes the rivalry between Sun and Jon and it gets annoying and confusing.
Now, I was aware that Chain and Jon's actors were coupled up. So I sat here wondering how in the world were there characters going to link up. The more the show went on, the worse their situation seemed to get. How in the world were they going to get involved romantically??
Well, DUH....with rape and sexual assault of course!
YES you read that right.
This is arguably THE worst thing about the writing. I've been into yaoi/BL for a couple of decades now and this has been trope I've always hated. The "Toxic-To-Rape-To-Romance" pipeline. It used to be so prevalent that I had to stop reading yaoi for a number of years. So imagine my surprise when I got into Thai BLs a couple of years ago and barely ever saw this. And then imagine my surprise when I saw shows like KinnPorsche bring this back. And then it seemed to pop up more afterwards.
This isn't to yuck anyone yum, so to speak. But in my opinion, with the way the story was going, this was so unnecessary. Jon kidnaps him and takes him to a room and forces Chain to live there. He eventually assaults him and then lets him go. The sudden tone shift from Simple Story to Crazed Kidnapper Thriller gave me immense whiplash. It's like they took two seemingly different stories and forced them into the same show in a terrible attempt to cash into renewed interest of toxic yaoi. Even the cinematography and lighting was massively different! Why not just make a separate show for them??
Hell, there's even a whole OTHER story that has not a single thing to do with anything. It has even LESS to do with the bullshit sexual assault couple, and it's the plotline with the high school kids. Now, it's normal for Thai BLs to have different subplots, even one that eventually links up with the main plot in some way. But I have no clue what these kids had to do with anything. I *think* Sun's younger sister was one of the mean girls...? But that connection is so flimsy that it doesn't even matter.
Why was it added? Why did they keep showing them every episode? This show has 3 very different stories forced into 1 story and it's taped together with painter's tape, hopes, and dreams. It's awful. Don't get me wrong, the acting for the main couple in the high school subplot was very solid, especially Gundam's acting. It's very clear he has some acting years under his belt, and without his actor, I would've hated every mention of the high school kids. But there's only so much good acting can do for a story that's shitty in every other way.
Don't even get me started with the main couple's writing. Like I said: okay at first. But it becomes very evident that they needed more and more drama. So things would happen that made no sense. For example, at the end of ep5, Sun makes out with a girl. Why?
Because they needed filler for ep6. There was no reason for him to do that. It made no sense for what they had worked on up until this point in their relationship. Chain is STILL trying to go after Nu for some reason. And Nu is STILL accepting his approach because Drama. It's stupid.
And this leads me to my final point:
--ACTING
I'll say it up front: these actors deserved a way better story. I found myself over and over again wanting to see them in literally anything else. I think the chemistry between all the pairings was pretty solid, some better than most. I'd argue that Jame (Chain) and Folk (Jon) were the best ones, despite the bullshit story they were handed. I hope they're able to team up in something else.
The one actor I felt the most sad for is Bank (Nu). I've been following Bank's career for a few years now. He was stuck with a shitty company named Star Hunter Entertainment, one that treated their actors poorly and were quick to shove them aside with very little to no projects. If I remember correctly, there was even a time when some of them had to get their own acting classes. It was very sad, but I was extremely happy to see them leave the group one by one. So I had high hopes that they'd go back to acting and get projects that work well for them.
Bank's acting has improved, and he's always been one to try something new, so I was excited to see him this role where he plays someone that's pretty opposite to him. He's play tops before which fits his whole vibe, so him playing a soft hearted bottom was interesting. I think he did a pretty decent job, though some moments were a miss. I was hoping this show would be a stepping stone into progressing his career.
But no. I'm afraid that it might've soured some things for him. Maybe even ruin the chance of having a Season 2- YES, the show ended on a cliffhanger. Can you believe it?
It sucked seeing the ratings on here go from around a 7.2 to a 5.9 and more than likely lower once episode 5 dropped (the one with the rape scene).
Like I mentioned in the beginning: I don't mind amateur work. I don't need every BL to have the same quality as KinnPorsche or any of GMMTV's shows. It's okay if the shows are rough around the edges. But amateur does NOT excuse poor writing at all. They did these actors so dirty, and I hope it's not enough to ruin any future project they might've had. I'd like to see these paired actors again in something much better than this.
New and Bank could totally work for a Bratty/Soft Top (New) x Serious Tough Boy Bottom (Bank) trope. Jame and Folk would do wonders in an actual good Enemies-To-Lovers story. I could honestly see them in something like PitBabe and I didn't even care much for that show. Hell, even Kokliang(Gundam) and Gino(Frong) could probably do anything and be good at it.
It's a shame, really.
Was this review helpful to you?
