jaydeejay

The soft buff bod did it for me LOL

Amongst the sea of BLs, it's very nice coming across productions that're made by queer people for queer people. This 20min one shot is short, but full of charm and cute, funny moments! The story is lighthearted and easy to grasp.

It's also SO incredibly nice seeing various body types and types of queer men. I loved seeing the soft muscular types- the "bara" types, if you will. Which makes a lot of sense since bara is a subgenre made by gay men for gay men. They also had the two more feminine gay men in the story. The variety all around is quite nice!

All-in-all, if you want a cute, simple story made by queer people, check this one out!

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Does some great things most other BLs refuse to do

I honestly loved this little show.

As the title states, the greatest thing about this show is that there are great moments where the characters break some BL stereotypes, such as not giving the bottom much of a backbone and having them agree to everything their top says. Now, I would give the story a 10/10, but I didn't because there are times where the writers did falter and add in unnecessary, unhealthy BL tropes. My theory is that unfortunately some people love these tropes, so maybe they felt like they had to add them to make the show more appealing.

But anyway, lets get to it.

(spoilers)
STORY/CHARACTERS

This is a very simple, lighthearted story. There are bits of angst here and there, but overall, it's very easy to watch.
Both main couples are in an enemies-to-lovers situation, but even though the trope is the same, each plot is handled differently and that was honestly great to see! It didn't feel redundant or boring to have to switch between the couples.

As I mentioned earlier, one aspect I really liked was that Teng and Poon (the bottoms of the relationships) stood their ground a lot of the time. See, it's common in BLs to have the bottoms, or "ukes" if you're used to yaoi, give up and do whatever the top says. Maybe they fight a little bit, but then they go along with it anyway. Teng and Poon were refreshing to watch because neither does that with their eventual love interest. In Teng's case, we see that he does do it with his current boyfriend, but the show does a fantastic job showing us that he current boyfriend, Tan, is a piece of shit and that we're supposed to see this couple as unhealthy. Hell, there's even a point when Teng refers to their relationship as toxic, which is rare to do in BLs.

So a lot of the times, the dialogue and actions are FANTASTIC. There's even a moment when Mayom tells Teng that he doesn't have to tell him anything and that he's fine with him meeting up with Tan because he trusts him. This may seem small, but once again, in BLs we'd have moments where the bottom is speaking too much to try and convince the top. It's a trope I'm so very tired of seeing. But hearing this conversation and seeing Mayom being the one to simply state that was so very nice to see.


I also loved most of the characters and their relationships with one another. In BLs, it's common to not see strong friendships between the main character and his friend(s). Usually, the friend(s) disappears from the story and so does the importance of the friendship. In real life, having a good friend help you with your relationship problems is important. And I loved that they kept that in this show. We got a lot of good moments between Mayom and Poon, who have been friends since high school. We even see the three comic relief chefs have cute, wholesome moments with Mayom and Poon.

And about Tan and Teng's relationship: I thought it was handled pretty well and realistically. I've ALWAYS wanted a BL story where the person (it's almost always the bottom) finally breaks up with their toxic boyfriend and ends up with someone much better. I did like that they spent a lot of time with Tan's behavior, because some of the stuff he did was similar to stuff you'd see the top (or "seme") do in just about any other BL out there. They really honed in the idea that his actions are not okay and how manipulative that person can be to the point where they have someone wrapped around their little finger for *FIVE YEARS*.

Now, aspects of the story I did not like:

I was fine with Athip's and Poon's plot and I felt like they had a good start. However, Athip, who's this annoying guy that seems to have some control problems (hinted that it has to do with having to raise his niece), never really gets reprimanded for some of his actions. When they do start dating, Athip changes. But then half way through, he goes back to his old ways. Which is fine. So long as when they do get back together, he apologizes, sees what he did wrong, and actually change.

Except that doesn't really happen. When he says sorry, for some reason Poon is also apologizing? For what?? Poon did what he had to do which was break off the relationship and get another job else where. I thought having Poon apology was gross.

I also was not crazy about how Amy's character was represented. I don't mind the Evil Female Character trope where the girl tries to break up the gay relationship. At the same time however, I can see how it can be misogynistic. And, once again, I didn't mind her character at first. But then they kept up with the "bumbling, annoying" girl schtick for way too long. I would be even more peeved if she was the only female character or if there weren't other great female characters like Pirada and Ping.

Also, as I mentioned before: there are some really strong moments, but then there are some weak, trope-y as hell moments. For instance, we had the great conversation about trust with Mayom and Teng, and soon afterwards, we get that adorable video from Teng. But then soon afterwards, without Teng's permission, Mayom takes Teng's phone and starts a live stream on Teng's YT channel where he announces that they're dating. It's so out of the blue because for a good chunk of the story, Mayom respectfully maintains some distance between him and Teng. So for him to suddenly do that felt very off and pretty much out of character. It is something a top would do in a stereotypical BL though, and I feel like it was the production just trying to add some dumb tropes in there.

There's also the part when Athip was trying to win Poon back. That felt out of place and cheese-y as hell with the whole colored sugar idea that his niece very randomly came up with. The issue with Athip is that he was constantly in his niece's business. He learned not to do that anymore early on and it seemed like he learned his lesson. So it honestly made no sense for Athip to now hunt Poon down the way he did. They had him revert back to his old self. At this point, I didn't really care for their relationship anymore.

But they did have this great moment where even after getting back together, Poon maintains his independence and decides not to go back to work at Athip's. Because of how BLs/yaoi works, I totally expected Poon to go back. But he didn't! And that was a great writing choice. But their relationship writing-wise was pretty much all over the place in the last 2-3 episodes.

MUSIC

Nothing to write home about. It was good enough for the show, especially for a small production show.
As you can probably tell, Mayom and Teng were my favorite character- hell, their actors are my favorite too. So unsurprisingly, I really like their theme song.

However, the use of piano and/or guitar renditions of Christmas songs in some BLs lately is so very weird to me. And there's one guitar song they played during the more woeful moments in the show that was so very obviously a Christmas song. As a westerner in a very Christian based culture (USA), I thought that was a weird choice lol.

ACTING

Once again, for a small production, I thought the acting was great! Some of them I could totally see being in bigger, more costly productions, like Tay's actor for example.

Now, I watched Gen Y 1 and 2 before watching this show. That director clearly loved stunting some of the actor's talents, because I thought Bonus's (who plays Teng here and Tong in Gen Y) acting in Gen Y was pretty stiff at times. Same with Tora, who plays Mayom here and Pok in Gen Y. I think they did great with Gen Y being their first acting gig and having to work with that director, but like I said, I thought they could've used more work.

But then seeing Bonus and Tora in this show made me realize they were better at acting than I thought, especially Bonus. Mind you, this show was filmed *before* Gen Y 2.

There are a lot of actors I'd love to see in BLs again. Or just about any show period. I loved Boss (Athip's actor) and Pete (Poon's actor) as well as Pirada's actress.

SUMMARY

I highly recommend checking this show out! Especially since it's short and easy to watch. There are some bumpy moments, but the great and cute moments are totally worth it.

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"Disenchanted" is a great review title and I'm so mad I didn't come up with it first.

For real though: WOW. This story! How disappointing!

Right from the get go, the audience knows *exactly* what type of story they're getting into: I don't mean they know the genre, I mean the fact that we already know the ending. It's extremely obvious that AkkTheo are endgame. The production could not make this any more clearer with how blunt the trailer was and how blunt the first three episodes were.

The reason why I'm pointing this out because this is one of those stories where we don't care about how it ends because we know they'll get together. So when this happens, the most important thing about your story should be the journey. *How* do we get to the two of them finally hooking up?

And boy howdy did they fall completely flat on their faces with storytelling on this one! Enchante did not need a (TERRIBLY done) plot twist, it didn't even really need mystery. What it needed was to grow these characters and have them slowly fall in love and realize that this whole Enchante mystery isn't actually needed at all. If they went this route, then damn this would've been a great show.

If they explored details that were later dropped and forgotten, then we would've had a better story- hell, we would've loved Theo more. But NO. They chose to butcher the hell out of the main character and expect us to love him and his dumb plight to getting Akk to admit he loves him.

CHARACTERS/PLOT:

Yes, you read that correctly! The character who doesn't want people treating him different, doesn't want people to look at him like he's a spoiled kid does exactly what a spoiled, selfish rich kid would do. See, we all know that Theo and Akk like each other. And come to find out, Theo also knew. From the very beginning. But for SOME reason, he thought that Akk should be the one to get a clue and confess to *him*, not the other way around. So he decides to keep up the charade of not knowing who Enchante is and allow it to blow out of proportion, even though it was him *the whole time*. He allowed Akk to get heartaches and stressed out the entire time and never batted an eyelid. He sat there and let everyone look stupid as hell all because he couldn't be the one to confess first.

The entire time, Akk is the one following Theo around, making sure he's okay, apologizing to him left and right- does Theo do any of this for Akk? *Barely*. There's a scene where Theo, who is Akk's ride to school, drives off in his expensive car and watches in the rear view mirror as Akk runs down the street desperately chasing after his car. This is a great visual that represents their relationship. Speaking of...

One aspect that they never touched on was the fact that Akk is poorer than Theo. Akk lost his job because of Theo (who I don't believe actually does anything about it) and it's very understandably a big deal. They show us that when they played soccer as kids, Akk wore worn out sandals while Theo wore appropriate shoes. Present day Theo states and shows a couple of times that he hates being treated differently because he's rich. Which I thought was interesting about Theo. I saw this as great potential to stir up drama between the two.

Nothing comes of it. But the reason why I'm pointing it out is because in the last tow (VERY pointless) episodes, they have a fight because Akk did something that, in my opinion, was alright for him to do, and threw a hissy fit. And then Theo reveals that this ENTIRE TIME he had plans to move back to France, something he failed to tell Akk, and that he's going to move back in two weeks. The whole time he expect Akk to ONCE AGAIN crawl on his hands and knees expressing how sorry he is. Akk doesn't do it. Theo gets mad, and flies off to France.
And to top it all off? Some time later, Akk shows up in France and says he came for Theo. What. That he's moving here because he wants to be with Theo. *What.* With what fucking money?? Theo legit had this broke kid scramble up money he didn't have just so that he can go follow Theo like a lost dumb puppy.

They do state that Akk somehow in the span of like 2 weeks he managed to get a scholarship, but scholarships don't cover everything.

Unbelievable. Truly.

Now, I have seen people try to explain that Theo is doing all of this because he's lonely. First off, they do a bad job at showing us how the loneliness affects him. It comes off as Theo being on of those people who choose to be alone and don't mind it. Also being lonely can make some people mean, but to this level of manipulation? Crazy. Might be possible, but oh man it's not a good look at all.

Now notice how I haven't mentioned The Four Dudes who acted like they were Enchante? That's because Theo being Enchante ruined that whole part of the story. None of that matters at all whatsoever. But I'll point out a couple of issues I had with these four:

1) Saifa's character was pointless. He does basically nothing the whole time. His role is revealed after we learn about the other 3 and WOW it just made his character and motives uninteresting.

2) Phupha's mom. We find out that Phupha lied because he very desperately needed money to get away from his very abusive mother. I will say, I thought his subplot was great and added some intrigue to everything. Once his jig is up, he tries to reveal that Natee is also a fraud and that was cool too seeing them butt heads. But guess what? In the end, Phupha stays with his terrible mom. Yes. Yep. Mmhmm. You read that right. I was mad when they revealed the end to his subplot and I'm still mad about it.

3) Wayo. Theo is the most gross character on the show, but Wayo is #2. The difference is however that Wayo has an addiction, so that's hard to control. Theo's just sucks. But anyway, Wayo needed money from Theo because he stole a bunch of money from the soccer club. He even went as far as trying to get Theo alone and wasted so that he can steal money. It comes to light to the soccer club, and does he suffer any consequences? NO. Do they handle the whole drunk thing appropriately? NO.

We also have the very poorly used red herring character: Sun. This character should not have existed. They tried to throw us off and make us think that Theo would end up with him, but once again, we already know that he's going to end up with Akk.

The story starts off pretty well! But then episode 8 comes along and gives you a good smack in the face. I'm still suffering from the whiplash.

PRODUCTION:

Now going back to the whole "VERY pointless last two episodes": this show did not need 10 episodes. If you want to watch the show, do yourself a favor and actually don't watch it. But if you *really* want to, do yourself a favor and stop at episode 8. They get together in the end of that, and it should've stopped there.

Another glaring problem with this show is the pacing. Now, I'll give them a bit of slack because they don't control how many episodes they get. However, they couldn't have figured out another way to end the show?? They did what Don't Say No did where the story ended early, but they needed to fill in the rest of the time. So they added very useless drama for last 2-3 episodes that made no sense and gave me a headache.

And just like with DSN, the drama at the end was very random and made no sense. Drama for the sake of drama. Awful.

In terms of set, I liked a lot of the locations they used: that university is pretty! As well as the library and even some of the shots that were shot "in France". Nicely done for what they had to work with.

CAST/ACTING:

Everyone did well, but especially Force who played Akk. A lot of people say that Force carried the show, and to an extent, I do agree.
The acting for The Four Dudes actually wasn't bad; the best one was Phupha's actor. I feel like they all executed their characters well: Natee's actor did a great job at making Natee look and feel creepy as hell. Same with Wayo's actor. Even Saifa who, honestly, didn't have much personality to begin with. He was hot as hell though.

As for Book/Theo...I have mixed feelings. In hindsight, the odd at times stiff acting actually works out very well for Theo. Initially, prior to realizing how awful Theo really is, his acting felt off. I don't think it's the actor's fault, however. I think most of it is due to the directing. However, knowing what I know now about Theo? It all makes sense. It just sucks that you have to wait all the way to episode 8 to fully appreciate it.

I would love to see Akk's sisters' actresses in another show! Egg's actress was SO cute and she killed it.

CONCLUSIONS:

Don't watch this is you want a cute story about a healthy relationship. If anything, watch it to learn how not to write a story.

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WOW.

If you enjoyed how emotionally real I Told Sunset About You/I Promised You The Moon was, then you'll thoroughly enjoy this story too.

I will warn everyone, though: if you are sensitive to body image issues, then please be careful with this story. I was cringing a bit at times, but not because the story was bad or anything. But because of how real the situation with Si-won felt.

See these two characters, well, *bloom* into themselves after years of hiding who they are was very sweet. Even with the mother herself. All 3 characters are victims, and I feel like they did a great job at portraying that. Sure, I wanted to strangle the mom at times, but I also felt for her too.

I'm not familiar with the actors, but I felt all of them did a great job! Especially Da-won's actor. He did a great job at portraying this massive wall his character puts up and hides behind.

The part that actually had me in tears was when Si-won and his mom hug and cry, but then he hear Si-won say that his mom never apologized to him. That hit real deep for me. But more so when Da-won showed up and apologized again and again, and so did Si-won. Growing up hearing no apologies but then being able to unlearn that behavior and try to build healthy communication skills which includes saying "I'm sorry" is so much more difficult than a lot of people may think. And I felt that both scenes portrayed that beautifully.

Visually, this is a *gorgeous* BL. The color grading and cinematography were great. I found myself at times pausing to study the angles and use of colors. Amazing.

One complaint I do have is that while I enjoyed the other subplots, I felt like at times they were a little distracting? The whole thing with Si-won little sister trying to get with his female friend could've been better is A) it wasn't a high school kid trying to get with an adult, but also B) if maybe they had their own little special episode(s). And we get to see how the sister has been affected by everything. Just bump it to a year or so later, and I'd watch it.

All-in-all, a great watch! Very emotional, and yes, you may cry.

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Thank Gods It's Over

I started watching this right when it dropped and my goodness those 12 weeks couldn't've come fast enough.

If all you want is borderline softcore porn with a main couple that, despite everything bad that happens, has great chemistry, then watch this. Maybe someone will have a list of timestamps for all the sex scenes because that may be the only thing worth watching.

I'll start off with the biggest flex this show has:
ACTING
Overall, the acting is quite good, especially with Jun. Hell, if you're familiar with Yoon and how stiff he can be, I'd say he was a little more flexible here. This might just be due to the fact that his style matched the character well- except in the final episode when he had to be mean and, well, that fell flat.

I'd even say Sorn's actor did a good job- with the little he had to work with. Sorn's character is very one note: smoldering glares and frowns and the occasional eyebrow raise. This isn't the fault of the actor at all, moreso the writers.
Despite that, I'd honestly love to see Boat and Oat in a completely different story.

WRITING:
Bad. Awful. Terrible.
If you enjoy toxic yaoi/BL/romance stories where the top is narcissistic and controlling, constantly lies, and acts like he has nooooo idea what he's doing even though it's super clear he's creating a terribly off balance dynamic between him and his partner: then yeah you'd love this story.

The story starts off on a very manipulative lie: Sorn practically tricks Jun to masturbate with him out in the open and then lies about Jun being so awful that he *needs* Sorn. He needs Sorn to teach him how to be better. And Jun, who's inexperienced (not a bad thing at all) unfortunately falls for it.
This story makes bank off of the fact that Jun's character isn't all that socially bright to the point where, yes, he comes off as childish. The size difference and the way most of the older characters refer to him as kid REALLY adds to this. And this makes the imbalance between their characters that much worse. Sorn knows EXACTLY what he's doing by never fully committing to an actual relationship while getting sex out of Jun just about whenever he wants. He takes full blown advantage of Jun's naivety and overtly trusting nature and it gets very uncomfortable to watch very quickly.

I'm not a fan of this trope. This borderline dubcon situation. The (mostly sexual) attraction the audience is supposed to have towards this show is steeped in manipulation, there's no other way around it.

The only reason why I stuck around was to see if they' actually develop Jun's character enough to make him realize that he's in a very fucked up situation. What I really wanted to see was Jun realizing early on that, yeah, this is NOT working. And then maybe the rest of the show would be Jun growing a backbone and, most importantly, Sorn ceasing his disgusting actions. But no. Once episode 4 came and went, I knew exactly where this story was going.

Yes, Jun has a small moment in the last third of the story when he overhears Sorn and his brother chatting about him. Sorn's brother, just like everyone else except Jun, clocks Sorn for his bad behavior, and Sorn admits he can't date Jun. This is when Jun snaps and he silently distances himself from Sorn. And let me tell you, those 2 episodes were actually the best parts of the show. Jun staying away from Sorn while trying to move on with his life. His friends helping him because they all know Sorn sucks- well, they know this but not enough to try and stop it before. But I digress.
I'm familiar with these types of stories, so I knew Jun would go back. So I cherished these moments as much as I could.

I had hoped that, if anything, Sorn's character would grow exponentially. But no.

No.

He does not.

And it's CRAZY. He literally stays THE same. And sadly Jun's character reverts to his former self: malleable and controlled.

The writing for Jun's departure was fairly good, so it was disappointing to see Sorn and Jun's relationship stay EXACTLY the same as it was before this moment. The first time Sorn went RIGHT back to invading Jun's personal space (at his job btw!!!), I felt sick. Like, a different type of sick compared to before.
I'll say it again, I would love to see these two actors in literally anything else. I just hope they aren't typecasted to this.

Now with the others:
- Tai and Champ's side story was okay. Nothing groundbreaking. And yet I felt like it at least attempted to balance the toxicity of SornJun. So at times, I really enjoyed their moments because at least it was a break from the main couple. I did like their tie to SornJun, being that they're part of their original group and that Tai is basically Jun's older brother. I felt the drama that grew between Champ And Tai once Champ finally found out about SornJun was actually pretty good. But man that drama fell flat very fast.

And that's an overall problem this show has. It's very much Porn With A Little Bit of Story rather than a Story With a Little Bit of Porn.

I found that a lot of the side points would crumble pretty quickly and become less and less interesting. Which is a shame because I did find a lot of the side characters to be interesting. This leads me to

-Mandatory GL Couple That Gets Side Swiped Very Quickly
I felt so bad for these girls, They're romance is veeeeery clearly shoe horned into the story. GL plotlines have been fairly popular lately and it felt like a very sloppy attempt at jumping on the trend. They had a strong start, I will say that. But Penny's relationship with Sorn turned out to be far more interesting than her eventual romance- which says A LOT.

-Phut(?) and Vee
Great example of forced side romance. They got pulled into the raging waters that was SornJun so quickly that I legit forgot about their whole....thing. When they randomly brought in the final episode and he was like "oh yeah we ended it" or whatever he said, I laughed. That was so half assed.

Summary:
I need Boat and Oat in something else. Please.
If anything, the sex scenes were directed well....?
Can we please put an end to Toxic Man Romance? Or at least ton it down? Thanks <3

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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.

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Great Concept, Poor Execution

It's wild how completely opposite ML is to its prequel, Bed Friend, especially since ML is a direct continuation of BF just with a switch in the main couple. Same characters, same lore, same locations.

I saw someone state that ML feels like they tried to lessen the seriousness and angst of BF and decided it was somehow a great idea to crank the craziness up to damn near 100. It's a shame because I really enjoyed Jade's character in BF! He's a little skittish in that one, sure, but not as bad as here.

I don't mind a show that has a weird, cartoony feel to it. In my opinion, Secret Crush On You executes this aesthetic very well- despite how I feel about the story in general. I think a major part of the reason why it works so well in that story is because the main character wasn't the only weird one: his friends were weird too, just not as bad as him. The actors pulled off them off VERY well. The overexaggerated personalities extended to the clothes they were and the use of colors in the entire sets. It's my favorite thing about SCOY, and I found myself rewatching episodes for the aesthetic alone.

Unlike that story, Jade in ML is the only one who's so over the top. Him being so isolated in that really highlighted how uncomfortably weird he was. And I'll go ahead and spoil something for you real quick:

We learn waaaay later in the story that the reason why Jade keeps himself in the middleman role and is so self sacrificial to a fault is because he dated years prior and the guy who dumped him basically said he was boring and overbearing.

Oh how I WISH they gave us this info sooner. I wholeheartedly believe that if the audience learns of this in the first episode or two, then most of us would be willing to sympathize with Jade's character. We'd be more willing to pay more attention to his antics.

But instead we get a solid 5 or 6 episodes (out of 8!!!) where he's borderline unbearable most of the time. Some might argue the show isn't worth watching because of him alone an d I wouldn't blame them for that.

I'd say his actor yells more than he talks. His expressions are so weirdly forced. And like...I don't necessarily blame his actor. I blame the directors and writers for this. They could've had him dial it down a bit but no they thought this was a great idea.

What makes things worse is that Jade's love interest, Mai, is so chill compared to Jade that he comes off as very one note. Mai, if the story was written well, could've been a great way to balance out Jade's character. But because Jade is so...well, *Jade*, Mai is unfortunately quite boring.

Which is such a bummer because like I stated previously, I was so looking forward to Yim and Tutor together. A friend of mine told me to skip ML and watch the show they did a year later called Battle of Writers. I just started it and let me tell you, I love them here way more than in ML.

Another major issue with the show is the pacing. It's 8 episodes long and yet they could've- *should've* had it be 4 or 5 episodes. The slow burn works in theory for both pairings, but in execution it felt like the story dragged a lot of the time. I do love slow burns, but this was not it. By the way, if you want a good slow burn story, watch Monster Next Door!

Other bad things:
1) I really did not like how fly-on-the-wall Uea and King were in this show. They do next to nothing to the point where they might as well not have been in the story. A big reason why I hate this is because I loved how much Jade helped them with their relationship in BF. I loved how Jade constantly offered Uea help with dealing with gross men. So I was hoping they would, to some extent, help more with Jade, but they barely did anything.
2) The audio quality was bizarre at times. In one of the later episodes, the music kept cutting off instead of seamlessly transitioning.
3) The side couple was more interesting and I hate when that happens.

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Now some good stuff:

Unfortunately, this is yet another story where the side couple is more interesting than the main couple. Gus and Tong were very cute. Their actors also looked cute together and their chemistry was pretty good! I do love a good Extroverted Bottom x Introverted Top situation, so I was pretty hooked from the get go. Unlike the main pair, I'd say their story was fairly well paced and the tension was good. A lot of what happens with them simply makes sense. Bare minimum, I know, but with this show, it must be mentioned.

I thought the small reveal that Gus isn't actually all that extroverted worked very well. Even I found myself surprised by it. I don't necessarily think giving him Dead Mother Syndrome was needed, but eh there's worse in this show.

Also, I loved the bit of nuance with their sexual roles. Like, normally it's the top chancing after the bottom but it was opposite here. The bottom was the one openly flirting with the top. I was convinced that Gus was the top- which I would've loved. A cute top with a serious bottom is another one of my favorite tropes.

At the end of the story, one of the characters states something about the 3 couples (one of which is from BF). He said it in a way that almost implied a sequel? I really don't think this story needs one, but if they do have one and the main couple is Gus and Tong, then I may watch it just for them.

Other good things:
1) Casting was very well done. A lot of the actors that played family members legit looked related in some ways.
2) Despite the mistakes in audio quality at times, I thought the choice of music overall was okay.
3) Mai's actor looked so pretty in every scene.
4) There definitely isn't as many sex scenes in ML as in BF- which is fine! But the couple that are in this show were well done. I didn't expect Gus and Tong to have one, so that was a very pleasant surprise. Both couples did a great job.
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Summary:

I'd recommend watching this if and only if there's a pair of actors you wanna watch for. I stuck it out to the end simply because I like Yim and Tutor together. Otherwise, I would've stopped a long time ago.

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Not What I Expected (Positive)

WARNINGS FOR THIS SHOW:
physical/mental abuse, sexual abuse, pedophilia

Now onto the review!

I recently watched all of My Stubborn, and suffice to say: I didn't enjoy it. Now, I'm a PWP fic reader; I love a story with more porn than, well, actually story in it. However, I feel like that doesn't really translate well in live action format. My Stubborn was reaaaaally banking on the sex to carry the show. There was very little plot that was actually interesting. The show was 12-13 episodes with each episode being around 50mins each, so having little to no substance save for sex can only go so far.

I bring My Stubborn up because I feel like Bed Friend did what My Stubborn couldn't. I bring it up because both shows are fairly similar in terms of them being about adults in an office space trying to balance work and romance (and sex). Hell, MS is listed as a Recommendation under this show.

Now, this show isn't perfect. Apparently it's gotten a lot of bad rap, but I recommend giving it a try yourself and see how you like it.

--STORY--

The story gets heavy VERY quickly. And in a way, I'm glad for it.

I was warned by a friend who knows I hate seeing depictions of kids being mistreated about the TWs. Right off the bat in episode one, we're given info about Uea: his mother would lock him up in the bathroom, yell at him, hit him with objects like metal hangers- the works. We also learn that he was being sexually abused by his step father and that said shitty parent still makes advances at him all these years later. Uea has a boyfriend who cheats on him, and when caught, the ex stalks him and damn near r-pes him.

Like I said, very heavy stuff.

Now, in general, I don't expect BLs/yaoi to handle heavy subject matter like this well enough. I find that most of the time, it's what I've always called Angst Porn: a very shallow, poorly executed way of adding angst/drama to a story that otherwise doesn't need it. Usually with these types of stories, they go waaaay far beyond what they need and they end up adding all sorts of random tragic events to the character. In the end, it always ends up feeling pretty offensive.

In my opinion, certain subject matter should be handled delicately. I don't believe BF handled things perfectly, but I do believe they handled things better than I expected.

Uea's habit of self sabotaging felt real to me. I have a friend who had gone through similar events as Uea and he too had moments of pushing people away in what made sense to him as protecting them but also himself. Uea continuously doing so in the first half of the show broke my heart at times. The scene in the latter half when Krist invited him to his office and despite it being pretty damn obvious what Krist would do, Uea going anyway and explaining it as "well, what else could I have done?" killed me. He's so used to being treated like shit by all these people that he felt like he had no other choice than to listen to someone above him.

This brings me to my next point, which is that I LOVED that Uea had people who supported him despite his own beliefs. Jade checking up on him, asking him if he needed someone to go with him places, and just in general keeping an eye out warmed my heart. Sometimes in these types of stories, the love interest is the only one who's like this. But outside of King, Uea had other folks who caught on to how fucked up circumstances were when they were made privy. Like I said, it wasn't perfect, but it was pretty refreshing to see.

Lets move onto King's character and Uea's relationship with him.
The transition from general distrust to friends-with-benefits to dating to making things official had a very nice flow. The anxiety Uea had about taking things further and placing boundaries made a lot of sense. The scene that really got me liking King's character and the writing in general was when they were getting intimate but King accidentally triggered Uea with a specific touch. At this point, King is not at all aware of Uea's past, but he immediately clocks that he had triggered him and later on promises not to perform that specific act again.

Overall, King's willingness to wait on Uea and protect him when he can was nice to see. It was doubly nice seeing Uea openly place boundaries and King respect them. Sure he has moments when he teases Uea (like when Uea said no touching at all at one point), but Uea seemed in control with allowing him to tease him.

Like I mentioned before, I almost never trust BLs to handle stuff like this well. So seeing stuff like boundaries be respected was buck wild.

There was a moment when King fumbled very hard, but I felt like, once again, it made sense. Basically, it's the aforementioned Krist scene where after Uea gets attacked but managed to escape, King comes across him, At this point in the story, Uea and King have massive tension between them where they're not being vulnerable or truthful enough with each other. This leads to King incorrectly assuming that Uea went to Krist because he actually wanted something out of him.

I can see this moment making a lot of viewers side eye the fuck out of King. Even I did, to be very honest. But despite that, his reaction made sense. He didn't know what we knew, and things were so messy that he displaced his anger. I'm not excusing him, but what I'm trying to point out was that, if anything, the writing was good here.

Also, once again this is bare minimum, but Uea's boss suggesting he see a psychiatrist after Krist was exposed and fired somewhat blew my mind. Especially when later on, Uea finally feels safe enough to tell King about his step dad and mentions that he takes meds not to help him feel stable.
I'm not too familiar with Thailand's feelings towards taking mental health seriously, but if it's anything like Japan and South Korea, then this scene is pretty impressive

Now later on, the story was get a little Happily Ever After- if that makes sense. As in, the writers have aaaaall this angsty stuff to somehow wrap up in a neat little bow wherein at the end, the main characters can live the rest of their lives worry free. Sometimes, I don't like this because it can feel rushed and dismissive of what the character(s) had gone through. But because of all the sensitive subject matters and the fact that we do slowly see Uea heal over time, I didn't quite mind it here.

Random thought: I thought Jade's character was very cute. I found myself wishing he was in a romance! And it seems like the other show (middleman something?) is going to be focused on him? I'll definitely check it out!

--ACTING--
Something like 90% of the reason why I decided to finally give the show a try was because of King's actor. I come from a culture rife with colorism, and I've definitely noticed it in these BLs where they're very quick to only choose light skin actors. While King's actor isn't the darkest Thai person out there, it was very refreshing to see someone with some color as a main. i was honestly afraid that he'd be a terrible character who ends up also abusing Uea in some way (cough My Stubborn character cough), but no he's actually fairly sweet most of the time.
I HATED that there were times when they didn't color balance some scenes so he did end up looking lighter than he is.

But overall, the acting was fairly average. They had some really solid moments, especially with Uea's mom and in the flashback scenes. Very sad moments but memorable in how the acting was. I'd also say that Uea's actor was overall pretty solid.

However, there were times when I wished a scene between King and Uea was more emotional. It was strange because they'd have some pretty solid moments- but then there'd be other moments when they weren't emoting as much as I'd expect. I almost wanna blame this on the directing.

The actress playing Uea's little sister could've done a better job. If anything, she was cute.

Both of their actors look great together. I would love to see them in something else.

--SUMMARY--
I say give this show a chance, but heed the trigger warnings! Apparenlty a lot of people didn't like it, but I thought it was fine, Not the worse in handling heavy subject matter.

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Very Cute and Easy Story To Get Into

I can't believe I initially skipped this story when I saw that most (if not all) of the Enchante main cast were in this series. I honestly hated Enchante and was afraid they'd put in yet another story similar to it. But my friends encouraged me to watch it, and boy am I happy I did!

Overall, it's a very cute and silly story that has drama that doesn't stay too long. Most Thai BLs are 6-12 episodes, but please don't let the 24 episodes of this one intimidate you! Each main couple gets 8 episodes each, and because the story is easy to get into, they go by pretty quickly.

--ACTING--

I think most of the actor did pretty well. Some of them, like Force, were handed characters that ended up being fairly flat. So I can't really fault them for their acting when that's the case.
I think Faifa's and Gun's actors did the best with the silly characters. They felt VERY naturally comedic. Like, I'd genuinely be surprised if in real life they weren't similar to their characters at all. This leads to what is possibly my biggest acting gripe: Book's acting. Don't get me wrong, he did well enough. But there were times when it was grating and felt, well, forced (no pun intended). I think it has something to do with his acting juxtaposed to Force's acting. I say this because I did find myself enjoying moments when Book's character was with Sand and Po. They made me laugh quite a bit in the second to last episode! I also think it was the writing for their ship- which I will talk about more in the next section.

Sand and Pond were arguably the weakest actors and they stood out because everyone else was above average. I'd say that Sand's actor did a better job when he wasn't with Pond's character. I'm not familiar with either actor at all, but if you told me it was Poon's (Sand) first time in a romantic role let alone a BL one, I wouldn't be surprised. He was strongest when he was being silly with Arm and Po.

I started watching this for Perth (Yotha). I was a little disappointed when I saw he was playing yet ANOTHER "bad boy"/cool/suave type character. Don't get me wrong, he pulls this type of character off VERY well, but I was hoping for something different. With that being said, I really liked him as Yotha. I think the chemistry between him and Santa was very strong. I'm not sure if I'll watch their next project (Love You Teacher), but if they end up in something else, I'll watch that instead.

Faifa and Wine were my fave. I think their actors pulled the characters off VERY well. They felt natural and their chemistry was great. I loved how they looked together! If they're in another show as a pair, I'll definitely watch it.

--WRITING--

As mentioned before, this show is an easy watch. There's drama in it, where they pile it on more in the second and third arcs, but it flows very well.

I found myself enjoying a pair more than the previous pair, so the story got better and better as it went on.

I'd say the weakest story comparatively was Arc and Arm. I think that if theirs was a stand alone story, it would've been great. But the other parts are just so much more interesting that not only does they story feel a bit boring, but so does their ship after a while. I hate skipping scenes with other ships, but I did find myself skipping some of their scenes in the other parts.

I think the biggest issue is that their story is pretty typical of a Thai BL/yaoi/BL in general. It's pretty hard to connect to their characters emotionally. I feel like this is a situation where the casting of the actors helped make the characters a lot more interesting than what the writing failed to do. Like, if they were cast by random actors, I'd be even less interested to be very honest. I liked their story initially but grew bored by episode 5.

Possibly a big part of why I enjoyed YoGun's and FaiWine's stories so much more is because I found myself pleasantly surprised when I related to Yotha's and Faifa's situation with their mom. I felt their complications were quite realistic, especially in how divided they were about what happened to them growing up. I myself was The Peacemaker in the way Faifa was, so his character ended up being my favorite.

The ways in which their partners helped them felt good too. I much prefer stories when the Troubled Character's problems aren't magically whisked away by their Love Interest's arrival. The idea that love heals all wounds is one that I never cared for too much because of how it's portrayed a lot of the time. And I was quite pleased with how supportive Gun and Wine were, especially Wine.

I think out of all of the pairs, FaiWine was the most realistic one and also the most well written one. I really loved how they both grew around each other. There weren't any weird forced external drama that happens a lot in Thai BLs. The focus on internal issues worked the best here. Like, they could've done so much more with Tor's arrival but they didn't. What ended up happening was just enough for their story.

All-in-all, good pacing and good writing.

--MUSIC--

I don't pay too much to the music in these dramas. I definitely should though. So I won't linger here too long.

I believe each pair had their own unique song that was sung by the pairs' actors. I'm not sure how common this is, but I thought it was very sweet.

One trope in Thai BLs that I have come to lowkey hate is when the one character (usually the top) gets on stage with his guitar and starts singing to his love interest. It's so overdone, I just cringe at this point. But here it seems like Faifa's actor not only knows how to play guitar, but perhaps he sung the song too? It's a low bar, but this is probably the first time in a long while where I enjoyed this trope. I have seen instances where the actor very clearly has no idea how to lay guitar or even sing and because of it, it's badly edited. But it was nice here.

--PRODUCTION/CINEMATOGRAPHY--

I'd say it's pretty average coming from this company. The sets were nice but nothing outstanding. I did enjoy the use of colors a lot though, like in the freshman's rooms or with Yotha's pajamas. I'd say my favorite sets are said dorm rooms and Newton's bar.

--SUMMARY--

Overall great show, especially if you want something cute and fairly lighthearted. I rarely rewatch stuff, but I can see myself rewatching some scenes. I'm planning on watching the behind-the-scenes videos.

Give it a shot if you want!

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Great Concept, Poor Execution (for the most part)

Keep in mind that I never read the original story, nor am I familiar with most of the actors.

PitBabe is a fantastic example of a BL that has great ideas, but the writing suffers terribly. It's a great example of how the actors can only hardcarry a story so far before it turns against them in different ways. The best thing about the show is the acting. However, it's so good that it ends up accidentally highlighting the major flaws in every other aspect of the show.

-- ACTING:
Like I stated previously, it's really good overall. Though there are a couple of actors that are pretty mid acting-wise. Now, I'm no stranger to average acting; I have seen my fair share of amateur BL work over the years. I'm usually not one to harp on bad/mid acting because I appreciate the effort nonetheless. However, I feel like it's important to point out here because at times, the difference quality is a little TOO blatant and it ruins some scenes.

My biggest issue falls on Babe and Charlie. Babe's actor is arguably THE best one out of all of them. He truly shows his range in this story, and if anything, I 'd say watch PB just for that alone. I've never seen him in anything else, but I was blown away almost instantly. But Charlie....oh, Charlie.

Pooh isn't terrible. I've honestly seen worse. But his acting at times is quite stiff and repetitive. There's only so many times I can hear him call out Babe's name when they're in yet another argument before I start hitting the mute button. In my opinion, he has issues with his range of emotion and variations. Sure, he can yell Babe's name for the umpteenth time, but maybe do so differently?

As much as this bugged me, I can't blame him too much. I also blame the screenwriting and overall directing job as well. But going back to Pooh, Pavel's acting is so amazing that most of the time when Pooh follows up on Pavel's lines, it almost ruins the emotional tension a bit. The main thing that kept me from completely hating the main ship was the Bossy Bottom x Fluffy Top dynamic. I am a sucker for that trope, and there were times when they pulled it off well.

Another actor that I thought was a little lackluster was Pon (Jeff). Now, I'm quite familiar with Pon. He was in Star Hunter Entertainment with a few other actors that I really love. He's improved, but he's still a little stiff. But at times, the stiffness worked well with his character who is already fairly awkward and introverted. I really liked him and Sailub (Alan) together, especially after what Pon had to deal with in his old company. I'd love to see them in another show together.

As for everyone else: EXCELLENT. Not much more I can say than that. I guess other than that their acting was soooo good that it made the writing look even worse than it already is. There were times that I found myself trying not to cringe at what they had to say or how they were made to say it. But with that being said...

-- WRITING/DIRECTING
Awful. Terrible.
I saw someone say that it was obvious that the crew spent most of their money on renting racecars, hiring drivers, and special effects and had barely any leftover for the writing- and I have to agree 100%. Where do I even begin...

The whole Alpha/Enigma thing was weird, unnecessary even. Now I have heard that they supposedly toned down some of the omegaverse details for the show. If that's true, I wish they'd have scrapped it altogether. There's a good 5 or 6 episodes where the theme has barely anything to do with what's going on, to the point where I thought they forgot about it. The whole thing is never really explained well either, other than that there are Enigmas who I guess can get pregnant? And that the secondary genders do go hand and hand with these Senses powers they have, but once again, the genders could've been dropped and there wouldn't have been that much of a difference.

Now the whole Senses thing. I don't mind the idea at all. I actually think it's pretty neat. But similar to the Alpha thing, there's a while where it doesn't seem relevant at all until it suddenly is because, well....it has to be.

And that's basically the biggest issue I have with the writing. A lot of things happen simply just because. Simply to move the plot along on its crooked, confusing path.

For example, Charlie and Babe's arguments. One of my least favorite parts of the story. They'd be happy together, singing each other praises.....until Babe doesn't trust Charlie yet again for some reason. At first, it made sense because of how Charlie was hiding things, so that's perfectly fair. However, even when they'd make up and seem to have an understanding, Babe would be very quick to distrust him AGAIN. It became very boring, very predictable, and very annoying.

As a matter of fact, how they got together was weird to me as well. Charlie is a pretty unremarkable guy. So what was it about him that kept Babe hooked? They very briefly mention how Babe doesn't like the smell of Alphas (then why is he choosing to have sex with them...?), but is pleasantly surprised by Charlie's scent. And I guess that's what makes him want to be around him...? Despite the fact that Babe, due to his past traumas, is distrusting overall and very protective of himself.

We could say that this is simply Main Character Romance Plot Armor, where the how doesn't really have to make sense. But considering how in depth they get with Babe's character, it almost doesn't make sense. And I guess it doesn't have to make sense. It just has to be to keep things pushing. Which normally works fine for me, but with this show, it bugs me. I wish there was more development.

Another bit that really irked me was when they randomly revealed Charlie's Sense ability. I knew instantly that this was a poorly done set up for what eventually wound up being an overly dramatic death scene that didn't deserve all the tension it had. At this point, the drama overall was multiple exponentially and seemingly out of no where. A little too much at times. But oh wait! Lets make it even more dramatic by dropping obvious hints that Charlie has to die! For...some reason...! Yeah!

I really liked the idea of Babe losing his Sense and being able to move on with his life without it. But I haaaated that it was because of Charlie's mysterious super powers that he had this whole time and conveniently pops up. The plan for him to fake his death and "die" temporarily so that Babe can get his power back was so transparent that I started to zone out at certain bits.

With Way's character, I really enjoyed the concept! The jealousy he has for not really being Babe's number 1 was so good. Him going so far as to working temporarily with Tony was great. But when they had him come back and attempt to basically rape Babe??

No. Hell no.

I feel like his revenge plot could've stopped previous to this. But that scene made me hate his character. And at the end when he died and we were supposed to feel bad for him?? No??

I did laugh when I saw that they made his funeral a little more extravagant than Charlie's. Actually, I was laughing quite a bit in the last 2-3 episodes. Just bad decisions after bad decisions.

Very unfortunate because these actors deserve a story that's cared for, not one that's obviously a quick cash grab.

I'd be interested in watching them in other projects.

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Great Visuals, But A Very Run-Of-The-Mill Story

If you've read yaoi manga for quite some time and enjoy the enemies-to-lovers trope, then you've most definitely read a story *just* like this before.

Actually, does anyone know if it's actually based off of a manga or Thai novel? Because it feels like it.

STORY:

Anyway, the story is nothing new. It's filled with a lot of tropes and at times cringey cliches. The story is pretty predictable, and it's one of those Thai BLs that reads exactly like a yaoi manga because of the structure and main tropes.
The only new thing it offers is that it is a Thai live action production, which honestly adds some intrigue to it. My friend pointed out that it looks similar to a Korean production, and I do agree with that.

Aspects about the story I didn't like:
I have no idea how old the youngest brother is, but I assumed he was in high school. The way they introduced him made it seem like he may be the love interest for Sichol and I was not okay with that. There is no second couple, thank goodness. Speaking of Sichol, I both enjoyed and disliked his character. I felt like having an outrageous character in this kind of mellow story was a good idea; he adds some flavor to the mix. But then he started becoming annoying at times. And then eventually, I flat out forgot about him.

The thing I hated about the story the most, however, is the romantic "plot twist" they tried to add at the end. Maybe I wasn't paying as much attention as I thought when each episode dropped every week, but I actually didn't think they'd try to add last minute drama. If you know me, you know that I hate when a BL resolves a story a couple of episodes too early and then try to fill in the rest of the time with useless drama. And what made it even worse was how dragged out it was and how Nawee kept refusing to let Aioun talk. I understand that on one hand, it would make sense for someone like Nawee to react that way after everything he *just* went through. But instead it felt like they were trying to stretch things out to last until the end.

PRODUCTION/ACTING:

I would say watch the drama for the visuals, acting, and wardrobe. If you pay attention to stuff like cinematography and color grading, then I think you'd enjoy this show. There are a lot of scenes that just look very pretty, same with the sets. Speaking of, they pretty much only worked with two sets (and very briefly with the diner/cafe at the end), and I think they did a great job with that.

The acting is very good, even from the characters that don't really have much to offer. The chemistry between Nawee's and Aioun's actors is VERY good. I would love to see them in another BL some time soon.

I don't know anything really about suits, but I thought the wardrobes looks great right down to the color choices for the scenes. He doesn't wear a suit, but I loved Oab's looks; yes, including the awful mullet. There's something about the actor where he's about to pull it off very well.

And yes. The sex scene is one of the best sex scenes I've seen in a BL. If you want to skip everything and just go straight to that scene, I wouldn't blame you. Not only was the chemistry great, but it was *beauuuutifully* filmed. Like, WOW.

Also, I honestly didn't pay too much to the music, but the theme song is very nice, if anything.

REWATCH?

I would say no. I would only rewatch it for color theory/story/visuals, but that's it.
.....And probably rewatch that sex scene LOL

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A Show That Tries To Do Things A Little Differently

Please note: I have not watched any of the 2 Moons shows. I know what happens in it, however. But, from my understanding, due to issues Star Hunter Entertainment had at the time, they had to make up their own story. They wanted to remake 2 Moons now that they were their own company, but they couldn't. So Gen Y is it's own brand new story that borrows a couple of characters and throws in a bunch more new ones. This is nothing new in media. It's meant to be viewed as its own entity, and thus, I will be reviewing it as such.
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Basically, this show is honestly a pleasant little surprise. If you want an easy to watch, surface level story where you can turn off your brain and enjoy, then this show won't do it for you.

Now, it's extremely easy to argue that all people want out of a BL is to see men kiss and maybe have sex. That's it. Thus the plethora of dramas and other media where the plot is very simple and easy to consume in lieu of some of that Good 'Ol Action.

And that's not a bad thing at all! I mean, it can be a bad. But that's a conversation for another time. What I'm trying to say is that most BLs tend to be very surface level. If there's drama, the issues are explored a bit, not very deeply most of the time, said issues are resolved fairly quickly with not much exploration, and then the story is over. I personally don't have a problem with this formula. And clearly the companies that make these BLs and vast majority of BL fans have no problem with it either.

Just thrown in some good looking guys with at least decent chemistry, a basic plot, a kiss and/or sex scene within the first 2 or 3 episodes to fulfill that instant gratification 90% of viewers have, and BAM you got yourself a pretty damn good start to an easy BL drama to watch.

However, once in a while, it's nice to have a story that really delves into and takes the time to navigate the negatives of relationships and have those negatives be the central point in the story.

STORY:

And that is the prime objective of Gen Y. Instead of having the character easily (and borderline unrealistically at times) overcome their troubles, this show chooses to explore them.
Now, side note: it may seem like Mark and Kit are the main characters and the most important pair, but I would argue that in reality, Wayu is the main character and his romance is the one that gets the most focus. I'll mention this again a little later.

Anyway: the first pair (ThanuWayu) explores not only how indecision can affect you AND others around you, but it also explores two types of love: loves based off of the fairy tale idea of destiny and fate versus love grown naturally between two people from effort made from the both of them. This leads to a character unsure of who he should pick.
The second pair (MarkKit) explores how continuously not addressing issues due mostly to miscommunication can lead to a relationship where things are not as healthy as they seem in the beginning.
The last pair (PokTong) explores the idea that just because we do something that we think is best for someone, doesn't mean it was a good choice to make; your intentions do not always out weight the person's feelings. If you've seen I Told Sunset About You, you will know *exactly* what I mean by this.

Something that's also quite interesting about each pairing is the pacing at which they get together and how it makes perfect since for them. ThanuWayu takes the longest because there are a lot of things out of their control that're affecting their ability to even get together, like Saendee convincing Phai that he and Thanu have a thing together amongst other things. Their journey to out beat destiny and try to create their own is a long one.

MarkKit get together very quickly: by episode two, they're not together just yet, but they're already kissing. Half way through the show, they're officially dating- and it seems rather quick, doesn't it?

And lastly, PokTong are forcibly together. They're the first pair to have sex in the show, but their situation is unhealthy for the both of them. They're also the first pair to make the decision to move in together. Their journey to a healthier relationship is a long one.

There are other characters and subplots that intermingle with these three main pairs. And we see how things from one pair/character affects another: for instance, Mark and Kit getting too involved with Wayu's situation starts impacting their own relationship. Another example is there's a pretty good couple of moments that hint at the fact Saendee has feelings for Phai and we get to see how that affects Wayu and Thanu.

The show takes its time to explore all of these. Alongside that, it leaves little hints and breadcrumbs that, once you really think about it, makes a lot of sense and also just makes the show fun to watch, in my opinion. And, as I mentioned previously, it's nice to see them talk about these problems in an almost realistic sense.

For instance, Wayu gets dumped in a very harsh way. Pha, without any reason or hint as to why he's doing this, suddenly in the middle of a nice dinner breaks up with Wayu and literally disappears; no one, not even his friends, can reach him. And we see how this harsh breakup affects Wayu for the rest of the season. Most BLs would have the character get over it after one or two episodes, but this one doesn't. We see him eventually get over it with the help of his friends and a potential new love interest, only for said love interest to break his trust- just like how his ex did. And it causes him to, realistically and understandably, nearly go back to square one. Break ups for some are easy to get over, but not others. And with the way this break up happened, I feel like it made a lot of since for his progression to take a while- but we do see the progression happen.

However, while I think the concepts are fantastic and very interesting to watch, some of the execution of these ideas tend to fall flat at times, or at least waver a bit.

An example of this may be the plot with Thanu, Wayu, and Phai. I was surprised to see that there were SO many people confused about this plot. On one hand, you have one pair that never get to know each other and never actually speak to each other outside of comments about how they may be destined to be together due to some coincidences that happen. On the other hand, you have a pair who has naturally grown to being friends: they hang out often and chat regularly. They care for each other and that is shown in various ways. Just based off of that alone, it's easy to see which pairing is healthier and would be favored by most in real life.

I think what tripped up a lot of people is the destiny side of things. See, in the romance genre (not just BL), destined love is a HUGE trope with Western audiences. Sure, the idea that we have a partner out there ready for us whenever sounds great. But that's not how relationships work. They take a lot of time and effort from both sides; relationships don't just fall on your lap and magically happen. And the show does showcase this. But I noticed a lot of people got stuck on the whole destiny thing because a lot of people love the idea of destined love. They expected the Thanu and Phai to be together. Hell, there's even a scene where Thanu and Phai have shared visions of their *possible* future.
The show really gets into the destiny/fate thing a little *too* much in my opinion. I think they did that to really emphasis how unrealistic it is. If they had dialed it back a bit, then there wouldn't be as many people here on MDL shocked about Thanu and Phai not being together. And the thing is that it was pretty evident from the beginning: Thanu and Phai didn't seem that interested in the first place. Neither of them actively look for each other or anything like that .But some people only looked at the two of them on the surface and thought their romance was very cute.

A big reason why I bring up the ThanuWayuPhai love triangle as the best possible example is because if you look on the Episode Guide, you can see where a lot of people here on MDL began disliking the story: right as Thanu makes the decision to stop this whole destiny thing. Once again, it's not surprising at all that he chose to do that given the proof we see up until that point. But it's clear a lot of people did not catch those moments.

Other things that could've been better executed were things like showing Saendee yearning for Phai more because those little glimpses we got were very easy for some people to forget, it seems like. More of an emphasis on that would've been great. I say that because it seems like a good chunk of people on MDL, once again, didn't catch that.

But it's also hard to say if it's really the fault of the production crew or if it's a difference in Asian viewers versus Western viewers. I say this because over there, the rating for the show is a lot higher than here on MDL, which is Western based. Maybe the destiny thing didn't really affect the Asian audience all that much because perhaps destiny in romance isn't as big of a trope there as it is here? Maybe? Who knows.

There's also the fact that this show was made, of course, for Asian audiences first and foremost. They knew since the beginning that Thanu and Wayu were endgame because of how super popular of a ship their actors are over there. For us, however, it's safe to say that majority of us in the west were not aware of any of that. Not anyone's fault, of course.

I think the execution of some things could have been better, absolutely, but not so much as a lot people on here are making it out to seem. I think the story is honestly easy to follow.

Also, I've seen people on here have major issues with how "whiny" Wayu is. I've always noticed that people have issues with emotional male characters in media, especially ones that "take too long" to get over their problems. This is a major issue of toxic masculinity that our society needs to work with. I see no issues with Wayu being emotionally open.

Some cons that I think are actually worth mentioning:
One thing that I have problems with is a sense of time- or there lack of. My first time viewing the show, I was confused by certain things because I couldn't tell when things were taking place. For instance, I actually didn't know if the beginning takes place in the very beginning of the school year, like the first day of class, or maybe half way through...?
I think having a better sense of time would've helped, especially for Wayu's story.

I did not think a 2nd year college student (who should've been a 3rd year) potentially getting with a 4th year *high school* student was cute at all. I'm so sick of adult/minor ships in BLs. Luckily its rare with Thai BLs from what I've noticed so far, but still.
Now to be fair to them, Thanu and Phai don't actually speak to each other until Phai and his friends have already passed their final exams and have been accepted into college; though they are still wearing their high school uniforms at this point, they're basically college kids. I believe in Thai schools, you can still attend your classes even though you've already been accepted into your college of choice, and I believe that's what was going on here. Thanu also doesn't know until this scene that the guy he keeps seeing is in high school. But still. It made me uncomfortable that they had these scenes with romantic vibes where they'd stare at each other from afar before this point, because we the audience know Phai is in high school.

My number one problem is how some scenes, but ESPECIALLY the PokTong sex scene in ep 12, had that one Sexy Time song playing over them. Their relationship, especially the sexual side of it, is not healthy. At all. And them trying to sexualize these scenes is gross. I have no issues with them being there, but I have a major problem with sexualizing unhealthy parts of romantic relationships. I hope there's a scene down the line where the both characters sit down and talk about hoe their sex is not good and how they can change that.
I think the reason why it's sexualized is because once again, that instant gratification that the audience has and the desire to see men kiss and fuck pretty much prioritizes anything else in terms of marketing a BL. I'm sure they didn't want to let the fans down with a sexless story, so they (more than likely the company's producers) tried to amp it up. It's unfortunate and I hope people understand that the scenes aren't an accurate representation of healthy sex.

Some people also have issues with the cast, but I'll comment on that down below.

ACTING/CAST:

The acting can be rough around the edges at time. Some of the actors are a little too stiff. If, for whatever reason, you can't stand acting like this, then this show is probably not for you. I don't blame those who couldn't finish the show because of the acting.

However, whenever I come across a show where the acting of one or more actors seems off, I do my part as the viewer and look up the actor(s) and try to see why that may be rather than just chalking it up to "bad acting". A lot of times with these BLs, it's typically that actor's first time either acting or acting in a BL specifically; that person may be straight and is having a bit of a hard time really getting into the character. There are also just a bunch of new up and coming actors. There's typically a reason for rough acting in general, but especially in BLs, so I try not to be too mean about it.

So I did just that with this show. I found that most of the actors have either never acted before, or they have but for one other small show and/or small role in said show. I found out that back in 2019, SH Entertainment wanted some new singing and acting talent, so they held a voting based competition called SuperBoy Project. Their goal was to find ordinary guys who dreamed of becoming stars, regardless of how well they sang and acted; every week they had acting and singing/dancing classes. And, honestly? I LOVE that. I noticed how a lot of the actors are stereotypically good looking (though I think all of them are hot and/or cute), so that explains that too.

I went ahead and watched the whole competition. And some of the remaining members were the ones that show up in this show: Bonus (Tong), Tora (Pok), Pon (Phai), Bank (Saendee), Jet (Jack), Junior (Padbok), Tung (Kalae), and Fergie (Jill). Some of them, like Junior and Fergie are great, but others are still somewhat stiff. However, they do grow as the show goes on, especially when you get into season 2. The two that grow the most are Bonus (Tong) and Tora (Pok) in my opinion.

Dun (Thanu) was not scouted via this competition, but Gen Y is his first ever show. I would say he's the one who needs the most work, but he does get a little better and better as time goes on.

I've volunteered on film sets where there's little to no money involved and you gotta work with what you have at the time. It's made me have this more positive outlook and appreciation for productions (either the whole production or just parts of it) that may be amateur-ish but you can absolutely tell they're making an effort. So the acting honestly doesn't bother me; I actually find it endearing!

Would the show have been better if a bulk of the cast were experienced actors? Yeah, probably. One could argue that. But I'm fine with how it is. I'm glad they're getting this opportunity to work in a drama. And the experienced actors, like Kimmon and Copter, do a great job!

Now one thing to definitely point out is how large the casting it. It can get quite overwhelming, and I don't blame people for feeling that way, especially since we're so used to BLs having a smaller pool of cast.

I personally don't mind the size, but I do think that maybe an extra one or two episodes would've helped to flesh out a bit more of the characters and some of the subplots. However, the reason why I'm not faulting the production here is because the amount of episodes is not up to them. They have to make do with however many episodes they get.

MUSIC:
Not too much to say here other than the music and variety is very good. The theme song is SO cute, and the lyrics are very fitting. As I mentioned before, some of their talent is both singers and actors, so I do like that one or two, maybe more, of the actors got to take part in the OST as well.

They could stand to use maybe one, maaaybe two more background/ambience music, but it's not anything crazy.

REWATCH VALUE:

I would say this show has some BIG rewatch value. As I mentioned before, there are hints and little breadcrumbs here and there that are so fun to pick up on not just as you're watching it, but when you rewatch it to.
Right now, I'm watching season 2, and I've been having a blast going back to season 1 and connecting dots. For instance, going back to rewatch the scenes with Saendee before it's revealed his true nature is WILD. The moments where he stares at certain characters really gave me the creeps when I go back and rewatch those scenes.

I would say that some episodes may not be worth rewatching again as a whole, but there are a lot of scenes that are fun to go back to. For instance, the fight scene is a lot of fun to watch.
I would recommend before watching season 2, just going back and maybe skimming through season 1. I don't think you'll regret it!

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A Great Beginning, And Then...

WOW I have NO idea what I stumbled into, but this story went in a completely different than what my friends and I anticipated.
Now, keep in mind: I didn't read the original novel. I hopped onto this BL because around the time it aired, just about every other Thai BL was full of drama and sometimes nonsensical writing, and this show looked sooooo cute and fresh! It stars mostly new actors and is about cooking! What could go wrong?

And then, well...it became one of those super dramatic BLs with some level of nonsensical writing. And I was beyond disappointed.

POSITIVES:

1) The show has a good start! If anything, I'd recommend watching maybe the first 4 episodes; at this point, the story is cute and lighthearted and has a strong focus on cooking. I could honestly sit here and rewatch the first couple of episodes a couple more times- and I already have! Ahh, the good 'ol days of when the story was good...

2) Friendships! It's rare to have BLs where the main character's friends are important to them. Usually after a short amount of time, the friend(s) disappears for some reason...? And they somehow get so caught up in their own thing, they end up ditching their supposed best friend. Not only does Lukchub's and Ram's groups of friends stick around for most of the time, but they're also supportive! I loved the moments when Phai (Lukchub's friend) and Sky (Ram's friend) would sit down with their friend and get serious with them. The dialogue was fantastic! Not only is it rare to see the friends stick around, but it's also rare to see them try to knock some sense into the main character(s).

3) Acting: For a show with mostly new actors, the acting for the most part honestly wasn't bad! Sometimes they were stiff, but I'm willing to let that pass. The one's who had some problems also had great potential to get better. Namning's actress did a GREAT job in my opinion.

NEGATIVES:

1) I kid you not when I say that the show went from cute and simple to soap opera drama SO quick. Suddenly we're dealing with a character who's so deranged that she eventually pulls out a gun and nearly shoots her own mother. The cute cooking aspect of the story went straight out of the window and never made a reappearance in the spotlight ever again.

2) 13 episodes: this show was way too long. There's one episode where next to nothing happened; episode 5, I think? The second part of the club scene. They could have shrunk it down to 10 episodes and it would have been okay.

3) Lack of story balance: one thing I LOVE about Thai BLs is that we always get some subplot with other romances. Almost always the main character's best friend gets a fun little side story that's just as interesting if not sometimes even *more* interesting than the main plot. LC has a large cast of characters, all of which are honestly very interesting in their own ways and with how they interact with each other. And I was looking sooooooo forward to seeing SkyPhai and TitanPangi!! *Especially* SkyPhai!! They did a GREAT job at showing up little bits of each couple leading up to their romance- and then out of no where, we don't see *any* progression with the two side couples. There's a small scene with Titan and Pangi and that's it. Sky and Phai get absolutely NOTHING. They spend SO much time focusing on Namning, that we're left with mere breadcrumbs for the side couples. I was looking forward to SkyPhai *so* much because they're both similar yet complete opposites. Plus the actors look great together and have some great chemistry. All they gave us SkyPhai fans was a makeout scene with some flirting. Now, mind you...the makeout scene was hot as hell, I will give that that! But that's all we got and I'm still mad about it a whole week later.

4) Ram's acting. Like I mentioned before, the acting was good! Except for Ram's actor's acting. He was the most stiff out of all of the show. The chemistry between him and Mick (Lukchub's actor) is great and can be seen from time to time, but I do think it's odd that he was chosen to play the main character.

5) Namning's role in the story. On one hand, I do think her actress did a great job with the role. But on the other, having a villainous female character in a BL can be very misogynistic because usually the story banks on the fact that the character *is* a woman; they also tend to utilize toxic tropes and stereotypes with these female characters. Now, I don't immediately see having a female bad guy in a BL story as a bad thing because sometimes it works out. But I felt like they went wayyyy too far with her role. I wish the whole thing wasn't as dramatic as it was and that it ended around episode 10 or 11. But no, they went full force and had her stick around until the first 20mins of the last episode.

6) The last episode and they way they crammed some very last minute romantic scenes in there. They didn't show us any progression for the side couples, but suddenly they're together and one of them gets married. And yes, they did a timeskip. TWO of them for some reason.

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All I can say is that despite the immense whiplash I got from this show, I am honestly excited to see what most of the actors will be working on next, especially Boom (Phai's actor), Tachit (Sky's actor), Momo (Pangji's actress), Ice (Titan's actor), and Mick (Lukchub's actor).

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