jpny01

I'm still sad about that.

I thought Never Let Me Go was awful, but Perth and Chimon were electric (and Perth's dad was hot af). I kept thinking if the series were about them it would have been 1,000 times better.

I was excited they got their own series, and I'm still interested in seeing them together, but their roles are so formulaic that it doesn't have the same energy as it did in NLMG. They're still doing a good job, but anyone else in these roles would make the series unwatchable.

The last five minutes saved that for me - I was just about to give up, thinking "Half over and the ML is still pursuing a woman."

What saved it isn't just that it happened, it's why - instead of Tammy being an evil manipulative shrew, she's actually nice. It's that Phumjai realized he only liked the idea of Tammy, and it was Yang that he really wanted to be with. That was really quite nice. I'm always complaining that boys in BLs are always thrown together by contrived external catalysts, like the uke tripping and the seme catching him and they stare at each other for 15 minutes until they turn gay, rather than it being organically character-driven, i.e. that you have two people who really like each other and draw close, and it was a little magical to see it happen for once.

The first strong sign was when Phumjai was happy and he immediately wanted to tell Yang about it - that's a sign of a crush right there.

He was with Offroad in the scene where they were playing themselves - Laz1 walked into the cafe for some reason and talked to Rak. It's hard to recognize him with that bad haircut they gave him in this plus he's so dour.

I definitely loved Miracle of Teddy Bear, but I haven't watched To Sir With Love yet, but I plan to for sure.

I think what doesn't work for me in this series is that it's not light, but also not well-written, so it's not really fun and it doesn't make a lot of emotional sense. What you're left with is what seems to sell well: cute boys being cute to each other.

I apologize, but I don't understand your point. If he's evil, then why would he think he's gone too far? Only good people are worried about doing evil. Are you saying he's giving Sailom a break for a while before he returns to being horrible to him?

I think the problem here is simply bad writing. Enemies to Lovers is a trope, the author wanted to use that trope, and was too lazy to make the conflict between Sailom and Kang make sense and have a logical path to progress to something positive. Instead, she just flipped a switch and made Kang suddenly and for no apparent reason start behaving like a totally different person, because that's what the story required. In other words, the characters are driven by the plot rather than the plot being driven by the characters.

Same. It's a pity they're not in it much.

That was worse than I was expecting. It shines when Hiro and Jericho are allowed freedom to do their thing - the rest of it is extraneous nonsense full of irritating dogs and equally irritating Kims and Jelais. It feels a little like a bait-and-switch - they lured us here with Zeke and Fifth, gave us five minutes of them, and filled the rest with things nobody wants to see and a gigantic quantity of advertising. No thank you. Let me know when someone does a Fifth-Zeke cut.

You have a very low bar set for "disciplined."

She makes an uke look capable.

I don't blame you for blocking it out, but Chukchuk was in Ep 1 - what's-her-name took him to the vet, and there's even a cast member for the vet, so that weird little rat creature is going to feature heavily.

LOL, that's a double-shot.

They could spend less time texting, for one. I get that people do that, but that goes on the list with peeing pooing, picking your nose, and eating which we absolutely do not need to see unless it's somehow relative to the plot, like people on a date or something. A lot of these series are just people eating, texting, tripping over things, and having flashbacks to eating, texting, and tripping over things. And drinking. Apparently BL characters have no other way of having fun than getting so drunk every day that they vomit and have their memories magically erased.

I think in the case of this series it's that there's a lack of energy or passion in the production. I think when a lot of love goes into a project, we notice on some level and get engaged.

I feel like you're overthinking it - creatively filling in the holes (maybe they would be better off with you writing this). I think his grandmother said that because the plot needed her to, not anything more complicated than that. The acting in this is phenomenal, but the writing is a bit lazy - like Sailom not finishing his sentence about the umbrella when the bus was arriving. Or the number of times they accidentally ended up too physically close and stared at each other for five minutes. Wouldn't it be more satisfying if their tension was organic and internal rather than driven by external accidents?

It's also too slapstick.

Yes, but that doesn't really erase the horrific abuse he heaped on Sailom in the first few episodes. That wasn't just "normal" school bullying, it was psychotic and downright evil. I have a hard time labeling it "wholesome". Maybe "schizophrenic." I like enemies-to-lovers stories, but they went overboard on this one. The only way to enjoy this is to pretend all that didn't happen.

Let's play a drinking game - every time something happens to accidentally put Kang and Sailom into physical contact causing them to stare at each other for an awkwardly long period of time with romantic music playing, we have to take a shot.

By Part 3 of this ep I already need a liver transplant.

I love Perth & Chimon, and I'm really happy to see them as leads in a series, and their acting is first-rate, and enough to keep me watching - barely.

The writing is terrible. Enemies-to-lovers is a popular plot type, but when you make the antagonist so incredibly evil and then have him suddenly turn cute, besides the fact that the audience can't get over the awfulness that fast, and with no real redemption arc, it jkust feels unearned. Kang's friends were vicious and awful, and now they're practically shipping Kang and Sailom. If anyone but Perth were in the role, it would fail miserably, but he's managed to give a 2D cartoon villain depth and humanity from the start.

How many teen boys (or girls, or anything in between) give a flying fuck about some umbrella someone loaned them 10 years ago? Has anoyone ever even had an umbrella survive for 10 years? They've made such a huge deal out of this - Kang even remembers that he loaned out his umbrella and commented on it! Do you remember what you had for breakfast a week ago? If you live somewhere like Thailand where it rains every day, you'll have had dozens or hundreds of umbrellas by the time you get to high school. At least it could have been a novelty umbrella, like one with a Nazi symbol on it to go with Kang's shirt (don't get me started) I could buy it. But due to a lack of imagination, the author decided she needed to throw in the childhood connection cliche but couldn't be bothered to come up with something meaningful.

And then Sailom starts to mention that Kang lent him the umbrella, but somehow can't finish his sentence because the bus arrived. Ugh. Then a ton of flashbacks to things that just happened.

Thai BL has some excellent actors, but the writing is almost universally bad. What was the last one that was well-written? The only ones I can think of are not really BLs, like Laws of Desire or I Feel You Linger, which are really gay-themed lakorns.

Then there's just directorial laziness, like Sailom's brother commenting that Sailom's long face means he got dumped. Great x-ray vision there, bro, since his back was turned.

I would have loved to see Sailom have a normal human reaction to Kang suddenly being in the room and grabbing for the drive. That would be "AAAIIIIIIIIIEEE!!! WTF?!? You scared me to f@#$ing death, you asshole!!!"

Brother in hospital: "How will you get to your appointment?" Maybe he could use his huge arm muscles to wheel his chair to the room. That's kind of the point of a wheelchair - they have wheels. (Speaking of which, that bod needs to be shared. He needs to at least take a shower at some point.)

That's the problem with enemies-to-lovers when the writing is bad. The audience is supposed to forget the horrific behavior that changed like a light switch flipping just because a terrible person did a few cute things. Loaning an umbrella? OK, all the beatings, threats, framing, and general life-ruining are forgiven. My School President did it right.

Acting, 10/10. Story, 2/10. If you like Perth & Chimon, you'll like it but wish they could be in a better series.