kate

i seriously can not let this show go

disclaimer: this review is going to be long and basically a ramble. i absolutely ADORE this show. i know its not an objectively GOOD show, but it just brings me so much comfort. i really really love pondphuwin, so yes i am biased, but i still think this show is definitely worth a watch. lets jump into it.

first i want to talk about the plot. yeahhhhh, its not great. i'll be the first to admit it, the plot doesn't make a whole lot of sense, it's full of cliches, and the bodyguard x rich spoiled kid dynamic is way too overused and feels more like a wattpad storyline. with that being said, it works. the show starts off pretty slow for the first like 5 episodes when they're at the school, and neung and palm are just starting to get to know each other. it picked up a little bit with the whole ben thing (which i HATE), but it doesn't fully get good until neung's mom gets shot and they go to stay with palm's mom. the island episodes (which is most of the show) are so freaking good. the little gay couple that inspires palm and neung genuinely warms my heart whenever i think about them. they were so adorable, all of their interactions with neung and palm made me smile SO much. palm's dynamic with his mom was also a highlight, but i'll talk about more when i get to my characters paragraph. the island episodes was where it really felt like you could see palm and neung fall in love for real, especially neung. palm literally was whipped for this man since he first laid eyes on him, but neung took a little longer to fully fall. i can't fully express just how much i love the island episodes. i'm writing this review after my third watch, and sometimes when i'm sad i'll just rewatch episodes 7-9 to make myself feel better. the second couple, ben and neung's cousin (im sorry idk his name i just know he's played by perth) were lowkey REALLY forgettable. they were kind cute i guess, but i still hate ben. im sorry i really don't like him, he's the entire reason i just can't bring myself to rate this show a 10. actually, there's another reason i can't rate this show a 10: THE FUCKING LEAVING. when neung left palm for the first time, it felt well-done, it made perfect sense. i was not mad when neung left, because neung was acting in-character. however, when palm left neung in the LAST GODDAMN EPISODE i was so lost. that made no fucking sense im sorry. palm's whole character is being in love with neung and wanting to be with him forever, so WHY did he leave. idk, whenever i rewatch i just skip that whole 20 minute plotpoint bc it just pmo. overall, the plot is definitely the weakest part of the show, but it doesn't bring it down all that much. just suspend you disbelief, its a thai bl, you gotta just go with it sometimes.

moving onto characters, i have SO much to say. let me break down all the important characters into one sentence:
neung: starts off a spoiled brat, turns into the perfect loyal bf for palm
palm: constantly playing the hero, quite literally takes a bullet for neung
neung's cousin (perth): confused pussy who knows his dad is literally killing people but won't do anything to stop him
ben: THE FUCKING WORST I HATE HIM SO MUCH OH MY GOD
thanya: BADDIEEEE. the sweetest mom i love her so much
kit: most cartoon supervillian character ever, seriously he's so evil its almost laughable
chanon: really annoying father figure, legit cares for neung more than his own son
mam: BADDIEEEEE and such a relatable character, i sobbed when she died
neung and palm are really sweet once neung stops being a dickwad all the time. palm is my baby bro, i would do anything for him. i might like palm extra because pond is my fav actor of all time, and DAMN pond does a fantastic job playing palm. phuwin did a good job with neung, but i can tell it was a tough role for him since he is such a different person from neung. i love palm and neung so much tho. they're ADORABLE and they have a ton of chemistry. once again, as the #1 pondphuwin fan i am 1000000% biased, but still, they're undeniably cute. perth's character (just looked up his name, its chopper), is really annoying. like dude YOUR DAD IS KILLING PEOPLE if i were him i'd turn that man in within 5 seconds. ben is my literal opp. god i hate this man SO much oh my god. WHY DID YOU LIKE NEUNG. WHY DID YOU KISS NEUNG. WHY DID YOU BLAME EVERYTHING ON NEUNG. everything ben did, everything ben said, it all made me so angry. the only thing he did was make palm kill neung to make him feel better. other than that, it felt like his only purpose was to piss me off. i had to skip a lot of his scenes with neung in the beginning of the show because he just made me SO mad. mam was adorable, i literally loved her. she made a lot of sense, and hearing her tell palm why she left him was really amazing. i loved seeing a character admit she loves herself more than her son and not be demonized. it was refreshing. thanya was sweet when she was alive, i always love seeing non homophobic parents in bls. the other characters were just cliches. kit was so funny im sorry, why was he SO unforgivably evil. he had no redeeming qualities, and sometimes it felt like he was doing bad shit just to do it. none of the characters are all that special besides neung, palm, and their parents.

in conclusion, this show is really good. i love it with my entire heart and soul, even though its not really anything special. its a fun show to watch if you just want something kind of stupid with cute leads. is it a great show? no. but, it's charming in its own ways, and, as you know if you've made it this far, I LOVE PALM AND NEUNG SO MUCH!!!!! so, if you made it this far and you haven't watched it, please do. trust me, you wont regret it.

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this was the most peak fluff bl i've ever seen out of korea

oh my godddd yes yes yes yes yes yes this show was SO cute. i'll be honest, i didn't even know this show existed until i saw an edit of it on tiktok, and as soon as i saw joowon i was HOOKED. lets just get one thing straight: i am OBSESED with vampire stories and just vampires now. starting in middle school with seraph of the end, to now where one of my favorite kpop groups is literally enhypen. hell, twilight even used to be my favorite book as a kid. so, clearly, when i saw that two of my favorite things (bls and vampires) were being joined together, i was in. my judgement is a BIT clouded since i love all things vampires, but even leaving that behind, this show slaps. these actors are so cute bro. korea is really stepping up their game with casting actors for bls that arent literal mannequins (ball boy tactics is another great example from this year). their chemistry is so good, theyre SO cute together. this show is what i wished kissable lips was (man that show was such a disappointment especially since it was jiwoong and seobin). now, is the plot anything crazy or the characters super deep and well developed? no, obviously not. this is still a pretty small and poorly funded production, so there was nothing insane. but the cast did great, i mean the side "couple" were great as well, though i do wish we got to see them more. seonjae DID pmo for like the entire show, but i'm just choosing to ignore that because i had such a good time watching this show. 10/10 fluff, watch for a good time.

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the most comforting drama i have ever seen

i can't believe its been two years already since i first stumbled upon this drama. i found wifty when it had two more episodes yet to air, and i binged it all within four days. i genuinely think that i became a completely different person during that four day binge. the characters here are so wholesome, and the story is so cute as well. i usually get really mad at characters during shows because they always do stupid things in order to start conflict, but that doesn't happen at all here. this show is just such a comfort, and i really think everyone should watch it at least once.

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this was the most heterosexual bl i have ever seen

this show is so fucking weird man. lets just address my biggest issue with this show right off the bat: THESE TWO MFS ARE SO GODDAMN STRAIGHT ITS PAINFUL. im not of the belief that bl actors have to be queer, though i do think that it would make more sense that way. with that being said though, good lord are these two actors so painfully straight. i get it, kissing another dude is probably hard, but yall are ACTORS, why are we doing a fake kiss in japan in 2024. #embarrassing. its not just the kiss though, i cant tell if its the writing or the acting or both but i felt absolutely no romantic connection between the main leads whatsoever. taichi's actor gives a little bit more of a gay vibe but its still not great. for most of the show i was just bored bc it felt like watching two friends just kinda hang out, but it got real ugly real fast when maya was introduced. im gonna sound really mean here but you just gotta hear me out: MAYA IS GENUINELY THE WORST FUCKING CHARACTER I HAVE EVER SEEN IN A BL PERIOD. somehow i hated her more than i hated yue yue in revenged love. yes she pissed me off that bad. first of all, i hate how taichi acted with her. TAICHI ARE YOU A FUCKING IDIOT??? shes literally manipulating him so blatantly and taichi just doesn't get it. god she makes me so mad. seeing her trying over and over again to get in the way of the already basically nonexistent relationship between the two leads my god it made me so mad. honestly this show is just not worth it. i haven't read the manga or anything, but the story honestly seems pretty good. i hope in the manga that there is actual romantic chemistry and i hope maya is less of a little bitch because she genuinely ruined every single scene she was in for me (no shade to the actress she seems sweet). seeing maya released like extreme anger to every part of me no exaggeration. anyways, my conclusion here is if you're really interested in this story just read the manga, because this show is just boring a for the most part a complete waste of time. don't let the high rating fool you like it fooled me.

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came for jiwoong, stuck around for the incredible plot + chemistry

i'll be honest here.. i watched this show AFTER watching boys planet, and after being a zerobaseone fan. so, did i originally only watch this show because of jiwoong? yes. HOWEVER, i would never rate a show only based off of if i am a fan of the actors. these exact same actors were also the stars of kissable lips and lord knows i would NEVER rate that show a 9.5/10. so, lets fully get into this show. jiwoong and seobin are literally my parents, and this show is the reason why. the chemistry is on POINT. these dudes are really good at acting like they're in love. also, sidebar, i loved seeing holland being included in the show, i thought it was super cute. but anyways, the acting here is phenomenal. i love when bl actors can kiss and NOT look like they want to crawl out of their skin and shoot themselves in between the eyes!!! the story is, i'll be honest, a little basic, but i LOVE me a good "enemies" to lovers. these two are so cute. SOOOOO cute. the relationship progression is so well done. while i don't necessarily love the whole sideplot of jiwoong's (i do not remember the character's names so i will just be calling them by the actors' names) dad and that whole weird like punishment thing. yes i get that his dad kinda initiated the whole start of the show but still, i didn't care much for it. seobin's character could also be a little bitch sometimes and he did kinda pmo like a lot but i could handle it because its seobin and i love that man. idrk how to sum this up so i'll just say again, this show is a really great cute little show that happens to star one of my favorite members of my favorite kpop band as a little bonus. :)

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four years later.. does it still hold up? (spoiler alert: YES IT DOES)

my love mix-up is a good show. it is cute, fluffy, easy to watch, and an all around good time. is it actually 10/10 quality.. no, BUT i'm still rating it a 10/10 because i had wayyyy too much fun watching this. what i loved most about this show was not actually the main characters, my favorite part was hashimoto. hashimoto is the female side character and the reason she is my favorite part is because I DONT HATE HER!!! that might sound weird, but honestly, i have heavily disliked almost every single female side character in bls from ALL countries, and when we first met hashimoto in this show, i was really worried i was going to hate her too. however, hashimoto is a FANTASTIC character. she's actually so freaking cute, shes so supportive, and she doesn't try to interfere with the two main leads (which is honestly one of my biggest bl pet peeves). besides the fact that the female side character doesn't make me wanna kill myself, the main couple here are so cute. aoki is me and i am him. he's so funny bro like genuinely i love him so much. ida is.. a little slow, but aren't we all? i really loved watching their relationship grow, it was so freaking wholesome. my biggest gripe with the show is that weird episode with the assistant teacher who's like super homophobic like.. why? i honestly hate when bls do that, when they make teachers play super big roles as like homophobic assholes. another example i can think of is at the end of my school president. i understand that it creates necessary conflict but it just pisses me off like why does a grown ass man care so much who his students are into like you weirdo it is NOT that deep fam. anyways, this show is still a super fun time. since it's a little bit older its obviously a lot more watered down. its been a little while since i've seen this but like i dont even think the main leads kiss WHICH IS FINE its just definitely a different vibe than the usual bls we see being released now. my love mix-up is like a cute comfort bl to watch when you're like lowkey really sad and need a good laugh. its a really good show, and yes, it DOES still hold up, even after four years. :)

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spectacular in quite possibly every single way.

oh boy, do i have a lot to say about this show. love for love's sake was on my list ever since it released, but with school and my focus on watching anime rather than bls, i never really got around to it. that is, until i really locked back in on all the bls i missed this summer. i remember hearing about everyone freaking out about this show when it first came out. i heard all the praise but i never thought it could ever be THAT good. i literally could not have been more wrong. this story is SO good. it has so much more to it than you would expect. myungha is such a good character. he is so relatable and his backstory is so well fleshed out. also that one scene where he kisses the homophobic guy was literally so much aura like i felt it through the screen. while i did kinda have some trouble adjusting to the fact that he was actually 29 trying to make this like 18 year old like him, i got over it pretty quick. honestly it does lowkey sound weird but I PROMISE ITS NOT. yeowoon seemed kinda annoying at first. he "doesn't like anyone" and that kinda pissed me off in the beginning, but when he and myungha got comfortable they were SO cute. yeowoon was so clingy like guys it was adorable thinking about it makes me wanna cry. these two actors really hit it out of the park with their roles. every emotional scene was played so well. thinking back to that one scene where myungha is running and he keeps like getting lost and he's in all these new places and the game is breaking like i was STRESSING taevin really played myungha well in every scene. the side characters here were also really good. i loved sangwon and how he lowkey was in love with myungha too like yes baddie i'm in love with myungha as well like join the club. kyunghoon was so freaking cute bro like i literally loved him. i literally could go on and on about this show its just that freaking good. the last scene where they're all on the beach is so beautiful. the scene where myungha decides to go back and spend the rest of his lie with yeowoon made me cry so freaking hard. lowkey its making me tear up just thinking about it right now and i watched this like four months ago. the emotions in this show are REAL. honestly love for love's sake has left an insane impact on me and i sure as hell won't forget about it anytime soon.

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i have never laughed so hard at a thai bl in my LIFE (thank you pond)

holy shit, i can't believe this show is over. gmmtv (or should i say gmm thee v) i am COMING for you, why is this show only 10 episodes this is a crime. but honestly, this show is nothing short of incredible. i mean, pond and phuwin knocked it out of the park with their performances, especially pond he was SO good. other than that, the writing was sharp and for once ACTUALLY funny, the side couples were great, and i had a TON of fun with this show. so with that, let's get into it!

i want to start off with the plot, which in my opinion is the weakest part of the show. not too much happens in this show honestly. its kinda just thee chasing after peach, which honestly, i have no complaints about. i did think it was odd how the "we aren't allowed to love" rule in the lee family was just kinda thrown out the window when it was convenient for the plot, but this is a silly show, so i'm willing to let it slide. that's how i feel about a LOT of this show's imperfections. if this was a more serious show, even if it was more like never let me go which i consider to be pondphuwin's most serious show, i would care more about poor writing choices. however, i wasn't watching me and thee for the super serious and complex plot, because there wasn't one. i was here for pondphuwin, and i was here to laugh, and honestly, i got EXACTLY what i came for. was the plot kinda lacking, i GUESS, but it's the characters that shine, not the plot. speaking of the characters, that is what i want to dive into next.

the characters in this show are so perfect. genuinely, i love them all so much. my favorite character, shockingly, is the incredible khun thee. i know, i'm so niche and different guys you don't have to tell me. but seriously, its impossible for thee to NOT be my favorite character. not only is pond my favorite actor of literally all fucking time, but thee is so funny its kind of insane. not to be mean or anything, but i don't usually laugh very much at thai shows. idk if its a language barrier thing, but it is very, VERY rare for me to laugh at thai bls at all, much less multiple times per episode, and the amazing humor in this show is basically all because of thee, and pond's performance. i get that pond and thee are kinda similar already, but lets be real, pond was giving 110% for this role. every single line, every single facial expression, it was all genuinely perfect. pond naravit lertratkosum the actor you are. besides pond's portrayal of thee, there are LOT of other incredible characters. peach was also really amazing. he was so real honestly, and i think phuwin did a really great job playing peach. peach was probably an easier role to play, but phuwin was phenomenal (as always). peach was really endearing, and i loved theepeach's dynamic. i'm just gonna say it, i think that pondphuwin have the best chemistry out of any gmmtv ship. they are SO great onscreen together, and this was definitely their best performance yet, not only in playing their characters individually but also in how they interacted together. thee and peach were basically made for pond and phuwin, and they nailed it.

other than thee and peach, the rest of the cast of characters were funny as well. plub is my baby like i dont care i love her so much. bonnie delivered a really awesome performance, i loved my thee and plub moments they were so cute. est as mok was also such a highlight. his eye roles were unironically SO funny, and my only complaint about mok is that he didn't get nearly enough screentime with rome. SPEAKING OF ROME. william may have only been in the show for like 20 minutes total, but god that man left such an impact on me. romemok are so dear to me, the fact that they got practically zero screentime is my biggest gripe with this show. if they don't get a ton of screentime in the spinoff i will be BEYOND pissed and will have some choice words with gmmtv. i have the same complaint about tawan and aran. perth and santa are INCREDIBLE actors, so why are we giving them no time to shine at all. i feel like tawan and aran could have been a lot better of a side couple if they got more screentime, especially with how much of an asshole tawan was. i mean, he punched peach, and then after his family is exposed, aran just TAKES HIM BACK??? like why? there was no buildup for that at all. i mean, i love seeing perthsanta happy together so i guess i'm okay with it, but i really wish their plot had more time to develop. but still, the characters were fun. i know i sound like a broken record but i just want to say this one more time: the actors all had AMAZING performances. i haven't been this impressed by the acting in a thai show in a really long time.

before i wrap things up, i do want to touch on the music in this show. very rarely do i pay much attention if any at all to the music in bls, but the music in this show is SO good. i'm being so serious when i say that "me and you" is in like 15 of my playlists and i listen to it at least 5 times a day. i can't get enough of this show's music. pond and phuwin have such good voices, so their osts are really top notch.

so, to conclude this very long and convoluted review, i just want to say that this show is not perfect. is my perfect rating a little misleading, maybe, but this show is a 10 to ME. in my heart, there are no flaws in me and thee, even though obviously it's not perfect. i haven't had this much fun while watching a bl in a very long time. this show was magical, it got me through the cold and dark of november, december, and half of january. i already know i will be coming back to rewatch this show again and again. if you want a show with lots of funny moments and really great characters, this is for you. me and thee is absolutely taking the cake as my favorite thai bl of all time (dethroning boys in love which is such a close second). i can't recommend it enough, so if you haven't watched it yet, do yourself a favor and introduce yourself to the world of theerakit kian lee. i promise you, you will NOT regret it!!

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