Everyone has already talked about the dubious consent in this drama, so I’ll stick to the positives and what I’m liking so far. I really liked episode 3 because we got to see some emotions out of Lian and Yi. We got to watch them discuss Kon Diao and Kuea in a way that makes it clear that these two have fixed their whole lives in order to have Kon Diao and Kuea with them, and that they would immensely regret losing them from their lives because they are their whole world.
I think it’s unfortunate the amount of pressure that is existing for Lian and Yi. We know Lian is is putting a lot of pressure on himself now, to make more money then the aristocratic family Kuea comes from because he doesn’t want to be seen as a user; to keep both families reputation intact, we see this happening when he tells Foei to keep it to himself and not tell anybody. Lian has effectively become the protector of Kuea’s entire image but also he has to find a way to position himself as a superior provider then what an aristocratic family can do. That’s a lot of pressure on a young adult that I’m sure kept building until this point. Heck if it didn’t fragment his personality, I would’ve been surprised but we saw glimpses of the real Lian so we know he’s essentially in Boss mode 99.8% of the time. I’m mad at the adults in this show for essentially creating this situation, because like it or not, Kuea’s parent’s parentified Lian and so he’s never been allowed to just be himself, in order to meet expectations and surpass them. That’s how you certainly begin a toxic relationship, because what Lian started out of love for Kuea, has become duty, and now there’s almost no way to break that barrier within the constraints of the situation that exists now. I hope in his own home that Lian will be able to shake all that pressure and responsibility.
This also applies to Yi, we keep seeing him in the car dealership he owns, and the apparent race track he owns was also shown in ep 1. These are things we’re slowly seeing with them, because they aren’t the main characters, the show revolves around Kuea’s world, and so we’re building Kuea’s understanding of the world, we’re still missing a lot of information, but so far, I can see how both these relationships would be doomed to mistakes and wrong moves. They’ve essentially been set up to fail, because when you have two people holding onto all the pressure and never admitting this to the people who they’re dating it’s bound to weight too much. They, Lian and Yi, need to learn to rely on Kon Diao and Kuea because they’ve essentially been parentified and they need to act like partners.
I can’t wait to see how we get out of this, and the even more jarring mistakes that might come along the way. Afterall, first relationships, coming from that young, where you’re idolized and then parentified is a recipe for disaster, because it shifted the power dynamic. Let’s hope they can shift it back, and become healthy and within reason normal-esque couples.
Welcome back Canuk.SandeeXPhai is NOT sinking. NO.I hope you weren't disappointed with the flash forward. I liked…
Oh no, no disappointment here with me, except for SandeePhai, KalaeAlice. The rest i'm pretty much content with because we got some solid closure! I will be watching Zaab, hopefully it lives up to it's expectations.
I came back just to drop some parting words of incoherent reviews.
I would first like to state that I’m skipping straight to Sandee x Phai since I am the captain of the sinking ship and that when he said I'll hold onto the answer for now that I growled out season 3 like a feral animal. Hear me out, maybe not a season 3 but a spin off. Bank and Pon don’t have anything announced for this year so I would support a like 6 ep spin off for them.
Okay okay, onto the real review; this entire season suffered from a lack of proper story planning and pacing. Don’t get me wrong I came here week after week praising it, because I did enjoy it, I watched it like it was a telenovela filled with drama, but even for me it hit a point of no return. What I mean by that is that there was so much story that was being told, they were trying to build all this rapport and feelings that they didn’t leave themselves enough time to properly detangle all the webs they created. This is definitely a problem when you have this many characters all having complex stories in one show. To be honest they should’ve had one couple focused per season, that way it would have liberated the others for other productions but kept the story fairly well paced.
I still really enjoyed it and here’s why:
Life is really messy sometimes, and we don’t always get the ending or explanations that we want or require. Considering this is a drama I’m sure everyone would have preferred a super solid ending, especially if there is no season 3 or special spin off or something. I think through the time lapse they wanted to show us that everything we can think of is a possibility.
I envisioned a wedding for Thanu and Wayu, bougee and Padbok is 100% reading them at the altar. I want Jack to make the flower crowns for everyone and it has to be on the beach.
I envisioned Mark and Kit moving to a third world country together and helping open a hospital. Kit trying to pretend he doesn’t care for the kids THAT much but he ends up adopting like 4.
I envisioned Pok and Tong finally getting to be their carefree loving selves, and having a nice quiet domestic life, where Pok works hard so that Tong can study hard. He secretly tells everyone that Tong is going to be the one making more money and that he’s so proud of him.
I also hope that Sandee and Phai meet up for lattes and Sandee finally tells Phai that his definition of love is “you” and that Phai tells him it took him way too long but it’s okay it’s happening now.
On a side note, I am sitting here disappointed that we didn’t get any Kalae X Alice closure, they could’ve at least held hands during the graduation ceremony.
But Jack and Koh got the cutest ending and I was smiling the entire time I was watching them. I really think it ended a little bit like a fairytale and that’s why maybe some people won’t feel satisfied because life isn’t like a fairytale.
*PS: I’m out at sea without a paddle hoping SandeexPhai is happy*
Overall it could've been better executed but I enjoyed it for what it was, and that's all I came to say.
"Hia Yi likes to pretend he's fierce, but actually he never scolds me. Don't you think he's scarier when he's like that, it makes me feel obligated all the time."
I’m just thankful we get a slight glimpse into Kon Diao’s behavior when it comes to Yi. It feels slightly more reasonable to see him cry when Yi accuses him, rightfully so, of lying to him. Now obviously this is another situation where we’re seeing that this couple isn’t completely comfortable with each other yet or still. I can’t wait to have more backstory on them because we’re just getting crumbs and from what I’m seeing I really want to see more of them. I’m thinking they met because of Diao’s and Kuea’s friendship. We’ll see.
Lian X Kuae
Kuae finally told everything he should’ve said to Lian, but he was drunk. Lian is going to have a lot to think about, to be fair I do think he knew that Kuae was hiding his personality from him, it was inferred, but I don’t think he knew the extent of it.
Diao X Kuae
The most wholesome friendship that I’ve ever seen in a show. It’s so pure and cute. I think they just ended up being really good friends, and on a side note domundi calls them the Jellies couple, which is cute.
Not much to say at this point because it really feels like these two first episodes are being used to set up the rest of the show, so I’m reserving my judgement until we really get into it.
I really enjoyed this episode and I wanted to come here and break down the why. But first let me say that I always try to support P’Aof’s series, because it’s important to me to have an openly gay or LGBTQ+ person involved in producing or directing BL’s.
Okay right off the bat, an arranged marriage trope is something I’ve sort of been wanting to see explored in BL for a very long time. It’s something we see in chinese media a lot, and something that was super prevalent in the early 2000’s. I actually was also interested in how deep they would go about the diaspora of the chinese-thai community and I’m already learning about such interesting nuances. Such as Hia being the equivalent to P’ and nu being the equivalent to Nong. So Hia Lian instead of P’Lian and Nu’Kuea instead of Nong Kuea. Subtle but it really changes the entire feeling of this show.
Kuea
I actually really like his character having this much duality, one because it really actually makes sense within his circumstance. Kuea was in the UK while his favorite person in the world died, his grandpa, we can only assume that this is most likely his first lost, he’s pretty privileged being an aristocrat and probably isn’t around death that often, he most likely internalized this passing and felt a need to cling onto the only safety blanket he had, Hia Lian. I think his duality stems from a need to not lose the second most important person in his life. Kuea has never actually had the opportunity to mourn and accept his grandfather's death, and so he developed an unhealthy copping mechanism.
However, he is within his duality lying to himself, and Hia Lian. This idea that he’s okay with being Hia Lian’s perfect boy because he loves him is false. He day dreams about telling Hia Lian how he really feels, and essentially, he’s probably unwittingly building resentment.
Hia Lian
I don’t think Hia Lian is a fool, and I think he’s pushing on Kuea’s button’s because he knows there’s absolutely no way Kuea is this perfect little robot doll. (Annabelle), we see from the flashbacks that Hia Lian is quite fond of Nu’Kuea it’s why he accepts being in an arranged marriage, but marriages are only successful when they’re based in truth. Now do I think Hia Lian knows the extent of Nu’Kuea’s deceit, no, but I do think it’s going to be easy to moved passed through, because one Kuea explains his reasoning it might just break Lian’s heart for not having noticed. I think Lian cares too much for this to end up being an actually dramatic issue, but I do think he also needs an attitude check because he’s being super harsh, especially since we are shown he has a much softer personality or at least the ability to be softer.
Kon Diao
Just really cute, and his friendship with Kuea is refreshing. I can’t wait for us to have more backstory on how he ended up with Yi.
Hia Yi
Yi so far seems to be someone from money and he seems to have very severe control issues. I hope that this is going to be more explained or we’re going to resolve this somehow because I don’t want a toxic boyfriend for Kon Diao.
As a little bonus, I really enjoyed the conversation that was had about LGBTQ+ characters being the comedic relief and how that was an overused and overdone trope. Also the discussion about social responsibility when it comes to advertising products and what they can actually do, was magnificent. It’s why I like P’Aof’s more indie stuff, because he gets the power to put in really important statements about the state of things. Happy Watching everyone!
I've really been enjoying this series, it's really fun to see both of these actors in these roles. I'm bias in the fact that I really like watching anything that involve the mafia, it's a interesting topic to have portraited.
I think I will be signing off from commenting on this series anymore. I received quite a few horrible messages for my thoughts on this new ep, and I just rather not engage in that amount of negativity. I was always okay with people not agreeing with me, and honestly I enjoy hearing other people's view points even if I stay firm in my opinion of the show. I just refuse to be subjected to harassment. Thank you for having me here, enjoy the rest of the season or don't, it's okay to each their own.
Another great review, thanks for sharing!I was curious to see if anyone understood the decision to have Phai talk…
It's definitely a weird group of friends, because I 100% believe Phai is reaching out to Tong because Pok is his best friend. He has reached out a couple of times during this season to Tong via text but I think that's because Phai has the mom group role. I do believe he's doing it partly because he does consider Tong his friend now but also because Pok is his Best Friend, which is why Pok listens to Phai a lot. It honestly wouldve made more sense for Phai to go talk some wisdom into Pok but Pok is stubborn. Honestly it's a messy situation and I think they're trying to wrap it up in a bow when it requires more nuance then that.
Another great review, thanks for sharing!I was curious to see if anyone understood the decision to have Phai talk…
To be fair, Sandee has a lot of apologizing to do, and I do wonder when he's going to be doing that. To be fair I was saying in general that some people are seeming to make that Phai's sole mission and existence right now, as if Phai has to redeem Sandee somehow when it's really not his business to be doing that. Sandee has to be the one to get off feeling sorry for himself and make the apologies himself. Also to be even more fair, if I were Phai I would be very very critical of Sandee at this point. I would be counting down waiting for him to go apologize because feeling sorry for yourself doesnt fix whats been done. I just feel that if Sandee approaches Tong now, it wouldn't end well. I think Tong and Pok need to fix this themselves in order to grow as a couple.
I still disagree with Kalae and using your own point he waited months before he said anything, knowing that something awful happened. If I found my friend beaten up in a bathroom in the mall and brought him home I would've discussed this in lenght until we found out what happened and nipped Pok's confusion in the butt right there and then. But Kalae tends to wait until the dire moment, which is fine, you don't have to be in everyone's business, but that's why I don't think he'd offer any advice to Tong because Tong didn't ask him so Kalae just is going to keep it to himself. I think he would help if asked but Phai to me just seemed to be the logical choice.
To be fair this is a drama and a lot of the times the choices aren't logical and as clear cut as we'd hoped. Maybe we'll get an explanation as to why Phai got involved or maybe we're just going to be sitting here and never know. Frankly anyone at that table could've been used to give Tong advice, but considering that Phai is always reaching out to Tong I think it's just the solid easy choice.
Another great review, thanks for sharing!I was curious to see if anyone understood the decision to have Phai talk…
I have to disagree with you on multiple points;
I wasn’t trying to imply that Kalae’s lack of romantic experience disqualifies him from giving advice, rather I was trying to show that his personality type is that of someone who is reluctant to act. Which would make him offering Tong advice, very out of character, because he tends to remove himself from situations instead of putting himself forward. He only offers advice when he has the full picture, considering he probably realizes he doesn’t have the full picture of Tong and Pok’s relationship, as per Kalae’s character it would make no sense for him to offer any advice at this point.
Second, I don’t understand why suddenly it’s Phai’s responsibility to fix, and right Sandee’s wrong or where suddenly everyone decided it was his burden now. Phai told Sandee he couldn’t continue acting that way, he set up his own boundaries and decided that Sandee had walked within those boundaries and accepted that he could continue to be friends with Sandee. Phai also isn’t pushing Sandee’s friendship on any one else. Phai is not obligated to fix Sandee’s friendships with everyone, and him “telling” Sandee to involve himself in Tong is a massive breach of friendship etiquette even if Sandee was going at it from a good place.
If one of my friends sent someone who ruined my relationship to give me advice I would no longer be friends with them. Phai, who is Tong’s friend offering Tong advice, is logical here. Because that’s what friends do, is the advice always right, is it sometimes hypocritical advice sure, it can be both. But we accept our friends for their flaws, and Phai’s relationship with Sandee is completely irrelevant to this situation.
Phai being there for his friend, Tong, and wanting to help move Tong along because he can see the roadblock he's experiencing is what friends do for other friends. You have to see Phai's relationship with Sandee and with Tong as separate because they are.
Phai is actually behaving in a very adult manner, by not involving others and just having a discussion with his friend. Sandee coming in here, would not work, it would cause more drama. But also putting Sandee’s sins onto Phai just because Phai isn’t shunning Sandee isn’t good either. At that moment it was just a friend looking out for an other friend. (as much as I love Sandee this had nothing to do with him. Sure he you can say is the reason Pok and Tong aren’t doing well, but with their personalities and them being toxic to each other this would’ve been the end result anyways). But in my opinion Pok and Tong would’ve ended up here anyways because of their lack of experience in a relationship, Sandee came in like a wrecking ball but Tong and Pok never communicated the issue.
Sorry if this comes off strange, I’m happy to debate this with you, even if we disagree, english isn’t my first language so I might come off gruff!
I had to sit and stew in my emotions for my thoughts on episode 10. I’m still not over Pha’s parents leaving the room before he was dead and calling him dead from last episode. So here we go again.
Pha’s funeral is the most disrespectful thing I have ever witnessed in a BL in my life. Like thanks for making us realize that the only person who gave an actual smidge of a fuck for Pha was Kit. The body’s not even cold and Thanu and Wayu are talking about moving the fuck on. (I love Wayu and Thanu but that’s in poor taste even for me). Funerals are for the living, and if you are going to be disrespectful just don’t show up. Kit looked broken, and I do think his slightly quick return to normal makes sense with his character personally, only because I do think he knew this is where it was going and has been passively mourning Pha for a while. But needless to say, if my funeral is like this, just set me on fire on pyre.
I’m honestly really confused and concerned by the sudden hatred that’s being directed towards Phai, because if not him giving Tong the solid advice then who else would be? Kalae who can barely function when it comes to Alice (which again would total love them together, it’s cute, wholesome but he’s kind of incapable of getting passed the fact that she’s his senior); he’s kind of also clueless as a character. Point in fact being that he did know the whole time that Tong wasn’t responsible for Pok getting beaten up in season 1 but chose to keep his mouth shut and not say anything until season 2. Like I don’t dislike Kalae but he’s not someone who has the correct characterization to be giving Tong any advice, also I wouldn’t take any advice from Kalae if I were Tong, because he didn’t even have his back until it was all falling apart, but who was reaching out the entire time, checking in, it was Phai. It is exactly the type of behavior I expect from Phai, the same behavior that is keeping Sandee in his life, Phai is literally the mom of the group. So people who are mad at Phai for keeping Sandee around and for giving advice to Tong, I can’t agree with you, since it’s perfectly within his personality. It had to be Phai, since Tong trusts Phai and frankly Kalae hasn’t done anything to deserve like basic friendship, other then letting him move in, it feels very surface level friendship. Like those two people who hang with the same friends and are nice to each other but don’t know much about each other- etc.
On an other note, Sandee and Phai remaining together makes sense to me (even if its just as friends and later more). Phai is going through his bad boy syndrome. He’s the mom of the group and he can fix Sandee. Phai is a fixer by nature and we’re now just seeing him sort of let go but not really of that idea. Case and point he needs to leave his room and oops Mark shows up. He gives advice and tries to fix other people’s relationships. I know it’s not the best thing for him to be growing into but that’s the direction their shuffling his character into. That’s my toonie.
I was happy for Thanu and Wayu but it was slightly ridiculous that they weren’t mourning. Thanu is supposed to be Phas like best friend apart from Kit, and he’s just trying to fuck. I know people deal with grief differently but maybe like a mention of moving the trip back one day so they can go pay respect to his parents or some type of something. Don’t get me wrong I wanted the trip, but also it wasn’t great? Like there’s something off with the timing and the storytelling this ep. I’m not super enthused about this episode it was chaotic in a bad way.
Jack and Koh we’re being soft and it was nice, Mark is still suffering from Kit’s tyranny and Pok and Tong had such a short window but to me had the best interaction of this whole episode. I think Pok is going into the direction of owning up to his misgivings and wrongdoings and Tong is finally putting his foot down, albeit still softly, about whats acceptable to him. This is how baby relationships are sometimes so it’s kind of nice to see them explore that. (Toxicity sometimes happens in your first relationships its nice to see them navigating this topic with a little growth) I’m not expecting perfection from them any time soon. I don't have much to say about this episode, sorry. It was mostly me ranting.
Great review as always!!I LOVE the point you made about Pok and his werewolf costume!I've always had this thought…
Thank you! I really love metaphors and when I saw Pok was the werewolf I knew it was my time to connect the dots and shine! Honestly I feel like if he helps, Sandee that is, Pok and Tong get together, and Pok forgives him, everyone else will too because they value his opinion, and considering he's the one who punched Sandee it feels like he needs to be the one to forgive him, just because he has the highest stake in the game. (Not that I'm forgetting Tong but I feel like Tong has just decided he's forever going to be like living in the 'meh' zone). BUT I feel like Sab had a super strong reaction as well and it's.... going to be interesting to see how they resolve this.
Iloved your review! It brought up several good points, especially about Mark and kit. And I liked your perspective…
I would honestly hate Pa if they use him to hurt anyone else. (I would actually hate the show runners because its their script). But honestly, for comedy they can keep Pok in the werewolf outfit for the rest of the season and I would forgive everyone.
Iloved your review! It brought up several good points, especially about Mark and kit. And I liked your perspective…
Yeah you could feel Kit and Wayu's hearts break. (Honestly really good acting from Copter and Bas). It would be nice if that ending was wrapped up without drama. His death was a big enough event, and I do think they could use it to have Kit open up to Mark finally. But that's all in the air until it airs.
Iloved your review! It brought up several good points, especially about Mark and kit. And I liked your perspective…
Thank you. I think death is a really complicated matter to take on in a BL. But also coming from personal experience I've seen death come at people in many ways, and people just give up or stopped trying because they were okay with it. I think we all sort of hoped P'pa would make it out but they never really showed him fighting, and he did tell Kit a couple of times that he had come to terms with his death. So I wasn't totally caught off guard by his decision. I do hope it's from that angle and not a Wayu gave up on me so I give up on life angle. They primed us for P'Pa just being okay with dying so I hope they stay that route, and that we get a nice letter for Wayu saying he did everything right and that he keeps being happy. :X I digress but yeah-
I actually really enjoyed this episode and even though it seems like some people may have seen this episode as filler, here are my thoughts as to why it wasn’t. I’ll try to dissect this as best as I can, and get back to my serious reviews.
Pok & Tong
I really enjoy metaphors, and puns and anything that has a double entendre. Pok as a werewolf, while he’s trying to reconcile with Tong is exactly that, whether it was intended to be or not we’ll have to see. What I mean is that Pok is the embodiment in that moment of what a werewolf signifies in popular culture, he’s an untamed energy, and often resorts to living on his instincts. He’s even quantifying the struggle between “good” and “bad” within himself, but also werewolves depict raw sexual energy, uncontrollable nature and really strong emotional urges. Pok to Tong is a werewolf. Which honestly had me beaming at the apt characterization, because if you think about it, would you be able to accept a werewolf if they were begging you for forgiveness? (Obviously Pok is not an actual werewolf it’s just an analogy) I do love this, and Tong’s reaction, after frankly having been kind of forced to accept a violent barrage of emotional damage and sexual trickery, is right, he needs more time. It really is the story of the werewolf self-actualizing and his groom needing to walk away because he doesn’t know if he’s too animalistic to actually care for him. (Side note on Pok’s costume, that was a good look for him- minus the ears which had me laughing, but I really like eyeliner drawn like that on people, is this dating me oh boy).
Phai x Sandee
Good ole’ Sandee from season 1 made an appearance, wise words, soft spoken. I do think they’re trying to show us that Sandee’s actual nature might be very tame and that well the saying is true, Love is Blind. I do hope that since Phai sort of gave Sandee permission to help Pok and Tong, that we might get scheming Sandee, but a little more wholesome? Like locking them in a closet or something. (Not that it’s super wholesome but more of like meddling without too much consequence). I enjoyed the short scene, I think we’re seeing a fog being lifted from Sandee, where he’s realizing that what Phai wants from him is wise advice and a kind heart. (Which I know what someone would say, he hasn’t been very kind, but we have to consider that in Sandee’s mind at the time, not justifiable, he might have been thinking he was doing others a kindness, by revealing the truth, even now he says that if they truly like each other, Pok and Tong, they won’t stay apart for long). I know it’s going to be slow burn with most likely nothing to show for it for these two but it would make sense that they end on a slightly awkward note. (Also on a side note I did like Sandee’s costume, and I think the actor would look great with silver hair).
Jack X Koh
They were the cutest thing in this episode- HOWEVER, they should just admit they’re together at this point. Everyone kind of knows, heck even Mark is taking the piss out of them for it. I would like Jack x Koh, Koh x Jack to be set in a more permanent ending but I think this vague yes/no we’re together, no we’re not, but also we chase the same people so that neither of us can end up with that person since we’re actually together game might be what we end with. I still enjoy that so I think that’s okay. The flirting was wholesome and I smiled through the scene.
Wayu x Thanu
I love these two, and I keep saying that. However even though I know Wayu is shy, and soft, and that I’m willing to allow myself to justify him pushing Thanu away even after all that I personally, so remove Wayu from this equation for a minute- THANU tried really hard and if it were me I’d have let him stay. Back to Wayu, I wasn’t surprised that he did end up still making Thanu leave, but you give a man a coffee at night, he tries to take his shirt off and try to get you to make out with him, and I don’t have the will power to just be like okay BYE! Considering that you know, that Thanu has been chasing Wayu for a while, and there’s history there. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, I actually was like Wayu won’t let him, it was very in character and that’s fine, if someone isn’t into it and they shoo you along then you have to respect that. But I also respect Thanu for trying, like he tried so hard, poor man. It reminds me of a scene in an other BL only because the guy articulated probably what Thanu was trying to physically get across “Did you ever think of my feelings for one minute, that I’m a person in love with you, who wants to touch you, who just wants to be with you”. Paraphrasing there but, that’s the vibe I got, I liked the contrast.
Mark X Kit
Kit needs therapy, and Mark needs to be more assertive. They are not being remotely healthy right now. But the dynamic is exactly the same as in season 1, Kit says fetch and Mark goes to fetch. I need them to get their shit together, because this is really unhealthy and I’m having a hard time supporting them because their just stuck in one place doing the same dance. At least we’re getting growth from the other characters, EVEN if some of the growth might not be enjoyable to some, it’s needed. (I know and I totally understand people prefer Sandee as a villain but he can’t be a villain and be with Phai. A great twist here would be that he’s still doing things but we don’t know!)
P’Pa
I think there might have been some weird continuity issue here, because his parents left his room going “he’s gone, he’s dead” and then we have the trio inside his room where he’s very much alive, just dying? I don’t think it made ANY sense for his parents to leave before he actually died, I was expecting them to enter the room to a dead P’Pa. It was a little weird, but to get to the point. There was no other option, but I do hope we get more info as to why he stopped taking the treatment. Sometimes when people are told they’re going to die, even if somehow they start to get better (experimental drug) sometimes they’ve already accepted and prepared for death so they just… choose to go. Death can be really complicated, (I use to work in a care home and I’ve seen my fair share of death). I hope Kit doesn’t use this as an excuse to not go in the states. I do hope it gives him a come to life moment where he realizes that being honest to Mark about not wanting to go to the states because he would regret not having Mark with him, is okay. Sometimes we make decisions in life that not everyone agrees with us on, and I think Kit is intelligent enough to be able to explain to Mark that yes in part he doesn’t want to leave because Mark is there but also because most likely Kit can do just fine in Thailand, without going to the states and partially we can tell he doesn’t want to, and that’s honestly good enough. Kit shouldn’t have to beg Mark to make this decision for him, to tell him not to go, that’s unfair.
Anyways, this has been my review, I think I missed on some things but sorry for the length.
It's not a discrepancy so much as it's the fact that the pronunciation of Jill sounds like "Jew" in Thai. So when…
It is strange because its most likely a thai native who speaks english... so it would be strange for them to be making this error. Anyways it doesn't matter, it's just something I noted.
All I have to say about this episode was that it was filler, but it was still fun. I enjoyed it. Also can we please talk about why even though Fergie's character is referenced as Jil in all promo, they keep calling him Jew? They even sub it as Jew. Very funny, at least it's weirdly consistent in it's inconsistency.
I think it’s unfortunate the amount of pressure that is existing for Lian and Yi. We know Lian is is putting a lot of pressure on himself now, to make more money then the aristocratic family Kuea comes from because he doesn’t want to be seen as a user; to keep both families reputation intact, we see this happening when he tells Foei to keep it to himself and not tell anybody. Lian has effectively become the protector of Kuea’s entire image but also he has to find a way to position himself as a superior provider then what an aristocratic family can do. That’s a lot of pressure on a young adult that I’m sure kept building until this point. Heck if it didn’t fragment his personality, I would’ve been surprised but we saw glimpses of the real Lian so we know he’s essentially in Boss mode 99.8% of the time. I’m mad at the adults in this show for essentially creating this situation, because like it or not, Kuea’s parent’s parentified Lian and so he’s never been allowed to just be himself, in order to meet expectations and surpass them. That’s how you certainly begin a toxic relationship, because what Lian started out of love for Kuea, has become duty, and now there’s almost no way to break that barrier within the constraints of the situation that exists now. I hope in his own home that Lian will be able to shake all that pressure and responsibility.
This also applies to Yi, we keep seeing him in the car dealership he owns, and the apparent race track he owns was also shown in ep 1. These are things we’re slowly seeing with them, because they aren’t the main characters, the show revolves around Kuea’s world, and so we’re building Kuea’s understanding of the world, we’re still missing a lot of information, but so far, I can see how both these relationships would be doomed to mistakes and wrong moves. They’ve essentially been set up to fail, because when you have two people holding onto all the pressure and never admitting this to the people who they’re dating it’s bound to weight too much. They, Lian and Yi, need to learn to rely on Kon Diao and Kuea because they’ve essentially been parentified and they need to act like partners.
I can’t wait to see how we get out of this, and the even more jarring mistakes that might come along the way. Afterall, first relationships, coming from that young, where you’re idolized and then parentified is a recipe for disaster, because it shifted the power dynamic. Let’s hope they can shift it back, and become healthy and within reason normal-esque couples.
I will be watching Zaab, hopefully it lives up to it's expectations.
I would first like to state that I’m skipping straight to Sandee x Phai since I am the captain of the sinking ship and that when he said I'll hold onto the answer for now that I growled out season 3 like a feral animal. Hear me out, maybe not a season 3 but a spin off. Bank and Pon don’t have anything announced for this year so I would support a like 6 ep spin off for them.
Okay okay, onto the real review; this entire season suffered from a lack of proper story planning and pacing. Don’t get me wrong I came here week after week praising it, because I did enjoy it, I watched it like it was a telenovela filled with drama, but even for me it hit a point of no return. What I mean by that is that there was so much story that was being told, they were trying to build all this rapport and feelings that they didn’t leave themselves enough time to properly detangle all the webs they created. This is definitely a problem when you have this many characters all having complex stories in one show. To be honest they should’ve had one couple focused per season, that way it would have liberated the others for other productions but kept the story fairly well paced.
I still really enjoyed it and here’s why:
Life is really messy sometimes, and we don’t always get the ending or explanations that we want or require. Considering this is a drama I’m sure everyone would have preferred a super solid ending, especially if there is no season 3 or special spin off or something. I think through the time lapse they wanted to show us that everything we can think of is a possibility.
I envisioned a wedding for Thanu and Wayu, bougee and Padbok is 100% reading them at the altar. I want Jack to make the flower crowns for everyone and it has to be on the beach.
I envisioned Mark and Kit moving to a third world country together and helping open a hospital. Kit trying to pretend he doesn’t care for the kids THAT much but he ends up adopting like 4.
I envisioned Pok and Tong finally getting to be their carefree loving selves, and having a nice quiet domestic life, where Pok works hard so that Tong can study hard. He secretly tells everyone that Tong is going to be the one making more money and that he’s so proud of him.
I also hope that Sandee and Phai meet up for lattes and Sandee finally tells Phai that his definition of love is “you” and that Phai tells him it took him way too long but it’s okay it’s happening now.
On a side note, I am sitting here disappointed that we didn’t get any Kalae X Alice closure, they could’ve at least held hands during the graduation ceremony.
But Jack and Koh got the cutest ending and I was smiling the entire time I was watching them. I really think it ended a little bit like a fairytale and that’s why maybe some people won’t feel satisfied because life isn’t like a fairytale.
*PS: I’m out at sea without a paddle hoping SandeexPhai is happy*
Overall it could've been better executed but I enjoyed it for what it was, and that's all I came to say.
Yi X Diao
“Why are you so afraid of Hia Yi?”
"Hia Yi likes to pretend he's fierce, but actually he never scolds me. Don't you think he's scarier when he's like that, it makes me feel obligated all the time."
I’m just thankful we get a slight glimpse into Kon Diao’s behavior when it comes to Yi. It feels slightly more reasonable to see him cry when Yi accuses him, rightfully so, of lying to him. Now obviously this is another situation where we’re seeing that this couple isn’t completely comfortable with each other yet or still. I can’t wait to have more backstory on them because we’re just getting crumbs and from what I’m seeing I really want to see more of them. I’m thinking they met because of Diao’s and Kuea’s friendship. We’ll see.
Lian X Kuae
Kuae finally told everything he should’ve said to Lian, but he was drunk. Lian is going to have a lot to think about, to be fair I do think he knew that Kuae was hiding his personality from him, it was inferred, but I don’t think he knew the extent of it.
Diao X Kuae
The most wholesome friendship that I’ve ever seen in a show. It’s so pure and cute. I think they just ended up being really good friends, and on a side note domundi calls them the Jellies couple, which is cute.
Not much to say at this point because it really feels like these two first episodes are being used to set up the rest of the show, so I’m reserving my judgement until we really get into it.
I really enjoyed this episode and I wanted to come here and break down the why. But first let me say that I always try to support P’Aof’s series, because it’s important to me to have an openly gay or LGBTQ+ person involved in producing or directing BL’s.
Okay right off the bat, an arranged marriage trope is something I’ve sort of been wanting to see explored in BL for a very long time. It’s something we see in chinese media a lot, and something that was super prevalent in the early 2000’s. I actually was also interested in how deep they would go about the diaspora of the chinese-thai community and I’m already learning about such interesting nuances. Such as Hia being the equivalent to P’ and nu being the equivalent to Nong. So Hia Lian instead of P’Lian and Nu’Kuea instead of Nong Kuea. Subtle but it really changes the entire feeling of this show.
Kuea
I actually really like his character having this much duality, one because it really actually makes sense within his circumstance. Kuea was in the UK while his favorite person in the world died, his grandpa, we can only assume that this is most likely his first lost, he’s pretty privileged being an aristocrat and probably isn’t around death that often, he most likely internalized this passing and felt a need to cling onto the only safety blanket he had, Hia Lian. I think his duality stems from a need to not lose the second most important person in his life. Kuea has never actually had the opportunity to mourn and accept his grandfather's death, and so he developed an unhealthy copping mechanism.
However, he is within his duality lying to himself, and Hia Lian. This idea that he’s okay with being Hia Lian’s perfect boy because he loves him is false. He day dreams about telling Hia Lian how he really feels, and essentially, he’s probably unwittingly building resentment.
Hia Lian
I don’t think Hia Lian is a fool, and I think he’s pushing on Kuea’s button’s because he knows there’s absolutely no way Kuea is this perfect little robot doll. (Annabelle), we see from the flashbacks that Hia Lian is quite fond of Nu’Kuea it’s why he accepts being in an arranged marriage, but marriages are only successful when they’re based in truth. Now do I think Hia Lian knows the extent of Nu’Kuea’s deceit, no, but I do think it’s going to be easy to moved passed through, because one Kuea explains his reasoning it might just break Lian’s heart for not having noticed. I think Lian cares too much for this to end up being an actually dramatic issue, but I do think he also needs an attitude check because he’s being super harsh, especially since we are shown he has a much softer personality or at least the ability to be softer.
Kon Diao
Just really cute, and his friendship with Kuea is refreshing. I can’t wait for us to have more backstory on how he ended up with Yi.
Hia Yi
Yi so far seems to be someone from money and he seems to have very severe control issues. I hope that this is going to be more explained or we’re going to resolve this somehow because I don’t want a toxic boyfriend for Kon Diao.
As a little bonus, I really enjoyed the conversation that was had about LGBTQ+ characters being the comedic relief and how that was an overused and overdone trope. Also the discussion about social responsibility when it comes to advertising products and what they can actually do, was magnificent. It’s why I like P’Aof’s more indie stuff, because he gets the power to put in really important statements about the state of things. Happy Watching everyone!
Honestly it's a messy situation and I think they're trying to wrap it up in a bow when it requires more nuance then that.
Also to be even more fair, if I were Phai I would be very very critical of Sandee at this point. I would be counting down waiting for him to go apologize because feeling sorry for yourself doesnt fix whats been done. I just feel that if Sandee approaches Tong now, it wouldn't end well. I think Tong and Pok need to fix this themselves in order to grow as a couple.
I still disagree with Kalae and using your own point he waited months before he said anything, knowing that something awful happened. If I found my friend beaten up in a bathroom in the mall and brought him home I would've discussed this in lenght until we found out what happened and nipped Pok's confusion in the butt right there and then. But Kalae tends to wait until the dire moment, which is fine, you don't have to be in everyone's business, but that's why I don't think he'd offer any advice to Tong because Tong didn't ask him so Kalae just is going to keep it to himself. I think he would help if asked but Phai to me just seemed to be the logical choice.
To be fair this is a drama and a lot of the times the choices aren't logical and as clear cut as we'd hoped. Maybe we'll get an explanation as to why Phai got involved or maybe we're just going to be sitting here and never know. Frankly anyone at that table could've been used to give Tong advice, but considering that Phai is always reaching out to Tong I think it's just the solid easy choice.
I wasn’t trying to imply that Kalae’s lack of romantic experience disqualifies him from giving advice, rather I was trying to show that his personality type is that of someone who is reluctant to act. Which would make him offering Tong advice, very out of character, because he tends to remove himself from situations instead of putting himself forward. He only offers advice when he has the full picture, considering he probably realizes he doesn’t have the full picture of Tong and Pok’s relationship, as per Kalae’s character it would make no sense for him to offer any advice at this point.
Second, I don’t understand why suddenly it’s Phai’s responsibility to fix, and right Sandee’s wrong or where suddenly everyone decided it was his burden now. Phai told Sandee he couldn’t continue acting that way, he set up his own boundaries and decided that Sandee had walked within those boundaries and accepted that he could continue to be friends with Sandee. Phai also isn’t pushing Sandee’s friendship on any one else. Phai is not obligated to fix Sandee’s friendships with everyone, and him “telling” Sandee to involve himself in Tong is a massive breach of friendship etiquette even if Sandee was going at it from a good place.
If one of my friends sent someone who ruined my relationship to give me advice I would no longer be friends with them. Phai, who is Tong’s friend offering Tong advice, is logical here. Because that’s what friends do, is the advice always right, is it sometimes hypocritical advice sure, it can be both. But we accept our friends for their flaws, and Phai’s relationship with Sandee is completely irrelevant to this situation.
Phai being there for his friend, Tong, and wanting to help move Tong along because he can see the roadblock he's experiencing is what friends do for other friends. You have to see Phai's relationship with Sandee and with Tong as separate because they are.
Phai is actually behaving in a very adult manner, by not involving others and just having a discussion with his friend. Sandee coming in here, would not work, it would cause more drama. But also putting Sandee’s sins onto Phai just because Phai isn’t shunning Sandee isn’t good either. At that moment it was just a friend looking out for an other friend. (as much as I love Sandee this had nothing to do with him. Sure he you can say is the reason Pok and Tong aren’t doing well, but with their personalities and them being toxic to each other this would’ve been the end result anyways). But in my opinion Pok and Tong would’ve ended up here anyways because of their lack of experience in a relationship, Sandee came in like a wrecking ball but Tong and Pok never communicated the issue.
Sorry if this comes off strange, I’m happy to debate this with you, even if we disagree, english isn’t my first language so I might come off gruff!
Pha’s funeral is the most disrespectful thing I have ever witnessed in a BL in my life. Like thanks for making us realize that the only person who gave an actual smidge of a fuck for Pha was Kit. The body’s not even cold and Thanu and Wayu are talking about moving the fuck on. (I love Wayu and Thanu but that’s in poor taste even for me). Funerals are for the living, and if you are going to be disrespectful just don’t show up. Kit looked broken, and I do think his slightly quick return to normal makes sense with his character personally, only because I do think he knew this is where it was going and has been passively mourning Pha for a while. But needless to say, if my funeral is like this, just set me on fire on pyre.
I’m honestly really confused and concerned by the sudden hatred that’s being directed towards Phai, because if not him giving Tong the solid advice then who else would be? Kalae who can barely function when it comes to Alice (which again would total love them together, it’s cute, wholesome but he’s kind of incapable of getting passed the fact that she’s his senior); he’s kind of also clueless as a character. Point in fact being that he did know the whole time that Tong wasn’t responsible for Pok getting beaten up in season 1 but chose to keep his mouth shut and not say anything until season 2. Like I don’t dislike Kalae but he’s not someone who has the correct characterization to be giving Tong any advice, also I wouldn’t take any advice from Kalae if I were Tong, because he didn’t even have his back until it was all falling apart, but who was reaching out the entire time, checking in, it was Phai. It is exactly the type of behavior I expect from Phai, the same behavior that is keeping Sandee in his life, Phai is literally the mom of the group. So people who are mad at Phai for keeping Sandee around and for giving advice to Tong, I can’t agree with you, since it’s perfectly within his personality. It had to be Phai, since Tong trusts Phai and frankly Kalae hasn’t done anything to deserve like basic friendship, other then letting him move in, it feels very surface level friendship. Like those two people who hang with the same friends and are nice to each other but don’t know much about each other- etc.
On an other note, Sandee and Phai remaining together makes sense to me (even if its just as friends and later more). Phai is going through his bad boy syndrome. He’s the mom of the group and he can fix Sandee. Phai is a fixer by nature and we’re now just seeing him sort of let go but not really of that idea. Case and point he needs to leave his room and oops Mark shows up. He gives advice and tries to fix other people’s relationships. I know it’s not the best thing for him to be growing into but that’s the direction their shuffling his character into. That’s my toonie.
I was happy for Thanu and Wayu but it was slightly ridiculous that they weren’t mourning. Thanu is supposed to be Phas like best friend apart from Kit, and he’s just trying to fuck. I know people deal with grief differently but maybe like a mention of moving the trip back one day so they can go pay respect to his parents or some type of something. Don’t get me wrong I wanted the trip, but also it wasn’t great? Like there’s something off with the timing and the storytelling this ep. I’m not super enthused about this episode it was chaotic in a bad way.
Jack and Koh we’re being soft and it was nice, Mark is still suffering from Kit’s tyranny and Pok and Tong had such a short window but to me had the best interaction of this whole episode. I think Pok is going into the direction of owning up to his misgivings and wrongdoings and Tong is finally putting his foot down, albeit still softly, about whats acceptable to him. This is how baby relationships are sometimes so it’s kind of nice to see them explore that. (Toxicity sometimes happens in your first relationships its nice to see them navigating this topic with a little growth) I’m not expecting perfection from them any time soon. I don't have much to say about this episode, sorry. It was mostly me ranting.
Pok & Tong
I really enjoy metaphors, and puns and anything that has a double entendre. Pok as a werewolf, while he’s trying to reconcile with Tong is exactly that, whether it was intended to be or not we’ll have to see. What I mean is that Pok is the embodiment in that moment of what a werewolf signifies in popular culture, he’s an untamed energy, and often resorts to living on his instincts. He’s even quantifying the struggle between “good” and “bad” within himself, but also werewolves depict raw sexual energy, uncontrollable nature and really strong emotional urges. Pok to Tong is a werewolf. Which honestly had me beaming at the apt characterization, because if you think about it, would you be able to accept a werewolf if they were begging you for forgiveness? (Obviously Pok is not an actual werewolf it’s just an analogy) I do love this, and Tong’s reaction, after frankly having been kind of forced to accept a violent barrage of emotional damage and sexual trickery, is right, he needs more time. It really is the story of the werewolf self-actualizing and his groom needing to walk away because he doesn’t know if he’s too animalistic to actually care for him. (Side note on Pok’s costume, that was a good look for him- minus the ears which had me laughing, but I really like eyeliner drawn like that on people, is this dating me oh boy).
Phai x Sandee
Good ole’ Sandee from season 1 made an appearance, wise words, soft spoken. I do think they’re trying to show us that Sandee’s actual nature might be very tame and that well the saying is true, Love is Blind. I do hope that since Phai sort of gave Sandee permission to help Pok and Tong, that we might get scheming Sandee, but a little more wholesome? Like locking them in a closet or something. (Not that it’s super wholesome but more of like meddling without too much consequence). I enjoyed the short scene, I think we’re seeing a fog being lifted from Sandee, where he’s realizing that what Phai wants from him is wise advice and a kind heart. (Which I know what someone would say, he hasn’t been very kind, but we have to consider that in Sandee’s mind at the time, not justifiable, he might have been thinking he was doing others a kindness, by revealing the truth, even now he says that if they truly like each other, Pok and Tong, they won’t stay apart for long). I know it’s going to be slow burn with most likely nothing to show for it for these two but it would make sense that they end on a slightly awkward note. (Also on a side note I did like Sandee’s costume, and I think the actor would look great with silver hair).
Jack X Koh
They were the cutest thing in this episode- HOWEVER, they should just admit they’re together at this point. Everyone kind of knows, heck even Mark is taking the piss out of them for it. I would like Jack x Koh, Koh x Jack to be set in a more permanent ending but I think this vague yes/no we’re together, no we’re not, but also we chase the same people so that neither of us can end up with that person since we’re actually together game might be what we end with. I still enjoy that so I think that’s okay. The flirting was wholesome and I smiled through the scene.
Wayu x Thanu
I love these two, and I keep saying that. However even though I know Wayu is shy, and soft, and that I’m willing to allow myself to justify him pushing Thanu away even after all that I personally, so remove Wayu from this equation for a minute- THANU tried really hard and if it were me I’d have let him stay. Back to Wayu, I wasn’t surprised that he did end up still making Thanu leave, but you give a man a coffee at night, he tries to take his shirt off and try to get you to make out with him, and I don’t have the will power to just be like okay BYE! Considering that you know, that Thanu has been chasing Wayu for a while, and there’s history there. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, I actually was like Wayu won’t let him, it was very in character and that’s fine, if someone isn’t into it and they shoo you along then you have to respect that. But I also respect Thanu for trying, like he tried so hard, poor man. It reminds me of a scene in an other BL only because the guy articulated probably what Thanu was trying to physically get across “Did you ever think of my feelings for one minute, that I’m a person in love with you, who wants to touch you, who just wants to be with you”. Paraphrasing there but, that’s the vibe I got, I liked the contrast.
Mark X Kit
Kit needs therapy, and Mark needs to be more assertive. They are not being remotely healthy right now. But the dynamic is exactly the same as in season 1, Kit says fetch and Mark goes to fetch. I need them to get their shit together, because this is really unhealthy and I’m having a hard time supporting them because their just stuck in one place doing the same dance. At least we’re getting growth from the other characters, EVEN if some of the growth might not be enjoyable to some, it’s needed. (I know and I totally understand people prefer Sandee as a villain but he can’t be a villain and be with Phai. A great twist here would be that he’s still doing things but we don’t know!)
P’Pa
I think there might have been some weird continuity issue here, because his parents left his room going “he’s gone, he’s dead” and then we have the trio inside his room where he’s very much alive, just dying? I don’t think it made ANY sense for his parents to leave before he actually died, I was expecting them to enter the room to a dead P’Pa. It was a little weird, but to get to the point. There was no other option, but I do hope we get more info as to why he stopped taking the treatment. Sometimes when people are told they’re going to die, even if somehow they start to get better (experimental drug) sometimes they’ve already accepted and prepared for death so they just… choose to go. Death can be really complicated, (I use to work in a care home and I’ve seen my fair share of death). I hope Kit doesn’t use this as an excuse to not go in the states. I do hope it gives him a come to life moment where he realizes that being honest to Mark about not wanting to go to the states because he would regret not having Mark with him, is okay. Sometimes we make decisions in life that not everyone agrees with us on, and I think Kit is intelligent enough to be able to explain to Mark that yes in part he doesn’t want to leave because Mark is there but also because most likely Kit can do just fine in Thailand, without going to the states and partially we can tell he doesn’t want to, and that’s honestly good enough. Kit shouldn’t have to beg Mark to make this decision for him, to tell him not to go, that’s unfair.
Anyways, this has been my review, I think I missed on some things but sorry for the length.
Also can we please talk about why even though Fergie's character is referenced as Jil in all promo, they keep calling him Jew? They even sub it as Jew. Very funny, at least it's weirdly consistent in it's inconsistency.