Lovely Writer (2021)

A Must Watch Series

When I watch a new BL series, I always reserve myself for disappointment with regards to toxic tropes and stereotypes. Issues tackling consent and prejudice against people of the LGBTQ+ community is ongoing in society and often is reflected in the series that we watch. I cannot confidently say that those tropes will ever go away to the full extent, but it's always nice as a viewer to be pleasantly surprised when the story line of a popular series defies the odds and addresses those common themes from a behind the scenes perspective.

Lovely writer does an excellent job addressing topics revolving around the BL industry including: consent, prejudice, harassment, and other toxic tropes that we often see in these types of series. I watched through the series with minimal frustrations regarding those themes and better spent my attention on the actual story line. It was also refreshing to watch a BL that takes place outside the typical college/university setting.

In regards to the acting, I was happy to see Kao (Nubsib) back in the saddle with another main role. I thoroughly enjoyed his acting both in this series as well as the BL series Until We Meet Again. Poompat (Gene) to my knowledge is a fairly green actor in the industry however, his performance in Lovely Writer proves that he has great potential and I can't wait to see him in future shows to come. I think in general the cast was pretty solid and there weren't too many instances where I was disappointed about the acting.

Overall, Lovely Writer is a must watch series in my opinion even if you only watch it once. The story line is sweet while giving you a peek behind the curtains at the BL industry at the same time.

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A lovely romcom that will make you wanna kiss, kiss, kiss a consensual kiss

I do not always rate dramas solely on how they make me feel but this one probably is 90% feels 10% quality. Because I did feel a range of emotions with everything from, happy, nervous, hot, tickled, sad, angry to confused.

To be honest the production was mediocre and the best acting skills where probably shown by the child actors in the later episodes (though most of the skills improved with time). This drama was mostly an easy to watch, sweet, steamy, fluffy drama with a cold and awkward main lead along side a worm and loving other main lead. Some episodes dealt with important issues showing the importance of living in a supportive environment and the harm a joke can make. Giving this otherwise extremely light, fluffy, steamy, funny rom com a slight serious core between the laughs.

This truly has the makes of a classic rom-com drama with all the parts including a love triangel, jealousy, mild stalking, consensual relations, childhood sweetharts and misunderstandings all topped off with an OST that setts the mood for each scene and a theme song that just will not leave your head no matter how hard you try.. I wanna kiss, kiss, kiss.... I wanna kiss you, do you wanna kiss me too... so it may kind of make you want to kiss just a bout any one.. okay not anyone but it will awaken your wish to kiss, so if you do not have some one who you can kiss in a consensual way you might want to prepare your self. A big plus is how this drama deals with the issue of consent and the complexity of finding trust in another human being. I loved this dramas take on the classic scandal/celebrity relationship theme probably making viewers mad but staying true to the characters personality, as well as the problems that may occur while facing the harsh reality of facing pressure from others. Can love survive anything? And how much would you be willing to forgive/sacrifice for love?
Another plus was the way this drama portrays femininity, masculinity and sexuality showing a spectrum not playing in to traditional gender roles and stereotypes. As well as criticizing both the industry and the female gaze in a very smart way,


All in all this is defiantly a lovely rom com about a actually not so lovely writer but a lovely actor that just seems to want to be kissed by the not so lovely writer...

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Nice BL that offers some lighthearted criticism of the industry

This is a cleverly made BL that knows the elements of a popular (and good?) BL and what bad BLs are like. It's also an understated satire or criticism of the BL industry while being a nice BL series in itself.

The story of Gene and Nubsib is pretty good especially in the first half of the series. In the second half, I felt that the narrative threads that have been started were not really dealt with all that well (e.g. why Gene has such a strong reaction to Nubsib hiding the fact that they were childhood friends, why Nubsib forgives him quite easily and their parents' initial objections to their relationship). Some problems were resolved a little too quickly to make way for the good old Episode 11 crisis. Some practical constraints could have caused this since the creators are actually quite good at telling a story.

The series that Nubsib is filming in the story, Bad Enginner, is a mocking take on Thai BLs featuring engineering students (though I believe some of these are better than others). Some of the scenes in Bad Engineer (with Nubsib walking around and posturing with a few other engineering students) are reminiscent of what we see in some BLs but are so cringe-inducing that you begin to have an inkling of where the title is *Bad* Engineer.

The series also, in a rather understated and mild way, exposes the problems with the BL industry (well, actually the entertainment industry in general), including its fans. 2021 seems to be the year when the genre turns self-reflexive--I am reminded of Call It What You Want. Gene, who is the writer of the novel form of Bad Engineer, is a reluctant BL writer who keeps getting pressured to add sex scenes to his novels even at the expense of more important story-telling elements. Well, fans love it, the reasoning goes. Tiffy mentions to Tum some "curse" regarding the managers of BL actors in a series quarrelling (possibly a reference to series like Love by Chance and the infamous conflict between Saint's and Perth's managers).

The craziness of fans shipping actors rather than characters (without being able to draw the line between reality and fantasy) and the industry's willingness to pander to them for the sake of money is more than hinted at. And despite all the portrayal of same-sex relationships, the industry isn't altogether about tackling social problems like homophobia. At the end of the day, there seems to be some degree of exploitation: obligating young and good looking actors to perform fan service beyond the filming of the series (Bad Engineer) and any series-related events. I must say, however, that the series does not demonize BL fans. In the fan reactions to the exposure of Gene and Nubsib's relationship, there are actually diverse reactions, and there are those who can support Nubsib regardless of whom he is dating. Ultimately, it is a concern with profits that causes the TV station and managers to pressure the two of them to deny that they are dating.

Nevertheless, the series is lighthearted and does not really give its social critique a dark spin or throw it in the face of viewers. It still demonstrates the qualities of a good BL. It also has an awareness of what "woke" (I'm not using this term pejoratively) fans of BL would find issue with, avoiding stepping on landmines like gender stereotypes and issues with consent. Perhaps one weakness is that it is a little too self-conscious about this, but I won't fault it too much here.

This series, to me, is a nice mix of fluff and serious issues. Some may of course prefer just the fluff and others just the more serious issues (though I would think the latter aren't likely BL fans). Perhaps it is a sign of better BLs to come because the industry now has an awareness of its own problems. If fans want less toxicity in the industry, it may just happen because the industry doesn't want to lose fans.

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Consensual, A Different Perspective

As someone that read the novel, I must say that the production crew did a wonderful job in turning this drama into a consensual one, and one that reflects many events that do happen in real life.

Nubsib ja joob, the name of the drama in Thai, means "Nubsib (the characters name) will kiss" , but also means "Count to ten and I will kiss you". I felt that it was cute how they circled the theme song around this.

This show allows the viewers to see things in a clearer light, and calls out certain wrong behaviours that we have come to normalise. I'm really thankful that it's not the "I'm not gay, only gay for you" trope, but instead, it's here to point out issues that we don't see very clearly. To some people, some parts of the story may not make sense, but after watching how the director explains the scenes, you'll come to realise how you've missed a certain point/taken the character for granted. Every single character in the story has depth and different levels of complexity. The actors were able to portray the characters really well and the music was well placed. Each rewatch allows you to notice something from the story that you've never noticed before, thus, I'd say it's worth a rewatch.

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I remembered when the series' first trailer was released, it was like a year or two before they republished the second trailer. It was exciting, I immediately fall in love at the first trailer as it portrays the toxicity of the BL fans community and character shipping. It was like new breath for the BL thai entertainment industry. I remember when I watched TharnType the series, people just like attacking Kaownah in his media social and other platforms just because he potrayed himself as Lhong the bad guy. It was so serious that several youtubers made a video about this issue. This series really focus about toxicity of BL fandom and also other social issues.

It was an excellent series, but I'm not going to rewatch it again because the issues that the series carries too heavy for me.

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All around a good, romantic and entertaining series!

I think this show gave the audience everything they wanted to see. There was a lot of romance, a lot of fluff, a lot of drama and some comedy, of course. It also delivered some direct criticism towards the BL industry and also BL fans, as well as dealing with struggles regarding sexuality and acceptance.

We saw the universe of the main characters, we saw their personality, their conflicts. We saw where their story started and how it developed. They knew better to have a solid foundation between Gene and Nubsib before introducing the harshest conflicts and they knew how to separate each conflict from one another, letting the audience immerse into the narratives. And I liked that those conflicts were rather agile, things got resolved sometimes much faster than expected , which might be a problem for some, but I personally want things to just happen instead of just dragging stuff forever and ever. It's a tv show after all.

What wasn't agile, unfortunally, was the scenes themselves. Many of them dragged for way too long to a point where they started feeling like filler. I think making your script as lean as possible without losing the essencial message is a must, most of the time. Unless your show/film is some experimental, deep and very nuanced piece of work, which isn't really the case of Lovely Writer. Another thing I didn't like was when they tried to force emotions onto the audience, which happened in episode 6, when Gene realised who Nubsib was and reacted in a way we all thought was exaggerated, but then it felt like such a big conflict with all the crying and the sad background music, but the show refused to let us know what was going on. How am I supposed to feel something if I don't even understand the situation? Only thing I felt was anger.

Secondary characters felt somewhat underused, some thing started but seemed to never go anywhere. Honestly, I never cared about any of them. Maybe the straight couple because they were both hot, but not enough to make me want to see them more than I did. I thought the Gene/Sib plots were enough to keep the show moving.

Actors were good! Yeah, Kao was kinda robotic, especially at the beginning, but I think his chemistry with Up elevated his performance by a lot and at the end of the day, I probably got used to him. They were great together, whether it was in spicy or dramatic scenes. Not much to say about music, but the KISS KISS KISS song will keep playing in my head for a while lol (not because I want it to, but that's fine).

Bottom line, the show was good, entertaining, made me feel impatient sometimes, but also had a lot of great moments. I wouldn't rewatch this because it's TOO long for me and I'm an impatient person, but I suppose that for people who have the patience, the rewatch value must be good enough.

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I don't know what happened.

This started out really good, i was really looking forward to it, during the first few episodes patiently waiting for the new episodes to drop even if its 1:00am where i'm from. The idea was really good, the trailer was really exciting.

I don't know what happened but from episode 4 or something i felt like nothing is really happening, i didn't even realize that i was almost skimming thru most of the episode. Some scenes were dragging and boring. A lot of good and interesting premise was shown in the trailer but instead they focused too much on some unnecessary things. A lot of characters introduced but just wasted in the end. They could've done a lot of things instead of all the filler scenes in the last episode.

One of the things that sparked my interest was the exposing of the BL Industry they did indeed expose some like consent and the too much NC scenes but at times it felt forced. There were also times that it seems like they're also doing what they're exposing/shading and it felt a bit hypocritical. Again the idea was really good but the execution wasn't.

The whole drama in the end felt exaggerated, the whole break up and separation. They could just say they were childhood friends and people could easily check it. I agree with most of the review that it felt there was no real conflict for them, they could've just not break up since they're both rich or they could break up as they did in the show and nothings change. The whole drama around it felt OTT, i don't know how else to describe it. The way they show Gene being sad about it like he's never going to see him again or as if there's no way at all they could talk and see each other felt ridiculous.

Overall, i guess it just didn't work for me.
I would still recommend people to watch it especially if you like cute and fluffy BL's. Watch it and make your own assessment, it might not be for me but it could be other's cup of tea.

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An insightful look at the BL industry that unfortunately doesn't live up to expectations

NO-SPOILER REVIEW

This series is a refreshing meta take on the drama industry that isn't afraid to tackle problematic aspects of the entire BL genre. I really really wanted to like this series more but unfortunately, while it starts out with a great premise, the actual storytelling and execution suffers from many issues.

Pros
- A unique and refreshing premise for a BL series that tries to break problematic tropes and offer a wider variety of characters.
- A good example of a BL series showing working adults instead of the same old school-based setting.
- A good example of a BL series showing more diverse characters - a strong female character and a comparatively more gentle male character who are both portrayed in positive ways, parents/families with diverse sexualities, etc.
- A talented cast with decent chemistry

Cons
- Several plot points felt somewhat arbitrary and overly convenient, including ties between certain characters. Most things that took place in flashbacks actually didn't really add to the story and were actually a big detractor for me. The same story could have been told without the forced backstory.
- Some characters lacked depth and at times seemed to be hollow caricatures based on single motivations. It was hard to identify with them or feel that they were actual people.
- The pacing at some parts was excruciatingly slow. Certain scenes just dragged on and on. I'm not sure if they were just looking to fill time, but scenes that should have been emotional and impactful just ended up feeling downright boring because they were being dragged out so much.

Overall
- While a lot of fans seem to really like this series for tackling some of the BL genre's biggest issues, this series itself unfortunately suffers from its own issues on the production, script, and story side that made it less enjoyable than I had been hoping for.

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This is so much more than it seems

At first, I was not sure if I should watch this series because I am kinda bored from Thai BL. The shows are so similar.

Yes, the actors are cute and if I want to watch something sweet as candy, they are first choice. But for me, most of them lack a deeper meaning (although there are exeptions like "I told sunset about you").

The trailer did not catch me that much, but because I like Kao from UWMA, I was willing to give it a try.
And I am not disappointed! What seems to be another lovey-dovey BL really has more to it: criticism about the whole BL-Industry - finally! Do not get me wrong, I am a BL-fan. But there are people in the fandom who do not get, that this is ACTING, and the purpose of this is to make money. I do hope that some of the hardcore shippers our there get the point that these are characters, playedby actors. And I hope this will be a topic throughout the whole show.

Another thing I like is the "playing with the stereotypes" within the BL world. Do not judge a book by its cover, looking cute does not make someone a bottom or vice versa. And again, I think this is an important message regarding the real LGBT community. I do not mean that this show is a portrait, because as I said before, this is a show. But it bothers me so often, that the "cute little Baby" is supposed to be the bottom and the "manly Badass" the top. That's not how it works. Just aswell as the "the bottom is the wife and the top is the husband" idea. Gay couples are still both men (as I am within the BL topic, I only talk about men but feel free to transfer this thought to any other queer couple) and noone exept for those people within the relationship should be allowed to label any of the partners.

Of course, Kao and Up are cute as hell, but again, consent is antoher topic *yippie*! Not taking advantage of drunk people, asking "Are you sure / is this ok?".

And hallelujah, there is a straight couple and a bike-riding woman! This show breaks with so many stereotypes, therefor it is absolutely worth watching. I hope they keep this up for the rest of the show.

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Not your usual TOXIC BL

Story about a Yaoi writer and BL actor...

Groundbreaking BL that clapsback at all the stupid traditions and clichès of usual BLs, teaches how toxicity shouldn't be there in a relationship, rather giving and asking consent is more beautiful. Is a brilliant example of a BL that disses all the common BL stereotypes of 'I'm not gay, but I love him' and exposes some of the facts on how the people in BL industry take advantage of their actors to make money even if it is basically ruining them.

After watching so many BLs, I've understood that I used to support the toxicity of characters, forced kisses, useless jealous scenes glorifying them as 'ROMANTIC'. This BL opened my eyes on so much more than that.
The actors have done so well. Hats off to Kao and Up, they beautifully played the roles of Nubsib and Gene. Even the second lead, Aey, a grey character, can't be loved nor hated, Bruce was brilliant in his portrayal of this character. Every other side characters were adorable and understanding.

Expect surprises and twists and extremely cute scenes. But mostly harsh reality of BL entertainment circle. Shipping and Fan services are basically exposed in here. The BL openly states that shipping is fine as long as you don't indulge in those actors' private lives, coz thats none of your damn business!!!

Refreshing to see leads who are mature beyond years, communicating well to solve and overcoming problems together. This story and the couple has set standards of BLs so high. Also the ending, it was hilarious and unexpected. Afterall every story/drama is just a part of fiction and fantasy. The actors do their job and leave , but its upto us viewers on how we want the ending to be...

P.S. If you are a stupid fangirl/boy, a fujoshi, part of any toxic fandom or better, a freaking 'Sasaeng' who takes it into their hands with the famous 'Cancel Culture' and disrespecting idols/actors' private lives and feelings, Remember, this BL will ask you to 'GET A LIFE & LEARN YOUR BOUNDARIES'!

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Missed the mark and could've been greater drama talking about real issues

I've written a review back when this drama started and made some points. And now this is the edit.

Right, so I have only one episode till I finish this series, but I think after watching this for the past few months, I think I'll be able to give an opinion. As you can see my ratings have gone lower than they were before. Listen, the drama started "strong", the story seemed interesting. And yes, I still think that it had some great production, the actors were amazing, and I still think that the points I've made before are still relevant. The thing with series is that it got boring half way trough. Perhaps is that it became more and more predictable, the kisses did not help, empty discussions, the lack of communication brings more unnecessary drama and those "hot" scenes did not save the series. I felt like I was trying to see what the author was imagining in his/her head- the character Gene. The actor is amazing and did amazingly while bringing his character to life, but it was weird. I feel like everything we saw was just an imagination of Gene in his own head, while trying to write another novel. Gene was inserting himself into the story and just to get the man of his dreams. Very confusing and they did not deliver it properly. Maybe it's me. Other thing is that Sib as a character had only one purpose- to get what he wants- Gene. Other than being a hot guy and going after Gene, there was no character development.
-Gene is like a very fragile uke who needs protections and guidance 24/7. On the other hand, Sib is the opposite- strong and dominant seme who is ready to save and protect Gene every time . He teleports every time the drama calls for it.
The Tiffy and Tum "couple"- boring. No development, no purpose whatsoever. Interesting beginning and then became tiresome. The other characters were alright.
The effects were not bothering me in the first couple of episodes, and I thought that they help the character just so it can be more expressive. And they became annoying. I had to turn off the sound and read the subs.
To end this, all I can say is that this could've been a great drama where its discussed about important things but sadly it missed that mark. At this point I don't even need to watch the last episode, because even without it, I can basically predict how it ends- just like a normal romance drama.

~These are the notes I took while I watched the first few episodes of the drama and what I thought it would be discussed~

==== THESE ARE SOME NOTES THAT I TOOK WHILE WATCHING THE AIRED EPISODES====

~ the actors side: usually they don't have feelings for each other and they do their work
~ some of the actors might start to have a feeling for the other during the series shooting, and it might be hard on them to move on after everything is done
~ some might start to develop feelings for the author of someone of the team, regardless, they already know that they cant be together because of the toxic fans
~ the fans: some might be just loving the characters and ship them all the way and be aware that they aren't real and it's all fictional, they know how to separate the film from the reality, the character and the actor,
and then , we have the TOXIC ones who doesn't understand that what they are seeing is fake and it's all made up and written beforehand, they tend to ship the couple even after the series is done and the actors have moved on, it's hard to support the actors when they are paired with new partner( love by chance pete(actor name saint) -- ae ~ why are you: tutor(actor name saint)-- fighter) and then the new series might not have the desired ranking, and they definitely won't let their fave have a love life or some privacy when it comes to that because they think they are the one for them. It's just toxic and ugly.

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Unsatisfactory Ending

I was enjoying this drama, other than the uncomfortable scenes with the child actors. The age difference is really noticeable when it's 16 and 10. Then the last episode was disjointed. No satisfactory ending for Aoey or Mork. There were lots of cute moments between Gene and Sib in the last 30 minutes, but still some loose ends. Then, after THE END, the afterward scene makes it so that everything that we witnessed was just the author writing the novel. It felt awkward and unsatisfying. Kao and Up have great chemistry and really sold the couple. I loved the insider looks at the industry. Especially, the look at how harmful shipping culture can be when taken too far. It was an enjoyable drama but they didn't stick the landing.

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