Such a complicated mess

No idea where to begin... I never expected this series to be any good and I was not mistaken. But, I also never expected 6 episodes of confusion and more confusion combined with poor acting, terrible directing. This has to be one of 2023's weakest BLs and we've had several disasters this year... here's why:

1. Gun Napat simply cannot act. I'm sure he is a charming person in his everyday life but he either never listens to his acting coach or he just can't produce any leading role material. He was the funny character in the quite disappointing "Love by Chance 2: A Chance to Love" and then he was lead role in the mediocre "Golden Blood" and his acting remains almost the same. No improvement over his silly way of delivering lines without any particular emotion and always crooking one side of his mouth when he smiles or when he is angry or when he is sad or when he cries. I'm not sure if it's a nervous tick or he has an issue with his face but it is always the same. One side goes up no matter what so he seems to be smirking when he is crying and that, to me, is so distracting. He is also the least believable doctor in the entire world, but that is not his fault... that is the production and director's problem to cast him in that character.

2. The plot twists were so much it was making me dizzy, especially in the end. Mai turns out to be Thana, Ryou turns out to be Phatit and from what Dena narrates near the end of episode 6, Nack turns out to be Naphat. So, this story seems to convey the message that nobody was happy with their situation so they all had to resort to wishing in a mysterious café first managed by Kaownah and then managed by Kaew (I think that was her name). It is a never-ending train of persons who are unhappy and want to wish for something else. Ryou wanting Mai to love him, Nack wanting to kiss Ryou, Thana wanting to find a job, Kaew wanting to see her son again. All that would have been fine, but the jumps in timeline from the past to the present are so confusing at times that I don't know what wish are we on or who asked for it.

3. Forgettable characters. None of the characters is really likeable... maybe Ryou saves himself but then he goes and wishes someone to "love him forever" (as if that is something you can just unilaterally wish for). Nack is a bully to Mai because he is jealous that Ryou likes Mai instead of him. We think he is the one that locks him up in episode 1 but it turns out to be Dena who is also jealous because she likes Ryou but he thinks of both her and Nack as best friends. As a result, they also go to the café to wish for something but I nearly had to pull out a board to write down who was wishing what and what timeline was it happening. Then, Kaew takes over the café and we see Dome (previously seen in 2Moons2) appear and at first I thought he got Kaew pregnant during their high school years so I was confused. Later, I realized he is the son of that relationship who Kaew gave away for adoption and the father looked exactly like the son... I mean, they could have used another random actor to portray the father instead of having Dome play both roles (and considering he was one of the weakest in 2Moons2, his acting is not exactly prize worthy). Bhu (who we saw in "Manner of Death" and "Nitiman") and Ryou seem to have the most chemistry between them but I felt both were a bit subdued in their roles and didn't give us more memorable moments... probably because of...

4. Poor directing/writing. The concept of the show is not that original but the execution could have avoided this confusing mess. Situations that were never explained as, after finding out that Mai and Ryou are Thana and Phatit, we ended up jumping from the past to the present to see all the things that led each of them to wish in the café. We fell into the usual clichés of Mai not wanting to be gay because of his parents but then contradicting himself when he almost rapes Ryou. The usual jealous third wheel that tries to sabotage a relationship like we saw Dena try to do by locking up Mai or Nack try to do by bullying Mai. The common love triangle with Ryou being the center of attention as both Nack and Dena like him but he only has eyes for Mai. The cheating moment with the lead couple with Thana getting oral sex from Time only to be discovered by Phatit and then the most ridiculous conversation happening between them with Thana asking for forgiveness and Phatit suggesting that if a couple stay together for a long time, cheating is bound to happen so his "brilliant" solution is proposing an open relationship so Thana can have sex with whoever he wants as long as he tells Phatit about it. If all relationships went like that, well, I'm sure it would be a disaster for many. Most of the situations in the show were poorly handled which led to more confusion and things that had to be solved near the end of episode 6.

So, in the end, a disappointing series that at least ended after 6 episodes instead of torturing us for 12 like others have done in the past (see Love Syndrome III with Frank for an example). A shame because now for every decent BL series we have, we seem to get 4-5 mediocre ones and 1-2 complete disasters.

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Not sure if I fully understood this one

I've finished watching all 10 episodes and I think I have more questions than answers...
Not sure if this series came to fruition after the success of "Kinn-Porsche" but it seems that BLs with plots or at least some side stories that include gangs, illegal activities or guns are increasing a bit.

This series had the original premise of a forest ranger (Din) who found out all the bad deeds done by Chief Ingpha and wanted to expose him. On the road to that, he falls in love with Ken and both have to suffer a premature death at the hands of Ingpha and fall off a cliff in the process (similar to what Max and Tul go through in "Manner of Death"). The only original points I give to this series is how they handled Din's fake death. His sister Sai and Sai's husband, Dr. Chayeol, take him to South Korea to get treatment and stumble upon the chance of an identity switch when a Taiwanese patient (Peter Lue) dies in the hospital. To avoid any trouble with the Taiwanese authorities, Din takes Peter Lue's identity by getting his face while he is reported as dead so Ingpha stops looking for him. Up to this point, the series sounded quite interesting using a plot similar to John Travolta and Nicholas Cage's movie "Face/Off" were both undergo face transplants (except both are alive in the movie unlike this series)... however, afterwards, this series got many things wrong.

I read comments about this being a mystery/thriller type BL so, it should be somewhat confusing to keep the mystery going... I agree to some extent because, yes, I don't want any mystery series to be predictable enough for me to lose interest by episode 5 if I already know who did it. However, this series left me with many questions after each episode that I'm not sure any series, even a mystery one, should leave... for example (I might switch between Peter Lue and Din's names but you know he is the same character by now):
1. Why is Peter Lue wearing turtlenecks and leather gloves almost all the time? The necklace that Din got from the monk and that Ken finds during one of their fights seems like the only reason to wear a turtleneck... but the gloves? He is not hiding a scar or a specific tattoo that Ken could recognize, so it makes no sense.
2. If Ken goes to China why can't Din just contact him at some point during all this? Instead, Ken spends countless times crying and remembering his boyfriend. Then, Ken has to fight this mysterious man in black (who is Peter Lue) because apparently he is trying to prevent Ken from getting involved and keep him safe... noble action but without telling him or anyone else of his intentions, Peter Lue just confuses Ken and the viewers when we have to spend several episodes figuring if he is good or bad.
3. Why Sai is the only family member aware of Peter Lue's identity? Her parents and her brother Hin have no clue until Hin discovers everything in episode 8-9 and the mother suspects it around episode 9-10, but never really finds out. I also don't get how Dr. Chayeol is qualified to perform such a complicated-looking surgery, but I guess he is a genius doctor.
4. Din finds out the illegal activities by Chief Ingpha and also discovers that his boss is involved by getting payments from Ingpha... what happened to Din's superior in all this?
5. How is Inspector Don involved in all this? He seems to be part of Ingpha's group but later we know he is actually helping Peter Lue/Din find evidence against Ingpha but I never found a reason for him to be helping Din other than he is a righteous police officer like Din was a righteous forest ranger. Same with the second doctor who works for Ingpha to perform the organ trafficking but is also helping the police.
6. Ingpha even has an organ trafficking network in episode 10 that comes out of nowhere as I thought the drugs and the illegal wood were his only businesses.
7. The ending... OMG... after all the things both characters go through only to have Peter Lue charged with murder and him having to vanish again?! Now, I do think he is hiding somewhere but Ken and him will reunite at Sai's wedding that will be on the 7th day of the 7th month, the date that linked Ken and Din in the series. But still, the open ended finale was a bit disappointing after 10 episodes of figuring things out in the series.

Now, kudos to Haii (playing Ken) as he has to adapt and develop chemistry with two different actors who portrayed Din (played by Kut before "dying" and by Boom when he becomes Peter Lue). I think Haii navigated through many emotions in this series, from falling in love to almost dying due to Din's findings, to thinking he lost Din, to struggling when he begins to develop feelings for Peter Lue while still clinging to the thought of Din, to feeling betrayed when he finds out the truth of Din being Peter Lue, to accepting the "new" Din, etc. Haii does an adequate job of taking me through all those feelings (with some minor exaggerations that I can overlook). Kut and Boom had to act in very different situations so you can't compare their portrayal of Din. Both do have some good moments but thanks to questionable directing and editing, most of their moments end up being confusing to the viewer with flashbacks that come out of nowhere and situations that were not properly connected.
The other characters are fillers for the most part... Marc Pahun must be enjoying not being a GMMTV exclusive anymore as he is appearing on 3 BL shows at the same time (this one, as one of the leads in "Past-Senger" and in some of the "Our Skyy 2" episodes) and in here, he is able to showcase a bit more of his acting skills by playing some relevant role as Sai and Din's brother... too bad some of his moments get lost in silly or comedic situations that were highly irrelevant and his interactions with Sai when he finds out the truth could have been exploited much more but poor editing and directing switched out of the scene to have another useless Ken/Peter Lue moment. And, his relationship with Payu was never explored and aside from a brief steamy scene between them, we got nothing worth remembering. Other side characters like Ken's dad (who we saw as the head of the family in "Kinn-Porsche") is just relegated to being a restaurant owner in China; Din's dad (who we saw in "The Miracle of Teddy Bear" and other shows) barely has any lines in this series; Poppy (playing Inspector Don) seems to be present in all major scenes according to the flashbacks, but we never really know anything about how he fits in this puzzle; Ken's friends seem wasted as we barely got anything useful from them and instead, we got a healthy dose of DeeDee in the final episodes with him being one of the most irrelevant and dumb characters in this series. And, Ingpha's main bad guy is annoying with the horrendous laugh all the time... I know they want to picture him as a psychopath or a sociopath or both, but the laughter is just poorly done and quite distracting.

As for the sillier moments, all have to focus on the chaos that episode 10 was. First, all the killings done by Din/Peter Lue are just a joke... he faces 5 gunmen who cannot hit him once with semiautomatic guns and pistols... then he does his best impersonation of James Bond and shoots some of them, throws knives at others, and slits 2-3 throats with his knife without a drop of blood staining his face or clothes... when you slit someone's throat, the amount of blood that gushes out is quite significant... he also shoots a bad guy in the head at point-blank range and he is pristine and clean during all that, quite unbelievable. Then, he faces Ingpha who is holding Sai hostage... Ingpha still has no clue who he is until he shows him the camera/mic he dropped when they met in the forest for the first time and that led to him being shot at later. In the blink of an eye, Ingpha recognizes Din who suddenly thinks this is a Western movie and pulls out his gun and shoots the chief in the shoulder so precisely and without affecting Sai (who was sitting on Ingpha's lap and suddenly disappears from the screen until many frames later when we see her sitting unharmed on top of a rock). Then, in a weird twist, Din/Peter Lue is so revenge-thirsty that instead of bringing the chief to justice, he just kills him execution-style with a shot right in the middle of the forehead. The cold-blooded execution makes no sense... I mean, I understand Din is harboring too much hate towards the man who ruined his life, forced him to take a dead's man identity and separated him from his family, friends and boyfriend... but to kill Ingpha like that seems a bit anti-climactic for the man who wanted to expose Ingpha's actions.

In the end, the show was not the worst BL I've seen but it left the lingering feeling of "what might have been" if directing, editing, writing and acting would have come together, maybe this would have been a masterpiece given the plot... instead, it became just one more BL that failed to meet my expectations.

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Ordinary and almost forgettable

Not sure why I had high expectations for this series... the premise of a bodyguard-son of a mafia boss is nothing new but somehow the trailer showed something that had the potential of being interesting... sadly, it wasn't meant to be.

Here is why, in my opinion:

1. Weird storyline. Sun (played by Boat) is an orphan who is adopted by Sky's father and mafia boss to donate blood every month because Sky's mother died when the doctors were unable to help her due to a rare blood condition. Sky's mother and Sky have a condition known as "golden blood" when the blood type (O, A, B, or AB) does not have any + or - rH as we all normally do, making it rH null. The condition does exist but in episode 7 they give numbers of the people with the condition and they exaggerate way too much. It is a very very very very rare blood condition so the chances of 2 persons having it in the same city and actually meeting like Sun and Sky is microscopic. But, let's overlook that...
The fact that Sky's father adopts Sun just to provide blood for his own son and then serve as his bodyguard seems a bit awkward to me. And, they've never met in person and yet both develop love feelings for each other in a flash all while being attacked by Sky's father main rival and while posing as distant relatives in school because Sky doesn't want people to know his father is a mafia boss.

2. Mediocre acting. I like Gun Napat, I really do... but he is not a good actor. We've seen him have good moments in "Love by Chance" when he made us laugh as Techno with some comedy scenes, but here when drama is needed, his facial expression remains the same when he laughs and when he cries. He tends to move half of his mouth in a weird way that looks as if he is laughing but only when you see the tears you realize he is actually crying. Plus, he screams every single time he is mad. Boat has acted in many more dramas and, being 2 years older than Gun, should teach him a thing or maybe 10 to improve his acting.

3. Side couple. Bank (played by Tenon) and Pitch (played by Sugus) are the two saving graces of this show. Tenon is making his acting debut (yes, I know he appeared in a guest role in "Lovely Writer" but this is a much bigger role so I won't count that). Sugus has plenty of experience and at 30 years old, is the oldest of the 4 male actors in this series. We get to see good chemistry between them but sadly it was not developed any further. One episode they don't like each other, then Bank starts developing some feelings for Pitch, who at first rejects him because he is insecure about his own sexuality and feelings for Bank. Then, magically, a switch snaps, and Pitch realizes he loves Bank and end up being a happy couple. It was a bit rushed and we don't get to see a lot of interactions between them (in private) as most of the time Sun-Sky or the two girls are with them. But we've gotten full BL series for secondary couples, even very badly acted BL couples (see "Don't Say No" for an example) so hopefully these two get their own series.

4. Support roles. Toktaeng and Juno (played by Jane and Apple) are the two girls who are interested in Sky and Sun. Both are very naive and don't realize that Sun and Sky are in love when Bank and Pitch figured it out quite fast. They really don't provide anything else because, for the first time in a long time, we don't get the typical jealous and bitchy girl in a Thai BL. In episode 8, both find out that Sun and Sky are lovers, both sit down and cry, and then the show jumps 6 years into the future so we never get to see their full reactions to that confession. The gangsters, lead by the two bosses, are the typical cartoonish characters we've seen in Thai BLs with all of them screaming, pointing guns, fighting, and threatening the other one without much substance. In more Thai BL clichés, Sky's father forbids their relationship and makes a deal to send Sky to study abroad and when he comes back, if Sun and Sky still love each other (despite not being in contact at all) then he will allow their relationship (something similar to what we saw in the much better Taiwanese BL "We Best Love: No. 1 for You"). Then, in another very used gimmick, we have a time jump into the future... but in this case, the time jump is 6 years! What the hell was Sky studying abroad?! After that, all the characters look exactly the same, despite being 6 years older. The girls show no signs of being angry at them and Bank and Pitch are still a happy couple.

Overall, what seemed to be like a very interesting series, ended up being just another mediocre show that, if not for Tenon and Sugus, it would have been mostly forgettable.

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Fluffy and silly but surprisingly decent

True, I'm sure "I Will Knock You" will not be a series you are going to remember in one year from now... maybe you won't even remember it by the end of this year! However, I came across the trailer of this series expecting nothing and ended up pleasantly surprised. Here's why:

1. The story/plot: Many comments I've read can't simply understand why Noey and Thi can be such extreme characters in terms of their actions. Noey is cocky and "street smart", he is the leader of a gang and is obsessed with old Thai music. He really is one of the most curious characters I've come across BLs as he is aloof and in his own world most of the time and he does whatever he wants to do without noticing much around him. Thi is the older university student who is the nerdy guy who loves to help others and is scared of almost everything that is not morally or ethically correct. Thi becomes Noey's tutor and the rest of the show is them navigating their feelings towards each other, the gang, the potential love rival who is interested in Thi and parents who are also the complete opposite with Noey's mom, Tim, being a hardworking, no nonsense and open minded one and Thi's parents (who barely appear in episode 11 and the first few minutes of episode 12) being against Noey and judging him and his mother. The silly way they meet and how their lives become connected since the beginning of the show might look dumb to some (I've read comments dissing the show after 1-2 episodes just because of this) but seriously think about it... how is this plot and storyline bad or dumb? Silly, sure... childish, maybe... but this story was way better than other crappy Thai BL's we've got like the Frank/Drake trainwreck called "Cause You're My Boy", the confusingly messy "Top Secret Together", the disaster called "Gen Y 2", the utterly boring "Physical Therapy, the ordinary "Hidden Love", the forgettable "Golden Blood", the disappointing "Bite Me", the weak "Don't Say No", alongside most of the run-of-the-mill series produced by GMMTV that fans love just because one or two actors are in the series but can't see the dull story we are getting. All the aforementioned series had terribly executed plots with stories going nowhere or pulling magic tricks to make it a bit more interesting, so, "I Will Knock You" a least has something to tell. I also think people misunderstood the whole point as they see Noey as this bully and Thi as the scared distressed soul. I believe this is the consequence of each of the characters' personality where both are stubborn in their own ways with Noey strongly believing in the friendship/camaraderie of being in a gang and Thi strongly believing that helping others and doing everything "by the book" is the right way to go.

2. Bom and Tar: I still find it hard to believe there is a nearly 10-year gap between the two leads. Now, we've seen lead actors with several years difference between each other but Bom (who is 27) looks younger than Tar (who was 17 at the time the show was being filmed and is now 18), especially in the last episode when he cuts his hair. That is why this series doesn't include NC scenes as the actors kiss near the end of episode 12 and Bom and Tar appear shirtless in separate scenes when they are taking or are coming out of the shower. So, if you think about it, the show had to resort to other strategies as this was not a series like "Tharn-Type" where they had sex nearly every episode or "Cutie Pie" where NuNew had to sing almost every episode and Zee also showcased his ripped body just for the fans. This series had to fill out 12 episodes with activities that will showcase the chemistry between both Bom and Tar and amazingly, Bom is also debuting in the industry (a bit late for the usual standards inside TV) but, while it was not perfect, both actors played the cards they were dealt and did it adequately. I was particularly pleased with the final episode when Noey goes to Chiang Mai to get Thi back and they have a really good scene with both crying and hugging where both were able to effectively convey their feelings.

3. A bit of everything else: The secondary actors are one sided as the most important revolve around Noey as we see his straightforward mother (played by Arisara), his very clever younger sister (played by Mild), his best friend Thiw (played by Ohm), and his gang member Waewdao (played by May). All interact in different ways with Noey and with Thi but all are there to provide advice, to provide support and to provide a snarky reminder when Noey needs to be put in his place and brought back to Earth.
In a bit of a weak spot, the show does not provide the same to Thi (which is a shame) as his friends are there and sometimes do provide some advice but like most viewers, misunderstand and tend to judge Noey's intentions and his reputation as a "gang member". Thi's parents are useless as they oppose their son's relationship with Noey but after the first few minutes of episode 12 they disappear. It is implied by the end of the series (with Noey finishing university) that Thi's parents have not warmed up to Noey yet, but we never get anything solved in that area. Besides, Thi is an adult with a master's degree under his belt so I doubt they could stop him by this point.
The appearance of Phayu (played by Namo) is a another weak spot as it brings the usual cliché of every Thai BL of having either a crazy female character or a male love rival... in this case, is the latter as Phayu is interested in Thi and tries to get him in a series of half-hearted attempts like playing soccer in the volunteer camp or shooting a basketball to see who drives Thi home. I don't think we ever really have any doubts about who Thi loves so all the Phayu moments are a badly executed attempt to bring some drama as I'm sure the writers were trying to fill the 12 episodes with something.
The music is nice as the opening song is quite catchy (you can find it on Youtube) and the rest of the songs are not played too much or too loudly to the point that it can become annoying like we've seen in other series.

So, while "I Will Knock You" will not be the most memorable series ever and you will most like it forget about it at some point, maybe sooner than later, at least came with a simple story that was not perfect, but included some silly entertainment that had some nice moments among the sea of mediocrity that is out there in the BL industry (particularly the Thai one).

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Another Anusorn frustrating story

All this saga started, if you remember, after Director Anusorn directed "2Moons2". Despite the entire new cast of mostly unknown and inexperienced actors, some ups and downs in the series and having to waste 4 episodes so viewers could be reminded of what happened on the original "2Moons", the story was more of less successful and it gave us BL fans, Din and Joong. But, when the show was over everyone was waiting anxiously for season 3 but the company in charge decided to botch the project, yet again, by creating a musical group without Din and later getting rid of director Anusorn just to "flex their muscles" and show they had the power to do that. Director Anusorn went on to create "Call It What You Want" and "Call It What You Want 2" as a response, where he promised to expose the darkest secrets of Thai's BL industry... however, his productions fell short as he lost track of the initial plot/storyline and gave us some choppy story with some more or less disappointing acting and a villain who never gets punished.

Well, he did it again! This time with "Till the World Ends" and here's why:

a) The science behind the plot: OK, let's get this out of the way... scientifically, the Moon crashing into Earth is possible (it will be complicated as the moon is tidally locked with our planet and it's actually moving away from us every year) but, even before it crashes, it will bring immense consequences from the minute the moon begins getting closer to us... even Jim Carrey's movie, Bruce Almighty, showcases this when he tries to seduce Jennifer Aniston's character by pulling the moon closer to make the scene more romantic... instead, the next day, the news from severe flooding in some parts of the world begin to spread because the moon is responsible for the low and high tide of our oceans... even that silly movie pointed that out, but, OK moving on. In addition, if the moon crashes with our planet and nothing will be left (as the official government announcement keeps telling us all the series) there is no need for bunkers as NOTHING will survive... even if they do survive the impact, explosion, lack of moon to regulate day/night (which helps with our sleep patterns), etc., there will be no water, animals, plants and what, the bunkers will be floating in space if Earth is totally destroyed? Don't think so...
So, leaving the nerdy part out, and ASSUMING the bunkers could be a realistic possibility and ASSUMING that there will be some solid ground for them to step out of the bunkers after the crash... let's move on.

b) The plot/storyline: This story begins with the announcement of the end of the world and with Golf (played by Best) and his jealousy, lousy temper, annoying personality, and plain idiocy taking center stage throughout the whole series. He just blatantly attacks and nearly kills Art (played by Art... so original!) and then gets a guilty conscience and tries to help him recover only to fall in love with him. His older brother Gus (played by Michael) is in jail but is always Golf's moral compass and voice of reason. The end of the world drives most of the plot in the story as it becomes the centerpiece of the Golf-Art relationship as they navigate between staying at Golf's apartment while Art recovers, then Art discovering the truth and very quickly forgiving Golf, both living under the threat of the gang, Gus appearing after being let go or escaping (can't recall which one it was), all trying to reach a bunker in the Laos-Thailand border but taking a detour to see if Art's family is still home and then everybody dying before the actual end of the world leaving Gus and Art to cry, kiss and be killed by the moon.

The plot was original but the storyline began declining after episode 2-3 with very slow progression, barely any character development and violence... lots of unnecessary violence... almost to the point that the gratuitous BL steamy scenes we got between the 2 bad guys (Long and Joke, played by Knight and Songklod) and by Golf and Art felt somewhat out of context... the bad guys brutally kill someone and then turn around and start having sex or Golf brutally kills Long in the last episode, they witness Joke kill himself with a gun, and they (Gulf and Art) take a shower, go to the roof of the house and have sex. I've never rejected a NC scene in a BL story, but even these scenes felt wrong after I just witness all the killings, blood everywhere, an eyeball being stabbed and pulled out of its socket, suicide, Joke picking up pieces of Long's face after being killed by Golf, etc., the graphic nature of all this violence was shocking and almost nauseating. There is no explanation for the bad gang to be hanging around the apartment complex... they could've gone to a bunker, they could've gone to another apartment complex looking for more food, take a car, something... instead they hang around like vultures but don't do much. Golf kills a gang member in the early episodes and that sets the "we are getting revenge and killing them" mood, plus we don't get much of their backstory so we just know they are psychopaths who instead of trying to save themselves by reaching a bunker, decided to stay and kill as many people as they can before all dying courtesy of Gus and Golf.

In addition, the storyline also began including all these political and social messages, which we've seen in stories like GMMTV's "Not Me", and in both cases, they waste time talking too much about human rights and equality that it almost becomes boring when we have to listen to the same message. We know there is corruption, racism, discrimination, social and income inequality... no need to remind us every 2-3 episodes.
And, Art never really gets any closure... it's all Golf! He gets his brother back, he loses his brother, he falls in love with Art and lives his last days with him. Art wants to visit his family to see if they are still there and then go to the bunker to reunite with them in case they made it to the bunker... but he is the one who never makes it... this storyline was left to die as all centered on Golf.

c) The acting: Michael is the saving grace as his acting is the most memorable of all the cast with poignant moments in both dramatic and funny scenes. It is nice to see Art get a lead role as well, especially when he is on screen as a very marginal side character in "Between Us" and was affected after the scandal with Mew Suppasit after filming "What the Duck" in 2018 resulting on him getting harassed online by Mew fans and not many jobs afterwards (just look it up online if you don't know anything about it)... too bad his acting and Best's acting wasted some golden opportunities to truly deliver in some of the most emotional scenes of the show. As I said before, Art forgives Golf quite easily after nearly killing him and Golf seems to be 100% straight at the beginning, so his change of heart towards Art seems a bit sudden. Both lead actors do a decent job for moments, but there were just too many things for them to deal with... Golf's initial actions, Art's feelings before and after finding out the truth, all the deaths they had to witness, going to die, etc., so it was just too much for them to navigate through.

In the end, director Anusorn is becoming a synonym of frustrating. He thinks and develops some interesting ideas but so far both "Call It What You Want 1 and 2" and this series, end up falling short of my expectations.

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Another disappointment

What a shame!
This series looked like a promising and original BL series with a plot that was centered around chefs/cooking (which we've seen recently in several Korean BLs like "The Tasty Florida", "My Sweet Dear" and to a lesser degree as only one of the main characters is a chef in "To My Star" and the Taiwanese "Craving You"). It also departed from the typical BL scenarios we’ve seen in the past that mostly include university students going through the usual plots/storylines of misunderstandings, tears, a crazy female character, a jealous ex-boyfriend or a male character that wants to create a love triangle, parents that are either super against or super in favor of their son being gay, weird/useless characters, bizarre/unreal situations, sex scenes with actors that most of the time look uncomfortable doing them, among many more... but "Bite Me" ended up being a big disappointment.

The many negatives of this series outweigh some of the positives.
a. The pace of this series has to be the slowest in history. I’ve skipped some parts of other BL series in the past that included bad acting or very predictable scenes (crying, arguments, etc.) but never had to skip this much because NOTHING happened on screen! All the actors moved and talked at a glacial pace and it was clear the instructions from the acting coach and the director were to let the stares linger into oblivion with many scenes having 15-45 seconds of dialogue and 2 minutes of plain staring. Somehow, we ended up with 11 episodes of over 45 minutes each… I bet that if we take out the wasted silent moments in all the episodes, we might end up with only 5, maybe 6, episodes at the most.

b. The storylines made not much sense.
First, Aek was the only naïve and oblivious one in all of Thailand because he couldn’t realize that Chef Aue liked him from the very beginning.
Second, Chef Aue had the unresolved past relationship with Eve that made no sense as we have very little background of their story. During the first few episodes she seems to be a character that could be the series' villain because she looked like she wanted Aue back. However, she slowly fades into nothing relevant, appearing in the cooking competition and not doing much there and then she ends up being courted by Aek’s friend Bie (played by Gameplay) also without any background as to how/why they end up dating.
Third, Chef Aue also had a previous conflict with Chef Moo who seemed to be his mentor and ended up being a bully and psychologically abusive until Aue finally had enough. Chef Moo also plays the role of a villain but there is not much background as to why their relationship deteriorates so much and then he suddenly appears at Aue's restaurant before the cooking competition to remind him how bad he thinks he is. Chef Moo also has his relationship with Nuna and we can imply that the background of this relationship is that Nuna was fed up with Chef Moo for putting cooking and being a successful chef above her, then she also realizes that she doesn’t love him anymore and in a calm manner tells him that and leaves despite his attempts to get her back. Then, we had a delivery girl flirting with Nuna and asking for her phone number but that leads nowhere as it was not brought up again after it happened.
Fourth, Aek is conflicted about going to work at a restaurant at first but his mother always knows his son better than him so she provides some solid maternal support, that was fine… the issues in here are all the sudden doubts inside Aek about his feelings for Chef Aue. The plot just comes and goes and explodes in episodes 9 and 10 and magically Aek’s mother solves it by telling Aek that she knows his true feelings and that everything is ok.
Fifth, the cooking competitions for both Aek and Aue end up being solved in portions of one and a half episodes with barely any cooking being done, judges that don’t speak Thai and look awkward when complimenting food that was clearly not made by Aek or Aue (or any other actor), and the appearance of another villain, Chef Wiphob. He comes basically out of nowhere and feels like he wants to seduce Aek at first but only acts very friendly towards him and then turns around to provoke Aue by showing Aek’s clothes to him and telling Aue to lose the cooking competition... but Wiphob is not even competing in the same competition with Aue, so maybe it was to help Chef Moo, but we don't know for sure. Wiphob has also some issues with his father who pressures him to win but nothing more is made of that.
Sixth, the secondary couple of Prem and Vich is all cute but we don’t see much of them until episode 11 when Prem is trying to fulfill his dream of opening an all-dessert store and Vich is there to help him accomplish it. Aside from that, their relationship progresses mainly off-screen as we get some bits and pieces of their interactions.

All in all, the plots seemed weak and some came out of nowhere, without any explanation or logic as to why the writers decided to include them, and most were solved rather easily after a conversation or two. Most of the support characters like Chefs Moo, Wiphob and Eve, Wiphob’s father, Aek’s friends (except Vich) and the other sous-chefs do not have much dialogue and do not provide much in terms of content. The three “bad” chefs are not that evil to be classified as villains and their stories are not mentioned much (if any at all) to really make me care about them or understand them more.

Some of the positives (just to be fair).
a. The chemistry between Mark Siwat (playing Aek) and Zung (playing Chef Aue) and between Paam (playing Chef Prem) and Toon (playing Vich) was very nice. Mark is 8 years younger than Zung (21 vs. 29 years old) but both were able to develop some good rapport between them. In this series, such large gaps between dialogues caused the actors to rely heavily on expressing their emotions through their eyes and both Mark and Zung (who has a lot more experience acting) did a decent job on navigating those moments. Paam and Toon are closer in age (23 vs. 19 years old) and they showed some nice chemistry as well. Toon was a nice surprise in this disappointing series as he was making his acting debut but had some nice moments when his character gave advice to Aek and also being so sure of his feelings towards Chef Prem. His acting was not flawless but it was better than other more experienced BL actors we’ve seen recently (like Gun Napat in “Golden Blood” for example). The two girls, Noon (playing Chompoo) and Zani (playing Nuna) also provided some funny moments and banter between them so that gave the slow show a bit of a break from all the boring scenes we had to watch.

b. The food was a high point for me because being from a country so far away and very different from Thailand, it was an interesting moment to see them prepare all the ingredients and cook them to create visually attractive dishes. Sadly, the cooking competitions were so short that we got deprived from some more tasty dishes and images. I know Thailand has plenty of desserts as well but Prem’s creations do not get the same screentime as the savory dishes.

In the end, another Thai BL series that has been a disappointment in 2021. What started with a promising trailer ended up being a very slow and sometimes boring show that just dragged along the 11 episodes with not many memorable moments.

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Not sure what to think yet...

I finished watching IPYTM and I'm torn on what to write right now... I've read some of the comments and the reviews and this second season seems to have polarized the opinions of everyone who watched it because feelings go from the series being a masterpiece to the series being a complete disaster.

I think I'll try to find a sensible middle in between those who want to put a statue in honor of the show and those who want Nadao to burn the tape to never be seen again.

First and foremost, it is not fair to compare IPYTM with ITSAY... it's just impossible. Different directors, different supporting cast and of course, different settings (in terms of storyline, timeline, etc.) makes both seasons two separate beings. That said, I know we can't stop ourselves from comparing both seasons because ITSAY left such a high bar in Thai BL and BL in general that I guess anything that came afterwards (like season 2) was going to be analyzed and inevitably compared to season 1.

IPYTM had beautiful cinematography with the background of Bangkok that showed the city in a different light with the tall buildings and the river. Acting was again a strong point because Billkin and PP once again portrayed their characters in a convincing way and the support of Goy and Oab brought a different feeling to this season as the characters were supposed to move on from high school in charming Phuket to university in always-busy Bangkok.

Now, I'm torn because I liked the aspects that I mentioned before but I felt the show had ups and downs nearly at every corner. I don't think condensing 4 years of university life in 5 episodes was the best idea, because we were deprived of better interactions between some of the characters and more detailed scenes. Goy and Na left after episode 3 only to briefly reappear in episode 5 and Oab graduates in episode 4, so Teh felt somewhat deprived of the interactions Oh-Aew had with the gang in high school and also with his friends in university.
Some of the plot was dubious at best with Teh practicing method acting with the director instead of doing that with his co-star... imagine if James Cameron had to practice kissing scenes with Leonardo DiCaprio or Kate Winslet in Titanic or Quentin Tarantino had to practice shooting a gun with John Travolta in Pulp Fiction... that simply doesn't happen. But the director and writers felt that it was the only "chance" for a big conflict in the story so they went with it. Oh-Aew matures at some points (like in ep. 5 during Teh's thesis play) but basically becomes a crybaby the next minute. Now, I don't know if being in love would cause someone to act that way, but it was so predictable that I saw myself skipping those parts because I knew tears were coming, again...

Then, I understand the love Oh-Aew has for Teh, which I can argue is bigger than the love Teh has for Oh-Aew, but the conversation with Bas really came out of nowhere... it was good to hear Bas say the things Oh-Aew needed to hear but Bas was Oh-Aew's friend and in the 4 years of university or 5 episodes for us, they don't seem to be that much in touch with each other and Oh-Aew even says "I had no one to talk to" when Bas asks "what am I doing here?", really?!, you had nobody to talk to despite having all your high school gang and your uni friends always available like when Oh-Aew became a blabbering mess in episode 4?! That part makes no sense... Oh-Aew always had a support group compared to Teh who had basically no one, and yet, he says he has no one to talk to... oh boy!
At the same time, I wanted to hate Oh-Aew at some points because in season 1 Bas was crazy for him and in season 2 there are clear glimpses in episode 5 that Q also has feelings for Oh-Aew (see the scene in the pool and then when the gang sees the picture of Oh-Aew and Teh with the wedding bouquet, Q clearly looks sad/disappointed that Oh-Aew made his choice but as a good friend says nothing about it and only smiles). And yet, with 2 guys clearly showing feelings for him and despite him "moving on" as he claimed several times in episode 5, cannot resist Teh when he sees the thesis play and reads the text messages. If love works that way, then I'm afraid of being in love.

While I understand the storyline had to change to accommodate more mature characters as they moved from high school to uni life, I don't know what to fully make of this season. It had very nice moments and then it had others that had me screaming at my screen wanting to smack Oh-Aew or Teh or both... if there is any consistency in Thai BLs is that we got the usual ending with both main characters ending together. At some point I wished for Oh-Aew to end up with Q or Bas or simply alone, but as usual, that was not going to happen. So, in the end, not sure what to think yet... I liked IPYTM but I felt it had a lot of room for improvement. Or maybe ITSAY just spoiled me so much that now I want every series to be like it.

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Nearly an Absolute Disappointment

It seems Thai BLs are now following a trend... first, we got the wave of stories taking place in a high school/university setting or full of engineering or medical students ("My Engineer", "SOTUS", and most of the mediocre GMMTV productions that give us a couple that ends up being shipped forever). Then, we got some with the mafia/gangster theme ("3 Will Be Free", "My Dear Gangster Oppa", "KinnPorsche"). Now, we're moving towards ghosts/supernatural stories ("Something in My Room", "The Whisperer", "Ghost Host, Ghost House") and time travel ("609 Bedroom Story", "Be My Favorite", "Past-Senger", "I Feel You Linger in the Air")... or even a combination of some of these topics. The problem: most of the examples I listed started in a promising way, only to end up being a sad disappointment. "Absolute Zero" is not an exception to the seemingly unwritten rule and here is why.

NOTE: From now on I will refer to young Ong-sa as Y-O, to older Ong-sa as O-O, to young Suansoon as Y-S and to older Suansoon as O-S to avoid having to write young or old each time.

Here is some storyline, in case you are really not aware of it by now. Y-O and Y-S meet as high school students, fall in love and live happily together until the day of their 10th anniversary when O-O has a car accident and ends up in a coma. O-S is desperate not to lose O-O that he wishes for things to change and is miraculously granted the ability to time travel to fix things in the past. So far, so good... well, not so much... he attempts to go back and fails, then Y-O also tries to change things, O-O does so as well and in the end, they do fix the timeline and live happily ever after.

Now comes the bad and confusing parts:
a) Too many flashbacks and repeated scenes. We spent most of the middle episodes re-living the same storyline we've already seen from O-S or from Y-O's perspective but now told from their counterpart's perspective. So, that meant having to deal with the same exact scene 2, 3 or even 4 times throughout the series without adding that much new information to make look like it was worth our time.

b) The tears and the suffering. Oh the tears! This series could have put together 1 or 2 full episodes with just the main characters crying as it was a sea of tears for most of the scenes involving Y-O or O-S deciding not to meet Y-S or to leave. In the several time travel attempts, no matter the changes in the storyline, there were tears and more tears all the time. Which leads to...

c) Music. I like Boy Sompob, but he was over-used in this series. Almost every episode had either the instrumental version or the regular version of the series OST and also had the OST for "Until We Meet Again" included. Nothing different. The opening instrumental music with the graphics with the credits were great but they really promoted Boy Sompob's songs in the series.

d) Poor Writing and Directing. After episode 3, the series began devolving into something messy and confusing. First, O-S wants to alter the timeline to save O-O of the coma, I get that... especially as we later find out that their destiny marks that either one of them has to die in their 10th anniversary if they continue meeting when in high school. What I don't get at all is WHY O-S has to get involved romantically with Y-O... your actual partner is lying in a hospital bed, you time-traveled to change the story and instead of just executing that plan, you end tutoring Y-O's friends, living in P'Nan's café and romancing the younger version of your dying lover. I mean, it's just bizarre to see O-S and Y-O smooching and lying in bed despite O-S knowing that he needs Y-O to avoid meeting Y-S to change the story.
Second, the mystery of the role of the old videostore owner is never fully explained. He seems to be either a version of Father Time (when he tells Y-O that even time has its limits and the clock sounding when he walks out in the post-credit scene in episode 12). At the same time, why is the only possible solution for them never to meet during high school, how does that alter the timeline enough for you to end up happy and together years later?
Third, the surprising time travel. We see that not only O-S time travels but later we also see O-O facing an alternate version of himself coming to warn him to really try not meeting Y-S as I mentioned at the beginning of section D. Supposedly, each one gets a chance to change the timeline but considering the original O-O is in a coma, I'm not sure at what point Ong-sa had the opportunity to time travel.
Fourth, the amnesia of some characters. All have the sense of deja-vu but none can figure out why... except for the older version of Na (Ong-sa's friend) who seems to remember what O-S asked her about believing in time travel when she was younger and the old man from the videostore.

The only GOOD thing I can mention is Tor playing Y-O. Considering this is his first lead role, he had to deal with his parents, P'Nan, the younger versions of his friends and being romantically involved with both versions of Suansoon. He had to develop some sort of chemistry with both Mix (Y-S) and Teng (O-S) in order to convince the viewer he was really in love with him and also had to navigate all the emotions that come from being told that he would die in 10 years unless he doesn't meet the love of his life at the movies.

In the end, this series began in a promising way but began getting lost along the way and no writing/directing trick could bring it back from being a near absolute (and unfortunate) disappointment.

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A Totally Dysfunctional Show

I just finished watching episode 12 and I still don't know what exactly did I watch or what was the whole purpose of this show.
Luckily for "Our Days", worse shows like "My Tee", "Don't Say No", "Love Area Season 2", "The Shipper", and "Gen Y 2" still exist and that prevents me from putting this show as one of the worst just because it comes from a relatively modest company with actors that clearly need some help improving their skills. However, this show had some many plot holes (nearly the size of moon craters), so many weird scenes, and so many loose ends that its a miracle its getting a 7.5 average last time I checked. In my opinion, several things ended up hurting this show... here are some examples:

1) The plot:
Can someone explain to me in one or two sentences what the show is all about without resorting to the synopsis provided by GagaOOlala or Atime26? Here is my summary: Mon comes from one of Thailand's provinces and loves basketball but one day, his high school classmate Saint (more on him later) joins the team and takes Mon's starting role... so Mon tired of being a benchwarmer does the childish thing to quit the team and stops playing basketball. They graduate high school, Mon goes to college in Bangkok, he is looking for his friend Pond (also a former high school classmate), ends up meeting So by accident, they kiss while drunk, they end up sharing an apartment with 2 other guys, Mon likes So, So likes Mon, So rejects Mon because he is going abroad forced by his parents, Saint admits he always liked Mon, Mon rejects him, Tim (Saint's university and basketball teammate) confesses to Saint in the last episode, they all play basketball... there are other characters that don't do or make much sense in the plot. Everything happens waaaaay too slow for a 45-minute episode. Mon and So end up together, So goes abroad, he comes back right at the last second. The end.
That's it... the show didn't focus too much on basketball like "You're My Sky" did just recently, as they do play basketball but Mon's team is not that good and Mon and Saint actually play way more basketball on their own than with their teams. The handling of the Mon-So-Saint triangle is quite bizarre... Saint never confesses until near the end of series but you always know he likes Mon. So likes Mon but decides to avoid him for 2 episodes just because he is going abroad (hooray for Thai BL clichés of sending away a character). So even flirts with his cousin (Mon doesn't know she is So's cousin) so Mon feels worse and ends up, yeah, you guessed it, running away again.
Even Mon's younger brother, Micky, also runs away after fighting with his mother and ends up in Bangkok and kissing Q out of nowhere. This was supposed to be the secondary couple? No clue, as their story outside of the episode where Q takes Micky around Bangkok and randomly kiss was the only extended moments they had together. They briefly appear in the flash forward moments near the end of episode 12 and they look like a possible couple but nothing is said. Tim confessing to Saint this late in the show also left everyone without the chance to see if their relationship could develop, especially since Saint accepted the fact that having Mon as a friend was the only option. Again, in the final scenes of episode 12, they are both playing basketball shirtless but nothing is confirmed for sure. The lack of a secondary couple made the plot holes more obvious and put even more pressure on the lead couple to deliver, which they don't do.
The characters are dull and predictable with Mon and So's roommates providing some of the comedic relief, Pond providing some of the sound advice to Mon and So and being heartbroken because Amy prefers the coach and ignores him, Tack acting like an arrogant bully towards Mon but then softening up a bit when So confesses to Mon in front of the team in episode 11 and he does a "thumbs up" sign to So, but then being cold to Mon again in the final episode. We only meet Mon and Micky's mother and So's mother but they provided ZERO to this show despite So's life being completely controlled by their parents who want him to study piano abroad.

2) The acting:
Mhing (playing So) and Gap (playing Mon) are cute, particularly Mhing, but sadly, both need A LOT of acting lessons to improve. I'm sure Gap was instructed to play an expressionless and cold character who barely smiled in the first half of the series... but he took it quite to the extreme with scenes where not a single muscle in his face was actually moving. Mhing was a bit better but the long silences during a scene, almost similar to "Bite Me" (another BL disappointment), made the lack of facial expressions even more evident. The chemistry between Mhing and Gap was not quite there, it was better than other shows, but it felt awkward, especially during the kissing scenes in episode 12 when it is hinted they will have sex. Both look quite weird as Gap never opens his mouth and at one point he appears quite uncomfortable as he really tries not to open his mouth while still trying to look like he is kissing Mhing.
The only exception in the cast is definitely Offroad (playing Saint). He is making his debut as he was selected during the Laz Icon contest and became a Thai idol just recently. He even had a cameo in the series "Rak Diao/One Love" in episode 8 to promote the 5-member boy group and he is scheduled to appear in another BL series called "Game On". He still needs to improve his skills to convey some of the emotions the scene requires, but he was a pleasant surprise in the show. He really stole most of the scenes as he looked better (acting-wise) than Gap and Mhing when they were together.

3) The odd things:
Several details that were awkward or just odd and made not a lot of sense like... Micky kissing Q, Amy liking the basketball coach so much (which I'm sure would be a violation of several school rules), Mon's childish behavior with all the running away moments he had, So deciding to avoid Mon then deciding to pursue him despite going abroad, So-Mon awkwardly kissing, So's parents controlling his life and him having no courage to tell them no and even admitting at some point that he wants to go abroad (I mean, then why through all the emotional drama), some characters having misplaced motivations like Saint loves basketball because of Mon, Tim loves basketball because of Saint, Mon doing these weird bets and promises with Saint while So looks at both and fears Saint might ask Mon to be together if he wins the basketball game (Saint wins but only asks Mon to be friends again), Mon calling himself an asshole so many times in the series (low self-esteem anyone?!), So and Mon both thinking that they didn't deserve to be happy until they change their minds in the last episode, So's luxury apartment that he barely uses.

In the end, whether it was the poor screenplay and editing, the flawed acting or the disappointing directing combined with the super slow pace of some of the scenes, this show was a boat adrift without any clear direction.

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Breath of fresh air

In a year that has been plagued by mediocre BLs (with some total disasters along the way), it is always refreshing to at least have something decent. "Love in Translation" decided to at least break the cookie-cutter mold that most GMMTV series have been and avoided the usual highschool/college students setting that we seem to get at least 3+ times per year (like "Fish Upon the Sky", "Tonhon Chonlatee", "2Gether", "Bad Buddy", "Dangerous Romance", and a long long etc.) and are so popular not because the acting was great or the story was fantastic but because GMMTV shoves the lead couple down our throats endlessly in very similar series later on. And other studios don't have the long list of actors so we get to see them plenty of times in several stories (like Frank-Lee Long, Noeul-Boss, among others)

"Love in Translation" provided a break from mediocrity and while certainly NOT perfect, is not the slow burner that "I Feel You Linger in the Air" has become (not a bad series but just becoming a bit too predictable) or the near porn show that "Only Friends" has been from the beginning (seriously, I'm shocked as to how only 2 segments of the 9 episodes that have aired are age-restricted on GMMTV's Youtube channel). And here are some of the reasons this series has been a pleasant surprise:

1. OFFROAD: I still think this guy has been vastly underused in the Thai entertainment industry. Yes, I know his main job is being a singer but we've seen him acting briefly in a cameo in "Rak Diao/One Love" (episode 8) and as the lone shining moment of the disaster that was "Our Days", where he simply stole most of the scenes he was in alongside the two leads. In this series, we get to see him play the bubbly character of Phumjai, a guy who is madly in love with a Thai-Chinese influencer called Tammy and that has to deal with an older brother, Phojai, who doesn't feel he is mature/responsible enough and follows him around trying to check on him from a distance. Later, to prove he is "worthy" of Tammy's love and to shut his brother's mouth, he decided to open a business and with Otto's help he meets Yang, a Chinese guy who is trying to open a business in Thailand but needs a Thai partner to do so.
Offroad once again shows his versatility as an actor as he navigated through several very different moments like when he is so flustered to meet Tammy for the first time, to realizing he is not in love in her but actually he is developing feelings for Yang, to feeling sadness and anger when Yang rejects him, to feeling worried when Yang is kidnapped and when Phojai has to stay with the kidnappers, to the loyalty he shows to Tag and other mini-mart workers, to all the cute moments he has with Yang, to the mature conversation he has with his brother in the final episode. All those moments were not 100% perfect, but certainly were well done by a guy who doesn't have a whole lot of acting experience (someone please show this series to Gun Napat!)

As point 1A, I will give an honorable mention to Daou who is making his acting debut in this series (he also appeared in episode 8 of "Rak Diao/One Love" but was only to promote LAZ1) and had a bit more complicated emotional scenes than Offroad but did it decently enough... However, the combination of him and Offroad proved to be deadly thanks to...

2. CHEMISTRY: Holy chemistry between the leads Batman! Offroad and Daou did not have a lot of kissing scenes or intimate moments like we've seen in many other shows. However, whatever they had, they made the screen sizzle like their sex romp inside the mini-mart and the kisses in episode 8. Not sure if being part of the same group has made me much more comfortable with each other but it was good to see two rookie actors really go for it in the kissing scenes without the hesitation and sometimes cringe that some more veteran actors show when they have to kiss their on-screen partner. In episode 8 I was 2 seconds away from screaming like the 2 ladies that were witnessing the moment as they definitely went for it in the kissing department. As a viewer, not only that makes the romance a bit more real but also I can appreciate the commitment instead of having fish kisses or actors who look really awkward while trying to avoid touching lips as much as possible. Outside of these moments, both developed a good dynamic in the other situations so the lead couple felt actually like a lead couple.

Now, not everything was picture perfect...

Some of the PLOT/STORYLINE made no sense because there was really no background story provided to know about Yang's past. We know his family has a lot of debt and they seem to be running away but I wish more details were provided so we didn't have to be guessing. The kidnapping in episode 7-8 was a bit unexpected as apparently the guy who wants the money from Yang suddenly kidnaps him and forces him to work in his company?! I mean, I've never heard of a loan shark who actually "hires" you to pay your debt by doing manual labor for him. Then, when Phojai stays, he ends up using his knowledge to save the loan shark's company and ends up being called "Boss #2"... I mean, talk about moments that come out of nowhere...
Plus, the way Phumjai, Tag and Phojai end up joining Yang and then the negotiation to only retain Phojai is also a bit weird as no loan shark will agree to that. Then, the money Phumjai has to lend to Bokki and her sick father is a bit unnecessary as all is solved off screen and Bokki remains "eternally grateful" to Phumjai for helping.

Then, the secondary couple of Tag and Phojai had zero back story or development... both are already dating in secret by the time the series start, Tag wants to go public, Phojai doesn't, they argue, they might break up until Phojai has a revelation and confesses his love for Tag, and he decided to move in with Tag at the end. The stalking that Phojai does for most of the series is a bit off-putting as he uses Tag to "report" on everything that Phumjai does and keeps following his brother's actions. The only good moment was the conversation both brothers have in episode 8 were the clear any misunderstandings and you can finally see a conversation between two adults.

In a minor complain, I wish Daou did not have to wear that wig, but given he had military commitments, I understand the need for it.

In the end, while definitely not perfect, this series at least brought some much needed fresh air from all the disappointing series we've had this year (not only from Thailand but also from other countries) and exposed us to Offroad-Daou who should be definitely be used more as actors in the near future.

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Meh

Yet another story adapted from a novel that doesn't provide much that you will remember by the end of the year... maybe you won't even remember it 3 months from now.

Once again, we have a story set up in a university environment with engineering students (seriously, with how many engineering students are being portrayed in Thai BLs, you would think the majority of the gay/bi population in Thailand is an engineer). This time, the only original plot is that each student goes into a dorm depending on their individual skills with Ai and Songkram becoming "rivals" as one goes to dorm 2 and the other to dorm 3.
Almost from the beginning, we know Ai likes Songkram and Songkram likes Ai but each think they like someone else and never really act on their crushes. Plus, being in separate dorms, they each have to maintain the appearance of having a rivalry which leads to silly/dumb situations once they start dating in secret in the later episodes.

Most of the 10 episodes go around Ai and Songkram navigating around their feelings for each other, the confusion of thinking they each like someone else, their friends, their leadership role in each of the dorms, school, mutual enemies, etc. Sadly, at least in my opinion, the situations and obstacles they face are quite dull and highly predictable. Now, I've read comments that the NC scenes between them and the other couples make up for the dull storyline, but once again, it only shows how narrow-minded we've become if we can excuse a show's mediocrity just because the actors showed some skin in some steamy scenes in 1 episode and did nothing worth remembering in the rest. The other 2 couples have their moments in the series, especially Bright (who likes Ai) and Meen (who likes Bright), but their storylines get mostly lost. Each side couple has a NC scene in one episode but aside from that and some shady moments (like when Bright forces Meen to kiss), we really don't know much about their story as nothing is fully explained as the series focuses on Ai-Songkram.

The bad guys are the typical cartoon characters that think they are super bad but look super dumb. First, you have the senior (can't remember the character's name) who tries to have Ai sleep with him in order for him to forgive Ohm's (Ai's cousin) debt and later joins Ohm in order to beat Ai-Songkram in the entrepreneur competition. Then, you have Ohm who always wants Ai to help him and get him out of trouble and one time Ai and his friends reject him from joining the group project and he ends up selling all their information and when Ai confronts him on episode 10, he tries to blame it all on Ai. Both characters were poorly written... I mean, the situations are quite surreal with an alumni turned office worker asking for sexual favors and a university student selling information to the same character just because he was voted off the team for a project. The level of pettiness is remarkable... so I really don't find a reason to have these "villains" in the show. At least, we didn't have the usual screaming, jealous, whiny female character trying to break up the lead couple with "evil" deeds like we've seen so many times in the past. And we also didn't have the crazy parents trying to send their son abroad to avoid the shame of him having a male partner or, the opposite, acting like cheerleaders on stimulants because they fully support their son's relationship.

Acting was decent, Earth is the one with more acting credits as he appeared in support roles in "Even Sun" and the disaster that was "That's My Candy", along with other credits. Bank has only a few roles in his career and Pre-Saint (Meen) and Boss (Bright) are brand new actors. The chemistry between Earth and Bank was good enough and while their kissing began with a bit of hesitancy, they managed to perform well enough. Bank had the more dramatic scenes dealing with his mother fainting, dealing with Ohm's actions, and deciding to go to Germany to work... he is not perfect, but he navigated through them decently enough. Now, the situations they had to face weren't exactly that complicated as we've seen jealous family members, sick parents, and decisions on having to move abroad for work MANY MANY times in BLs. This series was no exception as they use "work abroad" card and send Ai to Germany to develop the silly Pure Air mask he and his group proposed in the competition that we see 3 years later fully developed... if that's the end result, well, it looks like the usual mask people I've seen on several Korean and Thai shows when people are cooking except this one is larger and covers the whole mouth. That silliness aside, Ai goes to Germany for 3 years and in the mean time, Songkram becomes a pilot and they meet again on the plane back to Thailand and later they have a baby while we also know the younger side couple graduates as all celebrate the event wearing the silly masks but nothing more is said about the other couples. The End.

On a side note, the translation was atrocious for most of the episodes with English subtitles not being at the same level that we've seen other series. I was able to find a fan-subbed version with Spanish subtitles that were quite better than the ones provided by the producer, so thankfully I was able to dodge some subtitle confusion like I've seen others complain about.
That being said, this a story that is not that hard to follow as is dull and predictable with cute leads but nothing that will you back to watch it again because it's that good. So, watch it once and then send it to the BL archives.

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Probably one of the worst written BLs I've seen

After part 1 ended, I was left with some hope because the story between Kaitoon and Valen was at least going somewhere. If you remember, Valen tried to rob Kaitoon in episode 1 of part 1 to pay some goons money he owed. Then, out of a miracle, Kaitoon ended up working at the restaurant owned by Valen's sister, Nisa, and Valen was forced to work there by her, he met Kaitoon again and eventually started falling for each other. The six episodes of part 1 had some sort of development because the relationship between Valen and Kaitoon started to blossom and the side couple of King and Pete provided some odd moments after arguing a lot at first but, it was going in some direction as well. Pete left King due to an apparent bout of depression and King was feeling like crap and after some episodes he decided to give Pete a chance and were back together when part 1 ended. As I said before, I was left with SOME hope that part 2 will really develop these two couples with the usual clichés introduced in Thai BLs of low budget companies (GagaOOlala airs the show internationally but I doubt they had any influence in the budget of it) like an unexpected ex-girlfriend, or parents trying to sabotage the relationship, or a love triangle. Then came "Love Area 2" and all hope of at least the usual plot twists, went to hell.

This has to be one of the worst written BLs in many many years, and I've seen disasters like "My Tee" with Frank and Drake that had a plot that was simply not plausible or "Love By Chance 2" that had 6 episodes that worked as a "recap" of season 1 only to compensate for Saint's absence. "Love Area 2" takes these two series and raises the stakes of poor writing by providing us with confusing scenarios, unneeded actors in useless scenes, choppy editing and an ending that makes me fear there could be a part 3 in the works.

I'll summarize part 2 with a WTF! and here is why:

1. Kaitoon is one of the most mature (sometimes, as he does have a few childish moments as well) characters I've seen in a Thai BL as he tries to deal with the volatile Valen and his never ending moody behavior through 8 pain-inducing episodes. Valen can be warm and caring like when they take the day off at the beach or when he buys Kaitoon new tennis shoes or dries his hair with a towel. But, Valen can be a mean bitchy whining immature baby like when he thinks Kaitoon somehow is involved in the Pete affair with Sean and decides not to listen to Kaitoon, throw a tantrum and end their relationship and then start flirting with a girl when he sees Non and Kaitoon together. I don't know what the writer and the director were thinking but they over-complicated the relationship by having so many messed up plots around them which, sadly, weren't properly done and ended up with a writing mess.

2. King and Pete are polar opposites as King acts like the suffering martyr through all of part 2 as Pete is cheating on him and lying about his depression only for him to reveal that he already knows about the depression part but didn't say anything and kept trying to live like a happy couple. I mean, you know the guy lied about being depressed and still tried to be together? And, we actually never know the REAL reason for Pete to leave in part 1, come back, try to win King again, and cheat... was it his relationship with Sean? was it something else? Pete, on the other hand, is just a manipulative and borderline sociopath who tries to control King by making him not talk to Ice, by taking away the puppy both Ice and King were taking care of, by getting angry if King doesn't do what he wants, etc.

3. Non is simply such a bland character, he likes Kaitoon but always has bad timing and things never really go his way... and Kaitoon sends him to the "friend-zone" in episode 8. That's it... he never fights for Kaitoon, we never see if he has other friends, family, nothing, just plain boring and dull scenes when he was in them... and even his facial expressions barely changed during scenes.

4. The other characters don't provide much either. Nisa tries to make one of his employees play the role of her boyfriend (what??) when Nisa and Valen's father visit the restaurant but nothing develops there. She also knows that Valen likes Kaitoon but barely interferes and when she does, in episodes 7 and 8, is to scold Valen and tell him to fix things with Kaitoon, but no more advice, no nothing. Sean suddenly appears as Kaitoon's classmate and even more suddenly, he appears as the one having sex with Pete. That triangle (or square if you count Ice) made no sense because there was not even a hint that he was involved with Pete until episodes 6-8 and then in the end, he tells Pete he still loves him but he is going abroad (another very used Thai strategy when having a sad/bad ending) and that's the end of that fling. Ice clearly likes King but being a junior to King and Pete, he normally doesn't voice his opinions that much and is almost as passive as Non is with Kaitoon until episode 8 when he takes some initiative to help King get out of his own depression (this one real) of Pete cheating on him... but again nothing develops between them. And the Bill, June and Sonya triangle provided nothing useful for the story as they barely interact with the lead characters or are connected to them in any way outside of all being university students.

5. The plot makes no sense. Valen/Kaitoon become Valen/Kaitoon/Non/Panggo (the girl Valen flirts with in the final 2 episodes). King/Pete become King/Pete/Ice/Sean and they add the other triangle mentioned above. But none of the love triangle/squares is fully or correctly developed because the lead one is created due to Valen's immaturity, Kaitoon's over suffering, Non's one-way love of Kaitoon and Panggo just being a bystander of Valen's insanely childish behavior.
King is lying to himself about having a good relationship with Pete as he knows he is lying but plays along, Pete is just cheating and lying without a clearly apparent reason, Ice likes King but never gathers the courage to advance their relationship, and Sean magically appears as Pete's cheating partner. Some of the side characters don't have many lines but we see one of them having a key to King's apartment and using it just to find evidence of Pete's lies... I mean, really? where did that brilliant idea came from in episode 6 of part 2 when you did nothing in all of part 1 and most of this part?

6. Acting also was a problem as Gun (playing Valen) had some issues delivering some emotions to some scenes and Pak (playing Kaitoon) sometimes tried too hard to look like the suffering type. Ohm (playing King) tends to exaggerate his dramatic scenes a bit too much, Tod (playing Pete) missed some chances to really convince me about his acting, especially in the scenes when he had to apologize... he was oddly decent in the psychopath/sociopath/obsessive guy parts which I found interesting. Even Jeff Satur (playing Sean) looked oddly bad in this series after seeing some decent acting from him in "Ingredients" with a crazy look in some scenes, which I hope was due to a directing issue rather than him being a bad actor. Chemistry was not 100% there as Gun and Pak and Ohm and Tod sometimes felt a bit uncomfortable in dramatic scenes, a bit awkward in love scenes and never really felt like they had a connection like other BL couples seem to have.

7. The final episode was a mess as well as all the couples/triangles/squares end up having nothing but sad endings (and I'm not even including the useless June/Bill attempt... Pete leaves King for good (or so he says), Sean leaves Pete to study abroad, Ice approaches King but nothing interesting happens in the 33-minute final episode as they clean King's apartment and then eat lunch together the next day when Pete appears to say goodbye. Kaitoon tells Non that they can only be friends, Non sighs, tells Valen there is nothing going on with him and Kaitoon and then just walks away and later rejects Kaitoon's offer to have lunch together. Valen tries to court Panggo but can't stop thinking about Kaitoon and then both finally meet in the same dark park it all starting back in part 1. They talk, Valen accepts he is a horrible human being but immediately wants to go back to where they were before he threw a childish tantrum... Kaitoon tells him that he can't do it now as he is hurt by Valen's attitude but leaves the door open for a future together... they say goodbye, walk away and during the end credits they run like kids to embrace, which left me more confused... all of Kaitoon's speech about being hurt and needing time to think things ends up being wasted by them hugging like that in the end.

Which is why I fear they could bring a third season of this writing wreck... let's hope "love" will no longer be available in this "area" and this series ends here and becomes a distant memory of a poorly executed BL.

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Interesting

I will admit that I watched the show from beginning to end...
We got to see some of the complicated process that a young guy in Korea has to go through if he wants to fulfill his dream of being a famous singer. From what I've read online, some of them work as models or have been trainees for some time and others were members of groups that failed or never debuted.

But, despite all that, this show truly showcases most of the toxic "idol" culture in Korea and here is why.
I understand the vocal and dancing exercises, but some of the stamina and strength ones were a bit pointless and served only to get them some points and to tire them a lot. Even some of the vocal exercises seemed a bit useless, especially when the guys didn't even know the song they were going to sing. Rapping has never been my "cup of tea" but I was able to appreciate some of the creative ways they had to write some lyrics, but aside from one or two, the rest were not that good.

We got to see the typical Asian cliché that all male idols have to be strong, handsome, super thin, preferably with six-pack abs (as we even saw the two main female hosts almost drool over some of their abs), they were fed mostly boiled chicken breast and rice because part of the image is maintaining a certain weight and the group had to have vocals, rappers, and dancers.

While it's great that these 7 guys will be able to finally debut as idols, nothing is guaranteed for them as we've seen many groups disband in the past or lose members that can't handle the pressure of being an idol in Korea and have to quit the group due to personal reasons or that end up suffering from depression or other mental health problems that make them take a drastic decision like harm themselves or even commit suicide. I truly hope these 7 are mentally and physically ready for what's coming for them, especially because the group (oddly named T.A.N., which means "To All Nations") now will have compete with plenty of recently created male groups like Ciipher, T1419, Just B, Kingdom, Mirae, NTX, ATO6, Omega X, W.A.O., EPEX, Blitzers, W.O.W., Megamax, Luminous, all of which debuted in 2021. Plus, competition from male groups that debuted a few years ago like ONF (which now went into hiatus as all members except for Japanese member U, have enlisted in the military at the same time), ONEUS, and of course, competition from the more established bunch like Seventeen, Astro, Tomorrow by Together, Ateez, etc., that already have a growing fanbase. So, the road ahead is certainly not easy for T.A.N.

So, the show was entertaining and it was fun to watch some of their interactions as they spent so much time together in the wilderness, it also brings a lot of the troublesome nature of being a singer/idol in Korea and how much pressure these guys have just to be able to be deemed "good enough" to debut. Best of luck to all of them.

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Clumsy try

Ok, first of all... don't expect this to be a series that will wow you and leave a lasting memory... actually, don't expect much because it doesn't have the budget of a GMMTV or Nadao series and the actors are for the most part inexperienced and it lacks a good writer/director/acting coach to help the story.

First, some of the good:
1. The setting is a village in Northern Thailand so at least is nice to get a different setting than Bangkok or Chiang Mai or any other big city.
2. Din's grandmother is the best character of the story. She plays the role of a frail woman that wants to have her grandson nearby and is afraid of losing him or him leaving her alone. She gets emotional after not seeing him for a few days and brings some comedy when she criticizes Din's cooking in front of Than.
3. The initial plot has some merit as all the characters want to seek justice to their own causes and also help the villagers improve their economic and social condition.
4. As someone already mentioned, it exposes some of the common problems poor people have to face in rural communities. The lack of options to make some money forces them to either leave for a bigger city, engage in some illegal activities or take out money from loan sharks who take advantage of them because they lack the knowledge. The series highlights the bad that is happening and the will of the main characters to change this.

Now, some of the bad:
1. Acting is a mess... only X (who plays Dan) has some previous experience acting (in the very mediocre BL series "The Cupid Coach") while the rest are new to the acting industry. And boy oh boy, it is so obvious they are new! They lack the emotion to convey a sad scene or a serious scene and they are not funny enough to convince me in a comedy scene. Kawaii (who plays Din) does a decent job when his grandmother is crying because she misses him and, as he hides from her, he cries and promises to always be by her side. Outside of this scene, the rest were not delivered very effectively by anyone.
2. The plot, that started out with some good promise, ends up being a total mess. The 6 guys take on gangsters with such an ease that is amazingly ridiculous to watch. They plan to take down the bad guys in about 3 minutes of the 6th episode and they execute their plan in about 7 minutes of the 7th episode, it just makes no sense how quickly they ended up beating everyone, the police arrives and catches the bad guys and everyone is happy in the end.
3. The 3 couples (Than-Din, Dan-Khet, and Mongkorn-Mek) don't develop as much as we would have expected or wanted. All have some sweet scenes with some shy glances/smiles, they hold hands, but nothing really develops in terms of their relationship as the plot of improving the lives of the locals seems to take priority. They do get more or less similar airtime with the first 3 episodes being nearly exclusive of each couple and then alternating in the rest until they all gather for episodes 7 and 8.

Finally, the bizarre, ugly, or just plain weird:
1. Product placement is clumsy at best, with awkward moments to introduce the medicines for Mongkorn's father and Din's grandmother and also the magic soap that appears everywhere. True, we got to see all of the actors shirtless so they can shower and use the soap but some scenes were particularly long and unnecessary when the actors had to explain the benefits of the dragon's pill or Than reminding Din's grandmother to take the diabetes pill everyday and how all magically feel much better after taking the pills.
2. For such a low-budget series, it sure had a lot of guns and murders. Than's mother getting run over by a car driven by one of the gang members, Dan's parents being shot in front of him, Khet's mother also being shot under a bridge... It was weird to have so many murders and all executed with so much cruelty (and yes, this also highlights the plot of the series of how a few bad apples take advantage of a whole village). Then when the 6 guys want to stop the bad guys they bring more guns but each ends up fighting, which leads me to...
3. The sound effects were simply hilarious. When the boss is attacking Dan with a knife and missing, they added "whoosh" sounds and each kick or punch had their own sounds as well but all sounded so out-of-place and like the sounds were done by amateurs who had to improvise with a piece of cardboard or other junk they had around to make the noise.
4. This village is VEEEERY accepting and open-minded with all the couples. Episode 8 has all the villagers celebrating the 6 guys and they all seem very comfortable with the fact that all the guys are couples. Mongkorn's parents approve of his relationship with Mek so quickly it was bizarre to see after having all the Thai BL clichés of the parents opposing fiercely to their son being gay and in love with another boy. Mongkorn's parents are so the opposite that they even give their blessing to the relationship (ep. 8). Din's grandmother also suspects of Din and Than's relationship and she tells Than to take care of Din when she is no longer with them. Even the school kids are so happy when Mongkorn starts courting Mek and gossip like true fujoshis shipping their teacher with Mongkorn.
5. We had the crazy jealous female character like in nearly 95% of all Thai BLs when a girl tries to get Mongkorn's attention and then does not believe he likes Mek. And now, we even added a jealous male character that comes out of nowhere in episode 6 and asks Mek to write a love poem for him and then awkwardly confesses his love. We end up with crazy jealous girl and crazy jealous boy confronting Mek and Mongkorn until they end up revealing they do like each other.

So, another low-budget clumsy BL series with good looking actors that need a lot of help to improve and a writer/director that went a bit crazy with the storyline. Some parts are re-watchable and is not the worst BL out there, but after watching it once, you can do better.

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Thai BLs CAN be different! Who knew!

Well well... what a pleasant suprise!
Thai BLs can be different? What a discovery! You mean to tell me not all Thai BLs are set in schools/universities and not all Thai BL characters are engineering or medical students? Who knew!

There are several things that make Manner of Death a "must watch":
First, Max and Tul. Enough said...
No, really, the chemistry between them is off the chart, so much so that now that Max is dating Mook, Max's fans started getting angry on social media because of that and Tul showed some support for both in some interviews you can find on Youtube. They have worked together on several series and it shows, they are confident with each other, willing to commit to a sexy scene (unlike Plan and Mean who look like they are suffering instead of kissing, especially Plan), and feed off of each other to improve the scene. Their acting is not flawless but they do complement each other and are a strong couple plus their sexy scenes do not look forced at all.

Second, great support characters.
Great as inspector M, Foei as prosecutor Pued, Mint as Rungtiwa, MD as Oat, Bhu as That, Meiko as Jenjira, Putter as Sorawit, even A as Por, Wantanee as Nam, ChaiTouch as Gun and the other senior actors playing the head of the police department, the judge, and the nurses at the hospital, play a vital role in making this a successful series. They help Max and Tul by building convincing characters that are not just there just to be there. And everyone is connected in the end and each character finds a resolution. This is different from other BL series where you see a character for one or two episodes only to never be seen again without any clear idea of what happened to that character. Or you see a character that is only there for comedic relief or to scream or "ship" the main couple but do not provide anything more than that. Manner of Death was able to integrate the cast more effectively and everyone serves a role and has a purpose in this story.

Third, good writing.
Often times I get annoyed with the poor writing we see in plenty of BLs, with the characters not communicating properly leading to many unnecessary arguments/fights, or plenty of tears and confusion. Or sometimes we get super crazy or completely impossible stories that make absolutely no sense at all but if you take that weird story out, then you have no BL. Here, you have a good story of human trafficking, prostitution, murder, corruption that becomes the thread that Max and Tul's characters have to follow to solve this case. In the process, good writing puts some twists in the story and makes the whole cast shine. I can argue that sometimes Great's character (Inspector M) was better than Max or Tul's characters, but that is what good writing and a credible storyline does to a series. Plus, the author and the director correctly decided when it was time for Max and Tul to have a sexy moment and it was ok given the situation they were going through in the series. The scenes look natural and not like Y-Destiny or WhyRU when you had actors just getting shirtless for no apparent reason.

Of course, the series had some not so good moments like some of the actors, especially A, Mint and the head of the police department, exaggerating their lines or their expressions which made look a bit crazy or fake. Tul's character was a bit naïve sometimes and Max's character was a bit too cocky as well in some situations. Plus, I would have like to see a bit more development with Bhu-Putter and even the hint of Great-MD we got in the final episode as potential side couples but with this being a different BL I don't feel too bad about this. Some of the punishments the bad guys got were a bit disappointing like Rungtiwa being killed by Por felt like an easy solution for her instead of having the real killer of her own sister suffer a bit more in jail.

But, in the end, Manner of Death brought 14 quite entertaining episodes especially because it was not the typical Thai/GMMTV BL (Tonhon Chonlatee, Fish upon the sky, 2gether the series, etc.) or the typical low-budget Thai BLs we've seen lately (Love at 7-11, Love Poison, Hometown's Embrace, I am Your King SS2, etc.), and just because of that, we should appreciate it.

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