Last weekend, I had an interesting conversation with several gay (male) friends of mine who are not media studies or internet discourse pilled the way I am about queer media and the depiction of queerness in tv and film. It started with discussing Queer as Folk, which one of my friends had not seen but had been watching with his husband, and how it has not aged particularly well for a variety of reasons, but something all of them agreed on is that they are tired of queer media where the conflicts are primarily about being queer.
This is actually something I’ve felt for ages, and it’s something that has shifted particularly in Thai BLs over the last few years. When you look at the upcoming shows across all the production companies, they are largely about things other than being gay. And that’s super cool!
That being said—I mentioned how I’d noticed in Asian queer media (specifically Thai shows), the characters operate on this baseline assumption that anyone could be queer. There’s rarely the “well, I don’t know if he’s into guys” angst, more the “I don’t know if he’s into me.” I honestly think that’s kind of nice in a lot of ways, but I do also understand the desire, especially when it comes to GLs, for the characters to be explicitly gay and operating in a gay space. I think there’s room for both to exist—The Heart Killers might be a good example, because Kant at least says explicitly that he prefers men at one point and while homophobia appears in that show, it has nothing to do with the main relationship arcs or the primary conflict.
All of this has been interesting to contemplate, especially over the last few days with the latest episode of Perfect 10 Liners, since a while ago someone bemoaned the fact that New Siwaj was no longer making shows about queer angst and wondering what that meant for the BL landscape. Personally, I think it’s just that Director New is in his 30s now and is interested in other things; he still loves to show coming of age and first love, but homophobia is no longer the primary issue his characters face. I think it’s missing a lot of nuance to say that shows exist purely in a fantasy world free of prejudice—some might, like We Are to a degree—but so many shows engage with existing as a queer person in society, just in more subtle ways than they used to.
Currently Watching (on air)
Perfect 10 Liners: Speaking of P10, I had a feeling a little way into the episode what Wine’s deal was, and the way it was confirmed was both really heartwrenching (the scene in the bar) and a little hello girl what you doing (Ploy’s character essentially outing him to Franc’s character). I’m assuming Louis is her older brother that Wine has/had a crush on, so I’m looking forward to seeing him show up.
I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this arc—it’s definitely not what I thought from the original trailer—but so far I’m really enjoying it, because Faifa and Wine are truly being given equal narrative weight (I would argue that Arm and Gun are more heavily the protagonists of the earlier arcs). And Mark and Junior really went for it in their kiss scenes; I’m so ready for their belligerent sexual tension in Romance Scammers.
Ossan’s Love: Between this and the trailer for the Arthit/Daotok arc of Fourever You (more on that later), my impression of the Thai attitude toward ghosts has really been confirmed. I do have a book on the Thai occult that I acquired while watching Peaceful Property that says that there’s a much wider baseline belief in ghosts in Thailand than in the US, but I had also picked that up from watching shows and how much the possibility of ghosts is discussed and not treated with the same level of immense skepticism as it might be in the US.
All that aside, I think the cute early dating stage of Heng and Mo has been really sweet and Earth and Mix have ben playing it so well. I do need Mix to look less immensely horny, but honestly I’m not sure if he’s capable of turning it off.
And my ghost (no pun intended) ship saw some hope this week! It seems like both Chicha and Boss might have romantic prospects beyond Heng, thank god.
ThamePo: There was a lot to love about this episode, even if it’s The Sad Heartbreak one. One thing I particularly like is that while Pemika is frustrating and obviously the antagonist, her business decisions make sense and it’s clear that she doesn’t hate any of MARS personally, she’s just running a company and prioritizes that over everything else. Her granting all of their career wishes at the end of the episode did lowkey feel like she was bribing them (did she pull some strings for Jun to get that lead role?) but at the same time, she didn’t have to do that.
As per usual, Est and William killed it, particularly in their breakup scene. It’s so, so hard to cry convincingly on camera, and both of them once again did it so well. So did Lego in his scene where Nano breaks down sobbing!
Just want to give a little note to Jun (and Nut as Jun) who remains so interesting to me. The way he’s the first to notice that something is off with Thame—like, literally the moment Thame walks through the door—to being the one to comfort Nano was so exactly what I expected of him, because he’s a liar who loves to pretend that he doesn’t care. I’m sure there are people who think he’s inconsistently written, but the dichotomy between what he says and what does are the most interesting things about him.
Currently Watching (completed)
LoveSick 2024: I keep going to look at the MDL page because I’ve lost track of the character names and getting jump-scared by how young they all are. What do you mean Mick’s actor is 14?? Progress is 15! These are children! And Almond is distressingly good at looking like he wants to eat Progress, much like Gemini in MSP. I’m begging these 17 year olds to chill.
Finished
Why You…Y Me: I watched this specifically because Maxky is in it, and the funny thing is that in many ways he is basically playing himself, down to being a game streamer. They even have him shout “P’Jin!!!” at one point, aka his famous catchphrase from his BTS reaction era.
I can’t really call this show a BL because the main relationship is het, but they are surrounded by gay people and Namwah is a fujo, so I guess it’s BL-adjacent. I don’t think I’d recommend this for the most part, not because I didn’t find it charming—I did, especially the main relationship—but it just feels somewhat incomplete. I don’t know if they had to cut stuff, but it feels like there’s more they could have expanded, whether it was Gap’s friendship with Maipai or having the saesang character face, like, literally any consequences.
Bad Guy My Boss: I don’t know how to talk about this show, because in a lot of ways I felt like it was just a show where things happened rather than having any real plot. Like, there’s nominally one centered around the actual business, but since the stakes of that feel so inconsequential it all just feels like padding onto the pretty lackluster romance between the leads. Maybe if it had been a more attractive looking show I’d have had more tolerance for it, but it was also visually unpleasant to me so there was very little going for it.
BL News:
Domundi’s trailers have been released and I was going to do a round up letter, but honestly they all scrambled my brain so bad that I had to take a few days to recover. First of all, their trailers are so fucking long. Second of all, most of them are batshit insane. Let’s go through the list:
Love Upon a Time—I’m not sure why they had to add so much lore for JJ isekai-ing into his past life, but it looks about what I expected aside from all the university life stuff. Is that necessary?? Anyway, I’m excited to see it and to see JJ and Net’s chemistry in action (I guess we’ll get them in The Next Prince first, which does thrill me). This show does look batshit, but I was gonna watch it regardless.
Your Third—I’m glad Max gets to play someone actually fun instead of just lowkey miserable, and Nat’s acting has definitely improved, but what the fuck was this. Hello??? Twins?? Why is it called Your Third??? Does that mean it’s a polyamory situation where the twins share Nat??? It’s also directed by my mortal nemesis (because his shows are almost always completely deranged) so god. Who knows what this is going to be like.
Mr. Fanboy—This has some stuff that looks deranged, but the basic premise is solid enough and I do love entertainment circle stories. Auau and Save are very cute together, and they have James doing what he was born to do: playing a huge bitch.
You(r)Tuber—Another one that seems to have a relatively simple setup with a guy who becomes an influencer to spite his ex and then falls for his cameraman, which is a very cute idea. The leads have good chemistry based on this, I’m just kind of curious what the non romance plot will be like. Cooheart as the green tea best friend did in fact kill me dead.
Duang with Me—This trailer was a thousand years long for no apparent reason, but a campus romance with someone pining for the ice prince is a classic concept. Por and Teetee were very charming in Your Sky, so I’ll be interested to see how this goes.
Restart—I legitimately did not recognize Tommy for the first like, five minutes of this seventeen minute long trailer. Something about the long hair and how it’s styled makes him look like Zac Oyama. Also, there are so many men in their thirties playing high schoolers in this. Only JJ really looks close to age appropriate. And despite this trailer being so long, I’ve got almost no idea what it’s about. For some reason, four rich kids have divided up the school among themselves and everyone has to pick one like it’s The Voice, and this is very important. Also, Tommy may have died and come back to life?? Unfortunately, I will be tuning in, but not because it looks good.
Magic Lover—Good lord the costume design (derogatory). This trailer was also so fucking long and lowkey boring despite it being on the face of it a reasonably charming concept—three witch boys are kicked out into the human world to find their soulmate and if they don’t they’ll turn into animals. Cute! Could be a charming YA series. I’m not sure Domundi is going to be able to juggle three storylines well, and the writing for this trailer is not inspiring confidence.
HugELhee the Musical—What is it with the twins? Nunew playing his own bitchy famous twin is very funny, of course, and the mistaken identity thing is very musical, so I guess it works? But it does crack me up. I do not know if I’ll be watching this, just because TV series musicals peaked for me with Galavant (although I really loved how the music sounded definitely Thai) and also it’s. It might be too much for me.
Wabisabi also released the trailers for Fourever You Part?? I’m trying to figure out if they’re all going to be one season (maybe 8 episode arcs like P10?) since there were 3 trailers or if they’re going to be filmed in parts. I truly don’t know if they can all be the same season because the tones are wildly different between the three.
Beside the Sky—Oh, Director New, you’re back at it again making a beautiful tiny boy cry. This time it’s Tonliew, who is three inches tall and cute as a button, so it hurt me deeply. This trailer was interesting, because it seems to mostly cover the early part of their relationship and not show any of what happens once Typhoon starts at uni. I had the least interest in this storyline from the original trailer, just because we were given nothing to go on, but from this, their interactions in Part 1, and all of the reels saying that Tonfah is actually the craziest of the four tops, I’m strapped in and ready.
The Sun from Another Star—What do you mean, Daotok can see ghosts?? And he’s psychic?? HELLO??? Is this the same universe?? I guess it does explain a lot about his personality as well as all the jokes about the art room being haunted, but when I tell you I was not expecting that. Ngern and Oat do make my head spin because of their RL story, and this was absolutely the horniest trailer, so…it is Director New so it’s not going to be anything that spicy, but even so.
Lately, It’s Winter Season—I wasn’t sure that Tiger and Nao were going to get their own show, even though Pie and Golf have been promoting with the rest of the main cast, and I’m glad they are because I thought they were very cute. I’m a little like uhhh about the show itself because I saw a reel a while back that outlined the events in the novel and it’s so insane. Tiger is a mafia heir and has maybe killed someone?? This is why I said I don’t think I can take all three of these storylines being in the same season, because going from Typhoon crying over his dead sister to Daotok talking to ghosts to Tiger shooting someone would be insane amounts of whiplash.
urs,
hk