It’s been a week—pass the yaoi.
I don’t know what you all did on Wednesday, but we buckled in and watched all of Star in My Mind, which to be fair is one of my personal comfort watches anyway. I am feeling a bit blitzed by content—I also started Family by Choice with my mom in addition to all the shows below—and yet I’m still like, I need a new show. I’ll admit that the recent discourse around Thai vs Korean vs Japanese BL has me feeling belligerent about watching the KBL/JBLs on my list, which is unfortunate as there are a lot I want to see.
Currently Watching (on air)
Jack & Joker: In my mind palace, Joke is a highly competent thief with a great team and they pull things off in an impressive way. In the show, he has three hours to put together a heist in a highly guarded mansion and the stupidest three assistants of all time, so honestly it could have gone worse. I do get the impression that many of his previous crimes were successful simply because he is good-looking and charming and could talk his way into places, so honestly having a team is probably slowing him down. Love that the heist this time involved using War’s tininess to cram him into small spaces.
And then there was the kiss! YinWar have always been decent at kissing, and their comfort with each other after being together for five years or so really shows. Their acting in that scene, particularly War, was just so good. Being able to convey five years worth of longing and desperation with only facial expressions! I care them.
Kidnap: The number of times this episode I said, “GIRL, THE CARTEL?????” This three episode sojourn into Min’s backstory is not terribly dissimilar to Never Let Me Go, which also sends them to the beach for a few episodes, but that show never forgets that the reason they’re there is to escape crime. There was not a single word about the LITERAL DRUG CARTEL plot in this episode or the previous, and that to me is camp.
It seems like next week they’ve remembered the plot—just in time for the breakup episode. Extreme one fear going on here.
Fourever You: It does seem like the idea of this show might be that all the couples have some kind of history, because there are very weird vibes going on between Johan and North and also Tonfah and Phoon. I was like omg if that’s the case…then it’s Forever You…I get it…
I’m curious how they’re going to be balancing the plots from here on out since they’ve started the Johan/North storyline but Hill and Ter are still not even officially dating (while also acting like group Mom & Dad). It’s interesting comparing it to Perfect 10, since they’re both Director New ensemble shows and airing at the same time. The timeline of P10 is much more spread out, so in some ways it might be easier to do since you’re not trying to make the storylines happen all concurrent.
Perfect 10 Liners: I’m pleased to see that they’re making use of the framing device by cutting back to Arm telling Wine the story, and also including the other couples doing their thing around it. (PerthSanta smooch!!) I wonder if they’re going to keep it up at all—one of my big complaints about Only Friends (which tbf also had a lot of other problems) was that it abandoned its framing device after like two episodes. Anyway, it’s killing me that Arc and Arm are having a fully deranged courtship while Pond and Sand are being normal and cute in the background. The dichotomy!
Pluto: I’ve spent so much of this show going Ai-oon, you useless lesbian. GMMTV has given us two great useless lesbians this year between Ongsa in 23.5 and Ai-oon in this. The two shows could not be more different, of course—23.5 is sweet high school romcom lesbians and this is absolute deranged soap opera lesbians (and at least one bisexual). And somehow they keep adding more girls to the mess, which is both true to life and also very funny.
Anyway, add this to the list of gls/bls with a twin swap—Ai-oon is hilariously bad at it and is truly only saved by the fact that May is literally blind. The fact that Ai-oon apparently didn’t realize she’s a massive lesbian until now is killing me because that woman is the gayest person I’ve ever seen. Genuinely concerned that she might have a stroke when she finally gets a hand on May’s tit.
IMO Namtan brings a futch energy to every role she’s ever played, so I’m thrilled to see her get to do it properly here. It’s also so fun to see all these GMMTV girls pulled in to form a cursed dyke love hexagon. I have no idea where this show is going or who else they’re gonna pull in, and that thrills me.
Currently Watching (completed)
Why R U?: We got through episode 10, which is actually still pretty spicy four years later! It’s also the clear turning point toward becoming the Fighter/Tutor show—did anyone else even have a scene? If I’m honest, I think having to pivot hard toward them is one of the only things that made this show watchable, since they are the most engaging storyline with the best chemistry. Having to cut all the extraneous ships that had no meat to them was a blessing in disguise.
Dangerous Romance: For reasons I don’t wish to get into at the moment, this morning a couple of us watched the first like half hour of F4: Boys Over Flowers, and what I said then is that Kang in Dangerous Romance thinks that he’s Thyme from F4 but he’s actually just a stupid little bottom. I love this show, but I do think the ship fundamentally wouldn’t work if Sailom weren’t so deeply unbullyable. He’s too smart, doesn’t care at all, and has real-ass problems beyond whatever dumb teen bullshit Kang is trying to do.
Finished
En of Love: This is Love: This was quite bad, but I do think a lot of that is that they had only three episodes in addition to a budget of about $3. All of the money for the En series seems to have gone into Love Mechanics, which was the correct take since YinWar are the best actors of the bunch. Like, there’s a reason only that one got remade!
Star in My Mind: I have watched this show a truly unexplainable number of times considering I think it’s fairly mid, though like, not in a bad way. It’s just a very basic story! But it’s executed reasonably well, JongDunk have great chemistry, and it has the absolute funniest “mistaken for dating” plotline of all time.
We Are: It’s hard to express how much I love this show. I remember thinking it was slow when it was airing, which it is, but the slowness is because they are setting up the friendships and relationships that build throughout the entire show. I think it captures friendship so well, and the portrayal of that unsure period where you and someone you’re flirting with are tiptoeing around dating—agh! It sends me back to being 17 and stealing kisses with someone but never actually talking about it.
I also think it’s refreshing how the conflicts in this feel so true to life. There’s plenty that’s heightened and cartoon-y, but Peem’s non-romance journey being about struggling with his art, and Phum’s being about trying to find an equilibrium with a parent he’s on bad terms with—that’s so real.
From the Vault
SOTUS: I am not rewatching this show, but I am watching other people (re)watch it, and the thing about it is that it’s definitely the template for so many BL relationships that came after it. I think some parts of the story really hit, like Arthit putting on this front of being harsh and being caught out multiple times on not actually being that mean, but it’s ultimately held back by being from 2017. If it were made now, it would be much hornier, and if you ask me that’s actually what it needs.
Other BL News
Only really BL adjacent, but Lego of LYKN and Diamond have been flirting both on social media and in front of a live audience. If you haven’t watched their dance duet yet, do yourself a favor.
Barcode Tinnasit of Kinnporsche fame posted a very long tweet today that I won’t repost here, but one of the main things was about how because he debuted in BLs as a soft younger brother character and was young at the time, he is still treated like a child by fans. There’s other stuff he talks about too re: typecasting as top/bottom kind of thing, but I did think his point about how fans will scold younger actors like they know them for posting sexy selfies or whatever was really important. I see it happen to Fuaiz too, and it just becomes this thing of, okay, then at what age will you accept them as “adult enough”?
I think it’s fair to have concerns; like, I have some discomfort with how extreme Fuaiz’s scenes in 4 Minutes are. But that’s one thing, and constantly treating grown men as though they are children without any say in their lives and careers is another.
Peaceful Property Corner
I saw a tweet about this show having plot holes (and there are a couple of things that I’m like are you going to bring that back up) but then proceeded to cite things about the supernatural stuff that had me like if you aren’t willing to suspend disbelief for a show about ghost hunting I’m not sure what we’re doing here. It also sent me down a rabbit hole of Thai ghost beliefs and occultism, which I might have to make a thread about after the show is finished, because I found some interesting things I think the show is referencing or is inspired by.
I am deeply concerned about next week’s episode! I am very fond of all these characters, and I just want everything to be okay. Dome, this was supposed to be a comedy??? HELLO???
urs,
hk