Lovely Writer (2021)

The meta deserves first billing

Stick with me here I've just come off a Lovely Writer bender. I'm so high off of:
- the acknowledgement of tropes I hate because they're just bad for humanity,
- that weird watermelon button down Gene wears in like episode 5? I want that,
- the cheeky smile Sib seems to reserve only for Gene,
- the unexpected MVPs: Jab & Nueng, who just saw their brothers needed to be seen and loved and did that,
- the acknowledgement of fandom behaviours that hurt actual persons,
- my favourite recurring charafter: the overalls with only one strap done,
- peeled shrimp, and
- whatever combination of scripting, production design and acting that meant scenes of Gene without Sib by his side or Sib without Gene by his side started to feel incomplete. Like, Sib's light dimmed without Gene. Or Gene's entire body leaned toward the empty spaces when Sib wasn't there to fill them.

Was it a flawless series? No of course not. But budgets aren't endless and it is not the responsibility of one crew to turn the industry around though storytelling. But they tried, and I admire them for it.

But, like, please everyone cry faster (walk faster, argue faster, put on sunscreen faster). A judicious edit could have sharpened up some pacing wonderfully.

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Cute show, funny dialogue, healthy relationship

The last scene, the coming out, the growing conflict: all amazing. Nubsib's expressing his feelings made for many cute scenes. I liked how they showed Aoey. He was a flawed person who needed time to grow and learn to be happy with himself. Tum and Tiffy were also an interesting pair.
This show was calmer than some BLs, so I can see how people might have felt that it dragged on. The music also decreased the tension in most scenes. The final resolution happened too suddenly which took away from how great the plot was and left me feeling a bit unsatisfied. I think this show was supposed to be more light-hearted, so I probably should have expected this resolution.
This is a healthier relationship with boundaries, consent, and communication which is too rare for this genre and provides better representation for the LGBT community. We also get insight into problems within the industry. I recommend this because I think these are important things for BL fans to see and they happened to be packaged in a great show.

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I love the incorporation of the real life problems

Lovely Writer marks a milestone with mixing romance and real life problems of BL publishing industry. The humour is both fun and dark when thrust in front of the mirror.

Gene is a BL writer and writing is his bread and butter. Even though he wants to write more than BL, his publishing house forces him to write more BL with extreme explicit content often bordering NC (which I believe is the short form of non-con or non-consensual) because that is profitable.

One of Gene's story is picked up by a production house for drama series adaptation. And he is invited in the casting couch. There he meets Nubsib, one of the actors who is finally chosen as one of the main characters of his novels.

Nubsib takes an interest on Gene in the first meeting which Gene wants to thwart at first. But later his feelings grows and all hell breaks loose.

Lovely Writer shows a story from a writer's pov and I absolutely love all the side stories and aspects it brings along.

Gene's publishing agent, from a very humble background, dreams to become a writer as well but is not taken seriously. The shipping wars among fans and the hate to other characters. The homophobic parents. A young man is being called "Gay" because of his looks. A strong woman portrayal (which is good but could have been better) and the best part - one morally grey character called Aoey. Bruce Sirikorn ate up that role.

Lovely Writer talks and makes fun of all the shit and unnecessary drama regarding publishing industry, specifically BL, problems of shipping real people, problems of not realising that actors and the characters they play are different beings altogether, the forceful non-consensual themes in BL (I love when Nubsib protests the production crew that what they were suggesting was almost rape) , casting one gay artists for the sake of it because "representation makes the media profitable to fans" and toxic fan culture.

The only I did not like was the overbearing sound effects.

Overall, I enjoyed the drama. I would request more people to watch it. After all, it's freely available on youtube.

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One of the best Thai BLs of this year caught my attention mainly because of the story, which is really interesting and takes the viewer, just like Call It What You Want, into the backstage of the Thai large-scale production of BL series.
Processing and sound were above average, but not top. Above all, I was bothered by the stretching of some scenes. From the 9th episode, however, the processing became more dramatic and the story began to progress. I appreciate that the plot did not deviate much from the main romantic-dramatic line. Among the actors, I was impressed by the character of Gene with his excellent portrayal, the shapely Nubsib made almost all the girls go crazy, and he also shone with a good performance (we know the actor from the series Until We Meet Again). Tiffy was interesting, and Tum (I think we'll be hearing more about him) was the most interesting to me physically. On the contrary, I found the character of Aey the least interesting, even acting wise.
I have described the main characters in the Pictures. I definitely recommend it to BL lovers, but they have to "bite through" the first parts.



Jeden z nejlepších thajských BL letošního roku mě zaujal především příběhem, který je vskutku zajímavý a zavádí diváka tak, jako i Call It What You Want, do zákulisí thajské velkovýrobny BL seriálů.
Zpracování a zvuk byly nadprůměrné, ale ne top. Především mi vadilo natahování některých scén. Od 9 dílu ale nabralo i zpracování na dramatičnosti a příběh začal gradovat. Cením si, že děj moc neodbíhal od hlavní romanticko-dramatické linky. Z herců mě zaujala postava Gene-ho výborným ztvárněním, z urostlého Nubsiba byly asi všechny holčičky paf a blýskl se rovněž dobrým výkonem (herce známe ze seriálu Until We Meet Again). Tiffy byla zajímavá a fyzickým vzhledem mě nejvíce zaujal Tum (myslím, že o něm ještě uslyšíme). Naopak postava Aey se mi zdála nejméně zajímavá, a to i herecky.
Hlavní postavy jsem v Obrázcích popsal. Určitě milovníkům BL doporučuji, ale musí se "prokousat" prvními díly.

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Calls out toxic tropes in the BL industry

DAMN. Did I really just watch a healthy BL drama? It has (almost) everything what one could ask for, without being toxic. And it’s so REALISTIC.

I LOVE how it’s such a SLAP to other BL series. Especially TharnType. But it also reminded me of FUTS; or at least what they weren’t able to tell.

The way LW is calling out other romance shows – AMEN – by literally letting the characters say, “you know that this was wrong, right?”, instead of just letting it pass and romanticize toxic behavior.

Let me give you some aspects of what this has:
- characters asking for consent for a kiss
- both people in a relationship making sure the other one is ready for sex and not forcing anything
- parents acting like an actual married couple and not just letting the dad be the boss
- people actually talking about stuff, showing once again that communication is the key
- showing that toxic fans really can’t differentiate between work and private life of actors
- a bisexual dad
- guys who are less masculine, doesn’t mean they’re gay; and clothing doesn’t define sexuality
- authors who write BL don’t have to be gay themselves; just like crime authors aren’t serial killers, either.
(- Bonus: remaking of classic fairytales (like Snow White and Cinderella) but it’s gay ?)

Also the cinematography is amazing.
You can really tell the talent of the director, writers, camera team, actors, and all the other bts staff! Props for them for making such an awesome series, especially because some toxic fans really need to hear this!

I really hope it gets the popularity it deserves!

-02.12.21

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Genuinely funny

Typically, jokes in BLs don't land well. Whether that's due to translation errors or the constant sound effects in unclear, but this one actually made me laugh. The humor in it was well done and the storyline felt super fresh. Having a show that tackles the toxicity of the BL industry while keeping the show mostly light and fun is impressive.

Gene is an author who is convinced into writing BL, even though he doesn't want to. To his surprise, his novel is such a big success that it's being adapted into a series. Gene is asked to come to the casting call where he meets the man who will play the lead in the series, Nubsib. Nubsib immediately falls for Gene. However, Nubsib is supposed to be acting as if he is in love with his costar Aoey - both on and off camera. This conflict between Nubsib's career and love life, as well as Gene's wish to stay out of the spotlight, cause tension between the developing relationship between Nubsib and Gene.

This show was a fun watch that never had me at the edge of my seat, but always kept me entertained. It was light, the romance was cute, and the actors did a great job portraying their characters. However, the classic episode 11 curse ruined the ending a bit for me, but mostly because I think it's over done and just not an enjoyable conflict to watch. Still, the show was worth the watch and a nice break from the university/engineer BLs.

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Gets more relevant with time..

It happened by pure coincidence but I came to this series in a time when the BL industry is being accused of romanticizing toxic relationships and I found Lovely Writer to be extremely relevant and thought provoking because of it.

Not to make this into a debate-review, but I feel like the show did a decent job of showing both sides of the spectrum. The big question seems to stem from "who is to blame for the way the industry does business?" and, while the show leans toward the corporate side as the main bad guys, it does a good job at showing how the fans demand things to be done and how the corporations have to deal with public outcry. The issue is, in order to give the fans what they want, the corporations need to sell lies and this show does a great job at showing how it is all connected and the lives that are effected on both sides of the argument.

With that heaviness aside, the show still managed to be fairly light and fluffy with lots of comedic moments. I loved how they essentially took the piss out of product placement nonsense while working their actual sponsors into the show.

The acting was really well done though I can't say anything stood out to me as outstanding. It was pretty typical, to be completely honest.

Some of the pacing seemed off at times but part of that I think was due to the writing being a bit all over the place in some parts, especially in the earlier part of the series. I think, for a long time, the writers were trying to figure out what to do with Aoey's character. Is he a bad guy or is he supposed to be part of a secondary couple with Mhok? For me, I felt like he didn't really do anything bad until he made the Instagram Live and, even that, I feel like he did it partially because it was what the industry wanted. He was like the devoted son of the Industry since he was the disgraced son in his home life. Either way, he always got the short end of the stick, just by doing what everyone else wanted from him, sacrificing his own happiness in the process. I would have preferred to see a happier ending for him, especially when the series practically made the viewer sympathize with him for 70% of the time.

I would highly recommend this series and I think it has a decent re-watch value. I can see how multiple views could bring to light more revelations and questions. Is there really a right answer with the amount of people and opinions involved?

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STAN KaoUp for a clearer skin?✨

OMGGGGG!!!! Where should I start from!?!!!!!
First of all I'm sooo annoyed at myself that I did not watch this BL sooner!!!
Just wanna say that I'm proud that this BL is my first BL that I've watched and completed in 2023?✨
...
Okay so first of all, this is literally my first ever BL that is starring Up. I knew Kao from UWMA(I'm sure of y'all are familiar with that beautiful series❤️) . So yeah, I was already familiarised with Kao's Handsome face?✨. Little did I know that it would not just be Kao's Handsomeness that'd catch my attention! Let me just say that this BL is one of the best BLs with an amazing beautiful cast line.
Second of all, the chemistry!? Wow the chemistry between KaoUp is off the charts! I literally kept screaming every time they were together and acted all cute and stuff in the series. Up is so cute I'd die?, and I love how he was able to perfectly match the character (Gene) in the series.
Thirdly I loved how they portrayed the BL industry, and what went on behind the scenes.
I wished that we could see how Tiffy and Tum's relationship would grow but other than that I'm still satisfied.
In conclusion, this BL series was refreshing and a great way to start the new year. I loved it! I loved ittt!!! Lol tried my very best not to binge watch it in one go, but it was just too good.

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Light-hearted and funny, but manages to highlight problems of the BL Industry

Nearly halfway into the series, I'm really enjoying it so far. The story may be quite simple, but the acting makes it worth it. The main leads have a lot of chemistry and the side characters are all great. The show is written very cleverly as it is both light-hearted and funny, but it has moments of seriousness when it brings to light some problems of the BL industry. It gives a very clear contrast between those elements which I quite liked.

Although it has it's cliches and coincidences, the show is very down to Earth and realistic. Gene and Nubsib have a very healthy friendship, and despite Nubsib's crush on Gene, understands content - which is a huge problem in BL. The show also touches on the media's expectations of BL, such as not having feminine leads, the NSFW scenes not being hot enough etc, as well as the pressure of coming out and sexuality confusion. The show has handled these issues well so far, so I'm interested to see what will happen in later episodes.

One major thing I've seen people talk about is the sound effects. Either people love them or they hate them. Personally, I don't mind them. Sound effects are used often in BL and Kdramas, but this show does it a bit too excessively at times. Like, did we really need to hear a poop splashing into the toilet? Definitely not. The majority of the time there's gulping sounds or squish sounds when Gene walks shyly. Really, it's down to personal preference if you're able to withstand them.

Overall, this show is a fluffy, light-watch. It's not plot-based enough to binge, so personally, I'd casually watch it. Again, it's down to personal preference.

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Started strong and then I just wanted it to end.

This series had a very good start, but went downhill fast.
I do not know or claim to be an expert in Thai BL's, but this was a wreck.
Gene started strong, but at the end of this series I just wanted him to grow up, or at least have a spine. (Even the actor looked bored.)

I can sum up this show in one word. Frustrating, and for you own sanity, skip it.

Nubsib carried the entire show. Kao was fantastic and I enjoyed his performance a lot.
I just wish there was more of Mhok!!
Ayoe was a one dimensional character, and on top of that, the most base caricature and stereotype. He had no redeeming qualities.
The dialog was stilted, the coming out scenes was just poorly executed. I had no idea what was going on.
Where they still allowed to speak to each other? Where they locked up in their rooms? What?
(Clearly the writers just wanted some conflict.)

But Wait!
After going through all this, getting the support of their respective families (even after insulting his father), Gene then walks away, he won't fight for his relationship or Nubsib, who clearly states that he does not care about the show and only did it to re-connect with Gene.

Why Nubsib even went back to Gene is a mystery. Gene treated him like a child, and his continued 'inner conflict' became a joke.

Some reviewers even see their relationship as healthy? Seriously? It was toxic. Gene's constant dismissal of Nubsib and his feelings where painful to watch.

I would have loved an explanation of what happened in the four month period that they where apart (or any explanation!), but hey, as long as there was a happy ending? Which by the way was just bad.

According to other reviews this show is a 'parody' or 'social commentary' about the 'toxicity' of BL's.
It failed spectacularly. Make a documentary then, but don't sell this as a 'romance'
You invalidate the entire premise if you end the show with 'Oh! look there is the 'STRAIGHT FEMALE' writer!' scene.

If this is an example of one of the best Thai BL's, I think I'd skip the rest.

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