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Very Cute
Khaotung was adorable. He usually plays the quiet, wise support buddy in my experience and here he really showed a bigger box of acting tools. He managed to give Chon the perfect tone of sweet, innocent and smitten without him seeming like a pushover. In fact, Chon came with spunk! (And a good right hook!) I was pleasantly surprised by the way his role was written and Khaotung did a great job.Pod did a really convincing job with the whole "I'm oblivious to the fact that I'm gayishly bi, under the illusion (delusion?) that I'm utterly straight" trope. Even though it turns out the truth of Tonhon is a lot more complex than that, Pod brought a genuine sense of cluelessness to the character. He also sold the whole toxic masculinity thing pretty well. So, overall, his performance was solid.
Pod was also just a perfect physical foil for Khaotung. Khao looked small and cute next to Pod, who was absolutely hot in this. And somehow it managed to avoid being weird and ended up working with their dynamic.
The theme song was nice at first, but ultimately not anything special and after a while it was plain annoying.
The comedy was well timed and though it was a little heavy handed, I laughed a lot.
The sets were varied enough to keep me oriented. (Something lacking in BL's occasionally. Hello 'Manner of Death'. I'm looking at you.) Overall the visuals were best described as predictable but very solid. The ocean scenes were gorgeous. I think my favorite set was Chonlatee's home. And is it me or do most BL's use the same white sedan and black SUV in every damn one? LOL.
The villainess was just as awful as any out there. Really terrible. More so than usual it seemed, in fact. You really got an endorphin kick out of hating her. Happily, it's her own personality that's the rock in her road to getting the hero, not her gender. She really is a repulsively narcissistic, bitch. She was so entitled I wanted to strand her on some place desert Island, without a cell phone. Just for a day or so, until the polish was gone off that bad apple.
There were some really unexpected things in the show, like Chon's upbeat mom, whom he was utterly "out" to. She was a lovely fount of wisdom. (With a pretty voice!) Really just the best sassy mom character! The overall abundance of fun female characters was nice. Chon's best friend, Pang. The villainess, Amp. Miriam. Oh, and the sweet prostitute turned nail technician! Lots of great female characters.
The momentary stop-over to get Chon laid "to man him up" was a first for me in a Thai BL and was hilarious. The side story of Tonhon's brother-in-law was uncomfortable but in an interesting manner that added to Tonhon's not-so-new gay crisis.
And most importantly perhaps, I was impressed that non-consent was addressed as actual NON-CONSENT! Too often lack of consent is fetishized in TV. I know a lot of people think it's BL's only, but if you think that, you didn't watch the same Game of Thrones I did.
It was also really kind of adorable to see Toptap and Mike back together in the same BL again. Sigh... They need to be a main character pairing together in some drama.
And Na was simply adorable. I never rooted for him but I can understand why other people watching the show might have. He was cute, ready to absolutely be there for Chonlatee and underneath the fronting he was very compassionate.
What didn't I like? I think they wrote Ton and Chon's first time having sex as really rushed. It was abrupt and verging on trivialized and not the least bit romantic. It came across as Tonhon resolving his sexuality crisis so suddenly he shot himself at Chon like a Chippendales' Stripper bullet.
The only other thing I feel was missing was the character Nueng paying for his part in things. That's my biggest complaint. He was a villain sidekick who didn't really end up having to deal with any consequences for his downright scary behavior.
I will say it was interesting to see how SOTUS was employed in the plot. As a whole, it's a system primed for abuse and we get a mild taste of that in this drama with Amp.
So overall I thought this was abundant in pleasant surprises, Comfy BL tropes, solid performances by actors I've grown nostalgically attached to, some great sassy girl-power moments, and a few less unresolved toxic behaviors than I've seen in some BL's (or even your average male targeted fantasy genre piece in Western media).
Watch this one. And then watch it again with a friend. Bring hot chocolate and your favorite lap quilt. It's a fun series to unwind to.
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Good drama with enough humor
I really enjoyed the entire (first) season. There are plenty of things to enjoy in this show. The two leads have great chemistry. The supporting players are good too, special mention has to go to the vharacter Na who starts out as a spoilt brat and I ended up rooting for.The opening scene was brilliant. It was surreal, funny, charming and completely bonkers. It did kind of set the tone.
There are only a few things that were a bit disappointing, Amp was way too intense, they should have toned her way down. She became less believable as time went on.
The last episode was good but felt kind of rushed. There were a couple of scenes in the last episode that would have worked better if they had spent more time on it. I did like why the dad didn't approve of the relationship and he was rehabilitated by the end.
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Love it!!
To some the story wasn’t all that great but in my opinion it was a great watch. It shows that even when you love someone for years you might have to act as though you see them in a different light. For those who say that the story went to fast without chemistry, there was a lot of chemistry but if you have never been in a situation that is similar to their situation then you can’t really have a say. Their relationship may seem rushed but this is what goes on in this day and age now. Time to live in this New Era.. I’m still hoping for a season 2 eventhough I know there will not be oneWas this review helpful to you?
mmm
I never thought I would hate a series so much as LBC, but AH!.This series was POORLY executed, the writing was a mess, the direction was a mess, and GMMTV needs to stop this. The pandemic is not an excuse to have such a bad series. I can sit for a whole weekend and fix everything wrong with this. First of all, the writing, SIR! this is 2021! WE NEED TO MOVE ON FROM THESE STEREOTYPES. I hate the way women are portrayed and gay man, homophobia is something real BUT WHY WOULD YOU MAKE IT INTO A COMEDY IN THE WORST WAY POSSIBLE. There are a lot of ways in which you can turn this plot into a valuable lesson, with comedic elements, but not this series, no. The direction, I shouldn't be surprised by now since GMMTV directors are like... the same? WHY DO Y'ALL KEEP SWITCHING CAMERAS LIKE-- THERE'S NO NEED TO SEE A SINGLE SHOT OF EVERY PERSON IN A TABLE. And you might think, "well that's stupid, why are you criticizing this lol?", well, you have actors that are criticized every time a new series comes out because there's no time for them to shine in their scenes. and why is that? well, the director's fault. Watching this series is like a gamble game, you never know whose turn is to show on the camera. The plot was not new at all, aside form, you know, yeah, nothing. It is just the same recycle formula, homophobic manly dude "falls" (cause boooooy, that was sooo not well written) for his friend (who is gay and has been in love with the other one for like ever), you know, the basics, some yelling, a lot of homophobics jokes with no flavor, and by a lot i mean A LOT, no lesson at the end of anything, like seriously, and a poor guy who is in love for real, for real, but is use as bait by the guy he likes. *sarcasm*
Anyways, if you are new to bl, this is NOT the right one. If you are planning on watching bls, skip this one, skip "love by chance". Khaotung is the only saving grace here, (yes, everybody else got crappy roles and acting so) and even then, I feel like he needed to turn this one down. Down in history as one of the worst bls I've been seen.
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Homophobics and the heir obsessed prejudice
Just finished the last episode and what a mess that was; I don't buy the plottwist about Tonhon always loving Chon since childhood with the way he acted throughout the series. Also the message that it sends about women; How Tonhon's dad spoke to the daughter and telling her to focus on making him grandchildren..didn't sit right with me and how he looked down on Miriam for being a call girl at one point. The only ones I could truly stand were Chon most of the time, Pang, Miriam, AiNi and Na. By the end I was over Amp gold digging, self absored ways and didn't care what happened to the father who apparently knew about Tonhon anyways but yet had such a visceral reaction. Hell I was even enjoying Chon giving Tonhon a hard time and calling him out on his ego satisfying. I only cared if Na was going to end up happy or not.As far as actors go they all did great, they have no fault for the terrible writing. I very much enjoyed the friendship side of it.
Soundtrack is great also.
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What a mess
Chonlatee was honestly a mess. The show had a strong start. Interesting characters which had their quirks. Na (Neo) was my favourite so adorable and funny. Production wise the show was pretty good. I had no problem with the quality of filming. The script started off alright but unfortunately went from worse to disaster by the end of the show. Quite bad pacing. Character's unrealistically changing or accepting situations no mad person would accept.What completely destroyed the show was the ending for me. It was as bad and problematic as you can get. The resolution to Ton's homophobic father is finding out he just wants an heir, so Miriam has a baby with Ton as sort of a surrogate to satisfy him but Ton and Chon can be together. It's honestly fucked up. Also Chon is the god father??? Like idk what sort of family they are planning to raise the kid under and the relationship Ton and Chon would have. Who will parent the kid, Mirian, his parents, Ton and Chon??? It is framed as a happy ending but honestly some deluded person thought this is an uplighting way to end a comedy. I would have preferred Ton and Chon not end up together honestly or they could have adopted when they were ready to have kids??
There were many other issues but I've seen other reviews cover them.
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not everyone's cup of tea, and it is okay if you like the show
By all means, this review is a personal opinion. For future viewers, read this at your own risk and this review should not make you watch the series or prevent you from watching it. To be honest, I watched this series weekly and I admit that it got boring at some point but I did watch this again from episode 1 until 9 just before the final episode and I have to say that the story was better when I watched this series continuously.What I like about the show:
1) It may be weird to some, but I kinda like the OST, it does relate with the story.
2) The acting is above average, not too bad, not too great since I can say most of the actors are "experienced" actors. Some actors did show well how the characters supposed to behave like Khaotung playing as Chonlatee (a cute and innocent guy) and even Pod is great in this (that's why most people hated him because he managed to show how Tonhon supposed to be from the novel and screenplay). I like Na and Aunt Nam characters the most.
3) The whole "satire" idea of this story. And here are my takeout from this series:
The intro of this drama (The Untamed parody) showed that this drama is completely a satire and a satire is “the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices” (https://literaryterms.net/). This shows at some point exaggerated some issues like homophobic character and crazy ex girlfriend to a point that it doesn't make sense. And for me, this is exactly what this shows want to show to the audience and it was executed brilliantly. One example that I noticed and I am also not sure about this (this is random observation) but remember how Miriam kept on telling people that she is virgin? And in the end she is pregnant and assuming that she is still virgin at that point, what she will be called when she delivers the baby? Exactly, a virgin Miriam (LOL). Okay that is not a main issue. One of the main issues is Ton's father being homophobic entire 10 episodes just because of heir issue and at the end surrogacy is the solution to this? Exactly, this is ridiculous. You see, being homophobic is ridiculous and sometimes people become homophobic because of ridiculous reasons. All you need is a solution to make people understand and the solution can be any (in this case, they propose an extreme solution which is surrogacy).
Like I said, not everyone will like this because of the "stereotype and cliche" plot and the drama showed a lot of heavy issues (such as effeminate villain character, crazy ex girlfriend, homophobic characters, toxic masculinity, attempted rape and etc). For me, all issues were addressed well in the drama, you may need to pay a little attention to what the characters said in the drama. Whether or not you think the issues were properly addressed, you already have the answer. Watching drama is supposed to be as simple as this: "Oh, this character behavior is bad and he is homophobic". Good, you notice it, don't be like them. And if you like the character because they show good behavior, it's great, be like them in real life.
I learn and gain something, well kinda a lot from this drama. In short, I am a simple person, if I like what I watch, give me good times and I laugh out of it, I am happy. Because life is too short to take all things seriously. And sometimes, I need this kind of drama to remind me that these people and even these issues exist in real life. As open as Thailand can be, there are still people who are homophobic and prejudice towards gay people, it is a never ending problem. But just like they said in the series, gay is not a virus, it is not infectious. Live well!
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Better than I expected
maybe because I don't have any expectations for this series, but this series is better than I thought. actually it's hard to find anything special from the storytelling of TonhonChonlatee (TH), one of the bad things about this series is the visuals, which I can say are the worst of GMMTV this year, and the music scoring, which mostly lowered the tension. But TH has one of the best character writing this year, that feels so loveable, and of course the acting performance of the cast, especially the khaotung who put on his best acting so far.Was this review helpful to you?
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had potential
i was really excited to watch this because it has some of my favorite bl actors, and while the acting is pretty good, the writing is awful. tonhon is an awful, irredeemable person, he's so homophobic and oblivious. the stuff with his dad wasn't in the book so i don't know why they added it, it doesn't add anything to the story. ai and ni pretty cute, but the scene where they forced chon to come out to them was shitty. and it doesn't make sense that ton didn't know they were dating like he did in the book. it could have been a cute story about childhood friends to lovers, but it ends up as an awful hot mess.Was this review helpful to you?
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The pacing was terrible!
This BL is generic with the usual university and ex-girlfriend scenario. The issue I found with this show is the pacing. The build-up to this event is so prolonged that there is not enough episodes to explain and fully grasp the event. All of this drama being built up isn't suited for how many episodes this BL has. Ton's homophobia in this BL doesn't bother me, but the way they addressed it. Tonhon's character development was thought out poorly and the novel doesn't even contain that. If the character was going to portray this idea, at least not have it rushed at the end without any consequences. He didn't even apologize for his homophobia but brushed it off because Ai and Ni are his bestfriends. The only visual thing that showed that ton was changing his ways was the beach scene. I get that they tried to make it realistic, but execute it right.Ton's homophobic actions shouldn't last half of the series then to have another arc of him realizing his feelings. We are on the last episode and he is still telling people they are actually dating. Where is the couple arc? Where is the relaxing? The acting/cast was great, but that can't substitute bad writing.
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Started out good!
This is a show that starts out with a few good episodes and quickly goes downhill from there.The script is a mess, the stereotypes are mixed up, the premise is not believable, and the side actors are mostly annoying.
I watched this all the way through, but it was really a waste of time after the first few episodes. I have seen worse, the only thing this show had going for it was there were no screeching, hysterical side characters. I think if the script had been better written, perhaps the actors could have had something to work with, but the script is bad, nothing else works.
I don't recommend a first watch of this one, let alone a rewatch. So sad.
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Serious social commentary wrapped in comedy wrapped in lakorn
Did all the reviewers panning this for depictions of bad behaviour fail to realise how many of them were called out, whether in the dialogue, reactions, context or consequences? Sometimes the call outs were gentle, like Chon's maa telling him something he did was wrong, sometimes they were bold, like Chon's maa in the last episode. Always appropriate to the context.It's a clear critique of toxic masculinity in several forms, including misogyny, objectification, peer pressure, outdated attitudes and of course homophobia. It's full of good messages and positive examples too.
This deserves to be watched with more attention than most here seem to have given it, including those who see it only as light-hearted fluff. It's laugh out loud funny, with the warm, open-hearted generosity of Thailand's best comedy, but it's also delivering some important messages.
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