Star and Sky: Star in My Mind (2022)

Forgettable...

The series is... very forgettable. I'm writing this not to be mean or exaggerate in any way, I've watched this show very recently, watched another, and then already forgot abt SIMM's existence.
There's nothing extraordinary about it. I'm the type of person who would scream and swoon for fluff (so I really don't need anything mind-blowingly dramatic to keep a series replaying in my brain). And yet nothing much was retained in my mind after I finished the series. The plot is pretty much the usual with misunderstood protags who just have 0 communication skills. So you know how that goes. Like I remember the 1st 50 seconds when Dao got rejected and Kluen said to 'have a good trip' and then the rest is just mush. The end. The acting is OK I think?? Music isn't WOW (especially when I watch MSP afterward it's just day and night).
But truly, it is mediocre and I just kinda forgot about this show.

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im bias ( for joongdunk) so remember that when reading this

overall thoughts :
honestly it started off good but ep 6 ruined the vibe of it i have yet to watch ep 7 but ive seen a lot of the clips already so it should be fine honestly this show isn't bad and somewhat enjoyable but my main problem with this is how none of characters are enjoyable like not even joong or dunk can save this show but i still watch it for some reason maybe because its gmmtv. i was excited for this considering its directed by the same person who did uwma and between us. i like the show which is weird considering how much i want to punch the characters and the story line was annoying the pacing is annoying the writing is annoying im honestly hoping for smooth sailing for ep7-8 because im done with conflict i just want to see fluff also i hate the intro bit like cmon now. ima be honest if this show had different actors i would of dropped it joongdunk are the only reason im watching this. its the type of bl where you turn off your brain and watch it.

acting/characters:
onto joongs character : hes doesn't communicate ig u can blame it on the fact he isn't outspoken and doesn't do well with expressing himself which makes sense hence why i dont completely hate his character because i used to be like him and its realistic. joong is a good actor i love his acting in 2 moons 2 i loved him and his current show that is airing right now hes good in that too he portrays this character nicely not showing emotion keeping a stern face its actually impressive.

for dunks character: i understand him being frustrated with kluen but hes unreasonable as well . dunk is new to the acting world so there isn't much to compare to. i honestly loved him because of safehouse S3 and because of the chemistry between him and joong. they have so much chemistry and it was wasted on this show i hope they get better bls in the future because it would be such a waste if they just stop here. i like dunks acting in some scenes but his crying and anger scenes do need more practice but i feel like since the chemistry is so good its really easy to overlook it and not be bothered.
both of their acting honestly goes up and down throughout the eps some scenes are great some arent.

music: i like the music there really isnt much to go off on i just like it.

rewatch value: i would rewatch this but skip a lot of the parts and defo would just go from ep 5 to ep 7 because ep6 is a mess and should be forgotten

ill come back once its over but its a 8.0 for now

edit : this show really was disappointing but i love joong as an actor as for dunk i hope he can improve because he does have potential whats weird is that the actors have more chemistry in real life than on the actual series i believe this just comes down to the poor writing it had so much potential to develop the first few eps were great it came crashing down around ep5-6 and the only thing that saved the last 2 eps was the cute moments. also the last ep was super cute the acting was a lot better i really did enjoy this episode

rating is so high because honestly its better than tharntype, nitiman watever is rated below 7 on my list and im bias since i like the actors i do have hope for sky in my mind it looks like the story is a lot better.

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A supposed-to-be meteor shower that did not happen ?

Ok so first of all, these two mini series under the title Star & Sky got me intrigued. It's just like GMMTV put it right ahead Enchanté suddenly or idk. It felt like rushed to be released, seemed like it. Not gonna lie, the story is basic and not that exciting. The interaction of the main leads felt awkward like getting along easy with the one you confessed your love which the latter replied Good luck with your flight (or something like that). I was disappointed that why Khabkluen held back his feelings before for Danouea when he once knew they like each other before. It's frustrating, but I mean I get it there's seemed to be a lot of pressure replicating the same feelings with someone you like. The story never went anywhere, it just revolves around the past clinging to present and nothing more. I don't know if it's just me or anyone feels it too. I felt no attachment to the story and the characters, it's just like ‘can it go somewhere better', like I need something else to make the series interesting. Feels like damn, every episode is 45 minutes and each episode has its own cliches and shit that I wish it was shorter. Everytime I watch an episode, I was like please end the episode right there, I'm ok. The acting tho, don't come at me hehe, I was not that impressed but I like Dunk's acting and nothing else. Khabkluen character gives me Sarawat vibes from 2gether. Maitee (Win) is a little bit eyecatcher for me as well as Nay (Winny), anything else ok.... Osts are good. Overall the drama is not over the top and will I rewatch it? Nah, not for me even if it's cute. Just the story is repetitive going from past to present vice versa. I don't think they got me. I was surprised that this is just 8 eps. I think with much time spent more of making this will make it a good watch. It feels like it was rushed because there are no BLs besides Cupid's Last Wish GMMTV has to offer this like month.

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I was a bit surprised when I found out that this series was actually over. I didn't check in advance how many episodes this series would run, because I thought with the conflicts that the series had to end fast (like in 5 episodes). Turn out, I wasn’t wrong at all ??

At first I thought they would extend this series with additional stories from so many side characters, but it seems that the supporting characters in this series are not used properly. This series only focuses on the 2 main characters and the story of their stupidity. That's it.

In Indonesian:
Agak kaget pas tau bahwa serial ini tamat. Saya tidak mengecek terlebih dahulu berapa episode serial ini akan berjalan, karena saya pikir dengan konflik yang ada serial ini seharusnya habis dengan begitu cepat. Eh ternyata beneran ?

Awalnya saya pikir mereka akan memperpanjang serial ini dengan cerita tambahan dari side character yang begitu banyak, namun sepertinya tokoh-tokoh penunjang dalam serial ini tidak dimanfaatkan dengan baik. Serial ini hanya berfokus kepada 2 tokoh utama dan cerita tentang kebodohan mereka. That’s it.

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Star in Their Own Minds

Star in My Mind is unique in that despite the fact that it has a decent sized cast, everything revolves around a single character. There are no side couples here, no side stories even, everything and everyone is solely focused on this one person. It's a unique take and with a better character and stronger actor, it could even work. The problem though is that Dao isn't the most interesting or likeable character and this was Dunk's breakout role and he simply didn't have the experience to essentially carry the entire show. It's not bad, it's simply mediocre and at times, incredibly frustrating.

Such a laser focus on a single character is really the only unique aspect of this drama. Otherwise, it's a pretty standard college BL story with a lot of the standard BL tropes. The story is simple enough in that you have two characters in love but one of them doesn't know how to express their feelings and the other, having been rejected in the past, is afraid to confess those feelings again. Miscommunication is the name of the game here and it pervades nearly every aspect of the drama. If Dao and Kluen had simply sat down and had an actual conversation, this drama would have been done in maybe two episodes. But where's the fun in that? No, it's much better to have our leads running around in circles for six or seven episodes before they finally get their heads screwed on straight and get everything sorted out.

Initially, the lack of communication isn't terrible. Dao and Kluen meet again after being separated for a year. Their last meeting involved Dao confessing his feelings for Kluen and with Kluen responding by telling him to have a safe flight, thus breaking his heart. The kicker here is that Kluen is, in fact, in love with Dao as well, he just royally sucks at expressing himself and giving voice to those feelings. So when they meet again, Dao is faced with the fact that he still has feelings for the guy who rejected him and Kluen is continuing to say nothing while getting irritated at all the guys hitting on Dao. Speaking of which, having three guys pursuing Dao was a bit much, plus Papang, can't forget her. Don't get me wrong Dunk is cute, but not quite to that degree and the character of Dao wasn't nearly interesting enough to garner that level of attention. In any case though, the miscommunication just keeps ballooning to the point that everyone else is aware that these two have feelings for each other, except for Dao who is oblivious.

I've seen a lot of people give the character crap for being so obtuse, but I can understand where he's coming from as well. As far as Dao is aware, Kluen essentially rejected him previously. Not explicitly, but he also didn't accept Dao's feelings. Why would Dao expect that a year had changed anything? Even with the signals that Kluen was sending, I can see why Dao would second guess whether he was reading those signs correctly. And then Kluen tells him that Typhoon is a good guy and essentially tells Dao to be with him. There was also the matter of Gia. As far as Dao was aware, Kluen and Gia were still together and Kluen doesn't say anything to dispel that notion. That simply adds to Dao's confusion because why should he believe Kluen would be pursuing him when he's already got a girlfriend. Again, I know people like to give Dao crap, but frankly, Kluen was sending so many mixed signals that even if everyone else knew that Kluen liked Dao, I can see why Dao was so uncertain. Essentially the majority of their miscommunication boils down to Kluen being entirely too close lipped for his own good. Also the fact that he seemed to be able to communicate with others just fine, it was just when it came to Dao that he suddenly was unable to communicate in any way meaningfully.

There is one scene that I was very much not okay with and was extremely out of touch. Dao and Kluen finally have a conversation and Kluen essentially confesses his feelings when he receives a call from Gia. It's later revealed that Gia had a fight with her partner that turned physical and she called Kluen. There are numerous issues with this scene, first and foremost though the use of domestic violence as a gimmick to separate our leads. It is both tactless and tasteless and should never have been used. Almost any other excuse would have been better. Dao's reaction is another issue. He uses that moment to try to force Kluen to choose between him and Gia and then gets butthurt when Kluen still leaves to help Gia. Again, he's purported to be this very caring guy, but apparently he was temporarily struck deaf since there was a clear urgency to Gia's call and Kluen was obviously very concerned.

When it comes to the characterization, neither Dao or Kluen is particularly unique or interesting. Dao's big thing was that he's supposed to be caring and compassionate, but in reality, he was frankly a coward. His inability to say no to people wasn't a strength or a sign of a good person, but rather that he was afraid. He tried to make it seem like he was thinking of the other person, but in reality, it was simply selfish. When it came to Papang, he didn't reject her right away because he didn't want her to get hurt the way he had when Kluen didn't accept his feelings, but did he really think that time was going to make the pain any less? Wasn't it in fact more cruel to give her hope and then dash it on the ground later? Similarly with Typhoon, he obviously didn't want to actually be his boyfriend for the day, but rather than rejecting such a ridiculous idea, he went along with it and, of course, there were consequences which he never really took responsibility for.

With Kluen, I got real tired of his whole "am I too late" schtick. Like, dude, you are literally doing this to yourself, if you would simply open your mouth and communicate, things would not be so messed up. I really needed more from him to try to wrap my head around his mindset and how he was thinking and why he did and said some things, but we're never given that opening and so he remains a bit of an enigma and not in a good way.

The acting was nothing spectacular. Frankly both Dunk and Joong were outshone by some of the supporting cast with more acting experience. That's not to say it was completely terrible either. Dunk did a decent enough job for his first main role, but clearly struggled with the more emotional scenes. He also lacked nuance in his expressions, though not to the same extent as Joong. While I understand that Kluen was supposed to be a stoic character who didn't show a whole lot of emotion, Joong's acting came across not as deliberate, but as wooden. He needed a greater balance in his facial expressions so that the audience could see that he wasn't just a robot.

This drama started out pretty well and seemed promising but then it was just a steady decline from there. There are still some cute, fluffy moments, but it could have been so much more than it wound up being. It's not unwatchable though and it's short enough that it's not a total waste of time, it simply gets frustrating as the story progresses. For this one, I would say watch at your own risk.

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Sigh, the Drama We Didn't Need.

First, I'd like to say that I had a hard time watching this one.

Plot: Dao(nuea) falls in love with (Khab)Khluen in high school and confesses his love right before he goes to Germany to study abroad. He returns to Thailand for university only to meet Khluen again in the school's pageant. He swore he was over Khluen but after seeing him again, his previous feelings return. This is compounded by the fact that they're housed in the same room during the pageant's preparation. Khluen plays a quiet guy who seems cold, can't express himself clearly, and often times I wonder can he speak at all. Dao on the other hand, is full of emotions. He constantly tries to understand what Khluen is doing; "Does he like me? Or is he toying with me?" After a series of miscommunication's, the two finally admit they like each other, and get together.

Pros: Honestly, there weren't really any pros to this drama. I mean, the actor who played Dao is cute and I loved his voice. Hearing him speak was one of the things I liked about him. I also liked Maithee because he was basically hitting on every guy.

Cons: The story's plot made no sense. Khluen knew that Dao liked him in high school and knew that Dao was doing his homework for him but selfishly never said anything. He knew Dao had confessed his love for him and still never said anything. He played hard to get, played it cold, and really sent conflicting messages for most of the story for what purpose except for them to make the drama? It was just pointless. Like getting jealous of Dao flirting with other guys without ever expressing yourself was lame. Finally like I know the actor that played Khluen grew up in Turkey and that he might not be the best at speaking Thai, but h had ZERO emotion in this drama. He didn't come off as mysterious, he came off as just a bad actor.

The scene where he drops everything to save Gia instead of telling Dao how he felt was so stupid. It was like such a ridiculous plot scene. I've never felt so bored watching a drama since Enchante lol. I'm worried that GMMTV's dramas are going down the drain.

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GMMTV flop era?

This started of really promising but unfortunately somewhere in episode 6 I stopped liking Daonuea and from then on, even though they finally got together and had some cute moments, I couldn’t enjoy them at all. Every time Dao spoke, I would just roll my eyes or cringe. This wasn’t at all helped by the actor’s awkward performance, I get it’s his first role, but overall Dunk delivered a very weak performance here. Joong’s facial acting was on point but he needs to work on line delivery. The lines (for both the actors) sounded very rehearsed :( It might just be a bad script, but the actors certainly didn’t make it better.

Also, Audio issues for Joong! He spoke very quietly, probably directed to do so because his character is rather stoic, but it’s hard to hear sometimes and the audio processing is weird. Sometimes they even dub over his lines (very obviously) and it just sounds weird and bad (getting flashbacks to the dubbing nightmare that was My Engineer).

This drama also suffered from the classic GMMTV infomercial-sounding-ass background music and annoying sound effects that I wish they would stop using in every single freaking drama they produce but oh well.

Story was very lackluster, it didn’t hit any of the emotional beats right, nothing here made me FEEL anything! I never felt any romantic chemistry between the two leads, so when they got together it was really awkward. ALSO: Non-con kiss while sleeping!! WHY!! And it was framed as funny? Romantic? STOP. I thought we were over this shit.

In conclusion: it had a lot of potential but ultimately fumbled the bag and ended up being quite disappointing. GMMTV really needs to step up their game.

P.S. Sean and Maitee had better chemistry than the main couple, I said what I said! we were ROBBED!

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How to be unexceptional but still get eyeballs

I must admit that I enjoyed this series more than I think I should.

The characters are likable, but perhaps a tad too likable, so any tension in the story is quickly lost. The story itself is actually at least okayish. (A has liked B for a long time but thinks his love is unrequited. However, it turns out that B has been liking A for a long time too. ) Unfortunately, it often feels like there is little development (not even a clichéd break-up in the penultimate episide).

Eventually, I can't stop watching the series because the leads are a pair that I really want to see end up together happily and sweetly ever after, and this, in turn, is because both Daonuea and Khabkluen are lovely people, especially Daonuea whose feelings are transparent to the audience from the start. It's like watching a video about an adorable stray kitten finally finding its forever home: the cuteness of the cat and my desire to see it adopted and some happy moments after its adoption will make me watch the entire video, but I won't objectively say that the video is a masterpiece even if I share it eagerly with other cat lovers. I continue watching as one misunderstanding after another get in the leads' way of ending up together because they are lovable and I feel for them--this is what the series succeeds at doing, I guess.

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When you order a #PinkMilk, but get #GuavaJuice instead

STORY : 7/10

It's your typical thai college BL premise. Boy has a crush on another boy (often from his past). Boy 1 doesn't think his feelings are reciprocated (spoiler alert: they are). Boy 2 is unclear about his feelings, which creates drama (often a female rival is introduced). All communication issues will be cleared and we'll be treated to happy ending, hopefully. If you've watched 5+ thai BLs already, you'll think you've seen this film before. Mutliple times.

Personally, I still enjoy this kind of plot. So instead of judging its uniqueness, I'll judge the execution of it. And Star in My Mind doesn't fare that well. Let's break it into parts. I will try to avoid spoilers as much as I can, but if you wish to skip it, head straight for the "acting/cast" part. To give you my overall feelings - start was great, upper middle quite bad, ending couldn't save it. Miscommunication seems to be the main conflict for major part of the show.

Episode 1-3 : 8.5/10

I adored this BL when it started!! Was there anything new? God, no! But it was really cute, really funny, dare I say well-written? The characterization was also good and consistent. We've got a bit of mystery and angst, too, on top of all the cliches. It was paced a bit faster than I expected, but not too fast. Nor too boring. If you're gonna watch this drama, stay for at least those 3 parts!!!

Episode 4-5 : 6.5/10

This is where it started to go wrong. For one thing, they rushed through the part I looked forward to the most!! Then introduced a non-fluffy filler. A lot of angst. Unnecessary conflicts-to-be. Characters were still consistent imo, but the acting is showing its limits.

Episodes 6-7 : 5/10

All the good things go to hell. Consistency? We don't know her. Rational thoughts? Never had those. A lot of stuff is reaching its climax and resolution without believable progress, pushed mostly by side characters and not-so-shocking rushed revelations (which felt made up just to patch some plot holes). The lowest point of this series. I hated it. Actors are trying, but they can't do much with this mess.

Episode 8 : 7 / 10

Mostly fluff and introduction to Sky in Your Heart. Perfectly skippable in my opinion. Since nothing important is happenning, it dawned on me that their acting actually hasn't been that great (the whole time, I presume), especially from one of the MLs.

POTENTIAL TRIGGERS (with minor spoilers included) :

Domestic violence - mentioned, aftermath shown in one scene. Not much has been done about it and it wasn't very graphic, but could be triggering if it's personal for you.

Consent in relation to kissing - It's flat out not there, vast majority of time. Even before establishing to each other that their feelings are mutual. Sometimes it's forceful, but mainly not. It might be uncomfortable and disturbing, but not exactly emotionally triggering in my opinion.

Emotional manipulation / Hiding one's true feelings - One character doesn't talk about themselves, at all. Other one is so emotional, they not only let other people push them around, but they also do things without thinking it through, hurting others in the process (whether intentionally or not could be debated).




ACTING/CAST : 6.5/10

I'll talk only about the mains, since side characters were your middle-of-the-road, good enough actors in this show.

Main leads look perfectly fine for their roles, as always in BL series. They are cute/hot just in the way they need to be. Their acting skills, on the other hand...

Dunk (playing Daonuea) is the newbie lead this time. At start, I considered him adequate for the role. But with added depth, cracks started to appear. If nothing else, he should really work on his facial expressions during emotional outbursts. Often I cringed so hard, it took me right out of the scene.

Joong's character (KhabKhluen) is controversial enough to claim Joong acted badly. Khluen is very stoic for the most part. Very blank. Doesn't require much acting. So when he shows more emotion, it may look out of character and wrong. I was satisfied with him, though.




MUSIC: 7.5/10

The song(s) they use are nice. A tad forgettable, but sweet. There isn't much of them, though, which hurts the overall variety of soundtack.




REWATCH VALUE : 7/10

Liked it once? You'll like it a second time. And third. It's the kind of basic story you can just play in background or when you don't want to be challenged. Problem is to fall in like with it in the first place. The plot isn't strong enough to encourage rewatching, but it's also not bad enough to prevent you from doing it.




OVERALL: 7.5/10

This is what you'll get when you purchase 2moons from wish.com . A faulty replica. Usable, but very disappointing. If they just took the content of first 5 episodes, edited it and added more context with filler, this could have been exactly what I wanted from SIMM. I'm giving it a bonus .5 points just for my love of cliché college gay love stories. But in the end, I wish I had gone somewhere else.

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university set, high school crush, jock/nerd, long term pining, reunion

Adapted from a y-novel by Peachhplease, starring Joong (2 Moons 2, formerly one half of a VERY popular BL pair J9) + fresh face Dunk, and directed by New in his usual blatant and somewhat mechanical style. The very first episode I said “I think I’m confused by the directing on this show. WAIT A SEC. Is this New phoning it in? (Runs to check.) Why YES yes it is.” So yeah... called it!

Back to Joon.

While it was awful nice to see this beautiful golden boy again, I think he was ill served by this role, or maybe he just doesn’t shine as brightly without Nine? Or maybe he needs a stronger directing hand than New’s? Yes I think GMMTV intends for Joong to be their next Singto but from this performance I’m not sold. I thought Dunk out acted him, making Dao a likable and complex character against which Kluen felt rather flat. Although that said at first I really didn’t like Dao.

This is (sort of) a lost love reunion arc (GMMTV bringing back the blue shorts, hello old friends) + freshy hotness contest giving it a 2 Moons vibes. It was fun to see some Wabi Sabi stable playing around at GMMTV, and while it sounds like I’m being harsh I actually did enjoy this show.

I like how honestly they treated all the faen fatals for a change. I like how directly they approached the pain of rejection contrasted to loyalty and holding out hope. I also liked that Kluen was set up to lose if he couldn’t get it together and actually communicate his feelings. It’s a good life lesson. It was frustrating how long it took though. There was a lot of me yelling at the screen: please just TALK to each other.

I don’t like shows that function on this “plot.” Miscommunication for the sake of it (or for the lack of it) is always frustrating for viewers or readers. We feel manipulated.

Also, ultimately, these two were a bit too sappy and Dao was a bit too blushing maiden for such an aggressive uke, but that’s par for the course with GMMTV and Director New. (After all, he’s rumored to be the reason Pharm is that way in UWMA, apparently he’s wasn’t written like that.)

Look, this is one of those shows that I shouldn’t really like after 400 BLs. It’s not at all unique, just some classic Thai uni folderol driven by miscommunication (or just non-communication) and yet... I COULD NOT STOP WATCHING.

Also good kiss. Honestly, 2022 is the year of the BL kiss.

It was interesting to see Thailand tackle a love triangle, but let’s be fair, it really isn’t their forte. Phoon was a plot devise to drive Kluen into confession. Thailand should leave love triangles to Korea, Korea pretty much owns it after all this time. They’ve put a lot of work into it, Thailand, ceed this one to the north, please?

All that said, in the end, the show itself worked for me, fitting solidly into GMMTV’s pantheon and it’s... how do I put this... central lane?

It feels like the Thai pulps are noodling along in in the slow lane, and the outliers like Mame’s shows and Cutie Pie and KinnPorsche are in the fast line. Sometiems we dont’ know where they are going but they are going there QUICKLY. (With shows like SCOY just drunk driving all over the darn place.) Oh I like this metaphor.

I guess what I am saying is GMMTV is like reliable soccer daddy of BL, safe, well maintained station wagon, clipping along but safely. And we all know what we are in for.

Star supplied exactly that.

It didn’t excel, like Bad Buddy, it didn’t disappoint, like My Gear and Your Gown, and it didn’t fly off the tracks like Not Me. It was exactly what I want from GMMTV.

Does that mean I am a touch disappointed?

Sure, because I had my expectations met and I kinda always want them to be exceeded, especially with us all knowing GMMTV can actually do better.

In short, everyone involved with this show seems to have mostly phoned it in, but it was a REALLY nice phone call.
That said?

MORE OF THE SAME PLEASE. I didn’t get into BL for the goddamn novelty of it.

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