A Secretly Love (2024)

Subtitles Are SO Bad

The subtitles are ridiculously bad. I mean, really REALLY bad. The acting is also pretty flat all around. I had zero buy-in with the MLs because they have no chemistry at all. Not even a redeemable hint of chemistry from the first meeting to the present. Also, there are inconsistencies throughout that should have been caught in the scriptwriting. For example, blood where blood shouldn’t be and absent where it should be; bruising absent when there should be; a 7-year flashback that doesn’t add up, etc…

Really, the whole first episode was a mess. Dropped.

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want to see actors in something else (watch suggestions)

Overall: this is an old school Thai romcom/drama that should have been left in the past. 8 episodes about 45 minutes each aired in Thailand. I watched the WeTV version that had 10 episodes but most of episode 10 was the actors talking about the series. Aired on WeTV https://wetv.vip/en/play/e36k7s4okwtoesy-A%20secretly%20love%20(Uncut%20Ver.)

Watch Suggestions (this avoids a lot of a guy harassing his ex-girlfriend, hazing and second lead syndrome)
- watch episode 1 from 5-19:20 (flashback to them in high school)
- start episode 4 at 37:40
- watch episode 5
- watch episode 6 from 23 to 34:20
- watch episode 7 from the beginning to 6, then GL at 16-17, watch 23-29 or continue to the end if you want to see a lot of music practice/performance
- watch episode 8 from 4-18:40 and then 41-42 has a nice message about funding rural schools
- watch episode 9 from 18:30-23, 26-29:40 and 34-39 (or can watch to the end)
- either start episode 10 at 6 minutes or you can watch the whole first 12 minutes (the rest is behind the scene stuff)

Content Warnings: slaps, manhandling, blood, beaten up, stalking, harassing, hazing, slaps played as comedy, non con touching

What I Liked
- clear premise
- supportive friends (the twins)
- the GL after they communicated/were honest with each other
- episode 8 message of the importance of funding rural schools

Room For Improvement
- for the majority of the series viewers saw an utterly unlikable character, he's harassed his ex, was immature, acted like a jerk, there were almost no redeeming qualities so I did not want him in a romantic relationship with anyone
- cliche (more than once) saw something and didn't communicate
- comedy sound effects that didn't make it funny, nor was the toilet humor in episode 9 funny
- was not a fun way to start a series (and I hope unrealistic)
- confusing parts, based on the summary and what was shown they first met in high school when Khon was a Freshman and Pluem a Sophomore, in the present they were a Sophomore and Senior in university, Khon didn't interact with Pluem for 2 years at the same university? he's just started the hazing/initiation stuff with Pluem?
- kind of a 'gay for you' trope
- episode 5 had a flashback montage of what we just saw in the episode
- very confusing subtitles (didn't take off points although it did negatively affect the ability to understand what was happening, Necklace was the ex-girlfriend)
- the title should have been "I Secretly Love You" or "A Secret Love" (didn't take off points)

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A(n) Unnecessary Love

Before I talk about the best worst thing about this series, let's talk about the actual worst things.

Watching this felt like watching something that should have come out 7 years ago, with all the engineers and their gears, the hazing and the "I don't like men, I only like you stuff", and they somehow made all this and more much worse than it should have been.

Even looking past all this, it's still difficult to enjoy because one or the leads is an absolute horror of a person. Essentially what we got was one of the worst male leads to ever grace our screens. He spends more than half of the series being a rude, abrasive guy who harasses his ex girlfriend, his friends, his juniors, anything that moves and breathes. They tried to give him a redemption arc, but too little too late to the point where you're going just end it, I don't care.
Couple this with another male lead who is just.. dull. That's it, his entire personality can be summed up with one word. One is a pushover, the other is rude, you're turned off by the personalities even before we can get to the romance.

There isn't much in that aspect either, a majority of the episodes is Prot pining over Pluem, and the rest is a bunch of misunderstandings that is resolved in the final episode. All throughout, I could not understand why these two even liked each other, and the acting definitely didn't help in selling their feelings for each other. As a couple, they had a maximum of maybe thirty minutes of romantic screentime. The rest was nonsense conversations, the male lead harrassing his ex, the other male lead pining (and failing because the emotions did not come through) from a distance, and Pluem bullying Prot.

I haven't even gotten to the best part yet. The factual inaccuracy.
They've apparently known each other for seven years. They met when Pluem was a senior and Prot was in the grade below him. The story begins when they're in their fourth and third year of engineering respectively.
Do the math, and it's four years.. right?
Nope, the show insists it's 7 years.

The best, best part though. The SUBTITLES.
Horrendous. Truly bad, I had such a hard time making sense of some of those dialogues. But so funny. Not as funny as some others I've come across, but definitely made the viewing experience a bit better.

It's weird though, because secret crushes aren't a new deal, and neither was this entire story, but I kind of feel like I would have enjoyed watching something along the lines of this story. They did not make it work though, none of it worked.

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Never fulfilled potential

As everyone knows, the subtitles are horrible. However, with a dash of context, open-minded-ness and very basic Thai understanding you can somewhat follow the plot without issue.

Some of the actors deliver great work, some mediocre and quite a few clearly could use a couple more workshops or better directing.

As for the storyline, it could have been so good. And at times I were thoroughly entertained. But, and it is a big but, very cliché in my opinion. Cliché doesn’t always mean bad, as there is a reason why it’s popular. However, the production isn’t good enough to carry it and it falls flat at times.

It gave BLs anno 2020, and sadly not in the good way for me. Better production, directing, acting talent and chemistry between most of the cast could have made this into a great series because the foundation and potential was there, although very hidden.

Worth a watch if you are bored and have nothing better to catch up on or rewatch, but I think I’m gonna pass on watching this a second time to be fair.

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It was humm not wow

I want to make it clear that this is my own opinion and choice. The whole idea behind the story is interesting, but it could have been better. Let me explain: I have a serious problem with the lack of action (drama). Maybe they didn't want to do the same drama we all know, but it could have been better if Pleum had struggled a little bit more before winning him over(KhonProt). P Jess didn't try hard enough and lacked consistency to win him over. When did KhonProt realize that he liked the P pleum? 1 full episode could have been good to explain what P pleum did to make him fall in love , and how was it for KhonProt from high school to university to see the man he love been with a lot of them? I didn't feel like he was really "in pain" only felt that he was angry at the end not angry but jealous Why didn't he try to confess his feelings again at the university or at least make him fall in love with him instead of always saying "sorry" every time Pleum is rude, or the gentle but why KhonProt is the one to apologize? Yes P plaum did but most of the time it was KhonProt. It could have been a little bit spicy to have both friends fighting (not a real fight). I mean, show some tension between them so that we have that thrilling moment of uncertainty about who he is going to choose, even though he was and still is madly in love with Pleum. We should been like "Will P Jess be the one to make the change of heart?" Those are the little details that I think could have made it better, but overall, it was good. Also, please check your subtitles; they are not right at all.

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2024's snoozefest

I have absolutely no idea how I finished this without dropping but I did and even I'm surprised that I did complete this one. Judging from my headline, I'm sure you'll have figured how boring this one was. It was a bland show with nothing much to offer through it's story, acting and the abhorrent subtitles surely didn't help it's case. There's so much and so little to talk about that I have no idea where to begin and structure this review properly.

Nevertheless, let's start with the show's weakest point: The acting and the chemistry between the main characters. Thankfully the acting was not very cringey from the main actors but still it lacked some emotions or rather didn't evoke any emotions in me as a viewer. In simpler words, it was not impactful. Besides that, I didn't really "feel" the chemistry between the two leads even when they progressed their relationship status as lovers. To be frank, I didn't really care for them as a couple, probably wouldn't even have cared if they didn't end up together.( Jet seemed like a better option tbh.). Another minor point would be that I didn't really like the acting of prod's sick mum, she seemed so robotic in a sense(?)

Next point would be the story of course, the core of this show. Being upfront and all, I really wouldn't have watched this show at all if it didn't include the classic "unrequited love" troupe. It's my go-to when I crave some angsty story to make me feel sad, it makes me empathize with the characters. This is actually the only reason why I even continued the show. Other than that, the story is very cliché, boring and there isn't even much to add to this

Review wouldn't be complete without talking about music and overall production value, both were poor in this show's case. The music wasn't my forte and the production value was visibly outdated for a show airing in 2024, it felt like I was watching something from 2015 to 2017. One of the biggest complaints for this show is it's ridiculously inaccurate subtitles which I have to agree is very irritating and affects the overall viewing experience. However, in my case the other poor aspects of the show didn't make the subtitles seem like the biggest issue as context clues could still be applied to understand what's happening, just maybe not in high levels of accuracy.

Overall the best part of the show was the side lesbian couple, everything else was mid tier to downright "never do this again" tier.

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It wasn't the worst thing I have watched this year, but far from the best.

I will be a bit contrary to many here and say I kinda liked this series, it was a light and quick watch. It wasn't too cuddly or overly sexual, and it wasn't dark, abusive, or heavy. It feels very much like a 2017 era BL series, and that is OK by me if done right. However, this series suffers very badly from the subtitles, and maybe from a few flaws in the story, and/or maybe the directing and editing.

Lets start with the subtitles. They messed up pretty much every pronoun. They instead of me, you instead of I, we instead of me, they didn't get even one right in this series. Then they couldn't decide on the spelling of the names of the characters, which often changed throughout the series and even within the same episode. Calling the girl "necklace" instead of Soi, which I think is the literal 1:1 translation of that name, but not the intended outcome of translation. It makes it so hard to watch, and you have to re-translate things in your head while you are watching and listening. By the second or third episode, I had caught on to their mistakes, and could fix it in my head to mostly make sense.

If you like tropes, then OH BOY this story is 𝙛𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙙 with them. The sick mother. A group of engineering students with the grumpy and cold older head student. The "I'm straight, and only gay for you" thing. Work-study trips to help poor village children. Misunderstandings galore. The next to last episode curse where the leads won't talk to each other and don't know why they are arguing. The only thing missing is the white truck of death.

The story is a bit thin in places, and I think they dwelled too long on certain elements like how Pluem is a cold hearted jerk and his weird fascination with a girl who clearly is over the whole relationship. I probably will never understand why Pluem's friends didn't sit down with him back in High School 15 relationships ago and say "hey buddy, you know that you are being a jackass, you might want to tone it down". I won't disagree with anyone who says the story could have been better written and edited in general. But it wasn't probably ever meant to be a complex story filled with twists and turns, it was probably supposed to be a basic 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 story.

I said this in the comment section, but what type of crazy person wears high-heels and a skirt on a jungle work expedition? Girl was trying too hard to be a temptress, and play the helpless victim to get her a man. I would have told that chick to march her own ass up that mountain trail. How did they even let her on the bus dressed that way?

I wish they would have put some of the stuff that the actors said in the behind the scenes into the storyline. Like Pluem's parents, for example. That would have filled in some big gaps in the storyline, and explained the actions of the character. Instead, we learn about it after the series ended.

Continuity and editing is pretty poor at times, for example the dog that Pluem brings home is a big white fluffy Malamute or Chow, and the puppy is a tan Pomeranian.

Parts of the ending was a bit odd as well, we get some potential side couple love confessions, but then cut right to behind the scenes with no apparent resolution to those confessions. Even a simple acceptance/rejection of the proposal would have worked, or maybe that did happen but the subtitles messed it up?

I think the acting was mostly good. The twins are hot as well as 𝘢𝘥𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 and Suea is cute as a button and funny. Most of these are beginner actors, or in their first series, and they did good considering that. I liked the contrast between the soft and almost feminine Prod compared to the barking and rough Pluem. That said, Kimmon sure doesn't like intimacy. To me, he almost looks uncomfortable at times, and I suspect part of why the girls got a love scene while the leads did not.

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