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BadPenny

Above Sea Level

BadPenny

Above Sea Level
TharnType Season 2: 7 Years of Love thai drama review
Completed
TharnType Season 2: 7 Years of Love
0 people found this review helpful
by BadPenny
Jul 7, 2021
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 9.0
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 10.0
Music 10.0
Rewatch Value 7.0

It was good. But... Way more fanservice.

Not nearly as compelling a story as season 1. In season one, stuff was ROUGH. But it made sense. Not everything in season 2 did.

There is a trend I've noticed in Bl dramas. Whoever the "problem child" of the main couple is in season 1, is the one who is in the right in season 2. And this trend follows here, but admittedly with a bit better (read more complex) reasoning behind it. Even so, it's an annoying trend because they usually devolve the character, who is otherwise normally a at least somewhat sensible or upstanding a character in order to accomplish it. No exception this time on that count.

The acting between the main characters is still VERY solid. And their more dramatic performances are balanced by some really cool, soft, romance between Tharn and Type. And overall their relationship is a lot more stable, as you might expect it to be after several years.

And Tharn and Type are bracketed by some wonderful and funny support characters. Especially Mild. He was hilarious from start to stop. I nearly fell out of my seat at his "Oh no, here we go again." shtick regarding Type's tendency to live up to that old adage "When the going gets tough the tough go deep cover CIA levels of clandestine entrapment".

Which leads right into one of my pet peeves in many genres of TV or movies but especially BL's. The lack of holding the "problem instigator" responsible for his/her actions in any meaningful way. In season 2, there are several "bad guys". But the main villain who sows dissent gets his own happy ending because even though Fiat caused enormous pain through selfish, clearly immoral (verging on illegal) actions, he's seen as too young to be held accountable. The real reason is Fiat's bound for his own spin off. So fuck that. Nope. Sorry. He was an adult, and was doing adult manipulation and asshattery. He should have faced some adult consequences.

All the same, it was nice to see the whole gang together again, even if I did feel the drama in season 2 hinged on devolving Tharn's character in order to shoe-horn certain aspects of the plot.

On a technical side? The settings were more artsy and dramatic and the sex scenes even more "adult". It was clearly fanservice. Which, how you view that will depend on how you feel about fanservice to begin with. I am not always a supporter of it. I'd often rather just have a decent story.

Type's problem with his boss and said boss' workplace misdeeds was a nice side story that introduced it's own stresses for Tharn and Type's relationship and THIS was the well done part because this felt like mature relationship stresses to me. This felt like the better, more them, story.

The actress who played aged up Thanya was brilliant and lovely, and she brought a delightful feminine savvy to the plot. But the character of Thorn was a bit odd this time around. I think his behavior was written to be reflexive sibling protectiveness but came across as "nope! Tharn you aren't going through this shit again! You are my child and I will protect you." Seriously, weirdly Tiger-mom Thorn! And haha! Thanya's character was all like "Thorn, honey, sweetie. Shut up and let me handle this".

Then came Type's family scenes. I was left wondering how the very smart Type came from such an idiot sire. But that's part of the fun of Type's family, I suppose. Also, Buddhism for the win! Gulf was so weirdly cute at temple.

In the end, watch it just to see more of the characters you love. Do NOT watch it because you need more of Season 1 Tharn handling Type's ups and downs with the patience of a saint. This is, in its own way, as bumpy a ride as season 1 it just feels like they actually covered less ground because it was, over all, very out of character of Tharn. And that's probably my biggest complaint about it.

But, that being said, it did lead them straight into their special EP that was their wedding.
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