Emotional, Powerful, Full of Heart

SOTUS came out in 2016, long before the recent wave of Thai BL dramas. It was made on a tiny budget and starred complete unknowns. It was before the HUGE ascent of Twitter, tik tok and IG as a platform to promote shows as well as pre-pandemic when BL watching seemed to go insane and some shows were over-hyped (in my opinion).

In short it was a bit of a miracle that it became so popular and that it has withstood the influx of new BL work and continues to garner new fans even 8 years later.

The story is simple enough - a new university student who is put through the hazing process (a real thing at Thai uni - I have many Thai friends who went through it) by the third year students. A love story that unravels despite the two leads facing off again and again, arguing about anything!

And of course, two young men who discover that they like each other, despite their many differences, prejudices and pride.

Kongpob is like a sweet puppy who chases after his P’Arthit. Except when Arthit is in the wrong and then Kongpob bites back!

Arthit is growing up, is behind his peers in doing so, a little lost and constantly searching for the answers. He’s scared and insecure, has never had a partner, feels like he doesn’t deserve to be happy and spends a lot of the series trying to understand why someone might even like him! Poor thing!

They’re both just learning who they are.

They are surrounded by supportive and chaotic friends who have their backs, and Kongpob and Arthit’s romance is given space to develop. They aren’t suddenly in bed together after 3 episodes and nor should they be in a ‘soft’ romance like this. It’s more about their flirting, how Arthit is constantly confused by Kongpob’s actions yet he craves his attention more and more.

The tension builds throughout the series, and by the time they kiss (a very sweet peck by todays standards but totally matching the characters and the situation and also pretty iconic in its location) they have both been through a serious and very emotional learning journey. They know themselves much better and their feelings finally make sense.

Mentioning the supporting roles again- no, they aren’t enormously developed, but they all have personalities and a reason to be there. Plus, they represent many sexual orientations and no one is upset about it!

In a world full of BL’s with 6-10 handsome men playing 3-5 couples, it’s nice to have a show where there is a mix of relationships shown, as well as friendship groups that are not solely gay/pan/bi males.

Reading other reviews, I can see that some people found the start of it hard to watch and certainly the first two episodes contain the worst part of the hazing with quite a bit of shouting, but get past that and you’ll find a series full of heart with characters who truly care for each other and a storyline about first love and everything that’s difficult about it!

Enjoy! I did, and now I rewatch every year at least once..

PS Singto and Krist have such great chemistry and it’s really spine tingling if you watch closely..

Read More