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Don't Say No thai drama review
Completed
Don't Say No
23 people found this review helpful
by cdvmty
Oct 22, 2021
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed 1
Overall 5.5
Story 5.5
Acting/Cast 5.0
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 5.0
This review may contain spoilers

Mostly a disaster

Ok, this has to be one of the weakest BLs of the year, and maybe one of the weakest all time that doesn’t come from a small company with low-budget and completely inexperienced actors. Author Mame cannot write anything different from what she has written in the past, so we got “Love by Chance 2: A Chance to Love” and “TharnType 2: 7 Years of Love” and now this series, all really bad series and all very similar series in terms of plot and scenes. I’m amazed as to why there are so many comments and reviews that say this is the “best series ever” and score this with a perfect 10… I wonder what are they drinking/smoking to be so delusional and here is why…

The premise for this series were the two characters that appeared in “TharnType 2”, Fiat and Leo, that get their own BL series for reasons that are beyond my comprehension. In TT2, Fiat gets injured and needs physical therapy, only to be treated by Dr. Type and that immediately causes a stir in Fiat's thin body and, despite the constant rejections from Type and also knowing that Type has a boyfriend, Fiat decides that he will steal Type for himself all while acting out as a spoiled brat that throws tantrums like a 3-yr. old would do. All this is watched by Fiat’s best friend, Leo, who has been secretly in love with Fiat for many many years but has never gather the balls and the courage to tell him. After some clumsy attempts to stop Fiat from harming the Tharn-Type relationship he confesses his love for Fiat, which brings us to this series. So basically, a guy who tried to wreck a relationship and then behaved like a slut and another guy who was happy just being his best friend and not confessing his love got a full series... go figure!

So, let’s talk lead actors. First plays Fiat and Ja plays Leo and I’m sure both are really nice guys in their real lives but I cannot find any charm in them acting in this series nor as a couple. Fiat is always a nagging, whining, bitchy, crying mess because in all the episodes he is either complaining about Leo’s younger brother, Leon (more on him later), acting like a diva in front of his friends and rivals, crying like a little baby after every single misunderstanding with Leo (and there are PLENTY of those), and becoming an emotional mess around his own family. Sadly, First does not do a good job trying to portray all these emotions, whether it's his bad acting mixed with some bad directing and coaching or is just his lack of talent, but I did not like him in “Tharn-Type 2” and still don’t like him here. Ja is a bit better portraying Leo as he needs to be the stronger one in this relationship and his emotionless expressions and cold stares normally do the trick. But as several reviewers have pointed out, this couple sure lacks some chemistry on screen and while they don’t look as uncomfortable during the kissing scenes and the sex scenes as Plan and Mean did in “Love by Chance” and “Love by Chance 2”, they sure struggle.

Now, the secondary couple has Smart playing Leon and James playing Pob and surprisingly enough, newcomer Smart does a decent job portraying the savvy and charming Leon that knows what he wants and insists until he gets it but he does it without being pushy, controlling or annoying like Leo. Pob is the sweet and caring guy who wants to help orphan children and rescue stray cats but is hesitant to trust “playboy” Leon immediately. Eventually he does fall for him and their relationship evolves in a much more normal and stable way with Leon courting Pob and always asking his permission to do things he knows might be uncomfortable or awkward for Pob. In real life, James is 8 years older than Smart (28 vs. 20 years old), but despite the age difference, they do have much more chemistry and seem a bit more committed to the intimate scenes than the lead actors. These two characters are the only saving grace of this disaster and it is a shame that the end was not a satisfying one for them. In very usual Thai BL fashion, we have Pob leaving Thailand to help orphan children in a remote location after realizing his application for the job was accepted. In more clichés, he does not know when he will be back and he does not want to hinder Leon’s dreams if he comes with him so they break up.

The rest of the supporting juvenile actors do not really provide much to the series aside from a few funny moments from the twins and all of them joining forces in the last episode to prevent Punn and King from doing bad things and splitting Fiat and Leo. The older actors are mainly Fiat’s father, crazy mother and stepmother and also Leo/Leon parents. And here is where I begin the headache that is the plot/storyline of this show.
a. Fiat’s father divorced his mother because she has a mental illness and she makes Fiat believe nobody loves him except her. Fiat develops a hate towards women around his father so he is always rude and cold towards his stepmother and stepsister. Fiat’s mother escapes the mental institution and finds Fiat so she brings back all of Fiat’s traumas. Leo is the one “negotiating” with Fiat’s father to solve this issue and tell Fiat the truth so they can be a happy family again. All of this because Fiat seems unable of having a conversation with his father and his father is unwilling to tell Fiat all the truth.
b. Fiat loves Leo with all his heart but both are unable to communicate effectively and efficiently during the series leading to many misunderstandings, confusion, tears, arguments, etc. It becomes a bit repetitive as both fight and cry only to finally understand what happened in the next episode and have sex. And now, I’m always up for some sexy scenes when the scene makes sense in the plot, but Mame had this habit in “Tharn-Type 2” of including sex scenes nearly every other episode and she did the same thing here with Fiat and Leo kissing and having sex constantly.
c. Leo played the martyr role because he waited for Fiat during “Tharn-Type 2” but now that he confessed, he turns into the dominant type, who is always there to basically control and possess Fiat as he wishes. This story is not as innocent as two best friends falling in love because Leo is quite the controlling type and Fiat is quite the submissive type that is a bit awkward to watch. Several times during the series Leo tells Fiat that he hates seeing him talk to other guys and that he will “lock him up” so he cannot do that because he gets jealous and possessive of him and Fiat just says “ok” (episode 12) which leads to more sex.

There is one more special episode coming November 6 to basically show us how happy Leo and Fiat are and how Pob comes back from abroad to find Leon and be together happily ever after as I’m sure Mame will do the same predictable things she did for the “Tharn-Type 2” special episode. UPDATE: Turns out the special episode was more of the same disappointing writing from Mame. Just like she skipped 7 years in Tharn-Type for season 2, she decided to jump 3 years into the future in this episode only to have Leo-Fiat still do the same things they did before in terms of nagging, whining by Fiat and an almost obsessive jealousy and possessiveness by Leo (seriously, this dude has some issues). Nothing relevant happens with them after coming back to Thailand. Leon and Phob should have had a happy ending but Mame and the director decided to make us suffer even more by making them miss each other by mere moments in almost every scene they were on. Phob sent emails for 3 years to Leon because Phob forgot there are phones to communicate... Leon also forgot his password and didn't check that email account at all because he apparently has never heard of password recovery. The special episode just left the door wide open for Mame to get more money by writing a new (and surely mediocre) series for Leon and Phob.

In the end, I had very low expectations for this show and it did not disappoint. Aside from the Smart-James secondary couple, the show was poorly written, poorly directed and had incredibly bad plots and storylines that combined with more or less mediocre acting, ended up being what I wrote in the title, mostly a disaster. So, if you already watched this series, “say no” this time and don’t watch it again.
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