I read reviews of shows because I only have so much time, and I can't watch everything. I'd seen the hype over this show, and I was looking forward to it - but looking at other people's reviews here and having actually watched the show, I'm completely flummoxed. My only explanation is that many fans have read the novel and have carried their appreciation over to the series where their imaginations can fill the enormous gaps in the narrative.

This show is jaw-droppingly unoriginal, with every BL trope you can imagine - in fact all the characters are engineering, medical and music students, because nobody is allowed to study anything else in a BL. The tired and untrue-to-life seme/uke dynamic is in full force, there's a tiresome fujoshi, and there are no countervailing positives, at least not in the main pair. Substituting warm milk for pink milk is not originality, it's almost laughable cribbing. And the evil gf is apparenly on the way.

The premise of the show is that Solo's mother has died and so he's lost his smile - but did he also need to lose his entire emotional range? And shouldn't Gui have a contrasting personality? He's equally dour and unsmiling.

The problem is the lack of acting skill in the main pair, and this is underlined with force by the secondary pairing, where Phu is equally unsmiling - but played by a talented actor, he is with virtually no dialog and only a handful of scenes able to convey his character's loneliness, pain, and repressed longing. We get nothing from Solo except his creepily expressionless face and his dead eyes. Losing your smile doesn't mean losing all facial expression.

If PhuKao were the main pair, this would be a really compelling series - the two actors playing these characters are really impressive, and their characters are interestingly drawn, and I can't predict every word they'll say and action they'll take like I can for the main pair. Kao has to work to chip away at Phu's walls, and you can see it slowly working, which is wonderful and beautiful. Kao manages to make his whiney and annoying character charming and endearing, and conveys a greater depth than the surface characteristics of his character suggest. He's cute as f@#$, too.

But I don't see any motivation for the relationship between Solo and Gui. What does Gui see in him? They have no shared experiences, they don't know each other, Solo just stares at him with his creepy blank eyes, and occassionally does something really frighteningly aggressive, like when he backs him into a corner at the flower shop. If you'd seen desire in his eyes, it would have been hot - but instead you (and Gui) had to wonder if he was about to commit murder. For that matter, what does Solo see in Gui? I'll admit he's cute, but that's all there is. So is this a purely physical attraction? One doesn't normally fall in love with someone cute but dull because he boiled milk for you.

I think another problem may be that losing your smile works better in a verbal medium than it does in a visual one, where you get a sort of uncanny valley effect that makes Solo look Not Quite Right.

In Episode 8, there's a character played by an experienced actress that's ill and so also quiet and understated, with only a few lines of dialog, but the actress gives such a powerhouse performance that I was in tears all the way through the episode, which underscores how acting ability is so utterly important and so utterly ignored by Thai BL, at least for the main roles (with the hugely notable exception of I Told Sunset About You and mostly for 1,000 Stars). If Solo had been played by someone with 25% of her ability, this would have been a truly memorable series.

The positives of the show are compelling side characters (except the fujoshi), including one of the best pairings I've seen in PhuKao, and the music is way better than your average Thai BL.

EDIT: Also, if you're going to hire an actor to play another character's father, you should really consider hiring someone more than 3 years older (Solo actor is 27, his father is 30). The little grey streaks of hair dye and glasses aren't fooling anyone. I'm sure the reason is because it's strongly implied he's the lover of a much younger character and they wanted to make it less creepy. But it makes me crack up every time they show him. I will say that he's just as dull and expressionless as his son, so that helps make it believable.

EDIT: The acting issue may largely be the directing because Nut Supanut is amazing in Something In My Room.