BLISS RATING: ★★★★
“You can never hate me as much as you want me.” – Briar Boleyn, On Wings Of Blood
This is a pretty standard BL series about stepbrothers falling in love with each other. While I want to say this is nothing more than a journey through one’s first love or ‘puppy love’, there is still a somewhat subtle intensity to it. By happenstance, two high school boys fall in love with each other and become stepbrothers.
The story of how they become stepbrothers is an interesting sideline and it becomes a blueprint for their own journey to love. The story of two stepbrothers falling in love has been done ad nauseum and it begins to lose its attraction. I am not saying this is a bad series; it is not. I am saying that this story line is getting ‘old’. This is not badly acted; it is just not scripted well and frankly a waste of some pretty-talented actors on a trite-story line. It also has way too many interactions with nothing really developing or resolving. That is too bad because there is some pretty good talent in this series.
Let’s start with the story. It is a story about Prab (Folk Touch). Let me digress for just a moment. He was in one of my favorite BL series called “If I Love a Boy” and I remarked how I thought his acting was surprisingly good for being so young. He is really, really good in this one as well. I think Folk Touch has a great future in doing BL series. He gives his characters a real sense of intensity and genuineness.
Not to be undone, however, his ‘younger’ brother, Choi (Phu Phuwarit), is also a very good actor. Initially, (as in almost all these cases) they start out as not liking each other but the slow burn to their development of a relationship is quite refreshing. Sure, they have the usual misunderstandings, the pretending they are not interested in each other, and the misunderstandings of intentions, but it works here, mainly on the acting strength of these two artisans. They make it believable by never going overboard and it was nice to watch it develop so organically.
Usually these stories are insufferably slow, but in this case. It was entertaining and made sense. They also tackled some very interesting storylines that I had not seen in other series. Choi, for example, was not going to go into medicine even if he was smart enough to do so and the school presently pressuring him to go into med school for the school’s own benefit. But he stood his ground and with the help and support of his stepbrother, Prab, was able to pursue what he wanted to do with his life. (I love stories that fight the ‘Establishment’).
There are some interesting side stories here that all seem relatable but not very in-depth. I am always amazed as how clueless some of the characters are when being pursued by others and seemingly not be aware of their intentions. I know these characters are ‘young’, but are they not astute enough to know what is going on? There seems to be a want and need to present naivetes as either cute or sexy, but after a while, it just becomes old and tired. Surely, there are more storylines that show the develop of characters with greater depth.
There is a somewhat interesting story about a superficial relationship between a teacher and a student. A teacher initially is humiliating a student but comes to realize through Prab’s forwardness that he was bullying him, and the student is smart but needs to focus better. He tutors him and he becomes infatuated with him. While the student is not interested in him in that way, the teacher finds himself in a very compromising situation when all of this is found out and posted.
Fortunately, it is resolved but it was an interesting subject matter to tackle. It is not only students who become infatuated or even fall in love, if you will, with a teacher; there are teachers who also fall into the same trap which causes moral and ethical as well as legal questions. Even if ‘nothing’ happens, something happens. And there are always consequences.
The story at least for me that is the most interesting is the one that happened between Prab’s mother and Choi’s father. They end up getting married but there is a very interesting back-story to this relationship that is central to the main story of this BL series. It really was quite a lovely tie-in. Choi’s father and Prab’s mother had an early relationship when they were in college. So, it was not a chance meeting but a long-standing connection that they had from an early stage in both their lives. They deeply loved each other but unfortunately it was not to be. Both families had arranged a marriage for them to individuals whom they did not love.
And true to what was expected and cultural norms, married into a loveless relationship. When Choi’s mother passed away and Prab’s mother divorced her abusive husband, they reconnected again and married. Of course, the two boys find out and much emotional disruption and shock is evident. But they talk about all of this with great tenderness and compassion and reality. That was done very nicely even if it was painful from a personal perspective to go through. Prab’s past was quite traumatic and unfortunately it was more-or-less glossed over. Here would have been an excellent story on how to deal with abuse. The bringing in of such traumatic events in a young person’s life while real, is usually done for dramatic effect. Little is done to looking at how to manage it either then, now, or in the future and it is is hardly ever dealt with effectively.
I wish life was as simple as it is presented here, but Prab was abused, and that concept honestly needs to be dealt with greater sensitivity. When the father and mother finally find out about the intense connection between the two boys, they are naturally upset and do what they can to break it up. But Prab and Choi have them realize how are they any different than what their parents did to them when they were younger? The wife gently reminds her husband of this fact and to do so is only going to make the want and desire stronger.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. the series? My inclination is to want to name Folk Touch alone, as he made an impact on me in his other series, but I cannot. That would be unfair as both Folk Touch and Phu are deserved of this distinction. Both do a very good job of convincing us of the sincerity of their characters and the development of their relationship is almost imperceptible. They genuinely show some real emotions as they go through the stages of the development of their connections. Mistrust, misunderstanding, jealously, pettiness, lack of communication rears their ugly heads on occasion, and they are both able to display them effectively and sincerely. It was nice to watch. Neither outshines the other and both display good acting skills. It is also evident that both are incredibly handsome and exude that in such a way that it never becomes overwhelming. They have it but show that that they do not realize it. Nice!
The ending felt a bit rushed and tried too hard to tie up all the loose ends. This is an entertaining series that is simply fun to watch. While the premise has been done a lot before, I found this one to flow nicely and I honestly liked it. I am guessing because the two actors simply made it work and the backstory of the parents is so interesting. It is just fun to watch. Throughout this series, we see that Choi has an odd ‘relationship’ with the Frog Prince’ on messaging. We find out that it is one of Prab’s friends who is the Frog Prince, and he wants to pursue Choi. Or at least that is what we are led to believe. While this does not come to any type of fruition obviously, it is not clear at the end if it is really this person or someone else.
Perhaps we shall find out in Season 2, which I really hope happens. These two are so likeable and adorable as well as the other performers that I want more.
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