PERFECT 10 LINERS – 2025 – Thailand

BLISS RATING: ★★★

“Nothing in this world was more difficult than love.”  –  Gabriel Garcia Marquez

This is yet another in a long line of Pollyanna anthology BL love stories that presents gay love relations in the fairytale world of Happy Valley with little cognitive anchor to any sense of reality except episodically. And when those were shown, it became empathetic and charged with human emotions. If only the whole anthology was made like that, this could have been a good series. Instead, it is just another very forgettable BL from Thailand. Many of these actors (but not all) are very good, but these inane and pedestrian scripts simply do not allow them to grow or mature or show their true potential in acting.

To say this series is long would be an understatement. It is insufferable with way too many couplings and way too many side characters to count as well. The only real common thread among the couples is that they are all connected somehow to a group of engineering students who are called Perfect 10 liners. A rather interesting and creative concept for a group that should have worked better than it did. This is a story of 5 interconnected gay love stories with most being your standard fluffy romances. Only one of these adventures is worthy of your attention. Let us begin:

1. Arc (Force Jiratchapong) and Arm (Book Kasidet) took up the bulk of the episodes and they are the thread for the entire series. Their relationship development droned on and on and frankly I never could get too vested in its development as I did not care since you knew it was going to happen anyway. Overall, their acting was flat and unconvincing.  Outside of a few scenes, none of it moved me. Only when we saw the reasons why Arm could not develop a relationship is when some real acting occurred by Book. Otherwise, it is your standard rom-com series – dull and insipid. Force as Arc was completely wooden throughout the series and he honestly looked like he was sleep-walking. I never once believed they were in love. Screen chemistry was nearly non-existent. Mainly because there was a lack of sincerity. It is sad but the story would have worked with or without the development of their relationship.
2. Yotha (Perth Tanapon) and Gun (Santa Pongspak) are a surprisingly strong couple. Sure, it is the standard ‘bad’ apple who falls for the sweet innocent boy routine, but it works here, mainly on the strength of the acting of these two individuals. They pull it off despite the trite and corny screenplay. They gave it enough angst and a sense of honest tension that at least their portion was entertaining and fun to watch. Overall, their relationship definitely seemed more sincere until it got to the point of being overprotective and silly.
3. Faifa (Junior Panachai) and Wine (Mark Jiruntanin) bothered me the most and yet of all three main attachments, this was the most intensely moving. Faifa (the brother of Yotha) is a deeply complex person and in a sense, a sad figure craving love. Giving it freely but always feeling left out in getting it in return. His love is taken for granted and thus expected. Therefore, he is literally forgotten because he has become so reliant. Wine comes along and suggests that maybe he needs to turn some of that love inward and also make it unique/special to the one he truly loves otherwise no one will ever think it is different for the person he loves. While the story at the end seems to suggest that Wine is sincerely in love with Faifa, it never actually felt that way in the process. Mark as Wine played the part disconnected and a bit aloof from the character. Sometimes mature, sometimes child-like. There is so much more that could have and should have been explored and unraveled to their love connection. Perhaps it was just me, but Junior as Fifia came across as too ‘old’ to be a college student and had an ‘old soul’ perception about him, which gave a creepy sense to their whole relationship development. Meanwhile, Wine is just too immature and confused to really know what love is all about. I never bought into their connection either. For me, I also did not see any strong screen chemistry between them. Acting, perhaps; level of sincerity and believability, minimal.
   
   While not considered major relationships, there were two other pairs in this pantheon of couples that were intertwined throughout the plot:
4. Wa (Boom Tharatorn) and Kloa (Aou Thanaboon) are the only couple with any sense of connection to reality. They had conflict with each other and had emotional highs and lows that are relatable to couples with problems and issues in addition to real jealousy arguments that spilled over into germane conflicts with others. Yet, at the end, this is the only couple that had any type of cogent future together. They planned on getting married while the other couples remain living on fantasy island. Although their story is disjointed, that was because there was not enough screen time for resolution. Rather than all the fluff from the other stories, this is one story where I wanted to see more of them together. We saw them struggle and go through the difficulties of separating and then seeing each other in a new light. They were also by far the hottest and the most erotic couple and most believable in their love making scenes.
5. Pond (Marc Natarit) and Sand (Poon Mitpakee) are a complete throw-away couple. Their relationship looked strained from the very beginning and remained so throughout. There is zero chemistry between them. Both acted like they were merely reading their lines for the camera. Honestly, it was uncomfortable to watch their scenes. This is one couple that this story could have done without completely.

Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series?  No one did because it is a standard tropey cliché-driven screenplay that does not allow or permit for anyone or anything to deviate from the standard formulaic pattern. However, who I do think does have some character and goes somewhat deep into the role is Lookwa Pijika Jittaputta as Yotha and Fifa’s mother. She played the forlorn rather absent and inept mother figure to these brothers with some conviction. She realized and acknowledged that she was certainly far from being a ‘good’ mother to them but was now willing and wanting to make amends and was trying to be a good force in their lives now. She readily accepted their partners without reservation and seemed genuinely wanting to make things better between herself and her sons. She became a believable force in this series and one of the few characters that was able to show any sense of that.

If this series had concentrated on perhaps one or two of the couples and delved more deeply into their significant issues to some greater resolution, perhaps this series would be worth writing about. But instead, it passes off wooden characters, lifeless acting, stereotypical gay BL characterizations that I am frankly getting sick of seeing. Most of these characters have pre-pubescent levels of maturity and fall apart at the slightest heartache in their lives and never get over it.  Others are the usual stereotypical ‘bad asses’ while others are the delicate flowers who crumble away at the least distress in their life. Most of these series start out as a rom-com and end up trying to be a treatise on gay relationships with little references to the real world to support that, however. And rarely if ever does anyone encounter difficulties from developing a GAY relationship. There were 5 couples listed above and not one couple had any outside issue with developing a GAY relationship. It is astonishing that Thailand is so open and accepting with gay relationships. I was glad to see that at least this issue was acknowledged with one of the characters in ‘coming out’ to his friends. More of that is needed and frankly it should not always be presented in a positive light. Not everyone is going to be so accepting of such forthright gay connections. It was all just a bit too bubbly to be believable. Sometimes life is just not like a BL.

For those of you who enjoy this type of droning on and on with a mundane soap-opera storyline, then you will be entertained. But I found this series unchallenging, unentertaining and frankly a waste of talented actors as I could see some of them break out here and there in certain scenes that required them to do so. The stories, other than Wa and Kloa, have no meat to them; only bones. Wa and Kloa had at least depth to who they were, and their issues were relatable to people who live in a real world.

My recommendations to improve this series, which I know you are not asking for, but I am going to give it anyway:

1. Cut this series in half to eliminate the fluff and the viewing time. Intensify the story lines to where we see characters grow and mature and have relatable issues. Tighten up the mundane scripts. Flatly, this series is absolutely too long.
2. Stop making gayness so normal and Pollyanna. It is not. It is still a struggle each and every day. People need to see that our lives are not this glamorous at least occasionally. It is not all bad and neither is it all good.  Give it a balance.
3. Eliminate side couples completely for a change. They add nothing. Or sometimes, almost inadvertently, they become the main focus.  
4. Give the love making scenes which includes kissing, conviction and more in line with implicit authenticity. Quit portraying gay sex with clothes on! That is NOT how gay men have sex, ever. While you do not have to be graphic, you do have to be real.  Also, teach them how to kiss that looks natural and real and honest and genuine. And most of all hot. If not, then not at all. Better to show nothing than to show artificiality. That is insulting to every gay relationship on the planet.
5. This notion that gay men are delicate flowers is frankly getting old and stereotypical and rather insulting. Please stop. If they do not die from a rainstorm illness because they did not have an umbrella, they surely will die from a minor scratch on their finger from an infection. Just stop!
6. Start getting honest and truthful and stop with the subtle display shaming of affection especially when two GAY men are alone together. That is also getting old as well. They need to ‘pretend’ that there is no camera in their faces. It is insulting to every gay relationship when you continue to portray, even privately, a couple’s hesitancy to be themselves when together. Stop making gay people so sheepish for being horny or unsullied in private. Why do you not show at least more kissing on the lips in private? Believe it or not most gay men have lustful thoughts leading to actions in private and do not kiss on foreheads or cheeks (no matter the culture) especially when they are just beginning in a relationship. Stop with this ‘innocence’ and the virginized approach to sex. That is for the camera and we all know it. It is not cute either. It is stupid and infantile.
7. And finally, a full set of episodes of Wa and Kloa would have made this saga way more interesting and entertaining. These two seemed real, relatable, loving and oh so slightly lascivious.

I honestly wanted to drop this series but finished it anyway. I have this ‘thing’ about not dropping a series once I start one. Unfortunately, I think this series will fade from my memory very quickly.