BLISS RATING: ★★
“You’ve always been in my dream. If I didn’t meet you, I would probably just live my life day by day and live without a goal.” – Quote from Fourever You
Honestly, is it not time for a revolt against BL series wasting time on drivel? This is one of the most mindless, childish, dumb, cliché-driven, and trope-filled stories I have ever seen. In addition to being one of the more rancidly acted series, mainly because it exposed an incapacity to display the protagonists (as well as other major characters) adroit at growing, thriving, maturing, or even becoming an adult let alone being able to face any type of trauma or drama without completely falling apart or reverting to child-like behaviors. Most acted emotionally as if they were somewhere between 5-to-15-year-olds in bodies that are supposed to be young men. And do not get me started on how infantile, pre-pubescent and frankly non-existent they treated the whole concept of gay relationships.
While EVERYONE is seemingly gay in this world, no one expressly has gay sex. It is all pretend. They merely romp around with their clothes on in bed and wake up the next morning with a smile on their faces, counterfeiting that ‘something’ happened between the two of them. This was just one example of why this series was an awful mess. I loathed it because I am sick of watching grown men performing as pre-pubescent children personifying as dejected children as if they did not get a Valentine Day’s card from their Valentine crush. Get over yourself, boys, life is sometimes astonishingly difficult.
This begins with yet another endless narration of poor communication between two high school sweethearts. While Easter or Ter [although the name is clever] (Earth Katsamonnat) has a major crush on Hill (Pond Ponlawit), it gets convoluted of course because of adolescent immaturity as well as unresolved gross miscommunication skills which is to be expected at their supposed ages. Ter, infectiously cute and gregariously bubbly, is equally as infantile and child-like. And remains so through the series. Ter NEVER grows up. He is the eternal Peter Pan. And it does not work anymore.
Their relationship reconnects when he enters the same college that Hill now is in and the next 17 episodes are devoted to Pollyanna dribble and nonsense. If one did not know the layout of BL series, it would look like Hill was actually dating and trying to enter into a relationship with a pre-adolescent as that is how infantile Ter acted most of the time. It is just so cringeworthy to watch. Frankly, what Hill saw in Ter when he entered college is a wonder, as he is just as juvenile, childish, and as endlessly whinny as he was in high school. Now, however, Ter seems to have perfected his sappiness and is really, really whinny. In addition to Ter’s constant emotional breakdowns, Hill is now stuck with an adolescent and because the script called for him to love this snickering individual, he is forced to. Honestly, no one, including Hill, calls him out on the level of immaturity Ter displays. If anything, everyone surrounding Ter seems to do nothing but reinforce his jejune behavior, which makes them all accomplices to his immaturity. Ter’s downright rejection of Hill as his adult sexual partner should have been a complete deal breaker. Hill tried on several occasions to go beyond a simple kiss on the forehead with Ter, but Ter falls apart completely or acts as if sex is for adults only, which of course he is not. He is merely an eternal child. Here is a chronologically 29-year-old man trying to play a high schooler and freshman college student with zero believability. It is about time for Earth to STOP mimicking these roles or at the very least grow up in them.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? There is only one reason I shall not put this in a Bathos list and that is because of the acting strength of Bas Hatsanat as North, Ter’s college roommate and friend. Bas draws you in to the character of North. He is not only hypnotically handsome, but there is also just something so charismatic about watching him. He is intriguing and offers a nice balance from Ter’s childish shenanigans. He goes from a playful gamer to one who struggles with his own feelings for someone. We watch him grown and mature, unlike Ter. He does develop a relationship with Johan (Maxky Ratchata) which, while he is a bit toxic, still develops and we can actually see the two of them form a solid union. So, when North says he ‘loves’ Johan, we believe him. Bas develops the character more fully and allows for North to grow and mature into a young man with character and a level of maturity that is unseen in Ter. And North understands that if he says he loves Johan, he is committing himself emotionally and physically to the relationship. I hope we get to see more of Bas in leading roles. He knows how to take a character to its full potential.
The rest of the series is filled with your cliché-driven scenarios with the usual outcomes. The students are all either engineer or medical students. Surprise. There is also no real plot here which makes the story astonishingly weak. And this goes on for 17 episodes. There is a tease with a third couple, but it never really goes anywhere, of course. Honestly, the chemistry between Earth and Pond seemed strained and obviously not dynamic. I cannot figure out how anyone would ever believe they could be a couple as they did not act as a serious couple, had no earnest screen chemistry between them, and never looked like they even held hands let alone had sex. Even if ‘Ter’ did it, he would have been too traumatized by the event and would no doubt have taken ill as everyone seems to be sick at the slightest change in their routines.
It becomes obvious after a while that most of the performers were chronologically well into their mid to late 20’s and therefore could not even act like late teens or early 20’s characters. They were way too seasoned as adults to pretend to be that young. It just shows on their faces, mainly because they have little to do but ‘pretend’ to study or ‘work’. Stop trying to fool the audience. It is time for many of these performers to stop playing high school and/or college students. They cannot physically do it anymore and more importantly, their real personas as individuals simply display that they are not those ages anymore.
More importantly, this continuous nonsense about not seeing these BL relationships as gay interactions is enough to make me scream as well as cry. The primary couple must eventually make an honest reference to sex sometime during their relationship. Yet they treat their connections as sexless adventures or act like a couple walking through a flower field on a nice warm, cozy, sunny, spring day. None of it is real. In addition, everybody and I do mean everyone is so accepting of gay relationships. Families, friends, grandmas, all students. No blow-back ever. No one is ever seriously disappointed or nonaccepting or even shocked. Again, this is just not real as well.
I would love for life to be as perfect as it exists in the BL world. And I love me some good escapism and fantasies but sometimes, even a tiny droplet, of reality must be thrown in on occasion that is not always positive and sporadically must be negative. That is how we learn, advance, and accept ourselves, when we can live through the adversity shown by others. In addition, it would be nice if the premises were more adult-like in nature and outcomes that deal in real contemporary solutions. And finally, how about advancing more personal growth in the protagonists. Let them grow up for a change. Occasionally we see it in the secondary couples ironically, but rarely do we see it, especially in Thai BLs, happen for the primary couple. (As a comparison, you definitely see it in Vietnamese and Cambodian BLs).
My hope is that this genre of BL fast approaches its end. It is no longer relevant. It is trite and overused and overblown. In addition, your audience is changing and expanding and is wanting more. Grow up with the audience.
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