BLISS RATING: ★★★★★
“No matter where I am, as long as you are next to me, everything’s fine.” – Quote from Ticket To Heaven
Surprisingly, I was quite moved by this series and its intense story. Despite its flaws, it remains for me one of the best Thai dramas to come along in a very long time. It is a rather markedly dimensional cogitation of two boys who fell in love in an all-boys Catholic high school that centrally prepares them for becoming priests. The drawback of this series is the panoptic way the story is told and subsequently pieced together. It really is choppy and needed some serious rework to make the story flow better, especially between the episodes as its time references seemed to not transition well, coherently, or smoothly. The story even between frames at times did feel a bit disjointed. In addition, the saga itself introduced almost every type of human calamity to pull at the heartstrings. It nearly overwhelmed one’s emotional senses with despair and distraught. It honestly did not need to go that deep to solicit sentiments. That was accomplished by the exceptionally fine acting by the two protagonists. Nevertheless, none of these flaws diminished in any way from the power of this story. And what was the power of this story? Love.
Tan (Fourth Nattawatt) is a compliant student at the Catholic school run by a firm, but an unusually all-accepting priest named Father Arnon (An Oliver Poupart). He intuitively has a good sense of where his young male students will end up in life and nurtures them without being too dogmatic. Tan seems destined to becoming a priest along with his good friend Kongdeck (Ashi Peerakan). Both seemed so self-assured on a path to the priesthood. Yet, Father Arnon always seemed to sense some uneasiness about Tan’s complete commitment to the ‘calling’.
One day, Father Arnon introduces a new student named Barth (Gemini Norawit). To say that Barth has a troubled past would not be quite descriptive enough. Not only is he a troubled young man, but he also has a bitterness and anger towards God. Not just for what God allowed happen to him and his family but also in a sense for not steering him away from a path to being gay. Thus, he then feels completely abandoned by God on all fronts.
Father Arnon assigns Tan to be his mentor, knowing full well what Barth’s history was. In a sense, Father Arnon had to have considered all aspects of their pending interactions.
The saga unfolds between these two with surgical precision but with subtle beauty. While not exactly open about it, Barth readily admits who and what he is. Tan not only agonizes about his relationship with God but begins to doubt the veracity of it as he falls deeper in love with Barth as time goes on, with Barth reciprocating. Yet, each respects the boundaries set, not necessarily by what the Church established but on what the two of them have agreed. Both want each other yet neither in a real sense are ready for what would happen if they crossed that line into full intimacy. We can see Tan anguish about his love for God, represented through and by the Church, be in dissonance on an intrinsic level because of his love for Barth. His love for Barth is not just based on physical lust. The two of them have a more insightful bond, almost on a transcendental level. The question becomes will his spiritual connection that he has with Barth be stronger than with his God? If it is, can his God still love him?
Their metamorphosis on who they become is an emotional journey filled with individuals around them who ease them to move forward, never backward. All fathom the deepening union between the two. This story moves ahead in such subtle almost unnoticeable increments by everyone that encounters them. It is as if they are fulfilling their destiny to find their own form of religiosity. It does not necessarily have to exclude God but how does it include God?
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? Overall, there are so many supporting characters in this contemplative series, each with a part, none of whom can be considered unimportant. Each in some way provides more light for Barth and Tan on their personal journey to discovery. None more important than an insignificant individual who meets them at the gravesite of Tan’s parents. Her name is Aunt Lek, played by Tam Nattakorn Thavorchat. She also had gone to the Academy along with Tan’s father when Lek was a man. Even after he transitioned, she remained friends with Tan’s family all through life. The gentle revealing of Aunt Lek to Tan of becoming a woman many years ago yet remaining true to her faith made me cry. Living a quiet life and coming to terms with who she was, she furthermore continued to practice her faith, in a sphere of peace and endurance. We see in her face a woman of internal acceptance of character. She has learned to love herself and God with equal passion. Aunt Lek sees immediately the intensity of the relationship between Barth and Tan and tells him to be honest with his feelings because one can love both God and oneself, at the same time. While Tam Nattakorn Thavorchat’s deliverance is brief, it is exceptionally powerful. No judgment. No preachiness. Just pronouncement from the perspective of living a long life of being true to herself and ironically being happy and content about it. I found her performance one of the most moving and poignant moments in this series. It was genuine and real. I sincerely wept and openly as it felt so heartfelt as if it was coming from the perspective of veracity. That is how powerful it was delivered. Kudos for such a moving almost poetic performance.
Let us get to the reason why this series really is an exceptional one and it may be one not universally understood or even grasped by many for a lot of reasons. While I have absolutely no love for the Catholic Church, being a former (and fallen) Catholic, do not be lulled into thinking that somehow the Catholic Church is accepting. It unequivocally is not. Homosexuality is and remains a sin. I continue to find the teachings of the Church on homosexuality to be punitive, itself sinful, outdated, capricious, morally reprehensible, and unmitigatingly wrong. Yet, what this series DID do right is what happens quietly and, I think more often and unheralded, with local priests who understand the broader meanings of the precepts of the Church’s doctrines and are willing to use their individual discretion to see God’s love where others might not. And for that, this series deserves our kudos.
Having grown up a devout Catholic, I, like Tan, struggled with how to mitigate, perhaps even on a deeper level. My husband and I were both born Catholics and once baptized Catholics, you never become uncatholic. You struggle all your life with the debilitating effects of what the Church’s TEACHINGS do to you on a personal intimate level. However, what helps, as we see here (and what also happened in my life), are the sanctums where clerics who ‘know’ the struggles of the sufferings of their individual parishioners. They can look upon those individuals (mainly because of some personal connection or family ties, or intense open-mindedness) and ‘see’ what exists is love and that love is not evil or wrong and is an extension of God’s love. As Father Arnon aptly put it, you must learn to forgive yourself and stop carrying the burden of sin with you. If you carry God with you, you will be forgiven. Now Father Kongdeck also accepts the new reality of Tan and Barth. Both have found individuals within the Church who see the humanity and the love of their relationship and know that it is good in God’s eyes and they are in no position to pass judgment. It is not theirs to determine. That is this series second central message. No one, no institution can pass judgement on the sanctity of a union between two people who profess to be in love with one another. What they have done is elevated one of the major precepts of the Catholic Church that the Church does not teach to its own worshipers, but ALL priests know it. And that is that only the individual himself/herself can determine the degree to which his/her behavior is a sin. In other words, it is up to the individual to make up his/her own mind that something is a sin. The Church merely provides guidance; not dogma. Therefore, both my husband and I have unshackled the yoke of guilt about our relationship and proudly declare, like Aunt Lek, we love ourselves and each other, despite the dichotomous teachings from the Church.
This series was for me, as an individual who was born and raised Catholic very difficult to watch. It was honestly painful to watch as I personally relived all the emotions Tan and Barth felt. I have no idea if Fourth Nattawatt and Gemini Norawit are Catholic but unconsciously I look for subtleties to give away their acting flaws to see if they are being honest. I found authenticity. While it might not mean much to many, especially non-Catholics, but the way the sign of the cross is made is paramount to Catholics. How you kneel, fold your hands to pray, and even how you raise your eyes to crosses/statues – all scream nuances. And all did exceptionally well. I was impressed with the depth and intensity of all the performers. That is hard to do without looking like caricatures. A special shout-out to Fourth Nattawat for some exceptionally fine acting, especially in the last scenes. His transition from questioning to knowing is some of the finest I have seen – all without words. The fumbling with the rosary beads (especially with the crucifix reversed) superimposed with the flickering on the lighter is so powerful for its symbolism. Again, made more meaningful for those of us who are Catholic and even more potent for those who have fallen from the Church. We understood. When he sat there with his knapsack smiling, at peace, ready to go, we understood. I wept, uncontrollable, as I understood the decision he had made and the difficulty in making that decision and at the same time the exhilaration of its outcome.
This series is a ‘not in your face’ kind of a series. It is a soft, gentle, human story told slowly in relatable everyday lifestyles. While there are beautiful individuals in the Church, only a few of them make it to become priests. This series showed that they are there and hopefully become harbingers of change. Sometimes we can rationalize our realities with those of the Church, as this story so beautifully shows us. I want to believe more than anything that the Church is more like this story than unlike this story; but it is not.
This is a beautifully idealized story of a unique Catholic couple and people around them. We can only pray that this series will someday be the norm or the pretense of better things to come. As long as Tan and Barth remain with the people in the Church who love them, they will be accepted. Otherwise, they will not be. That is the moral of this story.
I loved this series. It is exceptional as it presents what the Church could be but is not. It is also a near flawless story of love between two men that feels and looks gently real.
This is not a perfect series by any means. It is a reflection of the dysfunction of a religious institution. Yet, does it not, in essence, reflect life?
Simply, this series has to be considered one of the top contenders for Best series for 2026.
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