Theory of Love (2019)

OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT!!!!

The angst and pain is so fucking real that i never encounter with one-sided love, i could feel the pain. Off's acting is 10/10 and Gun! Hats off to him! He is like the perfect bottom in this bl series that portrays the perfect closet guy who love his own best friend. The part where Gun was heartbroken and always cry in the shower hits me so hard that i don't know if i ever miss one episode without crying. This is like 10/10 (as you can see in my review gurl ) .

But i kinda have love-hate relationship with Third. Because it seems like he is so stubborn. Like gurl if Khai have show his true interest to me ( the part where he waits for the Gangsta group for road trip ), i already on my knees for him. I swear, if you are going to watch this episode, you need to prepare a lot of tissue because- oh god! WHYYYY!! but i am glad that the ending ends well and im so happy to see Third's smile when he is with Khai because all this time, it's hard for me to see his smile.

What i suggest for you if you are new to BL, you have to watch these; Love By Chance, Sotus, Theory Of Love & 2 Moons

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For my Drama Kings and Queens

I have never related more on a spiritual level.

I have never downloaded a soundtrack so fast (Getsunova really said "I'm going to hurt you in Thai AND English, so buckle up buttercup).

I have never cried and laughed so much in an individual episode.

I have never rooted so hard for the shitty MLI to get their sh!t together and dive head first into their redemption arc so he can be worthy of the soft, pjnkng, deserved-better-from-the-start MC.

I have never had so many relatable moments of Dramatic B!tch™ to feel called out over.

I have never made up so many memes and in-jokes with my bestie over ONE show and friend group of characters.

I have never had an instant favourite show 2 episodes in like this.

I will never recommend anything this strongly.
Besties that want to gush or do a rewatch together, please, reach out. I still have so feelings so many years later.

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A cliché friends to lovers trope (thus the 7.5 rating), but definitely worth watching for the angst. I couldn't even count how many times I cried, be it for Third, or even for Khai, At the start, we can agree that Khai is a toxic friend, as we can see from his traits, a playboy, self-centered narcissist. I mean, we can see how much Third cried because of him, right? But his character development is something very worth watching. We can see how he tried to make up with Third (although I think that his feelings for the other guy might be rushed, but anyways) and how repentant he was, which was then evident in Episode 11. Other than that, I loved how the plot and the characters are realistic. Of course, some of us can relate to the characters, especially Third. The point here is, I love how they incorporated GREAT angst in this drama. Kudos to the team, especially the author. Definitely one of my favorite BLs and 10/10 would recommend.

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I was really looking forward to this! I love this mainly because of the acting especialy Gun blew me away and made me cry and feel for him multiple times! But I kinda think that the plot was a little bit overdone with the tsundere shit at first from Kai and later on from Third, but I´m glad they keep putting Off and Gun together, they have a really good chemistry and I´m glad for the more mature kisses though there could´ve been more of them and also a kiss from Two and Un would be good. But overall I really enjoyed this drama and every week I was exited to watch the next episode.

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AMAZING CAST could be better story

Story
This is the main problem for this show for me. I really HATE the way Khai was acting and I hate that Third wasn't like throwing his love in the "no" bucket. I think it would have been better if he treated him more human and friendly but just didn't do anything extra. Also low key wanted a different love story for Bone.

Acting/Cast
My gosh I do love OffGun and I really wanted to see more especially after Puppy Honey however the whole story just doesn't do it for me. However the cast is fine wine. The acting great!!! I loved Gun's crying scenes. He is really good at crying on demand (flashback to The Gifted).

Music
Honestly not really feeling their OST. I don't feel the emotion of the show from the OST. However the song itself is good. I just don't picture the show when I hear it.

Overall
I think it is a great show but my dear Third is driving me crazy!!!!!!!!!! Please watch to support another OffGun drama lol.

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After 2gether and tharntype this is my 3rd most favorite BL drama without any doubt. My expectation was not much after watching so overrated bl dramas but "Theory of Love" is worth watching. The character development of Khai is amazing and I am really impressed. Not only Khai but Third had great character development. From a sad secret lover to a strong lover who knows how to protect his heart and self-respect. Totally liked it.
Bone is great. I think he showed the most maturity in his part of love. I really cried for him in the end. But he deserved a better and got better.
Two is such a good friend. I think his character was perfectly portrayed as a friend, and a lover.
Overall, I liked 4 of them and their friendship. Truly worth it.

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Unrequited? More like Unrealistic.

Story
Unrequited love is nothing new in the BL genre. In point of fact, it shouldn’t even be called unrequited, as at some point it always ends up requited. Theory of Love falls into that exact category—unrealistically so. In any world adjacent to the real one, Third and Khai wouldn’t have ended up together. But since this a BL, of course they do, because the plot said they had to. If there were ever a series where we needed to use the word “gay” this would have been it. Why is it never brought up as a possibility that Khai wouldn’t be interested in Third because he’s not gay? That would have been the most obvious reason. “Not wanting to ruin their friendship” would have only worked as the main reason if Khai were a gay man, dating multiple guys at once. In fact, that would have made the entire story work a lot better. But no, we barely touch upon the idea of sexual preference here. As in most BLs, there was some desperate need to make it look like two straight boys fell in love, and it came at the expense of the story.

Another failing of the story: Why on earth was Third in love with Khai to begin with? Khai was not a good friend, or even a good person. Sure, he’s good looking, and sometimes they had a laugh, but that was it. The show leaned way to hard into the whole “the heart wants what it wants,” aspect. I was told that Third was in love with Khai, but never shown why throughout their relationship or interactions. Without really understanding why Third was so head over heels, it made it very hard to get invested in his plight.

On the plus side, tone-wise, I thought the show often balanced drama and light-hearted well. Not all the time, mind you. Third’s habit of crying in the shower while fully clothed and pouring water bottles on himself was silly. It could have worked, had he cried during a regular shower once or twice. Not everything needs a comedic undertone—these moments certainly didn’t.
I actually liked the voiceovers, from both Third and Khai’s perspectives. I thought the perspective shift (from Third to Khai) about half-way through would weaken the show, but it actually held up fairly well. There were a few really cringe-worthy scenes, Khai’s first and final confession being good examples. Just way too many people present and involved in those scenes. Some scenes were cut/edited weird, like the bedroom scene, where Khai said sleeping over was different now, then the opening credits played, and then after that suddenly they were on the train. Where was the rest of the scene?

As stated in the opening paragraph, I think the biggest strike against the story is Khai falling in love with Third. He was never presented as gay, or even bisexual, so the only reason I can think of for his sudden love is “the script said so.” That isn’t good story writing. The story would have been better served by either Khai not being presented as straight to begin with, or the two of them not getting together in the end. But then I guess we’d stray into realism and away from BL.

*Side note: The product placements were egregious.

Acting/Characterization
Acting was probably the strongest aspect Theory of Love. I thought the group of four male friends felt very real, and the cast in general was well-rounded. But this, again, is brought down by the characterization of the characters.

Third: No question about it, Gun killed this role. I didn’t particularly like Third, but I found him to be a real character, and that’s more important to me. A lot of BL actors come across extremely awkward or even laughable when attempting to cry and do sad scenes—Gun is the king of crying. Nothing seemed staged in those scenes, though there might have been one too many of them. Though he’s a really small guy, his size never affected his character. He wasn’t weak or wimpy, or cute. He went from angsty and depressed to super jaded. I liked his introspective side. That’s different for a BL character. Again, I did not understand why he was in love with someone who treated him so poorly, but since he was so obsessed in the beginning, it made it hard to believe he’d make Khai jump through so many hoops at the end. Some, sure, but Khai having to prove his love really dragged on.

Khai: Off held his own here. Prior, I’d only seen him in comedic roles, but when it was Khai’s turn to be sad and pine, he pulled it off. Again, I didn’t like Khai as a character—he was a thoughtless friend and a womanizer—but for the most part, I believed him. He was a real character. A lot of people probably know or have encountered a Khai. And I did like when he made an effort to be a better friend, but the biggest problem is that I don’t buy, for one second, that Khai would fall in love with Third. It happened for no reason. He went from only being into girls (very into girls) to suddenly being madly in love with Third for no reason other than he found out about Third’s feeling. That doesn’t happen, and I don’t understand why they didn’t just make Khai gay or bi to being with. The story would have been better for it.

Two: I’ve liked White since I saw him in Love Sick, and it was nice to see him in a more mature role. While I liked his relationship with Un, it wasn’t explored enough to be really satisfying. It was so brief that some parts had me scratching my head. I couldn’t figure out how Un had known to go to the beach that one night, or why he’d decided to stay without actually knowing if Two was into him or not. They just didn’t cover any of that. Two being torn between a girl and a boy would have worked better had they actually shown us some sort of struggle with his sexuality, but sexuality is again a non-existent non-issue. The twist of Un having actually been into Two the whole time and not Third was neat, though I didn’t think it needed to be back-dated to freshman orientation. Unfortunately, White got stuck with that horrible, horrible colorism line, directed at Un, who is beautiful. That line was so bad and so uncalled for, I had to pause and seriously consider whether I wanted to keep watching or not. Clearly, this demonstrates a much deeper industry problem, where fair=attractive and desired, and anything else is ridiculed. I can't imagine anyone thinking that it's okay to include a line like that without calling out the character who said it as awful.

Bone: Sorry to say, but I didn’t watch the hetero storyline. That’s not what I watch BLs for. In what I did watch of Bone, I liked him. I’ve seen Mike in other series, and he always seems to play the same buddy character. Not much innovation here, but he was fine.

Female Characters: Oh dear. From crazy women to women as two-dimensional plot devices meant to bring male couples together, Theory of Love is not good at female representation. The worst I’ve seen, I’d say.

Intimacy/Heat Level
Quite low. Not all series need to be risqué, but after all the angst and pining, Theory of Love would have benefited greatly from some heat and passion at the end, or at least a bit of intimacy or romance. Off & Gun complement one another pretty well, in a physical sense. What kisses were shown were really good—they clearly had no qualms about this, so it was a shame they didn’t have more couple scenes. The most passionate kiss ended up being the one in the bathroom, in which Third didn’t participate, so that was weird.

The dock scene between Un and Two sorely needed a kiss—impossible to think they wouldn’t have kissed there, but just hugged awkwardly. There was a later scene where Two is dodging Un’s attempt to kiss him, after they are a couple. Why? At least it came across more as playful then as gay panic—something BLs really like, though I can’t imagine why.

All in all, too tame in this department for such a heavy-handed drama.

Music
I don’t care about this music. As long as it’s not disruptive, I don't even notice it. No affect on overall score for me.

Re-watch Value
I don’t understand why this is one of the criteria. Some people don’t re-watch series even if they liked them, so I don’t like rating anything based on this. No affect on overall score for me.

Summary
In summation, the need to have the majority of BLs show two “straight” boys falling in love really brought this series down. While the show runners could have made a statement about unrequited love for a straight guy, and learning to move on and stand up for yourself, they instead strayed into the realm of unrealistic fangirl fantasy. It’s too bad, because some excellent acting talents were wasted here.

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It’s complicated...

First of all, my review refers only to the main story of Third and Khai, cause i skipped the rest.

For me this is not the typicall BLstory, especially in the beginning when you see that Third falls in love for his toxic friend feels so real that it hurts.

But when the Perspective turns to Khai reminds me of my experiences when a close Person has feelings for you and you have to decide to give him that love the he deserves or let him go, that he get over you and his heart will not broken.
But whatever you decide, the friendship will never be as before.

When it comes to the middle Part (i think it’s episode 7) it loses his realistic way and goes more the way of a typicall BL-Story but still in a cute, lightweighted way which is actually not too bad.
But the series gives the chance away to be an outstandig drama about a toxic friend/relationship and how to overcome it.

The Finale is the typicall BL-Happy end and even, when there are more serious subjects, like trust and communication it’s far away from the intensity in the beginning.

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First of all, one of my favorite BL couple is OFFGUN. I was very happy to see them with their own series.
STORY: The story line was okay, but just annoying how the whole time, I feel like they were just going on circles between their love story with each other. One thing, I can is though, I like how they made it realistic. I appreciate that. Even though off and guns relationship here i find toxic, it is still realistic because people really do go through hell when they have feelings for their best friend but have to hide it. Story line was okay.
CHARACTERS: I love everyone here, I enjoyed how everyone is on this drama. I do have to really give it to GUN his acting skills here did MADE ME CRY COUPLE TIMES! cos when he is crying because he’s heartbroken, made me feel like I was going through heart break with him! He really was amazing here.

Overall: go watch the drama because it’s good and OFFGUN is one of the best THAI BL ACTORS ?

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My favourite.

This is hands down my favourite Thai BL. I've rewatched it multiple times and I never grow tired of it.

Plot line is well constructed and believable, acting is on point, not too many cringey scenes, nice side characters, great chemistry between OffGun and the rest of the cast, etc.

Khai and Third are characters you can see yourself in, specially Third. Someone who has fallen in love with his best friend and just tries to keep it cool before him, but breaks down when he's alone.

I just really enjoy all the characters developements, not only on the main cast, but also on the supporting roles, such as Bone and Two.

Also the production and the image of the drama is really good. All the sceneries are really pretty.

It's just the perfect slice of life, and the movie they released later was the cherry on top.

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