Nitiman (2021)

With friends like these, I'd rather stay single....

I've got a serious bone to pick with this show! (I'm going full rage mode, so enjoy:$ )
Don't get me wrong, I did kinda enjoy the show enough to binge it but then again I am used to way worse.
First off, I feel like all the characters were trying to gaslight me into thinking that Jin was crappy, not to be trusted, bomb deserved someone who readily could be accepting of him and obviously Jin is a player...
Did we get to know the same Jin as you??
I swear the show starts with Jin breaking up with Aim because he thinks she cheated on him (which btw never gets cleared up or clarified??) not because he is nilly willy breaking girls hearts left and right as some characters make it seem out to be. Then we find out later that Aim presumably never really cared to be with Jin in the first place and just went along with it even though her cousin Bomb was into him. Bomb also presumably is the first guy Jin ever fell for so this boy just kinda needs his time to figure out what that means to him and how he feels about the whole thing, which is understandable for everyone but all the other characters in this show. Bomb literally tells Jin he can take his time to figure out his feelings (since he just got out of a break up don't forget and now is falling for her freaking cousin who happens to be a guy.) But within what couldn't have been more than a few days he does a 180 and decides to completely avoid Jin? Per advice from Jack... (and this will apparently become the first clue to the endless saga of unfortunate events planned by the worst cupids I've ever seen)
Yes Jin is talking to Som at the same time as he is getting closer to Bomb, but they aren't dating and it's not even that strange for people around his age to talk to multiple people in order to figure out what you even like. Rather that than just jumping into one thing and continuing with another because you hadn't taken the time to make up your mind.
But when Jin on his own finally decides he chooses bomb and reject Som, bomb ofcourse chooses to officially avoid Jin, for absolutely no good reason other than insecurity. Causing Jin to now also feel insecure about Bomb and understandably feeling ignored by him. When they do eventually see each other by chance, Bomb even acts relatively hostile as though he already gave up on the whole thing with Jin. But then continues a few days later to sing a song at the bar about always being there???? Jin calls bomb later that night and the two meet up, but Bomb still acts super annoyed and impatient with Jin. Somehow after all of that behavior Jin still ends up finding the courage to be honest about how hurt he was and how he feels as he is crying in front of this whole ass undeserving ass man. Something Bomb literally never continues to do no matter what misunderstanding he entraps himself in. The two of them get together and you think 'awesome... but there are still too many episodes left so what could possibly go wrong?' Well I'd say Bomb's friends and cousin drugging him so he might take advantage of a drunk Jin who had to tell Bomb not just once no, but TRICE, is a fair guess. Sweety that is 2 no's too many times. 1 no should always be enough. But ofcourse they slipped a condom in Bomb's back pocket because you know you got to at least stay safe... Yet since they never ended up doing anything the freaking condom just ends up in a big misunderstand between Bomb and Jin later on when it falls out of his pocket. This is chaotic mess number 2 caused by the friend group. Luckily Jin is mature enough to yet again voice his insecurities and they clear the air right away. This is also when Bomb tells Jin that he has been in communication with a girl that tried to court him before, but hey it's only business? (still don't know what that means, since she never appears nor do we know what kind of business they have with each other.) and has the AUDACITY to mention either in this scene or a scene later on, i don't remember, that he didn't make a big deal out of Jin talking to Som. Sir... you ignored him for a WEEK because she helped him to the hospital when he injured his leg. And you weren't even dating, the f' you mean?? Jin also completely stopped talking to Som after he rejected her that same night after the hospital. Anyway moving on to Jack telling Bomb he shouldn't always trust Jin. Yeah you know Jack... one of Jin's best friends? Apparently telling someone they can't trust their significant other is a way of matchmaking now. I know it's new me too, but it seems all the rage in this show! Bomb ends up seeing Mark, a senior of Jin who he has been wary of, bring Jin home as part of the friend group scheme and of course gets SUPER UPSET. To the point where he accuses Jin and makes Jin cry. This is literally the THIRD time he made Jin cry when Jin did absolutely nothing wrong at all. But Jin crying results into them somewhat making up again. But we still have 1 problem, Jin isn't ready to make his relationship public because the attention they have been getting makes him uncomfortable. Honestly, with all that has happened, I would feel the same F'ing way...
So as if they haven't done enough, this group of friends think that these 2 coming together has been all their hard work and they want to do one final thing. Convince Jin to make things public, because manipulating someone into essentially coming out is fine now too. Also NO ONE GIVES JIN ENOUGH CREDIT. The only reason Jin and Bomb are together is because Jin never gave up on Bomb and keeps trying to open up, being vulnerable and actively try to communicate with Bomb when all he does is shut down, close off, run away and accuse Jin of not giving him what he wants. There is nothing wrong with wanting a relationship that isn't hidden, but my man, you are the one who said you were okay with waiting. If you aren't than just say so, that is literally all you had to do to avoid this whole drama anyway. Jin seems mature enough to figure it out with you.
So for their final act the group for some reason decides to make Bomb jealous enough so he will run away, have Jin go after him and make things official official? I'm honestly not exactly sure what the plan was. But that's what I could make out of the odd sequence of events. So as you can imagine with Bomb's track record, he gets completely destroyed with jealousy and runs home for the holidays. But not before we get the final icing on the cake, the cherry on top, the creme de la creme if you will. We get him spotting Aim (his cousin and Jin's ex if you remember) hugging Jin. Somehow that was not part of the plan? But also definitely worth mentioning since this is the moment Aim confesses that she knew of Bomb's feelings from the get go and how she feels like she manipulated both of their feelings and their relationship. Aim is weeping at this point, riddled with guilt and shame and hugs Jin as he tells her that they are now even. WHAT THE FUCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKK Jin babes? when did you ever do anything to deserve any of this? He said he wasn't a good boyfriend, but we never saw him be a bad one, the boy didn't even move on for the longest time as he still was head over heels with Aim post break up. She moved on way before him. And a scene later she is gloating again on how her plan is working.. crocodile tears? New achievement unlocked: Gaslighting Jin. Oh yeah, so Bomb sees this and the first thing he thinks is that his cousin who is now in a new relationship and his boyfriend who keeps crying because Bomb keeps distrusting him for no reason, are absolutely without a shadow of a doubt obviously getting back together. I mean yes, that is the only logical conclusion, so there is no need for any conversation to be had and we can now just go and fuck ourselves off to the nearest airport so we can run back home to mommy and sulk in GIGANTIC MANSION OF A HOUSE. Dude I'm low key jealous and I may want to stay single for the rest of my life if I get to retire in that house... Uhm but yeah, come to find out that Aim and friends did want Bomb jealous and running home to mommy, so plan is still in tact and Jin being an absolute babe of a man is willing to fly over and visit his doofus of a boyfriend at his house. For some unrelated and unexplained reason even the mom likes to f' around and pretends she doesn't know who Jin is, so Jin comes out to her as he can't afford to lose Bomb again after another hissy fit and they all just kinda laugh it off. Aim and friends are finally satisfied and pat themselves on the back as Jin now suprises Bomb hitting him with the '' Facebook official ''. And we all live happily ever after. Well that is ofcourse, besides all the hinted at side couples that never get their resolution. The End.

It is what it is. I like Jin. I need therapy for all the gaslighting and probably a sequel because I've got Stockholm syndrome and daddy Keam needs himself a man.

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Great story, hampered by many side characters with weak plot and mediocre acting skill

Great story, hampered by many side characters with weak plot and mediocre acting skill...

Went into watching this one thinking just to past time as at that time, the choices of currently airing Thai BL was very bland ( FUTS and some other shorts), but the storyline of the main leads immediately became a breather from the suffocating comedic satire that was FUTS.

Visually, the cinematography is not that great and too many side characters had made it drag a little but ultimately, the love story of the two character carry the weight until the ending.

The ending, though, will probably annoy other viewers, specially if they are rooting for the storyline of other side characters. This series only gave a proper (black and white) ending to the main leads. The sides were kind of just of an after thought.

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TOP TIER BUT UNDERRATED

First of all: don't expect anything extraordinary from this series. No landmark event or plot twists. Nothing special happens.

It's a series where the protagonists fall in love, feel the pressure to like someone, give into the feeling and then try to fit that relationship into their lives.

Despite being a very cliché plot, the production and script (and at times, the acting) lacked quality, NITIMAN was charming, which held me since the first episode.

PLOT 7/10: In the familiar environment of an engineering college, we met Jin. Beautiful, popular, passionate. A character read like a playboy and cheater (but this personality was actually never shown in the serie), has just broke up with Aim, a law student. Sad and unhappy about that, he believes that one of his ex's friends was responsible for their break up and resolves to face him.
Bbomb, on the other hand, not only has no interest in Aim, but he's actually in love with Jin.
In a mess of jealousy, bar bathroom encounters and many fractures at football games, Bbomb tries to show Jin that his feelings are real and make Jin arouse those feelings too.

The plot is simple, as we've seen in many other BLs out there, but anyone who thinks the story falls into sameness and that it's not worth the time, is wrong.
NITIMAN showed us real and extremely human relationships: Jin and Bbomb are sincere characters, who despite everything respect each other and know how to communicate.
Jin who despite letting Bbomb get closer, always warns him that maybe he couldn't live up to his expectations and develop feelings as he wanted.
Bbomb who asks Jin how he feels, who listens to him and despite wanting so much being his boyfriend, he doesn't go beyond the limit the two set to not get hurt.
Communication is the high point of their relationship. The space they give each other, how they express their insecurities, how they like each other's presence and miss each other when they're not together.  The couple who are dating not just because they live together, but because they think about each other all the time and want to be with each other all the time. Domestic, communication and partnership describe well Jin and Bbomb's relationship.

On the other hand, we have Jin and Bbomb's two groups of friends.  Characters that were unknown for much of the series (mainly Keam, our biggest enigma), were largely to blame for some mistakes in NITIMAN, but were also very important in the development of the protagonists. Despite this, there was no lack of stories to tell about them. They survive beyond Jin and Bbomb's storyline. Everyone showed different nuances during the episodes and it was easy to captivate the audience.

After all, NITIMAN is a great show if you don't want to stress out about unnecessary dramas. All conflicts were clearly justifiable and rationally resolved, something that is unfortunately difficult to find in most BLs.
NITIMAN was an innocent and raw story, with young men facing their insecurities in their own way in their pace, learning from each other how to have a relationship where they can both feel comfortable and happy.

also, I NEED A SEASON 2 OR AT LEAST AN EPISODE SPECIAL

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Stupid af

Honestly I was so hyped for this one after seeing all the good reviews and everything but literally just wasted my time watching this piece of crap. And I don't understand why a stupid story like this would get so much ratings and good comments.
Lets talk about the story first.. Was it something different? -No. Did it have some twist? -No. Was it based on the same engineering students bs? -fuck yes. But was the acting good enough to coverup for the basic plot? -Nope.
Honestly I don’t care if the story is about students and immature relationships. It's fun to watch if the acting is nice and if the actors have chemistry but in this case they had none.
Bbomb literally walked around like a zombie with straight face and no expressions. He kept on being over protective towards Jin which was really frustrating cause he Didn't even let Jin figure out his feelings. Every time he'd try to take advantage of Jin when he's drunk. Like haven’t we passed that stage after tharn type and Why R U? And isn't it rape of some sort? He was not even a good friend to his circle. All in all I didn’t like Bbomb at all.

Jin was nice. His smile.. So precious. He did his part nicely.
But no chemistry whatsoever.. I felt weird and forced to watch them together.

Another eye candy KEAM. We all know Keam stole the show with his looks and motherly attitude. But the amount of confusion he gave me. Like my guy please decide who you actually like at first lol. Also the way he would act broken for that somewhat creepy smile of Ball made my day lol.
Yeah that's it. The side characters were nice imo. They did Justice to their characters. JAY was such a cuty, also Ultra. I was hoping for more ships but they barely made one lol.
I don’t want a season 2 please. But give my boy Keam his own show. Maybe with Jin as his partner. That would be cute right?

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What..

In the end the only ones that end up likeable to me are Jin, BBomb, Bbomb's mom and Ball. I can't decide if i like Jin and Bbomb together tho considering everything (being vague on purpose.) The acting was good, love the ost and the songs within the series.
The story overall was just terrible what the source material is, not too surprising that it's a mess, it can be hit or miss and it was miss for me. The way many characters didnt get closure and the suposed 12 turn to 10 eps has me confused. Wouldn't really rewatch it unless I have nothing else to watch really. Give it a watch if you miss Kaownah and Turbo, Bhudis also Boss. Would love to see Jom and Noh in something else tho.

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Meh

Pretty underwhelming for something that seemed to have quite a decent budget.

~Story:
Mama, let me tell you something: I don't know what the hell is happening inside the heads of this people to think such a dull story deserves a whole drama. It is well written and coherent (for the most part), but there's literally NOTHING here that someone could find appealing for a drama unless the drama is about the dull life of dull college students. Then this is perfect.
Usually, a drama is a straight line that raises up when there are important events happening and that goes down to its original straightness when said events are resolved -- kind of like a roller coaster; well, regardless of what event is unfolding here, that line never goes up or down. It always remains straight. There's genuinely nothing. It's like looking at a wall for fifty minutes non-stop.

~A couple of things I want to point out:
As a gay man, I found so aggravating that everyone was pretty much forcing the poor guy, Jin, to fall in love with Bbomb. Red flags coming up! You DO NOT force allegedly heterosexual men into a homosexual relationship. That's how they start hating on us. It was such an irresponsible thing to romanticize that I was automatically against this pairing. No matter what the outcome was at the end, such thing is WRONG to partake in.

Also, Bbomb's manipulation. More red flags! I said it in my Tossara review and I'll repeat it once again: "if you have to manipulate someone to fall in love with you, then that's NOT real love." And the worst part is that Bbomb had the damn audacity to get mad at Jin for giving him fake "illusions" when it was his (Bbomb) own fault in the first place for manipulating Jin into giving those illusions. Really, manipulators are some of the worst kind of people I know. Get. That. Man. Out. Of. Your. Life. Sis!

~Cast:
This drama got some great talent but, unfortunately, all of them were undermined due to the dull plot.

~Jin/Bbomb: These two reminded me so much of the "Until We Meet Again" main couple, Pharm and Dean. One is cute and smiley and the other one dead inside. However, unlike Pharm and Dean, these other two were the complete opposite in terms of chemistry. Not even once I felt love coming out of them but, instead, it was very socially awkward. It looked quite forced, which makes sense since that's pretty much how this relationship started.

~Song: This actor, Kao, is to me one of the current BEST actors in Thai BL. He's such a natural that his roles are something to look forward to every time. I mean, look at him and then look at the mains and you'll see the difference in acting skills. Genius, can't wait to see him leading a drama.

~Ball/Keam: ????????? I mean, ?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! All this building up for nothing. These two had better chemistry than the mains, yet it was completely wasted.

~Aim: Honorable mention because she is SO beautiful. I couldn't stop looking at her. I do admit that her acting here was more successful than in "Oxygen." Good to see she's improved.

~Editing and pacing:
Like I said before, this drama looks like it has a decent amount of budget to the point that the camerawork, sound and editing were really good. Unfortunately that doesn't make up the fact of how boring it is. This is quite a slow drama due to events getting dragged for too long with little to no outcome so, even though the pacing is good, it is still tedious to follow.

Sis, this show has everything: Chaotic relationships, forced relationships, manipulative relationships, dull relationships, rumors, friends you can't even trust and, what is sexual orientation any longer? I don't really recommend this, but I don't hate it either. You do what you want with this info, jush.

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Why have I rated this drama higher than I should have?

Idk.
For one, it's got a bizarre mix of awkward stiff acting and natural chemistry. I don't know how to explain it so I won't, it's just strange.
The characters are at all times either eating, talking about eating or on their way to eat. I found that kind of funny and entertaining but don't watch the drama hungry!
It's not very problematic, which is always a plus.
No actual side couples but a lot of potential ones. I guess they were throwing bait for a second season?
Keam is an enigma and I love it. I've never seen a character that confusing before. You honestly cannot tell what's on his mind for 90% of the show, it's great. He's the perfect target for the "do you ever look at someone and wonder what is going on inside their head?" meme istg. I wish we got more of him and Ball ngl. Ball is ADORABLE!

Yes, it's filled with clichés BUT unlike most of these shows, the clichéd arguments don't get dragged on forever and just get resolved almost immediately, which I'm a fan of.
The stares tho... Now, there's Kdrama stares and then there's this show. Half the time I was wondering if the actors just forgot their lines. We could have had a solid canon second couple if they just cut the empty time wasted in silence and useless staring and used it for gay instead.

Also, bonus points for being based off a GOT7 fic. I mean I'm not a fan of real people ships/fanfiction but idk why, that fact cracks me up.

In conclusion, I just liked that it was an easy and smooth watch, without long and loud but ultimately dumb and unnecessary drama, and that the couple actually treated each other well, which you'd think would be normal but not in drama world. It didn't attempt to assassinate me with cringe either, which I appreciate.
It seems very self aware I guess; it knows it's nothing spectacular and it keeps to its level without trying to be more, and I can respect that.

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Started out good, but was so poorly written

Like the characters were so bland even for a cliche, its like they didn't put any effort into it. So many confusing side characters I kept waiting for their purpose/storyline, but it never came. The main couple had potential but legit it was so bad and hard to get through. would never rewatch, but probs will forget the show and disappointment and then accidently rewatch it and first 10 minutes recover the disappointment.

Normally don't write reviews but was so disappointed, good plot premise but confusingly done and script was so bad and bland, even good actors couldn't save this

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I Loved This Quiet Series

What I loved most about Nitiman was how gently and quietly it progressed.
After watching the whole series I started rewatching my favorite episodes again… several times.

I simply loved how determined and persistent Be Bomb was in his pursuit of Jin's affections although, many times during the series Jin really annoyed me with his seeming lack of interest. What I loved most, were the scenes where Jin would wake up hugging Be Bomb.

My favorite scenes were:
-Jin getting drunk
-Be Bomb getting drunk
- Be Bomb getting assistance in the "affection department" from his friends
- Jin's sisters paying him a surprise visit
- Jin sleeping with his head in Be Bomb's lap
- Be Bombs song to Jin in episode 6
- Be Bombs mother and her treatment of Jin

I also loved the side romance that started developing between Keam and Ball. I truly hope that the producers will turn their romance into a full series. It was adorable to watch.

Overall this is a wonderful watch. I love it.

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I wanted to like this, but morals tell me otherwise

On one hand, there were definitely some positives. The main leads had good chemistry, and the usual tropes everyone has problems with are not present (SA, female “villains”, toxic shippers, homophobia). And there were definitely fantastic scenes that made me laugh and gush. In theory, it would be great for fans of 2gether and My Engineer.

However, the underlying plot propelling the relationship forward was super toxic. I think they were trying to pull a Together With Me grand scheme moment, but they went too far. The friends could not trust that the mains will figure their relationship out on their own terms at their own pace. And so they invented and played on insecurities - ones that in real life will last throughout the relationship. There’s even a roofie incident that was thankfully saved by the mains having a good sense of boundary setting.

Beyond this very major problem (which i suppose some people may and have looked past), the side couples were all pretty weakly established. Their relationships were barely shown, muddled, or even misleading.

I do hope to see more of these actors, in another series or a better-written sequel, but this is definitely not a model series and feels like its lagging behind all the positive changes that have been made by the industry recently.

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It's good please watch this one but...

It's certainly worth the watch and I did get a lot of entertainment value for this series. As with so many BL's, my biggest concern is with the main characters. Not sure if it was the actor or the script but I felt the character Jin was weak in a lot of areas. I really did like Bomb but thought his script could have been better sometimes too. I was always yearning for more of the secondary characters. Keam for sure was very strong and under utilized. He could use his own series or can have a main part in season 2 (hint-hint) Song, Ball, Singh are again, came across on my screen as more interesting that the main characters at times. I actually felt that way about all of the secondary guys at some part, even the str8 characters which was a plus for sure. I did give the series an 8.5 and I don't think that's high. 7.3 is too low for sure. Director Jane please do some more BL's. You are on the right track. The big picture here for me was very good. I did enjoy the series and wanted more episodes.

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