Call It What You Want 2 (2021)

Together, Seasons 1 & 2 Are Successful

So..I liked this better than the first season. Even if there was technically less going on, and let me tell you why. First off. This seems like it might have had more budget than the first season. Which would be nice, but we still had green screen car driving. Whyyyyyy!? My points still stand of needing more stories like this based on true events around BL. This series and "Lovely Writer" kinda broke the barrier and I'm stoked about that. I go more into detail about that in my first season review.

I'm still not into James and Ait's relationship because of the power dynamic. However, in this there was a lot less of them and what there was kinda made it better. Since they aren't sneaking around about the relationship by the end. Tee didn't get what he deserved, which again is JAIL. However, he did get pushed out of the production it seems which is great. Also there's evidence against him implicated so I'm hoping that means he's in trouble.

Now, onto the juicy stuff that I loved about this season. Marco and Bas's relationship in this is amazing. At first I worried about Bas's past trauma getting in the way of it. Which is totally understandable. But that worry went out the door when Marco for one saved Bas from suicide, thank god. That was heartbreaking. He also stayed with him, knowing not to leave. It was also shown that Bas liked Marco before any of this went down. Which is so important! Marco brings this up and BAM! They are gettin down. It was lovely and I got butterflies. Marco is so fine and I loved the two together.

OMG btw I screamed when Marco stood up in the press conference. As well as when he gave his important necklace to Bas. We love to see it and I'll miss seeing them! I can hope for a side series just surrounding Marco and Bas but alas, I doubt that'll happen. Watch these 2 seasons though back-to-back, it makes for a better experience!

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This series really feels like the director didn't know what he wanted to do.

On one hand, there was a sappy love story, on the other the exposing of dark secrets of BL industry... But then the second part fell apart and it ended up more of a sappy love story with not-so-subtle jabs at the director's previous company. Still, the tonal shift between the two was just ridiculous. In one scene we have Bas being molested by Tee, in the next James and Ait enter James' apartment all happy and in love, and when they see Marco their only question is whether he's in love with James. It's not like they don't know that Marco just drove Bas to meet his abuser. They just... don't give a damn, I guess?
Although that may be because James is a certified moron. When tasked with delaying Tee, he asks him to meet, but can't come up with anything to talk about. The series they work on? The press conference? No, let's just randomly order six bread rolls, that should work. Kinda reminded me of that scene in ep 1 when he sat in a cafe for two hours waiting for Ait and was speechless when asked why did he need a ride. Like... In two hours he could have come up with some crazy story about how a parrot flew into his car window. Or just walk to the studio, I guess.
Ait also annoyed me by being constantly angry at everyone. But I understood why he kept walking out on people when they kept whining "let me explain" and didn't explain anything.
Marco... I don't even know what his deal was. His actions didn't make any sense.
Honestly, I kept watching it for Bas, because he was precious and needed a happy ending, but in the end, all of his problems magically disappeared. The thing with food he struggled with throughout the entire season 1 was forgotten. Family issues were thrown in in a most unrealistic way and didn't lead to anything. Tee's abuse got exposed to the public, because taking it to the police would be too mainstream, I guess? I'm just not sure why doing it made him so happy. And all of his depression vanished in the light of Marco's love. Sigh...
The ending was messy and disappointing, but at least it made it clear that it was, at its core, a sappy love story, and everything else that happened wasn't nearly as important as the main characters' relationship. Exposé what? Dark secrets whose? Inappropriate relationship? Doesn't matter. Love conquers all!
Also, I don't usually do this, but this show dragged so much, I watched most of it at 1.5x speed. There's only so much of James not knowing what to say I'm willing to watch. That made music absolutely unbearable, but it was a price I was willing to pay.

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Season 1 & 2 Review

It is the first time I have ever watched a series that is so lopsided. One half of the plot was shallow and without any substance while the other was delivered so well. I will discuss the shallow half first.

The romance between the lead couple (James & Ait) was without depth and proper writing. Their entire story just seemed arbitrary. In season 1 how their story started off seemed off. I had given season 1 an 8/10 because I had attributed the poor qualities to the fact it was obvious that they had a very limited budget as production was not the best. However the message was delivered in a very solid way (the good half of the plot). The romance for the second couple (Marco & Bas) that took place in season 2 seemed poorly constructed but there were some good scenes especially in episode 5. The poor writing for one half of the plot and the poor production eventually could not be ignored and blamed on just a limited budget hence why I rated it 5/10 for season 2. This was the bad half now lets talk about how well the message was delivered and it was all thanks to one actor who carried the whole series on his back from beginning to ending; Michael Kiettisak Vatanavitsakul who played Bas. I will be using the spoiler feature from here on because topics such as rape, sexual harassment, sexual abuse, suicidal thoughts, suicidal attempt, depression, manipulation, emotional abuse and abuse of an actor will be discussed, so if you are triggered by any of these you may want to stop reading now.

Do you want to be the bird in the cage or in the sky? - Marco

In season 1 we learn that Bas is forced to drink protein milkshakes and is banned from eating anything else by the production company owner; P'Tee. This is done for him to keep his muscular appearance that fits the stereotypical image of a BL top. Bas and Ait are also forced as actors to sign abusive contracts that holds them hostage and takes away some of their basic human rights such as a right to privacy, a right to freedom, a right to movement, a right against inhumane treatment, etc. The protein milkshakes Bas is forced to consume makes him sick and causes him to perpetually vomit and feel weak. Even though Ait was not abused to the same extent as Bas he was too forced to conform to a certain image by Tee. Ait was made to do plastic surgery because he was told some of his facial features (nose) was a facial defect. The more serious abuse took place between Bas and Tee.

It is revealed that Tee has been raping and sexually abusing and harassing Bas, and he gave himself ample opportunity to do so by restricting the actors to only living with him and setting a curfew. He forced Bas into submission by emotionally manipulating him and holding him hostage emotionally. Bas is from a humble family and he sees himself as the failure in the family as his brother is going to university and is the star brother while he goes in chase of his dream of acting. His father does not waste any opportunity to belittle him and compare him with his brother. Tee uses this against Bas; trapping him as he craves his father's acceptance and approval. When this was revealed I realised that his vomiting was not just because of the milkshakes but because he was suffering from anxiety attacks. There is a scene in season 1 where they go to the beach and Bas just spontaneously runs towards the sea wall and stands on it. That scene struck me because the sea and horizon is often associated with freedom, hope and possibility. Seeing him just stand there staring blankly out at the sea is like watching his freedom before him but like the horizon he can never reach out and touch it.

In season two the writers double down on his torture. He becomes suicidal and attempts to hang himself but luckily he is stopped by Marco just as he jumps off the bed. Now Marco was in love with James (Ait's boyfriend and his best friend) but he eventually falls for Bas; again the love story-lines are not great so that is not my focus here. My focus is how Marco showed Bas that someone cared for him and that his life was worth living and his happiness matters so he should not let his father or Tee withhold his happiness. Furthermore we see how Bas' upbringing is also toxic. There is a scene where his brother tells him that men do not cry, so we see how trapped Bas truly his psychologically; he is being raped, cannot cry out due to intimidation and manipulation; he was dying in silence.

I did not like how they handle his situation by Marco standing by and hiding while filming Tee sexual assault Bas for the purpose of evidence. This irked me. I also hated how James threatened Tee to only take action against him if he continues to rape Bas; that is wrong on many levels.

Another issue was the one of actors' privacy. James and Ait are forced to hide their relationship because of what BL fans will think and fear of their negative reactions.

The message and purpose of this series is to highlight and expose the atrocities of the BL industry that cause the suffering and abuse of actors. It is to protest against the stereotypes that actors must force their bodies to conform to in order to please audiences. It is to call out production companies that have employees taking advantage of actors sexually. It is a rallying cry to all actors who were abused and forced into suicidal tendencies that there is hope, there is a reason to live, their happiness is paramount. It points a heavy finger at fans who lambaste actors for having a private life in which they have a romantic relationship outside of their ship. This series was an ultimate protest against these disgusting realities, and the effects were vividly displayed to cause empathy, sympathy , shame, and anger among fans.

The actor who played Bas did an excellent job. His acting was awesome as you could feel and see every emotion associated with abuse and trauma through his performance. I hope that he gets to act in a proper series with a good production company that has resources because he is too good for a low budget series, but he seems to already be getting this as he stared in PitBabe (North) and This Love Doesn't Have Long Beans (Nubnueng). He deserves a lead role.

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Good for a second season series, but..

.. the pacing was a little disjointed for me. Some parts dragged while the ending felt super rushed.

With the main obstacle/villain being Tee, I would have rather we get to see better justice for his wrongdoings, both against James and Ait as a couple but especially for what he did to Bas. All we see is the clip being played on the monitors at the press conference and Tee running out so we don't even know if he was ever held accountable for his actions or if he managed to get away in the end. It's super frustrating because he was an effective "bad guy" that we loved to hate. They practically spent the entire 2 seasons of the series showing us all the reasons to hate him and then we get no resolution, whether it's good or bad. It just simply does not exist.

Speaking of what doesn't exist, I wish James and Ait knew more about how much Bas was struggling. They were on his side and wanted the best for him and yet they didn't know he was contemplating suicide? To be honest, I could have done without James and Ait entirely this season as I absolutely loved Bas and Marco together. I preferred them over the other couple in the first season too even though they weren't acquainted yet. I found their characters were more interesting individually and then just got better when they were together. I thought Michael and Daniel were better actors overall too over Benz and Time.

Besides the ending, I still thought it was a good series overall and as far as the couples were concerned, they had satisfyingly happy endings, which I am a sucker for.

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Une bonne critique du monde du BL et ses débordements

Étant donné que la saison 1 et 2 sont indissociables, je vais écrire ma critique ici plutôt que sur la première fiche.

Malgré de gros défauts dans la série, j'ai aimé le sujet traité même si certains passages ont été durs à regarder, selon moi, il faut les voir pour apprécier le thème dans sa globalité. Le thème des débordements dans le traitements des acteurs et personnels de l'industrie du BL n'est pas quelque chose de beaucoup traité et ici on prend une sacrée claque !

J'ai trouvé que les acteurs jouaient bien et montraient une belle palette d'émotions. Les sentiments de gêne ou de désespoir sont super bien transmis par le personnage de Bas notamment.

La série ne s'arrête pas seulement à nous montrer la difficulté pour des acteurs de concilier vie privée et fan service et j'aimerais citer Ait en disant : "Les fans doivent savoir qu'il y a une différence entre la série et la vie réelle". Si déjà, cette phrase était respectée, l'industrie, et surtout les acteurs, auraient bien moins de problèmes. Mais comme je le disais, le lakorn creuse davantage en nous montrant les débordements que peuvent subir les gens travaillant dans ce milieu. Tout cela s'ajoutant à la pression sociale ou celle des parents pour les plus jeunes d'entre eux. En résumé : dur, dur de vivre et survivre dans cette ambiance !

Comme évoqué plus haut, il y a plusieurs points négatifs que j'ai relevé dans le drama. Tout d'abord, le thème principal abordé n'est, à mon sens, qu'en partie résolu à la fin de la série et j'ai trouvé dommage de ne pas mettre un point final à cette histoire. Ensuite, c'est surtout sur la mise en scène ou la façon de filmer que se portent les point négatifs comme les scènes en voiture qui sont juste horribles ! On voit tellement que les acteurs dialoguent avec un fond de route filmé derrière eux, c'est d'un moche ! Enfin, certaines mise en scènes sont pas mal bancales comme quand James et Ait essayent de retarder Tee, là, même le jeu d'acteur part en cacahuète je trouve.

Juste au passage, mention spéciale pour le personnage de Marco qui, heureusement, est très mignon car son humour est tellement nul qu'au moins on peut le regarder pour oublier ses blagues pourries et comme le dit Bas : "La blague était si mauvaise que je devais rire".

Également, veillez à bien regarder l'épisode final de la saison 1 jusqu'après le générique, il y a une petite scène qui fait le lien avec la saison 2.

Finalement, je dirais que ce n'est pas la série de l'année mais qu'elle mérite d'être vue simplement pour les thèmes qu'elle a eu le courage d'aborder.

Maintenant, à vous de vous faire votre avis.

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2nd season - Call It What You Want

A Good Second Season - Slightly Better Than Season 1

Stayed pretty consistent with the plot line from Season 1, the beginning episodes were a bit better than the last few episodes.

Some parts where a bit odd, because again, not enough time to build upon the relationships. Love just doesn't build as quickly in real life as it did in this series. But I do think there were some good take-aways:

1) If you have a crush on someone for years, but never have the courage to tell them, don't be shocked when they fall in love with someone else.
2) Parents who put too much pressure on their children are asking for trouble, if a child grows up thinking they have no worth, when they get in trouble, they are more likely to do something to harm themselves.
3) The bl industry (and also boy / girl bands) are put under too much pressure - living life under a microscope and not being able to have a private life is just plain wrong, as is the intense pressure for dieting, looks, etc.

Not a lot of rewatch value for me.

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Michael just be out here carrying the whole show

So I finished season 1 and immediately started season 2 because I have a severe lack of dopamine. Unfortunately huge swathes of this series are just terrible, Ait and James were more annoying than last season, I ended up skipping almost the entirety of their side of the story, the only part I didn’t skip was the press conference because I didn’t want to miss Bas’s scene, and bloody hell, didn’t the poor acting from James and Ait drag?

A few thoughts
The attempted sui**** scene felt very rushed but still Michael held up his end of the contract and did a convincing job

People complained about the sex, people are not in the position to assume how a survivor wants to act after the case, taking back sex and intimacy is something lots of survivors do, especially once they feel safe with someone. Marco showed up and CARED. Bas has clearly been emotionally neglected his entire life, then se***lly abused! He didn’t “get over” anything in my eyes, imagine the immense relief he must be feeling now he has people on his side?! Marco and the other guy (forgive me, I forget his name) empowered him to stand up.

Again, James & Ait proving to be just the absolute worst. Didn’t really seem to care about the abuse, Ait was more worried about James getting it on with everyone. Or that’s what I gathered in between skipping ha

Marco coming out with Bas was properly nice, they played genuinely happy really well.

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A história perdida em meio a um roteiro

A primeira temporada, do meu ponto de vista, teve uma melhor narrativa que a 2.ª temporada.
E constante agir como uma criança de 5 anos e não acreditar que James lhe diz que ele e Marco não fizeram nada. Então Marco (apaixonado por JAMES há 4 anos) vai fazer sexo0com Bas, que poucas horas antes tentou cometer suicídio, não parece muito realista para mim. Além disso, com o histórico de Bas com abuso sexual — ele não tinha dificuldade em ser íntimo, mas ter O transtorno de estresse pós-traumático (TEPT), por causa disso fazia tudo parecer tão irreal, com alguém tem um transtorno se cura assim, num passe de mágica e transa como se nada tivesse acontecido.
Tipo, "que merda!" Eles poderiam ter feito tanta coisa boa com essa série e a atuação de Michaels como Bas foi extremamente talentosa (eu nunca conseguiria chorar tanto em uma série, e com tanto sentimento compartilhando com o público através da tela).
Há tantos temas e tópicos nesta série sobre os quais é muito importante falar — suicídio, automutilação, família sem apoio, masculinidade tóxica, abuso e muito mais. Foi como se eles tentassem, mas falhassem no meio do caminho. Ainda assim, há algumas cenas boas, mas não consegui apreciar tudo isso e por todos os pequenos (e grandes) detalhes que me deixaram tão frustrado e quase com vontade de desistir da série. Se tivesse durado mais, tenho certeza que teria.

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If you ask for it you may just recieve it, and yep I did...

After watching season one I asked for more time screen time for Bas and Marco as well as more depth for the real issues that only scratched the surface in season one. And yes season two gave me more or less all that I asked for after watching season one. While season one only tipped their toes on the surface, season two took a dive right in, still kind of in a pool and not ocean but definitely allot deeper than season one. I also got more time with Bas and Marco, maybe not as sweet time as I had hoped for but definitely more time with both so bad humor it is actually funny... Like going to the sea to get some vitamin sea.... as well as showing beautiful support and pain. All without deviating to from season ones plot line. Some parts where a bit odd and I would say a tad rushed, okay not some several parts could use some more build up and time, definitely more time both screen time and chronological time. Once you see it you will probably get what I mean, but to save you from spoilers Ill just say time is not a bad thing.... And this drama needs more of it.

All in all definitely worth watching, and Marco rocks (most of the time)

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Content warning: Sexual Harassment, suicidal ideation

This was a really challenging subject matter, and overall I felt like they handled it pretty well. This is the sequel to Call It What You Want, regarding a BL filming set and hardships experienced by actors, the second season follows up on the issue of sexual harassment of one actor (Bas) by the producer. This season gets much deeper than the first season did, as Bas struggles to cope with and respond to the harassment.

Michael, the actor who played Bas, did a phenomenal job. The Bas/Marco plotline was the best part of the series, with very credible performances by both.

The James/Ait storyline was much less dramatic but still enjoyable. It was a little hard to get worked up about their issues when other characters were going through so much.

I thought the final episode wrapped things up well, if a little too neatly.

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Mediocre at best

This review is for season 1 & 2

I'm reviewing both seasons together because it's very clear that this series was split in half and turned into two separate seasons just to extend the life of the series and generate more money. I liked the concept and idea of exposing the dark side of the BL industry and what many of the actors and others involved with producing these series have to go through. However the execution of this series was not the best. The acting was lifeless and slow, almost as if everyone was trying to remember their lines as they were saying them. The chemistry between both couples was pretty good but the dialogue was almost always lacking and again felt slow and dull. It shouldn't take you a minute to respond every time someone says something to you, like why are we awkwardly staring at each other and not speaking? Honestly one of the main reasons that kept me watching was to see Time (James the director). That man just does something to me 😩. Love seeing him in any Thai drama. Overall this series was mediocre at best but had a few heartwarming moments.

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Amazing Acting, but too much James x Ait

First of All I wanted to give this a 9.0 Ranking, but after I watched the last episode I had to change it.

Story:
The Story is well written like the first Season. There a Times you want to fight Tee and there are Times you want to cry with Bas ( I wanted it almost every time he was on the Screen). But the drama has the potential to be better. Maybe it is because of the small number of Episodes. I am a little bit disappointed because after I finished Season 1 I thought in Season 2 the focus would be more on Marco and Bas, But it wasn't the Case after all. And the last Episode was a disappintment for me. I gave the Story a 8.5 because of the few Scenes of Marco and Bas were really Amazing. For me there was too much of James x Ait. The most frustrating Thing is, that there seemed to be too much of time differences between the Ending of Ep. 5 and Ep. 6. Event thoug the possibility is very low I hope for a season 3 with the full story of Marco and Bas, because it felt incomplete for me.

Acting:
First of all I have to say there is one Actor I was very schocked because of his amazing acting. All of the Actors did very well. But Michael, who played Bas, was the best out of All. Everytime he was on the Screen I was amazed by his skills. When he cried, I cried, too and my Heart felt really heavy. I hope he gets more Chances to show his scting skills, because he really is amazing. His Chemistry with Daniel was very Good and I hoped, they would get more Scenes in last Episode, but I was disappointed. I am very happy for Bas, who has a happy Ending. Together with Michael I think Daniel has very good Skills, too.
Time and Benz did really good Jobs, too, but they didn't stood out. I would say, Michael carried the series and together with Daniel it was more Amazing.

Music:
The Music was very good, not too noisy and it was played at the right Moments.

Rewatch Value:
Honestly I think I will be rewatching only the Scnes with Bas and the one with Bas and Marco. But most of the Scenes are with James and Ait and I will be honest. There storyline in Season too was not very interesting for me.

All in All it was a great drama with some disappointments for me. The Most Amazing and rescue of my rating is Michaels Acting and the Story between Marco and Bas.

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