Stalker (2022)

Cute, cliched, yet cringy!

I am going to be very honest. I had no plans to watch this series, even though it was on my list. After reading some of the reviews, I was a bit disappointed. But then I got to know that it was produced by Saint Suppapong. What can I say? I am a sucker for Saint. Just love that guy! So I said, okay, maybe one time, let's do this. But I was in for a very pleasant surprise.

The 'main' characters in this story, a group of 4 friends. In a regular drama, the 4 of them would have been friends of the main couple, or sidekicks or used for comedic relief. But in this series? They are the leads. You have Toh, Jao, Daisy and Som (the only girl), all 2nd year students of Communication Arts. Their friendship is to die for. Toh crushes madly on one of the popular boys, Nuea, who has a clique of his own, consisting of Sky, Tor, Khongkwan and Fon. He ends up clicking Nuea's picture, which kind of brings him and his friends into Nuea and his group's lives. This is the basic premise of the story.

Nothing new, you say? I agree. Nothing new, except the way it has been treated. As I said before, Toh and his group are not your regualr 'lead' characters. But the way they have been built, the way they have been treated, is wonderful. I know a lot of people felt that Toh is a creepy stalker. But he is absolutely not. He has 0 stalkerish tendencies, because he never makes Nuea uncomfortable. On the contrary, it's actually Nuea who, if I may say this, uses the crush Toh has on him to turn a bit stalkerish and possessive. But in no way does any make anyone uncomfortable. Toh simply loves the attention that he gets from Nuea. Although he thinks nothing will come out of it, he still is happy he got a chance to be in the world of his crush. But much to his surprise, Nuea not only crushes back on him, he also wants to be his boyfriend.

Then we have Sky and Jao. Jao has body issues and is always conscious of that he may not be the perfect match for someone like Sky, so does everything to push him away. However, slowly and steadily, with lot of love, understanding and support, Sky wins Jao over. What really surprises me is how all a lot of issues have been handled. Jao's body shaming, Toh's apparent 'ugliness', Daisy being trans and In falling for that. The beauty of this series is the way in which Nuea and Sky handle their boyfriends' insecurities. The obvious and blatant public display of affection is so beautifully done, that there is no way in hell that anyone seeing them together will not be able to figure out that how head over heels in love Nuea and Sky are with Toh and Jao. They don't lose a single opportunity to tell their partners how beautiful and wonderful they are and how much they deserve their love.

This is why even I fell in love with this series. Because true love exists, but needs to be shown. The truth is, Toh and Jao are not the only ones like that in the world. We all face insecurities everyday because of the way we look, the way we are physically, intellectually, even mentally or emotionally different. We all have that one moment in life when we feel like we are the odd one out. And somewhere, we all want that one person who can just let us be ourselves, lets us dream of a better life, loves us without any boundaries, cares for us with their whole heart and makes us believe that we are perfect just the way we are. Finding someone like that is rare, but isn't it something we all dream of? So somewhere, SCOY makes you want to believe, believe that true love is there. Whatever look like, however you behave, whoever you are, love is waiting for you.

Things that I loved:
1. Acceptance of the families.
2. Blatant PDA!
3. The kisses between both the couples were hot and smouldering.
4. The 2 couples were given 2 distinct styles of NCs, depicting the nature of their relationship.
5. The three scenes in which Saint appeared.
6. The relationship, trust and love between the 2 sets of friends in their own groups and a group as a whole. I loved how they intermingled perfectly and fit together so well.

There are some things that did make me a bit frazzled.
1. There was a really weird and unnecessary fight scene depicted at the party Nuea took Toh to. Not impressive, and a sheer waste of time.
2. Daisy-Intouch and Som-Tor relationships were somewhat done outside of the screen. I would have liked to see a bit more of the development of their story arc.
3. Prao and her cronies. They were funny, but selfish and entitled. I especially did not like the fact that despite Nuea making his feelings perfectly clear, she could not take a 'NO'.

My opinion? Definitely a watch!!

Citeste mai mult

When everything is out of place, everything fits

Believe me when I say this series if one of the weirdest Thai BLs I’ve ever seen. The show starts off being a cringefest and… doesn’t get better. Instead, it doubles down, persisting with the shudderingly embarrassing scenes.

Every episode will give you second-hand embarrassment with its off-kilter humour and overly dramatic characters. (I really struggled to not fast-forward scenes that made me cringe.)

The biggest criticisms of the show end up being its biggest selling points: Ridiculous, off-kilter, outlandish. It will take some time to get used to Toh and his quirky outcast pals but here’s the thing. The show will grow on you.

The show may have been loaded with scenes right out of a BL textbook, but the execution was done just right. Toh and Nuea’s chemistry is FIRE. Nuea’s hunger for Toh is endless, and every time they kiss, his hands grip Toh like his life depends on it. This is exactly how kissing should be done.

SCOY’s stalker premise may sound super problematic, but the couples and friendships all featured critical aspects of a healthy relationship – respect, consent, acceptance and support. Sure, there might be plenty of weird and embarrassing scenes. But somehow, I got increasingly invested in the couples (between Nuea and Toh, and Sky and Jao) and was won over by the wholesome relationships.

My full review here: https://asianblreviews.wordpress.com/2022/05/13/secret-crush-on-you-2022-review-bl/

Citeste mai mult

WHY IS EVERYONE OK WITH THIS.?????

I'm only on episode 5 but I'm sorry Toh is not ok. It's one thing to have a crush and another to be obsessed. Covering your room in photos that I can only guess where not taken with Nuea's consent as well as the stalking & collecting his trash are enough to get you a restraining order. Tharntype, LITA, Love Syndrome & other shows get a lot of crap for being toxic but this one is above and beyond. I thought I was watching a light fun show but I'm more and more creeped out by the fact that everyone is OK with To's behavior. Not only that but his friends encourage him. I'm guessing Nuea will find out what he's done at some point and think it cute but I keep thinking about all the crap I've listened to about consent between Tharn & type as well as everyone saying Payu is grooming Rain in LITA but everyone thinks this is cute. We definitely have different ideas of acceptable behavior in relationships.

Citeste mai mult

wouldnt watch it again even if i was payed to.

wow this show is so so so bad.
let's get into this diabolical show.

(to start off, I watched this ages ago so detail wise... Don't expect me to go full into this shit).

oh toh. oh oh toh. the world's worst character to be written. why do writers orgasm over the idea of these annoying child like, obsessive and creepy characters. then writers think like nobody will mention the absolute ungodly characters if the weirdly obsessed one if the "bottom" ????? i always see the trope of the more fem character being so god damn unbearable, but people bypass it because its... "cute" . HELL NO ???? . his feminine side doesn't hide his FKIN weird behaviour.

when toh first came into my screen i actually had to pause the show, to take breathing exercises because the cringe he was serving was giving me heart issues. it got to the point where i would watch it on 2x speed to just get thru it.
toh is so diabolically down bad that he made me want to become a priest, he got me praying to a god, just for it to STOP.
when i start a show i HAVE to finish it, and this show was so bad it took me close to half a year to fully finish.
I can sit here and write till my fingers fall off with how much I hate toh.

nuea. right listen. He's also weird asf. he defo just keeps toh around for an ego boost, because ain't no way nobody is loving toh for who he is let's be so real right now. Nuea is also unbearable to watch. id actually catch myself trying to laugh thru the cringe just to keep my head above the water. by golly, dont even get me started when nuea and toh are together on my screen, because i swear they had little to no lines and a whole lot of face smashing, it looked like either one of them was trying to floss the others wisdom teeth with there tongue.

this show all together is catered to weird creepy pervs who are into the idea of dating somebody who is obsessed over them (insecure creeps) or people who fantasise dating someone they idolise. id rather watch a back to back marathon of irl jungkook and Y/N wattpad story's portrayed in a play format, played only by Jimmy Fallon and James Corden.

this show was so bad I would need a Shakespeare play kinda description just to be able to express myself.
the side characters relationship wasn't one that was even good, must say it was somewhat better than toh and nuea, but far from good. but i think tohs absolute mouldy dog shit of a character outshines any other bad characters, making everyone's acting and behaviour look impeccable. because GAWDDAMN tohs character was actually so bad it was impressive, and if i couldve give scores under 0, i would've.

there is no story, no plot. unless the plot involved in the whereabouts of everyone's clothing, the plot was nowhere to be seen.
yet again another BL that only gained views from people going feral over men devouring each other for 14 eps.
wouldnt watch again even if my life depended on it.

Citeste mai mult

I rarely do this, but I encourage you to not take the stalking at face value

Having finished Secret Crush on You (here on abbreviated as scoy) weeks ago, I decided to wait and let my thoughts stabilise but I rated it a 8.5 purely for its entertainment value (actually a 10/10).

Scoy is an incredibly well-made series in the sense that it has a consistent story (chaotic but consistent in its execution of chaos), well-paced, well-written dialogues suitable for the different kinds of interactions, high production quality (no, I'm not counting Nuea’s abs though they are very valuable assets. no I am not objectifying men, pretty sure he thinks the same) and awesome acting, some director obviously worked on them a lot.

I'm not one to care about MDL Ratings but having been on here for two years now, I have a pretty good idea for what becomes popular around here. And as I watched, I wondered why-how-why this series doesn't have a rating above an 8. 7.4 is a very good rating imo but on MDL such an epic comedy series should easily get above an 8.0. I didn't have to wonder much because there it was, Toh in those nerdy glasses and gloves rummaging throough garbage with whatever that device was to get a pair of cans Nuea had thrown into them.

Wait, so he's like, 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨? We no likey. (And rummaging through garbage is gross anyway). Those were a majority of the comments on yt episode 1, and I admit it weirded me out too. I developed this @-the-screen dialogue begging, wishing, hoping that Toh would stop tf he was about to do because I knew it was going to be embarassing (a habit which did not stop till the very end of the series). I have no hesitation to drop cringe, no idea why I kept watching but I'm glad I did.

I'm accustomed to using phrases like "at times absurd" and "often hilarious, often...” while reviewing shows, but nothing less than “𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 outlandishly, absurd and mostly really silly” will suffice for scoy.

Toh, Daisy, Jao and Som are an odd motley, uni outcasts united in their mutual loneliness. Together they create nothing short of chaos. Their friendship alone is worth watching this series. Nosy parkers through and through, they catalysed each others romances, supported through heartbreak and unanimoulsly held up a code called the "secret crush code". There are many moments that were exemplary of their friendship: fixing Toh's mess, supporting Jao through internet hatred, being there for Daisy's trans identity crisis.

There is an ongoing debate that “bl” isn't truly “lgbt”. Regardless of which side you're on, we all acknowledge that there are very few shows about diverse sexual and gender identities. For a series so seemingly comedic and "immature", scoy has surprising lgbt awareness portrayed with such sensitivity that it made me wonder if actual lgbt individuals were involved in its making (for example Nuchy, the wonderful director of Not Me is a transwoman). I do not mean it's all doom and gloom with homophobia, quite the contrary, yet you'll feel the overall positive representation.

Now, let's come to the main part of this story. Nuea's abs.

Obviously.

No really, Nuea’s abs and how he was so obsessed with displaying those wonderful contours to Toh. Nuea is the school's best basketball player, a good student, a kind person yadda yadda the whole jig. We don't know much about him except he's hot and Toh has the hots for him. We don't even know if he is aware of Toh’s existence. So when Nuea invites him to shoot photos at his sister's birthday and they have these really close interactions, it sets the gears going. Does this chiseled mass of goodness 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 the nerdy guy who 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘴 him?

Can a nerdy stalker even be worthy of such love? And here is my favorite part of scoy, it's not pitching the concept many shows go for "love is deeper than appearance" etc. no, it's asking you a more fundamental question. Why should the crush of a handsome boy be more valued in comparison to the nerdy one?

What is a crush anyway? Sudden unreasonable attractions to people. And sometimes they fall in love right? But why is that crush so easy to understand when its the school's popular guy than, say, a quiet chubby guy, a weird bubbly girl, a effeminate outcast or a shy boy in large glasses?

Via an internet bullying drama blown out of proportion, mean girls who would make the Plastics proud, drama questioning self-worth and acceptance and of course the stalking, scoy examines secret crushes and how we raise them on a pedestal beyond our reach. There are good points about all of us (and very few people are so bad as to be truly unworthy of an love, and I mean criminal offenders really). I appreciate what the drama tried to do here, and it did so without being obtrusive.

Nuea and Toh were the stars of the show for me. They had their hot and sweet moments, sometimes emotional. Somebody involved in the production micromanaged Toh and Nuea’s intimacy to perfection that they felt like a real couple who were into each other. Billy (Nuea) and Seng (Toh) have an intensity to them that worked wonders. Certain lingering touches, looking into each other's eyes, real communication, treating even the friends of your crush really well ;) —details that a lot of shows miss.

The actors were amazing, I've given this a 10/10 on that front. Nothing felt lacking in terms of acting. The emotional scenes had weight, the comedy was hilarious and felt natural for the characters.

Sky and Jao were quite popular, being less "problematic" (read more on this in note 2). Daisy and Toh were robbed but it seems they didn't have much of a story in the novel and the show did a good job of the few they did. Som is our allo het relresentative. There are lesbians but they are not really there except one really pretty freenbeck shot at the end (you have to watch Gap).

Lastly, huge love for the translators. They explained everything, the film references, the Thai jokes we tend to miss out on, Daisy's switching pronouns. Everybody agrees that this had the best, most involved subbing team. 9/10

Notes irrelevant to review:
Note 1. The stalking, like everything else in the drama, is exaggerated. But if it makes you feel better, all photos Toh collected were from public events. Public university events. Yes, he stuck them on his wall, but those are photos available publicly to everyone. The items collection was real but really? If keeping a crab in a vacuumed pouch isn't a joke then idk what is.

Note 2. I found Sky’s behaviour to be pretty problematic actually. A no is a no. It is weird how he kept pursuing Jao who said no so vehemently. Consent is an issue here which it isn't in Nuea and Toh's relationship.

Citeste mai mult

It’s not so bad ,it gets better .

When I started with the first episode , I nearly gave up due to the second hand embarrassment and cringey moments but I still watched it .
Finally done watching it ,I kind of understood why it started out they it did . We are introduced to a nerd(Jao) who is more of a stalker to a guy he likes(Neun), Neun also likes him too though . There are other couples too. There’s even trans representation,GL and straight couple . We got to see how friendships can help. One of the funniest moments was when Neun went with Jao to his dad’s place , the dad was angry at him (Neun) not because of their relationship but the fact that his wife liked Neun because he was very handsome 😂.
Overall the drama isn’t bad , it has some worthwhile moments . Also some steamy scenes that sent me into comas.

Citeste mai mult

YES!!!

Everything in this series was done perfectly. Everyone had a role to play and they played it so well. I sometimes do a double take when reading some comments on here because of how much hate some people have towards Toh. lol Like it's not that deep. It's a series that represents lgbtq+ community where everyone is from different walks of like and not popular or always do the right thing or confident in themselves. It's like some have been so conditioned by other BL series where everything is presented in a way to attract more female audience than actual lgbtq+ audience, which this series did.

This series made us feel seen. It made us happy because we were able to see ourselves in all our insecurities on screen. It there was 2nd hand embarrassment because most of us saw our insecurities and or private lives to be shown in public, on the screen.

It's the most relatable series I've ever come across and for people who dont understand anything about this series, it's ok... but to try obliterate the characters are playing is a sad occurrence, I hope that you open your mind and heart to understand people that are different than you are. To those that actually get the significance of this series, thank you!

Citeste mai mult

The most cringing series

This series is a very interesting one. Although it start with cringing note hahaha ( I'm not lying I cringe so much in the first 5 episodes, but still cringing hahaha), but throughout the series it has address many issues, stalking, bullying, communication in relationship, and family acceptance and few others. It is kinda light to me, while addressing heavy topic.. The storyline really delivered well by the actors. In ep 13 we get to see how Nuea reacted to Toh's habits of collecting Nuea's stuff, and it has been refreshing to me. Note: It only able happen because Nuea was feelings the same for Toh.
Jao is a very good friend that we all always wanted to have.
Would I watch again this series? No.
Was this series good? Yes. Just need to bare with all the cringiness.

Citeste mai mult

It's really good

When I first started the series I didn't really like it and got bored but when I continued watching it and like reached ep 3 it got really interesting and fun I really love the drama and would recommend it it's very funny and I love the character development in it especially the representation ❤️ I love how goofy the main character can get and how the couple is just very preverted lol everything is so gay in the drama almost all the characters are gay for each other and the way the mean girls act is also hilarious in my opinion. I love how nuea is very possessive and protective of his boyfriend and would like anyone messing or flirting with him it's honestly very funny and adorable. The episode 11 was pretty hilarious too as he was introduced do nuea's parents lololol anyways really recommend this drama

Citeste mai mult

Worst thing ever done

I was excited to do a review on this one. It's so bad. The story is about a very cringy and creepy guy who gets exactly what he wants like it's normal. Toh is the most nasty, desgusting and annoying character on the planet. Everything he does makes me wanna puke. The only thing that explains the fact that Nuea likes him is that he probably has a fetish for pathetic cringy losers. This was the hardest show to watch ever. I guess I finished all the painful 14 episodes because I really liked the secondary couple, they are really cute. But it's so funny how they keep forcing the bullying with Jao like he's fat lol he is not fat at all, they couldn't find an actual fat actor to do this? I actually like a lot of characters like Daisy and Touch, they are adorable and helped making me smile when I was watching this cursed series. There was not a single episode that didn't make me feel like killing myself because of Toh. That's it.

Citeste mai mult

the gas station nachos of 2022 bl

This is genuinely one of the worst BL shows I've watched in the past few years. The premise is terrible, the script is clunky and often bizarre, the pacing is odd, and while the actors are mostly doing their best with what they have, their reactions are often overplayed (presumably in an attempt to be funny). That said, I have watched every single episode that's aired so far and plan on continuing to watch the rest of this. It is the thing that it is; don't go into this show expecting a masterpiece. It's not a three course meal, or even McDonald's, just gas station nachos, and if that's what you're after it's an enjoyable ride for the thing that it is.

Citeste mai mult

Binging waiting for the next episode (the wait is long)

Wow, am binge watching this and commenting to my self every minute, gosh Toh is a nerdy guy who has turned his crush to cute stalking, am laughing hard, who stores perishable items as gift only that nerdy guy can do that shit, Nuea is cool about it too and understand Tohs behaviour Cool guy and he doesn't belittle him for having weird crush on his senior.
These Series is hot, every episode is bang on giving you slice of little heat, weirdness, laughter and friend bonding.
I like the two groups everyone with different problems relating to either secret crush, first love or innocent love.
That nerdy guy is always giving me dose of first hand embarrassment in every episode lol.
I can't believe he fought with someone in a car am laughing hard.
The Series has a lesbian side couples too yah it's a win all round Bl, Gl.
Please and please I don't need heart break
I am loving all characters having good screen time too, the characters are blissful to the eyes and Cute.
This is a BL you watch for fun and cute weirdness, hope this will finish well in terms of script, I don't want to come back here angry.
Cos I hardly give reviews.
The Cupid Thep is so Handsome, to my surprise various translation too another plause.

Citeste mai mult