My favourite Thai series

Sometimes there is a moment when I am profoundly grateful for all the learning which has come before and lets me enter into the world of this song, this film, this story more fully.

Found family. Difficult subjects, gently told with sensitivity and care.

4th rewatch - finally found a friend who loves it as much as I do - and moving it back up because the emotions are so rich and layered. Thai drama can be so good at cradling pain, it's there, it's real but it's gentle, and Moonlight Chicken excels in this.

My intro to Thai drama. The piercing sharpness of identification with a moment in Alan's story, the long dull ache of getting stuck in life like Jim, Wen's longing for a home and a relationship strong enough to be one, and so much of Gaipa's.

Love the way it was filmed, the slow pace and what are all ultimately stories of loss and healing set amongst this found family. The first time I watched it, I'd watch one or two of the /4 segments and then stop because my heart was full. About half way through, I cried very gently at each break, like the love and support of the friends for each other was helping me grieve my own pain. The series and the music especially still hold that for me.

This one means so immensely much. They made something truly special here.

Was put off of this by the plot synopsis and some things I had read so I got the completely wrong idea about it. Ironic eh, given how it's all about not judging a book by its cover.

Judge it though by the actors and actresses. They're amongst the very best and they all nail their performances with complexity, nuance and humour. The early episodes are a masterpiece of plotting in the way it turns everything completely around several times and still comes out as a coherent piece. Outrageous and outrageously good.

If you've not see it yet, go into it without expectations and let it take you on its ride.

There is so much kindness and warmth in this. It is touching and funny and heartbreaking and full of love.

If you haven't seen it, do.

The first 2/3rds are so gentle and heartfelt with a quiet substance. It lost some of that gracefulness in the last 4 or 5 episodes as it leant into lakorn and symbolism. I like where they went with its messaging but the getting there could have been handled better.

But it's still a kind, caring and gentle story about kind, caring and gentle people taking care of each other and learning to value themselves, imperfections and all.

The growth of a relationship built on what comes to be the deepest trust, kindness and understanding.

Thai series can have such a gentle way with difficult emotions and this is the gentlest of them. The story is told simply, with emotional intelligence and vulnerability.

Didn't think anything could knock Moonlight Chicken out of the top slot until I got around to this gritty, grimy absorbing gem. Intelligent, articulate, challenging and powerful, with conversations around difficult subjects for which there are no clear answers and it still found time to incorporate disability, ask for marriage equality and celebrate pride, challenge conventions around beauty and so much more.

Don't know where to begin in talking about the actors and characters. Much respect for all of them, especially Off's complicated and vulnerable Sean.

Squeaks by on the Bechdel test and every woman stands up for herself at some point.

There were things I found difficult as a DV survivor and I wish the screenwriter/director had handled differently, especially with so much intersectional awareness otherwise. A lesser work would have lost me or at least made me wary but this one always gave me enough to bring me back.

This is really a story about women. Even with the drawn-out spun sugar finale, this lakorn is riveting and very satisfying.

Quietly, gently, heartbreakingly beautiful.

A masterpiece of economic story-telling. Rich enough to easily have been a full length film, but the acting and directing are strong enough and skilled enough to tell it through a few words here, a look there, and together that makes for a very powerful work.

It's 31 minutes. Just watch it, cannot recommend it highly enough.

It's a clear critique of toxic masculinity in several forms including homophobia, wrapped in laugh out loud comedy that gently or boldly calls out bad behaviour time after time, wrapped in lakorn which continues the call outs. It is so good.

Days later and I'm still thinking about this series and realising how a key revelation which comes late explains so much in the beginning. I knew it was clever but didn't realise how deep its intelligence runs. Brilliant in the way it interweaves comedy and serious emotions while staying true to both. This may need to move up.

(Looks at what I've put higher. It's in very good company so maybe it will stay for now. Apples and oranges and all excellent.)

Exactly my cup of tea - female lead is full of life and curiosity but isn't a ditz, kind-hearted male lead, friendship between women, that delightful Uncle, the found family they make and emotions which aren't big or dramatic, just very real.

Add in seeing another country (Japan) through foreign but not western eyes; learning more about Thai language & usage as she negotiates language differences (some more vocabulary and her use of Thai particles on the end of English and Japanese sentences).

I'll go back to visit these lovely people again.

Excellent multi-layered youth lakorn. So impressed by all involved, especially the young actors. Its appeal for me has been a touch more head than heart, so perhaps slightly lower in the favourites list than its quality deserves? It is really good and highly recommended. Thai PBS

Unique and very special series about a class of 8-9 yos, their unconventional teacher, creativity, curiosity, and learning what you most care about. Set in the 1970s against the backdrop of the war across the border and student protests in Bangkok. Recommend so highly. Took me days to get myself to watch the last episode. Still don't want to say goodbye to these kids. Thai PBS.

I don't have adequate words for this. The more this story progressed, the more I loved it. 

As with (nearly) everything from Nattawut Poonpiriya, highly recommended. 44 minutes, available here

Goofy, clever, funny, warm and kind. Super-charged teenage emotions rendered as literal electricity and manga that's integral to the story.

There are things I wish they'd done differently but much of the rest was exceptionally good. At the time, the best roles I'd seen in Thai series for women. Stellar acting. The directing and editing to make it all work so well.

It doesn't get talked about anywhere near enough. Make time for it.

Creepy AF but not too scary, supernatural. Only four episodes and best binged to carry the energy. What they pull off with acting, lighting and some props is impressive.

I don't binge. I don't like horror. I don't like a lot of stress. I loved this.

Goofy Thai humour mixed with perfectly set up jump scare ghosts but never too scary mixed with a sweet friendship/love story, breath-taking tropical forest settings, great music and a female lead who wears glasses.

Keep watching for the behind the scenes too.

I might be the only one on MDL who likes this but I really rate it. Perhaps it's better binged than with a week between episodes. Goofball refuses to take itself seriously comedy that slides into substance around friendship and the complications of love and continues on to its own madcap action parody/homage. At first I thought maybe it wasn't sure what it wanted to be, but that trajectory was done seamlessly.

First watch was a binge (I don't binge) because these two very vulnerable, complicated boys needed to be safe and the support they found in each other so precious.
Second (partial, because life) rewatch was mostly appreciating First's acting. Third, in progress, my focus is drawn over and over to Khaotung's. His best character and performance, no contest. Also a deeper appreciation of Thua and Kan's own complexities and vulnerability and how well Louis and Neo convey them. Together, four young men dealing, or not, with being 18 and gay in different ways. The parts of the plot and framing which distracted me the first time are easy to background, at least in the beginning. I know what's important. All that matters is these boys.

Rich, layered, symbolic, and also very real. One to watch carefully, and return to.

Another one I put off because of poor reviews and the synopsis didn't appeal. I didn't expect to be so moved by these characters, full of the awkwardness, bravado and vulnerability of teenage boys and the sometimes chaotic speed they veer from one to the other. Yes it's unpolished and awkward. It's coming of age for unpolished, awkward boys.

Perhaps better considered as gay youth drama than BL.

Needed something gentle to offset a lakorn, searched for Nice Male Lead and found this... charisma and kindness, good music, and a sweet, beautiful, touching story which ignores physical reality but gently encompasses big emotions.

Boy Chaos: Romeo and Jules edition, with added Mercutio and Tybalt.

Much to love, especially the detail and clarity of Ohm's acting. 

Passes the Bechdel test - two named women talk about something other than a man (Pa and Ink talk photography and more).

Someone in the youtube comments summed it up so well: "I love that this series isn't about the struggles two people face when forming a relationship, but the strength the relationship gives them to face the struggles that life throws at them."

Sometimes the brevity of a short film telling a familiar story carries stronger emotions exactly because it's not weighed down with details. This is one, structured as a short web series, with two stories and four very young, very familiar faces.

A paired down cast could have made this a bit tighter but it's still a stand-out. Easy enough to follow but impossible to predict.

Crammed full with many types of relationships and relationship problems, the density of pain was difficult through much of it. They pulled it off though, and without resorting to forgiveness that glosses over the pain to find their happy endings.

They were great on many aspects of women's issues and made a point to show variety in queer and kink sex but didn't venture past cliched bangs for non-kink het. Big oversight few will notice.

Great mix of comedy (Ae especially) and substance. Really loved it, even if some of the reasons for break-ups hit close enough to home I had to set it aside for a bit. Full of friendship and hope.

Certainly didn't expect a het rom com with an often petulant spoiled pop idol man-child to make it onto this list, but a very Thai mix of goofy over the top humour and serious emotion made this outlandish plot work. Aom Sushar carries it with the playfulness and warmth of her feisty, generous-hearted character.

Solid little youth series (6 episodes), light with good moments of emotion and substance. Both of the seniors are overconfident and not great in self-awareness, but that drives the FL lead away and progress is only made in their evolving friendship when the ML is kind and attentive to her needs. She has her own strength and isn't a push over.

The sweetest coming of age movie with teenage girls figuring out themselves and their love.

Het puppy love (there are literal puppies) early 30s virgins rom com where the ML is often patronising to the free spirit FL-wrapped in so many story lines lakorn that sometimes went on a bit too long-wrapped in so much love and acceptance i could never stay cross with it for long. I don't think I've ever ended up loving so much something I complained about so much along the way :)

This gets off to a good start as a comedy/spoof lakorn - the zip and zing of lakorn pacing without lakorn stress - before it settles into a light romantic lakorn. It's very predictable which suits it very well. Easy to watch and just what I needed this weekend.
It's hardly earth-shattering telly but rating it high because they achieved what they set out to do quite well and I really enjoyed it.

Mini-lakorn with a gay romance. Maybe it was too short to absorb all the melodrama but I found some of this too upsetting. Less might have been more on that score or maybe I just need to watch more lakorn. Didn't help that it reminded me so much of values I sought after in my own life, like community, love and real purpose. The setting is beautiful. I know I could never cope with Bangkok but maybe in another life I'll get to spend time in Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and the mountains.

This one made me so happy when I first saw it, uneven writing and all. A year later, I'm tickled by how much I've learned about Thai language and culture. Many of the elements I've come to cherish in Thai series - friends to faen who help each other with the problems in their lives, found family, playfulness, a mix of comedy and serious matters woven throughout, with real emotions conveyed gently. And the moments when Cher's face shows us he keeps everyone laughing to hide his own pain.
It's not perfect but I still love it.

Another to love from Thai PBS. Kind, gentle, lovely. Centred around friendships and people helping each other navigate the different obstacles in their lives.

Cinematography and acting were stellar. It had me completely until about episode 9, when they stretched the emotions too far, especially with the long confessions of love which felt more like a woman's fantasy, and it just sort of snapped for me. In the last four episodes they rushed some, stretched out some, and had two bits at the end I didn't understand until I read explanations. The social commentary wasn't subtle but I appreciated how they intertwined the struggles of gay men, women and servants.

Given the great start, I ended up disappointed. He's Coming for Me was less ambitious but, in my mind, succeeded more.

There were parts of this I found maddening but more that I found beautiful and moving.

Edit: I rated this high at the time but what I remember are the parts which upset me rather than the parts which must have made me inclined to forgive everything. In some ways I feel like I should move this down even though I rated it 10. That hasn't been true of anything else I've seen.

There's a raw vibrancy to this that shines through, especially as it explores emotions and vulnerability in the second half.

Slice of life youth drama. Took me a bit to get into it but then it won me over.

Cute youth series about first love, growing up, and seeing your own worth. Tenth graders making tenth grade mistakes.

Rollercoaster of plot holes, except some of them are misdirection or clues and it's hard to know what each will turn out to be. Watched it for the actors while I was sick in bed and really enjoyed it, especially Drake and First's characters' chaotic boy energy friendship. Don't overthink, just enjoy favourite actors in earlier roles.

Full of puppy swagger and unearned boy confidence, except when it girl codes. I'm the toughest puppy. NO! I'M the toughest puppy. Ok, you are the toughest puppy but imma never going to admit that woof.

It's like they decided to run far away from toxic tropes and ended up at the opposite extreme. Except for shipping classmates, which it encourages. I have very mixed feelings about this, but then it's been a long time since I was in high school. It's good but could have been better. Fourth especially shines in the most serious scenes. Really looking forward to his development as an actor.

This is ambitious and they mostly got there. I think overall though, this might be less than the sum of its parts. The 8 stories have solid acting from familiar faces and it was well cast. (Don't look, the OMG surprise of some reveals is worth not knowing.) But it does make for a choppy whole and the main arc just got too complicated in weird ways for my tastes. They could have simplified the theology side a lot and said more.

Some call it a bromance, I'm going to say it's more like a repressed BL :) But what are you going to do when you cast Gun without Off?  Glad it was repressed though, it made the hurt you to protect you bits easier to forget.

Not sure where to put this. I'm glad I saw it but I can't imagine coming back to watch it again.

Loved the humour of Duean's character, his arguments with the narrator and the chaotic boy energy with his brother. Meen is great in his own right too, and the perfect foil for Duean. Mix being calm and wise is always a plus.

But the main relationship has too many red flag problems and only one of those two had growth in himself and the relationship, with the other's hypocrisy continuing into the final episode. Mork said some good things (obsession v love, claims to respect Pi's decisions) but does then does the opposite. So eleventy thousand and five for fifth year Duean and why it's on the list, 10 for Meen and Nan, low for the main characters.

Can't call this a favourite but I do want to make note of my thoughts and reaction and it seems silly to make a separate list just for that.

There were parts of this I adored and parts I really didn't like and parts I just didn't care about. Between the merry go round of fighting and twists and fake sex scenes (less is often more, and it was true here), I wasn't as invested in the characters as the actors deserve. The acting is excellent and that *alone* makes it worth watching. First and Khaotung deliver as we expect them to while Mark Pakin and Neo were finally allowed to stretch into their real potential. Not sure where to put this in this list or even what to rate it because of that unevenness. 10 for the actors, lower for editing/storyline choices.

Oh this is a ride. One thing I really didn't like, a few early-ish episodes I found tedious, but they did a great job with exploring the emotions of their impossible plot from every angle. Favourite characters were Jinny and Tet.