Brokenhearted

Intense, and softly romantic with much sadness throughout life. This is a short BL series about two students who meet in school and develop a friendship which eventually leads to a more intense interest in each other. It is a profoundly melancholic story that is undoubtedly too familiar in many people’s lives. The acting here is first rate, and they downplay the intensity which it should because the relationship never really developed outwardly. It is all internal. I liked this series a lot. It is well written, well-acted, and tells a good solid story. I wish there were a bit more character development and a greater understanding of how they got together when they are adults.

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Stunning, Sad, and Profoundly Moving

This BL series has a ‘sad’ feeling about it from the very beginning. Nothing feels like it quite belongs. This is a slice of live series with no happy ending yet not really sad but so real. This is an enormously tragic story for all couples involved. In the end, the world must be righted and the only way to do that is to have no one win. So, this ends up maudlin, melancholic, and everyone being alone. It is a beautifully told story with realistic outcomes. Perhaps not the way we wanted it to be, but fate and destiny have other plans. There are no winners here but plenty of losers and those who paid the ultimate price of falling in love with them. You can read my full review of this sad but very moving series at ppbongi.medium.com.

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A Profoundly Poignant Story

This is a beautiful and stunning (short) BL series. Of course, there are some flaws with its story and production, but they did not decrease from its overall theme or intensity of the story. It is a story about a friendship that happens by serendipitous (extraordinary if you will) means. That is the point to this story, really. So, this story resonated deeply with me as an intense love story that was never meant to be fulfilled in its corporeal form. In every sense of the word, they were a couple deeply in love, no matter how short their time together was. Whether this was the message or not, I was deeply and profoundly moved by this story that I was left in tears. (My husband had to console me). Those who did not find this story to their liking or gave it poor ratings, did not see its big picture or its impact. It indeed captured love for a different realm. You can read my full review of this profoundly moving series at ppbongi.medium.com.

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A REALLY Good Series

This series is way more interesting then perhaps it is given credit for and in my opinion one of the best series out there. While the BL aspect may be thin, it is full of profound love and connection. There is really only one BL relationship somewhat going on. But there is so much more going on for it. I just need to state that this is one of THE handsomest ensemble casts I have ever seen. These guys are stunningly handsome and that can not be overlooked. The female leads are also extremely beautiful but none of that matters in this story. This is just extraordinarily good story telling. Each of these characters had charm, growth, and all developed a sense of purpose, responsibility, and commitment and perhaps, and most importantly, lifelong friendships. Each also had to come to terms with that they did to negatively manipulate others to fall and learn to forgive themselves and admit to their errors. If you want to read my full review of this series, please visit my (free) blog site at ppbongi.medium.com.

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Intense

It is very intense and full of assault, violence, deceit, and passiveness, closely bordering on abuse. I for one did not see this as others saw it. Yes, there is violence but not abuse. It seems either the positive path or negative path, it will lead to the same outcome. While it seems destiny is written, there are clues that somehow things are different and the story is not the same, even though the path might be the same. Yes, I do understand why some disliked this series as it is driven by a person’s irrational and negative obsession for another. BUT, that person is not totally powerless to stop it. He just cannot. It may not be the story of redemption that is based on a path of understanding, but it is one based on great pain, wrongs, and toxic behaviors. I thought it was raw, intense, painful to watch, and in every sense of the word, real. Some relationships are based on emotionally painful and toxic journeys before a deeper appreciation and understanding of each other can be attained.

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Only One Reason to Watch .....Perth

Romantic, angst, but misses the mark. This series is a bit better than 'Love by Chance 2' but again, there just is too much of a good thing. Way too many characters and way too many very serious issues that are dealt with so cavalierly. This series tried to do too much with too many people with too many overlapping situations. Sometimes, simple stories work best but this was overly busy and filled with a lot of very unnecessary individuals. Had this story focused on one or even 2 relationships, it would have been tighter, leaning, and a more watchable series. Digressing for a moment, this series does have the one thing in it that would want me to rewatch it. Actually, the only reason. And that is Perth as Ae. He is simply outstanding. He is by far my most favorite actor in any series. He is just a joy to watch. You can read my full review of this series at ppbongi.medium.com. Leave comments if you like.

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Romantic, Beautiful, and Quirky

I really liked this series, although everything in my being at the beginning said that I should not. The first episode is simply awful if not terrible. The acting was bad, and the production value was amateurish at best. You must get through the first episode and some of the second before this story will grab you and it surely did me. What made it interesting is it centered around a boy band’s difficulties in interacting with each other with an odd over the top band manager to guide them. It is so obvious from the beginning that they guys are new and very much inexperienced in acting but yet the story intrigued me, and the dialogue hooked me to watch more and I am so glad I did. The acting, the story, the characters got much better as they became more comfortable in their roles. They let loose and it became a surprisingly interesting and entertaining series. One final word about these actors. In some sense, I found this ensemble of characters interesting, dynamic, and honestly one of the best in a BL series. If you want to review my full review of this quirky series, see it at ppbongi.medium.com. Enjoy!

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Never Reaches Its Full Potential

This is a very romantic story with solid performances and a very nice flow to it. However, it does have its issues. The biggest one is the not quite believable love between the two main characters. While there was some chemistry, there was no spark, no passion, and no real connection between the two. They ‘played’ the parts well and made a beautiful couple, but there just was something about the sincerity of the attachment I found missing and lacking. But that did not totally negate the overall positivity of this series. Everyone here is certainly likeable and all did a good job of acting. However, some I liked more than others. If you want to read my full review of this series, please go to ppbongi.medium.com. I have more to say there and also about the 'Pangs'.

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Tender and Beautiful

This series is superb! I loved it. One of the finest acting BL series I have seen. It is just joyous, funny, poignant, and intensely real. It is a simple story of a student who is paired with a ‘jock’ for a school project to benefit both. The screenplay is simply brilliant. There are no gimmicks or artificial dramas here. You see the characters flawed but each of them grows not episodically but by slow moving connections. It is the little things that they do for each other that lead to profound changes. They did a much better job of showing the raw emotions of the characters and the beautiful split screen shots that made them look like they were actually together than other series which used the same techniques. If you want to read my full review of this wonderful series, go to ppbongi.medium.com.

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Emotional pain is the focal point to this series

It is a story about two guys essentially stuck in a condo because of the Covid pandemic. They do not know each other which makes for interesting dynamics. The dialogue between these two is nothing short of brilliant. This story grows on you because of two things. The acting becomes sincere and believable and the dialogue is superb and top notch. There are such deep meaningful dialogues almost too many to catch in one setting. The screenplay centering around the conversations they had between each other is one of the finest of any BL series. If you want to read my full review of this short but very interesting series, please go to ppbongi.medium.com.

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Profoundly Realistic

This series is hard to describe. It starts out with a comedic flair to it and it is funny to a point. The screenplay for this series is one of the best. It captures in a very profound esoteric way the pain of coming out and how individualized it all is. Some are never able to make that transition while others make it almost instantly while others suffer through it perhaps in a torturous state , sometimes for years. The ending may put you into a deep funk but yet it is so realistic for many, many individuals who are trying to grapple with being gay. My full review of this very likeable and realistic story is at ppbongi.medium.com.

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Disappointing and Meandering

This BL series had such good potential and started out well. But then it meandered and veered off into silly and unnecessary directions, which was too bad because the overall story is actually entertaining. This was one of the few series that I almost gave up watching. The production, editing, and translations into English made it very difficult to watch. The story dragged on and on especially for the' main' couple and I found that relationship insufferable. I thought the 'secondary relationships' (if you want to call it that) were way more interesting and had more potential for development. This could have been a good solid story but it did not believe in itself and then got lost. These actors, for the most part, are very young and inexperienced yet they carried what they could on their own without any real direction or solid production. If you want to read my full review of this series, please go to ppbongi.medium.com. Leave a comment if you like.

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Soft, Sincere, Emotional

This really is an amazingly beautiful love story told softly, subtly, and with great understanding of male bonding. Not every relationship starts with a big bang but more like a slow burn and is almost metaphorically like cooking. All the ingredients must be there and prepared just right for the final outcome to be indelible. These guys are very good actors and conveyed a deep sense of commitment to their roles. This could have been fatalistic, but it does not go there and in fact feels hopeful. These guys are also stunningly handsome with such a boy next door charm about them. These are hard roles because they must carry the whole series since there are only very minor characters otherwise. You can read my full review of this nice series at ppbongi.medium.com.

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A Secret Pleasure of Mine

This is such a feel-good series particularly currently. Honestly, I should not have liked this, but I did. It is slow, predictable, filled with the usual suspects but so much fun. I could not help laughing at its silliness and cuteness at the same time. If it were not for these actors, this would have been a total disaster. They made this series so real, so comedic, and just a joy to watch. I did not care that it had no depth to it or great message. It was just entertaining. It is a thing of beauty to watch. The ending is as unrealistic as this entire plot but so in synch with the rest of this series. This was a comedy and indeed has a happy ending (well you know what I mean). Everyone wins in the end. Do not read too much into this series. This is not a slice of life; it is essentially asking you to suspend your reality and simply enjoy a feel-good series about love between guys. There are a lot of flaws in this series from ridiculous characters, such as Amp, to crazy plot lines, like a surrogate pregnancy. But for me, it worked. Why? Because I believed the characters.
However, there were some situations in this series that made me shudder. One is the overuse of ‘hubby-wifey’ connotations. Again, I am NOT Thai, and I do NOT even pretend to know the Thai culture or customs, but for me these terms are simply cringeworthy. I am hoping we can stop using these terms to define gay relationships. I know that they might help make them more relatable to societal norms, but these terms are simply outdated and literally have no and should not have meaning in the gay world. They make it sound as if these are your assigned roles and duties, thus perpetuating the stereotypical roles of each gender.
The words that Chon's mother is so apt here and we should all remember them, “It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.” If you would like to review my full review of this series, it is posted on my free blog site at ppbongi.medium.com. I have to caution you that I actually liked this series, despite its flaws.

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Standard Thai BL

Admittedly, this series is perfectly named. It did seem to continue to go on and on endlessly. It was like being adrift in a rudderless boat floating in an ocean of tropes, clichés, banalities, stereotypes, and platitudes. Sooner or later, you would bump into one of them on your way to wherever it was you were supposed to be going. Unfortunately, this series went nowhere because it had nowhere to go to. Honestly, you have seen this story hundreds of times if you are an avid BL watcher. If not, you will no doubt run across its plot again because it is standard. It is another high school love story between two best friends. I know that many will no doubt like this series, but I found this series wantoned for its shallowness, use of endlessly tropey and cliché storylines, supporting characters that were superfluously infantile and not funny, the main characters never got to be a couple until the last episode and by that point it was too late, and a supposed secondary couple that was never fully developed into anything meaningful. I also found it quite sad that these two guys, who are otherwise solid and successful, could not bring themselves to communicate with each other. That for me is simply not a subject matter I can find funny.

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