I went into Tharntype with low expectations. I based those on the word of mouth I have seen online. There are problems with this series. The whole subplot of Tar and his rape is not handled in the best way. Moreover, the person who orchestrated the assault of a 10th grader (or possibly a 9th grader, given the timeline) is not punished and is made to look sort of sympathetic in a few scenes. I am including the special episode when I talk about this series.

The chemistry between the actors Mew and Gulf is incredibly good. However, even at the start there are issues with the characters. A gay character falling head over heels for a homophobe is a little hard to believe or take seriously, but you go with it. How the show handles Type's childhood trauma of sexual abuse and related issues is better than I expected. I sort of wish this was used to help examine some of Type's homophobia or even some terrible homophobic stereotypes around homosexuality and child abuse. But the series pulls back from that, in part because Type is not exactly the most self-reflective of characters.

The other subplot with Tar and his step-brother Tum is also in Love by Chance, but it just feels weird and it goes nowhere.

The relationship between Tharn and Type eventually becomes rather cute. I also really like the gradualness in how it works. It goes from enemies, to a one night stand, to fuck buddies, to a situationship, to finally being together. Each step was a natural outgrowth of the previous one.There are still deeply problematic elements to their coupling, but I leave that to the fact the characters are 18/19 years old. Honestly for a lot of people there are some toxic elements when in relationships at that age you eventually out grow, but it takes some time.

Another strength of this show is Type's growth as a human being. He goes from being very narrow minded and an extreme hot head to still being hot-headed but a more mature, caring, and thoughtful individual. Type grew because of his love for Tharn. Tharn doesn't really change much throughout the series. We get to meet Tharn's family a handful of times and they are really cute.

A favorite character of mine was Techno (aka No). He was magnificent comedic relief throughout this season. Much funnier than in Love by Chance.

Major weaknesses of the show? Well, there are characters who stop being relevant halfway through. There are some subplots that feel irrelevant or just drop entirely. The way this show treats consent is also quite the red flag in of itself. The villain doesn't really got portrayed in the way they should have. How this aligns with Love by Chance is also quite a head stratcher in terms of making timelines work, because they do not.