Welcome to my weekly blog post where I give thoughts on dramas I’m watching, whether I’m at the beginning, middle, or end. Whatever I want, because I’m petty that way.
This week I started recapping the currently airing Thai BL Wandee Goodday. So far it’s a lot of silly fun with a doctor and a boxer starting a no-strings-attached relationship. Don’t worry, extensive knowledge of doctoring or boxing isn’t needed, and you can check out my recaps of episodes 1 and 2 here.
I also started my first Korean drama recap, the fantasy BL Love for Love’s Sake. This is a rewatch recap that I’m going through an episode at a time to catch all the detail. You can read my recap of episode 1 here.
For this weekend’s reviews, I’m staying in Thailand. Starting with a show I recently finished:
23.5 – 23.5 องศาที่โลกเอียง – 2024
Recently aired Thai High School GL with 12 episodes.
A social misfit starts at a new high school and meets the cool, beautiful senior whose social media account she’s been following. High School ensues.
Cuteness couldn’t save this one from fizzling out.
The main problem was the characters
Probably the biggest problems were Sun and Luna, the second half of our two couples. They were sweet and beautiful and smart and kind and not a lot else. I love a good sunshine/gloomy pairing but sunshine needs to do something besides stand and radiate. These two were without flaws. I think there was a last-ditch effort to give Sun a moment of growth, but it was very shallow.
Not that their partners, Ongsa and Aylin, get off the hook. People called Ongsa a coward and acted like her character arc was to become brave, but she always seemed brave to me. It was more like she needed to appreciate herself and have confidence. So that didn’t work for me.
Aylin, a young woman who needed to believe she was an alien, was probably my favorite character. However, the arc they gave her was a standard “learn to trust people again” arc that didn’t fit with her unique situation and made it seem like she’d done something wrong when I don’t think she did. What was going on with Aylin was too deep for such a shallow ‘fix’.
The secondary characters started fun and quirky but didn’t develop while getting plenty of screen time. Their quirks became repetitive and irritating.
It’s not all bad of course
The actors are cute. There’s one trope I really, really hate that our high school leads handled in a more adult way than most older characters. I liked the space theme.
Unfortunately, there’s not enough GL in this world yet. If you’re someone who really wants to see a cute High School GL with a standard plot, you can probably look past the characters. In general, this won’t be one I recommend.
Stick with me in Thailand for a review of the first half of:
We Are – We are คือเรารักกัน – 2024
Currently airing Thai College BL, I’m at 8 of 16 episodes.
A group of friends at various stages of college work on their academics, drink a lot, and fall in love. That’s kinda it.
I’m enjoying this one an awful lot so far. It’s not doing anything revolutionary or exciting, but it’s doing one thing well: I like everyone and want to see them happy together.
There are 4 couples in this show, with two of them getting a majority of the screen time and the other two underdeveloped so far. I’ll focus on the first two.
We’ve got our spoiled rich kid, Phum, and way too-nice art student, Peem
Because of a ridiculous altercation, our too-nice guy ends up the temporary servant of the rich kid. Interesting dynamics develop from these very unfair dynamics. The rich kid realizes the art student is a nice guy. The too-nice guy realizes there are things to like about the rich kid. Before they know it, rich guy Phum is ordering too-nice Peem around while giving him rides everywhere and paying for everything.
A silly thing I like about them is that Phum uses his wealth with Peem with none of the usual “no I must be an equal partner!” nonsense. It drives me crazy when a character without inherited wealth is presented as just needing to work hard to be equal in an insanely unequal society. Good luck!
(It’s also funny that Phum is giving me Kim Tan of The Heir’s vibes, though it could be because of how the actor is styled.)
Our second couple is two art students in a mentor/mentee situation
They are also the sunshine/gloomy pairing of the show, mentor Q is gloomy and mentee Toey is sunshine. I’m a sucker for this trope and like how it’s done here. Q is a fantastic artist and a good mentor, but he’s terrible with love. It’ll take more than a few smiles from Toey to win him over. I like seeing sunshine have to work. Poor sunshine. Gloomy better make it worth his effort though!
(The actors were the second couple in My School President, and I liked them there as well.)
Another small thing that I like is how the various groups interact
Peem and Phum are in two different faculties and friend groups, but there is overlap because of a high school friend group. Often with these shows characters seem to hang out because they know they are in a drama and have to hang out. Here I find that when and where who is interacting with who or partying with who or getting drunk with who feels very organic and natural.
It’s not a show for you if you want something more than slice-of-life, college kids dealing with friends and love. With 8 episodes left, it is also fair to be worried that it’ll fizzle or become unpleasant angst.
But I’ll keep watching and keep hoping.
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