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 recapped episodes 9-10 of Thai boxer-doctor BL Wandee Goodday and was disappointed when the guys didn’t put on mermaid costumes. Otherwise, this show remains a good light watch that shouldn’t be taken seriously.
I also recapped episodes 1-2 of I Hear The Sunspot, a Japanese college BL important to me because it has a hard-of-hearing character. And I am a hard-of-hearing character myself.
What did I watch this week? I finally got around to finishing:
Only Boo! – แค่ที่แกง – 2024
A recently aired Thai fluffy High School BL with 12 episodes.
The most adorable wanna-be idol to ever live gets sent away to behave at a new school by his mom and attaches himself to the most responsible young man ever. Good choice Moo.
Here’s a link to my initial review.
Here’s a link to my follow-up review.
In this post, I’m going to start with a broad, spoiler-free review and then give a warning before getting into spoilers. Will this become a new format for me? I dunno.
The Spoiler-Free Review
For a trope-y, high school/college BL with a worried artist and shiny-happy wannabe idol, this show is excellent. The writing, characters, and lead actors elevate it into something better than it should be.
Let’s start with the writing. The story covers a surprising amount of ground, starting with our guys meeting while one of them, Moo, is in High School and continuing after he graduates and pursues becoming an idol. This kind of timespan can be disorientating, but I never felt like I’d missed out on anything important. The idol stuff was important to the plot, but not overwhelming, keeping the romance central.
Onto the characters, they made the more predictable aspects of the show a joy to watch. I talked about this in my initial review and nothing has changed. Our idol-wannabee Moo is a ray of goofy sunshine, but he’s also thoughtful and a good communicator. Kang is practical, serious, and stern, but not afraid to express his emotions. As the tropes popped up, they never felt motivated to do things because the script called for more conflict. I loved watching them navigate their lives and grow together.
There’s a second couple who never felt like extraneous filler unconnected from the rest of the plot. I didn’t love them nearly as much as Moo and Kang, but they had charm and a different but interesting journey that was satisfying to watch.
Our lead actors are young but fit their parts well and have good chemistry. I’d love to see them in something else together. Given their ages, I’m afraid it’d be another school BL.
I loved this show even though it veered into some hated tropes. I strongly recommend it to anyone in the mood for a Thai school BL.
Spoiler time! I’m going to talk about the last quarter of the show, you’ve been warned
It took me a few extra weeks to finish watching this show because it hit my all-time, least favorite trope: The break-up followed by a time skip. Ugh. This trope ruins shows for me. But it didn’t ruin this one, here’s why:
First, the time skip is only a year.
Second, Moo never gives up on Kang and while Kang instigates the break-up and ghosts Moo, he can’t let go of him either.
Finally and most importantly, the show never pretends this was a good decision. Yes, Moo goes on with his life and becomes an idol, but underneath he’s hurting badly and unable to let go. His life isn’t ruined, but that doesn’t mean it’s okay. Kang too is going on with life but suffering.
If anything, showing how broken up they both are also shows how horrible the trope is.
When they reunite, Moo doesn’t forgive Kang easily. He wants them to be together but he’s not like, “breaking my heart turned out for the best so thanks for that”. The easy way he resolves the issue that led to the breakup almost proves his point: Kang’s sacrifice was needless because they could have figured something less painful out together.
I did not love seeing my sweet show go down this well-worn path. Or watching Moo cry so much. (Kang deserved to cry since he caused it all.) But I still love this show. I’m glad I started watching it while it was airing. If I’d known the end ahead of time, I might have avoided it and missed all its sweetness and charm.
So yeah, watch it even if you hate this trope the way I do.