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 finished up Thai Boxer-Docor BL Wandee Goodday with recaps of episodes 11-12. I’ll give my final series review below.
I also recapped episodes 7-8 of Thailand’s housemate BL Knock Knock, Boys! which continues to delight me with its combination of honesty and comedy. Characters are flawed, sex is complicated, school never seems to be taught by anyone, and it’s a lot of fun.
What did I watch this week?
As I said, I finished:
Wandee Goodday – วันดีวิทยา – 2024
A recently aired Thai boxer-doctor BL with 12 episodes.
A boxer and a doctor suffering from unrequited love meet and start a no-strings-attached relationship. But eventually, strings attach.
Here’s a link to my full recaps.
My feelings are mixed, let’s start with what I didn’t love
Mainly, the writing. Besides the main characters and our boxer Yoyak’s family (including the second couple), the secondary characters had no character. They took actions only to create conflict for our main leads and had little motivation outside of following the script. I can’t tell you much about these people or why they do what they do.
Considering that two of these secondary characters were the unrequited love targets and one an important best friend, I found this frustrating. It bled into my feelings about the main characters, causing me to question why they allowed these people in their lives or had crushes on them.
The other big issue I had with the writing was a habit of telling and not showing. There seemed to be good intentions to show a range of sexuality and send a message of positivity and support to the LGBTQIA+ community. I was excited to see the recent marriage equality bill included in the story.
Unfortunately, most of this messaging came via characters giving speeches. We didn’t get to see many examples of the characters practicing what they preached, mainly we got the preaching. That, combined with some uneven treatment of criminal behavior, weakened the message considerably.
I also didn’t like the clown outfits. Nope nope.
What did I like?
Wandee, Yoyak, and their relationship.
Yoyak was an adorable puppy of a character. He’s not always aware of his emotions but he’s always open and expressive with them, sometimes to a fault. Yoyak is all heart.
Wandee won’t let his true feelings be dragged out of him no matter how hard anyone tries. He enjoys torturing Yoyak by not sharing his feelings with him. Wandee is maybe a little bit of an emotional sadist, despite being vanilla.
From beginning to end, despite their conflicts, they remained a pair that was easy to support. Probably because they were so supportive of one another, even before either of them realized their feelings.
Also, I adored Cher, one-half of the second couple, and his socks. Cher is so cute and sweet. I would have liked to see the second couple get to do more, though they had some good scenes.
So who do I recommend this for?
Sometimes you just want to watch 12 episodes of people navigating a relationship together without worrying that your heart is going to be broken and dragged through the mud on an epic adventure of love and suffering.
Sometimes you want a series of light-hearted interactions between two characters (and actors) with chemistry where all the conflicts can be easily solved in a scene or two.
Sometimes you don’t want to think too hard about the deeper meanings behind a show. You just want a positive message, lots of skinship, and an adorable grandmother.
If any of that sounds like you (or just how you feel in the moment) this may be the show for you. You can always read through my recaps (some people love knowing how things end so here’s a direct link for you) and decide too.