Welcome to my Saturday blog post, where I give thoughts on dramas I’m watching, whether at the beginning, middle, or end. Whatever I want, because I’m petty that way.
This week, I recapped episodes 5-6 of Love in the Moonlight. Sasin seems to struggle a lot here with whether he wants to yell at or kiss Saenkaew.
I also started a new recap, with mystery-buddy-cop-horror-BL Dare You To Death episodes 1 and 2. We’ve got Joong, Dunk, bad policework, mediocre production quality, and death. I’m happy.
What did I watch this week? Well, it’s time to talk about my embarrassing obsession with Fourever You:
Fourever You Seasons 1 & 2 – เพราะรักนำทาง / เพราะรักนำทาง พาร์ท 2 – 2024/2025
Season 1 was 17 episodes, Season 2 will be 24. There are some specials.
An omnibus-style show with 5 college couples spread across 2 seasons, but calling it Fivever You would sound stupid.
Here’s a link to the trailer for Season 1.
Here’s a link to the trailer for the first couple in Season 2.
Here’s a link to the trailer for the second couple in Season 2.
Here’s a link to the trailer for the third couple in Season 2.
Fourever You belongs to the “as many couples as we can fit on the poster” subgenre of College BL, which includes We Are and Perfect 10 Liners. I wrote briefly about my fondness for one of the couples in the first season, but now that we’ve hit season 2, I’ve got more to say.
Let’s start with Season 1, because that’s easy
In Season 1, we meet all five couples, but the two that are the focus are Ter and Hill, and North and Johan.
Ter and Hill are the reasons I have not watched all of Season 1. As far as I can tell, there’s not a whole lot of there there. They were together during their High School years, and then something happened, and they were not together.
Now, it’s college, and they meet again. They’re both nice, attractive people who like each other, and they spend time together while not being a couple. Then they rehash the past and become a couple.
Don’t get me wrong, I like the actors, Pond was good in Reset, and Earth/Cooheart was good in Until We Meet Again. There’s just not a whole lot for them to do with these nice characters and their conflictless relationship.
(Also, I dislike how Earth/Cooheart was styled to a strange extreme.)
Contrast them with North and Johan, who are the reasons I started watching Season 2. Johan is obsessed with North from back in high school when they played at the same game center. He wanted to ask him out, but North was already seeing someone. North never even knew he existed.
Now at the same college and with North single, Johan quickly gets North into debt to him so he can make him do what he wants. North, the world’s most easy-going BL character, accepts it all with only mild confusion about how he got into this situation. Eventually, North enjoys having someone obsessed with him who wants to protect and take care of him.
Plot-wise, Johan and North don’t have anything more going on, but their personalities and chemistry are a lot of fun.
That was season 1, now we’re onto season 2
And thanks to the magic of the internet, I have read some of the upcoming couples’ original novels. Translated from Thai into Indonesian and then translated into English using my browser’s built-in translation tool. The Internet. Is. Amazing.
So our third couple is Phoon and Fah. They’ve known each other since childhood, and Phoon is in love with Fah. Phoon also has the saddest of sad backstories, which he keeps secret because of his horrible father, poor feelings of self-worth, and isolation.
Fah, who is pretty much as nice as Hill but with a quiet, still waters run deep aura, sees Phoon as a younger brother. A confusing younger brother who suddenly and harshly pushes him away. They meet again in college, and Fah’s still hurt and confused, and Phoon doesn’t apologize or explain.
The first two episodes of season 2 are very different from season 1 in many ways. The hairstyles are all different (for better or worse, depending on the actor). The production feels smoother and more polished. And the tone is quieter, moody, and melancholy.
Thankfully, Phoon meets the friend group in episode 3, and things improve. We get to see North being ridiculous and some typical Thai BL silly/stupid comedy to lighten things up.
Our next couple will be Dao, who can see ghosts, paired with Arthit, who goes on vacations and gets bitten by piranhas. The final couple is Mafia heir Ger with his long-time-one-sided crush, North’s friend Nao.
I’m a little worried about that last one falling into the same trap as Hill and Ter, but I’m eager for our weird duo of Arthit and Dao.
So let’s talk about my obsession and tropes
These couples are the tropiest of trope-y trope couples you’ll ever find. The bottoms are small and cute. The tops are big, handsome, and rich. The tops do the driving, the protecting, and the tutoring. The bottoms are taken out to nice dinners and decide when the relationship can be a relationship. Sure, North gets into drunken fights, but Johan has to protect him when things get serious.
The “plots” are an interchangeable mix of standard BL tropes, used repeatedly in different combinations for each couple.
Ter does photography, and Phoon does photography. Johan had a long-term one-sided crush on North, Phoon had a long-term one-sided crush on Fah, and Ger had a long-term one-sided crush on Nao. Hill gives Ter notes on stickies, and Phoon gives Fah notes on stickies. Johan secretly gave things to North, and Phoon secretly gives things to Fah.
Back in college, the cafeteria nearest to me had “restaurants” that had about 10 things they could combine in various ways to make “food”. This feels like a version of that (except I like my options here better. There was not enough BL when I was in college.)
Don’t like how the tropes are combined in one couple? See how they are changed up for the next couple!
But me, I’m fascinated by how these tropes get used, reused, and changed up to suit the different couples. (What if it’s the top sending the secret love notes? Now what if it’s the bottom? What does that change?) I’m kinda obsessed with it.
(And to be fair, I’ve yet to see anyone wipe food off of anyone else’s face and eat it. So they aren’t using ALL the tropes.)
And then there’s the friend groups
I think it’s the reason to watch shows like this, We Are, and Perfect 10 Liners. While a good, 10-episode show can give you all you need of your main couple, sometimes it feels like they exist in a small bubble devoid of other relationships.
These longer, omnibus-style shows give you more time to enjoy the characters interacting in relationships outside of their romantic ones with their partners. I’m here for the romance, but I like seeing other kinds of supportive and loving relationships.
In the iconic lyrics of the OST, “love is you love is me love is everywhere,” and it’s nice to see this demonstrated in the show.
I’m feeling this the most with Phoon, who needed his new friend group to give him the bravery to break free from his sad past and (kinda) pursue Fah.
But in general, it’s just nice to see how our characters behave around different people, who they go to for help (Hill), who isn’t any help at all (Arthit), and what advice they give each other. You also get to see the characters from more different perspectives.
Are you still here? I’m almost done
I wouldn’t be talking about this show at all if Season 2 weren’t starting so much stronger than the 1st season, production and writing-wise. The mood, acting, and style of the first three episodes of this season have made me excited to see what the rest season will bring.
But as I’ve pretty much said, there is absolutely nothing new with the characters and “stories”. They’re a pleasing arrangement of old-school tropes in the classic college BL setting. If that’s not what you want, I don’t think an upgrade in production value is going to make any difference.
I plan to watch all of season 2, so if you stick around, I’ll give final reviews of each couple’s story when they end.
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