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 11-12 of Love in the Moonlight. For the full details of my thoughts on the ending, you can check out that recap, but I’ll have my usual mostly-spoiler-free final review below.
I also recapped episodes 11-12 of Goddess Bless You from Death. This show has become a real favorite of mine, and I’m sad-happy that there’s only one episode left. (Okay, I already watched it, and it’s great. This show was great. But you’ll have to wait a few weeks for me to go into more detail. Unless you are on my Patreon, where I’ve already posted my notes on ep 13.)
What did I watch this week? There are a bunch of new dramas I’m eager to get to, and I will, but this week I’m only talking about the one I mentioned above:
Love in the Moonlight – สลักรักในแสงจันทร์ – 2025
A 2025 soap-y Thai BL with a poor prince and a poor musician and 12 episodes.
A prince is forced into an engagement to save his family, and falls for his unwanted fiancée’s cousin.
I had my eye on this one when it came out because it seemed to be in the same genre as my all-time favorite, To Sir, With Love. I’ll get to how it does, and doesn’t, resemble that show in a bit.
First, let’s talk about crying, yearning, and horrible families
I feel like I’ve been down on shows with a lot of crying lately. Typically, that’s because the show starts fun or with an unserious tone, only to switch gears for the last few episodes into constant sobbing. Possibly so that the happy ending feels more earned. This doesn’t work for me.
What does work is a show like this. We start with our poor prince forced into a loveless engagement by an abusive father, unable to break free because of a beloved, sickly, and oblivious grandmother who mistakes his constant misery and depression for pre-wedding jitters.
With this kind of set-up, I can understand our poor prince looking like he’s ready to cry for 75% of the show. (The actor is also really good at looking teary-eyed.)
Into his teary life comes a cheerful violin player who believes people should always do what makes them happy, and not live for others. Being a distant cousin to a richer family, he doesn’t understand what it is to be weighed down and trapped by family obligations.
The poor musician and his love are what our poor prince needs to give him the strength to fight for what he wants.
Let’s talk about To Sir, With Love
Because I’ll talk about it at any chance I get.
Both these shows are “lakorns”, which I understand to be Thai soap operas. They are high in melodrama and character count. The main couple is still the center of the story and around which everything revolves. But compared to a typical BL, more time is spent on the other characters, their schemes, and their arcs.
I started this show worried I would compare it with To Sir, With Love. As it turns out, that was another of my needless anxieties. Yes, we have leads with “secrets” from affluent families who meet poorer guys and have their first kisses through fabric. These are all surface-level similarities. After the first few episodes, I stopped noticing these overlaps because the core messages were so different.
To Sir, With Love was about the perfect son, who, because of his sexuality, went from being perfect to something shameful. Speaking of Sidney Poitier, it was a Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner turned horror story, where a flawless character from a marginalized group reveals the horrible prejudices of those around them. It exposes the ugliness of “polite” society.
Love in the Moonlight was about control and dreams. People trying to control who others can and can’t love is not restricted to any particular sexuality, but the world still tries to control who LGBTQIA+ people can love disproportionately. In the real world and in the show, they do it “for their own good” and “because they love them.”
The show illustrates this in multiple ways, but thankfully offers hope in the form of dreams. That’s something no one outside of you can control, and it’s something worth fighting for.
Back to the show I’m actually reviewing
Once I realized that central, core message, I could get behind the suffering for a greater purpose. But I don’t enjoy shows just because they have a message that I find pleasing.
I liked our two leads. They had a nice size difference and chemistry. Their very different personalities suited each other well. Seeing the poor prince get the love and support he needed was heartwarming. It was not hard to believe that they loved each other so deeply that they were willing to fight as hard as they did. While it was hard to watch them suffer, there were enough sweet moments that it never became too bleak or miserable.
I liked our interesting host of side characters, particularly the fiancée who went on her own emotional rollercoaster.
My main criticism of the show would be that it needed a few more episodes to better motivate and resolve some of the side characters’ stories.
The fiancée and her relationship with her cousin felt underbaked. Some characters didn’t get resolutions so much as they stopped appearing on screen. A character was forgiven far, far too easily. I didn’t feel like we wasted screentime on anyone, so what we really needed was more screen time with them.
But there was enough there for me to be satisfied with how everything turned out
If you’re in the mood to watch people suffer for their love and prove that love is stronger than small-minded people and their prejudices, this is a good watch.
Or you can just read my recaps.
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