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 finished recapping Not Me with episodes 12-14 and talked about how the end could have been stronger. Below I’ll do a full series review and talk about what a precious unicorn the show is to me.
I also recapped episodes 3-4 of Love Game in Eastern Fantasy, wherein both meteors and the male lead are out to kill our poor female lead. It’s fun!
What did I watch this week? Before my full review of Not Me I have an initial review for something very different:
ThamePo Heart That Skips a Beat – เธมโป้ Heart That Skips a Beat – 2024
Currently airing Thai music idol BL, I’ve watched 4 of 13 episodes.
A broken-hearted documentary maker gets close to a broken-hearted idol group leader and accidentally changes the trajectory of his film and the group.
This show is an interesting animal. It looks great, the leads’ slowly growing relationship is heart-fluttering, and the story so far is nothing new.
We start with two guys with similar but different broken hearts
Po is our documentary filmmaker, struggling after a broken relationship has taken out his heart and career opportunities. A friend helps him get a job with her favorite band, but Po learns the band is about to break up because of the leader, Thame.
Po has feels about seeing someone destroy a relationship and thinks that’s what he’s seeing with cold, beautiful Thame. There isn’t miscommunication so much as misunderstanding until Thame lets Po in on the truth. Thame does not want his group to disband, but feels powerless to fix a mess he’s only partially responsible for creating.
Because of his current situation, Thame has no one he can go to for help and Po is a lifeline. Because of his situation, Po can offer Thame insight into his group’s feelings. Because Thame is hot, Po had a crush on him before he started the job.
We’ve got nicely shot, heart-fluttering interactions
Beyond the nice visuals of our leads and everyone around them, this show looks good. They’ve spent time and money getting our actors to different locations, setting up lighting, and shooting from different angles.
This is nice but doesn’t matter to me nearly as much as the care they’ve put into our leads’ characterization and interactions.
While Thame comes off as someone aware of their own attractiveness and talents, he’s a guy at a low point. He’s not uncomfortable being a leader but he knows he’s screwed it up once. Po, by contrast, comes off as a guy very comfortable fading into the background. He spends time behind a camera, not in front.
Their conversations are my favorite part of the show, as they work through things in a way that feels real. Only on episode four, they’re building a tentative, maybe-romantic connection with Thame being very careful about his new relationship with shy Po.
An example: At the end of episode 3, Thame shows his interest in Po by memorizing his phone number in front of him. Doesn’t sound romantic, but it worked.
The Story Has Me Worried
Thame is trying to get his band back together with Po’s help. Inevitably they will grow in popularity and the usual problems will occur. Thame is an idol, Po is some guy.
It could be that this is a me problem. I hate how these stories turn into “love versus the system”, with the idol/music industry destroying relationships because money. These being romances, love wins, but not before someone gives up and everyone is miserable until the last minute.
If this show does what I want, Thame and Po would get together soon, and the plot would focus on how they work together against the system. Less misery, more unity and defiance. It would take a page from the show I’m reviewing next. But I’m not holding my breath.
This may or may not worry you. Even though it worries me, I’m still watching.
So yeah, unity and defiance, lets talk about:
Not Me – เขา…ไม่ใช่ผม – 2021
A young man takes his injured twin’s place to find out who hurt him. He joins a group of rebellious young men, and gets pulled into illegal activities and complicated love.
The first time I watched this show was soon after it came out. I was new to Thai BL and I didn’t “get” it. Now that I’m an older, wiser Thai BL watcher I appreciate this show a lot more.
Let me babble about the interesting disappointments of 2024
I think it’s an exciting time to be watching Thai BL. While the engineering college romances are still here, there are many more options. From Wandee Goodday’s boxer/doctor friends-with-benefits set-up to Jack and Joker’s thief and debt collector pairing. We’ve got tragic Garuda/Naga past lives, timey-wimey nonsense, and even an omegaverse show.
But for me, many of these shows fail to live up to their potential. They have new ideas but don’t know where to take them, so they take them nowhere or some random place I wasn’t interested in going.
I compare this with the Japanese BL of 2024, which is essentially drama after drama about one guy cooking for another until love happens. These shows have satisfying endings, but are less interesting and exciting (with exceptions).
My hope is that Thailand stays ambitious and ups its skills until it can sustain some of these premises better.
Okay but what does this have to do with Not Me?
The first time I watched Not Me I was confused about what I was seeing, distracted by the clunkiness of the plot and the not-BL feeling of the romance. An ignorance of Thai politics didn’t help (though I can’t claim to be knowledgeable now).
But now that I’ve been disappointed by a lot more shows, and now that Thailand is the first in South East Asia to recognize same-sex unions, I see this show very differently.
No really, now I’m going to start talking about the show
We’ve got these twins, Black and White, who were split up thanks to the bad parenting endemic to dramas. White comes back to Thailand after years away, and immediately after his brother is beaten into a coma.
White steps up like any good twin, taking his place to find out who hurt him. This means befriending his twin’s new friend group, some angry young men who want to expose the corruption in Thailand. They’re tired of a legal system that prioritizes the wealthy and want to bring attention to the problem by setting things on fire.
White is forced to join in to blend in, but he’s uncomfortable setting things on fire. He doesn’t see things their way. He knows he’s privileged but he doesn’t really get it. Then, as he spends more time in Thailand seeing how things work for other people, he starts to understand what they are fighting for. But he still hesitates about setting things on fire.
Where’s the BL?
One of these other young men, possibly the one who most wants to set things on fire, is Sean. Sean hates Black, except that Black ignited their passion for setting things on fire.
White, pretending to be Black, irritates him further by constantly trying to stop him from setting things on fire. But as White starts to sympathize with the group, he starts trying to help them get their point across in a productive way. At first, Sean sees this only as getting in his way, but gradually, White gets his point across.
Sean’s fiery passion inspires White, and White’s rationality helps Sean.
The BL is not the usual BL. There’s wound tending but the wounds are really bleeding. There’s skinship but it might come after punching. There are no aggressive skin filters turning their skin into light-colored plastic.
Their attraction to each other is mixed in with their attraction to each other’s ideals and passions. It’s as much about a more cerebral meeting of the minds as it is about more carnal urges.
Not everything about the show is the best thing ever
There is a great trans woman character but the other two women characters aren’t given enough to do. There is a heterosexual romance and it’s fine I guess. It adds diversity.
White is comically unprepared to take over as Black.
Some of their revolutionary activities come off as silly rather than meaningful.
The first time I watched this show I thought it was too optimistic. In light of Thailand’s marriage laws actually changing and some maturity on my part, I’ve gotten over that. Sometimes we need optimism.
That said, things come together a little too easily in the end and I think they could have fleshed it out better.
But this show is a beautiful unicorn
Not all BL needs to push revolutionary politics. I need shows like Your Sky and We Are for the hard days. Just being entertaining and bringing people joy is enough. Don’t take my fluff away from me.
But shows can also be entertaining and carry messages. Shows can come from major entertainment agencies and feature well-known actors and still have something subversive to say. Even a few years later this show is an excellent blueprint, and I hope more shows follow in its path.
But, you know, be different. That’s the point.
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