Ah, Fish Upon the Sky or as I like to call it, ‘Just How Much Merch can GMM make from One Series?’

First off, I don’t dislike FUTS. I genuinely enjoyed a lot of it, but that was despite its flaws. What I do see is that people are going to really love this show, or really hate it, or like me, be mostly ‘yeah that was a thing’ about it.

When I’d previously written my First Impressions about FUTS, I’d mentioned that it had won me over with its cheesy humour and endearing characters. That was after the first three episodes, and the fourth made me regret saying that, because it was, for me, the lowest point in the series.

If you’re not aware of the reactions from mostly the Sikh community and others, about the very inappropriate, completely unnecessary, and downright weird decision to have Duean’s friends dress up in white with turbans and insulting at least 3 minority communities simultaneously, all you need to know that it was not particularly funny and it was mostly in poor taste and I for one would like to erase it from my memory.

Back to the review.

What I didn’t Like

– The pacing.

Dear god the pacing.

The first three episodes made it seem like the show had a clear direction on where it was going, progressing the MorkPi and DueanMeen romances simultaneously. But then the plot decides to take a long, meandering, and really weird path, with a good portion of the episodes between four and ten seeming to be finding various ways to delay any kind of progress in either of the relationships. In the case of MorkPi, for example, it is Mork directly telling Pi that he likes him and making every possible overture of affection only to have Pi repeatedly insist on following his one-sided attraction to Muang Nan.

– The shippers. These are the most annoying characters in the show. They help with the above mentioned point because they eat up screentime that could be used for plot. They’re meant to be a message on how shipping can turn toxic and social media can be harmful but ultimately they don’t get any real comeuppance, which was disappointing.

– The ‘twist’ in the twelfth episode. The eleventh episode curse is bad enough, guys, there is no need to put it in the last episode instead and then have to rush through the resolution.

– The unresolved Muang Nan ending and weird Stars in the Water reference that seems out of place if it means nothing.

What I Liked

Like I said, there was a lot I enjoyed about FUTS, despite its flaws.

– The humour, when it was done right and didn’t rely too much on cultural appropriration or slapstick, was on point. I laughed more than a couple of times, especially at Duean’s antics. Neo has a great flair for physical comedy.

– The actors. I mentioned it before, but I’ll say it again: Duean and Pi had the best brotherly dynamic, full of teasing and random acts of violence. It helps that Neo and Phuwin had great chemistry beforehand, they play off it well here too.

– Pond and Phuwin as Mork and Pi work well together too. I didn’t get the kind of ‘oh god please just kiss’ energy I’ve gotten from other BL series (*cough*1000stars *cough*) but they did manage to convey the kind of young-people-with-crushes vibe that works in university dramas. I especially enjoyed the fact that the show lets Pi actively talk about his interest in/likeing of Mork, especially once they do get together, instead of passively waiting for Mork to do something.

– I was less convinced about Neo and Louis’s Duean and Meen as a convincing couple, but Louis is as cute as a button and he especially won me over with one stellar scene of Duean exploring the depths of his ‘fantasies’.

Other actors I really enjoyed include Mix as Muang Nan – who in the later episodes really comes off a supportive friend going through a bittersweet experience with love in his own life. Janhae really plays it up as Bam, Mork’s friend who appears to introduce a deliberate jealousy plotline in the MorkPi relationship. I couldn’t tell if I found her clingy acting hilarious or annoying. Possibly both.

– The cinematography. There are some really good scenes in this show, especially in terms of the lighting choices that went a long way to adding atmosphere.

– The music. Well. Some of the music. The OSTs are fun and I really enjoyed the version of What Kind of Person that they’d use at episode climaxes until they replaced it with a new, faster number in the last two episodes.

– Pi’s character. While we all agree Phuwin has always been adorable, an important theme of the show is how Pi has crushing self-esteem issues that have led him to constantly try to avoid Mork and protect himself. It’s always refreshing to see these very real and very relevant dealt with in a drama. Does it lead to the series taking too long to get to the point? A little bit, but it was good to see.

I’d say check out FUTS if you’re not looking for something to heavily invest in and you have patience to sit through the amount of beating-around-the-bush that the show does.

But I wasn’t kidding about the merch. The sheer number of ‘branded’ stuff these characters use throughout the series is hilarious.

Rating: 3/4