Remember Me is easily one of the most slept-on shows of the last year.

And no, I don’t mean it because of the mellow tone and comparatively slower pace of the series, although it did strike it apart from what I’d come to expect of a typical BL series.

It is hard to describe what it is about, really. There are the love stories, three of them to be precise, between Gun and Golf, Em and Name, and Nan and Chompu, but the show is about more than the relationships.

It is about regrets, it is about lost opportunities, and it is about loss.

But more than anything else, it is about communication.

The show traces the cast as they grow from childhood, to school, to college, and finally their adulthood, all of which are mediated by the technologies of the eras.

From writing letters, which is how Gun (First Chalongrat) and Golf (Ja Phachara) first get to know each other, to MSN, BB, the earlier iPhones, and every gadget in between which kids of the 90’s and early 2000’s grew up with, the storylines are inextricably linked to forms of communication. While means of communication diversify and it technically becomes much easier to stay in touch, the protagonists of Remember Me find themselves losing this very communication, as bonds break and mend again and again over the course of the series.

The villain of the series is time itself; while it brings each main character (and there’s quite a few of them since the series focuses evenly on everyone’s stories) closer, it also drifts them apart, which is further exacerbated by ironically the technology designed to bring people closer to each other.

It is not only romantic relationships that face the test of time, but familial relationships and friendships too. In particular, Champ’s (Title Tanatorn) story arc delves into emotional distancing from his family, which worsens as time passes and modes of communication progress until he realises that maybe sometimes you can convey love and regrets only through pickled fish after all.

The show also includes into some real-world politics. Apart from setting the stage by referring to important socio-political events of each time period, there are also discussions of same-sex marriage, something which has been more frequently brought up in BL series as of late. The characters (in 2012) ponder upon the lack of rights queer people have and hope that maybe things would be better a decade later. Would they be shocked to find out, I wonder, that despite even more progressions in technologies, in some senses we’re in the same place as a decade ago?

Remember Me is probably not the best thing to watch if you are looking for something light to uplift your mood; I was tearing up more often than I would’ve wanted to. The show’s pace is also maybe not for everyone, and the only reason I am taking 0.5 out of the rating is because I felt it to drag at times (well, that and those awful wigs that should’ve never seen the light of day), but if you have a box of tissues on hand, give this show a try.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Streaming on : Ultimate Troop YouTube Channel