Him is not as I thought previously an object pronoun but the name of one of the main characters. Kuddos for Thai BL for always being so creative when it comes to character names.

“For Him the Series” tells the story of Him (played by Dew Nitikorn Pankhram), a rich playboy who has lost someone dear and it’s been craving for love and redemption ever since. One night he meets Nail ( played by Tor Atagorn Sonyot), a sassy college student who had just found out his boyfriend had been cheating on him with a woman and since then he’s been bitter about it but determined to leave that piece of scumbag behind. They meet in a bar. Him is instantly attracted to Nail, but the college boy plays hard to get. That doesn’t put Him off at all. Instead, he begins to woo Nail every night at the same bar until finally Him nails (the verb) Nail (the character). I read in a comment section that the producers should have called the story NailHim; I mean, the brilliant pun was right there. No such luck. Anyways, Him and Nail spend a passionate night together. But will it be just a one-night stand?

At the moment this review is being written, three episodes have been released by iQIYI – a streaming service that to my surprise is investing heavily on mature content BL. The first episode shows a little bit of Him and Nail with their own issues. Nail’s background, however, is much more transparent than Him’s. We find out that Nail has been dating his highschool sweetheart for some time before he was so cruelly cheated on. Him, on the other hand, is introduced to us like Christian Grey was introduced in 50 Shades of Grey. He is rich, mysterious, aloof, and seems to be haunted by something from his past. Even the soundtrack reminded me of 50 Shades of Grey, and if the creators wanted to make this connection, it worked for me. No, it isn’t BDSM. But I’m guessing they wanted to created the same sort of erotic atmosphere as Him and Nail have sex for the first time, then the second one and so forth. In the first episode, I was left with the feeling that there was something more to Him, and I wanted to find out what it was.

It turns out Him had an ex called Blue (also played by Tor Atagorn Sonyot) who appears in angst flashbacks. It looks obvious that Him went after Nail because he reminded him of Blue, though the two boys couldn’t be any more different. Blue is portraited as a sweet and kind of naive boy whereas Nail is anything but.

What was supposed to be a one-night stand on Nail’s part slowly becomes something more as delivish handsome Him pursues his attention relentlessly. The thing is, a tragedy surrounds Blue, something that has scarred not only Him but also one of his friends (?), Pae (Peat Suchanon Chueluecha). In fact, Pae has sworn not to let Him be happy after what happened with Blue – we have yet to know exactly what happened and how involved Him was with the ordeal, but everything seems to indicate it was suicide.

While the plot appears to be interesting, “For Him” so far is just another BL series. It feels very soapy to me – which is not necessarily bad as I love soap operas – and full of clichés. It’s watchable but forgettable in an industry that has become very competitive and with so many releases at once. Brownie points for looks – all the boys are gorgeous to look at – but no incredible performances.

I’m guessing there’s a lot of drama yet to come. How involved was Him in Blue’s death? Was he a bad boyfriend? What about Pae? Is he just the good friend who was in love with Blue or does he hide a dark side? And how will Nail react to all of this? So far Nail seems a very proactive guy who won’t take any BS from anyone, and I enjoy that. We need more strong first characters. Plus, Tor and Dew do make a lovely couple, and I also want to know how the story will unfold until the end.

Rating- 3 out of 5

Streaming on- IQIYI