This is a Thai BL that frankly stands out for me. I had almost given up on Thai BLs because of their unoriginal story lines and sameness. Frankly, they were getting banal. And with the title of this one, it well sort of screamed out to me to skip it because of its vapidity. I am so glad I did not. I loved this series but with two caveats.

The saga starts out pretty much predictable. A precocious young man named Moo (Keen Suvijak) is not living up to his expectations, according to his mother. Moo wants to be an ‘Idol’ and is fixated on it. With grades slipping, she gives him an ultimatum and a challenge. Change or Else. So, she sends him off to a school where she attended that is a bit remote and is given instructions to concentrate on his studies enough to get into a university, and then he can pursue his dream. Meanwhile, he cannot sing or dance until these academic conditions are met.

By accident and because of his nearly complete inability to take care of himself, Moo needs to be rescued a lot by Kang (Sea Dechchart), a sympathetic and understanding local young man who runs a small eatery with his mother near where Moo lives and at the school. Kang is a rather pensive, introspective young man, devoted to his mother. He himself is an excellent artist who downplays his own abilities due to several traumatic factors.

Here, however, is where the story takes on the quality of being a journey. Both these young men find each other and manage to compliment and supplement each other that fills the voids in each other’s lives. Sure, it is silly at times and a bit immature at other times; yet underneath it all is still the building block of sincerity. In that process, they fall deeply in love. A love that is surprisingly unfeigned.

This story, series, and production would not have worked without the two main characters. While I truly detest the concept of ‘shipping’, these two have such remarkable chemistry together that I was mesmerized by both. They captured me from the beginning. They played right to the camera as if it was not there. They were natural, real, genuine, honest, and projected a close physical connection to one another rarely seen for me in Thai BLs of late. When they say they ‘loved’ each other, I believed it because they made me believe it. That is rare for two actors so young and frankly with not much acting experience to portray with such depthness the meaning and sincerity of the abstraction of ‘love’. In addition, Keen’s musical abilities were genuine and very good, while Sea’s speaking voice is not just soothing to listen to but, dare I say, one of the most alluring voices I have ever heard. That added to his desirability and when he spoke, it was hard not to be simply absorbed into what he was saying. Whereas Keen’s complete sense of innocence made him so believable and sincere. The combination of the two is insurmountable. I was astonished at the comfort in the display of the relationship between Moo and Boo. Unquestionably, Keen and Sea are a power couple and have the ‘it’ factor. They are so natural as if they belong together. (I am not ‘shipping’ them. Their acting skills did that). It is a complete joy to watch them be together. They are simply magical together, and they bring magic to the screen.

What also makes this series stand apart from others is how it confronts the everyday issues of relationship development. It did not shy away from tackling some hard decisions and dealing with them in a very realistic fashion. For example, when Moo’s dream to become an idol is on the precipice of being realized, his mother goes to Kang and asks him to make a very painful and difficult albeit mature decision. He made it, which was not in her purview to ask of him. Nonetheless, he made it and did what he had to do. That took not just a lot of maturity but a profound sense of purpose and focus. As he also had a chance to center on himself and his burgeoning education. Both now had the opportunity to grow individually.

There was such a strong definition of strength displayed as they both emotionally struggled with trying to stay away from each other with each perceptively growing intellectually and in their chosen fields during this time away from one another as well. There are several scenes, all of which are exceptionally written, that show such an unyielding feeling of connection between the two of them during this time that never faded and in fact if anything simply manifested in stronger tones. I was more than once moved by their sense of maturity of who they were and where they were going. They grew and it showed.

I do wish, however, that this strong connotation of growth had been seen in the secondary couple. Perhaps because of the overwhelming presences of the two leads, the rest of the performers seemed to fill a pattern with tropes. Not that it was bad acting. No one did that. It just did not measure up to what the expectations were. The secondary couple could not get a good grasp of what the relationship was or to become and therefore it floundered and lost its way. Confusion set in and frankly at one point it seemed as if nothing was going to happen. Then suddenly, some epiphany occurs, and the relationship takes off, unfortunately. It should not have.

This series went in somewhat unexpected directions and then the secondary couple went right back to being cliche. It would have been nice if it veered off in a direction that was unexpected as well – merely friends. Sometimes, that is what life is. The contrast would have been starker and more poignant and maybe, just maybe more realistic. The screenplay and directing did not do them justice and made them feel too rudderless, when all along it felt as if they did not belong together. Frankly, I was surprised that the story took them there. Neither one showed much chemistry.

This series has a lot of astonishing didactic points in its favor. That is certainly worth noting. Everything from a parent seeing that her son is gay and accepting it and embracing her son’s choice to love who he wants. It also questioned the absolute asinine condition in a contract that limits who you can date. I believe we are now in the 21st Century. Most importantly, it dealt with the trials and tribulations of a young gay couple trying to make a go of it in a world that is still not quite ready for complete acceptance of open gay relationships yet. With that in mind, I wish the second couple would have been as effectively dealt with as the primary couple so that people could judge/see that not everything in this life ends up with a happy ending, which includes the BL world as well.

However, there are two caveats to my high praises of this series. One is the too stilted way Sea as Kang was asked to portray his character. The difference between Keen as Moo in contrast is like night and day. We saw Moo change both intellectually and emotionally. We can see and feel him changing. It is called growth. Yet, with Kang we do not. To be sure he does change, intellectually. He studies and learns but emotionally he seems and feels stunted. His whole being remains the same. Except for a few instances of emotional outbursts, Kang’s demeanor remains consistently flat and unemotional. He never seems to be animated or elated or beyond the level of just barely responding to what is asked for. Therefore, much of the time he seemed robotic and almost a caricature. That had nothing to do with acting but the style of acting he was asked to portray. That almost bordered on not showing any growth of character in Kang, which we know was not the case as he did say all the ‘right things’. It just did not manifest itself like he felt it or meant it internally. Honestly, I am not sure we really got to see Kang. This is not a criticism of his acting but the characterization of who Kang is. I wish he had been given more passion and esprit.

And the second caveat, as described, is the complete ineptness of the handling of the secondary relationship. None of it felt real and felt like a contrived ending because who does not like a happy ending, right?

This is a good series with a great pairing of Moo and Boo. They have screen chemistry and cinematic magic together and have a real presence of the screen. Now give them a story that they can really sink their teeth and let them both shine. The foundation is there. These guys can honestly act. Give them a formidable showcase.

As the saying goes, “The world is your oyster.”

Rating- 4.75 out of 5

Streaming on- GMMTV YouTube Channel