For better or worse, we don’t choose who we fall in love with, but we can determine what we do with that love.

And there’s no better example of this than the Thai BL My Stand-In, a series that explores not only love but finding the path to starring in one’s own life.

Starring Poom Phuripan as a stuntman and double named Joe, My Stand-In takes viewers on an emotional ride as Joe develops feelings for Ming (Up Poompat), a complex figure who sees Joe only as a stand-in for the famous actor Tong (Mek Jirakit). Tragedy strikes when Joe dies in an accident, but fate intervenes, and he awakens in another man’s body, also named Joe. When he reencounters Ming, they start on a rocky path of love and forgiveness.

There have been many things said about this series, especially about the heartache and pain that Joe goes through because of Ming. But while the heartache was hard to witness, the most profound thing about the drama was how it portrayed Joe’s role in his own life. Even in death, he returns as someone else, ironically becoming a real life stand-in by stepping into the body and life of another man.

And he never returns to the body he was once in, remaining a stand-in for eternity. Even though most of the people around him accept him as the man he once was before, some people will always see him as the person who once inhabited the body he ended up in.

Seeing Joe as a forever stand-in saddened me, but it also created a remarkable opportunity to show that while sometimes in life we do have to step into roles we don’t ask to step into, it doesn’t mean we can’t star in those roles. It doesn’t mean we can’t escape the shadows to capture the spotlight we know is waiting for us.

All while grasping onto the things we care about, even if it’s grabbing onto something everyone else is pushing you away from. The biggest freedoms everyone should have in life are the right to choose, love, and be the person we want to be. And that’s precisely what Joe gains: the right to choose the life he wants for himself, no matter how painful it may be.

His right to choose resounded with me.

The same goes for Ming. While it was initially hard to relate to a character who often goes too far to get what he wants, it was surprisingly easy to forgive him. Ming fell in love with an idea, a love he thought he wanted, a love he would do anything to make happen, even if that meant pretending he had it.

The biggest tragedy of My Stand-In lies in how Joe and Ming clung to a comforting illusion of home and choice that they couldn’t bear to break. They both dodged hard truths they already suspected, maintaining a fragile fantasy—until Ming’s drunkenness and Joe’s accident shattered it all.

Because, let’s be honest. Joe wasn’t just a stand-in for Ming; Ming was also a stand-in for Joe. They used each other to find the love they both sought. Joe was the love Ming thought he wanted from Tong, while Ming was the family Joe desperately wished he had. They pretended not to see the flaws in their developing relationship rather than admit they jumped too quickly into something unhealthy.

While Joe’s intentions were much more honorable and certainly less toxic than Ming’s, it still took death for both of them to realize that what they really needed was each other. Because falling in love shouldn’t be about what we hope to gain from it or what we pretend to get out of it; it should be about finding someone who makes our lives fuller for simply living. What we gain from it from there is a bonus.

And that’s what Joe and Ming discover. Death made them realize just how much they’d fallen for each other, not the man Ming wanted Joe to be or the wish Joe wanted Ming to be.

Just them. Together. In love. Happy.

And that’s where the messed up threads that were frayed before Joe’s death begin to stitch back together in a beautiful tale of love that doesn’t ask someone to be anything they don’t want to be, one that allows them a second chance at being there for each other, one that will enable them to walk side by side in a life that once pulled them in different directions.

My Stand-In offers every character in this series an equal chance at starting over. Not just Joe and Ming. It’s the ultimate second chance story. Joe’s mother gets the chance to be the parent she feels like she failed to be, Tong gets the chance to be the responsible man he’s consistently failed at being, Ming’s family gets the opportunity to be the family they’d shied away from being because of misperceived duty, and the directors and producers of the companies Joe once doubled for get the chance to work with Joe the way they always wanted to. Even if they don’t know they’re working with him.

All people are flawed. No one is perfect. While there are always exceptions to this, we all deserve a second chance at being better.

All of the actors, directors, producers, stunt performers, etc in My Stand-In deserve a standing ovation for delivering a series that profoundly offers everyone that second chance. All of them deserve to have their names scrolled in the ending credits. It takes more than one person to make a drama or film, and everyone in this series brought their best to the table.

Thank you for that.

For a series that hurts, heals, forgives, and loves, check out My Stand-In now on iQiyi.

Rating- 4 out of 5