I hate to be so brutally honest, but this is one of the worst BLs of 2024. Literally, everything about this series, except perhaps the acting, was uninspiring. Although the young performers did a ‘yeoman’s job’ in trying to keep this shipwreck afloat, they alone could not salvage this complete mess from sinking. Honestly, to say otherwise, is living in a fantasy-land and not dealing with any sense of reality. It is a tepid story with a fragmented screenplay, ineptly directed, disjointedly executed, and undoubtedly should never have been (re)made. The only plus about this series literally is that they had the appropriate aged actors and actresses for the roles. They were young, attractive, innocent in real life, and tried their best to make sense of a story that was essentially senseless. Full disclosure, I did not watch the first ‘Love Sick’, so this was all ‘new’ to me. Thus, I cannot compare it to the original. Besides, this is a stand-alone production and ought to be judged on its own merits or faults.

The story centers around two main leads. Pun (Almond Poomsuwan) and Noh (Progress Passawish). Both have been blessed with astonishing good looks at such a young age and are handsome beyond their stage in life. By that I mean, they look and act much older than the parts are. The dialogue that these two fine young actors were fed were straight from the idealized version of a BL world. No one talks like they did and certainly no one acts like they acted. They seem wise beyond their years, parcelling out pearls of wisdom that seem strangely adult-like coming from the mouths of babes. It just seemed so incongruous to me that teenage boys were that articulate and ‘with it’, seasoned in the ways of living as these two seemed to be. In fact, all the young cast came across as being this way. To me, they appeared like adults playing children, but in fact and in reality, they are CHILDREN. This story robbed them of that milestone. There was none of the silliness, goofiness, volatility, unpredictability, immaturity, mistakes, impulsiveness, stupidity, and craziness of teenagers.

Overall, the story follows the same overused trite storyline of a lot of other endless love stories involving high school boys, with one exception. Most of the actors are literally high school boys in real life. While that should have been a plus, the inept writing and droning, dull storyline and script made them vapid and passionless creatures. There was nothing but endless iterative pedestrian scenes with episode after episode of characters waxing and waning between trying to figure out their feelings for one another or when they did, trying to decide whether these feelings were real and honest enough. While I GET that, after all they are teenagers, and they are supposed to be fickle, the soporific monotonousness about the same subject matter was tedious and boring. In addition, since both protagonists are astonishingly handsome and popular, so many boys and girls were after them. It became an endless stream of having to let each of them down gently but firmly with infinite kindness. Yet, another inane plot line used over and over again.

I honestly could not follow the story. There were simply way too many characters and way too many sweet liaisons to keep track of – both male and female. Furthermore, hardly anyone came across as being straight. From all estimates that I have reviewed, the approximate percentage of people who identify as being gay in Thailand is around 10%. Yet, if you watch this series, one would think that the percentage is just the reverse. Literally everyone was gay and those around them was completely accepting and open about all of this. I have a very hard time believing there is any basis of truth to their world.

Frankly that is exaggerated thinking and it gives a false impression. This series did little to understand the real and serious and significant struggles that young gay people go through in ‘coming out.’ To be sure, there were some addressing of that, but not enough to make an impact and most of that was not direct but only indirect, guised in other issues. Pun’s girlfriend, Aim (Bew Busaya), for example, struggled significantly with trying to masquerade her attraction for another girl. Her connection with and to Pun was for show, and she felt guilty for trying to make it something more than it was. She of all the characters did go through some metamorphosis of acceptance that she was indeed a lesbian. We could see her struggle with embracing who she was. But suddenly her issue was resolved. Turned off like a light switch and another new problem/issue arose to direct the plot.

Unfortunately, the other gay connections just sort of happened with little transitions or conflicts or internal strives except for an occasional bout with thwarting the advances because of denial and/or feigning disinterest or contrived upper-class/lower-class status roles. That is the standard ploy to follow. Rather than actually giving us a sense of developing relationships, the script merely went from one silly tropey playbook scenario to another. Trite and predictable, as we knew what the outcomes were going to be because that is the kind of series this was. Nothing unique, interesting, or different. The plot was completely stale. The characters remained all one dimensional and only allowed them to break out of that mold occasionally. The performers made the most of the same repetitive plot line as best they could but after a while, they could not even make this story entertaining.

Did anyone really give a memorable performance? Honestly, no one did. But it is not anyone person’s fault. They were not given the opportunity to shine. There were just too many characters and too many pairings for any of this to make sense. I suppose, however, who seems to be one of the more dynamic characters is Earn (Krit Ngamtanakija). Not only is he simply and astonishingly dropped-dead gorgeous, but he is also a somewhat hapless figure. Genuinely, he displayed deep feelings for Noh. And that came across. His feelings seemed way sincerer to me than even Pun’s, as Almond played the part of Pun rather laid-back and very unemotional most times. Krit portrayed much more sincerity not only in his characterization but how he conveyed his feelings to Noh. There was an honesty about what he was saying and how he said it. Yet, his prominence was perplexing to me. He was conspicuous in the beginning and then gone for most of the middle of this series and came back as a quasi-antagonist in the end. That was a bit unfair to his characterization and it just did not work. Earn is a pivotal character but is unfairly treated. He at the end accepted the relationship between Noh and Pun with a lot of maturity and understanding, well beyond his age. For that, he deserved a bit more distinction and a lot more kudos.

This series simply droned on for 15 episodes with so much silliness and childish repetitive themes, I thought I was going to lose my mind. And then at the last minute, it throws in that Noh’s best friend, Ohm (NJ Deeppromt) also had a crush on him all along. Thus preventing Ohm from deepening a significant relationship with Mick (Toto Thayawat), who by this time had developed intense feelings for Ohm. Mick recognized that Ohm had a crush on Noh and gave him a reality check by bluntly telling him he needs to deal with his feelings for Noh. Even still, it was nevertheless inadequately dealt with. While that is all well and good, that should have been incorporated into the story at an earlier stage in this whole process; not at the end of this series.

This leads to what is summarily wrong with this series. Here it is:

1. The series is way too long. The plot was not sustainable for 15 episodes. The series introduces too many issues, but then quickly resolves them and moves on to the next one with no real understanding or connection between any of them. Or to the main plot, which is tedious. It also introduces so many characters that float in and out of the series, some of whom add a lot to the saga while others diminish the story. It became very disjointed.

2. The whole series made you feel as if the world is made of moonbeams and unicorns with everything coming right out of a utopian playbook. Everything has a happy ending, or mostly so, except for an occasional bump in the road. But do not worry. Even in the future, all will be well. Except for one instance, issues with parents are resolved quickly and neatly. Everyone is accepting of gay/lesbian relationships, except in one instance which again turns to a physical altercation to resolve. I am sorry, but that is NOT the way to solve this issue even though we might get some visceral satisfaction from the actions that were taken. That is simply morally reprehensible. I detest the use of unnecessary physical abuse to prove a point, especially in a BL. We can do better than that.

3. None of the characters really grow. The storylines and plot do not allow them to do so. There is no character development and what little there is, occurs at glacial speed with the characters being so dense and/or infantile. Almost all the male characters, including the protagonists, are shown as sophomoric, delicate flowers, incapable of understanding anything about relationships, or what that means (since it is never discussed), or even apparently have any desire for the fruition of a relationship. In fact, none of them, especially the protagonists, even showed the slightest sense of, or interest in, or physical reaction to the excitement of being alone with the person they profess to like or love. I have never seen a more sanctimonious series.

4. While I deeply appreciated the fact that they had very young actors/actresses for parts that are indeed made for young performers, they made them act, sound, and be fully grown. We saw none of the innocence of youth of these young adults; just play-acting what the director told them to do. That was obvious. Any sense of spontaneity was missing.

5. They all needed a lot more direction in conveying stronger emotions. One thing that is a true definition of acting is the ability to cry on DEMAND or NEED when necessary. If you cannot, you are not acting; merely performing. Too much of that was in this series. I do not care how young they are, you must be able to cry, when necessary, be they male or female, and it must be genuine and must be seen.

6. There was no serious chemistry between Almond and Progress. Sure, they played their parts well but were unable to convincingly show that they understood or truly felt ‘love’ for one another. Now, I know they are young, very young, and perhaps do not understand what that is fully, but we all understand the concept of ‘puppy-love’. Two teenage boys, if they were seriously attracted to one another, would have been way more demonstrative, or even amorous to each other, or affectionate to one another. There was not one kiss between the two of them and other than an occasion peck on the cheek or forehead, there was no hint of physical attraction to one another, which is a natural fruition of a relationship. Yet they considered themselves ‘boyfriends’. Ironically, the only kiss was between Noh and Earn. Of course, that was ‘accidental’ which is the usual and standard ploy in these series. But in this case, that whole scene made not one bit of sense to me. Here again we have the nonsense that, while I understand the hesitation to be cautious in public displays of affection for each other, privately, Noh and Pun acted like they were preteen boys playing in the sandbox after school. Their actions together were puerile and oxymoron. That was utterly nonsensical and completely improbable. Two boys sleeping together holding each other with not even a hint of amorousness between them is simply not possible and improbable at their ages. While I am not suggesting they should have sex, both boys are at the beginning stages of their sexual maturity and complications would definitely have arisen. And to deny that or pretend otherwise, goes against nature itself.

7. Summarily, the very thing that was this production’s asset became its liability. You have young relatively inexperienced actors/actresses in living life which should have added a new dimension to this story but instead they molded them into nothing but BL caricatures with no personalities, no angst, no dimensions to whom any of them were, and turned them into puppets of the writers. How sad. The very essence of whom the characters were was left out in the equation. Sure, they performed as teenagers, but they certainly did not ‘act’ like teenagers; or at least ones that are recognized as teenagers.

I was deeply disappointed in this series and utterly dismayed by its shallowness and how someone with a Pollyanna fantasy paintbrush came along and canvased the BL world with rainbow colors. This is just not so. Again, I am not trying to be diffusive here, but why can there not be at least some anchor to realness and authenticity in these series? Even a little.

It is simply awful. Sorry, kids, you deserved a better story. This is not your fault.

Rating- 2 out of 5

Streaming on- IQIYI