Frankly, I am not sure how I sat through this miscue. It is an inferior story with pedestrian acting. There I said it and am glad I did. I just do not know when these sappy BLs will end. This is yet another in a L-O-N-G line of them. What saved this series from being on my Worst List is the cinematography. The water scenes are exceptional, but there are not nearly enough of them. If you are going to have a story about mermen, how about showing more of them and their communion? Also, I like the idea that mermen could live on land and become a part of regular human society. The notion that during the full moon, mermen HAD to go back into the ocean to cleanse themselves of their ‘toxins’ was quite intriguing, and I found that to be a nice twist to the story. Further, one figure, and a minor one at that, altogether makes this series worth watching, overall, for the depth of his characterization and his intense understanding of the persona he was portraying.

Nawa (Poon Akkharaphat) is a mixologist at a popular bar on a small island off the Thailand coast and is also a merman, but one could not tell that by merely looking at him. He is quite handsome, and his looks are beguilingly alluring. One day, a stranger comes into the bar who is quite handsome and appealing. Both immediately create a sexual tension between them with seductive innuendos flying out of their mouths like vegetables being spit out by a baby. He finds out that his name is Phu (Hasun Feros Khan) and has been an absent co-owner of the bar with Nawa’s good friend and childhood companion, Phana (JJ Chalach), who does know Nawa is a merman since they grew up together. From this point on, however, the love story begins to fall apart before it even begins but begin it does between Nawa and Phu.

While Nawa initially came across as somewhat of an extrovert and player, the remainder of the series he inexplicably reverts to being an introvert and a milquetoast, almost incapable of making his own decisions. It became frustrating to watch this unnecessary transition take place. Just once, I would like to see some of these protagonists develop a backbone and have gumption and not live up to prima facia expectations of what they are to be. His flat-affect to every situation was maddening. Even a little affable personality development would be exciting. Nawa simply had no personality in the sense of being able to show any life to his persona. Can some of these characters ‘simply grow-up’ from the beginning for a change and not act like simpletons?!

The story goes from bad to worse in terms of development. The quasi-leader of the mermen is Phraphai (Film Jirayu) who is astonishingly handsome at the same time he is a complete miscreant. He is so in love with Nawa but true to formulaic standards and practice is unable to fully express that verbally or romantically, but can only give ‘hints’ that he is. Nawa, being the dumb as a box of rocks character that he is, apparently over the years has never yet picked up on his not-so-subtle cues. Suddenly when Nawa falls hard for the human, Phraphai becomes even more enraged and irrational against the humans and fenagles every trick in the book to keep Nawa and Phu apart.

Meanwhile, back at the bar, Phana breaks up with his longstanding girlfriend and serendipitously someone arrives to come to fill the void in his heart. And that is an intern by the name of Ping (Dew Jiramate). And frankly, Ping is the only character in this series that is worth watching. Dew took his role to another level. He is quite memorable.

Dew Jiramate as Ping is a surprise character in this series. Even initially, I could feel his presence was going to be worth watching. Because he had fidelity, integrity, emotions, personality, and a humanity about it that left him vulnerable and mesmerizing. He is also hypnotically handsome as well, with a boyish charm that made him endearing, and perhaps that is why Phana fell for him, even though Phana was not initially attracted to men. He just had this captivating quality about himself. And ironically, he is a merman as well. With a sad background. All his life he felt and was rejected by his mother, who was human, while his father was a merman. She thought of him as being a monster and so all his life he felt less than. Wanted to be loved by his own mother but completely rejected by her. And isolating himself from the other merman because he felt so different, having been born of a human mother. While the part is not a major one, it has a significant impact on the moral of this story. He felt isolated and alone. Dew displays such wide ranges of emotions not just as a human but also as a merman. One could sense his sincerity so when he felt rejected by Phana and was so close to giving up on living in the human world, I truly felt deep sadness. He evoked emotions that touched me as we all at times have felt unwanted and perhaps even unloved in our lives and we, certainly I, understood his frame of mind. I was appreciative of the fact that he could reconcile his differences with his mother, and SHE could see and admit her failings as a mother. I found all of that deeply, deeply moving and on that alone, is worth watching. Dew’s acting is simply spot-on and is the finest in this series by far. He gave life and more importantly believability to the character of Ping.

Although the whole series is only eight episodes, it feels longer because it gets drab and loses its charm after the first episode or two. And, true to form, it rushes, to finish for an unbelievably mawkish ending right out of a tragic playbook. It steals directly from the chapter titled “Bad Guy Needs to Sacrifice Own Life” to fulfill the theme ‘for the greater good to make up for all my and my family’s dastardly deeds’. I wish there could have been a different ending, but I honestly did not care. All of it was so formulaic anyway.

This whole story is so cliché driven and full of tropey other side-characters that quickly you begin to realize that this will be no different from a bunch of other Thai BLs of the same ilk. Dull, lifeless characters with no personalities. Love scenes that are more rehearsed made to feel quite quaffed and polished but not concrete. Couples with little to no screen chemistry and lightweight sexual tension. In other words, a zero-believability factor. While the merman scenes were quite good, there were so few of them that they almost were secondary to the story. Watch this series only for the outstanding acting of Dew Jiramate as Ping. He brings depth and emotions to a character that is both human and merman. Somehow when he feels hurt, we also feel it. That is some fine acting by a secondary character. I do hope we get to see him more in future series.

This series started out so promising but swam off into the deep end not because of the actions of the mermen but because of the poor script and lifeless characters.

Rating- 2.5 out of 5

Streaming on- Viki/Gagaoolala