Gen Y (2020)

A Show That Tries To Do Things A Little Differently

Please note: I have not watched any of the 2 Moons shows. I know what happens in it, however. But, from my understanding, due to issues Star Hunter Entertainment had at the time, they had to make up their own story. They wanted to remake 2 Moons now that they were their own company, but they couldn't. So Gen Y is it's own brand new story that borrows a couple of characters and throws in a bunch more new ones. This is nothing new in media. It's meant to be viewed as its own entity, and thus, I will be reviewing it as such.
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Basically, this show is honestly a pleasant little surprise. If you want an easy to watch, surface level story where you can turn off your brain and enjoy, then this show won't do it for you.

Now, it's extremely easy to argue that all people want out of a BL is to see men kiss and maybe have sex. That's it. Thus the plethora of dramas and other media where the plot is very simple and easy to consume in lieu of some of that Good 'Ol Action.

And that's not a bad thing at all! I mean, it can be a bad. But that's a conversation for another time. What I'm trying to say is that most BLs tend to be very surface level. If there's drama, the issues are explored a bit, not very deeply most of the time, said issues are resolved fairly quickly with not much exploration, and then the story is over. I personally don't have a problem with this formula. And clearly the companies that make these BLs and vast majority of BL fans have no problem with it either.

Just thrown in some good looking guys with at least decent chemistry, a basic plot, a kiss and/or sex scene within the first 2 or 3 episodes to fulfill that instant gratification 90% of viewers have, and BAM you got yourself a pretty damn good start to an easy BL drama to watch.

However, once in a while, it's nice to have a story that really delves into and takes the time to navigate the negatives of relationships and have those negatives be the central point in the story.

STORY:

And that is the prime objective of Gen Y. Instead of having the character easily (and borderline unrealistically at times) overcome their troubles, this show chooses to explore them.
Now, side note: it may seem like Mark and Kit are the main characters and the most important pair, but I would argue that in reality, Wayu is the main character and his romance is the one that gets the most focus. I'll mention this again a little later.

Anyway: the first pair (ThanuWayu) explores not only how indecision can affect you AND others around you, but it also explores two types of love: loves based off of the fairy tale idea of destiny and fate versus love grown naturally between two people from effort made from the both of them. This leads to a character unsure of who he should pick.
The second pair (MarkKit) explores how continuously not addressing issues due mostly to miscommunication can lead to a relationship where things are not as healthy as they seem in the beginning.
The last pair (PokTong) explores the idea that just because we do something that we think is best for someone, doesn't mean it was a good choice to make; your intentions do not always out weight the person's feelings. If you've seen I Told Sunset About You, you will know *exactly* what I mean by this.

Something that's also quite interesting about each pairing is the pacing at which they get together and how it makes perfect since for them. ThanuWayu takes the longest because there are a lot of things out of their control that're affecting their ability to even get together, like Saendee convincing Phai that he and Thanu have a thing together amongst other things. Their journey to out beat destiny and try to create their own is a long one.

MarkKit get together very quickly: by episode two, they're not together just yet, but they're already kissing. Half way through the show, they're officially dating- and it seems rather quick, doesn't it?

And lastly, PokTong are forcibly together. They're the first pair to have sex in the show, but their situation is unhealthy for the both of them. They're also the first pair to make the decision to move in together. Their journey to a healthier relationship is a long one.

There are other characters and subplots that intermingle with these three main pairs. And we see how things from one pair/character affects another: for instance, Mark and Kit getting too involved with Wayu's situation starts impacting their own relationship. Another example is there's a pretty good couple of moments that hint at the fact Saendee has feelings for Phai and we get to see how that affects Wayu and Thanu.

The show takes its time to explore all of these. Alongside that, it leaves little hints and breadcrumbs that, once you really think about it, makes a lot of sense and also just makes the show fun to watch, in my opinion. And, as I mentioned previously, it's nice to see them talk about these problems in an almost realistic sense.

For instance, Wayu gets dumped in a very harsh way. Pha, without any reason or hint as to why he's doing this, suddenly in the middle of a nice dinner breaks up with Wayu and literally disappears; no one, not even his friends, can reach him. And we see how this harsh breakup affects Wayu for the rest of the season. Most BLs would have the character get over it after one or two episodes, but this one doesn't. We see him eventually get over it with the help of his friends and a potential new love interest, only for said love interest to break his trust- just like how his ex did. And it causes him to, realistically and understandably, nearly go back to square one. Break ups for some are easy to get over, but not others. And with the way this break up happened, I feel like it made a lot of since for his progression to take a while- but we do see the progression happen.

However, while I think the concepts are fantastic and very interesting to watch, some of the execution of these ideas tend to fall flat at times, or at least waver a bit.

An example of this may be the plot with Thanu, Wayu, and Phai. I was surprised to see that there were SO many people confused about this plot. On one hand, you have one pair that never get to know each other and never actually speak to each other outside of comments about how they may be destined to be together due to some coincidences that happen. On the other hand, you have a pair who has naturally grown to being friends: they hang out often and chat regularly. They care for each other and that is shown in various ways. Just based off of that alone, it's easy to see which pairing is healthier and would be favored by most in real life.

I think what tripped up a lot of people is the destiny side of things. See, in the romance genre (not just BL), destined love is a HUGE trope with Western audiences. Sure, the idea that we have a partner out there ready for us whenever sounds great. But that's not how relationships work. They take a lot of time and effort from both sides; relationships don't just fall on your lap and magically happen. And the show does showcase this. But I noticed a lot of people got stuck on the whole destiny thing because a lot of people love the idea of destined love. They expected the Thanu and Phai to be together. Hell, there's even a scene where Thanu and Phai have shared visions of their *possible* future.
The show really gets into the destiny/fate thing a little *too* much in my opinion. I think they did that to really emphasis how unrealistic it is. If they had dialed it back a bit, then there wouldn't be as many people here on MDL shocked about Thanu and Phai not being together. And the thing is that it was pretty evident from the beginning: Thanu and Phai didn't seem that interested in the first place. Neither of them actively look for each other or anything like that .But some people only looked at the two of them on the surface and thought their romance was very cute.

A big reason why I bring up the ThanuWayuPhai love triangle as the best possible example is because if you look on the Episode Guide, you can see where a lot of people here on MDL began disliking the story: right as Thanu makes the decision to stop this whole destiny thing. Once again, it's not surprising at all that he chose to do that given the proof we see up until that point. But it's clear a lot of people did not catch those moments.

Other things that could've been better executed were things like showing Saendee yearning for Phai more because those little glimpses we got were very easy for some people to forget, it seems like. More of an emphasis on that would've been great. I say that because it seems like a good chunk of people on MDL, once again, didn't catch that.

But it's also hard to say if it's really the fault of the production crew or if it's a difference in Asian viewers versus Western viewers. I say this because over there, the rating for the show is a lot higher than here on MDL, which is Western based. Maybe the destiny thing didn't really affect the Asian audience all that much because perhaps destiny in romance isn't as big of a trope there as it is here? Maybe? Who knows.

There's also the fact that this show was made, of course, for Asian audiences first and foremost. They knew since the beginning that Thanu and Wayu were endgame because of how super popular of a ship their actors are over there. For us, however, it's safe to say that majority of us in the west were not aware of any of that. Not anyone's fault, of course.

I think the execution of some things could have been better, absolutely, but not so much as a lot people on here are making it out to seem. I think the story is honestly easy to follow.

Also, I've seen people on here have major issues with how "whiny" Wayu is. I've always noticed that people have issues with emotional male characters in media, especially ones that "take too long" to get over their problems. This is a major issue of toxic masculinity that our society needs to work with. I see no issues with Wayu being emotionally open.

Some cons that I think are actually worth mentioning:
One thing that I have problems with is a sense of time- or there lack of. My first time viewing the show, I was confused by certain things because I couldn't tell when things were taking place. For instance, I actually didn't know if the beginning takes place in the very beginning of the school year, like the first day of class, or maybe half way through...?
I think having a better sense of time would've helped, especially for Wayu's story.

I did not think a 2nd year college student (who should've been a 3rd year) potentially getting with a 4th year *high school* student was cute at all. I'm so sick of adult/minor ships in BLs. Luckily its rare with Thai BLs from what I've noticed so far, but still.
Now to be fair to them, Thanu and Phai don't actually speak to each other until Phai and his friends have already passed their final exams and have been accepted into college; though they are still wearing their high school uniforms at this point, they're basically college kids. I believe in Thai schools, you can still attend your classes even though you've already been accepted into your college of choice, and I believe that's what was going on here. Thanu also doesn't know until this scene that the guy he keeps seeing is in high school. But still. It made me uncomfortable that they had these scenes with romantic vibes where they'd stare at each other from afar before this point, because we the audience know Phai is in high school.

My number one problem is how some scenes, but ESPECIALLY the PokTong sex scene in ep 12, had that one Sexy Time song playing over them. Their relationship, especially the sexual side of it, is not healthy. At all. And them trying to sexualize these scenes is gross. I have no issues with them being there, but I have a major problem with sexualizing unhealthy parts of romantic relationships. I hope there's a scene down the line where the both characters sit down and talk about hoe their sex is not good and how they can change that.
I think the reason why it's sexualized is because once again, that instant gratification that the audience has and the desire to see men kiss and fuck pretty much prioritizes anything else in terms of marketing a BL. I'm sure they didn't want to let the fans down with a sexless story, so they (more than likely the company's producers) tried to amp it up. It's unfortunate and I hope people understand that the scenes aren't an accurate representation of healthy sex.

Some people also have issues with the cast, but I'll comment on that down below.

ACTING/CAST:

The acting can be rough around the edges at time. Some of the actors are a little too stiff. If, for whatever reason, you can't stand acting like this, then this show is probably not for you. I don't blame those who couldn't finish the show because of the acting.

However, whenever I come across a show where the acting of one or more actors seems off, I do my part as the viewer and look up the actor(s) and try to see why that may be rather than just chalking it up to "bad acting". A lot of times with these BLs, it's typically that actor's first time either acting or acting in a BL specifically; that person may be straight and is having a bit of a hard time really getting into the character. There are also just a bunch of new up and coming actors. There's typically a reason for rough acting in general, but especially in BLs, so I try not to be too mean about it.

So I did just that with this show. I found that most of the actors have either never acted before, or they have but for one other small show and/or small role in said show. I found out that back in 2019, SH Entertainment wanted some new singing and acting talent, so they held a voting based competition called SuperBoy Project. Their goal was to find ordinary guys who dreamed of becoming stars, regardless of how well they sang and acted; every week they had acting and singing/dancing classes. And, honestly? I LOVE that. I noticed how a lot of the actors are stereotypically good looking (though I think all of them are hot and/or cute), so that explains that too.

I went ahead and watched the whole competition. And some of the remaining members were the ones that show up in this show: Bonus (Tong), Tora (Pok), Pon (Phai), Bank (Saendee), Jet (Jack), Junior (Padbok), Tung (Kalae), and Fergie (Jill). Some of them, like Junior and Fergie are great, but others are still somewhat stiff. However, they do grow as the show goes on, especially when you get into season 2. The two that grow the most are Bonus (Tong) and Tora (Pok) in my opinion.

Dun (Thanu) was not scouted via this competition, but Gen Y is his first ever show. I would say he's the one who needs the most work, but he does get a little better and better as time goes on.

I've volunteered on film sets where there's little to no money involved and you gotta work with what you have at the time. It's made me have this more positive outlook and appreciation for productions (either the whole production or just parts of it) that may be amateur-ish but you can absolutely tell they're making an effort. So the acting honestly doesn't bother me; I actually find it endearing!

Would the show have been better if a bulk of the cast were experienced actors? Yeah, probably. One could argue that. But I'm fine with how it is. I'm glad they're getting this opportunity to work in a drama. And the experienced actors, like Kimmon and Copter, do a great job!

Now one thing to definitely point out is how large the casting it. It can get quite overwhelming, and I don't blame people for feeling that way, especially since we're so used to BLs having a smaller pool of cast.

I personally don't mind the size, but I do think that maybe an extra one or two episodes would've helped to flesh out a bit more of the characters and some of the subplots. However, the reason why I'm not faulting the production here is because the amount of episodes is not up to them. They have to make do with however many episodes they get.

MUSIC:
Not too much to say here other than the music and variety is very good. The theme song is SO cute, and the lyrics are very fitting. As I mentioned before, some of their talent is both singers and actors, so I do like that one or two, maybe more, of the actors got to take part in the OST as well.

They could stand to use maybe one, maaaybe two more background/ambience music, but it's not anything crazy.

REWATCH VALUE:

I would say this show has some BIG rewatch value. As I mentioned before, there are hints and little breadcrumbs here and there that are so fun to pick up on not just as you're watching it, but when you rewatch it to.
Right now, I'm watching season 2, and I've been having a blast going back to season 1 and connecting dots. For instance, going back to rewatch the scenes with Saendee before it's revealed his true nature is WILD. The moments where he stares at certain characters really gave me the creeps when I go back and rewatch those scenes.

I would say that some episodes may not be worth rewatching again as a whole, but there are a lot of scenes that are fun to go back to. For instance, the fight scene is a lot of fun to watch.
I would recommend before watching season 2, just going back and maybe skimming through season 1. I don't think you'll regret it!

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