Love Sea (2024)

Sky x Prapai: Island Paradise Edition

So far, I haven’t really vibed with any of Mame’s shows, so I went into this with pretty low expectations. Turns out that was a good thing because she sure never disappoints on romanticising problematic behaviour, and writing characters whose only personality trait is trauma. Though this wasn’t as bad as some of her other shows (cough TharnType cough cough), it sure had its fair share of problems.

Let’s start with the acting, shall we? The highlight was definitely Fort. He’s got so much natural charisma that he carried this whole thing on his shoulders. Personally, I prefer him as Mut a lot more than as Prapai. The role of the cheeky, simple island boy suited him much better than that of rich businessman, and his acting has definitely improved since Love In The Air. His emotional delivery has gotten stronger which I appreciated a lot. It wasn’t an Oscar worthy performance just yet, but I think he’s on a great way of getting better and better.
Peat’s acting was a lot weaker. He was fine with the whole acting like a tsundere, but his skills definitely aren’t strong enough to carry emotionally intense moments. I don’t know why he keeps getting put into these trauma-heavy roles when he can’t even squeeze a single tear out. Because of his lacklustre emotional delivery, heavy/intense scenes fall incredibly flat. I also had a hard time telling Rak apart from Sky. Part of that is not his fault, because he basically had to play the same role twice. However, I feel like more skilled actors would still be able to portray two similar characters differently. I’ll give Peat some credit though, because he too has improved since Love In The Air. He’s still overacting sometimes, but it’s not to the same cringe extent it was then. We’ll see where his journey goes from here. I just hope he’ll get to play a different character for his next project.
As for the side characters, Chanya was pretty solid as Vie. Aya as Mook was doing way too much. She overacted to the point of her character almost being unbearable to watch. The child actress who played the role of Meena deserves a special mention. She did very well.

In terms of chemistry, Fort and Peat are definitely one of the stronger ships. It was the saving grace of Love In The Air, and it’s the same here, being what ended up carrying me through the show. The chemistry between the GL side couple was pretty solid too. Not enough to set a house on fire, but at least better than many other GL ships we’ve seen so far.

The character writing was on the more consistent end, but sadly, they were consistently awful and/or insufferable. Apart from Mut. I actually really liked him — at least I did when he was still living on the island. He’s basically the Moana of BL, and I was here for it. Him loving the ocean, being a helpful part of the community, being environmentally aware, and being content with the simple life he’s living was a breath of fresh air. I also appreciated how he had a sad backstory, but that wasn’t the main focus of the character. It was a real shame that he ever left the island, because as soon as he set foot in Bangkok, he felt like a completely different guy. From that moment on, he basically didn’t have a personality anymore, instead only acting as Rak’s personal caretaker/maid/stay-at-home-hubby/sex doll. The story stopped giving a damn about who he is, and centred itself around Rak only. It was incredibly frustrating to watch, because it’s rare that I actually feel like a BL character is unique these days.
Rak on the other hand is your stereotypical BL boy who doesn’t believe in / is afraid of love. He’s as tsundere as they come, but not in a cute way, just in a very annoying way. The guy often comes across as a privileged jerk, which didn’t help. Mut is better than me, because I wouldn’t have put up with that princess attitude for even a day. Rak is a famous writer, but we hardly ever get to see how that impacts his life. He’s also a toddler in a grown man’s body who wouldn’t be able to function without Mut and his secretary, and who throws hissy fits. First, he’s as hot and cold as Sky from Love In The Air. Then he becomes a whiny, pouty baby who is characterised by nothing more than having trauma, also like Sky. He’s basically just Sky 2.0 with a slightly different shade of trauma, and a worse attitude.
Mook was incredibly irritating to watch — in part because she’s super whiny, in part because of the over-the-top acting performance. I did feel sorry for her though, because everyone basically treated her like a doormat to walk over, or like a slave to boss around. It was actually hard to watch sometimes. Vie didn’t have much of a personality other than being famous and manipulative. The girl lied to Mook about her grandmother being dead, just to get her to do whatever she wants. I think that tells you enough about what a delight she is to watch.

As for the romance, this is also just felt like Sky x Prapai 2.0, because everything’s only about Rak, and Mut’s only job is to baby him, and help him through his trauma. However, it didn’t start that way. I actually thought the beginning of their story was a decent idea. A writer being sent to live on an island for a while, where he meets a simply guy who makes him believe in love for the first time sounds like a fun premise. Sadly, that’s just like three episodes of the show. The rest of it feels like a completely different series.

The romance was incredibly rushed, making it feel very insta-lovey — which isn’t great when the point of one of the characters is that they are afraid of love. Rak opened up and connected to Mut way too quickly. And Mut was ready to leave the life he loves behind for a guy he met like yesterday. I mean, Rak stayed on that island for two weeks, then Mut is willing to give up his entire life to follow him to Bangkok (without saying goodbye to anyone or even a suitcase in hand). Maybe it would’ve been a bit more believable if Rak treated him well during his time on the island, but he was being an entitled douche for most of the time…
I think the whole story would’ve been a lot better if it just focused on their time on the island. It’s called Love Sea after all, not Love Bangkok. If Rak was sent there to finish his novel and had stayed for a few months, things would’ve made a lot more sense. That way, they could’ve bonded slowly but surely, fitting the character of Rak a lot better. In my opinion, at least 6 episodes should’ve been spent on that island, and only a few remaining ones in Bangkok. Rak could’ve brought his assistant and his best friend along, so their story could’ve played out too. Or Vie could’ve had a shoot on that same island, being the reason Rak went there in the first place. There definitely was a way to make this work.

The above mentioned problematicness of it all comes with the whole money aspect of Rak and Mut’s relationship. It made me feel incredibly iffy and uncomfortable. It all felt very Fifty Shades Of Grey minus the BDSM but with the added element of cash. It all starts with Rak asking Mut how much he needs to pay for them to have sex. That alone was icky enough, but it only got worse when he basically bought the guy to go back to Bangkok with him. In Bangkok, they then made this incredibly inhumane contract which basically makes Mut Rak’s slave, having to do whatever Rak wants him to in exchange for money. That he could just kick him out whenever he feels like their good time is over. Yikes. I know Mut seems comfortable with the whole money thing, mainly because he never cares about the money since he’s clearly head over heels for Rak. However, it just rubbed me the wrong way. Especially since it is often mentioned how Rak is this fair-skinned, older, famous guy while Mut is a younger, darker skinned Southerner who’s making a living by completing tasks for others. That just made things worse because it definitely has very problematic implications. I mean, just imagine that Mut was a woman instead, or a black man. Yeah, yikes… The fact that Mut was often referred to as Rak’s "dog“ only made things weirder.

The romance between Mook and Vie is no less problematic. I absolutely hate how their arc romanticises manipulation. For the most part, Vie treats Mook like a slave, often by outright lying to her just to have an excuse for her to come over. She makes her do all these things she clearly doesn’t want to do, and that she’s not obligated to do because she works for Rak, not Vie. Vie lied about her grandmother being dead and never felt remorse for it, instead it’s treated as this comedic thing. She also made the poor girl drive 90 minutes just to deliver something unnecessary. The list goes on. It felt like such a weird and uncomfortable power dynamic. At one point, there was a storyline introduced about Vie practically forcing Mook to be her fake girlfriend, in order to squash rumours of her sleeping her way to the top. That would’ve been a lot more interesting to make the main focus of their romance, but it just got dropped, vanishing into thin air before it even really started. In the end, their arc never got any resolution which was a big disappointment. All in all, they definitely didn’t make me root for them, which is a shame because I was excited to see another GL couple.

There are things I appreciated about the show though, so let me end on a positive note:
- The scenery of the island was absolutely beautiful. What a shame we had to leave it behind so soon.
- Whoever did the styling on this deserves a raise. It was immaculate, especially with Rak. But really, there wasn’t an outfit out of place in this whole show. Bravo!
- The relationship Mut and Rak’s niece formed was adorable. I did not like the part where a 13 year-old girl calls her uncle "sexy“ though. That was… a choice…
- I really appreciated how the bad guy of the story, Rak’s dad, wasn’t actually the moustache twirling supervillain I expected him to be. The take-away being that he’s just a pathetic loser, not a murderer, was great.
- There wasn’t as much miscommunication and stupid conflicts in this. When Rak’s dad forced him to break up with Mut, Mut didn’t believe it for a second. I was worried we’d dive into a whole silly conflict about him believing that Rak doesn’t want him in his life anymore. But no, he had enough emotional intelligence to be aware of Rak actually liking him. More of that in other BLs please.


This series isn't as poorly written as some other BLs I've reviewed, but because I find the romances to be problematic, it still gets a low rating. I guess this might be my favorite Mame series, mainly because it doesn’t have sexual assault in it. The bar is really low, I know. But it definitely wasn’t an enjoyable watch either, and if it weren’t for Fort, I would’ve just dropped this after it became the Rak show. I wouldn’t recommend you watch this, and I certainly won’t ever rewatch it either, but I’d choose it over TharnType any day. There’s a good story in there somewhere, and for the first three episodes I did appreciate how it felt like something different than your usual BL. Sadly, it all fell apart somewhere on that journey back to Bangkok which is a real shame. If someone else wants to give me the Moana, child of the island, story of my dreams, I’d appreciate that greatly.

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