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It has some serious problems, but I liked&enjoyed it
Before I start:
1/ I don’t speak nor understand Thai, so I relied entirely on subtitles provided on GMMTV’s YouTube channel;
2/ all my comments and remarks below are about the GMMTV series – I didn’t read the book which inspired the series; for me the series is a completely independent work, not connected with the book, and it needs to stand on its own.
What I like about the series
1/ On-screen chemistry. Toptap and Mike work so well together that I’d be surprised to learn that off-screen they are anything less than good friends. But what I enjoyed even more was the chemistry between Pod and Khaotung; they sold me on Ton and Chon having genuine affection and feelings for one another. It was more than the absence of awkwardness; both actors seemed confident and relaxed in each other’s presence (for most of the time), hence their interactions (including the goofy ones) were believable. We deserved to see more of those two together; we got loads of cuteness and emotions, what we should have gotten more of was boyfriend banter (we got some of that, but more would be nice – Khaotung showed that his Chon can be shy, confident, loving, stubborn and angry, but also very sassy).
2/ Less non-problems than I feared. My prime example is Chon’s reaction to the kiss video in episode 9. Initially I was disappointed and thought Chon reacted according to BL-silliness (by which I mean that characters usually suspect and assume the worst, act without real reason, judge the situation without actual proof, tend to overreact and/or react to things no real person would bother reacting to; also, they don’t talk to each other). Then I watched episode 10 and saw that Chon’s reaction was much more grounded and relatable. Chon recognized Ton as a show-off prone to dumb stunts and actions which would give Chon constant heartache. Suddenly it made sense and the BL-silliness was gone; there was no fake problem – there was a real one and Chon was reacting to it.
3/ Showing homophobia’s still a real thing. We see LGBTQ characters fearful of how their friends and other people would react to their coming out/revealing they are in a same-sex relationship and we see homophobic characters with their stereotypes, prejudice and aggression. Pretending we live in a world were nothing stops LGBTQ persons from having a happy life would be bad. Glad the show writers didn’t do that. That being said:
- the way a gay character was presented in episode 1 (guy who followed Ton and Chon after they had lunch) was appalling and homophobic,
- Ton never apologizing nor even addressing his homophobia was a huge mistake of the writers,
- Chareon getting his wish fulfilled instead of being denied and ignored was an even bigger mistake of the writers – c’mon, guys! if you want to show everyone that homophobia is bad you can’t reward a homophobe!
4/ Very limited side plots. Compare “Tonhon Chonlatee” to, let’s say, “2gether”, where we got 4 couples: Tine&Sarawat, Type&Man, Dim&Green and Mil& Phukong (5 if we include Pear&Boss). Were they all necessary to tell the story of Tine&Sarawat? Did we learn more about the main characters because of these additional characters and their relationships? What purpose in the story did they serve? In “Tonhon Chonlatee” the side characters are acutely aware of their purpose; Ai explaining to Ni, that they are the protagonist’s sidekicks was on point and almost breaking the 4th wall.
5/ Miriam. Once she shows up she does a lot to push the plot forward – which the story needed after the slow-paced first few episodes. The character itself is likeable and a much needed voice of reason.
What I don’t mind about the series
1/ How character development of Ton was handled. The writing is rather basic and often clumsy, with a difficult-to-believe revelation in episode 10, but we also get a clear character arc for Ton. BTW: I liked that the show didn’t immediately explain why and how Ton got the idea of having Chon stay at his place and them two spending so much time together. Ton felt something for Chon and acted on what we were initially led to believe was instinct - I'm fine with that.
2/ Clumsy writing. (i) People condemning Amp after her rant in episode 8 - apparently students carry paper balls with them at all times (ii) The shoehorned beach scene at the end of episode 8 (I guess we needed that to illustrate that Ton made a decision, that from now on – instead of being a homophobe – he’ll fight homophobia, that he’s no longer afraid and so on).
3/ Unanswered questions. (i) How come Ton didn’t recognize Chon in episode 1 and what purpose did it serve? From a story point of view it would be better for Ton to recognize Chon right away, saying something like “Just the person I wanted to see. I’ve missed you so much. Let’s have lunch”. (ii) Who leaked the picture of Ton sleeping in episode 8? Was it Chon (he took the picture)? Was it Pang (she saw the picture and held Chon’s phone long enough to send the picture to herself)? We know why it happened (drama), but how? (iii) Is everyone allowed to see other people’s kites that hang if front of the Sam Muk temple? And to tamper with them? (iv) Don’t Ton’s parents have any social media accounts? Don’t they follow their son?
I can live without knowing these things.
What annoys me about the series
1/ How Ton’s attraction to Chon is explained in episodes 9 and 10. On reviewer (deetsy) addressed this nicely today, so let me quote: “In the end what we got was a homophobic story of "I'm not gay, I just love you". It worked well 5 years ago in SOTUS, but now I think LGBT community moved on past this narrative and deserves something better”. In short: why can’t Ton just be gay or bisexual or pansexual? Why the additional “explanation” that he’s attracted to Chon because they have had a special bond as children? Why the emphasis on Ton not being gay, on Ton “still liking women” and not feeling anything for other men? Maybe there’s something I don’t get about some BL series, but this wasn’t the first time I saw something like this. Did you notice the emphasis on past girlfriends, who don’t even have to appear in the show nor become villains (like Amp), but are casually mentioned? As if the writers wanted to establish that gay characters don’t exist and if two guys get together they are bisexual or pansexual at best. In “Tonhon Chonlatee” this applies not just to Ton, but also to Na, and you can see the same pattern in other series: a boy dating girls until he meets that one special boy he’s attracted to (see both Tine and Sarawat in “2gether”, see Tee in “Cause You're My Boy”, see Knock in “Together with me” and see many others examples).
2/ Chareon’s homophobia and “the baby solution”. Chareon is a homophobe and a domestic tyrant. Everyone is trying to make him realize he can’t separate Chon and Ton nor impose his wish to have grandchildren, but at the same time everyone tries to satisfy that wish: enter Nam and the surrogate mother idea. Why is this even in the show? Why did the writers decide to fulfil Chareon’s wish and disregard basically everything done up untill that point? Chareon was told he can’t force his kids to do his bidding and then he got exactly what he wanted. As much as I enjoyed the first part of episode 10, I was facepalming for most of the rest of it.
3/ Nueng facing almost no consequences for his assault on Chon. Nueng is a would-be rapist and almost nothing happened to him. Ton kicked him once, dragged him out of the toilet and punched him once – that was all, that was the whole “punishment” for what Nueng attempted. I’m not saying we needed a scene of Ton and Chon testifying at a police station, but something should have happened, e.g. Ai or Ni doing their sidekick job and telling Ton (e.g. a day after the assault) that the university announced Nueng was suspended and facing a police investigation. Instead we got Nueng on best-buddy terms with Amp, supporting her lies (I didn’t know would-be rapists hold the moral high ground to lecture junior students on splashing seniors with water) until she was revealed as a homophobe. The guy shouldn’t even be in the series at that point! BTW: remember how Chon was reprimanded for kissing Ton while Ton was asleep? If the writers (correctly) wanted to tell us that any form of sexual activity, even a kiss, needs to be consensual, they shouldn’t send conflicting signals like that.
1/ I don’t speak nor understand Thai, so I relied entirely on subtitles provided on GMMTV’s YouTube channel;
2/ all my comments and remarks below are about the GMMTV series – I didn’t read the book which inspired the series; for me the series is a completely independent work, not connected with the book, and it needs to stand on its own.
What I like about the series
1/ On-screen chemistry. Toptap and Mike work so well together that I’d be surprised to learn that off-screen they are anything less than good friends. But what I enjoyed even more was the chemistry between Pod and Khaotung; they sold me on Ton and Chon having genuine affection and feelings for one another. It was more than the absence of awkwardness; both actors seemed confident and relaxed in each other’s presence (for most of the time), hence their interactions (including the goofy ones) were believable. We deserved to see more of those two together; we got loads of cuteness and emotions, what we should have gotten more of was boyfriend banter (we got some of that, but more would be nice – Khaotung showed that his Chon can be shy, confident, loving, stubborn and angry, but also very sassy).
2/ Less non-problems than I feared. My prime example is Chon’s reaction to the kiss video in episode 9. Initially I was disappointed and thought Chon reacted according to BL-silliness (by which I mean that characters usually suspect and assume the worst, act without real reason, judge the situation without actual proof, tend to overreact and/or react to things no real person would bother reacting to; also, they don’t talk to each other). Then I watched episode 10 and saw that Chon’s reaction was much more grounded and relatable. Chon recognized Ton as a show-off prone to dumb stunts and actions which would give Chon constant heartache. Suddenly it made sense and the BL-silliness was gone; there was no fake problem – there was a real one and Chon was reacting to it.
3/ Showing homophobia’s still a real thing. We see LGBTQ characters fearful of how their friends and other people would react to their coming out/revealing they are in a same-sex relationship and we see homophobic characters with their stereotypes, prejudice and aggression. Pretending we live in a world were nothing stops LGBTQ persons from having a happy life would be bad. Glad the show writers didn’t do that. That being said:
- the way a gay character was presented in episode 1 (guy who followed Ton and Chon after they had lunch) was appalling and homophobic,
- Ton never apologizing nor even addressing his homophobia was a huge mistake of the writers,
- Chareon getting his wish fulfilled instead of being denied and ignored was an even bigger mistake of the writers – c’mon, guys! if you want to show everyone that homophobia is bad you can’t reward a homophobe!
4/ Very limited side plots. Compare “Tonhon Chonlatee” to, let’s say, “2gether”, where we got 4 couples: Tine&Sarawat, Type&Man, Dim&Green and Mil& Phukong (5 if we include Pear&Boss). Were they all necessary to tell the story of Tine&Sarawat? Did we learn more about the main characters because of these additional characters and their relationships? What purpose in the story did they serve? In “Tonhon Chonlatee” the side characters are acutely aware of their purpose; Ai explaining to Ni, that they are the protagonist’s sidekicks was on point and almost breaking the 4th wall.
5/ Miriam. Once she shows up she does a lot to push the plot forward – which the story needed after the slow-paced first few episodes. The character itself is likeable and a much needed voice of reason.
What I don’t mind about the series
1/ How character development of Ton was handled. The writing is rather basic and often clumsy, with a difficult-to-believe revelation in episode 10, but we also get a clear character arc for Ton. BTW: I liked that the show didn’t immediately explain why and how Ton got the idea of having Chon stay at his place and them two spending so much time together. Ton felt something for Chon and acted on what we were initially led to believe was instinct - I'm fine with that.
2/ Clumsy writing. (i) People condemning Amp after her rant in episode 8 - apparently students carry paper balls with them at all times (ii) The shoehorned beach scene at the end of episode 8 (I guess we needed that to illustrate that Ton made a decision, that from now on – instead of being a homophobe – he’ll fight homophobia, that he’s no longer afraid and so on).
3/ Unanswered questions. (i) How come Ton didn’t recognize Chon in episode 1 and what purpose did it serve? From a story point of view it would be better for Ton to recognize Chon right away, saying something like “Just the person I wanted to see. I’ve missed you so much. Let’s have lunch”. (ii) Who leaked the picture of Ton sleeping in episode 8? Was it Chon (he took the picture)? Was it Pang (she saw the picture and held Chon’s phone long enough to send the picture to herself)? We know why it happened (drama), but how? (iii) Is everyone allowed to see other people’s kites that hang if front of the Sam Muk temple? And to tamper with them? (iv) Don’t Ton’s parents have any social media accounts? Don’t they follow their son?
I can live without knowing these things.
What annoys me about the series
1/ How Ton’s attraction to Chon is explained in episodes 9 and 10. On reviewer (deetsy) addressed this nicely today, so let me quote: “In the end what we got was a homophobic story of "I'm not gay, I just love you". It worked well 5 years ago in SOTUS, but now I think LGBT community moved on past this narrative and deserves something better”. In short: why can’t Ton just be gay or bisexual or pansexual? Why the additional “explanation” that he’s attracted to Chon because they have had a special bond as children? Why the emphasis on Ton not being gay, on Ton “still liking women” and not feeling anything for other men? Maybe there’s something I don’t get about some BL series, but this wasn’t the first time I saw something like this. Did you notice the emphasis on past girlfriends, who don’t even have to appear in the show nor become villains (like Amp), but are casually mentioned? As if the writers wanted to establish that gay characters don’t exist and if two guys get together they are bisexual or pansexual at best. In “Tonhon Chonlatee” this applies not just to Ton, but also to Na, and you can see the same pattern in other series: a boy dating girls until he meets that one special boy he’s attracted to (see both Tine and Sarawat in “2gether”, see Tee in “Cause You're My Boy”, see Knock in “Together with me” and see many others examples).
2/ Chareon’s homophobia and “the baby solution”. Chareon is a homophobe and a domestic tyrant. Everyone is trying to make him realize he can’t separate Chon and Ton nor impose his wish to have grandchildren, but at the same time everyone tries to satisfy that wish: enter Nam and the surrogate mother idea. Why is this even in the show? Why did the writers decide to fulfil Chareon’s wish and disregard basically everything done up untill that point? Chareon was told he can’t force his kids to do his bidding and then he got exactly what he wanted. As much as I enjoyed the first part of episode 10, I was facepalming for most of the rest of it.
3/ Nueng facing almost no consequences for his assault on Chon. Nueng is a would-be rapist and almost nothing happened to him. Ton kicked him once, dragged him out of the toilet and punched him once – that was all, that was the whole “punishment” for what Nueng attempted. I’m not saying we needed a scene of Ton and Chon testifying at a police station, but something should have happened, e.g. Ai or Ni doing their sidekick job and telling Ton (e.g. a day after the assault) that the university announced Nueng was suspended and facing a police investigation. Instead we got Nueng on best-buddy terms with Amp, supporting her lies (I didn’t know would-be rapists hold the moral high ground to lecture junior students on splashing seniors with water) until she was revealed as a homophobe. The guy shouldn’t even be in the series at that point! BTW: remember how Chon was reprimanded for kissing Ton while Ton was asleep? If the writers (correctly) wanted to tell us that any form of sexual activity, even a kiss, needs to be consensual, they shouldn’t send conflicting signals like that.
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