I don't normally like something this fluffy this much, but this had a lot of qualities that made for very enjoyable viewing. I really loved this series, and I actually cried through most of the finale, which is a rarity for me.

I'll start with some negatives:

- The Yok/Boss storyline was apparently added and is not in the source material, and it shows. It's not integrated into the main story and feels like it's a completely different show that got stapled to My Ride. It served no purpose as it didn't really contrast with the main story or shine any new light on it. The resolution of it was very satisfying and flipped things around in a refreshing way, but sometimes the Enemies to Lovers trope can be pushed way too far at first, and in this Yok is much too awful. The Blackmail thing was fine because he would never have done it and was just messing with him - it was a little OTT because Boss believed he would and was very upset. And the library thing was a deal-killer for me. Don't mess with people's books - that was just terrible. Especially for an anal-retentive person like Boss - you just know he had all those alphabetized or grouped by subject.

- The Nadia/Mayom storyline was apparently m/m in the novel, and I'm at a loss as to why they would change it - I understand the Nadia character was a very effeminate gay man and Thai series will never make someone like that a main characer in a pairing - they're sole purpose is comedy relief. This is a real disappointment as that would have been something different and special. Ironically, the theme of the Yok/Boss story, which the producers added to the series, was the importance of stepping out of your comfort zone.

- The Por story was dragged out a bit too long, and since the audience has the full picture but Tawan doesn't, it starts to get frustrating. It would have been better to have put more time into Mork's struggle with his sexuality, which was sensitively handled and not the usual eye-rolling drama, so I could have dealt with quite a bit more processing for him. Or we could have had a bit more of the motorcycle guy and the trans teacher - that was interesting.

OK, on to the positives:

- There is a lot of eye candy in this, but none of the actors were just a pretty face or rocking body (more on that later) - everyone did a great job with the acting, even Dr. Por - he's a really cute guy (like he is in Doctor I'm Coming for Soul), but he made him somehow creepy from the start, even though he was apparently a perfect boyfriend. You think there's something wrong, even fairly certain, yet you're not entirely sure.

- Fluke's dimple killed me, and that smile is the sun. His portrayal of Mork was consistent, sweet, quirky sensible, and gave the pair a class difference that was interesting and realistic - not at all a bag of stereotypes, and it just led to some reasonable mistaken assumptions that weren't dragged out or unrealistic. He doesn't suffer from that over-reserved performance style that plagues too many series. And I never felt like he was some actor they dragged in off the street because he's hot.

- Fluke is hot - both cute and manly without being obnoxiously alpha. Boss is adorable, Yok is sexy once he stops being an asshole, and the Barista (Mayom) is so hot it hurt to look at him. He has what I like to call "it." His gentlemanly demeanor, face, voice, and a completely killer body.

- The class difference theme was well-handled. Too often in Thai dramas there is the simple formula rich=evil, poor=virtuous. Here lower-class characters can have some sophisticated qualities as is the case with real people. The contrast between the main and secondary couple was interesting - while it got in the way for Mork and Tawan, it was mostly due to mistaken assumptions, whereas Nadia's assumptions were arrogant and completely wrong - she was no better than Mayom, and in fact her treatment of him is what lacked class, and it never occurred to her that he wasn't just a simple barista. One thing I didn't like so much was that he changed himself to please her, although I think the main point is that our assumptions about Nadia were off as well - she didn't need him to be a nobleman or rich, she just wanted a man with drive and amibition, which is reasonable. Tawan could care less and seemed to humor Mork's desire to be a provider, even though he's a doctor and most likely to be by orders of magnitude the main breadwinner for the couple. But Mork wasn't sensitive about this issue, it's just who he is.

- While this was very fluffy and clearly aimed at young audiences (if you're hoping for steamy shirtless scenes, you can forget it. They could at least have had Mayom take a shower. Sigh.), it didn't shy away from some darkness, and in fact had much less of that fantasy quality in BL where everyone is rich and everything is shiny. One of the uncles was an alcoholic, Dr Por's weaknesses were cowardly and painful to a lot of people, including himself, etc.

- This had a realistic and positive portrayal of an essentially married older gay couple, which I don't think we've seen before. They were the principal source of comic relief without being ridiculous - in fact they are crucial to Mork's character arc. They felt realistic and weren't archetypes or fairy godmothers. They had normal insights based on age & experience without having magic solutions to everything, and they had their own problems - it's one of the best elements of this series.

A nine is a very high rating, but this was such a pleasure to watch that I enjoyed it more than I have enjoyed objectively superior series. I had low expectations of this given all the production problems and recasting, but it's obvious that a lot of love went into this project. The quality of the cast was much higher than BL standard, and the story, while not terribly original, was well-written with fully realized characters with realistic failings and reasonable use of misunderstandings and mistaken assumption. Sometimes in other series these are so implausible that it's just frustrating, like when the evil ex-GF kisses the seme, but the uke just happens to wander to where they are at that very second for no plausible reason, and even though he sees the seme push her away in disgust, he still assumes they're over and there are three episodes of crying in the rain to sappy ballads ias we watch a montage of happy times together which we've alread seen several times. That doesn't happen here.

In fact, in the finale Mork is operating under several faulty assumptions that both drive the plot and are quite funny, and some of them were other characters being deliberately misleading, but out of positive motives.

So I highly recommend this - the pacing is a bit slow, but if you stick with it you'll be rewarded. If you find that the secondary couples aren't working for you, FFing through them will in no way diminish the main storyline.