The best hot mess - worth a try!

Spoilers in the form of general mood and topic spoilers: I try keep them general and vague! Check the spoiler tags - they can help you see what might be triggering!

No matter what you think of Only Friends, it has no doubt cemented its place in history - chaotic adults who also happen to be gay in what's certainly one of the better and more polished GMM productions that I've seen! It's messy and a fun take on the university dramas I've seen all too often from Thailand: here, them being final year uni students feels almost secondary to the story minus the fact their final project is what this revolves around. What I'm trying to say is that their primary personalities aren't uni students - they're adults who get up to a lot of stuff outside uni. Also, THERE'S A SAPPHIC SIDE COUPLE (with little screentime since it's not GL, but they're still there!!!)

STORY:
This is what makes or breaks a series honestly - no matter how good the actors are or the cinematography is, the story has to be there. I think it was there, although it felt vaguely rushed at the end due to the introduction of conflict in the penultimate and final episodes. However, I feel like that's the charm of Only Friends - the chaotic nature. Indeed, coming to the comments, people wanted everyone to kiss, and A LOT of people kissed outside of the rigid couples I expected.
This is a very messy series and if you're here for established couples, understand that the story has angst and chaos and your favourite couples will kiss other characters. I love that the series explores addictions (implied to be genetic), suicide and promotes rehab. It shows the consequences of characters' actions, and even if most of the couples are endgame, I love that not all the couples get together.

ACTING/CAST:
A star-studded cast, with many faces I was familiar with:
Neo and Mark particularly shined here because I'd only seen them as the comic supporting characters - they did incredibly well here with more serious roles!
First and Khaotung put me through so many emotions that I understand why people love them - some of my favourite and most memorable emotional scenes were theirs.
Unfortunately, Force and Book didn't get me as invested as I should have in Top and Mew's story. I think it might be that the other actors were so surprisingly good that they didn't shine as much. I didn't feel much about or for them, except I thought I'd like Mew more early on, but loved his later self. I only cared about them when something was wrong or there was conflict, but I was invested in the others even when there was no conflict.
Lookjun and Nonnie were nice but had little screentime, so if you want to watch for the sapphic couple, I'd recommend you get used to them being very secondary to the plot, more Nonnie because she's not part of the main friendship group.
Jennie is iconic as usual, and Tee was impressive - their story had me irrationally invested for such minor roles.

MUSIC:
The music was amazing: they took a range of genres and used them as background music or as references in the series! I put the OST "Let's Try" sung by Khaotung (Ray's actor) on repeat before watching this every time, and I have it on loop now while writing this! Rock, hip hop and pop(?) all made appearances in the series too!

REWATCH:
I loved it, but I tend to rewatch things for comfort and only my favourites then. However, this might be one to rewatch if you like to rewatch chaotic and angsty things - if I'm ever in the mood to see everyone kiss everyone I'll watch this!

FINAL THOUGHTS:
It felt vaguely starved of CheumApril content plot wise but there's still a while to go before we have more sapphic side couples who are notable in the story. The fact that they're listed as support roles despite Lookjun being part of the main friendship group explains it though. I also couldn't be completely satisfied with the speedy redemptions for the sake of a happy ending for some couples. However, I understand that there are people who are all too willing to take back their partners who've done wrong, and I want to believe that the characters in question are truly improving since that's what I feel I saw. In that, this was realistic.

If you're on the fence about watching this - I was too for a bit, until I saw the chaos and angst promised. The OST is called "Let's Try" so why not take up Khao's invitation? I feel like this is worth a try!

(sincerest apologies for any mess or confusion - I tried to structure my first review as much as possible!)

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