Love Stories in The Stuff That's Not Interesting But Is The Most Interesting Stuff I'll Write

So I know it’s been quite a while. I began the medical trial, which ended when the pharma company decided it was too difficult to produce the medicine… but I did have one wild weekend in Denver which found me standing out in the snow in just a jockstrap and trench coat. God, when will I learn.

Then I went on the cruise by myself and ended up making friends, drinking a lot of vodka, and fucking a bunch of 19 year olds.... so really, it was just a typical week for me. However, when we got back into port in Long Beach, our boat was delayed a day as they tested for this crazy outbreak that happened while I was naked on a beach in Mexico.

So almost immediately after I got back, quarantine began. It’s funny because I’ve actually done pretty well being isolated like this because it’s not that much different than how I was when I depressed following my grandmother’s death. I didn’t leave the house for weeks at a time and pretty much lived in complete isolation. Since I’ve gotten my head on straight, it hasn’t really bothered me.

It helps that I got the job teaching English online to students in China, so I haven’t really had that hard of an impact. Even not being able to go out for my weekly drink hasn’t really affected me all that much. Friday night was the first time I hung out with people and got drunk since I got back from my cruise on March 9. So, clearly sobriety isn’t a problem for me which I think proves that I’m not an alcoholic.

My little brother, meanwhile, moved back into my mother’s house and sleeps with a bottle of New Amsterdam vodka every night. But he’s still the good son, so he is forgiven.

I wasn’t going crazy, was just kind of living my daily life and there wasn’t really anything to write about in quarantine… and there still isn’t anything really of importance to write about, except to give a little synopsis of how I’ve been spending my time. On one hand, it’s pretty pathetic, but on another it’s totally me and really kind of charming.

I have been watching Thai dramas… specifically Boy Love dramas. I know, it’s very pathetic. So I figured I’d give you a little list because it’s become kind of my new obsession.

Bangkok Love Stories: Innocence -
It all began a year ago when this popped up as one of my recommendations on Netflix. This one isn’t specifically BL (Boy Love), but it’s part of a larger anthology series in which each season is set in a different district in Bangkok. I’ve watched a few of the others, but they weren’t nearly as good as this one. It’s much more sprawling and has a dizzying amount of characters in various types of relationships. It’s set in Silom, which is the most cosmopolitan area of Bangkok, and as such, is kind of their version of West Hollywood or the Castro. It features trans characters prominently, and it fascinated me how integrated they were into society. There’s obviously some discrimination, but I loved that they had actual love affairs and plot points involved, it really attracted me to the show. The trans characters aren’t one of the main couples, of which there are many, and some of them are really fun to watch, some of them aren’t (Eve is annoying af). The one thing that I found remarkable was the gay love triangle ended up being the main plot point of the series, and is kind of the most compelling story of them all because of all the turns it takes. Ten and Max are the actors and they’re quite good in the whole series, some of it’s really painful or romantic. It’s quite good. Randomly, I ended up messaging Ten on Instagram, he’s living in LA with his boyfriend during the quarantine and we’ve had fun chatting. He’s really friendly and that kind of makes me like him more.

I’ve watched BLS: Innocence three times in the last year, I just love it so much. So that’s when Netflix started recommending other Thai dramas.

Love Sick: The Series -
When I first watched this series, it was almost a little too tame for me. BLS: Innocence is about adults in the real world dealing with major life problems, and Love Sick is kind of this high school-set romance. However, I soon kind of got into this as like a gay Dawson’s Creek and kind of loved it. I had already watched another series before this, this is the series that opened up another can of worms for me. This is about a boy named No who gets asked by Phun to be his pretend boyfriend so that he can get out of an arranged relationship and date his girlfriend Phun. Now, No is a really frustrating character but is sweet and just goes along with anything. As time goes on, Phun starts developing real feelings for No, and No has to figure out how he feels for Phun. Now, this is tame because this was actually the first popular BL series in 2014. The kisses are very chaste and the admissions of affection take forever, but these kids are sweet so you just enjoy it. Phun is adorable and would get frustrated with what a dipshit No could be. So I finished the first season, which was on Netflix and started Googling around only to discover that there was a second season of this show, but it wasn’t on Netflix. So I watched the second season, which is twice as long and 10 times as dramatic. The second season is AMAZING. There’s so much drama, and one of the sides characters transforms into a crazy psycho bitch who tries to ruin their relationship and it suddenly turns into a gay version of Dynasty. It’s incredible. And the ending is super sweet.

Sotus: The Series / Sotus S: The Series -
I actually watched Sotus before I watched Love Sick, and that’s because Sotus had a very interesting premise: a young man named Kongpob is a Freshmen university student going through the common hazing ritual overseen by Arthit, however, he starts challenging Arthit when the hazing goes too far… but they end up feeling attracted to each other. So it’s basically “I fell in love with my bully” kind of thing, but it’s done so well. The way they get together is really sweet and you can see how respect becomes admiration which in turn becomes affection. It’s quite marvelous. Now I finished the first season on Netflix and moved on to Love Sick, but when I found out there was a second season of Love Sick, I discovered Sotus S, which is basically the second season of Sotus (Thai BL dramas often will change the name of the series, something I discovered quite quickly). Sotus S picks up years later, with Kongpob now the head hazer and Arthit graduated, trying to make his way into the working world. It’s quite good. In fact, I like it much better than the first season (I’m kind of alone in that feeling) simply because their adult hurdles are much more believable than the made up dramas that plagued them while they were still in high school. Now, this couple and these series were incredible popular, to the point where, even though their show was on in 2016, they are still hired to appear in commercials together in 2020.

The Judgment -
This was the final recommendation I took from Netflix because this was one of the most difficult television series I’ve ever watched in my life. It doesn’t really fall into the BL category, although there is a gay love story in the periphery. This show is about a girl who has a rumor started about her and how it spirals out of the control. The opening scene of the series is her giving a speech in front of the whole school, pulling a gun out and pointing it at her head… and then it flashes back to how she got there. It is incredibly hard to watch. There are multiple rape scenes, both heterosexual, gang rape, and homosexual rape. It’s the 13 Reasons Why of Thailand. At multiple points throughout the series, I was sobbing like crazy. Bawling my eyes out. It has a very good moral and manages its themes better than 13 Reasons Why, but I can’t honestly recommend it to anyone because of how difficult it can be to watch.

After watching that, I decided to research Thai dramas myself and not take anymore advice from Netflix, because that was not something I would have ever chosen to watch on my own.

Why R U? The Series -
This show started earlier this year. I had seen it advertised and decided to look into it. It’s actually still ongoing and unfortunately, the plot has been altered severely because of the COVID-19 outbreak because they weren’t finished filming the scenes, and they can’t delay episodes because their timeslot is already paid for. However, this has a very clever premise and is different because it (was supposed to) features two BL couples as the lead. It’s really fun and I don’t know what’s going to happen, but this is what I do every Friday.

Together With Me / Bad Romance / Together With Me: The Next Chapter -
I watched these in chronological order instead of production order which was a big mistake. I found these series because they star Max, from BLS: Innocence, and I discovered he was part of a very popular couple from these series. They were just a side couple in their first series, Bad Romance, but got their own spin-off in Together With Me, which was a prequel that explained how they got together, and then a sequel to Bad Romance was made. Together With Me is great and is a really fun exploration of how they met. I love the character Farm, who is this naive gay boy that falls in love with an older doctor in Together With Me (he’s not in Bad Romance), gets his heart broken and then turns the table in The Next Chapter. He’s seriously one of the most bad-ass characters in any BL show, I LOVE HIM. Now, Bad Romance is AWFUL. Mainly because it focuses almost entirely on the best girlfriend from Together With Me, Yihwa, and she’s the most irritating character EVER. She was only KIND of irritating in Together With Me, but having her the focus of Bad Romance really ruined that show for me. She’s also the only bad part about TWM: The Next Chapter, which finds all of the characters beginning their careers and dealing with infidelity. Fans really hated this series because there is some cheating that happens, but I liked how they dealt with it. I recommend these, but skip Bad Romance, it’ll make you hate Yihwa instead of just finding her mildly irritating.

TharnType The Series -
Now, I had seen online everyone and their mother arguing in forums about this show. It was the most recent BL show and ended the week before Why R U? premiered. I thought it had a fascinating premise: a freshmen in college (Type) likes his roommate (Tharn) until he finds out his roommate is gay, because he is incredibly homophobic, and hatches a scheme to get him to move out… but in the process falls in love with him. I know, it sounds ridiculous, but this is one of the most deadly serious series on this list. It throws EVERYTHING against the wall to see if it sticks. The reason he’s homophobic is because he was molested when he was a child. There’s also this side plot involving an ex-boyfriend coming back and scheming to break them up, but his reasons are even more painful than the molestation thing… and then you find out there was someone else behind it all along. It’s almost as dark as The Judgment, and I can see why everyone was arguing about it, what with so much rape happening in every episode, fights, rampant homophobia.... but at the same time, that’s why it’s so incredibly likable. There’s a true redemptive element to the show that makes it addictively watchable. I’ve heard they’re beginning production on a second season, which I hope is true, because they really have a great story going on. There was just one confusing thing… it overlaps with another series....

Love By Chance -
This was a very sweet series, but it was very poorly written. Ae is a working class boy who ends up helping Pete (who is one of the main characters of Why R U? and his character from this show pops up in the finale of TharnType) a rich boy being blackmailed by a criminal. The way they come together is sweet and kind of naturally evolving, and Ae’s pornography-addicted roommate is probably one of the funniest characters written in any of these series, but there’s also Tin, Pete’s snobby friend, and Can, a player on Ae’s team who’s kind of dopey and whiny. The Ae-Pete romance happens so quickly that the plot of the criminal gets dropped and lots of side characters just disappear from the show altogether. Then they shoe-horn Tin-Can into the last few episodes but don’t resolve their relationship. Furthermore, to Football Captain of Ae & Can’s team is Techno, Type’s best friend (Type is played by a different actor in this series, and Tharn is in the series but only in telephone calls because this takes place three years after TharnType despite being the earlier show). There’s more rape in this one, but it’s peripheral and not treated quite as seriously as it was in TharnType, because two of the characters in Love By Chance recreate the exact same story line in TharnType, but without Tharn, it feels really out of place and confusing. So I like Ae-Pete and Tin-Can, but this series is so poorly written, I probably won’t watch it again. Supposedly they’re doing a second season, but Pete won’t be on the show due to his commitments to Why R U?. (Plus, Pete’s Mom is played by the stepmom from The Judgment, and she is FANTASTIC… she should be the mom in every series, I love her)

Water Boyy: The Series -
I wanted to watch this because it has a lot of actors who were side characters in other series. The leads in this series was Kongpob’s best friend from Sotus and his love interest played Type in Love By Chance. Furthermore, the actor who played Phun on Love Sick falls in love with a lesbian on this show. This series was not very popular and I can understand why, it had some truly ridiculous twists and turns, and suffers from something that most BL series suffer from: the girls are entirely irritating and really serve no purpose in the show. I found the relationships between the father and his son’s best friend to be really interesting, and I know people find that creepy, but it was explained really well. I can see why it’s not popular because it did a lot of things wrong, but what it did well, it did very well. And Dew, the guy who was in Sotus, is a great actor.

ReminderS: The Series -
This is a 3-part miniseries that features the return of Phun-No from Love Sick in 2019 giving advice to two couples played by the actors in their pairings from Love By Chance, but playing different characters. This came out in 2019 and it was fun to see the progression of Phun-No as well as see the kids from LBC do something different. It’s supposed to be a warm-up for a third season of Love Sick, but we’ll see if that materializes.

Our Skyy -
Is a miniseries in which each episode catches up with a famous BL couple from another series. I watched the catch up for KIss Me Again, the next series I’ll talk about, but also the episode featuring the couple from Sotus. It was very cute and a fun way to see what happened in a quick hour.

Kiss: The Series / Kiss Me Again / Dark Blue Kiss -
The first series I barley paid attention to because there were too many characters and I couldn’t even keep track of who was what or where. The gay couple is Kao (Once again, Dew from Water Boyy and Sotus) and Pete, they only appear sporadically, kind of like in Bad Romance… and the quality is just as good. Kiss Me Again is interesting, if only because of how violent it is. Pete is always punching someone and getting into fights. He even punches Kao (Kiss Me Again shows how they got together) and it’s incredibly violent, but it really does show their evolution as a couple. Now, Dark Blue Kiss is probably my favorite BL series ever. I loved it so much because it wasn’t over-the-top, it wasn’t soapy, it was serious and grounded. They had real couple problems. I would recommend Dark Blue Kiss to anyone, and the nice thing is, you don’t really need to have seen the previous series in order to get the gist of the show. Plus the other couple, Sun-Mork have the same kind of evolution that Pete-Kao had in Kiss Me Again, but with much more patience and development. Dark Blue Kiss is very well-made and I also liked how they all were gay. I know that sounds silly, but it’s often a trope in BL series that the characters say “I’m not gay, I just love you and you happen to be a man”… whereas in Dark Blue Sky, Pete-Kao deal with coming out, and Mork actually says to his friend that he likes guys after episodes of working it out. The primary audience for BL stories are young girls and so they often avoid the icky “gay” label because they don’t want to be off-putting, but Dark Blue Sky says it proudly. The lesbian character was really cool (only the 2nd lesbian I’ve seen)… everything about this show was awesome. Although, Kao is a bit of an idiot and if he’s listened to Pete in episode 1 (and every episode after that) there would have been no drama. But where’s the fun in that.

If you’ve read this far, I apologize, but this is my new hobby. Besides, I’m picking up more and more Thai the more I watch, which is good because I think I’m moving there.