MY TOP TEN THAI BL SERIES
[As of May 28th, 2022] subject to change I fully intended to make this list all eloquent and whatnot but ha HA it is not that. Anyway, with a thousand series airing this year, this list is likely to change, but here it is for now. \:D/ 10. Enchanté (2022)
Favorite Character: Akk Favorite Scene: AkkTheo's rooftop kiss. GMM needs to start handing out trophies for best kiss because whew. Fire emoji. Why I Love the Series in a Nutshell: Akk and Theo. ForceBook are brand new as an acting pair, but they're real-life childhood best friends, and the dynamic they brought to acting as childhood best friends AkkTheo is something no one else could have replicated with the same charm. I skipped most scenes without AkkTheo (unless it was Saifa because of my devotion to all things Gawin) and I didn't connect with or care about any of the other characters, I just love AkkTheo to such a profound degree that every scene with them kept me charmed and committed to watching their story unfold every week. [SPOILER] If it had just been about AkkTheo and we knew all along that Enchanté is Theo, I would have loved it a lot more. I think it would have been more fun to make the comedy about all these guys trying to claim they're Enchanté while Theo and the audience both knew they're not. [END SPOILER] 9. KinnPorsche (2022)
Favorite Character: Kinn Favorite Scene: The end of episode 6, oof. That hug. That kiss. :') Why I Love the Series in a Nutshell: KinnPorsche's relationshiiiip. I was on the fence about this series before it aired because the novel did not in any way sound like a story I'd like, but the scriptwriter(s) for the series have made some incredible improvements, and ApoMile are both fantastic actors. Just like Enchanté, I think if the series were just about KinnPorsche as characters and their relationship, it'd be higher on my list. I'm not remotely interested in the other two couples, so I do a lot of fast-forwarding whenever KP are offscreen. The tonal shifts and comedy beats ("are you in danger?" "nO I'M TAKING A P00P") in the first five episodes didn't really hit with me, either, so episode 6 is when I got genuinely invested because everything in that episode is pretty much flawless. The cinematography, the music, the acting. [SPOILER] I cried when Kinn was shot, and I can count on one hand the number of series that have made me cry. [END SPOILER] It might move higher on my list now that KP are an established couple, because established couples are all I need to live, but the other two couples I'm not invested in are probably going to take up more screentime too, so we'll see. 8. Ingredients (2020)
Favorite Character: Tops Favorite Scene: Their last dinner. :') Why I Love the Series in a Nutshell: I watched Ingredients as it was airing in 2020, and it became the ultimate comfort series for me. JeffGame have this lovely, comfortable dynamic, and the energy when they play off each other feels so familiar and natural. It was on the strength of their joint charisma that this series was extended past its original run of, I think, ten episodes? And it ended up being over twenty based on its popularity. So much of this series is just Win and Tops skirting the edge of a relationship they both want because they both know Win has to leave eventually. They play that balance so beautifully, and their first kiss… :')
7. Not Me (2022)
Favorite Character: Yok Favorite Scene: OEOEOEOEOEOE Why I Love the Series in a Nutshell: THIS SERIES. I wish this series had had the budget and time it deserved to fully realize the potential it had because there's so much about it that needed more time and better script editing but. BUT. It's frankly incredible how good it is considering the amount of budget cuts, episode cuts, and general censorship they were up against. DanYok had such a fascinating dynamic from the very beginning, and SeanWhite just…my heart. :''') The scene where Sean tells White that he has to work four times harder to get what White was just born into…! This series was such an achievement in so many ways, and the acting. THE ACTING. Gun, of course, but also OFF and FIRST and GAWIN. With a director as talented as Nuchy, it's no surprise, of course, but still. I love how much devotion and hard work went into this series. There are things I didn't like, like Gram's…entire…………yeah, and I wish so much that Nuch had had more screentime overall, plus DanYok's arc felt a little incomplete and needed more development and a better conclusion, but again: they were up against so much that they couldn't control, and Nuchy was editing scenes the night before the episode aired. She had episodes cut while they were IN PRODUCTION. That she pulled this off as well as she did is genuinely remarkable and a testament to her skill. <3 The ending really satisfied me, too. :'''') That harrowing scene followed by the crowd and the……just………ugh. It's so good. 6. Dark Blue Kiss (2019)
Favorite Character: Pete Favorite Scene: The pool scene in the last episode :'D Why I Love the Series in a Nutshell: This was one of the first series I watched in 2020, and when I say I binged it, I mean I also binged PeteKao's supercut for the previous Kiss series, too. In days, I went from not knowing anything about PeteKao to feeling absolutely transcendent when Kao jumped into a pool and told Pete, "You weren't embarrassed when you went live for the whole country to see, so I'm not either." I just…love them so much. They're another dynamic that feels very natural to me, and I think the strength of this series is owed in large part to how well TayNew portray the nuances of PeteKao's relationship. New does an incredible job showing how profoundly anxious Kao is about his financial inequality with Pete, and I really appreciated a series showing how the consequences of homophobia hit so much harder depending on your social status. Kao's fears are very real, and the series actually justifies his fears. I very much appreciate that Pete is confident about living openly not only because his father has embraced who he is, but because he's from a very wealthy background and there isn't much that can threaten him when his father has the connections he does. I just love that Pete begins his character arc as a spoiled jerk lost in his grief and privilege, but he matures to the point where he'll use whatever advantages he has to help Kao get his career back on track simply because he loves Kao whether they're together or not. Also, I think DBK was the first series to bring up marriage equality alongside Until We Meet Again, so just. All the applause. I love this series so much. :'''') 5. Something in My Room (2022)
Favorite Character: Phob Favorite Scene: The "proposal" scene in episode 10 :') Why I Love the Series in a Nutshell: Ohhh this series was done so very wrong by its airing channel. To preface, Channel 3 aired a free version of Something in My Room with significant edits that made it difficult to follow, presumably to entice people to sign up for their channel's membership to watch the unedited version? Spoiler: It didn't do that, and whoever's responsible should be thrown into the Arctic Sea for making this beautiful series harder to access. ANYWAY. PhobPhat are, as you can see, one of my top five favorite couples. Early on, it's established that as a ghost, Phob can go and see whatever he wants in the house, so Phat sets ground rules with him so he can't peek at him in the shower, etc. A lesser series probably would have stopped there. Left it as a one-off joke. In SIMR, though, it unfolds into a larger conversation about boundaries and consent, and Phob points out that Phat's mother has been overstepping Phat's personal space, so shouldn't she have to respect her son's space, too? There aren't any miscommunications between them to pad the run time because when they encounter problems, they always talk them out. This isn't even mentioning the four fascinating and complex women the series focuses on??? FOUR WOMEN. All of whom have different motivations and personalities, and ugh. It's just so incredibly good. I need to do a longer post on SIMR. 4. Cutie Pie (2022)
Favorite Character: Kuea Favorite BounPrem Scene: EPISODE 7 4/4 :D Favorite Non-BounPrem Scene: LianKuea's park bench conversation in episode 9 :'''') Why I Love the Series in a Nutshell: Full disclosure! I wasn't even planning on watching Cutie Pie! I dropped Why R U after one episode, I followed none of the actors, and when I heard Cutie Pie was by the same people, I was deeply skeptical. But it's about an established relationship (kind of), and we all know how I feel about those, sO! I went into this with zero expectations. Flat neutral. AND WOW IT CAPTURED MY WHOLE HEART. I love every single character from Kuea to Syn to Foei. They're all very different and yet they all have something endearing to their personalities. All three couples had something unique that I love about them: LianKuea's magnetism to each other despite their contrasting love languages, the gradual equalization of YiDiao's dynamic, and NuerSyn managing to be the most mature of ALL THREE OF THEM despite being the youngest. Incredible. I started rewatching it from the beginning recently and it's even more enjoyable the second time. It's very difficult for me to focus on series without pausing and doing other things every few minutes, but as Cutie Pie was airing, starting from episode 7, I actually left my phone in another room and watched the entire episode from beginning to end without stopping once. I just love so much about it, it became a comfort series before I knew it. There's just such heart in it, at the core of the story. At the end of the last episode, they showed a blooper reel, and the comfort among the cast and crew was so clear, it just cemented for me why the series feels that way, too. <3 3. SOTUS S (2017)
Favorite Character: Arthit Favorite Scene: The "I want to be by your side" scene in the car at the end of episode 6 :'''''''''''') Why I Love the Series in a Nutshell: I CANNOT EXPRESS WHAT SOTUS S MEANS TO ME. I think even if you're new to me, you can tell just by this list that all I want, all the time, are stories about established relationships. I love the first SOTUS too, don't get me wrong, but SOTUS S just…is my heart. Arthit's character is a lot more consistent here since he's more the POV character than he was in SOTUS, and I really relate to his character arc in SOTUS S. So, like, those little scenes at the end of the episodes that show the short window of time when Kongphob and Arthit were dating while they were in school together? They show that Arthit was confident about being openly queer when he was in school, probably in part because he was a third- and fourth-year student in a familiar environment where he was known and liked and respected by a lot of his peers. It's a perfect contrast to how unsettled he feels entering the working world. That anxiety over deciding how open you want to be with your coworkers, and how it might affect his relationship, is a very real experience for a lot of queer people. I remember that tense transition from feeling comfortable about my sexuality in my very liberal university environment to entering a more conservative workspace and not immediately knowing who to tell or how much to share. I just love Arthit's character and how well Krist portrayed his ongoing anxiety throughout the series. For example, right, if you watch him, there's a recurring thing Krist does where he holds his arm to his chest, and it reads to me as a self-soothing habit. It's so subtle but it's very effective. Krist himself doesn't do it, and I didn't even notice it until the second or third time I rewatched certain scenes, so it was a great character detail that fit in very naturally. Ahh, I love so much about this series but I have to stop talking about it eventually.
2. Until We Meet Again (2019)
Favorite Character: Win Favorite Win Scene: Episode 13 2/4 baybeeeee Favorite Non-Win Scene: InKorn's beach scene :''') Why I Love the Series in a Nutshell: Win Non-Win Why I Love the Series in a Nutshell: This was the first Thai BL series I watched back in early 2020, and to this day, nothing else has ever matched how it made me feel. I love almost every character (Alex is a disappointment to the bisexual community and we do not claim him), the character arcs are well crafted, the story is fascinating, the veteran actors brought their A game, and I can still rewatch any episode and feel profoundly moved by the love that went into this series. Are there flaws? Sure! Do they bother me? Nope! This series gave me a beautiful reincarnation story, strong and loving friendships, and WinTeam. It would probably be my favorite series forever if not for:
1. Between Us (2022) - Placeholder
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