This review may contain spoilers
What Do I Say That Others Haven't Already?
It's taken me quite awhile to gather my thoughts about this show to be able to write a coherent review. I had to have time to let go of some of the remembrance of my own coming out and what my feelings were like. The pain was too real watching this unfold on the screen. So now that I've had several weeks put behind me here we go.
The story is fairly straight forward and rather mundane (barring Teh's audition in the beginning) in the beginning that it really set the stage for what builds up to the relationship between Teh and Oh-aew later on in the series. This isn't so much an enemies to lovers story as it's a story of best friends falling out and coming back together and then falling in love on a rollercoaster ride of emotions faced by so many gay youth but especially gay youth growing up in a conservative society such as Thailand.
The strength of this series lies not so much in the story itself but in how it's told through the two actors and their relationship to the roles and to each other. Billkin in particular in his portrayal of Teh shows the depth of anguish coming to terms with who you are and who you love when it's outside of who you thought you were.
PP as On-aew on the other hand broke me. He knew who he was and knew who he loved. He was willing to be out for that love but wasn't given the same in return. The rejection he kept having to endure over and over again when he reached a hand out was so heartbreaking it was almost too painful to watch. But I felt like stopping would have been a disservice to the actor and the character he was portraying. So I continued on and I'm glad I did.
The end result of this series was a healing of sort for both characters. On-aew was able to heal the rejection he was feeling and was able to feel loved. And Teh was able to heal the fear he was feeling and was able to accept On-aew's love and to give his freely in return.
This was not an easy story to watch. A lot of painful memories were brought up for me afterwards and I spent a lot of time talking to my best friend as we both went through similar things when we went to school together (he as a gay man and me as a queer woman). That talk and this series were both healing for me as well. I recommend that if you are a gay individual that you have a support system in place when facing these things because they can be really difficult. And if you choose to watch this beautiful series please make sure to treat yourself and your experiences kindly.
The story is fairly straight forward and rather mundane (barring Teh's audition in the beginning) in the beginning that it really set the stage for what builds up to the relationship between Teh and Oh-aew later on in the series. This isn't so much an enemies to lovers story as it's a story of best friends falling out and coming back together and then falling in love on a rollercoaster ride of emotions faced by so many gay youth but especially gay youth growing up in a conservative society such as Thailand.
The strength of this series lies not so much in the story itself but in how it's told through the two actors and their relationship to the roles and to each other. Billkin in particular in his portrayal of Teh shows the depth of anguish coming to terms with who you are and who you love when it's outside of who you thought you were.
PP as On-aew on the other hand broke me. He knew who he was and knew who he loved. He was willing to be out for that love but wasn't given the same in return. The rejection he kept having to endure over and over again when he reached a hand out was so heartbreaking it was almost too painful to watch. But I felt like stopping would have been a disservice to the actor and the character he was portraying. So I continued on and I'm glad I did.
The end result of this series was a healing of sort for both characters. On-aew was able to heal the rejection he was feeling and was able to feel loved. And Teh was able to heal the fear he was feeling and was able to accept On-aew's love and to give his freely in return.
This was not an easy story to watch. A lot of painful memories were brought up for me afterwards and I spent a lot of time talking to my best friend as we both went through similar things when we went to school together (he as a gay man and me as a queer woman). That talk and this series were both healing for me as well. I recommend that if you are a gay individual that you have a support system in place when facing these things because they can be really difficult. And if you choose to watch this beautiful series please make sure to treat yourself and your experiences kindly.
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