There have been some amazingly well done series recently with truly remarkable performances from many new actors, which makes this series infuriating to watch.

OVERALL:

If you can ignore everything wrong with this series and just focus solely on the performances of the cast, it's worth watching being that it's only 6 episodes long. If this get another season, they really need to put all of their focus on improving the writing, directing, and especially the editing.

WRITING / DIRECTING / EDITING:

The writing, directing, and editing of this series is like knowing a gruesome accident is about to happen right before your eyes, knowing you should look away, but you can't. Please don't get me wrong, there are some really well done moments throughout the series, but more times than not either the writing, directing, or editing really let it down. If a more experienced team were given the raw materials from this series and they added about 2-3 episodes length of new material to it and completely reedited it, this series could easily have been one of the best of 2021.

Much of the series is more like a collection of disconnected scenes rather than something that flows together to weave a story. Something will happen one moment and then the next it's like the last one didn't happen.

The other major issue with the series is there's no real substance to it, the most we get are a couple of glimpses of what it could have been, but it never really breaks the surface.

CAST:

The majority of the cast and their performances are the only real reason to watch this series.

The biggest misstep with the cast would definitely have to be with Nice Pitayut Orsuwan and his character Arthur. The character might have been a "support" role, but his actions played a very large part in shaping a good majority of the overall story of other characters. Unfortunately the character was never fleshed out more than he did and action which caused this reaction and that was it, which is so frustrating because it was obvious that Nice Pitayut Orsuwan has real talent. If they hadn't wasted so much screen time with the three girls and instead dedicated that time to giving Arthur a backstory that would have given some insight into his behavior it would have drastically changed the series for the better. I really hope Nice gets the chance to really shine in another series and show what he's capable of as I really think he has the potential to be an amazing actor. The writing, directing, and editing of the series may never have developed anything for the character, but Nice portrayed a level of pain, sorrow, anger, and regret even just in his facial expressions that it's easily the one thing from this series that you'll remember.

The other standout performance would definitely be from Mawin Tanawin Duangnate who played Chris. I personally think that Chris was the most developed character of the whole series and it was obvious in the performance from Mawin. He was able to take what he was given and really give a performance and a character you connected with and really wanted to root for. Here again just like with Nice, Mawin really needs to be given the proper opportunity to really showcase what he's capable of and hopefully he'll get that chance.

I personally think if Nice and Mawin were teamed up together that with their talent they could play off each other remarkably well.

STORY ARCS:

Tong Fah x Paper: This is probably one of the oldest stories in the book, two long time friends end up developing feelings for each other....eventually. Of course it wouldn't be a teen / young adult self discovery and declaration of love drama series without the use of alcohol to give one of the characters the "courage" to finally make a move. Yes it's not uncommon for that to happen in real life, but it's so overused and there's many more creative ways it could have been done. There are easily 2-3 major scenes missing from this story arc that not only would have allowed it to flow better, but given it so much more impact.

Chris x Jeno: This one is just kind of all over the place thanks to poor writing and editing. Sometimes there are reasons why you develop a very close personal connection with someone or fall in love with them and sometimes you just do and there's no real singular reason why. In this arc there's multiple things that are thrown in but never really properly developed or flow in a way that really portrays their journey into loving each other. As I've said many times before, the editing really muddled this up.

M x Near: Honestly this series could have done without this whole story arc, and that's nothing against the actors themselves. It comes across as something that was just thrown in as an after thought and again is a jumbled mess throughout the series. They are both gamers who meet online in a game, become virtual boyfriends, and then realize they know each other in real life. Of course nothing can be straightforward in a drama series like this so they decided to complicate things by one of them knowing who the other is in real life, cue the misplaced anger when Near finds out that M is his virtual boyfriend and never told him, even though Near doesn't come out and tell M when he figures it out either. Then cue a series of disjoined scenes of them arguing back and forth, which ultimately leads to "Hey let's be real boyfriends" suddenly in the end.

The 3 Girls: Of course it wouldn't be a stereotypical BL genre series without a group of girls that serve no purpose other than wasting screen time that could have been better used with the multiple story arcs going on. Yes we get it, there is a large portion of the BL/Yaoi fandom that is extremely toxic / obsessive / compulsive / even dangerous, but really does it have to be thrown into every series and so over the top.