#ONGSA AND 2 SUANSOONS

[madeinjapan-thailand-blbambeyond]

MADE IN THAILAND

SUPAKORN WUTTINANSURASIT

[Nickname: TOR]

KANIST PIYAPAPHAKORNKOON

[Nickname: TENG]

WANUT SANGTIANPRAPAI

[Nickname: MIX]

[bl-bam-beyond]

Absolute Zero (2023, THAILAND)

Episode 2

This episode confused me a little bit so a rewatch is required.

Adult Ongsa is in the hospital from some kind of accident. His boyfriend the Adult Suansoon (KANIST PIYAPAPHAKORNKOON aka TENG) is worried.

Suddenly Adult Suansoon is in the past crossing paths with Teen Ongsa (SUPHAKORN WUTTINANSURASIT aka TOR) whom he calls by name.

Ongsa thinking Suansoon needs help takes him to the police but later returns and gives Adult Suansoon a place to stay.

Adult Suansoon later sees Teen Suansoon (WANUT SANGTIANPRAPAI aka MIX) and follows him to his parents grave.

It appears Adult Suansoon is enamored with the Teen Ongsa. Well of course he would be since they fell in love as teenagers.

@pose4photoml @lutawolf @wanderlust-in-my-soul

[neuroticbookworm]

I'm a tad late to the Absolute Zero party, but before I start screaming about how good episode 1 was, a little background:

I've not watched a single show directed by New Siwaj. I've watched one (1) show written by him -- Double Savage, and if I never think about that show ever again, it will still be too soon. I have zero minimal New Siwaj baggage and will therefore be the control subject of the Absolute Zero watch experience.

Now that that's out of the way, Y'ALL. THIS EPISODE. WAS SO GOOD. I LOVE sad stories that make me feel like my heart is being punched out of my chest, and this show is already so goddamn sad. Suansoon's parents have been dead for SIX years, and he's lonely and grieving and depressed, and @twig-tea made the incredible observation that he also seems stuck in time, unable to move on from his loss. He meets Ongsa in an adorable movie theatre meet-cute that spoke so deeply to my sucker-for-classic-romance-tropes heart.

And it seems like Ongsa might already be aware of the time loop shenanigans, from him pursuing Suansoon so quickly -- "I wished Suansoon to be my boyfriend", to the unexplained tears he shed after watching Suansoon just smile and enjoy his company (and an icecream, yum!). Which adds to the intrigue, and to the overall melancholia of the show -- Ongsa wanting a relationship with Suansoon, just being present in Soon's life and making memories, even though he (potentially) knows in advance that it's gonna end in tragedy is some Arrival levels of sadness I was not expecting.

And most importantly, it's not all grey and gloom. The overall tone of the episode was definitely melancholic, yet the lighter moments of laughter, domesticity (cc @troubled-mind), and just.. contentment that Soon experiences in Ongsa's presence did not feel out of place. It was seamless and flowed well with the undercurrent of sorrow. And when I shared this with @bengiyo, he said, and I quote "Exactly, that's why I knew (the show) was gonna fuck us up". And he is absolutely correct. And I cannot wait to go fetal on the floor and just sob over these characters when the show finally decides to ruin us.

P.S: There are two sad gay shows currently on air (I Feel You Linger In The Air, my beloved) involving 1. time shenanigans and 2. smoking hot men that @lurkingshan, @waitmyturtles and I can't stop ogling (though @waitmyturtles is currently alone in the "simping for Pastry Nat" camp) which is all a long-winded way of saying that we're having the time of our goddamn lives!

[my-rose-tinted-glasses]

Welcome to Absolute Zero Day aka Yes, I'm still watching this show Day aka I'm dead inside Wednesday.

I am well aware that no ones cares anymore but sharing this is helping me keep my sanity through the show.

Here we go again…

FYI we are with the kids now.

One of them is telling the other one what will happen if they keep seeing each other. Really doesn't matter which one at this point. Just pick one.

One of them starts crying, now the other. Now they're hugging each other and crying.

I can't stand the music or the heartbeat sound anymore. I know it's suppose to elicit some kinda emotion on me but nope. I'm dead inside.

Now one of the adults is crying, if you guessed Soon you were correct. yawn Now we get to be reminded about Adult soon and young Ongsa. Yey.

More crying.

OK. Stop. I need to say this. The episode is at 18 min. But really 16 minutes because of the previous and the credits. Of those more than 6 minutes were crying. 6 MINUTES OF CRYING IN 16 MINUTES OF EPISODE. This might be some kind of record. (and yes I timed it because I knew it was coming and I might as well do something)

But wait... that's not all...

Cause there was not enough real time crying, let's have a flashback to the crying we saw not 10 minutes ago. Dead inside.

This is what? the 3rd time I'm watching Ongsa watching Love of Siam?? if they removed half the crying from this show I could've watched all these movies. if I stopped watching the show right now I could watch anything else.

Who the hell is grandpa? How does he know all this? And can he please tell us???

Well with only 2 more episodes left, I should hope so.

The letter still exists. I'm ignoring the paradox. I've abandoned all hope that this will ever make any sense. And we're back at the cinema and now with adult Ongsa.

Adult Ongsa is now crying.

So Adult Ongsa is just gonna ask everybody is they know a person named Suansoon? (if you're curious the answer is no) So now in this present, and by present I mean where we started this wonderful journey, 2018, they are not together.

Oh the amazing butterfly is back. Great. And next week they'll meet as adults. I can't wait.

(I just wanna say to whoever abandoned this ship early, like @lurkingshan and @bengiyo and I'm sure many others, you have my admiration and respect and I wish I was half as sane as you)

[waitmyturtles]

Absolute Zero, episode 1 RANDOM THOUGHTS (more like FEELS and SQUEALS and HAPPY PIPS, here we go):

1) New Siwaj's latest prestige BL. Man, we've had some dips from him lately. I FAST-fast-forwarded through Between Us to get to the DeanPharm bits, and listen, I shoulda just listened to my friends (insert the Bugs Bunny "NO" gif here). And I have a pathetic love for Double Savage, a show that New Siwaj screenwrote and that aired earlier this year, for its POTENTIAL to tell an intergenerational familial trauma story headed by OhmPerth, but lord, it was a mess. At the same time, I have been impaled with a thirsty obsession over my watch and rewatch of New's Until We Meet Again, so with New going high for this latest show -- I have BIG expectations.

2) @bengiyo and @twig-tea (here and here) covered a TON of what I am thinking (and apologies to friends if you wrote AZ things yesterday and I missed them -- like @bengiyo, I would love to be tagged in your meta to track thoughts on this show!) (I think @troubled-mind is getting into this one, maybe we already have a little AZ squad going!). Further apologies and big ups to Ben and Twig if I repeat anything you say! Which I will, right now, repeating Ben's words:

3) FUCK if I didn't feel some nostalgia hearing Boy Sompob's voice again. I really do feel like this means that New is THROWING. DOWN. The music in this show is already fantastic. The music was SO IMPORTANT to the storytelling in UWMA, and I'm glad we're leading with it again here.

4) I am VERY PLEASED to see Mix Wanut (young Suansoon) holding down as a lead. We didn't see him too much as Don in UWMA, but: I thought his timing and comedy was particularly notable in UWMA (when Don was able to lighten up a bit near Dean, I thought it was really great).

5) Speaking of the actors. I'd like everyone to know (poor @neuroticbookworm and @lurkingshan have already heard me yelp on this). Teng Kanist, who plays the older Suansoon. He was fabulous as Nat in Gay OK Bangkok. Nat was a contradictory character, but let me be honest -- I felt a little symp for Nat because I like Teng's face. I admit it, I'm weak and transparent for dudes.

BUT: we all need to know that Teng Kanist IS ALSO A REAL-LIFE PASTRY CHEF who also GOES TO THE GYM. Therefore, we have a perfect man (for me lol) in our midst. Just need everyone to know! Croissants and abs and sets. SOLD!

6) Ahem, where was I. As an #old, seeing middle-aged dudes in a drama is what I need. I like that Absolute Zero is going to do this for us: to juxtapose the expected BL school scenes with two real adults in real adult settings. I love this. And I love that I know we are going to get more elders next week in What Did You Eat Yesterday?, and elder-ishes very soon in Cherry Magic Thailand and Cooking Crush. We need to age-diversify this field, and New is leading this season.

7) I love how fast we needed to get to young Suansoon and young Ongsa getting together. From the MDL description of the show, it looks like Absolute Zero may have a similar structure to UWMA. UWMA was like a three-part series: the first part being Dean and Pharm getting together; the second being their discovering their spiritual pasts through their shared inherited memories and meeting their families; and the third being the conclusion with their resolving Korn and Intouch's forced separation at death.

If Absolute Zero follows a similar structure in a shorter episode span (right now, MDL shows AZ having 12 episodes, as compared to UWMA's 17 episodes), then I understand AZ needing to be a bit chop-chop about the romance. But I felt that this episode was still perfectly paced, and yes -- dropping the faen in the first episode could seem a touch fast, but I felt that we had convincingly spent intentional time with Suansoon's loneliness to understand why he would have said yes to Ongsa. (And, anyway -- of course, we needed to know that they got together, because we time-jumped to their loving adult relationship.)

And I loved young Ongsa's approach. A guy looking and chasing after his crush. The romance of buying tickets to a movie, hoping the guy he likes will show up. Giving Suansoon a birthday bracelet at the movie. Holding Suansoon's hand and asking him the big question.

Man.... ahhhh. What I loved about that bracelet scene is that -- the gift of that bracelet did a lot of the communicating from Ongsa to Suansoon without words. Suansoon was clearly touched and moved. The loss of his parents shakes him, but he clearly got a lovely moment of connection from that gift. Mix acted that part beautifully.

8) The Love of Siam. What can I fucking say. I haven't seen My Only 12%, where I know New makes another significant reference to LoS there. But, just. I'm very glad @bengiyo insisted on LoS being the start of the Old GMMTV Challenge, in part because of the references to LoS in other Thai BLs over the course of the genre's short history, but also -- the tragedy of that movie communicates SO MUCH when it is present as a reference in another piece. Just like the bracelet communicates so much by way of love. I love that we got to see the pre-ending credits quote. I love that New's communicating to us through this brilliant movie.

I am sure I can find more to gush on, but let me stop here, because this got longer than I expected. I can't manage a full load of dramas, so I'll likely be dropping my thirst-watch of Dangerous Romance to accommodate AZ and WDYEY. Just like I am praying for Tee Bundit to not drop the ball on I Feel You Linger in the Air -- let us hope New can also keep the juggle up on AZ. He started this out STRONG. I HAVE HIGH HOPES.

[wanderlust-in-my-soul]

Top 5 characters you disliked/ hated in 2023

Top 5 main couples you were indifferent to in 2023

Hello hello... thank you for these... easy questions 😅 I really needed to think about the second one.

But let me start with 5 characters I disliked/hated in 2023. There were a few that I hated, but where I loved that fact (Hi Boston 💚) and then there were those characters I just couldn't stand.

Beginning the list let me introduce to you the one drunkhead I wish I could punch in his alcohol filled mouth...

Han Ji Yu from All The Liquors

It is the fact that he glorifies alcohol to a really unhealthy amount and the fact that this whole series tried to let us believe, not linking alcohol is something inappropriate just blew my mind. The writing for this series and this character was just not good at all in my opinion.

And of we go to the biggest let down for me this year:

Minato Akira from Minato Shouji Coin Laundry Season 2

I liked him so much in the first season. I adored his awkwardness around Shin and his journey to finally accept his own and Shin's feelings. And the second season took this development away from us and from Minato. He got stuck in denial and being over-emotional. He became unlovable and really annoying. The writers took away his charme and I really couldn't see anymore why Shin loves this man so much. I would have been so fucking frustrated with him after a few weeks. It wasn't quirky or cute. I really couldn't stand him.

And next in line:

Mew from Only Friends

In the beginning, I thought okay, he is inexperienced, but he has his standards. He is a little naiv, but I can like him... yeah... nope. Since he started dating Ray to hurt Top and became a total fuck towards Boston, he lost all his credits with me. I get he was heartbroken that one of his friends betrayed him in that way, but the way he thought only the worst of Boston and never apologized for believing he SAed little Atom is just a no from me. And the way he treated Top and Ray annoyed the fuck out of me. Can't stand him.

Uhkay... next is a character some might defend, but I thought he was just a total selfish asshole:

Lomfon from La Pluie

He might have a little redemption in the end, but too little, too late. He was a selfish prick. Yes, he thought he was in love with Saengtai, but he kissed him without his consent and just tried to interfere with the relationship between Saengtai and Phat. Okay, I really don't care about them that much, but he hurt Saengthian and this was one charcater I liked in this series and I will never forgive Lomfon for it!

At last there is this one character I wanted to scrape out their eyes....

Ye Wan Ying from Stay With Me

I don't have a good gif of her and I truely don't care. She was a manipulative bitch and I wish her the worst! She tried to play SuYu and WuBi off against each other and made WuBi jealous. I don't like when someone hurt my favorites! She was evil. I hate her!

Okay, so far with the first list, let's move on to my top 5 main couples I was indifferent to in 2023.

I start with the one couple that made me drop the whole show:

Suansoon and Ongsa from Absolute Zero

I really liked the first episode. I thought those two were cute together and I was rooting for them. And then the time travel happend and everything became a big mess. I lost interest in their relationship due to the fact that old Suansoon and young Ongsa became a thing and I lost my shit (not in a good way) about it. So I stopped watching it... and never regreted this decision.

On second place come

Joke and Zo from Hidden Agenda

I liked them in the beginning, but at some point in the story I just lost my interest. I don't know why, but they really didn't catch my interest. It was okayish to watch while it was airing, but I have to say, I can't really remember what exactly was happening with them. All I know is I thought the drama was unnecessary.

The next one really made me sad

Win and Team from Between Us

I loved them in Until We Meet Again. They were the best part of this series for me and I really was looking forward to this one. And then these two were...liveless. I don't know. I just couldn't get myself interested in their relationship. They felt so bland and without any surface. I can't really explain right now.

In number four we have

Johnny and HaiYi from HIStory 5

From the start I was a Vincent/Wynn-girl. The main couple was there, but I wouldn't have mind if they just vanished. Okay, in the end I couldn't care less about all of the couples, but those two were just not for me. I think they were boring and the drama was stupid. Time travel in bl really sucks most of the times!

And at last we have a couple I adored in the beginning and just lost interest over the runtime of the show:

Saengtai and Phat from La Pluie

I know this bl is loved my many and I can understand why (most of the times), but in the same way I sober up in seconds whenever a friend of mine is in need of help, I lost interest really fast in these two when the drama just annoyed me. Phat's jealousy, Lomfon's interference, Saengtai's secrecies and in the end Phat's anger and the way he was punching Lomfon, everything made me lose interest in them so fast! And to be honest, Phat became one of my most hated charcaters, when I think about it. I would have left him and never looked back after he punched Lomfon like that. I would never trust him again, that he won't hurt me, when we fight. Such a big red fucking flag for me. And yeah, just like that I lost interest in them.

Thank you very much for this ask!

ASK ME MY TOP 5 OF ANYTHING BL 2023

(I'll answer some more tomorrow... I need some sleep right now 😅)

[littleragondin]

I'm stuck at home and already in pain so I guess it's time for:

Absolute Zero Wednesday!

Last week's first episode suggested that I would get everything I expect and want from a melancholic story directed by New Siwaj, so I am going into episode 2 pretty confident.

- That little breakfast scene between the teens is adorable! "Where's your boyfriend, being so nice?/ Where is your boyfriend, being so cute?" I am not immune to young love being sappy.

- This is going to be a Hands Show and I am so, SO here for that.

- I am so happy to see that Ongsa's parents have welcomed Suansoon in their family, really. Also I knew the casting was stellar but it's always a pleasure to see Um Apasiri!! (Tom Phollawat too)

- teen!Ongsa is really far too chill with being followed like that by a whole grown man, even if I agree with him that sad adult!Soon does not look very threatening.

- on that subject, Teng Kanist's sad eyes and soft voice are incredible. I always expect excellent criers from any New's production, but I am so taken by adult!Soon and the way he exudes melancholy, it's not even funny

- Sine Inthira!! (*˘︶˘*).｡.:*♡

- Ongsa's friend group seems perfectly darling, even if Ohm is risking his life a few times in there, and I am happy that we'll get to see a bit more of them.

- Ah. None of the softness could make me ignore what was to come, and the come back of the ticket situation to finish the episode was a nice and expected (if painful) thrill.

Overall, that second episode was as beautiful as the first one. The visuals are still a delight and the pacing is still working perfectly for me.

Ongsa's crush on adult!Suansoon is absolutely adorable, baby boy truly likes them soft and sad uh. The way he pretends to need tutoring right after we're being told he's good at physics?? throw me back to my 17th year lol (never had more interest and better grades in physics than the year I had a crush on the research assistant and his pink sweaters xd)

I also like how obviously Suansoon's affection for Ongsa bleeds out of him, in the way he looks at and interacts with the boy he fell in love with and who will become the man he shares his life with. He is in such a tender and painful place when he time travels: he just went through the loss of a major mentor figure in his life, and he is now losing the love of his life. I can see why he would go with the flow when given that strange opportunity to spend some more time with Ongsa, even if it's the one from ten years ago (after all, it is the same person, the same smiling and caring person he loves in his present, the one he will love in his past).

Things are going to become really serious 'time shenanigans' wise next week! Of course I read the synopsis so i have some ideas, but I can't wait to see how Suansoon is going to impact his own future and how this is going to play out for the four of them.

[z-haven]

Episode 10 thoughts

The following spoilers mentions AZ, IFYLITA, B*ngtan's S*ve M* (webt**n), Tri*ge, The Fl*sh and D*ctor Wh*

All deal with time travel except well B*ngtan's S*ve M* and Tri*ge both deal with a type of Groundhog day (still time travel) where you basically repeat a timeline over and over again. But this is where my mention of these two will stop for now. The real comparison is between AZ and IFYLITA in the air and I'm looking at how they're handling the MCs being 'transported' to a different timeline. Time travel is a catalyst. Well, more like a catapult for Jom because he was literally yeeted from his car and Suansoon got a nice taxi "Thank you for using our services and have a nice day" ride.

Btw this isn't to hate on AZ btw but just to compare and contrast how they're both dealing with time travel and its effects on the 'traveler/passenger' in question. And for that I'd need to bring up The Fl*sh and D*ctor Wh*. Like B*rry All*n in The Fl*sh, he's had to deal with time wraiths - beings who are enforcers who go after speedsters for breaking time travel rules. Of course Jom isn't a speedster and hasn't dealt with time wraiths but his 'consequence' is either his body or reflection fading out of existence or actually being pulled back to his original timeline. Like DW and The Fla*h, time can be rewritten and Jom not being from that time period is 'rewriting' time. But maybe it isn't him rewriting time but I'm theorizing that it actually feels like he's meant to be there, even if his time is 'limited'. This is also due to the fact that Yai and Jom shared a connection during another time period when Yai is a commander (possibly a prior one). However we don't see any consequences for Suansoon in AZ. But we do see time being rewritten and there is a possibility that Adult!Ongsa could wake up with new memories. Jom, however, already has those memories because he has been dreaming of Yai before he ended up in the 1920s. Yai has been dreaming of Jom but it doesn't look like he's dreaming of the future (his shock at Jom being from the future says it all). But one of the more clearer differences between Jom and Suansoon is that Jom isn't deliberately trying to insert himself or act like a usurper (that's Suansoon) within the timeline. Even when he crashes Yai's engagement, he never makes it about him but was basically indicating to Yai's parents Even if you (known to at least one of you) do not accept me for your son and you care about your family's reputation please do not join hands with someone who can ruin it. (my own words btw). But Suansoon, however is a usurper. A usurper is one who unethically takes over a position of power or importance. Suansoon isn't a king or a person in power but he is of importance to young Ongsa's love story but not him as an adult but his teen self. It would be the same as if Jom ended up in the past, sees another him and then ends up taking his place. Both are sort of going along with the 'flow', Jom more than Suansoon because he's following the 'thread' where it takes him and making decisions along the way because naturally, trying to make him 'fit' in will never work out and he has to be himself in order to be authentic. But even after Adult!Suansoon is however, ripping that thread out and trying to sew a new one by unethically taking Teen!Suansoon's place in Teen!Ongsa's life which makes him less authentic in my book. It's also why I'm enjoying IFYLITA a lot more.

Post 2

(Before this - sometimes I think people are just being unfair to Jom, like you really expect him to automatically have all the answers and that freaking out is some sort of character flaw. Enough).

I still think it's natural for him to freak out. Anyone would, especially since one body part going out of focus would make anyone think they need a psychiatric check up (and I'm sure Jom has been thinking it), but your whole reflection just going transparent like that? Absolute bonkers. Unfortunately there isn't a guide book for time travel but at least he realized that it was the cause.

Post 3: Yai and Jom are my favourite kissers. Along with K*ngU*a. Alright just leaving that here. I don't want to think about anything else.

[waitmyturtles]

Absolute Zero, episode 3: This show is still gorgeous and sumptuous. I have a quibble, I'm going to work through the quibble, and then celebrate a moment in the show that I loved.

Adult Suansoon is deciding what to do about his appearance in his past. He's separate from young Suansoon -- they are two separate entities. Adult Suansoon is clearly working through if he'll intervene in the past, if he'll direct young Ongsa's attraction to adult Suansoon to another direction.

We see adult Suansoon hovering on the line of making decisions to remove himself entirely from young Ongsa's life, and dancing around that line. We see that that's VERY difficult for him. We see that adult Suansoon just may not be realizing and embodying FULLY that he's the adult version of himself, as clearly, he's transported back into love for Ongsa, no matter if Ongsa is a teenager or an adult, as adult Suansoon keeps a picture of adult Ongsa on his phone, and enjoys his time with young Ongsa in the coffee shop.

What I need from adult Suansoon is a little narrative recognition that he's either 1) the adult in the room, and/or 2) that he IS an adult. I'm not sure I know enough about Suansoon yet, young or old, to understand why he hasn't embodied this fact. He's clearly falling in love, and/or has been in love, with young Ongsa, and just a click, just a little note of -- oh shit, we have age gap here, folks, and we know it -- would help the show a touch.

But also, I think I need to know, as a viewer, if we ARE going to go towards age gap, a bit more, verbally, about adult Suansoon's mindset. I need to know if he's confused, if he's unable to direct himself -- something.

We might get it with the conversation he'll have with the video store uncle next week, or at least, that's how the previews are setting it up.

Anyway -- this being New Siwaj, am I surprised this is happening? Unfortunately, I am not surprised -- but I trust, considering the higher quality of the acting and directing in this work than in his past recent works, that this issue of a lack of narrative communication will hopefully be resolved soon. Fingers crossed.

So, all that being said:

1 ) Teng Krist Kanist and Tor Supakorn, our age-gapped pair, have EXCELLENT chemistry. Are we supposed to be a bit wibbly about it? Maybe?

2) Will I not see more of these two together?!

Now this pair?! I WANNA SEE MORE OF THESE TWO TOGETHER! Teng and Sine?! Didn't know I needed 'em, but I need 'em!

I'm really, REALLY glad to see so much of Teng Krist Kanist -- I loved him in Gay OK Bangkok, and I'm glad to see him make such a huge return as a lead actor in this prominent show. But by episode 3, I need more narrative direction, because we only have 12 episodes to tell what I think is going to be a pretty intricate time travel story, and we gotta move a touch.

[waitmyturtles]

Absolute Zero, episode 2: I've spent the past 40 minutes trying to figure out what to write, which means this will be short, but how can I best put into words the feelings that this show is conjuring for me? As of right now, only two episodes in: this show is crisp, it's MOVING in its DELIBERATE pace, and it is playing with a LOT.

Adult Suansoon has moved to the past, and is connecting with teen Ongsa, which means age gap, and damn it if it's not being recognized and handled with GRACE by young and old alike in teen Ongsa's community -- including by Nan, the ultimate coffee auntie played by SINE INTHIRA, HELLO GODDESS.

And, just. Krist Teng Kanist's ACTING here. He is just, whoa. Adult Suansoon's gotta make some decisions about figuring out WHY he moved to the past, while adult Ongsa recovers from his terrible accident, all while adult Suansoon is just ENJOYING the moments he's getting with teen Ongsa, meeting teen Ongsa's friends, enjoying the life moments he's sharing in teen Ongsa's life with Nan, how teen Ongsa shows his caring side for adult Suansoon.

How Krist Teng is allowing his adult Suansoon to take his time in thinking about the move he needs to make to change the past for a better future. This show is giving him the room to start making some huge decisions, and in this episode, we got to learn a lot about adult Suansoon's emotional pacing, which will clearly be valuable information moving forward.

I took a note during the episode about what he means that Suansoon has spent the majority of his life parentless -- and how that will play into his decision, whatever that decision is, to mess with the past. I am wondering in the back of my head if Suansoon has, say, a fatalistic assumption that he will always end up alone. But -- would Ongsa's love, either from the past and/or the present, infiltrate to keep that from happening? I wonder. But I'm clocking this.

We have good BL elders in this show. Sine, Um Apsari (Pete's mom from Love By Chance), Tom Phollawat (Loong Krit, Korn's brother, from Until We Meet Again; Pear's dad from Be My Favorite).

But, man -- is Krist Teng ever mounting a comeback here. I didn't know that Nat from Gay OK Bangkok had this in him, but what an EVOCATIVE performance in this episode, managing everything from time travel to a dalliance in age gap, with attention and intention. This episode was so quiet and so huge. And WHOA -- just BEAUTIFUL to look at, exquisite filming. New Siwaj is just damn spoiling us.

[bl-bam-beyond]

THE BEST AND WORSE & I AIN'T WATCHING THAT by Country (THAI)

Post 4: The Worse (and/or Most Disappointing) BL 2023

11. The Middleman's Love: This was the worse because of the way Jade's character was portrayed. The constant false starts and misunderstandings on an 8 episode BL. The coupling was good but King and Uea carried this series and they were barely on. I did like Gus and Tong but their story was limited but ended well.

10. 7 Days Before Valentine: I have no comment just not for me.

9. Absolute Zero: What can I say this one had more time lines and confusion than I can say. And the relationship that went on between Adult Suansoon and Teen Ongsa was cringe as a story. It made it seem like Teen Ongsa settled for Teen Suansoon because he missed Adult Suansoon.

8. Crazy Handsome Rich: Do I need to say anything? Woof!

7. Low Frequency: 😴😴😴

6. Dinosaur Love: no comment

5. The Luminous Solution: no comment

4. Love Syndrome III: A prequel/sequel to UNFORGOTTEN NIGHT and it was trash. Lee Long Shi deserves so much better than what he's been getting and a new partnership wouldn't hurt nothing against Frank for sure. Maybe Rossi who played his brother Night in this one. They are hot.

3. Tin Tem Jai: Lee Long Shi saved this series for me which is why I made it through but the main couple were serving nothing.

2. Future: The Series: I use to adore Rookie Thailand with The Best Story (even though it ended sad) and 21 Days Theory (even though ended happily it needed at least one good piece of Intimacy) but then came Future. Luckily all I remember clearly is I hated it the rest my brain is protecting from.

1. The Promise: This series is not the worse but the most disappointing. It set up a compelling love story of 2 Lifelong Besties in 2 mini stories before the series. And then the series happened and it managed to disappoint. I love Phu and Nan together and can even understand why Phu ran away even though it hurt the one he loved the most. In the mini it was a sad misunderstanding that caused him to run but the series made Phu unlikable by having his reason for run appear more selfish. I'm glad they made it in the end but the dragged out story instead of continuing where the minis left off did this series no favors.

@pose4photoml