Love by Chance

The only story line that made me watch this series is the TinCan pair. No shade to the other pairs, I just enjoy cold rich grumpy guy meet sunshine guy trope.

The show in itself was very good. The acting was very well done and the side couple was absolutely beautiful. There was another potential side couple whose story wasn't completed so we never know what they were. But the second season had its problems.

The side couple story seemed repeated and the main couple story they made us fall in love with on season 1 was deconstructed in season 2.

Overall a decent watch for the lovely side couple.

So these were the early days of BL and boy oh boy... I haven't seen the second season and I don't think I will.

So the good things are that the main leads are likeable and cute and the second lead couple is also interesting. But the two stories are very uneven, they should have been done them in parallel, the first 10 episodes are full-on focused on Pete and Ae and then when all is fine there they recede in the background and we get Tin and Can. And their story isn't developed in a believable way for me, the switch from enemies to lovers is too abrupt. But honestly I'd love a show about the chaotic mess that is Can, BL or not, that guy is a whole universe in himself.

The first episode is really sweet, we get a love at first sight scene and a coming-out scene and they are good. But it kind of goes downhill from there, although it's still enjoyable. Saint has two faces in total and Perth is clearly a better actor given a fuller role. He (Saint) cannot pull off emotional scenes, he isn't able to cry (convincingly). And he has these scenes but I didn't like them at all. Also, yes, the role is tropey and dare I say somewhat homo-phobic. Ae keeps referring to him as having very feminine features and treats him like a girl. Kind of felt like justification for the same-sex attraction. Pete tends to act very girly too, which I imagine is by design. We have a very masculine boy and a very feminine boy and that's how it works or what?

Anyway, there's so much slow-mo and focus on the intimacy scenes and I was despairing of it, just get on with it, no need to dwell on it, it's all natural, don't make it awkward.

Like I said, Tin and Can did not get enough scenes and the switch was abrupt. Also for Tin to switch from straight to into Pete to into Can. The whole thing felt tossed together for the titillation of BL fans.

And damn these men are possessive and handsy.

Then there's stepbrothers cause of course there is, how could it not, and what a mess that was... Never mind poor Tar's trauma but he also get's assaulted again but he forgives Tum so easily after what he'd been through? Makes no sense.

As for the last couple, Techno and Kla, well that was an equally big mess and I don't understand why they would feature something like that and make it funny.

So these two last points bring it down for me, despite the cutesiness of the lead couple.

This is one among the best BL series I ever watched but the thing is that it has been stretched over a long 14 episodes where it could have been finished in 10 or 12 episodes. Also there are lots of characters which leads to lots of side plots and one thing I didn't like was the suddenly chompoo disappears, there is no end of Chompoo's story. In spite of all this thing I love this series because of Pete and Ae and the story of tin and can.

Because the story stretches over 13 episodes it doesn't have to adhere to many of the standard formulas and with the large cast is able to follow several story lines. The two primary leads are so believable that it's painful at times, but you're always rooting for them. There is some wonderful comedy in the secondary characters, particularly from Surat Permpoonsavat as Pond, Ae's roommate. Despite his antics, craziness, and sometimes crassness, he still manages to get the girl. Following a chance incident that leads to Ae taking Pete to a clinic and then vanishing, they run into each other several more times before Ae finally gives Pete his number to call in case Pete finds himself in trouble, which is adept at. There is also a story line about one of the boys in Ae's soccer team that leads to a bit of heartache for a friend of Pete's. While many of the boys are fresh at acting they carry their scenes extremely well which leads to many smiles and a bit of wish fulfillment for people who weren't born in the current era and had not chance to live these experiences.