Bold but not quite impactful

Realism and Representation: Compared to other GMMTV titles, I must say this one really feels like LGBTQ people are actually one of their targeted demographics. There are no "wife" jokes/comments. There is a variety of gay characters, none of them stereotypes. Most of them are also older, not university or high school students, which meant their stories aren't about coming out or confusion about their sexuality. There is a gay couple in their 60s. Sam and Earth are in a long term relationship, dealing with infidelity. Stud is a confident player who knows what he wants. It's refreshing to see this sort of portrayal - he's going after sex, not a relationship (most of the time anyway). He also says if Boyo is a gay man, she'd be a top because she slept with her ex and her housemate - which is false because being promiscuous, sex-positive, or having a high libido has nothing to do with someone's preferred role, gender or sex. There is mention of open relationships and threesomes. Pun and her husband are basically in an open relationship. There is homophobia and misogyny in Tor's rap because he's humiliating Good Job by 1. questioning his sexuality and 2. suggesting he's a bottom. This is in line of Tor's asshole character, as well as rap culture being highly homophobic and misogynistic.

Story: it doesn't really have a plot. It's more like a slice of life and how characters interact with each other and react to different events. A more mature show with relatable stories, it never delves deep but instead touches on a number of things, including objectification, slut shaming, jealousy, parents divorcing, sex, gays having to prove themselves, depression, revenge, (attempted) rape, abortion, etc. Cheating and its aftermath are the most prominent and persistent theme throughout the show. These are all big topics, so kudos to the writers for being bold. While entertaining, for some reason, it doesn't have much emotional impact. It doesn't make me cry. I'm not especially invested any of the characters, even Earth and Sam's relationship, perhaps because they didn't have much chemistry, and they got sabotaged so soon.

Characters: they're all flawed but likable characters. They make mistakes but they try to be better. The mistakes and decisions they make are reasonable, ones many people make. They fight and make up. In other words, they feel real. By the end of the series, I really feel like each of them matured.

Acting: everyone gave solid performances although crying scenes in the beginning aren't convincing at all. Singto is a little rigid in certain scenes as good-natured Earth but his vengeful Earth is awesome. He makes self-sabotage look cool. I must also say the most emotional scene of the series has to be when Sam and Earth make up at the end. That scene is very well done, kudos to Nat and Singto.

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Great series

Overall another great production from the same director and writer who created Crossing the Line. Decent acting and great chemistry between the leads. The heteronormative dialogue in the last episode irked me but it was minor.

Right off the bat, tsundere Tang and brash Meng have great chemistry and soon thereafter they were abducted and shackled together, which makes for some nice tender frenemy scenes. They're both cute in their own way. Come to think of it, they're basically the same personalities as the main characters in Crossing the Line! The cop sidekick Zhao is stupid-cute. He's kidnapped by the red-headed, sly but jolly sidekick of Tang to ask for Tang and Meng's location but became friends. Great chemistry again.

The premise is cool for a gay series, not just some highschool/uni romance. I feel like series/movies featuring adults would be safer from being pigeonholed by BL stereotypes or genres since they would likely have been in relationships and aren't confused about their sexuality. This establishes that they are gay/bi and not have their sexuality removed from the series to create a sterile situation for straight people to fetishize queer men. Tang is established/rumored to be bi, and he kissed an associate to rile Meng up. Meng is never ashamed of liking Tang. And the director doesn't shy away from showing "adult" affection between the two. I don't like that Tang's sister called Meng sister-in-law but I guess that's her way of joking and riling Meng up. Meng himself doesn't mind, and even said it's perhaps fitting, meaning he's a bottom. Still, the script isn't written by a gay man - it's heteronormative.

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Sarawat keeps me watching

It's extremely juvenile, exaggerated, the sound effects are annoying and the product placements are extremely obvious BUT Sarawat is cute enough to keep me watching lol. The acting is pretty decent although I have to give credit to the actor portraying Sarawat since this is his first TV show. There are 3 things I particularly love: Sarawat was actually pretty forward with his affections for Tine. The other thing that I love is the reveal that Sarawat has been in love with Tine since a year ago and that his stoicness in front of Tine is absolutely a facade. That's a good twist. He's actually incredibly happy to have found Tine. That's super cute. He joined Instagram for Tine and even wanted to use LoveTine as his username. On the other hand, it's disappointing that Tine always holds back, and is so insecure with their relationship. He feels like an entirely different character since he went on the reforestation camp. Lastly, Green is based on a stereotype but he's more than that. He's stereotypically gay: hilarious, hyper feminine and extremely clingy. However, the show balances these traits or subverts this stereotype by making him an excellent fighter and by revealing that he's actually in an on-again-off-again relationship with Dim; Green is romantically desired, not rejected (by everyone). And to add on to this point, the show also avoids common BL pitfalls, like calling one of the gay men "wife," or using the rather homophobic premise of "I'm straight but I like this man only." I make a point to mention this in every review I do. The sequel, Still 2gether, fails the "wife" criteria in the first episode.

One of the weakest points of the show is how absurd the premise is. If Green is this persistent, it's sexual harassment. Instead of reporting Green to the school and getting rid of him permanently, Tine is putting more effort into chasing Sarawat. Also, convincing Green that he's straight is way better than making him think he still has a chance by flirting with Sarawat (because it shows that Tine accepts men). Tine is also painfully, unreasonably oblivious, which is annoying, because it's obviously to drag the show on. There's too much repetition and tells from Sarawat for me to believe that Tine is unsure of Sarawat's feelings for him. It'd be more believable if Sarawat made Tine confused about his sexuality and have him spend most of that time sorting that out instead of being unsure of Sarawat's feelings. Also, the assaults on Sarawat and then both Sarawat and Tine: why didn't they report them to the school? Absurd. The return of Pam felt completely out of place and unnecessary since she's introduced in the second last episode. She should have been introduced much earlier to add fuel to Tine's confusion about whether he's bi, and whether Sarawat likes him. THEN comes Mil who tries to chase Tine too. Anyway, if they made this change, and shortened the series to maybe 8 episodes, I feel it'd flow a lot better. Some nitpicking: I've never saw any cheerleader perform any cheerleading moves. They just put their arms up. Their first aid is crap. Really. Can't they disinfect properly?

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Trigger warning for homophobia and death

Realism and Representation: directed by out gay director, Kim Jo Kwang Soo, the representation of LGBTQ characters are pretty realistic. There is a variety of LGBTQ characters, including caricatures as comic relief. The bar owner Kyung Nam is the most unapologetically proud character, which is great. It's both realistic and hilarious Min Soo and Lee Seok both expected to be the bottom the first night they got together. Despite that, they still stayed together, which I find especially romantic. There is some triggering portrayal of homophobia so be careful.

Story: I can't say I love the death of Tina but it seems like the only way to teach homophobes is for them to experience a fraction of the pain they inflict to LGBTQ people via on-screen violence and death. The plot serves the purpose of education as well as representation of both positive and negative experiences of being LGBTQ.

The worst character in the movie aside from the taxi driver is Lee Seok. I don't understand why Seok refused to leave Korea and reprimanded Min Soo of trying to leave. Since France is still pretty homophobic to this day, I get why he wouldn't want to return to Paris but there are other places they can go. I also get that leaving Hyo Jin alone to deal with the aftermath of being outed would be cruel but emigrating from a homophobic country is a legitimate and valid decision and LGBTQ people shouldn't be shamed for "escaping." People emigrate for all kinds of reasons - work, raising children, better quality of life, etc. Not everyone has to fight to improve labor rights, better education, LGBTQ rights, the economy, etc. in their own country. Escaping homophobia is probably the most legitimate reason you can have. How is this different from leaving the countryside to live in the cities? Besides, most capitals are global cities and we are global citizens. Seok also pressured Min Soo to come out - in a society where violence and loss of livelihood due to discrimination is rampant. He had no right to do that. His leaving Min Soo at the critical moment of almost being outed is also irresponsible and cruel. If he couldn't be in a relationship with someone who is closeted (as most LGBTQ people are/were in South Korea), he shouldn't have involved himself from the beginning. Kyung Nam trying to keep Seok from answering Min Soo's calls is similarly cruel. Hyo Jin had a point - Min Soo was at risk of suicide, and doubly so given the suicide rates for LGBTQ people and Koreans.

Acting: excellent.

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Holy shit this is bad.

I liked Tharn the first half of episode 1 because he's a self assertive, confident, openly gay man. However, I'm forced to drop this because he proceeded to sexually assault Type 3 times over 3 episodes. It's disgusting and more so because all 3 incidents are brushed away like they were innocent pranks. The first time Type was drunk-unconscious. The second and third time he was frozen with fear. If consent ever mattered to Tharn then he should have stopped MUCH earlier the second time. And given how Type reacted to his advances, Tharn never should have attempted the third time. It doesn't matter if Type ultimately relented because he still froze up and begged Tharn to stop.

Besides, Tharn's actor is way too old to play a college freshman. Type's crying is extremely fake, so are his nightmare episodes.

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Gay baiting.

Realism and Representation: there's none to speak of because the characters aren't gay.
Story: it's kind of a sit-com and it's pretty hilarious.
Characters: the characters are pretty relatable and react in realistic ways.
Acting: great actors with hilarious performances.

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I'm sorry but I can't accept this bullshit.

I'm extremely surprised at how popular this series is. I only managed to finish the first 3 episodes because I skipped over the repetitive hazing rituals. They were hard to watch not only because is it boring, it is also highly unrealistic for a small group of seniors to publicly haze an entire cohort of freshmen without interference from their peers, seniors, university staff, and even parents. And the rationale behind the hazing is to train freshmen to stand up for themselves and learn discipline and respect? Don't play sappy music over this explanation. It's an insult to my intelligence. This is not the military and it sure as hell is not a military school. This is as insane as the marry your rapist tropes in early Yaoi. How do they expect their audience suspend their disbelief to this level? The writers should read up on the consequences of hazing because what they are doing is romanticize hazing, which they understand because of the disclaimer before the show starts. On top of this, we are expected to believe Kong and Arthit fall for each other?

I skipped forward to the last episode and saw that Kong recognizes the "values" behind the SOTUS system but wanted to change the methods, then he becomes the hazing leader the following year. My eyes did a full 360 degree rotation.

I should also point out 2 instances of homophobia within the first 3 episodes. First, Arthit displayed his homophobia by asking Kong to proclaim he is gay. Second, Kong retaliated by saying he would make Arthit his "wife." It's popular shows like this that continue to enforce heteronormativity in society. This is why straight people are still asking same sex couples, 'Who's the man, who's the woman?"

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Problematic rep, unoriginal/unbelievable story, decent acting

I notice that people either love 2 Moons or hate it. I'm somewhat part of the latter group. Even

Realism and Representation: 2 Moons get a fail in this category. Pha's confrontation with the "gay is wrong!" Pring in episode 11 basically tells the audience that Pha is a straight (TM) guy who fell in love with Yo, the one man he's interested in. He also "advised" Kit earlier on that the gender of the person doesn't matter when it comes to love, which is the definition of pansexuality, but completely ignoring/erasing the existence of sexual orientations. Ming and Kit are also "suddenly awakened" straight (TM) men as if they triggered the gay-for-you mutation in each other. No, there is little evidence to suggest any of them being bisexual or pansexual given how they only find that one man (TM) attractive. Besides, none of them claimed to be. Is this shit written in the 2000s? Ming and Beam, despite being great friends, failed the heternormativity/fujoshi criteria for the show by calling Yo the wife and made jokes like "they'd have lots of children by now." Pha himself made a pregnant joke, and of course it's Yo who's pregnant. It's a wonder how Yo still manages to not come out as trans and get transferred to the Star section of the competition. Maybe the show should be called Moon and Star instead? With the exception of Yo who has never shown interest in women (or other men besides Pha), and Forth who is the best representation of an openly gay man in the series, the other gay characters are obvious stereotypes and caricatures (Angel Club) but females students in the same fan club act pretty much the same way - obnoxiously and creepily. There are no demonized female characters besides some jealous women doing normal jealous things. Transwomen are shown as matter-of-fact and are not made fun of. Lastly, there are quite a few rape jokes, depending on the translation. A translator's notes say that the word means to do sexual things forcefully to someone but not necessarily rape.

Story: What's the trope name for popular guy falling for the lonely/ostracized/quiet/insecure girl/guy? Tropes are fine IF everything else goes well. That's not what's happening here. While having two people who have "secret" crushes on each other stumble around to gain each other's affection can be fun to watch, it makes my eyes invert themselves that Pha manages to ruin every moment he had with Yo since MIDDLE SCHOOL even though he knew Yo's feelings towards him. Don't go acting all sad puppy after you purposefully misread Yo's awkward but obvious signals. Yes, he's still into you. Pha's friends claim he's struggling with his sexuality and worry too much about what others think. I don't buy that. Or at least, that's not what the audience is seeing: Pha's being extremely confident and forward with Yo with every chance he gets (even Pring can see it) and yet he follows it up with a giant step backward. In Cantonese, we call what he's doing to Yo: a bite of sugar, a bite of shit. That's the one thing I can't suspend my disbelief for this show. So if you don't want to watch the sugar and shit back-and-forth, watch the first two episodes and skip to episode 7 which is the turning point of their relationship. Afterwards, Yo transforms into a dead fish. The ultimate twist of the story is... Pha has been in love with Yo this whole time! Shock!

Characters: I'm tired of dramas trying way too hard to push the idea with someone is attractive. It's unoriginal. It's not funny. It's cringey. Let the casting do their job. Pha is absolutely obnoxious and physically aggressive but seemingly only to Yo, and without reason. The actor had that aspect nailed down. The first thing he did to Yo was to insult him of being spoiled because he's rich. Guess what? Pha is rich himself. Something doesn't add up. Was he bullying Yo (before he recognizes him) because he's immature and that's his way of showing affection, or is he rude to everyone? It's not the latter because we later know he gets along well with pretty much everyone. And it's not the former because once Pha recognizes that Yo is the Wayo from his middle/high school, and therefore worthy of affection, he acts like a normal human being. Yo looks child-like and feminine but he has a surprisingly low voice, is brash and never a push-over. I like that. But after they start dating, Yo turns into a jealous dead fish with confidence issues. He gets compliments from everyone, including Pha, in almost every episode! He also slut shames. And he's too shy to kiss Pha until the last episode? I don't like that. Fort is basically perfect personality-wise but he gets very little screen time.

Acting: everyone gave a pretty solid performance despite the script they have to work with. There are a lot of awkward pauses when it comes to Yo. I'm not sure if we're supposed to find them endearing. Yo and Pha's vacant stares of longing are pretty funny at the beginning but Yo has this vacant expression (without the longing) for 3/4 of the series. Is he trying to mask his feelings? But after they practically got together, Yo's still pretty uncomfortable with Pha. Compare that with how open he is with Ming, or even when he first clashed with Pha. He was a lot more emotive. I know he has some confidence issues but he got with the love of his life! How is he not over the moon? What is the director going for? On the other hand Pha's completely, openly smitten. The talent show is realistic because it's very cringey. Yo's performance is nice but I prefer the song he played in the piano room. I like the actors - they were the only thing keeping me going. Since they're not in the next season, there's absolutely no reason to continue watching.

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PeteKao only

Like many others, I only watched this for PeteKao after seeing Dark Blue Kiss. GMMTV uploaded scenes of only PeteKao to YouTube lol. They know their audience. I must say I was incredibly bored of the beginning because the story and the characters were incredibly juvenile. The directing is also worse than its sequel as there are a lot of awkward beats while there are none in DBK. The actors also seem to gel a lot better in DBK, although the chemistry between Pete and Kao is still great and no one called Kao the wife since they've only started dating. That's a plus for me. While I like seeing characters evolving throughout a series, due to how bad the first half of the show, I'd just recommend you watch only part 3 of the PeteKao videos. They are very sweet with each other while they're "not dating" and I love how Pete made the argument for them dating when his father confronted them.

There are some minor consistency issues like how Pete and Kao's clothes were pretty much dry after playing in the pool.

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Must Watch

The acting and direction is clearly on another level compared to the first season. The story is straight forward but effective. The acting is decent enough though Fandy Fan (Xia) is definitely the star of the show. The captain, Hur, is great as the comic relief. The exception is the step-brothers' plot line, which feels very fake and forced. Their acting is also sub-par. There are no stereotypes, caricatures, or common BL pitfalls like calling one of the gay men the wife. The characters didn't self-identify with a specific sexuality but the show does acknowledge sexualities and also that "the times are different now. Liking the same sex isn't a big deal." There is one fujoshi but she has been respectful throughout the show. I can always come back and watch it for a pick-me-up. I already rewatched it several times.

There's a sequel coming out in form of a movie called 跨界! They started filming in 2019.

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Slow-burn, largely unproblematic and realistic

Spoilers ahead: I'm sure I'm going to step on a lot of toes with this review. I know this series is highly rated but I find it pretty boring overall because I dislike slow burn dramas. While the story is fine, I feel like things are dragged longer than necessary and I had to skip ahead many times once I get the gist of the scenes. Speaking as a gay man, I have gripes with Korn referring to Knock as his wife (almost twice: once he almost let it slip in the hospital, and another time when confronting Pleng near the end of the series). Referring to the bottom as the wife is a big no-no as it's both heteronormative and homophobic. Released in 2017, they should've known better. I could be wrong but it's pretty indicative of the writers NOT being part of the LGBTQ community. Neither me nor any gay men I know would call themselves or their spouses their "wife." Vice versa for lesbians. As a community, we're just so tired of the heteronormative, male/female, seme/uke dichotomy of queer relationships. And to add fuel to the fire, I see comments that praise the "wife" line as the best line in the whole series. That's such a fujoshi thing to say. At this point (episode 12), I've decide to stop watching even though I know there's only 1 more episode to go. Consider that the last straw. Furthermore, it's pretty draining to have to root for characters I increasingly dislike, so much so that I no longer care if Korn and Knock get back together, although I know they will. I have no respect for Knock, who cheated multiple times, who can never be decisive, and who kept making bad decisions that hurt everyone around him. I also have no respect for Korn. Back when he claimed Pleng is innocent he cheated with Korn once again even though they were both sober. Of course, he also did the big no-no by calling Knock his wife. On the other hand, Faii and Yihwa are pretty awesome characters and they usually steal the scenes. While Knock and Korn's relationship has the potential of being quite sweet, their relationship (as with the rest of the relationships on the show) has been rocky for most of the series, which can be frustrating to watch. Representation and research-wise, I like that it is pretty realistic. With the exception of the "wife" thing, it hasn't fallen into any more of the pitfalls common to the BL genre. There is variety: I like that Korn is established as a gay character who doesn't care about others' judgment. Bright is an unapologetic, sleezy playboy (which is fine but he should've said so to Farm from the start) while Farm is as pure as it comes. None of them feel like stereotypes or caricatures. The show deals with realistic themes like homophobia (from Korn's sister), cheating, revenge, heartbreak, being outed, friendship, etc. so by no means is this show a whitewashed fetishization of gay men. The acting is decent, although Korn's face freezes whenever someone confronts him about something and I don't know if that's his characterization or awkward acting. Knock can't cry for shit. Farm's face always has the same look/emotion. Faii and Yihwa are hilarious. Lastly, I don't get why Knock was so upset at the start. They were both drunk and they agreed to have sex. Knock even bottomed without prep or lube, which is metal. It's not as if Korn raped him.

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Super Cute

Only watched episode 4 for PeteKao. Maybe I'll finish the other episodes if I watch their respective series.

First of all, I really love how much more assured Kao is, both in the way he carries himself and the way he shows affection towards Pete. In most of Dark Blue Kiss, he's very shy even when alone with Pete (save the end). Now Kao shows affection in public in ways even Pete finds embarrassing. Or maybe Pete's just sulky. Anyway, it's really cute. Second, while Kao deceiving Pete to spend the day with him is funny and rather cute, it's not believable since Pete obviously had the day reserved for Kao anyway. Pete guessed the truth mid-way as well. Also, Kao promised Pete not to lie way back in DBK; he should've learnt his lesson. Third, the beat-up-then-patch-up trope is SO overdone in every BL drama. It's overdone in the KISS prequels, sequels and spin-offs already. Please give it a rest.

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The chemistry between the leads is electric but one won't stop calling the other his wife/daughter-in-law even when asked to, so I had to drop it.

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