Love Sick: The Series (2014)

***Looong Review - for you who can't stand to read the whole thing - key words; ***

* A very nice and cute adaptation of an extremely popular online novel on the classic theme of teen love and school life, but with a little twist.
* First episode kinda' sucks but bear with it - it gets good.
* Honest and expressive acting by the leads
* Cute score and Music
* I love it.


So, to the longer version;

Let me start by saying that I absolutely adore this series, I love, love, love, love, love it.
Secondly, I am very prone to fangirling and therefore get all crazed up and squealing over most BL.
So I am biased, but I'll try to be as objective as possible.

And the thing is, this is not even BL. This is just about teens.

The plot is the average teen-love-school set thing, nothing original there. High schoolers are in love, fight, break up, get together, are jealous, get drunk - yada yada, you know the deal...
But - there's a twist. The main protagonists are both guys.
Tadaah - the classic BL melodrama is set for action.
But the other twist is, that it isn't. Because this differs from the other stuff.
This is not about being gay, societal issues connected to it, or even catering to fangirls.
(Ok, a little bit, then.)
This is something a little bit different. All of us BL-crazed, know that most stories in the genre are angsty, sad and usually ends tragically - after we've cried our eyes out over the forbidden love.
In Love Sick - it's not angsty, not very sad at all, no forbidden love and the whole athmosphere is a positive and happy one. This isn't a story about two gay guys in love, it's just a story about two teens who fall in love. The gender is not all that important in this case, the air is accepting and happy-go-lucky and it's SO refreshing. I love that the focus is not all that much about the two lovebirds both being guys, but rather that the trouble around them is created from other obstacles, which are universal and not related to gender nor sexuality.

The series is based on a very popular Thai online novel called; Love Sick - The chaotic lives of Blue Shorts Guys (Chunlamoon noom kang keng namgern) and very well adapted from the novel, with the difference that the two protagonists Phun and Noh aren't the only focus in the series - as they are in the novel. In the series, their friends and classmates have gotten their own storylines.
Which, in all honesty, aren't all that interesting IMO, but one or two characters have the presence to make us want to know more about them. But some of the side stories are really boring, actually.
Due to the novel being published first, the series had a huge fanbase already before it started airing and the pressure was huge to make it work.
The first episode - didn't. It's really bad as a whole and some people tell you to skip it entirely. I don't agree since there are some stuff in the end that are relevant and also, it's a good episode to go back and watch later on, when one knows the characters a bit better. But don't give up just because you'll probably find the first episode boring and pretty bad!
It gets better soon, promise.

Most of the actors in the series (if not all?) are total newbies and have never done any acting before.
And that's one thing that really impresses me since I wouldn't have guessed that. The first couple of episodes were a little bit awkward in the acting, probably the actors were getting to know their characters and getting settled in them. The two main characters, Phun and Noh, are a bit clumsy - especially Captain Chonlathorn, who plays Noh, who tends to overact in the first eps. I would imagine that it might be a little bit awkward settling into a fairly physical role with another person of the same sex in front of a camera, especially as Captain, at the making of the series, was only 16 (!!!) years old (soon to be 17 as of right now) and White Boonserm who plays Phun, is only slightly older, being 18.

But the two leads catch up quickly and turn into brightly shining little stars.
It's not that the are making ground breaking, dramatic performances worthy of a ton of awards,
but rather that they are so believable that one is completely convinced of their characters and the relationship between them. Their acting is incredibly honest and natural and their eyes and facial expressions tell whole stories in themselves.
The chemistry between them is absolute awesome and shoots sparks.
Captain is like an Energizer Bunny, all over the place, but in a way that makes one smile and fall completely in love with him. White is more calm and composed but manages to portray Phun excellently. The other actors also do a fairly good job although no as shining.
The characters and their storyline is very faithful to the original story, which is good.
The novel isn't in any way explicit, but the series are even more innocent. A lot is left for the viewer's imagination and to read between the lines.

The score and music is cute and mostly very good IMO. A couple of songs from the soundtrack I like very much, like Captain's (yes, he sings too and rather well, actually) - Khor rong, which I think is great. I also like the title song - Shake.
All the music is light and cute and stay true to the feeling of the series.

For me, the rewatch value is huge - since I've already watched through the whole thing many times...
I'm completely hooked and very engaged in the series. I follow the novel obsessively, eagerly waiting for every chapter to be translated into English by the eminent Kuda Lakorn at kudalakorn.com , who also translates and subs the fansubs of the series.
Both the novel and the series are... floaty, bubbly, shiny and light. Positive and extremely refreshing and innocent in their storytelling.
I think that most young people who like romantic stories could find the series entertaining, whether they are BL fans or not.
The series is not a masterpiece, but I will gladly rate it as an 8 overall - because I really, really love it and it has so many positive sides to it, even though it's not in any way a heavy weight.
Engaging, endearing and enjoyable are probably the keywords.

Season 2 is scheduled to air the 25;th of april 2015 - I will be benched, waiting for the translation!

Leggi di Più

Initially I wasn't going to review this story, but I thought since there weren't many reviews that I would.
This should be short, so here's my review on Love Sick: The Series
--

Story: Honestly, I'm not quite sure what the story was suppose to be but my guess is the journey of teenagers in school and all their romances and conflicts that come with it. The story is something that has been done before but with two males facing romance together. I felt that the story did center around mostly school and romance and there wasn't any problem with that. However, I did find myself skipping around the story mostly for Noh and Phun, everyone else's issues I wasn't too interested in.

Acting/Cast: To be honest I don't know how people rated the acting as spectacular. I felt that sometime's the feelings between Noh and Phun, no matter how cute, weren't always easily portrayed ( I got confused during some instances) . It was sometimes difficult to understand the problems between these two characters but you pretty much get the gist of it. I don't feel like the cast as whole had great acting, but I did like the story nonetheless and the chemistry between Noh and Phun kept me wanting to watch more.

Music: I did like the music it was different from the dramas I've been watching, this was actually my first thailand drama.

Rewatch value: I normally don't rewatch shows that often, BUT i would rewatch this one only for Noh and Phun. I found myself smiling and going back to see the moments between these two, it was just so adorable.

Overall: Do I recommend? YES, I do. Like everyone else has said, if you can get through the first episode(which was poorly done) you can watch the rest of the series. The only reason I can't give this drama a higher score is because of the acting. I do love the characters but I felt that if this story wasn't focused on something that was different to me (BL) then I would have dropped it. That being said, the two main characters were so cute and I enjoyed watching the drama and am looking forward to the second season.

Leggi di Più