Sotus: The Series (2016)

Brings up a lot of negative emotions in the viewer

Never have I ever come across a less sympathetic male lead in a BL than I have with "Oon" Arthit. He is truly one of the most obnoxious and toxic characters I have ever had the displeasure of coming across. I really had to force myself to get through this show because I was getting triggered left right and center and all over the place by all the UNNECESSARY and incredibly toxic bullying by the seniors.

Early on in the show I had absolutely no idea how they would redeem the horrendous character of Oon, and then I saw their strategy. Just make the other seniors even more horrendous so that all of Oon’s bullying seemed tame in comparison!

Perhaps it’s because as a gay man myself I was constantly bullied in school and just harassed to within an inch of my life that I find these storylines of bullying so triggering and incredibly off putting.

The fact that GMMTV puts a disclaimer at the start of each episode to say that instances of hazing is exaggerated for dramatic effect notwithstanding, I was just too nauseated by all of the shenanigans going on. These seniors who are charged with helping and leading their juniors did no such things. They didn’t haze them in good spirits. It was obvious they hated the juniors. Their hatred of the freshmen jumped off the screen nearly as badly as their disdain for their physical and mental wellbeing.

The actor who played the lead in Not Me was what initially attracted me to this incredible hot mess of a show, but I’m sad to say his character was a bully at heart too.

Listen, all these gripes is not to take away from the good merits of the show. It’s GMMTV after all, even if it is in its infant 2016 stage where BL in general was still taking baby steps. The production value is great, the acting is top notch all around (that’s the problem, these problematic characters are so well portrayed that you can’t separate them from the actors.

I love a good enemies to lover storyline, really I do. But Jesus, the character needs to be redeemable and likeable at least. I’m also the first to jump on an antihero train, but Oon’s character just absolutely ruined the whole show. Couldn’t buy into this relationship because I despise one of the leads. Horrendous and so disappointing

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Stole My Heart From the Beginning!

This show— god, what a wonderful show this was! It was one of those quiet ones for me, where I didn't realize how much I loved it until I was head over heels. It sucked me right in and made me fall in love alongside Arthit and Kongpob.

It took me a little while to understand the whole SOTUS-hazing-thing, mostly because the concept of hazing is very different in the US. It did take me a bit to stop cringing when the terms 'hazing' and 'hazers' were used, just because of the stigma of hazing that I'm so familiar with. The hazing in the show isn't nothing, per se, but it's nowhere near as dangerous or problematic as the kind of hazing I've heard of before. If that's something that is deterring you from trying this show, I highly recommend you try it anyway.

I LOVED the giant cast of characters in this show. Though Kongpob and Arthit are absolutely the main characters and their story was the most gripping of the show, the supporting and side characters were so fleshed out. It was so easy to care about them all and enjoy their time on screen, which is something that I can't say for many other series I've seen. I would have loved to see even more of any of these characters– that's how much I enjoyed them all.

The soft moments made me ache, the funny ones made me laugh out loud, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself from start to finish. Krist and Singto had great chemistry, making their love story so believable and overall a wonderful time. I can't wait to rewatch this show in the future because I absolutely will rewatch it sometime soon.

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This definitely wasn’t what I expected. I expected the usual university romance and little more but as it turned out, it was actually a story about friendship and traditions, about learning how to be respectful and how to cooperate with other people. All the characters were great, the writers actually paid attention not just to the leads but to the supporting ensemble too! I’ve rarely cared about a Thai drama as a whole, not just about one specific storyline, before but here I did.

I watched the series mainly for New Thitipoom, my Thai bias, who played M, the lead’s, Kong’s, best friend. And I loved how his character turned out, he was just precious, sweet and goofy and so nice! He made me root for M and May and it was too bad that after M’s love confession, May simply disappeared from the show, M was just seen talking to her on the phone and that was it.

What surprised me was how soft Arthit turned out to be. He as the head hazer seemed so hard and vengeful, a real bully, only for us to find out about halfway through the drama that he actually hated his role, he hated shouting and being so harsh to the freshmen, it just didn’t sit well with him at all. That was a really nice surprise.

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The ost may not be in my best interest but the series got me hung up waiting for new episodes every week and I’m just writing this review now and idk why. I like how the story is developed from beginning til the end. I think this series started the pink milk tea. Then afterward I start seeing other series using pink milk tea too. I love a story when 2 main leads doesn’t get along at first but as time continues they get to know each other more and then start to develop their feelings slowly. I’m not really into story that rush to the scene where the main leads get together that quick in just 1 or 2 episodes. I rather take it slowly. If you are interested in this series, go check out the sequel. It shows more of their after university life and how Arthit learns to develop more love towards Kongpob but he take his time to do this because there are conflicts he have to face.

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Quel dommage! Quelle déception!

Si l'on veut passer sur tous les détails gênants de ce drama, on peut être entousiaste mais, car il y a même des mais : il y a un fond d'homophobie très ennuyeux, exemple lorsqu'un des protagonistes se défend d'être gay en disant qu'il aime un homme pas les hommes, comme si aimer les hommes était dommageable. J'imagine bien que c'est difficile d'assumer dans le monde actuel d'être "différent" d'une norme que l'on nous inculque depuis la naissance, mais cela aurait été plus correct qu'au moins un des protagonistes dise qu'il est gay même s'il en a honte, même s'il le découvre après ses 20 ans. C'est souvent ce que propose certains BL : "je t'aime car c'est toi mais je n'aime pas les autres hommes car au fond je suis hétérosexuel!" Ce genre de discours m'incommodode au plus haut point. Tout ça pour que cela soit plus acceptable par la majorité. C'est vraiment moche. Sinon cela aurait pu être un très chouette BL romantique. Je n'ai pas encore parlé des baisers et du manque de désir des deux protagonistes. Ils sont dans la vingtaine en bonne santé physique et is s'embrassent comme des enfants de 6 ans et n'ont aucun désir sexuel. Cela peut être un très bon sujet à traiter mais je ne crois pas que ce fut le cas. Le personnage de Arthit semble totalement amorphe sensuellement parlant et même dans SOTUS S. Je ne parle pas de tout le côté bizutage qui est traité à la légère : soit c'est du bizutage et il faut le combattre, soit c'est de l'initiation et les initiateurs peuvent être polis, corrects et le faire sans gueuler comme des cons. C'est dommage, quelle déception! Ce drama est passé à côté d'une belle réussite et surtout d'un beau message qui aurait fait chaud au coeur de beaucoup de gens.

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This show is bad. Even if we ignore how incredibly toxic SOTUS is as a concept, which I'm glad is banned in many places, the show is still mediocre. We didn't have enough interactions between the leads to believe that there is genuine love between them, which is ironic since this is pretty much a slow burn, the chemistry was not that good, the characters were badly develop and I was never able to fully connect with them, the show's is so very badly done, the use of colors is terrible and the sound it's somehow even worse and I hated most side characters but the worst part is how liked is this show. Arthit as a character might be the only things that I actually enjoyed, not the couple itself, Kongpob lacked development and also I don't know if this is on purpose, but he seemed kind of creepy sometimes, the way he carried himself, idk. The soundtrack was.. I have no words to describe it, there is only one song I actually don't mind listening to

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Kongpob's Evolution and Arthit's Emotional Development

For me, the series started well. I had no expectations for the series, good or bad. I liked the Kongpob character very much right away. I watched the general story with love and pleasure. But after a while, the progress in the relationship of our main couple decreased so much that it started to make me feel like I was watching a youth drama instead of BL (at this point I started to be unhappy). After all, I came here to watch BL. If the system, school events, etc. are not too disturbing, I usually don't care. I look at the realism and passion of the love presented.

In the first episodes, Kongpob's rebelliousness and small-scale flirtatiousness and secret anger was what excited me, but this gradually started to diminish. He started to become more of a normal, good student. I wanted it to get deeper. We should have seen more details about the character.

Arthit's suppression of emotions in the first chapters and his hiding that he was affected by Kongpob amused me, but after a while this progress stopped, as if there was no increase in his feelings.

Imagine that you are in control and everyone is afraid of you.
A first-year university student challenges your authority: REBELLIOUS. The favorite of the whole school, everyone who knows him/her loves him/her a lot: POPULAR. Probably the teachers will like him/her very much: STATUS. You insulted him/her, and now he/she is using that insult against you and flirting with you: ATTRACTIVE. Has excellent grades, hardworking: INTELLIGENT... This list can go on and on.

When you have such a person in front of you and this person respects you, you fall in love very seriously with jealousy, anger and feelings of total possession that accumulate inside you. This is where Arthit was supposed to take on an obsessive character and desperately crave Kongpob, but it didn't happen. In short, it was supposed to be Arthit, not Kongpob.

So how to say, the story is very suitable for being much more passionate and intense. But overall a good story especially the first half but the series is not memorable for me.

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Ospek ?? mana takut!

Sotus, adalah series BL terpopuler yang menjadi sesepuh BL saat ini, series ini menjadi series yang membawa perubahan dalam cerita per-BL an Asia. Sotus, menceritakan seorang pria bernama Kongpob yang baru masuk ke dunia perkuliahan, saat ospek dia dipertemukan dengan seorang kaka tingkat bernama P'Arthit yang merupakan ketua dari ospek tersebut. Sikap P'Arthit yang tegas, kuat, dan Angkuh ini sangat berlawanan dengan Kongpob yang baik, lembut, dan penuh perhatian, ketika mereka dalam satu stage dan berdebat di depan khalayak mahasiswa-mahasiswi lainnya, hal yang luar biasa terjadi. Chemistry inilah yang sangat membuat Sotus the series ini memiliki cerita yang menarik. Bagaimana kisah mereka selanjutnya? saksisan saja di Sotus the series.

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¡Kongphop!

Tenía la inquietud de ver uno de los BL más conocidos, y que incluso ha sido nombrado como 'clásico', además de ver los inicios del BL tailandés y de los protagonistas.

No la disfruté completamente porque no me gusta que aún cuando el fin del programa SOTUS sea construir lazos entre los estudiantes, los medios sean cuestionables, sobre todo si en el futuro sabemos que los personajes tendrán una relación romántica, cómo justificas los daños que pueden resultar de una situación así para que después, como si nada, se enamoren.

Kongphop, me encantó, diciendo lo que piensa y siente, además, me alegra que busque la forma de hacer un cambio en cómo se hacen las cosas.

⚙️

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oh but love grows where my rosemary goes

The music goes absolutely crazy. This was really goddamn good. It doesn't get enough hype now because it came out in 2016, but this was crazy good. Arthit and Kong's dynamic was good, in the last few episodes, the tension between those two went crazy. It was so good, and the kisses became more and more emotion-filled and really good. The first few episodes were kind of repetitive, and not a lot of romance happened between our two main characters. Arthit was getting on my nerves; I was getting really mad, so the acting was good. I will probably watch some scenes, but I won't rewatch this whole thing. It was good. I enjoyed it; the average was an 8.6, so I made it an 8.5. good drama overall and good acting. Okay, bye. The wheel chose this one, and I am glad. the wheel chose until we meet again next, so let's do this.

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SOTUS is amazing

SOTUS is amazing. It was the 3rd BL series that I have watched since I started to enter the Thai BL world. The acting was so pure even though some scenes are not true to life, especially some parts of hazing (which was clarified at the beginning).

It never gets old for me. Krist and Singto have this unexplainable charisma and chemistry with each other. I believe they have played their role excellently, but of course, room for improvements must be considered on their side.

I recently rewatched it last week after 6 to 7 months. It still gave me the chills while I watched it. I really hope that there will be season 3 for this.

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