Sotus: The Series (2016)

Mmmmkay, it's overrated.

(This is my first review.)

Okay so, to be honest, my opinion of this show is largely about the framing of the Sotus system. The sotus system is abusive in this show and the presentation of it as some sort of courting ritual for Kongpob and Arthit is kinda disturbing to me. The tone and the content are so at odds they are almost mutually exclusive from one another. Sotus is a system that exists in real-life in Thailand and hazing/initiation rituals exist in many other places. People die and suffer serious physical and psychological trauma each year due to this system in Thailand. This only makes this series more disturbing to be quite frank. There is a short film (not a BL) made in Thailand which tackles the sotus system (it is against it). The tone of the film and the content match far better and it is honestly a far more rational presentation of a system in which power can so easily be abused. Here is the link if anyone is interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NgYr6GqofM

Now, with that out of the way let's talk about things other than the plot.

The acting is fine. I have seen many of the actors in other things since this and their acting is better. So, it's okay but it often could be better and I've seen better acting from them since then.

The chemistry is mediocre at best in my opinion. This is something a lot of fans love about ArthitKongpob as a couple, but honestly their chemistry felt very platonic the whole way through to me. I never bought into the romantic or sexual attraction between them. This is not because of the minimal PDA, it just didn't feel like they were attracted to each other to me.

The music itself is okay. Sometimes it felt unnecessary and frequently it was too loud.

The series does have a somewhat nostalgic feel, so for people who love the series I can understand the re-watch value is probably high.

When the sotus system was not the centre of the scene I generally enjoyed it. (I have seen Sotus S and the Our Skyy special and preferred them a lot more, especially Our Skyy.) Hazing is personally something I hate. I have been close enough to it in real-life to have a visceral reaction to seeing it (especially in the romantic way it is presented here). But there are scenes that are well made. The scene in Arthit's apartment was sweet and the phonecall/almost confession scene was my favourite performance throughout. But yeah, it felt like propaganda for a controversial system more often than it felt like a story of love between people.

Of course, many people love it so I'm probably missing something. I actually would recommend the sequel and Our Skyy special. The main relationship and friendships are far more equal and easy to feel comfortable about for me.

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Slow-Burn College Romance

A lot of people have commented that SOTUS is their favourite BL and is known to be an iconic Thai BL. If you've asked a person on what BL is a must-watch for beginners, this will be one of the options coming out from them. Once again, I have been intrigued and I decided to check it out for myself.

Watching the first two episodes got me kind of confused. I am not familiar with the university culture in Thailand. I was immediately introduced to this 'SOTUS' system where it's like a boot camp for university students in their first year to attend to train and learn how to be disciplined and to respect their seniors. For me, the way they presented it looked like a straight-up bully and exaggerated on purpose. I was irritated and I felt pity for those students who had to suffer through that torture. I just wished they didn't have to make it that tormenting to make the plot more interesting. It's like giving a message saying that *bullying is good for you* and I don't agree with the system. Did it take away my enjoyment for the show? No.

I was quite impressed with the relationship between Kongpob and Arthit. Slow-burn stories are more to my preference and I enjoyed it here. This series fully focused on one BL couple which made me like it even more. Both characters are likable and they took their time to slowly developed their feelings among one another. I enjoyed the moments of them sharing their interest, sharing their favourite food, and just spending time together. For me, I liked this type of dating life between university students and I loved interactions and moments like this. It made me missed my social life in college between my friends and I just chilling in the cafeteria and having a face to face conversation about life.

One part did bother me and it was in the second last episode (or the last one, I'm not sure). Kongpob mentioned that sentence, "I don't like men, I only like P'Arthit". While this was not the only series who used this trope of "I don't like men, I only like you", it shouldn't have been said in the first place. Please put a stop to this where the main character almost always denies being gay. There's nothing wrong with a male character just coming out to say he likes men.

Overall, I had a lot of fun watching it with the sweet story between Kongpob and Arthit. Seeing them together made me happy and I can't wait to see more of them in their sequel, SOTUS S. If you're into that sweet slow-burn stories, you can give this a try. Don't get turned off by that ridiculous hazing system. If you can pretend that it never existed, this show is then perfect for you. This series exceeded my expectations and I would love to rewatch it again sometime.

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Overall a good one time watch!

Many people might enjoy the aspect of this couple, but I did end up skipping many parts throughout the show. I thought it was pretty repetitive, not because the story was slow but because sometimes the scenes were too dull and added no aspect to the show itself. Though the story was an exciting concept, the emotional development between the characters was rushed. Overall, you can defiantly watch it once! Considering that this bl came out in 2016, I can see why this is generally popular. However, 20 episodes for the whole series is way too much to convey the story's plot. Therefore if this show were ten or so episodes long, it would've been an amazing bl all above. But most importantly, the actual love relationship between the two main casts was highly underdeveloped, and the couple shared no intimate scene to convey the love.

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I've been kinda on a binge as far as Thai BL's go. I started with Lovesick (the novel of which I've read and I followed while it was airing originally but didn't keep up), then moved onto Make It Right, and I was trying to decide between 2Moons and SOTUS, but eventually the idea of the hazing angle won me over and I decided to watch SOTUS first. I almost wished that I hadn't because I really do want to watch 2Moons but I am STUCK on SOTUS.

I'm already on my 2nd watch through and I'm about half-way through. I've already written fanfic for it and jumped back on tumblr purely to reblog SOTUS posts and it's been less than a week. Saying what's bad about this drama is easier than saying what's good about it because honestly... nothing is bad. Not one thing. I don't really have even one complaint.

Let's start with the PLOT.

I didn't know anything about SOTUS before I started watching it except for what I read in the plot summary and I certainly didn't know it was a real thing or that the actors had actually gone through it. But this is right up my alley. I love this sort of hazing plot, it always makes for great interactions between characters and that's what I'd assumed I'd be getting. And I was right. I love stories about friendship, and honestly, that's what this is. It's all about friendship and it hit me in the feels.

It really couldn't have been pulled off if it weren't for the amazing cast. I was so happy to see Gunsmile whom had such a small role in Lovesick, but Film had become my favorite character with just his small parts in LS, but I really fell for Krist and Singto as the parts of Arthit (MY BABY) and Kongpob. Their chemistry was OUTSTANDING and I never would have guessed that Singto is actually older than Krist by about a year (the fact they went to school together is just wow). BL dramas acting tends to be on the bad to okay/good-ish side of things but from the getgo, the acting in this was brilliant.

Knowing that originally Singto and Krist were for opposite roles makes it even better because I honestly can't imagine them playing anyone but Kongpob and Arthit respectively. I'm dying for someone to watch this with me but my friends are all no-go which sucks :( but I'll continue to enjoy and be blessed by this beautiful story and wait eagerly for SOTUS S!!

SOTUS is 100/10 will watch again after I finish my 2nd run through! I'm scared to think how many times I'll be rewatching this before SOTUS S comes out...

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Well I would admit I'm kinda hooked with BL these days. The BL series that I watched were all good that it made me watched it again.
As for SOTUS probably I re-watched it for a couple of times already yet I'm still hooked to it. The characters have great chemistry and I like how close they are with each other.I also like the way the story revolved,how the couple progressed in the series in really good. At first really thought BL series are kinda GROSS but when I watched it i'm surprised cause I really feel the thrill and excitement.It seems that i'm still watching a normal romance between man and woman.In this series,you would learn a lot, from TEAMWORK,COURAGE,COOPERATION,FRIENDSHIP and most importantly ACCEPTANCE. Acceptance will help us be free from all the burden and it would also make up HAPPY. I hope you will also feel the same upon watching this series.

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I respect the BL elders but poor production aside it was terribly paced, SO MANY scenes in the second half dragged, and the evidence to actually justify the SOTUS system existing was poor. Also, it is absolutely wild to me that a conversation between Kongpob and his friend talking about a movie got as much screentime as Arthit coming out to his friend?? This happens all the time where conversations that contribute almost nothing to the plot drag on for ages and it's meant to show banter between characters I suppose, but in all honesty so much of the dialogue is stilted and unnatural that you just end up bored.

The postive is that the main couple is cute and in particular I really enjoyed Arthit's character. Overall though I would not recommend someone watch it in 2020 unless you a) fast forward through a bulk of the second half 2) want to pay respect to the BLs that paved the way or 3) love Krist/Singto.

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This was the first BL I watched, and if I had reviewed it at the time, I would probably have given it a higher rating - and if I had only watched the first half of the series I might have rated it much higher - but I can't get past the almost total lack of affection between Arthit and Kongpob. I didn't need them to have a sex scene, or even lots of making out, but I did need Arthit to not to act like Kongpob was repulsive. I was OK with him being that way in public, because some people really have a problem with PDAs, but he was like that in private, too. It's just another in a long line of "I'm not gay but I love a guy" stories. At least nobody had a girlfriend in the way of the relationship.

I will say that the acting was great - especially Arthit. The Our Skyy episode with this pair makes up for a lot of the problem - it was nice to see them actually touching each other without acting like they were going to get cooties.

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The OG series

I LOVED THIS. The connection between Kong and Archit was so strong. Anytime they were on screen with each other, it just felt completely natural. This was my first series where the engineering study was super plot-heavy, so I wasn't annoyed with the uni student dynamic (yet). This series is the best character development-wise. Both of them grew into being better people for each other, and I completely approve. The small meaning behind the gear necklace is what kind of made this series for me. I adore tangible objects that hold large meanings. This trope will become overplayed soon enough with every engineer BL series, but this one is where it felt really good. This was one of those shows that didn’t have to have a lot of physical moments just to tell a good love story. Off was in this and that just made it twenty times better. I genuinely enjoyed M and May’s story. I was quite shocked at how invested I was. Prem and Wad gave us nothing. Loved that.

The only thing that bothered me was how haze-heavy it was. Obviously, hazing isn't right, nor is it healthy, but there were sometimes when the hazing plot became too much and took over entire episodes. I wish Kong and Arthit got together a little sooner instead of them taking so long. As much as I love them, their first kiss was cringe like hell. I still haven't been able to go back and watch because it just looks super awkward and stiff. However, I love Kong and Arthit because the actors did amazing together, and corresponded with each other's emotions. Hopefully, we can see them in future dramas (obviously Sotus S, but something different).

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This may be the best Thai BL series I have watched, and I've been watching a lot lately. It is the complete package.

This series has all the things. It satisfies all my needs as a viewer. The story is complex and engaging, the characters are amazingly developed and have incredibly chemistry, and it has all the moments. It makes me laugh, it makes me blush, it's overall just a great series and doesn't have flaws.

It could be a bit more, I won't lie. There could have been another pairing, but honestly they gave the couple exactly as much story and screen time that was needed without any unnecessary drama or tropes that you see in other series. I'm just greedy and want more. :)

Kongpob is just the smoothest. His lines will have your heart falling to your feet. Every episode. He has epic game, endless mojo, and just sweeps everyone off their feet. He could make me his wife any day, and he could take everything I own. Seriously. And Arthit just crumples (in real life, watch the special!) at his every move and it's just too much for my heart to take. Their chemistry is next level.

Also, their relationship is so mature. Which I haven't seen before. I've watched a lot of these where the jealousy and uncertainty and insecurity is exaggerated and it is irritating. They don't have that. They are clear, take time to consider each other, and really respect each other in a way you don't see too often in these dramas.

It's just the best. The best one I've seen so far. I would give it more than a 10 if I could.

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