Hi! I really enjoy reading your blog. I hope a show eventually catches your attention so I can read your thoughts about it.
It's incredible how many BL and GL series are being produced these days, isn't it?
There are so many that I don't even know which one to watch anymore.
Do you think GMMTV could ever lose the popularity it has?
I ask because of two reasons:
Nowadays, the major Thai TV channels that used to produce only lakorns have started expanding into other genres and are now producing and airing their own BL and GL series. They've even adopted the same approach as GMMTV by creating fixed pairings, organizing fan meetings. And it seems to be working for them.
For example, The Edge of Horizon (I'm not sure if you've heard of it) has become quite popular on social media, just like Flower Boy did.
It also feels like more and more controversies involving GMMTV have been coming to light. The most recent one was when fans discovered that one of their actors had reposted homophobic content, posts promoting violence against women, and other offensive material. More recently, there was also an incident involving a security guard who was violent toward a fan.
On top of that, something I've noticed is that even though GMMTV has introduced many new artists, the plots of the series they've been producing lately don't seem as interesting as they used to be.
Hey, thank you for your ask.
Aside from re-watching Shine, the "latest" BL/GLs I glimpsed at were "Ticket to heaven" and "Broken of Love".
With Broken of Love (I am still not over the grammatical mess that title is), the first episode was pretty much what I had feared: While I think Faye is a decent actress and I respect her business sense, the whole thing is a mess. It's never a good idea to focus everything on one person and make them look as good as possible and be in every scene, while not much focus is on the script and building great characters. In my opinion that's what happened here. They took on too much with her usual team and script writers and producers they are not. And that starts with creating a project that has a grammar mistake in its title. It's so easily avoidable. I stopped watching after ep 1 and I barely made it through that and then glimpsed at some other episodes to see if it would get better. It didn't. Weirdly, everything that made her stand out to me in the equally horrible "Blank" and what made me endure that show through all episodes, was completely lacking in this show. In Blank I liked her and her character, I liked her acting and I believed her when she was upset. (Don't get me started on her co-star or the overall plot). I can't even name what it was, but this time all I could think about was "This is really bad".
Ticket to heaven, also only watched ep 1 so far, was also what I expected, but in a good way. You look at the writers and producers and what they have worked on so far and you know that it'll be up there with gmmtv's other good shows. Additionally both Fourth and Gemini are some of their better actors and won't make me cringe my way through a show, like some others do.
I will definitely keep watching once I have the time to binge the rest of the episodes. The show doesn't have that many, and aside from the unbelievable time jump in the beginning that wanted to make me believe Gemini is in his mid-30s (I think) at this point, I have nothing bad to say about it. Once I get to it, I'll definitely post about it.
Speaking of GMMTV: I do think that they developed the blueprint back in the day, but in a very "tame" way when it comes to the ships. It's basically the kiddie version of fan service compared to Mandee. The actors are usually young, with few exceptions, and most of the shows are placed in or around school or university age couples.
That means that they often cast very young boys who have never acted before, throw them in a workshop and then place them in front of the camera. They get money and fame out of it and once they start their actual careers or they get too old, they leave the ships and often the company. Again, some exceptions, especially with the very popular ships who usually turn out to be somewhat decent actors.
Most of them stay on and also start working on other gmmtv projects that are not BLs.
Creating that environment is hard for a new company and while they might produce BL after BL, that doesn't mean that the quality will improve or that the ships will last.
And yes, when you mass-produce stuff quality starts going down.
There is a reason why BOC CEO Pond made the changes he did with their company. I know fans complain about the lack of projects, but everything they release is top notch in quality in its genre and you know that the crew behind the show didn't have to work 18 hour shifts and they were fed well and paid well. I might not watch everything they release for genre and plot reasons, but even the ridiculous Jet Lag, which is targeted at a Thai audience, is better than many other shows I've seen in Thailand in the genre.
It's also the reason why they do not keep a lot of people around for long contracts. And yet, they get people to join them for a project or even longer and people who are known and established as great actors with their fanbase already there. They do it because they can work in a great environment with the best crew around and international cinematography. Jess came for that reason, Son and Euro did as well. That says a lot about a company.
Now, about the incident regarding the fan: I do not know whether or not that was her place or if she did line up or not etc etc and neither do I care.
What is visible in the videos though is that staff and security tried to talk to her and resolve the issue - whatever it was- and she ignored them completely and kept typing on her phone. That is rude and arrogant and no way to deal with any issue. Had she actually talked to them - and in this day and age there are translation apps if you don't speak the language- the issue could have been resolved. Acting like an entitled brat and ignoring people who are just trying to do their job is not a way to act. They had to drag her out, because she wouldn't respond to them. And she was also the one who kicked the security lady first. I don't care where she is from, if she was a foreigner or Thai or whatever: You do not do this.
However, that being said, I honestly don't get the system of how these events are organised. I have been in Bangkok multiple times and I thought about going to an event. But I absolutely refuse to line up hours and hours before the event even starts or go anywhere in the morning to line up just to get my ticket, to then line up again in the evening.
If I buy a ticket, I expect that I have an assigned seat in the category I paid for. I show up at a reasonable time so I can get through ticket control and security, have a drink or something to eat and then sit down. Everything else is unacceptable to me.
If these people had assigned seats and tickets that they need to show their ID with at the entrance, a lot of this could be prevented. If anyone sits in a seat that is not their own, security removes them from the venue, easy as that.
But in a way, the entitled fan problems are also homemade by the industry, by holding top-spenders events, relying heavily on very expensive fan gifts and fan events to make money and therefore make some very rich people even more entitled and think they have the right to do whatever they want and that they own the idols they spend so much money on.
