"this world can’t change someone like me either"

Me: yes, sweet, I dig it

Pisaeng:

The first hint of this was in the previous episode where we saw that despite recieving the life-saving surgery, Kawi's father still passed away. They go further in episode 9 by showing us the fall out of how he and Pisaeng get together.

The significant feature of this, however, is that Kawi tried to do everything the right way. He had scheduled a date to break up with Pearmai and he'd only confessed to Pisaeng after panicking that he was leaving the country. The fact that he hadn't managed to break things off with Pear cleanly first was out of his control.

Sometimes we try to do everything right and it goes wrong anyway. Sometimes we try to do our best for someone but they still get hurt. Sometimes we try to make the right choices but we miscalculate the consequences. But that doesn't mean we should stop trying. Life is messy, nothing is fully under our control, and sometimes all we can do is muddle through in the right direction and have faith that the people around us are muddling right next to us.

When the first trailer was presented at GMMTV Live 2022 we all collectively lost our shit at the casting of Krist and Mike. Not only for the backlash Krist (potentially wrongly) received after SOTUS but also for pairing him with Mike. Two actors who had been in bl pairs before but not for a while and who weren't predicted to do any again soon.

But then Mike got replaced (for whatever reason), and by yet another person who no one saw coming, Gawin. Again, an actor not shy of a few bl pairings but who hadn't lead a show yet and who seemed pretty reserved and not the obvious choice to do another bl.

And looking at Krist/Kawi and Gawin/Pisaeng sat together at the end of ep 7, it hit me that they don't seem like an obvious paring.

And they're really not. They've not even worked together on a series before (as far as I could see on mdl) let alone built up a friendship/relationship on the 'promotional circuit' compared to other newer pairings (I'm thinking Ohm/Nanon before Bad Buddy, or Perth/Chimon going into Never Let Me Go and now Dangerous Romance, who it's easy to picture together from the get go.) And also compare this to Krist and Aye, who have worked together in three other series prior to filming Be My Favourite - and recently too.

So it feels like the show wants us to see the Kawi/Pearmai pairing as the obvious one - just as Kawi does.

It wants us to see the Kawi/Pisaeng pairing as a little odd, or unimaginable - just as Kawi did (and is kidding himself that he still does).

And I love that because, as it's taking time for Kawi (and Pisaeng) to get used to the idea of them as a couple, we also get to do the same thing at the same time.

Their pairing is growing for us as it's growing for them.

And in some ways it's making me feel closer to their journey.

We, the audience, are not supposed to like Kawi, especially in the early episodes of the show. We are supposed to find him difficult to love. We are supposed to wonder why Pisaeng even likes him. And we are supposed to, despite all that, come around to the idea that he is still redeemable and worthy of kindness and generosity from the people around him. It’s the entire point the show is making, and it doesn’t land nearly as well if Kawi is someone we like right from the start.

Me:

be my favorite (2023) episode 8