LL | Fandom Old || She/Her + queer | A catch-all blog of things that matter to me: social justice, fandom bits, writing thoughts and other pieces of me. Header by @durrandon
Me (a non-practicing catholic? person who was raised catholic light n went to catholic school) watching non-catholic, non-christian takes on ticket to heaven: well… you’re correct but I still feel uncomfortable not because your thought is spot on but because it was expressed in such a casual non-canon (wink wink) borderline dismissive way
People really think the 20 years was a mistake? Could Barth have possibly seen the Father more recently than 12th grade, you think? Let’s not assume the worst. Open our minds to the possibilities. Cuz, as @doublel27 pointed out to me, we know at least one person involved who went to a Catholic boarding school in 1996 for whom 2025 marked an important 20 year milestone…
1. Why do you care? Why do you need to comment? Is your experience of the series so vapid that this is the thing you want to spend time posting about in the show tags???
2. You as a viewer have a responsibility to use your fucking imagination, too. Your attachment to cinema doing all the work for you is absolutely so fucking boring to me. Realism has been a poison to some people’s ability to engage their minds in generous immersion within a show. Y’all ain’t never gone to a black box theater show, y’all haven’t let a low budget production sweep you away with it’s heart, y’all haven’t loved something with the tenderness of a campy affection. This show is giving us a melodramatic nostalgia trip—the identifications must be clear, the emotional beats unmissable. Do your job as a viewer and take your cynical lenses off to feel it with your heart instead of scrutinizing so intently with your eyes.
3. Even with all that said, this…isn’t a bad job? Y’all act like you don’t know what people in their 30s or their late 60s look like nowadays? Do you want them to look like old lady Rose in Titanic (a great example of the effective tender and campy exaggeration I mentioned above) ? I thought the subtle sun-spotting they did on Gem’s face was such an elegant aging touch; the few silver hairs; a little more bare-faced than usual, too. And Gem, just does look and seem a bit mature for his age anyways? And they did some solid old age make-up on Father without making him look decrepit. Just a bit more sallow and weathered. But y’all acting like they should look like Prince Philip.
Idk if people are tryna gain some clout points for pointing out what they see as flaws or something, or maybe they’re just doing it out of discomfort with such intense subject matter—and they’re allowed to not love it—but I just don’t think they even know what they’re talking about. I immediately started tearing up when he came on screen with the 2025 equal marriage announcement. I knew the struggles I was in for.
And for my two cents: I’m wondering if the ordination is a red herring, and it’s in fact not Tanrak getting ordained but Ashi’s character Kongdech. I personally would love to see Tanrak step away from his seminary path even if he remains faithful, especially since the Catholic Church does not currently recognize same-sec marriage.
There’s a theory out there that the 6 episodes are structured based on the levels of heaven, with the story specifically not reaching the seventh most-perfect level of heaven to acknowledge both Buddhist ideas about accepting imperfection, but also, perhaps, the inability for queer loved to be institutionally fulfilled as it stands. How do we accept imperfection while still willing positive change for the future? How do we live with deeply problematic institutions (or old-age depictions or the discourse about it) without letting the disdain eat our hearts? Maybe someday when I’m in my old-age make up that the queen diva Mother Nature has put on me, I’ll understand.
So last week I posted my list of top 10 GMMTV series and invited others to share theirs. And many did! In the end, between replies here and asking in a couple of other places, I got lists from 21 people. Now I've put together the numbers to come up with a consensus top 10.
Methodology:
First of all, 21 is quite a small sample size, and responses did not get further than two degrees of separation from me, so it's a highly biased sample at that. I don't care, this isn't an academic project.
I only counted shows in people's top 10 lists. Many, including me, also gave a list of runners-up, but I did not count these, except in one case: if the top 10 list included non-gmmtv shows, I filled in any gmmtv shows from their runner-up list to make up 10.
Some people gave two lists, divided broadly into "top 10 recommended shows" and "10 personal favorites." In these cases I counted both lists, but if the same show appeared on both lists I only counted it once. Out of curiosity I also looked at the numbers with only recs or only favorites, but either way it didn't change what shows made the top 10, and only slightly changed the order.
I did not take list ranking into account: most people didn't rank their lists so it would not have been meaningful.
And now, the list! Top 10 GMMTV series, as voted by you:
Moonlight Chicken
My School President
Bad Buddy
Not Me
Be My Favorite
3 Will Be Free
The Warp Effect
Peaceful Property
The Eclipse
Love You Teacher
I think this is a great list! ATOTS just missed a spot: Eclipse and Love You Teacher each got 8 votes, while ATOTS got 7. Moonlight Chicken, at the top, got 16, which means 3/4 of respondents included it in their top 10. The top 5 all got 11 or more votes, which means they were listed by more than half the respondents.
Below ATOTS, quite a handful of shows got 4 or 5 votes:
5 vote club:
Cherry Magic (Thailand)
Theory of Love
My Romance Scammer
ThamePo
He’s Coming To Me
Only Friends
4 vote club:
Me and Thee
High School Frenemy
Burnout Syndrome
Midnight Museum
MuTeLuv, as an anthology show, was a little hard to count - two people listed the whole series and several other people listed specific installments only. If we add the whole-series votes to each specific installment's tally, then Love Me If You Swear also gets a spot in the 5 vote club.
In all, there were 60 shows listed, including a couple I had never heard of, so we did get quite a breadth of opinion despite a strong consensus on the winners.
did you see ohms response to that marknamtan comment 😭
He’s like me and Mark just cuddled on a boat for you? Are you not entertained??!
Color me surprised anyone is even still tracking MarkNamtan except for me. For instance, I did find it curious Namtan was hanging out at the beach on the exact same days Mark, Ohm, and Gun were. And that Gun and Ohm were so quick to like her post. But that’s none of my business so…
Thank you @miss0atae for tagging me and for @maybe-boys-do-love for starting the game!
Rules: Just a fun chill way to see people’s different tastes. Fill in your QL actors answers to as many (or as few) of the these superlatives as you like. Tag 5 friends to see theirs.
This is a long one so I will add a break here, but I had a lot of fun with this one!
Your number 1 bias: Billkin Putthipong
NO ONE can make me cry like this man. I just love how real and raw his characters feel. His acting feels very organic to me! I've mentioned it before, but I love that he's not worried about how he looks when acting and will give us ugly crying because it feels much more real! He can absolutely deliver comedy too, but I think he's the best when he punches me in the gut. He only has like 6 projects under his belt and has been focusing more on his music career, but he's still the top for me. I was introduced to him through I Told Sunset About You and adored him in it, but I think his best performance for me is in How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies.
Fav supporting actor: Sing Harit
I feel like I talk about him a lot, so this comes as no surprise to anyone. But he's been acting for like a decade now and he gives us so much variety. He's such a little chameleon and I think he genuinely suits all sorts of roles. He can do comedic characters, antagonistic characters, serious characters, etc.
Delivers in everything you’ve seen them in: Pond Ponlawit
He has also had a wide range of roles and he genuinely kills it every time. I think him being independent also allows him to take on a range of projects, strengthening his acting skills further. Every time I see him I get excited and he always delivers.
Honorable Mentions:
Nanon Korapat. He just always kills it. Plus those dimples
Film Rachanun. She performs well in every genre. Plus those dimples
Surprised you with a performance: Belle Kemisara as Kae in Clairebell
I had previously only seen her in Project S: Side by Side, where she played an absolute sweetheart, so this was a huge switch-up. She packed so much nuance into this performance, creating a character I felt simultaneous disgust, fear, pity, compassion, and hate for.
Has yet to meet their potential: War Wanarat
I love War Wanarat, and I have enjoyed all his performances so far, but I feel like he just needs to be given a really meaty role for us to see his full potential, you know? I think he would do really well as a (very charismatic) villain also.
Needs a role to match their talents: Sea Tawinan
Based on interviews and behind the scenes, you can tell how much research and effort he puts into all his roles. And acting wise, you can really feel it. I think GMMTV plays it pretty safe with the roles they give him and I just think he has the skills to pull off a heavier, more nuanced role. I would be especially interested to see him play as the lead outside of his cp too.
Like their acting but not so much the celebrity: Foei Patara
Like the celebrity but not so much the acting: Nunew Chawarin
Love his vibe, his fashion, and his singing, but his acting doesn't do much for me personally.
Would be fun to see them in different partnerships: OffGun
I mean I honestly want to see everyone experiment and play outside of their partnerships every once in a while but this is my pick! I really enjoy them as a pairing, but I've liked their solo projects too! I have longed for a SingGun drama and an OffTay drama for a while now...
The partnership elevates them: EmiBonnie
Now I love both of them a lot on their own but they are just so magnetic as a pairing! I think they really understand each other as people and actors and are able to work together really organically
Overrated: MileApo
I know, okay. And I respect it. But personally? They have never worked for me as a couple even once. Which is weird, because the ingredients are there and they are both good actors! But I end up not caring at all about their character's romance and they just don't seem to work for me. Idk if I'd say they're overrated, rather just not for me
Underrated: James Teeradon
I'm sure he's more popular in Thailand but I see nothing about him on here? I saw him first in Bad Genius, then Project S: Skate our Souls, and then in Great Men Academy (this is the only QL of that list but I count him since he did play in a QL yk), and all were wildly different roles with very different skill sets, and he killed them all. Not nearly enough praise for him! Also yes this is like the fourth Nadao actor mentioned shhhh
Fav new face on the block: Peter Deriy, Leon Zech, Aon Akadech, and Pangjie Paphavarin
Yes I named four, what about it. All four had really heavy debut roles and absolutely killed them. Aon Akadech has been in two things so far, but all the others have no other projects yet (well I guess Leon has Gelboys 2), and I can't wait to see their skills grow even further.
Fav old gen or, as I like to call them, Q-Lder: Jennie Panhan
She's been in the industry for over a decade, and while she is more known for her comedies (which she is fantastic in), she has shown that she does FANTASTIC in more serious roles (WATCH THREE WILL BE FREE) and I need GMMTV to give her a main role.
no-pressure tagging @ahxu-laowen @ameliarating @callipigio @benkaben @soypim @loveable-sea-lemon @pearloftheorient @moonlightchickpea @vegaseatsass @baseballmomlesbiandad @rodiostation @lolacouldnotcareless and whoever else wants to play!
germansingergirl
areudirty
jacobvanloon
2087
blakekathryn
prguitarman
romaincrisis
janainaart
vaporwave
