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Turtles Catches Up With Old GMMTV: Just a Literal Mash Note To The Greatest Medical Thai BL EVER -- Triage Edition

[What’s going on here? After joining Tumblr and discovering Thai BLs through KinnPorsche in 2022, I began watching GMMTV’s new offerings -- and realized that I had a lot of history to catch up on, to appreciate the more recent works that I was delving into. From tropes to BL frameworks, what we’re watching now hails from somewhere, and I’m learning about Thai BL's history through what I’m calling the Old GMMTV Challenge (OGMMTVC). Starting with recommendations from @absolutebl on their post regarding how GMMTV is correcting for its mistakes with its shows today, I’ve made an expansive list to get me through a condensed history of essential/classic/significant Thai BLs produced by GMMTV and many other BL studios. My watchlist, pasted below, lists what I’ve watched and what’s upcoming, along with the reviews I’ve written so far. Today, I'm here to simply gush squealingly about the incredible Sammon drama, Triage.]

Happy Monday, y'all! I am taking a quick break from my OGMMTVC sub-series, The Lakorn Corner, to pen, in airing chronology, a very loud, very reverent, very gushy homage to

The Best Thai Medical BL EVER (EVER EVER), Triage.

Like, seriously. No hyperbole here! I absolutely loved the first medical drama on the Old GMMTV Challenge list, Manner of Death -- the mystery of MoD was written tightly, it had almost-great acting all around, and its pace was great. The best thing about Manner of Death, at the time of its airing in 2020? It very much pushed the boundaries of previous Thai BLs, which were set mostly in high school or college environments, to welcome a central story about adults attempting to solve a murder, while making space for a queer romance to bloom in the specter of a haunting mystery.

And, like Triage, Manner of Death was adapted from a novel by the well-known Thai Y novel writer, Sammon, who is a medical doctor herself. Triage is the second in a trilogy of hospital-based BLs that were adapted from her novels, the first being Manner of Death, and the last being 2024's Spare Me Your Mercy.

My good and amazing friend @lurkingshan has actually done a lot of heavy lifting in breaking down why Triage is AMAZING. I want to add on to this gush sesh, especially within the context of the OGMMTVC, to talk a little about what we had seen on these Thai BL streets prior to Triage's airing.

I haven't talked yet in my OGMMTVC pieces, collectively as a whole, about shows that aired in 2022 (like Bad Buddy, Secret Crush on You, KinnPorsche, The Eclipse, GAP, and more).

2022 was seriously AN INSANE YEAR for Thai BLs/Series Y shows. Like, INSANE.

2023 was also a mostly great year -- Moonlight Chicken, La Pluie, My School President, and I Feel You Linger in the Air all aired. But the narrative collapse of GMMTV's Only Friends in 2023 seemed to serve as a warning alarm for at least most of GMMTV's shows giving up on consistently striving for excellent scriptwriting since then, for the sake of its current decision to prioritize branded paired actors.

2022, however -- not just with "traditional" genre Thai BLs like the ones I listed above, but also with the entrée of queer storylines in mainstream lakorns like The Miracle of Teddy Bear and Khun Chai (To Sir, With Love) -- captured a moment of really broad, experimental, and successful screenwriting across many shows. Y'all know what I think about how remarkable Bad Buddy was. KinnPorsche was referential, risk-taking, hot, and just FUN, without the show asking its audience to dumb themselves down for the sake of the story. Secret Crush On You asked its audience to question its assumptions about rich and popular people, for the sake of exploring a story about finding happiness and mutual love as opposites attract. Khun Chai, which I'm watching now (I LOVE IT I LOVE IT I LOVE IT), takes the traditional, soapy, usually-very-heteronormative lakorn format, and uses every one of its improbably wild genre tropes to lift and support a storyline of a closeted young man finding love in a homophobic environment. And, GAP, the first genre-abiding QL starring two women, airs during this year as well.

So, Triage comes into 2022's pack with a wonderful association with the genre- and groundbreaking Manner of Death, and starts off with a wild premise: this guy, Dr. Tin, is living in his own Groundhog Day. We're not in college -- we're in a hospital, and Tin keeps repeating an evening of work where a specific young man keeps dying on Tin's looping shift.

When Triage kicked off its premise in the first episode and got me immediately hooked, I was reminded of '80s movies like Groundhog Day or Back To The Future -- movies that started immediately with absurd premises, but with no apologies to their audiences for their absurdity, because their actual central stories were so tight (and the comedy was so good). I'd posit, very generally, that global art nowadays doesn't take as many of these absurdist premise risks, and/or if pieces do so, there are either a lot of explanations of the absurdity that takes away the fun and comedy of the art; or the risks are presented in such a high-art way so as to feel somewhat disconnected to an audience that might want a more direct and less-explained experience.

Triage kicks off the way the Philadelphia Eagles handed the Kansas City Chiefs their asses in the last Super Bowl -- it gets right into the story, with Tin living out the same night, over and over again. The explanations that occur happen firmly in the context of the story, without delaying the action. Tin increasingly seethes in disbelief that he'll have to save the life of this young man, who repeatedly comes into his emergency room smelling of alcohol, which reminds Tin of his deceased sister, who was killed by a drunk driver.

[By the way, two big SHOUT-OUTS are in order to @gabrielokun and @dragonsareawesome123, whose gifs are peppering this post. Dragons has put together a graphic of all the television tropes that Triage used to fantastic effect, which, when combined, contributed to this classically excellent medical mystery/romance. Thank you, Dragons and Gabriel, for your fandom and all your gifs!]

@lurkingshan, in her Triage tribute post, celebrates the angel Jinta, who hips Tin into his destiny that the only way he'll get out of his Groundhog Day loop is to save the life of the young man, a college student named Tol. Tin figures out over the course of the series the ways in which he'll have to save Tol -- which will eventually include Tin's quest to get Tol to fall in love with him. In the process, Tin must also, indirectly, save the lives of two other people. And to rush to the end of the series -- Tol is then thrown into time loops after he loses Tin, and Tin and Tol must meet together, in one final loop, to remember each other, and to remind each other that they need to survive for each other, in order to move forward in their lives.

There's a ton of themes in the framework I outline above that need to be celebrated. Like Manner of Death, Triage breaks Thai BL boundaries by centering a character that's not in school, while also pairing him with a partner that is in college, a confluence that I just love. Shan notes in her post that Tol is not necessarily the most honorable character; he's a sharp, snobby student, starting off the series wary of getting to know Tin. It's only through the subsequent loops of time in which he spends with Tin that he begins to have an effervescent sense of attraction to Tin.

And Tin doesn't start off perfect, either. He's scolded by his superior for potentially not taking the initial death of Tol seriously, as Tol was assumed to have been a drunk driver, which Tin is biased against. But Tin quickly learns that in his first loops with Tol -- Tin would not have been able to save Tol anyway, as Tol had an underlying health condition that Tin needs to solve for.

I love that this show centers two very imperfect characters at the start, calls them out immediately on their imperfections, and structures the show completely around how they need to change themselves to save each other's life.

As well, this show shows that Tin needs healing, even saving -- but the show makes Tin WORK for that healing and saving, as it needs to come from within him, making changes to himself to become more giving and empathic to the people around him. The brilliant episode six of this series encapsulates this, as Tin meditates on his time-traveling journeys while contemplating Tol's death one countless time more; and the equally brilliant episode 11, when Tol begins his own time travels to save Tin's life, also emphasizes this, as Tol addresses, through his love for Tin, how Tin needs a little help to find happiness as much as Tol does.

While my writing of this plot may sound a touch confusing, please rest assured: the show does NOT leave you confused about where the time travels are taking the characters.

This is not the case in a future Sammon-affiliated show, 2024's 4 Minutes, for which Sammon was a screenwriter. 4 Minutes also told a story about multiple existences and timelines between its main characters. But the timelines within 4 Minutes were murky, unclear, and undefined, and at the end of the series, it seemed like those perspectives weren't really supposed to be taken seriously or followed anyway -- which is kind of frustrating for an audience that might have been tracking character perspectives from the start of the show.

Triage is the total opposite of this. Before Tin takes his final journey back in time, he literally looks at a calendar and decides to give himself a week to change his and Tol's life. And the show helps the audience keep track of how time passes in order for Tin and Tol to get out of their respective loops. And in the process, we see love grow between Tin and Tol, as they vaguely remember each other each time that time jumps. It all comes together to create this lovely and INNOVATIVE sense of growth between these two characters that becomes just ADDICTIVE storytelling.

(And I haven't even fucking celebrated SingGap yet! SINGGAP! The way these two guys are at each other's throats, and then.... tee-hee, flirting and in bed together by the end of the series, and also needing to save their own lives. So well done!)

There's so much more to say about the STORY of this show -- it is so intricate and layered. (Shout-out to any of my homies who came into my Triage comments demanding the airing of Sammon's Transplant as the original expected ending of this trilogy of Sammon's medical BLs. WE NEED MAXTUL AND TAETEE BACK IN TRANSPLANT!!!!) But this mash note has gotten long, and I need to wrap this up on a few shout-outs.

Triage is stacked with BL stars. Besides being adapted from Sammon's original story, Triage was screenwritten and directed by Ma-Deaw Chookiat, a total Series Y legend, the original director and writer of the seminal movies The Love of Siam and Dew, director for Manner of Death and Dead Friend Forever, and much, much more. If a producer has ground to break in Thai BL territory, that producer would do VERY WELL by having Ma-Deaw Chookiat at the project's helm. Triage also shares a few actors from the incredible The Miracle of Teddy Bear, including the WONDERFUL Tee Thanapon as Tol. And Triage's lead actor, Tae Darvid, plays a deeply complicated grown-up, going through so much, from a queer revelation to an internal grappling with grief, that he just acted beautifully.

I have a shortlist of BLs from my OGMMTVC project that I consider automatic rewatches, shows I can have on in the background while I'm folding laundry, because I can check into an episode and know not only what's happening, but how I should feel about that moment when I glance up. This list includes Bad Buddy, Until We Meet Again, and now Triage. I may have watched it twice, HUNGRILY, before writing this piece. And I HIGHLY recommend that you do so as well. This show flows from its first minute, and you'll have consumed it before you know what hit you. It's simply the best Sammon show, and the best medical BL drama, on the OGMMTVC list by a mile, and it's a must-watch if you consider yourself an expert in this genre.

(@benkaben, this one’s for you!)

[Alright, next up! I'm SCREAMING ABOUT KHUN CHAI RIGHT NOW. Feels soooo good to be watching a top-notch drama again, even though Khun Chai is. INSANE. But I'm having a great time with it, and the Khun Chai community is screaming with me in my liveblogs -- so much fun!

So because I have gotten TOOOOTALLY obsessed with JamFilm and Khun Chai, I'll be watching Laws of Attraction after that, and will be filing part three of the Lakorn Corner sub-series in considering that Khun Chai is probably the most popular queer drama to have ever aired in Thailand -- for very good reason, as I'll talk about in my upcoming post.

After that, as previously promised, I'll do a quick overview of the history of Thai GLs, with thoughts on Love Songs Love Stories: Pai Jai, the movie Yes or No, and the premiere of the first genre-abiding GL in GAP the Series.

And then. Finally. My School President. And I'll fuck it up immediately with a fast-watch of My Love Mix-Up Thailand. Third-generation BL idols, let's boogie!

Here's the status of the OGMMTVC list for yer pleasure!

1) The Love of Siam (2007) (movie) (review here) 2) Yes or No (2010) (movie) (to be reviewed with GAP the Series) 3) My Bromance (2014) (movie) (review here) 4) Love Sick and Love Sick 2 (2014 and 2015) (review here) 5) Love Songs Love Stories: Pae Jai (2015) (Thailand’s first serialized GL) (to be reviewed with GAP the Series) 6) Gay OK Bangkok Season 1 (2016) (a non-BL queer series directed by Jojo Tichakorn and written by Aof Noppharnach) (review here) 7) Make It Right (2016) (review here) 8) SOTUS (2016-2017) (review here) 9) Gay OK Bangkok Season 2 (2017) (a non-BL queer series directed by Jojo Tichakorn and written by Aof Noppharnach) (review here) 10) Make It Right 2 (2017) (review here) 11) Together With Me (2017) (review here)

12) SOTUS S/Our Skyy x SOTUS (2017-2018) (review here) 13) Love By Chance (2018) (review here) 14) Kiss Me Again: PeteKao cuts (2018) (no review) 15) He’s Coming To Me (2019) (review here) 16) The Fallen Leaf (2019) (not a BL; adjacent to the project as Thailand’s first lakorn featuring a queer/transgender main character) (review here) 17) Dark Blue Kiss (2019) and Our Skyy x Kiss Me Again (2018) (review here) 18) TharnType (2019-2020) (review here) 19) Senior Secret Love: Puppy Honey (OffGun BL cuts) (2016 and 2017) (no review) 20) Theory of Love (2019) (review here) 21) 3 Will Be Free (2019) (a non-BL and an important harbinger of things to come in 2019 and beyond re: Jojo Tichakorn pushing queer content at GMMTV) (review here)

22) Dew the Movie (2019) (review here) 23) Until We Meet Again (2019-2020) (review here) (and notes on my UWMA rewatch here) 24) 2gether (2020) and Still 2gether (2020) (review here) 25) I Told Sunset About You (2020) (review here) 26) YYY (2020, out of chronological order) (review here) 27) Manner of Death (2020-2021) (review here) 28) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) (review here) 29) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For The Sake Of Rewatching Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS (re-review here) 30) Lovely Writer (2021) (review here) 31) Last Twilight in Phuket (2021) (the mini-special before IPYTM) (review here)

32) I Promised You the Moon (2021) (review here) 33) Not Me (2021-2022) (review here) 34) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) (thesis here) 35) 55:15 Never Too Late (2021-2022) (not a BL, but a GMMTV drama that features a macro BL storyline about shipper culture and the BL industry) (review here) 36) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) and Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS (2023) OGMMTVC Rewatch (Links to the BBS OGMMTVC Meta Series are here: preamble here, part 1, part 2, part 3a, part 3b, and part 4) 37) Secret Crush On You (2022) (review here) 38) The Miracle of Teddy Bear (2022) (review here) 39) KinnPorsche (2022) (tag here) 40) KinnPorsche (2022) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For the Sake of Re-Analyzing the KP Cultural Zeitgeist (part 1 and part 2) 41) Triage (2022)

42) Honorable Mention: War of Y (2022) (for the sake of an attempt to provide meta BL commentary within a BL in the modern BL era), with a complementary watch of Aam Anusorn’s documentary, BL: Broken Fantasy (2020) (thoughts here) 43) The Eclipse (2022) (tag here) 44) The Eclipse OGMMTVC Rewatch to Reexamine "Genre BLs," Along With a Critical Take on Branded Ships (review here) 45) Khun Chai/To Sir, With Love (2022) (watching) 46) Love of Secret (2022) (a GL that preceded GAP) (I will not be watching this, but it's on the list to precede GAP) 47) GAP (2022-2023) (Thailand’s first GL with a branded pair and ship) (review coming) 48) My School President (2022-2023) and Our Skyy 2 x My School President (2023), Coupled with a Speed-Watch of My Love Mix-Up Thailand (2024) to Comment on GMMTV Trying to Make Magic Happen Twice 49) Moonlight Chicken (2023) (tag here) 50) Bed Friend (2023) (tag here) 51) La Pluie (2023) (review coming)

52) Be My Favorite (2023) (tag here) (I’m including this for BMF’s sophisticated commentary on Krist’s career past as a BL icon) 53) Wedding Plan (2023) (Recommended as an important trajectory in the course of MAME’s work and influence from TharnType) 54) Only Friends (2023) (tag here) (not technically a BL, but it certainly became one in the end) 55) Last Twilight (2023-24) (tag here) (on the list as Thailand’s first major BL to center disability, successfully or otherwise) 56) Cherry Magic Thailand (2023-24) (tag here) (on the list as the first major Japanese-to-Thai drama adaptation, featuring the comeback of TayNew) 57) Ossan’s Love Returns (Japan, 2024) (adding for the EarthMix cameo and the eventual Thai remake) 58) 23.5 (2024) (GMMTV’s first GL) (thoughts here) (I am not finished with this show; I will finish it when I get to it on this list) 59) Spare Me Your Mercy (2024) (thoughts here) (added as the finale of Sammon's medical trilogy in Manner of Death and Triage, and as a major lakorn starring two of Thailand's biggest actors in Tor Thanapob and Jaylerr)]

#triage #triage the series #taetee #tae darvid #tee thanapon #tintol #tin x tol #tol x tin #ma-deaw chookiat #manner of death #sammon #spare me your mercy #the old gmmtv challenge #ogmmtvc #turtles catches up with the essential bls #turtles catches up with thai bls #turtles catches up with old gmmtv #4 minutes

Sing: Why are you two holding hands?

Tin, holding Tol’s hand: Physical contact reduces cortisol levels and regulates the body's stress response

Sing: Oh, we thought you were dating

Tin: No, we are, but I'm also very stressed

#incorrect quotes #triage the series #sing #tin #tol #tintol

I woke up from my sleep at 2am and the spot next to me was vacant. It was the stuff of nightmares, that spot, devoid of you. I thought, this is it..... I dreamed you up. You didn't exist or maybe you just never returned to me...... Suddenly, all i could think was you were just too perfect to me for you to be real, for my feelings to be reciprocated.

I couldn't breathe. It felt like an eternity when I heard you call my name. You told me you were over in the next room. You were working on your project because you couldn't sleep and didn't want to disturb me. You heard me shuffling around so you came to look. I dragged you in my arms, my head in your neck, breathing you in. And just like that your arms encircled me, surrounded me. I could finally exhale. You understood without my saying anything.

It's not a common occurrence, but it still happens more than I am comfortable with. Those moments where I don't see you and think that you were never there. This fear that takes over, this anxiety. I panic every single time. I have lived in this world without you once, waiting, I wouldn't be able to do it again.

More often than not you feel like a dream, the wisps of my imagination. My person, my someone, my everything. But then you hug me, kiss me, tease me and all those doubts are gone. You tell me that it'll get better and more than anything in this world, I believe you.