2 Luas: O Embaixador (2022)

ISSO ESTÁ LONGE DE SER 2 MOONS

Demorei um ano inteiro para assistir essa série e eis aqui o meu comentário sobre o encerramento dessa história que foi uma das introdutórias para mim nesse mundo. Eu acompanhei 2 Moons desde a primeira temporada (confesso que ainda estou apegado ao primeiro elenco) e me informei devidamente das tretas envolvendo a série para que mudasse o elenco em todas as temporadas (particularmente não gosto da Motive Village). Imaginei que 2 Moons: The Ambassador fosse uma devida continuação dos momentos finais de 2 Moons 2 e fiquei decepcionado ao descobrir que o foco era outro casal, pois eu queria realmente ver como o Phana ia tirar o Wayo daquele limbo em que ele se colocou por culpa do Park. Eu li a novel há muito tempo, então não tenho certeza se o Tatch e o Lom realmente são personagens canônicos ou foram criados para a série, vou me abster de comentar isso para não passar informação errada. Nos primeiros episódios, fiquei muito chateado por achar que a Motive Village tinha destruído uma das minhas histórias favoritas, uma das histórias que me introduziu no mundo dos BLs. Todavia, eles contaram a história dos seis personagens principais de 2 Moons ao longo do BL e, ainda que não fosse da maneira que eu imaginei, já me senti satisfeito por ter tido essa conclusão.

O relacionamento entre o Lom e o Tatch só fica aparente do meio da série em diante, que é onde o BL começa a ficar realmente bom, pois os primeiros capítulos não tem nada que remeta a 2 Moons que conhecemos. Confesso que fiquei apaixonado. Para atores iniciantes, pois aquele foi o primeiro trabalho deles, acredito que eles mandaram muito bem. É uma série boa, mas para quem acompanhou 2 Moons desde o seu início, é óbvio que esse encerramento não é o melhor de toda a franquia, de longe também é a melhor temporada; na minha opinião, é a pior, e isso porque eu tenho algumas ressalvas as temporadas anteriores. Defendo arduamente a primeira temporada, porque por mais que eu ame o Nine, o Joong, o Earth e o Phoom que protagonizaram a segunda temporada (a temporada que teve as melhores atuações de toda a franquia), o elenco da primeira ficou marcado em mim mesmo com a atuação engessada do Bas e do Gxxod. The Ambassador poderia ter funcionado melhor se fosse trazida como uma série original sem vinculação com uma outra. Ainda espero ver os atores que interpretaram o Tatch e o Lom em outra produção, e também o ator que interpretou o Wayo, porque ele é muito fofo.

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No more moons please!

Well, this is getting repetitive...
You would think that after giving us Kimmon and Copter and the 15 insufferable characters that Bas has played since he was the original Wayo in the first edition of "2Moons", this company would have said... "ok enough... we did well enough, let's move on". Sadly, season 2 became a chaotic mess when all the original cast left and they had to re-cast, sending fans into distress because some couldn't accept the idea of not having Kimmon and Copter playing Ming and Kit or couldn't accept the idea of having inexperienced newcomers replacing them.

But, we got "2Moons2", with a whole new cast and wasting the first 4 episodes with a reminder of what happened in the original series. This series was not perfect but we got Earth (now called Din) doing a decent job as the new Wayo, Joong who seems to be the most successful of the bunch moving to GMMTV, Nine who now seems to focus on his singing career after being on a Chinese singing competition, and Phoom who was quite subdued in the very mediocre "Coffee Melody". That season ended with Wayo suffering from his picture being placed all over the university by the guy who likes him but gets rejected and then seeks revenge. He runs away to his home and while Pha is kicking the other guy's ass, Joong (Ming) comes and tells everyone that he knows where Wayo is, at home with his father.

Even a this point, season 3 seemed inevitable, focusing on Wayo-Pha and their crisis and also on a secondary character called Suthee (played by Green) who was going to be "The Ambassador" in season 3. But, Mello Thailand/Motive Village (whatever the name is now) messed it up, again... first by creating a music group with all the guys from "2Moons2", except Din... which created an incredible uproar by the fans. Then, more controversies with their contracts and between the company and director Anusorn (who directed the second part), ended up with the whole cast quitting again. Instead of ending the project, Motive Village decided to re-cast for the third time and we ended up with this mediocre series as the third season of an already mediocre project.

Some of the bad things:

1. The plot/storyline: No clue, really... the main character of the this season is Lom, who is Pha's cousin and his "enemies to lovers" story with Tatch. They both argue about being the candidate for the university's Ambassador competition and decide that, whoever has more IG followers by certain date, will be the faculty's representative. Lom lives in a self-pitying world as he always says he is not good looking enough, especially when compared to Tatch, but he has way more followers than him, so he is always trying to make Tatch more popular and in the process, falls in love with him. That part of the plot seems clear... but then we have the other couples from the previous two seasons and we see them quite scarcely throughout the episodes... the Wayo issue from the end of season 2 should have been the starting point for this season but, instead, gets pushed I think until episode 5 or 6 (don't even remember now) when Pha tells Lom how the problem was solved as a 3-minute flashback during the episode.
Kit and Ming, Pha and Wayo and Forth and Beam do not advance their relationships and, instead, we get the usual jealousy, fighting, arguing and tears in the usual BL tropes wasting whatever momentum the couples from part 2 left for the new couples in this season. I mean, we even have Pha and Wayo still arguing in the last episode and suddenly solving things with a kiss and a hug. It seems the director and the writer were set on focusing so much on Lom-Tatch, that the rest of the guys were just a side note during the series... if you watched carefully (unless you fell asleep from the boredom or you quit the show before the end), each couple (Wayo-Pha, Forth-Beam and Ming-Kit) had their "big" argument, their jealousy moment, and their NC scene with some very awkward kissing making it the same dull formula for all the couples all the time. Lom and Tatch being the focus of this season, had way more screen time, way more kissing scenes (a bit less awkward than the other couples), so we got to see the perfectly waxed armpits from Danny many many times. Plus, we even got an extra couple with Toon and Tong (Lom's friends) kissing in episode 12 without much development for their couple.

2. The acting: Yes, I am aware the actors are brand new and QUITE inexperienced... but it was painful to watch. No emotions in sad scenes or angry scenes or any scene whatsoever, no chemistry between them, some of the characters really don't match these actors, and yes, I also know I shouldn't compare, for example, the acting and character development by Nine vs.the acting and character development by Toey (both played Kit) or the cute, naive acting done by Din vs. the cute, naive acting done by Park (both played Wayo), but the chemistry between the couples in "2Moons2" felt a bit more natural than with these couples. Plus, with the reduced screen time that the 3 original couples got, meant we barely had any chance of really getting to watch how each actor portrayed their character... just to see if they brought anything original to the table. Instead, we end up getting Danny (playing Tatch) and Mark (playing Lom) for 85% of the episodes and very few glimpses of the rest. It is a shame that the company did not prepare these guys better for what was definitely a pressure-cooker because fans already had 2 different casts to compare and to choose from.

3. Side characters: If we barely saw the main couples, we had even less side characters with Lom's friends being the ones who got most airtime and the cartoon-like villain we got this season (Panon), that actually has a good twin as well (Parak)... evil twin-good twin, how original! But the bad guy is in love with Lom and tries to get him to break up with Tatch ... so in this Thai BL we got the crazy male character instead of the usual crazy female character. We also have a girl who likes Tatch and is a friend of Lom... she thinks Tatch will ask her out but he never does and then feels betrayed by Lom when Tatch tells her he is in love with him and not her. At least we didn't see the plot get any crazier by having her do something "evil", so we settled with the crazy male character doing all the bad things, then get beat up with his own twin and miss the Ambassador competition.

Good things? I'm not sure... some of the actors had cute moments but good luck finding something else.

In the end, for the third time, this series has been wasted due to poor management, poor writing, poor directing and mediocre acting. I truly hope this is the last season of the "2Moons" franchise because the original was not exactly a masterpiece and the other 2 have gone down in quality ever since.

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A fine series with an emotionally charged MDL rating

Let me start by saying that if the low rating for this series is putting you off from watching, be aware that the MDL score has been severely skewed by viewer distaste for the studio that produced it. This distaste has also affected the way many MDLers have responded to the storyline and performances by the actors. (If you're at all skeptical about this, just peruse the other reviews here.)

Given that the MDL community has seen to rate this series on a curve, for a more accurate score you should probably add 20% to whatever you see when you visit its MDL page. As I write this review that puts the number at 8.28, which rounds down to 8, and this seems to me to be a fairer appraisal of what you get here.

What I came to appreciate most about 2MTA is how the main couple's relationship is depicted. Once Tatch and Lom get together, their approach to one another becomes a model of how two people with mutual love and respect should communicate and work together to overcome any issues that arise. Misunderstandings between them are promptly cleared up and have the impact of only making their relationship stronger.

Another endearing aspect of their pairing is how Tatch's determined pursuit of Lom has the effect of transforming Lom from someone with a victim mentality into a man who is confident and trusting, and willing to smile. (At the outset Lom spends a lot of time frowning... lol) It seems to me that the moment when Lom finally becomes brave enough to take a chance on Tatch is in Episode 4, when Tatch sings a karaoke love song to him -- a song that actor Danny Disatharit sings live on-set as the scene is filmed rather than have the soundtrack patched in later, as many other series would do. This adds to the intimacy, as Danny's singing is sweet and charming. Within the context of the story its sincerity seems to finally allow Lom to see Tatch the way Tatch himself has been striving to be seen.

It is also refreshing to see that between the two guys the charismatic one, Tatch, is the pursuer. In casting Tatch the production found an actor who is, frankly, gorgeous -- tall and strikingly handsome, with an athletic build. To emphasize the differences between the Tatch and Lom characters it does seem that Mark Vachara Promma, who plays Lom, was given a "make-under" to heighten the contrast, resulting in him looking a little mousy and plain. When viewing promotional material for the series and Mark's Instagram I was surprised by how good-looking, even glamorous, he is in real life.

There are several NC scenes, which (granted) are not a must for every viewer, but what I like is how they're a welcome acknowledgement of real life, where when a couple first gets together they usually have a hard time keeping their hands off each other. This contrasts with the "one and done" approach that many other series take, as though the intimate content is something to check off the list and get over with. That's certainly not the case here, where the main leads get together several times, and in a variety of ways. ;) I should add that their excellent manner of communicating with each other is an aspect of those scenes as well. Again, a nice change of pace from the usual.

As for the six original "2 Moons" characters, who were recast for a second time for this series, I came away less impressed with their storylines, which give us so many of those things that the Tatch-Lom relationship avoids: mainly jealousy and long drawn-out misunderstandings. Ironically, these three couples are supposed to have more mature relationships than Tatch and Lom, having been together for a couple of years, but what we get from them becomes tiresome to watch.

One other nitpick is the introduction of a silly kidnapping storyline as the series nears its end.

And what about the writing, acting and production? Well, I could easily name four or five series from 2022 that have a poorer storyline, worse acting, and crappier production values than 2MTA, but have been given higher ratings despite it. While the performances here were at times awkward I generally found them to be quite good, especially for a bunch of newcomers. It certainly didn't detract from my own enjoyment.

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And This is Where it Should Die

This series is already way overdone, and even if they tried doing a decent third season, they completely obliterated it with less-than-mediocre acting, and an extremely dumb plot. It goes to show that this series should've never been made, and should've died along with the second round of cast members. Here's to hoping it is the last and final round of torture that Motive Village puts us and these innocent actors in!

Let's Dive In.

Motive village introduces a new main couple to the storyline, Looknam and Tatch, to kind of disrupt the repeated storyline of the other three. They're exactly like Ming and Kit's dynamic, with Looknam mimicking Kit by being the stern uke, and Tatch mimicking Ming as the charming and in-love seme. Except, with this couple, there is literally no explanation, no reason, and zero clarification of what Tatch sees in Looknam, and vice-versa. They go from hating each other, to then randomly acting so in love. Their story is ridiculous, going off of the typical "moon contest", which is fine, but there's no actual conflict between them, Like none. They go back to back bickering about nothing, then to falling in love over nothing, to ending up together with nothing reasonable for the cause. The chemistry felt off-balanced. It was giving, "we are here for a bag, see how in love we act". The only things they had was decent kissing and NC scenes. A bit awkward but not bad enough to stop watching.

The other three couples felt very out of place. They try so hard to be like the old characters in the other series, but it's completely off and I got secondhand embarrassment cause you can see how blatantly awkward it is with the cast. They also had no plot to lean on, it was pretty much just random jealousy, frivolous conflicts, and too much unnecessary commentary.

I kept watching bc for some reason my inability to drop a series mid-way through kicked in and I was determined to finish. By episode 6 I skipped a lot, I speed through a lot, and I slept through some too. This cast was probably some of the worst acting I've seen in a while. They're all rookies, so I'll give them some leeway, but Looknam was the only decent one.

Ratings:

Story: 4/10 - There wasn't any real conflict. by about the 7-8th episode, it becomes more so just very 'eh' NC scenes playing on bc they themselves realized there is no plot. I'm being generous with the 4.

Acting: 6/10 - again, being generous with the score. Looknam was their best, but everyone else was terrible. Not a lick of acting skills, just pretty men in front of the camera. At least they all looked good shirtless. There's my reasoning for the 6/10.

Music: 5/10 - It's not distracting for the most part, but the fact that they would play this loud ass music during the NC scenes was annoying. I want to hear them enjoying themselves, not distracting ballad music.

Recommendation Value: 2/10 - There's no reason to watch this unless you're a fan of the 2 Moons franchise. Otherwise, this was a waste of a watch, so please save yourself the time.

This better be the last of this tedious and destroyed series. Motive village needs to burn to the ground, but this series needs to rot in hell. I hope for the actor's sake, they're getting treated better than the others in the past. If we're to see them again, they'll have to be in a different series. And maybe an acting class or two. Otherwise, I hope they can find their passion in a different career.

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Should have been a stand-alone

Honestly, I can't understand the choice to make another 2-moons with a completely new cast. I kept trying to remember who was who again and what their story should be. This should have been a stand-alone with different characters. That would have made much more sense than this mess.

The actors do try their best, but even they have trouble getting into character and it all remains a bit stiff. The chemistry between Yo and Pha is non-existent, where they were sooo hot before. Ming and.... (really can't remember atm) have no part in the story and are just filling the gaps. Thatch and Lom do have chemistry but have a weird sexual dynamic that is a bit awkward. It is watchable and I even enjoyed it, and at times the story got more interesting, but it fell dull again right after. Combined with some big editing flaws makes this not one to re-watch anytime soon.

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The ugliest Bl ever seen!

Among the many bls seen so far, this is undoubtedly the worst and ugliest ever seen. Nothing is saved, nothing!
Story: cringe, nonsense most of the time, full of trashy parts and without a minimum of logical thread. The competition between the protagonists is meaningless, the story of the twins is meaningless, the quarrels of the previous couples are meaningless.
Cast: was there anyone who could act in this series? Because in my opinion the level of acting was much more than poor. No one got a facial expression, gesture or movement right.
I advise it? Obviously not!

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This shouldn't have been a 2Moons series.

If this series would have been called something completely different, I think it would have been better received. Instead we have to relearn these actors that have the same names as characters in the other series. But they don't sound, look, or act like the old characters. So naturally people are going to compare all of the iterations of these series.

And if you are going to compare this to the other 2Moons series, this is definitely the worst. The Moons series seems to get worse with every version. The first was good (with Kimmon, Copter, Tae, Tee, Bas), the second version was also decent (Earth, Ben, Pavel, Dome). With this version, the story was pretty lame, and there wasn't much substance to anything. The guys were cute, but didn't seem to have great chemistry like some series seem to get from their actors. And the chemistry here certainly not what we saw in either of the other 2Moons series.

In my mind, this was simply a filler between other better BL series. You could just watch bits and pieces of it and still get the gist of the story without being too involved in it. It certainly isn't the worst BL I have ever watched, but it will be totally forgotten by next week. I am not unhappy that I watched it, but it didn't provoke any positive feelings either. I don't always get why the ratings for a certain show are bad, but in this case I think the ratings on MDL are pretty generous. Stick a fork in this series, it is done.

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Just watch it!

Okay, first off: this series isn't as bad as the general scoring seems to imply. Lots of people gave it a low score early on, based on the company's treatment of previous actors. That's not fair, in my opinion.
Is it an amazing, perfect series? No. But if you are looking for a bit of fluff, fun and romance, definitely see this and you'll watch it with a smile.

Mind you, this is the third season of the 2 Moons series. If you have watched 2 Moons season 1 and 2, definitely watch this one too. If you haven't watched the previous seasons, you should really watch those first, even though both seasons have different actors for the main roles, which sounds stupid and it is, but you get used to the new actors fairly quickly and can just enjoy the show.

Season 3 focuses on 2 new characters, Lom and Thatch, this is their story. The characters of season 1 and 2 just have a side role in this season, and that's fine. They have some relationships issues to work through, but the main focus is the storyline with Lom and Thatch. And I really liked that! It's cute, romantic and fun to watch.
No the acting isn't amazing, but you can see the actors growing in their roles. Especially the chemistry between the leads, that gets better with each episode.

So, don't expect the best series you'll ever see, but see this as a fun (binge-)watch and you'll have a smile at the end of it, I promise :)

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Nothing new under the sun

Having watched and mildly liked 2Moons 2 some time ago, I wanted to check out the sequel. I was entertained though not by the drama itself but by the english subtitles that were most of the time gramatically so wrong ; I have discovered a new language! Amazing!
NB.Recently I came upon a tip which told me how to make the subs better on youtube(if there are better subs in another language, you can auto-translate that into english and they are much better!)

The story takes place a couple of years after the previous series! The three couples from it are living together and enjoy their relationships! Pha's cousin Lom (often translated as LOL!) is chosen as his college's Moon but loses the beauty competition. There is another contender for the Moon position, Tatch. They meet, sparks fly, a wannabe girlfriend stirs trouble, a wannabe boyfriend is acting up because disappointed! You classical enemies to lovers trope!
The series is mainly about Lom & Tatch. The three couples (Pha&Yo, Beam &Forth, Ming&Kit) from 2Moons2 are just there in the background and their main and only story is jealousy: fighting and making up!

There is absolutely nothing new about this series (maybe the introduction to the Agriculture College!). The screenplay is all over the place, nothing happens really, it is just moving along.
As for the actors...what to say? The guy playing Lom (Mark Vachara, who reminds me of Earth who played Wayo in 2M2!) is bland, charisma free, single facial expression and cannot act to save his life. He has absolutely no chemistry to speak of with the actor playing Tatch, who also is constantly wearing the same expression: raised eyebrow and a ironic smirk! The rest are hardly any better!
And the worst part were the obligatory trans comic relief characters! Why, oh why are they still doing that??????

What makes this series stand out is the amount of steamy skinship in these consensual relationships! This is so very new in thai bls! Moreover it was surprisingly tastefully done accompanied by gentle music! But there was too much of it! I guess they needed to fill up the episodes so every one of these four couples had their turns(more than one) in showcasing their love for each other in slow motion. And there was a lot of slow motion scenes of them taking their shirts off, swimming etc.

I have been wrecking my brain trying to find something positive to say about it! Still haven't found it! 7/10 for the effort, not the worst bl out there but far from good!

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Une suite qui a fait « couler » beaucoup d’encre…

On peut dire que cette suite a beaucoup fait parler d’elle… (comme pour la saison 2) Je pense que les personnes qui sont fans de l’œuvre ont suivi les nombreux « litiges » présents dans cette licence. De ce fait, le boycott de cette dernière saison ne m’étonne pas.
Pour ma part, j’ai suivi de loin les différents rebondissements liés aux conflits de la production avec les acteurs des différentes saisons… Et ayant lu les romans « 2 Moons », j’ai voulu voir ce que donnerait cette fin. (Il faut cependant savoir que je n’ai pas lu le roman lié au couple principal de cette adaptation.)

Alors, parlons de ce drama : Si je dois être tout à fait honnête… Cette saison n’a rien de particulier. Nous nous retrouvons dans les mêmes clichés que d’habitude avec deux protagonistes qui ne se supportent pas… (Enfin, on découvre TRES RAPIDEMENT que ce n’est que de la foutaise !) et qui tentent de rivaliser l’un contre l’autre. (Seule innovation si je puis dire... Les héros ne sont pas de futures ingénieurs ou médecins... INCROYABLE, n'est-ce pas ?! =D)
Cette saison nous parle également des couples Pha/Yo, Kit/Ming & Beam/Forth et nous permets d’avoir la finalité de la fin de la saison 2. (Par contre, je dois avouer avoir galéré à retenir qui était qui… les acteurs changeant à chaque saison ^^’)

Ma plus grosse critique sur cette saison sera probablement sur le nombre de scènes « intimes »… Elles sont trop fréquentes et longues mais n’apportent rien à l’histoire ^^’. (Je trouve ce FANSERVICE gonflant !)

Pour résumer : Il s’agit donc d’une autre histoire de « beaux gosses » qui finissent par succomber aux charmes de leur rival. Il n’y a donc rien d’innovant dans cette licence. (Bien qu’il faut se l’avouer, personnellement, je n’attendais rien de cette saison… Donc mes attentes n’ont pas été déçues ^^’)

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Is this new season worth watching after constant recast each season???

It's a good series BUT, they keep changing everyone and they don't even look alike. So, season 1 (2017) is good but incomplete, season 2 (2019) is better but with a new cast, so episodes 1-5 are a restart of season 1, and its continuation. The problem is that it's the producers who ask for those recasting.

I loved the first one and the cast are now well-known actor, in BL and otherwise. Same for season 2. The cast has done a bit of work during lockdown, so that is why I don't understand the recast.

Season 3 is, again, recast by actors who don't look like the previous 2 seasons. Even so it's a good series, the casting change and the episodes reboots make it not easy to keep watching.

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Mistake number 3

I think this drama was written by many different people and they never communicated, the whole drama is a mess.
We have the old cast replaced again by some very strange choices, they all seem to be much younger and Phana the sexy tall guy from season 1 is now played by an angry looking lesbian in oversized clothes.
The two new ML's are Tatch and Lom, Tatch is the tall good looking one who is loved by everyone but just wanders around like a sad puppy dog.
Lom is the village idiot, he goes from episode to episode forgetting every conversation he previously had and then getting angry with people for no reason.
I know this is a BL drama, everything can't just run smoothly because it would be boring, but arguments and fights happen for no reason, people get angry and stop talking for no reason.
There is this pig creature with a cows head that keep popping up, I think it is the best actor in the whole drama. Last week Lom and Tatch were having another one of their pointless arguments in a field and I just wanted the pig, cow thing to run out and horn Lom to death.
I want Tatch to dump Lom and find a decent boyfriend for the rest of the show, Lom won't remember anything so it's fine if he gets dumped.
The drama is just pointless and boring, soon they will start dating, then near the end Lom will dump Tatch for some made up reason only to get back together for the final.

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