Amigo de Cama (2023)

Too much bad (especially the writing) wiped out the good

LIKEs:
Apartment and office sets were well designed.
Location scenes, like the temple and the Aunt’s place, the boating moments= beautiful
Good and appropriate wardrobe
Music that helped express feelings of the characters due to the lyrics being sung, were well chosen.
Actors and actresses for the most part well casted.
Finally a psychiatrist is suggested in a Thai drama where the main character goes through trauma!
I also liked that Uea’s healing was gradual.
The issue with the Stepfather was handled abruptly, but at least he was punished
Wardrobe was suitable and fashionable.

DISLIKES:
Writing:
UEA is abused by: mother, uncle, ex-boyfriend and Boss Krit
Ridiculous amount of abuse towards UEA, that by the time the Boss Krit gets in on the abuse, it has become sadly laughable.
Too many sex type scenes, so there is no impact by their intimacy. There wasn’t much chemistry between the Male leads, even though they tried to make it so.
Under developed characters: King’s back story
Plot holes were noticeable and the script was poorly created.
Every bad review on here talks about the terrible writing, so I won’t repeat what they’ve covered.
Production:
Bad editing where scenes cut off abruptly and then more filler scenes. Very bad editing. (Even towards end of series)
Music:
Abruptly playing music, even just audio while actress or actor speaking, then cutting it off suddenly. Doesn’t add suspense or anything and drowns out the voice speaking.
Acting:
The forced crying was just terrible acting. They could have panned the camera away, put in eye drops and made better crying moments. When the character Jade cried in the last episode it was so bad I hit mute.
Uea’s mother, the actress was not good. She over did everything, but that might have been the Director’s fault.
Directing:
Overly long moments where the actor/actress paused too long or stared forever, etc. This caused pacing issues, and the time could’ve been used more wisely.

OVERALL:
As with all Thai dramas the product placement was overly present. Unfortunately the bad writing and editing, etc., weighed down the potential of this drama. I wont rewatch it and there are better BL dramas to watch, so I wont recommend this either. Waste of time.

Leia Mais

Way too much of everything

this is my first time giving a low rating like that but I think its just my personal preferences that made me go with 4 stars only. I dropped this series because it was too much of uae's trauma scenes, too much off these sexual scenes with king. I mean sum hook ups are fine duh but every dayum 5 minute a s*x scene was really too much and it took the special meaning s*x can have in a relationship. I just wished for more focus on the development in Kings and uaes relationship but I also only watched 4 episodes. I just don't want to keep up with all these unnecessary s*x scenes, trauma scenes. But that's just my preference.

Leia Mais

Highkey Overrated

It's clear that the casting of the main couple did a lot of the heavy lifting in making this show seem better than it is, don't get me wrong, NetJames' acting is spot on! The writing however...

I really tried to like this show, and it started off with potential;
- Having a mature show with two consenting adults is hard to come by in BL so I was intrigued as to how they would approach it.
- I like the inclusion of setting boundaries for hooking up and showing that consent is important.
- A small detail I really liked was showing them going to the doctors to get tested, it's not shown in BLs because I feel like some cishet female BL watchers don't really see gay relationships as real relationships lol but anyway it's important to bring attention to this kind of stuff.
- I liked that it didn't feel like I was watching a straight couple, too many LGBTQ dramas end up shoving their couples into the heteronormative box, even though Uea presents more on the feminine side and vice versa it didn't fall into straight-ness so I can appreciate that.
- I don't like the way they wrote Uea's trauma, him being constantly harassed and assaulted throughout the whole series, I found to be kinda "inspriration porn" ish, it just felt like the show kept belittling Uea rather than having him heal from his trauma.
- Tell me why the HELL did King send that video of Uea getting assaulted to the whole damn office without consent... Top 1 thing NOT to do to your boyfriend who has a lot of sexual trauma.
- Overall King's character felt flat, his only personality trait was that he was a sleazy player but OH? He's secretly kind? Never done before!
- Uea had every right to run away and take time for himself and never come back, but King just expects him to come back to the office... Like uh okay?
- I'm so tired of dramas not knowing basic biology, you can't sick from standing in the rain for three minutes, let alone bedridden; unnecessary sick episode, should've gone without it.
- Overall the writing felt lazy, either Uea has a trauma or they are having sex, nothing else really happens.
- You can't put Tutor in the intro for the whole series and only have him appear in the last two seconds of the final episode, it feels like a scam.

Conclusion: If you like trauma and gay sex, watch it I guess

Leia Mais

I dont know what the focus was...

I dont know what the focus was....... You have a title like this with very pretty actors who dont hold back on the sensual scenes. You expect a fluffy fun romp of a show with a bit of hate, sass, and tension between Uea and King who dont exactly hit it off in the beginning. The show is clearly servicing... tracing fingers on bodies ecetera ecetra. All of this is meant to provoke a particular response. A spicy edge, no holding back kind of deal. Then suddenly you are hit hard with a flood of trauma after trauma of Uea's backstory. Anytime you think it was already bad, you get hit with something else. Uea's past is fraught with trauma and somehow he becomes a beacon in the current day that brings in more abuse in nearly all aspects of his relationships. So immediately my mind goes off and I had an unsettling thought.......is this show trying to provoke a response with this too? With Uea's trauma? Because thats pretty messed up if so. But after watching it to the end, I think it's more of a problem of doing too many things at once and the drama became unfocused because of it. So what came out in the end was a confused juxtaposition of the sexy time scenes side by side with the traumatic experiences that threw me off. Since they piled a load on Uea's story, there was no time to go through it all to unpack it. The drama tried to do too much and it just didnt work. But with the negatives aside, I do have positives. I particularly liked the actor who played King. I found his emotions believable and out of the entire cast he stood out to me the most. Had he been given a better story, better dialogue, and Im sorry to say a better acting partner...Actually, just a new project entirely.....I would watch that to see how he does. I think with the actor who played Uea, he was too...how do I say? Pretty? But, hear me out. When he is sobbing and breaking down, that's when I thought...pretty. Im not talking about "pretty" as in a beautiful performance, but too pretty as in...he's too perfect in appearance and in his acting. He doesnt let himself become imperfect, messy, or ugly. They made him look too angelic, flawless, and always put together and perfect. He doesnt look exhausted. He isnt even slightly disheveled or disoriented. I get that we gotta make these actors look beautiful. But, let's say there is no getting around a flawless image. You can still present a beauty who clearly has been through some shit with a skilled actor. It was impossible for me to believe that this is the same guy who experienced all of that trauma. His acting felt acted and not embodied. I dont think he was the right fit for this role. Clearly not the only reason why this drama didn't work for me, but its a contributing factor. Overall if i had to rate this, it's a 5.5 out of 10 for me.

Leia Mais

Thirsty Bathrobe Bois The Series

Firstly. I don't vibe with starting off this arrangement while one was drunk. I think in the BL world we've evolved a lot from that controversial narrative and this series didn't need that. I get Uea "hates" King at the beginning, but come on just have him be lonely and horny one night to start off the friends with benefits stuff. I also put "hates" in quotes because Uea "hating" King was for really dumb reasons. They say he's a player but we don't see that much and honestly for someone whose a "player" he was very quick to want to only have this FWB arrangement with Uea. There was never cheating or bad flirting or anything of the sort. So I think Uea was being too judgy at the beginning. Though the poor boys been through a lot, like damn they put his character through hell so I got over it.

One question I had throughout the series was: What is up with all the mirror shots? Like I'm not sure if they were trying to be artistic or something lol. But it didn't work and it was very distracting. Another question I had was if we were going to get a side couple. Which we didn't and that was surprising! I was fine with it because it lent more time for King and Uea. However, the sexy scenes, trauma bombing and arguments were getting kind of stale after awhile.

So the ending. What an abrupt af proposal and ending, like did they run out of filming time? It was really weird and poorly paced. Also the "setup" at the end with Jade and Tutor's character lollll was so stupid. What a lack of a role! Overall this was okay. If you want spicy scenes and thats it, just skip around the series since the plot isn't super important.

Leia Mais

EXCITING AND SEXY

This is the type of BL that feels similar to a wattpad fanfic with the amount of trauma the main character goes through. Whether that’s good or bad is up to you, I personally enjoy it because there's never a dull or boring moment. I enjoy how they chose to resolve the conflict and the way they handled the trauma with Uea in the end, I was worried in the beginning but they handled it surprisingly, very well and they are doing a pretty good job serving justice and punishing those who deserve it.

I absolutely love a good "friends with benefits" and "enemies to lovers" concept. This show has been extremely sexy with two actors who have fantastic chemistry in this series. They fit so well together and compliment each other very well both in aesthetics and personality.

I know originally this was supposed an 8 episode series and initially I thought its too short to properly resolve everything but honestly I would've been fine with episode 8 being the finale. A lot of my initial concerns and questions have been resolved and answered and I like the extra scenes they put into the last two episodes to really wrap things up.

Leia Mais

I'm still confused

At first I thought that the problem was me - this is a series that seemed very interesting based on the trailer alone, so I wondered if I my expectations were too big to begin with.
After watching 10 episodes (and having a hard time finishing the last two), I realized that the problem is in the series itself.

First of all, the idea that is supposed to be at the base of the series is not very clear. At the beginning I thought it would be some kind of spicy enemies-to-lovers story, but the ingredients weren't quite there - the reasons for Uea to dislike King so much are not solid enough to be convincing, and King's opinion of Uea at the beginning is a complete mystery. When the FWB situation started, I hoped that these things would be explored more as the series went on, but it never happened.
Instead of that, the story took an unexpected turn as it revealed Uea's turbulent past. I didn't mind the presence of such themes, but I was expecting them to be taken seriously and to be explored properly, which (again) never happened. If anything, it looked more like whoever wrote the story wanted Uea to have as many traumatic experiences and toxic people in his life as possible. I started to wonder if someone in the production team believes that "trauma is sexy" or something like that.
The series itself ended up failing with both the FWB story and the abuse survivor story, by never diving deep enough in either theme. The agreement between Uea and King becomes secondary very quickly, and Uea's problems only seem to grow in number. The relationships between the characters (not only Uea and King, but also their friends, colleagues and family) were also never shown properly, making their interactions always sound ambiguous - I was never sure whether one was supposed to be a close friend or a well-intentioned acquaintance. The miscommunication (which I was half hoping would not be there) and the awful pacing did the rest of the work to ruin it for me.
The acting is good enough, but since the story is so lacking in the first place, I was not able to enjoy it as much as I wished to. As for the music, it was too repetitive to add anything to the scenes. The sexy scenes were pretty mostly because the actors themselves looked pretty, I believe.

I was able to finish the whole thing thanks to some miracle, but I have no intention to touch this series ever again. I wish the writers chose one route and did it well instead of adding so many elements and handling them so badly. Its potential was wasted entirely and I can't bring myself to recommend it to anyone at all.

Leia Mais

A fun watch that falls short

I want to applaud the consent in this series. It is not often explicit, especially not in nc heavy series. Speaking of nc, they were a bit lackluster. The heavy music over it and no 'love making sounds' (like smooching?)-- how do people expect me to get into it when all I see is some weirdly put together montage of them kissing and licking each other... The hottest scene to me wasn't even an nc scene, but the scene with pinkish lights were King and Uea are laying on their stomach, King on top of Uea, and they're talking.

Acting wise it's also a bit awkward at times, but fun to watch. James did really well in some dramatic/traumatic scenes, but others were a bit hard to watch. I like Net's acting. He's cute. Actually, they're both cute. The rest of the cast is forgettable and also not that great. Yim's character (I forgot his name) got on my nerves at one point with his 'crying'.

The ending felt a bit rushed.

6.0 all in all because it did well on some topics (consent, trauma, relationship development, I just love netjames), but lacked a lot as well (how is it focussed on nc (they're friends with benefits ffs) but the nc scenes are so lackluster, the acting and dialogue was awkward at times, the plot was weak, the ending was rushed, some things did not get resolved).

Leia Mais

Average

This was not so good but it wasn’t so bad either, it was just basically average IMO.
People who go through the type of trauma Uea did, need to seek professional help. This BL dramas infer that once you fall in love, you automatically get healed, I am by no means a professional but I don’t think it works that way. The one series that I have watched where one of the main character was suffering from mental health problems and was in therapy was The Eight Sense.
There was some heavy emotional scenes in this but I felt it didn’t translate enough through the acting, there was some crying scenes but no actual tears were shed. The actor that played King did the best job IMO and was hence the bright light/spot in the acting department of this series.
This is another series that I have watched where the parents were there for the engagement (first was Hidden Love), is that becoming a trend now in dramas?
There were some steamy steamy scenes in this (I guess that’s what some people referred to as soft porn in their reviews) so if you like that then you won’t be disappointed.
I won’t be rewatching this though.

Leia Mais

Better than Exspected

Not that I thought this was going to be terrible, but my first go-around at trying to watch this didn't end very nicely (I dropped it after, like, the first 5 minutes in), but in all truthfulness, I was going through the worst case of BL-block during that time, so now, it's all better. I decided to give this one another try, and I was NOT left disappointed !

Let's Dive In.

Initially, the name of the BL series threw me off a bit. I assumed it'd be extremely smutty (which, it is, but not in the sense that I was assuming) with very little plot, but I stand corrected! I loved the direction they were in the entire time with Uea's character, even if it was a little traumatic. Do I think it's a bit much to have three different people as*****d Uea? A little bit. The first two are understandable, but the boss coming in and immediately wanting Uea was so... odd? Obviously, Uea's a very attractive man, but you also had King and Jade and the rest, so why was he immediately drawn to Uea and nobody else? It was to stir shit in the office and among Uea and King, but it all felt a little redundant. Not saying this can't happen in real life, but for it to happen as much as it did in this series, I don't know, they could've thought about utilizing something else other than making Uea more traumatized.

Actually, speaking of Uea being traumatized, that mother was probably the worst character I've seen on TV. She's obviously too full of herself and too much in love with the step-dad to see all of the wrongdoing going on around her, and I'm ecstatic that they didn't try to give her some redemption arc; she's just a terrible person and Uea learned to distant himself from her. Perfect. But I need him to save his sister, pronto. Like go back into that house and have her move in with you, I beg.

Onto the romance, I was pleasantly surprised. I love a slow burn, nothing new there, so I thought I'd struggle to find any joy in their relationship since sex was first before anything. However, they were still able to create this tension that wasn't sexual outside of their FWB relationship. It was really nice. The NC scenes were, dare I say, maybe a little much? Just for my taste though! They were still very well-shot, and very well-executed with James and Net actually looking like they want to be together, which out of everything, is the most important part. I also loved the way they talked about consent, getting tested, and letting each other know how they felt after sex. When they finally get together, it feels organic and not rushed. A really awesome job they did.

I know a lot of people talked bad about Middleman's Love, which is why I was going to put it off, but I really liked Jade's personality in this, so I'll definitely have to, at least, give it a try!

Ratings:

Story: 7.5/10 - I loved that they made Uea's character have depth, and this series wasn't just about sex. I think some parts are rather unnecessary, but overall, I was satisfied.

Acting: 8/10 - I won't give this higher than an 8, only because James, in scenes where he was supposed to be distraught, couldn't shed a tear. Outside of that though, they did a fine job in their roles, everyone did.

Music: 7/10 - I really liked the theme song!

Recommendation value: 7.5/10 - If heavy NC scenes are your thing, then this is the series for you. But also, it has tough subjects that not everyone can be mentally okay enough to see, so watch out for that. Otherwise, I think this is a really good series to binge!

Leia Mais