Star and Sky: Star in My Mind (2022)

The North Star never moves, and neither does this story.

This story was BL Plot #3, "Boys kept apart by implausible miscommunication". If both of a pair are in love with each other, mutual friends know that, and one of them doesn't talk about anything else (and yet everyone wants him), and on top of that, one of them actually told the other that he likes him, how is it possible that nothing happened? That puts Khluen into the "you are a total idiot and deserve to die alone" category.

In today's world, how is it possible NOT to know that two people broke up several years ago? Dao is obsessed with Khluen and never looked at his social media, or Gia's? Have you ever had a crush on an actor, saw him in an instagram photo with a girl, hated it, hurriedly copy/pasted what he wrote into google translate and was relieved it's his sister? Yeah, I have too. And Khluen was clearly very upset by whatever Gia said on the phone before he rushed off, so a non malignant narcissist would have said "OMG, is everything OK?" instead of making it all about him.

Everything about the plot is contrived, the characterization is inconsistent and implausible, and nobody has agency except Dao, who uses all of it to be a self-absorbed prat. And the series really boring. Try to decribe the plot. For example, Not Me would be "A guy replaces his evil twin in a marxist motorcycle gang to fight for justice and falls in love with his brother's enemy." That sounds ridiculous (and it is), but there is no world in which I would not watch that. This is "Two guys who have been in love with each other for several years continue to not communicate for seven episodes while nothing else happens."

Dunk is cute, and Joong is attractive enough, but there was just zero heat. I kept shipping Dao with Fah because there was so much more chemistry between them. Sure, they're brothers and it's wrong, but that would have been a lot more intesting than this. If not for Mek, I would have dropped this lifeless series. Honestly, the brotherly love scenes with Dao and Fah are the only thing about this that worked for me. Fah's reaction when he walks in on Dao and Khluen was actually funny, unlike all the fart and poop jokes.

The technical aspects were weak, with inconsistent lighting in scenes. The very last one where they're on a dock at night looked like someone was flashing a spot light on them on and off. And the soft-focus filter was again abused to the point that everyone looked botoxed to within an inch of their lives and their facial expressions were smoothed away.

I would skip this. If you're more interested in the follow-on series about Fah and Prince, there is absolutely nothing in this series that you need to see to understand Star In My Heart, which is clearly to a painful extent "inspired" (to be generous) by another series you may have watched that takes place in the mountains.

Leia Mais

A show where NOTHING HAPPENED

This show is over and I feel like nothing happened and my life is still the same.... BL's are feeling empty now that there are a lot more substantial shows with better plots.. fluff BL's are no longer working and this is proof of that.
I feel like Bad Buddy has delivered so amazingly well any shows that are following it on GMMTV are just paling in comparison. I just don't feel the chemistry between these two. I love Mek so I am looking forward to Sky in your Heart. Save yourself the cringe and don't watch this.. I regretted it and GMMTV keeps focusing on quantity rather than quality.

Leia Mais

Big waste of money, time and Joong

Lazy, uninspired, lame. I think there'll always be space for the so-called "cliche" storylines to shine because we do deserve a break from the KinnPorsche's and Not Me's of the world (I love those!!!) But come on, that doesn't mean you don't have to put any effort in it. Some charm, some individuality, some uniqueness, anything to differentiate your show from the others. But this show neglects all of that to offer some of the most unimaginative stuff I've ever seen. GMM should know way better than to put out stuff like this, as the BL powerhouse that they are. We've seen this many times before, with the same conflicts, with the same dialogues, same resolutions. Incredibly boring! To make it worse, the whole "miscommunication is our only agent of conflict" trope only gave us two insufferable leads who couldn't do anything about their feelings. This type of situation might be realistic, if we think about it, but we're watching a TV show and things need to happen and be exciting. For that, they decide to add a 3rd wheel who will end up being an asshole and a fool. Then the ex girlfriend who's like "oh I was just being domestically assaulted! If I knew my ex was with you I wouldn't have bothered the two lovebirds uwu." Embarrassing.

I see something good in Joong. Love the power he conveys with his eyes. He can use them to emote well. But the other lead was like eeerrmm. It's crazy that I was supposed to believe that half of the cast was in love with his character when the character itself doesn't have any special charms and the actor doesn't necessarily stand out in any way, visually. His friends are as cute as he is. I won't say he was a terrible casting choice, though, cuz he and Joong do have some cute chemistry. If he improves with time, maybe they will deliver something better together (with better writers and a better director, obviously).

I don't know if I missed the star symbolism in the beginning, but as the one thing that apparently names the show, they could have made it more of a theme throughout the series (like 1000 Stars or To My Star did, for example). Would've brought something special to the story, perhaps? The way it was, it felt like just a very generic title combining words that are commonly used to name BL shows. Maybe that's where the lines overlap? Generic title for a generic series. Their minds!!

But nothing was more offensive than having the displeasure of seeing people calling this "a good well done cliche". That would be stuff like Bad Buddy, Crossing the Line, Kieta Hatsukoi. This is just crap.

Leia Mais

Star in my Mess

I thought I had a lot to say about this show but I didn´t, it was too short for me to scatter in my brain for every single detail. This show started out well enough, but the star did not make it to its first year of being alive, honestly, this was a black hole. The fact that I was excited for this show, so much. I am disappointed at many things, the direction it took was way off of what I was expecting, and honestly, I just feel like GMMTV is remaking its past shows. I think they did try, but failed miserably. Star in my mind is for sure part of my "worst bls of 2022". GMMTV you better watch out because you have been doing 1 good and 20 bad shows lately so... YIKES.
For the complete review, with details, visit my blog! link in my profile! and here:
https://souvenirmyshyyange.wixsite.com/website/post/star-and-sky-star-in-my-mess

Leia Mais

This was pretty bad

This is the first time I couldn't finish watching a BL series. I honestly don't even know how I managed to watch up to ep 7. The plot sucked and the main characters were both equally as dislikeable.

So firstly we have 'perfect' Daonuea who apparently everyone likes and wants to be with. Then we have Khabkluen who is not only portrayed as having low emotional intelligence but is also terrible at communication. There is also Typhoon who just seemed desperate and would not take no for an answer. The final member of the love square is Phaphaeng who also begs for a chance to be with Daonuea as well. Everything about this storyline was flawed.

The acting was also mediocre at best honestly. Maybe if they had well-developed characters then they probably would have portrayed their roles better. I tried to watch the last episode to see whether the many questions I had were finally answered but by ep 7 I had lost all interest in this series and decided to drop it altogether.
I wish the actors of this series all the best in their future projects, especially the rookie actors. I have enjoyed quite a lot of GMMTV's BL series but except for maybe Not Me the series and A Tale of Thousand Stars, their recent BLs have been the same recycled storylines. This was disappointing.

+ I got curious and decided to watch the final ep and what a waste. I truly feel bad for the actors. Never has a series made me want to tear my hair from frustration. I feel bad for the harsh criticism but those are 8 hours of my life I won't get back.

Leia Mais

I had high hopes for this series only to be let down with disappointment

Okay, this is not going to be a long review. Just quick and to the point.

Story-6/10
I binge watched the first four episodes and...I liked them. The remaining four, I watched while they were airing and maybe that's the reason why I didn't enjoy it, I guess? (Besides the storyline loosing my interest as it progressed).

There were some scenes that I was not comfortable with. Like everyone just forcefully kissing Daonuea. That just wasn't cool at all. I would also like to add although I didn't like the character of Typhoon in the beginning, I felt that he shouls have gotten a happy ending as well.

I also felt that none of the characters were developed well, which really didn't add anything to the story.

Acting/Cast- 5/10
Unfortunately, no one really wowed me. It was just okay-ish. And i guess since I actually like the four episodes in the beginning due to me binge watching them, I will give thier acting a 5.

Music-8/10
The music is the only good and decent thing about this series. So for that, I will give a 8.

Rewatch Valu-3.5/10
I honestly do not see myself coming back to this series. Heck, I gotta come back to watch what ia foing to happen Daonuea's brother- Khaufah. I may wait for that series to complete or nearly complete before I decide to give that a go.

Overall-5.5/10
Overall, I give this series a 5.5/10. And I am so disappointed because it really did start off good and I was so invested in it. I just don't know what happened as it progressed.

Leia Mais

a thin plot with some cute moments

Overall: this is what I would call a standard or traditional university Thai BL. Despite a thin plot built on poor communication that could have been remedied with a 1 minute conversation, I was prepared to rate this an 8/10. However, the first 3 things in my Room For Improvement section and the fact that this is a large production company and it's not a few years ago knocks this down to a 7/10. Watched on YouTube.

Content Warnings: non con kissing, non con touching, domestic violence discussed (injury shown), punches, non con photos
 
What I Liked
- Daonuea's supportive/joking friends
- it was fun to see Sammy & Yacht
- the cute moments
- the funny moments (fyi the series does have comedy sound effects which are neutral for me)
- Khabkhluen's mom
- an example of good consent "can I kiss your cheek" in the finale
- good that they were physically affectionate, it wasn't just 1 kiss for an established couple

Room For Improvement
- the non con touching and kissing (on more than 1 occasion!) was totally not needed and was disappointing to see
- the very serious (sometimes deadly), common and world wide social problem of intimate partner violence was thrown in for some last minute drama. I was horrified watching that scene and again very disappointed that the writers used this topic in this way. The writers could have easily gone with something else like illness.
- the lack of the next video at the end of a video and the lack of subs for the finale premiere (would not bother me for a small company but this is not a small company)
- the full flashback scene was disappointing. Khabkhluen can't use social media? Can't contact Daonuea's friends to contact Daonuea?
- Khabkhluen's atrocious communication skills. I know very introverted people and they communicate with their romantic interests/partners. It took over 1 year to solve a problem that would have taken a 1 minute conversation to fix.
- there were too many characters and yet we didn't get a side plot or couple...
- why were 4 people attracted to Daonuea???
- Danouea has 1 conversation and sees 1 Instagram post and does a 180, it felt very sudden
- the finale was okay if a bit anticlimactic but that scene at the end was jarring and not needed
- that Daonuea didn't even suggest taking a cab to his possibly drunk brother who was going to drive a car
- I didn't like the intro sequence drawing/animation style, especially the lack of faces

Leia Mais

JoongDunk Deserve Better

I am late to the Star and Sky party, but I am just on time for Hidden Agenda, so I might as well throw in my two cents about Star in My Mind, which I finished watching today.


1. Plot, or rather a checklist of clichés.

This series shows that even a sweet, uncomplicated story about a college student reuniting with his high school crush and realizing that his feelings haven't been one-sided can turn out badly in the wrong production team's hands.

The first problem is that everything in the world of this series revolves around our main character, Daonuea. His brother, friends, acquaintances, and the people who are romantically interested in him -- everyone's only purpose is to drive his story forward, to give him advice or to profess their love for him. Outside of Dao's orbit, these guys and girls apparently have no background and no life.
He has a cute friend called Ting Ting, for instance, who is part of a number of scenes, including his first appearance on screen, and seems to be close to him. Who is she? When did she and Dao become friends? After the last episode, we still have no idea, which I find weird because a big part of Dao's conflict with his love interest, Kluen, happened because of Kluen's close friendship with a girl. If Dao demands from Kluen to clarify his relationship with his friend, why did Kluen, who often gets jealous, not ask the same about Ting Ting, a girl that is apparently close enough to Dao to barge into his dorm in the morning, while he is still in bed?
Ting Ting is a minor character. What about Typhoon, Kluen's main rival for Dao's heart, though? He has a lot of screen time, but we know nothing about him except that he studies Medicine, his parents own a mountain resort, and he is obsessed with Dao. When he is not needed for the development of the story, he is forgotten about -- just like every other character except Dao and Kluen.

The second problem is that to spice up the simple plot, the scriptwriters of this series turned to the checklist of clichés and chose some of the worst ones.
A crowd of people falling deeply in love with you at first sight? Check.
Dating someone you don't like for a trial period of one day? Check.
Arriving at the precise second needed to overhear something that can be misinterpreted? Check.
Eavesdropping on a conversation only to walk away mid-sentence for no reason, completely misunderstanding what was said? Check.
Introducing a heavy topic like domestic violence just to use it as a cheap plot device? Check.
Romanticizing kissing someone while they are asleep and unaware of your actions? Check.
I think that there are more, but you get my point.

The third problem is the situation with Gia, Kluen's ex-girlfriend and close friend. It seems that the production team of this series intended it to be a great revelation that Kluen and Gia are not together anymore, but it was obvious from the moment she appeared on screen. In itself, this does not bother me much. What surprised me is that not only Dao, but no one else who went to high school with Kluen and Gia knows. Come on, these characters live in the age of social media. How do they not know that these two broke up ages ago? Things like that spread like wildfire without social media too -- at least one of Kluen and Dao's friends should have caught on.

2. Characters, or more precisely, two [not always likeable] main characters and a group of one-dimensional sidekicks.

Let's begin with Dao again. He is most definitely a character. The thing is that he is not a particularly well-written character. Although the scriptwriters have attempted to present him as a person who charms everyone with his kindness and attentiveness, his actions do not match this depiction. For instance, he knows how painful and humiliating rejection is, but he insensitively rejects a girl in front of his friends, embarrassing her. I do not mind a main character who makes mistakes, but he should be written as flawed on purpose and undergo character development. The scriptwriters of these series, though, obviously did not realize that Dao's behavior is wrong -- the other characters take his side.
Dao can also be really selfish, and he lets others force their decisions on him. A main character who has no backbone and allows himself to be carried by the current is not interesting to watch. It also does not help that Dunk, who plays him, has a lot of work to do on his acting.

More effort should have been put into writing Kluen. He had the potential to be a great love interest and a sympathetic character, but he did not get there. He was supposed to convey the struggles of people who are bad at expressing their feelings. However, the scriptwriters did not care to add any inner monologue, and this made him difficult to sympathize with as instead of struggling with communication, he seems indifferent to Dao's feelings. Kluen should have been written like Tinn form My School President -- a character who looks cold, but is actually overwhelmed by love and gay panic.
There is also a scene in which Kluen forces himself on Dao, which I think is completely out of character for him. The only thing that saves Kluen from being completely unlikeable is that Joong is a good actor, especially when it comes to facial expressions, and he conveys a lot with his eyes.

The rest of the characters are not fleshed out at all, and this makes it difficult to connect with them.


It is not all bad, though. Joong and Dunk's chemistry is amazing, especially in the last two episodes, when Joong stops behaving like Kluen and begins to behave like himself. The two of them look like they genuinely enjoy being around each other, and their kisses do not look awkward. There are also moments that made me laugh, which is great because I usually do not like the humor in BL series.

Overall, though, I hope that JoongDunk's new series will show what they are capable of as a pairing because this one did not. Their entertaining chemistry was almost wasted here, and at the same time, it was the only thing that kept me watching.

Leia Mais

Wasted potential.

I don’t judge a book by its cover. The cover is the reviews I read before watching this. It turned out that I should have. Honestly, the main reason I started watching this is Our Sky 2, otherwise it wouldn’t make sense to me. I can barely tolerate this show…Was is created on a rush or something? I can not percieve this drama as a romance. Romance? Where did you see any sign of romance? Dao is the pivot around which everything turns here…This drama should have been named after Dao only. I used not to have high expectations from Thai dramas, but it has changed after I watched “A tale of thousand stars”, “the eclipse’’, “my school president”, ‘’Vice Versa’’ and other dramas that really captured my whole attention. THIS ONE IS JUST A COMPLETE MESS, but I felt responsible to plug away. Kluens favorite word ‘’nonsense’’ best describes this drama, so I decided to watch it at 1.5x speed.

Why does everyone have to fall in love with Dao? What are support roles are here for? Dao’s friends are here to meet their families so Dao could stay alone and had a chance to spend his time with Kluen. I couldn’t feel their friendship here. I didn’t feel anything at all. Who is Dao? A guy who is always lazy, but everyone has to get along with his unbearable personality. His character didn’t develop at all. He turns Kluen down, then goes to him and demands not to run to Gia, when she really needed Kluen. What is this if not selfisheness? Kluen told him how important Gia was to him, but Dao didn’t even give a shit about it. “YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE’’. THEY WERE NOT IN A RELATIONSHIP, WHAT CHOICES ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?’’.

I don’t get Phoon. His behaviour is egoistical to me: “I did that to trigger Dao’s feelings. I don’t want to be a loser”. WOULD A LOVING PERSON SAY SOMETHING LIKE THIS?

Kluen..His character is better than the others, although I wouldn’t call him reasonable either. What’s the incentive for not telling about his break-up with Gia and then getting jealous seeing Dao with someone else, trying to kiss him all of a sudden. I liked his short, but meaningful answers, he was not talkative, was more into observing people and actually DOING SOMETHING. Phoon asked Dao to give him one day for taking care of him and showing his true feelings. WHAT DID HE DO? NOTHING. In fact, he was not able to take care of Dao, because the latter agreed to give him that “one day’’ just to spite Kluen. “I gave him a payback”. The toxicity in every word uttered in this drama is suffocating.

Also PAPENG WHO INEXORABLY ASKS FOR CHANCES…But..Here I get the point. “Nobody likes to be rejected. I can’t do the same to her, because I know how it feels like (I don’t remember his quotes precisely, but here’s the point”. Yeah, gotta say that there was a moment I really liked: Phoon asked Dao to choose between mountains and sea, and it was obvious that the choice was not about locations, but 2 people.

The plot is a total horseshit. If only I could make such a mess and solve my problems leaving for Germany…
The support roles exist because it Is crucial for making a drama, that’s it. A side couple appeared for an instant (Dao’s brother and some fellow bumping into each other), but yeah, of course we don’t need to see what happens to them, because the drama is about one and only Dao.

The chemistry…I have already noted that ‘’romance’’ and “Star and Sky: Star in my mind” are antonyms. There’s no such thing as chemistry, but, frankly, the cast is well-chosen, the actors are good looking. Alas, this drama is wasted. 2.5/10

Leia Mais