Season 1 |
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Episode Guide
Episode 1 -| Review Score – 3/5
Episode 2 -| Review Score – 4/5
Episode 3 -| Review Score – 4/5
Episode 4 -| Review Score – 4/5
Episode 5 -| Review Score – 3/5
Episode 6 -| Review Score – 4/5
Episode 7 -| Review Score – 4/5
Episode 8 -| Review Score – 3/5
Episode 9 -| Review Score – 3/5
Episode 10 -| Review Score – 2.5/5
Episode 11 -| Review Score – 3/5
Episode 12 -| Review Score – 4/5
The popular genre of Thai BL dramas is known to churn out a wide variety of stories about boys who love boys. On one end of the spectrum are the cute romances, full of fluff and featuring good-natured, wholesome characters.
On the other end are twisted tales of lust and love that have more complex characters and, generally, more than a few problematic elements. My Love Mix-Up! belongs to the former and it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that it takes the furthest spot on that side of the spectrum.
Coincidental meet-cutes, secret crushes, passionate declarations, misconceptions that are soon resolved, unintentional hand touches — the list could go on and on. My Love Mix-Up! Season 1 has all the ingredients that fit neatly within the box of a romantic drama. At one point even the heartstopper-style animations come into play.
If you’re looking for a quintessential high school romance, with scenes like fussing about what to wear on a date or making a pact with a friend to be each other’s wingman, this BL drama should be right up your alley.
The series is a Thai adaptation of the Japanese BL drama My Love Mix-up! otherwise known as Kieta Hatsukoi. The story follows the lives of four high school classmates — Atom, Mudmee, Kongthap and Half. It all starts when Atom borrows an eraser from Mudmee and sees that it has Kongthap’s name written on it. A Thai superstition says that if you write your crush’s name on your eraser, it will come true. Atom drops the eraser and Kongthap happens to see it.
But the twist is that Atom likes Mudmee! So in order to protect her feelings, Atom tells Kongthap that the eraser is his own. The misunderstanding leads to shenanigans, which are followed by more misunderstandings and shenanigans among the four leads of the show. It all eventually settles into the story of two distinct couples and their trajectory from crushes to longtime partners.
A key highlight of the series is Atom, played by Nattawat Jirochtikul (Fourth) who brings life to Atom’s character. As in the original Japanese drama, Atom is a kind soul who feels a lot but often says the wrong thing and overthinks in spirals that are incredibly relatable.
Fourth portrays this awkwardness and quirky behaviour with authenticity, making it both real and entertaining. While the others in the cast do a brilliant job as well, Fourth stands out for making Atom this endearing.
For the most part, the show’s writing is deft. While the story moves at a leisurely pace, each episode is centred around a key event like a school camp, sports day or Valentine’s Day. Each episode then becomes a short story of its own, focusing on different subjects like first dates or first kisses.
Our characters manoeuvre their feelings, have fights and make up with each other, and even grow as people around these events. This works well with the drama’s weekly format and its lighthearted tone, although you need to be prepared for the tons and tons of product placement.
As mentioned above, My Love Mix-Up! Season 1 stays strictly within the territory of a cute, fluffy romance. While the show does tackle a few things like homophobia and coming out, the tone never gets too serious. The most daunting hurdle the students have to tackle is their university exam, so you can also say that this series has a utopic setting of sorts.
However, the long episode runtime means that a lot of the scenes from later episodes begin to feel like fillers. And the carefree writing can lean a bit thoughtless as well. While the drama generally treats its characters’ emotions with depth and respect, there are a few sections where it loses sight of this.
Mudmee, for example, spends an entire episode trying to be more ‘feminine’ and that storyline is concluded by a short, easy conversation that never touches upon the idea of being true to oneself. Keeping things light and funny is all well and good until you favour lightness over your story’s messaging.
But in the end, My Love Mix-Up! is a series that doesn’t require a lot of thinking. You aren’t meant to rely on logic or look for real-world scenarios. Instead, you’re meant to sit back and relax as these heartwarming high school students find each other and prance down the road of young love, complete with a background of fireworks and meteor showers.
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Verdict - 8/10
8/10