Main story line
We get a cold opening that shows Noh living with Phun. Phun serves him breakfast. I don’t know if it’s me but the eggs and the sausages look rather suggestive in the plate. Phun makes a comment that sounds like a double entendre that is lost in translation. Is P’Andy being sexual here? All of a sudden we see Earn. Now, Noh has to decide between Earn and Phun . We can tell it is a dream.
Did they change the OST? I need to do a separate post about how brilliant Shake was. This is a great song, but it is no Shake.
Noh wakes up. Creepy Earn had been watching him sleep all this time. He offers Noh a drink. He has two glasses. Earn says: “you can only choose one”. Noh takes both. “What about me?” Noh gives him his cup. Oh, Earn turns the cup around to drink from the same side that Noh did…. LOL This is something we have seen in a lot of BLs afterwards.
Yuri and Noh go on a date. They meet up with Phun and Aim
Yuri wants to order for Noh. Aim orders for Phun. They hold hands. A reminder: Phun has made love to 2/3 people in this room. He is a stud.
When the server brings the pork, Yuri exclaims “It is as big as your thighs, Noh!” LMAO it is so true. Captain has huge thighs.
Noh feeds Yuri, but when Phun tries to feed Aim, she replies that she is on a diet. Bitchy much?
Aim asks Phun if he is free next week. Phun, or as Noh would say, “Mr. Secretary”, has to check his phone. The girls are inviting the boys to the beach. This funny foursome on a trip to the beach at Hua Hin? 😛 I want to go too! (Actually, this trip is arguably one of the best parts of S2). The girls have to beg both boys to say yes. Normal boys would jump at the idea of spending the night with their girlfriends at a beach hotel, with a room for themselves. Clearly either the boys are not interested in getting intimate with the girls OR they are concerned about spending the night at the beach so close to each other.
After the dinner, the girls leave. Awkward moment: Phun and Noh are left by themselves.
Phun wonder what’s going on with Aim. Apparently, she doesn’t let Phun drop her off at the house anymore. In response, Noh tells him that people change with time. Phun replies, “People around us may change but we are.., still the same, right?”. This Season 2 Phun is deep. Noh clearly does not want to talk feelings. He avoids the question with a funny retort. Phun then asks the question in everyone’s mind, the elephant in the room: “What is next for us?”. Noh is stumped. A phone call from Om saves him from answering. Noh runs to get on a Taxi to go to Friday College.
When Noh and Phun get to Friday College it is already dark and Om is waiting for Noh (The previous scene was clearly shot in the afternoon). The Music Club is pissed at Noh for leaving them to practice on their own while he was having dinner “with a chick”. Om tells it to Noh like it is. He also tells Noh that the Angel gang took advantage of him while he was gone. Not the best portrayal of gay people in the media, I know. However, this is Thailand. They do not do things the same way we do in the West.
I like this Om a lot. The guy who plays him here, Napian Nanoob, became a handsome man. True story: he once answered a question I asked about a picture he posted (I think I asked where the pic was taken). He is a genuinely nice guy.
In the school locker room, Phun gets a text message from Pan saying “dad wants to talk to you”. He also gets one from Aim saying she finally got home.
At a restaurant, Golf sees Aim with another guy.
In a post-credit scene, we see Noh talking to the camera about what happened in the taxi on the way to school from the restaurant. Noh lays his head on Phun shoulders. Then Noh talk about how he has to choose between Yuri and Phun. He claims that regardless of what he chooses, it will be a new experience.
The Lesser Characters
At Siam Square, Jeed is trying to choose between two pink dresses that look the same. Mo is there for moral support. Mo brings the topic of what kind of boys Jeed likes. Jeed says she likes guys who are “light skin and tall”. Let’s go back to that later. Mo asks if they also have to be rich. Touché!
Jeed has to use a credit card to buy her two dresses. Later, we find it is her dad’s card that she has stolen. Grace and unnamed convent girl run into Jeed at the store. Mo leaves. Jeed and Grace and the one girl who we don’t know, talk about dating Friday guys. Unnamed girl says “girls should be taken care of by guys” UGH!
Jeed goes on to another store to buy SHOES. I don’t want to be too critical but why is Jeed spending so much money on a DRESS and a pair of SHOES to go to a SOCCER match?
At the shoe store, Jeed’s credit card is declined. The father calls to scold her for stealing her credit card, “we barely have enough as it is to eat!”…. Ugh… Jeed reproaches her dad: “Why did you send me to this school then? So I can look poorer and dumber than everyone else?” No, Jeed. The fact that you are poor is your dad’s fault but being dumb is on you.
Jeeds call Grace and her friend “idiots” behind their back while talking to her dad on the phone. They overhear it. Jeed, you don’t want Grace as an enemy! If she is evil behind your back, imagine if she decides to be evil in front of you. Oh, dear.
Mo goes home. Runs into NEW Golf (a new actor was casted for S2). He is sort of an upgrade. New Golf is more manly looking. Mo jokes “What did you do to yourself? You look taller and lighter-skinned and you got a belly” LOL.
Jeed cries all alone. Maybe she realized she overspent on clothing for a soccer game?
Mo and Moan are eating. The phone rings. The camera shows us the phone screen. A cut off message shows that Moan is going out with someone. The suggestion is that Moan is being unfaithful to Mo… Again? (Ep 1 of S1 showed us Moan sitting in a car with some random woman, remember?)
Jeed is getting ready to sign a contract with a modeling agency with the annoying character Bee. Jeed fakes her parent’s signature.
The swim team gets into a fight. The boys don’t like Sharp because…. He is poor? Remember that in the last season, Jeed dated Neung so Neung and Sharp had a rivalry. I guess that’s still going? Not clear why… If anyone should be angry, it is Sharp.
Analysis
This first episode was heavily criticized for the use of filters to soften the shots. Also, the episode scenes have a pinkish hue. Despite the large budget (compared to the first season), the sound is still amateurish (especially in outside shots) and the acting hasn’t gotten much better. I love White to death, but he is clearly reading or spitting out memorized lines in a couple of the scenes in the episode. I blame the director. Fortunately, his acting will get better.
On the positive side, the cinematography here is a LOT better than in season 1. There are a lot more complex shots, the lighting is a lot better in the outside shots at night, and the overall production quality is elevated above what season 1 gave us.
Another improvement here is the casting of Napian as Om. He is excellent and his acting will improve consistently through the season. Om is one of my favorite supporting characters of Season 2. In fact, I think Om is one of my overall favorite side characters in BL. He is witty, funny, supportive and loving.
In the cold-open, Noh must choose between Phun. and Earn. The idea of choice runs throughout the entire episode. In the subsequent scene, Earn offers him two different cups with a drink. “You can only choose one”, Earn tells Noh. This scene is interspersed with scenes from Jeed and Mo at Siam Square, with Jeed choosing between two dresses. Eventually, Noh tells Earn that he chooses “both”. Jeed also chooses to buy both dresses. Noh eats the dish that Yuri chooses for him, but he also eyes Phun’s dish. Clearly, none of the characters choose “just one” thing. In the post-credit scene, Noh talks about having to choose between Yuri and Phun, which is interesting because in the opening scene his choices are Phun and Earn. Perhaps, this is just another instance of the producers trying to shoehorn Noh into a straight mold or make him ambisexual.
In any event, Noh is right, this season will be a season about choices. Will Noh choose Phun over Earn? Will Yuri choose friendship with Noh over insisting on being a fake girlfriend? Will Phun choose Noh over Aim? Will Mo choose Golf over Moan? Can anyone say they choose “both” and still be happy?
I love the restaurant scene. The constant gazes between Phun and Noh are priceless. The awkwardness when the girls left was very palpable. There should be no doubt that there is still fire between these two. Also, notice how Phun constantly tries to lure Noh with food: here, he offers Noh his meat. OK, not his meat but the fish that Aim ordered for him, thought I have no doubt that Noh would have been ok with his meat too. OK, maybe that is just me. I mean, my doctor said to indulge more in White’s meat… or did he say “White meat”?
In the final scene, we find out why Aim has been so weird around Phun: she is cheating on him with some random guy.
In the lesser character’s storyline, we find out that Golf is still around, Moan and Mo are still together and Jeed is still unlikeable. Heck, Jeed is now even MORE unlikable than she was in season 1. Jeed is now willing to steal and cheat to get her way. Why the producers decided to make her such an insufferable character is beyond me. They already had a superficial, bitchy, annoying character in Grace, so why make Jeed equally superficial and annoying? The fact that they will have them be “frenemies” means that we won’t be able to root for one over the other. Actually, this is one of the weaknesses of season 2, not only are the lesser character given pretty boring storylines (with few exceptions) but almost all the convent girls are insufferable, annoying and bitchy. Who wants to see them every week? Most of us don’t.
I have said this before, and I will say it again: Why are these girls always shopping? Sometimes I wonder if P’Andy thinks that all women do is shop. Also, what is up with that scene in which Om says that the Angel Gang took advantage of him? Why are effeminate gay men depicted as sexually predatory? And what’s up with Bee? Why are all the shady and annoying characters either woman or gay man? For a show directed by three gay man, this is certainly not the best depiction of gay men in Thai media.
I always like to analyze the overarching themes in the plot. Here, we are presented with various character’s dilemmas that will span the entire season. The keyword for this episode, if there is one, is “decisions”. Noh will need to decide between Earn and Phun, sooner rather than later. Jeed has to decide between keeping her “friends” but having to be something she is not or being alone but true to herself. I think we all know what she will do. Mo is not necessarily presented here with a choice, but we know that the sparks are still there between her and Golf. Soon she will have to make a choice between the person who truly loves her and the person she thinks she loves.
Quick Takes
>The Seme continues to feed the Uke (Phun feeds Noh)
>The new Om is way more attractive (and a better actor) than the old Om
>What is wrong with Jeed? I question not only her choice of friends, and guys she dates, but those shoes? For a soccer match?
>Watch the scene in which Captain runs across the soccer field. He looks chubby. He has clearly grown a lot since the last season.
>I think the guy who plays Nubsib’s manager in Lovely Writer is also on the swim team. I am not sure…
>Noh and Phun leave the restaurant during the day but get to the school at night. I am pretty sure someone in the production messed up.
>The opening credit song is different from S1. As a side note, the S2 OST was produced by New (who btw is Captain’s cousin)
>The two production companies involved in the creation of Love Sick season 1 are not involved in this season. Rumor has it, this is part of the reason that season 2 was never shown on Netflix. Netflix made a deal with the S1 production companies but couldn’t (or didn’t want to) reach a deal with the S2 production companies.
>White looks even more beautiful this season. Sorry, someone had to say it.
>Did you catch a scene with both Toptap and Gunsmile sitting side by side? To think these two became so popular after being in 2Gether! Toptap is rumored to have his own series very soon with Mike. That would makes Toptap the only Love Sick actor with a speaking part to become an MC in a BL series other than Captain and White (Reminders). Interestingly, many more non-speaking part actors or actors who played very minor roles in Love Sick Season 2 have gone on to play main roles in BLs, including Mean Phiravich (Love by Chance, Reminders), Kimmon Warodom (2Moons, Gen Y, That’s My Candy) , Guide Jirapirom (My Bromance), and Gameplay Garnpaphon. (He She It, Ingredients). Sing, who who plays Per, a prominent side character in Lovesick, was paired with Drake as a side couple in Slam Dance.
Overall Episode Rating
A few funny scenes, some sweet moments between Noh and Phun, sound is below par, Jeed is unlikeable from the second she appears on screen, and the acting has not improved, especially from White and Captain. Overall, I think this first episode was much better than the first episode of Love sick season 1, but it was also very light in terms of plot. Nothing much happens here to move the plot forward. This episode serves mostly to set things up for the rest of the season.
The looking glass 