First Thai Gl Series
Curtis Boykins
College cheerleader Tine Teepakorn is tired of the constant attention from a male admirer, Green. He plans to pretend to be in a relationship with a boy to discourage his advances. Sarawat Guntithanon, a mysterious musician with aloof personality, becomes the unwilling participant in Tine's charade. Together, they create a fake relationship, with Sarawat hesitantly agreeing to act as Tine's boyfriend. Their fake relationship unknowingly evolves into something more profound, they confront their own insecurities and the complexities of their feelings. Along the way, they encounter supportive friends, family members who are grappling with their own issues. Sarawat & Tine eventually become a real couple, but not before facing their challenges.[8]
Aside from the official soundtrack, songs from Thai band Scrubb featured in the series,[16] as the character Tine is a fan of the said band.[17] In an interview, JittiRain, the author, mentioned that her being a band's fan inspired her to create the music part in the novel.[18] The band also appeared in the show's 6th and 13th episode.[19]
By 19 April 2020, it surpassed 100 million views on LINE TV.[59][60][61] In 2020, it was "Top 10 Most Viewed Television Series" on LINE TV and YouTube.[62][63][64][65] The success of the series led to the sequel Still 2gether and 2gether: The Movie.[66] In some regions, it is available on Netflix.[67][68]
On 1 June 2020, GMMTV released teaser of the sequel Still 2gether.[b][69][70] On 14 August 2020, the series premiered on GMM 25 and LINE TV, Friday at 21:30 ICT and 23:00 ICT respectively. The sequel follows where Sarawat and Tine, after one year, try to balance their relationship and career aspirations.[71][72][73]
On 27 July 2020, the series was aired on Kapamilya Channel[106] in the Philippines. On 27 May 2024, the series aired on Kapamilya Channel's Primetime Bida, TV5 and A2Z. As of 2024, it is the first Thai series to be aired on Philippines's television and the second series to be dubbed in Tagalog.[107]
Creating their own "original content" seems to become the currently popular trend among global streaming platforms during the time when there seems to be more content than we actually circulating around. Netflix, whose first original Thai series The Stranded turned out to be a flop, has recently announced the second original production in Thai language, Bangkok Breaking. Earlier today (Mar 5), media giant WarnerMedia also announced it will jump onto the bandwagon with an eight-episode Thai-language mystery series Forbidden. It is the third HBO Asia Original currently in production.
After a highly successful, albeit controversial, first season, MCOT order a second season of the show. At 36 episodes, Love Sick season 2 was three times as long as it is first season but also marked an important step in the development of Thai BL. Still standing alone in the BL lineup (no other BL series aired at that time in Thailand), the second season of Love Sick was the first to add multiple BL couples, thought it kept the original format of an ensemble cast with heterosexual side couples. This became a common trope in Thai BL, in which anyone can fall in love with anyone. Gay men or men who develop homosexual romantic relationships are not rare but common in the Thai BL universe.
Two years after Love Sick premiered, and a year after it had ended its second season, Thailand had four BL series scheduled to air, including SOTUS (GMMTV) and Make It Right (MCOT/LINETV). Make it Right marked another step in the evolution of BL. Unlike Lovesick, the majority of the MIR characters were same-sex couples with only a few heterosexual characters. MIR was raunchier and treated more mature topics than Lovesick. The cast of Make it Right also became very popular all over Asia and eventually a second, even raunchier, season 2 was green lit.
This article is the second in a three-part article series, aiming to investigate Thai boys-love genre, starting from Thai boys-love literature in the first and concluding with the boys-love fandom in the last.
As the name of the genre suggests, boys-love (BL) series are series that depict a romantic relationship between two male protagonists, usually in the foreground of the main narrative. In spite of this, the boys-love genre is not synonymous with the western LGBTQ+ genre, whose main focus is usually on the portrayal of issues, prejudices, or hardships faced by people in the community. On the contrary, boys-love dramas typically depict an idealized romance between the main characters, providing a more escapist tone to the main narrative, although this is not to say (as we will later see) that the genre completely lacks any attempts to bring about a more realistic representation of same-sex couples. Nonetheless, one of the key characteristics of boys-love genre, is the depiction of relationship dynamic between the main characters in terms of a dominant and submissive trope, or as it is commonly known by the Japanese terms seme and uke. This is often reflected in the characterizations of the protagonists, with the dominant character possessing more masculine physical attributes, and the submissive character appearing more effeminate or androgynous. Traditionally, Thai boys-love series commonly tell a story of budding love between male high-schoolers, or university students, but, as we will later see, the core narrative has, in recent time, become far more varied.
Although Thai boys-love genre rose to the current international prominence through television and internet dramas, the first incarnation of the genre in Thailand was the translated Japanese yaoi mangas, which began to enter the market during the 1990s. Initially, the genre was not as widespread and was only circulated among niche groups, consisting mostly of female readers. During this era, boys-love mangas could only be bought or rented from a small number of bookstores, especially those in the vicinity of Siam Square. Nonetheless, the rise of the Internet in the mid to late 2000s contributed substantially to the growth of the genre, as it allowed for the establishment of various online forums and web-boards, where communities of fans of the genre, as well as aspiring authors can create, publish, and share their work with others. One prime example of such platform is Dek-D.com, where numerous of the original boys-love novels that were later adapted into series, such as Love Sick can still be found. As a result, the genre started to expand from mangas into other literary formats, such as novelizations of the translated mangas, fan arts, fan fictions, etc. This growing repository of boys-love literatures in Thailand served as a solid foundation for the soon-to-come series industry, a lot of which were adapted from the novels. Nevertheless, support for the genre were still limited.
The genre saw its massive surge in popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, where people were subjected to lockdowns. One of the things people were doing at the time was indulging themselves with streaming services. Seeking for more new contents, many began to get hooked to the boys-love series, which provided them with light-hearted, escapist narratives during the dire time. One of the most popular streaming platforms for boys-love series at the time was, unfortunately, now defunct LINE TV; however, a lot of productions companies as well as television channels also uploaded their series onto other streaming platforms, such as YouTube and Netflix, while many studios also opted to publish their dramas as web-series, hosted on the aforementioned platforms.
The present day massive success of Thai boys-love series can be attributed to several factors. Among the most important is the open-minded environment that provides the genre with a space to grow and reach its potential. Stemming from the openness of Thais to let people be themselves, many stigmatized groups are usually tolerated in Thai culture, including, of course, same-sex couples. As can be seen from several records, non-binary people have existed and have been recognized within Thai society for ages, without being actively prosecuted by the authority for the most part. This, naturally, continues on to today, where Thailand, for example, is well-known for its prominent transgender community. Unsurprisingly, this open-mindedness allows for the boys-love series to flourish, without suffering major conservative backlash or prohibitions from the authority. Nonetheless, it should also be acknowledged that, as open-minded as Thais are, there are still some imperfections regarding the treatments of the LGBTQ+ community in Thailand. Despite this, great efforts have been made, especially in the recent time, to alleviate such injustice and pave ways for Thai society to fully embrace diversity.
Also contributing tremendously to the massive boom of the series, are the light-hearted and escapist storylines. Markedly, the main romantic narratives within the genre are usually idealized, ostensibly, putting more emphasis on the flourishing of the relationship and providing the audiences with a rose-tinted view into the budding romance. In addition to that, the story typically concludes on a happy ending, with the relationship being successful. Anecdotally, this lighthearted narrative and beautiful depiction of love are often what captivate both the current and prospective fans.
Furthermore, the high and constantly improving quality of productions of Thai boys-love series can also be considered as another key ingredient for their success. Not only does the cinematography typically complement the aforementioned romantic storyline very well, the onscreen tracks accompanying the drama are often praised for how well they can contribute to the general uplifting atmosphere and ambience, both through the well-written lyrics and well-composed scores. An example of this can be seen through the song Wish This Love or ไม่ว่าอะไร from the series Love by Chance (2018). The series tells a story of a budding romance between a shy guy and an outgoing athletic guy studying at the same university, who meet each other through a coincidence. Likewise, the song sings of how being together with you always brings me joy and how we will be together through thick and thin, echoing the connection between the two protagonists.
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