Fourever You (Thai Series)

There is not a whole lot happening in this series. It’s the kind of familiar, silly college romance, where the lead is completely confused over whether his crush likes him back, despite having kissed each other. It ss genre that was really popular just when BL series were starting to pick up but now as audience I have a lot to choose from. Despite a paper thin plot, the series has a lot of light hearted moments and silly moments between friends that keep you engaged for a while. But spanning over 17 episodes of about 50-65 minutes, this shows asks for almost 16 hours of investment; which by the end of it doesn't feel worth it despite it being successful in keeping a smile on your face.

Easter and North are college roommates who have just stated university and are eagerly looking for college life making new friend. Easter joins a club whose president is Hill, a very popular medical student, who has three other friends and the one we will focus on is Johan, who is from a very wealthy family. Early on, it’s clearly established that Hill loves Easter and vice versa, but for the stupidest of reasons, Easter keeps thinking Hill likes his sister or someone else, despite Hill asking him upfront if he’d like to be Hill’s boyfriend. Through ,multiple back stories. Of how and when the dup fell in love with each other during school days helps establish their yearning for each other, despite reducing Easter's antics to sometimes like that of a demented kid. Yes their love story is charming, real but not much really happens. It's a more feel good lovey lovey story. Almost half way through the series, the shift focuses on North and Johan. The sometimes hot sometimes cold Johan also works for his father's business but is smitten with North. When North gets into a drunken brawl with some university students over his ex-girlfriend, Johan comes to his rescue, and North ends up breaking lots of expensive stuff at Johan’s home, becoming his debtor. Johan keeps making North run errands for him, and the two begin to fall in mutual love. Some people, including me, will have issues on how love part is handled using money, but it is what it is. We see how slowly North also starts falling in love with Johan to the extent that even a minute away from him hurts. Interestingly, it is Easter, North's roommate and closest friend who was the first one to ship Johan and North. The show ends with both the couples meeting their respective family members, getting their blessings, (despite some tropy family drama from the past) and both the couples get a happy ending.

This romantic comedy drama, initially gives you nice warm vibes. The sillies and goofy antics between Easter and North are fun to watch. But soon it's the familiar zone of the guys liking each other but afraid to make a move. In that sense at least by epode 3 itself we had Hill confess his love to Easter and makes a move and thank god for that. Having said that, there is really not much meat in their love story. They make a beautiful couple but they start getting repetitive and also they are quite cheesy most of the times. Easter comes in form when he is with North where his naughty side comes out and I wish that trait of him was used in his love story as well. The fun begins when North and Johan story starts almost half way through the show, The dup are perfect examples of opposites attract. These two cannot be further different from one another. The “rich, serious, hot guy falls for the poor, cute goofball” BL trope is fun to watch but at certain points I found it questioning when Johan always used money to get North's time or company. Eventually the mutual love develops but till then, if it a bit silly. As actors both couples do a fantastic job. Ter-Hill are supposed to be the good looking princely charm couple with beautiful smiles whereas North-Johan are the naught troubled ones. Each couple has a few romantics scenes and kisses and nice to see actors losing inhibitions.

The biggest problem of this series is the duration. The series drags out the plot with repetitive conversations, mundane interactions, and unnecessary flashbacks. It should've cut the excess content to create a quicker, tighter narrative. Also based on the title, I thought there should be 4 couples (maybe the friend group of 4 of Hill-Easter) but we see only two.  Maybe there will be a season 2 for other couples, but I really hope that doesn't get as stretched as this one did. As thin as the storyline is, most of the episodes are watchable, maybe you do have to fast forward some. This is one of the shows where I enjoyed banters of friends lot more than watching romantic scenes. Overall, if you treat it as silly, lighthearted fluff, you would end up enjoying it, but given the time commitment this show expects, one would expect a lot more from this show. Thankfully, at least it ends on a concrete note, giving both leads pairs a conclusive climax. (6/10)

PS: 2 Special episodes of 50 minute each, came out later, following Johan and North as they take the next step in a relationship that has grown beyond just being like boyfriends taking them right to marriage. I guess fans missed their chemistry. But as like it is with many of these special episodes, its only fluff and no substance.