SOTUS: The Series (Thai Series)

I am surprised that this didn't hit me until I was midway into this show about the BL dramas that I have been seeing of late. Most BL dramas really focus mostly on love. It's not about sex or physical compatibility or what others would say. I noticed in some of the other shows also that quite a few characters don't want to label themselves as straight or gay. For most, its about the person that they fall for and love. Many times it happens to be of the same gender as they identify themselves with. Sure love soon follows and that is what these dramas focus on. No one wants to talk about what will happen when physical intimacy starts? Where will things end? We know bad sex can make or break even the most loving couple. I am not complaining. Its just an observation or something that stuck me while watching this show. 15 episodes of about 40 minutes average duration, you can imagine that I spent almost 10 hours in total on this.

Story wise SOTUS is pretty straight forward. SOTUS focuses on the hazing practice that most of the engineering students may have experienced. The hazing is done by third year students led by the head hazer Arthit. As you can imagine freshmen are all scared and do whatever is asked of them but we have Kongpob who stands up for himself or his classmates when he feels unjust is being done. This really irritates Arthit since it undermines his authority and then the duo start a longterm stand-off during their hazing sessions. Somewhere in all this, Kongpob starts having feelings for Arthit because somewhere he sees that behind that serious and angry persona lies a boy with a good heart and good intentions and someone who loves pink milk. Sometimes directly, and sometime indirectly he lets his feelings known to Arthit, who is very confused being propositioned by a man. At first he agrees to hang out with kong and even kisses him, but somewhere along the line he starts pulling himself back. Unable to understand what's going on Kongpob tries hard to reason but constant snub from Arthit breaks his heart and eventually he starts to keep his distance. This changes when Arthit confides in one of his friends on what's going on and finally realizes that he is thinking too much about future and why he is not the right person for Kongpob, when truly the man loves him. Arthit then publicly admits that he is indeed dating Kongpob thereby bringing a smile on his face. In t he last episode we see some background of Arthit's growth from his first year to becoming the head hazer.

Almost 10 episodes focus on different aspects and stages of hazing. It also briefly touches upon why it is done and how it helps freshers. Whether hazing is needed or not is a debate that will never end, so let's not go there. Focusing on our two leads, I have to say as much I mostly liked the chemistry and their approach, I do have a few issues with the whole treatment. I totally believe that sometimes you can fall for a person irrespective of the gender, so no issues here. But my problem is how Kongprob approaches Arthit in the whole situation when Arthit first kisses him and in next few days starts snubbing him again. I felt that Kongpob's character suddenly felt as a needy person. I would have expected him to completely ignore Arthit, thereby forcing Arthit to realize how much he also loves Kong, the same way Kong loves him. There is only one scene where Kongprob confronts Arthit that he cannot just take him for a ride and lead him on when he doesn't mean to. Also I wish the love story started a bit earlier. There was way too much focus on hazing. There were many individual scenes that brought a smile to my face. Every time Arthit would have a smile and would try to hide it behind his stern demeanor was hot. Arthit's reaction when his senior tells him what does it really mean when someone gives them their gear locket, the glance and nod for approval that Kongprob looks for everytime and of course everytime that Kongprob would take a stand and annoy Arthit during hazing sessions. As actors I just saw Kongpob is the show "He's coming to me" , so I was well aware of him but its my first show for Arthit, who was definitely so cute. And both of these guys are good actors too. I wish the other characters were slightly more developed. Especially Waad from the junior batch, and the senior who would always shout at him and later help him in a fight. I think there was some potential there. But besides that, the gradual love and respect that our two main leads grow over a period of time and evolves past college time was beautiful to watch. I would have also liked to see a little bit more intimacy between them. Just 2 kisses was not enough to visualize them as a couple. They looked more as close friends. Like I said earlier, good intimacy can make or break things sometimes.

Watching such long shows is not everyone's cup of tea and given that these are long series, you can expect that there will be plenty storylines just for the sake of it, not adding really to the core plot. These are the times that annoy me and I wish that everyone would just focus on main storyline, but thats just me. This was still as good as some of the recent BL dramas that I have seen. (7/10)