Well, this was a surprisingly original experience I ended up enjoying immensely! The ratings for this series are very low and I am reluctant to watch anything rated below 7.5. But some of my favourite reviewers recommended it so I decided to take a plunge and watch it! Luckily it is short and really good!
Love Poison is a story of two brothers finishing high school, Ko and Sek and their love lives! It takes place in the countryside in the north of Thailand and it is pretty to look at and has a local colourfulness that is charming.
Actually this countryside setting is reminiscent of a many vietnamese BLs I'd seen. This one could have easily been one of them, because Thai bls for the most part are in urban setting. Here we get to see village, rice fields, dusty roads and the beauty of that region. The actors are very much at ease with each other so the skinship is natural and not forced.
The story is fun to watch. And even though the first episode is messy (just like viet bls!) and then there is that completely unnecessary weird ghost scene in the second episode but once you figure out who is who, it is a joyful ride!
The actors were excellent! Each of them fitted their roles perfectly: handsome net idol Ko, serious broken voiced (so sexy!) Sek, tall, handsome and dense Teng and pretty hot Tak. And then there were the support roles: the three single girls gang and Ko's best friends, were hilarious. Tak's two sidekicks, following him around, talking suddenly in stereo and sounding like a greek comedy chorus. Not to mention the boys' father, who was very quickly aware of his sons' preference and accepted it without a doubt "They are my sons and I love them!". This father was so cool!
I was expecting that, this being a low budget production, they would take the easy way out using cheap tricks, cringe, tropes and humour! No way! This was well written and filmed. It flowed smoothly. The fansubbed version I saw was of a bad quality (definitely not HD) which could have ruined my fun, but once you get used to it, it's ok. Takes you back in time when all dramas were like this (blurry and pale!)!!!
The music is something I have never heard of before: it sounded like a mix of pop and local folk music! Interesting but it fit well with the local setting.
Watching this, you see how the BLs have changed in a few short years: Love Poison is full of teens getting drunk and having sex! And hurting afterwards, and complaining about it and suffering in silence, for a long time! It can't get more realistic than that! Brilliant! Well, teens in real life like to live dangerously and experiment with limits. The teens here fels real and true. Diamonds in the rough! They are not polished, boring, rich kids from recent BL (MSP, I'm looking at you!).
That's why, this has been such a revelation! Shall I watch the second season too?