Boy Sompob's heartbreaking OST ballad "Back" tells the whole story of this drama, perhaps better than the drama itself. Thankfully "The Effect" is only 3 episodes, so there isn't the usual 18 extra episodes of padding and the interest level is at full throttle. James Prapatthorn originally auditioned for the support role of Pramote but was born to play shy and adorable Shin, a college Freshman. Oat Chakrit plays Keng, a handsome Senior who's the big man on campus. But Keng has a secret: he likes guys and it's love at first sight when he meets Shin. On his first day at school, Shin befriends two guys his own age -- veteran actor Yacht Surat as Bright and newcomer Top Akechat as Pramote. Bright and Pramote develop their own non-romantic bromance as the story goes along. Meanwhile, we learn that Keng has serious anger management issues. He's so sexually repressed that he ends up raping Shin. Well, that pretty much kills the story dead in its tracks. Whatever sympathy we had for Keng is gone. We never really learn if Shin likes guys, but he emphatically states he doesn't love Keng, so we'll have to go with that at face value. What salvages the drama from this point on is the unconditional (but unromantic) love Shin receives from Bright and Pramote. Usually these secondary characters are throw-aways, but Yacht and Top really get to show off their considerable acting skills. Keng tries to make up to Shin, and even though we can identify with the real life dilemma of a gay man being attracted to a straight guy, the rape was a deal-breaker for our sympathy. Shin, again, tells him to go away. Five years pass and Shin has finally completed university. He meets up with Bright and Pramote on graduation day (they graduated two years earlier). They part and Bright and Pramote walk off together holding hands. But we're left wondering what happened to our main characters. Presumably, through some telepathic connection, they commit suicide at the same time, by the same method of stepping out into the street in front of a car. The tilt up of the camera and dissolve to white suggests they died and went to heaven. Well, maybe so. But after such a long drama, that was a pretty abrupt and unmotivated ending. And if Shin died, who is narrating this story? His ghost? It may be the producers are setting us up for Series 2 but where would we go from here? If they survived the car accidents, who would cheer for Shin hooking up with his rapist? Anyway, I do hope to see James in something else. He had tremendous chemistry with Top in their scenes together. They'd make a great BL romantic duo.