Man, the excitement I had at seeing a second season of Thailand’s messy BL, Only Friends was bolstered more by the cast they chose for Dream On.
I will say this, the first season was one of the first few Thai BL series I had watched, and it was hot. Was their super dysfunctional personal lives uncomfortable to watch? Of course! But that was clearly the point. Somehow, this latest season didn’t seem quite as messy to me, at least for like 90 precent of it. For that, I was a little thankful, but it also made the twelve episodes a little bit of a drag to get through at times. Thankfully, all of the lead couples here have history and fantastic chemistry. At least with each other. Though I was impressed by how well they meshed together as a complicated friend group.
In this friend group we have Jack, who is set to direct the school’s latest play, Romeo and Romeo. He reluctantly casts his ex, Dean, as the lead, as he really is the best actor to play the part. Nipping at Dean’s heels for the top spot is Raffy, hands down the most annoying character this season who happens to be dead set on stealing Jack away to be his own boyfriend. Everyone but Raffy seems to know that will never happen, but bless Rome, Jack’s half brother, for trying. Somehow he really likes Raffy, but he takes a fair bit of abuse before Raffy finally realizes he likes him back. To round out the cast, the play’s costume designer, Tua, enlists his best friend and crush, Arnold to be the co-lead in the play. Those two dance around their feelings forever, but to me were the least problematic pairing of the season.
I did really enjoy seeing the cast of the first season pop up here and there. However I did not enjoy Boston showing up so early and ready to cause even more chaos within this core group. Thankfully, most of them wouldn’t really take his bullshit, and somehow he even ended the show having grown a bit. Color me surprised. It’s clear that the couples of this season had their own season one counterparts, so it was fun and funny to see them in scenes together. Most of the season’s tension comes from jealousy. There really wasn’t much of any retalitory hook-ups or sleeping around this season once the actual pairs got established. I wonder if that decision was based off of viewer feedback from the first season? In my opinion, they are all hot college guys, so them sleeping around wouldn’t be much of a shock to me.
The only true fallout came from a bit of drunk flirting between Dean and Arnold who very quickly realized they loved what they already had with their respective partners. But gossip is a fickle bitch, and Dean and Arnold had some real butt-kissing to do. Tua relented much more easily, and in fairness, Arnold really didn’t do anything wrong, but of course Tua was hurt and feeling like he just got used again like he did in a past relationship. It seems that Jack will not let his guard down enough to let Dean back in for good, and really, he felt like the worst of the bunch in the end. Perhaps Dean deserves better! And Raffy finally stopped chasing a guy who would never want him and realized he had someone who cherished him all along.
While I did enjoy the series overall, it felt like we went in circles for the back half of the twelve episodes. Yes, things did develop later, but it felt like steps forward were taken halfway. It made it kind of hard to watch. As I said though, the chemistry between all of the pairs really was the show’s strongest element, so at least they had that going for them. Now, Great walks in at the end to possibly set up for a third season, and honestly I won’t say no!