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I have just discovered something absolutely wonderful!
It's a Thai series called SOTUS: The Series. I'd never heard of it. I found it by typing "queer" as a search term into Canadian Netflix, and then scrolling way, waaaaay down the page. I ended up binging all 15 episodes in a day and a half. The Netflix description is: "When freshman engineering student Kongpob stands up to older bully Arthit, their confrontation soon leads to a deep attraction between the two boys."
I can't describe the show as "slashy" in the sense that I would normally use the term, which is the presence (intended or unintended) of subtextual attraction between same-sex characters. It's not subtext in this show; it's text. But it felt extremely slashy in that it had countless elements and tropes that I'm familiar with from slash, but which I rarely or never see in the shows that I watch.
I mean, basically it felt to me like an adorable all-human AU slash fic. (Which I suppose just says something about the context that I'm coming from, which is mostly genre fiction—this story is set in a weird alternate universe where people don't have superpowers or drive spaceships! Otherwise known as the actual real world. Heh.)
I'll say more, but behind a cut. Actually two cuts—one for not-very-spoilery discussion of the setting, and one for extremely spoilery discussion of plot elements.
Setting
I'd never seen a show set in Thailand before. ( Read more... )
Plot
Right, so the actual point of this series is not that a bunch of university students hang out doing math homework together, it's that two guys fall in love. ( Here there be spoilers! )
Anyway, as is pretty common for romance-genre stories, it takes them nearly the whole series to properly get together. I enjoyed the ride, but I wished that I could see more of them as a couple. So, as is my habit at such times, I went straight to AO3 to see what was there. And there is indeed fic; 691 works total, including 427 in English, at the time that I'm writing this. (Hooray for AO3, and for fan writers!)
But also, I quickly discovered from the author's notes on the first fic that I looked at that there's more canon! There's a sequel, a second one-season series called SOTUS: S, which is set two years later with the same characters, and then also a shorter coda called Our Skyy which is apparently some sort of "anthology" continuing the stories of various characters from the earlier series. They're not on Canadian Netflix, but I've just found SOTUS: S on YouTube, so I am for sure going to be watching that over the next few days!
It's a Thai series called SOTUS: The Series. I'd never heard of it. I found it by typing "queer" as a search term into Canadian Netflix, and then scrolling way, waaaaay down the page. I ended up binging all 15 episodes in a day and a half. The Netflix description is: "When freshman engineering student Kongpob stands up to older bully Arthit, their confrontation soon leads to a deep attraction between the two boys."
I can't describe the show as "slashy" in the sense that I would normally use the term, which is the presence (intended or unintended) of subtextual attraction between same-sex characters. It's not subtext in this show; it's text. But it felt extremely slashy in that it had countless elements and tropes that I'm familiar with from slash, but which I rarely or never see in the shows that I watch.
I mean, basically it felt to me like an adorable all-human AU slash fic. (Which I suppose just says something about the context that I'm coming from, which is mostly genre fiction—this story is set in a weird alternate universe where people don't have superpowers or drive spaceships! Otherwise known as the actual real world. Heh.)
I'll say more, but behind a cut. Actually two cuts—one for not-very-spoilery discussion of the setting, and one for extremely spoilery discussion of plot elements.
Setting
I'd never seen a show set in Thailand before. ( Read more... )
Plot
Right, so the actual point of this series is not that a bunch of university students hang out doing math homework together, it's that two guys fall in love. ( Here there be spoilers! )
Anyway, as is pretty common for romance-genre stories, it takes them nearly the whole series to properly get together. I enjoyed the ride, but I wished that I could see more of them as a couple. So, as is my habit at such times, I went straight to AO3 to see what was there. And there is indeed fic; 691 works total, including 427 in English, at the time that I'm writing this. (Hooray for AO3, and for fan writers!)
But also, I quickly discovered from the author's notes on the first fic that I looked at that there's more canon! There's a sequel, a second one-season series called SOTUS: S, which is set two years later with the same characters, and then also a shorter coda called Our Skyy which is apparently some sort of "anthology" continuing the stories of various characters from the earlier series. They're not on Canadian Netflix, but I've just found SOTUS: S on YouTube, so I am for sure going to be watching that over the next few days!
