Retro BL Review: TharnType

To anyone looking to get into BL Dramas, it’s impossible to avoid TharnType. The reason?

Not only will you see a billion different posts about the franchise, there are usually only two opinions: “This is the BEST SERIES OF ALL TIME!” or “I HATE this series with the passion of a million different suns!”

There are very few people who are like Meh…

Written by MAME (one of the BL genre’s most prolific writers), the series follows college roommates Tharn (Mew Suppasit) and Type (Gulf Kanawut). Tharn is a handsome musician for whom everyone in the university drops their panties/boxers. Type is a handsome football player who hopes to use Type’s handsomeness to score with girls. There’s only one problem, Tharn is gay – and Type hates gays.

After a short period of tumultuousness, Tharn removes Type’s layers physically and (more importantly) emotionally. You learn that the main reason Type hates gay men isn’t just because he’s self-loathing but because he was molested as a child. As a storyteller, MAME is very fond of traumatic backstories – especially for her bottoms. However, as he comes to trust Tharn, he comes to love him. Thanks to Type, Tharn realizes his “best friend” Lhong (Kaownah Kittipat) has been playing him and sabotaging every relationship he’s ever had because he’s obsessed with him. However, it doesn’t work and Tharn and Type’s relationship gets even stronger and Llong? Well, he steps back into the shadows and is never heard from again.

Llong: One of the most HATED villains in BL History

(Side note: Kaownah sings the series theme “Be Mine” and it’s a BOP!)

Their story continues from TharnType: The Series into TharnType: Seven Years in Love.

As the title of the sequel series suggests, Tharn and Type have been boyfriends for seven. Tharn has become a popular music producer, and Tharn is a Physical therapist in a local hospital. Tharn wants to get married, but Type does not. He keeps turning him down because he likes how their lives have been and doesn’t want to change.

However, one of his patients, Fiat (First Chalongrat), develops an obsession with him, even though Fiat’s best friend Leo (Ja Phachara) is head-over-heels in love with him. Fiat takes his infatuation so far that he almost causes Tharn and Type to break up. Almost, but not quite. Instead, Type takes a break to join the monkhood. When he returns, he asks Tharn to marry him.

While their story ends here, Leon and Fiat continue in the spin-off series Don’t Say No!

TharnType was one of the earlier series I watched. I remember at the time, there was a lot of controversy surrounding the franchise, especially in its second season, but be honest, whatever did or didn’t happen is none of my business. I have no interest in adding gasoline to embers that are finally starting to dull. Also, once I discovered Techno was played by Mild Jinna, whom I really enjoyed in the film Red Wine in the Dark Night, I decided to give it a try. I’m glad I decided to step into the adventure.

Overall, TharnType is a really well-done series. It’s sexy, it’s fun, and it’s got a particular style of chaotic romance that no one can do better than MAME. She’s got a gift for injecting super outlandish scenarios into stories they shouldn’t fit into. Still, she does it with ease and in such a way that (even if you laugh at them) you can understand why and how they fit into a vast and intricate world that also not only includes Don’t Say No and its upcoming spin-off Please Say Yes, but also Love By Chance, Love in the Air. While she didn’t write it, both Tharn and Type appeared in Domundi TV’s Why R U? The woman’s created an entire BL universe, and she deserves the respect that deserves.