Enchanté - Thailand

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GMMTV have been holding their new season press event today and have unveiled a few new BL releases for 2021 including this one which is based on the Y-Novel 'Who Is Enchanté', written by the same author as 'My Gear And Your Gown'. It is likely to be screened in the third quarter of the year.

Synopsis: 'Theo, who has been studying in France returns to Thailand to attend his father's school. He finds a book in the library with a personal welcome to him that is signed Enchanté. Curious about who Enchanté is, he tells his friend Ak who immediately blurts it out and four hot boys come forward to claim they were the author of the welcome note. Will Theo be able to identify who is trying to deceive him and who is the real Enchanté?'

There's only a bare-bones MyDramaList page at the moment.

Pilot Teaser:



Incidentally, I watched the press event live on YT and all of the shows had trailers to watch. I also noticed that GMMTV haven't renewed any of their current series for a new season as they were all new titles.

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added to my watch list

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All the guys looks good, but I think it will be hard to sustain this plot for 12 episodes.

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If nothing else, I'm looking forward to seeing Fluke from The Shipper again... well, both Fluke's actually. I also enjoyed Fluke from Dark Blue Kiss too. It was actually starting to look like GMMTV had dropped him from their BL line-up after his pairing with Pod in DBK wasn't as successful as they had hoped, so it's good to see him back.

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Here's the new official trailer:




I believe this series will fill the slot left vacant by 'Bad Buddy' when it ends in a couple of weeks time.

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Oh, and here's the new poster too:

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When the previous slate of trailers came out for 2021 more than a year ago - this one and Fish Upon the Sky were my two that I was most looking forward to. I actually wasn't really that impressed with the Bad Buddy series. While Fish Upon the Sky was good (I had issues - lots of issues, but I also mostly enjoyed it), Bad Buddy was orders of magnitude better than I had hoped. Here's hoping that this one will be more like Bad Buddy in terms of a good story and great characters.

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A meet the actors clip from GMMTV with English subtitles:



Is it me or would Book and Force be better suited to play brothers?

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They have very similar looks. They should have given them different hairstyle at least

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They've changed the poster again. I have to admit I like this one better than the previous green one:

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They really should have less focus on Book and Force and more on the four potential Enchante candidates. With the massive focus on Book and Force, you basically expect them to end up together and removed all the mystery

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I guess Tay Tawan is singing the OST??



Teaser courtesy of GMMTV.

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Here's the full OST track, called "Nice to Know You (Enchanté)". It is indeed sung by Tay Tawan:

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Episode 1:

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Trailer for Episode 2:

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First BTS video has been released (includes English subs):

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second BTS video has been released:

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So far, Enchante isn't bad, but it suffers from going after Bad Buddy. Considering the excellent flow and editing of Bad Buddy, Enchante just felt full of useless scenes that drags on for way too long. Like unless they are going to explore the grandma's death on Theo, it felt unnecessary to have that when his return can just be explained away as returning for university. Also, just because Theo been living in a foreign country for the past few years, he shouldn't be that bad at getting around.

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Episode 2:

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Trailer for Episode 3:

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It definitely is not Bad Buddy - but it is still nice.

I really like Force as Akk. The scene when he gets to see Theo's new car - was a lot of fun. I am glad that they used the first episode to set up Akk as the only choice that our protagonist cannot seem to see as a love interest (and I am just a little bit surprised that when Akk pulled Theo down from his house's gate that they didn't fall into an accidental kiss - maybe some of the Thai directors are starting to learn some subtlety). Akk also won serious points for not being the barbarian writing in a library book (and roundly condemning it as well) - Theo lost points.

I am intrigued by Akk's family situation - is it just him and his sisters? Are their parents not around? The couple times we see them at the dinner table - it is just the three of them + Theo. Im is selling things. Akk had an actual job - and Im and Akk both seemed devastated that he had lost it. All suggesting that this family was much more lower middle class than the "normal" college students that these shows often follow (Pat and Pran both having apartments instead of living at home; the fancy cars like Theo's, or even the houses like Leo's from Don't Say No as just a few examples of many).

I am actually okay with Theo being a bit discombobulated after what appear to be about a decade away from Thailand followed by the death of his Grandmother. He likely didn't have many opportunities to use Thai (written or spoken) other than perhaps calls to his parents when in France. I also know people in the US who spoke Thai with their parents as children after immigrating - but never learned how to write it. For me the loss of his grandmother was pretty significant - as it brought back memories of losing my own grandmother this past summer. She seemed to be his sole support when he was in France.

Introducing the other love interests in episode 2 was a bit of a whirlwind - and I will admit that they were all kind of over-powered by Phupha, who was a bit much (and if that level of earnest helpfulness came my way, I would be trying to find an escape route). The worst part is that the only way I know any of the other guys' names is looking them up on mydramalist. Fluke's character (Saifah) seems to be already thinking of how he can use Theo to score more viewers on his channel. The other Fluke (the one from the Shipper) playing Natee seems to be having a very much hate-hate relationship with Phupha if the interaction at the bookstore is anything to go on - and I suspect that the two of them will end up together. I am assuming the soccer player was the 4th guy - and was completely underwhelmed by him.

The university seems to be a very different university than we usually see in the Thai college shows - and seems to have some decent benefactors, as the buildings looked much fancier. I still don't think Theo's dad would throw his weight around to get his son enrolled mid-semester, with a private parking spot, and recognition from the security guards - if nothing else it would be kind of unseemly. Which is why I found the library to be very bizarre - that seemed more like an unorganized mess of books - mostly fiction (even though the signs suggested that there was some non-fiction sections) and not the organized breadth of an actual research library that would fit the financing level that the buildings suggested.

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Third BTS video has been released complete with English subs:

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Episode 3:

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Trailer for Episode 4:

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Akk continues to be absolutely adorable (and I don't mind the director's objectification of him with the multiple scenes of him in just a pair of boxers).

I am even more convinced that Natee and Phupha have a past and will likely end up together. Wayu is still the weakest link.

The Flukes were definitely turning on their flirting wattage to max in that last scene. Plus the very artistic spray of pages filtering down to the boys was quite nice.