It seems the only thing hotter than the ‘Only Friends’ series is the discussion about it!
Following the release of the first episode of ‘Only Friends,’ a Thai BL series that deals with the raunchier aspects of LGBT life such as hookups and cheating, some viewers took issue with the series’ depiction of such things. One such Twitter (now X) user complained that Thai BL was just about sex scenes unlike Western media, naming ‘Call Me By Your Name’ and ‘Red, White, and Royal Blue’ as examples of such. It is worth noting that both of the movies used as examples include sex scenes. Jojo Tichakorn, the series director, took the time to respond to the comment, which was translated by Twitter user @YILOVEY as seen below:
Someone commented on #OnlyfriendSeries saying that why Thai BL series only sell sex scenes. Unlike western series (Call me by your name, RWRB)
JJ: It’s coming in every EP. Because this is a series about sex and relationship. You going to see a lot of it. Because… https://t.co/L7DG9czzIQ pic.twitter.com/VjDgJoBofo
— น้องครัวซองของคุณมิกซิวค่ะ | YILOVEY (@YILOVEY) August 14, 2023
In his Tweets, Jojo emphasized that ‘Only Friends’ was a series about sex and relationships, and as such, these scenes are necessary to the plot. He also stated that in his opinion, he does not always need to create gay characters who only have positive traits just because he is gay and that his characters do not only need to represent what is good. Instead, he wants to represent the different types of LGBT people in his work. He also further stated that while there are Western shows such as ‘Heartstopper’ and ‘Call Me’ that show the lighter sides of LGBT life, there are also other pieces of media such as ‘Queer As Folk,’ ‘Elite,’ and ‘Looking’ that also include sexual topics in their plots as a rebuttal to the original statement that Thai BL series only focus on the sexual aspects of the series while Western media does not.
