I was looking forward to this as I am a First fan and I'm happy to see his star is on the rise. He does a very good job in this as do the rest of the cast. I'm also impressed with Khaotung. I've only ever seen him on 1000 stars before, but his character in that series was not particularly prominent. However in this series he and First shine together with great chemistry.

This series has sort of split my opinion in two, so this review will consist of two parts - what I liked and what I struggled with.

Let's start with what I liked: character development, and build-up of relationships (especially Akk and Aye's).

The relationship between Akk and Aye - Some excellent acting from First and Khaotung to portray this. They brought this relationship to life. Their interactions stood out and came across as natural, flirty, shy, playful and romantic. It's definitely the highlight of this series, and when you watch them interact you get that warm, happy, fuzzy feeling which is nice. I found myself looking forward to their moments and interactions on screen.

Character development - Akk: I liked Akk's complex character and how First portrayed him. A student from a poor rural background taken advantage of by the school with promises. There was conflict within him, torn between his loyalties and the questioning of his own actions. I didn't, however, agree with the creators idea to make him commit such violent and dangerous acts (but more on that further down). That aside, First does a great job, and you can see how his acting skills are continuously improving. He's unafraid to embody the character and comes across naturally. And finally - an actual coming out scene in a BL series for a character.

Character development - Aye: Aye's character development was also nice to see and good work from Khaotung. He underwent a transformation from a melancholic, angry young man not knowing what to do with his rage, sadness and depression, to channelling it with Akk and slowly coming to terms with himself. Like First, Khaotung also does a great job portraying his character. He is playful, flirty, daring, and quite mischievous toward Akk which is fun to watch. Interesting also to note that he is willing to compromise his beliefs and principles to protect Akk.

As always with BL there is usually a second pairing and in this series it was Neo and Louis with Thuan and Khan. Whilst I'm generally not a fan of the "token second relationship", they both did a very good job. AJ as Wat was also good, portraying the struggle between what you want, the expectations of others around you and the pressure you feel when you end up pleasing everyone else apart from yourself.

Now for what I struggled with. This was mainly elements of the underlying storyline with the school - i.e. the curse, the teachers etc. It was trying to incorporate twists and turns and surprises, however, it didn't quite work.

The "hardships" of the students were not elaborated enough for me. Also, the "world remembers" group felt a bit caricaturist. Maybe this may be a case of "lost in translation". I have read snippets of an interview where the director talked about the "rotten Thai educational system". Perhaps the hardships were more obvious to Thai fans. 

The curse - I felt there were better ways to show students being intimidated. Students could be bullied, threatened with repercussions, unfairly punished etc. They do this briefly with Aye when he is targeted by the teachers, so I don't see why this could not be done to the others as well. The whole curse thing gets a bit tedious. Someone said it represents religion in Thailand and how it's used to oppress so maybe it just got lost in translation again. Akk committing such violent acts was a over the top. I'm not saying he should've been an angel, him realising the error of his ways and changing is part of the story, but making him into a violent criminal was excessive. Releasing a hand brake to injure (if not kill) unsuspecting students? It's a tad extreme. 

Chadok & Dika - They were engaged to marry and buy a house, yet Chadok was oblivious to the fact that Dika had a nephew? It's just hard to believe. Also, if Chadok was a nice guy, why was he being so harsh to students? What was his motivation? I don't quite buy it. We saw a flashback of him being a bully in the past, and this is when the curse started apparently. But then that was not followed through to the present day. Finally he was confronted, cried, admitted to his relationship, said sorry - and that was it? It confused me.  

Thua's actions - not entirely sure about the point of his actions? To force the truth? It ruins his character and makes him look like a really crappy friend.

So, the final verdict? I enjoyed the series despite some of the issues - mainly thanks to the focus on the Akk/Aye interactions and their characters. But there were issues with the story itself.  

I'm happy that so much investment is going into BL and there has been improvement with better acting and directing. Eclipse is an example of that despite its flaws, but it would greatly benefit the series if a bit more attention was paid to the storyline. It would be a shame if the talent of these young actors gets overlooked by weaknesses in the overall storylines.