A new week brings two announced premieres, a mystery that has me guessing, and a farewell to Moonshadow. My Top Six is still mine to argue for. You are welcome to argue back.

This week’s essay returns to Roller Coaster and the performances that stay with us. If you found us through Dao and her friend, welcome. This Monday email and the Tracker are free.

This week with Dao · Together

Dao returns to Shelly and Pundao’s performances in Roller Coaster. A bittersweet celebration of the work, alongside this week’s essay.

▶ Watch Together · 68 seconds

One Year After the Ride

A look back at Roller Coaster, and the work that stays with us.

Roller Coaster finished its run last autumn. A year later, looking back feels different. This October has brought painful public statements and uncertainty around Shelly and Pundao. It is difficult to return to Loft and Pure without carrying some of that sadness into the room.

But I want to return to them. This week we released a small film called Together, built around their performances. Making it gave us a reason to stop following the latest update for a moment and look again at what these women put on the screen.

That is where a look back should begin.

Shelly plays Loft; Pundao plays Pure. What stays with me is the attention between them. The long looks. The hesitation before an answer. The sense that something important is happening while neither character quite knows how to say it. There is pleasure in watching performers leave enough room for us to notice those things. A scene does not always need to explain the feeling before we can feel it.

Their scenes together have that quality. Whatever else we bring to the series now, the performances deserve to be watched on their own terms.

And this was never only a two-person story. Neko's Air belongs in any honest look back. A triangle loses its weight if we treat its third person as an inconvenience to be cleared away. Air has feelings and pressures of her own. The tension between what someone wants, what they can admit and what they believe others expect of them gives the story somewhere uncomfortable to go.

The actors' account of making it helps explain the care behind those scenes. In their Sudsapda interview, Pundao described talking with Shelly for roughly fifteen minutes before a difficult emotional scene, until she felt a barrier come down. Shelly recalled the scene at the door and struggling to hold back tears. Neko, too, described reaching a point where Air could no longer maintain her composure.

I find that account moving because it brings us back to the work. There was preparation, conversation and the difficulty of reaching an emotion when a camera was waiting. Each performer had to arrive there, and each depended on what the others gave her.

Think about the crying scene we used in Together. Watch the eyes before following the tears. Look at the effort to stay composed in front of another person. That effort gives the scene its weight. When composure finally breaks, we have already seen how hard it was to hold on to it.

This is also why I want to be careful about looking back through everything that happened afterward. Knowing more about performers can change the way we watch them. It can make an old scene newly tender or almost unbearable. But it can also tempt us to turn every glance into evidence and every line into a message about their private lives.

I would rather leave room for the characters and respect what the women have chosen to say for themselves. We can care deeply without claiming to know the rest.

The sadness around this October is part of how I am looking back. I cannot pretend otherwise. But I do not want it to swallow the series, or reduce the women who made it to a situation whose ending we cannot yet know. There is still a complete production here, with performances worth discussing, scenes worth returning to and three actresses whose contributions deserve recognition.

That is what I hope Together encourages: another look. Perhaps at a scene you remember differently now. Perhaps at a performance you overlooked while waiting for your favourite pairing to appear. There is room to celebrate what worked and still talk honestly about what did not.

We named the film Together for a reason. Whatever companies decide, whatever statements get drafted, the series cannot be unmade. Loft and Pure are still up there on the screen, reaching for each other. Air's story is still there, too. The work remains available to us, even while the people who made it have lives we cannot resolve from the audience.

For my part, I am hoping they all get the chance to keep doing work that matters to them. Until then, Roller Coaster is still here. We can watch. We can remember. And we can give the performances the attention they earned.

Dao’s Top Six · October 19–25

Sterling’s personal picks, based on the episodes he has watched.

1. PLS Love

PLS Love stays at No. 1, and Lena and Miu have made me love them more than ever. Two talented actresses are absolutely killing it.

After last week’s devastating treatment of Parn, Khun Peem regrets her outburst and is miserable without Parn by her side. She is slowly beginning to learn some of Parn’s personal truth. You can see and feel the heartache; the performance feels painfully genuine.

But why won’t Parn sit Peem down and explain her boundaries plainly? She is not, and never has been, a sex worker. Until they have that conversation, this show will keep raising my blood pressure and making me shout at the screen.

Still my No. 1. Once the finale airs, I’ll be watching for news of Lena and Miu’s next series together. I already know I’ll want another one.

2. Moonshadow · finale farewell

I don’t understand the negativity I’ve seen about Moonshadow. Emi and Bonnie are terrific actresses, delivering all the feels with the sort of G-rated affection we don’t always expect from these dramas. Their closeness on screen shines through wonderfully.

From Us to Moonshadow, EmiBonnie have given us plenty to enjoy. Their work as a RISER MUSIC duo adds another dimension: concerts, songs and music videos alongside the acting. I enjoy seeing that partnership carry across both kinds of performance.

Film, one half of NamtanFilm, was a spectacular casting choice. She delivered an outstanding performance in a substantial role, and Namtan made a remarkable impression with her appearance too. These four actresses always deliver. Now I want to watch Pluto again.

And how much fun would it be to see all four in an original GL film or series, playing two couples on vacation? I would be there on opening day.

3. Third Person

I’m loving Third Person more and more, even with YouTube being my viewing route here in America. After episode six, we’re beginning to untangle this mystery, but I still have no idea how it will end.

I’m beginning to think there are no good guys here, just different levels of badness. I suspect I know who the biggest bad girl is. If the ending lands the way I think it might, Third Person could join Roller Coaster on my regular rewatch list.

4. Khom Khlang

This show is taking forever to get where it’s going. After six episodes, I’m still struggling to stay awake through an entire installment. I know plenty of people love it, and I admire the way light and shadow paint the scenes. Visually, it can be brilliant. For me, though, it’s just boring.

5. Juliet & Juliet

A modest budget, an Asian mafia story and two young women caught in the middle. Say what you will: I’m still enjoying Juliet & Juliet far more than I expected.

Are the characters younger than my usual taste? Yes. But this is first love, the sort of powerful feeling you can remember for the rest of your life. So far, they’ve managed to stay fairly neutral in the mafia clash. I suspect that will become much harder in the next episode.

6. Fairway of Love

For me, the casting is where this show falls apart. The golf-course owner’s daughter is brought in to turn the business around, a premise that could have made a terrific series. I expect her to save the course and win the girl, but her grating immaturity is still driving me up the wall.

Ing Tanatcha deserves a word of her own. There’s an assurance to her performance that makes me want to see more of her. If she wants to keep working in GL, I hope she gets another pairing that feels more evenly matched. This one hasn’t worked for me, and I’d hate for that to be the last we see of her here.

This week on screen · October 19–25

A planning guide, checked against the Tracker on October 18. Regular-run episode numbers are expected from the published schedule; premieres are announced dates. Times below are Thailand / US Eastern. Broadcast and uncut streaming times can differ, and availability depends on your country.

Moonshadow has concluded and remains in this week’s Top Six as a finale farewell. Third Person’s studio lists an uncut YouTube release at 11:30 PM Thailand time; Fairway’s WeTV uncut slot is 11:30 PM. Check the official viewing links in the Tracker. Fairway’s platform total includes additional material, so this guide does not treat a ten-item listing as ten regular weekly episodes.

The Wire · two new arrivals

Built in Love: an architect and a feng shui master clash on a design project. The announced premiere is Wednesday, October 21, on GMM25, with an uncut edition on WeTV. This is one to sample, not a recommendation based on a reviewed episode. Official trailer.

Love on Hire: Ginny and Jayna lead the new series, announced for Thursday, October 22. WeTV’s official page now carries its teaser, trailer and cast listing. We have not reviewed the premiere or tested playback in every country. Official WeTV page.

Open the free Tracker

Which show earned your number-one spot this week? Hit reply and tell me why.

Sterling Grey
Thai GL Weekly