Only Friends, Sizzling or Fizzling?: Overall Series Review

I quite literally have so many thoughts on Only Friends that I don’t know when I’ll be able to put them fully into words. So this is going to be a disjointed list of my running thoughts.

This means that the following will be filled with spoilers. So if you haven't caught up, and don't appreciate spoilers, read with caution.

How the friend group came out: I will say, I went into the show wishing the friend group would be destroyed with people going their own ways or at least the couples… Instead, we got Boston ostracized from the group with him meekly extending an invite for the rest of the group to meet him next new year in New York. Now, I’m not fully on the Boston-did-no-wrong boat, because I do think several of the things he did warranted apologies, but I also agree that he deserved just as many apologies back. I really wish the show had either gone the direction of everyone begrudgingly reconciling, the friend group completely destroyed, or at the very least truly acknowledging how they all hurt each other. But as much as the ostracizing of Boston left me with a bitter taste in my mouth, I guess the outcome mirrored reality. Friends band together when they all feel wronged and Boston had self-sabotaged his relationship with all of them.

Boston and Nick: I’ve seen some murmurs about Nick was hypocritical about saying that Boston doesn’t have to change but still leaving him, but I wholeheartedly disagree. Nick loved Boston, knew how Boston was, but also let himself be taken by his own fantasies of a monogamous relationship. He even acknowledges to Sand that Boston was being fair with him... which I still think this is debatable, because I strongly believe Boston and Nick needed a whole conversation about non-monogamy long before Boston started making out with Boeing. I'm actually relatively happy that Nick and Boston didn't end up together, for both their sakes. Nick wanted and needed that monogamy from Boston, he realized that he would never get that from Boston. He may love Boston for who he is, but that doesn't mean that his love can overcome that need for monogamy. Meanwhile Boston doesn't want to be monogamous, even if he does want to be Nick's boyfriend. This was never going to be solved even with all the power of love. They had different needs and Nick wasn't willing to put himself through that pain of understanding Boston but neglecting his own needs, so he let him go. Now, my issue lies in the execution of getting to that point. Since the beginning of the last quarter of the show, Boston and Nick got incredibly sidelined. As a result, their story development suffered for it. I think we were lucky if we even saw them for about 5 minutes after episode 9, it almost felt as if the show didn't know how to reconciliate their story once Boston was out of the friend group. I don't think P'Jojo was intentionally going out to villainize Boston's non-monogamous preference (assumingly, based on his other works) and I don't think that fans are reading it as so are being deaf/illiterate, but rather the vagueness due to the lack of story-telling time that Boston's arc had really fed into it. Also, maybe it was just me, but the sense of time in the story felt incredibly confusing when watching these last couple of episodes. So Boston's admittance of self-sabotaging his relationships, asking to be Nick's boyfriend, then making out with Boeing feels like it all occurred with 72 hours; it gave me whiplash and made me disappointed.

Sand and Ray: Out of everyone, I'm the most satisfied with their outcome and journey to it, but even then I still have a little criticisms. First off, let me get the airplane out of the room: Boeing. I'm in the boat (unironically) that Boeing should have been introduced much sooner and have been utilized more to create the suspense of potential rift between Sand and Ray. Or even more development of Sand and Boeing before SandRay got together, because I swear the emotional stakes lagged for me, because I'm not sure why Sand would have even been swayed by Boeing when he had just confessed to Ray that he couldn't live without him either. I understood why Sand was so hostile with Top, but I'm not sure I understood BoeingSand as well. So this whole cockfight just felt needless and an attempt at a last bit of messiness, because how underdeveloped it was. Now Sand and Ray, as individual characters, I only have minor qualms about. I wish we had learned more about Sand's dad and Ray's relationship with his father. From what I've seen, there's so much context that was left out behind Ray's backstory, that it would have been nice to explore even 5% of it. Now we kept hearing about Sand's dad, but it just felt like a lost plot point. I wish we really had time to delve into Ray struggling with his addiction and rehab. Aside from those minor complaints, I'm happy with where we left them and I hope they're able to go around festival-to-festival with a lot of love and success in their future.

Mew and Top: I have very little to talk about them, mostly because I skimmed through their scenes. Now this isn't because I think that Force and Book were bad in their scenes, because it was the exact opposite. They skeeved me out so incredibly much, that it was suffocating to watch their scenes. I wanted Mew to be more that a judgmental, holier-than-thou, character, especially when he stooped so low to revenge-porning Boston. I wanted him to acknowledge that he was just as nasty as he perceived Boston to be, but instead he always felt so sanctimonious and self-righteous that it was nauseating. With Top.... I wish we had gotten more towards his backstory with his fear of being alone due to the fire. It completely went over my head that the fire scene in the last episode was supposed to show that Top was finally able to handle his trauma better and that he was a better person because of Mew. His backstory was so little and came in just disjointed scenes, that I just made no connection and didn't come out of that scene with any emotion other than confusion. They came out of everything together... Not surprising. I have no comments neither positive nor negative towards that aspect.

Cheum and April: Cheum was as aggravating as Mew for me. Self-righteous and I swear she didn't like anyone in her friend group other than Mew, and even that feels questionable. She had literally no faith in Mew being a grown adult and kept pulling Top around when Mew was going through a breakdown. I felt no love from her when it came to Ray, so I always wondered if their friendship was solely out of convenience. Then the final blow was with how she dealt with the Atom x Boston situation. I completely understood her initial reaction of believing Atom and even confrontation, as a sibling, I would also deck a friend if they SA'd and were lording over my sibling's head a nude picture. But the moment that she knew Atom was lying and she just hugged him? Yeah.... I lost most of the little respect that I had for her. Pity points for that tiny apology that she gave to Boston, because she was the only one that did so, but definitely was not enough for the accusations that she brought against him. ALSO! Her absolutely shit-talking April's passion and work to her friends? That's not lack of communication between April and Cheum, that was just so backstabbing of her. April is a better woman than I will ever be, because I will never have the patience to deal with a girlfriend that thinks so lowly of my work. April, I wanted so much more of our indie-film queen. I wanted more out of her relationship with Cheum, especially with that truth-bomb that Ray spilled out. I wanted both of them to do the hard work of saving their relation other than just sweeping it under the rug. I wish we had seen so much of her!

P'Jojo and Vivienne: This is a tricky situation, so I'll be very brief on my thoughts, but I really hope these two never made it to Tumblr. Creators always getting involved with fandom spaces are always going to be difficult to navigate, this time around it seems that feelings were hurt and anger arose on both sides... Criticism of one's work will always be around and its more prominent the bigger the fandom is, which for most BLs, I think Only Friends was under a huge magnifying glass. It's nice to see staff interacting with fans about their work, but I do think there should be a line drawn. I'm not sure if their crossing of the line was for better or worse.

Final Thoughts: Anyways, this show will be missed because I did come out of the weekends enjoying the vast majority of it. I even have a couple of metas half-written, so maybe I'll get around to finishing those in the coming days. For a show that promised mess, it did deliver on that front, but I can't help but be sad that its coherence fizzled a bit towards the end. Maybe I'll come back to it in a year or two with a better appreciation of the vision, but for now... I'm mostly satisfied while also conflicted on what I think about the end. OH! And before I close this off... What the hell happened to the confessionals/talking head/asides? Why did we drop those off in the latter half?

I was really hoping that Nick and Boston could have worked out in a non-monogamous relationship, but I'm glad the show made it clear why they didn't.

Boston explains that he sees relationships as feelings and sex as something separate, which is completely valid. But this would never work with Nick, who is possessive and wants a relationship to mean only being with him.

Boston is Poly, and Nick is Monogamous. They'd never realistically work.

Sad, but understandable, and I was really here for the Nasty4Nasty relationship.

the Only Friends kiss circle is complete - Sand kissed Ray, Ray kissed Mew, Mew kissed Top, Top kissed Boston, Boston kissed Nick, and Nick kissed Sand 😵‍💫

- inspired by this post by @happylovelyarmy

Only Friends + text posts (pt. 1/4)

bonus:

top when nick asked him to stay away from boston:

Why did you still love me? I did lots of nasty things to you.

ONLY FRIENDS | EP 10

bostonnick + boston smiling during sex.

Only Friends (2023) | Ep.11

But I don't think you love Ton. He just happened to walk into your life at the time you're lost. You will meet someone nice eventually. Don't fall for an asshole. Trust me.

ONLY FRIENDS | Ep 10

Only Friends (2023)

episodes 1 // 7 // 10

Too much drama here.

Only Friends (2023) dir. Jojo Tichakorn & Ninew Pinya

I missed you.

ONLY FRIENDS | EPISODE 10

The “Dangling Chain” Chronicles: BL Edition

- Love in The Air: (Payu & Rain)

- Pit Babe: (Charlie & Babe)

- Cutie Pie: (Yi & Diao)

- Only Friends: (Boston & Drakes character)(Boston & Top) (Boston & Nick) (Sand & Ray)

Bonus points for Payu, Ray, and Babe because their chains have crosses LOL

Only Friends + text posts (pt. 4/5)

bonus:

I am absolutely obsessed with Nick’s farewell speech to Boston and the emotions it provoked in him.

We see Boston immediately react to this statement, because we know being with Nick also made Boston happy. He never smiled and genuinely had fun as much as when he was spending time with Nick.

And when Nick starts complimenting his talent, he looks at him with a mix of hope and suspicion. The question is clear on his face—are you just gassing me up because you want my forgiveness, or do you mean that? Because as we know, others don’t really see Boston this way.

Here Boston turns away because he knows this isn’t true (though I don’t think Nick is lying, he just tends to see the best in people). Boston’s friends don’t get him or the moral code he lives by (because make no mistake y’all, he clearly has one, it’s just different from theirs) and mostly keep him around so they can enjoy the chaos he brings and feel superior to him.

But then Nick pulls him back, tells him he doesn’t need to change and he loves him for who he is. Nick is probably the only person who’s ever told Boston he doesn’t need him to change. Everyone else, including his friends and family, are constantly telling him he’s a bad person. Boston so badly wants to believe this is true. Who else loves him for who he is? No one.

And when Nick ends by saying he won’t show up in front of him anymore, we see Boston’s expression drop into one of quiet devastation. He is still angry with Nick (for good reason) but he isn’t ready for this to be over.

And he is so shaken by this moment that he actually walks away from his hookup and heads out to the main floor to stare at Nick with perhaps the most vulnerable expression we have ever seen on his face. Our resident chaotic shit stirrer has caught feelings.