Whatever You’re Looking For, KinnPorsche Has It

If you’ve been around a while, you may know that I get a lot of my recommendations by succumbing to temptation after seeing endless gifsets on my Tumblr dashboard. This past weekend I finally binged the Thai BL drama KinnPorsche after months of experiencing it in gif form. And let me tell you, this show hit spots I didn’t even know I wanted. This is one of those times where I actively resented my day job for interrupting my binge.

Based on the web novel of the same name, KinnPorsche is the story of Kinn, the second son of Bangkok’s mafia family, and Porsche, the bartender turned bodyguard who steals his heart. Of course, it’s a little more complicated than that, but would it even be interesting if it were just that straightforward? But it’s the complications that make it so fun to watch, and just a little bonkers, if I’m being honest.

Whatever you’re looking for, KinnPorsche has it. Are you looking for a romantic drama between two characters who can’t help but be drawn to each other, starring actors whose chemistry oozes off the screen? Phakphum Romsaithong (Kinn) and Nattawin Wattanagitiphat (Porsche) were friends before the series started filming, and you can tell. Their easy camaraderie sells the relationship, which bounces from sweet to sexy to soft to suspicious and back again. 

It’s sexy as hell. Honestly, given the gifsets I kept seeing, I thought it would be hornier than it was, but you will still need a cold glass of water (or maybe make like Blanche Deveraux) when you watch this series. No bathroom, or pool, or window, or helicopter, is safe from these two.

But there are also unbearably sweet moments. In episode 6, Kinn and Porsche get kidnapped and lost in the woods (while handcuffed together, which is like three tropes rolled into one gloriously amazing hour of television), and we finally get to see a little of what Kinn would be like if he hadn’t been born into this life. A few episodes later, they sneak out for a secret date, and the cold-hearted mafia boyfriend submits to a dozen goofy pictures because that’s what you do on dates.

There are some consent issues at the start of their relationship, with Kinn taking advantage of a drugged Porsche. (Kinn isn’t the one who drugged him, in case that was something you might be worried about.) I didn’t really feel squicked out by it until I realized that Porsche didn’t remember what happened. I do feel like the two adequately dealt with what happened and moved past it. Kinn apologizes multiple times for his actions, and Porsche admits to being confused about everything. I can understand, though, if some people may be upset by that.

Are you looking for something with serious action? Someone gets shot within the first five minutes. There’s a traitor in the main family, and he’s dealt with in a manner that would rival Game of Thrones. Kinn and Porsche exude serious battle couple energy when they’re handcuffed together trying to escape their captors. There’s betrayal and torture and multiple shootouts. Kinn’s younger brother, Kim (Jeff Satur), has a fight scene near the end of the series that made me sit up, because until then I’d had no idea he was that skilled.

Are you looking for morally gray characters? KinnPorsche is chock full of them. This is the mafia, after all. Everyone gets a little blood on their hands (except for Porsche’s little brother, Porchay (Tinnasit Isarapongporn), who is a cinnamon roll). You may, like many other people who’ve watched this show, find yourself unwillingly falling in love with Kinn’s cousin, Vegas (Wichapas Sumettikul), one of the most tragic characters on the show. And even though the last two episodes are a haze of twists and reveals, we may never find out who the “true” villain is, because all of the narrators are unreliable.

Are you looking for a show that will rip your still beating heart from your chest and feed it to you? Oh, boy. This is it. Like, for example, sunshine-personified Pete (Jakapan Puttha) looking at the mess that is Vegas and instead of going, “I can fix him,” decides that they can be messed up together. Seriously, basically anything with these two will just make you want to die.

Do you need some moments of levity to balance out the angst? Don’t worry, KinnPorsche has your back. A lot of the comedic moments come from Kinn’s older brother, Tankhun (Thanayut Thakoon-auttaya), who has PTSD from a childhood abduction and deals with his trauma by being, well, a little ridiculous. (He’s also the only member of the main family with any brains, but that’s another story.)

In episode 2, as punishment for accidentally killing his pet fish, Tankhun makes Porsche dress up like a mermaid. There’s a scene later where Porsche defends himself against a ghost (you read that right) by throwing a dildo (that Kinn catches in his mouth). That fight scene I mentioned earlier, with Kim, is reminiscent of Spider-man in the library, or the “Gina incident” on Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

Plus, there’s a lot about this series that is just really well done. I love the music, the use of color, the prevalence of mirrors as a literary device, and the cinematography. This is going to sound weird (I’m ace so I chalk it up to that), but the scene where Kinn and Porsche have sex in the pool is, like, really well shot. I actually really like the framing; it was just such a cool scene. (I also like the lighting in the, um, second sexy bathroom scene. It’s very dramatic.)

In fact, the only thing more bonkers than the show itself is the story of how it came about. I’m not familiar enough with it to really explain just how insane the behind-the-scenes chaos of it is (and honestly I can’t verify its authenticity), but this Tumblr post summarizes it pretty well:

The show isn’t perfect, but my only true complaint is such a minor thing: I really felt that the structure was off in the finale. The order of the scenes in the denouement just seemed out of place; I thought they should have been arranged slightly differently. The scene they chose to end on was an interesting choice, particularly with the timeline established by canon.

Given how the finale ended, I do believe there is enough material for a second season, especially considering the global popularity of the series. If this is all we get, the ending is satisfying enough that I don’t think many people will be disappointed if the story doesn’t continue. But I still have some questions, and I think there is still enough doubt about the answers that we did get, to justify more – even if it’s just a movie or something.

A nice bonus are the “special episodes”, which feature interviews with the cast members and occasionally live reactions to the episodes. You can find these and more behind-the-scenes content on Be On Cloud’s official YouTube.

KinnPorsche is 14 approximately hour-long episodes and currently streams on iQiyi.

Author: Jamie Sugah

Jamie has a BA in English with a focus in creative writing from The Ohio State University. She self-published her first novel, The Perils of Long Hair on a Windy Day, which is available through Amazon. She is currently an archivist and lives in New York City with her demon ninja vampire cat. She covers television, books, movies, anime, and conventions in the NYC area.

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