1
Maggi64
New Jersey, USA
A Lead You'll Want to Punch 10 Minutes Into the Show
Ordinarily, I enjoy dramas about a nerd who is in love with the class star, as I’ve seen that plot handled very well in other dramas. But in this one, the nerd is not merely obnoxious, but so horrifyingly obnoxious that there is no way to make it believable for the class star to fall for him. Forget a class star, even the audience wants to punch this nerd within the 1st ten minutes of the show.
He smiles constantly, which is a problem when one’s smile vacillates between creepy and goofy. So we have to look at some nerd who wears a creepy/goofy smile for virtually every frame of film that he’s in. His body movement is all jerky, spastic motions that are meant to be cute and funny, but are instead just plain idiotic. Between the goofy smile he wears 24/7, and the spastic body movements, he actually comes off as a slow-witted special ed kid.
Then we have the class star and his gang, whom the costume designer for some reason decided to put in lipstick. No kidding, the cast is all wearing lipstick – the guys, the girls, all of them. They all wear the same shade of pink lipstick. Now, the costume designer did create cute school uniforms with powder blue, white trimmed jackets and ties, but albeit cute, this was still unwise because we know from other BL’s that no Thai university has such uniforms. They wear black slacks/skirts with white button-down tops at all Thai universities. But hey, even if the uniforms in this show are unrealistic, at least they are appealing. Nothing else is.
The lead is so unappealing that if the audience can’t stand him in the first 10 minutes, there is no way to make it believable that the gorgeous class star will fall for him. Of course, we know that the plot will contrive to make the class star fall for him, but it will not be believable when it happens. The problem is not that it’s unlikely for a hot guy to fall for a nerd, as this plot has been handled in ways that are very believable in other dramas; it’s that we cannot possibly believe it could happen in this case because the nerd is obnoxious beyond the pale. I wanted to reach through my screen and gag him so he'd just stop shrieking every time he saw his beloved on campus. I felt the same with his gang of friends, who are also constantly shrieking, clapping, and jumping. Oh, that’s when they are not helping their nerd pal to stalk the class star.
And let’s talk about the stalking. The nerd saves anything his beloved touches, including empty soda cans, which he retrieves from the trash and adds to his vast collection of other souvenirs his beloved has touched. He keeps these souvenirs in his bedroom, which he has wallpapered with pix of his beloved from floor to ceiling on all 4 walls. He also has a life-size cardboard cutout of his beloved, which is bad enough. But here's the kicker: he has blanket with a life-size photo of his beloved on it. He sleeps on this blanket, beside the life-size pix of his beloved, and kisses it. He does this while fantasizing that the life-size pix is alive and kissing him back. It’s not merely creepy, it’s serial killer creepy.
I know the director wanted us to find this all kooky and endearing. Alas, the kid is already so unlikeable based on his facial expressions and mannerisms that once the audience sees his serial killer bedroom in the 1st episode, there's no coming back. The show simply cannot redeem itself from this premise.
Lastly, I read somewhere that the actor playing the nerd is the little brother of Executive Producer, Saint Suppapong Udomkaewkanjana (an actor famous from other BL's). I am not sure if it's true, but nepotism would be the only explanation for why they would've cast such a terrible actor in what is clearly a well financed production. I mean, the production values of this show are the one and only thing I can praise. Otherwise, it is a total FAIL.
He smiles constantly, which is a problem when one’s smile vacillates between creepy and goofy. So we have to look at some nerd who wears a creepy/goofy smile for virtually every frame of film that he’s in. His body movement is all jerky, spastic motions that are meant to be cute and funny, but are instead just plain idiotic. Between the goofy smile he wears 24/7, and the spastic body movements, he actually comes off as a slow-witted special ed kid.
Then we have the class star and his gang, whom the costume designer for some reason decided to put in lipstick. No kidding, the cast is all wearing lipstick – the guys, the girls, all of them. They all wear the same shade of pink lipstick. Now, the costume designer did create cute school uniforms with powder blue, white trimmed jackets and ties, but albeit cute, this was still unwise because we know from other BL’s that no Thai university has such uniforms. They wear black slacks/skirts with white button-down tops at all Thai universities. But hey, even if the uniforms in this show are unrealistic, at least they are appealing. Nothing else is.
The lead is so unappealing that if the audience can’t stand him in the first 10 minutes, there is no way to make it believable that the gorgeous class star will fall for him. Of course, we know that the plot will contrive to make the class star fall for him, but it will not be believable when it happens. The problem is not that it’s unlikely for a hot guy to fall for a nerd, as this plot has been handled in ways that are very believable in other dramas; it’s that we cannot possibly believe it could happen in this case because the nerd is obnoxious beyond the pale. I wanted to reach through my screen and gag him so he'd just stop shrieking every time he saw his beloved on campus. I felt the same with his gang of friends, who are also constantly shrieking, clapping, and jumping. Oh, that’s when they are not helping their nerd pal to stalk the class star.
And let’s talk about the stalking. The nerd saves anything his beloved touches, including empty soda cans, which he retrieves from the trash and adds to his vast collection of other souvenirs his beloved has touched. He keeps these souvenirs in his bedroom, which he has wallpapered with pix of his beloved from floor to ceiling on all 4 walls. He also has a life-size cardboard cutout of his beloved, which is bad enough. But here's the kicker: he has blanket with a life-size photo of his beloved on it. He sleeps on this blanket, beside the life-size pix of his beloved, and kisses it. He does this while fantasizing that the life-size pix is alive and kissing him back. It’s not merely creepy, it’s serial killer creepy.
I know the director wanted us to find this all kooky and endearing. Alas, the kid is already so unlikeable based on his facial expressions and mannerisms that once the audience sees his serial killer bedroom in the 1st episode, there's no coming back. The show simply cannot redeem itself from this premise.
Lastly, I read somewhere that the actor playing the nerd is the little brother of Executive Producer, Saint Suppapong Udomkaewkanjana (an actor famous from other BL's). I am not sure if it's true, but nepotism would be the only explanation for why they would've cast such a terrible actor in what is clearly a well financed production. I mean, the production values of this show are the one and only thing I can praise. Otherwise, it is a total FAIL.
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