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The Cupid Coach thai drama review
Completed
The Cupid Coach
6 people found this review helpful
by labcat
Mar 30, 2021
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 6.0
Story 6.0
Acting/Cast 6.5
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 6.0
This review may contain spoilers

Were scenes clobbered together to make a series after the filming encountered problems?

The supernatural element in this series could have been used to tell an interesting story, but it ends up being redundant and even weakens the story.

Tae, who initially has a crush on Bhu, summons this angel of love (something like that) by chance. He decides to call the angel Nite, and predictably, Tae and the angel develop feelings for each other. There is some promise in this despite the predictability. There is even some nice build-up regarding how Nite is unable to stay permanently, so the question of how the romance will end up looms over the viewer.

Unfortunately, the disappearance of Nite is too abrupt. I don't just mean it's abrupt for the Tae in the story. It occurs too suddenly in the story and leaves a thick narrative thread hanging. To make matters worse, the disappearance is followed up with a very brief scene of Nite missing Tae in some heavenly realm, making one think that there would be more in the story about this angel. However, Nite the angel doesn't appear in the story anymore except as flashbacks and Tae's hallucinations. These flashbacks are perhaps added in to give the semblance of continuity, but they are counterproductive as they keep reminding us of the unanswered questions we have about Nite. (Then again, some episodes would be even shorter without them.)

After Nite's disappearance, a miserable Tae meets another guy called Nite and has a one-nite-stand with Nite2. Besides the name, there are things about Nite2 that reminds one of Nite the angel. Again, we get teased with a promise that there would be some continuation of the Nite1 story. However, those expecting some actual continuation will be disappointed. There is no apparent explanation for or purpose behind these coincidences.

Eventually Tae falls in love with Nite2 and overcomes his fear of kissing someone he likes lest the latter should disappear, so at least there's a happy ending. The series is not that bad if we look at different parts separately, e.g. if we pretend that the story of Tae and Nite1 is a different story from the story of Tae and Nite2. What makes the series rather weak is how everything is put together. It also doesn't help that Tee, the actor for Tae, looks like another character altogether with his new hairstyle. Because the scenes are not always filmed in the order they eventually appear in the series, the change in his image also affects continuity. The conspicuous loose end of Nite 1's disappearance is not tied eventually.

The other couple, Bhu and Que, appear quite prominently in the series at first even though their story does not strongly intersect with Tae and Nite1's. However, they seem to be largely written out after the disappearance of Nite1. There's some poor excuse for Bhu's brief re-appearance at the end of Episode 11 (repeated at beginning of Episode 12), which indicates an awareness of flaws in the story, but it does not salvage things. Perhaps some practical issues affected the filming, but the effects on the series as a whole are quite serious.

The differences in the length of the episodes also seem rather glaring—some episodes seem exceptionally short. Again, it is a sign that the filming process was affected by some unforeseen circumstances. Unfortunately, any attempt to salvage the series was not successful in helping it fulfil the potential it had at the start.

We are left with this strong sense that the story that we see is quite different from what was at first intended, and not in a good way.
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