2 Moons: The Ambassador (2022)

No more moons please!

Well, this is getting repetitive...
You would think that after giving us Kimmon and Copter and the 15 insufferable characters that Bas has played since he was the original Wayo in the first edition of "2Moons", this company would have said... "ok enough... we did well enough, let's move on". Sadly, season 2 became a chaotic mess when all the original cast left and they had to re-cast, sending fans into distress because some couldn't accept the idea of not having Kimmon and Copter playing Ming and Kit or couldn't accept the idea of having inexperienced newcomers replacing them.

But, we got "2Moons2", with a whole new cast and wasting the first 4 episodes with a reminder of what happened in the original series. This series was not perfect but we got Earth (now called Din) doing a decent job as the new Wayo, Joong who seems to be the most successful of the bunch moving to GMMTV, Nine who now seems to focus on his singing career after being on a Chinese singing competition, and Phoom who was quite subdued in the very mediocre "Coffee Melody". That season ended with Wayo suffering from his picture being placed all over the university by the guy who likes him but gets rejected and then seeks revenge. He runs away to his home and while Pha is kicking the other guy's ass, Joong (Ming) comes and tells everyone that he knows where Wayo is, at home with his father.

Even a this point, season 3 seemed inevitable, focusing on Wayo-Pha and their crisis and also on a secondary character called Suthee (played by Green) who was going to be "The Ambassador" in season 3. But, Mello Thailand/Motive Village (whatever the name is now) messed it up, again... first by creating a music group with all the guys from "2Moons2", except Din... which created an incredible uproar by the fans. Then, more controversies with their contracts and between the company and director Anusorn (who directed the second part), ended up with the whole cast quitting again. Instead of ending the project, Motive Village decided to re-cast for the third time and we ended up with this mediocre series as the third season of an already mediocre project.

Some of the bad things:

1. The plot/storyline: No clue, really... the main character of the this season is Lom, who is Pha's cousin and his "enemies to lovers" story with Tatch. They both argue about being the candidate for the university's Ambassador competition and decide that, whoever has more IG followers by certain date, will be the faculty's representative. Lom lives in a self-pitying world as he always says he is not good looking enough, especially when compared to Tatch, but he has way more followers than him, so he is always trying to make Tatch more popular and in the process, falls in love with him. That part of the plot seems clear... but then we have the other couples from the previous two seasons and we see them quite scarcely throughout the episodes... the Wayo issue from the end of season 2 should have been the starting point for this season but, instead, gets pushed I think until episode 5 or 6 (don't even remember now) when Pha tells Lom how the problem was solved as a 3-minute flashback during the episode.
Kit and Ming, Pha and Wayo and Forth and Beam do not advance their relationships and, instead, we get the usual jealousy, fighting, arguing and tears in the usual BL tropes wasting whatever momentum the couples from part 2 left for the new couples in this season. I mean, we even have Pha and Wayo still arguing in the last episode and suddenly solving things with a kiss and a hug. It seems the director and the writer were set on focusing so much on Lom-Tatch, that the rest of the guys were just a side note during the series... if you watched carefully (unless you fell asleep from the boredom or you quit the show before the end), each couple (Wayo-Pha, Forth-Beam and Ming-Kit) had their "big" argument, their jealousy moment, and their NC scene with some very awkward kissing making it the same dull formula for all the couples all the time. Lom and Tatch being the focus of this season, had way more screen time, way more kissing scenes (a bit less awkward than the other couples), so we got to see the perfectly waxed armpits from Danny many many times. Plus, we even got an extra couple with Toon and Tong (Lom's friends) kissing in episode 12 without much development for their couple.

2. The acting: Yes, I am aware the actors are brand new and QUITE inexperienced... but it was painful to watch. No emotions in sad scenes or angry scenes or any scene whatsoever, no chemistry between them, some of the characters really don't match these actors, and yes, I also know I shouldn't compare, for example, the acting and character development by Nine vs.the acting and character development by Toey (both played Kit) or the cute, naive acting done by Din vs. the cute, naive acting done by Park (both played Wayo), but the chemistry between the couples in "2Moons2" felt a bit more natural than with these couples. Plus, with the reduced screen time that the 3 original couples got, meant we barely had any chance of really getting to watch how each actor portrayed their character... just to see if they brought anything original to the table. Instead, we end up getting Danny (playing Tatch) and Mark (playing Lom) for 85% of the episodes and very few glimpses of the rest. It is a shame that the company did not prepare these guys better for what was definitely a pressure-cooker because fans already had 2 different casts to compare and to choose from.

3. Side characters: If we barely saw the main couples, we had even less side characters with Lom's friends being the ones who got most airtime and the cartoon-like villain we got this season (Panon), that actually has a good twin as well (Parak)... evil twin-good twin, how original! But the bad guy is in love with Lom and tries to get him to break up with Tatch ... so in this Thai BL we got the crazy male character instead of the usual crazy female character. We also have a girl who likes Tatch and is a friend of Lom... she thinks Tatch will ask her out but he never does and then feels betrayed by Lom when Tatch tells her he is in love with him and not her. At least we didn't see the plot get any crazier by having her do something "evil", so we settled with the crazy male character doing all the bad things, then get beat up with his own twin and miss the Ambassador competition.

Good things? I'm not sure... some of the actors had cute moments but good luck finding something else.

In the end, for the third time, this series has been wasted due to poor management, poor writing, poor directing and mediocre acting. I truly hope this is the last season of the "2Moons" franchise because the original was not exactly a masterpiece and the other 2 have gone down in quality ever since.

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A fine series with an emotionally charged MDL rating

Let me start by saying that if the low rating for this series is putting you off from watching, be aware that the MDL score has been severely skewed by viewer distaste for the studio that produced it. This distaste has also affected the way many MDLers have responded to the storyline and performances by the actors. (If you're at all skeptical about this, just peruse the other reviews here.)

Given that the MDL community has seen to rate this series on a curve, for a more accurate score you should probably add 20% to whatever you see when you visit its MDL page. As I write this review that puts the number at 8.28, which rounds down to 8, and this seems to me to be a fairer appraisal of what you get here.

What I came to appreciate most about 2MTA is how the main couple's relationship is depicted. Once Tatch and Lom get together, their approach to one another becomes a model of how two people with mutual love and respect should communicate and work together to overcome any issues that arise. Misunderstandings between them are promptly cleared up and have the impact of only making their relationship stronger.

Another endearing aspect of their pairing is how Tatch's determined pursuit of Lom has the effect of transforming Lom from someone with a victim mentality into a man who is confident and trusting, and willing to smile. (At the outset Lom spends a lot of time frowning... lol) It seems to me that the moment when Lom finally becomes brave enough to take a chance on Tatch is in Episode 4, when Tatch sings a karaoke love song to him -- a song that actor Danny Disatharit sings live on-set as the scene is filmed rather than have the soundtrack patched in later, as many other series would do. This adds to the intimacy, as Danny's singing is sweet and charming. Within the context of the story its sincerity seems to finally allow Lom to see Tatch the way Tatch himself has been striving to be seen.

It is also refreshing to see that between the two guys the charismatic one, Tatch, is the pursuer. In casting Tatch the production found an actor who is, frankly, gorgeous -- tall and strikingly handsome, with an athletic build. To emphasize the differences between the Tatch and Lom characters it does seem that Mark Vachara Promma, who plays Lom, was given a "make-under" to heighten the contrast, resulting in him looking a little mousy and plain. When viewing promotional material for the series and Mark's Instagram I was surprised by how good-looking, even glamorous, he is in real life.

There are several NC scenes, which (granted) are not a must for every viewer, but what I like is how they're a welcome acknowledgement of real life, where when a couple first gets together they usually have a hard time keeping their hands off each other. This contrasts with the "one and done" approach that many other series take, as though the intimate content is something to check off the list and get over with. That's certainly not the case here, where the main leads get together several times, and in a variety of ways. ;) I should add that their excellent manner of communicating with each other is an aspect of those scenes as well. Again, a nice change of pace from the usual.

As for the six original "2 Moons" characters, who were recast for a second time for this series, I came away less impressed with their storylines, which give us so many of those things that the Tatch-Lom relationship avoids: mainly jealousy and long drawn-out misunderstandings. Ironically, these three couples are supposed to have more mature relationships than Tatch and Lom, having been together for a couple of years, but what we get from them becomes tiresome to watch.

One other nitpick is the introduction of a silly kidnapping storyline as the series nears its end.

And what about the writing, acting and production? Well, I could easily name four or five series from 2022 that have a poorer storyline, worse acting, and crappier production values than 2MTA, but have been given higher ratings despite it. While the performances here were at times awkward I generally found them to be quite good, especially for a bunch of newcomers. It certainly didn't detract from my own enjoyment.

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