The Comments (2021)

Be careful when you comment on the internet

In only five episodes, this series managed to touch upon cyber bullying, which is a very sensitive topic, in a very delicate and realistic way. The series focuses on Papang, a top student, who is famous in her school, especially through her social media account. One day Papang takes her own life and the series portrays the happenings that led her to that decision.
The Comments deal with the impact that social media have on our lives and how our false social media persona can devour our true selves. The series is a social commentary, about the things that people post online with the sole purpose of judging another human being, without thinking or caring about the consequences. It also deals with the hate comments that celebrities receive and how much they can affect them. The acting is really good throughout the series and I would recommend it to anyone interested in this subject. However, it is not that easy to watch, especially the last episode, so take this into consideration. I liked the fact that I was able to read the comments that the viewers made, while watching the series on YouTube. In that way it is even more impactful, because even though the characters are fictional, the situation was very realistic and the comments were concerning to say the least.
What I loved most about the series, is how the character of Papang is depicted. She is not just the victim of cyber bullying and she is not there to play that role. Papang made some selfish decisions, humiliated her friends and she definitely wasn't the most likable character ever. She was inconsiderate about her friends and maybe if she acted in another way, everything would have turned out differently. However, Papang was also a human being with her own feelings and she didn't deserve the hateful comments she got, no matter how she acted. She didn't deserve to lose her life like that and she definitely didn't deserve to feel that hopeless. This series is about the complexity of human emotions that can lead people to extreme actions. The moral is that social media can be used in a harmful, but also in a helpful way. There is always a choice and in the end it is our own decision if we will use them to hurt or help others.

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When our high school session officially disbanded in the year of 20xx, there were two students less than the ones who had joined. One of them was a girl who isn't here anymore and the other is typing this review.

The Comments obviously tried to cover a lot of ground in 5 episodes of 45 minutes; each episode is jam-packed, and flitting between the past and present, “The Comments” manages to tell a pretty coherent and well done story about Papang, and why she killed herself, that the reason might be closer to home than we had thought.

*warning for spoilers*

Papang is a character straight out of every series out there–straight A+ student, sporty, student body President , super nice, super pouplar, yadda yadda. But what sets her apart is that unlike other such 'super' characters, she killed herself.

“With social media if anyone wants to say something bad or mean, they can just type it.”

The story opens on Papang’s funeral where we see her mother and brother Khan (New) conducting the rites and people paying their respects. On the very next day, we are brought to the investigation of Papang’s death. The police find it a curious case because Papang had not left any note.

While Khan investigates his sister’s death in his own way, we are slowly allowed to see who Papang was and what Papang did through the eyes of Pok (Sing Harit) whom she viciously ridiculed and turned down on the day he proposed to her in high school; Nan (Ciize) who dislikes her own self and feels over shadowed by Papang and in her efforts to share Papang’s glory for just a little bit finds herself facing hatred; Toon, who was Papang’s best friend but ran a hate account about her.

I think the genius of this show lies in the fact that instead of evangelism, it tries to speak about consequences. Every time you leave a comment, it can have either a good consequence or a bad consequence. It can lead to it directly or it can indirectly cause it. All of these characters are morally gray–nobody is angelically right or completely in the wrong–Papang more so than anybody else. She is expected to be a perfect angel, to force a smile when she isn't feeling like it. But she can be pretty rotten too because at the end of the day, she is also an eighteen year old youth. The show doesn’t seek to justify or disparage her, she is just another person with her own problems, problems that are added on by people who are supposed to be her friends. Problems she can’t take to her two living family members.

Another side of the show is that a wrong can’t be corrected with another wrong. Yes, Papang was wrong in how she treated her friends, but does that justify how Nan used her profile or that Toon was spreading hate about her?

Another message that I strongly felt was the relationship between Paang and her mother. In the beginning, we are lead to believe that Papang’s mother is disinterested in her daughter but that isn’t the case. To provide more context, after Papang’s father died/left, Papang’s mother has a relationship with another man who has a family. He is neither abusive nor invasive, in fact he is quite the opposite, but his presence shuts off another safe place for Papang. And with her brother Khan away in Bangkok, and having alienated her two friends, Papang doesn’t have a safe space anymore.

The story doesn’t have much suspense nor is it written to be tragic. But the lucidity with which this simple story is portrayed left a harrowing impression on me, and maybe because I too was once a bit similar to Papang. The changes in her behaviour, how she was vivacious and bright, then became unpleasant and bad tempered, and the sadness which got replaced by that expression that the fight had gone out of her, it reminded me of that period not yet so far away, when everything about me said that I had already decided. Papang too had already decided. All this was beautifully portrayed here.

I couldn’t really relate to Papang’s experience but I think we reached (or woupd have reacjed) the same end in different ways. The transition in her character was something I understood completely and therein lies the sign of a good show, how it manages to make you feel the character despite the gulf separating our experiences.

One last thing I learned from here is that we should stop 'living off comments.' Papang had started living off the validation she got from "the comments," and is kinder to pseudo people across the screen than she is to her own friends and family. Same goes for Nan. When we try to please anonymous people across the screen, we inevitably change, more often for the worse.

The story ends showing how everyone is affected by comments in one way or the other–the elderly teacher at their school, Toon, Pok, Nan, the 'fat' boy, Papang’s mother, Papang and Gina–nobody is free from it. In such times it is essential to remember that comments can kill and there may be unimaginable consequences.

Apart from this, stellar acting! I was blown away by Jennie, Sarunchana and Nan. Main roles for Jennie please GMM, you have an unused gem right here. Sarunchana is wonderful, now she needs a series where she doesn’t die five minutes into episode 1 :') I am always happy to see Ciize, it's an additional perk that she acts really well. Glad to see Sing Harit again. And New wasn't really the main role–the stage was taken by Jennie and Sarunchana XD but he did his thing. Huge shoutout to Fon who played Paapng’s mother. One of the most important scenes was hers and if she hadn’t done so well the ending wouldn’t have hit that hard.

To anybody who is about to watch this, do so with an open mind and I hope you learn to distinguish between hatred and criticism if you don't already. Do check out Jennie and Sarunchana’s interviews available in the GMM channel where they talk about hatred they have personally faced. And leave a good comment

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This drama will stay with me for a very long time. It's, hands down, one of the best Thai dramas I've ever seen. Actually... no, it's one of the best dramas I've seen, period. All the characters were so rich, so 3D and every single one of them - everyone but Newwiee's Khan - had his or her hand in what happened to Papang, even she herself because even she was not blameless.

It was so interesting, the way the layers were slowly peeled off, revealing to Khan - the outsider in this story - what happened to his sister, who her friends truly were, what they had done, what she had done, how much she hadn't been telling him because she didn't want him to worry, her sweet big brother. So much ugliness and toxicity...

"Don't let your comments kill another person."

Yeah.

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In my opinion, this is one of the most meaningful tv shows that have aired this year because of the impactful storyline. The acting felt real and each character impacted the overall delivery of the story. There were no unnecessary distractions and the show kept close to the storyline. “The Comments” is a story about the impact of various people on Papang (played by Aye Sarunchana Apisamaimongkol), a high school student’s life ultimately leading to her death.

Although it sounds gruesome, there is no gore or explicit details about her death. This way, the audience picture it themselves without going through the pain of watching the deed happen. The story deals more with the emotional stress and depression faced by Papang rather than her end. I liked this aspect of the story that makes it more interesting and relatable. In each episode, the show deals with a different character’s impact. Although it seems very similar to the US tv show '13 Reasons Why, it is different in terms of character development and the setting, as it is set in an Asian setting.

Papang is the top student of her school. She is considered good looking, has a caring personality and is excellent in sports and academics. This is why her brother, Khan (Played by New Thitipoom Tacha-Apaikun) could not understand why she chose to commit suicide. Since he lived in Bangkok, he had no idea about his younger sister’s life at home, and even when they visited each other, she never showed signs of distress. The police shut the case after the first investigation since everyone’s alibi checked out, and the only reason they could deduce was that it was a copycat suicide committed since Papang’s idol, Gina had done the same two weeks earlier.

Although it seems like a plausible reason, Khan does not believe that his sister would do so just because of a celebrity, so he tries to investigate further. He later finds out from a male student that Papang was actually cyberbullied by a group of people on Twitter. Whenever the school Twitter account posts about Papang’s achievements, a mysterious account would heckle the post and try to worsen her reputation. Slowly many of Papang’s classmates followed in the account’s footsteps and turned against her. They hated her for being a good person and the top scorer.

The show tackles the most important issue in today's world, which is abuse in social media. That each comment has a consequence and a psychological impact. (Spoiler) It is later revealed that Papang’s best friend, Theerata (played by Film Rachanun Mahawan) was actually behind the accounts and caused her this pain due to her jealousy. Moreover, Papang’s other best friend, Nan (played by Ciize Apichaya Saejung) used Papang’s identity to catfish boys on a dating app to feel validated .

When Papang found out that those closest to her ruined her image and worsened her mental health, she turned to her favourite celebrity, Gina (Played by Jennie Panhan). Gina is a transgender stand-up comedian, who faced a lot of hatred for dating a famous celebrity. She was also cyber-bullied and treated as an outcast. Since she couldn’t handle it any longer, she held a silent Instagram Livestream before taking her life.

Papang felt hit from different sides all at once and started to shut people off. She was removed from her position as student council leader and class representative as her peers were envious and loathed her. As she did not have her friends by her side any longer, she gave up her positions voluntarily and Theerata was appointed in her place. Finally, as she returned home one day, she saw her mother with a junior’s father. Due to her mother’s affair, she had already lost respect in school, and the junior fought with her on many occasions. Her mother was seen as a mistress but that did not stop her, which only worsened her state.

Although all these reasons felt like valid ones, the real reason was that Papang felt as if it was her fault. In the last episode, Khan receives a letter from Gina's agency. It was the letter Papang left to Gina before passing away. As Khan read the note, he understood that the reason why she committed such a deed was that she felt she had caused problems to each and every character in her life. That she was the reason everyone else suffered and she was guilty.

The story ends here but the problem doesn’t. Many students go through this every year and there are stories from everywhere in the world. It's not just students, it's celebrities, adults, children and all because people don’t control what they say on social media. I would like to end my review with something I heard ‘Don’t comment on something you cannot change in the next five minutes.

Thank you for reading!

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Noble intentions with lackluster execution.

Is tackling important issues enough to praise a drama? For me, no. The more serious topic we want to discuss, the more work and care should be put into creating the content.

Online bullying and harassment is dangerous, mostly because of two reasons: anonymity takes away responsibility, so people are not afraid to exaggerate their negative opinions, and lack of insight into the effects it has on the victim.

The show tried to convince me, it’s just a bunch of normal teenagers who made countless mistakes, because they were not aware of the negative impact their online behavior had. But it was not true. The Comments mixed online and off-line bullying, clearly showing these kids were aware of their actions, they just did not care about the victims.

The victims themselves were not exactly good people either, barely managed to be called gray, with the majority of them committing criminal acts and bullying others themselves. It made it impossible to connect to them on any emotional level.

The show completely missed the mark by the end, mixing different issues and situations that affected the main cast. Was it online bullying? Was it just bullying? Was it family problems? Was it depression? It never tried to show a full picture, but rather put the whole blame on one aspect. They were aware of the complexity, but they tried to direct our attention to just one thing.

That said, The Comments had quite a number of positive aspects. The cast did quite a good job in portraying the characters. Aye showed a whole range of emotions from happiness through the confusion, ending or anger and sadness.

The production value was also nice. They found quite a few ways of showing us the online activity, some emotional scenes were well accompanied with beautiful aesthetics.

Overall, I appreciate the effort, but I wish they tried a bit more to create a cohesive picture that well presents the dangers of the online world.

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