A Boss and a Babe (2023)

Cela aurait pu être un bon drama

Je ne m'attendais pas à quelque chose d'aussi léger (léger au prime abord).
C'est au départ adorablement mignon, Cher est probablement l'un des personnages les plus choux de thaï drama, et les yeux de Book m'ont aspirée pour ne plus me laisser repartir, ah quand il te regarde naïvement avec ces yeux plus grands que le monde... je comprends que Gun/Force soit à ses genoux. D'ailleurs le "Boss" est totalement à sa merci (comme à peu près tous les personnages de la série), je pensais qu'il serait plus dominant mais pas une seule seconde.

Le souci est que ça reste léger et mignon, alors qu'un certain nombre d'intrigues sont amorcées, qui pourraient constituer un scénario. Et voilà le problème principal de A Boss and a Babe. Aucune et je dis bien aucune des intrigues n'est menée à son terme ou alors c'est réglé en 1 minute. Le drama n'a ainsi aucune colonne vertébrale, alors qu'on devine qu'un traitement approprié des différents possibles rebondissements auraient pu constituer un scénario solide. La série ne repose que sur ForceBook et leur complicité, qui est par ailleurs indiscutable.
Hors les intrigues sont bien plus sombres que le rose bonbon qui recouvre le drama et méritaient un traitement approprié. On peut citer, pêle-mêle, viol, violence familiale, non-assistance à personne en danger, suicide, vol, addictions, autodestruction, dépression, solitude, homophobie, problème de management... Tout ces sujets sont abordés... et puis mis sous le tapis, comme s'ils n'avaient jamais existé. Non seulement est-ce regrettable d'un point de vue scénaristique mais également inexcusable au vu de sujets aussi durs et violents.

Je donne néanmoins une note de 7 car les acteurs sont bons, la photographie aussi, et l'OST aussi "cute" que la série. Le couple principal est par ailleurs adorable. N'empêche que vu le traitement des problématiques abordées, le drama aurait pu durer 8 ou 10 épisodes...

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unexpectedly dark for a lighthearted romcom

Overall: I was okay with this as a 'turn your brain off' romcom, but then there was an extremely dark plot line (also zero consequences for a trash character?!?) and the plot ran around in circles (definitely could have been 8 episodes instead of 12). I'm rating this more harshly because GMMTV has the money and experience to make an excellent series. Unfortunately, I was left disappointed with this one. Aired on GMMTV's YouTube channel. Later re-aired on Viki https://www.viki.com/tv/40373c-a-boss-and-a-babe

Content Warnings: past rape for 3 years involving a child/step parent, past suicide, mental health struggles, non con/dub con touching, homophobia, fight/beaten up, non con picture taking/posting, unwanted public outing

What I Liked
- good friendship dynamics (and that they raised the difficulty of the boss/employee romantic dynamic)
- Yacht with his blue hair
- the established couple is adorable (but they didn't get enough screen time nor a plot)
- addressing mental health struggles (except that Cher should not have talked about Jack without Jack's prior approval and they also made it seem like everyone was happy that Jack stopped taking medication when in reality as I understand it medication is something to be taken as a management strategy, it's not a long term cure)
- a supportive ex
- neutral, comedy sound effects

Room For Improvement
- this was oddly very dark, I think they still could have had some serious parts (focusing on the mental health struggles as an example), but it almost felt disrespectful to have the rest be a light romcom, I'm not sure how to explain this but I didn't like the combo of extremely serious plot with silly plot
- lack of consequences for a trash character and instant forgiveness for the mom
- Thup, there are things that even if your loved one says you should keep secret that you don't keep secret and tell the authorities/school personnel and what was going on was one of those things. Thup wasn't a young child, he should have been around 12 to 15 when this was happening and then afterwards to let rumors circulate about Cher, he did not seek justice for his sibling and he had the gall to blame Cher....ugh
- paper thin plot that went around in circles
- cliche poor communication with fully grown adults, Cher's totally stupid "plan" in episode 11
- consent problems: there were some things they did really well but there was also poor consent including Cher ignoring Gun's physical boundaries in the beginning, Gun locking Cher in his car, "if you don't let me touch you I'll kiss you instead"
- I realize they were going for comedy, but many jokes didn't make me laugh
- Gun letting Cher be jealous for his own entertainment instead of clearing up the miscommunication
- nonsense things (we won't get into the hr headache this would be in reality), Cher is never shown to be doing anything with his ASMR channel, we barely see him gaming
- the cringey title

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