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SOTUS thai drama review
Completed
SOTUS
0 people found this review helpful
by IncorrigibleMe
Feb 25, 2023
15 of 15 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 7.5
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 7.5
Rewatch Value 7.5
This review may contain spoilers

Don't expect romance as the series mostly delves on engineering students

If you are looking for a series showcasing romance between the 2 main leads then give this one a miss as the focus point of this show is not that. I have no particular gripe with the story but this should not be tagged under romance as there is hardly any of it. Although there is a lot of unrequited love for most of the episodes

As usual with many Thai BLs, this one takes place in an Engineering college where Kong and his group of friends enter as first year students. The college has the tradition of SOTUS where the first-year students have to perform gruelling tasks forced on by their seniors under the guise of teaching them respect and unity. The leader of these “hazers” is Arthit who appears to be cruel to the young students but has a heart of gold (at least that is what the series wants you to think). Kong stands up to Arthit multiple times and suffers punishment. In the course of the hazing, he starts having feelings for Arthit.

More than half of the series is around SOTUS and how Kong keeps on getting in to trouble by winding up Arthit. Can’t fault the series for it as its in its name “SOTUS”. However, what we don’t see is any character development or the story moving ahead. Each day, the first-year students gather to be yelled at and humiliated by the seniors. Kong’s hero complex takes over causing Arthit to lose his mind and punish him. Rinse and Repeat. We are made to feel that during the course of this Kong is starting to have feelings for Arthit but why? Because he is kind sometimes or may be because he likes pink milk (that is a different story on its own).

In fact, the story introduces two very interesting characters, Prem and Wad. Prem is a senior who is obsessed with getting respect from the juniors to the point of even being violent with them. Wad is a first-year student who despises authority and is vehemently against their treatment by the seniors. Prem and Wad bump heads against each other due to this but all is well when Prem helps Wad while he is attacked by a group of students. Seemed like the series might have another budding romance or even a good friendship but to my dismay Wad simply disappears from the series only to be shown briefly in the last episode as one of the hazers. That to me seemed weird as it would go against his morals of being anti-authority.

In fact, after the SOTUS activity comes to an end what we get is different characters just eyeing their love interests and when one confesses to the other there is nothing but heartbreak. Even if I consider Kong falling for Arthit, there is no reason for Arthit to reciprocate those feelings. In fact, he is still harbouring feelings for his friend. Kong has no qualities for Arthit to be interested in. Its only in the penultimate episode that Arthit decides to accept Kong and then immediately with in a few days keeps him at arm’s length in order to make Kong go after another girl. Such absurd thoughts can be expected from Arthit since during one episode when he realises Kong’s true feelings, he tells himself to act normal around him. But what he does next is contrary to that. He starts ignoring Kong in college, stops answering his calls and texts and even speaks rudely to him. How was that “acting normal”?

In conclusion, the series spends too much time on hazing instead of showing the romance between the characters and abandoning a great plot between Prem and Wad that could have elevated the series. The actors in turn did a great job although this was their first series. Can’t speak about their chemistry together as there is hardly any “togetherness” to start with.
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