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This review may contain spoilers
It has several big narrative failures, but oh my god it has so many brilliant scenes..
If we want to be real, then there is really a lot to criticize here. Sure this is fiction, but the prison depicted here is unreal even for a very far removed parallel universe. I guess I should be more forgiving, since it's just an unusual setting, I've seen worse in my drama history. Though I have to say it's not just that prison life is unrealistic or poorly researched, but also many aspects of it are only shown at a very surface level.
Ultimately the leads have incredible chemistry & their emotional -non fan service- scenes are incredible. The drama basically doesn't have an OST, there is only one piano melody with multiple variations, but oh man, every scene that has that track on is fantastic. Portrayed emotion wise this show matches up against some of the best Korean dramas, such as Tangerines, Goblin, Reply 88 quite well.
Some extraordinarily talented folks worked on this show. Outside of some writing woes -see below- pretty much every aspect of the show is top tier. The cinematographer is a genius. I literally cannot name an Asian drama that matches up to the photography excellence that can be seen here. Like Goblin is visually more impressive, but it's mostly set design, not photography, seriously I'm super impressed. The acting effort from everyone -including pretty much the whole supporting cast- is also super good.
So in the headline I mentioned narrative failures. The big one is that the dating starts out of nowhere, it's like a flipped switch. I understand that sometimes horny adults can hook up after just 5 minutes, but the dialog immediately shifts to implying the strongest of bonds. Then various characters in the show stop behaving like themselves from one episode to another. Dee???
Of course I cannot even shit on the writer here properly, since the dialog in some of the scenes is ridiculously good. There are so many great conversations, such as the one about aliens and or posing..
Considering the subject matter it's hard to not mention Orange is the New Black. It's clear to me that the writer has seen that shows & took inspiration from it. However everything from the plot that gives this show value is totally different from Orange & conversely the strongest points of of the American shows are either missing or muted here.
I watched the full cut version, so there were many sex scenes. This is my 3rd Thai GL so far & sex is for sure the worse here. It's not just over abundant with too long scenes, but the graphical depictions were sad. Implying and not showing or blurring out is better than whatever this was. Soft porn might be required to make a GL a financial success. I can accept that, all I'm saying is that this is really really awful at that. Not that I mind too much, I'm perfectly capable of using the FF button & I'm not the target audience for this and has not impacted my opinion of this drama.
Rating this is difficult, because I know objectively the flaws are very significant, but at the same everything else is 10/10. This is surely the most interesting Thai drama I have ever seen. (and I have dropped & then not reviewed at least 10 lakorns) For sure it's been a very memorable experience & I can totally see myself coming back to it eventually.
Ultimately the leads have incredible chemistry & their emotional -non fan service- scenes are incredible. The drama basically doesn't have an OST, there is only one piano melody with multiple variations, but oh man, every scene that has that track on is fantastic. Portrayed emotion wise this show matches up against some of the best Korean dramas, such as Tangerines, Goblin, Reply 88 quite well.
Some extraordinarily talented folks worked on this show. Outside of some writing woes -see below- pretty much every aspect of the show is top tier. The cinematographer is a genius. I literally cannot name an Asian drama that matches up to the photography excellence that can be seen here. Like Goblin is visually more impressive, but it's mostly set design, not photography, seriously I'm super impressed. The acting effort from everyone -including pretty much the whole supporting cast- is also super good.
So in the headline I mentioned narrative failures. The big one is that the dating starts out of nowhere, it's like a flipped switch. I understand that sometimes horny adults can hook up after just 5 minutes, but the dialog immediately shifts to implying the strongest of bonds. Then various characters in the show stop behaving like themselves from one episode to another. Dee???
Of course I cannot even shit on the writer here properly, since the dialog in some of the scenes is ridiculously good. There are so many great conversations, such as the one about aliens and or posing..
Considering the subject matter it's hard to not mention Orange is the New Black. It's clear to me that the writer has seen that shows & took inspiration from it. However everything from the plot that gives this show value is totally different from Orange & conversely the strongest points of of the American shows are either missing or muted here.
I watched the full cut version, so there were many sex scenes. This is my 3rd Thai GL so far & sex is for sure the worse here. It's not just over abundant with too long scenes, but the graphical depictions were sad. Implying and not showing or blurring out is better than whatever this was. Soft porn might be required to make a GL a financial success. I can accept that, all I'm saying is that this is really really awful at that. Not that I mind too much, I'm perfectly capable of using the FF button & I'm not the target audience for this and has not impacted my opinion of this drama.
Rating this is difficult, because I know objectively the flaws are very significant, but at the same everything else is 10/10. This is surely the most interesting Thai drama I have ever seen. (and I have dropped & then not reviewed at least 10 lakorns) For sure it's been a very memorable experience & I can totally see myself coming back to it eventually.
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