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Loneliness Society thai drama review
Completed
Loneliness Society
1 people found this review helpful
by Beatrice
Jul 18, 2023
14 of 14 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 5.0
Story 5.0
Acting/Cast 7.0
Music 5.0
Rewatch Value 2.0
This review may contain spoilers

Contrived soap within the guise of a modern drama

This is a bridge lakorn style drama, which is a hybrid with elements to appeal to the different generation of tv watchers. I have yet to see one nails the two tones right and this drama is the worst of the ones I've seen so far. Just because it's part soap, doesn't give it undue lenience to be badly done. The premise of the misunderstanding is dragged on for way too long, past the point of sympathy for the Meena. It's actually really creepy that she claimed to be a strangers girlfriend in the first place even if she meant well and it's just way worse the longer she did it but that's just not questioned, just shrugged off by everyone. It did more damage than harm and not in any way that added to the story. The way the show went about extending her lie is frustratingly forced with a sudden interruption every time or she changes her mind, even when the situation makes no sense to keep up the lie to a particular person. Her entire storyline is just consumed dragging out this lie for one excuse or another while making moves on the brother she has the hots for without making things clear to either men. Nothing else goes on for her character to develop. She literally never comes clean to a single member of the family of her own accord. Everyone just conveniently accidentally learned the truth or was told by someone else. So her arc was that she was lonely and wanted a man and lied a whole bunch and got a man with his eventually big loving family, everything she wanted.

I feel a lot of sympathy for the way Than was emotionally abused and bullied by the adopted mother and brother his entire life since his birth father died saving him. He loves his adopted family very much, but very much enabled Arthit's toxic behavior as well as aggressively went after a woman he thought was dating his brother long before he accidentally found out she's actually available. That's never questioned either. The way that he's treated by his mom and brother to the point of a very self harm idealizing sounding message at his adopted father's cremation ceremony is only ever heard by Cathy and not dealt with in the drama.

Cathy turned out to have the most well rounded arc despite not being a lead. The Meena role looked and felt like it would fit the actress Jan very well, especially with her being age appropriate for the part if they didn't want to make the characters in mutually consenting adult age gap relationship which would have been great if it was, but other than that Cathy is probably the best role in the whole show. She started off as not valuing herself very well with Arthit who treated her poorly. She was desperate enough to go along with his twisted scheme to destroy his brother, she actually saw Arthit for the scum he is and played him while helping Than who she sees is a good guy and very good at his import work. He's already a great collaborator even before she sees him as a possible romantic partner. She manipulated Meena into fooling Than and sent the message to the mom with her last straw broken, but actually had the self awareness to feel bad for what she's done. She gains self respect, not getting back with Arthit though she is cordial with his attempt at becoming a better person. Go Cathy!

Arthit has the most unearned redemption arc of the series. He is selfish, spoiled, and enabled by his whole family and even Than, but even beneath that he has a cruel, unhinged nature with a near sociopathic tendency to hide behind a mask of kindness while taking extreme pleasure to torture Than just to see him be miserable and less than him. This is definitely never addressed and too deeply entrenched to believably be changed by Than getting hit by a car in place of him. They never show a single moment where he ever lets up being the biggest douchebag and show kindness or brotherhood to Than that would be that glimmer of hope that would allow for such a drastic change in a short amount of time.That second hit and run is pretty ridiculous too, it makes no sense for Than to swivel Arthit out of the way to take his place. The scriptwriter just needed it to happen and couldn't think of a sensible way. Like every time Meena conveniently gets interrupted.

The second most unearned redemption arc is the mother, they have Arthit say that Than took a lot of the blame for the shenanigans Arthit was up to when they were younger, but that woman hated Than from the start for no reason. He was literally freshly orphaned and she treated him like a cockroach. Arthit learned a lot of that from her too. Her son lying and Than getting hit by a car is not enough for her to believably turn that switch to loving mother. They never showed any moment from her towards Than to build up to this ending

The second couple with the two university kids Alan and Khaotung were so childish they might as well be in high school. The non consensual photo, video, kissing, all just played for laughs and "cuteness". The most disposable storyline. Alan's relationship with his brothers is more interesting. He's the youngest and grew up better with Than's influence while still spoiled by his mother. Than and Alan have the closest familial relationship. Arthit and Alan barely interact besides the former bribing the latter, which already says a bit, but it would have been interesting to explore more.

The character of Than's adopted father was gone too soon from the show. He could have been the source from which moments of redemption of love for Than could have been sown before he kicks the bucket. Character development across the board was sorely lacking, the time wasted on furthering the misunderstanding until the last episode and suddenly they wed. There's no sufficient time to reconcile the characters at all. Even if they didn't do set up for love before the lie, they could have done work for them to bond after instead of random road accident, coma, and wedding.

I initially thought that it would be an older woman, younger man dynamic, but it seems like the main characters all seem to be around the same age. It's never addressed and it's distracting, but it's the least offensive out of everything else going on. The casting is okay, everyone played their parts well. I hope to see Jan get some female lead roles with great writing for her to sink her teeth into. The music is serviceable. I definitely will not be rewatching and putting myself through this exercise of dragged out frustration, save for maybe some of Cathy's scenes.
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