3
5
jpny01
A master class in bad writing
This series had so much potential - a talented cast, good cinematography, scenic locations, and everyone involved was giving it their all. This is all wasted on a terribly written story. It's as if they were about to start filming and realized they forgot to get a script, so they sent an intern to go grab the first thing they could find on Wattpad.
The story leans heavily on the implausible-misunderstanding-caused-by-showing-up-at-just-the-right-second-to-misinterpret-something-causing-them-to-drop-the-token-of-affection-they-were-bringing-and-walking-away-sadly trope. If they were to show up one second sooner or one second later there wouldn't have been a misunderstanding. This happens many times, in every case a simple conversation would have cleared it up, and characters never learn from it and make the same mistake over and over.
Everyone behaves wildly out of character to suit plot points. Tai becomes a lying cheater, and the gentle veterinarian exhibits horrific violence. The discussion forum didn't seem to have a problem with this, presumably because Lomfon deserved to be savagely beaten for being a confused teenager. That there were absolutely no consequences to the violence is astonishing and disturbing, and Lomfon neither presses charges nor has even so much as a scuff mark after being the target of what can only be described as attempted murder. Again, lazy writing.
Lomfon, who is so emotionally constipated that he can't tell Tien how he feels, suddenly bursts into a long monologue, while Tien has just stormed off from seeing Lomfon's film, which explicitly and unmistakably showed him how Lomfon feels about him, yet he says he doesn't understand what Lomfon was trying to say with his film. Seriously?
People in general don't act like people. Patts doesn't seem at all surprised to see Tai in Chiang Mai and stands there expressionless for the entirety of Tai's long soliloquy.
There is an enormous number of extraneous characters that materialize out of nowhere, have no effect on anything, then are never seen again. In the finale, the friend who gives advice to Lomfon claims to be a close friend to both him and Tien, but we've never seen him before, or at least I can't remember him. He and most of these characters pontificate about love and life with the profundity of a motivational poster.
In the last episode, in a long and completely pointless sequence, Tai runs out of gas in front of a nice man's house. The man tells him it's very difficult to find gas in the area and that he should spend the night. His girlfriend shows up then they have a long conversation where the couple tell Tai the story of their love. In which THEY HAVE A FLASHBACK. Almost the whole flashback is a random character giving a long expository dump to a friend. The next morning Tai drives off, presumably having filled the tank with his overflowing love. None of this has the slightest effect on the story.
Perhaps most confounding of all, you can just sever your soulmate connection, which negates the entire story, the plot of which is based on destiny - without that, this is just a pile of stupid coincidences, like Tai's grandmother living next door to Patts since his childhood, and he and Tai even communicate by notes and kind acts to each other, but never meet. Really? Tai shows up at the precise moment to misunderstand Patts being kissed by his ex, but never ran into his actual soulmate for 20 years despite his living next door?
That's how awful and frustrating the writing is.
I loved the cast. Title is much improved, Pee is as good as ever, Suar is charming, and Copter is the MVP with a fantastic performance as the repressed Lomfon. I hope to see them in something better than this series.
I can't recommend this. I gave it a 5 because the cast was great, but unfortunately there was only enough material for three episodes and the rest is a jumbled mess that will cause you to dislike all the characters. Except, apparently, Patts, who is consistently called a big green flag - I guess becoming so enraged by jealousy as to try to beat someone to death isn't the red flag I thought it was.
The story leans heavily on the implausible-misunderstanding-caused-by-showing-up-at-just-the-right-second-to-misinterpret-something-causing-them-to-drop-the-token-of-affection-they-were-bringing-and-walking-away-sadly trope. If they were to show up one second sooner or one second later there wouldn't have been a misunderstanding. This happens many times, in every case a simple conversation would have cleared it up, and characters never learn from it and make the same mistake over and over.
Everyone behaves wildly out of character to suit plot points. Tai becomes a lying cheater, and the gentle veterinarian exhibits horrific violence. The discussion forum didn't seem to have a problem with this, presumably because Lomfon deserved to be savagely beaten for being a confused teenager. That there were absolutely no consequences to the violence is astonishing and disturbing, and Lomfon neither presses charges nor has even so much as a scuff mark after being the target of what can only be described as attempted murder. Again, lazy writing.
Lomfon, who is so emotionally constipated that he can't tell Tien how he feels, suddenly bursts into a long monologue, while Tien has just stormed off from seeing Lomfon's film, which explicitly and unmistakably showed him how Lomfon feels about him, yet he says he doesn't understand what Lomfon was trying to say with his film. Seriously?
People in general don't act like people. Patts doesn't seem at all surprised to see Tai in Chiang Mai and stands there expressionless for the entirety of Tai's long soliloquy.
There is an enormous number of extraneous characters that materialize out of nowhere, have no effect on anything, then are never seen again. In the finale, the friend who gives advice to Lomfon claims to be a close friend to both him and Tien, but we've never seen him before, or at least I can't remember him. He and most of these characters pontificate about love and life with the profundity of a motivational poster.
In the last episode, in a long and completely pointless sequence, Tai runs out of gas in front of a nice man's house. The man tells him it's very difficult to find gas in the area and that he should spend the night. His girlfriend shows up then they have a long conversation where the couple tell Tai the story of their love. In which THEY HAVE A FLASHBACK. Almost the whole flashback is a random character giving a long expository dump to a friend. The next morning Tai drives off, presumably having filled the tank with his overflowing love. None of this has the slightest effect on the story.
Perhaps most confounding of all, you can just sever your soulmate connection, which negates the entire story, the plot of which is based on destiny - without that, this is just a pile of stupid coincidences, like Tai's grandmother living next door to Patts since his childhood, and he and Tai even communicate by notes and kind acts to each other, but never meet. Really? Tai shows up at the precise moment to misunderstand Patts being kissed by his ex, but never ran into his actual soulmate for 20 years despite his living next door?
That's how awful and frustrating the writing is.
I loved the cast. Title is much improved, Pee is as good as ever, Suar is charming, and Copter is the MVP with a fantastic performance as the repressed Lomfon. I hope to see them in something better than this series.
I can't recommend this. I gave it a 5 because the cast was great, but unfortunately there was only enough material for three episodes and the rest is a jumbled mess that will cause you to dislike all the characters. Except, apparently, Patts, who is consistently called a big green flag - I guess becoming so enraged by jealousy as to try to beat someone to death isn't the red flag I thought it was.
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