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Friend Zone thai drama review
Completed
Friend Zone
2 people found this review helpful
by egg thief
Jan 2, 2021
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 7.0
Story 7.5
Acting/Cast 7.5
Music 5.0
Rewatch Value 4.0
This review may contain spoilers

My head hurts.

PART 1: SUMMARY OF THOUGHTS (SPOILER-FREE):
After this show, I seriously wanna punch everyone for being so stupid. Boom, Earth, Good... nobody is escaping these fists of fury.

PREMISE:
The major pro of this show was that it was realistic. It showed a group of friends as they navigated their young adult life, discussing everything ranging from finding a job to holding onto toxic relationships (and trust me, there were a lot of those). This show delved into mature, moral discussions about cheating, how to deal with sexual assault, whether both parents should be consulted in the case of an unwanted pregnancy, the validity of professions where looks are a factor (btw, Boyo, worry about your own problems first), dealing with debt and possible foreclosure, being jobless and feeling lost, having disagreements with roommates/finding a new place to stay, hookup culture and having agency over one's own sexuality... the list goes on.

The question that was brought up throughout this drama was essentially how much pain both parties in a relationship can take without breaking up, and whether love was enough to mend broken trust. Mostly everyone, at some point, tried to play love like a game (revenge plots everywhere) but in the end, there was more pain that stemmed from that.

WHY I LIKE THE STORY:
I love the fact this isn't a series where there's a clear protagonist and antagonist. At the end of the day, we realize that love is not a game, no matter how much we try to play it like one. If one person makes a foul play, both teams get penalized, and everyone loses the point. And that is precisely the beauty of this show—in the end, everyone has hurt others/gotten hurt in some way, and there's no one to root for.

WHY I DISLIKE THE STORY:
However, at the same time, the fact that there is no one to root for also infuriates me to no end. This show is essentially watching a mess and a half unfold and being powerless to do anything about it. I understand that this is supposed to show how real human interactions work, but holy ****, does anyone have any self-respect? It's not even the characters who have wronged others that are the worst in my opinion, but the characters who consistently enable their toxic partners. I understand this makes them human, but seriously, why give out so many second chances?? I want to rip my hair out.

ACTING:
The acting was good, although some characters did feel emotionless in certain scenes. In particular, the way that Sam was portrayed felt stiff, although it is in his character to be quiet and he's not one to express his emotions outwardly. Everyone managed to piss me off at some point, which is a testament to the fact that the actors did a good job.

OST:
The OST was nothing to call home about. I'm not a fan of the theme song—it honestly wasn't catchy, although I don't understand Thai and didn't bother looking up the lyrics (oops). I also felt that the music was distracting in certain scenes, and the producers should have considered trying to bring out more emotions through the acting rather than playing "suspenseful" music in the background (it's often a botched attempt at foreshadowing).

IN CONCLUSION:
Overall, this is worth a watch. I'll be checking out season 2 soon, after my sanity returns in 3-5 business days (this dumpster fire has me drained, not gonna lie).

PART 2: MORE IN-DEPTH THOUGHTS (SPOILERS AHEAD):

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! Here are some of my more in-depth thoughts relating to the characters. Reads more like a angry, half-muddled rant than a logical breakdown, but I hope it makes sense. Tl;dr at the end.

The relationship between Boom and Bern was definitely my favorite. They helped each other grow, and their banter was enjoyable to watch. Boom had just broken up with her a**hole boyfriend Tor, while Bern was just starting to take responsibility and turn his life around. However, reality got in the way—Am was pregnant and Bern felt that he needed to be responsible, and Boom had to accept this and move on (which she did, with grace).

There were other aspects of realism that I enjoyed, despite being messed-up. Particularly, the way that Earth handled the cheating was such a nice touch. Something inside him snaps—he feels as though he wants to hurt Stud and Sam so that they can feel the pain he did, choosing to put on a show about sleeping with Arm. However, he realizes that this is not what he wants—it's only going to make everyone feel even more pain. The best way to resolve this is to move on—that conversation with the older couple at the swing dance place was really valuable as well.

In the end, however, that last episode makes me want to scream.

Good never seemed to like Boyo. Why now??? Why does she have to be the rebound for him? There is no indication that he actually likes her throughout the plot/after he decides that he's done seeing Pun. His emotions leading up to this are extremely underdeveloped. Is he just grappling onto anyone who will like him, and expecting that he'll come to like her eventually as well? That's the only explanation I have for this.

Am said explicitly that she was done with Bern... why give him a second chance, yet again? Although I understand that it's because she may want him to be involved in raising their child, I still don't think she needed to give him that second chance.

Sam shows no remorse, yet Earth still gets back with him? I suppose it's realistic in a sense, but wow, Sam is the worst. He decides to hide from Earth... and then he's the one who leaves??? He also doesn't make any attempt to get the relationship back, waiting for Earth to do the heavylifting in mending the relationship? No thank you.

In general, Boom's character was well-written, because it was such an emotional rollercoaster. She was extremely resilient, and arguably one of the most morally-sound characters this season.

At first, I seriously wanted to punch her. We see her struggle with Tor so many times, each resulting in her being frustrated at him for being a total a**hole but never bothering to break up with him. If I were her friend, I would've screamed at her to break up with him—totally infuriating to watch, especially since her friends didn't try to stop her in any way.

She does eventually break things off with him and turning over a new leaf with Bern, which is when I wanted to jump for joy. She comforts Earth as necessary, tries to mediate any tension between Good and Boyo, and calls out Boyo for her BS.

Eventually, however, she then returns. SHE RETURNS TO TOR. Come on. We spent all that time breaking up, before she finally returns?? This seriously wanted to make me punch a wall at first, however, out of all the relationships that got magically mended in the last episode, this one makes the most sense. It's in her nature, and seeing that Tor has turned into a better man, she once again falls victim to the belief that he will be a better partner this time around. I'm waiting for that to come crashing down again in season 2—it'll be interesting to watch that develop, yet again (although it's honestly exhausting).

Boyo is like a necessary evil in this plot. We want to root for her at times, especially the badassery she had in standing up for herself against her idiot boss, the growth she experienced in trying to take acting classes and discover more of her own passions, and her growth after realizing that she needs to move on from Good. We see the trials she faces in trying to find a job and her place in society—she's lost and in her 20s, a very relatable moment for many people.

However, most of the time, she pisses everyone off. She goes back to her boyfriend who dumped her for some BS reason, and proceeds to cheat with him on his current girlfriend. She then proceeds to shame Boom for her job and doesn't give her the benefit of the doubt, telling Boom off for not having "good morals" by her standards, when she's the one who was involved in cheating. Later on, she also seems to be annoyed with Boom and Bern, even though Am seemed to be okay with it, and Am and Bern had broken up long before then (once again, trying to take the "moral high ground" and looking like a total hypocrite). Although she grows to accept that she needs to move on from Good, she still clings onto him initially, and still ends up giving him a chance in that last episode. And lastly, even though I understand her position to some extent, she still defends Stud and hurts Earth. She's severely flawed, and we're left with a somewhat neutral, bordering on negative, view of her. She serves as a nice addition to this friend group, and represents precisely the idea of a moral gray area.

Because so many different things are happening at once, I feel like some plots also become neglected/go unresolved.

The entire beginning of Am's story focused on her mom having to pay off debt. Although her story then shifts to focus on the general strain in her relationship with Bern and other characters get more screentime, it would've been nice to see this conflict stretch out a bit more—I don't find it to be extremely believable that she struggled for the first few episodes with this debt (and it seemed like a lot/it was implied that her mom would continue accumulating debt, from my POV), but then was dropped for the latter half of the plot.

Boyo's relationship with her former boyfriend also should have been extended a bit more, in my opinion. She clearly still wanted him because she was sleeping with him, but after she gets over him, he just never appears again? It'd be interesting to explore that plotline a bit more as well. Was there no fallout from that decision? Did her boyfriend never confront her again? It seemed like a random addition to the plot that just led to her liking Good.

TL;DR
My biggest criticism is that this show would benefit from having more direction. There is so much back and forth that it doesn't feel enjoyable to watch.
--> For one, the ending jumps into too many relationships too quickly. Boyo and Good... why exactly did Good agree? And with Am and Bern, what compels Am to give him a second chance? There was negative development of this.
--> Second, there were so many side plots going on at once that some ideas/relationships were left underdeveloped. I liked, in a sense, that there were no main storylines that made the side plots seem useless, but it would've been nice if there was a way to tie in all the characters together more. Different storylines did interweave with each other, but it became too much at some point. For example, Sam's character could've used more depth. He seems to serve to develop Earth, but we don't get to explore more facets of his personality beyond the cheating—it was always his feelings in relation to Earth or in relation to Stud. So many different themes needed screentime that his character's problems couldn't be resolved in just this one season. Therefore, I think at the very least, there should've been less storylines/people involved in this show to sort of narrow that focus.

Ultimately, this was a nice breath of fresh air compared to the other dramas I've been watching recently.
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