luca
Spain
This review may contain spoilers
My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined
First off, I want to preface this by saying that I had (kind of) high expectations for this series - I've seen it recommended EVERYWHERE. And then I watched Only Friends and FirstKhaotung were amazing in it and I just got more excited to watch this one.
It didn't, unfortunately, live up to what I was imagining (or hoping for). Here are my thoughts:
- The story (which was kind of the main selling point for this series) is incredibly weak and flimsy. They do a great job the first episodes at pulling you in and making you wonder what the hell is going on at the school: why is the principal so strict? Why do they run the school like an authoritarian regime? What is the curse and what does it entail? What does 'The eclipse' mean? Who is Ayan? ---- These are all great questions. Having watched the entire thing, though, I can confidently say that the answers to all of them are so frustratingly simple it actually hurts my soul. The curse wasn't a curse, it was fabricated (obviously). The eclipse is just there for the aesthetics. The school is strict because they are old, repressed and angry. Ayan is a sad kid with uncle issues. That's it.
The protests against the school's leadership are so unimportant and have so little effect it's almost funny. We are TOLD (not shown) that they are a big deal and it's impacting the school's reputation, but throughout the series we only see the same three guys weakly yelling dumb shit and holding up signs. Honestly, they couldn't have found less threatening people to be the face of a student revolution. Also, why only THREE? Did GMMTV run out of extras to cast? Do gays with signs pose such a threat in this fictional universe??
- Unlikeable characters. As it turns out, Akk was the one behind the curse. You're telling me he was trying to harm students into silence by dropping flower pots on them and setting things on fire?? Are we supposed to be okay with this?? Same with Thua - but I'll talk about him later on. Akk doesn't end up publicly owning up to what he's done, and he doesn't suffer the consequences of his actions. What he did is only discovered when Thua outs him in front of everyone, and even then Akk's friends save his sorry ass. Akk also turns a blind eye to Ayan's actions (when he knows he's stirring the pot and instigating the protests), while being incredibly strict with the rest of the students and essentially being a massive tool.
- And now onto Thua. OKAY. I am MAD about this one. See, by episode 10 he was my favorite character. He was nice, and shy, but was concerned about the rest of the students and saw the flaws in the system, and tried to distance himself from it. His scenes with Khan were also adorable. And THEN they felt the need for some drama, and of course they had to ruin the only good character in the fucking show. Of course. Turns out he's also doing shit to scare everyone into obedience, and was responsible for the more extreme acts directed against the trio leading the protests. He also randomly outs Akk and Ayan to the entire school and board of professors?? Because that's needed I guess??? This was not it. This is character assassination and oh my God, do I dislike it--oh. Now everything's okay and no one remembers and Khan forgives him and they're together? Nice! I guess I'll forget everything he did then!
In conclusion: I am so tired of this. They could have done better. First and Khaotung's chemistry is so much better than this. This is a problem I see with a lot of Thai BLs, they try to innovate and have more dramatic storylines but forget to actually develop said storylines and live up to the hype they themselves create. It's disappointing, honestly.
It didn't, unfortunately, live up to what I was imagining (or hoping for). Here are my thoughts:
- The story (which was kind of the main selling point for this series) is incredibly weak and flimsy. They do a great job the first episodes at pulling you in and making you wonder what the hell is going on at the school: why is the principal so strict? Why do they run the school like an authoritarian regime? What is the curse and what does it entail? What does 'The eclipse' mean? Who is Ayan? ---- These are all great questions. Having watched the entire thing, though, I can confidently say that the answers to all of them are so frustratingly simple it actually hurts my soul. The curse wasn't a curse, it was fabricated (obviously). The eclipse is just there for the aesthetics. The school is strict because they are old, repressed and angry. Ayan is a sad kid with uncle issues. That's it.
The protests against the school's leadership are so unimportant and have so little effect it's almost funny. We are TOLD (not shown) that they are a big deal and it's impacting the school's reputation, but throughout the series we only see the same three guys weakly yelling dumb shit and holding up signs. Honestly, they couldn't have found less threatening people to be the face of a student revolution. Also, why only THREE? Did GMMTV run out of extras to cast? Do gays with signs pose such a threat in this fictional universe??
- Unlikeable characters. As it turns out, Akk was the one behind the curse. You're telling me he was trying to harm students into silence by dropping flower pots on them and setting things on fire?? Are we supposed to be okay with this?? Same with Thua - but I'll talk about him later on. Akk doesn't end up publicly owning up to what he's done, and he doesn't suffer the consequences of his actions. What he did is only discovered when Thua outs him in front of everyone, and even then Akk's friends save his sorry ass. Akk also turns a blind eye to Ayan's actions (when he knows he's stirring the pot and instigating the protests), while being incredibly strict with the rest of the students and essentially being a massive tool.
- And now onto Thua. OKAY. I am MAD about this one. See, by episode 10 he was my favorite character. He was nice, and shy, but was concerned about the rest of the students and saw the flaws in the system, and tried to distance himself from it. His scenes with Khan were also adorable. And THEN they felt the need for some drama, and of course they had to ruin the only good character in the fucking show. Of course. Turns out he's also doing shit to scare everyone into obedience, and was responsible for the more extreme acts directed against the trio leading the protests. He also randomly outs Akk and Ayan to the entire school and board of professors?? Because that's needed I guess??? This was not it. This is character assassination and oh my God, do I dislike it--oh. Now everything's okay and no one remembers and Khan forgives him and they're together? Nice! I guess I'll forget everything he did then!
In conclusion: I am so tired of this. They could have done better. First and Khaotung's chemistry is so much better than this. This is a problem I see with a lot of Thai BLs, they try to innovate and have more dramatic storylines but forget to actually develop said storylines and live up to the hype they themselves create. It's disappointing, honestly.
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