Boy For Rent (2019)

Best watched mindlessly, with the analytical aspect of your mind shut off.

I believe that entertainment is best appreciated when it's kept varied - when there's a balance struck between engaging with genuinely artfully crafted media and media that exists mostly for the fun of it. I'm not saying that this show is trash; rather, my perception of it is that it's at its most enjoyable when it is being watched without reading too deeply into things and looking for profound meaning.

Smile was done kind of dirty at the beginning. I understand that she's supposed to be innocent and a little childish, but... this is a plot revolving around college-age adults. The pigtails, huge glasses (although cute), and ESPECIALLY the squealing at the beginning of the series at every possibly wrong moment are all, combined, quite overkill. These traits also make Smile appear unsettlingly young considering the topic of the show and I really feel they could have been changed. Thankfully, this is only really a problem for the first handful of episodes and Smile grew on me a lot afterwards. Also, her outfits... I need them.

Liz is an interesting character, I guess, but hard to get behind because she's not really given a proper redemption arc or anything considering the mess she causes. Kyro is kind of in the same boat with her on that note (and who tf kisses someone and gets their hopes up only to then say "yeah I'm not really feeling it"? I know that's his character, but... dude). And I actually really enjoyed Badz from the beginning. He's pretty charming in a natural way and genuinely has good chemistry with Smile (Kyro's and Liz's was alright by comparison, nothing special really), so his relationship progression with her seemed natural. I also have to say that I liked that they made him act a bit awkward and dorky around Smile. Sure, he may be considered handsome, but I do feel like that added touch of clumsiness made him more endearing and realistic as a character.

I find it interesting that when it came to Badz and Smile's relationship, while the focus stayed with them in the present moment - what present circumstances are bringing them together, basically - the focus of Kyro and Liz's relationship seemed to be centered more around past (often rather sad) life events that naturally brought the pair closer together. Neither is necessarily better than the other, I just found this difference in approaches interesting.

The acting was fine, but I feel that Badz's actor - Tanutchai Wijitvongtong - shone best in his role. It's almost like he was being himself even while playing his character and it worked great. Kyro's actor, as well as the actresses cast as Smile and Liz, weren't bad, but I simply felt that Tanutchai's performance was strongest. Supporting actors also did a decent job (though I do wonder if Onnie's actress wasn't given enough proper direction), but some minor characters is where the acting got a little weird (I'm looking at you, guy who stole Liz's purse).

Will also note that the opening theme of the show legitimately sounds great and I actually would never skip it. I also appreciate that they also got people who could actually sing to fill the parts that needed singing.

Some notes on the less good stuff: I feel that the directing was a bit off for some of the actors in certain moments. They all seem to do a good job, but I suppose they were pushed for more excessive expressions of their characters' personalities (like Smile at the beginning of the show or Onnie throughout most of it).

The show also has like 6 different background music soundtracks that they reuse and while it's kind of funny, I can see that it could get very easily more annoying as one progresses through the show and has to hear the same score over and over. I also wish that they'd turned the volume down a bit on those tracks.

On numerous occasions, the show suffered from audio issues. I saw two or three scenes in which a character's mouth would move but I'd hear no dialogue. Additionally, I'm assuming they were on a tight budget or something and couldn't get boom mics or whatever because whenever characters would hug, the dialogue would get really muffled - probably because all the sound was being recorded by small mics on the actors' bodies. I'd also sometimes hear wind hitting the mics, and during that one scene towards the end where Liz cried as she performed, the dubbed-over track they used - though it sounded nice - did not reflect that she was actively sobbing as she sang. A bit goofy but still noteworthy.

And I'm still surprised they let Liz's actress just... dye her hair like that mid-shoot. Seeing her hair change from brown to black during basically every scene nearly gave me a seizure. It's crazy that they didn't even try to hide it.

Also, I'm not sure what the situation is like in Thailand when it comes to topics of sexual harassment/assault, but the writers would put moments that depicted such events in like... every episode. It was odd and they didn't handle the topic well, either. I get the feeling this was just more mediocre script-writing rearing its mediocre-looking head rather than a cultural difference, though, because even Badz did some iffy stuff like once or twice during the drama's runtime - and he's supposed to be the "good guy" lol. Just wanted to point this out.

As a final note: if any girls out there are reading this, if you have a friend like Onnie, maybe mull things over a bit. Because anyone who tries to control who you love and who makes you sign an agreement where only you get repercussions if you break it is unlikely to be a very good friend to you. There's nothing wrong with having friends who are there only for when you want to have fun with them, but I'd be wary of letting them too close into your life. They're not necessarily bad people, but the last thing you want is to have other people using your vulnerabilities against you for their own benefit.

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