TharnType (2019)

*lots of spoilers*

I am pleasantly surprised. Judging from the reviews and comment and my own judgement of the first three episodes (after which I dropped it), I came to the conclusion that it would be bad and horrible. But guess who was lucky enough to get three-point-five stars?

I had expected lots of toxicity but surprisingly it wasn't nearly what my convoluted imagination had made up. I mean sure I zoned out every ten minutes and wondered what I was going to eat for dinner but 'boring' is actually a good adjective for tharntype in comparison to some other words I have for it.

Ps. Please excuse incorrect grammar. I just rewatched a few scenes of Tharntype to refresh my memory and singed my gray cells in the process.

1. Dialogue
Tharntype has some of the most impassionate dialogues I have ever seen.

“Hey, do you want to eat breakfast."
"Why? Are you worried about me?"
"Do you want a piece of me?"

The dialogues were just pathetic and 80% of this was dialogue. This *should* tell you more about tharntype than anything else.

When 90% of the dialogue which forms 80% of a drama is the main characters’ confabulating about what breakfast they are going to have and what birds they saw today then (do the math people) it makes 72% of the series a shitty elocution. Tharntype's dialogue basically comprises of a. Boring dialogue that has nothing to do with the story b. Boring dialogue tht has everything to do with the story c. Cheesy dialogue that made me want to scratch my eyes out d. Confrontations.

And what's funny is that despite the dialogue snoozefest, there wasn't much "communication" happening here. Two parts particularly stand out to me:
Firstly, Type talking about his rape and childhood trauma. The dialogue delivery was so feeble my left eye was twitching. And get this, I don't want Type to be over drmatic or traumatised about his rape. I just don't want him to talk like he's angry about the ice cream he ate yesterday.
“The chocolate was so bad. There were no choco chips at all. I was suffocating.”

Secondly were the parts where Tharn kept reassuring Type that he wasn't treating him like a woman. That he loved him like a man. And then cue the melodrama:
“I want you to be mine.”
“It's you who are mine.”
OR!
“I'm already yours.”

The parts where they talked about the goodness of people regardless of sexual orientation were particularly enlightening.
“All gay men aren't bad you know.”
I mean that's some good woke shit right there.

And then there were the parts where I was wondering whether the Thai had been lost in translation.
“You are my bitch.”

Lastly those monologues where the characters started talking to themselves out loud...

0/10 for dialogue and –10/10 for effort (there must have been lots of effort going into writing pages upon pages of that shit)

2. Acting
You know what's the main reason why many users who acknowledge that Tharntype has a shitty plot (more on this in a bit <3) justify giving Tharntype a 7/10 or 8/10 rating ?

Acting.

And you know what? They weren't totally wrong. I could not get enough of Gulf acting constipated, as if he had eaten too many durians for lunch. Same goes for Mew's bed eyes.

The side characters didn't have to do much acting anyway. Tar was going around being morose and acting like he had a bad stomach ache while Tum kept rushing into his room in a mad frenzy simple because he didn't answer his call. At least he made me laugh because every time he did thay, I thought of Jack Torrance from The Shining (splendid performance from Jack Nicholson btw).

Then there was Techno. His only job was to inquire into Type's romantic debacles at every new stage in Tharntype's relationship through on-the-nose dialogues. Oh and he's a shitty football captain.

Point is, that Type's constipated acting was on point, sadly this wasn't a Doc McStuffins series about stomachache or I would have given him 10 stars. Mew carried it well, I don't have many complaints about him.

3. Plot
Tharntype is the story of Type, a 19 year old college student who had been raped as a child and had to subsequently face lots of stigma for it and had to run from media who were oh so interested in the story of the boy who got raped. He gets assigned to a room with Type who is openly gay and has had multiple boyfriends (and exes) in the past. Also 19. Also an engineering student.

Their relationship begins when Type discovers that Tharn is gay from his friend Techno and starts a war against Tharn to drive him out of the room. Tharn being the god of patience that he is (but actually just a masochist), bears all of Type’s idiosyncrasies which include Type littering his bed, destroying his books and disrupting his affairs. Tharn however continues to be caring and takes it in stride.

In fact, Tharn may already be in love with Type because guess what he does? He rapes Type by leaving hickeys on his body.

Their relationship continues to grow. Type and Tharn go from casual roommates to haters, to friends with benefits but that's a far stretch because they still hate each other. When Type wants to get into a relationship with a girl, he is quick to set rules for this fuckbuddies relationship, that they are allowed to date whoever they want without interrupting in each other's affairs.

Tharn just accepts it with the patience of a mute dog and Type never asks him if he is okay with it. Hurray! Power to Type for being an asshole.

Once Type realises that his libido is only set off by Tharn, he is quick to dump the girl and get back to Tharn. More power to man who knows what he wants and gets it too, regardless of who is hurt in the process!

There are lots more problems of course but I'm afraid I won't be able to stop once I start. So lets skip to the main part of the story.

One of the major reasons I was intrigued about Tharntype was the plot twist. Everybody kept talking about a huge mysterious plot twist. Around episode 9, Tharn and Type mutually decide that they have had enough of this boyfriends bullcrap and they go back to square one. Type starts hitting on women, Tharn starts talking to his exes.

Tar, one of Tharn’s exes, makes an appearance and starts pursuing Tharn actively. This causes a rift in the relationship. On the other hand, Lhong, a side character you probably NEVER noticed because he totally hasn’t been hanging around Tharn with that crazy look AT ALL, starts whispering into Type’s ear. He makes Type feel insecure and Type breaks up with Tharn as is expected.

In the last episode it is revealed that Lhong was the villain all along. That Lhong was the one who had got Tar gang raped. That Tar had started pursuing Tharn because Lhong had forced him to do so. That Lhong got them to break up.

Totally did not see that plot twist coming from a mile away.

And then we get a glimpse of Tharn and Type three years later where they are happy.

Why Techno is the real MVP:
The plot is literally moving ahead because of Techno.
He was the one who told Type that Tharn was gay. He was the one who asks Type to make up with Tharn. He keeps asking Type about Tharn. He comes in at the key moments right after their breakups to keep the dialogue going. More love for this dude who can't play ball to save his life but is a good friend and the one behind Tharntype. An unappreciated character.

4. Characterisation
Another reason I was intrigued about TharnType was how people were blown away by the realistic portrayals.

And to be fair, Type’s progression from being a hater of gay people to a gay man is great. Sure he was an asshole once in a while, sure he used derogatory language. And so what? Nobody is perfect. We must also give some leeway to him because he is a rape survivor and has a good reason to denigrate gay people and does so even after he and Tharn start dating.

Very realistic and wonderful portrayal from the showmakers.

And Tharn. He was just badly written. So basically we are lead to believe that he is a good guy. The epitome of patience. And he really is, the amount of patience he showed even after Lhong all but confessed to getting Tar gang raped is awespiring. We must all learn how to maintain a calm and cool facade from Tharn. The only point I was majorly irked was when he kept telling Type to be open about their relationship.

Even though they could have had a perfectly happy relationship, Tharn wants Type to openly accept being Type’s boyfriend. I found this was conflicting with Tharn’s reputation as a patient boyfriend because lowkey coercing someone to come out is not what understanding lgbt people do to other lgbt people, let alone their partners, let alone partners with a traumatic past.

The other side characters didn’t have much progression. Techno is still a shitty player three years later. Tar is still traumatised by his rape and goes abroad to deal with his breakup with Tharn (not his rape mind you, the breakup with Tharn is obviously the greater problem here).

As for their relationship, it started with hatred, was built on attraction, fuelled by hate sex and fraught with misunderstanding, lack of communication and causing mutual pain. Goals.

5. Rape as a plot device
It bothers me. It bothers me a lot that when I talk about rape in fiction being romanticised or as a mere plot device and no, it is not "just fiction after all."

Tharntype shows two characters who have been shown as rape survivors. Type who was assaulted as a child and Tar who was assaulted as a minor in 10th grade by a group of men. In Type’s case, nobody thought it was his fault but the media hounded hum for a long time. In case of Tar, the incident is later revealed to have been arranged by Lhong to blackmail Tar and breakup his relationship with Tharn.

I don’t want to say much about Type. We are talking about the dude who even after getting raped once, doesn’t confront Tharn for leaving hickeys on him.

Let's talk about Tar for a bit. Tar who is clearly still messed up about his past. Tar who doesn’t have anybody to go to except Tharn and even that doorway is shut because Tar is scared that the rape looks like real consensual sex (it was recorded by Lhong. Messed up right? I know.) Tar is again coerced by Lhong to break up Tharn and Type and he does so unwillingly because Lhong threatens to expose his tape.

Lets talk about what happens after Type physically attacks Tar for getting between him and Tharn. Tar breaks down. He breaksdown so bad that he shows Type (and Techno) the video of his assault (Lhong must have sent it to him and Tar has kept it). A video that he hasn’t shown anybody. Now he shows it to two strangers.

When all this is exposed to Tharn, guess what he does? he punches Lhong. He gets together with Type, he professes that he never wants to see Lhong again and then asks Type to apologise to Tar because he believes that Tar's assult is his fault. And guess what Type does?

He texts him.

Get this. Type texts Tar that Tharn is sorry for his past rape.

Also, Type asks Tharn for sex as a favor to get over his fear of gayness.

Let that sink in.

I wonder how much people think is okay. Whether people think it is actually okay for them to turn a blind eye to somebody who got raped and to not offer support. You can’t (shouldn’t) force anybody to report but yes, you are required to show support.

The story writers’ efforts to make Tharn look like a saint pretty much failed. If he truly felt that it was his fault, why didn’t he do more about it? Just an apology maybe?

As for Lhong, he gets a redemption arc too. He loved Tharn too much. He also has negligence issues at his house. Boo hoo. 19 yo rick kid with family problems and lack of attention gets a kid gang raped and it's all justified. They even brought in Lhong’s sister to reassure him.

Lastly, if Tharn was so much in love with Tar and id Tum, Tar's brother, truly loves Tar so much, why didn’t he have people to go too? How did this show deal with rape in any way, except write it off once it's purpose had been served. So yes, I dock a lot off points from Tharntype for bad usage of rape as a plot device; once to justify Type’s hatred for Tharn and once to provide conflict.

And lets not throw just Tharn under the bus for this one, Type has physically hit Tharn on multiple occassions. And somehow it was okay when he did it, which brings me to my next point:

6. Playing into Bl tropes
Tharntype isn't playing into bl tropes. It probably established those Bl tropes.

The biggest trope which sets me off is how one is marked as the 'seme' or top and the other is the 'uke'. The idea is that the seme takes the position of the 'man' in the relationship and the uke takes the role of the 'girl' in the relationship.

Despite the number of times Type protests to Tharn that he is "not a girl" and won't accept being treated as one, I could not overlook how Tharntype were cast into the same roles. Tharn has claimed the seme role for himself, saying that he is "always the top." These dialogues would make me cringe out of existence if I wasn't otherwise engaged in adding it to my list of unhealthy bl tropes in Tharntype.

By the way, Type's blatant sexism where he tells Tharn that he won't let Tharn pay for him because "he isn't a girl," did not improve my perception of his character at all.

Apart from all these points which I absolutely hated about Tharntype, I also hated the music tracks. The OST itself was upbeat but the sound placement was triggering my audio proc disorder a lot (had to put it on mute). I think I would have enjoyed the show more if the subtitles had been in Spanish. I can't read Spanish.


Right after the 'Did the egg come first or the chicken' question is the second biggest question about our existence. Why does Tharntype have a 8.1 rating on MDL. This show gets a wholesome, well earned 3.5 from me. Would not recommend to anybody.

(Also, they legit couldn't think of a different title? Just glue the main characters’ names together and voila! It does not get less creative than that).

The only good thing was Pete's cameo in the end. Saint's smile can still brighten up my day but even that was sort of ruined by Tin's comment.

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