Home School (2023)

More Home, Less School

Home School is in no way a perfect drama. It has a fair number of flaws, but despite those flaws, I enjoyed it immensely. There were aspects that were done quite well and though it completely goes beyond the realm of possibility or reality, the fact that it was committed to that absurdity and as long as I went with the flow and didn't question too much, it worked. I found it to be interesting, heartwarming at times, mysterious at others. There weren't any huge surprises, I felt like most of the plot twists were relatively simple to either have figured out by the time they were revealed or have an inkling so that it wasn't a total shock. Considering some of of the disappointing dramas I've seen recently, it was refreshing to have one that kept me hooked.

I enjoyed the story for the most part. I felt like it did try to make things out to be more dark and mysterious than they really were, but I didn't hate that. The one thing about this series is that it really requires you to take things on faith. I know basically nothing about hypnosis, but I am almost 100% certain that the way hypnosis is used and treated in this series is not the way it actually works, otherwise we'd have people running around hypnotizing others right and left. It was an interesting and unique take though and once I stopped asking too many questions about it, I found it interesting. Same with the "medicine" that Master Dilak and several others were taking. There's no real explanation regarding this medicine, how it was scientifically formulated or anything like that. It's another part that you just kind of need to go with. The school part of Home School was largely absent. There's very little shown of the students actually studying and more of them playing "games" that are supposed to teach them something. There's also a distinct lack of knowledge regarding time progression. Given the school setting I feel like it should have been relatively simple for them to give hints as to how much time was passing, but nothing of the sort is given. There were a few plot holes and some things that didn't make sense. One of the biggest ones was why anyone, including Master Amin, ever thought Master Prasat was in any way trustworthy. The man seemed unstable even in the past so why anyone thought it was a good idea to let him hypnotize Master Amin and why no one, other than Master Puth, connected the dots between this and Master Amin's change in behaviour is beyond me. Touching back on the hypnosis, the fact that some were apparently immune to it's effects like Run, was not well explained. I do feel that things were wrapped up a touch too neatly. I found it hard to believe that the parents gave in that easily to having their memories erased. Considering what we knew about some of them, it felt like a stretch. The pacing was a bit laggy at times, mostly about halfway through. There were certainly episodes where it didn't feel like anything of real importance occurred, but the beginning and ending episodes I felt were pretty well paced.

This was a large cast and I thought they did a decent job of balancing out the characters, better than a lot of dramas I've seen. The students, none of whom looked 16 except maybe Phleng and Pennueng, obviously got the most focus and I really liked how in those first couple of episodes they allowed the audience to get to know them and understand how their personalities and behaviour were developed by the abuse of their families. It explained a lot and in some cases made me feel a tad more sympathy for them like in the cases of Hugo and Jingjai who I had really disliked up until that moment. They were never my favorite characters even afterward, but I at least could understand them a bit better. My biggest qualm was the lack of background on any of the Masters other than Master Amin, particularly Master Prasat. Considering he was the big bad, I really wanted to know his story and what made him tick/made him so deranged. We get one comment that he was abused by his father, but that was it. I wanted more. Same with the other Masters. We got a brief snip that Master Champ was a national athlete, but again, that was it. And with him I wanted to know why he was so loyal to Master Prasat. Was it strictly because Master Prasat didn't oppress him and gave him an outlet or was there more?

I thought they had a good diversity among the students in terms of character and personality. No two were quite the same. I enjoyed the build up of their friendships, though that did eventually fall to the wayside. I will say, for all that Master Amin kept praising them for being exceptional, I didn't actually find them to be that clever. With the majority of the games they played, I had the answers figured out pretty quickly and I would not consider myself particularly smart. I suppose you could say that environment played into it and I was certainly not in the same situation as they were which could affect one's ability to problem solve. Even then, they made things far more complicated than necessary most of the time. I did find it interesting how they separated them into groups to an extent. Obviously there was our main group of four with Maki, White, Tibet and Nai. I liked their dynamic together and thought they made a good, central group where most of the focus stayed. They were occasionally joined by Pennueng and Phleng who were quite cute together and I did like when they joined the main group. Neither was particularly strong, but they were incredibly loyal and their bravery came out when it came down to helping or protecting their friends. The others were a bit more scattered. Hugo and Jingjai paired off pretty much from the beginning and Jean and Biu paired off eventually as well. Mek and Mork, despite their initial animosity, did still stick together for the most part and Fuji was her own woman for the most part. The fact that they ended up removing half the cast in the last five or six episodes was a bit odd and could have been done better. I can understand why they did it to streamline the plot, but it was also jarring.

I did feel that pairing everyone off there at the end was unnecessary. Hugo and Jingjai again had been together pretty much from the get go with Maki and Tibet and White and Nai's relationships developing over the course of the series. Pennueng and Phleng I felt could go either way. I liked them as platonic friends but didn't necessarily object to that turning romantic since their relationship had also been built up. Jean and Biu though and Fuji with Mek and Mork was not my cup of tea. We knew that Biu liked Jean since she had mentioned it at one point, but aside from their one conversation, we didn't see them together much. And while Mek and Mork defended Fuji to her father which obviously endeared them to her, the seemingly pairing her up with them felt like a stretch. Now their relationship could very well be platonic and nothing more, but since they were showing all the various couples, it seemed implied.

In terms of individual characters, there were some that I really liked and others that I didn't. Some characters had some really great character development and others not so much.
-Maki was a character that I actually liked for the most part. I think they tried to make her seem far more clever than she actually was and she was a little too perfect, but she worked. Her backstory gave her layer of interest as she worked to uncover her past as well as find her brother. That being said, her character development felt pretty minimal for the most part which was a bit disappointing. On the other hand though, she stayed true to herself, so there's something to be said for that.
-Tibet more appealed to me because of his relationship with Maki than as individual. I felt they played off each other well, but otherwise he was a bit bland. I felt his reactions to finding out about his mother's as well as his father's deaths were a bit too subdued. Personally, I felt he should have had more emotion with finding out that his father probably hadn't committed suicide and had more drive to find out what happened, but given that it's implied his father was absent for a large part of his life, I also can't totally find fault with his having other priorities at the time given everything going on. His character development also felt pretty minimal.
-White was fantastic. I loved her badass attitude and the way that she didn't take crap from anyone. She was definitely a hot head, but she was also intelligent and under the attitude, she really did care about others. I enjoyed her friendship with Maki and the way they supported each other. Also, her punching out her aunt was a great scene. As much as I really liked her character though, she was another one that didn't seem to have a huge amount of growth.
-Nai was a lot like Tibet for me. I liked his relationship with White and with their group of four, but as an individual he was a tad boring. I also felt he was more inconsistent in terms of his character. He would go from chill to ready to punch someone out to trying to be funny. And it didn't feel like it was deliberate, more like the writers forgot how his character would typically react. He also didn't have a whole lot character growth.
-Pennueng was precious and I was almost immediately protective of him, like do not mess with him. I liked how it was portrayed that just because he was different, didn't mean that he was stupid or incapable. He was in fact quite smart as well as caring and brave. His development was great, going from someone very fearful who struggled to talk to anyone to someone who had friends and could communicate with and help them.
-Phleng was another character I liked and thought had decent character development. She started out so innocent only for it to be found that she lied and even hurt herself to gain attention. Of course, we learn that this is because she found that was the only way to get attention from her mother. She grew from that though and turned into a very sweet person who wanted to help others and worked to better herself.
-Fuji was hit or miss for me. Sometimes I liked her, other times I found her infuriating. There was a part of me that applauded her down with the patriarchy attitude, but I also felt she overdid it. Just because your father is a world class ass doesn't mean every man is and I thought her finally figuring that out when Mek and Mork defended her was a bit late considering most of the guys were pretty decent and had proven that multiple times.
-Biu started out bubbly and sweet, but after finding out the Phleng was a liar, it seemed like her whole attitude changed and she was much less pleasant. I don't have a whole of an opinion regarding her, especially since she was one of the characters who disappeared there towards the end.
-Jean really didn't leave much of an impression. He was one of the least featured students and aside from him being a real jerk there at the beginning and then going head to head with Fuji, he just wasn't that memorable.
-Hugo was one of my least favorite characters because he was such a total ass. Finding out his backstory helped soften my feelings towards him some, but there was also an element of too little, too late. Also he was bullying Pennueng who I loved so I wasn't willing to feel too sympathetic. That being said, he did have a good character development and while he was still very much himself there at the end, he had also softened and wasn't the sadistic tool that he had been.
-Jingjai was in very much the same boat as Hugo. She was my least favorite character along with Hugo because she was such a total b***h. Again, finding out her backstory helped some, but did not completely alleviate my dislike. Like Hugo though, I found her character development to be positive and liked that she remained herself while still growing and becoming a better person.
-Run was an interesting character. I liked him, but I also wanted to know more about him. I felt like there was a lot left unexplained with him that would have been helpful to know. Still, he was a good character and while I didn't necessarily see how he was as exceptional as everyone seemed to think aside from being able to hypnotize others and succumb to others attempts to brain wash him, he did come across as intelligent.

The acting was a mixed bag as usual, but there were a couple of standouts. Gun as always was fantastic. I don't think I've disliked his acting in any drama I've watched him in, he always brings his A game. Chimon blew me away. I've seen him in a couple dramas, all of which I've found him to be a good actor, but nothing exceptional. If I ever had any doubts that he could act, they are gone because he was just brilliant as Pennueng. Chalad as Prasat was also excellent. That laugh of his was positively mental and everything about him just screamed that he was unstable, but in the best way. Papang surprised and impressed me as Master Champ. I've liked him in the dramas I've seen and thought he was a talented actor, but his performance here was unlike anything I've seen from him and he was delightfully deranged. Someone please make him a lead, he deserves it. And finally, Khaotung who came in during the last minute or so and almost blew everyone out of the water. I knew that he had a bit role and wondered if it was Zero since his character was mentioned several times, but was surprised when I was right. Another actor that I know is talented, but had never seen in this kind of role and holy crap did he own it. Just absolutely insane, both literally and figuratively. Film's acting was nothing spectacular, she seemed wooden at times, but there were other times when she did quite well. Jane was good, again, I really liked White's character, however, she seems to act about the same with a number of the characters she's portrayed, so I wouldn't call her acting spectacular. While it was fun to see Joong and Sing as young Amin and Bodin respectively and they did act well, I thought they both looked too young for the characters they were portraying. I felt like they worked initially with the 1980 timeframe since it sounded like they should be in their late teens/early twenties, but when it jumped to 1991 and they still looked exactly the same, it stopped working. I feel like GMMTV has a bit of a habit of casting actors who aren't age appropriate, I'm thinking of them trying to make us believe that Earth could pass as an almost 40-something in Moonlight Chicken, and, for me at least, it really pulls me out of the moment. They could have used makeup or something to make them look older if they wanted to stick with those actors but it didn't look like they made any effort.

To sum it all up, I really enjoyed this drama. I found it to be lightly dark and moody with a pretty decent cast and some interesting characters. Like I said at the beginning, it's not perfect, but it is fun. The ending sets up a second season which I would not object to provided it has a good story. A second season could also be used to fill in some of the holes and give better clarity to other aspects. This is a drama that I would certainly recommend and one that I will be rewatching in the future.

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