Now I'll accept that an 8.0 rating is a bit high for a drama like Panthakan Rak but there is good reason for it.
When compared to other Asian dramas that have revenge x romance genre, this series would probably rank very low and would have gotten at most a 5.0 rating for being bearable enough to watch. But when you compare this series to other Thai lakorns, which btw have a tendency to be full of cliches and extremely melodramatic, this one is actually good.
Panthakan Rak still has a very generic storyline (with the ML hell bent on revenge against his Father and his new family and the FL stuck in the crossfires), a lot of asian drama cliches (jealous women mistreating the FL, love triangles, tragic backstories, damsel in distress situations, the uber a-hole ML and the always nice, kind & forgiving FL), unnecessary violence (if someone pisses you off you curse them out or just put some salt in their drink or something, not hire goons to beat the sh*t out of them) and a lot of manhandling of the FL by the ML (seriously I hit a guy during high school just for talking sh*t about me and this FL got legit kidnapped by the ML multiple times and nobody did sh*t, like report him to the police, or send him to therapy or a correctional facility or make him take a sexual harassment seminar or something ughh).
This drama's one saving grace is it's cast. Even though I have watched alot of lakorns, the cast of this drama was mostly unfamiliar to me and I was surprised to find that they all played their roles very well. The lead actress was great.
The characters were also good. With the main leads there wasn't much character development per se but their chemistry definitely improved (this type of slow burn romance is much more realistic than the love at first sight cliche although I like that genre as well).
There were definitely some plot holes that really irritated me. Revenge dramas or movies are usually of 2 types- First is where the main leads infiltrate to take revenge covertly and ruin the wrongdoers lives (mostly happens in stories centered around wealthy & corrupt official/corporation) like Birth of a Beauty or Only side by side with you. Second is dramas with a lot more violence where revenge equals killing the villains like Vagabond or Hua jai sila.
Panthakan Rak was somewhat like the first type but not completely. Like the ML Pan mostly just ruined events and nobody really did anything. In modern day people get fired just for posting something inappropriate on social media and this guy just went around losing the company money and damaging reputations openly and they still let him work there. Also the character of Bunny seemed a bit overdone. Like she refused to work and acted outrageously which btw would in reality be a breach of contract. Her character was super annoying and should have been featured less in the plot (although props to the actress who played her).
Chon's character was quite good. She was a good person that got all twisted up because of her poor mental condition, lack of understanding and excessive pressure from her father. (It's a sad reality that most people with mental issues are either blamed for it or ignored completely)
Anyways, for newcomers to thai lakorn or hardcore lakorn fans this is a must watch.