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Good chemistry can fill in for where the story is lacking
Bad Buddy has taught us two things. First is that a great chemistry between the actors can bring out the emotions of the viewers no matter how good the story is and second is that the standard for BL dramas is tragically low.And by neither of those points do I mean to say that the story of this drama was awfully constructed, but am simply pointing out how the plot itself isn't anything note-worthy compared to the real strong points of the series.
STORY:
With the exclusion of the romance we aren't left with much. The main point of the story is that the guys were forced to become rivals due to the pressure from their parents, but even if the reason for the hatred between the two families is explained and they eventually let their sons interact with each other, we've never really found out why the two families decided to live next to each other if they've been in a conflict since high school.
The story is introduced by a fight breaking out, but we still don't know why Pat and Pran ended up getting involved with the "gangs" in the first place or why their faculties had such a deep rivalry to the point when they were willing to beat each other up.
Everyone seemed to start secluding Pat and Pran after having found out about their relationship, but when Pat went to give Pran the USB and was asked to shout out his love for Pran, nobody had expressed a disagreement with it.
There was a build up to Wai being a fake best friend who was guilt tripping Pran and using him when it was convenient, but then he did a complete 360 and suddenly came around to help Pat and start being friends with them after only one favour.
I think a lot of these points are related to how the story of the novel was changed in order to introduce a happier ending, but this had unfortunately fragmented the plot into serious and dark parts followed by easy solutions and light-hearted moments with happy conclusions which made me feel like there wasn't a very consistent flow of the overall plot.
HOWEVER, the romance part and the way the drama revealed its plotwists was the more significant and majority part of the story.
We were introduced to Pran and Pat being faculty rivals who had nothing in common, but the impression was progressively broken as the two began revealing their closeness, common history and their long-term pinning for each other. The reveals had the power to make people invested in their story and want to know more about the characters' true feelings and further developments. The build-up was done at just the right pacing, we watched Pran realise his feelings while Pat was out there subtly flirting for 5 episodes straight. The first kiss was completely unexpected, yet hadn't brought a conclusion to their story, instead opening space for even more difficulties and the flirting game which ended with Pat finally indirectly confessing his feelings brought quite an exciting development with a satisfying end. And even after they'd started dating, their relationship dynamic was fun and sweet enough to keep people interested no matter what the non-romance part of the plot was focusing on. Episode 11 felt like a promise of them staying together no matter what the rest of the world thinks or how conflicting their opinions were and episode 12 had absolutely delivered and diligently stuck to this mindset.
Each of the episodes ended in a way which made the viewers highly anticipate and theorise about the next progress of the story no matter at what point their relationship was.
Lastly, let me talk about the low standards for BL dramas now.
I have this opinion partially because of the non-relationship part of the story and mainly because of all the harmful stereotypes Bad Buddy has managed to avoid.
One of the two reasons this drama is so highly praised is the healthy relationship development between both of the main couples. The dialogues have not only omitted any uncomfortable BL tropes, but also outright mocked them. We had the whole "it'd be ridiculous if I said I was straight and you were my only exception" conversation, no mentions of wives or girlfriends in regards to Pran and Pat's relationship and even when Pat was roleplaying as Pran's girlfriend in episode 3, he'd purposely exaggerated his behaviour to seem as a guy who was jokingly acting like a girl instead of portraying himself. The dynamic between Pat and Pran never felt one-sided, they both respected each other as partners, neither of them was overpowering over the other and they talked out their conflict with each of them being allowed to equally express his opinions.
The relationship between the girls was portrayed so refreshingly too, they didn't have any long-lasting conflicts, it was just pure love that started out of a coincidental meeting and their dynamic was fit to be that of a side couple. There is such an underrepresentation of GLs that it made me overjoyed to see this kind of relationship in a popular drama of its neighbouring "genre".
Neither of the couples were sexualised, there was no bottom/top talk, none of the kisses and touches happened without consent or while under the influence of alcohol.
And a really thoughtful detail was shown at the end when Wai with Korn openly "flirted" as a part of their bromance despite both being in a stable relationship. It proved how people can be great friends while still flirting and jokingly acting as a couple, as long as they have that kind of trust with their partner.
And that's why I think it's a huge shame such a bare minimum has to be celebrated when this should be the norm for all BL/GL dramas. Imagine how good a drama of these "genres" could be if it had more than a basic plot while still focusing on this the relationship dynamic in this way and to this extent. Obviously, we're still at a point when we need to up-bring the healthy gay relationships in order to increase the quality of these "genres" and make them more realistic instead of settling for anything we're offered. So hopefully Bad Buddy can be the motivation for directors and writers to do better and not ignore the voices for the actual LGBTQ+ viewers.
ACTING:
This brings me to the second reason of why this drama was such a success.
Ohm and Nanon's amazing chemistry has seeped into the characters they were playing and further served to improve the relationship parts of the story. The bus stop designing scene from episode 3 probably would've been quite awkward if actors who weren't as close had to portray it. All the expressions of affection felt very natural since they'd put effort into practising even those kinds of things off camera. They'd always managed to express the right amount of affection and adoration during the scenes and dialogues.
All the main side actors were great, but the OhmNanon chemistry is definitely the main highlight of it all.
MUSIC:
Pran's two songs were well composed, catchy and memorable and their incorporation into the plot also made them stand out. They complimented the atmosphere and despite having quite cheesy lyrics, it worked well with the pair.
What I personally minded was the rest of the soundtrack. Some songs felt too overpowering to the point when they seemed to be interfering with the scene instead of setting the atmosphere. There were scenes with rapid changes of mood where the strong changes between background music wasn't very pleasant and felt too dramatic and unnecessary to me.
OVERALL:
Despite its minor flaws, Bad Buddy absolutely has to be one of the best BLs to have ever been produced in East Asia. This drama has finally reached the standards which should be considered the norm and aimed to be achieved by other BL dramas in the future.
I'm just really hoping the fans of this "genre" can also improve their mindsets together with the dramas and learn to do their part by ceasing to ship the actors, making a clear divide between the character and its actor and stop obsessing over the top/bottom debate (it's just as harmful as thinking gay relationship need to have the traditional labels of the husband and wife roles). I believe that if these kinds of opinions stop being so normalised in the BL community, we have a higher chance of seeing the quality of future dramas improve.
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It gets better with each episode!
To find enjoyment in this series since the very start, it's quite necessary to not get into it with the same mindset as with other BLs.The first 3 episodes aren't really introducing the romance, but rather all the characters and friend groups. This may seem like a waste of time in the beginning, but turns out to be a key point of enjoying the story since it's really not all about the romantic relationships even if they're still the main focus.
Another important aspect is that this drama needs to be treated as a pure comedy. Most dramas are majorly focused on serious storytelling with the use of comedy as a way of lifting the mood and making it more light-hearted, but SCOY deviates from this pattern. It does get serious later when there's a need to address something, but the first episodes are made all for laughs and not too much realism.
This is also the reason why Toh's issue with collecting things shouldn't be treated with too much negativity. Not only is it the kind of overexaggerated trait which should be taken as comedy, but it's also not as creepy as some people make it out to be. Toh doesn't actually steal any of Nuea's belongings, he only takes trash as memorabilia. This whole thing doesn't get brushed off and is properly addressed and explained in the second half which makes it even more justifiable.
What makes this drama special is all the LGBTQ+ diversity and the way all of their identities are treated with upmost seriousness. At first I was really worried about Toh, Jao and Daisy being used as comedic relief with all stereotypes related to their identities, but this turned out to be so far from truth. Toh and Jao are actually stereotyped less than a lot of gay characters in other BLs.
Also this was the first time I didn't mind a BL using the term "wife" when referring to a partner in a same-sex relationship because it was made very clear that the intention was not to imply same-sex relationships follow the roles of traditional heterosexual couples. In this it really felt like it was the character's conscious choice to be called a "wife" as he felt comfortable with the label instead of the writers forcing that role upon him. Which I think is one of the examples of how well this drama managed to portray the LGBTQ+ themes.
And the most important part is all the healthy communication and consent between the couples! Issues and misunderstandings are talked through and immediately solved, there's a lot of support and understanding coming from both partners and an absolute lack of non-consensual drunken kiss scenes with no repercussions. The relationships develop organically without the use of certain tropes commonly used to speed up the process or needless sadness and arguments.
What I didn't like was the editing which sometimes made it difficult to figure out whether some scenes were imagined situations or not. I also thought some of the plot arcs dragged on for a bit too long, but that might've only been an issue with my personal preference.
As the biggest disadvantage I'd pinpoint the feature of too many couples with an unequal amount of screen time. This can work well of the viewers who come to prefer the main couple, but from what I've seen a lot of people were dissatisfied with how little some of the couples were featured.
Overall though, this BL is one of the best I've seen this year so far and I hope more people can give this a chance and watch more episodes before deciding their judgement of it.
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A perfect integration of romance into a more complex plot
I've been hyped about this series since the very beginning, but I'm amazed that it has still managed to exceed my expectations.STORY:
I can't believe we've been able to learn something while watching a BL drama. It's not really common for this "genre" to bring out any deeper messages, but Not Me has done this wonderfully and on top of some great romance we were able to witness an inspiring story of young adults fighting against corruption and political issues. All the genres meshed in well and the story has been able to bring out a lot of different aspects.
The protest in episode 7 which put a lot of focus on LGBTQ+ issues and showed a small-scale pride parade had basically fulfilled all my wishes for a positive representation. I was hoping there would maybe be a conversation about sexualities since White was shown dating and kissing females earlier, but SeanWhite holding hands under the pride flag conveyed the message better than that. There was no need for words and the usual basic conversations when we got a beautifully sceneric event representing the community as a whole.
I was really worried about how they were going to pack an entire ending into the last episode, but it turns out 45 minutes can fit in quite a lot. I thought it was reasonable how in the end everything cycled back to the mission they'd started and the people they'd riled up to protest were the ones to save them. It makes little sense that someone was just able to see the kidnapping scene and photograph the car without anyone spotting them, but the rescue had such a powerful atmosphere that it didn't let me ponder on that detail for too long.
I'm sure there were some hardly explainable details along the way, but overall everything was tied up quite nicely with a room for an open ending.
However, there seemed to be a conflict between equally balancing out the romantic and story parts. The first 3-4 episodes felt like they were trying to emphasise the future romance too much on top of all the introductions to the situation and the group's activities. I understand why it had to be done as this is unfortunately the fault of the groups of viewers who would've dropped it if the romance seemed too slow and the focus was only placed on the politics at first. However, the slow development of the relationships which took place during the episodes after the beginning had an even worse effect since people had already got used to the romance-coded scenes and were missing that part as a result.
CHARACTERS:
I really liked how all of them had thought-out personalities and got a bit of a spotlight despite not being involved in any romances. The addition of Nuch and Yok mom's characters and how they could directly point out all the societal issues of their respective minority groups was also great. I think I got too invested in the story because I'd genuinely like to know more about everyone's past, not just the main reason why they'd joined the group, though Gram hasn't told us even that. But I guess we'd need a few more episodes or a second season to get that deep into the characterisation.
I'm a little disappointed that Gumpa ended up with no background story since he was playing a big role in all the planning and there clearly is a reason why he's a mechanic who knows how to do parkour and work with guns and assembled a group of teenagers to fight for justice.
ROMANCE:
It sure was a challenge to make a cohesive story in 14 episodes while inserting three romance storylines into it, but the staff seems to have done their best with what they had to make it work and I'd say it has worked quite well. It sure wasn't perfect and having more episodes with a slower romance probably would've made this series even better, but nothing felt too off or unreasonable to me.
Especially in the later episodes after the pairings had already got together, the actors expressed the feelings of the characters so well that they'd got me fully emotionally invested and I think the slower pacing with a proper friendship development before they got into the romance part in the middle of the series has helped this as well.
Also I really want to talk about this, I was so happy to see an opposite-sex couple having their own storyline in a BL drama. We almost always only see the "everyone is gay" trope which makes me feel like the same-sex couples are being isolated into their own stories instead of mixing all kinds of relationships together and showing the true diversity with everyone involved.
MUSIC:
My biggest appreciation for the music of this series came once I'd found out how many songs had been hand-picked for the different emotional and sceneric scenes. It seems like a whoever is in charge of this has done their job really well and it was really felt during some of the moments when the music went along with the mood instead of overpowering it or being too faint.
I hadn't noticed any background music being too unbalanced or rapidly switching up, as Thai dramas sometimes tend to do. Also I was personally really grateful for the lack of use of any background effects because this particular thing really bugs me and way too many Thai dramas use them excessively. Though that may just be me.
ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS:
This drama is probably going to stay at the top of my favourites list for quite a while since it's right in the line of what I enjoy in romance stories. Even if it had its flaws and some parts were better than others, ultimately I don't mind disregarding the imperfections to focus on all the good things about it.
It makes me a little sad that this series stayed behind in popularity compared to some other BLs which I wouldn't rate as highly, but I understand how the heavy and political topics and environment aren't for everyone. On the other hand I'm kind of glad the fandom for this isn't as big since it's a little bit more shielded from the BL audience that only watches the dramas for the sexualisation and stereotyping of same-sex couples.
Personal enjoyment is definitely at 10, but since there were some issues and holes in the plot, a strong 9.5 feels more objective.
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A collection of problematic actions, but a surprising lack of good toxicity portrayal
It might be because I'm not a fan of angst or perhaps because I don't understand love, but despite thinking a lot about it, I still couldn't grasp why it should've been okay to disregard so many things and why most people's actions had no consequences. There were also some good and reasonable parts of the storyline (mentioned in the positive section), but I had a lot of issues with toxic and problematic actions being romanticised.BUT hear me out first as I'm going to explain what exactly I didn't like and also add some positive points, all elaborated in detail.
Some general complaints:
- I really do not agree with using the "wife" comments and don't understand why the screenwriters kept them in as most BLs don't include the usage of this word when referring to males anymore. This kind of comparison of same-sex couples to opposite-sex ones shouldn't be normalised.
- Femme gays being treated as comedic relief. I've seen how hated the main leads with this type of personality are in BLs so reducing them to a laughing stock and suddenly having no one complain is basically giving out the message of "being gay is okay as long as you remain masculine". This is a leftover problematic trope from the old age BLs and I really wish it was excluded.
- The excessive use of alcohol didn't bother me for a long time, but then I realised these friend groups really do nothing other than studying, meeting up to drink or making food as an offering twice a year. I really don't think these portrayals of friend groups being unable to have fun without alcohol should be normalised in media. I've seen it happen in real life and it actually creates quite a toxic environment where everyone seems stressed and unhappy while sober. To be fair the groups in drama actually did give off that feel, but I still think they should've at least occasionally swapped a bar for a restaurant.
Now the actual issues concerning Vee and Mark:
- Non-con scene with no repercussions, the most obvious problem. I honestly wouldn't have minded if it was brushed off after Mark tried to argument that they were both drunk and should just forget about it. However, Vee still kept pushing it and brought up the sex in a joking manner twice after Mark disregarded it. So Vee clearly hadn't shown any regret over it which is what I see the biggest issue with.
Then I hate how in ep 7 they started treating it as a good memory when forced intimacy really shouldn't just become a laughing matter over time.
And lastly in ep 8 Vee suddenly swore that "he'd never exploit anyone" when Mark asked if he did something to him while drunk. After reading that I was very confused by how much that non-con scene got brushed off.
- Vee's possessiveness of Mark at the start. I completely understand why Vee wanted him to stop approaching Bar after he got a boyfriend, but it seemed strange how Vee kept pressuring Mark to completely get over his feelings as if Mark could magically make himself fall out of love in one day.
And then later there was a situation when Vee was experiencing an almost identical problem of attempting to force himself to fall out of love with Ploy yet found out it was indeed not as simple. However, by that point the whole segment from earlier seemed to once again be forgotten as Vee hadn't shown any signs of regret about how he treated Mark when he went through this experience.
- Vee doesn't know what "no" means and Mark had a breakdown after Vee listened to him for the first time in 2 episodes. Even if Mark might've had secretly enjoyed Vee's pestering (though he had no reason to), he did keep trying to fend him off very aggressively and Vee should not have kept doing everything Mark kept telling him to not do. After they'd started getting close, it still didn't seem like Mark wanted Vee to approach him at all so it felt quite random for him to suddenly get depressed when Vee finally promised to let him be after he asked.
This case is giving me the impression of romanticised toxicity, where harassment is shown as something cute and acceptable just because "the viewers know they're a future couple".
- That kiss scene at the end of episode 3. Even if they did have mutual subconscious romantic feelings for each other, at that point Vee needed someone to comfort him about his cheating girlfriend and ruined relationship, not make advances at him. And the worst thing is that it got completely brushed off without ever being addressed again - Vee didn't get angry at Mark for using his emotional weakness at the moment, but also somehow didn't take the kiss as an indirect confession.
The story made it seem like Vee's constant pestering was what got Mark to fall in love so hard he was willing to go through all that heartbreak without wanting to move on from Vee. Up to that point they'd only had a few positive interactions and Mark still very much seemed to be bothered by Vee so that kiss felt to be very forcibly included as a way to keep the viewers' retention.
- Vee's quick willingness to move on. Even in the scenario that Vee had fallen out of love with Ploy a long time ago, he was still clinging to their life together and even willing to go back to her. I didn't understand how it was possible for him to immediately move on and continue flirting with his other love interest without there being those toxic parts showcasing how Vee only saw Mark as a replacement of and distraction from Ploy.
- Senior friend group shipping Mark with Vee and then Nuea without ever checking Mark's boundaries. Especially with Nuea, they kept pushing the two of them together when Mark seemed to be visibly uncomfortable.
And then someone deliberately taking a picture of a sleeping Mark on Nuea's shoulder and uploading it on facebook. That scene couldn't have been skipped since it was used as an opportunity to make Vee jealous, but it sure could've been re-written as someone posting a picture of the entire bus interior and unknowingly including Nuea with Mark in the process.
I find shipping to be another one of the problematic tropes; posting a picture of two random people together is an invasion of privacy and a friend group non-consentually shipping two members shouldn't be normalised since in reality it makes people uncomfortable.
- Before getting together in ep 10, they only had big-scale situational problems where they argued, separated, became sad about it and then reconciled. I was missing a portrayal of long-lasting minor issues which should've arisen from the nature of their unspecified relationship status. I guess the only thing that comes to mind are the instances of Mark trying to deny Vee's advances while demanding they resolve all the loose ends first before getting physical. But does that really count when in the end Vee always had his way anyways?
The exact thing I was expecting came up at the very end when Mark started doubting whether Vee really was serious about him and still showed a lack of trust. However, I really wish this had come up sooner. Before Ploy and Vee officially broke up, here should've been a segment with Vee and Mark living together while experiencing all the doubts about their future and sometimes making each other uncomfortable because of all their complicated emotions. At that point their entire relationship was based on one person falling for someone who kept hurting him and other using him as a replacement and distraction from his previous relationship. It screams the definition of toxic, but there just wasn't a spec of toxicity shown during any of their interactions. Instead they were only able to either quickly resolve their conflict or take a break, neither of which is actually unhealthy.
- Nuea is doing very similar things to Mark as Vee did in the first few episodes - forcibly clinging to him, not taking no as an answer, making advances on him while drunk - and he's recognised as an antagonist for it when Vee's actions were portrayed as justified just because he's the romantic interest and we all know he's going to end up with Mark anyways.
- Yeewan's random evil arc. This girl saw that Mark was becoming interested in Vee and suddenly decided that she needed to meddle in their relationship to prevent them from dating. Even worse, her idea of splitting them up was by forcing Mark to interact with Nuea without ever asking who Mark liked. Then she made a half-asses apology, proceeded to instantly try to meddle some more and was completely forgiven without facing no repercussions what-so-ever.
Also in ep 9 when she used Mark as an excuse to encourage Vee to get himself beaten up more. She had no place positioning herself in that situation and I hate how it wasn't portrayed as a bad thing.
- Vee pestering Mark again after the break-up. I get his sudden resolve to explain himself, thinking that everything would be magically right again if Mark knew that he wasn't the one who kissed Ploy. But by the point when Mark brought a fake boyfriend, Vee should've taken the hint and left him be after all, not continue bothering him further. Even if Mark did still like him, it didn't necessarily mean that he wanted to get back together.
Just like the first time, it's giving me the impression of romanticised toxicity since it once again shows that if your partner breaks up with you, you just need to continuously annoy them instead of giving them some space.
- Also continuing off that, there was the part when Vee only became willing to give up chasing after Mark when receiving the "proof" of Mark dating someone else. It seems like this drama doesn't quite understand the concept of needing a break after a failed relationship before getting into another one. Furthermore, Mark is being treated like a toy at a playground over which possession there are multiple kids arguing and this whole idea of him always needing to choose a partner seems to be quite romanticised as well.
- The whole idea that as long as Mark is single, it's okay to constantly hit on him despite him having a different love interest. It happened with Nuea, then Vee when he refused to believe in Mark's fake boyfriend and lastly with the boxer guy. It's horrible to justify the refusal to back down with "you aren't dating so I can do it" and the fact it has happened thrice shows the drama's disregard of how uncomfortable this experience is in real life. And I dislike how in Nuea and Krat's case this whole thing was used as a plot device to show how protective Vee is and paint him as the good guy for defending Mark from them.
- Up until ep 8 I was going to praise this for how alcohol wasn't being used as a plot device to cause a fast progression in the relationship despite how many drunken scenes there were. So many BLs only count on alcohol to create or fix a relationship as if sober communication didn't exist. And here it unfortunately ended up being used as the sole reason for why Vee and Mark reconciled after the big argument. It's a real shame as I was strongly hoping that Mark would end up chasing after Vee and confessing how he still can't forget him (or just anything else that didn't involve alcohol, I guess).
Now onto some likes of mine:
- Vee's hesitations when deciding between two loves. I really liked the depiction of his deep devotion to Ploy, he gave her a second chance truly believing she'd not betray him again instead of casting her aside just because she was the side character and viewers were supposed to dislike her anyways. It made him seem very human to cling onto the past and not want to lose Ploy after spending so much time with her instead of choosing to move on.
- Vee's jealousy made a complete sense considering the plot. He hadn't properly got over being cheated on so it was to be expected he'd be worried about the same issue happening again. However, I really wish Bar and Kan's heteronormative conflict wasn't projected onto Mark and Vee's issue when they had laid the perfect foundation to blame Vee's jealousy on his past relationship.
What I enjoyed more was how in ep 9 after the reconciling Vee's jealously had intensified which had shown just how scared Vee was of Mark ever leaving him again, still combined with the scars from his previous relationship.
- Mark's conflict between the heart and brain. Even though he knew he still loved Vee and was okay with being his second choice, Mark wasn't immediately keen on rushing back to him and actually put some thought into whether he was fine with being hurt further. Particularly the instances when Mark kept shouting at Vee to leave him alone despite knowing he didn't want him to do so.
- The trust issues shown in ep 7. I thought it was great that the story had shown how the uncertainties surrounding their relationship reflected on their trust of each other. Mark was still expecting Vee to just leave him behind so he didn't give Vee the benefit of the doubt when seeing him kissing Ploy.
- Mark actually growing a backbone. I have not cheered at anything more than when Mark told Vee to get out of his life lmao. After watching Mark constantly being pushed around, it was so satisfying to see him speak up for himself for once, even if that backbone quickly disappeared later.
- The break after the misunderstanding about Vee kissing Ploy was very much needed. Even though I wish their reconciling was done differently, I still think it was important for them to have the time off and truly affirm their feelings for each other before deciding to finally start dating officially.
- Mark not forgiving Vee and actually making him work for that apology. Vee's sports anime character arc might have been too excessive, but at least it served to show how much he was willing to fight for Mark (literally) which in turn proved to Mark that he can put some of his trust back into their relationship.
- The topic of difference between the upper and middle class. It's not often we get a Thai BL character who isn't a rich guy with 3 cars and a huge house to his name so it was great to see the exploration of Vee's living environment. I especially liked how there were frequent non-chalant mentions of it, such as him not being able to buy expensive gifts, living in a neighbourhood with frequent robberies or owning a car which felt out of place in the rich district.
- Especially at the end when they'd ran out of plot points to bring up, I'm glad that they'd chosen to keep pointing out these differences of classes as the topic, even despite the big plotholes that arc had lmao.
- The portrayal of parents' acceptance. Even though I generally do like it when parents are shown as fully open-minded about same-sex relationships, it is nice to see the progressive acceptance of a homophobe every once in a while.
And lastly the general facts again:
- Even though no amazing acting can save a mediocre plot, the two main leads did add a lot to the drama. Even though I wasn't able to become immersed in the story, there were moments when I could still feel the emotion of the characters, such as in ep 8 when Mark shouted at Vee at the door of his apartment or at the very end during their romantic moments. Despite me not particularly rooting for Vee and Mark to remain as a couple, at the end the actors convinced me to be happy for them. I could really feel the chemistry of the characters during the sweet moments they had throughout the drama.
- Loved all the songs from the OST and the fact they kept changing the one in the opening sequence with each story progression.
Overall I really hope this wasn't too biased and I was able to bring at least some objectiveness to it. If anyone has read this whole thing and would like to disagree with some of my points then please do! I'd love to know what I've missed or misunderstood since I'm sure there are some things considering the overall high score of this drama.
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Enjoyable, but not for everyone
I was initially quite excited about this since after the first 2 episodes I came to be under an impression this would be one of those dramas which doesn't take itself very seriously and mainly uses comedy to develop the plot. I wasn't completely wrong, but my impression also wasn't exactly on spot either.First I have to say that while the comedy at the start is indeed the kind which half people will find absolutely hilarious and other half non-sensical and cringe, it doesn't really sell the drama well because in the later episodes the focus shifts on regular drama and issues between the couples. The jokes and exaggeration don't stop, but they're a lot more subdued in order for the plot to have an actual progression. The story itself isn't anything special in the classic school setting, but it can still be enjoyed as it's light-hearted and doesn't require too much thinking.
Rewatch value score is high, not necessarily because the drama is something most people would like to experience again, but because it's very difficult to remember the whole plot due to fast pacing and fast switches between the scenes. I personally prefer fast pacing over slower dragged-out scenes as long as the plot still makes sense and is properly developed, but in this case even I can't keep up with the speed. It really has fallen a victim to trying to develop too many relationships at once and as with many Thai BL dramas, there simply isn't enough episodes to do so without damaging the overall quality of the production.
Speaking of relationships though, I do actually quite like how they're being handled. Even though the scenes are sped up to fit everything in, the relationships themselves are getting a full development and don't seem to be progressing too fast or be incomplete.
My biggest appreciation in this aspect is that all the relationships are being treated as almost equally important and developed at the same time. Usually with multiple couples there's the issue of none of them getting an equal amount of screen time which earns complains from the fans who happen to like any other than the first couple. In this you get enough content of your favourite couple or can just be happy about the variety if you don't choose your preferred one.
As for the characters, you're absolutely going to end up disliking at least one of them at first, but all the problematic guys actually go get their short stories of self-realisation and improvement once their actions are confronted. Most of the characters seem to act overly childish, but at least these personalities of irrational students who are still learning how to deal with their emotions and communicate with others add an unique aspect to the otherwise standard conflicts.
There's quite an insignificant issue I still feel a need to nit pick at. I really wish the character design went through more work. For me with my face blindness it took 6 episodes to learn to distinguish between all 8 character which is the longest out of any drama I've watched so far. I might be the sole appreciator of Mek's ponytail, but I really wish more of them had a signature accessory or feature which could make them immediately stand out even without needing to recognise their face. I really feel like this distinction could help all the viewers since the story starts right away and not a lot of time is allocated to the character introduction.
As for the acting, the fact that these are all rookie actors can definitely be felt at certain parts. I wouldn't say all of them are doing a bad job or that someone is ruining an entire character, but there is certainly a room for improvement, for some more than others. I'd say the overall quality is quite average; the producers haven't hired 8 actor prodigies, but some of them are doing well and some have an adequate skill considering their lack of experience.
Last detail I want to mention is my appreciation for the lack of sound effects, that's something I'm always happy about when it comes to Thai BLs.
Final verdict: I recommend this to the people who enjoy light-hearted stories based around a school environment and don't mind exaggerated comedy. It's worth giving a try and sticking through multiple episodes if these are the kinds of stories which you usually have no issue sitting through.
The ones who should probably avoid this are people who are fed up with the school setting, prefer mature characters and stories or generally dislike comedy if it's not only used as an addition to an otherwise serious plot.
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