Enchante (2022)

DISENCHANTED

The moment it was revealed who the mysterious Enchante guy is, the show started going down the drain.

Quick recap. Theo's granny died so he went back to Thailand to be with his family and continue his study. Hoeever, he found life is too boring, it is in fact too boring that while at the library, he decided to write on a French book in the hopes that someone will write him back because, why not? He is the star and people still go to the library nowadays, right? If you ask what are the chances that a Thai guy will read a French book in a library? It is very high, very high indeed. It was so high, that 4 most gorgeous campus guys took credit of writing him back as Enchante. The end.

Oh, wait.

The show started out ok, the first few episodes were engaging, and the connection between Akk and Theo is just full of goody cuteness. And then they had to go there - what was promoted as the selling point of the series was actually its weakest point. 3 of the 4 campus heartthrobs are shown as creepy stalkers, and were later revealed to be up-to-no-good delinquents and opportunists. Whats worse, in what the makers thought was the best twist of the series, they revealed that Enchante was in fact Theo himself! its as if, at that point, he isnt too self-absorbed enough. I could understand (a little bit) that he wanted Akk to be jealous, but to let the lie go on for that long is just downright egomaniac and borderline sociopath.

Ill be honest, by episode 4, i got tired of the story and even forget there are new episodes still to come. The Enchante reveal left a really bad taste in my mouth and unfortunately things got even worse after that.

I also dont understand how the show managed to lose what little chemistry Theo and Akk have at the beginning, and how almost all the characters become un-lovable by the end. Even the proposal scene at the finale was shot so poorly behind that too-obvious fake Paris background, and I just cannot feel anything from the actors by that point as any trace of their little chemistry is gone.

When the credits rolled i was just glad that its over, and hopefully the next Friday GMMTV series can live up to their better brothers.

Will i recommend? No. Was it worth the watch? Not really, it felt like a waste of time. The only consolation is Force, cause he reminds me so much of Tay Tawan, and i think he deserves to get another shot. And please, by the love of god, give Fluke Gawin a main role.

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All the puns on the series title are already taken, so I'll just say it's awful.

I'll start with the good:

There's a scene where Gawin is almost naked.

End of the good.

OK, not quite, although that's why I gave this a rewatch score of "3". I will rewatch that scene. Many times. Although there's a better Gawin disrobed scene in Not Me (and even without the Gawin nudity, one of the best scenes ever, period. But that's not important right now.)

Force does his best as a noob playing Akk, and has some real charm, although he leaned heavily on his sad-puppy-dog face, which is cute but gets tiresome by the end. To be fair, there are some cute scenes between the main pair - the scene at the LOL fake Eiffel Tower was a rare well-written moment - not fairytale perfect, but just right for people that have been best friends their whole lives.

On to the problems:

The writing is terrible. The entire plot (except for the last 2 eps which fling a series of non sequitur plot devices in the way of our heroes) hinges on Theo's hunt for Enchante, a mystery suitor who defaces a library book to leave one single message for Theo, which makes him obsessed with finding the guy. If they had several back-and-forths that were beautiful and meaningful, we could have invested in the idea of Enchante - but because this did not happen, it was completely mystifying why he cared about this, and since it's clear by watching the opening credits who Theo will end up with, it's doubly pointless, which makes the entire rickety plot unable to support the leaden weight of this series. (To be fair, they do give a solid explanation near the end why he cared, but it will make you hate him.)

This could have been at least partially salvaged by casting somene who can act as Theo. I hate to criticize actors, but Book is terrible. I will mitigate this by suggesting this series had poor direction and he was playing a truly awful character, so only the most charismatic actor could have made him remotely sympathetic. But I noticed that really talented actors like Gawin and Fluke weren't great in this series, so a lot of it is probably poor direction.

Which brings us to the character of Theo. Having a spolied-brat malignant narcissist as your main character is not a great idea. Theo is the most self-absorbed and selfish person I've ever seen as a protagonist in a drama. I can't think of a single thing he did for anyone in the entire course of the series. EVERYTHING is about him. His parents' marriage (the actors who play his parents are sexcellent - needed to throw that out there), saving the literature department, Enchante, it's all about him. He never once asks a friend how they're doing (even though his supposed best friend Akk looks tortured all the way through this) - he just seems to expect the entire world to revolve around him.

At one point, it's revealed that Akk knew about something that he was aware would upset Theo, but it was absolutely not his place to reveal it, and if he had, Theo would have rejected it and reacted even worse than he did. Theo is extremely upset that Akk didn't tell him about it and won't speak to him. The problem is that just before this, it is revealed that Theo had orchestrated a colossal, monstrous lie designed to manipulate Akk and which caused him an immense amount of pain over a prolonged period, so the hypocrisy is so mind-boggling that it's LOL funny, after you first stare numbly at the screen until it sinks in that you did just see what you saw. Also, what Theo is upset about and how he reacts to it is how a pre-teen child would process this, not a 20-something, where it's so immature and self-centered that you wish he were an actual baby so that you could shake him.

At this point you actively hate Theo and hope he dies (or is murdered by Akk) so Akk can get someone way better (like Saifa. Or one of the hot football extras). This is made even worse by the lack of chemistry between the main pair, which is curious because they have it in BTS and other promotional material. Some of that is also directing. For example, there's a key cuddling scene where there's a huge stuffed animal between them so their bodies aren't actually touching.

Some of these problems, as well as a possible reason for the weak acting by Book, is almost certainly that a soft-fliter is used throughout the series that is so strong that I thought I had glaucoma. I think a lot of shadings of facial expressions are blurred away by the soft-focus. Note to Thai BL productions: We don't care if an actor's complexion isn't perfect. Nobody's is. We don't love actors for their perfect skin, we love them for their six-pack abs and chisled pecs. And their acting ability. And their muscled thighs. And gorgeous faces. Pert butts. But mostly their acting and the character they're portraying.

I can't recommend this. There really aren't enough redeeming characteristics to be worth slogging through the terrible writing and enduring Theo. I hope to see Force in a better production than this, so we can see what he can do.

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