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A frustrating story that squanders its potential to be something great
It's frustrating because this show squanders its potential to be a great story. It never tries to be more than a cute, sometimes silly, low-stakes teen romcom, even though the creative team for this show had access to good source material, good actors, and even some good ideas.
Let’s face it. This show was written for Gemini and Fourth. Its purpose is to promote them, advertise merch by capitalizing on their popularity, sell products they endorse, reference their past work, and even showcase their talents. The characters and story suffer because of this.
Fourth portrays a teenage mess, albeit exaggerated, by putting in actual effort to create a character. Atom is frustrating and flawed at times, but also sweet and thoughtful. He’s the only one who shows proper vulnerability in this show. Fourth gives it his all in the conversations with the moms. In the final ep, he felt like the sole main character of this show.
The creative team, and to some extent Gemini, did the bare minimum to create the character of Kongthap. The screenwriters allow him to show some interesting sides for very brief moments but never actually fully commit to any of them, for example, him getting frustrated with Atom for the first time in ep 7, him getting jealous of Atom being close to Sin, or even his yearning for Atom. We never explore the “can’t leave people in need alone” part of his character as was part of the original story. In the end, he felt like a secondary character in the story.
The writers do not seem to understand intimacy. Small moments that make a relationship feel real are few and far between which is frustrating because they spend two whole episodes showing us the fact that Atom craves physical intimacy and Kongthap is comfortable with it. Long stares and head pats can only portray so much. Also, Atom takes all the initiative in their relationship. He even has to come out to Kongthap's mom for him which is a shame because a conversation between Kongthap and his mom would have given his reserved character some growth.
One of my favorite moments is in ep 10 when Atom holds Kongthap's hand in public on the train and gets all giddy and shy. This moment is consistent with what we learned about their characters and the story being told. I wasn't even surprised to find out that this moment was improvised because it was more intimate than anything the writers came up with.
At least this show is a positive watch for teen LGBTQ+ viewers as it deals with internalized homophobia and coming out, and does it fairly well. I will always support high school BLs because shows like these are positive representations of queer youth in Thailand and can provide teens like this who are figuring themselves out the proper language to verbalize, even indirectly, their feelings and identities. I just hope the characters and their stories are the priority for the writers next time.
Let’s face it. This show was written for Gemini and Fourth. Its purpose is to promote them, advertise merch by capitalizing on their popularity, sell products they endorse, reference their past work, and even showcase their talents. The characters and story suffer because of this.
Fourth portrays a teenage mess, albeit exaggerated, by putting in actual effort to create a character. Atom is frustrating and flawed at times, but also sweet and thoughtful. He’s the only one who shows proper vulnerability in this show. Fourth gives it his all in the conversations with the moms. In the final ep, he felt like the sole main character of this show.
The creative team, and to some extent Gemini, did the bare minimum to create the character of Kongthap. The screenwriters allow him to show some interesting sides for very brief moments but never actually fully commit to any of them, for example, him getting frustrated with Atom for the first time in ep 7, him getting jealous of Atom being close to Sin, or even his yearning for Atom. We never explore the “can’t leave people in need alone” part of his character as was part of the original story. In the end, he felt like a secondary character in the story.
The writers do not seem to understand intimacy. Small moments that make a relationship feel real are few and far between which is frustrating because they spend two whole episodes showing us the fact that Atom craves physical intimacy and Kongthap is comfortable with it. Long stares and head pats can only portray so much. Also, Atom takes all the initiative in their relationship. He even has to come out to Kongthap's mom for him which is a shame because a conversation between Kongthap and his mom would have given his reserved character some growth.
One of my favorite moments is in ep 10 when Atom holds Kongthap's hand in public on the train and gets all giddy and shy. This moment is consistent with what we learned about their characters and the story being told. I wasn't even surprised to find out that this moment was improvised because it was more intimate than anything the writers came up with.
At least this show is a positive watch for teen LGBTQ+ viewers as it deals with internalized homophobia and coming out, and does it fairly well. I will always support high school BLs because shows like these are positive representations of queer youth in Thailand and can provide teens like this who are figuring themselves out the proper language to verbalize, even indirectly, their feelings and identities. I just hope the characters and their stories are the priority for the writers next time.
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