Nang Sao Som Lon (2022)

“Beauty, Without the Noise”

This drama isn’t usually my kind of taste, but I decided to give it a try mainly because I liked the main couple.
The story leans heavily into a beauty pageant background as mentioned in the synopsis, but honestly, that aspect wasn’t explored as strongly as I expected. Still, despite that, I didn’t dislike the drama and found myself staying till the end.

At its core, this follows a familiar lakorn formula which a poor girl and a rich man, with the girl eventually revealed to be a rich heir. While the plot itself wasn’t anything new, I appreciated that the main leads didn’t have an overly aggressive or toxic bickering dynamic. There were conflicts, but no unnecessary angry breakups or extreme misunderstandings. That said, the chemistry wasn’t as strong as I had hoped, especially for a script that leans heavily into romance. Still, I liked watching the female lead strive for her dreams and push forward despite her circumstances.

One thing I genuinely enjoyed was the second couple. Song, the 2ML, openly expressing his feelings for the FL early on felt refreshing. I liked how the drama clearly portrayed it as a crush rather than dragging it into lingering emotional mess. His shift toward Rot, the 2FL, felt natural and clean, without unresolved feelings hanging in the air.

I liked the characters, specially Som, the FL who's humble in front of fame for the beauty and liked seeing Sila, the ML helping out her girlfriend when she needs support. And the friendship between second leads and the main leads were nice to watch.

And I also appreciated the stepbrother character, seeing him recognize what was right and stand up for his adopted sister added warmth to the story. The villains getting what they deserved felt satisfying, and I liked how some characters, especially the playboy types, faced their own karma. A few characters realizing their mistakes and choosing to change gave the drama a slightly grounded moral balance.

That said, while the concept itself is decent, the execution felt slow and somewhat boring at times. The story flow kept circling around very ordinary drama situations we’ve seen countless times before. I went in with fairly high expectations, and maybe that’s why the experience felt just average for me in the end.

Overall, this wasn’t a bad drama, just a familiar one that didn’t fully live up to its potential. My rating of 6.5 reflects that: good ideas, decent characters, but an overall experience that stayed safe and predictable rather than memorable.

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