Affair (2024)

The funniest thing happened to me with this drama. I watched the first trailer when it dropped some time ago and was not impressed, I read the synopsis and decided that this is not for me, yet I still jumped into the first episode as soon as it got realesed and fell in love instantly. I was looking forward to every single episode completly capitvated by the sizzling chemistry of Sonya and Lookmhee. They just got something that kept my interest till the end, even though the plot started to crumble down in the second half.

Wan and Pleng's chemistry is stellar. Sonya and Lookmhee can act restrained desire and sexual tension like it's nobody's business. I think this is the first GL pairing that works so well for me. Usually I think that one person is doing better than the other when it comes to romantic or intimate scenes and is overll more "into it", but LMSY are so comfortable and natural with each other, they totally won me over. I could believe their tears and saw sparkles of feelings in their eyes.

I've never had a problem with anything that happened in the first half of the show. Self sabotaging petty schemes, tumultuous unresolved feelings, irrational actions - it all makes a very compelling depiction of teenage angst where nonsense makes sense. Both actresses did a very good job, their natural and intense chemistry added another layer to this complicated relationship. Pleng's reserved nature and Wan bold personality makes an interesting combination - one always hides her feelings and feels like she doesn't deserve the other, when the other doesn't hide it at all to the point that her love becomes an obssesion.

The thing is, the characters don't go beyond that. We have a time skip of 13 years and they both are the same as they were as teenagers, even though the circumstances are vastly different this time. The push and pull and jealousy never stops and it doesn't make much sense later in their life. I've been told that this type of running in circles is a Chao Planoy's modus operandi but it's such a lazy way to keep the conflict going. There are some valid points that make this "affair" a bit more complex (Pleng's psychological issues due to her past, the guilt that she must felt for basically throwing Ek in the middle of their petty drama, Wan obsessive behaviour that went so far that she didn't even care that she and Pleng could be potentially related) but they are left to our interpretation, instead the show is more focused on Ek going psycho and Pleng going back and forth with her decisions.

The last two episodes got me thinking that perhaps I was just blinded by the main actresses' natural charm all along. It exposed the flaws of the script that I was able to ignore up to that point. The penultimate episode was supposed to be the height of the angst, as the major plot point got revealed, but for some reason it mostly focused on men and not the main couple. It basically showed that there is always a man waiting to lierally save the day whenever woman is struggling. The notion that women cannot deal with their own problems, with their own relationships, without a man stepping in rubbed me the wrong way. Especially because it is a wlw relationship and this type of heteronormative chivalry is not necessary here. Now, the last episode was simply all over the place. Introducting a new character and semi-new conflict in the last 30 minutes of the show is just dumb. Also can we stop giving the last minute redemption arcs to people who showed no remorse before? We need more character development, not sudden changes of heart.

It's not a terrible show but I'd say that the level of enjoyement will realy on how much you like the main pairing. The writing is not the best. I think we need to put Chao Planoy's Universe to rest and get more original scripts or adaptations of other people's works, because hers are just too shallow and overcomplicated. This drama is solely carried by the main actresses. I enjoyed it a lot more that I could possibly imagined only because of them. My rating is a reflection of that fondness, if I tried to be more objective it would be lower.
8/10

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A Waste of Good Talent

The ending was a thudding disappointment, an enormous waste of the palpable chemistry between the leads, but I'm so glad we got to see the male lead's feelings being soothed, because that's what's really important. Nevermind he's a voyeuristic stalker who broke into someone's home, whipped out a gun, and threatened to kill two people, the script helpfully points out that he's blameless because the women drove him to it. We even get to see him presented as a hero based on a single moment of emotional clarity. This is capped with a teaser happy beginning for his potential new BL - because a man IS the most important character in a GL drama.

As long as men provide the funding for these shows, they will center men and a man's POV. That needs to change; but there is no excuse in any universe for a woman to write a GL script that panders so explicitly to exalt the male view at the cost of the integrity of the female characters. I'm talking to you, Ticha Aphaiwongs.

We got to hear a couple of truly [un]original period jokes. Because period jokes are so funny. In fact, there are so many yuk-yuk "she must be on her period" lines in Chao Planoy dramas that it seems that single misogynistic theme is the entire range of her "humor." At least we weren't subjected to fart jokes, so there's that.

Overall, the production delivered seven episodes of a well paced drama and one final episode of a hashed up kettle of hot mess that focused more on the tender feelings of side characters than the unfinished business between the leads.

SOUNDTRACK
I'm not sure one lovely, but thoroughly overplayed, song counts as a soundtrack. Nice song, though.

This issue may be relevant only for non Thai speakers, but the lyrics to the theme song weren't included in the alternate language subtitles, which was a shame because the song lyrics reveal more in 3 minutes about Pleng's seeming reticence to overtly commit to Wan than the script does in eight full episodes.

If you're interested, you may be able to find an English translation online. I ran across a Spanish version that I could understand (thanks to Señorita P, my high school language teacher). It was very enlightening of Pleng's character.

REWATCH VALUE
Episode 6, yeah; the rest of it, meh.

STORY / ACTING
I rated the story 5 and the acting 8. The premise, with its tropes of rich girl/poor girl, unrequited love, lesbian panic response, lovers separated through misunderstanding, had tremendous promise. As clunkily written (or perhaps translated, since I didn't read it in the original Thai) as the book was, it did much better with character development and conflict than the TV series. That said, both book and series had some profoundly stupid elements, so go into this with the full knowledge that you may occasionally want to throw a shoe at the screen.

This review focuses more on the final episode than the entire series, because the final episode was a disservice to the series, on the whole.

Starting out in episode 8, Pleng acknowledges she hasn't considered Wan's feelings and promises to do better, then promptly does worse. Even Pleng's reaction to perceived competition for Wan's affection was based on Pleng's feelings, not concern for Wan. Pleng showed more real concern for Wan's happiness when she ran away as a teenager than she did in the alleged happy ending finale.

If this series depicted a real relationship, I would be screaming for Wan to run fast and run far - a lifetime of being the one who loves most, gives more, wants more will be miserable. Pleng's adamant resistance to emotional and physical intimacy, even after the lovers have united and reconciled, is a huge red flag for the relationship. If one partner rejects the other's loving advances and, even on the honeymoon, openly disdains the importance of intimacy, married life is NOT going to be an improvement - as we later see.

I have no idea what plot function it served to have Pleng avoid intimacy and all but lecture Wan that marriage shouldn't be "all about that." On the honeymoon. [FYI: on the honeymoon it definitely should be "ALL about that."] The "honeymoon" the viewers got served up was a couple of tender teaser kisses and an abruptly truncated make out session that was more moment than session.

Pleng's resistance to physical intimacy was thematic throughout the series - unlike book Pleng, series Pleng was always lukewarm - but it was made explicit in the finale, so the producers left absolutely zero room to resolve it. Nor did they drop any clues that it was something they saw as needing resolution. If the pathetic jealousy response shoehorned in at the end was a resolution attempt, it was a dud. So much so, I hope Wan kept Neung's phone number.

Sonya Saranphat Pedersen and Lookmhee Punyapat Wangpongsathaporn, the two leads, put so much heart into this series, they deserved a better send-off in the final episode.

Throughout, Lookmhee never wavered in her portrayal of a young girl / woman certain she belonged with her soul twin and willing to sacrifice anything to live that dream. Every moment of Lookmhee's performance rang true to the character.

Sonya deserved a less emotionally stunted, self-centered character. In Pleng, Sonya was saddled with a character who never became fully vulnerable with her partner, in contrast to Wan's gaping emotional wound open for all to see. I would like to see what Sonya could have done with a character that showed some insight and emotional development. In absence of that, with limited exceptions both the actor and the character seemed self-conscious and uncommitted. Lookmhee's Wan exudes hunger and craving for Pleng, but Sonya's Pleng never returns that intensity. Her physical surrender to Wan seemed more conciliation than craving.

Eight episodes should have been enough for Pleng's emotional development to at least move the needle, but even at the end Pleng showed less concern for Wan than for creepy playboy Earth (a more benevolent character in the novel). As an actor, Sonya didn't have a lot to work with, based on how the character was scripted; still, the portrayal lacked the vulnerability and desire the character desperately needed.

SPOILER AHEAD

Spoiler, but it needs to be said: Whoever decided to end the show with one sided foreplay deserves to never get near GL drama again. Or any drama, ever. That was a queer baiting nonsense slap in the face for viewers who deserved so much better.

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