Player

top tier GL!

I was honestly really underwhelmed by the first episode, so I was expecting this to be a fun and silly time but I didn't think I was going to get very invested in it. I am so very happy to have been wrong! It's pretty simple on plot — you can easily ignore the whole "the mafia is after Phethai" aspect as it's pretty peripheral for most of the run time, and the rest of the show feels very slice of life with its focus on Pun, Ploy, Prang, and Jay. While the mafia subplot adds a splash of danger to the story, it's for the benefit of building Ploy and Pun's relationship that that thread has minimal presence overall.

Pun and Ploy's dynamic follows an established formula that we've seen countless times in romance stories. They have been emotionally wounded over and over when it comes to love and they initially treat this as a game — Pun's ulterior motive is to try to get her money back from Ploy's brother via seducing Ploy, while Ploy is testing to see if Pun's feelings are genuine as she doesn't believe anyone can truly love her as a result of her fractured relationship with her mother. The first 4 episodes are a lot of fun as Ploy and Pun flirt a bunch, but Pun keeps chickening out from going further and only initiates a kiss when she gets nervous that Ploy is losing interest in her. Pun is basically all in by the first kiss (even though she still wants to get her money back and withholds this situation from Ploy), and Ploy, known for never getting into serious relationships, clearly quickly develops feelings for Pun as well. It doesn't take long for the two of them to enter a relationship after that first kiss, but unfortunately the honeymoon phase doesn't last long because this secret and we enter the angsty phase as Ploy turns cold due to knowing that Pun is lying to her. This show works as well as it does because of the great performances by Ice Amena and Memi Muanfun. The two actresses clearly put so much thought into these characters and they have sizzling chemistry and nail each phase of the PloyPun dynamic.

The start of the angst is actually when I went from "oh this is a cute and comforting show" to "wow this is REALLY GOOD." The character work that is done in this section of the show is exceptional — we fully understand why they were both so closed off before becoming involved with each other and how devastated they are to be apart; but we also innately understand why Ploy can't bring herself to believe Pun was genuine and why she repeatedly pushes her away. And while this angsty period lasts for a relatively long time given there's only 12 episodes, it is absolutely necessary for the audience and the characters to sit with this as it has to fully sink in for Ploy what she has given up, and Pun has to rediscover what she wants outside of their relationship as she had dropped basically everything to be with Ploy. (Plus I'm an angst lover, so I love when a show likes to twist the knife on me lol.) A lot of my favorite scenes from the entire show happen in episode 10 when we get to see Ploy's perspective after their break up — that scene with the butterfly collage completely and utterly destroyed me.

If you're looking for a GL to watch, I can't rec this one enough. It's truly near perfection.

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Dark Horse series

I went into this not knowing what to really expect and honestly. I was disappointed in ploy at first. But she won me over I thought she was flustering and I wasn’t vibing with her .. BUT then I got her perspective and wow .. that shift changed everything the story through ploys eyes suddenly made all the choices and hesitations make sense the actress that played this character carried the series .. she brought depth and nuance and just the right amount of vulnerability .. the show is Dark complexing and a little messy in the right ways. It’s not sugar coated romance it’s tense and layered .. it balanced character growth , emotional stakes and romance without it feeling forced.

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My Harmony

Well I'm really guilty that I once dropped this masterpiece. I can tell I'm not doing it again. I really like this series so much. I never knew it would touch me this much. I knew it i like simple story. I really felt very bad for ploy, honestly i still can't blame her for whatever happened. That girl has learned to grow up alone, stay alone. Ik sometimes she plays with heart but ik she just try to stay happy, keep her happy as she knows noone else gonna do that for her. I'm really sorry for her, her mother is so distanced from her, when She's the only one reasonable in ploy's life. My girl barely got her mother's love and ended up learning to live alone. When she was truly hurt abt the thing, i mean the harsh true that pun is just getting her close for a reason, in the end she couldn’t bare it. She saw the future where they're breaking up just like the way ploy made it. She maybe wanted to end it or maybe tried to took control of everything but she forgot she can't. Nobody can take controt of theirself, nobody knows how anything can end, as It's a plot twist by nature. Ploy really couldn’t know if that could end like that. I mean eventually they could separate but can't just end and the nature proved that. They both were a fun of each other but it just ONE. And they fall in love without watching it coming. Maybe it was pun's mistake not to sharing it with ploy. I really don't find ploy guilty here. Even in the end she knew, She's still the toy and felt really badly hurt. Well pun did apology letter but ploy couldn’t forgive or forget. She needed time. And the time she got, and realized she still wants her lover pun. She said so much time 'it will fade away' actually It's the Only thing that was holding her back. And I'm glad she realized she loves pun.
And if I tell the other side now abt Pun. Well she really got played by ploy, now here i can't defend ploy. Ploy really played with her feelings. I really loved the sister love among love the thing. I love siblings and i truly loved the way prang slapped poly, the way she kept calling her sister just to talk with her. The way she held her saying how proud she is. Ik i maybe can't be a sister like her but I'm a good sister. I'm also someone good in someone life, who dosebt judge them, who dosnet fake the care. I'm also someone with deep feelings. I'm a good sister.
Player the series took a special space in my heart. I never expected it to touched me like this, i love this. I love it the way poy pitcha finally found herself and the love she was asking everywhere. I love them, i loved the story. I love the side character, prang. Ik I'm not gonna watch it again but i also know how I'm gonna think abt it. I've watched some other series recently and I don’t hesitate to say, i got lucky starting it again.

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Not The Light Watch I Thought It Would Be

At the beginning of the series, I was lulled into a false sense of security. I believed Player to be a comedy. After a few episodes of Pun's antics to win over Ploy, the series gets very dark. The inevitable break-up of GL stories happens, and Player really achieved one of the most heartbreaking break-up periods. I don't know if it is because the series started so lighthearted. This may be why this one hurts so much.

Besides my false sense of security, Player as a whole had good pacing, and the series does not feel like it had any wasted airtime. Player felt like every episode had intention and propelled the series forward in a meaningful way. I want to give kudos to the writers and director for a fantastic job done.

Lastly, Ice and Memi have great chemistry, and their performances made me believe in their characters and the story. Not once did the connection between me and their characters break. It's always a good day when we have good leads performing in a great series. I'm wishing them the best in their future projects!

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8/10 Great overall design, cinematography, story, characters

A very unique series but not a fan of the 1st episode but once the real love story started it got me excited for the next episode and have finally caught up to weekly air-schedule.
The beauty here exists in characters made vivid by wonderful set designs.
"Perfect on a technical level" The device we chose to watch is on makes a huge difference in terms of enjoyable experience.
I normally watch tv series comfortably on a laptop with very low color accuracy since not a lot of effort is put on the sound and scenery in GL series and best part being just the story and characters.
For me that changed with Love Design (2025) which is set on beautiful locations and that's the 1st series I started watching on a 27" Color accurate Dell Monitor.
The best part about Player the series is it uses very wide 21:9 aspect ratio that uses whole screen of my 6.9" smartphone's AMOLED display. It really comes alive watching in either a monitor or a smartphone.

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Une très bonne série qui manque d'une fin à la hauteur de ses conflits

Player est une belle série hybride en 2/3 temps qui fait passer le spectateur par un peu toutes les émotions. Commençant sur des airs de romcom un peu chaotique, le ton changera vers le moitié du visionnage vers le drame un peu plus lourd. Cela permet d'explorer un plus large panel d'émotions au fur et à mesure de la progression de l'histoire.

Malheureusement, la série est victime de son départ canon et de sa tension maintenue quasiment jusque la fin. En effet, le final un peu trop téléphoné vient retirer de sa saveur à une intrigue bien ficelée avec des personnages moralement gris (je reviendrais sur ce point plus bas). Entre les mafieux restants, Ploy qui prend une balle, la mise en scène pour faire croire aux spectateurs de la mort de Ploy, et la résolution finale avec au moins une des deux protagonistes qui plaque tout parce qu'elle n'a besoin que de l'autre pour vivre... bonjour l'originalité. Sans parler de la réconciliation entre Pun et Ploy qui est un peu trop facile à mon goût.

Mais tout n'est pas à jeter grâce à l'écriture des personnages (et au jeu des actrices qui les ont très bien interprétés). Entre Pun et sa dynamique chaotic cute, qui pense contrôler la situation, s'enlise dans ses mensonges, ne sait pas masquer ses intentions, ni ses sentiments et Ploy en grande maniaque du contrôle, qui n'hésite pas à manipuler son entourage dans le but d'éviter d'être blessée, on obtient un cocktail explosif. Explosif parce que la série met en scène deux personnes qui se mentent l'une à l'autre (mais surtout à elles-mêmes) et qui se retrouvent victimes de leurs propres comportements, tous discutables. Ce qui met le spectateur dans une posture où il ne peut pas prendre parti à 100% pour un camp ou pour l'autre. On se retrouve donc avec un couple incapable de communiquer et de faire preuve de transparence, qui finit par exploser la confiance de tous les côtés et par se séparer.
A l'inverse, le side couple entre les personnages de Jay et Prang est le reflet positif, témoin d'une dynamique saine où le couple communique, fait preuve d'écoute, d'attention et de compréhension.

En bref, la série commence très fort et réussi à maintenir un rythme haletant où les protagonistes ne sont ni tout blanc, ni tout noir, mais des nuances de gris. On regrettera seulement une perte de cette dynamique sur la fin avec une résolution des problèmes qui paraît trop simple au vu du format 12 épisodes de ce GL.

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