07222023

[For episodes 1-9 ONLY]

To say I’m disappointed would be an understatement. This didn’t feel like a vampire show. Maybe my standards are too high as a long-time fan of “The Vampire Diaries” and “The Originals,” but I have no clue why the production team thought this was passable. Were the director, producer, and editors asleep during production? I wanted to love this series. I gave this serie grace because vampires aren’t a thing in Thailand, but at this point, nine episodes in, I’m just justifying a bad vampire show. I powered through “Until We Meet Again”, put up with “Between Us”, and checked out “Even Sun” because I genuinely liked BounPrem, although they don’t have the strongest chemistry; they’re genuinely healthy friends off-screen. I even put “My Golden Blood” on hold because I wanted BounPrem’s series to be the first vampire BL for me. What a shame that it’s not living up to my expectations and standards.

There are three major offenders in this series that I want to explore (not in any particular order).

1. The creative, or rather, UNcreative choices. The beauty about vampire fantasy is that one can get crazy with it and it wouldn’t be cringey, but appreciated, but this show did not take advantage of that. The ‘vampiric’ theme was almost nonexistent. The locations were very bright, both in lighting and color, and not accommodating to the traditional vampire ways. The CGI was not impressive, but not overly ludicrous. The camera angles were a huge, HUGE problem. There was a lack of facial shots and lots of unnecessary body shots. Some shots are also way too long, and some too short. Why do I have to watch vampires with speed powers walk from the door to a couch and have a seat? Not once but multiple times? I admit the hallway with the mirror shot was smart because you can’t see the vampires' reflections, but abusing that hallway for effect was not it. The music usage at times was criminal! For a vampire series, I expected slow motion, speed ups, great sound effects–spoiler alert, there were none. Gun sliding across the floor? Silence. Mr. Ramil’s grand entrance in front of his kind? Boring. Mekhin storming into Ciar’s place as Ciar gave an inspirational speech? Awkward.

2. The dry acting. The flat characters. The poor character development. The script. Okay, that’s four offenders in one, but it’s because this series is character-driven. The thing about character-driven shows is that if your characters aren’t likable and/or too weak to carry a strong storyline with a bad script on the side, then your show is basically f**ked. When I say I despised the lead characters, I despised them. Ramil and Punn are incredibly selfish and too attached at the hip. I hated Ramil so much when he showed up on the same night Punn was having his younger brother, Pokpong, sleep at his place. Mind you, Pokpong has been begging to move back in with Punn, and we couldn’t even enjoy their brotherly moments because Ramil had to show up and ruin it for me. I was looking forward to whether Pokpong would wake up before Punn’s alarm or not! And why wasn’t Ramil the one cleaning up the cake he had made fall so that Punn and Pokpong could have a heart-to-heart chat in another room? Ramil was way too nosy throughout the whole series, and it bugged me. If he weren’t good-looking, some would realize he’s controlling. Seriously, Punn can’t breathe without Ramil breathing down his neck every 5 minutes they’re on screen together. I don’t know if BounPrem was forced to follow the script and producer/director's directions, but the acting was way too dry and unnatural. I couldn’t feel any genuine love but constant lust.
Going down the cast list:
- My favorite character from the cast would be Barcode. Ciar had that ‘vampire’ feel, his build, and his deep voice balanced out the other characters’ softer voice colors. I love that Ciar accepts his vampire life, makes the most out of it, and has built a little kingdom for himself. Gotta admit, I didn’t love Barcode in “KinnPorsche” but he’s come a long way and I hope to see him star in bigger, better roles.
- AJ & JJ: The twins who played Paul and Caster never disappoint. Paul and Caster kept the Hunters’ side fun and actually made me believe they are real and long-time hunters.
- Kay & Kapook: Honestly, if I have to root for a team, I’m Team Hunter all the way. I love that Jett and Elise were committed to their cause and managed to wipe out so many pure blood vampires. I called it that Elise was going to chicken out first and be the one to get to Jett, but I didn’t expect Jett to take a pillow to Father Dracul so early. The Hunters were a constant reminder that this was a vampire show because the vampires weren’t doing that.
- Aun & Stamp: I don’t know if I’m in support of Mekhin and Pokpong being in a romantic relationship. I do like them as friends and sort of like a mentor and mentee, though.
- Mark Ji: Methas started strong but became background fodder quickly. He quietly dug around, be it Mr. Ramil’s orders or not. Methas seemed to be the only one who took ‘lives at stake’ seriously. He valued Mr. Ramil’s life and time more than Mr. Ramil.
- Prem: Where do I start… I know Prem speaks in a monotone, but when that carries over to acting, it flattens his characters’ personalities. Off the top of my head, there was nothing I liked or thought was remotely good about Punn. He’s the average Joe who happens to capture a vampire leader’s Infatuation. I assumed from the beginning that he was the mysterious vampire hunter, but nothing amazing came out of it. The traitor who sided with the vampires yet can’t give them any solid information about the Hunters. And when they finally needed crucial information from him, he couldn’t remember what the priest who owned the orphanage looked like because he was ‘too young’? That was 10 years ago? He was clearly 16-17? There was no erasing of his memories since then either? He’s also not the best or good big brother that Mekhin made him out to be, either, especially not with Mr. Ramil around.
- And that leads to my biggest beef with Revamp’s main character, Mr. Ramil. This guy has NO good leadership qualities. He’s not responsible. He’s not influential. He lacks communication skills. He can’t motivate a team to save his reputation. He doesn’t care about his so-called ‘family’, Methas and Mekhin like to think and give him credit for it, but I have yet to see it. At one point, he said his minions were like his brothers, his family, then later on, he was surprised when Punn called one of them his brother. Like bro… Being child-like at times can be cute, but Ramil is child-like at the most random and annoying times. There’s a time and place for everything, but this guy moves at his own slow pace despite the danger around him and his loved ones. Ramil doesn’t care about vampires. When Punn tried to save ONLY him from the Hunters and didn’t care about the other vampires, Ramil was appreciative of Punn rather than being angry that Punn knew what was coming and only tried to save Ramil. Ramil also has a rule about not killing humans, but has not expressed a valid reason why they shouldn’t (even I had to come up with reasons for him). I’m annoyed that his minions, especially Methas, continue to treat Ramil like he’s been through countless wars for them and is the brightest mind of the century-or the previous century, when he was free. It was supposedly a big deal that Mr. Ramil got his powers back from his minions (which didn’t make sense? Did that mean they are weaker now without his powers but already had the same powers as him?) and was re-appointed as the leader to protect the vampires, BUT on the day he was re-appointed, most if not all the vampires at his inauguration were killed. He took a few bullets, sent unharmed hunters home, and then he went into hiding despite his kind being in trouble. If that’s the best the leader of a whole bloodline of vampires can do, then hell…no wonder the Hunters were wiping them out left and right and abroad too. I signed up for ACTION action, but the most action I got was from the bedroom. Man, Ramil sucks.

3. The storyline is a mess. And I’m too angry with episode 9 to address the mess in the earlier episodes. So in episode 9, Ramil goes into Punn’s mind to see Punn’s memories. For about 10 minutes of screentime, Ramil fooled around and visited Punn’s more recent memories of him. To be honest, I skipped them because once again, it’s all about Ramil and Punn and no one else. Finally, we get to the important and point of Ramil entering Punn's memory; Punn’s memory of the incident at the orphanage. Why did Punn have to tell Ramil he’ll be his present self..? Wouldn’t Ramil have seen this before, or is this his first time using his past-memories-mind-reading power? And Mr. Ramil was able to interfere with Punn’s memories from the past…? Not just interfere but caused it? While he was trapped in the painting? I have many questions, and I doubt they’ll be answered.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten a thing or two, but this has already taken up three hours of my time.

For a series I wanted to enjoy, I found myself complaining every 5 minutes, fast-forwarding every 10 minutes, and pausing every 20 minutes. Since we’re getting the ultimate vampire showdown in the last episode, I hope to see some better effects. All in all, episodes 1-9 get a 3.5 from me. Hopefully, the final episode can take it to a 4. Or will it knock it down to a 3? Who knows, we’ll see.
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[UPDATE - FINAL EPISODE]
So the final episode was about 34 minutes total of screentime without the 'previously', intro, outro, and behind the scenes. I've dropped my 3.5 to a 3 because the ending was not only bad but ridiculous. The action was straight out of a comic novel and cringey as f**k. I've said this before and multiple times, but I'll say it again. GMMTV needs to stop with the guns. The short range, gun-grabbing, and similarly to "Home School", that series had a few extra episodes just because the bad guy was armed even when he was heavily outnumbered. This one was the same; Jett/Feratu having a gun made a bunch of vampires reluctant to attack. The action was clearly 'choreographed,' and the fact that the special effects team did no work on it tells me that no one really did care. How did the director/producer, production team, watch the draft version of this and collectively agree that it was fine the way it is? It doesn't need special effects for a vampire series? Vampires fight slowly? They can't be bothered to make the final and biggest fight at least entertaining??? How was Feratu able to choke Punn as long as he did in front of Ramil? Ramil 180 punching Feratu non-stop because he couldn't control Feratu was so weird, knowing that's Jett's body and Punn already saying Jett is like Punn's family—super odd moment. The first thing Ramil and Punn did after such a traumatizing moment is...kiss? Do they even care about those they call family??? For a century-old vampire, I'm surprised Ramli is so twitchy and more scared of what was happening than to be in control, be fearless, and try to handle it with tact. Without Ramil's gang, the dude wouldn't last in any 1v1. For the life of me, I can't wrap my head around how Ramil was worthy to lead vampires. Besides being the oldest and having gotten lucky with his minions, he's unreliable.

Ramil passing the throne to Methas so he could go live off with Punn in a timeless space is a selfish move, but at this point, it's not surprising anymore. They've always prioritized their love and lust; everyone else came second or not at all. Punn leaving his business to Pokong, who has no repair skills, is crazy to me. Like, what is the hurry? Maybe wait until Pokpong finishes school, then teach him a few things before riding into the sunset with Ramil. On the surface, Methas saying he'll free vampires sounds nice, but is that really a good idea? Under Ramil's rule, they couldn't 'kill' humans despite humans being their main source of food. If you let them run wild, wouldn't they go on killing sprees...?
I thought only Ramil preferred human food, but for a bunch of vampires, they sure love their human food.
This show has been a nightmare, and even the behind-the-scenes seems boring and stiff. I can't imagine this series was fun to film. Anyways, I'm done talking about Revamp.