Therapy? No thanks, I've got a guitar
With a nice cast made of competent actors and a good production value, Love You Teacher had what it takes to be an enjoyable and even refreshing show, but the whole thing is brought down by its excruciating idiot plot.
For those of you who don't know, an "idiot plot" is basically a storyline that it's kept together and progresses exclusively because everyone involved in it is an idiot, and this series is the epitome of it. The general premise of the show is the sudden age regression of Solar and the way Pobmek and his colleagues try to deal with it. The thing is, Solar's conditions stems from childhood trauma, and as such it should be dealt with caution, specifically with therapy, a psychiatrist, medicines even. Instead, after a single time Pobmek brings him to a doctor (for, like, three minutes of screen time in the whole show), science and medicine are completely discarded in favour of idiotic ordeals in order to both deal with Solar's job on one hand, and Little Sun' infuriating behaviour on the other.
The most baffling aspect of this whole narrative are the reactions of everyone who gets to deal with the situation. Pobmek, Jee and Sodchuen are the core idiots of the show and I can suspend my disbelief for them (kind of, I suppose). I could also try to understand the children's acceptance of their own teacher suddenly acting like a seven years old as some sort of educational role-play (not really, but they are children, let's try not to put that much reasoning into their behaviour). But the other teachers? The kids' parents? The school administration's representative? Everyone finds out that a man with serious psychiatric issues is teaching kids and then acting like a child every other day and after five minutes of moderate concerns every one just accepts it? Isn't there anyone in this show who's not a complete lunatic? The most outrageous reaction though is from Solar's mother, who finds out about her son's condition and decides to completely ignore the situation for more than half the series, mother of the year here. Finally, as a brief off topic, how is Pobmek allowed to teach without a license? Who put him there? Hello, police?
Each solution they find to Solar's problems is dumber than the previous ones, and the most outrageous one is using Solar's obviously traumatic response to a song to make him sleep: way to deal with mental health issues. Also, as a side note, Solar's behaviour regarding the whole situation is idiotic at least, infuriating at most. "We should not treat Little Sun as a nuisance, he's just a child" (non verbatim): well, sir, maybe you should seek professional help first and then you could start preaching about problems you don't even get to experience because you are not there to help. Unsurprisingly, finally, the problem is solved in a sudden and unsatisfactory fashion, no therapy involved, obviously.
Storytelling idiocy aside, the production value of the show is quite remarkable, with very nice colouring and clever aspect changes between present day and flashback scenes. The acting is quite strong, especially from Perth (he brought this whole show on his shoulders honestly), Kai and Sammy; Santa was good too, but the fallacies in his characters did not help making him stand out. The best part of the story was definitely the representation of the friend group, while it was kinda lacking on the romance side.
As a whole, Love You Teacher is a decent enough show, whose main issue is just how serious it tries to be: I can generally suspend my disbelief, but I draw the line at treating mental health issues with a guitar.
For those of you who don't know, an "idiot plot" is basically a storyline that it's kept together and progresses exclusively because everyone involved in it is an idiot, and this series is the epitome of it. The general premise of the show is the sudden age regression of Solar and the way Pobmek and his colleagues try to deal with it. The thing is, Solar's conditions stems from childhood trauma, and as such it should be dealt with caution, specifically with therapy, a psychiatrist, medicines even. Instead, after a single time Pobmek brings him to a doctor (for, like, three minutes of screen time in the whole show), science and medicine are completely discarded in favour of idiotic ordeals in order to both deal with Solar's job on one hand, and Little Sun' infuriating behaviour on the other.
The most baffling aspect of this whole narrative are the reactions of everyone who gets to deal with the situation. Pobmek, Jee and Sodchuen are the core idiots of the show and I can suspend my disbelief for them (kind of, I suppose). I could also try to understand the children's acceptance of their own teacher suddenly acting like a seven years old as some sort of educational role-play (not really, but they are children, let's try not to put that much reasoning into their behaviour). But the other teachers? The kids' parents? The school administration's representative? Everyone finds out that a man with serious psychiatric issues is teaching kids and then acting like a child every other day and after five minutes of moderate concerns every one just accepts it? Isn't there anyone in this show who's not a complete lunatic? The most outrageous reaction though is from Solar's mother, who finds out about her son's condition and decides to completely ignore the situation for more than half the series, mother of the year here. Finally, as a brief off topic, how is Pobmek allowed to teach without a license? Who put him there? Hello, police?
Each solution they find to Solar's problems is dumber than the previous ones, and the most outrageous one is using Solar's obviously traumatic response to a song to make him sleep: way to deal with mental health issues. Also, as a side note, Solar's behaviour regarding the whole situation is idiotic at least, infuriating at most. "We should not treat Little Sun as a nuisance, he's just a child" (non verbatim): well, sir, maybe you should seek professional help first and then you could start preaching about problems you don't even get to experience because you are not there to help. Unsurprisingly, finally, the problem is solved in a sudden and unsatisfactory fashion, no therapy involved, obviously.
Storytelling idiocy aside, the production value of the show is quite remarkable, with very nice colouring and clever aspect changes between present day and flashback scenes. The acting is quite strong, especially from Perth (he brought this whole show on his shoulders honestly), Kai and Sammy; Santa was good too, but the fallacies in his characters did not help making him stand out. The best part of the story was definitely the representation of the friend group, while it was kinda lacking on the romance side.
As a whole, Love You Teacher is a decent enough show, whose main issue is just how serious it tries to be: I can generally suspend my disbelief, but I draw the line at treating mental health issues with a guitar.
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