This review may contain spoilers
Cute Couple, Poor Pacing.
I liked this for Englot, even in this early series they work great together, but the script, or directing, not sure which, probably both, made the series questionable at best. Bonus points for Engfa singing may have to be deducted for the poor audio quality.
Although I've heard of it thanks to the resumes of various Thai actresses, I'm not someone who's familiar with Miss Grand, or really any beauty pageant for that matter, regardless of region. For a drama whose setting is essentially all about the competition, we certainly don't see much...well actually any of it really. We are informed the girls will be trained, are in training, and have trained hard in various aspects, but we only see one walk from potential contestants who are all turned down before Meena joins them. The actual contest is treated very similarly. It very much feels like a show designed for people already familiar with Miss Grand and it's requirements and processes.
At the same time we have the romance, which feels weirdly paced and jerky: although the actresses have good chemistry that makes you feel their relationship is lowkey very flirty from first glance, it jumps tiny steps suddenly when the drama remembers it has time and then gets stuck at that level without moving while other events take over until the next jump. I don't know how to explain it very well, since all good stories have ebb and flow in their pacing, but this is more like the romance plot becomes completely static and then rushes all at once as if it's secretly playing grandma's footsteps. The "slow burn" (if we're being generous) is one thing, but what really got me was that after spending what, a whole episode? dangling a confession just out of reach, they do a three month time skip the night they get together, as if their cute honeymoon period wasn't everything we all hung around 8 episodes to see. Like these girls have been busy all season, let me see them dedicate their to falling head over heels for each other for once.
Then, after 8 episodes with next to no intimacy and never ending ambiguity (which is fun, but only for so long), just when I though they decided to skip skinship in this series because the actresses weren't yet familiar, our couple is suddenly in a mature(ish) relationship, spring three consecutive (and undeniably sensual) intimate scenes in an unfortunately disjointed row, and then, like nothing happened, are back to acting shy with cheek kisses. Now, romance doesn't always have to involve physical intimacy - it's certainly a quick way of delivering the message, but it's not always required to establish a deep emotional connection or chemistry between characters; Rogue and Gambit should be enough evidence of that. However, for me, perhaps because it was delayed for too long, the intimacy felt unbalanced. Like they were very quickly very cuddly (which I did love) and then they stayed in this strange cuddly zone where they keep having moments where sparks fly but they're both acting like they don't both know they like each other, or even that they like the other, in this weird useless lesbian friendzone, and then one of them figures it out, and even easily admits it to their mutual friends AND THEN NOTHING CHANGES FOR SEVERAL MORE EPISODES. Like she wasn't shy about, was barely more proactive with the help of said friends, but they get to the end of the contest and they have about a minute to talk between events and that's the time slot where she's like yes, now is the time, so of course they don't even finish the conversation and then they don't see each other for a month because of course. Then we finally get to see them together only to get slapped with the time skip. Honestly I just hate time skips. I'm sure there is a time and place for a good time skip, but I cannot remember a single time I saw a time skip and didn't think "oh ffs" because I was anticipating whatever event we just missed. Like go ahead, make it a ten hour show, the pacing's already trashed, at least throw in some fanservice and let us see them go on a few cute dates. Idk. I guess being bothered is at least proof I cared to see the couple get together.
Overall the show always felt like it was thinking about other plotlines than the one in the current scene, so that it was constantly skimming over things to get to something else. On the one hand it could probably have used more runtime, to actually show the competition events and the training as an actual arc, because I still don't really know what the whole pageant is all about besides looks, and it seemed like there was more too it, plus they keep referencing everything they went through together and all the bonding they did, except basically all that happened off screen. On the other hand, I really feel that the scene pacing was done weirdly, lingering on trivial aspects while skipping over a lot of foundational things like the relationship building. There were some sideplots to add extra beats into the narrative that basically existed to stop the actual pageant from being a half hour section based on the previous presentation, but I think it would have been more valuable to invest some of that screen time into the actual core plot, because after getting everything set up, the characters just feel like they're along for the ride, watching the drama unfold with the rest of us. This has a lot to do with the fact that we never see any of the effort they put in, the training, the mistakes, the dedication, or even the final performances. We see the stage fright before, and hear the results after; I think it's the most underwhelming dramatisation of any form of competition I have ever seen. Like someone clearly needs to be taking notes from sports anime or something, cause they can make chess look exhilarating and boxing an intellectual activity, unlike whatever this content void was supposed to be. Like, I came out of this series, made by MGI, for MGI, about MGI knowing nothing more about the pageant than I did going in. Like, I don't know what to say, it's actually impressive that they could manage such a thing, because I certainly wouldn't have thought it possible, not even if I'd been handed the job myself. Actually, the more I think about it the more astounded I am. How the hell did they manage that?
Although I've heard of it thanks to the resumes of various Thai actresses, I'm not someone who's familiar with Miss Grand, or really any beauty pageant for that matter, regardless of region. For a drama whose setting is essentially all about the competition, we certainly don't see much...well actually any of it really. We are informed the girls will be trained, are in training, and have trained hard in various aspects, but we only see one walk from potential contestants who are all turned down before Meena joins them. The actual contest is treated very similarly. It very much feels like a show designed for people already familiar with Miss Grand and it's requirements and processes.
At the same time we have the romance, which feels weirdly paced and jerky: although the actresses have good chemistry that makes you feel their relationship is lowkey very flirty from first glance, it jumps tiny steps suddenly when the drama remembers it has time and then gets stuck at that level without moving while other events take over until the next jump. I don't know how to explain it very well, since all good stories have ebb and flow in their pacing, but this is more like the romance plot becomes completely static and then rushes all at once as if it's secretly playing grandma's footsteps. The "slow burn" (if we're being generous) is one thing, but what really got me was that after spending what, a whole episode? dangling a confession just out of reach, they do a three month time skip the night they get together, as if their cute honeymoon period wasn't everything we all hung around 8 episodes to see. Like these girls have been busy all season, let me see them dedicate their to falling head over heels for each other for once.
Then, after 8 episodes with next to no intimacy and never ending ambiguity (which is fun, but only for so long), just when I though they decided to skip skinship in this series because the actresses weren't yet familiar, our couple is suddenly in a mature(ish) relationship, spring three consecutive (and undeniably sensual) intimate scenes in an unfortunately disjointed row, and then, like nothing happened, are back to acting shy with cheek kisses. Now, romance doesn't always have to involve physical intimacy - it's certainly a quick way of delivering the message, but it's not always required to establish a deep emotional connection or chemistry between characters; Rogue and Gambit should be enough evidence of that. However, for me, perhaps because it was delayed for too long, the intimacy felt unbalanced. Like they were very quickly very cuddly (which I did love) and then they stayed in this strange cuddly zone where they keep having moments where sparks fly but they're both acting like they don't both know they like each other, or even that they like the other, in this weird useless lesbian friendzone, and then one of them figures it out, and even easily admits it to their mutual friends AND THEN NOTHING CHANGES FOR SEVERAL MORE EPISODES. Like she wasn't shy about, was barely more proactive with the help of said friends, but they get to the end of the contest and they have about a minute to talk between events and that's the time slot where she's like yes, now is the time, so of course they don't even finish the conversation and then they don't see each other for a month because of course. Then we finally get to see them together only to get slapped with the time skip. Honestly I just hate time skips. I'm sure there is a time and place for a good time skip, but I cannot remember a single time I saw a time skip and didn't think "oh ffs" because I was anticipating whatever event we just missed. Like go ahead, make it a ten hour show, the pacing's already trashed, at least throw in some fanservice and let us see them go on a few cute dates. Idk. I guess being bothered is at least proof I cared to see the couple get together.
Overall the show always felt like it was thinking about other plotlines than the one in the current scene, so that it was constantly skimming over things to get to something else. On the one hand it could probably have used more runtime, to actually show the competition events and the training as an actual arc, because I still don't really know what the whole pageant is all about besides looks, and it seemed like there was more too it, plus they keep referencing everything they went through together and all the bonding they did, except basically all that happened off screen. On the other hand, I really feel that the scene pacing was done weirdly, lingering on trivial aspects while skipping over a lot of foundational things like the relationship building. There were some sideplots to add extra beats into the narrative that basically existed to stop the actual pageant from being a half hour section based on the previous presentation, but I think it would have been more valuable to invest some of that screen time into the actual core plot, because after getting everything set up, the characters just feel like they're along for the ride, watching the drama unfold with the rest of us. This has a lot to do with the fact that we never see any of the effort they put in, the training, the mistakes, the dedication, or even the final performances. We see the stage fright before, and hear the results after; I think it's the most underwhelming dramatisation of any form of competition I have ever seen. Like someone clearly needs to be taking notes from sports anime or something, cause they can make chess look exhilarating and boxing an intellectual activity, unlike whatever this content void was supposed to be. Like, I came out of this series, made by MGI, for MGI, about MGI knowing nothing more about the pageant than I did going in. Like, I don't know what to say, it's actually impressive that they could manage such a thing, because I certainly wouldn't have thought it possible, not even if I'd been handed the job myself. Actually, the more I think about it the more astounded I am. How the hell did they manage that?
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