Blkittykat

The old adage of 'imperfections make something perfect' can very well be applied to this - but even discounting the imperfections, this is not perfect. And that sounds like criticism even to the person writing it, but my criticism is not as harsh as it seems.

Whale Store xoxo is meant to be a show that's supposed to heal a jaded soul, if you find yourself in a situation, any one of the situations, Wan, the lead, finds herself in - the forty minutes every Wednesday should be the moments you find solace, even if it's through a screen.

Striving to be realistic, it misses a step, because here comes our whale in shining armour - Maewnam, our other lead. She is a jack of all trades, and is always there for Wan, even at the cost of Wan's own personality or growth. When the growth is completely facilitated by someone who is not the one actually supposed to be healing.. it doesn't feel quite as healing anymore..

The romance however, is the show's saving grace. What it lacked in depth, was made up for with one of the most green flag relationships I've seen on screen. It's a mature and grounded relationship - Wan and Maewnam communicate throughout, there are no long drawn out misunderstandings, they're there for each other.. well Maewnam is there for Wan..

.. and we're back to the imbalance in their relationship. Not a red flag, not even a beige flag, but that imbalance is very obvious. In every scene, every episode. Which the writers have made into the leads' personalities.. meaning episode after episode, it's basically the same storyline.

The second couple had the same kind of storyline, a cycle that is going nowhere. Episode after episode Ton and Chompoo deliberate on their relationship, where again, it's what one person says that goes. And it's even worse here because they don't have a relationship you want to root for!

With the leads, I can say that I wanted them to end up together - their issue was something they could (and did) resolve through an open conversation. But Ton and Chompoo were in a situation where Ton was getting battered every single time, even when Chompoo stood by her instead of against her. That power imbalance was evident in their chemistry, their story and screentime - which towards the end really became more about Chompoo and her mother. I wish they'd stuck with the 'exes' storyline from the pilot, I certainly would have enjoyed that more.

That's mostly my problem with this series - all the storylines stemmed from a single conflict or character trait, and none of the characters had any real depth. I still enjoyed the series - it had many moments where it was genuine and expressed emotions and stories that needed to be told. But unfortunately, these moments came only when the characters were growing on their own, and thus, they came rarely.

Even the supporting characters were one dimensional, throughout. It's all very disillusioning is all I'm saying! When a show about healing and growth has healing.. but no growth..

Acting wise - solid as always from Milk. I am getting a bit tired of Love playing the perfect human though, she does it well but I think she can pull of other roles (come on.. Girl Rules!). June and Mewnich.. it's definitely because of the characters writing but I did not enjoy their portrayal of their characters. Give them better characters please. Jingjing and Piploy did do their best as well with what they were given (not a lot).

Once again, it all boils down to the plot for me - it's exactly my type of drama, but it didn't reach it's full potential. But with healing romances, there's always room for interpretation, it's the beauty of writing such a story, and if it resonated with you more than it did me, that's wonderful! I usually say if I do or do not recommend, but here I'm going to say, give it a watch. If halfway through you're still in love, chances are you'll love all of it. If you don't.. that's cool too! Pick another drama that you think will make you feel all warm and happy - and if you love it, drop me a comment here with your recommendation!