Sweet but inconsistent story of 5 ‘Ploys’
This show actually started off quite strong in the first few episodes, and then went steadily downhill in the middle, only to have a fairly strong finishThe good:
1. The cast had really strong friendship chemistry for the most part. I believed it when the Ploys hung out and the boys hung out that these were people who knew and liked each other, had fun together and had a history together. I also liked Thapchana and Pretty Ploy’s friendship, Mek and Prof’s, etc.
2. The romantic chemistry was also good to great for 3/5 of the couples. Pretty Ploy and Mek were cute, Plain Ploy and Pimai were steady and mature, Prez Ploy and Thap were all adult yearning
Opportunities for improvement:
1. Prof Ploy and Khram’s story just did not warrant as many episodes as they got. Their story got increasingly silly (dead dad, dead mom, baby trapping, gangsters!) and the back to back of their story and Punk Ploy and Tawan’s really killed the show’s momentum. I also still don’t understand why Tawan likes Punk Ploy as her episodes showed there is very little that is likable about her character
2. The editing doesn’t work. Flashbacks work best when used sparingly and smartly. When every other scene is a flashback it pulls you out of the story. And even with all the flashbacks, there was still too much telling and not enough showing
Overall, there are definitely episodes I will be revisiting, but there was a lot of missed opportunity by production to properly use their talent
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Fun but uneven chaos
1. The plot: Overall fine and met expectation with the original. However, comedy or not the amnesia thing was dumb, I’m sorry. Still the show had some strong character arcs in Heng and Chicha2. The Acting: Earth as Heng was incredible; he made Heng so charming and adorable, kind and sweet, but also layered, especially in the second half of the show. Heng’s arch over the 12 episodes was wonderfully done and Earth played every character beat well. Also, it’s kind of wild how easy it is for Earth to generate believable chemistry with literally everyone. P’Shahkrit was also a clear standout; he was so funny but added so much depth to Kongdech, especially in his interactions with his daughter.
3. The Characters: I loved these characters like they were real people. I love deceptively tough Chicha who used to beat up her bestie Heng’s bullies, I love gossip queen Meow, I love ready to quit at any moment Newyear, I loved dramatic unhinged Cher-Aim… I just loved this quirky band of weirdos and the one brain cell they were normally sharing.
On the flipside, Mo… was a problem for me in the latter part of the show. Overall, I liked HengMo’s love story, but I didn’t enjoy Mo. I understand Mo’s insecurities, but I found him exhausting and weirdly immature for all that the narrative told us otherwise. Heng really deserved better than what Mo kept doing to him. Boss’ insistence toward Heng also became more grating than funny toward the end of the show
4. The relationships: I like the relationships between the character, Kongdech and his daughter, Chicha and her brother, Chicha and Heng, etc. Their interactions were so grounded despite the chaos they were generally creating. I finished the JP OL not really ‘liking’ any of the characters (except queen Choko); in the Thai version I like nearly all of them and find them all sympathetic
5. The humor: This show gave me some solid laughs every episode. Additionally, while the humor remains appropriately silly, it’s also smart and the references (Phupha Salotorn!), from imagery to music, are so fun to catch.
6. Production: In general, the production value was surprisingly high for a non-spicy GMMTV BL. The coloring was vibrant, the OSTs were great, they didn’t overuse sound effects, and the ambient sounds generally made sense. Still some opportunity for improvement here - sometimes the music was too loud / too quiet over certain scenes, or the mics weren’t properly calibrated, so you catch too much background noise and there were some odd editing moments, but nothing too egregious.
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Interesting concept, poorly executed
I decided to give this a go after watching Last twilight, which I mostly loved.The concept of this show was actually really intriguing, but the execution was messy, convoluted, and boring (which is the worst thing a show like this can be).
Sea and Jimmy did well in their first roles, but you could have cut down everything that happened or didn’t happen episodes 6-10 to one episode and nothing of value would have been lost.
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