CurlyFries

Have you ever read the description of a series and thought, "Hmmm this doesn't sound too bad" despite the low scores? Only to then proceed anyway and realize, "Oh. Those scores exist for a reason...."?

Yeah that basically summed up how I immediately felt after the finale of My Stubborn. This series left me feeling surprisingly conflicted but only because I knew I'd have a hard time gaging how I should score it in my review. That's because if you score it as a spicy, smutty series, then it gets a passing score. But if you score it with the idea of storytelling in mind, it gets something probably far lower than what I put.

Mind you, my score took into consideration the undeniable fact that this was based off a smut which meant my score had to be more lenient. Because if I'm being honest, I enjoyed the steamy scenes between Sorn x June, and Penny x Jun was fine as well. Yes, I deliberately left Thai x Champ out of the equation.

The story itself is virtually nonexistent and what does exist really feels off. I felt like so much was omitted such as flashbacks to help establish interpersonal connections between characters and quality relationship building. There are 12 episodes of this show yet I feel like I know so little of why Thai is overprotective of June or why Sorn and Thai are bffs.

The couples themselves suffer the worst from the gap in writing like when I had no idea when or why Sorn liked June as much as he did other than them having a few brief sexual encounters. There's also the added creep factor of him calling June "kid" all the time, which only served to make their relationship seem more unbalanced than it already was. Not to mention that June is Thai's self-proclaimed "little brother" that he is overprotective of, yet Sorn decides to target him anyway, despite being Thai's bff. You cannot convince me that Sorn was unaware of how vulnerable June was and yet he kept pressuring him into sexual encounters anyway. Though, I wouldn't have minded it nearly as much if they didn't accentuate June's youth and naivety when it comes to sex.

As for Thai and Champ (I think that was his name), they were as flavorful as a stale piece of bread. They had no chemistry in sexual scenes and their romance was boring to boot. With the way they acted I'd assumed they had been together longer than a married couple; only to then find out near the end that they weren't even dating! Yet they jump from situationship into borderline engagement? Seems kinda rushed to me.....

Penny and Jun really were irrelevant. I seriously wondered why they were even there when they had negative scenes. Their relationship also felt weird since it was a strict superior that boasts of workplace discipline yet bends the subordinate over a desk to touch them in the office. It felt very hypocritical and I was shocked when Penny got turned into a sub when Jun entered the picture. The flirty experienced "dom" gets turned into a blushing sub by someone who doesn't put up with their shit trope. They really subverted our expectations with that one, huh?

The whole thing of Sorn not liking "kids" was weird because June wasn't exactly underage. And that flashback of him with the girl needed more elaboration other than "she framed me." It was especially weird that she was still just in his life after that too. He almost went to jail I think. That also raises the concern of their ages at the time too...

Thanu was pretty funny and probably the only part of the show I liked. He served to kind of help the main two bridge between each other's feelings. It was a liiiittle weird how excited he got seeing his brother getting it on though. I think the normal reaction would be to shield your eyes or freak out. When I first saw him I really was amazed at how alike him and Sorn look if you squint your eyes. That was some decent casting other than me confused on who was older.

Delivery guy Jom was completely useless in verse and I had no idea why they hinted at him being a love interest if it never went anywhere anyway. This was a reoccurring theme with this show: introduce a character and/or conflict, then never really resolve it. Some highlights are that fighting straight couple that kept appearing, Piang, the weird club owner guy, two random kids running a coffee shop on their own, etc.

The most satisfying part of the entire series was June telling Sorn off in ep 9 (?). Then him ghosting him was deserved. That sketched on pencil beard on the other hand, was not. Why was the audience punished with that? Especially since June just takes him back after Sorn pushes him a little and then they screw on the fire escape of their own workplace.....where Thai and Champ supposedly hear. I personally don't like sex scenes in really uncomfortable places like public spaces or ones with surveillance footage. It cringes me out because it's pretty gross. I also have no idea why Thai didn't murder Sorn after that. I feel like anyone would be pissed that their barely legal little sibling is getting screwed at their workplace by your bff that lead them on for months behind your back. Sorn should've been running but he just cracked a few jokes with Thai instead.

Win did quite literally nothing in this story. He only served looks and inconvenient timing. His friendship with June was cute except for when it made me feel uncomfortable at how young mentally they seem in comparison to Sorn and Thai. I could've sworn when that dude who wanted to hit on Champ at the end (because why not just throw in a love rival at the last second for pointless drama?) looked up the boss' kids that he was going to assume Win was the other with Champ as an excuse to keep the stupid drama going. It also could've been used for a comedic scene. But no.......he knew it was Thai and it just ended there. What a waste of time.

The production was pretty good all things considered. I think there were times when a filter was too strongly applied, but the show was not ugly to look at. It wasn't really exceptional though except when June visited Sorn's mom's place. That place was quite photogenic. No wonder he wanted a photoshoot there.

Music was absolutely forgettable except during sex scenes where it would usually try to be sensual and exciting except for in ep 5 when Thai and Win decided to be nuisances. It suddenly become spunky music instead. I won't lie; I thought that scene was hilarious the first time I watched it.

The realism of the sex scenes is a different issue, but since it was just meant to be fast smut, I'll let it slide. In smutville we don't worry about condoms, STDs, and aftercare.

I also was tired of seeing the same outfit style all the time; and this show was a sad excuse of an office romance too when all it shows is superiors harassing subordinates and interns at the workplace. The setting really contributed very little to the story. It also forced Sorn to keep his hair up which SUCKED because he became 85% more attractive when he took it down and let it flow✨️.

Casting was fine for this quality of show. I wasn't expecting Scarlet Johanson or anything. June and Sorn had good chemistry and did alright with their characters. The lesbians somewhat had chemistry and did alright too, though Penny carried it. I was frothing at the mouth when she came on screen and she was probably one of the better actors in this. Thai and Champ chemistry wise......pack it up. Acting wise? They did alright with what they were given. They could feel stiff at times, but it didn't really bother me because they weren't portraying demanding characters or emotional scenes (most of the time).

Rewatch value? I'd only rewatch the funny scenes and the.......🤫 scenes. Ifykyk.

Would I recommend? Only for the smutty angle, because storytelling is NOT it. But have fun anyway~✨️💖✨️