This review may contain spoilers
Jojo's heartless shlock
Whenever I see "Jojo" Tichakorn Phukhaotong’s name attached to a project as a director or screenwriter – I worry. When it was announced that Jojo will both write and direct "The Heart Killers" I was worried sick – not just because I sensed a repeat of the worst aspects of "Only Friends" but also because I really like First, Khaotung, Joong and Dunk. Initially I thought that – when it comes to acting – FirstKhao will eclipse (pun intended) the much weaker JoongDunk. Apparently I did not learn my lesson from the abovementioned "Only Friends".
THK has a very interesting plot: two actual killers become romantically involved with people who need or want to bring them down, but later fall for them – and the aftermath of all that. On paper – it’s dynamite with great dramatic potential. Such a plot can be developed into a script for a fiery romance or a heartbreaking story about love, betrayal and (possibly) redemption or a morality play about crime, love and punishment or a tragic tale of desire, passion, anger and jealousy with no happy end. So many options to choose from. Shame Jojo didn’t go for any of them.
The script we got was little more than a pretext for stuffing the show with as much nudity and pretended sex scenes as possible. No wonder the writing is weak, characters are shallow, unrelatable and at times unlikeable, emotions are mostly absent, stakes are non-existent (THK has the least intimidating villains I’ve seen in any show) and the script generally makes little sense (two multiple killers get only 5 years in prison instead of spending the rest of their lives on death row; their boyfriends visit them regularly to have sex; Bison singlehandedly beats up 3 inmates etc. etc.). On the other hand we get plenty of eye candy, as Jojo’s mission – since at least "Only Friends" – seems to be "spicing up" BLs. I even had a theory about that; it went like this: Jojo – an openly gay creator – was fed up with the often sterile and non-sexual BLs and decided to offer audiences a more realistic view of male intimacy. This coincided with GMMTV facing stronger competition from Domundi and other companies, which recognized that at least part of the audience will be in for "mature" content – even if it’s pure clickbait and no substance (like "Bed Friend"). Jojo got his opportunity and used it – that’s how "Only Friends" got made. To be clear: I’m not blaming Jojo for wanting to get BLs more realistic and adding some of what they were missing (male intimacy and sex). However, Jojo overdid it – not just focusing almost exclusively on that one aspect, but also reducing all depicted relationships to it. As a result "Only Friends" had no likeable characters – everyone was either whiny and slutty, cold and slutty or weird and slutty. Nothing against including slutty characters, but – like with everything – overdoing it was a bad idea.
Similar thing happened with THK: almost all of the emotional scenes and moments fall flat, action scenes are unrealistic and used as filler, while the only scenes that seem important are those where the main characters are kissing, shirtless or almost completely nude. Even those scenes, however, suffer from the mostly tacky, phony aesthetic and frequent lack of emotion or tension. There are some exceptions, but the majority of what this show offers is either uninteresting, banal or outright boring.
This may seem unrelated, but the setting of most of the series weirdly matched the above: the show’s world seemed empty, with hardly anyone there – save for the characters. The most populated area – the bowling alley – was nearly deserted in every scene, with a few people other than the main cast present. Other locations were almost devoid of extras – empty stores, hotels, office spaces, restaurants etc.; even Fadel’s and Bison’s burger joint was usually empty. The few self-help group scenes were a good example of that: a huge sports hall, empty and dark, with a handful of people sitting in a circle. No idea if this was a creative choice or an attempt to limit production costs, but it looked very strange; where is everybody – I kept asking myself.
I was surprised by how weak the performances were. I’ll repeat myself saying that I really like FirstKhao and JoongDunk. I’m also aware that Dunk has no acting skills – he’s just a pretty face, privately seems to be a nice and good guy, and he has good chemistry with Joong, both on and off-screen. And – as mentioned before – I was having some hopes regarding First (I liked his performance in "The Eclipse" a lot) and Khaotung (loved him in "The Eclipse", but also in "Tonhon Chonlatee" and "Moonlight Chicken"). Unfortunately the entire main cast gave very disappointing performances. Dunk’s was by far the worst in his career, with dreadful delivery, missing every beat he could, often so badly that it wasn’t even funny. I was not "so bad that it’s good" – it was simply very bad. Joong seemed uninspired, sometimes lost and confused, regaining his charisma and spark only few times; some of that might be blamed on the script and direction (or lack of it), but Joong – whom I’ve seen actually acting in other shows – is just not doing his best. As for First and Khaotung, they shared some cute, intimate and even touching moments, but their performances were below average for most part. Khaotung’s over-the-top acting might have been deliberate – to showcase that Bison is a little unhinged – but felt cringy and embarrassing.
No idea if THK was supposed to convey a message, if the audience was meant to learn anything from it, if there was a point to it – for me it was another of Jojo’s attempts to produce a show with attractive young men as main content. An attempt as successful as it is pointless.
THK has a very interesting plot: two actual killers become romantically involved with people who need or want to bring them down, but later fall for them – and the aftermath of all that. On paper – it’s dynamite with great dramatic potential. Such a plot can be developed into a script for a fiery romance or a heartbreaking story about love, betrayal and (possibly) redemption or a morality play about crime, love and punishment or a tragic tale of desire, passion, anger and jealousy with no happy end. So many options to choose from. Shame Jojo didn’t go for any of them.
The script we got was little more than a pretext for stuffing the show with as much nudity and pretended sex scenes as possible. No wonder the writing is weak, characters are shallow, unrelatable and at times unlikeable, emotions are mostly absent, stakes are non-existent (THK has the least intimidating villains I’ve seen in any show) and the script generally makes little sense (two multiple killers get only 5 years in prison instead of spending the rest of their lives on death row; their boyfriends visit them regularly to have sex; Bison singlehandedly beats up 3 inmates etc. etc.). On the other hand we get plenty of eye candy, as Jojo’s mission – since at least "Only Friends" – seems to be "spicing up" BLs. I even had a theory about that; it went like this: Jojo – an openly gay creator – was fed up with the often sterile and non-sexual BLs and decided to offer audiences a more realistic view of male intimacy. This coincided with GMMTV facing stronger competition from Domundi and other companies, which recognized that at least part of the audience will be in for "mature" content – even if it’s pure clickbait and no substance (like "Bed Friend"). Jojo got his opportunity and used it – that’s how "Only Friends" got made. To be clear: I’m not blaming Jojo for wanting to get BLs more realistic and adding some of what they were missing (male intimacy and sex). However, Jojo overdid it – not just focusing almost exclusively on that one aspect, but also reducing all depicted relationships to it. As a result "Only Friends" had no likeable characters – everyone was either whiny and slutty, cold and slutty or weird and slutty. Nothing against including slutty characters, but – like with everything – overdoing it was a bad idea.
Similar thing happened with THK: almost all of the emotional scenes and moments fall flat, action scenes are unrealistic and used as filler, while the only scenes that seem important are those where the main characters are kissing, shirtless or almost completely nude. Even those scenes, however, suffer from the mostly tacky, phony aesthetic and frequent lack of emotion or tension. There are some exceptions, but the majority of what this show offers is either uninteresting, banal or outright boring.
This may seem unrelated, but the setting of most of the series weirdly matched the above: the show’s world seemed empty, with hardly anyone there – save for the characters. The most populated area – the bowling alley – was nearly deserted in every scene, with a few people other than the main cast present. Other locations were almost devoid of extras – empty stores, hotels, office spaces, restaurants etc.; even Fadel’s and Bison’s burger joint was usually empty. The few self-help group scenes were a good example of that: a huge sports hall, empty and dark, with a handful of people sitting in a circle. No idea if this was a creative choice or an attempt to limit production costs, but it looked very strange; where is everybody – I kept asking myself.
I was surprised by how weak the performances were. I’ll repeat myself saying that I really like FirstKhao and JoongDunk. I’m also aware that Dunk has no acting skills – he’s just a pretty face, privately seems to be a nice and good guy, and he has good chemistry with Joong, both on and off-screen. And – as mentioned before – I was having some hopes regarding First (I liked his performance in "The Eclipse" a lot) and Khaotung (loved him in "The Eclipse", but also in "Tonhon Chonlatee" and "Moonlight Chicken"). Unfortunately the entire main cast gave very disappointing performances. Dunk’s was by far the worst in his career, with dreadful delivery, missing every beat he could, often so badly that it wasn’t even funny. I was not "so bad that it’s good" – it was simply very bad. Joong seemed uninspired, sometimes lost and confused, regaining his charisma and spark only few times; some of that might be blamed on the script and direction (or lack of it), but Joong – whom I’ve seen actually acting in other shows – is just not doing his best. As for First and Khaotung, they shared some cute, intimate and even touching moments, but their performances were below average for most part. Khaotung’s over-the-top acting might have been deliberate – to showcase that Bison is a little unhinged – but felt cringy and embarrassing.
No idea if THK was supposed to convey a message, if the audience was meant to learn anything from it, if there was a point to it – for me it was another of Jojo’s attempts to produce a show with attractive young men as main content. An attempt as successful as it is pointless.
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