Sweet Tooth, Good Dentist Episode 7
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After several episodes with just enough content we got one with content overload. I thoroughly enjoyed all MarkOhm scenes and think the episode could have been limited to those, with the Yada-Gug-Baiporn plotline getting dragged for too long and for no apparent reason. The short scene with Mark and Na Phuang Chernyim where they talk about fear was the best one of the series (so far) when it comes to acting - played entirely straight, a sobering moment in this crazy and funny episode. While Captain's departure brings some badly needed closure and clarity to the Jay-Sant dynamic, we got long expected foreshadowing of the past haunting our two main characters.
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With a lighter atmosphere and more camaraderie episode 5 seems to be putting the series on a new course - possibly towards solving the Leap Day mystery. The script is not perfect though, devoting the first part of the episode to an incomprehensible search for a Leap Day loophole - all because of something Day's teacher vaguely alluded to during class. The story gets better afterwards and - for the first time - Dew and Pahn almost didn't annoy me. Pond and Gun continue to shine, particularly during Day-Ozone scenes.
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With a welcome change of setting (to that of a science museum and an amusement park) and pranksters on the loose, the highschool crew faces more love dilemmas: how to confess one's feelings, should fear stop us from doing it and how to avoid unwanted conversations we probably should have. Kim, Shane and Kit present various stages of teen insecurity, restlessness and awkwardness - all of which feels relatable. The show sticks with it's general lightheartedness and (correctly) avoids straying into drama or getting too serious. Again, Luke does a decent job, Mick is a little wooden while Chokun and Aston give passable performances. In the background Paul and Ken keep having fun while Pod and Papang put their characters on a course towards relationship. The show keeps its good pace and retains its momentum, which - by episode 3 - is a good sign.
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Bland Zee and struggling NuNew - acting isn't and probably won't be a strong suit of this show. In fact, acting got eclipsed by rather decent action scenes - and it seems the series will stick with them. The general plot makes sense, but it doesn't translate into a sensible script: why was Khanin kept in the dark about his identity for twenty-something years? Why was his death faked in the first place? Why was he separated from his biological father and was raised by a fake father? Who and why thought that was a good idea? Why did Charan approach Khanin in such a weird way, why the delay in getting to the point of Charan coming to the UK? Sure, all of that serves a purpose - to establish the two main characters, give them some initial interactions and generate some early on drama, but it's nonsensical at the same time. BTW: all characters we see in the UK speak horrible English - but why would they even need to speak English? All characters in Emmaly speak Thai, not Emmalian, so why couldn't people in the UK speak Thai as well? As for production quality: it's decent, but a lot of things look funny, like palace interiors, uniforms or most exterior shots of what's supposed to be the UK. It looks delightfully campy, but I doubt it was intentional; I'm sure the prop department wanted everything to look glamorous and serious - in a fantasy or fairytale kind of way.
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Sweet Tooth, Good Dentist Episode 6
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Script wise this was a weird episode: after a strong start impying we'll see Jay and Captain competing against each other to win Sant's favors, once Jay declared that he won't back down - he backed down and stayed passive for the rest of the episode. Not only did he not compete with Captain - he basically gave up on doing anything (inviting Sant to watch Nanon's movie was the exception), allowing events to unfold for an unspecified period, which could have been a week or a month - the episode gave us no clues regarding that. On the other hand we had Captain and Sant spending more and more time together - and all of the sudden Captain not only stopped pursuing Sant, but made a U turn and helped his rival, by giving Sant a lift. tldr: both Jay and Captain gave up on pursuing Sant, which made no sense storywise and resulted in the episode losing its driving force. Mark, Ohm and Jimmy really deserved better material to work with; this episode's script was less than filler - it was a waste of everyone's time.
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Like before, I'm all for Pond and Gun. Ozone's hospital bed monologue about himself and Day was the emotional core of the episode and Gun nailed it. The slowly developing mystery - providing more questions and no answers - is still captivating and enjoyable. What I was less fond of was the Night-Dream side of the story, although Dew and his character was less annoying this time and the comedy bit at the library was the best part of his performance in this series so far. Not sure, however, what the comedy was needed for - in a show about a curse killing people on a regular basis and constant danger.
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Packed with "main main" couple relationship development and some audible heart flutter, ep. 2 loses none of the pace with which the series started and pushes us deeper into teen love territory. What stood out to me was the consistently decent writing, which allowed for some candid exchanges between Shane and Kit; their argument on the school staircase was played completely serious, felt genuine and prepared the ground for confessions of both characters. Things like that make this show generally lighthearted, romantic, but only partly comedic - which I like. Luke did a decent job in this episode, with Mick lagging behind. Performances of the rest of the cast were okay, but this can be attributed to the script of this episode being far less challenging for them.
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The mystery stays engaging (helped by Gandhi Wasuwitchayagit, who expertly switched from innocent to creepy in a second), the atmosphere of dread is there (the flashback/nightmare scene was really good), while Day and Ozone are well-written characters portrayed in a solid way by Pond and Gun. On the other hand: Dew and his character are both obnoxious, Pahn can't act and her character is annoying, while the Night-Dream relationship plotline is a joke. Never thought I'm gonna say that, but I'm here for Gun and Pond.
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Say what you want about this episode - and I can say a lot mean, nasty things about the editing, the writing, the performances etc. - but Joss as Mark can be cute and adorable, like a big, beautiful dummy, slowly realizing what's going on. Was is presented in a clever or interesting way? Nope, they used voiceovers, the clumsiest trick since silent cinema. Was it placed within a well-crafted story? Gosh, no. Still, the scenes with Gawin and Joss were the best in this mess of an episode.
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Not entirely sure the writers knew what they wanted to do in this episode; the whole human friendship thing was so vague that I assumed it served as 45 minutes of filler before the kiss. While the writers seem to be responsible for some of that, Joss and Fluke are to blame as well - their performances were lackluster and uninteresting for most of the time. If this episode was to mark another step on Mark's and Tong's way towards relationship, if all this friendship talk was to hide their mutual confusion about what they feel/start feeling for each other, than it was conveyed very poorly. I'd also argue the university setting, known from "classic" and most generic BLs, didn't help.
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It's not the first time I discovered that a show can be both boring and irritating - these two qualities are not mutually exclusive (as one might think). Here it's mainly the story (or the excuse for it) responsible for the boring part: it's BL fluff with no substance, no actual problems that need solving, no relatability either - it's escapism in its purest yet dullest form. I'd say the story and performances are equally responsible for how superficial it all feels. A good performance can elevate a weaker story and/or an underwritten character - here we have only bad performances: plastic, fake and inept. What annoyed me were the clumsy and dumb attempts at comedy; without them this episode would just be a boring piece of BL about nothing - with them it got even worse than the original series.
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Sweet Tooth, Good Dentist Episode 1
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I enjoyed this first episode of a long awaited (announced like one year ago) BL, which puts both Mark and Ohm in the spotlight for the first time. Mark - one of my GMMTV favourites - hit the ground running, but Ohm wasn't behind him. Obviously the show's success will depend on the chemistry between those two, as the lighthearted tone and writing probably won't provide any other aspects of the series the audience might focus on. What did surprise me was how short this episode was - 45 minutes including intro, ads, previews and outro, so there was only about 40 minutes of actual action. This left me feeling that there wasn't enough content regarding the main (or only) couple for a full episode, that the storyboard was somewhat empty, that something was missing.
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PROS: (i) main couple spending more time together, (ii) vampire setting/lore seems to be in service to the BL (serves as a pretext for Mark and Tong to come closer), not overshadowing it (at least for now), (iii) Fluke's performance was entertaining (despite weak writing), (iv) Mark's eyes seemlessly turning from "beast mode" to "human mode" when he was following Tong, run into Thara and had to compose himself. CONS: (i) exposition dump at the start of episode (indicative of lazy writing), (ii) Mond's performance, (iii) vampires (so far) being surprisingly unattractive and emotionless (except for Nakan, but his portrayal is weak). Joss' performance - again - was a mixed bag. There were moments were he radiated a quiet, calm confidence or appeared cool and collected (which contrasted nicely with Fluke's antics) - but there also were moments were he seemed lost and confused about what to do. Not sure the "strong and silent" type was ideal to portray a vampire - who (I would imagine) should be passionate, emotional and a little unhinged. Not sure what to think about the tone of the show either - is a badly veiled rom-com? Is is supposed to be serious? Scary? I really don't know.
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ThamePo Heart That Skips a Beat Episode 12
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This episode kinda tries to tie up some loose ends - like the one with Earn or Mick - and prepare everything for the series finale. That's all fine and dandy, but I also got the feeling that with slight changes in the writing all of that could have been included in earlier episodes. I got used to "ThamePo" having a bit shorter episodes than other BLs, but this one felt shorter than usual - maybe due to Thame being almost entirely absent and due to "Mars Diary", which felt like pointless filler. All that left me with the impression that ep. 12 was unnecessary, almost forced, that the story progression was deliberately slowed down to justify one more episode.
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The Boy Next World: Uncut Episode 5
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Watching ep. 3 I began suspecting that Cirrus is not from a parallel universe - instead he has Dissociative Idenity Disorder (DID). Well, looks like I did get the first part right (no alternate/parallel universe) and some of the second part (the "parallel" world was just in Cir's head), but not entirely. Finding out that there isn't anything special about Cir, nothing supernatural nor otherwise interesting (not even DID), that there's a mundane, ordinary explanation to what we've been seeing Cir going through (he's a coward - that's what the show itself calls him - who lived in his dreams) - all that feels upsetting and seems to be a piece of uninspired, dull writing. I guess it fits MAME's clumsy and unimaginative style. The show itself is quickly devolving from having something intriguing and mysterious about it to an ordinary BL plot - this time with evil mother as the obstacle for the main couple. I'm not giving up though, hoping for a twist restoring some magic to this BL.
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