This review may contain spoilers
A good story told by a 13 years old
There were so many good ideas in this, but no matter how good they are, sticking them together randomly with c*m and glue is not enough to make a good drama. Not insulting 13 years olds here, but this is how a lot of young, rookie writers make stories: A nice idea and a strong message followed by a messy storyline, too many characters, messy characterization, 'tell don't show', plotholes, etc... So yeah, I feel like this is what 50 shades of gray would have looked like if the director didn't know how to properly do their job.... cuz the director of this drama definitely had no clue.
There goes a few points that made me feel this way:
-Everyone's characterization and character management in general. Too many people and most of them were absolutely useless. Tried to go somewhere with that guy who cheated on his girlfriend but it had no impact on the scenario at all. Tai had absolutely no reason to back off from champ unlike Sorn who really had some internal conflict about Jun. Penny was there just to make Jun jealous half a minute and then she was off with June, but that couple was so random and unimportant that they didn't even appear in the last episode. Jun was depicted as annoying and stubborn in the pilot and summaries, but we never saw him once bother anyone in the show and all he ever did was stand up for himself. The only person's who's characterization made sense and stayed stable til the end was Sorn, and he was unsufferable.
-Poor rythm. So many useless scenes that have no impact on anyone. Most of them super long. I never skip scenes in drama no matter how uninterested I am, but I watched half of this show in x2
-Basic environnement. The only times the place they are at and the things they are doing matter are during NCs. Otherwise, they could be acting on a green screen that it would be the same. Nothing matters except from the drama between Sorn and June, which makes anything else than them even more uninteresting. Wouldn't be an issue if the director didn't waste time on everything else all the time.
I think I could summ up those 3 points with: In a movie or a show, everything should have a purpose. Not necessarly a meaning, but a reason to be there, otherwise nothing matters at all and it gets boring, and that's what happened in My Stubborn. Adding to that stupid details like Sorn's ridiculous beard that was way too out of place just to be a joke or Penny's flawless make up when she wakes up with a cold and there we are just rolling our eyes all the time.
-Sorn and Jun's relationship. Look, I don't hate toxic characters or relationships as long as the author treats them as such. Here, we almost had a really good redemption arc for Sorn. I really loved the scene where Jun breaks down and yells at Sorn for being a selfish coward, especially when he mentionned that it was alway Sorn who initiated intimacy. I had good hopes for how they would treat the relationship after that, but alas, everything was thrown away pretty quickly.
The problem here is that the author treated the redemption arc like the reason Sorn was toxic was because he leaded Jun on and wouldn't admit his feelings. So, for that issue, he did go through redemption and succeeded in fixing it.
But no, Sorn wasn't toxic because he was a coward. He was toxic because he constantly forced/manipulated Jun into doing what he wanted, because he would never take no for an answer, because he was super agressive when things didn't go his way, because he victimized himself and blamed everyone when he was frustrated, because all he ever had to say was "But I want..." "But I feel like..." and even when he decided to hear Jun's feelings out for the first time all he had to say was how he felt about it. The redemption arc never or very briefly adressed all of that, which reminded me of My Stand In when the whole time Joe blames Ming because he dated him only cuz his back reminded him of someone else, but as soon as this issue is fixed we ignore the whole kidnapping, manipulation, power imbalance, selfishness aspects that make Ming a red flag.
To me, even towards the end when Sorn acts softer, there is one big thing missing that doesn't make me believe in this relationship: Jun's initiative.
He may want to be intimate with Sorn. He may say yes a few times. He may flirt a bit. But in every. single. kissing scene and NC, he either agrees to it after being pressured, shrink away, ask straight up Sorn to stop/ slow down or hit him, and most importantly, he never initiated anything. Even in the last one in the staircases. Basically, their whole intimacy agenda is Sorn agressively eating him up while Jun tries to keep up with the situation. They are never on the same level and it's very frustrating, ESCPECIALLY after seeing Boat and Oat's performance at the last EP party, and the only difference between that "NC" and all the NC's in the show are 1. They take it slower. 2. Oat's body language, yet it felt way more natural, sexy, tensed and most important of all, consented.
To bring up a few positive points: Their acting was on point, especially boat who absolutely killed it. I really liked Tai's character and I wish he had gotten a more impactful relationship with Champ. The lightning in the NCs was always very pretty and although not perfect, Jun and Sorn's were well choreographed. And although they didn't really go anywhere with that, I was really glad Jun stood up for himself and mentionned the whole dubious consent stuff.
Anyway I think if you want to enjoy this serie it's better to switch your brain off and just enjoy the NC scenes and the Cast's awesome chemistry.
There goes a few points that made me feel this way:
-Everyone's characterization and character management in general. Too many people and most of them were absolutely useless. Tried to go somewhere with that guy who cheated on his girlfriend but it had no impact on the scenario at all. Tai had absolutely no reason to back off from champ unlike Sorn who really had some internal conflict about Jun. Penny was there just to make Jun jealous half a minute and then she was off with June, but that couple was so random and unimportant that they didn't even appear in the last episode. Jun was depicted as annoying and stubborn in the pilot and summaries, but we never saw him once bother anyone in the show and all he ever did was stand up for himself. The only person's who's characterization made sense and stayed stable til the end was Sorn, and he was unsufferable.
-Poor rythm. So many useless scenes that have no impact on anyone. Most of them super long. I never skip scenes in drama no matter how uninterested I am, but I watched half of this show in x2
-Basic environnement. The only times the place they are at and the things they are doing matter are during NCs. Otherwise, they could be acting on a green screen that it would be the same. Nothing matters except from the drama between Sorn and June, which makes anything else than them even more uninteresting. Wouldn't be an issue if the director didn't waste time on everything else all the time.
I think I could summ up those 3 points with: In a movie or a show, everything should have a purpose. Not necessarly a meaning, but a reason to be there, otherwise nothing matters at all and it gets boring, and that's what happened in My Stubborn. Adding to that stupid details like Sorn's ridiculous beard that was way too out of place just to be a joke or Penny's flawless make up when she wakes up with a cold and there we are just rolling our eyes all the time.
-Sorn and Jun's relationship. Look, I don't hate toxic characters or relationships as long as the author treats them as such. Here, we almost had a really good redemption arc for Sorn. I really loved the scene where Jun breaks down and yells at Sorn for being a selfish coward, especially when he mentionned that it was alway Sorn who initiated intimacy. I had good hopes for how they would treat the relationship after that, but alas, everything was thrown away pretty quickly.
The problem here is that the author treated the redemption arc like the reason Sorn was toxic was because he leaded Jun on and wouldn't admit his feelings. So, for that issue, he did go through redemption and succeeded in fixing it.
But no, Sorn wasn't toxic because he was a coward. He was toxic because he constantly forced/manipulated Jun into doing what he wanted, because he would never take no for an answer, because he was super agressive when things didn't go his way, because he victimized himself and blamed everyone when he was frustrated, because all he ever had to say was "But I want..." "But I feel like..." and even when he decided to hear Jun's feelings out for the first time all he had to say was how he felt about it. The redemption arc never or very briefly adressed all of that, which reminded me of My Stand In when the whole time Joe blames Ming because he dated him only cuz his back reminded him of someone else, but as soon as this issue is fixed we ignore the whole kidnapping, manipulation, power imbalance, selfishness aspects that make Ming a red flag.
To me, even towards the end when Sorn acts softer, there is one big thing missing that doesn't make me believe in this relationship: Jun's initiative.
He may want to be intimate with Sorn. He may say yes a few times. He may flirt a bit. But in every. single. kissing scene and NC, he either agrees to it after being pressured, shrink away, ask straight up Sorn to stop/ slow down or hit him, and most importantly, he never initiated anything. Even in the last one in the staircases. Basically, their whole intimacy agenda is Sorn agressively eating him up while Jun tries to keep up with the situation. They are never on the same level and it's very frustrating, ESCPECIALLY after seeing Boat and Oat's performance at the last EP party, and the only difference between that "NC" and all the NC's in the show are 1. They take it slower. 2. Oat's body language, yet it felt way more natural, sexy, tensed and most important of all, consented.
To bring up a few positive points: Their acting was on point, especially boat who absolutely killed it. I really liked Tai's character and I wish he had gotten a more impactful relationship with Champ. The lightning in the NCs was always very pretty and although not perfect, Jun and Sorn's were well choreographed. And although they didn't really go anywhere with that, I was really glad Jun stood up for himself and mentionned the whole dubious consent stuff.
Anyway I think if you want to enjoy this serie it's better to switch your brain off and just enjoy the NC scenes and the Cast's awesome chemistry.
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