This review may contain spoilers
Q carries this
The time for my first review has come because..what did I just watch? Let's deconstruct this, one category at a time.
STORY
Where? What story? I suppose you can argue it's a university slice-of-life type of show, that follows this wacky friend group and their shenanigans, but overall the story is flimsy and barely there. There's a lot of pairings too, which might mean you'll end up skipping a lot if you're not invested into a particular couple, as this is an ensemble cast and they all get equal screen time, more or less. Anyways, the catalyst for our main pairing spending time together, the moment of falling in love if you will, is a swift kick to the balls. Beautiful, be still my heart. Hilarious.
ACTING
I meaaaaan...I stand by the title. For me, Q's character carried this. The way they wrote his character was pretty fresh and unusual for the genre and the actor who played him did a great job. My guy is the chillest, most laid back dude, with humour and straight face delivery in spades. The rest of the cast was...fine? Passable? Nothing to write home about, basically.
CHARACTERS
Listen, listen..I get it, I do. If you're like me, you probably found it ridiculous that Peem fell for Phum during the slave contract thing because..who does that, right? Then again, Phum was nothing but nice to him lol. My guy got fed, walked around the mall, driven home and taken care of after a night of drunken debauchery. Yeh, he had to do a thing here and there, but I feel like they clearly wrote all of their earlier scenes from a very indulgent perspective, where the things Phum does to him are very mild and forgivable and come from a place of "I like you, but I'm 5 so I'll pull your pigtails on the playground". Anyways, my problems lie with Peem, really, because...tease much? I'm sorry, in real life, I'd hate Peem with a passion.
Whether the character was written to be allergic to affection or that's how Phuwin decided to play him, it was frustrating to watch. It was like every single thing Phum did to show him he cared, Peem was like.."brother, ew". But supposedly, he liked him back. Their dynamic was weird to me - Peem would forget Phum existed the second they weren't sharing a scene.
I liked Tan and Khaofang's relationship better. Is Tan over the top, clingy and would be uber annoying in real life? Yes, but they were cute together, it worked for me.
SKINSHIP
I'm firmly of the belief that if you can't do it right and make it believable, you might as well skip it. The kissing was giving *nothing*. For the love of god, what is up with the cheek kissing too? If I had to see one more lips firmly pressed together cheek kiss, I'd have started writing my thesis on why puckering is important.
LE: I am an ignoramus and just found out about sniff kissing and its significance. Won't delete this as others may have the same reaction as I did so ..passing the knowledge forward. It's a cultural thing and a sign of affection.
I've seen other shows that depict relationships and use zero skinship, but make the affection and intimacy look so incredibly believable that you feel like you're intruding when they're in the same room in a scene - here's looking at you, 180 degrees. My point being, if you don't want to do it, just don't. Find different ways of showing the same thing, swapping spit ain't the only action in this world that hints to attraction.
Overall, this was..not the hyped up series I expected, very mid. But if you must watch it, do it for the pretty believable depiction of a tight group of friends in college.
STORY
Where? What story? I suppose you can argue it's a university slice-of-life type of show, that follows this wacky friend group and their shenanigans, but overall the story is flimsy and barely there. There's a lot of pairings too, which might mean you'll end up skipping a lot if you're not invested into a particular couple, as this is an ensemble cast and they all get equal screen time, more or less. Anyways, the catalyst for our main pairing spending time together, the moment of falling in love if you will, is a swift kick to the balls. Beautiful, be still my heart. Hilarious.
ACTING
I meaaaaan...I stand by the title. For me, Q's character carried this. The way they wrote his character was pretty fresh and unusual for the genre and the actor who played him did a great job. My guy is the chillest, most laid back dude, with humour and straight face delivery in spades. The rest of the cast was...fine? Passable? Nothing to write home about, basically.
CHARACTERS
Listen, listen..I get it, I do. If you're like me, you probably found it ridiculous that Peem fell for Phum during the slave contract thing because..who does that, right? Then again, Phum was nothing but nice to him lol. My guy got fed, walked around the mall, driven home and taken care of after a night of drunken debauchery. Yeh, he had to do a thing here and there, but I feel like they clearly wrote all of their earlier scenes from a very indulgent perspective, where the things Phum does to him are very mild and forgivable and come from a place of "I like you, but I'm 5 so I'll pull your pigtails on the playground". Anyways, my problems lie with Peem, really, because...tease much? I'm sorry, in real life, I'd hate Peem with a passion.
Whether the character was written to be allergic to affection or that's how Phuwin decided to play him, it was frustrating to watch. It was like every single thing Phum did to show him he cared, Peem was like.."brother, ew". But supposedly, he liked him back. Their dynamic was weird to me - Peem would forget Phum existed the second they weren't sharing a scene.
I liked Tan and Khaofang's relationship better. Is Tan over the top, clingy and would be uber annoying in real life? Yes, but they were cute together, it worked for me.
SKINSHIP
I'm firmly of the belief that if you can't do it right and make it believable, you might as well skip it. The kissing was giving *nothing*. For the love of god, what is up with the cheek kissing too? If I had to see one more lips firmly pressed together cheek kiss, I'd have started writing my thesis on why puckering is important.
LE: I am an ignoramus and just found out about sniff kissing and its significance. Won't delete this as others may have the same reaction as I did so ..passing the knowledge forward. It's a cultural thing and a sign of affection.
I've seen other shows that depict relationships and use zero skinship, but make the affection and intimacy look so incredibly believable that you feel like you're intruding when they're in the same room in a scene - here's looking at you, 180 degrees. My point being, if you don't want to do it, just don't. Find different ways of showing the same thing, swapping spit ain't the only action in this world that hints to attraction.
Overall, this was..not the hyped up series I expected, very mid. But if you must watch it, do it for the pretty believable depiction of a tight group of friends in college.
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