donatjiu

Shallow

There were things I liked about this: the cast, the colouring, the songs, Jun. Overall, though, the writing and directing left much to be desired. This series struggled with a serious lack of depth and character development. I know more about the characters from the director's tweets than I do from what was illustrated on screen. Each member of Mars, for instance, had an episode for their stories to be told but they provided only a surface-level peak at them. Thame and Po's instant love left me with nothing to anticipate or cling onto and Thame was essentially a Mary Sue. The most interesting I found them was when they were briefly at odds in episode one. By far the character that created the most interest to me was Jun. I would sign on to watch the Jun show.

The most disappointing to me, however, was the clear lack of research done into T-pop. While it was sold as a look behind the curtain at the T-pop industry, the director evidently just pulled from K-pop and maybe an older era of Thai entertainment and gave T-pop fans nothing. The most obvious example is that T-pop artists can and do have relationships, so while I could've accepted the idea that Oner Entertainment in particular didn't allow it, the way it was framed as if the idol path would prohibit it was blatantly inaccurate. Furthermore, T-pop fans have no problem with their idols being in relationships. They shamelessly base an entire episode on the concept of a "perfect all-kill" from K-pop. For some reason, they expect me to believe that Nano, a longtime member of a supposedly top group, would not have been trained in singing before so they start offering him lessons like he's some slow child.

Aside from episode five which I genuinely had a great time watching because of Jun's games, the other episode that impressed me, surprisingly, was the finale. From GMMTV, I had no expectations that they would put the production efforts that they did into the concert, and I would've liked to see even more of it than we did. I think that overall, the show lingered on things that I couldn't get into and skimmed over things I would have most liked to see. Because it's fresh in my mind, from the finale, I would've liked to see Mars establishing their own label or meeting with a company that wanted to empower them. I would've liked to see them rushing around backstage and the little moments of connection on stage rather than a flat depiction no deeper than what the audience in that auditorium would've seen. I would've liked to see Po with Thame in the quiet driving home after his reunion, what raw emotions he would've felt, the relief and excitement from being out together for the first time.

In the end, I like the concept and not the execution. Consider my rating a 5-7. It depends on the last episode I watched

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