Elephantintheroom

Sweetie, I think you failed to read what I wrote. It was crazy that you compared this to grey's anatomy cause it's literally not at all the same thing. Spare me your mercy's whole plot is the concept of euthanasia. It doesn't challenge anything cause it focuses on the perspective only Dr. Kan and other folks who agree with just killing people who are terminally sick. I never said anything about wanting to be spoon fed a moral conclusion tied up in a little bow. They took a one sided approach to euthanasia and never explored the implications. It wasn't open ended at all. So the real problem is that it is spoon fed! They were so hell bent on making this couple work that they missed out on making the story believable. It's even hard to believe that they are a couple. This may be a slow burn plot wise, but that doesn't mean that they have chemistry. They lacked it so bad that even cheesy lines and soft lighting couldn't have save it. I understood who Dr. Kan was, but that wasn't the issue cause there's no character reflection. There's not a moment of silence where we see him express some sort of respice into the oblivion. Boss isn't a "philosophical mastermind", but he serves as a foil to Dr. Kan which made him more of an interesting character than anyone else. Also, I don't get the satire when like the police repeatedly pulled the same bs. It's more comedic relief to me than it was satire. The house is a little bit of stretch here of a metaphor. If it was a metaphor, then there'd be more scenes with Dr. Kan feeling isolated in that house. It was more like a location than anything else. It's not deeply tied to who he is. All this is to say that maybe go watch this again without thinking that this is "daring" just cause it's different from all the other shows you may have watched. To be daring is to put out more than one perspective and let the audience decide what is good and bad. Anyways, it's also not that serious. Your perspective also matters in the universe, just not to me.

This is like the copy of the conversation my friend and I were having on facetime when we were watching this. Got crazy deja vu reading this.

Real world movement towards a right direction isn’t entirely a necessary reason to remove an older female character who was cheated on. That doesn’t really make sense. Her being cheated on by a character who eventually falls in love with a man has nothing to do with gender equality nor feminism. You can be a feminist and realize that cheating happens cause people are people. As a feminist, it’s more of an interesting issue to explore something like how a man (queer or not) can cheat on someone and have no repercussions. But if a woman does it, it’s like she killed a man. Plus, what kinda reality are you living in which queer folks weren’t in a heterosexual relationship to fit in? It was a reality for a lotta folks. You don't have to get rid of these realities for a palatable watch. In general, being so afraid of controversy is not a good way to make any sort of media/art. I also think comedy is often universal. There may be some jokes that just don’t land depending on where you grew up, but most of the time, everyone will laugh at the same joke depending on their gauge of comedy. The more you watch funny things, the more your sense of humor grows. I can say for sure I’ve seen funny Thai humor even when it’s difficult ones to translate over like wordplay. These 2 eps so far are just not the comedy this was intended to be. Haruta’s personality in the very beginning is supposed to reflect a typical straight man. That’s why it’s interesting to see him break out of that. I can’t really speak for what the Thai audience wants, but I think we all know what a good adaptation looks like. I understand it should be localized, but it doesn't change the fact that it doesn't carry over the essence of the main story. By saying all this, I also am not saying the OG is the best in every aspect. It has a lot of flaws and problematic bits. It was however enjoyable to continue watching compared to this. I don’t expect Japanese humor in a Thai adaptation. That would be stupid. If you’re gonna get rid of a sexist/unnecessary joke, then elevate that joke so it’s funny. That scene didn’t even get a chuckle out of me. EarthMix are not built for this kind of comedy and improv as I’ve seen so far. I’ve given a lot of my opinions that don’t give too much grace to this show, but I’m gonna still tune in to finish watching this. It’s possible for this to become actually funny and not so boring to me. It’s just that the 2 episodes weren’t so impressive as an adaptation.

The people will kill me, but I must stand and speak to the truth. This show is badly done. Sure you can tell me EarthMix is great and I'd agree cause they've shown their talent in other series as actors that are more adapt at doing slightly serious roles. But this show fails to capture the original essence the Japanese OG had in multiple ways. I understand adaptions are not a copy of the original, but adaptations often contain that hook that made you interested in the first place. Earth is a great actor, but his portrayal of Heng doesn't translate across well. The comedic punches feel childish and forced. All the comedic bits are wasted on maybe a few low hanging chuckles that take away from the heartfelt nature of the entire ossan's love verse.

Regarding the boob joke, people were so pressed about the OG being misogynistic, but I beg to differ. The joke was never about putting women down, it was about shaming Haruta in regards to what he said earlier in the episode. Haruta's not socially adapt as a person and what he wants from a partner is a reflection of what "typical" men want. It's funny that throughout the rest of the multiple shows, it's never brought up again. This breaks the boundary of what is expected of Haruta vs what actually happens with Haruta with two vastly different men in different age group being in love with him. Comedy wise, the entire joke is so ridiculous and said in a setting that you wouldn't expect something like that to come out of someone's mouth. Maki's downbadism was highlighted through this stupid joke. This joke was truly missed by me in this adaptation. Are we so woke that we can't differentiate comedy from misogyny?

I'm also disappointed that they didn't reach for a casting of a much older man for the role of the manager. That's what made the original story so out there. Plus, you just don't see this kinda plot that often that is comedic, but also serious. In this one, the manager looks like someone Heng could actually date. There's no fatherly/son relationship that you can even entertain. I feel that GMM always tends to pick actors who are more younger to portray queer characters. Older actors would most definitely allow them to create a visual diversity and much needed representation of older queer folks (granted yeah it's a a comedy and fictional, but I think we all appreciate reps in shows). The manager not only doesn't look old, he's not funny, not even physically funny. Such a lack of physical comedy, it brings tears to my eyes.

Speaking of another casting issue, it's so messed up that they cut off the most influential older woman and made her dead! Resurrect her please. Tell me it's a editing trick or just bad plot twist. Taking out the manager's wife is such a cop out. There were few interesting issues explored through the change she goes through with the divorce. We saw the way she was able to navigate being single and by herself after being married for so long. It would've been cool to see this in the context of societal expectations of divorce women in Thailand. Cutting her out is lameeeeeee and this is what real misogyny looks like. GMM is the biggest coward I know unfortunately with me being the second. For a show that took almost a year to make, what atrocious editing!!! Comedy can be elevated through editing. Editing captures the nuances that acting and script sometimes fail to deliver. Watching the editing of this just adds to the disappointment of how much they fumbled with how they're adapting this. To the people who are watching this and loving it, I wish to have your eyes and heart cause I'm not seeing what you're seeing and that kinda destroys me inside.

Once again, for the folks that will burn me at the stake, I just wanna tell you I have no real stake in this cause doing an adaptation doesn't mean doing a bad job at portraying a beloved story that touched a lot of viewer's hearts. With these two episodes so far, I don't see any real essence of who Haruta and Maki were in their Thai counterparts.