ensigmatica

It's your subjective opinion so maybe your reactive comment might be exaggerated acting and noise. 🙏

Cinematography relates to setting the ambiance, environment, framing composition, coloring, etc. of the final product you see on screen. OSTs/sound design (sfx, bgms, etc.) set the tone and mood of a scene or character, and are made post-production and have little to do with the quality of the acting of the artists on camera. Directors make do with what they have based on how many frames they can fit into their filming schedules and budget.

PP's acting aren't terrible, but they have plenty of room for improvements (esp. Pooh after Pit Babe) and hopefully they'll get to show that in the latter episodes. 🤷 Just as I've mentioned in my feedback, I liked the debut episode overall.

EP1 First impressions:
☑️ Good character styling
☑️ Functional side couple
☑️ Convincing filming sets, props, and background extras
☑️ Plot-driven dialogues
☑️ Polished horror make-up and effects
☑️ Sufficient lighting despite dark scenes
☑️ Intriguing cliffhanger ending

Hoping the story will be as good as the visuals and for consistent quality until the end. Personally, for me the MCs' acting are still a little underbaked, but the mystery/thriller plot is saving that flaw (for now). Overall satisfied with their premiere episode. :')

We're still in episode 1, so let's see how things will go from episode 2.

It just bothers me whenever the school/college course is so specific in a series, but it ends up having zero weight to the story at all lol. It's like the writing is focusing on the wrong details in a story. Case in point: P10L. All 6 of the main characters are engineering students, the promo posters and visuals of their opening/ending credits use engineering aesthetics, even the logo has a cogwheel, yet you still have no idea about what being an engineering student is like in all 24 episodes. ^^;;;

I also just noticed, even in H2H's poster, they put some fashion design tools here and there hahahahha, but they don't even show any passion for their course in EP1. But maybe there will be some improvements later on.

I'm curious if the characters being fashion students have any weight to the plot, or if it will have any significance to the story at all later on. ^^;;; The main point I'm seeing so far is that these two MCs are into car racing, so it was a little awkward watching them go to this school and barely seem to be interested in what they're doing in class at all. The scenes felt like a waste of airtime, but I'll be patient with this and give it a few more episodes.

It's also fun watching Sea having more lines and playing a more talkative character in contrast to Only Boo. Though I still don't quite grasp WHY exactly he and Keen's character don't get along lol.

Anyone have any specific hopes and wishes for this series when it comes out?
Mine would be, I hope the series will have more plot depth than it lets on, and for the romance to have a secret twist that nobody sees coming. :') Also for dark ending!

I find the premise interesting too, even unique, for a Thai BL, and I always support BLGL productions to explore more diverse genres and themes so there can be something for everyone. But similar to your view, I would've also preferred if THK was less of a romcom and more of a solid crime/light thriller genre.

Or if they wanted to insist adding a comedic twist, they could have gone with -dark humor- instead of whatever they had going on in the series.

All your points are also similar to mine! lol so I'm just adding more to your list (sorry for the length):

- Bison's "childishness" could have been more interesting if his writing was more consistent, but alas. I was expecting him to be the smartest character out of all of them as a surprise plot twist, but turns out his personality is just inconsistent throughout the series. :'D
- Babe's a scholar candidate, but seems so oblivious about his brother's shady side business.
- Lily and Captain are barely convincing as bosses.
- Kant and Style going back and forth between accepting death and not wanting to die took forever to finish. Their remorse was hardly felt and using their 'I love you's at gunpoint was more on survival instinct than sincerity. It was sadly underwhelming as a "turning point" in the plot.
- Using Lily's oversimplistic philosophy of seeing people as black & white is too rudimentary for a BL aimed for an older crowd.
- The time gap for FadelBison to question only in their mid-20s why they were raised to be hitmen in the first place is absurd.
- It feels like a waste of writing that their day jobs became irrelevant to their character in the latter half of the series. Making burgers, Kant's tattoo parlor, even Style as a mechanic wasn't able to fix a car when it broke down for petty reasons.

I also noticed there are lots of excess details about the characters/writing that are randomly dropped out of nowhere just for little band-aid fixes to get through certain scenes. (ex. Tanont and Keen's fling, the group therapy, the pedophile teacher, Kant's ex, Babe's bullies, the rest house, the newly-wedded couple.)

Then when they -do- drop important details about the MCs that help give more background/depth about their story or their missions, they're lightly brushed over through quick dialogues like they're merely trivial things or introduced last-minute. (ex. Fadel's ex, Kant's phobia of the ocean.)

Personally, I think I would've liked THK's "messy hitmen" story better if they sidelined the love stories and focused the plot more on Fadel and Bison as the morally gray MCs, while Kant and Style are the support (or vice versa). It would be more fun and intriguing if the audience is also left guessing who is really the one outsmarting who haha.

I also feel like using romance as the main backdrop behind everything else is too many different genres stuffed into one series they ended up clashing instead of complementing each other. I wish the writing was more refined instead of trying to "touch all the bases at once," so to speak. :')

There, I'm done. Sorry for the ramble and thank you for sharing your thoughts! If they release a survey on what could be improved about the show, we have a list prepared hahhah. Even though the series is far from a wow for us, at least we still gave it a try lol.

I nearly forgot he's also handling A Dog and A Plane in addition to Only Friends 2! I'm crossing my fingers and toes for the writing/screenwriting to be good like how P'Dome did with Peaceful Property.

P'Jo has worked with both Tay and New in previous projects so let's hope his vision and direction are as good as before with TN.

How was the short film? :D It's definitely something different (or rather, refreshing?) from JD hahahhaa.

It's very noticeable that Joong has an eye for video editing, story writing, and direction! And yes, I hope he finds more ways to utilize his interest/hobby too.

He also made a short video clip some time ago starring him and Dunk having a quiet time along a river dock and it's also pretty good. I don't have it bookmarked, sadly, and might take a while to search, but if you have time to sift through Joong's media on Twitter, it's there somewhere. :'D

Reading a lot harsh comments on (J)D's acting skills, but people should also remember their 6-min "Pokong" parody indie short film they made for Halloween season last year, directed by Joong himself and a small handful of indie filming crew. It's pretty eye-opening to see how different their output is when they have more control of their own work (compared to how GMM makes their "GMM-style" shows). (Also that Joong has budding potential to be a director/writer himself.)
(https://x.com/dunknatachai/status/1851945210722554274)

It made me think maybe it's not that the actors' skills that are lacking but more on how they are directed to do their job. If the staff tells them to do it a certain way, or that's what they can fit in their schedule, then that's how they're gonna roll. 🤷 I also feel like there are plenty of decent actors in GMM, just that they're not given solid material to work with (which is sad).

TLDR, the disappointment with (J)D's acting is valid, but maybe it's not solely on them that's the problem, but the other aspects of the show that could also be the one dragging them behind. I like JD off-camera the most and find their friendship cute, and I just hope they get better and better stories that understand their chemistry and potential the most.

You're not alone. :') I'm in the same boat. What parts/aspects of the show fell off for you, objectively speaking?

There are definitely a lot of disconnected aspects and seemingly random choices that make the series a little difficult to enjoy. Even if it's mainly for entertainment purposes, I'm struggling to find majority of the series to be enjoying and finding myself more on nitpicking stuff instead.

Same here, and it's not that I -want- to dislike it but rather it's taking extra effort for me to appreciate THK.

Sadly there's something that's not clicking with me about the series (ex. Something about the writing, the dialogues, the editing, the music, the pacing, the screenplay, etc. that doesn't feel as engaging for me this time) and I've been wondering for the past year since Only Friends why there's something different about P'Jo's storylines that isn't as good as his older works like 3 Will Be Free, Friend Zone, Dirty Laundry, or The Warp Effect. :')