KingC

This is the debut drama by the DOT Production House, so I’m willing to turn a blind eye to many of its issues and will complete watching it. However, I will address them here. Because by now, I’ve completed over half of the story while I’m writing this.

The Warm Fuzzies:

☆ It has a very interesting premise - the main framework of this drama is the murder of a university student cum actor, Andaman at the peak of his career. The fact that his family is against his career choice while the public opinion is divided due to the society's bias against queer people all add into his public and personal life.

Behind the scenes, Anda has three close friends, one of whom is Jinna, one of the leading characters of the show. The story follows two very different aspects. Jinna has a crush on Podduang, a long time fan of Anda and it leads to several situations that continue for about two years.

We see Jinna seeing Anda beyond the eyes of a fan. To me, it never seemed that Pod ever wanted to meet Anda in person and become his friend. Even Bumm, Pod’s friend, is the very same. While Jinna pursues Pod, Anda struggles with his career and personal life. Until it all ends with his mysterious death.

☆ The chemistry between the leads is on point. Nobody seemed awkward or stumbling with what they were given, considering that it is the leading role of many.

☆ The reality of actors under the BL label. This was very beautifully put in Mr. Fanboy, which deals with a bunch of Y series actors and the unpleasant behind the scenes of showbiz. Fans have become delusional to the point that they fail to understand that these are actors who are promoting their series together and not their “relationship” together. Everyone are live humans who has a life of their own. Anda’s fall from grace and the havoc that ensues following a relationship reveal all shed light into how unhealthy the industry is. And of course, it is going to fall on deaf ears.


The Cold Pricklies:

☆ The very discordant mix of genres:

Considering that it has a budding romance and a mystery going hand in hand, the story has to be conveyed in a manner such that the viewer is aware of what genre they had signed up for or the expectations they must keep in mind. Here, the genres seemed plain immiscible.
I’ve seen dramas that require an amalgamation of strange genres that still pulled off without much gaps, but this difference is stark and blatantly obvious in this one.

The drama begins with the reveal of Anda’s demise and we are then quickly thrown back to three months ago, where we see Jinna and Pod’s love story start to bloom (albeit being a fake one.) And within the three months, we have another flashback to their freshman year, where we explore Pod’s friendship with Bumm (a fellow Anda fan) and Dunk.
Then we have a handful of very serious situations with Anda involving his real-life partner, his onscreen partner, as well as his difficult relationship with his family.

To be frank, the mix of genres or rather the transition from one situation to another was terrible. One second we are at Anda’s funeral and the next second, everyone is laughing around the dinner table with their friends.
The mystery is what is supposed to bring Jinna and Podduang closer, yet it seems that the mystery is simply the background noise at some point. I haven’t read the original story which this is based upon, but its execution onscreen is illegible.
There are scenes that seemed to be cut and pasted with no sense of continuity for the sake of suspense, particularly a funeral scene. (Or I was too stupid to differentiate whether these two scenes were from two different ceremonies altogether.)

☆ The Performance of the actors… and the Script:
Considering that it is the debut work of most of them, I am willing to let it slide. Somebody wrote that they killed off the best actor in the series (Anda) and I am starting to agree with them. Anda, played by Paul, is a very emotional character. He managed to convey them across the screen with almost little fault. By the time he is dead, we as viewers know what he had been going through.

Nammna and PK are not poor actors by any means, but the script never had any moments that showcased their talent. It was very akin to a puzzle that was put together rather than a freely flowing story.

The friendships and Pod and Jinna’s relationship are the only stable things in the script. Considering that there is a major murder-mystery looming around. Some of the very evident clues are swept aside to focus on the light hearted romance and by the end, I did not even know why I was pushing through.
I was supposed to care about Anda’s mystery, right?

Not to mention, there is an abysmal funeral scene in EP3 that is beyond rescue. Jinna and his two buddies are supposed to be Anda’s friends. Yet, they joke around as if they too, were throwaway fans. Jinna did not have enough space for his character to express his repressed despair at having lost a friend as it is mentioned a multitude of times that he was Anda’s closest.

The only two people who cared about Anda’s death were his mother and his boyfriend.

Podduang and Bumm only cared about Anda when the plot deemed it necessary for them to do so. Jinna’s character has the most potential to be explored thoroughly as he has a ‘special’ power, but poof!


☆ The Music:

The opening song is a really good one. But, I seriously wished that the music director or whoever was behind the audio choice of the drama had at least attempted to watch other dramas such as this to get an idea about how to construct a scene without it being annoying to the viewer.
I dislike the song “Sudden Love” because they overused it on every single scene between the leads. Unnecessarily so.
The BGMs seem to be produced from scratch, but they were not as annoying as the song though.

☆ From my desk:

I won’t say that this is the kind of drama that you should not miss. It’s not exemplary, neither is it too good. It’s passable enough for a quick watch, if you can manage to handle the disastrous tonal shifts. I just wish the crew involved the best for the future and that they learnt from the errors in this. As it still has three more episodes remaining, I'll see how it plays out before determining my final score.