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Goodbye Khemjira, we hardly knew you
Initially I was going to wait until the last episode, but the second one cemented my total disinterest and apathy towards this special, and I want to move on, so here it is.
Khemjira being an international sensation makes sense; the story is interesting and new, there is clear effort put into it and the actors are mostly good, but watching it after the hype has passed makes its flaws impossible to miss. The last three or four episodes of the original show are a bore to go through even though they were supposed to be the best ones, and with this special its official: Khemjira the series isn’t about Khemjira at all.
Of course, I understand the dynamics and why Pharan is so important; he’s the one with actual power to save Khem, but by putting him into this pedestal it throws the titular character into the sidelines and the writers are fine with leaving him there forever.
Khemjira as a person is bare of anything tangible; he’s only friends with Jet and then Jet’s boyfriend, no present parental figure, he will get married to the guy who saved his life and there are some vague people around him doing a movie. That’s it.
He doesn’t like or dislike, doesn’t listen to music, dance or watch movies. His outfits are horrendous although his fiancée probably have some money. Khem stays at Pharan’s house alone, none comes around to talk or just keep him company beyond Jet.
It’s weird even within their romantic and sexual relationship, Pharan is a puppy in love and wants to be glued to his side all the time, where Khem is perpetually shy and keeps him at arm’s length, they never feel authentic or a couple that is soon to be married.
Again, I can see why this was a thing in the original show, Khem didn’t had time to date or anything of the sort because he was being haunted his entire life, but there is a time jump between his curse being lifted and him and Pharan getting engaged, that should've been when things changed a bit.
And before the same old and tired argument is brought up:
No, I don’t need nc scenes every 10 minutes, actually, the lack of non-sexual intimacy between this engaged couple is what drives me insane. It’s not like the writers can’t do it, Jet and Charn have a few moments and they are great, the difficulty exists only for the main couple.
If I remember correctly, there are some limits to what Phem can do while he has the ‘master’ title, but I am sure he can build a bit of intimacy with the person he loves.
Khem and Pharan feel stuck as a couple, and the contrast between them and CharnJet makes it worse because the latter behaves like a real couple and are even having realistic relationship problems. The opportunity to do something interesting was there when Pharan didn't want to go be in danger after the warning he received, but Khem thought he should at least try and that was it.
I’m not sure if the movie plot is in the novel but it feels very whatever here, just something for Khem to do in the geographic space he is allowed to move around while Pharan tries not to die.
I can feel myself being kind of a hater about this show and that’s the last thing I wanted to be, but I can’t help it; that’s the best they could do?
Anyways, I will pretend this doesn’t exist.
Khemjira being an international sensation makes sense; the story is interesting and new, there is clear effort put into it and the actors are mostly good, but watching it after the hype has passed makes its flaws impossible to miss. The last three or four episodes of the original show are a bore to go through even though they were supposed to be the best ones, and with this special its official: Khemjira the series isn’t about Khemjira at all.
Of course, I understand the dynamics and why Pharan is so important; he’s the one with actual power to save Khem, but by putting him into this pedestal it throws the titular character into the sidelines and the writers are fine with leaving him there forever.
Khemjira as a person is bare of anything tangible; he’s only friends with Jet and then Jet’s boyfriend, no present parental figure, he will get married to the guy who saved his life and there are some vague people around him doing a movie. That’s it.
He doesn’t like or dislike, doesn’t listen to music, dance or watch movies. His outfits are horrendous although his fiancée probably have some money. Khem stays at Pharan’s house alone, none comes around to talk or just keep him company beyond Jet.
It’s weird even within their romantic and sexual relationship, Pharan is a puppy in love and wants to be glued to his side all the time, where Khem is perpetually shy and keeps him at arm’s length, they never feel authentic or a couple that is soon to be married.
Again, I can see why this was a thing in the original show, Khem didn’t had time to date or anything of the sort because he was being haunted his entire life, but there is a time jump between his curse being lifted and him and Pharan getting engaged, that should've been when things changed a bit.
And before the same old and tired argument is brought up:
No, I don’t need nc scenes every 10 minutes, actually, the lack of non-sexual intimacy between this engaged couple is what drives me insane. It’s not like the writers can’t do it, Jet and Charn have a few moments and they are great, the difficulty exists only for the main couple.
If I remember correctly, there are some limits to what Phem can do while he has the ‘master’ title, but I am sure he can build a bit of intimacy with the person he loves.
Khem and Pharan feel stuck as a couple, and the contrast between them and CharnJet makes it worse because the latter behaves like a real couple and are even having realistic relationship problems. The opportunity to do something interesting was there when Pharan didn't want to go be in danger after the warning he received, but Khem thought he should at least try and that was it.
I’m not sure if the movie plot is in the novel but it feels very whatever here, just something for Khem to do in the geographic space he is allowed to move around while Pharan tries not to die.
I can feel myself being kind of a hater about this show and that’s the last thing I wanted to be, but I can’t help it; that’s the best they could do?
Anyways, I will pretend this doesn’t exist.
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