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Surprisingly good on rewatch
When watching Thai Lakorn (if it’s not BL), people must realise it’s made for domestic audience, just like Indian over the top serials, Korean Makjang and Pakistani dramas. As such these programs will infuse a lot of local traditional beliefs, local biases. They could be more conservative for people or could be very non relatable for people. But International audience must realise that not everything is made for their consumption unlike big budget Korean dramas.My advice to drama writers and directors, try viewing in your drama in a serialised way just like how viewers watch it. Things which make sense if you binge watch it versus when you drip feed is very different. I have been binge watching now and it’s a much more enjoyable experience. If you don’t want to do what Netflix does which is release them all at once, you need to find a way to make each week interesting and not lump all story conclusions at the end. It puts people off.
When i rewatched this drama, so many things make sense. The sheer emptiness the female lead feels which is why she passively went along. The negativity shown shown by the mom towards the adopted child is a very realistic and honest portrayal about how women sometimes treat children who are not their own in traditional societies. Women have to bear the burnt of child raising and they project all their angers on undeserving children (according to the stepmoms). In the 1990s we had many Bollywood movies with the same concept the most famous being the very hit movie “Laadla”. Showing a mirror to a society in how people behave like the toxic mom in something in the rain or this step mother makes for a very uncomfortable watch but these things happen in real life.
I really like the little details which make this drama so likeable for me, like the shipping route shown in ep 3 from China to Poland etc. the production team and the writing team did their homework and it shows in the well constructed scenes and the sets around them.
Overall this drama retains some key hallmarks of a Thai Lakorn but it’s very watchable if you binge watch it… A solid 8.5 from me
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This is similar to the movie "While you were Sleeping"
This TV series has a similar plot to the movie"While you were Sleeping". If you try to compare the two then you could find the mother in LS annoying. Because she is always finding fault with the second child . But overall I think the series is really well done. If you liked "While you were sleeping." There is a good chance you will like this.On the surface this is about mistaken identities and how one good deed can sometimes be misconstrued. You can get stuck in an unintentional lie that was was told with good intentions. I like how it showed the development of the main characters.
I like the realism of this series and the attention to small details. I like how they have emphasized the loneliness between the characters. There is more depth to the story then in typical Lakorns and I like how they do the flash backs. There were more issues than just loneliness. That's all I am going to say so I don't spoil it.
Update: the story is taking a darker turn. It still is good but no longer the light hearted comedy it started out. I just hope it doesn't get too dark.
Update 2: I just finished the series. It was really good. I like the twists in episode 13 and 14. I love the character development and redemption and the clear happy ending.
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Only enjoyable as a Pond Fan
I watched this series as a Pond Naravit fan, hoping to support his work. The only saving grace for me was his part as Alan. However, I found the friends-to-lovers storyline distasteful, especially with Khaotung pining for an older man. It reeks of grooming young girls to think this is romantic, and it's disturbing that a Thai larkorn would normalize such pedophilic tendencies. The director, being a man, apparently didn't see anything wrong with it. Alan's love for Khaotung seemed shallow, merely based on her looks. She was a bland and boring eye candy in the series, and I couldn't believe the director made her book-smart but common-sense stupid, a typical Thai larkorn formula. They attempted to remake a Thai rom-com like "While You Were Sleeping" and failed.If you enjoy toxic mother and brother characters, this series has plenty of prime content for you. The male lead comes across as a doormat, and the female lead is senseless and deceitful, playing nice but lying. The series is filled with enablers for these toxic characters, making it a larkorn that might appeal more to the Thai audience than international fans like me.
The only redeeming quality about the mother is that she mourned the death of the father, while everyone else seemed unaffected. Alan was unaffected by the father's death and made a funny comment to the mother about hers.
Despite having a cast of good actors, the crappy script and larkorn-style direction disappointed me.
Overall, it's worth watching for Pond's performance as Alan or if you're a hardcore larkorn fan. Otherwise, you might find yourself feeling frustrated and wanting to throw your iPad across the room, just like I wanted to on many occasions. If it wasn't for Pond's being in this series, I would not have watched this series at all.
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Contrived soap within the guise of a modern drama
This is a bridge lakorn style drama, which is a hybrid with elements to appeal to the different generation of tv watchers. I have yet to see one nails the two tones right and this drama is the worst of the ones I've seen so far. Just because it's part soap, doesn't give it undue lenience to be badly done. The premise of the misunderstanding is dragged on for way too long, past the point of sympathy for the Meena. It's actually really creepy that she claimed to be a strangers girlfriend in the first place even if she meant well and it's just way worse the longer she did it but that's just not questioned, just shrugged off by everyone. It did more damage than harm and not in any way that added to the story. The way the show went about extending her lie is frustratingly forced with a sudden interruption every time or she changes her mind, even when the situation makes no sense to keep up the lie to a particular person. Her entire storyline is just consumed dragging out this lie for one excuse or another while making moves on the brother she has the hots for without making things clear to either men. Nothing else goes on for her character to develop. She literally never comes clean to a single member of the family of her own accord. Everyone just conveniently accidentally learned the truth or was told by someone else. So her arc was that she was lonely and wanted a man and lied a whole bunch and got a man with his eventually big loving family, everything she wanted.I feel a lot of sympathy for the way Than was emotionally abused and bullied by the adopted mother and brother his entire life since his birth father died saving him. He loves his adopted family very much, but very much enabled Arthit's toxic behavior as well as aggressively went after a woman he thought was dating his brother long before he accidentally found out she's actually available. That's never questioned either. The way that he's treated by his mom and brother to the point of a very self harm idealizing sounding message at his adopted father's cremation ceremony is only ever heard by Cathy and not dealt with in the drama.
Cathy turned out to have the most well rounded arc despite not being a lead. The Meena role looked and felt like it would fit the actress Jan very well, especially with her being age appropriate for the part if they didn't want to make the characters in mutually consenting adult age gap relationship which would have been great if it was, but other than that Cathy is probably the best role in the whole show. She started off as not valuing herself very well with Arthit who treated her poorly. She was desperate enough to go along with his twisted scheme to destroy his brother, she actually saw Arthit for the scum he is and played him while helping Than who she sees is a good guy and very good at his import work. He's already a great collaborator even before she sees him as a possible romantic partner. She manipulated Meena into fooling Than and sent the message to the mom with her last straw broken, but actually had the self awareness to feel bad for what she's done. She gains self respect, not getting back with Arthit though she is cordial with his attempt at becoming a better person. Go Cathy!
Arthit has the most unearned redemption arc of the series. He is selfish, spoiled, and enabled by his whole family and even Than, but even beneath that he has a cruel, unhinged nature with a near sociopathic tendency to hide behind a mask of kindness while taking extreme pleasure to torture Than just to see him be miserable and less than him. This is definitely never addressed and too deeply entrenched to believably be changed by Than getting hit by a car in place of him. They never show a single moment where he ever lets up being the biggest douchebag and show kindness or brotherhood to Than that would be that glimmer of hope that would allow for such a drastic change in a short amount of time.That second hit and run is pretty ridiculous too, it makes no sense for Than to swivel Arthit out of the way to take his place. The scriptwriter just needed it to happen and couldn't think of a sensible way. Like every time Meena conveniently gets interrupted.
The second most unearned redemption arc is the mother, they have Arthit say that Than took a lot of the blame for the shenanigans Arthit was up to when they were younger, but that woman hated Than from the start for no reason. He was literally freshly orphaned and she treated him like a cockroach. Arthit learned a lot of that from her too. Her son lying and Than getting hit by a car is not enough for her to believably turn that switch to loving mother. They never showed any moment from her towards Than to build up to this ending
The second couple with the two university kids Alan and Khaotung were so childish they might as well be in high school. The non consensual photo, video, kissing, all just played for laughs and "cuteness". The most disposable storyline. Alan's relationship with his brothers is more interesting. He's the youngest and grew up better with Than's influence while still spoiled by his mother. Than and Alan have the closest familial relationship. Arthit and Alan barely interact besides the former bribing the latter, which already says a bit, but it would have been interesting to explore more.
The character of Than's adopted father was gone too soon from the show. He could have been the source from which moments of redemption of love for Than could have been sown before he kicks the bucket. Character development across the board was sorely lacking, the time wasted on furthering the misunderstanding until the last episode and suddenly they wed. There's no sufficient time to reconcile the characters at all. Even if they didn't do set up for love before the lie, they could have done work for them to bond after instead of random road accident, coma, and wedding.
I initially thought that it would be an older woman, younger man dynamic, but it seems like the main characters all seem to be around the same age. It's never addressed and it's distracting, but it's the least offensive out of everything else going on. The casting is okay, everyone played their parts well. I hope to see Jan get some female lead roles with great writing for her to sink her teeth into. The music is serviceable. I definitely will not be rewatching and putting myself through this exercise of dragged out frustration, save for maybe some of Cathy's scenes.
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Modern-look-yet-old-content drama
-it's romcom, the opening looks bright n fun, n the story is started quite interesting. But who will think the story will be this heavy? To me the comedy is a bit cringy also, i just couldnt enjoy it, n the moment is just not right.-Supposed to be 3 cute couples, but who will expect that 1 person will be antagonist, that evil, n deserve nothing but hatred?
-With those conflicts, i didnt expect it would be just 14 eps. Surprisingly, they made the final ep quite okay, unexpected (in a good way, but later it disappointed me again). How come the ending for Arthit is like that? They just make it happy ending for everyone, literally everyone, without thinking how to make it more logical, realistic. In the end, i can say it's a drama with modern cover, but old content.
-Nune, Joss, Iang, Jan did impressive job tho. It's my 1st time seeing Jan, n i was impressed, love her micro expression. Cathy's character is also interesting, not kind of ordinary yet boring kind FL or evil-irritating-annoying villain. She's just cool. I pity her for being alone in the end. If only Arthit were a good man.
-They should've titled it "The Secret" instead of "Loneliness Society".
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