Knock Knock, Boys! (2024)

Sex ed & comedy?

As someone said in another review, this was quirky fun. But that quirkiness wore thin pretty quickly for me with the plot going from fun to boring to quirky to serious, all the while dragging on.

Knock Knock Boys is a comedy. The title is the indication but the opening credits just confirm that it should not be taken seriously. The story about four men sharing a house is nothing new. The comedy comes from the four of them being completely different characters. But if it were only that, it would have been a really fun watch. Unfortunately they decided to do what The Warp Effect did better: turn a comedy drama into a sex education video. While I support the idea of educating young people on internet and sex, it was badly presented here. Practically in every episode, they'd suddenly stop the plot and give us a lesson. And even though they tried to fit them neatly within the plot, they failed: the lessons broke the natural flow and the mood of the drama.

The four main characters are all stereotypes: a naive young Almond (extremely cringy in his behaviour at the beginning but every teen behaves like that, trying to figure things out by trial and error!), an experienced pansexual Latte who cares about nothing, and two older characters: Thanwa on the rebound from a failed long-term relationship trying to figure what to do with his life both private and professional and Peak (styled like he was stuck in the 80's!) who is trying to hide from his father's expectations. The friendship chemistry between the four of them is something else: the bromances are bromancing big time. Romances as well just not as much!

The acting was solid, the production values ordinary, music made for dancinng. Every episode starts with a flash forward scene before the opening credits: about the only original feature of this series.

Eventually, I was just bored. I smiled a few times, was charmed by Thanwa's grin, annoyed with Peak's glasses, enyoyed Almond's and Latte's childish bickering. What was supposed to be a light summer watch was weighed down by a preachy tone.

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A bit childish, a bit cringe, a bit forced, a bit fluffy and a bit mature

Not sure what to write, my headline says it all. There was lazy writing, there was not so good execution and there were lots of flash-forward on the start of each episode which did nothing for the flow. It maybe an art style but it confused more than it helped.

The problems of the chars are a bit forced, a bit over the top and unresolved for too many episodes, especially regarding the "older" couple. And then it's easily resolved and everyone is happy which feels forced too.

Again lazy writing and not so much character development as needed. Also I think you could tell this story in just eight episodes, especially if they would have cut the unnecessary drama. The premise was interesting but they did too less with it, they could have shown how the couples and all of them grow together in a more meaningful way.

A nice touch was the inclusision of the follow on show MLs in the finale.

It's not a bad show, it's not a good show, it's a bit cringe, a bit fluffy, a bit silly, a bit childish, a bit mature and a bit fun. You could have watched worse.

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