Been thinking about this show parallel to the political climate in Thailand right now

Not sure how many of you guys are engaged with Thai politics, but right now we're seeing a mass movement of Pro Democracy/ Anti Military/ Anti Monarchy activism in Thailand. It's a broad coalition of mutual interests, but the majority of the movement is lead by student activists. 

I couldn't help but notice the concurrence of Time getting the students to sign the Student Move petition with the recent student protests and demonstrations in Thailand.

It's not unusual for media to reflect the tone of current events, but I have a lingering concerns about this show in particular. 

Freedom of press and speech in Thailand is quite limited, censorship is rampant, and ultra royalist propaganda is abundant. I have a hard time believing a show that is about younger generations challenging the current power structure got the okay to be aired on Thai TV.  Wanchana Sawasdee (Director Supot) is actually an active ranking member of the Thai military. I've seen him featured in many pro-military/pro monarchy propaganda clips and films.  There's no way the military would allow him to act in any roles that would even hint at making the monarchy or military (aka the rulers of the current Thai power structure) look bad.

The best I can hope for is the show opens a nuanced dialogue about activism and its place and role in current events. But at worst, I fear there might be anti-demonstration/activism tones designed to undermine the movement. I caught hints of this in season 1, when Director Supot discredited Pang's idealism as misguided- however it was subtle and open-ended enough to not feel like some of the not so subtle subliminal messaging I'm used to being bombarded with when in Thailand.

 yasi:

Thank you for it!!!! I hadn't thought about it before, so reading your comment opened a "door" in my mind. I'm really looking forward to seeing the way this season is going. I hope the same as you. I thought that the first season discussed topics such as social classes (the division of classrooms, in my view, is a representation of the social division within a school, as students in the "lower" classrooms have less privileges than students in classrooms higher) and after reading your comment, i'm also having a hard time believing this aired. I wish the best for this season, and I hope it have more representations of important issues, because for me this series is not just about empowered children, but the messages we get between the lines.

I remember around the time season 1 aired, The Global Wealth Report 2018 published by the Credit Suisse Research Institute ranked Thailand's wealth/income inequality as the worst in the ASEAN. I think they ranked like #4 in the world overall.

It was an inconvenient truth the ruling class and top 1% wanted to hide. I remember seeing "economic experts" on the news denying the study. They even blocked some websites that discussed or linked the report.

The Gifted season 1 was able to have a fair discussion about inequality and the division of classes during a time where the Thai government was actively trying to hide it's inequality problems. This gives me hope that The Gifted Graduation, can talk about some of the major social issues happening right now in Thailand without taking sides.

 Silente 08:

Very interesting! Season 1 was very fascinating for me since it pretty much attacked the pillars of what I had perceived as the typical education and (social) class scheme of Thailand. Obviously, for a mainstream show it might have gotten even more difficult now to do so (although this season was probably shot quite some time ago), we will see how it develops. Recently, I criticised Who Are You? for some unnecessarily idealised school scenes, maybe we will get some more of those here ...

I also saw Who Are You? What were some of the criticisms you had with its school scenes?

Actually I compare this series and Thai politics since the first season. I wrote about it, you can go to the season 1 page and see my series review! 

This is actually a little extreme for a 13+ show ... I had to watch the initial scene repeatedly until i could grasp what was happening there. The "inappropriate behaviour" warning is a massive understatement. Yep, they seemingly have no problems denouncing the military dictatorship even in the middle of the current protests! But we still need to see how they manage to resolve all of this ...

I started scrolling through BL twitter lately, and I find it amazing how many actors (including some of the young actors from The Gifted) openly support current protests and criticize govt. violence in Thailand. 

When I wrote my first post, I though the story of TGG would ultimately suggest a slow and patient change from within the system as the best solution, since Supot in that episode was presented as a sympathetic character who has a point. But now that theory is dead. After episode 10, it is clear that all adults in power are either plain evil or corrupt or manipulative, while the youth, despite blind idealism and often bad judgement, absolutely holds the moral high-ground. All the misfortune that happened to the students, is because of their trust in adults. I find it interesting that director Supot is played by Colonel Bird, his rare villainous role. I remember reading an interview some time ago, where he said he doesn't like playing villains. And yet, here we are. As you said, he is indeed a member of Thai military irl. I wonder what his thoughts about current situation in Thailand are, seeing that his young actor colleagues mostly support the protests.

I see alot of us agree that Colonel Bird probably wouldn't have signed up for a show that makes the pro-democracy movement look good in any way- nor would he have been allowed to.

I have a weird sort of... juvenile theory for how he ended up playing the role for Director Supot. Is it possible that he just simply did not know? Maybe he didn't read the script carefully or he was not able to make the connection between The Gifted and the current political situation.  

One of slang terms younger Thai's are using to describe Pro-Establishment royalists, politicians, and military officials is "dinosaur" (ไดโนเสาร์). It's used to emphasize their outdated ideology and disconnect with modern reality. I am starting to wonder if he just didn't know how much the theme's of The Gifted support the current protests.