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Tonhon Chonlatee thai drama review
Completed
Tonhon Chonlatee
1 people found this review helpful
by BLreviewer
Aug 27, 2022
10 of 10 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 1.0
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 7.5
Music 3.0
Rewatch Value 1.0
This review may contain spoilers

Offensive to the LGBTQ community & adult children of narcissistic parents

Finally a series with a story that had GREAT potential to discuss many important matters for society (coming out, parenthood, personality disorders, infidelity, surrogacy etc), but instead the producers and writers chose the most heteronormative, safe, poorly executed approach possible, that is actually OFFENSIVE and perpetuates several damaging stereotypes. Let's analyze this one by one (spoilers ahead).

First of all, Chon in the beginning acts like a mentally unhealthy fanboy and stalker and exhibits several disturbing behaviors that are being romanticized as ''star crossed lovers''. Stalking a guy who has been no contact with you for 5 years all the time in social media? Going to his family's empty house to clean it like it's some kind of museum and fantasize? Choosing a university not based on what will give you the best education or what you want to study but because Ton goes there? Are you serious? This behavior is ''cute'' and ''funny''? This is codependency, love addiction and maladaptive daydreaming (feel free to google those terms if you don't know what they mean). Chon doesn't need to date Ton, he needs mental help from a psychiatrist.

Ton's character is an immature loser and has multiple personalities during the series. At first he is very homophobic and I thought that they will use that to discuss how some people who grow up in homophobic families end up suppressing being gay. Nope, after that Ton has said several times that ''he loved only Chon'' meaning he is not gay and just ''happened to be in love with this specific man''. The ''I am straight but became gay for you'' trope is an extremely damaging concept and should not be perpetuated. As if this wasn't enough, he ends up triangulating Chon with his toxic ex gf (episode where she challenges him with her manipulation and he ends up kissing her in the classmate reunion breaking Chon's heart). It is clear that he still hasn't gotten over the infidelity/break up or isn't ready to deal with the challenges that comes from being out as dating another man and he shouldn't be dating anyone until he works on those issues first. He does apologize, but then toxic behaviors continue and nothing gets resolved. He should have gone to the police for his stalker ex gf instead of tolerating her harassment.

Ton's narcissistic father in the show was actually a very well portrayed character and the actor did a good job portraying a self-obsessed old narcissist using everything he has to control his family. His heart condition is weaponized (don't go against me or I will have an episode and end up in hospital), his monetary support is weaponized (stop dating Chon or I will stop paying your rent and kick the gay people out of the rental house) and he feels entitled to dictate the life of his grown up children, not based on their own best interest, but on what serves HIM (I want a grand child and you will stop being gay).

Here is the true disaster that made a series that could have been a 10/10 into a 1/10 in my opinion:

After the narcissist father found out and all hell broke loose, the healthy solution would be to have a civilized (as possible) conversation with him and Ton to assert healthy boundaries as GROWN ADULT MAN. To say to his father ''I love and respect you and I am grateful for what you did for me, but this is who I am and the choice of the partner I have made, if you don't agree with that, I will respect it and we will move out of the rental house and get jobs to not burden you. If in the future we feel ready to be parents, we will examine carefully all the available options. We will give you the time and space to think things through, but we will not put up with abuse/harassment and insults. You will not insult or harass Chon, my friends or anyone else''. Then his father would have to be toxic (because that's how narcissists are, they don't accept your boundaries) and there would have to be a period of no contact.

The surrogacy idea was atrociously executed. Children are not instruments to please a parent with outdated ideas so that you can bypass parental homophobia. It would have been much more proper if they showed Ton and Chon years later, financially independent and choosing a surrogate because THEY want to become parents, not because Ton's out of control narcissistic father acts like an overgrown toddler (I WANT A GRANDCHILD NOW, NOW, NOW GIVE IT TO ME OR ELSE I WILL ABUSE YOU!).

Personally I would have preferred it if they ADOPTED a child or chose to be childfree all together instead of making a random greedy gold digger girl the surrogate because they needed a bio-child, but I respect that some people want bio-kids and surrogacy done ethically is one of the choices. Still, choosing surrogacy should have been something the couple wants, not something done in a ''here is your grand child, we can go have our forbidden gay romance in peace now''.

Overall the show relied on cheap sentimentality and enabled/perpetuated several damaging ideas in society.

Biggest waste of potential. Would not rewatch.
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