3
5
jpny01
The first episode is the worst. It goes downhill from there.
It's not at all necessary to watch Star In My Mind to understand this series - anything that matters is shown in flashback in the first episode.
Mark is certainly cute, and Mek has no lack of sex appeal, but the overall chemistry here is missing, except insofar as Mek generates it by standing around and looking sexy, which in the end has a 2D quality that wears thin.
The central problem for me in this series is the character of Prince, who is humorless, judgmental, constantly disappointed in everyone , and generally a tiresome priggish elderly woman trapped in a young man's body. And yet as interesting as damp cardboard.
Example: At the beginning, the kids hide in Fah's room. It's cute and harmless, but Prince acts like they're all bad people instead of taking it like, well, a normal adult, amused at the situation. Then he's very rude to Fah for no reason and doesn't even thank him for getting a huge spider off his head. I get the formula. They don't like each other at first, I get it. But Prince never changes and just shits on Fah the whole series, constantly making him feel like he needs to apologize even though he never does anything wrong, but rather is very generous and kind to him.
Then he says he's tired of waiting for Fah to make a move - then immediately leaves in a huff so that Fah can't make a move. He's so standoffish and unpleasant that it's not clear why Fah has any interest in him, but if Prince is interested, why can't he make the first move, or at least give Fah some indication that he'd be receptive? So now he's disappointed Fah doesn't have telepathic powers?
This whole series is formulaic and pointless. There's no redemption arc for Fah, because he's always been a good and caring person who had one bad moment because his girlfriend of 7 years dumped him for another man and he got drunk and drove. There's even an arranged marriage plotline that chews up a lot of time and has nothing to say about it, and like all conflicts in this series, is handwaved away anticlimactically. In this case, everything works out because the husband-to-be is hot, so the resolution isn't just lazy, it's shallow and misogynist - "Sure, I'll give up all my agency and have my future assigned to me by men without my input just so long as I get my tall handsome man."
The highlight of the series is easily Fah's sidekicks, played by Mike Chinnerat (clean-cut and bespectacled, which is really fetching on him) and Arm Weerayut, both of them funny and charming and a breath of fresh air. Everything else is a dreary mishmash of standard BL tropes like falling on each other and staring endlessly, the uke tripping about 47 times. etc.
Mek's acting has improved - not great, but a little more natural - but in the end the writing is so bad, and he's stuck acting against someone that could have been replaced by a clay figurine, that whatever appeal he has wears out its welcome.
Mark's acting is not exactly bad so much as non-existent. Aggressively bad acting is worse than the non-acting we often get in Thai BL, but in this case, it's so non that it collapses into a black hole that sucks all life out of the drama. He's really that bad.
The final dramatic crisis is so stupid and poorly written that it's only worth a weary sigh. Somehow, Prince gets malaria which is somehow untreatable, because the medications necessary for this were only developed 180 years ago. His evil ex-bf won't tell Fah which hospital Prince is at, so Fah decides their relationship is over and gives up. Which is what one does when one is in love. Unfortunately, Prince decides moping is more useful than contacting Fah, and when Fah finally decides to try to find him, he can't, until it turns out his brother is a good friend of Prince's, which somehow never came up in conversation before,. And so Fah is able to find Prince, who is a drum major in Bangkok for no apparent reason, and they live happily ever after.
The whole final episode is full of stupid and inplausible coincidences and miscommunication - sure, coincidence is a staple of romantic drama, but they still have to make sense.
Anyway, this series is an incredibly dull and charmless waste of time.
Mark is certainly cute, and Mek has no lack of sex appeal, but the overall chemistry here is missing, except insofar as Mek generates it by standing around and looking sexy, which in the end has a 2D quality that wears thin.
The central problem for me in this series is the character of Prince, who is humorless, judgmental, constantly disappointed in everyone , and generally a tiresome priggish elderly woman trapped in a young man's body. And yet as interesting as damp cardboard.
Example: At the beginning, the kids hide in Fah's room. It's cute and harmless, but Prince acts like they're all bad people instead of taking it like, well, a normal adult, amused at the situation. Then he's very rude to Fah for no reason and doesn't even thank him for getting a huge spider off his head. I get the formula. They don't like each other at first, I get it. But Prince never changes and just shits on Fah the whole series, constantly making him feel like he needs to apologize even though he never does anything wrong, but rather is very generous and kind to him.
Then he says he's tired of waiting for Fah to make a move - then immediately leaves in a huff so that Fah can't make a move. He's so standoffish and unpleasant that it's not clear why Fah has any interest in him, but if Prince is interested, why can't he make the first move, or at least give Fah some indication that he'd be receptive? So now he's disappointed Fah doesn't have telepathic powers?
This whole series is formulaic and pointless. There's no redemption arc for Fah, because he's always been a good and caring person who had one bad moment because his girlfriend of 7 years dumped him for another man and he got drunk and drove. There's even an arranged marriage plotline that chews up a lot of time and has nothing to say about it, and like all conflicts in this series, is handwaved away anticlimactically. In this case, everything works out because the husband-to-be is hot, so the resolution isn't just lazy, it's shallow and misogynist - "Sure, I'll give up all my agency and have my future assigned to me by men without my input just so long as I get my tall handsome man."
The highlight of the series is easily Fah's sidekicks, played by Mike Chinnerat (clean-cut and bespectacled, which is really fetching on him) and Arm Weerayut, both of them funny and charming and a breath of fresh air. Everything else is a dreary mishmash of standard BL tropes like falling on each other and staring endlessly, the uke tripping about 47 times. etc.
Mek's acting has improved - not great, but a little more natural - but in the end the writing is so bad, and he's stuck acting against someone that could have been replaced by a clay figurine, that whatever appeal he has wears out its welcome.
Mark's acting is not exactly bad so much as non-existent. Aggressively bad acting is worse than the non-acting we often get in Thai BL, but in this case, it's so non that it collapses into a black hole that sucks all life out of the drama. He's really that bad.
The final dramatic crisis is so stupid and poorly written that it's only worth a weary sigh. Somehow, Prince gets malaria which is somehow untreatable, because the medications necessary for this were only developed 180 years ago. His evil ex-bf won't tell Fah which hospital Prince is at, so Fah decides their relationship is over and gives up. Which is what one does when one is in love. Unfortunately, Prince decides moping is more useful than contacting Fah, and when Fah finally decides to try to find him, he can't, until it turns out his brother is a good friend of Prince's, which somehow never came up in conversation before,. And so Fah is able to find Prince, who is a drum major in Bangkok for no apparent reason, and they live happily ever after.
The whole final episode is full of stupid and inplausible coincidences and miscommunication - sure, coincidence is a staple of romantic drama, but they still have to make sense.
Anyway, this series is an incredibly dull and charmless waste of time.
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