The Gifted (2018)

Être doté d’une capacité « hors du commun » te permettra-t-il d’être heureux ?

J’ai regardé ce drama peu de temps après avoir vu « Blacklist ». C’est pourquoi, je m’attendais à un départ rapide de l’histoire… Ce qui n’est pas arrivé, j’ai donc failli abandonner au cours du 3ème épisode. Cependant, Je lui ai laissé une chance et finalement, durant l’épisode 4, j’ai fini par accrocher. (Comme quoi, il ne faut jamais désespérer XD !)

Alors de quoi parle ce drama :
Une école élitiste pratiquant une scission des classes de 8 à 1 afin de donner un « grade » aux étudiants. Ce grade détermine comment sera ta vie au sein de l’établissement. (Le niveau 8 étant, bien entendu, le plus bas.)
Au milieu de cette guerre, pour arriver au plus haut niveau, se trouve les « Gifted » considérés comme plus haut que toutes les classes… Ceux-ci possèdent, aux yeux de leurs camarades, tous ce qu’ils pourraient désirer… Mais que se passe-t-il réellement dernier les murs du « Gifted » ?

Thématiques principales de l’histoire :
• Un placement scolaire géré comme un système de « Castes » : Cette histoire est centrée sur un système de castes, les avantages étant plus important pour les personnes se trouvant dans les catégories les plus élevées. (Ce système cause des problèmes fondamentaux : les étudiants n’ont pas les mêmes droits, une disparité sociale évidente, une forme de violence psychologique & morale envers les élèves se trouvant dans les classes les plus basses…)
• La corruption : Le directeur n’a pour but que de favoriser une catégorie d’étudiants (les Gifted) afin d’obtenir de plus en plus de subsides et d’être reconnu comme étant à la tête de personnes « vouées » à diriger le monde.
• Des capacités hors du commun : Les Gifted sont des personnes possédants des sens plus « aiguisés » que le commun des mortels. (On parle d’ailleurs d’une approche scientifique dans l’histoire afin d’améliorer leur compétence de base.)

Malgré un démarrage difficile lors de mon visionnage, j’ai fini par apprécier suivre cette bande d’étudiants & de découvrir leurs joies & leurs peines mais également les travers de leurs différentes capacités. Cependant, je dois avouer avoir eu du mal avec la fin ^^’. (Le fait qu’elle soit ouverte n’est pas vraiment un problème quand on sait qu’il y a une saison 2 mais au départ, je comptais m’arrêter après la première x’D)

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Thai Series became more diversified!

Well, 2018 is the year where Thai series became globalized. We have many Thai series on Netflix now and GMM, before better known for light hearted and cheesy romantic comedies, dared to make an audacious decision: invest in diversified genres and try to open up to the international community. The Gifted is the best example of the good results that they've got so far.

First of all, I have to congratulate the writters and the directors. The plot is smart, refreshing and stylish. The tensions and characters are slowly and progressively built, teasing the audience and making us keep watching. The season is divided in two parts. The first one introduces the characters and their habilities while the second portion focus on the secret of the school. Although I understand the reasons they did it, I felt that excepting Pang, Wave and Nantaan, the other characters almost devanished during the second part of the season. We know that all of them were there, but it seemed they became just secondary characters. Probably they were expecting to make another season and the development of those characters will happen on season two.
Speaking about the characters, I have to say that I loved them, specially Pang, Wave, Nantaan and Ohm. Pang is the classic good guy, the hero whose qualities include idealism, courage and morality; while Wave is the charming antihero who is lonely and seeks for friends. Albeit I loved both guys, I feel that they were more effective in creating Chimon's character. Wave's episode showed us his history before the school and made us sympathize with him. Knowing about what that teacher made to him in the past humanized him. Strangely, we don't have a single moment in this series where we can see Pang's life before or outside the school. Why is he so heroic? It is a mystery the show could unravel in the next season. Of course we know the school made Pang loses his best friend, which is a good reason to make him hate the school system, but it does not explain everything. Even before that, Pang was already idealistic and we don't know why. In order to humanize him a bit more, we should know about his past, his motivations, maybe the next season should explore his friendship with Nic when they were kids.

Some people even say that Wave and Pang could date. Well, I generally don't like when BL fans try to put BL plots in every Thai series. In this case, however, I would like to say that a relationship between them, although not a requisite, would be interesting. They made a really good team. During the first part of the season, I thought Pang, Ohm and Nantaam would emulate the classical Harry Potter-kind trio, where there is a male heroic protagonist, a smart girl and a playful boy (Yes, Pang as Harry, Nantaam as Hermione and Ohm as Rony). But after Pang and Wave made a deal, they became closer and I liked a lot their interactions. They could be a great couple if the story chooses a realistic approach instead of a cheesy romance. I would love to see WavePang and NantaamOhm becoming true, but I am OK if it does not happen. The story is good enough withou any romance.

Speaking about the acting, I liked everyone, but I have to say that the three best performances, in my opinion, goes to Bird Wanchana Sawasdee as the director; Katreeya English as professor Ladda; and Gun Atthaphan as Pun. They all made me deeply believe they were not characters, but real persons. Bird was able to be evil without stereotypes, specially when he was smiling. Khun Ladda, despite being a strict teacher, was charismatic in a strange way. I felt bad when she was fired like she was one of the good guys. Technically, she was not. But she was not evil too. Looking forward to see more about her in the future. I hope she will be back next season and we can see more about her past. Finally, Gun Attapphan deserved an oscar for his acting on episode 5.
About the potencials, although I realize that Ohm, Pang, Wave and Pun are the most "powerfull", Nantaam's potencial is my favorite. I am historian. The past is something alive for me. Having her potencial could make me discover so much things about the past. I could go to Egypt, touch the pyramids and discover how they were built! Can you imagine that? I could go to India, touch the Bodhi Tree and discover how Buddha's face looked like. Maybe go to Jerusalem and make the same thing with Jesus. I could discover who killed Kennedy! This would be fucking cool. I even have a heroine nickname for her: The Historian.

About the plot, I still wanna say that the school seems to me a metaphor of Thai society nowadays. The country is facing a military dictatorship for years and a small group of people rules all the nation from the top of the pyramid. For me, Pang is like the thai activists who wanna take down all the corrupted, unequal and authoritarian Thai political system and make everybody equal and free. Like the director, the Thai dictators persecute the ones who fight for justice. Chanon, the studends who got injured by the experiments and that girl who was killed by a gifted student; all of them represent many activists who have been jailed or killed by the Thai military. The school system separate students by their grades and force them to compete each other. The competition between the students is a strategy used by the system to distract them from fighting the unjustice. It is the same thing that happens in Thai society, where the struggle between Red Shirts and Yellow Shirts (if you don't know, google it) made the military dictatorship possible. At the end of the first season, we see that Pang left a video for their fellows, begging them to use their privileges to fight the system, not to collaborate with it. I see that video as a call for fighting against authoritarianism. It is a beautiful message of hope in a country needing it desperately.
There are more things I would like to say, but I think I have written too much. Thx for everyone who have read everything! See you next year!

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