The Gifted (2018)

I'm a huge fan of supernatural fantasy.. I've read many many books like The Summoning, Vampire Academy, Echoes and many others plus tv shows like Tower Prep, No Ordinary Family and more. so I kinda have high expectations, and frankly I was not impressed by this.

also, the shallow side of me preferred more effort on their uniforms, most high school dramas (korean and american) use it to distinguish the identity of each student, or use better quality fabrics. and they needed better hairstyles. kun and claire were the only kids with nice hair. taking care of your hair doesn't mean your rebellious or into fashion ;p

now to the spoiler part;

for one thing the lack of cgi or any type of effort was disappointing, sure most of their talents didn't need anything special, but the best thing they did was shine colorful light at people and called it "super powers".. maybe pun's identity crisis was their maximum level of cg..

on the other hand and the biggest disappointment was their plot of course... for one thing the villain was too 1d, and his only crime was that he mistreated the kids, which brings me to pung only wanting to "expose" the ranked system and the way the principle/ceo divided the kids.
I mean if you come across kids with special powers, why just make a shallow clique system? you need to build a whole school just for them and spread the "exam" that identify the kids to the whole country~ think big or go home ;p

also, they needed to teach the kids how to control their powers and improve. with this and a teacher like pom it was like releasing the power and letting the kids figure it out on their own while the other students became collateral damage.

I also really disliked their repetitive episodic pattern, they'd show 1 kid realizing their potential, just to get in trouble with the side effects and throw in some angst and it's over, then on to the next one...
what was the point of the class? it only gave them benefits over superficial luxury.

fast forward towards the end, and boom we have a villain that can't get to the point, tbh I find it weak writing when I get the point 3 mins before the character actually says the punchline... I figured out pom was just a puppet, and his story ruined the character for me, his friend could've just talked it out..
on the other hand I also figured out ceo guy had the same powers the moment he stopped the pawns, but it took them +5 mins for him to say it as if it was a twist.
on the other hand Teacher Ladda seemed suspicious, like the time she told the reporter girl "you'll forget everything" I thought she had powers too or she was an anti gifted club so she wanted to take their powers away or something but no she was just a tool too..

overall they tried to be clever but the plot was simple..

now, I did like the powers and their side effects, though I didn't like the background story around each student beside Mon. they had 2 guys that fell for the wrong girl so they became angry, and one girl that wanted everyone to love her and a few others, but Mon had a strong attachment to her sports club and friends and her side effect was the saddest one tbh...

I don't have much to say about the acting, and the ost was just mediocre, plus I never rewatch stuff. I might also not bother with a 2nd season unless it has a better production quality~

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Some Exciting twists from a pretty common theme of Superpowers

Completed - 9/1/2022

I found my way to “The Gifted” after checking out the filmography of Nanon (Bad Buddy) and Gun (Not Me). With such a high MDL rating of 8.6 at the time of this review and with these two young actors in it, I am easily persuaded to check it out.

Stories about people with special powers aren't anything ground-breaking. The gifts aka potentials of these high school students are OK and we’ve seen them before. However, I am actually more interested in the side effects of some of these superpowers. I find Punn and Mon’s side effects especially creative. “The Gifted” took time in introducing each student’s potential and story. Some stories are more interesting than others and a couple side plots are predictable. I like the episodes on Punn, Mon, Wave, and Mr. Pom the best. And because of this approach in introducing each student, oftentimes, characters disappear for a few episodes. I definitely forgot who Mon was when it was time for her story and had to wonder who the heck she is. And I hope you don’t get too hung up on the twins as they barely got any screen time. I do not think “The Gifted” did a good job in integrating everyone’s storylines in an exciting manner.

The acting of the main male cast is better than the female cast. I was very impressed with Gun in “Not Me” and I should not be surprised to see that he was very good in “The Gifted”. Without giving out spoilers, let’s just say the way his superpower’s side effects manifested made a very deep impression on me due to his acting. I actually wanted to see more. However, the female cast wasn’t as impressive (at least to me). Claire was not a very likable character in the beginning. Jane’s portrayal of Claire was over-the-top (she did tone down in later episodes). On the other hand, Lilly (Namtarn) and Puimetk (Mon) were a little too bland. Additionally, I am not impressed with the acting of the supporting cast or those with minor roles.

My favorite character is probably Wave, especially after we get to know his backstory. He’s quite adorable when he smiles, but we don’t see that often enough. Despite Gun’s acting, his character Punn, was only interesting during his episode. Other times, he’s not that interesting.

Despite some of the drama’s weaknesses, I had a very enjoyable time. The pacing is good and there are some pretty exciting and intense moments. The mid-term exam and the school shut down incident were both highlights for me. I actually wish the drama is longer to flush out some of the stories, since it’s such a big main cast. If I just rate this on the quality of the drama, I’ll probably give this an 8.0. But adding the somewhat surprising enjoyment factor, I am bumping this to a solid 8.5. I look forward to season 2.

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Idealistic but surprisingly realistic. A more than perfect prequel

I believe this is really just a prequel to The Gifted Graduation where I'd expect the real fight to happen, and The Gifted does so much more. For a prequel, this is actually more than perfect. Here we are introduced to the characters, most especially Pang, and their potentials. Afterwards the story moves from the characters to the discovery of the school's secret, and finally we got a headstart to the fight against the system.

What I like:

- I am a huge fan of an ensemble cast. I love how we got an episode dedicated to each of them and their potential. It gave the show more life than have it simply follow a one-tone mysyery suspense mood and plot, and also gave us a deeper understanding of the characters.

- The diversity of the issues tackled. There's only one main plot, but because of the focus on each character, we got things like mental illnesses, friendships, rivalry and competition, discrimination, "villainification", and more. Special shout-out to Gun's episode about mental illness and the message on how it is caused by high expectations, neglect, and intense pressure. This must have been groundbreaking for Thailand which has a pretty rigid education system.

- The unhappy ending. This actually has many facets for me:
1. Pang's classmates' "betrayal". Not all who empathizes with you support your ideals. I especially appreciate the part during the end where none of Pang's classmates stood up for him, because that is reality. It is human nature to want to receive the best thing possible, and to not give it up for the sake of other people you don't even know.
2. Pang's plan losing. Given the previous happenings, there was NO way for his plan to succeed. And I'm glad that the writers didn't go out of their way just to have the lead good guy win.
3. Pang regaining his memories. Now I did not expect for this to happen this season, but I was so taken aback and very, very pleasantly surprised!

What I look forward to:

Since The Gifted already set a good precedent, I expect a lot of things for the second season:

- Utilization of characters. The characters were all well-introduced, but the latter half of the story was centered on Pang. I hope that the other characters have more place and impact on the plot to satisfy the build-up that was given to them in the first season.

- Clearing of plot holes or rather, the answering of questions. Why are Mon and Korn still part of the Gifted class? Why did the Gifted students still have memories of Pang and the chaos that had happened? Why are they suddenly helping him when they do not approve of his ideal in the first place?

- "Bigger" fight. The fight in this season, while already very gripping, lacks that "meat" that hopefully the second season would have. Honestly I don't mind if the ending still doesn't end well for the main characters, because it would still make sense for a system to be unshakeable, but I look forward to a smarter, larger fight uniting all the minds and talents of the Gifted students.

All-in-all I really enjoyed this show (as evidenced by the whole essay I just wrote lol) and I look forward to The Gifted Graduation!

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great show

I put off watching The Gifted for ages because I didn’t think it was for me. I full admit I get a bit snobbish when it comes to superpower shows, and I didn’t have much hope for this.

I was so wrong. I LOVED this show so, so much.

First off, there’s a bunch of actors I really love - but my experience with them has been primarily (see: always) BLs, and whilst that doesn’t really make a difference, sometimes when you take romantic plot lines out of a show, it can really make an actor’s talent spotlight little things you haven’t noticed before. For example, I’ve never been a big Gun Attaphan fan, but I really feel like I got to see him show off in this; his performance as Punn really stood out and made me appreciate how talented this kid actually is.

Nanon was brilliant, as always. I genuinely think he may be one of the best actors of his generation, and with everything I watch him in he blows me away.

Sing and Chimon were so much fun to watch, too. Sing almost always seems to play the joker friend, but I feel like in this you can see he’s so much more than that stereotype. It was fun to see Chimon play a character that is actually a bit unlikeable? He played Wave so well. Victor as Pom was brilliant, and my only complaint is that I would have loved some more flashbacks with Pom and Chanon; it would have been cool to see more of their friendship.

I liked that the theme of the show wasn’t just ‘oh, these kids have special gifts’, but also being about the control that society and school has on us. We also got to see these kids deal with general issues of growing up, and how all the things we think would make life easier (ie. superpowers) don’t always help.

I really loved this, and I’m actually writing this review as I’m about to finished season two. This is a fantastic series and I’ll be sad when I’m finished with it.

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Worth the watch - view it as the prequel to Season 2, which is where the meat lies

This was an enjoyable show, and I was willing to overlook some of the logic lapses because the entertainment value and surprises throughout the series kept me hooked.

The good stuff first:
1) The acting
I wouldn't say spectacular, but definitely good, across the cast. No cringe-worthy moments of awkward acting despite the average age of the cast. Definitely one of the better assemble of young actors and actresses I've seen!

2) The plot
Whilst a common plot for Japanese movies, I've not seen this type of plot much in a TV series - it's difficult to maintain the excitement and tension through the series. The plot twists kept me watching. Although some of them were given away early by rather obvious hints, a couple (esp in the final episode) surprised me.

Potentials not explored (pun intended :P):
1) Flow of logic throughout the plot
- How did the entire school forget about what happened post-Wave's attack?
- Why can't the director just manipulate the minds of the Ministry Board to get the funds he wanted?
- How did the director manipulate the minds of the school officers to capture Pang, without him touching them. In other scenes where he manifested his power, he had to touch the person. [Season 2 addressed this]
- Why did the director not erase all memories of Pang held by the Gifted class?
- If Pang was willing to go all out to fight the system, wouldn't it have been more effective to broadcast the whole thing to the entire country? [Season 2 addressed this]

2) Integrating the students' powers into the central plot
- I see two 'climax' in the series. One is the fight against Wave and one is the final fight against the director.
- But in both instances, the series failed to tap on the potentials of the students to make them relevant. The entire series is based on their potentials and the system they are stuck in. Had the two been more integrated, with each student using their potentials to work together and bring down the antagonist, it would have been more exciting. There was an attempt at this, but the possibilities brought about by the premise of special potentials was not utilised. What was the point of Korn's potential? Yes, it gives him extra time, but we don't see him using this potential at all. What was the point of Jack and Jo's potential? We never find out.
- Also, what were the 'costs' of the potentials held by Pang, Wave, Korn, Jack and Jo etc? It would have made an interesting conflict point/trade-off exploring the cost they need to bear whenever they use their potentials.

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Perfect example of how bad writing ruins a cool premise

I will summarize some points that I didn't like:
1) Episode 1 was fairly decent, but there was a scene where Nac and Pang are sent to Ladda's office and Pom and Ladda just keep watching them as they beat each other up and I found that so disturbing that they turned on each other so quickly. I mean, weren't they friends once? It's almost like their friendship meant nothing anymore.
In Episode 1, their potentials also get "awakened" by presumably hearing Ladda (at least I thought it was her) over the speakers, but why is it they were capable of hearing it when they didn't even know how to manipulate the potentials? The same applies to seeing the numbers during the presentation. Unless Wave somehow manifested his powers during that time, it wasn't really explained.
2) Episode 5 was pretty intense, but there was also a scene where he literally almost killed Korn despite Wave starting the fight and everyone was just watching them. He even smashed one chair on him and people just kept watching. All the teachers and students... He was literally killing him and the only one who stopped him was Claire after like a whole minute. That was the beginning of decline for me and I started losing interest.
3) Episode 6 was Mon's episode. Mon was a very interesting character but there were too many things wrong with this episode. First, why did the pheromones manifest only in this episode? She'd been a part of that club for so long and they must have gotten in contact with her sweat before. I will not comment on the zombie makeup or their behaviour or the zombie acting, but it was quite bad. The fight scenes were also disappointing, but the relationships with the other club members were quite nice. At the end, there was another stupid thing. It's been months and Pang still hasn't even realized what his gift is (no idea how though), so he commands Nac to smash his head against the wall and Nac does it against a railing and Pang just watches in disbelief as his friend repetitively smashes his head against the railing and doesn't even bother to stop him and just watches. At that point, I was so done with this series.
4) Episode 7 was Korn's episode. I quite liked Korn before this episode, but they completely ruined him this episode. He was so sweet in Claire's episode, so I was very curious about his potential. The whole mess with the cloud thing and being held hostage with a simple knife was a bit too much. We didn't even find out the full scope of his potential.
5) Episode 9 and 10 were Wave's episodes. I was quite disturbed by the student-teacher romance because Wave was like 14 at the time. What really bothered me with episode 10 was how easily he created so much chaos in the school. People behaved like wild animals. Namtaan was probably the only one with the brain because she left the note as she left the roof. Wave blamed everyone but himself that he was naive and did that teacher's master thesis for her! Then magically they stopped him as he was about to unleash the files (even though Pang said there never were any? but it didn't seem like it at the time) through power of friendship? Somehow Punn overhacked him? That was so stupid. Wave was supposed to be the computer master.
6) Approximately 5 months went by since the awakening, but Pang and Korn still had no idea what their potentials were?
7) The whole plot of episodes 9-10 could be resolved if Pang just used his power on Wave and made him stop since he actively used his power in episode 8 and 7.
8) In episode 11 Pang used his power to nearly kill Tamtaan, he kept pushing her and pushing her even though he knew she had a blood pressure condition. Pang and Wave started putting their silly plan into motion.
9) In episode 12, they had to gather the pins from other rooms. So in this episode, it was like they didn't even spend 6 months together. They all kept attacking each other because of the condition that the one that didn't have the pin would be kicked out, but they didn't even realize that since they are so precious, they would never do that. I absolutely hated that Pang and Wave didn't inform Ohm and Namtaan about their plan. So in the end, somehow Pang managed to outsmart Pom and he made him remember all his memories, but... what really bothered me was how easily Chanon sacrificed himself for Pom. He had the gift of seeing the future. He could have planned out everything.
10) Episode 13 was kinda interesting with the ending, but it was so weird that their school's new hack-proof system was better than Wave? Also where was this system when Wave literally hacked the school in episodes 9-10? Also at the end, when the director asked the students if they would give up their gifts in exchange for them being ordinary, Wave didn't say anything? I mean, what was even his plan? Did he just want to crush the system while keeping his abilities? Also Mon and Korn magically appeared like nothing, so they were back and they also didn't want to give up their gifts? But they allegedly gave them up 2 episodes ago, so they definitely wanted to get rid of them.
11) It was cool they used a lot of English for written stuff, but did they really expect Thai students to be so fluent?
12) Why did the director need government funding? He could have just brought along Pom, made someone rich sponsor them and Pom would erase their memories. They could have groomed a small army this way.
13) The twins didn't even have their episode and somehow weren't even present for the evaluation or other stuff?
14) The whole conflict could have been solved easily had Pom just erased the director's memory and then Pang could have manipulated him as he saw fit.

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This Series / Thai Drama teaches us how hard it is in the complexity of the rules made by schools, should people who are capable (talented / smart) be a driver for people who do not have the ability to always try by not discriminating between those who can and who do not can.

In this drama Nanon (Pang) with his friends Chimon (Wave), Lilly (Namtaan), Sing (Ohm) is eager to change the regulatory system that is in their school, Rithda W. School, hosted by an administration teacher Katreeya (Mrs. Ladda ) and the teacher from their class Victor (Mr. Pom) to thwart or bring down the Principal of Rithda in front of the education office for the country of Thailand, but unfortunately the plan failed. Although the plan to overthrow the school principal along with the school rules system failed, Pang and his friends would never give up, and would never give up on upholding Justice.

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amazing cinematography and storyline!

im going to go through each of the categories one by one.

story: the story has so many twists, especially in ep13! i really enjoy how they make an unique background story of each of the gifted students to show their upbringing and experience with their “potential”. i feel like the writers have expressed each character really well due to this and really created a world which the characters live in. its a shame that they didnt give the twins much screentime though, and the whole potential of them doing the same thing at the exact same time is so cliche for twins. thats the only part i feel slightly upset about, but the rest is just perfection!

acting: they chose a really good cast for this! nanon is, of course, amazing. he’s so expressive and can create a scene really well! gun is soooo good as punn as he’s able to change his expressions smoothly to show his multiple personalities taking over. it makes me feel chills each time he does it and he does it well! chimon is of course the best! and theres a really big bias from me towards chimon but its well deserved! chimon shows his true duality from homeschool to the gifted. he acts so cool and distant in this and seen as a villain at first but i just can’t hate him~~

music: i feel like theres not much to say about it as there isnt like ost’s or something to comment about but i feel like the music choice is really appropriate for each scene overall so i think it’s pretty good.

rewatch value: im not really the type to rewatch an entire 10hours worth of plot that i already know but i feel like this drama series plays as an exception. i can definitely see myself rewatching this! maybe once a year! it could be like a tradition~ and when i watched this for the first time, i rewatched so many of wave’s scenes as he’s just so cool and attractive!!! ahh im just a sucker for chimon~

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Give 'The Gifted' A Chance People!

Didn't know much going into this, other than that it involved high school students with powers. This series definitely exceeded my expectations I can proudly say! Love the use of individual episodes for each student/students so we learn more about them. The plot keeps you engaged as to what's going on in the school and who to trust. Even though the visual effects are nothing outstanding, they use clever camera tricks and lighting to help with the illusion of powers or "potentials". I hope the second season got a bigger budget though because it deserves it!

Some deep and dark themes in this, including mental health and unfair treatment/bullying. Also using students as guinea pigs essentially to help the "gifted" ones accel past them. I love that they actually discuss the idea of since the "gifted" students are treated better how the other "normal" students feel about it and take out their anger on those kids who literally had zero choice in the matter. Its corrupted and very interesting. So my favorite characters were Gun as Punn, I knew him going in and he didn't disappoint. His episode was my one of my favorites hands-down, I love anything having to do with psychological effects on a person and he played the various emotions perfectly. His potential is the one I would personally like to have in real life, without the psychological side-effects though of course! I also really like Sing as Ohm, his character had me cracking up especially in his episode. Nanon as Pang was really solid too, the leading up to his discovery of his own "potential" was great and I noticed the hints along the way. His potential is honestly to me the scariest and the most powerful. Everyone did a great job though in their respective roles, I just have my faves.

So I think the individual episodes are where the series is at its peak and the episodes involving the teacher (Mr.Pom). Holy crap did his background get dark, we knew the "non-gifted" students were treated unfairly...but damn this is when we really LEARN how messed up the misaligned treatment really is. His character had so much buildup of being a cliche villain with poor intent, but he ended up being just another pawn in the heads plan. I ended up really feeling terrible for him, it gave him that added layer that he needed to be a character you can latch on to. The only critiques I had in this show were the pacing sometimes was slower, the headmaster was too stereotypical evil for me and the ending felt copoutish. I know there's a second season now airing, so its clear they were planning that from the start but still. I hope the second season gives more background to the headmaster and doesn't end in such a jumbled way.

Random thoughts during the show; The best friend character Nack looks straight up like Bam Bam sometimes in this show from Got7, it threw me off so much lol. Also I feel stupid for not knowing the twins Jack and Jo were played by actual twin actors. I've seen them both in so many shows and I thought it was one person! But nope, this show also taught me that it is two actors who are twins. Go figure.

Finally, don't not watch a show just because you see BL actors in it and it's not a BL. That's stupid period, watch it because it's a good show!

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The Gifted is a gift

When you have Nanon, Chimon, Jane, Gun, and Sing as main actors, the acting can’t get better than this. From the main to the guest actors, everyone delivered.

I love all the powers and potentials. I have to admit the ending, particularly Pang vs Supot the Director, was predictable but in a fantastic way! It was reasonable and possible despite this being a thriller, supernatural. In a way, there wasn’t anything unrealistic about the way the Director took down Pang. If Mr. Pom said the Director was smarter than everyone then the Director had to be smarter than everyone. I love it when credit is given where it’s due, even if it’s the villain we’re talking about.

I love that depending on the characters’ arcs, we aren’t overwhelmed with the whole cast but get to see their relationships with other certain characters. The only complaint I have is that I wished there were more to Jack and Jo other than they excelled in chemistry and had a psychic connection. They never got their own episode and disappeared for a while so I seriously didn’t remember their names until episode 11 or so on.

Pang is the optimal main character. He’s the first of the lowest class in history to make it into the Gifted program. And he fights for equality despite receiving the best treatment as one of the Gifteds. Using his power only for good makes him a lovable character.

My favorite arc is Punn's. Not only did Gun play five different personalities beautifully, but his whole episode was super well done and written. I loved the artwork of five trees that represented each personality and that internal fighting! Wow!

My favorite character had to be Ohm. He was adorably hilarious and his potential was both fascinating and interesting! Mon is also one of my favorites and her action scenes are admiringly enjoyable.

Wave’s backstory was a nice twist and plentiful explanation for his present self at Ritdha Wittayakom High School. Although I don’t condone a romantic relationship between a teacher and a high school student, I’m glad it wasn’t all romance but actually about an abusive teacher using a student’s intelligence for personal gain. Wave outing his teacher was so satisfying!

Pang and Wave teaming up was something I expected but not as a duo. I thought Wave would be included in the Pang-Namtarn-Ohm gang but I understood why the other two were omitted. It was made clear that Namtarn was always for the Gifted program and Ohm just couldn’t be trusted due to his forgetfulness. In the end, Pang cited this as it was just him believing he was smarter than everyone else but I wholeheartedly believed he had really good reasons to leave Namtarn and Ohm out.

Namtarn and Claire’s potentials are super cool and Claire's episode was just fun. From her sassiness to acceptance and friend-zoning Korn. Initially, I felt bad for Korn but after Korn's episode, I was happy Claire chose Punn. Punn can be so smooth when he wants to be!

People tend to complain that there’s not enough time in a day (and I agree) but I liked that Korn found his power burdensome. His wanting to just sleep was so relatable and realistic, I loved it.

I highly enjoyed this one and am definitely looking forward to also binging season two. This is a must-watch, rewatch, and gift to viewers!

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This was a pretty good show. I liked the idea of this show. But once I started to watch it I had two phase I went through the this is so great and the finally one which is disappointment. But it wasn’t too bad. I liked 90% of what the people did in his show. It started out super strong but once the last episode come I was very disappointed. I want the ending to be more like they solve the problem and the school no longer only cares about the powerful people but no it ended with there be a day dream of what might happen if he had powers. Beside that the show wasn’t bad. I liked the character and character development a lot. But the storyline could use a bit of improve in my opinion. I liked all the powers that the students had. The acting was really great for the script they were given. I recommend this show if you like action, super powers, schools and things like that.

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