Cette critique peut contenir des spoilers
Strong Characters Overcome Weak Plot
I'm not going to try to explain the plot because the characters really drive the interest of this story. The main couple, Mork (Drake Sattabut) and Tee (Frank Thanatsaran) have known each other since middle school. There was an early misunderstanding that drove them apart until high school, when this story takes place. (I'm assuming it's high school because it's never clear. They seem to skip classes so often its a wonder they aren't expelled). It's pretty clear Tee is gay and certain of his feelings but he hesitates to express them to Mork. We watch Mork evolve from an indifferent acquaintance to a loving, maybe-gay partner who is the most invested in their relationship. Meanwhile, Mork's younger brother Morn (Phuwin Tangsakyuen) is having a growing bromance with this friend Gord (Neo Trai). Given these two boys are in middle school, their drama is a bit more unusual and interesting to watch. At the conclusion, Mork and Tee get engaged, even though they've never gone beyond kissing. The story asks if they really need to go beyond that to be in love and it's a good question. I have to think there must be many straight couples who partner just for companionship. But I suspect the audience hoped for that final romantic scene as the payoff for 12 hours of viewing. A key plot point is Tee's mom doesn't approve of his gay relationship and tries to drive them away. Then Tee and Mork are involved in a car accident and this changes her mind about them. This scene was poorly executed and really unnecessary. Earlier we had been introduced to Tee's grandmother who approved of his relationship. It would have been far more dramatic and satisfying to the audience for the elder member of the household to scold her daughter for her selfish behavior, Special mention should be given to Khaotung Thanawat who play's Mork's best friend Au, who has a boy crush on Mork. His storyline is a missed opportunity to explore the tragedy of loving someone who doesn't share your affection. There was a hint that Au had a secret admirer of his own, but that's never developed. When these long BL dramas struggle to fill the time, it would be better to develop these more offbeat subplots than repeat the same conflicts with the main characters. On the production side: Thai BL dramas seem to have a lot of sound problems, particularly when characters have physical contact and their shirt worn lavalier microphones are bumped. There are an excessive number of bad mic pick-ups in this series. These should have been dubbed (rerecorded) in the studio. The camera work is better, with only a couple of live focus and framing errors. Indeed, many of the visuals are quite good. On acting, Drake (as Mork) gets most the screen time and he manages to keep his ever-changing character consistent through the story. In the beginning, his character is so stoic we wonder if he'll ever display any emotion, but we grow to love him most at the conclusion. Frank gives us a rather icy Tee who never fully melts into the kind of chemistry we hope for. Playing a 15-year-old middle schooler doesn't give Phuwin (Morn) a very wide pallet of emotions to play with. But we get a nice surprise toward the end of the drama when Morn confronts Gord about the shallowness of their relationship. The final hugging scene is nicely drawn. Neo Trai delivers a wonderfully subtle performance showing Gord's struggle with wanting to reveal his true feelings toward Morn but fearing he might drive him away. His confrontational speech with Morn is a highlight of the show. It's too bad the script didn't go through one more rewrite because some minor fixes could have made this show an easy 10 rating. Still, I can recommend it for Drake's performance and the secondary story involving Morn and Gord.
Cet avis était-il utile?