#We need better writing for all the gmmtv actresses

[miss0atae]

The Jungle - 7th Episode Review

I’m late again but here we go with the review of the 7th episode.

We got back at the time where Pladao was explaining the death of her cousin. Hack was kind of surprised while Hunter gave of the impression that he doesn't give a shit. His condolences lacked warmth. I was a bit afraid that the episode would be centered around Hack when they started taling about tarantula. Fortunately it wasn’t the case. Evil Naan arrived and gave Pladao some info about her cousin. I found Hack super weird during the scene. The way he was looking at them and his facial expressions. Something is not right with him.

So the info from Evil Naan was that he knew a friend of Pladao’s cousin and they both went to meet that girl. Evil Naan was pretending to be the doctor of Pladao’s cousin and for that he just decided to wear glasses. I mean who can fall for this disguise? Especially when he put them when she is in front of him. Does he think the girl is so gullible that she would fall for it? Pladoa complains about his stupid lie and she is speaking for the audience at this point. Luckily the plot is helping Evil Naan because the girl indeed fall for it and helps them. She gave him a phone with a picture of the cousin and some gossips about the mysterious boyfriend. Of course no one knows his name because this is really a healthy relationship. If my friend refuse to give me the name of her boyfriend I would really become wary but this friend did not do anything. Everyone is dumb is this show otherwise it doesn’t work. Of course after hearing all of that, Evil Naan is sure that this mysterious boyfriend can't be Naan. Pladao still thinks it's Evil Naan because of the pictures. This episode shows again that Evil Naan and Naan have a weird relationships and the series could have addressed that in a better way but no why writing something that makes sense when you can make it beyond understanding. Anyway, Pladoa wants to send him details that she gathered about her cousin and so she asks for his mail. Back at home she is checking him on internet with it. I can’t believe that he would be stupid to use this mail for everything but I forgot I was watching The Jungle when the most stupid move is always the one they chose to do. So she found a private Instagram and directly she thinks he sells drugs. Who in his right mind would use Instagram to sell drugs??? Can someone explain it to me?

So cut to Pladao and Kitti going at Kaewta’s house. I'm sure the guy is suspicious. I Can't trust him. There is a bad vibe around him Look at him with all his questions! Why is she trusting this guy anyways? He was the one who said it was Naan but he has no real evidences. Don't trust him!! Why Okay, she found a diary and she gave it to him. Don't give him anything! Why is she so trusting with him but the other men she can’t trust any of them. Don't listen to him, pleas! He wants to do something else now. He is avoiding her and trying to distract her from her investigation. How can she trust him?! It's frustrating. She didn't trust any of the Jungle but the friend... No question asked. Back at home and she is still investigating Evil Naan when she should investigate the friend. Why is she still on this exposing the RV and the Jungle? How will it help her? Girl, you're an idiot. Using Twitter for this is even more dumb. I don't understand her at all. She looks like she found the best way but it's not a clever move at all. Okay so people knows where is the RV now. Evil Naan finds her and takes her somewhere else to ask her why she did that. She still acts like Evil Naan dated her cousin. So she is still on with this idea because she followed him on Instagram by pretending to be someone else and found a picture of him and her cousin. Evil Naan revealed that he indeed dated her cousin and she broke up with him apparently. Why did you say it before? Why dragging this to that point? When he met Kaewta, he pretended to be his brother. Why would you do that??? Now I’m sure Pladao and Evil Naan are soulmates because they are both super dumb.

Okay so Evil Naan met Kaewta outside of the bar. They had cute moments but it came to an end when she met the real Naan and he didn't know about her. Again, why Evil Naaan pretended to be his brother? This is stupid. Naan is not happy because he was with another girl and he realizes that she misunderstood him with his twin. After that Naan appeared and she slapped him because well he did something wrong. He tried to find her again and apologize but she doesn't want to listen to him. She said that she doesn't trust the things he said to her which is understandable. That was a dumb move to pretend being someone else. He has a problem. Okay so Evil Naan really liked the cousin but lied to Pladao about knowing her. She asks the real question: why pretending to be Naan? He thinks that Naan has an easier life. (What the hell? Why would he think that?) He has such an inferiority complex when it comes to his twin. Man you need a therapy. All the people who gathered outside could not find the bar so they left. The Jungle made the action to hide but showing a bunch of other addresses on internet. Pladao's plan was bad from the beginning anyway.

Okay so all the men are here except Naan and they are not happy with Evil Naan. Pladoa is still thinking she did nothing bad. Girl, it was stupid and not really well thought out. Why should people knows about the RV? Especially that she has proved continually that she's bad at finding the truth. Stop it trying to be the detective. Evil naan defend her but the others laugh at him. Gosh I will have to change his name to Sweet Naan now. Okay Pine was super cruel at that point because he knows how to be very hurtful by comparing Evil/Sweet Naan with his twin. Ouch! Okay so Evil/Sweet is quitting or getting kicked out? Pladao tries to understand and they all think it's their fault if things didn't work out well. Pladao is right, it's hard to know who is the real Evil/Sweet Naan. He is very confusing! Are they flirting right now?! He was just talking about your cousin and you thought you could kiss him You need to check your feelings Pladao!

Pladao is again trying to find info and finally reading that diary! I knew it was that dude! KittiTiwi was so suspicious. Kaewta wrote in her diary that he helped her during this hard time. He totally killed her. The pregnancy revelation was proof enough that the man who killed her didn’t want to deal with it.

Why is Pladao going to talk to Kitti like that? Please talk to someone who knows how to make a real plan. You're not fit for that job! Thankfully, the plot is so easy to follow. Of course he tries to brush it off but Pladao finally knows the truth. She accused him of murdering her cousin and they are alone in the shop. I wouldn’t feel safe. He tries to laugh and tells her to move on. I believe he wasn't thinking that she would be such a pain in his ass when he killed her cousin. Okay, she wasn't really alone. Evil/Sweet Naan was hiding next so she isn't that stupid. So their plan was to rile him.... It could have backfired. This is not a plan. This is suicide mission. They need real help. So they have a conversation about how to find the truth. They want to make him believe Kaewta is still alive. What a ridiculous plan again. A ghost? Where are we? Their plan sucks but it works to make Kitti being afraid. He is taking a taxi to flee but it’s the wrong taxi because it has Evil/Sweet Naan inside. Kitti then wakes up in the bathroom of the RV. This place is so useful. This is the real main character of the show XD. We learn that Kitti killed the cousin because she was difficult... Why not just breaking up with her? Why pretending to be nice and to have the baby with her? Why being a liar? He pretendedto give her medicine for morning sickness and killed her instead. Well, it’s time to pay for his evil actions and we knew it would happen. Evil/Sweet Naan beats the shit of this guy. It is actually refreshing because he clearly deserves it. What is funny is that Pladao came inside the room just to help Evil/Sweet Naan. It’s their fun couple activity to bond. This episode is completely unrealistic. The police comes to arrest Kitti but says nothing about his injuries that he probably got from Evil/Sweet Naan and Pladao. Anyway, they want a statement and Pladao decide to go their alone to protect Evil/Sweet Naan’s identity. This scene ends with a sweet hug between them.

In the next scene, Pladao meets with Evil/Sweet Naan to thank him for his help. She also add that he needs be his true self because he is as good as his twin. She uses his trick with the coin to tell him to gives his real name to people from now on. He admits that he likes her. I think they should have had more time to develop their relationship. He flirts a lot in this two last minutes. Why are they playing their relationship with the coins? Why not just deciding by yourself? At least we got a kiss. I was waiting for it but I'm disappointed. I expected more from them. All the love stories are disappointing, to be honest, which is sad because the actors are not bad. So it’s definitely right to sat that the story is not well written. The concept was intriguing but it doesn’t make sense most of the time. They introduce ideas and never follow them. Their characters don’t have a real personalities and they don’t get the time to have one either. I think I didn’t understand that scene properly. Are they not together? Why making the story so complicated for no reason. Date if that's what you both want. I mean Naan got married in the last episode and he probably stayed a real short time with Nithan. Why Evil/Sweet Naan can’t get a better love story. He was my favorite… after Hunter.

Pladao has decided to drop the Jungle story. Thank you for finally doing what is the best! So she got a message from Evil/Sweet Naan flirting with her. I don’t like that they are not really dating. I would completely rewrite that story if I was the writer.

The episode is not even finished that we get who will be the main characters of the next episode. Irin is in trouble at the airport and Pine came to help her avoid the journalists. She wants to stay at the RV. While she is there, she opened the door to find Hack and not Pine who she was waiting for and that’s the end of the episode. What can I say… I don’t care about Hack, Pine and Irin. What's his deal anyway…

So I was really disappointed by this episode. It was super boring and I almost didn’t make a review of it. I really wanted something better for Pladao. I expected until the end that she would get a better story but no… nothing. Evil Naan is not evil anymore and was never truly Evil. We still did not get any answers about his relationship with Naan and why he acted crazy in the last episode when apparently he is super nice and sweet. Pladao and him don’t even have the chance to have a second episode centered around them that we jump to the triangle love between Hack, Pine and Irin. The pace of the story is worst than ever. I understand why so many people don’t like it. It has big flaws and nothing can save it anymore. It’s sad because the actresses on GMMTV don’t get a lot of chances to shine. They deserve better.

[theselightsareblinding]

My GMMTV 2023 predictions

First I'm going to list the things I would like to happen, and then the ones I think are likely to happen.

This is for fun, to have a bingo card on the 22nd and see how many predictions I got right (probably not many). Speculating is entertaining, at least until the day comes and I realize none of the things I want will be happening.

My wishes

MilkLove gl

Gls in general. GMM needs to get on with it and quickly. The bare minimum would be two gls and more gl side couples.

TayNew series. My head knows it's a bad idea, but my heart wants it. For whatever reason I just like them, individually and together

More adult series. I still really like university settings and they are much better than high school ones, but I crave characters in their late 20s/30s trying to get their shit together and navigate falling in love. I would also love stories about people in their 40s, 50s, etc, especially queer ones, but I know GMM it's not going to do it.

Gun as a lead. I really hope we get another Gun series, he's probably my favourite actor from the company. I would also like to see him with another partner, man or woman, it could be interesting. But I wouldn't mind if it is with Off either. Also more diverse roles for him, like Black in Not me, I feel like he has a wide acting range that he rarely gets to show.

Same with Nanon. One of my favourite actors too.

JoongDunk series. As I said in my favourite bls list they have a lot of chemistry and it would be great to see them in a 12 episodes series.

More main roles for women, gl or not. GMM has some amazing actresses and they deserve big roles too, P.S. I Hate You style

Some actresses that are great and I would like to see are Jennie, Mook, Jan, Tu, Film

Not me season 2 (yes I know it's not going to happen)

Series directed by Aof, Golf and Nuchy, even though I don't know if I entirely trust Golf after what they let them do to the last episodes of The eclipse

My predictions

First, the actual 2023 series to not start airing for a while because I counted and we have at least 10 series from this year which haven't started to air yet

Main roles for the usual 'big' actors, Bright, Win, Nanon, Ohm, Luke, Joss, Krist

A Gun series, he was being cryptic earlier on Instagram, practically confirming he has a series with someone, we don't know if it's Off yet. I don't feel like GMM is brave enough to give Gun a different couple but we'll see

TayNew series: if I'm correctly informed this is the most probable one. Safe house together, a lot of events and fan meets and a couple of slip ups from them. I never thought this would happen again but here we are, all the evidence points to it. It's possible it's not even a bl but a series where they are main protagonists but not a couple, like BrightWin on Boys over flowers

I was going to write about Dew and Tu as a pair but I just read she's going on a break in 2023 so that's dismissed. I still think he's going to have a series though, he became very popular this year and has had a lot of events

PerthChimon series, they were together in Safe house

MilkLove gl series, also many events together and still branded as a pair a year after Bad buddy. They have to be a side couple on a series at least

No EarthMix series, they had so many series in so little time, and one of them hasn't even aired yet

OhmNanon, JimmySea, FirstKhao and JoongDunk: possibly one or two of these pairs are going to have a series but I have no idea who. The four of them are branded as a pair and still do events together but all of them had recent series

Bl series with rookies no one knows yet. I feel like every year they tried to replicate the 2gether formula, and will do the same next year

[waitmyturtles]

I can’t believe I’m writing something not related to Moonlight Chicken (✨Alan x Gaipa/Gaipa x Alan✨), but here we go, before the big MC finale: I managed to finish the totally wonderful 10 Years Ticket, my first Thai lakorn, out of a continued devotion to rummaging the rabbitholes of actors/actresses that tore my heart apart in previous dramas. In this case, in the aftermath of my ravaging affair with Bad Buddy, I had to catch up on Nanon’s and Ohm’s latest works. Dirty Laundry was an easy bucket. Ohm’s 10 Years Ticket was a hell of a something else entirely. 

I understood that, going in to 10YT, lakorns are generally assumed to be soapy, and I had to admit that I was concerned about entering this tunnel -- especially because I have a history of being seriously disappointed by subpar cishet roles for my otherwise dear QL actors (AHEM MACHIDA KEITA, the man needs better scripts; Akaso Eiji is faring so much better). As well, I’m not even all that familiar with Ohm’s other BLs and non-QL dramas, as He’s Coming to Me is on my list of essential BLs to watch, and I’ll get to it soon (SOTUS first). 

So anyway, I came into this apprehensive, especially considering how LONG the series is, at 16 episodes, and I knew there was violence, which I generally avoid. But I should have given GMMTV more credit. It was UTTERLY bingeable, a VERY DEEP study into long-term intergenerational family and community trauma, and I found it totally compelling as someone who’s trained in the social services. And, I am a huge fan now of director Fon Kanittha, who, VERY IMPORTANTLY, will be directing Milk and Love’s GL, 23.5 (EEEEEEEE). So I was glad to check off not just an Ohm box, but Fon’s as well.

AND! Because I’m still so new to Thai dramas, I’ve never seen a QL/drama with Off before (lord help me as I contemplate jumping into OffGun). And 10YT had a wonderful stable of GMMTV actors in Tu Tontawan, View Benyapa (who was fantasssstic), Pluem Purim (who was also great), and Foei Patara (so evil, so good!). 

The casting was superb -- especially for the insanely difficult subject matter.

I don’t know if I want to spend that much time on the plot, but I’ll do my best to explain what plot points matter to why I thought the show was a success. The show centers on Ohm’s character, Phukao, whose half-brother, Mai (Pluem) is shot and killed when Phukao is a very young child. Phukao and Mai’s family are close with a number of other families in their community. Mai is a drug runner, and his girlfriend -- the older sister of one of the other friendly families -- takes the rap for the shooting and is sent to prison, causing almost permanent friction between the families. Later in the show, the girlfriend’s younger sister (Kongkwan, played by Tu), is reunited with Phukao; they were friends as young children, but separated after the shooting, and Phukao had a long-standing grudge against Kongkwan, until he realizes his feelings for her as an older teenager.

I’m going to add trigger warning tags to my review, because as part of the layering of intercommunity and intergenerational trauma of this show, I don’t think I’ve ever seen depicted in a drama a young child witnessing as much as young Phukao witnessed, including post-mortem scenes and episodes of abject family violence. So it honestly was not surprising to me that Ohm/Phukao and Tu/Kongkwan did not ACTUALLY have, quantifiably, a tremendous amount of screen or speaking time.

I peeped on the 10YT tag a few complaints that Phukao and Kongkwan were actually a pretty tame and not exciting couple, but I have to hand it to Fon, because -- I think she rendered these two teenage characters quite accurately. If I were studying Phukao’s and Kongkwan’s childhood stories in a social services course, I’d be amazed that the kids could even talk, considering what they experienced and witnessed by way of violence and loss. 

In other big, macro words: this show was led VERY deeply by the criss-crossed storytelling of ALL of the stories of the families of the community that was destroyed by Mai’s shooting death. The domestic hell of Phukao’s family after the shooting. Phukao terrorizing Kongkwan’s family in retaliation. Off’s character, Plu, caring for his grandparents by entering the drug running trade and lying about going to college. View’s character, Zo, growing up without a mother. A queer storyline at the parental generation. Parents abandoning their kids, then showing up again. A mafia family storyline with corrupt police mixed in. And throughout all of this, a major theme of movie storytelling bringing all of these individuals along on their life growth paths.

It’s a lot of shit, terrible adult-level trauma that children and teenagers had to face, oftentimes alone, oftentimes with parents that were barely keeping it together themselves. People die in the show, parents die in the show. Kids are left to process alone. It’s just a LOT.

And maybe one or two parts were rushed. BUT: I truly think Fon balanced the script beautifully, and I give her major credit for that. To tell a story of FOUR FAMILIES and their interconnected trauma -- and to bring the story together to unite and reunite a group of childhood friends who commit to holding each other down -- it was no wonder this series needed 16 episodes, but it didn’t drag. It paced beautifully, the storytelling was varied, and everything was done honestly, especially the very empathic queer storyline, which I won’t give away, but I’ll just say this: ASIA, we need more elder queer stories, because you do them SO WELL when it happens. It was beautifully and heartachingly done.

What was refreshing for me to watch in 10YT, as I’ve been quickly educating myself on the history of Thai BLs, was to see multiple generations of actors in a storyline. I’m (COUGH) entering my early middle-aged years, and while I love our darling actors/actresses in their 20s, I do need to watch shows with cohorts more around my age as well. 10YT gave me a drama where each episode was led by a different family or entity, and that generational variation lent major authenticity to a show that would have otherwise been lost if it had turned into a teeny-bop vehicle for Ohm and Tu.

For the screentime that Ohm and Tu *did* have -- they were FABULOUS. Ohm was GREAT, Y’ALL. Mans got such chops. Gah. My heart. His poor character got sent through the trauma ringer. Tu mostly cried for her parts, but she played a tough cookie in Kongkwan, and -- not to spoil this, but I gotta say it -- she did pursuer VERY well. Get it, gurl. Off was fantastic, and I can’t wait to catch up with him in Midnight Motel. But for my money, View absolutely ATE her role, and I want to see her have a major role in some amazing all-star drama/QL at some point.

Was 10YT as SMART, and sharp, and critical of intergenerational trauma as Bad Buddy? No, they’re incomparable, because the stories were vastly different. 10YT laid out a reality that parents can actually fail. They can really, truly fail. And even while they fail.... children may feel an unspeakable, inherent urge to still love those parents. And maybe those parents can try to redeem themselves, in some way. 

I’m realizing that what I’m loving about this modern crop of directors from GMMTV -- Aof, Jojo, and now Fon -- is that they do complicated characters VERY authentically. You, as a viewer, are almost not allowed to wallow in dualistic interpretations when trying to understand these characters. No good and bad here, unless it’s screamingly obvious. And I think that’s a really compelling ask for Asian directors to make of what is a majority Asian audience in Thailand, where filial piety towards families is the major name of the culture game.

I hope this could be considered a decent review, because I didn’t dive too much into the plot, as it really would take a huge amount of time to unwind it all, and I apologize that most of this review is just generalist meditation. But let me just say that if you have the stomach to watch a drama that depicts an Asian perspective on community interconnectivity and the trauma that those relationships bring -- then watch this show. Much of the ways in which the families HANDLED the drama in this drama reminded me of my childhood (without all the criminal and family violence, thank goodness). If you’re in an Ohm rabbithole, I’d say this is a must watch, because he was brilliant in an utterly wonderful script.