“My Boy The Series” appears on the web with minimal fanfare from advertisers, with only one trailer coming mere months before they start airing.
With the original premise of two lovers breaking up just as the school year begins, it has the ingredients to be good or bad. With new original actors, a strong storyline backed by LineTv, the show was launched mid-season with a small but loyal fan base.
Starring newcomer Pakoo Athiwat as Nut the and Tawan Kanachot as his love interest Satha, The drama opens with a passion fueled well acted love scene between Nut and his unnamed ex-boyfriend. You’d think that with such a strong start the tone for the series would be set; but once the break-up happens the series goes off the rails. With most new shows having weak pilot episodes, I have learned to reserve my judgement til the third. So, this review will cover the first two episodes of the series.
The maturity of the love scene is lost in the first episode, as the series transcends into an almost “Lovesick” level of character mentality; which would be fine if this was a show about high schoolers. But this is a show about university students, so it was jarring to experience the abrupt change in mood. Even the camera work which was tight and smartly calculated for the love scene as well as the break-up scene becomes spotty throughout the first episode.
For example, Satha arrives at school in slow motion with the lights illuminating his features (even though it’s broad daylight). Girls faun over his good looks, while Nut reads his book pretending he doesn’t notice Satha trying vainly to get his attention by sitting at the same table. The subtitles for this series are terrible (I mean no disrespect to the subbers as it is hard work), but the misspelling and wrong tenses make me wonder if I am getting an accurate representation of what is being said.
The side characters for the most part have no real ties to either men. The two boys seated beside Satha are supposedly the actual side characters. Soon two new girls Alice and Cookie appear onscreen and the scene focuses on one of the three boys crushing on one of the them. While the other girl looks annoyed, because no one notices her. This had me scratching my head about the relevance of this scene. The subtitles make it seem like Satha isn’t paying attention to anything his friend is saying. By the time the scenes switch to the photo club, their random jokes about Northen Thai dialect being confusing to the more standard Thai-speaking people seem irrelevant; the actors have very little facial reactions to each other and the jokes fall flat.
This is followed by the introduction scene where they should have focused on the still pouting Nut and Satha who is staring at him in anger and confusion. Here the series suffers because the subtitles exhibit sexual themes, but there is a general lack of understanding as to why the two mains are the way they are. Their relationship is in the dark, while we have certain characters looking at them knowingly. At this note, the episode ends.
The second episode continues by recapping the introduction scene for the first six or so minutes. Adding to Satha’s ire is the photo journalist senior of the club, who doesn’t speak much. The introduction turns aggressive as Nut and Satha become peer mentees (Satha is given the role of helping Nut). Now here the writing falters as a classmate with a crush on Satha tries to imply that things might not work between these two and it becomes hugely “Personal”. It’s confusing to interpret the hidden meaning behind his words, but Satha gets really mad. But at whom? The camera angles are so inaccurate that we will never know. The episode continues in much of the same vein, where we see Satha lie to his friends about why Nut angers him. As well as Satha stating that wants to understand the freshman. Which would be great if it didn’t conflict with their earlier statements that Nut is a junior because five minutes later he turns into a freshman.
It is the later scenes where I lost my interest for this series. Both of them meet again, but they talk to each other like they seriously have an issue with one another. Instead, they talk as if they have girlfriends and how they should conduct themselves in their relationships. What really confuses me is thar they don’t know one another. So why are they having this conversation?
The episode moves on to Satha at the club, where he drinking his anger away. When Alice arrives with Cookie, in an instant he is a much happier man. Alice’s entry is highlighted in manner similar to that of Satha’s, it makes me wonder which character is more important. As Satha and his girl talk, a mysterious breeze blows her hair back from her shapely body and I seriously wonder who thought this was a great idea. Yes, highlighting how attractive the character looks, is an eye-catching tactic. But you also have to make it believable, not unrealistic. Alice’s lines are so badly subbed, that the entire scene is messed.
The final moments of the episode feature Satha going home with a guy instead of Alice. This is supposed to be a comedic moment, but instead had me cringing. Overall, this episode felt like filler on top of filler with little continuity; which would be fine if that’s what this series was about. But it’s not, so watching the first two episodes makes me wonder about the original intend of this series. The acting isn’t terrible but the harsh lighting, bad subtitles, and lack of connectivity between scenes makes it a downer for me.
Rating-1 out of 5
The BL Xpress 