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A True Fish In The Sky
My initial impression going into this drama was that it was going to be a fun, lighthearted romantic comedy. The characters seemed promising as did the story. But it very quickly imploded and what was left was a drama with a problematic romance, very little genuine comedy, disappointing characters and a story that was an utter disaster. Top that off with poor acting, a mediocre OST, terrible pacing, and unnecessary drama and as a whole it just was not worth my time to watch.
The story is a mess. It's not told well and the more you watch, the worse it gets. And it started off relatively promising. I liked the idea of Pi as something of an ugly duckling, unpopular, clearly deeply insecure, someone that was easy for others to take advantage of. And I liked the idea of Mork who loved him unconditionally, regardless of his looks. It seemed like a set up for a sweet story. Except that Pi likes Mork's best friend and thought Mork was his love rival and his animosity towards Mork because of this goes on for far too long. It's clear that he's fallen for Mork, but he keeps resisting and resisting, and eventually it just gets boring because nothing is happening or changing. It also didn't make sense that Pi can't believe that Mork would like him and he keeps pushing him away because he's afraid that he'll be affected by his lack of popularity, and yet, he confesses to Nan, so would none of that be an issue if Nan reciprocated his feelings?
As the drama progresses, it becomes more and more obvious that Pi is a selfish, bitter person. He becomes very difficult to like because he's generally just a jerk a lot of the time. And Mork, for all that he professes to love Pi, not only essentially stalks him and manipulates him, but also clearly doesn't respect him. Pi asks him to stop doing various things numerous times and Mork just keeps doing what he wants to do. Getting Pi is clearly more important to him than respecting his boundaries, thoughts, opinions and feelings. Furthermore, their relationship just felt uneven with Mork constantly giving and Pi constantly taking. Mork, despite his flaws, was always there for Pi and Pi would take advantage of that care and then push Mork away the second he didn't need him any longer.
The second couple is better. The progression of their relationship is smoother and more believable over all. They seem to be on more equal footing and have more of a mutual respect for each other. And when Duean does disregard Meen's boundaries, once he realizes it, he reflects on it and then he apologizes. Kind of ironic that the most immature guy in the show is the one who is the most self-aware, at least in that aspect. However, I did struggle with understanding why exactly Meen liked Duean. They were such polar opposites, and while we got to see Duean's feelings develop through his eyes, we didn't get that same benefit with Meen. Duean, with his juvenile antics, disinterest in school, and general attitude just did not seem like the type of person that would catch Meen's attention.
To top it all off, we had Prik and Kluea as the crazy fans. I know they were supposed to be there for more comedy, but I just found them creepy. How do you not realize that stalking people and secretly taking their pictures and posting them without their consent is a huge no-no? I wanted to like Prik initially because she did delete the fan page and seemed to realize that what they had done was wrong, but I was very disappointed when she gave in to Kluea so easily when he wanted to start it back up. Like seriously, girl, likes and views are more important than someone's privacy? I kept hoping that they would learn their lesson and realize that what they were doing was not okay, but then at the end we have them shipping a new couple so clearly they learned nothing. And then there was Bam. For all that these networks have to know that women are probably their primary audience when it comes to BLs, they love to vilify women in them. This drama had a grand total of two women with any kind of real roles, aside from Pi's mother, and I was really hoping that Bam would be a positive one. And at first it seemed like she was. She came across as the supportive friend, determined to help Mork and then, once he and Pi got together, helping to disguise their relationship. It was disappointing when that all turned out to be a lie and she actually wanted Mork to herself. I am glad that she apologized to Pi, but there were no consequences for her actions. Mork seems to have forgiven her, Pi immediately forgives her and acts like it wasn't a big deal and she gets a new guy right after. Basically, if there's a theme to this drama, its that your actions don't have consequences, everything will turn out sunshine and rainbows no matter what.
The pacing is horrifically slow in large part because everything is so incredibly repetitive. It just feels like there is no progression in the story really for the first nine or ten episodes and then suddenly we're blazing towards the finish because we have to try to wrap everything up. I hate that so many Thai dramas do that. I truly don't understand why it is so hard to write a script that has a measured pace.
The acting was underwhelming to say the least. I've seen both Pond and Phuwin in a few things now and I have officially come to the conclusion that they are pretty faces and that's about it, Pond in particular. The man is just so one note. There is no depth of emotion, no feeling to his expressions or his voice. I recently saw him and Phuwin in Never Let Me Go and frankly, there's not that much difference in their acting between this drama and that one despite the fact that they are totally different characters. Phuwin has the opposite problem from Pond and tends to overact more, but there's a repetitiveness to the way he overacts. In both cases, they just get boring to watch. Their chemistry is negligible and what there is comes across as more buddy than romantic. Normally I like Neo. He's a good actor and he has range, but he was so over the top here that I found him more annoying than endearing. The comedy felt forced a lot of the time. I blame the director for that though, not him. And despite everything, he did have some genuinely funny moments. Louis had the strongest performance. Like Neo, he's a good actor with range, and I felt he did a good job in his role. He and Neo have great chemistry and I would love to see them together as leads in their own drama.
The few positives I have are that I do like the title. I'd never heard that phrase used before and I found it unique, sad, and beautiful. I also liked the subtle touches that went along with the title. Things like the star pillow on Pi's bed, the way he kept Nan's picture in the slats above his bed like a star, the clips that Pi and Duean had, the fish keychains Duean has, and the conch shaped light fixture at Mork's house to name a few. I also liked that when Pi and Mork were having their conversations, the lighting turned blue and you could hear the sound of waves. To me it signified that they were supposed to be a match because ultimately, they were both fish in the sea and were within reach of each other.
This could have been a good drama. With a better script and better characters who were actually developed and grew with the story, it could have been. Instead, what we got was something mediocre and even that's being generous. It tried so hard to be funny and so many of the jokes just fell flat or were just unnecessary. And the main romance was just toxic and unnecessarily dragged out. All that being said, this isn't a drama I can recommend. There are others out there that are far superior and actually worth your time.
The story is a mess. It's not told well and the more you watch, the worse it gets. And it started off relatively promising. I liked the idea of Pi as something of an ugly duckling, unpopular, clearly deeply insecure, someone that was easy for others to take advantage of. And I liked the idea of Mork who loved him unconditionally, regardless of his looks. It seemed like a set up for a sweet story. Except that Pi likes Mork's best friend and thought Mork was his love rival and his animosity towards Mork because of this goes on for far too long. It's clear that he's fallen for Mork, but he keeps resisting and resisting, and eventually it just gets boring because nothing is happening or changing. It also didn't make sense that Pi can't believe that Mork would like him and he keeps pushing him away because he's afraid that he'll be affected by his lack of popularity, and yet, he confesses to Nan, so would none of that be an issue if Nan reciprocated his feelings?
As the drama progresses, it becomes more and more obvious that Pi is a selfish, bitter person. He becomes very difficult to like because he's generally just a jerk a lot of the time. And Mork, for all that he professes to love Pi, not only essentially stalks him and manipulates him, but also clearly doesn't respect him. Pi asks him to stop doing various things numerous times and Mork just keeps doing what he wants to do. Getting Pi is clearly more important to him than respecting his boundaries, thoughts, opinions and feelings. Furthermore, their relationship just felt uneven with Mork constantly giving and Pi constantly taking. Mork, despite his flaws, was always there for Pi and Pi would take advantage of that care and then push Mork away the second he didn't need him any longer.
The second couple is better. The progression of their relationship is smoother and more believable over all. They seem to be on more equal footing and have more of a mutual respect for each other. And when Duean does disregard Meen's boundaries, once he realizes it, he reflects on it and then he apologizes. Kind of ironic that the most immature guy in the show is the one who is the most self-aware, at least in that aspect. However, I did struggle with understanding why exactly Meen liked Duean. They were such polar opposites, and while we got to see Duean's feelings develop through his eyes, we didn't get that same benefit with Meen. Duean, with his juvenile antics, disinterest in school, and general attitude just did not seem like the type of person that would catch Meen's attention.
To top it all off, we had Prik and Kluea as the crazy fans. I know they were supposed to be there for more comedy, but I just found them creepy. How do you not realize that stalking people and secretly taking their pictures and posting them without their consent is a huge no-no? I wanted to like Prik initially because she did delete the fan page and seemed to realize that what they had done was wrong, but I was very disappointed when she gave in to Kluea so easily when he wanted to start it back up. Like seriously, girl, likes and views are more important than someone's privacy? I kept hoping that they would learn their lesson and realize that what they were doing was not okay, but then at the end we have them shipping a new couple so clearly they learned nothing. And then there was Bam. For all that these networks have to know that women are probably their primary audience when it comes to BLs, they love to vilify women in them. This drama had a grand total of two women with any kind of real roles, aside from Pi's mother, and I was really hoping that Bam would be a positive one. And at first it seemed like she was. She came across as the supportive friend, determined to help Mork and then, once he and Pi got together, helping to disguise their relationship. It was disappointing when that all turned out to be a lie and she actually wanted Mork to herself. I am glad that she apologized to Pi, but there were no consequences for her actions. Mork seems to have forgiven her, Pi immediately forgives her and acts like it wasn't a big deal and she gets a new guy right after. Basically, if there's a theme to this drama, its that your actions don't have consequences, everything will turn out sunshine and rainbows no matter what.
The pacing is horrifically slow in large part because everything is so incredibly repetitive. It just feels like there is no progression in the story really for the first nine or ten episodes and then suddenly we're blazing towards the finish because we have to try to wrap everything up. I hate that so many Thai dramas do that. I truly don't understand why it is so hard to write a script that has a measured pace.
The acting was underwhelming to say the least. I've seen both Pond and Phuwin in a few things now and I have officially come to the conclusion that they are pretty faces and that's about it, Pond in particular. The man is just so one note. There is no depth of emotion, no feeling to his expressions or his voice. I recently saw him and Phuwin in Never Let Me Go and frankly, there's not that much difference in their acting between this drama and that one despite the fact that they are totally different characters. Phuwin has the opposite problem from Pond and tends to overact more, but there's a repetitiveness to the way he overacts. In both cases, they just get boring to watch. Their chemistry is negligible and what there is comes across as more buddy than romantic. Normally I like Neo. He's a good actor and he has range, but he was so over the top here that I found him more annoying than endearing. The comedy felt forced a lot of the time. I blame the director for that though, not him. And despite everything, he did have some genuinely funny moments. Louis had the strongest performance. Like Neo, he's a good actor with range, and I felt he did a good job in his role. He and Neo have great chemistry and I would love to see them together as leads in their own drama.
The few positives I have are that I do like the title. I'd never heard that phrase used before and I found it unique, sad, and beautiful. I also liked the subtle touches that went along with the title. Things like the star pillow on Pi's bed, the way he kept Nan's picture in the slats above his bed like a star, the clips that Pi and Duean had, the fish keychains Duean has, and the conch shaped light fixture at Mork's house to name a few. I also liked that when Pi and Mork were having their conversations, the lighting turned blue and you could hear the sound of waves. To me it signified that they were supposed to be a match because ultimately, they were both fish in the sea and were within reach of each other.
This could have been a good drama. With a better script and better characters who were actually developed and grew with the story, it could have been. Instead, what we got was something mediocre and even that's being generous. It tried so hard to be funny and so many of the jokes just fell flat or were just unnecessary. And the main romance was just toxic and unnecessarily dragged out. All that being said, this isn't a drama I can recommend. There are others out there that are far superior and actually worth your time.
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