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  • Awards Received: Flower Award1

Theophilus Silas

Theophilus Silas

KinnPorsche thai drama review
Ongoing 14/14
KinnPorsche
193 people found this review helpful
by Theophilus Silas Flower Award1
Apr 23, 2022
14 of 14 episodes seen
Ongoing 26
Overall 7.5
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 8.5
Rewatch Value 7.0

IT'S A GOOD SERIES, NOT PERFECT BUT ACCEPTABLE

This is one review that I have absolutely looked forward to writing, I mean I have read the novel and they have been teasing us with this show for two years, so how could I not be looking forward to this. But my reviews have eight areas:
1. Introduction
2. General Review, Themes, Specific Issues
3. Story arc and Storylines
4. Characters and Casting
5. Acting
6. Misses
7. Production
8. Rewatch Value

Introduction
You do not know how long we have waited for more adult themed BLs something happening outside just a university something more intense and that's KinnPorsche. I mean this show makes a lot of promises and so far, it has delivered so well on most promises, they promised to be different, the series promised to be interesting, it promised to be great, and I mean it is giving me a lot of the things I want in a series. it is making me laugh, it is making me happy, it is making me feel towards the character, it is just giving me joy, it has also disappointed and failed in others, but it is all fine. Of course, the theme of this series is a mafia family, but more specifically the son of the mafia and a person that becomes his bodyguard right and the love that kind of develops there. it is easy going it is funny without necessarily losing its seriousness, it has great production, its budget is obviously present because everything is so top notch. so, I absolutely love this.
Now, I won't lie and say this BL is a 100% in all areas because there are certain places where you genuinely need to put your logic aside to appreciate it but on an overall, I give it a pass because of what the series does in so many other areas and what is successfully achieves.

General Review
OK on general this series is beautiful
1. I love how lighthearted this series can be, but at the same time it does not take away from the overall seriousness and danger that is each character faces. we see that it's definitely going to handle very serious issues for example Porsche and Che family story, the things that have messed up Khun and Kim, and so many other societal issues that are very important to address but at the same time they give me comedy they make me laugh, which I think is one of the best things that is series can do because while it's important to have those moments of serious discussions those moments of going into real issues, it's also important for the viewer to get moments of Comic Relief.

2. I also think another thing that is important is the idea that it shows that even though you are born into the mafia you are not born without a heart when you leave in a condition long enough you get desensitized to it. Were Kinn and Vegas the perfect men? HELL NO, if anything Vegas deserves therapy and jail, and Kinn deserves a year or two in prison as well for his actions because a bad environment doesn't excuse the shitty actions that have been done, it just makes me understand the perspective from which the character is coming from and I must say that Kinn and Vegas are fighters. I respect Kinn because of the pressures he must face to survive in the mafia but somehow Vegas' story really made me feel bad for him in episode 12 and 13, and this is coming from me, a person who disliked Vegas as a character.


3. Observable Themes and Issues that can be picked from the series.

ABUSE - This is such an ever-present topic in this series and I know our fandom loves to justify the existence with the fact that it's a mafia series but what most people don't tend to understand or appreciate is that, we can accept the presence of it in the series while acknowledging that it is a form of abuse which in regular society should not exist.
Meaning = In the series, it is all right, in real life, it is unbelievably bad
But presence of abuse we see, Kinn and Porsche first time together, no matter how much we want to use the fact that he resisted Vegas and accepted Kinn, it doesn't change the fact that morally it was wrong for Kinn to take advantage of Porsche and we saw the clear after effects on Porsche and Kinn accepting several times after it was wrong. Another form of abuse is obviously Kan and Vegas asides physical abuse, we have the emotional abuse, it was so deep and psychological and Vegas always saw it as regular and this speaks volumes about how so many victims of abuse don't see anything wrong with the abuse they suffer (Note: I won't lie I was happy every time Kan slapped Vegas, it was like Kan was manifesting all the slaps I wish I could give Vegas for what he did to Pete amongst others).
Obviously, there was Vegas torture of Pete which I just absolutely hated; I will not write any further on that.

a. Social Pressures and Mental Health: Mental Health is a theme that stood out to me in this series from Vegas and Kinn and the specific set of social pressures that they faced especially with regards to the families they were born into. On Vegas' side we see what it is like to have, not just a physically abusive parent but a parent who constantly and consistently degrades their child, we see the inferiority complex that Vegas' suffers from and it is so bad and crippling that it puts him in constant with the main family trying to prove himself and worth. On Kinn's side we see the cost of having to give up your dreams and having to live a life you would rather not, I mean overall Kinn is one depressed guy without realizing it. So, I love that about the novel and series, how they can acknowledge these aspects of their characters making them that much more complex.

b. Getting married to the wrong person: Now, not a lot of people would have picked up on this but from Kan's character and his hostility to his Kids and the way he always insults Vegas, this is why you always make sure you don't end up with the wrong person, for your sake and the sake of your kids, so your parents don't get stuck with a shitty life because their parents couldn't use their head to think and just avoid getting married. Now where Kan was in love with Nampueng, to the extent he could kill someone else for her, he had no business being married to someone else and it reflects in how badly he treats Macau and Vegas.

c. Manipulation and playing with people's feelings: I intentionally did not say led on, because I feel Chay was not led by Kim, but he was manipulated. I hated how much their entire relationship was premised on what Kim needed, like it was really when Kim needed something and, on his terms, and we see the impact it has on Chay after the fact, like it is reflective of what happens with so many persons in reality especially dealing with someone who is emotionally vulnerable. Kim as a character just rubbed me wrong.

d. Value of relationships: Now this was something that particularly stood out to me in one place, I love Porsche but he was not the best brother or friend in certain instances, I mean I wasn't expecting him to be a hundred percent in all angles but there are places where I felt kind of disappointed in his decisions. An example of this was his agreement to bring Pete within Vegas' axis, I mean if he says he knows Vegas did what he did, there is absolutely nothing that would make me bring you into proximity of my friend. This action is paralleled against Pete willing to sacrifice himself to prove Porsche's innocence, I mean it just showed me a difference in valuation of their relationship. This is sadly representative of the reality of life that often people do not appreciate or value things as well as they should.

Any ways, I should end this segment here, so I am not going on and on


Story Arcs
All right so one of the story arcs we have here obviously is the story up of Kinn and Porsche falling in love, which is the main storyline, I think we will also have all trials and tribulations that they would have to face but we have several that are explored:

1. Kinn learning to love and be loved again after being previously hurt
2. Porsche experiencing a relationship that was all consuming
3. Vegas learning how love himself and also how to love and appreciate others as well (the only thing that bothers me in this story arc was the fact I am worried that Vegas might still not have a true sense of self-worth that is tied to his own independent value i.e. his value is lowkey reliant on Pete, hence his desperation for Pete, it's almost a miserable existence, so I don't know if the self-love aspect of this was fully executed well especially if the end goal was for Vegas to discover a new sense of identity. But I must note that because this is not the end of the series, they have said there would)
4. Pete's story arc covered how we can be broken, have our smile and light taken away from us, when we go to the lowest of the low and how often we do not deal with that so well especially after Vegas abused him.
5. Kim had no arc
6. Chay's arc was more of the naive first love, first crush and first heartbreak and how devastating those often tend to be for us.

Now for the storyline and Pacing of the storyline, there were places that I feel like they could have done better. An example is VegasPete storyline, in as much as I did not like VegasPete as a couple or the story arc I knew that would come with them, I feel if they were introduced earlier in the series i.e. an episode 8 instead of an episode 10, their relationship development in this season may have been more substantive. Another thing I was not a fan of in the story was how easy Porsche's character was made and it was such a diversion from how he was earlier introduced. They tried to manage way too many stories and it became a problem for them
But on an overall, I would give them praise for their handling of most parts of the storyline


Characters and Casting

Kinn, the Playboy mafia who surprisingly is openly gay, he has always been serious, he knows he going to inherit the family, so he has never had the time for excessive play. what is the same time we see a level of softness to him, and this is best portrayed by some of his reactions to Porsche? this better portrayed with how he first told his father and brother he loves Porsche as well as the entirety of episode eight. Now Kinn as a character is not the greatest, he is flawed, flawed in fact but what makes it eventually better is that he recognizes this, accepts it, and strives to be better in most instances. So, while I am not saying all his actions can be excused but I think as a character he is acceptable. Also casting Mile as Kinn somehow feels perfect, he embodies the essence of Kinn which was vital to the overall cohesiveness of the character

Porsche is an absolute idiot with zero survival skills or zero survival instincts, like a lot of times I worry for him, I am just like boy shut up. he is such a comedic relief and such a wild character; I absolutely love his character I mean. I think behind all the wildness we see this side of Porsche, where he must put on this happy face so hide all this stress and trauma that he has been through, and we get the first candid of his character when he is drunk with Kinn. When he admits to the struggles both having to care for himself and his brother this gives this level of understanding to why he acts the way he does, he has had to be a parent from when he was young. So, I absolutely love Porsche, Porsche is simple and forgiving, he cares deeply for those he cares for, even though he does not always make the best choice. Apo's casting was also good because he is just as wild as Porsche

Tankhun, our resident fashion icon and psychopath. I mean even in the novel I loved Tankhun but in the series is a breath of fresh air, I love how much he adds to a scene, he is easily my favorite character. Tankhun is the smartest Theerapanyakul brother, he is always so spot on in his analysis, that I am convinced he pretends to be insane to avoid duties. Tongs casting as Tankhun was fine because her embodied the character well

Pete as a character was also another beautiful character I loved, because of how foolish he could be and his beautiful smile and his impressive heart. I mean how this man legit believed Porsche was blocking punches with his neck has me worried, but I chose to interpret that as Pete's pureness, also he just had a really beautiful smile and his willingness to go into minor territory family just to prove Porsche was innocent of being the mole is everything you need to know of Pete as a character. Honestly seeing him break down after the abuse suffered afterwards absolutely broke my heart. On the casting of Pete, Build was a wonderful choice irrespective of all the baggage he came with. I am your Pet turned me off

Vegas as a character was a lot, but I must say, his English always made me question my life and morals potentially, because I know I hated this man but somehow every time he spoke English, my brain went back to factory settings, nah Bible as Vegas was near perfect but honestly Vegas the character was a vile and flawed, he gave me the creeps, which speaks volumes to Bible's casting. Perfect ending with Pete and Macau

I was originally skeptical of Barcode as Chay, but I must say that he did a fantastic job in embodying what Chay was meant to be, young, naive and in love. I absolutely loved when he blocked Kim

Kim, we do not talk about Kim in this house.


Acting
Acting was great on an overall bases, Apo did well in carrying the complex emotions of Porsche and Bible did exceptionally well as Vegas, personally they were the best actors of the series, I might rank Bible slightly higher than Apo but its close. Barcode as Chay was really good as well, especially where he broke down after Kim left him, also Kinn was good as well, I wouldn't say as good as Apo and Bible but the entire bathroom scene (I am not talking about the sex), but the part when he came in angry and smacked Vegas and shouted, I had chills, also his apologies always felt sincere, so there was that.

Misses
While I won't go on listing a ton of misses, one that particularly got to me was what they did with Porsche's character in specific aspects of his development, it's almost like they forgot that they gave him some traits, on an overall it didn't reduce from the character's purpose but it sure gave me a frown in certain places, an example being how easy he gave into Kinn, I was like at least give him a spine. Anyways here are other misses

1. What was the point of Kim's entire investigation? Like they made the investigation to be this huge thing that we should all be intrigued about and yes, for sure they piqued my interest. I was interested in what was going to happen. What would he discover? How would he use that information in the series to affect the dynamics of character interactions, when would he unveil the information? So many expectations from that arena and it just fell flat. Like he found out his father covered up Nampueng and her husband's death and he did nothing with it, he just went back to regular programing. Like what was the purpose of the investigation then? Why the stress over it?

2. Kinn and Porsche relationship/Tawan's return - The idea that KinnPorsche was the healthiest relationship in the series bothers me because they have three key issues; a. their communication is absolute shit, b. the trust is absolute nonsense, c. the starts of everything and this reflects in the Tawan situation. One thing I never understood is why no one ever questioned why and how Tawan was still alive, like he said he has been hiding with the Italians, but like everyone just accepted that he was alive like it was just another business day. which eventually of things, it does not really affect the series, but it was just a miss for me

3. None of their relationships were particularly the healthiest especially how they began. I mean overall of things; I know we like to say this is the mafia and all the other excuses that allows us to shove down our morals and principles while trying to enjoy some media content. But one thing that I did not particularly fancy in this series is the fact that none of their relationships started properly on healthy basis, we had the borderline rape/sexual assault of Kinn (note: I said borderline because legally in Thailand, it is not rape or sexual assault apparently), we had the very abusive abduction of Pete by Vegas and we have Kim lying to and manipulating Chay for his own purposes. Like none of these are particularly healthy and the idea that the storyline always had them falling in love with their abuser, I mean I understand this is meant to be a Mafia fic but honestly there are still somethings that are not so easy to stomach, this was one of those situations.

4. I did not like the Big and Ken endings, because it made no sense, like they did not even try to give a proper motivation for why Ken would betray the main family, just expected the viewer to accept it as given.

5. The explosion budget, LMAO, I was like, did they run out of budget in episode ten?

Production
I do not think I need to say a lot on production, but I will, the budget of this and the dedication of crews to produce a good show was beautiful, watching the behind the scenes and all the effort put in was great. Another thing I loved was the cinematographic shots, like they had angles and views in this production, I am absolutely impressed (but there was episode ten and their explosions, hahaha)

Rewatch Value
Oh, I would rewatch this, it is a good drama and a breath of fresh air in the BL industry
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