Club Friday the Series 14: Third Party (2023)

There Are Way Too Many Wheels on this Car

Only watched this for Yin Anan Wong and I have to say from last summer to this miniseries, his acting has improved a lot. I do however in the future wish he would get a role of the protagonist for a change. Not saying Rico Suave here wasn't a delight to see but I don't want him to be typecast as an antagonist before he really had any experience in mainstream entertainment. Because this miniseries is an anthology, my manner of review will be different than usual. Based on a true story usually means that while dramatization exists, the basis is real and therefore I will discuss each character as I saw them psychologically.

Mei - The original 3rd person, played the victim a lot and though I understand different cultures have their roles, she blamed way too much on karma instead of taking responsibility for her own actions. While the start of her relationship with Thiu was anything but consensual, pretty much every other thing she did on her own, had very little to do with bad karma and a lot to do with very poor decision making. She could have taken herself out of both equations at any time instead, she just dug herself a deeper hole. I was very glad that it took the car accident and her dear friend to finally make her wake up to the truth.

Thiu - Master manipulator and I have no idea how he wasn't in jail for sexual assault. If it really happened the way it was portrayed, then he got Mei drunk and forced himself on her when she essentially said no and tried to leave a few times. After that, he kept forcing himself on her even at the office, I had no idea how she felt love towards this man. Was it desperation, a weird version of Stockholm syndrome, you start to sympathize and love your attacker? His actions towards his wife were nothing short of verbal abuse. The man had zero concept of being in the wrong. I would classify him as a sociopath.

Atom - For someone who loved one night stands with random women, this walking STD still had some pride and wherewithal to take care of his own girlfriend though he was jobless. His relationship was salvageable because he and his girlfriend were both equal train wrecks. They both had vices that used other people for their own gain. He and Mei got the most out of whatever they had; they used each other and then it imploded. One could see it coming from a mile away. Would he really change? Who knows?

Khim: One loud mouth diva who made some kind of nasty masks that harmed others and considered herself an online influencer dishing out advice she had essentially no right to give. While Atom cheating on her left, right, and center wasn't a good thing, she could have just broken up with him and called it a day. Instead she turned herself and Thiu's wife into APEX predators by hounding the woman both men were seeing. One bad decision led to many others. Who really needed the confrontations, hair pulling, attacks and whatnot? It was really trashy and could have gotten her in trouble with the law had Mei decided to press charges. One of the reasons I think her and Atom would work out because they were both low class people.

Oil - While in the beginning I saw her and the baby as the only real victims in this story, her introduction to Khim, brought out a very nasty side in her. Who brings personal life to work? Even if it's an affair, get HR involved, don't show up unannounced and start a ruckus. She ended up being no less toxic then Khim. I hope for her sake, she divorces that hot mess of a husband and takes him for everything he owns, then it'll be revenge. She needs to think about her baby not threatening to throw acid on someone. That's a very harmful and unstable threat and makes Mei look like she was the only problem in that situation; when her husband started it all. Three sides to every story; his, hers, and the truth.

The miniseries was obviously very low budgeted because it seemed like actors either wore their own clothing or at least paid for it. Production used cheap locations and surroundings for places like the office or hotels. None of the places looked like real lived in homes. The car "chase" was laughable honestly, they were going no more then 20 mph while Khim swears she's flooring it. While the story itself makes sense as a cautionary tale, it's still very obvious that the Thai entertainment industry is new in comparison to others in the region. I hope for future works, they get more investors and better ones. Wish there was less screaming and yelling in each episode, definitely don't binge this unless you want a headache. This is an interesting miniseries for people studying psychology or psychopathy; you learn a lot about human nature.

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I LOVE MESS!

Is this series a masterpiece? I suppose not. But was it entertainingly messy from start to finish with a large cast of interesting characters? Absolutely! I honestly loved every aspect of this series as someone who enjoys what others might refer to as "trash," but we all know how the saying goes. One person's trash is another's treasure and this series is certainly a hidden treasure for me.

Initially, I only sought to watch it because it stars the actresses Sonya Saranphat and Lookmhee Punyapat who I became familiar with through their GL series Affair. As an LMSY fan, I wanted to watch their other works no matter the quality or significance of their roles, but instead of skipping through the series until I found their scenes I found myself captivated by this messy drama from beginning to end.

If you are looking for a drama series that just keeps hitting you across the face with characters making bad decisions and choices and upping the ante then this is the series for you! It's classic soap opera fun in a condensed miniseries format so it's far less of a commitment than longer running dramas which is great, because as much as I love intense drama, it can become frustrating if it's too overly drawn out. I think four episodes was the perfect length for this series in that it didn't have time to become stale.

Anyway, just watch the series if you like messy dramas!

The rest of this "review" will consist of me praising LM & SY for being such phenomenal actresses.

Firstly, Lookhmee was really great in this series as the only sane character. Every single character in this show is an asshole. They all behave selfishly and are stuck in unhealthy relationship patterns and love triangles. Not Lookmhee's Patty! She has an unnamed boyfriend who we never meet, because her relationship with him is that stable and committed! No time to waste on a healthy relationship in this drama! She is best friends with our main character Mei who finds herself as the "third person" in other people's relationships and Patty's straight-forward directness with Mei is extremely refreshing. Everytime Mei does or says something awful, Patty is there to call her out on it, but despite regularly disagreeing with Mei, she remains a good friend and supporter to her and she just clearly wants the best for her friend. In a sense, she's an audience surrogate who serves the role of reason in this cast of unreasonable characters. Except, as an audience of this drama, we only want characters to make good decisions at the end of the drama when it is all over, so while we are enjoying the cathartic chaos unfold, Patty is annoyed and exasperated by her friend's romantic antics which creates a really funny dynamic between the two of them.

And Sonya! Firstly, she is so fucking sexy and beautiful and I am devastated that Atom would hurt and cheat on Khim like that! How could he? Sure, she has some minor personality flaws, but nothing that can't be fixed with love and lots of attention. Unlike him, I'd happily do her dishes and laundry and never cheat on her, but alas, a committed and loving partner is not the fate for Sonya's Khim. Sonya as an antagonistic force is such a delight! I'd love for her to play an unhinged villain in the future, because she has such intense and entertaining energy. She starts a war with Mei and she is damn sure that she will win this war. Hell hath no fury like a women scorned, indeed. But beneath that outward jagged appearance, is a deeply vulnerable character. I was really impressed with how Sonya was able to create a gleefully entertaining antagonist while also evoking a sympathetic character. As a viewer, you can't help but to cheer and laugh whenever she "snaps" on the other characters—who honestly do deserve some karmic retribution for their actions—but Sonya doesn't let you forget that Khim's rage is born out of deep pain. And that culminates in an utterly heartbreaking performance in the third episode that tugs gently at those heartstrings. Between this role and her role as Pleng in Affair, Sonya seems to be really great at portraying characters who are sort of haughtily arrogant and can easily transition her facial expressions from smug triumph to shocked heartbreak in a moment! She's truly phenomenal!

And I'll take a brief moment to also compliment the other actors. Atom is a womanizer and a serial cheater, and Yin does a terrific job with portraying that lovable rogue charisma. He's an asshole, but a charming one that you both love to love and love to hate. Chippy definitely had the most difficult job of having to portray such an unlikable character in a likable, or at least sympathetic, way. And did she succeed? I think she did! Mei is not a good person and the victim complex she has developed for herself is frustrating, but the narrative does a good job of balancing her bad actions with things that aren't necessarily her fault, at least not entirely, so when she starts to behave in even worse ways ... I couldn't help but want to root for her and cheer for her to dig deeper. Golf's character Thiu is utterly unlikable from the beginning which is kind of the purpose, because I think such an unlikable character is needed to make the others seem likable and more reasonable in contrast. He has significant moments that make him seem slightly sympathetic, but ultimately he is the character that you most want to root against and Golf plays that role exceptionally well. I think Tye's character Oil is probably the most underutilized in the story which is a shame because when she had the material to work with, she really shined, but with a packed cast and script she didn't have as much to do besides argue with Gold because she suspects he's cheating. When she meets with Khim and later Mei, I felt like she had more interesting scenes and things to do in the story, but by that point the show was nearly over.

Anyway, that is my review of the show! I urge you to watch it if you like messy dramas and the synopsis intrigues you. For connoisseurs of "messy" and "trashy" dramas, you can't ask for a better bite-sized meal than this.

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