Starting with “Cruel Intentions” vibes, we are introduced to siblings through marriage, Tim and Giwi. Giwi’s mother was the owner of a gentlemen’s club that is connected to the main drama, Tim’s father is on the verge of death and after he passes a fight starts over a holiday house that means a lot to Tim, but was given to Giwi who is not willing to give it back to him at least he helps her in her plan to marry a politician’s son who is in a long term and apparently perfect relationship with Eve who is the owner of a clothing line named “All About Eve”.

Unfortunately for “The Player” what could be a great revenge plot story crumbles with an unpolished script and a message that falls short.

Miriam’s character is extremely important for the story, her choices move the plot, her disappearance start off the drama, she is supposed to be an intriguing yet flawed character, an anti hero of sorts, but in the end a lot of her choices don’t really make a lot of sense and don’t seem to directly impact her enemies as much as it makes people that care for her and would be willing to help suffer.

It’s a very convoluted and unsatisfying revenge plot. I could not root for Miriam, because she was too bitter and victimized. She couldn’t admit her faults without being cuddled by other characters reaffirming that she really did have a hard time and everyone else was mean. I much enjoyed Giwi’s character arc and motivation. Namtan was perfect in the role, in my opinion she gave too much more than the story deserved.

Matt was such a hard character to read, I wasn’t really sure if I should or not root for him, but the story was very forgiving with him, Mek gave a good performance and had a good arc only sabotaged by Foei limited acting skills. The story is very female driven, women are at the center of everything and the men are tools used to move things (and bodies) around. I thought Inspector Tin was such a pathetic character, his love for Miriam guided all his actions and errors, he was the most miserable of them all, losing just to Dan. Mickey ended up being the wild-card and I was surprised by Drake’s performance, the script wasn’t giving him much, but when it did he delivered. Pitch’s mother is the ultimate self-sacrifice and the one who gets shit done, she and Giwi were going at the same speed from opposite directions and to watch them clash made it worth watching.

Maybe too long, but mostly enjoyable. The performances cover where the script lacks, most of it.