Sunday, April 05, 2020

O-Negative (the kids put on a skit)

I'm a cool cat. Do you dig me daddy-O?
Episode 2 of O-Negative (Episode 1) gets the kids to the second day at the School From Hell. Surprisingly, instead of just getting screamed at by the Senior Drill Sargents, they actually have a class. All five of them are in the same beginning drawing class which is taught by Professor Buddy, who is a hipster sort of a hepcat. He doesn't really teach them anything, just tells them to do a pencil drawing of some cubes and cones he's set up.

The kids spread out to draw. Peun makes sure he is sitting next to Foon, and Art sits next to Prim who is oblivious of him gawking at her. Meanwhile Chompoo is more or less a third wheel  as she tries, none too successfully, to get one of the boy's attention.  

Aside from Prim and Foon continuing their feud via dirty looks, the only thing we learn is that Art is apparently a great artist. Or at least Professor Buddy thinks he is, because he positively gushes over how wonderful Art's cubes and cones drawing is. This fact dully impresses Prim, so maybe there's hope for our man Art after all.

The ridiculous 'College Bus' song and dance
After lunch it is back to the Senior Drill Sargents and their hazing. Because of their fight the night before, Prim and Foon are dragged to the front of the class and told they need to cooperate to put on a performance. Sensing a chance to score points with Foon, Peun raises his hand and volunteers to help. The Senior Drill Sargents are inclined to say no, but Peun pulls the 'we're friends' card and, considering all their blithering about Unity the day before, they have to agree to Peun helping. Peun then drags Art up to help as well.

The four of them can't think of a performance, so they decide the guys will sing the 'College Bus' song and the girls will randomly dance around. Yea, it's as bad as it sounds. After about a minute of their act the Senior Drill Sargents scream at them to knock it off and tell them it is the worst performance they've ever seen. Amen to that. They're told to come back the next day and try again with a better idea.

Somehow the four of them rope the rest of the freshmen into helping. In a rare burst of believability for this show, the group brainstorms and decides to do a skit that's a mash-up of a popular TV show or movie. It is easy to believe that college freshmen would actually do that. They all then get busy learning their lines and making props and so forth.

The next day, when they show up to hazing to do their skit they discover that Art isn't there. Naturally the Senior Drill Sargents blow a gasket over this and, after a lecture about friendship, it is back to the boys doing pushups while the girls have to hunch over in their weird squat. The kids are told in no uncertain terms that without Art there will by no skit, and with no skit there will be nothing but misery.

We cut to Prim, Foon, Chompoo and Peun trying to talk Art into doing the skit. His excuse for not being at hazing is that he has a part-time job. Really Art, you're tossing Unity overboard for a bit of filthy lucre? Have you no shame?

After getting badgered for a bit Art finally snaps and more or less tells them if they're stupid enough to do the hazing that is their problem, not his. This insult gets Foon upset, so she slaps him. In a pretty shocking scene Art responds by slapping her back. In fact he slaps Foon so hard she staggers and nearly falls to the ground.

"Ve haf vays of making you talk..."
When Art is next seen he is in the Senior Drill Sargents' interrogation chamber. It is dark, except for a slide projector shining the word 'FREE' on him. Needless to say, his inquisitors are not happy with him smacking a coed around.

Meanwhile in another room a pissed off Foon is sitting, with a red mark on the side of her face from Art's slap. Peun is trying to calm her down and talk her into helping to get his friend Art out of the jam he's in. Prim is having none of it and Chompoo is blubbering her eyes out, but Peun gradually wears Foon down with his appeals.

We cut to Art still standing in the interrogation room. Foon walks up next to him. She takes responsibility for the fight by saying she started it by slapping Art first and asks them not to punish Art. The Senior Drill Sargents are not impressed, pointing out that regardless, guys slapping women around is frowned upon. She hoists them on their Unity Petard by saying Art is her friend and so Art gets off with just a warning.

Emotions run amuck in Champoo's cranium
The next afternoon we finally get to the skit. It is a parody of Pixar's Inside Out. Chompoo is viewed through a set that looks like a TV. She is crying and going on about how sad she is that she has to go to the hazing. In her cranium's control room Foon is the Sad emotion and Prim is the Happy one. Happy reprimands Sad and goes to the keyboard and types away. Chompoo immediately cheers up and then babbles some kiss-ass claptrap about how wonderful the Senior Drill Sargents are.

Art enters last, comforts Chompoo a bit and ends his speech by telling her when hazing is over he's going to rip the moustaches off the Senior Drill Sargents. The male Seniors aren't amused, but the Female Seniors get a yuck out of that. At any rate they pass, only to be told that they now have to shed blood. This is just a Senior Drill Sargent joke though, because what it really means is the five of them have to go and donate blood.

On a ferry on the way back from the blood donation they check their slips and realize they all have  type O blood. Chompoo suggests they name their group the O Group. Art, ever the rebel, scoffs at this and points out O is the most common blood type and probably everybody else on the ferry shares it. However, in the end he agrees to the group's name and there are smiles all around.

I'll end with the Thai teaser for the show. You'll recognize many of the scenes. As for me, I'm looking forward to the scene where they're on the beach dressed as bushes. Before watching it be sure to get your box of tissues ready, because all the angst, heartbreak, drama and scenery chewing teased in it will likely get you blubbering worse than Chompoo does at the drop of a hat.

[Episodse 3]


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