O-Negative (it's open season on interns)

Once again Peun demonstrates his obnoxious lack of consideration

Episode 20 of the Thai TV show O-Negative (Episode 19) starts with Foon eagerly awaiting Prim's arrival to her house. Prim, who's mother died, is going to be living with Foon's family. When Prim gets out of the cab Foon is surprised to see Peun get out as well. She chides Prim for turning down her offer of help to ask Peun for help instead. Prim tells her she was surprised by Peun's coming to help her move.

Naturally Foon isn't happy to see him with Prim. Peun adding unwanted awkwardness to Prim's move to Foon's house is a nutshell study of what a self-centered nitwit he is so often. He rarely thinks anything through.

When they enter the house Foon's parents graciously welcome her. They have a banner hung for her arrival and Nian, their maid, brings her a fancy looking welcome drink. They take several group photos commemorating the day.

Wide open? I think that's normally called a smile

That night, when Prim and Foon are in bed and ready to go to sleep, Prim posts one of the group pictures from earlier to her Instagram. In Asian dramas it is not unusual for female friends to sleep in the same bed. In fact, considering Asian romcom's love of whacky cohabitation scenarios, it is not unusual for men and women to have to share the same bedroom for some contrived reason or another.

They're chit-chatting before going to sleep when Foon's phone rings. It is a call from Ong-art, but Foon doesn't answer it. Bear in in mind they've supposedly been the best of friends for three years. Prim gets around to asking Foon if likes Ong-art, and she says not really. That leads to both of them talking about boys for what is apparently the first time. Peun is really using the conversation to gauge if Prim likes Peun. It is a pretty unbelievable they've never had talks like this before.

Artist's rendition of Wax upon first seeing Foon

The next day we see Peun and Foon going to their intern job with some artsy-fartsy looking film makers. The director is Wax. He's very brief and matter-of-fact with the interns as they introduce themselves until it comes to Foon. He gives her a long look, and then asks her a series of questions and ends by telling her she is pretty.

The meeting proceeds and then Foon and Peun's phones beep from an incoming message from Chompoo. Ignoring Foon's beeping phone, Wax glares at Peun and tells the interns to turn their phones off.

Chompoo has also been messaging Art who is waiting for Kwan. Before long Kwan arrives, She has Art help her take some film into a darkroom. This is mainly to set up her telling him that her studio is going to have an exhibition called City of Light, which will feature photos of Bangkok at night. Kwan invites Art to enter the exhibition.

There is also a scene at the end where, because her hair has been hanging in her face, she asks Art to clip it back. This is another Asian trope. I don't know if this is accurate, but I've read that a lot of the goofier Asian tropes -- tying a girl's hair back, girls endlessly stumbling into guys, drunken piggy back rides, dramatic wrists grabs and so forth -- are because normally Asian men and women don't get so close to each other. These tropes are ways to get them to touch each other. Art is certainly shy as he pins her hair back, and it is filmed to show their faces very close.  

Chompoo messages him as soon as he gets out of the darkroom. She's bored because she has nothing to do. Frankly, that seems like just the sort of internship that a slug like Chompoo would like. Anyway, Art wonders how Prim is doing so Chompoo goes to find out.

Kit's subtle flirting technique

Prim has been working on a drawing of a terrace. Kit comes up to her, gets close and looks over her shoulder at her drawing. He says it is beautiful and then clarifies he means her, not the drawing. Prim looks uncomfortable and tries to ignore his ham-fisted flirting. To his credit, after that he does give her constructive criticism over her work, and suggests ways to improve the layout.

However, he soon goes back to flirting with a corny line about how a good design enhances the interior of a building just like a pretty girl does to a man's heart. Chompoo has walked up during that line and she is duly impressed by that line of schmaltzy BS.

She immediately jumps onto group chat to tell everybody about Kit, a.k.a. the cute guy, who's wildly flirting with Prim. Needless to say this works up both Art and Peun and they ask for more details.

Quit dawdling errand boy

While this has been going on Peun is at a food stall getting lunch for the crew. He gets a call and is more or less told to quit goofing off and get their lunches to them pronto. Elsewhere, Prim is telling Chompoo it is too hot to go out to get lunch. Kit then shows up with lunch he's bought her and tells her his social media name is kit_deil. Chompoo wants Prim to add him as a social media friend, but Prim laughs and shakes her head no.

Meanwhile, when Peun and Foon enter the conference room for their lunch Wax, who I notice has a couple of packs of product placement Dentyne handy, kicks the guy who is sitting next to him out of his chair and tells Foon to sit next to him. Peun is shuffled off to a chair by the windows.

Later, Prim has finished her work for the day and Chompoo is still doing nothing. Kit tells them they can go home if they want, but the staff will be having a meeting that they can attend if they want.

When Foon and Peun are leaving at the end of their work day one of Wax's flunkies runs out and tells Foon that Wax would like to take her to dinner. She fakes, with Peun's help, that she's not feeling well to get out of that. Wax looks like he wants to kill Peun.

A highly productive staff meeting

We cut to Prim and Chompoo at their meeting. They're sitting off to the side while the staff is gathered at the end of the table watching deadly car crashes and other gross YouTube videos. I must say that, like them, I am curious as to how the python got into the refrigerator. Anyway, this has been going on for two hours and both Chompoo and Prim think it is a waste of time. Prim asks Nit if they can leave and he says sure.

The next morning Foon is talking to Pop, one of Wax's flunkies, when Wax himself comes in and tells Foon he wants her to model for a photoshoot. Oh, this should be good, but before we get to see it we jump to Prim and Chompoo.

They're walking down a hallway when Ms. Duang calls them into her office. She asks them if they left before the meeting ended. They say yes, it was almost midnight and Chompoo needed to catch a bus.

A bus? Ms. Duang scoffs at that excuse and tells them they should have stayed all night if they had to. Seems kind of harsh to me. She then asks them if they know what the theme was that got decided on in the meeting. They don't, and Ms. Duang tells them that's why it is important to attend  the entire meeting.

Wax's high class photoshoot

When we jump back to the film crew there are two girls in shorts, t-shirts and high heels, reenacting the car wash scene from Cool Hand Luke. Peun's job is to stand on the side and squirt water on them from a hose. That seems like a decent intern job to me. Soon Foon comes out dressed in the same shorts, t-shirt and heels. She's clearly uncomfortable. Seesh girl, where's your work ethic? You've got to sacrifice a little to produce high art.

Finally Peun gets disgusted by it all, tosses the hose down and tells Foon they should leave. This leads to an argument between Peun and Wax which ends when Foon calls Wax an ass and quits. The two storm off the set.

We cut to Art and Kwan. She is looking at Art's night pictures of Bangkok for the exhibit. She tells him that while they are well composed and technically proficient, that they are boring. She's says that the location he chose was the one that all first time photographers use. She offers to teach him the next night.

We cut to Chompoo and Prim at the publishing house. It is late at night. Go has arrived to pick up Chompoo, but Prim, still worried about getting chewed out earlier, stays because Kit is in the building doing something or another.

One of our interns hard at work

Eventually Kit returns to the office and finds her sleeping. He wakes her up, chides her for staying so late and offers to take her home. She says she can make it home by herself, but he insists, pointing out that it can be dangerous late at night.

He takes her home on his motorcycle. When they get there he is impressed by the size of the house. Prim says it isn't hers, it is a friend's house. He asks, "a boy or a girl?" Prim tells him a girl who is cute and offers to introduce him if her is interested. He tells Prim he is only interested in her. Prim rolls her eyes at that, but she is smiling.

The next morning we see Peun eating a western style breakfast with his parents. He tells them about Wax trying to make Foon do a sexy dance for the carwash scene. He acts like he is shocked that such shenanigans can even occur. I don't Peun, I seem to remember you were just fine with your cram class teacher hitting on you. That said, it sure does seem like the young interns are fair game.

Speaking of that, we jump to Art and Kwan that night. They're in her car and she's taken him to her place. Art is all, "umm... so we're here to take pictures?" She says yes, but he's not that comfortable. As they ride the elevator up to her apartment she keeps looking at him with a half smile on her face. When they enter the apartment she tells him to lock the door as she goes ahead.

Finally she calls to him, "Art, can you help me with this? I'm in the bedroom. You may come in."

[Episode 21]

Another spider and fly?