GAP The Series: Thoughts, Takes, and Tangents

(Idol Factory, 2022)

I know that this has nothing to do with Kpop, but I just re-watched GAP for the millionth time, and I have some (a lot of) thoughts. I needed a platform to share this, so I figured that since there is some overlap with the fanbases due to the similar structuring of the industries, I could post it here.

I’m going to be speedrunning different things I've noticed after watching GAP multiple times, and some of my thoughts on the series. If you have no idea what GAP is, I highly recommend watching it on YouTube and coming back here after. It is a Thai drama GL, and it's short enough that you can finish it in a few days.

1. Sam could be either neurodivergent or possibly autistic. Despite trying so hard, Sam often has difficulty expressing her emotions and lacks the social skills to understand others' emotions. Additionally, there are instances of her expressing traits that could indicate that she is potentially being neurodivergent or autistic, such as when she took the Mon’s story about the lion and the ants literally. It is never explicitly stated (at least in the show, I don’t know about the book), and likely was unintentional, and could just be due to Freen’s acting. I know that autism is congenital, but neurodivergence can sometimes be acquired. In Sam’s case, her childhood trauma could have led to neurodivergence. In the series, trauma is the explanation given for Sam’s lack of emotional intelligence. While growing up, Sam learned to suppress her emotions and would never express her wants or needs, due to fear of her grandmother. This past trauma could be the source of her neurodivergence. In addition, after being able to indulge in her wants without caring about her grandmother’s opinion, Sam gets a lot better at sharing her feelings with Mon. One of the things I love about this series is the character development, and this is a prime example. I don’t know enough about neurodivergence to say this for sure, but if Sam has an acquired neurodivergence, then this could be her overcoming it by coming to terms with and growing from her trauma. 

2.  Connecting to #1, I love how much they show Sam trying to express her feelings. I know that sometimes she may not just straight up say what she wants, but I hate it when it is so obvious (like when she’s pointing at the lions), but Mon deliberately pretends not to understand. To be a good girlfriend, Mon should be encouraging Sam when she is making an effort to express her feelings. Although Sam did not straight-up say she wanted to have sex, this was still a good step forward.

3.  This may sound weird,  but I actually love Kirk, especially in the beginning. WIth the way he treats Sam, he seems like such Husband material. Additionally, I actually love Sam and his dynamic. Not in a romantic way, but more like a siblings, or “their just besties” way. I find their dynamic to be so funny, like the way Kirk is always “translating” what Sam says. I would totally watch a comedy series of them. I know that Kirk is the one who tells the grandmother about Mon, but after the time skip, he’s at the wedding, so he probably made up with Sam and Mon. 

4. I have some problems with Sam’s company, and I feel it should have been better thought out. According to the show, the company is based on web design and content creation. But my question is, why is this the type of company Sam decided to open. It seems that she’s probably great at all of the actual business stuff, but terrible at what her company actually does. Why was it so hard for her and the employees to come up with some decent ideas for content that teens can actually relate to (if I’m remembering correctly, this was her target demographic)? A little advice for Sam: just hire some high school interns, because they could easily run an IG page ten times better than any of her employees. Mon actually saved them. Everything she said when she was originally selected to run the page was so obvious. At least she is closer to the age of their target demographic. However, even some of her ideas aren’t great. 

Additionally, the show tries so hard to say that Sam is “evil” and “bad boss”, but from how we see all of the employees act, they seem to have such a positive workplace, which would not be possible if Sam were really that terrible. Additionally, their meeting room seems to be really comfortable, but if they really wanted to think that working at Diversity was so awful, they should have had some dark and scary-looking room. Going back to the meeting room, there is also a problem with the decor. Sam loves neutral colors, so why would she have so much color in her company and even her personal office? It doesn’t really make sense, and they could have planned this out better when making the sets. 

The writers/set designers could have used the company interior, and the way the employees act to represent how Mon has brought color (both literally and figuratively) into Sam’s life. Maybe at first, everything is very monotone and dark, from the interior to the way the employees act. And later on in the series, Mon starts positively affecting all the employees’ attitudes with her pink personality, and later, after bringing that pink into Sam’s life, she puts some colorful decor up in the office. 

5. I love how fashion is used to represent Mon and Sam’s differences (with Mon wearing pink and Sam wearing neutrals), and at the end, the way Mon has changed Sam’s life for the better is represented with their wedding dresses (Sam wearing a pink dress). 

I have one complaint about the costuming. I just noticed this in my most recent re-watch, so I’m not sure if it comes up in other instances. I’m sorry, but the skinny jeans in episode 12 look terrible. Not even Becky can pull them off (yes, I am Gen Z, and think that skinny jeans are hideous). 

6. Here are my two cents on “GAP vs Loyal Pin”. Personally, I prefer GAP, but I understand that many people like Loyal Pin better. I would say that from a production standpoint, Loyal Pin is definitely better, but for me, I enjoy the premise and plot of GAP better. Personally, I don’t like period dramas, and I thought that the plot of Loyal Pin moved a little too slowly for my liking, and I got bored when nothing was really happening. This is probably because it has more episodes. When it comes to GAP, I'm a sucker for a cliché romance. It rarely finds GL representation in classic tropes like “rich boss (who’s supposedly evil)  falls for employee,” which I personally really enjoy.

7. When talking about the production aspect of the show, it is not great. The first episode especially feels very wonky. The editing is strange, and the camera angles are so weird (especially in the bathroom scene). However, after the first few episodes, it seems to get a lot better. Additionally (not about the production but the first episode), the first ¼ of the episode feels completely unnecessary, and was honestly confusing when I first watched it. Mon starts the episode talking about her idol, and at the concert, she imagines Sam. When I first watched it, this was very confusing, because I first thought that Sam was an actual “idol” like an “artist”, so I was very confused when Mon then goes to work at Sam’s company (not that I have never actually watched the pilot or read the description before starting the show). I feel like they could have found a better and more efficient way of establishing that Mon idolizes Sam. 

8. The timeline of the series feels unrealistic. The vast majority of the show takes place within about two months ( not including the time skips). We don’t get an exact timeline, but we know that the show takes place in a month, because of Mon’s deadline, and a lot of the second half of the show within a short period of time (each episode spanning from a day to a few days). I did not realize this until my second watch, but after doing so, it makes the romance feel very rushed and unrealistic since it progresses so fast. Instead, they could have made the original deadline three or more months, and had the minimum be 1M followers. 

9. I love that they add context to the subtitles for foreign fans, but sometimes the subtitles are a little off. For example, the entire conversation of Mon quitting, Sam then refusing, they use “quitted” as the past tense. Instead of saying “I have quit”, Mon says “I quitted”. Additionally, there is one scene where Sam says “don’t do it”, but I’m still confused on what “it” is since there isn’t really any context.

10. The grandma absolutely deserved to die, and apparently, that’s what happens in the books. The grandma also did not deserve the praise Sir Phoom at the end for being “understanding” of Mon and Sam’s relationship, when she had just spent the last few episodes trying to break them up. 

I will say, however, that the grandma does have a point about Mon lowkey being a sasaeng. It is kinda suspicious that Mon was the daughter of Sam’s teacher, went to the same university, started working at her company, and is now her girlfriend. If one did not have any context, this could be concerning.

11. Anybody who has seen the series already knows that Becky and Freen’s acting is impeccable. They have such strong chemistry that everything (including the love scenes) feels so natural. Something I love about the Thai industry is how actors are in pairs throughout their content. It allows couples to grow and evolve with each series, and allows for such strong chemistry. Additionally, both Becky and Freen are so good at expressing emotion, and their crying scenes are always heartbreaking and gorgeous at the same time. The only problem I would say is that at the time Becky was 19 and Freen was 24, but Mon is 22, and Sam is 30. Becky seems to be close enough in age to Mon, but Freen playing a 30-year-old seemed to be a bit of a stretch.

12. The side characters and casting are so well done. I absolutely love Jim, Tee, and Kade. They are all so funny, and I love their personalities and dynamics. I also love how they are immediately so supportive of Sam and Mon, and are always helping them out. Some of the small details, like Jim telling them to remove their nails are great. I also love Tee and Yuki’s relationship going on in the background. I only noticed it in my third watch, but they seem to silently be together in the background (like how they are definitely in the same room when giving sex advice). I hope we get a spin-off at some point of them, because they seem to have potential.

13. Just like Sam’s friends, I love Mon’s parents, especially her dad. They are so supportive, and Aon seems to be a great guy, even from just the way he talks about Mon’s bio dad. 

14. I have some major problems with the soundtrack. Especially at the beginning of the series, they seem to play that one song (you know what I’m talking about) for every single emotional scene, even if it doesn’t make sense with the scene or the emotion being displayed. Later in the series, they start using a couple of other OSTs, but it still isn’t great. They really needed to create a bigger (and better) soundtrack.

15. I read somewhere that Sam kneeling for Mon so readily really shows her feelings due to the difference in their social classes. I thought this was interesting, so I figured I would point it out. Also, unrelated, the back hugs in this series are adorable.

16. I really love Sam’s character development as she goes from only caring about her company and expensive bracelet, to saying that Mon is the most valuable thing in her life and that she only goes to work to see her face. However, I feel like Mon should have had more character development. I feel like her character does not change at all, or changes very little.

17. The last handful of episodes are honestly so frustrating because their relationship keeps going in circles. They keep having fights, breaking up, and getting back together, and the amount of “breakdown crying” scenes that happen during these episodes is actually crazy. In a story arc, a character should only have reached their low/breaking point once. Otherwise, it ends up feeling redundant when they seem to be having their low-low every episode.

18. Whenever there is a scene of people eating, it always looks so strange. Why are they taking miniature bites? I first noticed this in my second rewatch during the scene where Sam is having dinner with her grandmother and Kirk. She takes one bite, and suddenly they are serving dessert!? Maybe they are doing this since they need to take multiple shots, so they deliberately don’t eat much. Whatever the reason is, it feels unnatural.

19. This feels like a weird way to end, but the only thing that would make this series better than it already is, is if Faye played Neung (no hate to the GAP actress). I’m not sure if Faye’s version of Neung fits GAP, but I watched Blank first, and I just think that Faye is really hot.