I adore Lina and Miu deeply, and writing this harsh critique about their Pls Love series is far from easy. Yet, when an audience witnesses a rare and magnificent investment like their undeniable chemistry being wasted due to a director’s modest expertise, hurried production, and a screenwriter’s failures, a fair stand must be taken. Hopefully, this prevents the final chapter from being written for this duo anytime soon.
Trimming the Novel
Anyone who read the novel before watching the series knows the screenwriter’s task was far from easy. A very long novel packed with events and characters was never going to be simple to condense into an eight-episode short series. Thus, condensing the premiere episode made complete sense, just as sacrificing certain characters did—such as Parn’s sister, an extra friend for Pheem, all the husky jokes, Pheem’s mother’s storyline entirely, and ignoring the post-marriage and parenting phase. These sacrifices are understandable, and honestly, they served the series by maintaining a fast-paced and vibrant rhythm throughout its eight episodes. Furthermore, using visual splendor and emotional intensity by featuring a steamy love scene in every single episode was brilliant on an entertainment industry level, before even serving the series exceptionally well from a marketing standpoint.
Yet, if all these achievements were placed on one side of a scale against what the series failed at, the failure side would easily outweigh the triumphs. It is undeniable that the greatest goal achieved by the novel—building a growing mature path for character development—was precisely where the series failed.
Episode 7 Tears off the Mask
As I watched Episode 7 of the series, only one question echoed in my mind:
Where is the redemption arc for the character Pheem?
No, seriously! Where is this arc? Wasn’t she supposed to try and fix what she ruined in her relationship with Parn? Instead, she spent the entire episode treating her in the worst possible way! She forces herself onto Parn twice, lets her fall, blames her for the breakup, and in another moment insists she can buy Parn with money in exchange for intimacy—all of this without taking an ounce of responsibility for her toxic and abusive behavior over the previous six episodes. Rather than offering a genuine apology, she settles for buying everything for Parn as if money solves every single problem.
In Episode 7, I witnessed a recurring pattern. It felt as though Pheem was once again trying to fix the problem with money through various gestures like sending cash, flowers, and yogurt, expecting to receive an intimate relationship in return!
The bigger question here is: Why are they even together, seriously? There is zero common ground between Pheem and Parn. As partners, we never see them discussing unresolved issues, and they always appear tense in each other’s presence.
Parn never once told Pheem, “I don’t want to come back to you because you keep insulting me, calling me a whore, and assaulting me.” Instead, the screenwriter chose for Parn to tell Pheem throughout the events, “I missed you.” And here, all of us naturally want to ask: What exactly did you miss, Parn? Did you miss being called a whore every five minutes?
How on earth would these two have survived without their friends? Actually, the friends characters, visual effects, and acting performances are the elements carrying this entire production on their shoulders.
On top of all that, her father character suddenly appears to become the main obstacle in the story, creating total confusion regarding the core issue hindering the characters’ development.
Speaking of the reconciliation in Episode 7, Me and everyone else who witnessed Pheem’s endless insults toward Parn were expecting the reconciliation to be a much slower, tender, and carefully crafted emotional scene full of gentle love rather than the fast-paced sex scene delivered by the director!
Production Responsibility
When looking at what the series lacks now that most of its episodes have aired, we can blame no one except the production house that rushed its production just to reap profits quickly, denying the team enough time to cook the meal over a slow fire and avoid flaws and mistakes. To tell the truth, Channel 3 excels most at disappointing fans.
Fans and readers of the novel felt genuinely excited upon learning a series was being adapted from the book, and we all optimistically wondered: What could Channel 3 possibly ruin in a project that doesn’t even exceed eight episodes? But it turned out I and everyone else were wrong. They can ruin a story completely, just like they did in “In Love Forever“—so why wouldn’t they ruin this one too?
In the original novel, Pheem goes through a deep path toward redemption that profoundly affected readers. Despite Parn rejecting her over and over, and even though every rejection increased her pain, she kept coming back, begging her to accept her return. It was intensely moving and heartbreaking. But in the series… why on earth does Channel 3 always insist on tampering with stories that were originally complete and excellent?
This might be an unpopular opinion, but during the first five episodes, there was a promising dynamic between two characters driven by their psychological traumas to hurt one another, with genuine potential for each to help the other heal.
Yet, since Episode 6, the script turned into absolute chaos. There is zero character development, no resolution for any existing problems, and to top it all off, they decided to add a random villainous character to manufacture cheap drama in the final episode. How ironic! Such is always the fate of GL (Girls’ Love) series on Channel 3.
What we witnessed at the end of the series is genuinely regrettable ! The series started off well, and LenaMiu’s chemistry and acting performances were wonderful, but it seems one can never expect too much from Channel 3.
