Mia Taeng (Wedded Wife) thoughts
Stupid p'ek forced into marriage with noble n'ek who tolerates his playboy ways with bitchy n’rai. Add a persistent ex-boyfriend and a just as persistent new guy on the block, we have Mia Taeng! Its premise sounds awfully similar to 'A Person's Value' and I wanted to hit everyone over the head by the end of that lakorn which was why I gave MT a pass when it came out. But ... I’m suddenly feeling like a Chompoo Araya lakorn recently after watching her parts in the RKTF teaser and decided to give MT a shot. I ended up marathoning the show and finished it 3 days!
The plot itself is not my cup of tea and I can't say I approve of the positions taken by our pra'nang which was why I never felt myself rooting for them to get together. However, the storytelling was focused and things were kept moving forward towards an expected resolution (Khongkai establishing his presidency at PV and unraveling of Neuathip/Bproong's schemes) which was more than I can say of 'A Person's Value' which wandered all over the place for no reason (ok, reason being it gave Ch7 great ratings so they extended it needlessly).
On to the characters. I wanted to whack our dumb p’ek Khongkai in the face with a giant frying pan in just about every episode and most of the time I can't help agreeing with Arunprapai's initial assessment that he is hollow between his ears. Granted it was easy for Bproong to play on his existing bias towards Arunprapai and his forced marriage but his utter lack of respect for his mom and legal wife by letting Bproong have her way in their house was totally unacceptable. Then there was his double standard of constantly accusing Arunprapai of having immoral relations with Poochom (the ex) and Wayu (new guy) while he himself strutted around all the time with Bproong hanging off his arms. Is your blood boiling yet? Cos mine certainly was. There was however a redeeming bit in all these. I find it hilarious how not just Arunpraipai but Khongkai's entire household don't hesitate in calling him out on his brattish behaviour and it was nice of the n'ek to have a big support group for once! I had resigned myself to not liking Khongkai and I still didn't like like him by the end but surprisingly, he did gain a bit of my respect. He did what many such p'eks seldom do: he acknowledged that it was his fault for hurting two women who loved and suffered for him. By then Bproong's true colours had started showing and it would've been easy for him to blame it all on her schemes like Mae Lam did but he understood and accepted that he was the real root of the problems. Unfortunately, accepting blame wasn't the same as solving the problem and he really didn't contribute much to the eventual resolution. Khongkai should thank his lucky stars for his intelligent mother and wife!
Arunprapai is our model wife who endures and suffer everything and anything for her family. She's too good to be true for me to identify and connect with but her calm demeanour even when faced with the most trying insults (and her wonderful come backs) helped to keep the annoyance level of the drama down. I also appreciate her firmness with Poochom and Wayu, not giving them any false hopes or much opportunity to make an already messy situation messy. Once again, lesson that Gluay from 'A Person's Value' will do well to learn. Yes, that lakorn made me bitter for wasting precious hours of my life and led me nowhere. Uhm, what else? Arunpraipai is too perfect I don't have much to comment.
Rome and Chompoo do make a beautiful couple and I must say the willing scenes were kinda hot even though not much is shown but my liking of the main couple was limited by the story. I disagree with how Arunprapai was constantly encouraged to endure because it's a 'wifely' thing to do while Khongkai got a free rein with his lust and arrogance. The lakorn did touch briefly on the men's faults but it was mostly extolling the virtues of the ideal wife through Arunprapai. It takes two to make a marriage and Khongkai/Arunprapai is certainly not the right nor healthy example of one.
I actually did root for a couple in MT: Poochom and Jieb. Poochom was rather annoying initially when he kept looking to ex-girlfriend Arunprapai to solve his marital problems but with the introduction of Jieb and development of his own storyline, I came to look forward to their scenes. They have a pretty big age gap (10+ years I guess, Jieb was able to lie to the police that Poochom was her dad) but I love the spark and vitality she brings to him, and conversely he takes care of her like no one had. I know they are only side characters and I can't expect them to have much screen time but I still wished we at least got a scene of them confessing their feelings for each other instead of just showing us the end result of them getting together. I feel like doing a separate post detailing their scenes 'cos they are just too adorable. <3
The villains were the usual one-dimensional sort, inept, greedy, underhand etc etc etc but at least the n'rai Bproong had decent characterization and wasn't nasty for the sake of being nasty. Narong wasn't too well done though. I don't feel his side of the story was properly told and I found the actor lacking in conveying his inner conflict between his ambitions and love for Bproong. In the dramatic climax where he had his outburst and declared his love to Bproong and later took a bullet for her, I was all like.... ehh, ok, whatever. Oh, final mention to Bproong's best friend Sasha. Thank you for giving the n'rai a true friend with a brain and conscience instead of being simple minion who does the rai's dirty work.
All in all, I'd say Mia Taeng's producers did a commendable job with the material on hand and managed to make it an entertaining ride for me despite my misgivings on the story.