Chefe da Casa

MASTER OF THE HOUSE (2024) is a dark well-made Thai drama, concerning social politics and the heirarchy of a wealthy elite family, that are suddenly possible inheritors of their fathers vast diamond empire. Much corruption and betrayals ensue.

"After the patriarch's death, a family engages in a power struggle over his diamond empire and his recently wed housekeeper."

Honestly, this drama is pretty difficult to watch, however, due to the lack of many favorable or empathetic characters in the show, as well as its dismal and disturbing air of corruption, scandals and scheming. The wirst part is the rampant abuse of the servant staff. The nature of the beast, but disturbing to watch, nonetheless.

However, the quality of the show is definitely noticeable, with there being appropriate dismal atmosphere, good cinematography, believable settings and costumes.

Overall, it was an interesting show to watch and glad to see more Thai dramas available these days, but it could have been so much better. Still, worth checking out.

I don't usually watch Thai dramas, but I saw a preview scene on Netflix and I thought "how interesting".

THE MAIN PROBLEM I had with this drama was the slowness of everything, not of the action in itself, but of the movement of everything. I had to watch this in 1.5× speed so I wouldn't die of boredom 'cause the pace doesn't do justice to the kinda nice plotline! It's not a work of a genius, but I think it would have worked better as a movie. There aren't a lot of important things that are happening and this drama focuses more on the mystery and the atmosphere.

Most of the acting was good and the storyline of the protagonist truly kept me interested, the actress embodied the character very well. But sometimes I couldn't feel the reality of the plot, so I found it chaotic at times.

Also, the music fitted the narrative plot, yet I couldn't stand the eerie and suspensful sound that was all over the episodes. I think they used it too much. I fell in love with the ending song of the finale episode.

Give it a try if you want, but don't expect much.

Started off with a mystery and the premise makes the viewer root for certain characters. The unravelling of the mystery was entertaining to watch because of all the plot twists.

The social injustice narrative became a bit too heavy with the sadistic abuse of the servants, and there never seemed to be any way out. The social injustice narrative became a bit too heavy with the sadistic abuse of the servants, and the tiresome part of it is the fact that there never seemed to be any way out. They all had to endure it because of the poverty back at home, and the seemingly high wages that "compensated" for the "back-breaking labour." In spite of that explanation, it's hard to believe that money is enough to motivate someone stay at this job when some of the abuse could maim them for life, making it difficult for them to continue earning any income at all.

The acting was quite convincing for the most part, for both sides of villains and protagonists. Thanavate Siriwattanagul, who plays Mawin, stood out for me. The characterization of the servants was quite one-dimensional for all of them, so one cannot say that they had much acting to sell to begin with.

Ending was satisfying, although a bit too fantastical.

Felt like two different shows almost. The beginning half and the second half were a bit disconnected. The second half especially the last two episodes were confusing. It was using a weird storytelling technique where it was just having the viewer guess at stuff instead of actually explain anything. I liked the initial premise and acting, although the English dub was a bit odd because the voices sounded disembodied.

If you want a quick watch where the story wraps up in one season, enjoy mysteries and stories where about eating the rich than this is definitely a good option. Could've been more stars if they had explained more and not rushed the end.

The universal theme of rich and poor is one that will always intrigue. However, to create intrigue, the plot needs intricacies, peppered with ambiguity, to keep the viewer on the edge of their seat and scrambling for the remote to 'skip intro'. This doesn't have a lot of that. In fact I found myself using the FF button on some episodes to stop the pain of some of the acting.

Then Episode 7 comes along. Beautifully filmed and creates the buzz I'd been waiting for throughout... they should have used some of this to create the intrigue needed in the first episode...

Overall, too obvious, some atrocious acting but enough to keep me watching. I'm glad it's over though... or is it?