The Trainee Review – Office Tears and Chaos
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The 12-episode Thai series The Trainee follows five youngsters interning at a small production house, where they all struggle to fit in and perform their duties. Gun Atthaphan Phunsawat plays the most lost of them all, Ryan Anawat, who “accidentally” lands the internship and begins to train under the strict Jane Jirapat (Off Jumpol Adulkittiporn). Like many new trainees who cannot handle the real world, poor Ryan is often reduced to tears at work, but as he spends more time learning new things, he also begins to fall for Jane.
Directed by Nat Thachai Komolphet, and Prang Sasinan Pattana, “The Trainee” has a fun first few episodes, with a lot of the story focusing on how the interns try to learn their new duties at work. However, while Gun Atthaphan Phunsawat and Off Jumpol Adulkittiporn (‘Cooking Crush’/‘Not Me’) are billed as the ‘main protagonists’, a significant section is dedicated to the relationship between the nerdy intern Tae Thanat (Sea Tawinan Anukoolprasert) and his clingy girlfriend Ba-mhee (Piploy Kanyarat Ruangrung). Tired of not getting enough attention from Tae, Ba-mhee begins to shift her affection towards the considerate senior Judy (Kapook Ploynira Hiruntaveesin).
Ba-mhee’s character is extremely annoying and I had hoped she would only be a minor character for comic relief, so it was a bore to see her get so much space. Kapook Ploynira Hiruntaveesin as Judy deserved someone better in ‘The Trainee’, even though her role is small, she shines in her part as a well-dressed, hard-working, courteous senior. Sea Tawinan Anukoolprasert (Last Twilight) as Tae has a weird hair-cut, probably just to show him as a boring, nerdy guy, and his character was just that – one-dimensional, always on the computer, or sulking.
Poon Mitpakdee plays Pah, an intern in the art department, who is one of the few characters not embroiled in romantic drama. Instead, he’s either busy working or spending time with his friends, often brightening their day. Meanwhile, Benyapa Jeenprasom portrays Pie, the fifth intern and the most ambitious of the trainees. She dreams of becoming a film director and is frustrated with the menial tasks assigned to interns in the early days. However, she receives a sharp reality check when she struggles to complete even the ‘simple’ tasks correctly. As the show progresses, both Pie and Pah become a lot more likable than Tae and Ba-mhee. Pie often tries to give tips to Ryan on how he should win over his crush, mistakenly assuming he likes their older mentor Baimon (Pompam Niti Chaichitathorn).
Off and Gun, as the boss-trainee duo Jane and Ryan, are fun to watch, though their romantic subplot is thin. What we get more of is their boss-trainee banter, with Jane often harshly criticizing Ryan for failing at his tasks—just like any real boss would. A hilarious scene in episode 2 shows Ryan failing at a task, leading him to offer his resignation to take responsibility. Jane responds wryly, “Hey, this isn’t Parliament, where you resign after making mistakes to show your spirit. You weren’t wrong; you just weren’t careful.” Despite Jane’s frequent scolding, he also tries to teach Ryan and encourages him to stick around and see things through.
The Tae-Bahmee-Judy love triangle in the second half of the series really disrupts the pace of The Trainee, especially with a completely ridiculous twist in the final episodes. The chaos became so overwhelming that I lost interest in watching the finale. The creators should have stuck with a buddy-comedy about friends navigating their first internship, with their romantic experiences as a secondary element. That would have made The Trainee much more enjoyable.
Rating: 5 on 10. You can watch The Trainee on YouTube.
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