Ready, Set, Love

THE PLOT

1974. A pandemic had an impact on the population, making the percentage of male births reach 1%. The disease caused abnormal hormonal activity, leading to the female population outnumbering the male one. In order to protect men, the "treasure" of the country, the Thai Government established since 2004 that not only the few men born have to be taken away from their families to live in a locked space called The Farm, but they also have to get married to the winner of the government-sponsored game: Ready, Set, Love. 50 girls have to fight against each other to be the chosen one and get an ambitious prize: getting married and living a comfortable life in The Family, the prototype of the perfect family. What if the system is fixed to make only the girl from The Family win: could a normal girl turn the rule of the game upside-down?

THE MODERN HEROINE

Ready, Set, Love is a Netflix Thai TV series focused on Day, a girl who was selected to take part in the game. Day does not have a comfortable life: she works every day in a convenience store and has to earn money to pay for treatments to take care of her sister’s illness. She has a very strict frame of mind; actually, she feels responsible for her sister’s worsening health condition. At the beginning, she wants to quit the game; but in the end, she would change her mind because she wants to win to give her sister a better future. Day becomes the audience’s favorite thanks to her independent, spontaneous, clumsy, relentless, stubborn attitude. Actually, her reputation made her win the nickname of “Lotto-girl”. Both the audience and hosts are enchanted by her and by her passionate love story with Son, one of “The Gentlemen”, the 5 boys whose hearts girls have to win. She could be considered the “modern” heroine of the story: Day is not persecuted by a villain and saved by a hero, like in Gothic Novels, but she is the one who points out the villain, the Government, thanks to the help of the ones she loves. Day and the other women in the stories are round characters: depicted with their flaws, problems, and their positive features, they show realistic figures of modern women.

 

A UTOPIAN WORLD

The TV series shows many important and interesting points of discussion. Firstly, the world depicted is turned upside down from ours: women are physically stronger than men and not considered weak; also women outnumber men, so in this way they are considered a majority, instead of a minority as in our society. In addition, the game in which women fight for men reminds us of the Middle Ages in which men challenged each other in a game for a woman. Instead of women, the ones objectified in utopian Thailand are men; actually, they are protected as special human beings and have to get married to create perfect biological families. Secondly, the protesting of men against the institutions of The Family and The Farm in the last episode, reminds the feminist battle for independence and equal rights. To sum up, the condition of men is a hidden projection of what happens to women in our present-day reality. “Ready, set, love” highlights the conditions of all minorities, like the LGBTQIA+ community, and makes us reflect on the institution of the family. In “The Family”, only heterosexual and biological families are allowed; indeed the Government considers that those individuals are special and depicts them as the new elite of society. Homosexuality for women is not seen as negative as homosexual male couples: lesbian ones could give birth to a child using non-biological methods, instead men couldn't.

 

With its irony and thought-provoking statements, “Ready, set, love” became one of my favorite TV series. Watching it is a beautiful experience that I truly suggest to those who have loved utopian novels or movies such as Divergent’s saga and The Hunger Games. Despite the depressing material of the series, the settings are colorful based on pink, yellow, and sky-blue. What do you think about it? Would you like to watch “Ready, set, love”? Why? Or why not? I hope you would watch it because it is an overwhelming, funny, and deep TV series, which depicts the mechanisms of our society making you understand them better.

Today's Blogger

Hello there! I'm Giorgia Masi, and my heart belongs to reading, especially poetry. Writing and immersing myself in music are my passions, as I believe in the magic of words and the beauty of melodies, just like the lyrics from Jung Kook's 'Seven' say: "every hour, every minute, every second, seven days a week."

I'm a film enthusiast, particularly drawn to romantic and dramatic movies – perhaps my zodiac sign, Cancer, explains my penchant for emotional stories. I also have a soft spot for Asian TV series and, of course, I can't resist re-watching 'The Corpse Bride' for the millionth time, as Tim Burton is my all-time favorite film director.

In my family, I'm known as the activist, and my dream is to become a researcher with a degree in Physics. Why? That’s a question I often ask myself, and I'm eager to explore the answers.