Sleepless Society: Bedtime Wishes Review

Bedtime Wishes (2019) was the last one of the Sleepless Society: The Series miniseries I watched, and definitely the least. I was shocked to find out it had been the second one to be released, right after Nyctophobia. Considering what a complete mess it is, I expected it to have been either the first one, when the series was still trying to find its footing, or the last one, when everyone had run out of ideas. Needless to say, there will be SPOILERS.

Nara becomes involved with her friend May’s new boss, Rain, after he invites her to stay at his resort. At first, he seems perfect, but soon he begins to show signs of two very different personalities, one of which is disturbed and violent. Nara also befriends Dao, a resort employee dealing with a violent ex-boyfriend, John. This brings her into conflict with John’s father, Sompot, who’s the right-hand man of both Rain and Rain’s controlling father. Could it be him who’s trying to scare Nara away from the resort? And whose skeleton was it that was found at the beginning of the series? Turns out everyone is hiding something, including Nara herself.

The most frustrating thing about Bedtime Wishes is that the first six episodes were great, but all that build-up was thrown away. It feels as if after Episode 6 all the writers were fired and replaced by new ones who were then given the briefest of outlines of what had happened previously before writing the next seven episodes.

I was actually impressed that the show didn’t drag things and revealed that Rain had an identical twin brother, Rome, hidden in the resort right in the first episode. There really was no other explanation for how he could’ve been in Nara’s room while at the same time having an allergic reaction in May’s kitchen. We’re told that Rome has a different, violent personality, that occasionally takes over, and at the same time there’s news of young women being found murdered and raped in the area surrounding the resort. It’s clear that Sompot and Rain believe Rome is responsible for this, even as the twins’ aunt, Penpon, sees her nephew as just lonely and sad. Then again, her insistence that Rain should let Rome have Nara because he doesn’t have as many chances for a normal life as his twin means she’s probably pretty disturbed herself.

The show hints at many possible developments but switches gears on most of them, usually going for the dumbest option. Some of the reveals and twists don’t even make sense.

If Nara’s secret plan was part of the plot from the start, the writers did a terrible job of showing it. To try to pass her fall as some sort of ruse was just ridiculous. She lies about her ankle being hurt and the only way to make that lie convincing is to pour water on the floor so she can wake up in the middle of the night after dreaming of her ex cheating on her, slip on that same water and dramatically fall on her back, which is a pretty dangerous way of falling, when no one’s watching?

A good plot twist should make you go back to the beginning and be able to suddenly notice all the little hints and clues that you missed. Here that’s impossible. The scene of young Nara nearly falling off the car could’ve been about literally anything. The skeleton found at the beginning could easily have been another murdered woman, which would explain why we keep being reminded that bodies are being found in the area. It feels as if the writers just gave up on what had already been established and wrote whatever they wanted. Couldn’t they at least have made Nara more calculating and have her befriending May on purpose knowing she was Run? Instead, we’re asked to believe that it’s all a big coincidence that her best friend turned out not only to be related to the man who killed her parents and stole their land, but also ended up working for her own brother, and then introduced them.

A note on the character of May/Run: May first appears as a transgender woman who until recently had lived as a gay man, however, the character later reverts to Run, is upset when Rome erroneously says their father referred to him as “that woman” and is moved when his father calls him “son”. So, I’ll be using feminine pronouns when referring to May and masculine pronouns when referring to Run. Hope that’s okay.

Now, my problem with May being Run wasn’t that it was obvious, but that the writers did nothing with it. The moment the character abandons the May persona and goes back to being Run, he does nothing but follow his father around, begging for his approval and being a naive idiot in general. May was a lot smarter than Run. And why threaten Penpon? Were the writers planning on having Run secretly working against his family as revenge for the way they treated him? Was he going to be the one with the secret plan and they transferred it to Nara? Because May ingratiating herself with Rain and then getting hired to be the resort’s chef so she can get close to her family is something that could actually be planned, while Nara crossing paths with Rain was much more random. This would explain May’s recent change in appearance and why none of it is permanent. May being the one trying to drive Nara away from the resort, probably to keep her out of danger, would make a lot more sense than Rain having been the one to ask the foreman to put the snake in her room. Putting a snake in the car of the abusive ex in the hopes that he’d have an accident so he'd finally be out of her friend’s life would also fit. Of course, I’m talking in terms of plot only. I can see why this would be problematic when you add in other factors.

In the beginning, we’re told about Rome’s two personalities but the show doesn’t seem to know what to do with it. Is Rome aware that he pushed his father down the stairs, or did he forget what he did? Since Rain turns out to be the one who killed Alis, was Rome ever really violent towards people without any provocation? Does this mean he has no connection to the dead girls? And if not, why does the show keep mentioning this? We know it can’t be Rain because another girl turns up raped and murdered after he’s already dead. Rome switches between clueless and calculating, but it neither feels as if he really is two different people, nor that those are just different facets of his personality. The character of Rome is just a badly written mess. It’s also unclear what exactly is wrong with him. I get that the shot damaged his brain, which could explain the hallucinations of Rain and Alis, but when he starts to talk about demons, he sounds more like a regular schizophrenic. The relationship between him and Nara does have some deeper moments, it’s realistic that love wouldn’t heal him, and everything ending in tragedy makes sense, though.

In my review of the Sleepless Society: The Series as a whole, I mentioned what I hoped was a glaring translation error. This happens right in the first episode, when May’s boyfriend says John broke into Dao’s place and raped her. I don’t speak Thai, so I have no idea if this matches what was said. I do hope that there was a mix-up between “assault” and “sexual assault”, and that what it means is that he beat her, which is already pretty bad. Because if John raped Dao, all his later interactions with her, and Nara are really disturbing. Dao actually says she’ll always be his friend, and he and Nara cry together after finding out she’s been murdered.

So, Episode 6 ends with Rain dead after confessing to the murder of his and Rome’s girlfriend, Alis, and trying to shoot his twin brother. Nara didn’t see the fight and Rome tells her he’s Rain and that it was Rome who died. It’s clear that he wants to take over his brother’s life, the life he believes should’ve had. This was a good ending, but it had some issues: why would Rome tell Nara he’s Rain when he just confessed to being a murderer who framed his brother for a crime he didn’t commit? And what is she going to do now that she knows the truth? Well, there’s no need to worry because in the beginning of Episode 7, she already knows it was Rome who lived. We don't witness this conversation – the last thing Rome tells her is that he’s Rain and nothing more. The same type of thing happens between Episodes 10 and 11: Nara gets stabbed at the end of 10, and halfway through 11 she shows up fine.

No one managing to murder Nara was just ridiculous. As was the fact that no one seemed able to just sit down and have an actual conversation to clarify things, like how the land was stolen. And the insistence on forgiveness would’ve been more meaningful if Sompot and his boss hadn’t just actively tried to kill Nara. I could see her leaving, but forgiving them? Not buying it. Seeing everyone deflecting blame when it came to Rome’s shooting got on my nerves. Yes, the gun belonged to Nara’s father, but it was Run who pulled the trigger, and he only did it because of his father’s relentless abuse. I can’t believe Run was stupid enough to suddenly turn around and blame Nara for Rome’s condition!

The ending was such a mess. Rome strangling Dao because he thought she was Alis and was trying to leave made no sense. Did the writers forget that Rain was the real murderer? The mass shooting scene was so badly shot it almost looked like a parody. Why keep cutting to the three sheep? Is there some Thai symbolism in that image? Also, by the time this happens, the only people left are Sompot, who’s a murderer, John, who may be a rapist, Penpon, who helped kidnap Dao and wanted to trick Nara into being with Rome thinking it was really Rain, idiot Run, and Nara. It’s hard to care much about any of these people at this point, especially since Nara only shows up later.

Bedtime Wishes ends with Rome in a mental hospital, completely obsessed with Nara, and yet incapable of recognizing her when she visits him. How did Nara survive and why does Rome think she’s dead? Then again, after witnessing a good story deteriorate into complete nonsense throughout seven long episodes, I really don’t care. I wish I weren’t such a completist and had stopped at Two Pillows & A Lost Soul.

By Wilcox