Sleepless Society: The Series Review
Sleepless Society: The Series is a Thai drama and suspense series on Netflix consisting of four independent miniseries made between 2019 and 2020. They are, in order of release, Nyctophobia, Bedtime Wishes, Insomnia, and Two Pillows & A Lost Soul.
I’m going to begin with an overview of the series as a whole, which I’ll keep spoiler-free, and then post separate reviews of each of the miniseries with spoilers.
Most of the miniseries have things in common: a lead female character, plot twists, complex morality, no tidy endings, interesting characters, uneven acting, some hammy dialogue, and satisfying resolutions. Each has thirteen episodes and there’s a midpoint for all of them where things begin to drag a little as the writers stretch the plot to delay the ending. Insomnia is the one in which this is less noticeable, Two Pillows & A Lost Soul is the one in which this is the most obvious. Still, the ending always, or almost always, makes up for it. I know Netflix has a bad track record with translations, but apart from one glaring moment in Bedtime Wishes, there was nothing that made me doubt the subtitles. Of course, this doesn’t mean they were accurate.
This is how I rank the miniseries:
Number 1 – Insomnia
In Insomnia (2019/2020), Iya suffers from insomnia. Her condition makes it difficult for her to distinguish dreams from reality. The oldest and most persistent of these is the image of her mother killing someone. Since she doesn’t remember what happened the night she lost her parents, there’s a chance this could be a real memory. At the advice of her therapist, Iya returns to her childhood home to try to find out what happened. Helping her to investigate the past are her childhood friends, whom she hasn’t seen in years. Things turn out to be more complicated than they seem, more than one person is hiding secrets and Iya doesn’t know who she can trust.
This was the first one I watched and in my opinion is the best of the four. The plot is tighter, there’s minimal filler, the twists keep coming, and I don’t recall many instances of plot-induced stupidity. Insomnia has the craziest twist of all the miniseries.
Number 2 – Nyctophobia
In Nyctophobia (2019), Meena is still grieving the death of her young son, Arm, when a boy of the same age shows up and tells her he’s the reincarnation of her dead son. Desperate for answers, she turns to Sita, a spiritual leader, who helps her accept that the boy might be telling the truth. Meanwhile, Meena’s friends remain sceptic, especially Karn, who has been infatuated with her for years. He asks a cop friend to investigate the boy. However, the new Arm isn't as helpless as he seems and people start dying.
The spiritual cult part goes on for too long, there are some frustrating instances of characters not sharing information and also of plot-induced stupidity. That said, Nyctophobia features my favourite twist, and the show doesn’t stray from the main plot.
Number 3 – Two Pillows & A Lost Soul
In Two Pillows & A Lost Soul (2020), Kate, a former actress turned motivational speaker who’s trapped in an abusive marriage with an up-and-coming politician, Chad, has a recurrent dream of killing her husband. When she decides to go through with divorcing him, her friend throws her a party with two male prostitutes. Kate sleeps with one and wakes up next to the other’s dead body. The surviving prostitute, Top, confesses to the murder, but his brother, Tew, doesn’t believe he’s guilty and decides to investigate. Suspecting Kate, he goes to work for her in an attempt to find evidence of her guilt. However, Chad’s party send their fixer, Rat, to help protect his, and by extension Kate’s, reputation. Things get ever more complicated, and few will make it out alive.
This one’s tricky. I believe Two Pillows & A Lost Soul has the best characters and also a good central plot. Unfortunately, the writers have to stretch it for thirteen episodes, and we end up with a lot of filler. Even so, everything comes together in a satisfying finale that makes up for the show’ flaws.
Number 4 – Bedtime Wishes
In Bedtime Wishes (2019), Nara becomes involved with her friend May’s new boss, Rain, who hires her to take promotional photographs of the resort he’s about to open. He seems perfect until he begins to show signs of two different personalities. Nara also befriends a young employee, Dao, who has an abusive ex, John, whose father, Sompot, is the right-hand man of both Rain and his controlling father. Everyone seems to be hiding something, including Nara herself.
This is the worst of the four and just bad in general. The most baffling thing is that it’s actually good until Episode 7, but then completely wastes all that build-up in a mediocre third act that puts shock value over quality. Some of it doesn’t even make sense when you remember what came before. There’s also lots of loose ends and missed opportunities.
By Wilcox