On the floor between rows of desks in an empty classroom, we see two pairs of feet, seemingly entwined. We don't see bodies or faces, but the uniform shoes tell us they are a teenaged boy and girl. We hear the girl's voice: "You got it?" A pause. "Give it to me, I'll put it on for you."
The boy apparently doesn't have it, and the girl, fun-loving though not a fool, storms out of the room. She'll only do it with boys who wear condoms, and that's not the case today.
Sex in a classroom _ even an intimation of it _ isn't something you expect to see on Thai television. And this isn't a preachy, moralistic lesson about safe sex for secondary school students, but a supremely frank depiction of hormonal typhoons. What we've described is one of the many controversial scenes from the sleeper hit television programme Hormones The Series, which has scored phenomenal ratings and YouTube views since the first episode aired in late May on cable channel GMM One.
Produced by Nadao Bangkok and GMM Thai Hub (GTH), Hormones The Series tells stories of Bangkok high schoolers as they cross physical and emotional thresholds. The bold, honest and sometimes downright shocking dialogue and behaviour of the young characters have become points of contention and admiration. As the tubes are saturated with flight-of-fantasy soap operas, the show gives hope that Thai television may actually try to say something real about society.
A teenage Casanova, a bullied girl, a rock star-wannabe, a boy who reads Haruki Murakami _ Hormones follows nine main characters in a fictional Bangkok school. There are 13 episodes in the series, airing weekly on Saturdays and uploaded on YouTube on Sundays. This weekend is the eighth episode, and some of the previous shows have racked up nearly 6 million views on YouTube, and counting fast.
"It really is about us. Teenagers are like that sometimes. We do all those crazy things just like in the show," says fan Vasupon Itthipornvanich, 16.
Napat Ungsuwothai, 15, says his life is nothing like the characters in the show, although he believes all the wild behaviour on screen happens for real.
Teen viewers dig the show for its realism, while their parents, after watching a few episodes, might feel a lump in their throats seeing how schoolchildren may be behaving in real life.
"I watched an episode and my daughter looked at me and said, 'I knew you'd make that face'," says a mother who's also a fan. "Seeing those kids, I'm worried."
Beside stories relating to audiences' experiences, director Songyos Sukmakanan believes people are hooked because of the quality of the production and the fact it offers something different from the usual husband-and-wife drama on free TV.
"Now, if we want to make people tune in to a paid channel on cable TV, we need to offer something that they can't find on free TV. With the success that we have had so far, we are now discussing that we may continue with another season in the future," says Songyos, who has a strong fan base among young viewers from his teen-orientated movies such as Dorm (2006) and Hormones (2008).
Some of the actors are familiar faces, others not, but together they are pulling in more and more fans each week. Pachara Chirathivat (Suck Seed, The Billionaire), Ungsumalynn Sirapatsakmetha (Bangkok Traffic Love Story), Sutatta Udomsilp (Ladda Land, Last Summer) star alongside rising talents, many of them making their debut on the small screen.
Songyos says the show's four scriptwriters have various backgrounds, but all related to young people. They have based the stories on real life, and the controversial elements were not designed to jack up ratings, since the creators didn't expect their cable production to cross over to become a mainstream phenomenon.
''On our writing team we have a movie director, an indie film director, an air hostess, a university lecturer and a creative from a radio channel,'' says Songyos.
''We're not young but we cherish our teenage lives. Also, their careers allow them to work with and listen to the voices of young people.'' Apart from the moment the boy and girl almost have sex in a classroom, several scenes in the series have sparked debate.
They range from mundane misbehaviour like students smoking (because this is a cable channel, the cigarettes are not blurred) and drinking, to the more outrageous. These include a bitchfight between female students being filmed and the clip posted online, students trying to have sex in a boy's toilet and a novice monk being beaten up inside a temple by kids from a rival school.
In another scene, a single mother of a teenage girl gets pregnant, and her daughter admonishes her candidly: ''Mum, why don't you use protection?''
Songyos says: ''Yes, we are afraid of criticism. But if we have to do the typical teen stories, that won't offer anything new, and we don't want to do it. When the show airs and people see those controversial scenes, we need to have the answers for why we did what we did. If they have questions, we must have answers for them.''
Surprisingly, says Songyos, the feedback tends to be more positive and people are open-minded about sensitive issues. He gives an example of a tragic case in the US where a man killed people and confessed that he felt the urge to kill after watching a superhero film.
''Yes, the man said he wanted to kill people after watching Batman. What about others who also watched this same movie? They didn't want to do such a thing. It means that there is not a single reason to make people do what they do,'' says Songyos.
''If you follow the story, you will see that each character makes mistake. But through the camera we follow each character and allow viewers to learn what has caused their action and what makes them act that way. Certainly I hope the young audience won't make the same mistakes as these characters.''
Chookiat Sakveerakul, director of the ground-breaking teen movie The Love Of Siam and other films on teenagers, says: ''If you want to attract teenage audiences, you need to speak their language. Most shows for teens tend to preach to viewers, giving them the right or wrong decisions instead of allowing them to apply reason or think for themselves.''
As a director in a similar genre, Chookiat says the show's popularity comes from its unpretentious stories where viewers can see themselves, and that nowhere else in the mainstream media is offering this.
''I admire this brave move of the producers at GTH studio. It is unlike what they've done before and I think Hormones did a good job. I also like watching the show,'' he says.
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