BLISS RATING: ★+
“The longing for sweets is really a yearning for love or ‘sweetness.’” – Marion Woodman
Let me sum up this series by saying this. Avoid it. Frankly, it is awful. It is not a BL which does not make it bad. I have watched several non-BL series that have such strong male friendships and bromances (I’M TEE, ME TOO; HOTEL STARS, YOU NEVER EAT ALONE) that are excellent. These in particularly are strong series. This one, however, is not. But interestingly, it has some very good acting and some very bad acting. It has some excellent story lines, and it also has some very, very bad ones. Although it has some very poignant moments, it is also peppered with too many cringeworthy ones as well. In other words, this series is all over the map with no clear focus, direction, or story plot. It tries to cover too much and subsequently gets lost in convoluted details. Had they focused on one or two plots, this would have been a great story, but it honestly is so undisciplined that it is completely unfocused on to what is its main theme.
The story centers around a rich guy named Punn (Lee Thanat Lowkhunsombat) who purchases a sweet shop. Ironically, he does not like sweets and the story revolves around why he does not like desserts. He buys the shop because he wants to meet girls. I cannot begin to tell you the problems someone like this would have in the United States, opening a shop like this where he is both covertly and overtly trying to ‘pick up’ females. In case you do not realize it, that is sexual harassment of the worst kind. That in of itself is another story.
He hires a pastry chef named Weir (Singto Prachaya). Weir is in essence a mega-star in the world of BL. His acting is first rate. He takes this drab story and tries to make it at least interesting. He warns Punn that he has been fired previously because he is known as the “Gay Conqueror”. That whole concept was simply patently silly and completely unrelatable. He apparently can seduce any guy, gay or straight, that he sets his sights on.
And of course, he sets his sight on Punn and throughout, he constantly harasses his boss. This is all so cringeworthy that I hated it. It might have been funny in the beginning (slightly) but after a while, it is annoying, degrading, and harassing and I loathed it.
He slowly reforms his personality a bit but had to be reminded and guided along a number of times. Punn at one point had to slap him on his face as if he were a petulant child with trying to seduce Pooh. While understandable, the response was abhorrent. I detest physical violence upon another for unjustified reasons especially in BL series (even non-BL series). In addition, that an employer slapping an employee is grounds for so many lawsuits.
In comes in a young man, whose character I did like. He is Krating (Pluem Purim). His story is interesting, and he had at least some aspects to his character that were noteworthy and relatable. Initially, he starts out as a boxer, abandoned as a child, and raised by his Coach. But unfortunately, he has a medical condition that now excludes him form boxing ever again. He lands a job at the sweet shop, Unsurprisingly, he seems to have an affinity to becoming a good pastry chef himself. Some very nice interactions and solid story line do make him relatable, and he does become a part of the family feeling between Punn, Weir, and Pooh.
The final member of this misfit band of pastry tarts is a so-called ‘bodyguard’ for Punn named Pooh (Foei Patara). He is portrayed as a simpleton and inept as to almost any chore assigned to him. This frankly was an awful portrayal of a rather interesting character with a quite a provocative past. I found this whole characterization so offensive and one-dimensional and to a degree sad. He is the classic definition of a ‘throw-away’ character but ironically, he is an integral part of the story and to some degree one of the most relatable characters in terms of human emotions. He is astute, sympathetic, charming, relatable, and has an infinite love for everyone close to him. I wish they would have elevated his character to more than being a buffoon. He can best be described as a ‘Sad Sack”.
There is this insane and unnecessary story about a newspaper family that investigates missing children being kidnapped by the pastry kidnapper. That whole subplot is silly, out of place and is poorly acted. None of it is believable although they twist it to show a connection to Punn’s own kidnapping. The thing that makes this a quasi-BL is that Weir’s obsessive old boyfriend, Jean (Wave Koo), keeps plaguing Weir. Weir seems powerless or stupid or both in not being completely clear to him to simply stay out of his life. It did show, however, the power of toxic relationships, and the inability to extradite oneself from such a depend-co-dependent relationship. Even with Jean being the acme of tropeness by being married with children, that was still not enough for Weir to unequivocally say no. Weir seems to be completely controlled by Jean and it takes an unlikely contest of pastry skills to finally extradite him from his life, thanks in no small part to the constant support by Punn, Pooh and Krating.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. the series? This is going to seem like an odd choice but the one that stands out the most for this distinction is Joke Akarin who plays Tert, the painful father of a boy murdered by a kidnapper many years ago t the same time that Punn was kidnapped. The pain he had to endure and live with plus the mental health issues compounding the adjustment to trying to get back to a normal life is intensely portrayed by him. He presents a figure steeped in depression and loss of reality. Joke’s portrayal of this character is profoundly real, and his range of acting skills shows us the spectrum of emotions someone as tortured as this guy would have been in. But through it all, he seeks redemption and a chance to move on with his life. Joke does an exemplary job of showing the tremendous range of emotions that the character would have had. As an honorable mention, I do think Pluem as Krating needs to be recognized. Krating is such an interesting character with some deep emotional baggage that he carries along – simply seeking a stable place to call home and a family to go with that. He is interesting and I would love to see him get his own story. Indeed, he has such a deep boy-next-door look about him that you are drawn into his world.
There is so much to this series that I have not mentioned because to do so would require a road map to figure out where it went and more importantly why. Just one example, Weir had a phobia about working with females which had noting to do with him being gay. It had all to do with an experience he had with his mother. Bizarre? Yes. And again, a ridiculous premise. (For those that watched the series, how was she to know he had a crush on his teacher? He was a child! Give me a break). I could go on and on about the many plots and subplots to this series, but I think it is best not to.
This is obvious going to be (if it is not already) one of my least favorite ‘BL’ series. It really has some fine actors and actresses in it with some astonishingly good individual scenes. But the series as a whole just makes no sense. Kidnapping, murder, mental illness, sexual harassment, phobias, family abandonment, toxic relationships, fixed contests, homelessness are just some of the major issues tackled in this series. Sure, there were nice moments of friendships, connections, and family reunions but not enough to overcome its lack of a coherent and messy story. Pick one or even two issues and explore them with some depth to it. This series was a complete waste of talent and a profound disappointment. A real shame. It is all over the map with no clear direction in terms of going anywhere.
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