BLISS RATING: ★+
“My weaknesses have always been food and men – in that order.” – Quote from Dolly Parton
Perhaps the quote above is a bit tongue-in-cheek for this series, but it aptly sums up what this series is all about. Food and men. And for those who do not know who Dolly Parton is, your life is incomplete. Those who do, will then understand why this quote is so apropos.
This story is your standard Thai rom-com droll series, treating gay relationships like infantile, immature, puppy-love versions of Pollyanna tales. Not that it is not cute; it is. Not that it is not entertaining; some of it is. Not that it does not have good messages and themes; it does. But it is tedious, boring, and unchallenging with not a shred of originality to the story or plot, although the food looked awesome. And the actors all (save one) could have done this series sleepwalking. In other words, it is standard stuff, cliché-driven, with lots and lots of triteness thrown in for good measure. This series gives new meaning to the term ‘light-fluff’. Again, there is no point summarizing the story. Take parts from a slew of Thai BLs and you got it.
Prem or Chef (Gun Atthaphan) is a serious but a somewhat bumbling culinary student whose passion is really cooking. He accidentally meets a med student named Ten or Doc (Off Jumpol) who is a focused pre-med student with a conflicted family background, mainly stemming from poor to no communication with his father, who is also a doctor.
Their love story weaves and bobs through many what seem like endless banal episodes. Both acting as if they are in grade school rather than in college. I dislike comparing performances to past series as the present is a stand-alone production, but both these actors have some serious acting skills that were completely wasted in this infantile, embarrassing series. They both emoted like teenage schoolboys. Neither one treated this relationship with anything that even resembled passion, commitment, or intensity. A few hugs, smooches, or holding hands is not a sign of commitment nor a definition of love. There was no sense of depthness to their relationship whatsoever except superficial cuteness.
Prem has two others as cooking partners that are entertaining. One is rather impressive and enjoyable to watch. Dynamite (Aungpoa Ochiris Suwanacheep) sets his sight on one of Ten’s friends, Fire (Neo Trai), and manages to develop a rather interesting and well-thought-out relationship with him. Sure, there are the usual cringy moments, but overall, their relationship develops with some sense of beginning, middle, and end with creativity, illumination, and a modicum of satisfaction, especially in terms of dealing with Fire’s mother. His other partner is Samsi (Dome Jaruwat).
Samsi is a heavy-set individual, and I am always leery that this role is one merely for comic relief at the expense of his weight. Fortunately, this was not the case, although there were a few references to his weight. He actually was given an integral role in the series and became a pivotal individual and in the end, shockingly they gave him a romantic relationship with Prem’s sister. I just wish that would have been further developed as that would have been interesting and refreshing.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? The acting in this series by the main performers is standard. It is cute and some parts of it were entertaining, and they delivered their lines well. In terms of intensity of a relationship, there just was not any. I have seen these guys act before, and this is barely light fluff for them. Who I think did a good job in convincing me he was ‘real’ was Aungpoa Ochiris Suwanacheep as Dynamite. Not only is he drop-dead gorgeous, but he also convinced me that he was a third-year college student, even though in real life he is only 17. To be sure, this is a rom-com, so nothing got really deep, but he has a certain sincerity in his acting skills and mannerisms that make him believable. He also, despite being so young, convincingly took charge of Fire, which was both amusing and a bit scary at the same time. He seems to have that type of personality to do so. Two others that should not be overlooked as Honorable Mentions are Dome Jaruwat as Samsi who did not and would not play to his heaviness but to his strengths as a character. And the other is Tum Warawut as Metha. He is also a friend of Ten but befriends Prem and the other two friends of Prem and is the lynchpin for keeping the fledging couples together. He also loves to tease Samsi and Samsi in return with the two of them seemingly frenemies but in reality, share a unique and close bond with one another. While he breezes in and out of scenes, he seems to have a good feel as a character about what is happening and manages to keep both the story and the relationships moving forward. I hope he gets a chance for a bigger role someday. His timing is perfect.
I appreciate the story was trying to show that Prem has character and integrity in his efforts to persuade Ten’s father to like and accept him; but it was misguided. The lack of open, honest, and straight-forward communication drives me crazy in Thai BLs. Prem had so much more integrity than Ten’s father could ever have had. Ten freely gave the money to Prem, with Ten saying ‘money is no object’. Share that with the father. That is called honesty. How dare the father put a ‘value’ on a worth of a service when he paid little to no attention to his son for years. The father lectures Ten about the inappropriateness of violence for defending Prem’s honor after he recently slaps Ten across the face. That was rich.
Ten’s stepmother, who is either deliberately dense or astonishingly naïve, goes into Ten’s room and finds something she had no right to look through, tells the father, and both Ten and Prem are confronted about their ‘scheme’ but not a word was said by the father that neither he nor the step mother had any right to snoop through Ten’s personal belongings nor to use what she found against him. And they question Ten and Prem’s integrity? What? This nonsense that family can do no wrong and has some magical power over children may hold when they are young, but do not, should not, and cannot hold when someone becomes an adult.
Otherwise, no one will ever be fully independent of parental control or authority. You are equal to them. Period. That line needs to be explored more in the BL world. That is the kind of story that will be a series more real than the silly light fluff child-like nonsense that is being cranked out now.
Does this series have more good qualities to it than bad ones? Honestly, it does not. Mainly because the potential for being a much better series was there, even with its trite, pedestrian, and terribly cliché storylines. It is getting so wearisome to see the same vapid theme where two guys fall in ‘love’ in a storybook land of fantasy, acting like they are grade-school boys on the playground and the teacher just caught them exploring each other’s bodies. It was all so sweet, but still tsk, tsk, naughty.
There is no reality to this story or to their relationship. They are not even adults. If I were not gay and was watching this series, I would think, based upon I am watching, that gay relationships are filled with nothing but good food, moonbeams, and unicorns. And that all Thai gay individuals need to do is hug a few times, gently kiss on the lips or frequently on the forehead, and hold hands and before you know it, they are boyfriends. Any any other form of intimacy is hidden away, not talked about, cannot be shown, or even implied, or perhaps does not even exist.
I am here to tell you that categorically gay people have all kinds of sex and display all forms of intimacies from mild to wild, most of which are hardly ever shown or implied in Thai BLs. What is being shown is not normal, sensible, or part of any real world. Why is everyone so afraid to be an adult in an adult world? I honestly just do not get it.
I did like parts of this series if I am being honest. It is hard not to like these guys. Their sweetness is addictive. But seriously, the story itself is so lame and unrealistic even for a rom-com. I just felt it was wasted talent, but we did get to see what I hope will be a new star on the horizon.
But there is no taking away from how bad this series really is. And it could end up being on my Bathos List.
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