BLISS RATING: ★★★★
“Everything happens for a reason. There’s no coincidence. It happens because it has already been destined by something called commitment.” – Quote from The Sign
This is a stunningly beautiful production with a love story that is so entrancingly told that I honestly did not see two men in love but simply two individuals in love. It really was a love story that transcends genders and epochs. This is a romance that begins between two mythical Hindu/Buddhist deities named Garuda and Naga long ago. Throughout the ages, each continue to be drawn to each other in a way we would call destiny. Tharn (Babe Tanatat) and Phaya (Billy Patchanon) are the present-day living entities of these deities. They are intertwined and are inextricably drawn to their past as neither can escape their fates, since it has already been established.
Their backstory is so beautifully told and the juxtaposition of the former lives with their current ones is enchanting and so romantic. Enhanced by their stunning natural beauty, they also have a screen chemistry that we do not often see anymore. That attraction is believability. They believed in their characters, and they radiate at showing it. When they were lovers, I believed them. Their connection – the gentleness, the softness, the gestures of tenderness and the continuous and constant fear and worry that they had for each other – was cinematic magic and a thing of beauty to watch.
Their passion and love for each other was conveyed not with grandiosity but through their simple hugs, kisses, and longings they had for one another. Sometimes it was conveyed more so by subtle body language than by words or overt actions. That was breathtaking. They were truly a sensual couple in every sense of the meaning of that term. Although the love story of Tharn and Phaya is full of mysticism, the foundation for their love evolves as an eternal one. While it may be new to them, its bedrock has been a part of who they were since before they were born. It is connected to them. It is a part of them.
Of course, there was always an antagonist, and, in this case, it is a Naga deity named Chalathon (Heng Asavarid) who is a jealous and possessive entity and in the modern era takes the form of a psychiatrist and a close friend to Tharn. But in the past, he has and continued to remain possessive of Tharn and has throughout the ages kept Phaya from reconnecting with Tharn. Although the love of Than and Phaya is predestined, Chalathon does have magical and mystical powers to thwart their relationship. He makes several attempts to destroy Phaya but the bond and connection between Phaya and Tharn is just too strong, and he is unable to do so or is thwarted.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? This series only shined when Babe Tanatat as Tharn and Billy Patachanon as Phaya were present. Specifically, when they were together. There is a synergy that is rare for a couple to have. To coin a phrase, the beauty of these guys could launch a thousand ships and they looked like they belonged together whether they were humans or deities. They have a connection to each other that goes beyond merely acting. It just seems to be with them. Perhaps it is with their timing, or the subtlety of their emotions, or just the gentleness of the way they hugged each other or talked about each other. I could watch these two make 20 series together because they have a naturalness and sincerity about the way they characterize their relationship. For me, they believed that these two were deeply in love with each other and they played it from that perspective. They believed their characters have been and always will be in love. Their love is eternal, in other words. That is how it felt; that is how it came across.
Had the saga simply stayed with the journey of Phaya and Tharn, this would have been an apotheosis. But unfortunately, it became unwieldy and got so lost in the development of subplots, specifically involving a troupe of them becoming police officers, and solving a crime, that the love story almost took a back seat. And frankly all of that was so superficial and unnecessary to really what was in essence an alluring love rhapsody. The story of who they were is so much more important than what they were but unfortunately the production got so bogged down in the storytelling that the love came in sporadic waves, thus in a sense diminishing the emotional impact of their bond considerably.
There are just so many plot holes and logical inconsistencies in this series, that, while I realize it is a fantasy, it is still hard to absorb. There has to be some basis to reality in their actions. For example:
1.In the beginning, Tharn as a Naga is female but later is morphed into male with long hair which made no sense.
2. How did Tharn save Phaya from dying when he fell from the cliff? Completely unexplained.
3. Why was Tharn so closed minded when it came to his ‘friend’ the doctor (Chalathon) when the person with whom he supposedly loves more than anyone else tells him that Charalthon is trying to kill him and destroy their relationship, he rejects that notion completely out-of-hand. Why did he not trust him? This just made no sense.
These inconsistencies in the story lines, along with the belaboring execution of police work to appear to extend the plot of the series, to say nothing of the laughably bad shooting at the ‘bad guys’ made it almost cynical. All of that never enhanced any of the love story. The story of the families’ meeting was absorbing and added some depth to their story. More of that was needed to tighten up the script to make a more coherent love story and less on all the superfluous distractions. Here, the series should have been focused solely on the relationship. Nothing else mattered. To be honest, the other side stories, including those of the other characters, were all superfluous and uninteresting. The GL subplot in particular was tedious and boring and frankly poorly acted and one-dimensional. All of it was so distracting and frankly I fast-forwarded through a lot of that as well as a much of the police activity scenes.
I disliked the ending, considerably. It felt very rushed and just too contrived and too much of a Pollyanna ending. Here is where the story could have excelled. I wanted to know why and how Chalathon would have had such a change of heart and mind in allowing Tharn to return, rather than a long-winded explanation as to why he changed his mind. All this time he spent separating them and his entire existence was to thwart them, suddenly and inexplicably blesses their union. We deserved more. He deserved more. A better closure was needed. Sure, we all want happy endings, but this was so contrived.
I think where this series fell apart is that it tried to be pragmatic in a fantasy world. The leap from one to the other was so logically flawed at times, it twisted the belief system into knots. This was an A+ love story but a C- in plot. It was like watching two separate narratives. I could only wrap my head around the love story. That is the only thing worth watching. While the production of this series is well done and the special effects were good and believable, the overall story had way too many unnecessary subplots. If it advanced the love of Tharn and Phaya, I was interested. When it got beyond that or divested from that point, I lost interest, and found the story mundane and a bit utopian.
I loved their relationship decidedly. The story to get there, not so much. Let us hope in Season 2 they tighten the story up and concentrate on what works. And what works here is Tharn and Phaya together. Do not mess with that magic.
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