BLISS RATING: ★
“We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The greatest task in life is to find reality.” – Iris Murdoch
Watching this series was torturous and you are essentially left with the question: OMG! Why? It really is that bad. It is bad from so many angles – too numerous to actually mention. From its infantile storyline to its mediocre acting to its awful and I do mean awful plot.
This is yet again another cliché-driven trope-filled Bl that even if you have never seen a BL, one could figure out where the story is going. Oh, it had cute moments, but it unfortunately slipped into a standard formula that left no one guessing as to its plot, and frankly asking oneself why did I sit through this? Nothing was original in this story except perhaps the name of the vampire city which was named Thaiwlight City. Now that was cute!
The plot evolves around a group of young vampires who want to escape Vampire Land and traverse throughout the Human World for love. For some obscure reason, love has been outlawed in Vampire Land and so they need to cross over into the Human World to find it and thus be able to engage in love. Marketed as a comedy, this series is not particularly funny but tries very hard to project humor. Most of it comes across as corny, sappy, and maudlin. The story is certainly not fervent, and you can follow along without any need for deep reflections. It is just there. Very predictable and very contrived.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? To be sure, the acting is hardly challenging for any of them in this series and no one really stood out. But I suppose who had the greatest impact on the series was Mon Varakorn Varuncharoentham as Mix. Being the heavy-set character-actor, I thought the jokes and references to him being overweight would be flying left and right, but surprisingly, they were not. A real plus! He played a pivotal character in the series and for the most part was the anchor for the rest of the vampires and the reference point and compass for providing directions. Not that his characterization got ardent, but at least he did provide some sense of comedic relief for this otherwise drab series. Surprisingly, he ended up becoming the Leader of Vampire Land, which is a somewhat fitting conclusion for him. He deserved that distinction. His interactions with his earth mother were some of the better acting moments in this series as well, especially at the end. I was surprisingly touched by their goodbyes to each other. An Honorable Mention should also go to Son Ravisut Patipatvasin as Chin who is not just drop-dead gorgeous but played the hapless character falling in love with vampire Jolie (Dear Napit) with such conviction and dogged tenaciousness. He deserved a better script. Actually, they all did. He seemed most eager to me to do something, anything, with his role, that would give it some life. And I personally think he did.
This series was certainly insulting to the gay community. Perhaps unintentionally, but it is, nonetheless. The point of using performers in drag as ‘wives’ mystifies me. Why does that continue? And to insult the audience to pretend as if they are ‘married’ is equally as baffling. Is it for humor? The whole ridiculous arranged marriage set-up between Zen (David Kittiwawin Justice) and Ran (Kan Tangruek) was painful to watch. They treated their relationship, which was based on a supposed ‘real-life’ relationship, as a joke and with an astonishingly cavalier attitude was beyond the pale. I could not figure out if the whole thing was simply a mockery and was trying to be presented as satire or not. Finally, when they admitted that they ‘liked’ each other and will go through with the marriage, they go through the rituals/protocols as if this was a ‘straight’ wedding, acting as if someone is a ‘husband’ and someone is a ‘wife’.
While they certainly CAN have that type of marriage, that is undoubtedly NOT typical. Here again it is a complete total misconception of what a GAY marriage is. Roles in gay marriages are not usually defined in those terms – that is perpetrated by straight writers for what they think it is.
And made to be identifiable or palpable for straight audiences. This misconception has to stop. In addition, it was so obvious that neither actor was comfortable playing the part. Their kissing scenes were simply painful and cringey to watch. In a few instances they were not even kisses but sniffs (which I know is culturally accurate, but these really were supposed to be kisses in the scenes). They acted with obvious discomfort which then made it look like the whole marriage was a sham and could not be taken seriously and was not meant to be serious. There was no connection or chemistry between the two actors that remotely made me believe even in the slightest that they were a ‘couple’ or that they were even capable of any further acts of intimacy.
However, what brought this series completely to a whole new level of disgust is when Pumm (Frank Thanatsaran) wakes up from a sound sleeps and asks his boyfriend Partick (Lee Long Shi) if he had ‘raped’ him. And Patrick says he had ‘satisfied’ himself as he is the boyfriend while Pumm was asleep. As if somehow, that made it all right. Pumm being silent was tacit approval for sex. Apparently never realizing that some people can sleep through just about anything. (Irrelevant whether one believes that to be true or not).
Silence by itself is never a yes. Only an acknowledged and accepted response of yes is indeed yes. I was thunderstruck and dumbfounded and destroyed by this thinking. That somehow because you are in a relationship, especially a gay one, you can do just about anything you want to another human being. Is that what people think is ok in a gay sexual relationship? Remember, you are representing, whether you like it or not, what gay intimacy is and to give the impression or even imply that once a label is attached to a male-to-male relationship, all sense of moral, legal, and ethical standards are now gone is reprehensible to me and flat out wrong.
The whole connection between Phum and Patrick felt forced and oscillated so much between believability, contrivance, and artificiality. In the beginning Patrick seemed ‘straight’ and suddenly he flips for Phum in a big way. All of that felt so twisted just to make a story.
The only couple who fully developed any sense of a ‘relationship’ is the Captain (Sugus Buntawit) and the Lieutenant (Bonus Tanadech). These two at least had a slow steady progression to their connection and it seemed more natural. However, their connections in a few instances seems a bit over-the-top as well. They also had fairly good screen chemistry together and their sexual tension together was believable.
If this series had been campy or even tongue-in-cheek, it could have been really funny and different. Instead, it felt like a cheap production with cheap theatrics relying on clichés, tropes and endless platitudes. And to treat the entire concept of relationships, be it gay or straight, as a mockery sends the wrong message and cheapens the “L” in this presumptive but incoherent “BL” series.
This is an awful mess.
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