BLISS Rating: ★
“Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” – Sir Walter Scott
The reason I watched this series is the name simply fascinated me. Its named intrigued me. After watching this series, I realized I had made a grave mistake. There are not many series that I truly disdain, but this is one I found genuinely detestable. Without exception, I found all the main characters contemptible. Admittedly, at the same time, I found one of them, perhaps because of his bad-boy imagery, erotically-enticing and could understand his attraction and hold on others. Although I cannot fully explain it, I understand the magnetism of a ‘bad-boy’ archetype.
Plawan (Pon Thanapon) is a loser, drifter, and a grifter. Unfocused and is always living on the edge. Yet there is something so enticing about his ability to manipulate people not only with his words but also his personality. His friend for years, JJ (Garfield Pantach) has been manipulated by him since childhood and he knows it. Yet, there is something seductive that draws you to Plawan. It is certainly not his sincerity. Perhaps it is just his way with words that makes you believe him. Or the gentleness in the tone of his voice. He is astonishingly charismatic. Analytically speaking, his behavioral pattern is close to being sociopathic.
Plawan reads that Chef Oab (Saliub Hemmawich) from the ”No Long Beans Basil” restaurant is giving up his business. Recently Plawan tried to review the restaurant for his vlog but was escorted out because he was disruptive, which he was. There will be a cooking contest and whoever wins the contest will get his restaurant. The only condition is that the individual must not have any affiliation with the Methas Corporation as they want the property for future development and Oab refuses to sell to him.
In his own arrogance and feeling of pomposity, Plawan decides he is going to enter. Partly out of vindictiveness but mostly out of the need for money. He goes to Methas (Benz Atthanin), along with his friend JJ. Although JJ is a physical therapist by profession, he also has some business savvy and negotiates a lucrative deal for Plawan. Despite the fact that Plawan has little cooking skills, he is somewhat of an aficionado on various types of basil leaves and can tell the subtle distinctions between basil leaves based on their smell and taste. On that flimsy fact, he manages to get himself as one of the four finalists in the contest.
You really have to suspend your reality to believe that anything in this story could possibly happen. As I said, there is something tantalizing about Plawan that draws you to him. But he is a con artist and a manipulator extraordinaire. And he is hot – in a very erotic sense of the word. Plawan ‘learns’ to cook along the way by playing off the vulnerabilities of Oab and another contestant whom he senses has feelings for him. Therefore, he manages by circumstances and sheer luck to continue in the contest, which he simply does not deserve to do by any standard of decency and professional cooking criteria.
Of course, it does not hurt that Oab has fallen under his spell, even though he suspects he is working for Methas. He does not want to believe it. And gets himself deeper and deeper into Plawan’s web. It is not that Plawan is a ‘bad’ person per se; but his dishonesty and deception are beyond the pale. He knows what he is doing, and should he win, he must turn over the restaurant to Methas. To say that he has an unfair advantage would be putting it mildly.
Perhaps what Plawan was not planning on was actually falling in love with Oab. Yet, the sincerity behind it has to be questioned, however. He knows that, even if the chances are small in winning, he signed a contract to turn it over to an individual whom Oab despises and who represents everything Oab is fighting against.
If you really loved him, to the depth that you say that you do, would you not be forthright and honest and tell him? Say you are sorry and beg for forgiveness? Then bow out to allow someone else with more deserved skills to operate the restaurant? Would that not be the right thing to do? The moral, ethical and loving action to take? No matter how painful it might be to you? He does not, so how deep is that love? Even JJ, who got him into this contract, tries to tell him to be honest and upfront for a change.
Plawan is also aware of the unfair advantage he has over the other contestants by Oab being in love with him and how easily he is able to manipulate him.
Plawan is also conveniently able to manipulate so many other individuals as well. One of whom is Oab’s longtime assistant and contestant as well, Kluer (Aon Kasama). He too fell under the spell of Plawan, who rather than initially being upfront with him, pretends he is oblivious of his overtures and stories his way out of it until he could not. Kluer’s saga is indeed a painful one and one that is a product of unfair unwritten and unspoken rules in the contest. In other words, he got screwed by Oab. He, of all the contestants, was treated the most unfairly.
I had little sympathy for Oab and found him to be almost as unlikeable as Plawan. He is a self-absorb and a bit of an arrogant individual who overall treats people poorly and dismissively. Sure, he does have some good qualities when he is hit over the head with emotional hammers, but he is rash, flippant, and biased. He knows that Plawan is manipulating him but is too blinded by his love to see the big picture. That is his own doing. And that is purely unethical.
When his old girlfriend, Khao Suay (Belle Jiratchaya), comes back into the picture, she too does what she can to manipulate herself back into his life, knowing full well Oab has moved on and is in love with someone else. She is quite insidious in her manipulative skills. But it does not work; Plawan has a leg up on her, as the expression goes, and is able to out manipulate Oab masterfully. He knows exactly and precisely how to get Oab to decide who is more important to him.
As usual in these series, the protagonist Oab suffers from a syndrome I call ‘I am too gutless to say what I mean’. Which then causes more irrational hope for a different outcome which then leads to even more pain than if he would have been upfront in the beginning. In other words, they all deserve each other.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? To be sure, this is a well-acted series. Overall, there is nothing wrong with its execution. But it is not just acting that makes a story. It is the content and characters of the story as well and the morality. This tale is awful and to glorify those characteristics is reprehensible, despite its good acting. For example, the first person to leave the competition was Auto (Lee Are). To be sure, his actions were suspect and perhaps clandestine, but for good reasons. He was focused only on the competition. To a degree, I understood the reasoning behind the decision, yet in the overall context, his youthfulness did him in. Not his weaknesses in cooking. In the scheme of things, what it looked like was that the more questionable your integrity was, the greater the likelihood you would move on. He was a sad figure. He was scared but morally righteous. Of all the contestants, he was the one who was most in need of winning this restaurant. Kleur, if he won, would have been the most passionate and most committed to the restaurant. And Pansib (Tiger Tanawat) if he had won, would have given it the joy the place sorely needed. The only one who lacked a real reason for winning other than money was Plawan.
There is a secondary couple who are filled with unscrupulous characters as well. Methas is a brash, very handsome young man, while also having an emotionally and devasting background story. Driven by profit and surrounding himself with his wealth, he is contemptuous of individuals who are beneath him. In comes JJ as the physical therapist that Methas needs. Methas thinks and believes that you can buy anyone, anything and everything. Imperceptibly, he begins to fall for JJ and JJ does the same for him. Their bantering about is certainly cute and the sexual tension that they display works. It gets a bit unbelievable towards the end and a bit too ‘cute’ but it is certainly satisfying from an entertainment point of view. It is just a bit too neat and too quickly accomplished.
What trivializes this series further is the silliness of the lovemaking. Admittedly, while I did find Pon as Plawan quite sensual, I could not honestly believe his relationship with Oab (Saliub). It just did not work. I also found all their lovemaking in the kitchen gross and would hope that does not happen in real life. I know that is perhaps a fantasy and a dream scenario but constantly doing it in the restaurant kitchen got to be too much. I also have a problem with love making with pants on. Who makes love with pants on, seriously? That to me is laughable. When shirts come off, so do pants. Of course, I am not expecting nudity but for some sense of reality, at least show them taking off their pants or at least in underwear. Or again if you are going to be prudish, show nothing happening except for a tease or two. To show two men making love in pants is simply insulting and outlandish.
What sent me into a further tailspin about this series is its overall message of immorality. A con artist with no cooking skills wins a restaurant by manipulative means and essentially suffers no consequences. And is called Chef when in reality he is not. And a simple “I’m sorry” is enough to be forgiven for being colossally manipulated into falling in love with someone. What about the destruction of the dreams and values of the others who were involved with Plawan?
The Pollyanna ending made it feel as if everyone lives happily ever after. That is a Hollywood ending. Plawan suffered no consequences. Oab suffered none either. Methas has become a changed man literally overnight based on the rather excellent manipulative skills that JJ possesses. I hate to sound so cynical but none of this seems plausible to me.
I would like to have seen some semblance of reality hit them. How? Like Plawan winning and turns it over to Methas and, true to who he is, sold it for profit, thus deciding money is more important than a relationship with JJ. Or perhaps, a bit happier, Plawan does not win and fades off into the sunset, Oab gives it to one of the other contestants such as Kleur who deserved it. And Oab goes off to study in a foreign land. And Methas said I will not give up money and JJ needs to decide whether or not to be with him. Either one of these would seem more like a truer ending than the contrived one given to individuals who, in my opinion, do not deserve to have happy endings.
How you present a story is just as important as who is presenting the story. The message in this story is morally reprehensible as well as the characters. That part needs to be seen; certainly not glorified.
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