BLISS RATING: ★+
“I don’t have a heart, so why does it hurt so much?” – Quote from The Wicked Game
Honestly, what can one say about a series that has so little going for it? The plot is dizzyingly twisted. Frankly, it has no socially redeeming values about it at all and there is no point pretending it does. The principal characters are all sycophantic, disreputable, and unprincipled. There is essentially no love story to speak of and what little effort that was put into a love connection, was feigned, contrived, and absolutely based on insincerity. Frankly, I am not sure how I sat through this trashy soap opera. We have seen this theme so many times before. These Bls with their cookie-cutter, cliché-driven, insincere, (poorly done) overdramatic action plots have simply got to stop. Along with the egregious, initially inauthentic love connection – one with not a shred of chemistry or sincerity about it. Honestly, you must have a brain filled with rocks to believe that the main protagonists were in love let alone believe they were in an impassioned sexual relationship. If you do not believe me, then rewatch the last episode with your eyes wide open and tell me that I am wrong. For sure, everyone looks ‘good’ but that is not enough to carry the story across the finish line.
This saga does, however, shed new light onto the meaning of dysfunctional family. In addition to being performed overdramatically as well. Sometimes, scenes that were supposed to be serious, I was on the floor laughing because of the over-the-top acting that was happening.
The story is utterly too convoluted and stupid to make any sense, but the gist is sibling rivalry. Pheem (Offroad Kantapon) comes back to the family fold all arrogant, fixated, and hellbent on wrestling control of the private hospital company from both his father and the natural heir, who is his fentanyl-using and highly neurotic brother, Chet (Tongtong Kitsakorn). Of course, waiting in the wings like a circling vulture is the manipulative sociopathic but quietly demur sister named Risa (Mo Monchanok). Pheem himself is a malignant, compulsive lying con-artist who has little to no trouble using and controlling others with half-truths and twisting the facts to manipulate them. Along the way, he meets a former detective by the name of Than (Daou Pittaya), perhaps one of only a handful of individuals that has an ounce of integrity. He misleads Than to become his bodyguard and sweetly talks him into believing that he will help him get back into the police force after Pheem’s brother Chet set him up as a fall guy that got him kicked off the police force. Although Pheem repeatedly exploits and deceives Than—who is aware that Pheem’s outwardly respectable demeanor conceals questionable motives—Than nevertheless maintains his loyalty. Despite his mild to angry breakups with him that last, oh I do not know, perhaps a few hours to a day or two, he seems to be charmed by Pheem’s siren song. That is not love; that is a fixation. Somehow, which I never believed for one second, the two of them developed a ‘relationship’. If you seriously bought that connection, then I most assuredly have a ‘bridge to sell you’ (as the expression goes).
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? Look, this series is a complete mess and not even a hot mess at that. But secretly, I could not keep my eyes off two characters who I think were so hypnotically bad that one simply gravitated towards them. Unfortunately, the production completely missed the opportunity to develop a relationship between these two. In truth, they were so much more interesting to watch and were intriguing characters; I kept hoping for more, but we never got it. I am, of course, referring to Tongtong Kitsakorn as Chet and his ever faithful and obsessively loyal bodyguard, Parkphum played so demurringly by Inn Jakkrasin. Both these guys are so deliciously handsome and completely steal every scene they are in because they control every one of those scenes. For them, the world only existed for them, and they were the only ones in them. As much as Tongtong completely overacted in many, Inn underacted to the same degree with both making each of those scenes thus seem more impactful than they should have been. I wanted to see Chet and Parphum just to watch what they were going to do next. More importantly, the sexual tension between those two was so palpable and intense that you could cut it with a knife. Yet, neither crossed the line into overt behavior, which saddened me. I wanted them so much to be in a relationship even more so than the prosaic one between Pheem and Than. At least, theirs would have been believable and sincere and I suspect very erotic. The highlight of this series, frankly, is the ending scene with Chet telling, or should I say begging, Parkphum to live his life without restrictions or commitments to him anymore. Both were so deeply in love with each other, but neither could say or act on it. This was one of the few truly significant moments in the series featuring notable acting.
However, the rest of this series is simply pell-mell. It deteriorates into one unbelievable scene after another. Each getting more far-fetched. The fight scenes were so preposterous and badly choregraphed that I had to stop watching so I could catch my breath from laughing so hard. And then at the end, the resurrected Pheem coming back with a new identity was about as far-fetched as one could possibly imagine. His whole premise was simply incredulous, illogical, and absurd from every angle you could think of – legal, ethical, social, etc.
The whole foible with this plot is that the production got so wrapped up in the web of the storytelling that it forgot that it needed to have a plausible, coherent, and most importantly logical ending. It was all so unhinged and plainly unraveled at the end, so much so that I am not sure they knew how to fully end it pragmatically. Additionally, since it WAS labeled a BL, someone thought to throw in a few scenes that pretended to be that. But it just did not work. Forgive me, but I do analyze and evaluate a series and do not take premises simply at ‘face’ value. I think about what is being said and questioned it.
From the beginning, there is nothing but moral rot. Starting with the father, Thanet (Poh Natthawut), who sets the corrupt course and nurtures in each of his ‘children’ that exercising cold, calculating, cunning immoral methods are the only way to get ahead successfully, and people are to be used and then discarded once they are no longer useful. You step on and over everyone to get ahead and use whatever means you can to win. Therefore, this whole story has no real socially redeeming values to it and any aspects of love therefore becomes suspect.
For me, this is an awful series that should not have been made. Filled with stunningly good-looking performers whose talents were wasted on a useless tale of immorality and a love story that was not at all credible. Only one couple truly loved each other; but their relationship ended unfulfilled and unrequited; ultimately mirroring the saying: live by the sword, die by the sword.
This is Bathos material. My life would have been richer without this series.
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