BLISS RATING: ★+
“Toxic love is like a drug – you keep going back even though its killing you.” – Goodreads Toxic Relationships Quotes
This series is such a disappointment. From the beginning, it lures you into thinking it is one thing only for the rug to be pulled out from underneath you. Frankly, it is detestable that the way it diabolically makes you think that one of the protagonists is a devilish creature, granting wishes and if you do not fulfill the contract, he takes your ‘soul’. Not literally of course, but something negative or bad will happen to you. Even the way he makes you sign his contract is creepily ghoulish and satanic. It takes a while for one to discover, it is all a ruse – a con game, being played by someone who has a lot of money and who gets cheap thrills out of granting wishes to sappy and/or hapless individuals. And then when the creature cannot fulfill their end of the bargain, which is usually the case, he destroys them. And has the audacity to think he is a moral integrant and parades around with righteous indignation if someone questions his ethical scruples.
For some unfathomable reason, Jane Patrick (Tee Boonyakait) is completely enamored by an individual also named Jane (Heng Thatpong). I say this because I could never understand Jane Patrick’s fixation on Jane. Additionally, the reason for naming both protagonists with the same name is beyond any logic and only leads to confusion and unnecessary illogical uncertainties. While others, many as a matter of fact, tried to warn Jane to stay away from Jane Patrick; like a moth to a flame, he kept being drawn to him.
Perhaps initially as an object of lust and certainly projecting an initial image of misunderstanding and coyness, Jane was obviously gullible because he wanted to be. Who would not be when a very handsome and exceedingly rich man seems to be intensely interested in you and treats you like you are exceptionally special? Jane sees what he wants to see in Jane Patrick – until he takes off his rose-colored glasses. Then he begins to see the true nature of the individual behind the façade. It only gets worse when he and his family become victims of Jane Patrick’s twisted conditions for payment of entering into a contract with him. I am sure that the attempted rape by Jane Patrick onto Jane paired with his whole mindset that somehow he is entitled to Jane as his property was finally the tipping point. Maybe; maybe not. In any case, it did not matter as Jane never could fully extradite Jane Patrick out of his head.
The story weaves and bobs, twists and turns with insane dynamics between Jane Patrick and Jane. Watching their relationship is rather repugnant. A breaking point is finally reached, and Jane asked and is granted a separation from Jane Patrick. Yet even after five years apart, Jane—by sheer coincidence, if you believe in Santa Claus—is hired as the personal assistant to a new director transferred from America. Miraculously, the director is Jane Patrick, forcing us to relive the entire ordeal. We get to watch their relationship not just intertwine as boss and employee but also as lovers again. With each passing day, Jane falling deeper and more intensely under Jane Patrick’s magnetism.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? There is a significant stream of individuals who enter into the lives of these two. Some are recurring while others sort of die off, sometimes literally. None frankly weirder than a character introduced later in their bond that seemed genuinely out of place. Out of the blue, Jane Partick, as part of Jane’s fulfillment of his contract to do what he asks him to do, becomes the nanny to Jane Patrick’s younger brother named Jamie played aptly by Dante Amando Williams. Certainly, there is nothing wrong with the acting by this adorable young man. But the whole of the character’s personality and persona simply creeped me out. He felt and seemed out of place and was so starved for attention that it was heartbreaking. He latched onto Jane as if he literally was his parent, in a bit of a disconcerting way. There was a lot of dynamics going on here where I felt this young man appeared to have a very sad life, bouncing around without a permeant home where he thinks his older brother and his lover are his parents. Dante plays the part of Jamie so astonishingly needy without appearing to be that – projecting independence and self-assurance. But we can all feel his hunger for wanting to connect to others. Underlying all of this, there is brilliant subtle acting projecting a frightened young immature boy, terrified of being left alone and unloved, and latching onto Jane and Jane Patrick, frighteningly clinging to feeling some sense of belonging. Too old for cuddling and too young to be on his own yet still needing to be nurtured. His acting is masterfully delicate. Although the role and characterization fascinated me, I just did not understand its relevance to the story or frankly its need. It all seemed like a red herring.
And this is what leads to the downfall of the apologue and subsequent detraction from the romance. The storyline is just a mess. It could not decide from the very beginning what it wanted the audience to believe. It was intriguing if Jane Patrick was perhaps some ghoulish figure able to grant wishes. That might have been fun and in a sense, relatable, in an occult fashion. This presentation, however, made no sense. It was never made clear why Jane Patrick did what he did. Was it because he was filthy rich and could? Or enjoyed manipulating people? Or wanting to get even with his father? Or was he sociopathic? Or? Or? Or? After a while, I did not care. He simply became a despicable creature who found pleasure in being able to manipulate people and bend them to his will.
To be sure, there are a lot of ‘bad’ people in this series. Virtually everyone that asks Jane Patrick for wishes do so not for altruistic reasons but for unrealistic personal gain, including Jane’s own brother, Jet (Snack Teeradetech). Granted they are not ‘good’ people, but do their consequences warrant draconian solutions? And to then parade around as if somehow you, as Jane Patrick, are doing society a favor?
I never once thought Jane Patrick loved Jane. He enjoyed possessing him but ‘loving’ him – no. He was an obsession with him. One did not have to go far to see that, i.e., that astonishingly creepy statue of Jane, the whole room devoted to him, etc. That is an individual possessed by obsession; not love and highly neurotic. And Jane, because of his naïve personality, got swept up in the trappings of being pursued and perhaps he convinced himself he loved him.
Unfortunately, the whole story turns laughably bad near the end. I could not believe how cliché and trite the plot became. I do not want to give away that there was a planned car accident and Jane suffered amnesia and the whole thing was orchestrated by his good friend and unrequited lover, Dan (Donut Phattharapon). I simply did not see that coming at all. I was so shocked. No wait, I think that is on page 210 of the Standard Playbook of Scriptwriting: use amnesia as a good fallback.
The whole series and subsequent plot feel flat as it appeared initially to be deeper and darker than what it actually was. Frankly, I was not sure what it was except for a rich petulant guy who went around granting unrealistic wishes to people who knew they were wrong and then enjoyed parlaying the consequences of their inabilities to fulfill their end of the contract. That was sadistic. And he felt immune to all of it and felt he was in the right. Jane comes along and gets scoops him up by Jane Patrick who then attempts to rape him and somehow is manipulated back into Jane Patrick’s world 5 years later, which he knows both intellectually and emotionally is bankrupt and wrong. Yet, goes along with it because he ‘loves’ him. That is sick and twisted and is not love but conditioning. We need to quit pretending that it is anything more than a sophisticated con game.
One cannot completely excuse or defend Jane either. His indecisiveness and inability to want to see Jane Patrick’s true nature was exasperating. I know that love makes people do some pretty dumb things but being attacked by someone who ‘loves’ you and then treats you like a contract and/or a piece of property ought to throw some cold water directly into your face. But instead, Jane seems to be merely drawn to him even more. So let us face reality here – Jane is as dumb as a box of hot rocks. He could not and therefore did not want to see what Jane Patrick was doing and did not want to see what Dan was doing either. Jane lived in his own bubble; much like Jane Patrick did.
I wish Jane Patrick had been demonic. Then this story would have had a purpose and an aim. Otherwise, the premise merely meandered about aimlessly trying to find something. Sure, there was an attempt to provide a moral compass at the end; but it was too little, too late. The minute Jane Patrick attempted to rape Jane is when this path should have ended. Instead, the rest of the series is spent trying to right a sinking ship. For me it could not, no matter how many apologies or contributions I heard. I would like to think that Jane became a product of the “Stockholm Syndrome” and perhaps he was. At the same time, his conversion was a very long one and because it was so, I cannot see this necessarily as an excuse. He knew and grasps intrinsically what kind of amalgam Jane Patrick is as a human and is consciously making a choice to be with someone who has little socially redeeming value to himself internally. That became even more evident at the end as the father so cryptically stated to Jane of his usefulness now to them.
This series started out entertaining. Then it got twisted and for me sick. Perhaps because of my background in working in the field of mental health, I find all kinds of warnings of mental health issues (red flags) that make a story turn deeper and more pensive for me. Maybe that is not its intent, but I have seen these behaviors in real life situations to know that what we are witnessing is not healthy and therefore the outcomes are generally not fruitful or efficacious. Pretending that they will be is just not in my wheelhouse. And this series just pretends too much.
Leave a Reply