Cooking Crush (2023)

standard Thai romcom elevated by Off & Gun

Overall: this is a pretty standard Thai romcom, it was nice to see Off & Gun again. 12 episodes about 45 minutes each. Aired on GMMTVs YouTube channel cut and WeTV uncut.

Content Warnings: past death, grief, mental health struggles, stalking/harassment, bullying, dead body covered, slap, homophobia, unwanted outing, punch, non con video recording/sharing, cyberbullying

What I Liked
- reverse personalities/dynamic from their previous characters
- laughed a few times
- sweet moments
- dream sequences
- motivations/responses of the main leads make sense
- how Prem checked in about Ten's boundaries
- Prem/Ten's mutual and ongoing affection, being supportive of one another
- supportive grandma, Unky's parents and the stepmom
- Ten apologizing for what happened in ep 10

Room For Improvement
- started with an inner voice exposition dump
- not a fan of an aggressive pursuer/reluctant pursuee for the side couple (liked them more starting in episode 7), and then there were some unwanted relationship games in ep 8
- quite a lot of the intended humor was a miss for me
- choppy at times, heard the uncut is less choppy
- the long press and hold kiss with zero lip movement, need more energy in their kissing
- comedy sound effects made things less funny
- could have condensed into 8 episodes, felt slow
- ep 8 the friend going as the in between felt very immature instead of funny
- was disappointed about the Unky arc/telling others without first checking in with the person
- punch was unneeded and then the scene after was jarring with the different tone
- a dad who slaps his son then lecturing him about using physical violence made me roll my eyes
- episode 12 time jump

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It was okay, kind of meh...

A very medium series, here are my pros and cons:

PROS

1) OFF'S ASS. I would love to see him in a speedo. Dang, I'll bet he could open a jar of pickles with that thing.

2) FOOD. Most of it looked really good!

3) SHORT. It was a fluffy, sweet series that didn't overstay its welcome.

CONS

1) OFFGUN "CHEMISTRY." Sorry, what chemistry? They've always given me good friend vibes and there was nothing here to make me feel differently. And Gun REALLY can't kiss. (Or won't.)

2) THEME SONG. Hated it with a passion! That baby crush song made me want to remove my own appendix with a knife and fork every time I heard it. The MC was in their thirties, for goodness' sake. "Baby crush?" Eww. They're not 12.

3) FIRE'S MOM. What a bitch. I wanted to slap her and didn't buy her complete 180 at the last minute. I thought she was an evil, bad seed who needed to be taken out with the trash.

4) WASTED OPPORTUNITY. You've got Dome Jawarat in the cast, who just happens to be one of THE best singers in Thailand, and his vocal talents were not utilized (even for the OST)? Shame.

A pleasant but forgettable series. It's a 6.0 from me.

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