This series had a promising premise, with its combination of baking and thriller elements. Unfortunately, it didn’t deliver.

The visual aesthetics were really good, from the beautiful cafe with all the sweets to the house and the outfits of the main characters. The baking scenes were especially beautiful and made me crave for sweets more than once. Some of the characters were also well-written: first of all, Krating, but also Weir got a solid background story. Singto and Pluem did really well! The rest however didn’t work out for me.

Apparently, it was the director’s first project, and it shows. There was a lot of awkward acting (Mone’s father was arguably the worst) and many dialogues sounded unnatural. The main story of the four Baker Boys had several cute, funny and also dramatic moments, but it felt dragged and got boring easily. And while I usually appreciate efforts to give each episode of a series its own story arc, here this led to a complete marginalisation of the only actually interesting story arc, the (surprisingly dark) kidnapping and murder case. The thriller part only got full attention in the two final episodes, but ended up being rather disappointing as well, mainly due to the overly superficial depiction of the villains and their motives. And the light conclusion also felt tone-deaf, considering that children had been killed.

Undoubtedly, everyone had best intentions in making this series. For the visuals, the baking parts, Singto’s and Pluem’s acting, and several actually touching moments, I can still give it 7*, but the bad directing makes it hard to enjoy, so I doubt that I will watch it again. Maybe I will give the original a try!