Drama_ junkie
A relationship series around cooking. The concept itself is refreshing, as it’s a huge departure from the usual college or High School settings that the majority of the Thai series of this genre are based. The story is about roommates Tops (an aspiring chef) and Marwin (an upcoming musician/singer) and their budding relationship. I strongly suggest that you watch episode 0 to get the background of the two characters.
The storyline starts off simple and sweet, not sappy but cute yet mature - appropriate for the story. The acting is spot on between Jeff and Gameplay. Not award material but they have good chemistry with each other, which at times is awkward and goofy but works well with their ambiguous bromance or something more relationship.
The overall story is light in content and the episodes short which makes them easy to watch. Over the two years of the series we see a lot of maturing of the writers and production team. The early episodes, although simple and sweet, were too formulaic in their pacing and story presentation. Basically, Marwin comes in irritated or something similar, Tops cooks him something really yummy and esoteric and all is good with their world. This pacing and series presentation got bad from episode 7 to 11 when the series gets bogged down and we end up losing the point of the narrative. A lot of throwaway episodes. Plus, Marwin gets very irritating during those episodes as they turn his character into a bossy, almost ungrateful guy who looks at Tops as a servant rather than a friend, much less a love interest. It was disheartening and a big turnoff. During these episodes the food premise of the series becomes more of an afterthought as well. Thankfully the latter half of the series the producers and writers found their way and spun off a lot of the cooking details and advertising portions (see my caveat about this series in the last paragraph) to separate series’s outside of this one which allowed them to tighten the later episodes to focus on Marwin’s music career and them defining their relationship.
Overall, it’s a good series. It’s very vanilla on the surface which is good if you’re looking to not have to exert your brain on dissecting a series. It’s a simple watch, that’s worth your time.
One caveat is that the series is an advertisement for Tops, the Thai supermarket chain. That’s why there’s an emphasis on the cooking in each of the episodes. Frankly, it’s fine. it blends well with the narrative of the series and isn’t in your face as some of the direct ad placements/endorsements in other series that tend to be obviously forced and sometimes comical in their placement. This was de-emphasized in the latter episodes as they spun off those portions into individual series outside of this one.
The storyline starts off simple and sweet, not sappy but cute yet mature - appropriate for the story. The acting is spot on between Jeff and Gameplay. Not award material but they have good chemistry with each other, which at times is awkward and goofy but works well with their ambiguous bromance or something more relationship.
The overall story is light in content and the episodes short which makes them easy to watch. Over the two years of the series we see a lot of maturing of the writers and production team. The early episodes, although simple and sweet, were too formulaic in their pacing and story presentation. Basically, Marwin comes in irritated or something similar, Tops cooks him something really yummy and esoteric and all is good with their world. This pacing and series presentation got bad from episode 7 to 11 when the series gets bogged down and we end up losing the point of the narrative. A lot of throwaway episodes. Plus, Marwin gets very irritating during those episodes as they turn his character into a bossy, almost ungrateful guy who looks at Tops as a servant rather than a friend, much less a love interest. It was disheartening and a big turnoff. During these episodes the food premise of the series becomes more of an afterthought as well. Thankfully the latter half of the series the producers and writers found their way and spun off a lot of the cooking details and advertising portions (see my caveat about this series in the last paragraph) to separate series’s outside of this one which allowed them to tighten the later episodes to focus on Marwin’s music career and them defining their relationship.
Overall, it’s a good series. It’s very vanilla on the surface which is good if you’re looking to not have to exert your brain on dissecting a series. It’s a simple watch, that’s worth your time.
One caveat is that the series is an advertisement for Tops, the Thai supermarket chain. That’s why there’s an emphasis on the cooking in each of the episodes. Frankly, it’s fine. it blends well with the narrative of the series and isn’t in your face as some of the direct ad placements/endorsements in other series that tend to be obviously forced and sometimes comical in their placement. This was de-emphasized in the latter episodes as they spun off those portions into individual series outside of this one.
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