Wishes are acts of entitlement manifested by our desire to achieve something. A person wants something so much, to the point they feel it should be theirs. They pour their blood and sweat into attaining the impossible.

But what is the cost of those wishes, those acts of entitlement?

“The Luminous Solutions” attempts to create a fictional circumstance that illustrates the answer to this question. Here is my spoiler filled review of the 6 episode series from GagaOOLala. This character driven drama centers around Thana (Mig Teerapat), who has been in love with his doctor boyfriend Patis (Gun Napat) for years. Alternately, there is also a high school storyline featuring new student Mai (Bhu Bhudis) and the boy he accidentally gets on the wrong foot with-Ryou (Bell Ratchata). Each storyline features its own settings and side characters. The pacing of the two storylines never feels equal depending on the episode individually. Some had more scenes about Thana, whilst others had more of Mai.

The format in theory works well as we watch the different characters go through varied situations that never correlate or felt on the same wavelength emotionally. For me personally, it felt a bit clustered as the format is changed in Episode three to make room for Pie (Dome Woranat), a man who defies the mystical shops rules of gaining entry to “The Crown”, a shop where wishes can be exchanged by people who are emotionally distressed. The shopkeeper is a beautiful woman who smiles while entrancing the customers to eat her confections and drink, so their souls start the process of making a wish. A clever concept that almost felt like a disconcerting take on “Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory” or “Alice in Wonderland”. The shop and the shopkeeper pop up randomly throughout the series, but the plot doesn’t devote time to developing the actual point. Instead, the show wastes the screen time on promoting random skincare products while the woman is smiling or fondling the keys around her neck that contain the bargains she has made.

Visually the series is stunning, the special effects, the sets, the costumes are all top-notch. A lot of love went into making this series. But the lack of direction for the narrative is what caused my distaste for it. Seeing the way, certain storylines were created only to be forgotten for whole episodes, made paving through the show, a sheer task instead of a pleasure. For instance, Pie appearing at the last moments of episode one as the shopkeeper, is about to bully Thana into making a wish; only to disappear in episode 2, then pop up in what we are led to believe is a flashback. Using him as a plot device was downright mean. It felt the characters got lost in transition.

Thana being the perfect devoted boyfriend to a man who doesn’t make time for him was what kept me coming back. His cooked meals untouched, his sexual advances that honestly were begging, rejected, to get a few fleeting moments from Patis was the main reason for the impending conflict. How long could a man deal with this level of indifference? As the melodrama grew, Mai accidentally breaks the school project Ryou was taking to school. Throughout the first episode, Ryou dislikes him, which makes Mai try harder to make him smile. It was cute and well acted. Episode 2 focuses on Ryou changing as he sees firsthand how his actions are hurting Mai. They share in the apologies and become friends.

Mai pursues Ryou in every way possible while navigating his very uncomfortable home life, which is where the series gets confusing, presenting two different scenarios. Seeing the way Thana hides his lack of a job while being subjected to a insulting birthday party where his moral character is questioned; whilst at the same time, Mai is subjected to his worst fear of being alone by an unseen assailant, who locks him in the changing room. While the two storylines go in interesting alternate directions, the pacing kills the momentum as the side characters knowingly or unintentionally interfere with the main characters. Coincidentally, the way the characters and the side characters stories are laid out never creates true moments of tension. Instead, the romance between Time and Thana creates a short-lived flame that seems intriguing. Thana gets caught by Patis, who views this as the breaking point for their relationship; even though he himself kissed his own longtime friend in the same episode.

This brings us to the negative side of the series. It creates mini stories among the side characters but forgets they exist in the same episode or the ones that follow. Pie felt like the largest plot hole, as he only appears in random flashbacks that had nothing to do with the rest of the cast. What happened to the two friends who had feelings for Ryou alongside Mai? What did Time do while waiting on the next request from Thana? These questions were never answered. And situations like these kept popping up to suck up more and more screen time with little resolution. Personal side note- the only reason I stuck with the show was Time and Thana. When he broke it off with Thana, I was literally wondering what was the point of this show? As the emotions came to a stop, it is revealed that Ryou and Mai are actually Patis and Thana. And that their wishes were pointless.

Rating- 2 out of 5

Streaming on- Gagaoolala