I have been watching BL series from the time OffGun were almost officially considered BL royalty. Times have changed, there are more and more ‘official’ ships, where actors promote as a ship and pair together for multiple projects. What was once a novelty is now increasingly common. Which is why, rather than the reliance on a pairing alone, there needs to be more focus on the show itself to keep viewers engaged.

After all, with the sheer number of series that have come out this year alone, in order to stand out, a show needs everything from the chemistry of the main leads to a solid plot and direction. Off Jumpol and Gun Atthaphan have the chemistry down pat, they are good actors in their own right, and their onscreen and offscreen dynamic has been honed after working together for almost a decade.

Their last project together, “Not Me”, became an instant classic, not just because of their onscreen relationship, but because the story was well-written, the series well-crafted, dealing with very relevant social issues. It certainly made a mark and proved why they deserved the moniker of BL royalty. Expectations were high after “Not Me”. What would their next project together be like? How would they carry forward the momentum?

When “Cooking Crush” was announced, I was a little confused. I couldn’t glean a lot from the trailer, but it seemed the kind of cookie-cutter show that there is more than a proliferation of these days. The story is about Prem (Gun), a culinary student who is not confident about his cooking skills, and Ten (Off), a medical student under a lot of stress who also has an unhealthy relationship with food due to prior reasons that have not yet been disclosed in the show. They come together when Ten begs Prem to teach him how to cook, and Prem uses the opportunity to earn a quick buck, and thus begins their relationship. I was interested in how the story itself would come together onscreen, whether OffGun could transform a tired plot into an interesting watch through the sheer power of their chemistry alone. Unfortunately, they haven’t been able to yet.

You can see that they’re trying, but their chemistry so far hasn’t been able to overcome the mediocrity of the writing. For as short as the episodes are, they somehow feel longer than normal because of the dreary writing. The dialogues are stunted, the comedy errs on the side of being forced instead of funny; overall, there isn’t much I can find to praise about as of now. I keep on waiting for something to happen, for me to realise, ‘Oh, so this is why OffGun chose this project’, but so far, I haven’t found anything.

Aungpao Ochiris and Neo Trai play Dynamite and Fire respectively, the second couple whose names fit their bickering relationship. I can tell that Aungpao is trying, since this is his first role, but his inexperience is glaring, especially because he’s paired against Neo, a seasoned actor, who recently had a standout performance as morally grey Ton in the ensemble series “Only Friends”, but here is reduced to playing yet another comic relief version of himself.

Overall, the first two episodes were not exactly bad, but they weren’t good either, simply average. I will stay tuned to see whether the show picks up its momentum, but based only on the first two episodes, my hopes are not high.

Rating: 2.75 out of 5

Streaming on- GMMTV YouTube Channel