I’ll be honest from the beginning. This is not going to be a very positive review. If you’re an OffGun fan who loved the show and don’t want to read anything negative about it, I would suggest to stop reading this review right now. If you’re an OffGun fan who was massively disappointed by the show like I was, go ahead.

As a long-time fan of OffGun, I had literally teared up out of excitement when “Not Me” was first announced, and to this day it remains one of my favourite BL’s. I am a big fan of the magic that they have created before, not just in “Not Me” but in “Theory of Love” as well. After doing great shows together, as I said in the first impressions, I was simply confused as to why they would choose a project that seemed to pale a little in comparison.

For those unfamiliar with the plot, the story of “Cooking Crush” is about medical student Ten (Off Jumpol) who becomes enamoured with culinary student Prem (Gun Atthaphan), and asks him to teach him how to cook. Their cooking lessons, which Prem initially agrees to only because Ten agrees to pay him an exorbitant amount as fees, develop into feelings for each other. Dynamite (Aungpao Ochiris) and Fire (Neo Trai) are the second couple in the show, and their relationship starts from Dynamite having a crush on Fire and Fire rejecting his feelings, until later when Dynamite decides to give up while at the same time Fire falls for him. A side-plot in the show is Prem, Dynamite and their friend Unky (Dome Jaruwat) participating in a cooking show named Super Monster Chef, and Prem’s somewhat mentor/judge for the show Chang Ma (Victor Chatchawit) vying for his feelings.

I was apprehensive when the first two episodes came out. I kept hoping that maybe it just needed a few more episodes to take off and get into a grove, but sadly I was left wanting till the end. I want to commend the four main actors though- they’re trying. They are trying to make the best of it, but the script and direction are an obstacle to their efforts. Something can be light-hearted and comedic and still be well written, “Cooking Crush” unfortunately was not. Though decently produced and acted, the script was full of stilted dialogue and unfunny jokes.

One of the most grating gags was about Unky’s weight. His character was reduced to ‘he’s fat and he likes to eat’, there was barely anything else to him. The other characters did not fare much better in terms of non-existent characterisation. Fire went from not even tolerating Dynamite’s presence in one episode, to being head over heels in love with him in quite literally the next episode. Fire’s homophobic mother and Ten’s classist father did a 180 in the span of a single episode just to neatly wrap up the ending.

The entire sub-plot of the cooking competition felt unneeded by the end of the show. The comeuppance for the rival antagonistic team that did nothing but sneer at the protagonists and try to sabotage them was winning the competition? From the perspective of gratification as a viewer, that resolution just fell flat. It might have made sense if it were being used as a way to show character growth of the protagonists’ team and how they dealt with losing, but they simply move on in 5 minutes after spending close to half the series fretting about the competition. They could have cut out the entire competition from the show, and it would not have made any difference to the ending where Prem opens his own chef’s table restaurant.

Also, in the context of the show, this is a very minor grievance but it has been bugging me. Why is it even called ‘Cooking Crush’ when the actual time they spend on having a crush is minimal? Prem and Ten admit their feelings for each other and unofficially get together very early on in the series, and the majority of the show deals with them learning how to navigate their relationship. Maybe ‘Cooking Situationship’ would have been a better title.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Streaming on- GMMTV YouTube Channel