La Cuisine (2022)

TOO NICE

CUTE is what I would called Lukchup! An adorable shyshine, and honestly, who the heck can hate him??

The story is adorkable before the whole climax happen. But even so, it was still cute when Ram comfort Lukchup everytime. I was surprise to see there was no scene like 'Ram pushes Lukchup away cause the only reason he's getting bullied is because he's with him' like how most story would have done it.

Though one thing I would say I dislike slightly is Lukchup's super super kind personality. Although being nice is a good thing, but he's level is to the extend of even forgiving someone who almost killed Ram and him. He's a sweet boy but my lord, you can't be nice to even someone like that ooft. Another thing to say, Ram's acting is a little off at some point, but I manage to look pass it. He just looks a little awkward SOMETIMES, but it wasn't anything that ruin the whole show lolol.

All in all, I like the storyline :D //tbh I skipped the bullying part when I rewatched it the second time.//
The side characters are also very wonderful, especially the side couples! I am curious how Sky and Paitong relationship happened.

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wasn't bad

This show wasn't the worst I've ever seen but it wasn't all that bad either.
Though the story could've easily been told in less episodes and was thus a bit stretched out and very predictable in a lot of ways, it was still very enjoyable. I didn't however like how they stretched out the part with Nam Ning as well. This made it all even more predictable, and kind of annoying.
While I don't feel like this regards all of the acting, it was in a lot of spots horrible. I expected this to get better while the show went on, but it didn't. Sometimes I sadly felt like it got even worse as it went on. But this did however make for some pretty funny parts.
The music was just so-so. I liked the intro the first few times but after that I started to get bored of it and during the series the music was sometimes just randomly cut off only to start the scene again, but with different music in the background. I mean yes, this foes happen in a lot of shows, but in the other shows in which this happens, the music isn't randomly cut off, but it gets faded away.
For me, personally, the rewatch value isn't very high. I mean yes, I liked it, but not so much that I'd want to watch it all over again. like I said before, it was already kind of predictable watching it for the first time. So what would happen if I were to watch it again? I'd be bored half to death.
All of this considered I'm giving the show an over all score of a 6.

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palette cleanser

it's hard for me to really describe this series because nothing about it is that special? and the execution of it wasn't AWFUL but it sure wasn't that great either.

the plot is pretty much what you would expect if you've already watched a few university set thai BLs already. shrinking violet Lukchub meets the gentle older senior, Ram, who immediately gets endeared over the cute, shy junior cooking student. they're pretty much as cute and as soft as you would expect, (tbh maybe arguably TOO soft in some aspects but I'll get to that later.)

as with most gentle and soft couples, they fall into the pitfall of being a little dull and slow sometimes, as sweet as they are together. objectively it's quite cute, but that doesn't always necessarily mean it makes for great entertainment either....and Lukchub and Ram honestly aren't that suited to really hold up the show by themselves because of that. I imagine that's probably why the series took a TURN in the last few episodes to focus on the external conflict instead, (bullying).

the bullying conflict felt weird in the beginning since Ram is not a particularly proactive person and he still......isn't really by the end, although he still is a lot in comparison to Lukchub (a very low bar, bless his heart lol). i got left feeling like both of them were too soft for this show, but it's probably more accurate to say that the overall conflict was too serious/extreme for how it ended in the show. the tonal whiplash of it gets offset by the over the top acting Namning sometimes does in her scenes lol. and speaking of her....

the wannabe-jealous-gf got a LOT of focus by the end, to the point where it lowkey felt like she was the surprise third lead of the show? I wish they cut like at least half of her screentime and divided it up among some of Lukchub's friends, both to take the burden off the leads and so that the pairing up at the end felt a little less ridiculous LOL.

with all that said, I think the friend group in this series will always have a fond spot in my heart. i always love a good, supportive friendship group and I found theirs SO cute. I do wish they gave Lukchub more agency to show that he's okay with being taken care of to the extent that he is by everyone around him, but regardless, Phaitong's protectiveness over him in the earlier episodes was so sweet to me. really do wish they got more screentime instead of being shoved to the side near the end for Namning's backstory lol.

tl;dr: cute?, mostly fluff, not much substance

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Watch when you just don't care

I have considered not reviewing this series, since it is so noteworthless. It started off quite interesting, with a nice concept of winning someone over with food and sweetness. But that is where it all remained and there was no follow up, no progression and just repetition. How the makers managed to poor this flimsy story into more than 4 eps is quite the achievement.

What I liked:
- Lukchub is so cute and sweet. There is so much sweetness and care between him and Ram.
- The level of psycho that is Nam. Great drama angle.
- The side couples. Very well matched

What I did not like:
- Just sweetness, no real chemistry in the main cp.
- Except for Namking's family, everyone is so happy and sweet its cringe
- it is just too long for the lack of substance.

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A Great Beginning, And Then...

WOW I have NO idea what I stumbled into, but this story went in a completely different than what my friends and I anticipated.
Now, keep in mind: I didn't read the original novel. I hopped onto this BL because around the time it aired, just about every other Thai BL was full of drama and sometimes nonsensical writing, and this show looked sooooo cute and fresh! It stars mostly new actors and is about cooking! What could go wrong?

And then, well...it became one of those super dramatic BLs with some level of nonsensical writing. And I was beyond disappointed.

POSITIVES:

1) The show has a good start! If anything, I'd recommend watching maybe the first 4 episodes; at this point, the story is cute and lighthearted and has a strong focus on cooking. I could honestly sit here and rewatch the first couple of episodes a couple more times- and I already have! Ahh, the good 'ol days of when the story was good...

2) Friendships! It's rare to have BLs where the main character's friends are important to them. Usually after a short amount of time, the friend(s) disappears for some reason...? And they somehow get so caught up in their own thing, they end up ditching their supposed best friend. Not only does Lukchub's and Ram's groups of friends stick around for most of the time, but they're also supportive! I loved the moments when Phai (Lukchub's friend) and Sky (Ram's friend) would sit down with their friend and get serious with them. The dialogue was fantastic! Not only is it rare to see the friends stick around, but it's also rare to see them try to knock some sense into the main character(s).

3) Acting: For a show with mostly new actors, the acting for the most part honestly wasn't bad! Sometimes they were stiff, but I'm willing to let that pass. The one's who had some problems also had great potential to get better. Namning's actress did a GREAT job in my opinion.

NEGATIVES:

1) I kid you not when I say that the show went from cute and simple to soap opera drama SO quick. Suddenly we're dealing with a character who's so deranged that she eventually pulls out a gun and nearly shoots her own mother. The cute cooking aspect of the story went straight out of the window and never made a reappearance in the spotlight ever again.

2) 13 episodes: this show was way too long. There's one episode where next to nothing happened; episode 5, I think? The second part of the club scene. They could have shrunk it down to 10 episodes and it would have been okay.

3) Lack of story balance: one thing I LOVE about Thai BLs is that we always get some subplot with other romances. Almost always the main character's best friend gets a fun little side story that's just as interesting if not sometimes even *more* interesting than the main plot. LC has a large cast of characters, all of which are honestly very interesting in their own ways and with how they interact with each other. And I was looking sooooooo forward to seeing SkyPhai and TitanPangi!! *Especially* SkyPhai!! They did a GREAT job at showing up little bits of each couple leading up to their romance- and then out of no where, we don't see *any* progression with the two side couples. There's a small scene with Titan and Pangi and that's it. Sky and Phai get absolutely NOTHING. They spend SO much time focusing on Namning, that we're left with mere breadcrumbs for the side couples. I was looking forward to SkyPhai *so* much because they're both similar yet complete opposites. Plus the actors look great together and have some great chemistry. All they gave us SkyPhai fans was a makeout scene with some flirting. Now, mind you...the makeout scene was hot as hell, I will give that that! But that's all we got and I'm still mad about it a whole week later.

4) Ram's acting. Like I mentioned before, the acting was good! Except for Ram's actor's acting. He was the most stiff out of all of the show. The chemistry between him and Mick (Lukchub's actor) is great and can be seen from time to time, but I do think it's odd that he was chosen to play the main character.

5) Namning's role in the story. On one hand, I do think her actress did a great job with the role. But on the other, having a villainous female character in a BL can be very misogynistic because usually the story banks on the fact that the character *is* a woman; they also tend to utilize toxic tropes and stereotypes with these female characters. Now, I don't immediately see having a female bad guy in a BL story as a bad thing because sometimes it works out. But I felt like they went wayyyy too far with her role. I wish the whole thing wasn't as dramatic as it was and that it ended around episode 10 or 11. But no, they went full force and had her stick around until the first 20mins of the last episode.

6) The last episode and they way they crammed some very last minute romantic scenes in there. They didn't show us any progression for the side couples, but suddenly they're together and one of them gets married. And yes, they did a timeskip. TWO of them for some reason.

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All I can say is that despite the immense whiplash I got from this show, I am honestly excited to see what most of the actors will be working on next, especially Boom (Phai's actor), Tachit (Sky's actor), Momo (Pangji's actress), Ice (Titan's actor), and Mick (Lukchub's actor).

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