Cooking Crush (2023)

standard Thai romcom elevated by Off & Gun

Overall: this is a pretty standard Thai romcom, it was nice to see Off & Gun again. 12 episodes about 45 minutes each. Aired on GMMTVs YouTube channel cut and WeTV uncut.

Content Warnings: past death, grief, mental health struggles, stalking/harassment, bullying, dead body covered, slap, homophobia, unwanted outing, punch, non con video recording/sharing, cyberbullying

What I Liked
- reverse personalities/dynamic from their previous characters
- laughed a few times
- sweet moments
- dream sequences
- motivations/responses of the main leads make sense
- how Prem checked in about Ten's boundaries
- Prem/Ten's mutual and ongoing affection, being supportive of one another
- supportive grandma, Unky's parents and the stepmom
- Ten apologizing for what happened in ep 10

Room For Improvement
- started with an inner voice exposition dump
- not a fan of an aggressive pursuer/reluctant pursuee for the side couple (liked them more starting in episode 7), and then there were some unwanted relationship games in ep 8
- quite a lot of the intended humor was a miss for me
- choppy at times, heard the uncut is less choppy
- the long press and hold kiss with zero lip movement, need more energy in their kissing
- comedy sound effects made things less funny
- could have condensed into 8 episodes, felt slow
- ep 8 the friend going as the in between felt very immature instead of funny
- was disappointed about the Unky arc/telling others without first checking in with the person
- punch was unneeded and then the scene after was jarring with the different tone
- a dad who slaps his son then lecturing him about using physical violence made me roll my eyes
- episode 12 time jump

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OFFGUN IN THE KITCHEN HITS SWEETLY DIFFERENT

I must say that people are being just too paranoid about this. After Not Me, Senior Secret Love Puppy Honey, Theory of Love. Everything about Offgun makes these guys undoubtedly one of the best and most successful onscreen couples in Thai BL. While of course each of these shows portrays them as relatively mature characters, I guess Cooking crush has given me something different.

We've seen these guys act cute before, I mean there was I'M TEE ME TO but that was literally like a pure bromance, Cooking Crush on the other hand has given me a chance to appreciate these guys as a pair of naive Campus kids and the Comedy in this story feels right.

First and foremost, I feel it's worth noting that for me, seeing these two in a rom-com kind of plot after a full year is quite good, I have seen funny shows like VENUS IN THE SKY but on Screen I have never seen a couple that makes it seem that they are so meant to be like Offgun.

The Offgun Chemistry never dies out as I feel each of the actors are comfortable in their roles. Besides, I feel that they have got a more sincere progression in their onscreen Cooking Crush relationship than in pretty much any of those other shows that make the actors look like hungry sex addicts that I do not want to mention.

On top of that, a rom-com like trope is one you'll hardly expect to see Off and Gun executing very well but Cooking Crush will surpass your expectations. Trust me, the storyline feels simple, and we have seen how very many so called "simple and complicated storylines" have ended up this year, but Cooking Crush is nothing like that.

Is the show worth it? Yes. Cooking Crush will most likely drop in my top 10 BLS of 2024 because it has a catchy opening theme, it is a well paced narrative and shows you that even something simple doesn't need a lot of effort to become beautiful as long as it is sincere. Besides for Offgun fans, I dunno about most of ue but for me, this show hits just right.

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It was okay, kind of meh...

A very medium series, here are my pros and cons:

PROS

1) OFF'S ASS. I would love to see him in a speedo. Dang, I'll bet he could open a jar of pickles with that thing.

2) FOOD. Most of it looked really good!

3) SHORT. It was a fluffy, sweet series that didn't overstay its welcome.

CONS

1) OFFGUN "CHEMISTRY." Sorry, what chemistry? They've always given me good friend vibes and there was nothing here to make me feel differently. And Gun REALLY can't kiss. (Or won't.)

2) THEME SONG. Hated it with a passion! That baby crush song made me want to remove my own appendix with a knife and fork every time I heard it. The MC was in their thirties, for goodness' sake. "Baby crush?" Eww. They're not 12.

3) FIRE'S MOM. What a bitch. I wanted to slap her and didn't buy her complete 180 at the last minute. I thought she was an evil, bad seed who needed to be taken out with the trash.

4) WASTED OPPORTUNITY. You've got Dome Jawarat in the cast, who just happens to be one of THE best singers in Thailand, and his vocal talents were not utilized (even for the OST)? Shame.

A pleasant but forgettable series. It's a 6.0 from me.

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oh sooooo boring....

While not really a bad show, man was it boring.
The writing was predictable, there were no real challenges and if you do food, why is the "super monster chef" just the jury verdicts?

At least one fresh face with Aungpao who did a good job but most were acting like highschool kids and not like grown up humans. I am also not a fan of the weird sounds used in Thai romcons, but at least they did not overdo it.

The kissing scenes with OffGun looked strange for me. I mean they kissed really well in other shows but here it feels shallow without the feeling of love or desire.

This show is a good downer if you have seen something like "Not Me", to calm you down and turn your brain off, because the story does nothing to challenge it.

The finale was an all around happy end, all the parents are soooo nice and so understanding especially Fire's mother. Of course grandma was always cool and always supportive but for the rest I would have wished a more rocky ending or more episodes to see them come to terms and less of the earlier meaningless stuff.

All in all this show was a disappointment.

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Half Baked

I love food. I love OffGun. I love it when people fall in love over shared food. I love it when a lead scams his way into a ton of money because the other lead is adamant that he won't take cooking lessons from anyone.
Unfortunately, I didn't love this.

Seriously though, I love dramas that are in the food/cooking genre. There's something incredibly heartwarming about two people bonding over their love for a particular dish, or learning about each other through food, just sweet core memories. And Cooking Crush had that, plus a lot of stuff I adore in dramas: comedy, a great couple, good side characters and a reasonable plot. With each episode I watched, I liked it more and more. I had no major complaints and I enjoyed the prospect of watching something that was funny, light, and relaxing.

That is until it hit the halfway mark. It's like the writers, actors, director and every single person who worked on this forgot what they did in the first six episodes. Either that, or they changed the screen writers halfway through and said take it in whatever direction you want, there doesn't have to be any continuity, whatsoever. It's baffling how quickly it all changed because before I knew it, the characters were unrecognisable, the writing was so messy and it felt like a chore trying to get through some of the episodes.

Understandable that they needed to shift the focus onto the competition, but the shift was so abrupt and random, with them choosing to spend episodes on unnecessary conflicts, plotlines that saw no progression and the relationship between the leads going up and down like a rollercoaster. And by the time they focused on the actual competition, I felt no connection or investment anymore because of the aforementioned.

Through it all, I just kept hoping it would get better. Kept hoping.. and it didn't. The story after a while made absolutely no sense because they kept introducing characters who's sole purpose was to create conflict that was resolved within seconds without proper explanation. The chemistry between OffGun was suddenly non - existent, the acting felt really off, almost like the cast and crew themselves had given up on the production.

I don't mean to lay into the series like this, but it really does baffle me. How did something with such potential come down to this? The few positives in this were the supporting characters, the relationship between Firefy and Dy, and Ten. Even then, there isn't much to brag about here. Everything about this was simply, okay.

I would recommend watching the uncut version, although not as much as I would have liked, there are explanations to certain actions, the connections between the characters are explored a bit more, it really did make for more of an enjoyable experience.

Honestly, the best thing may have been the opening credits.

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Don't bother

Was disappointed with this series mainly because after so many drama series together I expected OffGun to have more chemistry, but unfortunately not. Gave this show a chance just because they were acting in it. The script was kindda lame too. The many times they asked each other how to calm their nerves, which was just used as an excuse to kiss each other, was super duper cringe. The kisses were also cringe and unbelievable (newsflash: people don't kiss irl without moving their lips). Unfortunately for me, OffGun were the weakest actors in the cast. I was surprised by Aungpao though, a new actor, who provided comedic relief without being slapstick. His pairing with Neo who is always good in his roles, was fun to watch. Dome was excellent as well but Tum was kindda over the top. This show doesn't really have much in terms of plot. Storyline is shallow, unrealistic and slapstick. A waste of time.

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Come for the food porn, come for the Off-Gun magic, but not much else sparkles here

Cooking Crush was a steady series. Steady, but also safe. Starting with the casting, the story, and the characters, Cooking Crush evinces a startling shortfall in artistic ambition. You, the veteran viewer of innumerable prior BL series, have seen this sort of tale before. Continuing with the writing, directing, and editing, Cooking Crush likewise innovates no fresh way of conveying a BL storyline. You, the veteran viewer of innumerable prior BL series, have witnessed countless episodes that look, sound, and feel like these episodes look, sound, and feel. While the ingredients may lack freshness, the recipe cooks up a final product that surehandedly delivers solid, dependable BL comfort food. That is to say, if you crave plain, simple fare that still hits the spot, Cooking Crush suffices for that purpose. If you hoped for a BL meal thatmight deliver something special, memorable, or different, then Cooking Crush will not be to your taste.

The series marks the return to BL of the hallowed Off-Gun pairing, veritable Pillars of BL Shipping. Their previous project, Not Me (2021), featured dark themes and a level of social criticism atypical of BL fare. That series impressed viewers with its depth and complexity despite the bleak tone and socially conscious messaging. Reportedly by request of the actors, this new project aimed far lower, and the result is an utterly conventional BL. The series will most likely satisfy BL fans in search of a reliably sweet, romantic story, one told without any of the social criticism or genre blending that have become commonplace in recent years. Cooking Crush is very much a BL series in the mold of pre-2020 BL productions. Perhaps that is all it ever needed to be to be considered a success. By contrast, it will not much satisfy BL fans desperate to see the genre evolve.

Cooking Crush is not a bad series. Lukewarm praise? Surely yes; yet, that tepid analysis is more than can be said of several other recent series released by formula-factory GMMTV. If Cooking Crush delivers no significant highs, it also avoids any significant lows. It just plods along in predictable blandness until the requisite 12 episodes have been counted down. En route it delivered sweet moments and dramatic moments. It had a main couple and a side couple. It had pesky parents and supportive parents. Its supporting cast offered familiar favorites and a charming newcomer. It avoided the hyper-dramatic penultimate curse episode (hallelujah!) and likewise avoided any huge, gaping holes in story logic (glory hallelujah!). Given the dizzying illogic some of those more overtly ambitious recent series foisted on viewers in search of compelling plot twists, I choose to regard the absence of ambitious plotting as a virtue. A simple story needs no great leaps in logic! And sometimes, simple is all we need. Mind you, this story was so insubstantial I doubt the story framework offered sufficient space for plot holes to form. Ambition in plotting was traded for safety in plotting. Unsurprisingly, given the studio’s reliance on formulaic storytelling, but few scenes or episodes exuded natural progression of human relationships. Characters start to feel attracted to each other because the storyboard says it is time for that "twist." The plot just moves along in a way that always seemed calculated—sweetness, followed by tension, followed by a fresh dose of redemptive sweetness. Cooking Crush was manufactured as a star vehicle for the Pillars heading the cast, and the story felt manufactured to win audience approval. There’s nothing wrong with that. But there’s nothing exciting with that either. The series was conceived to be a safe project for all involved. It delivered exactly that—BL comfort food. And absolutely, positively nothing more than that.

Off and Gun continue to manifest tremendous chemistry. (Fans of this ship absolutely should enjoy the series.) But in some ways, I don’t think their prior history helped this production. They are almost too comfortable with one another. The series never cultivated any palpable sexual tension, in part because we viewers are so accustomed to seeing Off and Gun together. The pairing of Doc and Chef seemed inevitable, just as soon as sufficient numbers of sponsor products had been placed on screen. By design, Cooking Crush was never intended to challenge the actors' performative skills the way their prior pairing had; yet, the blandness of this script may have overcompensated. Off and Gun are always engaging, and their bonhomie draws the viewer into the cozy warmth of the narrative. Still, in Cooking Crush the actors seem to glide through their scenes by relying on muscle memory rather than inspiration. To be fair, the flatness of the script, which crafted familiar, monotonous character types patterned from an overused and worn-out template, offered the duo precious little opportunity to demonstrate any growth in their craft. Nevertheless, I depart Cooking Crush with a firm sense that perhaps the time has come when the Off-Gun pairing has reached a point of diminishing returns.

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What's cooking? In this series, Nothing

This story is your standard Thai rom-com droll series, treating gay relationships like infantile, immature, puppy-love versions of Pollyanna tales. Not that it is not cute; it is. Not that it is not entertaining; some of it is. Not that it does not have good messages and themes; it does. But it is tedious, boring, and unchallenging with not a shred of originality to the story or plot, although the food looked awesome. And the actors all (save one) could have done this series sleepwalking. In other words, it is standard stuff, cliché-driven, with lots and lots of triteness thrown in for good measure. This series gives new meaning to the term ‘light-fluff’. Again, there is no point summarizing the story. Take parts from a slew of Thai BLs and you got it. Their love story weaves and bobs through many what seem like endless banal episodes. Both acting as if they are in grade school rather than in college. The acting in this series by the main performers is standard. It is cute and some parts of it were entertaining, and they delivered their lines well. In terms of intensity of a relationship, there just was not any.
You can read the rest of my review of this series at BLBliss.com.

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Something's off

Unky the best acted character in this show. Off and Gun were oddly not as magnetic together in this one. If this were to be the first series I ever watched with them in it, I would think they had no chemistry together, which leads me to wonder if this production was not rushed. I still would have given this show at least at 7 and 1/2 though if it weren't for the competitor cooking team. Their overacting and sneering was so annoying that I almost called it quits on the whole show. Every time they come on it just ruins the episode for me. I'm on episode 11 and they're in the pool plotting and the way they sneer is so animated and ridiculous. I'm still finishing it for the sake of the top 5 leads.

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Love OffGun But Losing Brain Cells.

You should be able to tell if this show is for you within two episodes. You may enjoy this if you love Off/Gun, want something light and easy to watch with some sweet/cute moments, and are in the mood for simple/silly humor.

At Ep 9/12: My previous review of Ep 1-5 holds. I decided to give it a try again for OffGun's sake and watched Ep 6-9. Apparently the YouTube version is cut (in the USA). I switched to the uncut version via Telegram after Ep 5, but it didn't change my lack of enjoyment with the show.

Previous review: At Ep 5/12. This may not be a popular sentiment, but from my perspective, this show is a slog through simplistic boredom. Apart from Off & Gun's characters, most everyone else acts like middle-schoolers (around 11-13 years old) instead of university students. The 'humor' is extremely basic and simple. There's no cleverness in this screenplay at all. Most characters are more like caricatures and what little plot there is, is so far predictable.

I was so impressed with the series Not Me and Gun and Off were so fantastic in their roles. They acted with nuance, depth, and authentic emotions. The production of Cooking Crush is a huge downgrade for what their talent is capable of.

I'm watching the scenes with Off & Gun together at normal speed because they manage to elevate the generic material to bring some interest and depth to their interactions. For everything else I'm watching at 2x the speed to keep myself from dropping this show entirely.

I really want to support OffGun, but the screenplay is so shallow/simple/boring/predictable, and the secondary characters so annoying and often over-acted, that I really can't bring myself to rate this higher currently. If OffGun weren't a part of this show, I would have no qualms about rating it a 4 and dropping it.

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OffGun Does Cute Well ... Obviously

There was no doubt in my mind when starting the first episode that Off and Gun were going to give exactly what I wanted: sweet, sexy, and silly -- all of the Ss! What a cute little series, packed with some great comedy and some lovely characters. However, for me, something doesn't entirely click.

Let's Dive In.

For starters, this series felt entirely like Off and Gun instead of their characters. So much to the point where I don't even remember their characters' names outside of their nicknames. If I'm not mistaken, I read somewhere how this was a series Off and Gun created themselves, which is maybe why it feel so offputting. The acting isn't bad per say -- because they can act, obviously, and there are scenes that they do great emotionally in, but something in their acting didn't reach for me. It might be because they're so comfortable with one another that they start acting like themselves instead of how their characters would act. Either way, this is kind of my only argument, that it feels disingenious somewhere in the middle. However, that doesn't mean I don't love seeing these vets do their thing on screen, and of course, I was still smiling all big and happy.

So going frrm there, I'll try leaning into the relationship of Doc and Chef outside of the actors. The first few episodes sold me. I was absolutely in love with the concept of this, something not original, but such a spin with having a culinary student and another working on becoming a doctor instead of the typical majors BL supplies us with. Chef is very endearing, going for a goal that isn't all that easy to reach while still providing for his family. This is how he gets into this situation in the first place, with needing Doc's money to help his sister out. Doc is silly, he has an edge to him when it comes to his father and stepmother, but yet we see such a precious side around his friends and Chef. Their build-up is great, and their executions in other scenes set their tone perfectly, except, I was bewildered by some of the bad kissing. I'm going to assume this is more of a director's choice, but their first kiss and a few more throughout the series were just -- really bad. Others were great, just like how you'd imagine OffGun to kiss. Closer to the end, their relationship kind of plateaus for me. it's no longer exciting in the sense of Chef and Doc, and more so, again, just Off and Gun. Their individual stories capture how they come about now as adults, but there are some scenes that seem nonsensical, like Doc's dad having a nurse that was identical to his mom, which they could've played more on like being his mom's twin sister, or maybe his dad is crazy and cloned her or something. That just felt very too circumstantial. Another was Doc punching the celebrity chef guy, which yes, he deserved, but in such an environment like that one, pulling Chef away and giving a stern talking to would've been enough too. There are some others, but overall, they are good stories.

Moving onto the secondary couple, Firefly and Dynamite. So in love with their dynamic. Dynamite has this major crush on Firefly who saved him in a bullying accident, doing whatever he can to get this cute guy to notice him. In the beginning, it's a little zany how much Dynamite goes after him, especially without a backstory, which I think they should've shown earlier in the series so I didn't just think Dynamite was kooky for thinking someone is so handsome to the point where he liked them so much. Near the middle, it's when they get a lot closer, and a lot cuter. I like this aspect of their characters that pick and tease at one another and then can become so cheesy and in love the next. Their chemistry and build-up take a little bit to get there, but when it does, it's strong and very tensional. Firefly's whole problem is that he's too loyal to his strict mom, doing everything he can to please her even if it means he ignores his own feelings. This is given a resolution by the end, with Firefly's mom walking away, but then they give her a terrible redemption arc in the last episode, and it's like, okay whatever. Overall, I liked them in the beginning more than I did in the end, only because they didn't do physical very well, even with the couple of hugs and cheek kisses they gave one another. It threw off their connection to me when they did, and them not getting an actual kiss felt weird, but whatever. Aungpao did great for his very first GMMTV series. I liked his dynamic more with the trio, which is where part of this series does it for me.

Talking about the trio, they were golden. I loved when friend groups feel genuine, and you can see the different personality each of them bring to carry this heartful friendship. I loved Samsi, quite literally my favorite character to see. Such a loving guy, who just loved being around his friends, that felt heartbroken with their secrets, but in the end, knowing that they were always going to be there for him no matter what. He does comedy better than any of the other's did, except, there were some weight jokes thrown in there, which is normal for Thai BLs to do with bigger characters, but nonetheless, still pinching a nerve somewhere inside of me. I'm glad he gets his own partner, but my only argument with that is that he and Metha had built such a great enemies-to-lovers trope, so why not just have them get together?

The production value was great, with a bit too many production placements, but I'll digress. The food looked amazing, I liked that each episode starts off with showing a menu item.

Rating:

Story: 7.5/10 - Great! it flowed rather nicely, with a few hiccups, but nothing not watch-worthy.

Acting: 8.5/10 - Everyone did good, with Dome (Samsi) playing his character the best IMO. OffGun felt too much like OffGun, but they can still act. Neo did a great job, but he always does well with comedic roles. Aungpao did amazing for his first time, especially with such an already-established cast.

Music: 6/10 - I didn't pay attention to it.

Recommendation Value: 7/10 - this is cute in lots of aspects. Even with my little critics of this series, I still recommend it. it's lighthearted (for the most part), pretty funny, and an easy watch.

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Cooking Bust

This show started out cute, but it derailed so fast. They wasted so much time on absolute nothingness and pointless plots with poor resolutions. I am rating this as high as I am just because Off killed it. This was not an OffGun series, I really want Off paired with someone else at this point. Gun is a phenomenal actor, but this show made me see how limited he is. Gun just doesn't have the range to do romantic comedy, and that's okay. But that doesnt change that his performance was flat, and half of their kisses he seemed disgusted or like he didn't want to kiss Off. I'm not sure if this was the character or actor, but neither scenario makes sense.

The amount of back and forth and half baked resolutions crammed into the finale really sealed this show's fate for me. I can't say I would recommend this or watch it again sadly. This was a GMMTV miss for me, and an OffGun miss.

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