Cooking Crush (2023)

Cooking Crush didn’t crush it

Except for ‘Not Me’, Off in ‘The Jungle’, and cameos, I don’t have much experience with OffGun’s acting but I know their history and have seen their chemistry in Safe House 3 and how cute they are off-cam. However, if I were to watch this as a first-timer, I would think Gun either doesn’t like or care about acting. When in reality, he’s one of GMM’s most seasonal, highest-demand, and paid actors. I just couldn’t feel his passion in here.

- Pros:
- The cast could act, for the most part.
- The cast, OffGun, Neo, Dome, Victor, and Tum, man is talented and natural!
- Samsi. He’s the only character I cared for from start to end.
- The friendship group for both Doc and Chef. I love healthy friendships and Cooking Crush did a well and natural job in this area.

- Cons:
- The cooking & food. Despite this being a show about cooking and food, I never once looked at any of the dishes and thought “OHHH THAT LOOKS YUMMY”. Oh wait, I stand corrected. Chef’s pepper looked pretty tasty in EP 11.
- Borderline boring. It felt like no one cared. The romance between Doc and Chef and Fire and Dynamite were both fast-paced with little to no chemistry. DocChef weren’t characters, they were OffGun in costumes. I can’t even remember their characters’ names even if someone were to hold a gun to my head.
- The university plot became an afterthought early on and didn’t come back until the very end.
- The 3B or 3 BULLIES gang is overutilized in a university setting. I feel like this show was trying to check off every old stereotype you can find in series in the early 2000s to late 2016s i.e. bullies in universities, closed-mouth kisses, the camera spinning around closed-mouth kissing, running onto filming sets with no security whatsoever, older characters attending college is frowned upon, an abundant of flashbacks, and the list goes on.
- The poor camera work and music killed this series for me. Most of the time, the background music/sound is NOT supporting the scene. Funny scenes are dryer than deserts and it’s because no one cared to add an upbeat soundtrack to go with it. This wouldn’t be a problem if most of the time the series was a heartfelt, serious series but it wasn’t, and was trying to go for comedy a lot of the time. It’s like the show is trying and they’re self-aware to a point but they’re also doing all the wrong things because they know the actors’ popularity will overshadow the lackluster effort.
- The heavy time skips only to use flashbacks to explain what happened. I despise series that use flashbacks for shock value. DocChef suddenly kissing and then having almost one entire episode showing ‘what happened earlier’ was simply boring. I don’t understand the abuse of flashbacks in this series.
- A lot happened and there was a lot of predictable drama but most of them were uneventful. The show should have cut out most of them. The whole separation to improve Doctor’s grades made me lose brain cells and it was such a brainless decision on the characters and production part. We never saw the result of it other than Doc himself saying his grades improved in the last episode. You could have just said that without the whole separating thing. The separation was so short-lived too, it wasn’t even funny. To be fair though, if Doc’s dad had just been upfront from the get-go, we probably wouldn’t have to see Doc acting like a teenager always throwing a hissy fit around daddy and new step-mommy. I wouldn’t have minded Doc’s immaturity if he was at least responsible and independent for a medical student in his third year but he has no part-time job, acts like a clown for the most part, relies on his dad for financial support, and still dares to get mad when he overpaid Chef for cooking courses he no longer needed and daddy found out. ‘Doctor’ was not the profession they should have given Off’s character. I’m not even going to talk about that horrible subplot of Doc meeting another Doc who looks identical to his mom and when he took her to the hospital and saved her life, he was no longer traumatized by his inability to save his mom back then. What. The. Heck. And for him to say ‘we’re not busy today’? I feel that’s something every medical student just knows.
- Gun’s acting. As I said before, it felt like he didn’t want to be a part of the show but did it for Papi. His energy was so low I found myself dozing off whenever he was on screen. For a character who likes to see other people happy, I thought he should start with himself…
- Changma's out-of-the-blue crush on Chef was a big ‘HUH’? Stop it, GMM!
- The whole social media shenanigans were a waste of screen and viewers’ time. For Doc. to apologize ON HIS KNEES and then still act possessive right after was so dumb. It was so middle-school behavior.
- The storyline I hated most is that the staff openly admitted to passing Chef’s group into the second round because they were lame and the show needed that for views...like wtf? I was so glad when Chef opted to withdraw but then he was so easily talked back into it, it was so lame. The fact that his team didn’t end up dropping out when it was an entertainment show and not a cooking show, made me question if it was their cooking skills they wanted recognized in the first place.
- Dynamite was so cute but he did a 180 towards the middle of the show. I liked that he respected Fire and Jane getting back together but since then, he seemed like a different character. We also never know what’s become of his place after his neighbor was murdered.

Overall Cooking Crush gets a 5 from me, in terms of OffGun’s series.

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Light-hearted goodness

Story

I’m not used to “campy” shows, so the lightheartedness was something I struggled with a little. The problems were solved properly but because I’m used to the long, extended deep dive of topics like homophobia, parental strictness, fiancial struggles and parental death so the simple-esque solving was a little bogus for me but that doesn’t take away from the show.

The ending does feel rushed but that’s the cut version so maybe the uncut would be better with more context and pacing.

Acting/Casting: Amazing, each actor did a great job and special shoutout to Aungpao for doing so well in what I believe is his debut role. He was approximately 15/16 when the show was filmed and yet he fit in really well with the seasoned actors. I will add that a some of the kisses between OffGun were more intense earlier than later, I figured that it might be related to the censorship under WeTv, it felt weird seeing the intensity lower, as if they were doing it for the first time.

Music: The intro song is catchy, I don’t have much to say but the music fit well with the theme of the show.

Overall: This is a great show to watch if you need a breather from some of the more serious shows. Great for decompression and touching on the reality of queer relationships without having it takedown the tone of the show. If you're the type of watcher that enjoys nuanced plots even under the rom-com genre, this is not the one for you. The plot is merely there so that the characters exist, the show is character-driven. If you watch the show, it's because you can, rather than because you really want to follow the story at the same pace as the rest of the audience. I watched the show because I had nothing else to watch and I am familiar with some of the actors. There were also moments where I didn't have the subtitles but because the plot doesn't have a lot of mystery and suspense, I did not feel lost when I focused again. That might give you an idea of how little the plot really affects the story.

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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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Disappointing

I would’ve stopped watching after the second episode if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s OffGun. I was really looking forward to seeing how their acting/ chemistry had progressed and had high hopes after watching them together previously but it feels like we took 5 steps backwards. I personally didn’t feel the chemistry at all and while the plot was a good idea it was not executed very well… It was most likely not the actors fault and was the script/ writer/ director of this series but it’s still disappointing. I hope we get an amazing redemption series in the future with them.

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Not Exactly An Entertaining Watch

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.

Read the complete article here-

https://the-bl-xpress.com/2024/03/08/cooking-crush-series-review-ep-3-to-12-cut-version/

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One word - Cute.

They called this series Cooking Crush. Valid. I assure you, if you like fluff, don't like breakups, and simply want a light-hearted story to eat up like a lion who hasn't eaten for years, you can knock yourself out with this series.

I noticed that a lot of people in MDL don't tend to like simple-hearted stories, but this series has the potential to make a place in your hearts. Good or bad. Firstly, this series tended to focus on the main couple and gave around 80% of equal attention to the side couple.
What knocked me out of the park was the fact that Pang liked Samsee!! That was so cute, definitely one of the shocking parts of the series.
But, let's focus on more main matters, the main couple, OffGun. As always, marvellous job. They scream out CUTE. Let's talk about the characters, Ten is a rich boy who has lost his mother and has a dad who is a doctor. He hates his dad because he believes he put no effort into saving his mom, which leads to a lot of unwanted drama between the father and the son. It was cringe but P'Off really carried his role out. Now, Prem is a boy who owns a shop down the town. His shop used to be Ten's mom's favorite and all that jazz. One day, Ten is starving himself and then ends up eating the food Prem's teacher did not eat due to not submitting the food on time. So, that was the root of their relationship. Pretty sweet. The moments throughout the series would make you smile and feel warm and fuzzy inside.
My favorite was definitely the sideship! Yes, a bit is because I'm very biased towards P'Neo Trai. I love his acting. His chemistry is OUT OF THE WORLD. I definitely LOVED the scene where Firefy just ran inside the room and started kissing Dy all over when he qualified. I want to preserve their cuteness for when you watch the series.
Let's not forget Metha, Pang, Samsee(Unky), and Prem's grandma. They were all lovely roles and Samsee is one of the cutest characters throughout the series. I was crushed when he was so sad about a fight the friend group had. Metha is like the cool, laid-back type of friend who jokes about everything. That is a QUALITY. Let me tell you, in P'Gun's family, the beauty runs within, because I'm head over heels for P'Pim(P'Gun's sister). She elevates Pang's role a lot more simply because they are truly family. Prem's grandma is sooo understanding!! I loved her character so much.
Anyway, I can very much assure you'll love this. Oh! And watching this when you're down will definitely lift your mood up for sure!

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Light-hearted, funny, romantic sweet

I never did a review in MDL but I felt that I could do this with Cooking crush as this show is not that serious or deep but stills bring a meaning and great feelings. Feels like a sweet show to watch if you're feeling down and got used to making a confort in Thai BL (It has classical effects of this kind like stickers randomly on screen, "funny" sound effects etc) and I think it stills diverge into the norm with health relationships and characters well developed. Watch if you want some thing like this :)
(Non native so, bad english srry)

As boring or annoying it might seems in the beginning it will get better as you create connexion with all this well constructed characters and once you get used to the silly acting and editing you will fall in love.

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Cute

The headline perfectly sums up this show, "cute." This series wasn't amazing but wasn't great. It's definitely not going to be in my top 10 series of this year but also won't be in my 10 worst series of the year. I feel like most people didn't watch this series for the plot but instead for the cast. If this series had a different cast I don't think many people would have watched this, including me. I personally started this series as a big Neo fan but also because of OffGun, yet Aungpao really surprised me. Dynamite was my favorite character and Aungpao played his part amazingly, so I'm excited to see his journey and growth. I found myself not really caring about the plot of the show. OffGun's chemistry was amazing as usual and it was nice to see Off play such a different character than he usually does. Ten was such a green flag and I'm very happy to see Off play this part. Though my favorite part of the series was definitely Dynamite and Fire's relationship and didn't expect the chemistry of NeoAungpao to shine so much while in the same series as OffGun. This series knew what it wanted to be and did just that.

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Has 'Not Me' ruined OffGun projects forever?

BL fans will ruin their own watching experience all because of one series.

People need to stop comparing every offgun series post-not me to that series. It is honestly depressing seeing people's reviews and comments here being flooded with complaints about how this series didn't match up to Not Me. Of course it didn't, they are completely different genres, styles, and stories. If you cannot watch a series without comparing it negatively from the very beginning to previous works, then why watch in the first place?

This series wasn't anything special, it's a typical GMMTV gay romance, there were parts of it that were less entertaining than others, however as a general series it was perfectly fine. It isn't the dumpster fire that so many of you retell it to be. I get it, Not Me was an incredible series, but it's also nearly 3 years old by now and some of you have not been able to enjoy a single series by offgun since that series it seems. Seriously guys, are you watching offgun to appreciate their efforts or to hate on them?

In terms of an actual review for this series, it wasn't the best, and it wasn't the worst. It is 'a middle of the road' series with fun side characters and interesting dynamics, and I love anything that has to do with the love language of food. I genuinely loved how sweet it was, the portrayal of emotions was honestly just to my taste and I don't regret watching it at all. Would I watch it again? Probably not. But does that take away from the joy I had watching from it? Absolutely not.

The hate towards Chang Ma is questionable considering I genuinely cannot understand what people think he did so wrong considering he had a crush on Prem and tested the boundaries of prem/ten's relationship, something MANY other characters in MANY BL have done before, yet y'all have an issue with him despite him genuinely having a good redemption arc, as well as genuinely respecting the boundaries once they were set? If anyone is to hate it's the b3 trio and their annoying laughs - they added literally nothing other than toxic rivalry, where some of it was necessary for plot progression, but other bits of it were just plain stupid. They should've been revealed for the bullies they were and kicked off that stupid show. Stupid ass side characters.

There were parts of the series that definitely could have been solved much faster with a basic little thing called "communication" (e.g the whole argument between prem/Dy/unky, and the whole "scamming" issue with Ten's dad) however the entire point of a drama like this is to have those dramatic scenes. I feel some people who watch series love to just complain, "it's too much unnecessary drama" or "it's sk bland there is nothing going on". I worry that series will never be enough for people, especially when a large selection of comments on any GMMTV BL is flooded with constant negativity.

People complained about Metha and Samsee's coupling not going anywhere, but I'd like to remind you all that not every single character that shows up has to be gay, or if they are gay then they don't have to be in a relationship with someone. Gay people can be friends with gay people without dating y'know lmao, but also, not every guy in these shows has to be gay.

Correct me if I am wrong, but the friendly rivalry they had was nothing like Fire and Dynamite, and I genuinely saw nothing between Metha and Samsee relationship-wise, they were just two side characters that happened to go together as a pair due to the relationships between their friends - nothing more. If anything I'm kinda glad Samsee ended up with Prem's sister, it makes for a nice change in pace honestly - I love the fact she had a crush on Samsee lol, a super good twist in the plot there.

I enjoyed seeing Off and Gun playing these types of roles again, and Off's portrayal of Ten took me back a lot to Theory of Love, the love-sick puppy character suits him well, and reminds me of Khai's attitude towards Third after realising his feelings for him. And equally, Gun suits all roles very well, he is good at playing characters who are more shy and reclused about their relationships, with a healthy sense of doubt and hesitance when someone like Off comes along overly friendly. Do I think some scenes were awkward? Yes. Did I think the awkwardness honestly suited the pair of young adults navigating their way through love? Absolutely.

Did I prefer fire and dynamite as a couple? Yes. Do I also have a bias towards side-couples in a lot of BL series? (Checks list) Yes. Yes I do. Because we don't get as much of a deep dive into a lot of side-couples and I think sometimes we prefer that in comparison to the over explanation and focus that happens for the main couple. (But also, fire and dynamite is such a lovely story despite the rollercoaster it went on, and the actors played them incredibly well. The ending to their plot line is honestly so well rounded out, especially with the mother.)

The storyline? Basic, nothing overly interesting, however the Thai BL industry has a lot of "school student" plot-lines, especially regarding either engineering or doctoring, so to see a chef plot was actually nice (the only other series I remember watching that had something to do with cooking was UWMA and even then that was a mild story-line in comparison).

I think it is hard to constantly live up to expectations, however I do believe offgun "fans" have shot themselves in the foot here. Instead of finding things they enjoyed about this series, they have instead focused so much on how different it is to Not Me, causing them to miss, well, EVERYTHING good about the series. It's a shame fans will miss everything all for one thing. If you want another series like Not Me, then look for those types of series rather than bashing smaller series like these that rely on cutesy styles and more of a focus on school life.

Feel free to disagree, but the fact is, y'all are already expecting their next series, the trainee, to flop all because of Not Me. Don't let your own expectations ruin a series for others, and don't bash the actors either. They are being directed by someone behind the scenes, and actually? A lot of them act very naturally. (Some of y'all just don't know what real human interaction looks like lmao /halfjoking)

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A cute, light and feel-good series.

I came to this series not long after watching Cherry Magic (Thai version) and I feel like there is a similar vibe here that I quite enjoyed in both series. It had a Japanese series vibe to it with some of the inner monologue and looking into the camera and a hint of over-the-top moments. This was a nice light show that was interesting and not your run-of-the mill University drama that follow the same cookie cutter storyline.

First things first, I'm sad that people bash the series because they compare it to others that Off and Gun have done together. It's really unfortunate because the series itself delivered on what its clear intention was: comedic and full of heart with the characters not only working to improve themselves but also lifting up those around them, whether they were their partners or friends. There was so much going on with different relationship dynamics that I can't imagine how anyone could say the series was boring. Before I knew it, I was on episode 12 simply because I wanted to see what happens next. It wasn't heavy or needed a lot of processing, making it an easy watch to breeze right through.

In that respect, I feel like the acting was fine, considering the overall tone of the series. There was a good mix of seasoned actors along with newbies and I feel like they all fell into place quite well with each other. It was clear who was who out of the experienced and the inexperienced but I like that they could come together in such a series. The actor for Dy was a prime example of this seeing as he had most of his scenes directly against actors like Gun and Neo. While it was clear he was new, I feel like he held his own opposite them well enough. The character of Metha was probably my favorite. He was goofy most of the time but had sage words of wisdom when it mattered, giving a glimpse of much more beneath the surface. His dynamic with each character was slightly different yet 100% still unmistakenly HIM. I also like that he didn't end up with a partner in the end, nor was he looking for one throughout the series. I feel like the writers here understood that each supporting role doesn't need to be paired up. I wish more series would realize this.

It had a very realistic feel to it where, yes, I could see people thinking it too mundane to be made into a series but I think these kind of series are nice to see every so often to show that any life could be important and worth being invested in, no matter their circumstances. And, again, it was different enough from the standard University setting to make it stand out. I would say it's a great series to watch after a darker series (I watched this right after Payboyy soooooooooo... yeah..) to clear out the haze and fog that sometimes those heavy series leave behind. And being a fan of Gun, I like to see his range of acting, knowing he can do the serious roles as well as comedy and heartfelt slice of life. Same with Neo.. it was nice seeing him like this after watching him as Boston in OF.

I would recommend this for anyone needing a series to feel good about and smile along with. (Also, prepare to walk away hungry because those dishes they make are stunning.) Take it for what it is and what it was meant to be. It's best enjoyed as it's own thing and not in comparison to other works by different writers, directors, crew, etc.

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"OFF & GUN chemistry is perfect, but something seemed to be off"

Off and gun is as usual amazing in their series. But for me, compare to the series (NOT ME) this series seems to be bit off of the plot. Some scenes are irritating and makes us to drop the drama itself and I again continued to watch the drama because of their chemistry. They have chosen different plots from their previous works like 'theory of love', 'our sky s1' and 'Not me' and many more series, they have some main plot and it revolves around it without creating any sorts of irritating scenes. 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.

The characters they portrayed in this drama does not have any scope(means anyone can play this character) I loved their previous work called "NOT ME" the way portrayed the emotions and depth in their characters are amazing. The screenplay is so simple , predictable and the secondary characters so annoying and often over-acted, that I really can't bring myself.

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