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Bite Me thai drama review
Completo
Bite Me
8 persone hanno trovato utile questa recensione
by cdvmty
nov 8, 2021
11 di 11 episodi visti
Completo
Generale 6.0
Storia 6.5
Attori/Cast 7.0
Musica 7.5
Valutazione del Rewatch 4.5
Questa recensione può contenere spoiler

Another disappointment

What a shame!
This series looked like a promising and original BL series with a plot that was centered around chefs/cooking (which we've seen recently in several Korean BLs like "The Tasty Florida", "My Sweet Dear" and to a lesser degree as only one of the main characters is a chef in "To My Star" and the Taiwanese "Craving You"). It also departed from the typical BL scenarios we’ve seen in the past that mostly include university students going through the usual plots/storylines of misunderstandings, tears, a crazy female character, a jealous ex-boyfriend or a male character that wants to create a love triangle, parents that are either super against or super in favor of their son being gay, weird/useless characters, bizarre/unreal situations, sex scenes with actors that most of the time look uncomfortable doing them, among many more... but "Bite Me" ended up being a big disappointment.

The many negatives of this series outweigh some of the positives.
a. The pace of this series has to be the slowest in history. I’ve skipped some parts of other BL series in the past that included bad acting or very predictable scenes (crying, arguments, etc.) but never had to skip this much because NOTHING happened on screen! All the actors moved and talked at a glacial pace and it was clear the instructions from the acting coach and the director were to let the stares linger into oblivion with many scenes having 15-45 seconds of dialogue and 2 minutes of plain staring. Somehow, we ended up with 11 episodes of over 45 minutes each… I bet that if we take out the wasted silent moments in all the episodes, we might end up with only 5, maybe 6, episodes at the most.

b. The storylines made not much sense.
First, Aek was the only naïve and oblivious one in all of Thailand because he couldn’t realize that Chef Aue liked him from the very beginning.
Second, Chef Aue had the unresolved past relationship with Eve that made no sense as we have very little background of their story. During the first few episodes she seems to be a character that could be the series' villain because she looked like she wanted Aue back. However, she slowly fades into nothing relevant, appearing in the cooking competition and not doing much there and then she ends up being courted by Aek’s friend Bie (played by Gameplay) also without any background as to how/why they end up dating.
Third, Chef Aue also had a previous conflict with Chef Moo who seemed to be his mentor and ended up being a bully and psychologically abusive until Aue finally had enough. Chef Moo also plays the role of a villain but there is not much background as to why their relationship deteriorates so much and then he suddenly appears at Aue's restaurant before the cooking competition to remind him how bad he thinks he is. Chef Moo also has his relationship with Nuna and we can imply that the background of this relationship is that Nuna was fed up with Chef Moo for putting cooking and being a successful chef above her, then she also realizes that she doesn’t love him anymore and in a calm manner tells him that and leaves despite his attempts to get her back. Then, we had a delivery girl flirting with Nuna and asking for her phone number but that leads nowhere as it was not brought up again after it happened.
Fourth, Aek is conflicted about going to work at a restaurant at first but his mother always knows his son better than him so she provides some solid maternal support, that was fine… the issues in here are all the sudden doubts inside Aek about his feelings for Chef Aue. The plot just comes and goes and explodes in episodes 9 and 10 and magically Aek’s mother solves it by telling Aek that she knows his true feelings and that everything is ok.
Fifth, the cooking competitions for both Aek and Aue end up being solved in portions of one and a half episodes with barely any cooking being done, judges that don’t speak Thai and look awkward when complimenting food that was clearly not made by Aek or Aue (or any other actor), and the appearance of another villain, Chef Wiphob. He comes basically out of nowhere and feels like he wants to seduce Aek at first but only acts very friendly towards him and then turns around to provoke Aue by showing Aek’s clothes to him and telling Aue to lose the cooking competition... but Wiphob is not even competing in the same competition with Aue, so maybe it was to help Chef Moo, but we don't know for sure. Wiphob has also some issues with his father who pressures him to win but nothing more is made of that.
Sixth, the secondary couple of Prem and Vich is all cute but we don’t see much of them until episode 11 when Prem is trying to fulfill his dream of opening an all-dessert store and Vich is there to help him accomplish it. Aside from that, their relationship progresses mainly off-screen as we get some bits and pieces of their interactions.

All in all, the plots seemed weak and some came out of nowhere, without any explanation or logic as to why the writers decided to include them, and most were solved rather easily after a conversation or two. Most of the support characters like Chefs Moo, Wiphob and Eve, Wiphob’s father, Aek’s friends (except Vich) and the other sous-chefs do not have much dialogue and do not provide much in terms of content. The three “bad” chefs are not that evil to be classified as villains and their stories are not mentioned much (if any at all) to really make me care about them or understand them more.

Some of the positives (just to be fair).
a. The chemistry between Mark Siwat (playing Aek) and Zung (playing Chef Aue) and between Paam (playing Chef Prem) and Toon (playing Vich) was very nice. Mark is 8 years younger than Zung (21 vs. 29 years old) but both were able to develop some good rapport between them. In this series, such large gaps between dialogues caused the actors to rely heavily on expressing their emotions through their eyes and both Mark and Zung (who has a lot more experience acting) did a decent job on navigating those moments. Paam and Toon are closer in age (23 vs. 19 years old) and they showed some nice chemistry as well. Toon was a nice surprise in this disappointing series as he was making his acting debut but had some nice moments when his character gave advice to Aek and also being so sure of his feelings towards Chef Prem. His acting was not flawless but it was better than other more experienced BL actors we’ve seen recently (like Gun Napat in “Golden Blood” for example). The two girls, Noon (playing Chompoo) and Zani (playing Nuna) also provided some funny moments and banter between them so that gave the slow show a bit of a break from all the boring scenes we had to watch.

b. The food was a high point for me because being from a country so far away and very different from Thailand, it was an interesting moment to see them prepare all the ingredients and cook them to create visually attractive dishes. Sadly, the cooking competitions were so short that we got deprived from some more tasty dishes and images. I know Thailand has plenty of desserts as well but Prem’s creations do not get the same screentime as the savory dishes.

In the end, another Thai BL series that has been a disappointment in 2021. What started with a promising trailer ended up being a very slow and sometimes boring show that just dragged along the 11 episodes with not many memorable moments.
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