My Ride Review – Fast and Feeble

The 2022 Thai series ‘My Ride’ tries to pack in three romantic stories in 10 episodes, and ends up doing justice to none. So while the pace of the series is fast, the script is feeble and lacks punch.

Directed by Por Saroch Nuamsamran, the primary romantic plot is sweet – Dr Tawan (Fame Chawinroj) is a busy young doctor, who has no life outside of the hospital, while Mork (Fluke Pongsakorn) is a lively bike-taxi-rider with a bumpy life, when these two very different personalities cross paths on a regular basis, an unlikely friendship blooms. But Tawan is already in a relationship with a charming senior dentist called Dr. Por (Pat Chatburirak).

One of the other sub-plots revolve around Tawan’s best-friend Dr Nadia (Ging Aria), a funny pretty woman who is constantly getting dumped by the men in her life. A sweet barista called Mayom (Oat Sumethi) in their hospital’s cafeteria has a huge crush on Nadia, but he tries to strike a friendship with the doctor. While Ging Aria does a great job of playing Tawan’s goofy best-friend, her chemistry with Mayom is lukewarm at best. Fame Chawingroj is quite convincing as the nerdy dedicated Dr Tawan, but his naivety when it comes to relationships seemed a little odd. Fluke Pongsakorn

Dr Tawan’s friendship with bike-taxi-rider Mork has a slow-burn progression, but it’s in sync with their personalities, so the leisurely paced growth of their relationship works well with their personalities. It doesn’t feel rushed or awkward or plain ridiculous like romances in many mini web-series tend to be. Mork has two gay uncles who’ve been in a stable relationship for years and are his pillars of support in times of need. Nu Surasak Chaiat and Patson Sarindu play the older couple and paint a believable picture of domesticity that comes with long-term companionship. The strongest onscreen chemistry in this show however is displayed by actors Yoon Phusanu and Best Cholsawas, who play doctoral students Toy and Boss; even though their story-line is not the best.

Toy literally toys with Boss, his senior, by using an embarrassing picture of his as leverage. His behavior is pretty much on the lines of bullying, but the makers make amends and change the eventually change the equation between the two. A different actor was cast earlier as Boss, but the changes worked out well for the series – Yoon Phusanu and Best Cholsawas make a great onscreen pair and are more charming than the lead couple. Hopefully someone will give them a show of their on in their future.

‘My Ride’ works okay as a romantic-comedy series, but could’ve used some more story-building for the lead pair. Mork has a gang of bike-taxi-rider friends, who are used as comedy relief, but some of their scenes are just unnecessary and not even funny. Instead of some of the pointless ‘friends trying to be funny’ scenes, the writers could’ve given more screen-time to either the lead pair or the more interesting characters.

The climax is cute and feel-good, some get an overtly romantic ending, others make do with a sweet closure. Overall, this makes for a decent fluffy watch for the weekend. It could’ve been so much better.

It’s a 6/10 from me.