Venus\’s Groom (Thai Mini-Series)

This Thai mini series is bad and packed with red flags that make you question so many of the protagonists’ motives, and yet somehow, you still wanna keep watching until the end. It is only 10 episodes, 10 minutes each, but it should come with multiple trigger warnings. I thought we had moved past the rape era in the BL world being justified in the name of love a few years back, but apparently not!
Pakin kidnaps Venus, the heir to a luxury hotel, and keeps him captive in the unforgiving wilderness. He holds Venus responsible for making his younger brother fall in love with him, then breaking his heart, which led to his brother committing suicide. Venus pleads and begs, insisting it must have been his twin brother Saturn who did this, but Pakin refuses to hear any of it. He rapes Venus, forces him to do household chores, and subjects him to other atrocities. Meanwhile, the hotel heiress grandmother worries about where the town grandsons have disappeared to and asks her trusted advisor to find them. Her evil niece, meanwhile, has been eyeing the entire property and is unhappy that grandma plans to put everything in the twins’ name. It turns out she was behind Venus being kidnapped all along. Once she learns about Pakin’s younger brother’s suicide, she makes Saturn leave the country out of fear for his life and tells Pakin that Venus is Saturn. Anyway, some kind of bond slowly begins to form between Pakin and Venus, and once the truth comes out, everything falls into place. Saturn returns to town and apologizes profusely to Pakin for what he did to his brother, and in a surprise reveal, the younger brother turns out not to be dead after all. The evil aunt is punished for her deeds, and Pakin and Venus get married.
My biggest issue is why Pakin had to rape Venus in the first place in the name of avenging his brother. There are multiple ways to torture someone or get revenge. Even putting that aside, though, the execution feels a bit amateurish, and the entire plot line and everything else feels hastily put together. Venus was just a cry baby. How could he not convince Pakin that he was not the right guy? He had multiple opportunities. Then there is Pakin, so consumed by revenge that he just does not listen to anyone. And why all this drama when his brother is actually alive? The only decent character was grandma’s assistant, who figures out what really happened with the twins and why/where they disappeared. His love angle with the evil aunt’s son was a surprise, but I guess it was needed since he eventually uses that to figure out how the aunt was involved. This was one of those shows that was likely conceived 5 years ago and only got made now, or it is the production team’s first attempt at trying something like this. Yes, the guys were good-looking, so at least we had something to look forward to. Overall, this would be a pass for me. (4/10)