Some things are meant to be. After watching “A Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” I am hooked on Mario. Coincidentally, it just so happens that his first lakorn is currently airing on Ch.3 today, from 8:30pm-10:30pm. What blind luck, because I happen to walk back to my apartment after my massage and caught the first episode. I recall DL’s post about Mario being confident about his first drama and thought, why shouldn’t he? The guy is a natural! I can’t even stop staring at his cute face.

The first scene I saw was Numfon (Taew) who was a reporter, trying to do a news piece in a market but gets repeatedly interrupted by the hustle and bustle. We glean that Numfon is impatient and has a bad attitude. She yells at her crew for their choice of location and then, as she gets fed up with the constant interruptions, Plerng (Mario) saves her from being crushed by a rolling cart (or person, I forget). Their first encounter: Plerng uses his body to protect her and we see her sprawled completely on him (cute!) But of course, Miss bad attitude accuses Plerng of taking advantage of her.Things didn’t go well for their first encounter and both cannot stand each other, she more than he.

Plerng works multiple jobs to help his family survive day by day but little did he know that his father (Pipat) used to be rich until he chose love over family. Kon Ying (Pipat’s mother) could not fathom her son marrying a woman who sold fish and forced her son to choose. Til this day, she misses him but has cut him out of her life. We have several conflicts in this story thus far: Kon Ying has three children, Pipat, Boot, third child (let’s call him uncle because I forgot his name). Boot is a conniving and selfish individual, she is jealous of her estranged brother because her mother doesn’t trust her or uncle and still holds a strong rein on the family jewelry business. She only trusted Pipat and thus works her old self until she developed heart problems. Heck, if I were her, I wouldn’t be confident in my childrens’ ability to lead the company either, her daughter only thinks about the inheritance, her grand kids look like a bunch of teenagers trying to run the company. They all just look so young and inept to me… We have the good grandchild (son of uncle) then two other grandchildren who are also apparently bad seeds.

Let’s talk about Aof’s role in this lakorn.. I love his music by the way and I don’t mean to badger his acting skills or anything, but seriously, you don’t have to make such extreme facial expressions just because you’re acting as the villain. He is Kon Ying’s other grandchild and he likes to go out, doesn’t work very hard, blah blah, the kind of things that are frowned upon. Aof tends to open his eyes very large and make odd expressions. Perhaps he’s not going to cut it as a po-rai? But I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, it is after all, only episode 1. So anyway, Aof is engaged to Numfon because of the deep family ties and of course Numfon who was raised with him and only thinks of him as her brother, was ok with the engagement. Red flags anyone?

So the triggering factor in this episode is when Kon Ying heart fails and they need a matching heart for her, this stemmed from her relentless hard work and Aof telling her how it is (when it comes to her favorite son Pipat.) Pipat later discovers that his mother is in the hospital and that it’s his fault (how?) Plerng overhears them and his parents are forced to tell him the truth.. well son.. Kon Ying is actually your grandmother.. If I were Plerng, I would be a little pissed at them for holding it out on me. I mean, I could be rich, living in a mansion, driving a ferrari, going on luxurious vacations. But Plerng is a good kid, he understood and he wanted to bridge the gap (so his dad can start feeling better) by going to apologize to Kon Ying at the hospital.

One thing led to another, the truck they were driving breaks down when they were almost there (where is the fairness in that? why do bad things happen to good people?) and as Plerng is about the check on the car, a semi comes crashing into the truck.

His father practically dies, his mother is not awaken from her injury and Plerng has to make a decision. He discovered that his grandmother required a heart and his father is dying. Why not donate his father’s heart to his grandmother? This is the ultimate sacrifice and Plerng knew that if his dad had a choice, he would do the same thing. He knew that it was the right thing to do and hopefully Kon Ying can forgive his father for his transgressions.

The scenes leading to Plerng signing his name to allow the doctor to operate was so heartbreaking. This is a lot of responsibility for anyone, especially for a son to give his father’s heart away and to officially end his father’s life. Mario you got me there.

Here’s the twist, Boot made Plerng and uncle promise that they will not tell Kon Ying who donated the heart. Plerng, disgusted with his “aunt,” told her that he didn’t want anything to do with them and once his mother heals, he would take her back to the province Ranong. Boot walks away evil and happy that she got rid of her brother and nephew once and for all.. Uncle just looks uncomfortable and guilty. At least he’s nice, but why would he agree with his greedy sister?

While Plerng visits his grandmother’s hospital room to say goodbye to his father’s heart (what a story!!) Numfon catches him wai to Kon Ying. She accuses him (yet again) that he was trying to steal from the sick. Man this woman just can’t stop.. she further comments that his parents doesn’t raise him well and that was the last straw for him. He grabs her by the shoulders and told her that his father is dead and he is here to say goodbye to his father who had donated his heart to Kon Ying. If I were Plerng, I would shake Numfon as well, for good measure. But he storms away, into his mother’s hospital room and tears fall. Numfon looks remorsed for her accusations but she does nothing… it is hard to see Taew not being cute and sweet.. perhaps she needs to work further on being a hi-so bitch.

This first episode is very catchy, I look forward to watching the next episode. Perhaps they will address these questions.. How will Kon Ying find out the truth about her donar? What is the next contact between Plerng and Numfon, will she play nice (I’m guessing no)? There will be further greedy scenes with Boot.. and Plerng has yet to tell his mother about his father’s death, so how will that play out?

One thing is for certain, Mario is eye candy and his acting is not too shabby at all. He can certainly hold his own. I will make more judgement as far as n’ek and pr’ek’s chemistry (since it’s hard to tell right now..) but I sure hope that it will be electric, sizzling and ultra romantic.

Can’t wait for next episode!