Occasionally charming, frequently irritating, almost always excruciating in its inept performances and writing, “AiLongNhai” is a potentially good idea that needed more care and thought to pull off.

Can a pair of gay parents successfully raise a child, and can they model a happy relationship to that child, and especially if the child is gay? The point of “AiLongNhai” is to answer ‘yes’ to both questions. It also introduces us to two very different characters, one raised in comparative wealth and who has an assured manner about him in the world, and the other, a young man reluctant to grow up to adulthood (nicely metaphored as the yellow plastic duck found in bathtubs). There is potential here for something interesting, but it fails to do so and became for me one of the hardest series to finish watching.

Ai, played by Meen Nichakoon Khajornborirak as if trying his hardest to remember his lines, has been raised by his gay father and his partner; he falls for the perpetually childish Nhai, played with appropriate surface shallowness by Ping Krittanum Anunchananum. Run Kantheephop Sirorattanaphanit’s debut outing as a screenwriter shows a newbie’s poor scene structure and preference for episodic incident over character development. Even the more experienced Director, Nob Sathanapong Kim Wongthong, can’t save this series from being a continuing experience of under-delivery.