In its quest to be artistic, Thai drama Dalah: Death And The Flowers loses its way from the start. Ironically, this mystery drama feeds its audience so many details that one wonders if they actually care about this mystery enough to bother doing it. In the show, a flower arrangement designer named Dalah is invited to work on the flowers for Thailand’s most anticipated wedding, that of prime ministerial candidate Anusorn “Ohm” Uathepa and Narisa Tangsinsup. However, a few days before the wedding, Ohm’s body is found in Dalah’s studio. Who killed Ohm and why did Dalah come into their lives? This is the basic premise of Dalah: Death And The Flowers.
The show does a terrible job of establishing the two families in the first few episodes. They are both wealthy families and for some reason, the nephews and nieces look as old as their aunts and uncles, which left me completely confused at the beginning of the series. I mean, we all know that the big trend right now is for big whodunit casts. We saw it in Netflix’s A Perfect Couple. Afterparty may be a comedy, but it’s also a murder mystery with dozens of suspects.
But instead of breaking through in the genre, the Thai drama fails to make a unique impression, coming across as almost derivative — not in the plot specifically, but in regards to the main character. It took me a while to realize this, but Dalah is like Wednesday Addams (the Jenna Ortega version). She’s stoic, unsmiling, keeps to herself, and dresses in a unique, whimsical way, mostly in dark colors. To be fair, I thought the show’s costume design was pretty good, and we see some really lovely outfits on all the characters, but I digress. I actually quite liked the character, but I wish we got more from her than just quotes about flowers. It just feels a little too self-involved.
The show focuses on a feminist narrative until the very last moment, where it veers a bit more towards the family drama side. A minor spoiler plus trigger warning here, so skip to the next paragraph if you don't want any spoilers. I'm going to be honest here and say that I'm absolutely tired of watching Thai dramas that use the same sexual abuse theme in all of their mystery dramas. What's worse is that the show tries so hard to be artistic, but fails to be anything but unsubtle when it comes to the abuse scenes, leaving us as viewers completely disturbed. There's almost never a need to show the abuse, and having to watch nearly unconscious women being abused really isn't something I want to see in a mystery meant for entertainment. Things can be implied, and we as the audience should be treated as intelligent viewers.
Speaking of which, the series has 6 parts of about 50 minutes each episode, but the last episode definitely feels like it's almost 2 hours long because of how much it drags out the details. Yes, it's true, people love to see how things happened with scientific precision, and that adds another level of excitement to the overall experience, but when it becomes too much, it gets a bit boring. The show goes from a very slow first episode, focusing solely on tulips, to a good episode that takes us into the mystery of things, 2 or 3 decent episodes, and then downhill again. It's like trying to navigate a bumpy road with too many speed bumps.
It's okay, but I can't deny that this is a beautiful cast, where everyone looks like they just stepped off the runway, including Grandma. I guess seeing pretty people is one of the many reasons we're entertained, and this show does a great job of allowing that. I already mentioned the costumes, but the makeup is something that also works really well for the characters, enhancing all the characters in just the right way. Urassaya Sperbund plays Dalah, the titular flower arrangement designer. She looks fantastic, and the deadpan diva act really suits her.
I guess his acting doesn’t need much, but he manages to pull off this character, which I think is a task in itself. Sadly, I’ve never seen this cast before because I don’t watch enough Thai dramas, which is a shame, but I don’t know how I can see Naphat Vikairungroj, the one with the dimples, as a good person given how much he makes you want to despise him on this show. The mark of a truly good actor, I guess. The rest of the cast is good too, and while everyone’s role is rather small, given that there are so many characters and so little time, they’re all mostly good at standing out when needed.
Visually, the show is outstanding; everything looks wonderful and you can definitely feel the rich lifestyle of these people seeping through your screen. Each episode has its own title card with floral animations, so I can imagine a good chunk of the budget was spent on that. All of that is fun. There is one specific hit-and-run scene, where the person who gets hit is carrying a bouquet of flowers. It’s a very beautiful scene, to be sure, but do the artistic visuals help the show enough? Personally, I feel that they are not enough to be the show’s saving grace. If these visuals had been complemented by a faster-paced narrative, then it would have been a much more entertaining show. The music in the show is pretty good, even if the mystery isn’t necessarily up to par.
I guess the best part of the show is the flora and fauna, both literally and through Dalah’s metaphors. Without the flowers, I think the show would have looked like any conventional detective novel. That being said, I have pretty high standards for Thai dramas, although my brain was completely soured by another Thai Netflix show called Master of the House. This show is way better than that one, despite the overlapping themes, but everyone needs to up their drama game because it shouldn't be that easy for me to think of other examples of similar shows. Regardless, I'd give Dalah: Death And The Flowers 2.5 out of 5 stars for this very reason.
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