It’s almost remarkable these days when a streaming drama tells a straightforward story in a straightforward manner, letting the story itself take on the entertainment load rather than using cutesy time manipulations or explosive cold opens. That’s what we get from a show about Thailand’s first “unicorn” startup.
Opening Shot: A man in a yellow Thunder Express jacket rides on a motorcycle, with a helmet that says “CEO” on it.
The Gist: Thunder Express is Thailand’s first “unicorn” startup, which is a startup with revenue over a billion dollars. He winds through alleyways in Bangkok, and we hear the CEO, Santi (Natara Nopparatayapon), say in voice over that he got into the express package delivery service for one reason: “Revenge.” He’s standing in front of the headquarters of the Kanin Group.
Going back to 2015, we see Santi working at a sand mine in Lampang. Santi grew up dirt poor, but his mother, a teacher in his hometown, made sure he knew Mandarin as well as his native Thai. That has served him well at the mine, where his Chinese boss asks him to translate when someone from the Kanin Group comes by to undercut him on his sand.
He gets some Christmas cookies for his mother, but is dismayed when the minimum shipping charge is more than he can afford. Depressed at his lack of ability to help out his mother and brother, Santi goes to a lecture given by the Kanin Group’s CEO and namesake (Ek-Thaneth Warakulnukroh). During the lecture, Kanin tells the group that the way to be successful in business is to be “first in line.” Through an audience participation exercise, Santi also figures out that if he has “all the chairs” (long story), he can dictate the price.
He does just that at the sand mine, consolidating the other mines in the region to put Kanin’s representative in a less comfortable position. Santi tells his boss he wants a piece of the profits from that sale, but he asks for it all at once; he wants to move to Bangkok and start a business.
In Bangkok, he works for a tour company, selling pillows to Chinese tourists as a sideline. When he buys the rights to sell condos that end up being in a lousy location, one rich Chinese tour client hires him as a translator for his Thai girlfriend… which includes having Santi translate for them while they’re having sex.
However, he also invites Santi to Shanghai to sell the condos to his rich buddies. A drinking challenge lays him low, but Kanin, also in Shanghai at the time, takes notice. This is when Santi, shipping a dog bowl for the Chinese client, finds a business opportunity that would make him “first in line” back home in Bangkok.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Based on a true story, Mad Unicorn has the same vibe as American series about high-tech entrepreneurs, like Super Pumped: The Battle For Uber, or the Swedish series The Playlist.
Our Take: For the most part, it seems like the story of Mad Unicorn is going to be told in a straightforward manner, which is always something we encourage. Yes, it’s always tempting to go back in forth in time, or use a long in media res intro. But, to tell the story of Santi and Thunder Express, it was really necessary to show where he came from first.
The first episode mostly consists of showing just how determined Santi was to make money to help his family’s station in life, but to become a literally rags-to-riches success. He was willing to drink himself to death in order to get the chance to sell those crummy condos, for heaven’s sake, and the fact that he was also willing to translate some sloppy sex in order to stay in the game shows that Santi is a bulldog.
The episode ends on Kanin and Santi making a deal, but from that first scene where he talked about revenge, you know that the partnership isn’t going to end well. He’ll connect with Xiaoyu (Janeyeh Jiranorraphat), whom he first meets on a touring yacht while translating for the Chinese mogul, and a coder named Ruijie (Palang Rocksilp), and that’s when Thunder Express will take off.
This means that Santi will definitely face challenges on the way to success, but we do seem to know the outcome. Will that make seeing his journey there less entertaining? The jury is still out on that one.
Sex and Skin: The sex translating scene has Santi’s client doing it with his Thai girlfriend behind a privacy screen.
Parting Shot: In business class back to Bangkok — an upgrade paid for by Kanin — Santi and the mogul make a deal involving Santi’s package delivery idea.
Sleeper Star: Janeyeh Jiranorraphat’s character Xiaoyu has one scene with Nopparatayapon’s character Santi in the first episode, but it shows that the two of them will have good chemistry when they meet again.
Most Pilot-y Line: How many times did we need to Santi throwing up during the scene where he tries to have 40 shots of vodka?
Our Call: STREAM IT. Mad Unicorn tells a straightforward story in a straightforward manner, which is almost startlingly refreshing in this age of streaming TV.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.