This review may contain spoilers
You might discard first 9 episodes. Then, listen to nice music:)
Besides Win & Bright, there are Frank & Drake, too. I remember these two VERY well. Drake's hair now got longer (too long) and he looks slimey. He was actually more hot in 'My Tee' where he was only 18, lol. I seriously think thai tv (and not only thai) should improve on male hair. Nobody seems to have a proper haircut. Why not cut the short male hair actually short, so it doesn't need to be combed into slimy 'do, using I don't know how much of hair-product? That's so eighties. Can we finally move past that, even in Thailand? I'm afraid I can't take not only a gay guy, but even "manly guy" seriously, if I can clearly see exactly which direction he combed his hair so vigorously, lol. Drake needs the scissors desperately: he has such wild eye-brows he doesn't need to have also a ponytail sticking out of his head, lol. Frank also looked better in his debut drama. It's not such a big difference like with Drake, but even his hair looks worse plus he's got sideburns now, so it's not what it was. I watched 'My Tee' ('Cause You're My Boy') and found out these two had astonishing chemistry together. The series itself was complete failure, it looked it was all done by amateur volunteers, but boy do I remember the cast. They are not the main ones here, though...No, we watch Win Metawin's character's story, here. This boy, ordinary but with full lips totally like a girl so I suppose he's the gay holy grail, is shown as someone who has plentiful options & offers on the dating field. However, most of his female dates proved annoying and after all that he gets pursued by a "toot", meaning openly gay guy. The gay is very persistent & takes no for an answer. First, Win Metawin's character asks his friends to help him to get rid of him. They suggest one idea more stupid than another, just anything but telling the guy the truth. Of course Win's main guy gets more and more entangled as a result, instead of losing his interest. Then him and all his friends figure that the only logical solution is for Win's character to find a fake date who would finally firmly tell the gay to leave him alone:D
Bright's character then gets introduced. I don't find Bright that much more attractive than Win, actually (and I already heard that he is going to be "new Domyouji"), but at least his character here is tiny bit more likeable for not having any social media account, lol. Despite that, he's got even more fangirls than the main boy, so he's supposed to be the one who is credible enough to stop his persistent gay suitor. If you got lost in the logic, then I wasn't alone.
Since episode 3, the unexplicably super-popular boy agrees (also unexplicably) to date/fake date (who cares) the main boy. Seemingly without reason. The only explanation could be this boy is gay, too. Only doesn't show it so openly as the other suitor he's supposed to block. Also, he must like main boy already. Else it all makes ZERO sense. The synopsis describes this story is about them both realize their feelings slowly, but it could not work that way. Had he already not have some, then at such early stage Bright's character would not do all this.
To be fair, it's not that straight dramas are different, as their romance leads also tend to invest plenty of their time and effort into each other from the start, even though they claim that they don't like each other. But, with them we know that even 180-degree turn would not mean changing/questioning/revealing their sexual orientation.
I found it best watching this "drama" as it goes, just "enjoying" each single scene within itself. And pay no mind to however it does/not fit into the whole picture. The best example is the music club (they spell it "musical club", but they don't really do musicals, so I think they just don't know proper english) the main boy enters. On the scale of only 3 episodes, the club is desperate to find new members, evaluating and expelling members, recruiting new members (again)... I simply ceased to pay attention.
Nevertheless, both the boys like music, which means we get to listen to them play guitar and sing (it sounds like a toddler whining). After just 5 episodes, the two sleep at each other's lap, and Bright's character, who is literally besieged by girls wherever he goes, says to main boy that he never had a girlfriend, and when main boy asks him what is his type, he stares at him intently and says that he actually likes... There he gets interrupted, but like I said, it all looks like the falling in love began since day 1 and not like "slow realization". I think during episode 5 Bright's character does little things that show he's already in love. Either way, at the end of that episode he even kisses main boy.
Now, as for Frank & Drake's characters, they began interacting in episode 6. It's nothing very exciting at first, I found even Mike Chinnarat's side-line more fun...
Episode 9, the two main boys are already close. They get into situations which could be viewed as romantic, but now they no longer kiss, they tease each other in friendly manner, instead. So, did the show really hit the brake and now tries to turn this into bromance? I don't have any problem if the two boys just like to be friends. But, just what was all the stuff before about? Lol. Then, in the end of this episode, he asks him to be his boyfriend. There you go. Try and make sense of it!
Episode 10 out of 13 opens with the main boy sitting with his friends with them asking: "So, was he asking you to be his boyfriend for real, or it was just a part of the show?" So ironic to actually hear in a show's dialogue the main question its viewers would like to ask. To be this far in the story and to still not be able to tell what the heck the main relationships are, I'd say then the show has a problem, lol.
Not that this was UTTERLY without humour. The only running gag I was able to perceive was one of the boys being obsessed with touching the other boy's "boobs". Considering he did not have any, it was probably meta-humour. Silly me. Aww... Alright, the two boys MOVE IN together and THEN they become really cute! I admit their moving-in, living-together montage WAS funny and finally what I should expect. So, okay, they are boyfriends. I would not be sure from the previous 9 episodes, but now I know, and I like:) Perhaps the series should have started at THIS point and not earlier.
Wow, did the writer AND director change, else how is taht things are suddenly SO much better after the two mains moved in together? Amazing. Now even I want to ship Tai & Sarawat, lol. Then, Tai's stuck-up brother also moves in with them for a while, to terrorize the couple:-) And Mike Chinnarat's side-line blooms now:-) Hilarious. Frank & Drake have a first good scene! We got the flutter and laughter... Overall, we got to the stage where "the party got started", like they say. Good, only we have now just 3 episodes left.
Well, better than nothing. But, episode 11 starts rather boring. But then, there are many flashbacks, showing us the first lame 9 episodes in new light. And, it's about one of the boys liking the other from the start. Just like I wondered in episode 3. Then episode 12 the fun stops, and instead of the two guys ENJOYING living together, we give importance to some side-girl and having one of the boys secretly jealous. I say, when there are only 2 last epis left, we should be over these games... But like I mentioned, this show's script was always rather empty... So, we have the girl hugging one of the guys and the other crying jealous just before the final. In the end it was more intriguing to watch even Mike Chinnarat's line, which also only barely started, basically after being obsessed with a boy he randomly met and searched for the whole time, he discovered the boy is stuck-up and serious kind of a person way too different from him, and all his friends look down on him.
Overall, what is most fascinating about this show is the music. Like that band which is there with so many songs you really wonder whether they needed the promo so badly that they bothered for this kind of "series". And it's not just the songs: also the electric guitar background music, I absolutely loved it. Else, it's been rather primitive in terms of storytelling... if there WAS a story, actually. I didn't catch anything between Frank & Drake's characters that could be called that:) In the end, we just watch another concert of the band and that's it, lol. But, perhaps it was wrong of me to concentrate on the story here. Actually when we no longer care about how the three couples got "2gether", and just enjoy that they are cute and listen to the nice music at leisure, it's the best watch since the beginning;-)
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This review may contain spoilers
?
The series is very good, the actors play very well and look just as good. This idea of looking for a boyfriend to get rid of that person is perfect and super nice music. The ending, the ending is the best, I have no words to describe it. I like that the series not only contains cute scenes, but also has scenes that make you cry until you can't anymore, but also this have ✨️ spice✨️ scenes and I love it. And that's why I give this series 10 stars. (I'm sorry if I made a mistake, I'm not very good at English)☺️Was this review helpful to you?
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2gether is best when it's the soft self-parody that it wants to be
Make no mistake about it, this is a very simple show. Boy A (Tine) asks the popular Boy B (Sarawat) to pretend to be his boyfriend to throw off the advances of Boy C (Green) and hijinks ensue. That is 2gether in what is a little more than just a nutshell, but boy does it make for a fun time. There is a woke part of me that found fault with the way that Green pursued Tine even after he's continuously rejected (that predatory gay trope isn't helpful but if we were to judge BL on its wokeness, well...) but beyond that, I found myself having a great time with 2gether.2gether doesn't waste much time exploring any type of angst or drama, which is surprising considering that Tine is very much a stereotypically straight college guy with stereotypically straight college guy friends. Tine and his friends talk about girls, they go out and get drunk, and they're idiots through and through. It's lighthearted, it's fun, it's silly. When Tine's fake relationship inevitably leads to real gayness, for lack of a better word, Tine and his friends mostly just roll with it. In fact, more hijinks ensue. 2gether doesn't care about conflict past a surface layer, for better or worse. At one point, the series even lampshades the fact that what seemed like something that would play across multiple episodes only ends up lasting for one day.
Sarawat's friends are no different from Tine's, being a pack of dweebs themselves. Sarawat though, is a bit more aloof and laissez-faire despite his popular boy on campus status being played to the extreme. Sarawat is known to everyone, he has Facebook groups devoted to him, his seniors and contemporaries alike fawn and scream through windows for him and he's showered with more gifts than he can carry. It's all very over the top while Sarawat himself couldn't be bothered by any of it. Sarawat only cares about his small group of friends, his guitar and Tine.
But who are these friends that I'm talking about? Honestly, I couldn't remember their names up until I looked them up for this review. Seriously, the show barely acknowledges them. It's a shame too, since I know and love Gun (who plays Boss here) from SOTUS and SOTUS S. Here he plays a similar role, brightening up the screen whenever he's on, but that's it. He rarely gets lines. Man and Fong are the only two of the main couple's friends that get a fair amount of lines. Man himself is actually part of a romance subplot, but 2gether doesn't really care too much about that. There's another romance plot too. The other romance involves Sarawat's own brother being smitten with one of Sarawat's rivals (Mil), and said rival is himself smitten with Tine. But again, 2gether doesn't really care about this, and the show plays up the rivalry between Mil and Sarawat without laying out much of a foundation for it. As a result, the love triangle feels lukewarm throughout the entire show.
The series straight up not caring about some aspects of itself almost makes it feel like it wants to be a self-parody or straight-up comedy at times. If you see or notice something odd like a character suddenly showing up out of nowhere, the show is going to mention it. 2gether is a very funny show when it goes all in on the self-parody aspects, but it's not very good when it does anything else. It's odd too, because Tine and Sarawat are quite cute and all their lovey-doveyness and almost maybes feel very sincere at the height of their fake dating. It's when the fake dating is over that their chemistry somehow takes a dive.
Like SOTUS if you're familiar with it, 2gether is quite a chaste show. There's shirtless scenes here and there of the very fit actors but when it comes to kisses, you can count those off on one hand. I'm new to Thai BL, so maybe this is just to be expected for the genre. Anyway, had 2gether cut some of the fluff around Sarawat and Tine and limit the focus to the clearly preferred friends *and* dropped the less interesting romance involving Man and Type to focus on the potential that could have been the love triangle (love square?), the show would have been better for it. I know that the series is based on a novel though, so perhaps being so bold with its changes would have turned people off.
Though the show is about two guys fake dating, it also has a music theme to it. I was worried that it would disappoint in the audio department, but it actually exceeds expectations here. 2gether has a lovely soundtrack. The background pieces are all catchy and evoke the right moods. Wacky, gentle, tender. It's all there. The ending theme is fantastic, and there's vocal pieces performed by the Thai band Scrubb (that I'm now a fan of) that are all a joy to listen to.
Something that I noticed about the direction (or editing?) is that the show has a problem with scene transitions. At first I thought that maybe the show was just trying to be fast-paced, but the sudden cuts are disorienting. There are sometimes very sudden scene transitions. A change in location, a change in time, a change in characters. It just happens and you have to reorient yourself a bit to know what's going on. It's something that you'll get accustomed to, but it makes some scenes jarring for a couple of seconds before you reorient yourself. The acting is nothing to write home about, everyone portrays their character well enough. With the show glossing over so many of its details, no one really gets an effort to display much range but they're believable and clearly have fun with their characters.
Even though 2gether has some faults, I still recommend it if you want a light comedy that happens to have like a tablespoon of BL added to it. The main couple is cute. The music is nice. The show is fun when that's all it's focusing on. Don't expect more from it and you'll have a good time.
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I think staying at home during the quarantine period helps it gain of its popularity especially with new fans. Let me guess, if this will be aired earlier, it will not have the same large audience and viewers as it has now. But yes, they deserve the attention and success.
The visuals of the casts really added to that too but again let me tell you, if there's someone who really shines in the series, I would really highlight Win knowing he didn't have any series before this. Bright for me is somehow awkward (like he didn't want to but only did it just for easy fame - sorry not to offend anyone) but overall the rest are great so far. I also think FrankDrake is still underrated.
It's good slash not so good slash average series. I expected a lot but it turns out I was upset instead.
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Tagged as a "BL"
My 10th grade long distance relationship had more chemistry than this. The story outline itself is cheesy romance but in a cute way. But was that really a romance?5 feet apart cuz they're not gay? Seems like they might be just two friends at this point. It felt forced. Like there could've been something cute there, but the direction went wrong. It's a run-of-the-mill BL (which i LOVE basic BLs fyi) except there was no romance. Just eye contact and aggressive product placement. It's a hint of a relationship through one long stare and then BOOM "look at me drink this brand name milk". I wouldn't mind product placement like this if there was a good storyline to include it in.
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Sweet & Quick ... & Lacking ....
My review is a personal opinion on the drama.This drama started off really well, and strong, and on point, So What the HELL Happened?
The gave us characters that had more chemistry when they were "fake dating" than when they were truly dating. By giving us a couple that doesn't communicate and understands that there will be times when their relationship will be tested, but that they can overcome that. By dedicating more time on the development of the side stories (Mil's crush on Tine, the fights that had little to do with the couple, by giving us lack of real intimacy between a couple that is supposed to be "in love"... this for me was the sad part and worst part of the whole drama, the lack of intimacy between the ML's was just really sad, after the whole fake dating turned around, I was really hoping to see more of they "love" grow, but sadly that didn't happen at all, in fact they were more like friends who just hanged out, and possibly shared a bed together, Tine was so sure of his love for Wat, that every time Wat wanted to become intimate he ran off (face slap). I don't care for the kisses or the sex , but these two characters behave more like brothers than a couple. Depicting a couple in love doesn't mean having them do sexual things. It can be shown through different forms such as, both couples cooking together and talking about their day, doing something that creates a mood Comforting one another when one is feeling down, all we have is Sarawat just "patting" Tine on the head.
This drama felt liked it lacked so much potential. The only good thing about this I would say is that the music in the series was really nice, and Wat singing his song for Tine was the sweet part.
Overall: This drama started off at 10 but sadly lost its way!!!
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Why not follow the novel?
This review is from a non english or thai speaking, bl lover, film students point of view. From what i can tell is the casting really good, the actors really put there hearts into it and i can see that. There are many award winning acting pionts from different actors. And i appriciate it, i get really out of the story if the actors are not believeble. I really liked the simplisity and soft/slow pasing of the story in the beginning, its not a serie with a lot of hardcore stuff and i liked the atmosphere.I recommanded this to a friend that i new to bl dramas. So dont espected to much hardcore love scenes. I watched the serie while it was airing and i enjoyed it mostly But for some reason after episode 8, idk what happend but the pasing was really off. Moments with a lot of story where to fast and "boring" un importand moments where really long. Iy was also edited weirdly...I wanted to drop this serie after ep 8 because of the wierd storyline changes and editing... Oke so I personally did not read the novel BUT i do see stuff about the original novel online. From what i can see there did this serie not follow the novel, what made me a bit less interested to watch the rest But I wanted to give the serie a second chanse because i wanted it to prove me that the writers and directors knew where the were heading with the story. Today i watched the last episode as it was released and sadly im a bit disapointed. All the drama that was formed in the story between, tine and sarawat, mil, phukong, man and type where all over the place. I know 1 season of just 13 episodes is not a lot of time to really tell all the details of a story but for me the struggels, the pain and fights where all solved to quickly. I will not give spoilers for the people who still wanna watch this serie. But there are a lot of plot wholes. if one is really hurt by an loved one, one dont simply sleep 1 night and forgives/forgets. There where moments when things stared and ended in 1 ep without any reasoning given... also i know its an soft story but 1 good kiss would be nice. the side couples did not really have a lot of screen time for there relationship to develop..mil and phukong for example had an really foreced and weird ending... mil was hardcore interested in tine then suddenly, his switch changed so quick at the end... personally man and type where my favorite couple in this serie. Man's pure love for type and his reasons really studd out to me more than wat and tines story... i hope they will get there own little serie :) I still recommand you watch the serie for a light and easy watch but if you are someone like me, who really focuses on the story than you might get an headache.Was this review helpful to you?
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Stop hating a non problematic bl
Firstly i loved this show i thinks its such a simple storty told a in such a sweet and cute way. Peole who hate the show just because are lame. If im being honest the only thing i didnt like bout this show is how they villainised pam for drama which was poor writing. If yall didnt notice 2gether is the only show ive seen were a fem gay actually has a love interest and isnt just used for comedy affect. In terms of acting Bright was okay and Win was great, surprisingly it being he's first show he did well, so overall i think hating or saying this show is boring is just poor bl taste im sorry.Was this review helpful to you?
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Watching 2gether Felt Like Falling In Love For the First Time
Cheesy, awkward with ridiculous, over-the-top, manipulative plot points, but I absolutely love this series. Yes, the story is lacking, but the chemistry between Win and Bright is immense. Their chemistry is undeniable. The show concentrates on Sarawat and Thine's relationship first and the story second. It's like the writers just throw random situations at the couple to make audiences respond viscerally, getting angry whenever there is friction between Sarawat and Thine. An article puts it perfectly: "just a montage of elaborate scenarios designed to make your heart skip and legs quiver." I haven't watched a series or film that has made my heart hurt, race and flutter so many times. Yes, the show is manipulative, but it works. Absolutely charming, adorable and cute, watching the show is like experiencing all the highs and lows, the melodrama, the thrill of first love; the flirting, being chased, being loved, loving another person, getting jealous and being happy. On a site note, Win's performance is so good, especially considering that this is his first series!This article perfectly articulates the beauty of 2gether: https://www.rappler.com/entertainment/tv/258771-reasons-thai-series-2gether-works
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