Between Us (2022)

Sequels are Challenging

This series came into being with a challenge. The first series "Until We Meet Again" was a great yet complex script with masterful direction which made it easy to keep the time shift between past life and this life organized for the viewers. This series has much of the same cast, the scripting is very weak with slow-moving progress in each storyline. The delayed rollout onto other platforms such as iQIYI was probably not the best strategy for this series. Had there never been “Until We Meet Again” this series may have had an easier sell to a wider viewership.

The secondary couples are what draw you back for follow-on episodes. When Samantha Melanie Coates (Manow) is in a series, she always brings fun and sunshine to every scene she is in. Her partnership with Bosston Suphadach Wilairat (Pruek, the third swim coach) is a very innovative (almost unexpected) match and one that I hope appears in a future series (not a third season of this current story thread--- let's end this here). Sood Yacht Patsit Permpoonsavat (Tul, a member of the swim team) and O Puwanai Sangwan (Wan, Win's older brother) are lively in interviews with a very cool vibe.

Benz Panupun Vongjorn (Prince) and Tae Weerapat Toemmaneerat (Bee/Bumblebee) the final secondary couple started out slow, but their momentum shifted in an un-noticed script transition. Prince introducing Bee to skin beauty products---well just too fun. If you haven't seen Benz Panupun Vongjorn Duean (Prince) in the series “Coffee Melody” (2022) it is well worth your time. I probably would have missed it but as we* were researching for other roles the secondary couples were in, we* started through his portfolio of work.

Much to our delight, when we* were seeking expanded portfolios for Born and Zee (from Cutie Pie and many other options) we* watched the comedy “Rose in Da House”, with Born and Zee plus others you will recognize from BL dramas. It was hilarious. We* rounded out our search last week by watching the "Be My Boyfriend 2 " concert. Both Boun and Zee were performing with 4 other BL stars in "boy band mode". Boun has a great voice. Seeing these actors in expanded performance roles makes you appreciate the full range of their talent. Today, someone sent me the trailer for the 2023 “Zomvivor Series”…another comedy with BL stars including Boun and Zee. The trailer was funny…mostly to see these actors as themselves in comedies is such a change…just watching their antics makes you laugh out loud.

Bottomline…we* got to episode 10 and will certainly see it through to the end, but unlike “Until We Meet Again” this won’t be a “re-watch” for us. Let me be very clear….this is just our view (and we review dozens of projects a quarter). This is in no way a criticism of the actors (which we like and now have viewed most of their full portfolios of work). In today’s marketplace, there is so much competition for a viewer’s time (and we are often asked “what have you watched lately you would recommend”. We* recommend what we have seen that felt at the end of the series/movie that it was time well spent. NOTE: This is one reason we* took the time to seek out the full portfolios of these actors. We* wanted to be able to make recommendations from their portfolios to give them continued visibility of their work.

*We clarified: Usually there is a small group who gets together for “viewings” of various types of movies/concerts/documentaries etc.*

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Absolutely wasted potential

Before I start throwing the shade let me clarify something. By looking at the rating of acting, you can clearly see the acting is not my problem.
The biggest problem of this serie is: ABSOLUTELY NO STORYLINE. And when I say there is none, I mean it. I have been watching this serie since it started airing and I am beyond dissappointed. Not only is this waste of money and time, it is also waist of actors potential. Almost all of them have stared in some show and are known in some kind of way so they wouldn't have any problem finding new gig. And if there is any storyline, it doesn't make sense. We basically don't know anything about the character since WinTeam were previously side couple and the rest...I don't even care about the rest. The other characters shortly don't have any potentional, which is such a pity, because we know them from UWMA. They could have made them a short storyline that would actually make sence rather than storyline every other part of every episode.
Another reason that is maybe the problem, is that Win and Team are not build to have their own serie. And there is nothing wrong with that. They probably weren't meant to have their own anyways but fans wanted it so they made us one.
This is everything I can think of about this serie. I am only finishing this drama because of BounPrem who have proven many times, they are really good actors. If they weren't in the series... boy oh boy... I would have dropped this drama after few episodes.

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Too many side couple and unimportant scenes

Tbh I was looking forward to this series cause I liked them in the previous series but I am just too bored. There are way too many side couple and unnecessary scenes used to only fill up the time. I rather have only 8 episodes of this with 40 mins run time with only Win and Team rather than 12 episodes with 1 hour run time when most of the time nothing is happening and the side characters are taken most of the time. I want to watch Win and Team so give me them. I don't care about these boring side characters whose plot is so tasteless and have been repeated 10 or so times. I don't care about this previous series main couple, I already know about them and how they will end. Thailand need to stop adding so many couples in one series. I don't care about them. Quality over quantity. Anyways got too boring to keep up, I just spamming the forward button most of the time.

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Acting is Fantastic........Plot not so!

First of all I want to begin by saying that I haven't been one of those people waiting for years for this show. I watched UWMA for the first time last year and found out by accident that Boun and Prem were getting there own spinoff a few months before this aired. Maybe this makes me see things differently to those who have had the long wait. I don't know.

Having watched 8 episodes though here are some of my thoughts.

The acting and chemistry between the two leads was fantastic as expected of these two, and quite frankly after 8 episodes they are the only reason I haven't dropped it yet. I don't know what to say about these two except they keep getting better and I hope get some better shows in the future.

As before, in UWMA, the costumes, music, lighting, filming, and yes even the use of silly noises in places, is all great and adds to the enjoyment and fun of the show.

Now moving on to the problem I found with the show, and I say problems because it's actually a few things that all seem to come from one central point. The Plot!
By episode 8, I expect our main couple to be moving forward by now, however in this show they aren't.......they are still going round in circles. Win has mentioned the 'boyfriend' word once but team just dismissed it and neither of them have bought it up again, so they are both in this limbo of not actually knowing what they are to each other. Also what the plot seems to be stuck on is how much the show is its own entity and how much it follows UWMA. When I say this what I mean is that Dean and Pharm get quite a lot of screen time in this show (as opposed to in UWMA when Win and Team got fairly little), to me this seems unnecessary as they have already had their show and unless the plot is going to change their ending, then we all know what will happen with them. It is simply wasting time that could be used on our leads.

Another problem is that on one hand the show recreates some of the scenes from UWMA, trying to link itself tightly with its parent show, then goes and catapults in new characters that were not in UWMA at all. This wouldn't be a problem if not for the fact that two of these characters build one of the side couples, one member of which is a first year swimmer the same as team, and known by not only Team and Pharm but Win and Dean as well. The other is a semi famous actor who is in Team and Pharms year also............yet we are expected to believe that these two were in the background of UWMA but never mentioned, not even by the queen of gossip herself, Manow. It just doesn't make sense.......is the show trying to link itself tightly with UWMA or stand on its own.

Lastly the plot has introduced far too many side couples, there is Dean and Pharm (who I have mentioned before), Manow and her boyfriend, this couple I can understand as many people want to see her get a happy ending, but then their is the third side couple I mentioned above who have been introduced for this show and just overwhelm the story with too many side plots.

Most people came to watch this show for the leads Boun and Prem and maybe to see the cast reunited once more, but the writers, directors, etc seem to have got completely out of hand with things and are ruining what could have been a great show.

Before I finish I would like to state that when mentioning characters I am not speaking about the actors abilities. All the actors in this show do their jobs brilliantly, it is simply a case of some of the characters either do not need the screen time they are given or to be in the show at all in my opinion.

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Worse than parent story

This review is based on my personal opinion and not targeting anyone who liked this drama.

I had been waiting for this drama for ages to finish. When I saw all the comments and review, I was a bit sceptical about watching it. Once I started watching it, I felt disappointed and dropped due to the following reasons:
1. Too many couples to begin with. The focus was mainly on Win & Team pair. What’s the point of having multiple couples when screen time is not given to them?
2. Dean and Pharm were given very little screen time and most of the scenes were taken from the parent story. The difference was clearly visible in terms of their hair colour. They looked quite young when they were main leads in Until We Meet Again Series.
3. The storyline didn’t make sense, at least for me. There is too much friction and hatred between generations which overshadowed the romance and comedy in the drama.
4. Lastly, I found very little cute and comic moments between friends especially between Team, Pharm and Manaow. There were many comic moments in between them in Until We Meet Again.
After watching a couple of episodes, I couldn’t continue any longer and went back to rewatch the parent story one more time.

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A dash of spice, a whole lot of cute, and the tiniest drop of drama

WinTeam became my favorite couple easily within the first four episodes and that didn't let up at all. The series had some of the nostalgic feelings that reminded me of older BL, but in a more progressed stage.

There is some overlap with UWMA, as this takes place concurrently with it. Sometimes that felt a bit much for me, but that's always because I had just finished UWMA. If I hadn't, I don't think I would've been feeling that way. It was fun to see in time how the relationship grew and took place.

What drew me most to this couple and the drama is the authenticity of it. The relationship felt realistic for the most part, and oddly, quite healthy considering the characters ages and the setting. We saw their insecurities, and at times how that got in the way, but they each spoke with people around them and made efforts to progress. It was refreshing, especially with all the common tropes that we usually get in BLs involving more toxic elements. This didn't feel like that at all.

There was some drama around Team's past, but again, that felt very authentic. They presented his symptoms and his management of the feelings related to the event in a very realistic way. Honestly, my biggest issue was the overabundance of side romances. None of them were able to be fleshed out and those were the scenes I ended up zoning out on at times. But the ABSea trio made up for some of that by grabbing my attention right back.

I'm not one to typically rewatch, but this will be on my list.

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muito muito bom

muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito bom muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito muito bom

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It was so good that I honestly didn't want this series to end!!!

I consider myself to be a very critical person when it comes to judging and drama that I watched, and I very rarely end up giving a series a full mark in all its aspects, but i guess the day has finally come where I do that. but in order for my review to make sense i would have to roll back to UWMA for moment here.
Now I'm going to be 100% honest here, UWMA was honestly not my cup of tea to begin with, and I would like to make it clear that it WASN'T OhmFluke's fault, but it was the fault of the story line itself. UWMA story, in a nutshell, was basically a lot of crying mixed with a lot of cooking scenes. Although ik that a few of them were necessary for the storyline, but many of them were just very unnecessary and at some points annoying. I really wanted to just watch it at a 2.0X speed just for me to not drop it since i hate dropping a series that I have already started, but eventually i just ended powering through it at normal speed just for the sake of the side couple which was WinTeam.
Now on to my cent about ( Between Us).
Between Us was nothing short of what i have hoped for, and honestly it may have been even better than i have expected.
Going into this series i was a bit scared, as many a times did series made for side characters of other series end up being a total disaster that lacks quality, a proper story, low budget, all paired with low production, however in this case i was very pleasantly surprised. Everything from the story line to the production, to the actor's chemistry, and most importantly the BounPrem themselves was on point, and what I liked the most about this series was that there weren't many filler scenes( which is a rare sighting in the series world these days) especially in the last few episodes which are always prone to having a lot of filler scenes, but thankfully not in this case.
The ending was not rushed at all and all the stories were wrapped up well which was refreshing to see since in other cases it might've been difficult to do given the fact that there were 3 to 4 side couples, but thankfully it was done well, and the fact that these side couples didn't interfere or drag the story line on was a very pleasant addition to all the good qualities this series had accumulatedd.

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