2gether The Series (2020)

"With greater popularity comes greater love & criticism. Let's high five to this" - Bright & Win

Even though this drama failed to meet my expectations in the end, I will say I'm still happy that I had something to look forward to each week during this long quarantine time. Also, I have not read the 2gether novel so my opinions will be based on the drama itself and my personal judgement is not clouded by how handsome both Bright and Win are as individuals, what matters to me is the story and how it's presented by the cast and production staff.

STORY:

We start off with a silly concept: Please be my fake boyfriend so my gay admirer will give up on pursuing me. The concept calls for comedy as Tine gets caught up in various situations as his admirer Green tries to win his heart. After much persuasion, Tine gets popular heartthrob Sarawat to become his fake boyfriend all while slowly falling for him himself and as their relationship grows, we begin to learn that Green may not be the only one trying to win Tine's heart.

The first 7-8 episodes seemed to be the strongest even though our main leads were not even in a real relationship. Chemistry, tension, entertainment factor, etc.. It was all superior to the second half and that's that the affection they showed was minimal. But I rewatched these episodes the most because as the series progressed, the direction of the series started to plummet. The relationships between side characters were seriously underdeveloped, especially Mil and Phukong's story, making their final outcomes in the last episode seem very forced and unrealistic.

Certain conflicts between Tine and Sarawat fell flat or weren't given the proper direction, with the most prominent being the issue regarding Sarawat's first love Pam in the final episodes. Tine and Sarawat never got an actual scene by themselves to openly talk to get a better understanding of each other and closure to their feelings on the situation. Instead we got a round-about way of explaining things through interactions with other people and a ton of flashbacks. Poor direction lead to out-of-character moments from Sarawat. There were barely any scenes with the main leads actually together then suddenly we were rushed into the band competition which didn't show much of a competition at all aside from Sarawat's song to Tine with questionable lyrics, a quick and oddly distant "ok we're back together" moment, and then the series ended. And don't even get me started with that high five.

The final episode of the series was like a gift someone wrapped with no real care or thought: Sure they wrapped it up, but there are many holes and when you open the gift to see the final result, you're left speechless because there's literally nothing inside.

ACTING:

Here's where I found much of my criticism if I ignore the directing. Bright and Win are great, but not great as a couple. An couple in love should be able to show their feelings whether they kiss or not, but this was something they couldn't pull off together onscreen. Actors should be able to portray their characters feelings, but it seemed that the actors themselves were outside of their comfort zone when it came to being romantically close and it transferred to the drama itself. While viewers could somewhat sense some distance as the drama progressed, the second half showed just how awkward it really was because their characters now required them to show affection and feelings of love towards each other. Once Sarawat and Tine were in an actual relationship, the little chemistry Bright and Win had started to visibly fall apart at a fast rate. You could tell they weren't comfortable being too close: we were given distant hugs, distant head pats, and the worst of all that high five from hell in the finale (lmao I'm sorry, but I still can't get over it). They were literally in a "long-distance" relationship.

Various climatic scenes that could've been perfect had their been a kiss or hug to highlight their love for each other were poorly executed and fell short because they did nothing but keep their distance. Another distant head pat. Another lets just smile at each other at a distance, or I love you, but let's keep a gap between us. Even the little scenes of Man and Type's speedy relationship in the final episode displayed more closeness and chemistry than Sarawat and Tine. There's nothing wrong with hugs or head pats and regardless of the tv rating, it's the way these gestures were executed that was very distant and lifeless for these two characters who are supposed to be in a romantic relationship.

On a somewhat positive side, I was pleasantly surprised by Win's acting since this is his first drama and I personally feel his performance outmatched Bright's by far, especially when it came to any emotional scenes. Crying? He can do it. Sadness? He can do it. When Tine is happy, he can easily show it. Bright on the other hand, not so much. Any scene that required deep emotions from Sarawat didn't work well which made it difficult to figure out his thoughts or feelings, at least for me. Sarawat has a more serious demeanor than Tine and Bright did well in those scenes, but anything emotionally complex such as sadness seemed difficult for him to portray. There's a scene in the final episode where it seems like he should be crying or looking deeply saddened while he stands in the middle of the road after Tine's departure, but they had him covering his face and even turning his back to the camera to cover up his inability to shed a tear and pull off those emotions.

REWATCH VALUE:

This is not a perfect BL drama, it's lacking in many ways but it's also not as terrible as others are making it seem. I know people are angry, their expecations were really high for a drama so widely watched and talked about. I myself was left bitter and underwhelmed at the end. But it's still a good watch. There's still comedy, handsome characters, sweet scenes of Sarawat serenading Tine with his voice and guitar, and is overall a very light show of romance. Almost invisible even lol If I watched this again, I would ignore most of the 2nd half because those episodes were poorly done. I really like Bright and Win, they made a visually stunning couple, but sadly they couldn't pull off a believable couple in love like I hoped they would. Hopefully they can improve if they ever decide to be in another BL drama, but this drama showed clear proof that they both aren't ready to portray a gay relationship.

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I was a big fan of this series to be honest. Idk but I loved the first 7 episodes but the latter part became nonsense and awkward between sarawat and tine. I’m going to list down the strong and weak points of this series.

Strong Points

1. BrightWin Chemisty
- I won’t deny that bright and win has a promising chemistry. I felt butterflies in my stomach whenever I see them together (especially when they were listening to Scrubb). Although, they both became really odd in the last few episodes, the chemistry is still there

2. Amazing soundtracks
- God, I love their soundtracks. Emotional, catchy and very relevant to the story. I have to commend Scrubb. They were one of the game changer for this series.

3. Promising side actors
- The side actors did a pretty job in portraying their own roles. Man and Type gave this series a flavor of their own. Green was so amazing and it saddened me that he was gone in the latter part of the show. Drake is a good antagonist because he really pissed me off.

Weak points:

1. THE ENDING
- I can’t understand the ending to be honest. It has to be one of the, if not the worst, endings I’ve ever since. I invested so much expectation from this series but the ending was a big blah. They acted like friends, not lovers. I don’t feel the same butterflies as before. Disappointing, indeed.

2. The latter episodes felt so RUSHED.
- I don’t know but ever since they became lovers, everything felt so fast, especially with the angst scene. It felt it wasn’t supposed to happen but it happened only for the sake of angst and it felt so, weird?

3. Sarawatine as friends >> Sarawatine as lovers
- Seriously? I felt more love love when they weren’t lovers yet. All their kisses were from those scenes that they weren’t together yet. I mean, I’m not saying that they must kiss and kiss but at least, show to us the progression of their relationship. They became lovers yet it felt like their relationship went into a downfall when they started to become boyfriends. Sarawat changed a lot since they’ve been together. He was not the sarawat that I used to love. He cared less for tine and it makes me sad.

4. Messy storyline
- The storyline was a bit messy for me. Although there were amazing plot twists too, but there were a lot of scenes that made me say “what? why did it happen?” especially in the last few episodes.

5. Phukong deserved better
- Oh please, Mil treated him as his option if ever he fails with tine. and i don’t get it that after sarawatine got together, and after mil turned his back to phukong because he didn’t want to stay away from tine, they (phukong and mil) were spotted together at the musical festival, jamming together like nothing happened. Seriously? we need to see some effort from mil.

6. The music fest was nonsense
- Honestly, sarawat didn’t exert any effort to bring tine back. And it was only because of that music fest. And it felt very nonsense for me because ??? WE NEED EFFORT. WE NEED TO SEE DEVELOPMENT. but nothing. he did nothing but sing (for a fact that pear did the effort to talk with tine about sarawat)

To wrap up my review, 2gether: The Series went from an S tier to a big fat D-tier. As much as I wanted to fight for the series because I love brightwin so much but I can’t. I can’t understand why they ruined the beautiful start of the series. Despite my personal issues with the series, I can’t deny that this series made me happy, laugh and sad in its own unique way.

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TOO OVERHYPED

Just like everyone else I started watching this series because of how hyped this series was.
I was wrong for keeping watching this series, as I completely missed out the wrongs and bads.

1. STORY/ACTING

I'm gonna honest and say that this series was the most awkward series I've ever watched in my entire life.

Through out the entire series, there was a huge lack of real intimacy between them being a couple that were supposed to be "in love".
When we were introduced to Tine and Sarawat for the first time, I felt like we may get something good of out them, if you know what I mean, as Sarawat was this mysterious guy and Tine being the shy school kid.

As they started fake dating, you could feel the tension in the air, and that what made me interested in the show, but sadly as their relationship progessed it lost its spark. The only reason I kept going with the series was because I was hyped as everyone else.
Watching it for the second time, made me realise I missed out alot of the flaws there were in the series.
I didn't like Tine's or Sarawat's characters AT ALL. They were not fit in that role as a couple.

2. WHAT I LIKED

I must admit, the only thing I liked was their OST. The rest was just not it.

3. OVERALL

I give this series a -10000/10. Would I consider rewatching it ? Absolutely not!

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This is a show that started off strong enough, the fake dating trope was fascinating, there was a certain sweet chemistry between the leads. But as it went on, it was increasingly obvious that there is no substance, no depth, no plot to this series but glamor shots of leads and some isolated cutesy moments. The plot never made sense from the beginning and their relationship essentially ran on forced jealousy conflicts but the isolated cute moments between Sarawat and Tine were enough for the viewers to overlook those issues. But once they actually begin a relationship, every bit of chemistry between them is sucked away. These characters have no arcs, no growth, no development, no motivation, no family, no ambition. There is nothing to this series but the visuals of the leads. Side couples are never given enough space to develop, they are just used as fillers.
Many sins of this series would've been forgiven to a major extent if they could only deliver what a romcom is supposed to do: create a cute, well-rounded love story. But they fail at doing even that. This isn't a love story, there is no sense of togetherness between the couple. Intimacy isn't kissing. Intimacy is the natural ease between two people who are supposedly in a relationship. That sense of ease, that natural chemistry is completely missing between the two. Ever since they became a couple, they just looked unhappy and distant. Even at the ending, they looked dissociated from each other. It was uncomfortable to watch. There are bromances that deliver significantly better love stories than this. If a romcom fails at such a basic thing, it doesn't deserve high ratings.

Acting: Mediocre to okay. Win was better, Bright is good at fond gazes but he seems constantly disengaged to me. Side actors were better.

Direction/Plot: Direction wasn't good enough and there isn't a plot. This series ran on forced conflicts and the most basic writing. Dialogues were consistently terrible too.

Music/OST: I liked the OST and the music used throughout the show, best thing about it really.

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okay so i just finished watching this drama and it was great. this was one of the really good ones this year. this year the casting visuals were not the best for this year considering all the other 2020 dramas. this time around though the cast was amazing with their visual.

story
the story was pretty good in the beginning it started getting rough for the last two episodes. I think they might've rushed the ending a bit but it was great in the end. if you consider the story from the beginning it is a classic storyline for Bl dramas. but the thing I like about this dram is that they were not really confused with their sexual orientation. they kinda new even though they had dated girls before.

cast/acting
I like how they had multiple couples. although the secondary couples got barely any scream time even though they were totally cute. the whole cast for this drama is eye candy. The acting is pretty good too. I think the chemistry between Tine and Sarawat was great because they played their characters so well. although the secondary couple's chemistry was really bad it was not my favorite. they were really awkward.

music
I usually do not pay much mind to the music but for this dram, it was pretty good.

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As someone who has watched all BL series, I can say that this show is Amazing!! 2gether is the best BL drama I have ever seen after SOTUS, I started this with no expectations and I ended up falling in love with this show.
The story line funny and well written. The casting and the acting are perfect. Music is great, i discovered Scrubb and their songs thanks to this show. I'm completely in love with the actors who played TINE and Green. The most notable thing is the chemistry between the main actors, even i will be happier with more skinship but its ok.
I absolutely recommend this show.

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The storytelling failed big time

I hate the storyline:
- Based on the novel, Tine - originally a straight guy, agreed to enter a relationship AS A BOTTOM with another gay guy (lol). And after he was violently forced .., he continued to stay with Sarawat. (seriously the novel writer knows zero shit about gay relationships.)
- From what was portrayed by the series, Sarawat got starstuck by Tine and came up with various schemes to get Tine to fall in love with him. After he succeeded and managed to get Tine, his passion and "love" appear to quickly die down.

Acting/Cast:
- Bright and Win did their best given what they had to work with. Please don't be harsh on them
- Watching behind-the-scene stuffs and BrightWin's interviews redeemed the show for me a little bit.

Music:
- Everyone seemed to love those Scrubb's songs played in the series but I just could not connect with them.
- I LOVE the OST video.

Rewatch:
- Ep 1 till the first half of ep 10 (before Type showed up at their new place). The whole "I know about your secret relationship but I will continue to act like a je** to your bf to spice things up for ya" is just weird, and it was the first time I sensed something really wrong with the show script.

Overall:
- Like most of the people here, I had high expectation but felt rather disappointed towards the end.
- I'm a huge Frank-Drake fan, so I was hoping this series could help boost their popularity. While it certainly did that, I'm sad that their moments together were mostly sad/heartbroken scenes.
- Does anyone else feel annoyed that the show watchers took their annoyance at Mil out on Drake by taking jab at his eyebrows ?

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Classifying this as a "light" series is even an exaggeration.

Okay. I know a lot of people come to watch this series because of the visuals of the main actors. Even that's not enough to save the storyline's progression.

It started strongly and so promising with the fact that the dynamics involved in many characters. Tine wanted to avoid a boy who had a crush on him by seeking out a fake boyfriend. It went well and made the viewers jump of fluff and cuteness. As Tine slowly started to develop feelings for his fake boyfriend, the promising storyline and heightened tension between them started to fade too.

When Tine and Sarawat officially went out, they lacked many features of a new in love couple. Taking things too far as to move in together didn't help either. They didn't show any affections at all, which itself wasn't a problem if the story was executed perfectly. They didn't communicate well with one another and to their family and friends. Tine also had a big trust issue for Sarawat as if he got heartbroken many times because of him. They didn't have a healthy relationship and giving a bad example of how jealousy and childish behavior could be normalized without having a resolution.

All things considered, there were many things that I'd like to address as to why this series was overwhelmingly overrated:
1. Introducing a girl for a "destroyer" in their relationship in the last few episodes was a major disaster because it gave a rushed storyline with no appropriate closure.
2. Another character, Mil, who was supposed to like Tine also, was given a badly written villain edit with no chance of redemption. Even when he was being chased by Phukong, their story was as messy as it could get because they ended up with yet another rushed storyline.
3. Many side characters are just that, side and were not given any adequate character developments. They were there just to be a filler and not adding anything useful to the main plot.
4. The musical theme helped to alleviate this catastrophe a bit, but still the music could do so much to just be another filler.

In conclusion, this is not a good series with a proper representation of a gay relationship, or any relationships for that matter. Watching this as an enjoyment is a big turn off because the story just doesn't add up and can be frustrating to watch, and not in a good way. Overall, if you just want to watch their beautiful faces well, this series is a good way to go.

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No chemistry

A lot of people have mixed feelings about this BL, to me the only thing this BL had was a attractive cast and a decent side story (Man and Type deserve a spin off) the way the storyline evolved was absurd and made no sense a Straight man pretending with another straight man to be in a fake gay relationship to escape a gay man from hitting on him, why not just date a woman? Or make it abundantly clear that you have no interest in him? If that wasn’t enough the chemistry between Sarawat and Tine or the lack of I should say, was very clear both were distant and showed very little affection for each other, I don’t know if it was the actors that weren’t comfortable with being affectionate or it was supposed to be more PG (as gmmtv usually is) but it was very noticeable something was off.
As their story evolved the writers and directors could have and should have fixed the flaws especially in the second season (don’t let me get started on that mess) the only reason it didn’t get 1 star is because the soundtrack was decent and so was the side story, the actors portraying Man and Type had amazing chemistry and I felt a better connection with them then I did with the main cast unfortunately they did not get very much screen time but I looked forward to every scene they were in their storyline was much better then the main storyline (I still think they should have their own show)

Overall: The only way I would rewatch this is as a background show while a sleep, if you’re into more of a bromance kind of story you will enjoy this for the lack of chemistry between the mains, Is a okish BL for first time BL watchers it could either put you on to BLs or heavily put you off of them

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Pales in comparison with other BL dramas

I've seen several BL dramas, so it was rather shocking to hear people claiming "2gether" as the best BL there is. I respectfully disagree.

2gether owes much of its success to the fact that it was released during a pandemic, a time when people had no choice but to stay in and look for a distraction, and 2gether perfectly fits the bill --- you watch it to waste time but there really isn't much to expect from it. I'll admit the first five episodes or so got me hooked, but the series just kind of disintegrated from that point. The main weakness of this series is that there really isn't much to tell, so the creators just kept on stretching it until the story became tiresome.

I'll be enumerating below the three main strong and weak points of 2gether:

Weaknesses:

1) ZERO interesting sidecouples
Mike and Gus, who played Man and Green, respectively, were so hilarious and continued breathing some life to the series at times when things fell flat. However, I don't see the point of pairing them up with Type and Dim because they can do well on their own. Their pairings were so uninteresting, especially Dim and Green. Although Toptap and Mike had a lot of funny scenes together, they don't have any chemistry at all. As much as I love the Frank and Drake ship, Mil and Phukong were probably the most uninteresting characters in the series. Drake, who showed so much talent and energy in My Tee, was cast as the cold and bitter Mil, a role that does not suit him at all! Frank on the other hand was not given much time to shine as Phukong here; he was mostly left in the background throughout the series so I cannot comment much on him and his character.

2) Shameless plugs
2gether had so much shameless plugs from its sponsors that scenes were specifically built for them. The other series I've watched managed to circumvent this "problem" in creative ways (i.e. they make the sponsored product a "part" of the story instead of just plugging it in out of nowhere).

3) There's nothing much to tell, really
Tine hired Sarawat to pretend to be his BF to ward off a gay admirer. When it was revealed that Sarawat had genuine feelings for Tine, they entered a relationship and moved in together, but after that, the series had nothing else to show. It could've ended after Tine accepted Sarawat as his BF. Like I've said before, the creators just extended the story as far as they could until it became boring.

Strengths:

1) Metawin
In every series, there is at least one actor or actress who proves himself/herself to be a cut above the rest. In 2gether, that actor was Metawin, who played Tine. The entire series revolved around his character, and Win completely understood that the project would sink if he screws up in his delivery. Despite this being his first series (I think Win is the only actor in 2gether who has zero acting experience), he showed admirable acting chops, and it somewhat saved the entire show from sinking into oblivion. Bright, on the other hand, is a sure eye candy and can deliver excellent fan service along with Win. However, he does not do well on his own; his character Sarawat only becomes interesting when Tine is around, and that pretty much justifies Tine /Win's importance in the whole show.

2) Supporting players: Green, Fong, Man
Like I've said before, Man and Green give so much life to their scenes, they can easily steal the show. Khaotung as always plays the wise, supportive friend. Small parts such as theirs can definitely make a change.

3) Soundtrack
Music plays a big part in 2gether, so having a great soundtrack was a big achievement for the show's creators.


In sum, there are tens of other dramas that are better than 2gether. The series is just so-so. As much as I hate using the word, 2gether is extremely "overrated." People should stop treating it as the holy grail of Thai lakorns.

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Basically, in an objective way contains the story of Tine and Sarawat, that start a fake relationship to prevent Green's character from forcing a romance in Tine. The beginning of the series is very good, as simple as that. Win and Bright's performance is very good, especially Win. This review has spoilers by the way. A LOT OF SPOILERS!!! English is not my first language.

However, even at the beginning we started to see problematic situations. Starting with Green trying to win over Tine at all cost, even though Tine had specific said he didn't feel the same. After that, the asshole ends up becoming Tine himself who tries to drug Green at a party. I was seeing this thinking, “Wait what? Really? Nobody will talk about that? "

I ended up watching it because I was enjoying it, even though these two facts are still in my head throughout the whole series. Then we saw the relationship of the two main ones that grow in a friendship, than into a romance and an ending up in weird friendship that was neither.

The part of the fake dating was by far the best part, as we saw a Sarawat in love and Tine confused and starting to fall in love. And we came back with other unnecessary scenes like Sarawat and his friends trying to get Tine drunk.

The moment the two start dating, everything ends up getting worse. A relationship of the two never feels like a real relationship, but neither does it feel like a friendship, or leave a strange relationship without definition.

The romance scenes that had a good frequency during the fake dating stage, are almost all gone in the real dating stage, the only one I remember is the bus during a trip, the others are basically cliché jealousy tropes, very forced ones.

The lack of kiss and intimacy are also a problem in the series, I'm not asking for a softporn like Why R U? is. However, a total lack of them leads to the problem of sanitization of gay characters who are often portrayed as almost asexual characters. They could have done like Sotus with a basic kiss in the final episode and to avoid the problem.

Another situation was with Pam, or Sarawat's first love. Pam is a typical character who exists only as a plot device. This type of character is always bad independent of the gender, but nevertheless, being girl ends up worsening what was already bad, since in BLs women are horribly represented with few exceptions.

The last two episodes are the worse in the show, also brought with them a lack of characterization of the two main characters. Win, who was normally an easygoing guy, became paranoid and Sarawat who kept declaring that love all the time was quite aloof. The secondary couple formed by Man and Type was very cute, but lacked development. The couple formed by Mil and Sarawat's brother (who appears so little I didn’t remember his name) was quite forgettable. And I really wanted a show with Green and Dim.

Let's go to what I liked about the series:
- The beginning (despite the problems mentioned at beginning).
- The fake relationship.
- Sarawat obsession with Tine’s boobs.
- The acting.
- Secondary couples (with the exception of Mil and Sarawat's brother).
- The ost. (Best OST ever !!!!)

Well that's it, thanks for reading, bye!

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kinda disspaointed. beneran kecewa sama adegan pas mereka udah jadian. bukannya nambah manis, tapi malah kayak temen biasa aja gitu. kayak gak ada hubungan apa apa. gak ada manis manisnya kek sebelum mereka jadian. plotnya mengecewakan. akting bright pun kaku banget. akting win bagus banget walaupun series pertama dia. dan malahan lebih suka sama alur cerita Man n Type disini. sukaaaaa. jadi pengen ada series khusus mereka huhu. well, intinya sangat kecewa sama ni series. sorry not sorry.


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