Review: 2gether

Hello, friends! Bashful bi is here 2day 2 give you my thoughts on 2gether, specifically on the first season. While I'm usually not super into a series at the beginning, it tends to grow on me as it goes along, but, unfortunately, the first season of 2gether had the opposite effect. It was amazing from the beginning until Sarawat asked Tine to be his boyfriend, and the rest of the season was just unnecessary drama based on petty miscommunications.

Summary (official):

Tine is a very handsome student and cheerleader in college, while Sarawat is one of the campus’ most popular guys and is also in the soccer and music club. When Tine is chased by Green, who he does not reciprocate feelings for — he ends up begging Sarawat to fake date with him in order to chase Green away. Somehow, just like the tale as old as time goes — pretend somehow starts to turn into reality. However, before a "happily ever after" there is the process of falling in love, and the slow realisation that somehow they aren't pretending anymore. Somehow, they do not want to.

My thoughts:

I thought this was the funniest BL I've ever watched, honestly. The whole situation of Tine attempting to set himself up with a fake date to deter Green is absolutely ludicrous, but that's exactly what it was treated as in the show, with awkward, pained smiles and panicked eyes on Tine's part, over-the-top indifference on Sarawat's part, and Green serving more attitude than a single person can provide. The whole premise was absurd, but that the show didn't pretend otherwise made it funny. I laughed a lot, and definitely had a good time... for the first half of the show.

I may have used this idiom before, but after Tine and Sarawat got together (sorry, kind of a spoiler, but this is a light BL so was anything really spoiled?), the entirety of the plot was just stirring the drama pot while sprinkling in ex-girlfriends that show up out of the blue, secrets gone awry, and ridiculous misunderstanding that would have been avoided if excessive jealousy was not a vice. 

Also, Tine and Sarawat's reconciliation just sucked.

SPOILERS

A high five is not how you make up with your boyfriend after a fight. A high five is the bro zone. And I am not here for a bromance. I felt like the entire point of the five episodes of season 2 (Still 2gether) was an effort to atone for that sin (I can almost forgive the scriptwriters because of the kiss at the end of Still 2gether, but this is a season 1 review so that's irrelevant). So yeah, the ending seriously did not deliver, especially on top of the fact that Sarawat's random ex just rolled up and Tine flipped out over a hug. (A hug is really gonna make you go cry in the stairwell and fraternize with the guy you rejected several times?)

The fact that this series had two (2) kisses, both in the first half of the series when Tine and Sarawat were not together yet, was kind of sad. Sarawat drunk-kissing Tine was cringy (besides being not okay because there was no consent on Tine's part. Y'all, you gotta ask before you do these things in real life, please), and I don't even know if the snack game kiss counted at all. Do people even play that snack game beyond middle school? I didn't. (If I'll ever play again, I'll suggest we use pocky like Tine and Sarawat instead of pretzels, because pocky are better.) While I do get that not all couples are mushy, BLs are a place I go when I want to consume romantic content. If I wanted to watch something with a non-mushy couple, I'd watch a documentary on radioactivity featuring Marie and Pierre Curie (honestly, I have watched a documentary on their research and it's absolutely fascinating).

Let's take a moment and talk about Green. Too often, gay gays who express themselves in a more traditionally feminine way are portrayed in BLs as nothing more than comic relief--their only function is to be funny, and their funniness is their only personality trait (refer to the Angel Gang in 2Moons2). While Green certainly suffered by the hand of that trope, especially at the beginning of the series, we eventually learned that he had a believable personal reason for the way he acted. And the scene where he beats the crap out of the guys Tine sent to antagonize him? Absolutely legendary, even regardless of how much it defies the aforementioned stereotype. In season 2 (Still 2gether), he has several moments where he acts like a real friend to Tine, and I think the decision to allow him to be a more full character in the show, rather than just a plot device for the Sarawat and Tine ship, was definitely a good one.

The one character I didn't get was Tine's brother. I got the vibe that he was genuinely annoyed with Man's advances on him, and that not for a moment was he faking his "go aways." But then he told Man he missed him and stuff? I mean I guess people can be like that, but that development kind of threw me.

On an almost completely unrelated note: there is a hilarious FMV on YouTube where a segment of it features Sarawat playing guitar with an audio overlay of "Bust Down Tatiana" to make it look like that's what Sarawat is playing/singing. I lose my shit every time I watch it; for some reason, I think it's the funniest thing. I suggest you go look for it.

I do have to say that I liked the second season better than the first. The sources of conflict weren't meaningless, and it was less annoying to watch the stories unfold between seemingly more mature characters. Although I do have to say the romance aspect of Mil and Phukong's relationship developed a little abruptly--I was definitely feeling an exclusively bro vibe from Mil directed to Phukong up until SWERVE and I didn't. But I guess they are kind of cute, even though I still dislike Mil from the first season.

Overall:

Rating: I'm going to rate the first and second half of this show separately, since I felt so differently about them.

     First half? 10/10

     Second half? 4/10

     Overall? 7/10

Flavor? Vanilla

Watch again? I've already rewatched the first half, and will probably rewatch the first half again.

Recommend? Yes