I'm sorry this will be lengthy, but I'll get down to business. For anyone interested in watching this series for a certain pairing, let me start off by saying: only 2 pairings took the forefront in We Are while the rest got little to no screentime. It's even more painfully obvious when you omit all the friend group scenes where everyone was together. For couple screentime only, the ratio is similar to the following:

Phum/Peem: 45%
Q/Toey: 45%
Tan/Fang: 7%
Chain/Pun: 3%

STORY:

Enemies to lovers. Also, art students got to take the spotlight for a change and as an artist myself I was greatly entertained. I took it personal seeing the painting that started it all get ruined lol.. The friendship group was portrayed very well and was the focus of this series. I say this is where much of the cast shined as a whole. You can laugh and find enjoyment seeing all these boys spend time and be silly together despite their different personalities. This is not a dramatic series at all, it leans more towards a slice of life genre so there's nothing to really stress about. Ironically, the couples that they greatly ignored and didn't give much screentime to (Chain/Pun and Tan/Fang) were the ones who kept me interested in continuing the series to the end.

The negatives:

You can tell that the creators wanted to keep this story light-hearted and full of comedy. There's a slew of slapstick comedy scenes complete with sound effects at every turn to remind you that they won't ever give you a serious storyline. The first 2 episodes were difficult to watch mainly because of the overuse of sound effects, the gmmtv guitar riff bgms that they put in every bl series kept playing, and it was coming off a bit childish. Thankfully they changed things somewhat as the episodes continued but it was still disappointing that they never really gave us storylines for some of the pairings in the series. Tan/Fang and Chain/Pun storylines were practically non-existent since they were constantly robbed of screentime while Phum/Peem and Q/Toey had so much time and too many scenes that weren't needed and could've been used for the other pairings.

I read several excerpts of the novel along the way because there were scenes in the series that felt disjointed, or just moved on without addressing certain issues ever again. At times a character's behavior was confusing and there was no context. The parts I read cleared some of this, but made me question why such important details were omitted entirely from the drama itself. With 16 episodes, they had more than enough time to expand on everyone's stories or give more background to the characters that the novel clearly provided, but it never came. 16 episodes and yet we got only surface-level knowledge about the characters. An example of this: In episode 15, Tan tells Phum he can store all his cars at his garage. We never even knew that Tan owned a garage, we don't even know anything about his family, financial status, etc. 15 episodes and only learned about a garage.

So many things about these characters could've been explored and explained had they included the family conflicts, traumatic incidents, etc from the novel. Why call it an adaptation when you're only including the characters in name but little to nothing else about them? You don't need to follow the novel entirely, but add at least some details so we can know these characters and understand their thoughts/behavior. You can still make a light-hearted series while also giving proper depth to your characters. They poorly attemped to include the father-son conflict with Phum, but then seemed to just drop it and gave us nothing in the end. Too little and too late.

MUSIC:

The cast participated in creating the osts which were all great songs, I recommend them all. My only gripe with this series is that they had a habit of constantly using those few osts for EVERYTHING, to the point that it felt like overkill. Anytime a certain couple would come on their ost would start to play. Whenever they decided to do a slow-mo friendship moment montage, which there were a ton, they used the main ost. Then someone would perform a song in a scene and guess what they sang? the ost. They kept throwing them in every scene even when it didn't match. A good example of this was during an intimate scene in the final episode. Because it was a certain couple, they threw their ost in there but the upbeat song didn't even match the moment. It was very reminiscent to excessive product placement in some dramas.

ACTING/CAST:

My personal ranking for natural chemistry in this series:

Aou/Boom >> Pond/Phuwin > Marc/Poon (the dark horse) > Winny/Satang

[Aou/Boom]: Aou/Boom have been carrying in the chemistry department and deserve to have their own series at this point. You can tell they are comfortable working together, no awkwardness at any moment. Their improvised spaghetti kiss scene showed more character and chemistry than some others with scripted kisses. Neither of them ever looked uncomfortable and were always in character even when they were way in the back and cameras weren't focused on them. Being that Tan was the 'glue' that joined the two friend groups and was also the moodmaker, he was very important to the story as a whole. The way Aou portrayed Tan showed just how witty and talented he is as an actor. There were various scenes where he said a line that was likely ad-libbed and you could see Pond, Winny, Satang, and Boom either trying to hold in their laughter to keep themselves in character or actually genuinely laughing. MVP of the series.

[Pond/Phuwin]: I've been a fan since FUTS, but the one thing this series did show me throughout 16 episodes was the disparity between Pond and Phuwin's acting. While they have both made improvements over time, I felt like in this series Phuwin went a step backwards. There were several times where he looked uncomfortable during kissing or other intimate scenes which unfortunately takes viewers out of the story. If we are being told that two people are in love but then see one person looking like he really doesn't want to be close or even kiss the person then it's not convincing. It won't keep viewers invested in their story. What didn't help and made these special moments even more underwhelming was the constant back and forth between Phum and Peem for the majority of the series. All that waiting just to finally see a moment that looks like one person isn't feeling the same is disappointing. It felt like Pond was hard carrying these particular scenes and it's a shame because I was looking forward to seeing both of their growth in this series.

[Marc/Poon]: Having to reshoot everything and become close with a new partner isn't easy but these two pulled it off. I never saw Marc with Pawin, but even then I feel like they surely surpassed whatever that pairing gave. Their stares alone showed great chemistry and without spoiling, a certain moment really sold it. I hope they can work together again as a pairing because they clearly have the talent and seem to work very well together.

[Winny Satang]: While they can definitely pull off friendship roles or enemies, I am personally not seeing or feeling much in their scenes as Q/Toey. I think I'd have to see them in another series to fully make an opinion on their chemistry, but for now, it's giving stiff and awkward. Weirdly enough, I felt like I saw more between them in MSP than in this series. I feel they seem more comfortable together when romance is not involved and they're just bickering. I do applaud Satang for switching up roles though and not playing the same character over again in a series.

REWATCH VALUE:

This is not a series that needed to be 16 episodes and I wouldn't watch it entirely again as it seemed to drag over time. If anything, I would just rewatch some favorite scenes of my favorite characters. But I do think others might be happy to rewatch as it does show a nice friendship and many viewers are fans of the cast. Overall a decent series, great cast, just poor decisions and missed opportunities from the production team.