A markedly improved sequel, but has the main couple been together for 2 years or 2 weeks?

I got into SOTUS because of SOTUS S. The prequel's plot didn't sound very interesting to me. The prequel of SOTUS S, simply titled SOTUS, is about two boys developing feeling for each other with the backdrop being that one is hazed by the other under a sus hazing system. SOTUS is a lot more than just that of course, and you can see my thoughts on it in my review for it. SOTUS S' premise however, sounded too good to be true. A BL drama that focuses on a stable gay couple balancing their commitment to work, school and each other? With that legendary premise in mind, I watched SOTUS in preparation for SOTUS S.

SOTUS S requires viewing of SOTUS, this sequel series takes place two years after the original. Arthit (Krist) and Kongpob (Singto) have yes, been together for two years! Kongpob is now a head hazer, and Arthit is about to start his first job at Ocean Electric Company. In the workplace, Arthit shows off a more reserved, shy side of himself and it's nice to see. Krist's acting again doesn't disappoint and he pulls off the fresh newbie role very well. What he goes through is entirely relatable for anyone entering a first job. Krist's character gets involved with a new cast of coworkers and they're all very fun and likable. The coworkers, despite being nice, still give the image of being unapproachable at first (either with reason or through Arthit's own framing of them as such) and it's such a minor thing that's done so well. Arthit's friends from university however, don't play a huge role in SOTUS S. While I did miss Arthit's friends, it just didn't make sense for them to show up as much as they did before. Not seeing Prem and Bright brighten (pun unintended) the screen anymore is a loss, but the workplace drama that their absence makes room for is really the highlight of SOTUS S.

Arthit (and eventually Kongpob's coworkers) are great. They're entertaining, and they give Ocean Electric a personality that the university doesn't have. Earth is quite frankly, the best. She's Arthit's coworker who starts off abrasive only to soften up as the show progresses. The other standout coworkers are Tod who recently returned from his studies abroad and is a total dudebro. There's Cherry who is an effeminate, openly gay character and is just hilarious all around. There's also Somoh who is the loud office lady with the annoying voice, and Durian who serves the office gossip to Cherry and Somoh. They're all very good at livening up the show and making you laugh. The coworkers all work as supporting characters in the sense that show up often and are each woven into the show's plot or a subplot. This is an improvement over the prequel where you'd wait for some characters to be of importance somehow only for the show to end and they barely got any focus. I did notice however, that Earth did have a plotline that seemed to be dropped but it was much less glaring than Waad's in season one since she doesn't disappear and instead simply gets a new plotline involving another coworker.

For Kongpob's plotline, we return to the SOTUS hazing system. It's sucks to say it, but it's not a surprise: the hazing plot is not very good. Singto's Kongpob isn't very believable as a hazer, and neither are his friends who now also take the role of hazers. It's also sad to see that they're perpetuating the system that they were under, and hated, in the original. In SOTUS S, the hazing is framed as "nicer", and in some moments it definitely is, but there are a couple of scenes where the hazing still shines out as cruel but the show pretends that it isn't by putting an upbeat rock track over it and having the seniors smile and laugh instead of sneer and chuckle at the juniors. Anyway, there's not much to be said here because much of the hazing plot is quite literally a retread of the original's hazing plot, right down to a new character who's defiant of the hazing like Kongpob previously was. The retreading goes right down to M still fawning over May a whole two years later. The character that defies the hazing system this time around is named Day, and he interacts with Tew as the older tries to understand why he's so averse to participating in the hazing. Tew and Day are one of SOTUS S' new subcouples. Thankfully, Kongpob's hazing plot comes to an end soon enough and he takes an internship at Arthit's workplace, Ocean Electric Company and this is where the show picks up. As with Arthit's university friends, Kongpob's take a similar backseat to introduce more characters.

Alongside Tew and Day being a new couple, there's also Nai and Yong. Nai is an intern that joins alongside Kongpob as an intern at Ocean Electric Company. Yong is already an employee at OEC and mentors Nai. Now that I've gotten to talking about Nai and Yong, I think it's important to talk about Arthit and Kongpob. For a couple that's supposed to have been together for two years, Arthit and Kongpob don't really act like it. I'm sorry. Yong and Nai have a lot more chemistry and feel like they're simply being themselves whenever they interact. They are so believable as a couple or even just as two guys that enjoy being around each other all the time. I can't say the same for Arthit and Kongpob. In the earlier episodes especially, the main couple is awkward, stiff and barely affectionate with each other. Arthit isn't a fan of PDA or excessive affection in general in-universe, but the awkward stiffness extends to even phone calls between the two and them seeing each other off to work. With Arthit and Kongpob being in a vacuum of sorts in the show's prequel, it wasn't as obvious, but it's really highlighted now with Nai and Yong acting as a contrast to them. Arthit and Kongpob's awkwardness in part does have to do with the show's plot and what they're going through but there are still times such as, again, them seeing each other off to work or the phone call, where their relationship feels unnatural and stiff. This stiffness isn't helped by the fact that some of the conflict that the main couple goes through, feels like something that could and should have been resolved earlier in their relationship with the appropriate lessons learned. SOTUS S at times treats its main couple as though they've only been together for two weeks as opposed to two years and it really stands out. Arthit and Kongpob do get genuinely sweet and tender moments, but I couldn't help but prefer Nai and Yong over them.

To maybe offset the awkward relationship energy, SOTUS S has these small university flashback scenes between Arthit and Kongpob where they're seen dating in university. These shorts show up at the end of every episode. They're short and sweet, but after a while they start to feel repetitive and make even the dialogue during the actual portion of the episode seem repetitive since the flashbacks hit on the same notes that the cute moments in the show do. Something about a reward, something about a punishment, Kongpob says something outrageous with a straightface that makes Arthit flustered and then Arthit tries to play it off, etc. The flashbacks do a bit more harm than good since seeing the "rhythm" of their relationship so clearly managed to diminish it for me somehow.

On the direction, the show has some noticebly pretty shots, mostly the night scenes. They're not screenshot and make your wallpaper shots, but it's still something that I found myself noticing this time around. The timewasting and padding problem that the prequel had is thankfully gone now. With the direction improved, I hoped that the music direction would as well, but it hasn't really. The show still has a lack of music. There's a new catchy jingle that plays (honestly a bit too much, but it's a nice piece) but the show still heavily relies on an instrumental version of its opening. The opening theme is a rock piece with a fairly generic instrumental behind it, so the appropriateness of the track in some scenes is a bit up for debate. I found it pulling me out of the show either because it felt inappropriate or because I couldn't believe that they were using it yet again.

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Holistically, SOTUS S is a marked improvement from its prequel. The workplace plot is a lot more interesting than the hazing, and the new characters at Ocean Electric lend a fun and friendly air to what could have been a boring workplace drama otherwise. The show on a whole feels more streamlined, and save for the hazing plot retread in the first couple of episodes, it's a much more fun show to experience. SOTUS unfortunately falters again with its treatment of Arthit and Kongpob. The main couple is treated as if they've simultaneously been together for two years and two weeks from the point of their behavior around each other and with some of the conflict that they find themselves in. After watching SOTUS S, you should take a look at Our Skyy episode 5 which acts as a final send off for the two. The two finally act like a real couple that's comfortable around each other and it's lovely to see.

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Excellent show through and through that sticks to its theme till the end

This series follows two high-schoolers in their final school year. Hao Ting (Wayne Song) is a delinquent while Xi Gu (Huang) is an impoverished student who's consistently at the top of the class. Xi Gu has a crappy life. He was orphaned at a young age and his caretaker eventually starts her own family and he sees the need to become independent because he doesn't wish to be a burden to her. Xi Gu's poverty has affected his entire life. From his dedication to his studies, to how he views Hao Ting's gestures towards him. Everything is monetized and it's a minor detail that makes his poverty feel much more real. It's all incredibly sad.

Hao Ting is meant to serve as Xi Gu's polar opposite. He isn't said to be particularly rich, but it is implied that he's well off and especially so in comparison to Xi Gu. Hao Ting can afford to be carefree and slack off with his friends. Due to this clash, there's an animosity perceived by Hao Ting and his friends from Xi Gu that eventually grows till the boys start bullying him. Of course, this is a BL series so Xi Gu's peculiarity grabs Hao Ting's attention and things start to take a turn.

A lot of my thoughts about HIStory 3 have to do with its ending, so I won't go into too much detail to save this review from becoming too long but direction, music and production quality are quite good overall. The show does have a washed out, or soft look to it but my guess is that this was done deliberatey to give it a soft and nostalgic or daydreamy atmosphere. Aside from the main couple, the other characters of note are Hao Ting's family who fulfill a great role in the story in dealing with the theme of homophobia. Hao Ting is also friends with Sun Bo who falls for Lu Zhi, an older man who works out at Sun Bo's cousin's gym. Lu Zhi is also coincidentally the boss of Xi Gu at one of his part-time jobs. At first, this second couple is incredibly boring and were a real scene killer. Sun Bo seems to only have a shallow attraction to the older man and he quite literally harasses Lu Zhi until the latter decides to just give in. There is an age difference that's discussed, but for the most part they're just a stable couple after things fall into place for them. They do happen to be great communicators and are dedicated to each other, so props for that at least.

The main couple, Hao Ting and Xi Gu, are very great together. Hao Ting's actor (Wayne) was surprising in how well he portrayed Hao Ting beyond an overconfident delinquent and delivers his doting over Xi Gu incredibly well. When he's sad, he's sad. When he's being a buffoon, he's being a buffoon. It's all very believable. Xi Gu's actor is also great, delivering an underlying layer of sadness to his character even when he's happy. Their chemistry is wonderful and the intimacy feels real. The two find each other, love each other, brighten each other's lives and with the power of love and hope of a brighter future on their side, the two eventually make their dreams come true. Said dream being moving in together for college after Xi Gu helps Hao Ting get into a top university, one of the conditions for Hao Ting's parents to accept their relationship. It's incredible, but then the final two episodes changes things.

Before starting this series, I knew about the "bad ending", and HIStory 3 seems to get a lot of hate for its ending. However, a sad ending doesn't mean a bad ending. This show is still worth watching despite the ending not being the happy ending that we all would have liked. I don't wish to be a simp for this show, but HIStory's message goes beyond it being a BL series. It goes beyond just two boys falling in love. The ending isn't perfect by any means, but the tagline is Make Our Days Count. Purely on its theme, I think HIStory's ending is excellent, even if it does get muddied by small details.

To understand the ending, you have to understand the show's message. In the series, Xi Gu is said to be jealous of Hao Ting. All Xi Gu does is work towards his success, he can't afford to revel in the present. Xi Gu's days count towards his success. Hao Ting in contrast to Xi Gu, can be seen as making his days count by being carefree and not worrying about the future. However, is he making his days count? What does it even mean to make your days count? Are they happy? The closest thing that we get to an answer to these questions is when the main couple gets together. Hao Ting and Xi Gu strike a balance between working towards the future and enjoying the present, together. That's when the two are seen to be truly happy. Then it comes to an end. It's cliche, but that's life. Things happens. Xi Gu dies and Hao Ting's life is sent in a different direction, the same way it happened to Xi Gu with his parents' death. The final two episodes flashes forward some years and we see Hao Ting still studying, working for Xi Gu's sake. Both Xi Gu and Hao Ting preserve despite their personal tragedies. With Hao Ting still working, we see that he hasn't forgotten about Xi Gu and he's worked till he became a very accomplished student. This is a sign of his love for Xi Gu and also his strength and perseverance. The previously wandering Hao Ting with no goal in mind is able to work towards the dream that he envisioned alongside Xi Gu. However, the show makes us wonder just how "good" of a thing that this is. Hao Ting's mother warns her son not to miss out on his life by only working, and not taking a chance to take in the now. So, Hao Ting in the ending also serves as something of a cautionary tale. Is he making his days count towards Xi Gu's memory or trying to rush past them? Again, solely with its theme in mind, HIStory's ending is very well done, I didn't expect the ending to be as thought provoking as it was. It's much more powerful than a generic happy ending.

The very last scenes of HIStory 3 deal with Hao Ting deciding to move on. Hao Ting runs into an old classmate who prompts some memories of Xi Gu, he breaks down and reveals to Sun Bo (who's now still very happy with Lu Zhi) that he's still broken up over Xi Gu. Hao Ting reveals that he's trying to reach the stars to touch him, something that he and Xi Gu talked about when he was still alive. Hao Ting is also seen speaking with a doppleganger of Xi Gu who he seems to largely ignore as the other boy goes on and on. Deciding that it's time to move on, Hao Ting tells Xi Gu's double that he's leaving, the symbolism being clear to the viewer. Hao Ting later reminiscences on his good days with Xi Gu and then meets up with Sun Bo. Hao Ting declares that Xi Gu is irreplaceable and that he's finally ready to climb the Himalayan Mountains to gets as close as possible as he can to Xi Gu. He's ready to see him again. The show then ends, reiterating its message of cherishing and making your days count. Now, the show's message does get muddied a bit here as an offscreen character is mentioned and it's said that she's interested in Hao Ting. Hao Ting's parents say that he should give the girl a chance. So he should move on just for the sake of it? This feels tacked on and I felt as if it clashed with some notes that the ending touched. It's as if the original idea of him ending up alone was too depressing so they give him some leeway to not be lonely forever. Or perhaps they meant that he should consider the possibility of seeing someone else and they just fudged the delivery of that message? Either way, it's a minor thing that you could ignore, but it slightly cheapens everything else about an otherwise great ending.

HIStory 3 has a sad ending for a BL series, but it's a great show that sticks to its theme and communicates its message incredibly well. Don't let the bad ending turn or scare you off, this is a series that you should definitely watch and will stick with you for a while.

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SOTUS pushes its BL plot to the side a bit, but it pays off by adding more depth to the main couple

Before getting into SOTUS, you should know that it puts its BL plot in the backseat for most of its run. For maybe 80% of the show, the main couple: Arthit and Kongpob, are mostly lite-enemies with only a couple of tender moments sprinkled throughout up until the final few episodes. If you want more than that, you're better off skipping the show. I argue that the slow build up definitely pays off, though. Arthit and Kongpob have believable tension that grows throughout the show and you eventually start rooting for their characters to get together instead of simply wanting two cute guys to get together just because they're cute.

With the BL plot in the background, much of SOTUS revolves around the SOTUS hazing system. From episode one, the hazing system seems ridiculous and begs for suspension of disbelief. It's hard to watch, but bear with it. It's a plo point that the system is as ridiculous as it is, and it gets critiqued and discussed in-series, with the show even edging even me to see the benefit of hazing. This was something that I was honestly impressed with since I expected the SOTUS hazing system to be nothing but a vehicle to explain the tension between the main couple.

Around the hazing plot and main couple, we have a fairly large group of supporting characters. Kongpob has his own group of freshman friends, and Arthit has his own group of senior friends. With such a large cast, outside of most of them being familiar, not much is really done with the couple's friends but they at least feel like a realistic, supportive group of college friends. Arthit's friends were treated more fairly than Kongpob's, with the former's friends having a lot more depth to them and even serving as counsel at times. Kongpob's friends on the other hand, don't really have much going on outside of being involved in a love triangle and serving as comic relief. One thing that stood out to me with Kongpob's friends is that one of them (Waad) flatout disappears from the show even though it seemed like he would be getting a subplot involving one of the seniors. I recognized him from other Thai media, so perhaps there was some scheduling issue with his character? After he's gone, focus shifts to the friends (May and M) involved in the love triangle, but because the characters again don't have much depth to them, I wasn't invested in this at all. M in particular is nothing but Kongpob's friend that likes May and my partner and I started to joke about him being a simp with just how shallow his character was. There's friendly M and then there's M that gives solemn expressions when someone else is talking to May. It's all very flat and it's too bad that that's all they gave the character. The one saving grace in the love triangle plot is that the resolution was surprisingly well handled.

The series' direction is mostly okay. Some scenes either feel like padding or feel padded for time. The most egregious are flashbacks that feel almost belittling to the viewer and scenes that serve their purpose and then overstay their welcome. There's also the occasional odd cut here and there. On the flipside, there's a lot of personality injected into scenes at times with the occasional funny background event or a character in the background paying notice to the foreground's characters.

SOTUS' music is unfortunately barely there. The series is a fan of having its opening and the ending themes play during its scenes for what feels like every other episode. The one variation is that you may get the instrumental version over the vocal version. It gets old, and annoying at worst, fast. Those tracks aside, the show relies on only one or two background tracks to break up silence. I's not something that really affected my enjoyment of the series outside of an eyeroll here and there, but it is something that I noticed.

The acting varies among the cast, but for the characters that matter the most: Krist (Arthit) is definitely one of (if not the) strongest actor of the bunch and his flustered moments are some of the most believable I've seen in any drama. Singto (Kongpob) on the other hand, I'm confused about. His character delivers deadpan lines 90% of the time and has an air of straightforward earnestness to him, so I'm not sure if what I took as flat acting should be interpreted as him being in-character or him just not being the best actor. In the more emotional scenes though, it certainly feels like there's a lack of sincerity behind his lines, especially when he's paired with Krist (Arthit) who really excels in those scenes.

As for the BL part of the show, when SOTUS finally gets around to it, it's still a bit restrained. Considering that both of the characters are """not gay""" though, SOTUS' restraint makes sense and the conflict in the latter episodes are believable. I do have to point out though, that there are two episodes that come after the BL plot starts getting focused on that are noticeably the weakest episodes of the series. These episodes are where the show's padding problems are at its worst and I was disappointed that when the show finally started to pay attention to Arthit and Kongpob that they started to waste time like they did on these two episodes. Of these episodes, only a couple scenes have any sort of meaningful plot progression, and I'm really trying to be lenient in my definition of "meaningful plot progression" here. Even IN one of the scenes that matter, where part of a character's backstory is explored, the focus is almost entirely on two characters that we've never met before and it's difficult to really care or be interested when you just want to see more of Kongpob and Arthit now that the show is finally delivering the goods (for a lack of better words).

All in all though, SOTUS is definitely a must watch if you're into slow burns and I definitely recommend it if you don't mind that fact. The first episode's hazing scenes will definitely be off-putting and taken a bit too seriously, but if you stick with SOTUS, the hazing system is eventually dissected.

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This series could have done with more episodes to strike a better balance with its own elements

Trapped follows police officer (Shaofei) and underworld head (Tang Yi) as the former tries to uncover the story of an accident that changed their lives years ago. On Shaofei's end, his mentor was killed, for Tang Yi, his father figure was killed. I came into HIStory after starting with Trapped's sister series, Make Our Days Count. Trapped was chronologically before MODC. Why did I leave Trapped for second? Because I was worried that Trapped would have a heavy crime underworld plot and I had to be in the right mood for that. Does Trapped have that problem? Nope. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Trapped is beyond silly when it's ready. Shaofei has a fever dream idea for him and Tang Yi to strip down to their underwear and try to get someone to pick them up, betting on their good looks to work as a good lure. Shaofei gets into a fist fight with a love rival before the two decide to join forces to take down a common enemy in front of an unamused Tang Yi. A kidnapped character cheerfully bids his kidnapper farewell while the other promises to see him again. It's absolutely wild and I love those moments. Unfortunately, when Trapped is not being crazy, it's quite boring. The crime plot has little time to really build up to something interesting and the show has zero atmosphere of a crime underworld. The police force doesn't do much policing or investigating, the crime aspect of the series is barely explored beyond a surface level and I'd even say that the synopsis saying that a police officer becomes "trapped" in the underworld is a little embellished.

Trapped does have some twists and turns coming down to the end that are fairly interesting, but they barely packed a punch for me. I honestly didn't care beyond a "Huh!", perhaps if the show had more episodes it would have been better for it. The silly wouldn't have felt so out of place and would have been necessary to balance the grittiness of the serious crime plot. Meanwhile, the serious crime plot would also been able to have more time to develop into something interesting and have a proper atmosphere around it as opposed to being boring, tension-less scenes.

Anyway, if you decide to skip everything concerning the crime plot, Trapped manages to stand up decently. Shaofei and Tang Yi don't have as much chemistry as the show's other couple Jack and Zhaozi do, but their relationship progression was very well done. Chris Wu's Tang Yi is expectedly steely, but his emotions come through his eyes very well. In his tender and tsuntsun moments with Shaofei, it's easy to be swooned. Jake's Shaofei unfortunately doesn't get to do much beyond be an Eager Police Officer trying to uncover the truth and be teasing with Tang Yi. The two have tension that builds and the way that Shaofei's near obsession Tang Yi is silently reinterpreted by himself onscreen for the viewer was great. Subtle, but very well done. Jack and Zhaozi on the other hand, are just great together. Though their relationship is nothing more than two quirky guys finding themselves together, they're easily the most entertaining part of the show and I wish that they got more screentime. Ironically, Jack and Zhaozi do handle the police officer x underworld member subplot better than the main couple does despite their scenes being so humorous.

As it stands, to me, Trapped is a very mediocre BL series with a serviceable plot. The underworld aspect isn't taken seriously by the show, when it does get focus, it feels as if it's just taking time away from what you're actually enjoying about Trapped.

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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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A very by the books drama that drops the ball on the few things it does differently

I've been out of the drama game for some time, and when I saw this on Netflix I decided to give it a try given how accessible it was. I did some reading and saw raving reviews to boot, so I went in with some high expectations. A Love So Beautiful has a very simple, cute premise of a young girl (Xiaoxi) being in love with her neighbour (Jiang Cheng) and trying everything she can think of to get him to like her back. They're neighbours, they go to school together, their families are friends. Everything sounds great, except Jiang Chen doesn't reciprocate Xiaoxi's feelings, and does a bad job of showing anything at all. Cute hijinks ensue and I'm all for that.

The series follows them through elementary school and there's a crew of supporting characters who really save the show. They're great friends (Jingxiao is just so good), and the chemistry is believable. The characters together are the best part of the show. The worst part of the show is when it's busy checking off its list of drama tropes and not doing anything remarkable with them. It all feels very tepid, and eventually the cute hijinks between Xiaoxi and Jiang Chen start to get frustrating, with Jiang Chen's stoicness going from amusingly cute to almost sociopathic in nature with how he almost seems to enjoy leading on the poor girl. The times where he shows to actually care (or even show personality when he's not just playing off of his more charismatic friends) are few and far between.

Eventually, the show starts doing some timeskips. Note the plural. This is where A Love so Beautiful starts to drop the ball on one of its more interesting aspects. The show spent so much time developing the characters and their friendships in their school days, but the episode count after the timeskip simply isn't enough for the transition into their adult lives to be handled properly. It's a shame, because what could have been a very gratifying payoff ended up feeling rushed at best and awkward at worst.

Still, the show was a fun watch! The friends are cute and I do admit that a little part of me loves to hate on a drama that pulls out all the usual tricks that we're used to, especially after I hadn't watched a drama in such a long time. So while the show was certainly entertaining, it's hard for me to say that it's good.

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