My Gear and Your Gown (2020)

Good and solid

This will include spoilers.

If one has read my previous reviews, they will be familiar with this format. First the positives points and then the negative ones. And I refer to them as bottom and top because honestly I watch so many BLs I cannot be asked to look up the names and spell them every time.

1. Interesting main ( and side) characters

This is one, I would really like to highlight. Both main characters have an interesting backstory and an intriguing personality which goes over the stereotypical cool basketball boy as the top and the cute nerd as the bottom.
Our top has quite a kind heart but a bit of a blunt way about him. He also doesnt really like confrontations. This is what I got from him literally avoiding the other guy just for the fact that he felt bad about something and also running away from school..
He is kind of the style do first, think later.
Even though he kind of changes later on. But more on that later.
Our bottom is a rich kid who isnt very confident. He is kind of neglected by his parents and this is were I believe his insecurities come from.
He isnt very easy to approach but when you get to know him, he is a straightfoward and sassy guy.
He is also quite open in expressing his feeling at the beginning.

Also the side characters all have interesting plots. Such has the HIV storyline and the relationship storyline of the side characters.

2. The writing

I believe this is also a positive point. It wasn't perfect but it mostly avoided super cringy clichees. Well mostly....

3. The plot and pacing ( for the most part)

Its not very BL typical for a Plot, even though the setting couldn't be more cliché. I kind of got Thai lakorn vibes from it at the start. With the whole club room storyline and then the sudden mother dying plot. quite dramatic but done quite well.
Also the characters start off as enemies and then get thrown together to make friends. So thai lakorn but alright.
Later on the plot kind of slows down and focuses more on the couples which is nice.
And it has a happy ending which I am a sucker for.

Now onto the negative points

1. Inconsistencies

So in the story we get to know the characters. However some actions that these characters do are just so out of bounds.
Our top decides to let the other one misunderstand that he is mad at him and kind of bullies him to be more assertive in his life.
I get the intention is nice but WHAT ? What kind of crappy plan was that ? And we also never really see him fall in love so that kind of get sprung on the viewer as well.
Again at the start he is kind of the guy who doesnt think things through ( doesnt care about his grades even though he wants to be an engineer, quits school as soon as his mother dies etc) but later on you wanna tell me he has had some grand plan about making his love interest hate him so he can get out more.
Also his goal wouldn't have been so much easier accomplished if he just went up and said : Hey I am not mad anymore, I like you lets date and Ill help you come out of that shell of yours.

OK not to our bottom , he is shown to be extremely straightforward with everyone expect his parents.
He as soon as his parents find out he is dating a guy, freak out and ask him to break up. But they dont ask him in like a super mean way, they just say they would like him to and he does so immediately. I was super surprised because he held on to his feeling for the guy though him having a girlfriend, him bulling him in school and later on at uni.
But as soon as his parents say EH, he is like ok break up it is.
But this is still kind of relatable as he is shown to be extremely submissive to them.
However as soon as he does the top is like OK, ill change unis then and we are done.
I was sitting there being like so you are telling me: These two guys both have feeling for each other for years and one gives up because of his parents and the other one, who literally came up with a grand plan to make him happier etc, is like yup ill just accept that right away. WHY ?
I get that later on he changes his mind again and is like: Oh right I was this kind of character but what ?

One of the side character literally cheats and it kind of cheapened their story. I feel like they just did it to form a parallel between the start of the drama and the end. Scene at a doctors office.

2. Literally glossed over someone trying to rape someone else

OK i am kind of used to it to how casually rape is treated in these dramas but come on. His friend his like hey you have a new guy.. I dont like it. Lets try to rape him.
And after he gets stopped, he screams but we always share everything ?!?!?
Its like he never needed permission from the sexual partner but more like the permission of his friend !!
And he just shows up the next day to be like SOZ we are cool now right ?


3. Missing a ton of cute moments

Especially in the first half, I was just kind of hoping for some more really cute moments that I could squeal over. But this is super minor and really subjective.


Conclusion:

Its a good and solid BL. Not my absolute favorite of all time but its in my Top 50.

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A total waste of main characters

My Gear and Gown would have had a better potential if they had selected better main characters. Itt and Pai had zip chemistry. They seemed awkward and uncomfortable with each other and the kissing made it worse! There was no passion, love or bringing them together by kissing. It was like kissing a wet fish!

Fiat stole the show he was a great character that held the show together although the character was outed as having HIV then it was dropped and never mentioned again! He put some life in this series! A great asset but unable to carry the whole series by himself. The story line of rich/poor guy is a similar story line that is used in BL Stories. Hey, not a problem just get main actors who can act!

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Enjoyable binge

As mentioned by another review, if this drama has come out a few years prior my rating would've been higher. With that being said, this is not a bad show.
The pacing is good and it's relatively easy to watch. With only a few really dramatic parts, it will not give you a headache nor make you want to punch a character through the screen.
I binged this in around 2 days during the weekend after a sudden burst of wanting to watch something short and sweet, which was more or less what I got.
Let me tear this review down into parts, to make it more approachable.

Plot:
The plot is nothing outstanding. It's fairly simple. There's no need to think, because everything is served in front of you. As any other mediocre series, you will ask some questions to make you interested in the upcoming episodes and MGAYG does so very subtle, in a way that the questions you ask are in no way important as such, but still carry enough importance for you to continue watching.
The couples were cute and I liked the sudden set up of a new couple at the latter half of the show. That was refreshing to watch, and also a bit unexpected. I really enjoyed that. Another thing I really liked, was the focus on important things such as safe sex, as well as mentioning bisexuality (our bisexual king Pure, who isn't really that pure). BL's have a tendency to forget that bisexuals exists so I was glad that they had a bisexual character portrayed rather realistically-ish. That pleased me.
As mentioned prior, this is very easy to watch and binge all at once, despite the ending feeling a bit rushed due to a conflict, which for some reason was placed in the second to last episode. Despite this, we still got a satisfying ending with all ties tied up, leading to no plot holes left (not that the plot was complicated enough to even create holes to begin with). 6/10.

Acting:
This part is a half half for me. Fiat was my favorite here. I've seen him in many of his prior works and he's a talented guy, who really did well portraying his character. If it weren't for him, the rest of the cast would seem a bit lackluster in my opinion. The majority of the cast are fairly new faces, and this is something that can be seen. Not that they are bad at acting. They all did a good job delivering their lines in a fairly convincing manner. I wasn't cringed out by their acting, but with that being said, they weren't the best actors either. It was decent and bearable. 6.5/10.

Music:
Nothing really stood our for me here. It fit the atmosphere, which they wanted to create for the scenes but the music was pretty typical, nothing outstanding but nothing misplaced either. The music did it's job. 5/10.

Rewatch value:
The respective couples had some pretty cute scenes, which I wouldn't mind rewatching. The chemistry was nice. Other than that, I probably wouldn't rewatch anything else. 5/10.

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Great start... what happened?

It was great up until episode 7, from 8 onward everything with Itt and Pai just became absurd and overly complicated, with misunderstandings that were avoidable and sooo repetitive (within the show). They repeated the same "fighting/misunderstanding" thing THREE TIMES. And not even in an imaginative way. And then at the end it's like nothing happened... so it becomes even more pointless to have so many misunderstandings and fights if everyone is just gonna act as if they never happenned (they took "forgive and forget" to a whole new level).

Honestly the Mr. 950 mistery wasn't necessary for plot or for the story's development. Folk and Pure were the only reason I endure the last three episodes, Pure saved the show from being boring and from having no substance. The story of Itt and Pai was on the right track but by the end, it got lost and fell to the same tropes we've seen over and over again in other BLs.

Overall, I like the beginning of the show, it was building up to something good but, the ending was not satisfying at all. Would not watch again. If I ever do, I'd stop watching at episode 7 and have that be ending of the show, rather than the mess we got.

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My ship sank :(

I'm not sure how I feel about this series yet (I just finished watching it - literally). I cannot deny there were some good messages behind everything but I cannot also deny that the delivering was kinda sloppy to some degree - and it is not the actors falt at all.  It was an okay series, I was able to laugh, cry and be mad with the characters until I had a stomachache. I won't say this will be the best BL you will ever watch but it is also not the worst. For me it landed on the middle with the same engineering, university and beauty contest stuff we are tired of watching (tired but we still watch lol). I think I landed in the series with big expectations because I found the teaser extremely good and because I like New's previous works a lot (my expectations for him became higher since UWMA).

Strongest points:
*Fiat and JJ.
This is the first time I liked JJ's character lol. Tbh it was also the first time I liked Fiat's character also. They not only delivered the characters very well but they were also the best friends everyone deserves. They were there for their friends and that's it. The only sad thing about them is that I was shipping them from the beginning:')

*some good messages
I was impressed by the amount of messages the plot had. I think it was the first time I watched something that actually talks openly about hiv and safe sex.

We also have space to start a conversation about people's expectations on each other. Pai's parents expected too much, Itt also expected too much, everyone expect Pai to act in a certain way. At some point I was screaming at my TV to Itt saying "wtf you trying to make Pai act in a certain way to better himself is just as the same thing as Pai's parents expecting him to be perfect". When Itt came to that conclusion also (at the end) I felt relieved, really.

Points I didn't like:

* The lack of communication between the main characters
I don't even know how they managed to get together in the end. Seriously. They all acted in their own way without communicating with each other. It's idea to dismiss Pai just to prove a pointless point (that Pai should speak out his mind more) was trashy. I feel for Waan who were in the middle of this situation. If you get too anxious when the main couple don't communicate properly, this drama is not for you.

* Some important stuff from the plot just disappeared? Like what happened to Itt's dad and his new girlfriend? I thought that was a important point on the plot but I'm still wondering wtf happened between them.

* This series has two parts, basically. When they were in highschool and when they got on their freshman year on university. Ok, there's probably less than a year between these two parts, right? Right. So why I felt years passed? Lol i don't know if it was just me who felt that way but I felt like at least two years passed between part 1 and 2.


Anyways, i enjoyed the drama in general.
The acting was great and I think Pai and Itt had great chemistry even tho for me the whole series sounded more like a bromance than a romance. I didn't like PurexFolk that much and not because I think they didn't have chemistry or a good story, but because I still shipp Pure and Waan lol (sorry - not sorry). But I can admit that Pure and Folk's plot was even better than Pai and Itt's and the chemistry between them was just right. They tried to touch in a lot of delicate subjects (like cancer, hiv, expecting too much from others, lack of communication, parents being negligents towards their kids, etc) and I think maybe it was too much because at some point it looked like they were not able to deal with every point they tried to reach. I was expecting a little bit more because I know New (the director) is somehow good dealing with a lot of characters and side-plots at once but I don't think it really worked in this case (aside from Pure and Fluke's plot). Idk, as I said in the beginning this series landed in a very middle line for me. Not too great but also not that bad. It's okay, you can try watching it and drop it if you get too annoyed with Itt and Pai communicating through their own perceptions on what the other one is thinking and being somewhat as*holes throughout the process lol.

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Too Long to Develop

I think I was drawn to this BL series because I became intrigued by the title of it. I wanted to know what it meant. You do not really know (or at least I could not figure it out) until close to the end of the series. When you do, it is quite charming, but it takes a long, long time to get there.
The build-up of this story never really reaches a climax. It is just a series of explanations. All these characters are likeable. They are all handsome. The story takes way too long to develop. There really is no intensity in any of their relationships and it was hard to believe that any one of them were in ‘love’. So sorry. I loved the title of this series and it started out good, but it just never grew or reached any type of intensity level for me.

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"My Review And Your Choice" ??

First of all... 'm 9 episodes down and the least I have seen in this series are 'the Gear and the Gown'!!?

Ok.. on a serious note...

This BL is kind of attractive but trust me you won't understand till the end what keeps you coming back to it.
Like for me.. the storyline lacks.

It's basically just about a High IQ, Introverted, glasses-clad med student 'PAI' who falls for a Good looking, heighted, basket ball athlete-cum-engineering student 'Itt'.

At the beginning they set out on the wrong foot but thanks to their friends 'Pure' and 'Waan' they somehow grow close and eventually become inseparable when Pai starts tutoring Itt (thereby supporting him emotionally as well) as he helps Itt look after his ill mother who wants to see Itt as an engineer.

Later, due to a misunderstanding, (very lame that too ?) they again fall apart and then we see their university life where both of them meet again and of course get together after some push and pull and 'jealousy' ?
( frankly I love this element in BL ??)

The story is literally only this much... nothing more nothing less. (At least till now)
The actors are very cute and adorable but there's a lot of space for improvement in their acting and expression skills.

The BG music is okay... Like you won't have a memory where you were hooked on to it... So it's passable.

Direction is good but due to lack of strong storyline, it goes unnoticed.

As I mentioned before.. it's a mediocre level series with nothing much to be in awe with but there's something which makes you excited about the next episode and you can never think of dropping it midway!?

So I suggest - do watch this without much expectations and m sure you will like it too ❣️

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OMG! WHY??

If this show moved any slower it would be going backwards! OH WAIT IT DID!! I thought I was watching a college drama but no! 90% is a High school drama. Odd that it's called my gear your gown because literally none of that really had anything to do with this story. And the main character is the one who wants to be a doctor so shouldn't it be my gown your gear? I digress, they spent 8 episodes on what should have been handle in 4 at most. I love a good angsty secret crush series but OMG! This is horrible I kept waiting for something to happen so the story would start moving but nope. That's like 12 hours of my life I'll never get back ?

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A messy... mess

Ok, so, I was pretty excited for this series because we love that very same cliché, 2 university boys who like each other but then the rest of the world happens, they have their ups and downs but in the end everything works out and they get together. And I was especially excited because the story would start during their high school days, which opened a window to the possibility of them having this “past” together, kinda like what is happening right now with We Best Love (a Taiwanese BL series if you’re asking). But then… Well, the series starts.

Basically it’s divided in two parts, the 1st one from episodes 1-7 and the 2nd from 8-12. The first part is placed during their last year in high school, they start to know each other, become friends, but then fight (mainly because of a misunderstanding that led to miscommunication, but nothing now under the sun, right?). Then the second part is placed in college, that’s why I put “past” before, because it’s not a really distant past. And this division is the main problem. I mean, nothing really happens (romantically speaking) during part1, so why spend 7 precious episodes if we could have the very same plot happening during 3 or 4 chapters? This would give even more time in their uni days, so we could have a decent plot with all the clichés we love and want in a cliché series.

Also, about the main couple. They looked more like friends than… a couple. Maybe it’s because of how the story was presented to us, but I was not convinced by them, their relationship somehow felt rushed (but yes, it’s probably because of how things happened, not the couple or the actors themselves). PureFolk was the best thing that happened during the show, because we were not expecting that and that’s why their story was really fresh. Also the safe sex/HIV plot, guys, TV is a source of information AND WE NEED THAT NOWADAYS. I respect this series for this. But yeah, basically everything else sucks.

Basically GMM doing what they do best, take a series with a lot of potential and somehow ruin it (and if we stop to think about it, the most affected shows are BLs…).

In the end, watch it if you have free time, don’t really mind to have a structured/decent plot and just want to see them together happily ever after. BUT if you don't want to waste your time or want a good story… Then you should look for something else.

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It's cute and it had potential... but it's pretty average / below average for me

The series starts off with the main couple meeting in the university (college) in which Itt tells Pai about the promise he made back in highschool. After that scene, it changed to their highschool days.

Basically, this series focused more on the main characters highschool days than the university or college setting. We actually get to see the development and progress of their relationship before they'll meet once again in college.

What I like about the series is that there were sweet and subtle moments of the characters in which they were trying to figure out what their relationship was. I find those scenes to be sweet and adorable. Furthermore, I'm glad that there were scenes in which the series talked about safe sex which is really a good thing especially since the setting is in highschool. We need series that talks about this issue in a manner that it is not taken lightly. Another thing that I like is that we get to see a BL series set in highschool.

The things that really bothered me with this series is the inconsistency of the plot as well as the progress of their relationship after the main couple had a fight in their highschool days. The conflict between Itt and Pai was pretty much dry for me. Not to mention, the aditional character who showed up so that he could just be a partner for Pure was really weak for me. Pure and Folk had something going on but the execution was not really good for me. That's why the side couple didn't really leave much of an impact or impression to me. However, I can definitely say that at least I could see their affection / love for each other than Itt and Pai. Itt and Pai's relationship had a good start but it fell through for me in the last episodes because it felt dry and weak for me, like their moments were more on the friendship side. That's why when the two of them kissed, it felt kind of forced. Itt and Pai's relationship in the last episodes was rushed in my opinion.

Moreover, I actually find the last episodes to be boring like it didn't really justify much the title of the story (My gear and your gown). Like, I constantly had the thought, "what was the relevance of the title then because isn't this supposed to be the point of the series, the realizations of the main couple towards their feelings for each other?" Personally, it would have been better if the series just had a highschool setting for a change because if they were really meant to be pushing the title "My gear and your gown" then they could've just focused more on the university setting rather than the highschool setting.

The acting is also average. There were moments in which the actors portrayed their characters well and there were moments where the actors were pretty awkward or stiff or simply lacking the necessary expression. Hence, the acting definitely needs improvement.

In conclusion, this series had a good start but due to the lack of execution of the plot, the inconsistencies of the characters as well as the average acting, there's nothing much to say. If you're looking for a highschool setting BL series then you could give this one a try. What I've said in my review is entirely my opinion and it's up to you whether you'll watch this or not because perhaps, it might be something to your liking... :)

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Started good, ended-up lousy!

I was very excited at first when this was announced because finally, our boy JJ will finally have a main role credit under his profile here and the main actors who are quite new seem promising, BUT, it turns out, this is just one of those BL series made to launch an actor to the BL industry, and to make money for the concerned production companies. The story is quite promising and interesting given the fact that it's very generic, but I feel like the production failed to give justice to how the story was executed and unfolded. At first, I was very giddy because I thought Pawin and Marc are very cute together but later on, I got bored. You know, it has been past half the season and they are still in high school bickering about nonsensical things. Like hello, you only have 12 episodes so you might as well use that shortage to take things like an intense roller coaster ride but with what I have seen, I felt like I was also riding a roller coaster... but with only 1mph speed. You know how that feels. I also felt like I went to a horror house where the ghouls are very corny and not even funny. I will not mind if the events in the show will unfold hastily, that's fine, as long as the experience was given justice but with My gear and Your Gown, I felt ripped from my WeTV subscription. Also, I felt that the twist in the story where Itt was actually Student Number 900something who would antagonize Pai upfront was actually secretly rooting and loving him; I felt that that was a good twist, even though again it's quite generic (some things don't get old you know) but for me, they failed big in relaying effectively that part. That's where I get the title of this review LOUSY! It lacked creativity and tackiness. They could have done something better for that and have told that part of the story in a way that will take the audiences' breath away. I normally get past lapses in a show/series that I watch and appreciate what's good but I just can't forgo this one. I think this series has a pretty good message: teaching people safe sex and monogamy to prevent STDs, the importance of education, the importance of parent's support and understanding a queer child, and a lot more but again, I felt that the production failed to relay these important takeaways EFFECTIVELY! In the show, there would be scenes that don't make sense, there are also events that aren't sequenced logically. I FELT THAT EVERYTHING IN THIS SERIES FAILED IN EVERY ASPECT OF EVERYTHING THEY HOPED THAT THIS WOULD TURN OUT TO BE except to introduce Marc Pahun and Win Pawin as new and upcoming BL names. I liked more how Pawin's character in The Stranded was designed and executed.

Also, I felt that the ships in this show are forced. It's like food that you don't like that your mom keeps on shoving to your throat otherwise bad things will happen. I felt that way with how they chose pairings for loveteams in this series in short, there was no enough chemistry to make things work. JJ and Neen's pairing was cringy. Like, there are ships like them; an older girl and a younger boy, but this one's a wreck plus JJ's acting hasn't improved. It's still very obvious plus the trying hard yet funny English words that he is trying to blurt out are very ridiculous. Fiat and Aun's couple also is quite weird on-screen. It just didn't work. The fuck boy who suddenly took interest to a perfectly good boy vibes? I get that, but, again, there is something off with how they interact---no chemistry maybe? Finally, Marc and Win who at first is giving that generic BL couple progress, enemies at first, lovers in the end but with how slow their story went, the chemistry got lost somewhere before the middle season until it turned out bland. This is also my feelings towards how they ended the show. I felt like the ending is very bland, awkward, and useless. They should have just hurt us by making Itt and Pai separate because Pai can't get over with pressure and expect for a season 2. That would be more acceptable than an expedited ending. It seems like they just made everything right there and then without a clear storyline because everything is 'shittyly' done. And I just need to take this off my chest and sorry for mentioning this but I think the way Win cried in front of his parents during that scene at the table is very cringy and appalling. Having said that, every character acting in this show, except for Neen and Fiat's, needs a whole lot of improvement. Over-all, my expectations failed me just as how A Chance to Love failed also at giving LBC a sequel. I know that these shows were announced together as a joint project with WeTV but turns out, the way they told both stories was very lousy and crappy.

PS:
I will edit this review if ever I can think of good things to point out about this series.

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