My Gear and Your Gown (2020)

The Second Time Around

There really aren't that many series that I would want to re-watch, especially these days when BLs are coming at you one after another, but someone mentioned "My Gear and Your Gown" on Reddit, and I remember bingeing that title and couldn't get certain things out of my head - Win Pawin Kulkaranyawich who plays "Pai", Waan and Pure's visit to the Clinic, and so on. Now the thing is - I hate bingeing. I always find that there's so much stuff going on and you could never hold on to the details, and this series is all about the details.

First off, this is not your typical BL where one guy falls on another guy's mouth and he catches him with his lips, nobody drinks until they have to stop and vomit, nobody gets washed down with a bowl of warm water and a small white towel, nobody...well, you get the picture. MGAYG is one of those quiet little gems that takes its own sweet time to roll out its story. All of the problems are real world problems - there's cancer, an incident involving a car accident, HIV and safe sex...in other words, it's like getting a glimpse into the lives of several high school through University friends. Nothing much happens - and an awful lot happens at the same time. At the centre of the story there's Pai - a people-pleasing, milquetoast, nerd - and his classmate Itt (Marc Pahun Jiyacharoen) a jock with a heart of gold whose world just weighs him down, almost drowning him. Of course it's a love story - but not the happily-ever-after type, more of the deep bond and genuine affection type of love...in other words, real love with all its messy ups and downs.

Along for the ride are their High School friends Waan and Pure and, later on, their new University buddies Folk and Beau. Now lemme talk about the performances for a minute. There really are no screaming/bawling/histrionic moments where actors get to "Act" with a capital A. It's a rather gentle, quiet little beauty that casually moves along at its own pace and, at no point, do we get pulled out of the story by overwrought "acting". The Director (Siwaj Sawatmaneekul) clearly opts for more of a poetic realism style of acting and his young cast is more than able to carry it off.

Finally, all I can say, is that if "Gen Y" and "Love by Chance" is your groove, then maybe you should miss this one. If, however, you liked more naturalistic series like "I Told Sunset About You" and "'Cause You're My Boy", then maybe you should give it a shot. I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

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Your standard high school/university drama... yet something more

Let's be real, My gear your gown is the standard teen drama. Yet, something made me fell in love with it in a way I cannot even justify.
There's some sort of deepness to the story: there are many touchy topics, from the loss of a parent, to sexual transmitted disease - but it describes the typical struggles of life as teenagers. I wish they'd explore more Itt's feelings when he lost his mother and the way he got over the loss felt rushed. Also, there are some dynamics between the leads that get on my nerves, but it's not a BL drama without some silent treatment and incapability to express feelings.

Pure and Folk have my whole heart. Pure is the character with the deepest growth, while Folk is just SO innocent yet strong that I just want to hug him and assure him everything is gonna be fine. Also, their kiss was perfect, given it's a 2020 BL drama (sadly, you can't tell the same about the main leads, their kiss feels rushed and also it's so awkward).

It's not the best drama you'll watch this year, but if you enjoy high school/university drama, then you might enjoy this one as well.

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Surprisingly Good!

When this BL was first announced as one of the three BL series that weTV will be producing, I wasn't that interested (being far more interested in Manner of Death, one of the other BL series). The trailer wasn't particularly interesting either. I found the first episode to be quite a nonsensical, dull mess and dropped this series. After a few weeks when I was reviewing the BL series that are currently airing, I decided to give this one another chance and I am glad that I did. Episode 2 was quite good as the story began to focus on its two BL couples, the series immediately became much better, even touching at times.

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Honestly, i thought that the acting was very memorable and clean. The couple had great chemistry and thats the reason i stuck with the show.

Where it all went wrong:
1. This drama had a great storyline planned out with an enemies to lovers trope and was seemingly going great. But just as you think they are gonna get somewhere in this relationship they suddenly do a full 180 and have them back as enemies for almost the rest of the show. Itt has a whole plan to make Pai more confident by literally bullying him and making himself the bad guy in the process. As a viewer it was infuriating seeing them in this pointless and endless spiral of hate. Itt could've gone about this in a totally different way that didn't destroy their amazing relationship. Even if Itt had good intentions with his actions doesn't mean they weren't foolish and just plain mean. The show drags out this hate quarrel between the until the second to last episode so they don't even get together until the very end of the show. Itt apologizes and Pai immediately forgives him without much thought. Then they confess their love and honestly the show would've been great if they ended it there but instead we got this half baked coming out story with his parents suddenly accepting him in the end.
2. Other than that there were just some plot lines that were never really brought back up. For example the mom dying and Itt trying to buy his house back from his dad. This could've made for a great plot line and character development but after Pai convinces him to go to college so he can make more money and buy back the house sooner, they just never really bring it up again. The death of his mother was a big part of his life but they kinda just passed over it after an episode.
3. As i mentioned before they had a solid plot line and story they could've gone off of but it kinda got muddled. Starting the drama i thought Pai was gonna help Itt get smarter and Itt was gonna help Pai gain more confidence which eventually they both did but the whole show kinda went into a whole nother sub plot for about 5 episodes and then came back to that one.
4. Their whole quarrel started because of a misunderstanding in which Itt misunderstood Pai. So then Itt just makes it worse by teasing him but its revealed that he did all this to help Pai, but the misunderstanding was never resolved between them. There was no transition from Itt seemingly hating Pai to Itt trying to help Pai. The driving force of the fight in the first place wasn't even Itt trying to help Pai, it was Itt misunderstanding Pai so how did the motivation change?
5. One final thing is that the whole plot line might have been solid to begin with but frankly its overused in BLs and has gotten annoying. Its just so boring and has no flavor. Rich smart kid has to help out the poor dumb kid. Even the contest for freshies trope has been over used. In sotus, 2moons, and some others have already used this trope. I find this trope especially annoying though because it shows no real character development and honestly just wastes time. It can help the leads get closer in a sense but its still boring going over the process of getting ready for the contest and competing for the viewer. Cause we've already been through this multiple times before.

6. Even after Itts whole plan to make Pai more confident, at the end when his parents want them to break up he objects once and the just breaks up with Itt. How has his character developed absolutely none. He still has no confidence even fighting for the one he loves

Where it went right:
The chemistry between all the actors was great. Pure and Folk's relationship was cute and well thought out. Id love to see the main couple play together again.

Lastly I wanna touch up on Waan and Beau's relationship. They had an ok story line but it just ended with Waan half assly confessing his feelings which he never really did. They both kinda just decided to date with no real kinda context or resolution for the viewers.

Sorry if any of this was confusing i'm kind of just putting all my thoughts into words.

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Urgggg

I was into the side couple of Pure/Folk more. I thought they were so cute. Then folk cheated on him after his friend tried to rape Folk......and folk just takes him back immediately. I needed a hot shower after that scene. I cannot believe this came from GMMTV and in 2020. Can we just stop with the cheating and easy acceptance of it? I don't see these two having a healthy future relationship. The trust has been broken, and how do we know that next time they fight Pure won't go out and sleep with someone else?! I'm sooo disappointed. I loved them as a couple sooo much!

As for the main characters, I thought the reasoning that Itt was so mean was stupid. Of course as some point he's going to grow to hate you for being such a jerk. I mean what did Itt think would happen?!

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it only goes downhill

This series started off sort of good (maybe in comparison to another series airing at the time), but after a while, it only gets worse. Only going to talk about Itt and Pai.

How I perceived the plot was: at first it was sweet, the tension between the two mc was cute. it was sort of an enemies to lover trope... Itt was struggling and Pai was there to help him achieve his goals while Pai had no confidence but learns to love himself and make his own descisions over time due to Itt's influence, OR SO IT SEEMED.

What the actual plot was..: This show took a full 180 when Itt went from frenemies to bully mode. He constantly put Pai on the spot in uncomfortable situations hoping Pai would be braver or stand up for himself. But we don't really see that. Even in the finale, he couldn't advocate for himself in front of his parents when he was outed. He even agreed to his mother's request that "he's still young, there's still time to change". At that point I lost all respect for him. I couldn't care less during the crying scenes, frankly i skipped through them just because he was so pitiful to watch. Ultimately, I have no respect for Pai is because he gets shit handed to him. He didn't have to advocate for himself (which I thought was the whole point in Itt's influence on him). Itt went to talk to his parents. His parents went to seek outside advise. But what did Pai do thats not crying? exactly....

Also...when his parents finally became more open minded, I felt they were asking all the wrong questions. Its not about society and the challenges, it's not about Itt's love for Pai is strong enough, it's not about if Pai will regret this in the future. BUT RATHER, its about YOUR (the parents) love for Pai and supporting him regardless of society, the challenges, his relationship with Pai, or if he later regrets this. They were literally scaring the poor boy all over again with the what ifs, but not comforting him with their support?

The acting in this is kinda meh. At the beginning the chemistry was cute. fell flat after the whole bully situation.

Honestly Don't recall there was music used in this series...

rewatch value.... uh I wouldn't waste my time when there are better series out there.

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If Your Time is Precious, Find Another Drama

First of all, I don't know why Thai BL EXTREMELY LOVES the Faculty of Engineering. There's too many interesting and challenging major out there, why do they consider Engineering is the ONLY faculty that has the coolest and manliest students the most?

The plot is not something new, about the nerd who got pushed by one of the teachers to help the problem student.... or threatened... (the teacher is too pushy for me... why in a world she makes her student do her job????), too many misunderstand between this couple, (the Pang incident, the teacher and Pai's conversation about the club room incident...), which always ended-up by Itt saying "I actually not mad at you"..... not mad but avoiding and doesn't speak, I wonder what he will do if he really is mad. Itt kinda annoyingly moody character.

There's no plot and story development. If I have to make a summary, I have nothing to say but "a story of a nerd who then becomes not nerd, with a troubled student who then becomes of the smartest"... I myself find my summary is weird. 
While Tharn and Type is concentrating on the issue of changing the point of view of gay haters about gay, and Theory of Love is appointing issue on the pain that the main character suffers for being in love with his closest friend.... I really can't tell what this drama wants to tell. I think this drama trying to point the issue of Itt's effort to makes Pai shows everyone his value... by making him the university's moon?? Because Itt said, "I just want to make everyone know how great you are." But... I can't see Pai able to gain more friends after the event. Since at ep 1, Pai's dialog mentioned "I just want to stay invisible and graduated calmly." There's nothing wrong to become an introvert, we can also slay in everything we do by doing it quietly.

I kinda hate if a drama creates a love triangle but never gives the second lead any change. I'll hate it more if the second lead just able to forget as if his/her feeling is nothing...., why??? After all those efforts? This drama gave me that. Folk is in love with Pai since highschool and he keeps pursuing Pai's love since the orientation period, but he just gives up easily after a university program and instantly makes love with Pure. 

I have no issue with Waan and Beau couple. They're sweet, though still unable to keep me stick with the series.
I dropped off this one, the only thing that makes me able to hang on until 11 episode is because I'm not binge-watch it, and watching it while doing other things.

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Great underrated drama

I don’t understand why people are giving so less ratings for this show but I personally liked this story a lot acting story and actors were good it’s 2023 but still I liked the story so what we have so many bl in 2023 it’s not reaching up to my expectation unnecessarily plots and intimate scenes I don’t care if couple kiss or not all I ask is chemistry and need to know how they develop feelings to each other rather than jumping into bed scene in just 2 episodes anyway it’s not a bad but just not my preference but this drama is really cute neat and about first love , enemies to lovers , one sided love, friendship , goals wow it’s totally a package series unfortunately this drama got less ratings and couple also didn’t get much face by shippers anyway i support this series all the best to the team I hope I can see more of their dramas

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interesting pls read.

i have no opinion yet to be honest. LOL i just wanted to b first to make a review
aw man it has to be more than 500 words??
hi guys let me introduce myself. i’m kay. my first bl was sotus. my friend forced me to watch it and then i fell in love. i’ve watched about... 12 bl’s not including the ones i haven’t finished and second seasons and such. i started a bit over a month ago.
i’m not doing so well at home right now so i’m trying to distract myself. i hate being here. my family is so toxic. anyways i’m acc only 20 mins in and i was like omg it’s fong from 2gether.. or is it non from dark blue kiss. i really thought they were the same person. never would have guess they were twins. anyways thats why i’m here. i think this is like my second review ever. i’m so bad at these. my fav bl so far is prolly tharntype. well acc if “the untamed” was an actual bl it would b my fav. but it’s still in my top 5 fav shows of all time. too bad china’s homophobic or something. dont quote me on that, i know nothing.
so i started this cuz i was in the middle of watching senior secret love: puppy honey on yt and in my suggestions i saw ep 1 of a show in that was just released “1 day ago”. and the title was in thai so i didn’t even know what i was watching until i found out on here when i searched up waan. (the twin actor)
wow that felt like a diary entry. k thanks i doubt anyone will ever read that useless garbage but oh well :D

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Expectativas

“My Gear and Your Gown”, es un bl con lo más clásico y característico de las producciones tailandesas. Este bl es excelente si lo que buscas es pasar el rato apreciando lo más clásico de Tailandia, una historia linda de una calidad buena (obviamente característica de la GMM) y una historia fácil de llevar.
Cabe aclarar que mi querido Fiat se lleva todas las flores, y literalmente sobre paso a todos los demás actores.
Personalmente pienso que las malas reseñas que podemos encontrar de esta serie son a partir de las expectativas demasiado altas, cuando con solo leer la sinopsis podemos ver que no hay ningún factor sorpresa y es la típica serie tailandesa de jóvenes estudiantes que se enamoran.
En mi opinión es una serie altamente recomendable, y es uno de los pocos bl’s de este año que han logrado atraparme, pero sobre gustos no hay nada escrito. Denle una oportunidad y saquen sus propias conclusiones acerca de la historia.

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Il manque quelque chose!

Ce n'est pas le pire BL ( "WaterBoy" ou "What the Duck" entre autre étaient horribles!) C'est un BL qui nous parle de "promesse" à tenir, mais la tenir en manipulant l'autre ce n'est pas extra. D'un autre côté l'histoire était bien menée même si la partie "lycéenne" était un peu longue par rapport à la partie "estudiantine". Les deux protagonistes principaux ont des parcours intéressants, mais leur attirance réciproque ne se fait pas vraiment sentir, il y a toujours une certaine distance entre eux et l'on a du mal à croire qu'ils puissent s'aimer.
Les "couples" secondaires sont plus intéressants entre autre celui de Pure et Folk. Parler du SIDA est nouveau dans un BL thaïlandais ou alors j'ai raté le coche. Si vous attendez un peu de bisous ( car cela ressemblait plus à des bisous que des baisers!), il faut attendre la fin de l'épisode 9, puis la fin de l'épisode 11 et enfin la fin du 12. Je ne crois pas en avoir vu d'autres ( ce sont des adolescents et adulescents très sages! ) En même temps je ne peux pas dire que cette série m'ait déplu, c'est comme si il manquait quelque chose mais je n'ai pas mis le doigt dessus.
La fin me semble bancale : les parents médecins qui découvrent l'homosexualité de leur fils et qui lui disent qu'il est jeune et qu'il va changer, et un collègue médecin leur ouvre les yeux sur le stress et la pression qu'ils font subir à leur enfant, je ne parle même pas de la mère qui tombe en syncope en pleine force de l'âge car son fils embrasse un jeune homme ( ça frise le ridicule quand on pense qu'elle est médecin!) Et bien sûr à la fin retournement de situation, papa maman sont ouverts d'esprit et acceptent tout! Ah si cela pouvait être comme ça dans la réalité...
Il y a plusieurs histoires connexes qui passent à la trappe lorsque les jeunes vont à la faculté. Après ils ont grandi et ils laissent leurs parents déconner entre eux! ( Les parents, à part la maman de Itt, ne sont pas à la hauteur à mon avis! )

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Minha engrenagem e seu jaleco

Meus sentimentos sobre esse dorama oscilaram muito enquanto eu assistia. A história consegue ser leve e pesada ao mesmo tempo, traz discussões importantes, mas também tem muitos furos.

Além da série propriamente dita, gostaria de falar sobre 3 personagens.

História: A história é bem bonita (apesar dos furos), um roteiro realmente forte e fofo, a direção da série conseguiu fazer um bom trabalho e o elenco também atuou muito bem. A série tem locações bacanas, uma bela fotografia e uma ost encantadora.

Pai: Nosso protagonista é alguém que não tem vontade própria, ele faz tudo para deixar todos felizes, mesmo que ele mesmo não esteja confortável. Pai desenvolveu uma personalidade frágil, pois precisou usar uma máscara durante toda a sua vida. Pai sofreu uma grande pressão por perfeição. Seus pais são médicos e não eram presentes em sua vida, não por serem pais ruins, mas pq buscavam condições de dar a ele um futuro confortável, e como ele foi condicionado a não reclamar de nada, seus pais assumiam que estava tudo bem. Preciso dizer que tive vontade de dar uns tapas neles quando eles reagiram mal ao fato de Pai ser gay, mas consegui entender o ponto deles, e no final eles realmente foram muito fofos com o relacionamento do filho. Um ponto negativo, foi que os dois esperaram literalmente a série inteira para se resolverem, a cena da declaração, da troca de brincos foi linda. E quando finalmente acontece o primeiro beijo, seus pais estragam tudo! Ah que raiva!

Itt: Impossível não se emocionar com a história inicial. O menino rebelde da escola, destoava completamente do filho dedicado à sua mãe enferma. Foi de cortar o coração as cenas após a morte dela, ver ele passar pelo processo de luto sozinho, bem como o relacionamento dele com o pai, relacionamento esse, que por sinal é um dos furos da série, pois não é explicado como esse relacionamento ficou, se houve reconciliação entre eles, a série não explica como Itt, sendo um jovem pobre e desempregado e rompido com seu pai, - não ficou claro se a casa foi vendida ou não, mas eu assumi que sim- , conseguiu se manter na universidade. Confesso que não entendi bem os motivos que o levaram a romper com Pai no ensino médio! De início, ele ouviu a conversa entre Pai e a diretora e ficou chateado, mas no fim da série Waan fala para Pai que Itt nunca o odiou, isso foi confuso para mim, pq que ele não odiava eu já sabia, mas por qual motivo ele fazia com que Pai pensasse assim de forma deliberada? A explicação de que era para Pai criar confiança em si mesmo e blá blá blá não me convenceu.

Pure: Antes de tudo, confesso que shipei errado ele e Waan, mas quase todo mundo shipou não é?
O comportamento "galinha" dele, a falta de compromisso com seus relacionamentos, a promiscuidade, todos esses fatores a série tentou explicar colocando a culpa no comportamento também promíscuo de sua mãe, que aparentemente não dava a mínima para ele e mantinha relacionamento com muitos homens na frente dele, inclusive, abastecia ele de preservativos. Isso para nós brasileiros podem ser motivos bobos, mas a educação conservadora e preconceituosa da Tailândia considera absurdo o comportamento dessa mãe, e tendo ele nascido envolto à essa sociedade, natural seu sentimento de revolta e seu comportamento impróprio.
Foi através de Pure que um dos assuntos mais importantes veio à tona: o HIV e os cuidados para preveni-lo, inclusive com uma bela lição, quando ele não questionou nem por um minuto passar 3 meses sem sexo com Folk para protegê-lo.

Enfim, uma bela série que não me canso de assistir. Recomendo bastante, e adianto que assista com o lencinho na mão, pois muitas vezes ele será necessário.

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