This review may contain spoilers
Are copies better than the Originals?
Top Secret Together (TST) is a series that’s just a bad riff. It lacks any story originality, taking its storylines from other more successful Thai series -which I will outline from where later - and passes it off as a credible series. Add to that, two too many couples and you have a hot confusing mess. TST is a rom-com ish series that does a poor job of connecting and developing a cohesive storyline for most of the couples in the series. Instead of focusing on one or two couples, TST ambitiously squeezes in 5 of them to the detriment of the series as it needed to spend time with all the couple’s storylines. They should have invested in a more streamlined series with two or three couples. The three seasons of Hormones, My Engineer, and even Make it Right are examples of very successful large multi-couple/multi-plot series’s that should be templates for any new producer/director undertaking this style of series. Otherwise, you end up getting TST.The couples and the riffs (spoiler alert):
Couple 1: Sinmai/Lukmo are the main couple of TST. The story is your typical grumpy aloof guy that gets changed by an enthusiastic, naive younger guy. Pretty much a riff of the Phu/Kao couple from the Oxygen series - Ram/King from My Engineer also comes to mind here as well. Sinmai/Lukmo have their good moments early as Sinmai breaks down Lukmo’s wall only to have it come crashing down when TST decides to throw a couple of ethical wrenches into the mix by making them have a brother/step-brother relationship. Honestly, an unnecessary plot twist. They should have dropped that part and spent more time focusing them moving to becoming a couple. Embellishing Lukmo’s challenges with his mom’s passing or built-off his fight with co-workers would have been far more interesting. The cliffhanger of Sinmai leaving to go overseas, like Phu did in Oxygen, was a good wrapper. The whole brother/step-brother and the parents wanting to keep it a secret just leaves all kinds of dirty in that storyline for no reason.
Couple 2: MaiEak/Phob - Phob crushes on MaiEak. MaiEak doesn’t reciprocate back till the end till when he realizes that he really does like Phob but by then it’s too late. This is a riff of Khai/Third couple in Theory of Love. The main difference is that Third drowns out his sorrows by taking showers fully clothed, while Phob waits hungry for hours for MaiEak which gives Phob stomach problems. The Boss/Mek storyline from My Engineer as well as the Tee/Fuse storyline from Make it Right are also very reminiscent. Those three couple’s storylines were very well developed. They each made you feel the challenges and the pain of the one-sided love that each of the characters were going through. In TST, they rushed what seemed to be a bromance into a one-sided crush. They didn’t give the couple enough backstory like the aforementioned couples from other Thai series. They brought it to a head quickly with a funny accidental text and gave them a good confession scene where you could empathize with Phob’s one sided feelings and MaiEak not having the same romantic interest. But as the two drifted away, I became less and less empathetic with MaiEak. That’s where this storyline fails. I never rooted for this couple to succeed. It ended up being MaiEak being selfish and possessive, even in his approach to wooing Phob. It would have been far more interesting had MaiEak thrown himself into wooing Phob like Khai did with Third in Theory of Love. Cliche as that would have been, it would have been a far more interesting watch vs MaiEak just asking advise from everyone and bugging Phob on the phone 24/7. I guess that’s very Tee/Fuse in Make it Right. Even the wrap up was a bit weird. I definitely was rooting for the other guy to get Phob. Maybe it was the COVID restrictions that limited what they could do with this couple?
Couple 3: Nampu/Copy - a straight copy (pun intended) of the storyline of the much beloved SOTUS series. Distruptive Freshman woos the SOTUS Head Hazer. TST is just a slimmed down version of the SOTUS storyline. The beginning of the their storyline was rushed - would have been nice to have seen a bit more SOTUS related tension between the two and more of Nampu breaking down Copy’s wall. But, of all 5 couples this one developed and wrapped up the best. Highlighted by Copy’s coming out to his dad (which was very inventive) and the subtlety with the way that Copy professes his affection and commitment to Nampu. Overall, the couple that I enjoyed watching the most and the one I rooted the most to succeed.
The two that they should have thrown out or minimized (Spoiler Alert):
Couple 4: NewYear/Both - long term couple that run through an insecurity patch in their relationship. A typical cliche storyline done with no originality. From an overall TST storyline perspective, they are the glue between the first two couples I noted above and Couple 3 and 5. Otherwise there would be no link or storyline interactions between them without this couple. Their coffee shop is the hub of where all the couples go to hang-out get advise. Beyond them being the oracles in the story, their storyline is so superficial. Insecurities around one not ready to get married despite being together for over 10-years and perceived infidelity because Both gives an employee compliments of how he looked and gave him a valentine’s gift in front of NewYear, that’s the cause of your tension? They should have left them as oracles, no need for any drama related with this couple. Their issue and expanded role didn’t advance the overall series.
Couple 5: Plawaan/Suea - Suea crushes on HS Senior friend (Plawaan). Suea reconnects with Plawaan several years later when he’s a Senior in HS and Plawaan is a Senior in College. Their mutual connection is basketball. Plawaan is practicing a lot because he’s trying to make a college/club basketball team. I think they were trying to riff the storyline from Project S: Spike. Whether they were or not, it didn’t succeed. This is frankly a throw away couple. Their storyline is just not that interesting. I mostly felt like fast forwarding anytime they showed up on screen. First off, they needed to cast a person who could at least passably play basketball. It was obvious that the actor that played Plawaan couldn’t play any basketball. It was painful watching him try. With basketball being the main focal point of his character, it was important to cast an actor who could show a bit of competency to make it believable. Watch any of the Project S series or HIStory 2: Crossing the Line to get what I mean. In TST, they had too many basketball specific scenes to hide his deficiency which detracted from the credibility of the storyline. Additionally, the premise of his failure to make the team in the past was because of his height wasn’t entirely believable as his height was similar to his antagonist and his mentee Suea. The storyline and the vibe I got was that this was a random add-on couple to the series. Like it was a couple in the book that the series was based on or the producer said that they needed to add these guys as a condition to funding the series so they included them for no other reason. This couple ended up being more of a bromance than anything else. Not that there’s anything wrong with that but storyline kinda just bumbled through it, not sure if they should make it a romantic pairing or not. That and the fact that Plawaan was an unconvincing aspiring basketball player, made this couple a hard watch. Instead of spending what probably amounted to a whole episode of screen time with this couple, they should have of just dumped them in favor of more focused time on the first three I mentioned above.
Conclusion:
TST is a series that takes riffs from other Thai series as well adding cliche aspects of their storyline (let’s go vacation to the beach to profess our love for each other) and made a marginal series with little originality. The acting in TST was ok. There’s some weird dialog here and there but they’re passable and really wasn’t the problem in the series. Other than one character, they were definitely better than just cute. The problem came down to weak and uninteresting storylines for 4 of the 5 characters without enough development time. As I mentioned, the Nampu/Copy storyline was the only one that held any interest for me. The rest were eh, mainly because I felt little to no empathy for any of them especially at the end.
Is it worth watching? If you’re bored and willing to overlook the cliche storylines then maybe. Honestly, you’re far better off spending the time re-watching SOTUS, My Engineer, Theory of Love, Hormones, Make it Right, any of the Project S series, any of the HIStory series, and/or Oxygen. Those are the real deal and are far better uses of your time.
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This review may contain spoilers
No Arc Conclusion
In terms of acting the actors did their part and made some awesome chemistry. What was lacking was the storyline. It started of great and gradually progresses w/ no definite conclusion except for 2 of the relationships. It kept me wondering if they really intended for the storyline to be as such. It left me confused and unmistakably somewhat irritated.I think they bit more than they could chew. They focused to much on too many coupling that in the end not everyone of them was given the time to actually finish and come up w/ a closure that will surely be engaging enough to follow through in another season. I know there are such thing as cliff-hangers but there is also something called story progression closure or simply an arc closure. If they decide to start a new chapter without even closing the last one, it will just leave a bad taste in the mouth.
A good example is in "Together with me". The BrightFarm coupling had an arc closure that then started a new chapter of development and emotional maturity for both of them the next season. Season 2 showed a closure that went a different direction in season 3 which made for an awesome watching.
Thoughts on Coupling: As I said they had great chemistry and great acting skills and what was lacking was the story progression which had no closure for most of the coupling.
LukmoSimai: Though the season did end with an arc closure for this coupling, which btw I considered to be the main, it left me dissatisfied and somewhat annoyed of how it ended. The truth never came out and I felt sorry for them because in the end they were deprived of truly being together. I felt bad for Simai for being forced to suppress his emotion due to a facade of lies making him think that they can't be together because they are "Brothers", which is F**ked up.
EakPhob: Uhhhhhgggg! What should I say? I though their relationship would actually have a progress but I guess they didn't have time to do so. They just somewhat gave it a closure w/out giving it an actual conclusion. Did he give up or something???? Its making me dizzy just by thinking about it.
CopyNampu: Now this coupling I actually like because their relationship had an actual conclusion and not just that it happened 3-4 episodes before the series have ended which should have given the production at least 2 episode to give a conclusion to the rest of the relationship. I love that Copy actually had the guts to tell his father early on. LOVE THAT!
BothNewYear: Concluded w/ a bang! Not much of a relationship development but more on dealing w/ jealousy in like 1 episode....
SueaPlawaan: This is a fuqin bromance.... That is it! The relationship was actually doing great until I realized that it was not gonna have a conclusion. The relationship was left mid-air keeping me wondering if its really a coupling or just bromance. I'm confused! When I realized that, I just said "F*ck this sh*t I'm out".
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Disappointing - Wasted a Lot of Time
There are so many better bl series out there that are too short and leave you wanting more.. this series was too long since not a lot really happened.The main couple had good chemistry - but it wasn't explored nearly enough - and the ending was a huge disappointment. In fact, the ending of the only two couples who were interesting did not make any sense at all.
There were definitely too many couples, as stated in almost every review. 5 couples and not a lot of screen time, coupled with slow moments throughout! And the acting was so-so for most of the actors. Since only one couple was a rea life bl couple, they were the only ones who had any real kisses.
I can't say I totally hated the series, there were some touching scenes, just overall don't expect too much and don't set high expectations for the ending
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Great drama for mature watchers.
Only for Mature Readers!Many has give the series such a low ratings based on flat experience and expectations of a non mature audience.
This story has many great aspects , which understanding comes with wisdom. The series took a turn from modern , ideal perfect ending dramas. Where life is most of a times opposite of it.
It’s an rollercoaster of emotions, the mess which could burn you or freeze you not an idyllic utopian society world where every little “happy moment “ is magnified.
This series aren’t for those which wants a happy ending…
Now a topic of the complaints about , boring , dragged feeling of a drama where the scenes or misunderstandings are prolonged. D*mn this a life some of them aren’t even getting resolved till the end and even after death not in seconds like in other dramas.
Messy plot , watch it with fully not skip it , this industry lacks dramas such as like this … Where emphasis is put onto lessons in life ,not where you can get what you want no matter what.
Now to the story
There were little imperfections such as character of the father P Lukeme and Mai those characters beside being main protagonists of the drama weren’t developed properly. Father which is an hypocrite telling his son that he is telling him the truth so he would not do him wrong however in next sentence he practically is telling him to keep it this a secret from Mai. Saying he left his mother to do not cheat that they have married each other due force from the parents. Sweetheart there is always a choice even in those kind of situations however a cowards would stated that there isn’t any. People which do not want to lose but do not want to follow orders. He could give up the family’s support and go for a woman he loves but he chooses to stay and do what they want him to do to keep that support. This is a story taken out of the life path of many people “with no way out”.
The main character which do not stand up , keep it this way … Mai another one grown like a flower under the glass to do not experience anything bad because he can not take it. At least it looks like after being abroad there are two possibilities or he grown up matured learned the truth and came back to reclaim the love of his life or he came back after moving on and being able to treat him as brother.
As well to those which are saying this plot twist is stupid, I would tell you a story of a girl neighbouring village of mine. She was young girl , studying well with a bright future. She met a boy from hundreds km away from her village. They have been together for sometime, they fell in love with each other , perfect couple which felt like they have been knowing each other for ages even at first met. Something there clicked . They got engaged and were about to get married , the mother of the bride which just met a boy she straight new it just by seeing him, who he is. She tried to separate them before many times but their love was stronger, but when it reached to the decision that they want to get married , she couldn’t hide it any longer, at the day of their wedding ,She gave them a traumatic news as turns out they are siblings. When she was young , she got pregnant and gave a child to adoption not telling about it to anyone she moved with her life. She said she haven’t thought that it would turn out this way … Those stories exist you just might not realise how many .
I loved the most 2nd lead couple they presented the most visible lesson. Do not take everything for granted, do not obligate anyone to be forever part of your life and do not state a promises you do not fully understand. Learn how to move on and how to give chances to the one which can truly love you.
I was so happy that Phob chosen the other guy.
I am not saying that this series are perfect , no they are far from it like a life is itself are they executed properly as well not there are many loop holes, many plot parts which could be done better or been totally removed without causing damage to the series. Some aspects could be fixed , but still it doesn’t deserve such a low ratings.
As per Both and NewYear performance , they seemed more as main characters which has story been based on , I really like them however this caused bigger mess then the other aspects. I would explore more the fifth pair instead of those two students, their plot was the least interesting but the one with happy ending and story development and decision making. Copy at least wasn’t coward and at point of feeling that he might loose the guy he loves he choose to confess. It seemed that Copy liked the guy first and wanted all of it trying to keep the excuses to be able to keep on talking to him then there were a lot on confusing moments. For me this drama is at least 8.
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A Not Great Thai BL pulp
Foundational Romance Tropes: lots of them plus boss/employee and several grumpy/sunshine pairs with puppy elementsThis started off as THE cutest little office set Thai BL pulp with too many adorable couples plus gay advice dads and it charmed the pants off of me (if none of the characters). But it lost its way half way through, becoming an unbearably slow, disjointed, shambling, ill-edited sad sack with only one interesting couple (CopyNampu). I can’t in good conscious suggest anyone actually watch this.
ONLY RECOMMENDED FOR ONE SIDE DISH
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Too much going on!
They put way too many couples in! I can't make out which one is top or bottom. Some of them look like 2 bottoms together...?? There's plot holes, things that didn't really make sense. Then all of a sudden it went to 2 years later. It was quite slow but somewhat consistent the first 3/4 then it felt really rushed. A lot of loose ends. Watched the entire season and disappointed at the last episode. Bummer! Other than that, the actors were good looking! I thought it was kinda weird that everyone sort of knew each other then hang out together like they've always been close.Was this review helpful to you?
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It was messy, and their representation of the stories all went from bad to boring. There were many unnecessary stories. I was expecting they would show us more about the main couples Lukmo and Simai Their story was good but they didn't give them a chance to show. There were to many stories sometimes they forget the main Couples. I was just for poq and Fiat there, their acting and their story was good as they had good chemistry together.
As for the other couples, all the dialogues and stories between them were superfluous and boring I couldn't watch.
In my opinion, Fiat as Nampu was the best actor between them and as for Simai he was a ًworst actor which he didn't know how to act or show his expression.
As for the story of Plawaan and Suea’s oh god what was that i couldn't watch any seconds of that.
Sorry for my bad English
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I enjoyed this series, not sure why all the hate.
This is far from a bad series like many are saying. I would even place it above some popular and recent series like Golden Blood, Tharn Type 2, and Call it What You Want. This is MUCH better than Ghost Runner, My Bromance 2, Cupid Coach, and My Boy.The sound and video quality was good, and the translations were decent. But I do like it where the translations are more literal and not interpretations of the script. I like when they include the P' and Nong and Khun, and so on in the translations.
I liked the story, and I thought it was written and directed just fine. Some call this story a ripoff of other stories, but at some point with the proliferation of BL series, things are going to start to look familiar. I personally thought it was different enough that it wasn't a rehash of other series, the idea that they all had a secret was unique. The tropes are sure prominent here though, lots of falling into each other, staring into each other's eyes, and more.
The couples were all cute, and I though the acting fine, especially for more inexperienced actors. I couldn't take my eyes off Copy and MaiEak, they are so pretty! Again, I will go against many here where I say there weren't too many couples. With a 15 episode series, and 5 couples, I think it was varied and interesting to see the contrast between the couples. Some series drag out for dozens of episodes with just 1 couple and it sometimes gets repetitive. I didn't get that here.
As far as each couple...
* There is Lukmo and Simai where the family secret tears apart this couple. They share a father, but it turns out they aren't really brothers. The parents are too scared to tell Simai the truth about Simai's father. This puts Lukmo (who at some point knows the truth) into a very bad position. Lukmo already has emotional baggage due to his mother dying, and his father running away and abandoning the family.
* Phob and Eak are best friends, Phob has a crush on Eak, but Eak is oblivious to it all. (I will put a different spin on things here compared to some reviews). I think Eak was not really straight, rather he didn't know what he was. Lots of younger guys are confused about things and date girls in High School or College, but find out later it wasn't their true feelings. Then you have the complication of Phob moving on with his life and dating others which really makes Eak come to terms with his feelings, probably too late though.
* Copy and Nampu are a bit of a role reversal where the younger presumably "uke" pursues the older and presumably "seme". Nampu is apparently very openly gay, where Copy isn't ready to be open to his friends or family. Their story is probably the least messy here, but Copy's inability to be open makes Nampu second guess everything.
* Plawaan and Suea can't tell each other they like each other I think Suea is giving the hints he likes Plawaan, but Plawaan might see Suea as a brother or just a classmate. Suea's character is also younger and he seems to be controlled by his mother. So Suea tries to be with Plawaan at all times through the guise of Plawaan teaching him basketball. There seems to be some progress toward the end.
* Both and Newyear are virtually playing themselves right down to their jobs. Some complain that they were calling everyone else "kids" but they are older than everyone else here, both in real life and in character. There was some jealousy involved, and their secret revolved around getting married. Both thinks they aren't mature enough or ready (at age 26/33!) where Newyear has been pestering Both for years about marriage. I thought it was different to have a real life couple, but maybe they should have changed their names and made them more of a character. The line sure is blurry between real life and character here.
I think people don't like the ending, and thus the poor ratings. Apparently Covid played a role with the last couple episodes, and I can forgive them for that. Lots of series were delayed or cancelled or had odd plots due to Covid. People are saying that they should have stopped and resumed production rather than producing the last episodes the way they did. I am sure there were timelines to be kept, and if they did stop production it would be very hard to get everyone back together so you would end up with the mess of Cupid Coach where switching characters totally wrecked the series.
I hope they do a movie or a part 2 at some point to wrap things up, but I could see where leaving it as is would be fine too. Eak for example might never get Phob as implied in the last episode. Or you could guess that Simai finally got the truth from his father and that is why he returned. But still, seeing an on-screen resolution for each couple would be nice.
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15 episodes?
I am not a demanding viewer but I think 15 episodes are too many for this story. It was boring and cofusing. There are some actors I like and thats probably all. I have seen worse dramas but this is also not a good one.At first, I was glad there is one real couple (BothNewyear) bcs they are cute in real life but they were so boring. I had to skip their parts. Honestly, I was skipping some parts in almost every episode, except for the first ep. I was hoping at least the final episode will be OK but it was not. At the beginning I told myself: It will be good bcs the story is about more than one couple. I was not right. Too many episodes, too many couples and too many wasteful scenes.
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Okay
I'm finding this series okay. I'm mainly watching it for Lukmo-Simai and the copy couple. Lukmo and Simai's storyline was the most intense and interesting for me (which makes me want to know what's going to happen to their story). I found the copy couple's storyline simply adorable and couldn't stop watching them.CONS
I skipped all of the other couples for multiple reasons. The basketball couple - didn't have much of a storyline (too short to play is the main thing) and too young for me to watch comfortably. Both-Newyear - I haven't seen any sort of storyline or conflict, all I've seen so far are just lovey-dovey moments (even though it's in the 8th episode. I'm still waiting to see what happens with them. Eak-Phob - This one just doesn't work for me. I tried to keep watching it but, it really just annoyed me.
Thoughts - I personally think this drama would've been better if they didn't have so many couples. Instead, if they just had the main + a side couple with more focus to the plot and development, it could've been a lot better.
Rewatch value - 5/10 Might only watch for the two couples mentioned above.
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One of the Lowest Scoring BL Ever!!!
I don't want to be cynical, but this series was mess from start to finish, and to be honest one of the worst last three episodes, in various aspects - production, writing, and story. Acting of actors was somewhat appreciate-able, but none of the actors were manage to capture my attention.It is not about happy ending, all the troops shown, some got happy some were open and some sad, but the truth is, all of the endings were unsatisfied, as there was nothing much to look forward to.
Decide on your own, but don't waste your time, if you are in even after 1 episode, because there is really nothing in rest of the episodes.
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Finalmente acabou
Quando começou a ficar boa, acabou, nossa eu esperava muito dessa série mas foi muito mediana. Teve ep que eu tive que ré assistir pq simplesmente não concentrava, muito chata. A história não tem pé nem cabeça mas a história do lukmo cobre esse quesito por ser a única interessante. Atuação? Eu não acho que possa ser chamado assim por boa parte do cast. Uns foram muito bem (Simai, newyear, phone, copy e lukmo) e eles em si carregaram a série. Os outros…. Precisam melhorar. A trilha sonora é fraca, não teve um final bom. Eu não reassistiria nunca outra vez. Se tiver uma segunda temporada por favor fique em menos casais e os desenvolva melhor. Realmente o maior erro foi essa quantidade de casal pra histórias muito curtas.Was this review helpful to you?
