This review may contain spoilers
This is is going to be a long one, so strap yourselves in.
TWM: The Next Chapter was indeed a roller coaster of emotions. Happiness, sadness and downright anger was the general consensus of the audience of the season, particularly the anger felt towards the cheating trope between the main characters this season. The season was very well-rounded and managed to stir up a lot of visceral reactions from fans, which good television is supposed to illicit. Therefore, seeing the low rating was a little disheartening to comprehend, because its good television doing its job. I understand that a lot of people were wanting/expecting everything to be picturesque and happy but, the reality is, that's not real life and I applaud the writers for emphasizing that this season.
STORY: The story was excellent in my opinion, It kept on me on my toes the whole time. The exploration of working with your significant other in the same job, dealing with unexpected feelings of a colleague, and dealing with topic of coming out to loved ones and its reluctance affecting relationships, was done well. It emphasized that relationships are hard work and contain A LOT of compromise, even in ways that you may not agree with.
KORNKNOCK: All around wonderful but sometimes frustrating in a good way. The dichotomy between them was well executed this season. The theme of coming out to the parents was especially heartwarming, especially with Knock. The issue was a little tricky at first due to Knock having a double standard when it came to Korn and his family and was reluctant to accept that Korn wasn't ready/didn't want to come out to his family, especially his father, when Knock himself hadn't done either. Korn's fear/anxiety about the situation was completely warranted, due to his father making homophobic remarks in the past. Korn tries to make this relationship with Knock and his family work while trying to maintain the status quo of everything. It was hard to see them fight over the issue, with both of them being stubborn with their points. Knock, for all intents and purposes is a heterosexual man, who happened to find his soulmate in his best friend, which happens to be another man so he never necessarily had to deal with the fear of coming out compared to Korn, who is gay and has been hiding it from his parents, so when Knock comes out to his parents and receives a warm and loving response, he believes that it'll be the same for Korn, which furthers the misunderstanding towards Korn's reluctance to. Then comes in Pete, who I believed when he first appeared was a good guy, but turns out, not so much. There is a quite a lot of emotional manipulation that takes place due to him and that chips away at KornKnock's relationship, bringing up unresolved issues and internal fears such as Korn thinking that Knock may eventually cheat on him but, ironically doing it himself. While what Korn did wasn't the greatest thing, he truly felt guilty and wanted to make it work with Knock. If it had happened again, then it would be a whole different story but it didn't. When Knock tried taking his revenge on Knock with Pete, but couldn't pull through with it, it illustrated how strong their love really is for each other. All in all, it ends well and they definitely deserved it. It emphasizes that even when facing adversity, true love conquers all.
YIHWA/CHO: I liked that they explored their relationship more and explored the topic of developing feelings for another person while being in a long -term relationship. Yihwa became close with colleague, Art, and mistook certain feelings as feelings of attraction towards Art and ended up making a mistake that she regrets greatly. I was glad that she was honest with Cho and didn't try to keep it a huge secret that would have come out eventually. Cho, undoubtedly loves her wholeheartedly and it was really tough for him to accept that the love of his life has done something like that. Yihwa chooses to take some time for herself to decide who she truly loves, which I believe was a good idea. Her mistake was not as severe as Korn, but it still needed its own time to be processed by both of them, in order to make a decision that would hopefully benefit them in the end. I like that the left their story line open-ended, showing that immediate re-connection isn't always the best move.
FARM/BRIGHT/RIT: Where do I begin lol. I appreciated that Farm grew up a lot after being the innocent darling of the previous season. Farm scheming to give Bright what he deserved was a highlight for me. You receive what you put into the world and Bright was definitely receiving it. I thought the relationship between Rit and Farm was cute and was genuinely surprised that Rit had co-conspired with Bright to prove that Farm still had feelings for Bright. I felt bad for Rit, because he really did like Farm and it hurt him that his feelings weren't necessarily being reciprocated but I do think that Farm did genuinely liked Rit but was caught between a rock and a hard place that he created himself. Bright got what he deserved and in turn realized what he did to Farm was terrible and that Farm really had an impact on him. I'm glad that it showed Rit getting a second chance at love and Farm and Bright ending up together. Overall, a good conclusion to their story lines.
FAI: Loved her to bits this season. She essentially became the "mom" figure of the group when everyone was going through their emotional turmoils. Glad that she received a position as a engineer with a company, even though it means leaving the group for a period of time.
ACTING: The acting was superb especially Max's this season. Compared to Bad Romance, all of them have grown exponentially in their acting abilities and I'm proud of them for that. Max and Tul's chemistry is some of the best I've ever seen, You can definitely tell that there's a genuine connection between them and it translates on screen plus, their kissing scenes are amazing *wink wonk*
MUSIC: I don't really have much to say on this topic because I never really paid attention to it but noticed the correlation of the music between the seasons.
REWATCH VALUE: I will definitely rewatch the seasons because BR/TWM/TWN:TNC are my original BL series and it's what set me down the dark hole that is Thai BLs, which I'm glad I fell into.
OVERALL: This series will forever be in my top 10 shows of all time. I can't imagine my life without them since I discovered Together With Me on Tumblr. It has been a emotional journey since discovery and I wouldn't change it for the world. I will continue to support the actors in their future endeavors as the show has come to come an end, much to everyone's surprise but is completely understandable. I will cherish this show forever. Korn and Knock are what drew me in and everything included made me stay and I love it for that. I'm glad that it wasn't cheesy and full of fluff all the time. It showed relationships in a realistic manner and handled it respectfully. So, in conclusion, I just wanted to say thank you to the cast and crew of the series for bringing this wonderful series to life and sharing it with the world.
TWM: The Next Chapter was indeed a roller coaster of emotions. Happiness, sadness and downright anger was the general consensus of the audience of the season, particularly the anger felt towards the cheating trope between the main characters this season. The season was very well-rounded and managed to stir up a lot of visceral reactions from fans, which good television is supposed to illicit. Therefore, seeing the low rating was a little disheartening to comprehend, because its good television doing its job. I understand that a lot of people were wanting/expecting everything to be picturesque and happy but, the reality is, that's not real life and I applaud the writers for emphasizing that this season.
STORY: The story was excellent in my opinion, It kept on me on my toes the whole time. The exploration of working with your significant other in the same job, dealing with unexpected feelings of a colleague, and dealing with topic of coming out to loved ones and its reluctance affecting relationships, was done well. It emphasized that relationships are hard work and contain A LOT of compromise, even in ways that you may not agree with.
KORNKNOCK: All around wonderful but sometimes frustrating in a good way. The dichotomy between them was well executed this season. The theme of coming out to the parents was especially heartwarming, especially with Knock. The issue was a little tricky at first due to Knock having a double standard when it came to Korn and his family and was reluctant to accept that Korn wasn't ready/didn't want to come out to his family, especially his father, when Knock himself hadn't done either. Korn's fear/anxiety about the situation was completely warranted, due to his father making homophobic remarks in the past. Korn tries to make this relationship with Knock and his family work while trying to maintain the status quo of everything. It was hard to see them fight over the issue, with both of them being stubborn with their points. Knock, for all intents and purposes is a heterosexual man, who happened to find his soulmate in his best friend, which happens to be another man so he never necessarily had to deal with the fear of coming out compared to Korn, who is gay and has been hiding it from his parents, so when Knock comes out to his parents and receives a warm and loving response, he believes that it'll be the same for Korn, which furthers the misunderstanding towards Korn's reluctance to. Then comes in Pete, who I believed when he first appeared was a good guy, but turns out, not so much. There is a quite a lot of emotional manipulation that takes place due to him and that chips away at KornKnock's relationship, bringing up unresolved issues and internal fears such as Korn thinking that Knock may eventually cheat on him but, ironically doing it himself. While what Korn did wasn't the greatest thing, he truly felt guilty and wanted to make it work with Knock. If it had happened again, then it would be a whole different story but it didn't. When Knock tried taking his revenge on Knock with Pete, but couldn't pull through with it, it illustrated how strong their love really is for each other. All in all, it ends well and they definitely deserved it. It emphasizes that even when facing adversity, true love conquers all.
YIHWA/CHO: I liked that they explored their relationship more and explored the topic of developing feelings for another person while being in a long -term relationship. Yihwa became close with colleague, Art, and mistook certain feelings as feelings of attraction towards Art and ended up making a mistake that she regrets greatly. I was glad that she was honest with Cho and didn't try to keep it a huge secret that would have come out eventually. Cho, undoubtedly loves her wholeheartedly and it was really tough for him to accept that the love of his life has done something like that. Yihwa chooses to take some time for herself to decide who she truly loves, which I believe was a good idea. Her mistake was not as severe as Korn, but it still needed its own time to be processed by both of them, in order to make a decision that would hopefully benefit them in the end. I like that the left their story line open-ended, showing that immediate re-connection isn't always the best move.
FARM/BRIGHT/RIT: Where do I begin lol. I appreciated that Farm grew up a lot after being the innocent darling of the previous season. Farm scheming to give Bright what he deserved was a highlight for me. You receive what you put into the world and Bright was definitely receiving it. I thought the relationship between Rit and Farm was cute and was genuinely surprised that Rit had co-conspired with Bright to prove that Farm still had feelings for Bright. I felt bad for Rit, because he really did like Farm and it hurt him that his feelings weren't necessarily being reciprocated but I do think that Farm did genuinely liked Rit but was caught between a rock and a hard place that he created himself. Bright got what he deserved and in turn realized what he did to Farm was terrible and that Farm really had an impact on him. I'm glad that it showed Rit getting a second chance at love and Farm and Bright ending up together. Overall, a good conclusion to their story lines.
FAI: Loved her to bits this season. She essentially became the "mom" figure of the group when everyone was going through their emotional turmoils. Glad that she received a position as a engineer with a company, even though it means leaving the group for a period of time.
ACTING: The acting was superb especially Max's this season. Compared to Bad Romance, all of them have grown exponentially in their acting abilities and I'm proud of them for that. Max and Tul's chemistry is some of the best I've ever seen, You can definitely tell that there's a genuine connection between them and it translates on screen plus, their kissing scenes are amazing *wink wonk*
MUSIC: I don't really have much to say on this topic because I never really paid attention to it but noticed the correlation of the music between the seasons.
REWATCH VALUE: I will definitely rewatch the seasons because BR/TWM/TWN:TNC are my original BL series and it's what set me down the dark hole that is Thai BLs, which I'm glad I fell into.
OVERALL: This series will forever be in my top 10 shows of all time. I can't imagine my life without them since I discovered Together With Me on Tumblr. It has been a emotional journey since discovery and I wouldn't change it for the world. I will continue to support the actors in their future endeavors as the show has come to come an end, much to everyone's surprise but is completely understandable. I will cherish this show forever. Korn and Knock are what drew me in and everything included made me stay and I love it for that. I'm glad that it wasn't cheesy and full of fluff all the time. It showed relationships in a realistic manner and handled it respectfully. So, in conclusion, I just wanted to say thank you to the cast and crew of the series for bringing this wonderful series to life and sharing it with the world.
Was this review helpful to you?