History Series / TheOtherTwo

* AffectionateNickname: Lance calls Brooke "B." Pat calls her "Brookie."

* TheBabyOfTheBunch: Chase is the only child in his family, very innocent and naive, and the dynamic remains even as he eclipses his siblings in fame and wealth.

* BeenThereShapedHistory: Season 3 reveals that Shuli is single-handedly responsible for [[spoiler:radicalizing [=QAnon=] and causing the January 6th, 2021 insurrection, all so people wouldn't listen to Chase's terrible new album]].

* BiggerIsBetterInBed:
** During "Chase Gets Baptized," Cary hooks up with a guy on Grindr, getting particularly flustered over how well-endowed he is. Even better for him, that same hookup commends Cary on the size of ''his'' penis (since it looks bigger than the one Cary used in his profile picture -- Lance's penis, that is). In "Cary Pays Off His Student Loans," Cary jogging in sweats (at Shuli's suggestion) gets him enough attention to immediately secure a lead role in a sexually-charged OscarBait movie.
-->'''Shuli''': Don't thank me, thank that big ol' pee pee!
** Pat mentions lovingly that Streeter has a "big, fat dick."

* DemotedToExtra: With the other members of his family becoming famous in their own right, Chase becomes less prominent in Season 2 until the finale, which makes a point out of Chase wanting more autonomy in his career. By Season 3, he appears even less consistently onscreen, with Streeter and Shuli becoming more prominent representatives of his role in the industry, before finally getting more of a story in episode five.

* EverybodyHasStandards:
** Shuli, in "Pat Gets an Offer to Host “Tic Tac Toe”". Dean Brennan, a famous actor who likes to play coy about his sexuality to the press, has asked Cary out and is using their relationship to drum up publicity for both of them. Shuli's usually laser-focused on publicity, to the exclusion of ethical or emotional considerations, but sees that Cary's going to get his heart broken and tells Cary that Dean's straight to protect Cary.
** Shuli also advises against Brooke obsessively researching Lance in "Cary Pays Off His Student Loans" despite her going to similar extremes for business purposes.
** For all of the shady actions Brooke takes to avoid backlash during her "Night of Undeniable Good," including wanting to chloroform Ben Platt before his performance to avoid homophobic backlash, she at least turns down Melanie's half-sane suggestion to ''kill'' Ben Platt.
* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Invoked. Brooke gets brown hair after [[spoiler:quitting her industry job]] because she thinks her blonde hair is too "braggy" and she wants to be more of a down-to-earth do-gooder. A few episodes later, [[spoiler:she reverts back to her blonde hair as she gets invested in Chase's industry drama like the old days, revealing her new hair was just a brown wig to trick Lance into thinking she hasn't regressed]].

* FormerChildStar: Chase's agents try to invoke this for controversy once he turns 18, immediately pushing out sexualized photos of him and getting mad that he won't do cocaine. Chase's ''actual'' angst about his newfound adulthood is that he wants to act like a normal person, and resents that his agents keep pushing him into publicity stunts.

* GirlbossFeminist: Brooke tries to act like a feminist HighPoweredCareerWoman, but her activism is clearly superficial as she easily leans into the sexist conventions of HorribleHollywood, such as [[spoiler:trying to send Chase's amicable ex-girlfriend to the woods or cover up for a sexual predator at her charity event]].

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed:
** Chase is obviously based on the likes of Music/JustinBieber and [[https://www.seventeen.com/celebrity/music/a42205/jacob-sartorius-interview/ Jacob Sartorius]], in terms of a young boy shooting to instant viral fame by posting videos on the internet of them singing.
** Streeter is based on Scooter Braun, who famously discovered Justin Bieber and became something of a celebrity unto himself because of it.
** The hip pastor of the exclusive Christsong Church, Jax Dag, bears a strong resemblance to the former pastor of the exclusive real-life Hillsong Church, Carl Lentz. Lentz baptized Justin Bieber into Hillsong, so here, Dag baptizes Chase into Christsong. The episode takes jabs at the scandals surrounding Hillsong.

* ParentsAsPeople: The recently widowed Pat genuinely enjoys the perks of Chase's fame, writing a children's book, appearing on talk shows and even taking molly at a party.

* SingleTear: In "Brooke Hosts a Night of Undeniable Good," a single twinkling tear falls onto Shuli's cheek when she realizes she has a client "struggling with mental health" that she can exploit financially. The same thing happens to Brooke when she realizes she can "finally do good," but Shuli calls her out.
* StepfordSmiler: Pat always puts on a smile and tries not to complain or inconvenience others, but as she becomes more and more famous in Season 2, she starts to crumble under the stress. The climax of the Season 2 finale shows her finally [[spoiler:fainting onstage due to exhaustion and dehydration because she took on too many gigs and can never get a moment to herself]].

* TakingTheHeat: After a season of selfishness, the finale sees [[spoiler:Brooke go on the news and take blame for Chase and Pat's controversial tweets, despite having no role in them. She even claims ''Chase'' told ''her'' not to use mental health awareness to promote his album, despite it really being the opposite.

* WaitingForABreak: Cary waits tables while taking any job he can get, and he has mixed feelings about being recognized as Chase's brother.

** In "Chase Gets Baptized" Cary (a gay man) and his sister Brooke join a celebrity church for the perks and learn after the fact that it has a history of misogyny and homophobia. Realizing that this makes them look like huge hypocrites, they then try to find women (Brooke) and gay men (Cary) who will validate their desire to join.

** "Pat Gets an Offer to Host 'Tic Tac Toe'" takes a dig at Film/DisneyLiveActionRemakes, describing an in-universe live-action ''WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}} as, "It's gonna be exactly the same as the original, only cost more and look worse." They add that "they don't let actors do voice-acting anymore, it's all singers or athletes."

* HypocriticalHumor: After spending all night chiding people for saying "insane" or "cuckoo bananas," the mental health advocate for the Night of Undeniable Good calls a bad driver a "fucking psycho" on her way out.

OffendedByAnInferiorsSuccess: When Cary lands his first sizable film role, he gets quite an ego from it, while Curtis is still doing cheap pop culture video shows. However, Cary struggles to land another good role after this, so when it seems Curtis' new Paramount+ TV show is going to do well, Cary avoids the premiere party. Only when the negative reviews roll in does Cary attend... and Curtis brutally calls out the way Cary refuses to celebrate Curtis's success unless he's "below" Cary on the Hollywood food chain.

** When he turns 18 in season 3 they try to marry him to Kiernan Shipka so he can be seen as a grown man, but he wants to pursue a relationship with a non-famous girl. Shipka, as an entrenched member of what Shuli calls "the Hollywood elite", doesn't seem to bat an eye at the prospect of being engaged to a stranger.

* AffectionateNickname: Lance calls Brooke "B."

** Brooke and Lance stay supportive friends after their breakup. [[spoiler:They get back together, but their second breakup is on much worse terms.]]

* BiggerIsBetterInBed: During "Chase Gets Baptized," Cary hooks up with a guy on Grindr, getting particularly flustered over how well-endowed he is. Even better for him, that same hookup commends Cary on the size of ''his'' penis (since it looks bigger than the one Cary used in his profile picture -- Lance's penis, that is). In "Cary Pays Off His Student Loans," Cary jogging in sweats (at Shuli's suggestion) gets him enough attention to immediately secure a lead role in a sexually-charged OscarBait movie.

* DensierAndWackier: Season 3 incorporates more surreal and fantastical elements to symbolize issues with the industry, such as characters turning into vampires when they hear Chase is almost 18, Brooke literally being invisible after she quits her job, a procedural being DeliberatelyMonochrome a la ''Film/{{Pleasantville}}'', or Brooke going to space twice in one night. These become less frequent later in the season as Cary and Brooke start to really question their behavior, suggesting these may be their twisted perspective and not actual events.

* LostInCharacter: In Season 3, Cary falls for Lucas Lambert Moy, a shy, idealistically romantic guy who holds deep conversations with Cary about the meaning of life. Turns out he's a well-known method actor playing the lead in a ''Series/LoveVictor'' copycat series. Cary continues dating him, but struggles to make real progress in their relationship, particularly in the sex department, since his character is a virgin. Every other role he gets after that ''also'' prevents Cary from having sex with him, as he plays a closeted gay guy in a Hallmark Christmas movie and then convinces himself he's in the 1980's with AIDS. Cary desperately tries to get him a role where he actually has sex, only to realize it's not worth it if he can never connect with the real Lucas.

* BiggerIsBetterInBed: During "Chase Gets Baptized," Cary hooks up with a guy on Grindr, getting particularly flustered over how well-endowed he is. Even better for him, that same hookup commends Cary on the size of ''his'' penis (since it looks bigger than the one Cary used in his profile picture -- Lance's penis, that is).

* EverybodyHasStandards: Shuli, in "Pat Gets an Offer to Host “Tic Tac Toe”". Dean Brennan, a famous actor who likes to play coy about his sexuality to the press, has asked Cary out and is using their relationship to drum up publicity for both of them. Shuli's usually laser-focused on publicity, to the exclusion of ethical or emotional considerations, but sees that Cary's going to get his heart broken and tells Cary that Dean's straight to protect Cary.

* AirVentPassageway: In "Chase Goes to a High School Dance," Streeter sneaks Chase into the school through the ventilation system. Apparently all the stars are doing it.

* GirlbossFeminist: Brooke tries to act like a feminist HighPoweredCareerWoman, but her activism is clearly superficial as she easily leans into the sexist conventions of HorribleHollywood, such as [[spoiler:trying to send Chase's amicable ex-girlfriend to the woods]].

* EmbarrassingTattoo: Invoked when Streeter [[TattooedCrook makes Chase look like an unlikeable "bad boy" by choosing a ton of terrible fake tattoos]], including the word "piss" across his chest and Franchise/WinnieThePooh characters (and the date of his dad's death!) with GagBoobs.

* AgeGapRomance: In "Pat Connects with Her Fans," Pat gives money to a young gay man who supposedly just came out to his father. In reality, they're not a gay guy and his father, but a gay guy and his much-older ''daddy'', so to speak.

* AmicableExes: Brooke and Lance stay supportive friends after their breakup.

The show explores the anxieties and ambitions of aging millennials while spoofing the culture around internet celebrity, especially Website/{{Youtube}}rs and influencers. It also features plentiful celebrity cameos such as Creator/PatrickWilson, Creator/AndyCohen, and Creator/MichaelChe as themselves.

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: At the end of "Cary & Brooke Go to an AIDS Play," when Brooke sobs over [[spoiler:breaking up with Lance]], Streeter still thinks she's upset about him [[spoiler:breaking up with Streeter]].

-->'''Brooke''': You all just have all the money and the power and you do ''nothing''!

* TokenMinority: Parodied with [[ShowWithinAShow the fictional Disney film franchise]] ''Haunted Buddies'', which was getting flak for not having any LGBT characters. The execs decide to introduce Globby, a sentient green blob with eyes, as the series' first gay character. Globby's homosexuality is established with a scene of him [[ButNotTooGay in bed with another blob]].

* WhamShot: In the Season 1 SeasonFinale, [[spoiler: there is a final shot of Pat's image on a Times Square jumbotron, announcing her new afternoon talk show.]]

* ShoutOut: The ending of “Chase Turns Fourteen” has Cary doing the end of ''Film/CallMeByYourName'', with Brooke acknowledging it and name dropping it.

* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Invoked. Brooke dyes her hair brown after [[spoiler:quitting her industry job]] because she thinks her blonde hair is too "braggy" and she wants to be more of a down-to-earth do-gooder. A few episodes later, [[spoiler:she reverts back to her blonde hair as she gets invested in Chase's industry drama like the old days, donning a brown wig to trick Lance into thinking she hasn't regressed]].

** The titular play in "Cary & Brooke Go to an AIDS Play" makes fun of "prestigious" {{Tragic AIDS Stor|y}}ies," particularly the six-hour, two-part ''Theatre/AngelsInAmerica''. ''8 Gay Men with AIDS'' is frustratingly slow and long, spanning multiple days and time periods, but nobody is able to criticize it because it's "important" subject matter. By the third day, everyone in the audience is either sleeping or using their computers.