secret identity, reunion romance, queer family, bisexual awakening, sunshine/broken, healing, quest

I didn’t watch this one as it aired because the trailer scared me into thinking it wouldn’t have a happy ending. So I binged it after I was told it was safe.

It was not only safe it was absolutely charming. It's 12 eps, 20 min each, for a 4hr total runtime and it’s highly bingable.

Like a lot of Taiwanese BL, DNA features two couples, but it is weighed heavily in favor of the primary one.

It opens with a pair of college kid paranormal investigators, Le & Li, who have a struggling YouTube channel and a dream. Let’s be clear, this is a weak central premise used to provide allegory for the relationships, and it doesn’t work to carry the weight of the initial narrative, but if you can stick with the show, it gets A LOT BETTER.

Pink-haired outgoing and outrageous Li is in an LTR with his boyfriend Gwan (grumpy/sunshine). But the story is all about his friend Le, a sunshine sweetheart with a loving single mother and a side job at a small cafe (with his childhood bestie).

The first episode is pretty much all set up and quite slow, we don’t even meet the love interest until the very last scene. Amber, said love interest, a returning expat, strays into the cafe and gets dragged into Le’s paranormal exploration adventures and also immediately obviously has massive crush - and a mysterious past.

Note: I’m pretty sure this show features some gay reenactments of famous Taiwanese (or even Korean?) het romance drama scenes, but I don’t get the references.

The side dishes are solid and sweet and I wish we had gotten more of their back story but it is the leads who shine and hold this narrative down.

While this is one of those series carried by (ostensibly) the sunshine seme character (Taiwan is always weak in seme/uke) and he does a stand-up job, Erek Lin, who plays Amber, is luminous. Very difficult to take your eyes off him.

Even knowing the twist, which I think it’s pretty predictable from about episode 2 on, I think this is a really enjoyable show. Amber‘s behavior is a lot more understandable if you basically understand his past. It makes him a much more sympathetic character. I don’t know if anybody else knew basically all along what was going to happen, but if you do realize it, I don’t think it will impact your enjoyment - the foreknowledge might actually improve it.

The exact way the twist is handled (medically speaking) is a little disingenuous to a queer narrative (AKA they could have just GONE there) but I didn’t really mind it all that much, because all the characters around Amber act with such integrity. The female bestie (possible femme fetale but NOT) character was actually dealt a really fair hand by the narrative and the actress is superb.

(I have to say, Taiwan, in general, is consistently better about handling female characters in their BL than any other country.)

DNA is full of queer family representation and an unexpected amount of domesticity, plus it’s Taiwan, so the kisses are great. Some of the filming techniques used to get the story’s message across are a touch heavy-handed, and this series definitely drags in places (especially in the first half). I looked up the director to see if he was new, but it turns out he’s well established so I’m gonna blame post production. Although, both Taiwan and China, in general, suffer from bloated romance narratives (IMHO) so this may be a matter of cultural taste.

All that said, the last few eps of DNA really are special and life/love affirming - and the ending is big-grin charming.

Since this is also a queer story arc that other shows have systemically mishandled and made depressing, I’m giving it extra marks for its uniquely upbeat approach in that regard. I don’t want to spoil the twist, but trust me, you should watch this. Also, so far as my calloused unflappable arse could tell, no triggers.

VERY MUCH RECOMMENDED

You should give this little gem a try.

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childhood crush, sunshine/tsundere, unrequited love, secret identity

Delayed from 2019, staring Kaownah & Turbo (Nitiman), adapted from a yaoi manga (and the Japanese live action and anime of the same name) I didn’t expect much from this on. Japan’s version of Love Stage!! wasn’t successful and didn’t highlight the crossdressing element of the original manga & anime. Fortunately, Thailand had the guts to do the original yaoi justice (I am ashamed for doubting them) although they didn’t resolve it in the same spectacular way as the anime.

Stymied by lack of international distribution this BL surprised me with its charm. The acting was good, the leads were appealing, support cast on point, and the production values high. It’s gave me Lovely Writer vibes (although with a lot more Japanese slapstick and way fewer egregious sound effects).

It followed the original manga story arc relatively closely with some quintessentially Thai changes. We got the nose bleed, the dub con sleeping kiss, and a few other questionable yaoi derived tropes, but all-in-all what Thailand did to mellow the content, mellowed it in mostly the right direction. We also got solid side characters and couples and some pretty high heat levels prettily handled.

Demonstrating the advantages of a Thai long-form adaptation, this version gave us a chance to really watch the two leads become friendly and like each other beyond just a crush and then fall into love. And I believed it, despite their rocky start, in a way I never did with the previous adaptations. Particularly Anda’s character.

One of the things I’ve always appreciated about this story is that the climax is about coming out as a celebrity couple as well as gay. I like the examination of the nature of celebrity versus privacy. And I love that they depicted two couples with two different versions of this choice. P’Jet is such a a great advice giver for Anda and I love the “gay advice auntie” rep. It ended well, different from all prior adaptations and very Thai about it. A solid and enjoyable show.

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Foundational Romance Tropes: whipping boy, spoiled prince, obsessive crush

I love a sympathetic main character and Japan delivers introvert well (emo is their brand, after all). This is a pretty classic whipping boy trope meets spoiled prince (it’s been a while my old friend).

Our POV is that weird kid who takes photos and thinks he wants to be invisible but actually just wants to be seen by one person (and belong to him). The beautiful boy who starts bossing him around is protective out the gate, having decided that this weirdo is HIS weirdo, no one ELSE can boss him around. This execution of whipping boy was a whole lot gentler than I expected, but because Hira is the seme character it did pivot into attack dog half way through and I LOVED that. One of the things I like about Japanese BL is that it's not afraid of darkness,

Utsukushii Kare managed to be harsh as all get up, angry with us and itself, reminding us of old tropes and archetypes long forgotten but still utterly appealing.

It was exactly as weird and as messed-up as any origin manga and it was great to watch a no holds barred authentic Japanese yaoi adaptation once again. Sure this was an angsty af warped little BL, but it was entirely true to itself with no attempt made to modify its POV for modern sensibilities or international audiences. It highlights one of the things Japanese cinema is best at, staying true to itself.

Up until the last episode this was a solid 8/10, right there with Japan’s other 2021 offerings... and then the final ep BLEW MY MIND. I did not understand how they could possibly end this series well, I half expected tragedy, but this BL turned into a life lesson in how to stick a landing. Japan, why you gotta do us all so fantastically dirty like that? I tend to put all my eggs in the endings basket, as a result episode 6 alone bumped the whole thing up 9/10. I may not rewatch all of Utsukushii Kare but I have already rewatched the final ep 3x. So, yeah.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, JUST KNOW WHAT YOU ARE GETTING INTO

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“But I’m not worried about my virginity, because I’m just a side character.”

Absolute BL AKA Zettai BL ni Naru Sekai vs Zettai BL ni Naritakunai Otoko AKA A Man Who Defies The World of BL

IS HILARIOUS.

No, like, really! It’s great.

It’s Japan making fun of us, but also itself for having started this absolute dumpster fire of joy that is BL. It’s truly a thing of parody gold. Gah, it’s so good.

Basically Mob has figured out he’s a side character (extra AKA mobu) in the BL world (along with his family), so he doesn’t mind being trapped in a BL universe because he figures he’s never going to get his own story. He likes being ignored and isn’t gay. Only then his younger brother (played by Goto Yutaro from Cherry Magic) gets a confession from his BFF. Mob realized that the BL world is trending towards the trope of “the ordinary bottom” and now he’s at risk.

Which of course means he going to turn into a tsundere uke but one that is actually totally aware of what he’s doing.

He must defy the BL world!

So he buys a ton of yaoi and starts researching all the tropes so he can avoid them. But now, he’s reading yaoi all the time. So he’s kinda into it and… You know the drill? It’s one of those. The more he tries to avoid an inevitable future fate the more he does to bring that fate about, even hurry it along. Or does he? Maybe that’s also a play on us and him.

So this show is also joking about fandom’s propensity to fall in love with side characters, even if those characters have very little personality and screen time. Mob is trying so hard not to become the main character, but of course, we are all watching him already BE the main character. Which he also has to be aware of, because he’s talking to us about it.

It’s so meta. This glorious self aware reluctant hero trope. Breaking the 4th wall constantly, almost defiantly.

Honestly the 70s dancing intro song alone made me cry with laughter.

The very last line is a master class in how to lampoon a genre.

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Foundational Romance Tropes? Rivals(eh) to Lovers with a sunshine/tsundere pairing

Pi is the ultimate obtuse tsundere uke who never gets redeemed so you have to be okay with an unlikeable protag to enjoy Fish. For me, Pi was unappealing and I couldn’t understand why Mork wanted him so badly. The temptation is to compare this to We Best Love, because it’s such a similar tsundere + pining sunshine pairing. But Shu Yi was given so much more grace by the Taiwanese writers. Pi is a jerk, he’s never depict being kind or genuine with his friends or strangers. He’s a loser sure, but worse, he’s a user. Unfortunately it turns out, so is Mork. Because a seme with an uke like this will keep pushing and pushing until he gets what he wants - a complete override of the uke’s feelings. So Mork comes off as a bully and Pi as utterly unlikeable and in the end what could have been great with these actors and GMMTV’s money was just a big ol’ bummer.

GMMTV do we need to have a talk? First you flopped My Gear and Your Gown, then you failed the landing on Tonhon Chonlatee, now this? What’s going on with your writing team? Do you HAVE a writing team?

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university BL, forced proximity, unrequited love, crush, slight love triangle

triggers = outing, bashing, stalking

Stars Kim Tae Hwan (My Amazing Boyfriend) and Han Hyeon Jun (Strongberry's Please Tell Me So the one with the cafe and the bicycle that’s on YT).

It’s like Korea mashed together it’s school KBL style (Light on Me, Semantic Error) with it’s “adult BL (To My Star, Ocean Likes Me). Love Class almost felt like it was trying to bridge between the nostalgic yaoi ideologue of Cherry Blossoms After Winter and the messy gritty queerness of Blueming. But this attempted stylistic mash-up made for an inharmonious show.

I am reminded of an L.M. Montgomery quote,

“... having tried to please both sides, [he] succeeded, as is usual and eminently right, in pleasing neither.” (Anne of Avonlea)

It mixed in an aura of authentic queerness that is an anathema to the “sanitized gay bubble” that Korea prefers, add that to the normal KBL overly short run time and a plot driven by an outsider’s drama (female love interest’s stalking narrative) and the central relationship wasn’t treated with enough integrity. In short, they bit off more than they could chew.

A TON happened in 6 short episodes, this show has A LOT of content, and covers a lot of ground. It moved so fast, and with Korea’s signature “you missed it because it happened off screen” it felt scattered - even tho it had a clear linear story structure. It felt as if this were a full 16 45 min episodes being summarized for us in short form as CliffsNotes BL.

From the start I wasn’t really behind the premise. It’s a forced proximity thing, which is fine as a trope, but the class pushing them to be a couple (and then punishing them for it) is overly odd as a conceit. Also I’ve never enjoyed a BL where the lead (Ji Woo) is crushing on a girl 80% the time. That said, I do like it when the seme has a big old crush on a boy. Although Ro-A’s roommate dynamic confused me: are they exes, almost exes, or friends who never got together but probubly should have?

It’s always interesting when there is a clear seme/uke dynamic (as Korea likes in its school-set BLs) but the gay love triangle (such as it is) is around the seme character. By playing about with aggressive gayness, the narrative is calling into question the nature of romantic pursuit and the nature of the seme/uke dynamic. Unfortunately, this particular narrative didn’t have enough screen time to really explore this fascinating angle.

??? - There’s got to be a name for the trope where “I got injured because of you, and now you have to be my servant.“ Although I do love it when the seme is a bit of a brat. It’s like a short form indenture version of whipping boy. Korea is also a big fan of the premises: If a man is hot enough he can turn anyone gay. I'm not convinced on these tropes, old school though they might be.

The rejection in this one was particularly painful. And it’s one of those “but if your bisexual don’t suffer by being perceived as gay and dating me.” I’m going to save you pain in the long run. Which is a pretty core misunderstanding of bisexuality but not uncommon IRL, and kinda expected from a caring seme like Ro-A. We ended on a rapid reunion (classic Kdrama) and bit of a dead fish kiss (also classic Kdrama), but not as bad as it could be.

All in all, this was a fast-moving, bloated, complicated little show with stronger than usual story structure, well-acted if lacking in chemistry, that managed to be very appealing and engaging despite itself. What it lacked in content it more than made up for in pacing. Both bingable and rewatchable.

RECOMMENDED

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rural setting, country mouse/city mouse, rich/pour, enemies to lovers

Adapted from a y-novel by Peachhplease, directed by New starring Mek (the Kiss series, het male lead and has been with GMMTV forever) this was his first BL (he shouldn’t have) opposite a fresh face Mark, support cast included Arm (Friend Zone 2) and Mike in (Tonhon Chonlatee).

This was a cheap 1000 Stars kock off about a doctor who goes rural and falls in love with the volunteer teacher. I guess this should be added to my short list of BL‘s that are told from the seme’s perspective?

Linguistically: these two are formal with each other using pom/khun. Also If you want to hear frozen register spoken, that’s what Prince’s maa speaks to tease Fah.

How did this show managed to be boring, corny, AND cheesy? There was a really dumb manufactured miscommunication-based parting and while they mutually pined well, the kiss at the end was extremely poor quality for Thailand. Tut tut - you have one job to do.

To put it simply, this show was dull. I don’t know exactly how to write a review of this as “boring” isn’t in my rating system but, it is a BIG SIN for me, so I guess 5/10?

Watch only if you have nothing better to do.

I think the Star & Sky shows would have been VASTLY improved by cutting each set back to 6 eps each and then cross cutting between the two couples like the Why R U? or Dark Blue Kiss approach with 12 eps total. Just call the whole thing Star & Sky. Each couple would have been less boring and frustrating if focus were split, and the pacing would have been a lot better too.

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stalking, obsession, hottest guy on campus, multiple couples, queer affirming

Previously known as Stalker the series, and you can TELL. Co-produced by and featuring (but NOT staring) Saint and directed by Cheewin (sigh) with mostly fresh faces it was pure pulp and... I hated the plot.

In fact I was ALL OVER THE PLACE with this show.

I ADORED both queer friendship groups, and the language use that resulted, and the main character reads as out gay and a bit femme, which is lovely to see. As @heretherebedork​ pointed out this show is basically giving the characters that usually get punch downed on, mocked, side-lined, and pillorized, their own love stories and happy endings - and I LOVE THAT for them. And for Thailand.

But (and you knew there was a big ol’but coming) the stalker aspect was far too much for me. Toh, the lead, was so cringey I dropped it at ep 3 because it had become my personal hellscape of second hand embarrassment. Like Bridesmaids or The Hangover this is NOT a style of humor or romcom that I enjoy at all.

As is often the case with stories of this type, Toh came off as desperate, needy, and awkward while Nuea had no personality. This meant that I could find no reason for Nuea to fall f\in love with Toh (although sexual attraction seemed to play a BIG role and that, by episode 6 started to save the show for me). Self consciously the narrative seems to recognize its own flaw in this matter and sought to address it by hanging yet another lamplight (or two) on it in the final episode but, I was over it by then.

And while Nuea did grow a bit out of his blandness, Toh never stopped being a complete nightmare (for me). Certainly as we got to know Toh better his disposition was better understood (Austen) BUT I never grew to like him, or entirely understand why Nuea liked him, either.

I DID like how very first love and gay sexual journey of discovery Toh & Nuea’s relationship was.

This was one of those rare (and much coveted) BLs where the characters actually do seem to want to bone. In fact SCOY’s Nuea & Toh are the pinnacle of that awkward first-time super-sexualized relationship in university. Like, I REMEMBER what this was like. Knowing how cool you want to be, but also just craving another human THAT BADLY you totally forget your cool.

And frankly, I like that in a YA drama. Really good, adolescent first love, shown in a positive light with a pro-sex message as well a themes of communication and safe sex? We NEVER get that from Thailand. In fact, we rarely get it in any gay shows, anywhere, BL or not BL. Just ANYWHERE. The fact that this show featured a drunk kiss that was NEGOTIATED ahead of time blew my mind. How clever. What a subtle way to address dub con. In this aspect the actors did a GREAT job, especially Billy (who played Nuea).

There was an awkward raw visceral connection going on that really worked and that previously only Taiwan and Japan have ever really bothered with. The other show that got this DOWN was HIStory 3 the BL that shall not be named.

But otherwise, I spent more time cringing than enjoying the mains. The side couples, however.

THE SIDE COUPLES!

I lost my mind first over Sky & Jao.

A confident king who falls head over heals for the sweet scared boy with self worth issues and makes know bones about his interest. Actually we have seen this trope before, but it was so perfectly done with this show.

But then at the very end they gave us Intouch & Daisy. Daisy & Intouch did not have enough screen time and I could watch a full series all about them. Their language alone was a real pleasure to listen to. I think the show didn’t have quite enough faith in standard Thai BL watchers' willingness to invest in them as a couple, over which I am quite sad. Because i get it. But in this matter, at least, I wish the show had been even more brave and boundary pushing.

In the end, for me, this show was a real doozy. It was a mix of Thai cheer meets creepy, Taiwanese in-your-face queer, and Japanese chaos muffin slapstick (like Kieta Hatsukoi). Was it successful mixing these things? Not for me.

It had a ton of things I really did not like (e.g. the humor was crass and awkward, and the whole thing was extremely CRINGE). It also had things that really worked: (e.g. representation of multiple different kinds of queerness, about which it very Taiwanese - in that there was no doubt that the characters really did want to bone). It was the opposite of sanitized gay. Honestly, if you can make it through the first half, and survive the never ending cringe-factor that IS this show, the second half is entirely unique - content we’ve never seen before in BL.

SCOY must be applauded for giving us, without question, the queerest, most honest, most truly gay Thai BL campfest that I’ve ever seen. It has to be praised for everything that it does accomplish:

beautiful peer groups;
all powerful and encompassing friendship support;
those friend’s giving equally bad advice & gossiping;
discussions of topping versus bottoming and safe sex;
examinations of wife/husband language;
concerns around body image and self-worth;
AND the gross, weird, ugly, hilarious side of all of the above.

Did I love this show?

Absolutely not.

Did I want to love it?

Yes.

Do I admire what it was trying to do and, to a certain extent, did do?

Absolutely.

SCOY drove me nuts and made me bush but had flashes of unparalleled genius.

SCOY was many things (a lot of them annoying af) but it what it was, primarily, was actually quite special.

So, I remain conflicted.

SCOY made me feel whiplash and I hate that sensation. But I love what it was attempting. I loved when it was suddenly very sexy but then I hated SO MUCH when it was suddenly not sexy at all. I certainly fast forwarded more than I watched. But when I paused to take it in, it did get fun and enjoyable.

If you like slapstick and you don’t mind cheese and cringe then you might enjoy this BL quite a bit. In the end, this one really came down to a matter of taste. It’s not to my personal taste, the narrative was hit or miss, but its intention was pure gold. This one waffled from 5-9, so I ended up just going with 7/10.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS, just not the usual ones

Final note, the sub team on this one was AWESOME, gotta give them a shout out.

They did mad good work.

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fated mates, bodyswap (sort of)

(Korea, Feb-March Viki)

AKA First Love For The Third Time based on a BL script that won a competition from Ascendio studio (You Make Me Dance). It starred influencer Jeon Chang Ha and actor Jin Gun. About a popular novelist who remembers his past lives and meets his soulmate who has been reincarnated into the body of a man.

I enjoyed this show in part because it tackled one of the questions I’ve always head with the red thread trope: what if your soulmate reincarnates as a different gender than before? What if he’s out and gay and you’re not? Watching our hero deal with this was fun. A whole new kind of queer crisis.

However, this BL started out a touch mean spirited, but we eventually got a good kiss for a KBL. Then they went from like to love to boyfriends in a red hot minute. When they’re domestic these two are cute together with lots of communication (except the truth). I suppose in BL it takes a man who has lived 3 lifetimes to actually understand that conversation is what’s required to make a relationship work. The informal address discussion was adorable.

The confession/rejection scene was justified if one person remembers reincarnation and the other does not, but it was a bit much with lots of crying and a charming little self parody/mockery moment. The reconciliation and ending was... fine.

All in all the pacing felt rushed throughout this BL, and the romantic arc was underdeveloped. But that’s par for the course with Korea’s short form (they can’t all be Semantic Error), so it didn’t bother me too much. If you don’t mind a heavy does of melodrama in your BL this one has a solid story with a strong concept that’s well acted and produced, making it a classic KBL with better than average chemistry but ultimately a touch forgettable.

RECOMMENDED WITH A FEW RESERVATIONS

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Recommended, and you will probubly love it more than I did

Foundational Romance Tropes: mistaken identity, love triangle, secret crush, friends to lovers, ace/demi rep

There’s something about this show that pushes absurdity to its cartoon limit but stays genuine to the high first love school experience. Kieta Hatsukoi ended up being kind of Cherry Magic + Light On Me X Make it Right with good pacing and so many unexpected twists in angst and miscommunication that despite it being classic live action yaoi it felt fresh and new to the BL world, also a touch frustrating. Clearly Japan is back to reminding us WE STARTED IT ALL, SUCKERS!

Aoki is the drama queen to end all drama queens, the meme fairy to end all meme fairies. While Ida is ace spectrum demigod rock we all leaned on to survive Aoki’s madness. And they’re surrounded by truly awesome friends (a hallmark of, and my favorite thing about, high school BL). All the characters were so endearingly awkward, earnestly sweet, and desperate to do the right thing and not hurt each other that the show became utterly lovable while still being teenage angst incarnate. Japan can get pretty over-expressive and childish in their yaoi adaptations and this is no exception - Aoki is SUCH A SPAZ, the biggest chaos-baby drama-llama to ever bizilla his way through a BL. SO EXTRA. I suffered quite a bit of second hand embarrassment that was, occasionally, too much for me. Maybe because Ida is so obviously demi, I could see all along it would just take him more time, it’s annoying that Aoki couldn’t and made no effort to understand Ida. So while I very much enjoyed this BL, it kinda lost me to frustration at the end, even as the final episode left me smiling. I think these aspects will work against it for me in rewatch potential, which is one of my main ways I rate BLs, so... hence my 8/10.

But i honestly think most BL fans will like it more than that.

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high school to college, cohabitation, popular boy/nerd, orphan protag

Korea is really borrowing other country’s styles of BL this year. With this one they took on origin Japanese yaoi but gave it their signature softness and precise production style with a STUNNING color palette. I can’t get over the visuals of this show, the beautiful pastels, the sun-saturated over-exposure, the elegant staging. Combine that with manga framing style, some prototypical BL character archetypes, that tiny edge of bullying roughness and out-of-control seme, plus FINALLY a palatable take on the stepbrothers trope (in this case it’s adopted son of best friend) and it was, in a word, classic.

Orphaned uke, HaeBom (Ok Jin Uk, trot idol group SUPERFIVE) is small, sweet-natured, and adorable, but also timid and bullied and desperate to be loved. The seme, TaeSung (Kang Hui Thumping Spike), is tall and reserved, depicted pumping iron and sporty and desired by all. In typical yaoi fashion it’s TaeSung who is the passionate one, who has adored HaeBom since childhood, who wants him desperately.

At first I discounted CBAW because it was so quiet (did I learn nothing from Oxygen?) and then I realized it’s just sophisticated and understated - with occasional flashes of *holy gratuitous shower scene, batman!* Don’t misconstrue me, it’s not slow, it’s just subtle. It ended up being both sadder and more whimsical than I was expecting - dream-like and atmospheric, as if the whole thing took place under cold water on a warm spring day. Is there plot or peril? Not really. Do we care? Also, not really.

The chemistry is awkward but I’m learning that awkward is something Korea enjoys putting in its romances. I wonder sometimes if they don’t think awkward = romantic. Regardless, it works for this couple since TaeSung has always known what he wanted (just been in denial and rejection mode) and HaeBom must play catchup. There’s always a power imbalance with this extreme of a seme/uke pairing, but it’s even more so with these two since it encompasses not just the height difference but desire. (I happen to really enjoy power imbalances.) TaeSung was always going to be too much for HaeBom - more demanding, more in love, just more. It is only his adoration of HaeBom that keeps him from becoming too much for everyone. TaeSung knows this, he’s self aware, which is why he holds onto HaeBom with such desperation. HaeBom’s journey is one of learning to accept that he is the the quiet softness that tempers TaeSong’s extremes, and is just as necessary for all he goes unnoticed. When they are just together as a couple, they’re ridiculously cute and visually nostalgic and I grew to really love them as a couple.

Look, I can’t help it, I’m old school and so is this show.

This BL is VERY traditional, almost pastiche. As I watched I could feel that song from Fiddler on the Roof running through my head.

In case you can’t guess, I absolutely loved CBAW, but I can’t separate it from my relationship journey with this medium as a whole. I grew up reading sweet yaoi, and this was THAT YAOI just on my screen. There’s no objectivity with me and CBAW. It’s beautiful and I loved it for what it was and how it made me feel and what it reminded me of. It’s not flawless, but it is a wonderful experience.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

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magical realism, LTR

Tropes: magical realism, LTR, breakup, amnesia, reunion

KimCop vehicle from Star Hunter, about an LTR between a student Jing (Cop) + nurse Guy (Kim) who have been together for 3 years. Guy is busy all the time so Jing is starting to feel neglected and look elsewhere. KimCop are excellent (no surprise there) but I was not into the story, premise, or concept.

Star Hunter better be careful with Copter, he’s got GREAT chemistry with everyone, and I’m not mad about seeing him with a different partner. Honestly, I was rooting for Jing to leave Guy for the cute artist phi with the fierce eyebrows who wants to feed him shrimp. It’s a fair cop (pun intended).

The breaking the 4th wall self-referential dream sequence Cheewin crack-head filler is intolerable - I nearly dropped the show because of it. Look, I’d had it UP TO HERE with YYY and that was years ago. The side dishes are adorbs tho. (WHY ARE HIS SIDE DISHES ALWAYS SO CUTE?)

Side couple Viking & TamTam stole this one for me.

Also, just a note, Star Hunter always does this thing where characters neither eat nor drink what they’ve ordered (except in What Zabb Man).

The final ep activates the amnesia trope. Sigh. And that causes a reboot for the romance and because they are older they can make it work the second time around. Honestly I was left, ultimately with a sensation of: What did I just watch? It was terrible.

NOT RECOMMENDED

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Find your soulmate in the mountains of Thailand

Foundational Romance Trope? Fated mates

Some of us have been waiting for this series for a really long time now. The fact that it had so many production issues made me nervous going in. However, I really loved the story. I found the chemistry with the leads uncertain at first. Hard to pin down why, but I keep having this issue with Earth. In the end, I got over it (or they did).

Formerly known as Tale of Thousand Stars (the title change was a good call). It neatly avoid GMMTV’s previous BL’s (Tonton Chonlatee, My Gear & Your Gown) ending issues. And though it was slow to find its stride, this show probably has one of the most romantic endings ever filmed in BL.

On the whole it leaned hard on classic romance (rather than yaoi) tropes which resulted in a mature, sweet, charming, smart series with a FANtASTIC finale. Tonally it was a lot more like, oh I don’t know, Love O2O meets The Notebook only gay. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would at the start, but was it BL? Probably not. Who cares though.

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Adorable Fluff

The slowest burning prettiest little emotional support supermarket advertisement ever to drop into our feeds. Or even, frankly, to exist at all. We did not deserve Ingredients, but we got it anyway, and it was CHARMING. It came from the retail side and it conquered our mushy pre-packaged hearts. Did anything actually happen in Ingredients? Nope. Do we care? Nope.

Ingredients also wins my best trope execution award for "Let Me Sing You My Feelings" for Ep 16. The number of emotions that cross Win’s face in the course of two songs while he watches Tops flirt with someone else is insane. Win keeps singing yet you see him go through an entire identity crisis - realization of love, jealousy, fear, adoration, loss, and more. It’s brilliant. And Jeff’s voice is crazy good. Even if you aren’t a fan of this series, you owe it to yourself to watch this episode.

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