This review is a personal opinion. It is not meant to sway or discourage anyone from watching this series.

What an amazing little Gem of BL that came out of the Philippines. Truly a great series to watch.

On to my review

Aptly named Gameboys the series, this new “BL” drama changed the game (no pun intended) in the way stories can be told with characters having little to no physical interactions. I put BL in quotation marks because I wouldn’t consider this a Boys Love Drama, but rather a true representation of LGBTQ+. The drama breaks a lot of ridiculous cliches while at the same time using other cliches properly.

The backdrop of the drama is centered around the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect world wide, particularly in the Philippines. The main characters find themselves on mandatory lockdown by the government and must spent majority of their times indoors. Cairo, a self-proclaimed gamer and a nerd, spends his day doing live broadcast, amassing a following that include the cheeky and always smiling Gavreel —who we later learned has been following Cairo’s live streams after the death of his grandmother and went into depression-and develops a crush on the gamer.

Through a series of “video meets” the two being to grow closer, despite Cairo’s reluctance to Gavreel’s advances. We later learned that Cairo has been struggling with his sexual orientation-and the consequences of that which centered around his father’s health.

This drama touched on a lot of things, but for me the most amazing part was the way that Mental health, guilt/blame, and forgiveness took center stage.

Acting: Elijah (Cairo) really stole a lot of the scenes for me. There were so many instances where I felt his pain. Though he masked that pain through “grouchiness/shade” the boy was aching for someone to listen to him. Which is why Gavreel’s existence in Cairo’s life came at the right time (maybe some would call it Fate)

It was refreshing to see a confident gay man in Gavreel—his confidence, cheekiness, fun loving nature truly made the drama memorable, but at the same time, the layers that kept being pulled away bit by bit revealed a young man who had gone through great loss and grief. He was depressed and found solace in Cairo’s live streams.

I loved Pearl! What a great friend who was in a way the “voice of reason” for these boys exploring their relationship. Supportive female characters like Pearl always make the series much better.

Ah the villain ex-boyfriend ended up being such a good character in the end. He acknowledged the mistakes his made and realized that he needed to FIX himself before he could love anyone else.

Overall, this was a very good drama series and I highly recommend it.