Gay shit I watched

dropped after ep 4

mlm. ~370 minutes

Incoherent and boring. Too many characters.

dropped after ep 5

mlm. ~720 minutes

Typical early Thai BL, nothing new, too many characters, makes extremely little sense.

cw: femme-phobic

dropped after ep 2

mlm. ~140 minutes

I know that people like this, but I really hate this type of relationship dynamic.

Bullying tsundere chad dominates stuttering classmate who is made up of 90% social anxiety. Also chad has to be super pretty and good at performing arts, of course, and have a hair style that only really functions in manga. 

cw: We're getting some school shooter romanticization for the lead even. Wow. Gay incel shit.

dropped

wlw, mlm. ~140 minutes

Only one episode is lesbian, that's the only one I even attempted, and it isn't faithful to the original Bad Buddy characters and it feels shallow so I dropped it.

dropped after ep 1

mlm. ~585 minutes

Soulless. Dialogue doesn't feel like actual humans would ever talk like that. Feels like a cashgrab with zero effort put into it.

current

mlm. ~600 minutes

Robin-hood kinda guy does an enemies to lovers thing with good guy forced to do bad things. I love how every character, including background characters, gets agency, a chance to influence the story, and I love how distinct and internally consistent they all are.

cw: transphobic charicature, graphic violence

current

mlm. ~340 minutes

current

mlm, wlw, T. ~540 minutes

current

mlm. ~400 minutes

Not a BL. This is queer media in the style that western gay stories often take. Not a romcom but a 'slice of life' that includes romance.

Gay college student rooms with chaotic boy-obsessed girl. 

mlm. ~500 minutes

Sweet guy has to take an assassination job for money but hides the victim instead. It's solid. Just a well-executed BL. Mental health theme. 

A lot of people are disappointed with this because the trailer promised a questionable power dynamic between the leads, and that did not materialize.

current

wlw. ~540 minutes

Messy drama involving cheating and switching identities with twins. Am hooked.

current

mlm, wlw. ~350 minutes

Rich brat on the run from mafia meets deaf guy who's very good at kicking ass and hires him to become body guard.

It's campy nonsense, and I'm here for that. 

current

mlm. ~720 minutes

current

mlm. ~520 minutes

wlw. ~270 minutes

Ever since receiving an eye donation to cure her blindness, she dreams about a really pretty girl. Pretty girl shows up in real life, and she's too star-struck to be a normal person about it. 

The main character is such a dumbass. I love this.

current

mlm. ~470 minutes

A penguin turns into a human, escapes zoo and enters high school. There he meets ex panther with social anxiety and a big crush on him, and they adventure through the human world together.

Very silly, and surprisingly good. 

current

mlm. ~200 minutes

Slice of life gay couple, flashing back to previous relationships, dealing with current relationship issues, discussing queer issues.

current

mlm. ~540 minutes

cw: seriously a horror

current

mlm. ~360 minutes

An actual mainland China BL that had some censorship hiccups but seems to have managed a way around.

Insecure rich guy x assertive poor guy, and also deafness and sign language. I'm very impressed with this one so far.

current

mlm. ~200 minutes

The most uptight lawyer ever meets a charming criminal and gets manhandled.

Definitely a high degree of wtf, but that also keeps you guessing as to what on earth is going to happen next.

mlm. ~180 minutes

Thai guy and Korean guy have been besties for forever, and maybe they're crushing on each other a lot. Also there's a murderer in their midst and they need to figure out who it is.

mlm, background A. ~440 minutes

Shorter BL stories with the same pair of actors. There is an overarching plot. 

It's really good. I enjoyed it a lot. Excellent acting. Special props for whoever made these fashion choices. But I can't give every show a 9. This is really good, but not wildly amazing. Definitely worth a watch though.

mlm. ~280 minutes

Taekwondo boys in bad familial situations support each other through that and fall in love, break up, time skip.

When they manage to communicate this is really charming, but most of the time they're being really angry and needlessly hurtful towards each other, especially Dohoe. 

current

mlm,  wlw, T. ~830 minutes

A remake of the 2014 Love Sick, the Thai BL that started all Thai BL. there were some changes to the original plot, changes that make it fluffier and adorable, which I like, but also less progressive and transgressive, which I don't like. There is barely a female character with their own plotline left. 

cw: transphobic caricatures. But also one good trans rep character, so they do know how to do it?

current

wlw. ~600 minutes

Investigative officer and forensic pathologist work together, against a plot larger than they imagine.

Thumbs up from me so far.

current

wlw. ~720 minutes

Orphan princess comes to live in another palace and meets girl her age. They grow up as besties who definitely have feelings for each other. Since this is a period piece, the threat of marriage looms.

The reason this gets a seven is because the set, costumes, and production value are phenomenal. I am not impressed with the plot or acting.

current

censored mlm. ~2250 minutes

Epic magic fantasy adventure with one lawful good wizard and one chaotic neutral wizard, and they like each other. 

I really like the flowy dresses these guys are parading around in, with magic and swords! Excellent. The setting is gorgeous. The acting is underwhelming (at least to me) but I think that's partially because China re-dubs all its audio rather than recording it on set. The plot is lord of the rings-esque in terms of its scope.

I recommend opening up an excel sheet and noting down the names of characters (each character goes by multipe names), as well as the names of clans they belong to (the clans also go by multiple names), and then a couple of lines of backstory on each character, like their family relations or motivations. They're all inter-related and going to come back and you're not going to remember who's who otherwise.

The gay-ness is obvious to me, but if my dad watched this show, he would miss it completely.

cw: bunch of murder, torture, zombies. The special effects aren't convincing so it doesn't bother me much.

current

mlm. ~580 minutes

Sweetest college kid in the world has to be fake boyfriends with stern schoolmate who probably has a secret crush on him.

current

mlm. ~590 minutes.

This is what it says on the tin. It's not brilliant, but it doesn't pretend to be, and I appreciate its honesty. It tries to be cheap entertainment and it does that well.

current

mlm. ~1080 minutes

Aaaand we're back to writing about the most popular engineering students, enemies to lovers tropes. It's 2024, you'd really think GMMTV would let this die by now.

current

mlm. ~720 minutes

This series asserts that watching benevolent sexism play out can actually be enjoyable as long as you turn the girl characters into smaller guys. This is beef I often have with BL, but this series takes it to another level. Much of the story would make a lot more sense if the bottoms were girls, e.g. 'No I'm so worried, he shouldn't be outside after dark, it's not safe' or getting inappropriately touched by creepy flirty guys who won't take no for an answer.

So, I roll my eyes, but oh well, this is what some women want to watch, and they should be free to cope with misogyny in their own ways, including twisting it to their own ends in media, so I'm not here to judge.

current

mlm. ~260 minutes

Remake of the Thai 'Love in the Air' (2022). Fairly faithful to the original series. I still don't like their dom/sub 'daddy' dynamic. But it's interesting to see Japan interpret a Thai story.

current

mlm. ~120 minutes

This is just the kind of wild nonsensical madness you expect from dramatic microseries. It's so stupid, but it is entertaining.

current

mlm. ~110 minutes

Dude ends up in prison and falls for fellow inmate so hard that he willingly goes back.

Too slow, not enough dialogue.

on hold because I can't find episode 6 onwards

mlm, T, GNC. ~310 minutes

A bunch of loosely related queer twenty-somethings live their lives in Manila. Each episode is an individual story.

on-hold because I can't find episode 3 onwards

wlw, mlm, GNC. ~130 minutes

cw: transphobia