A World of Asian "Boys Love" Drama

2020 Thai BL series Why R U The Series brings back adorable Love By Chance actor Saint to our screens, and boy have we missed him! He's the biggest drawcard here, and definitely the top reason for watching Why R U in the first place. So is it worth watching? Summary: University students and siblings Zon and Zol have a teasing rivalry. When Zon realises that Zol is writing BL stories about him being in an imaginary relationship with his nemesis Saifah, he insists that she delete them. She cheekily asks him to swear that he doesn't have conflicting feelings about Saifah (she saw them share an accidental kiss during a fight). He hesitates, but he swears to it anyway. Bad move! His obvious lie throws him into an upside-down BL alternate universe, where Zol's BL story about him looks like it's coming true, and he starts hallucinating some very famous BL characters. Meanwhile, Zon's friend Tutor starts to struggle in his own lifelong platonic friendship with beautiful p...

Of the three sub-series that make up season one of famed Taiwanese BL program HIStory,  HIStory: Obsessed gets by far the most thumbs up from its dedicated fans, and it's easy to see why. The other two don't even come close to its ability to immerse its audience it its out-there narrative and - let's be honest - its totally bonkers BL overkill. Summary: Shao Yi Chen and Jiang Jing Teng have been in a loving relationship for ten years ever since university, but suddenly Teng announces that he is going to marry a woman. Distraught, Chen runs away and is promptly struck by a car and killed. Chen is then reincarnated as himself ten years earlier (is that really how reincarnation is meant to work??), back at university and before he and Teng had ever met in person. Chen sees this as an opportunity to find some backbone and completely alter history, to ensure Teng never enters his life. But fate has other ideas, and the two boys are drawn together again when Teng finds one of ...

Chinese series Addicted (also known as Heroin)  is a hugely popular BL series from 2016. There's a widely held view that it's one of the best BL dramas ever made. I don't subscribe to that view at all. Summary: High school student Bai Luo Yin is very unhappy with his estranged mother, who has decided to marry a wealthy party official. His life at school is becoming increasingly complicated by a poisonous relationship with fellow student Gu Hai. The two boys torment each other relentlessly and obstinately refuse to stop the oneupmanship of practical jokes and annoyances. However Hai soon realises that Yin is just as sensitive as Hai is himself, underneath all the sourness and bluster, and he eventually falls in love. His declarations soon pile up and become just as relentless as the previous bullying was. Yin's life now follows a pattern of never-ending resistance and finding ways to avoid Hai. Yin is horrified when the truth about his mother's new marriage is reve...