BL Review

Though I have watched a few new kdramas and cdramas this summer and even really loved some of them, I’d say that most of my time was spent enjoying the bountiful harvest of gay love stories airing in the summer of 2026.

BL lovers have been treated to some new gold standard dramas – which are highly recommended and listed first. I’ll probably write longer reviews of the dramas listed as Top Tier but I haven’t posted for a while and thought I’d drop some summaries and ratings first. Then there are the good BL dramas, that under normal conditions would be exceptional but due to the competition ended up being paler in comparison. I’ve listed those after the top tier dramas.

Both lists are alphabetical by title.

TOP TIER BL DRAMAS NOT TO BE MISSED

Bittersweet Love (Chinese) – Do you like Edith Wharton books? E.M. Forster? Do you like stories that explore how class structures determine nearly every aspect of people’s lives and relationships? Cause Bittersweet Love is the story about how a poor boy was swept into the lives of a rich family, basically purchased to cover up a scandal and subsequently treated like a commodity that was only kept around to prevent further scandal. From the first night it’s clear that the young master of the house would like to use our country mouse for personal reasons as well, and that the attraction between them may be mutual but it will never be equal in any other way. Their love affair is tightly wrapped in the layers of the worlds they both inhabit and their individual roles in it. I ate up every second of this historical masterpiece. It was truly unique in the BL genre in its plotline. Rating: 9/10

Blue Lips (Chinese) – For me personally this is a top tier drama, though I understand it’s a bit niche. I have also read the extremely horny novel this is based on… and few other books have taken a single night through multiple detailed chapters like this smutty masterpiece. Reading about how to make men squirt was not on my bingo card, but I do feel somewhat enlightened for knowing, so… there’s that.

Anyways, this show is about a brooding night club singer and the seemingly carefree owner of a sex shop who likes to obnoxiously flirt with him by requesting he sing cheesy ballads and oldies hits all the time. They are totally different in almost every way with a ten year age gap but have an inescapable attraction to each other. These two lonely people keep lingering around each others periphery until one fateful night brings them intimately together. The afore mentioned long, long night – which is censored like crazy in the drama and still manages to be shockingly explicit. Both men are hiding secrets they are hesitant to reveal as they navigate their first gay relationship, slowly falling in love. Rating: 9/10.

Deep In (Chinese) – True cinema… which I did not expect from the first few episodes and then BAM, elevated itself to this incredible nuanced viewing experience! This drama is an exploration of the personal relationships of two young actors getting comfortable enough with each other to play believable love interests in a gay noir film. Their instant chemistry got them their roles but their feelings for each other become complicated as they rehearse together, getting into the mindsets of their characters and growing close enough to act out intimate scenes without hesitation.

As we are exploring their emotions in the reality of the set, we (as the viewing audience) are also treated to the unfolding of the movie they are filming. It’s two series in one drama.

_{gifs by @bluesandfilms}

It’s so good! Honestly, both plot lines are incredibly engaging and the overlapping aspects of their emotional and sexual journeys are fascinating to ponder as each episode takes you deeper in (pun intended but also true). Rating: 10/10.

Double Helix (Chinese) – if you read BL novels, you know that this drama is basically what half of the famous Chinese BL novels are like. Pure dog blood, aka excessively overdramatic and melodramatic insanity. This story starts in the 1990s, a strange time when the world appeared to be rapidly modernizing yet still holding on to a lot of rigid social norms of the past – such as intense homophobia. I think if you were alive in the late 20th century, you will have a different experience with this drama, as the behaviors make perfect sense if you understand what reality was like in that era for gay people. The extreme pushback from family, friends, and strangers as well as the intense internalized homophobia all that pushback was bound to instill made everything messy. Parents who cut you off entirely or parents who doggedly pushed you towards heterosexual relationships in spite of seeing your misery were pretty standard. As a result many gay people suffered just like these two boys. Mental health issues abounded. Whether blowing up and dragging everyone around you through the wreckage or shutting down and running away entirely to disassociate through a few years of life until someone or something snaps you back out of it – the behaviors of both boys, though outlandish, also seemed normal to me. Even your gay friends and family can’t always be counted on to be emotional supports – they’re going through it just like you, after all. (I mean, we still have a long way to go with LGBT rights but let’s not downplay the progress we have made)

Anyways, if you want to enjoy a truly messy and twisted love story of two young lovers who went through hell and then created their own hell to be together… this show is not to be missed. Special shout out to Ayden Sng who deserves the Best Actor award for his performance as the unstable but unshakeable Lu Feng. Rating: 9/10.

The Edge of Horizon (Thai) – This drama has a great plot taking place at a pivotal time in Thailand’s history. It starts with a young royal and his servant falling hopelessly in love and follows their relationship through the turning of an era and the political changes of the 1930s. Though the plot is interesting, the success of this show is 99 percent owed to the undeniable chemistry between the two leads. Few actors can make you truly believe they have fallen insanely in love – but these guys stare at each other as if they are the only two people on earth. Our prince in particular… there are literal stars in his eyes when he looks at his man. Honestly, they are so believably in love in this show that it gives you butterflies. Rating: 8/10

Journey with You (Chinese) – I will probably watch every Chinese historical gay drama they make. This story follows a prince who is betrayed by his best friend and dies only to wake up 3 years in the past of his own life. Our handsome prince is determined to reverse his fate and discover the truths behind the events that claimed his life. His second chance at life also gives him a second chance to make his feelings known to his best friend. It’s all very intense and dramatic and I ate it up. There were some deliciously wicked antagonists as well. If you like danmei or pretty boys in long wigs and robes, then you are sure to love this too. Rating: 8/10.

Knot (Thai) – Listen. You just have to. It’s possibly the most cringe show I have ever watched, and I am obsessed with it. This is an omegaverse story – with mating bites and boys going into heat and all kinds of supernatural sexy shenanigans. They’ve got everyone in heavy makeup and fluffed hair and questionable outfits and it just works. The success of a cringe show is determined by how seriously the actors take their roles – and all these characters are fully committed to the bit. In particular the two leads, whose shamelessness leaves me speechless. They have no problem at all growling and writhing and eating each other up as their alpha and omega pheromones’ take control. Hats off the casting director, cause I can’t think of any other pair of actors who would happily go this hog wild in all their sexy scenes. It’s embarrassing and ridiculous and totally fun. Rating: 8/10.

Payback (Thai) – Where to even start with this one? Though it’s a modern story, it feels almost surreal, like an anime or something. It’s based on a manhwa so maybe that shouldn’t be surprising. It’s about a young guy who worked as a debt collector for the mafia whose entire life fell apart due to a series of events that happened in rapid succession: his boyfriend left him, his brother got stabbed, and his mother got diagnosed with a terminal illness. He’s been a ghost for the past five years, living only to work off the debts he accrued because he knows all too well what happens to those who don’t pay. When he discovers he was betrayed by his ex-boyfriend, who is now a rising actor, he becomes focused solely on revenge… but discovers reasons to come back to life along the way. Ya’ll. There were so many unexpected and crazy things mixed in, I had a blast watching this drama. The leads were sexy as hell, too, which goes a long way with these types of shows let’s be real. Rating: 10/10.

The Prosecutor’s Proposal (Korean) – The hype is justified. This is a low budget crime BL that was elevated to greatness due to the intense character dynamics and sizzling chemistry between the two leads. The son of a murderer and the son of the person who was murdered are teamed up, both trying to navigate their own lives under the tremendous shadow of their dark family legacies. They are both barely contained boiling pots on the verge of erupting and every time they are near each other the lids on those pots start trembling from the pressure… and when they are alone… Let’s just say it’s something you won’t forget any time soon. These dudes are intense. INTENSE. Enemies to lovers is a whole other brand of romance, and when they’re still enemies while crossing the line together… wow. It’s good stuff. Trust me, you don’t to miss this one. Sexy Antagonism is my brand! Rating: 10/10.

P.S. This is another adaptation where the source material is even hotter than the very, very hot drama we were treated to. The book is filthy, my friends. I enjoyed it as well.

_{A WINTER SUN WAKES THE WIND IN SPRING HILLS’ DREAM}

A Winter Sun (Chinese) – I’ve just started this one but can already tell it belongs in the top tier list. I’ll update this with a summary once I’ve watched a few more eps… but holy moly it is gorgeous. The pacing, the cinematography, the plot… top notch.

Continue to read about other great summer BL’s worth watching but maybe not quite as good as those above…

Continue reading →

Revenged Love is about a young man whose girlfriend leaves him for a rich dude – and so the shafted little guy decides the best revenge would be to seduce her new boyfriend. He enlists the help of his gay bestie and fully commits to his scheme.

The plot was refreshingly different and took us through several plot arcs. There was obvious and meaningful character growth of all four main characters. It felt natural and real (within the context of this wild storyline), with a wide variety of sets, indoor and outdoor filming locations, and a solid pace throughout the 24 episode runtime. It was gorgeous without being overly cinematic. There were tons of side characters and tons of extras and it felt like everything was happening in the real world, not a closed set. I was never for a second bored.

I only have one complaint.

I finished watching the show this weekend and couldn’t help but mourn the loss of our main character’s libido in the second half of the series (why did this show get more PG after they’d had sex?). Sure, there were allusions to it, some very, very quick cuts, some fades, some implied naughtiness. But OMG, you filmed this outside of China so you could give us a live action version of one of the horniest characters ever written: Chi Cheng! A man whose love for snakes is only surpassed by his desire for ass, a man whose libido is so overwhelming he actually takes medication to calm his feral hormones down. The censors were not coming from you, Revenged Love, so why hold back? I’m not saying I needed full NC17 scenes in the second half of the show, but at the very least we could have had some hardcore, passionate make out scenes and more of the ass grabbing, aggressive boyfriend we’d come to love.

Alright, I’ve got one more tiny complaint and that’s it – I promise! Let me say as much as I enjoyed both actors playing the second couple, I think we can all agree it was clear one of them did not enjoy kissing men. Let’s be honest, that boy’s lips were firmly sealed.

Despite my minor complaints, this was still one of the best BL dramas I have seen in ages and I highly recommend it to everyone. I loved everything else about this show and have been active in the fandoms gushing and chatting about it all summer.

If ya’ll did not know, Revenged Love is based on the novel Counter Attack 柴鸡蛋 by Chai Ji Dan 柴鸡蛋, the same author who wrote Addicted and Advance Bravely. Addicted was the first Asian BL novel I read and I ate it up, but it was tame in comparison to Counter Attack which I read directly after. The source material has fast paced short chapters; yes, it’s sometimes extremely cringe, but it’s also brave enough to casually toss in taboos and insane behavior left and right, it’s very very sexy, and best of all it had me laughing out loud with all the jokes and witty banter. It was a memorable reading experience. The drama Revenged Love is a serviceable live action version. I’m actually quite proud of how much they kept in, while simultaneously being a tad disappointed at what was missing. Oh, the curse of book adaptations, am I right?

And don’t get me wrong – it was still very, very sexy even if it didn’t include the many intimate scenes in the book. The show still managed to be titillating and exciting. In particular Tian Xuning’s performance as Chi Cheng, slinking through every scene like panther who has locked in on their prey but first wants to play with it for a while. Ya’ll, the flirting and seduction scenes between these two were so hot! That man’s pursuit of Wu Suo Wei (and Wu Suo Wei’s pursuit of Chi Cheng followed by his hasty retreats) were soooo intoxicating to watch. They may not have given us much to work with as far as sex scenes are concerned, but for at least 60 percent of this drama it was clear there was only one thing on Chi Cheng’s mind and it was delicious to watch this deep voiced (thank you voice actor Shun Zi!) dom corner his man.

I would say the success of this show is entirely due to the tight script (a good script seems to be hard to come by in the BL industry) and its vivid trope-defying characters. The author of the original novel wrote the screenplay and was heavily involved in the show’s production – and you can tell she worked hard to bring her vision to the screen.

The actors knew who their characters were and nailed their roles. The dialogue felt natural, the line delivery was perfection, and the quirky scoffs, sexy purrs, frustrated sighs, alarmed squeals, and jittery rambling were all true to human behavior. Everyone was allowed to be many shades of gray. They made mistakes, they lied to each other and themselves, they were insecure and they were confident. They were emotionally varied, with pros and cons. None of that dull binary green flag / red flag business, these characters were human.

You will laugh, you might even cry, but most of all you will fall in love with these boys falling in love with each other. I hope we continue to get more uncensored adaptations of Chinese BL novels and webtoons in the future, because there are soooo many quality stories just begging to be brought to life.

If you haven’t watched Revenged Love yet – get on over to Viki or GagaOOLala or just go the Youtube page of the show.

Revenged Love – Overall Rating: 10/10 – Snakes, Sluts, and a Hot Polycule.

Enjoy some fandom: