recs from the last year

sfjdl;gj;lkbjw;efeldkvj I dont have words. This is definitely my fav thai show of the year. Kelly can vouch because I already made her watch. JUST WATCH THIS. Go in with zero spoilers and just enjoy. Each story has the same actors as different characters. All I will say is that each story gets better and better as you go along, so start at the beginning and watch them all in chronological order. the first two stories are only one ep each and then the next few are 2ish eps each. I promise you will love it. this came out in the fall and i've already rewatched multiple times.  JUST WATCHHHHHH!!!

MASTERPIECE. That is all that needs to be said about this series. Everything from script, editing, soundtrack, acting, art direction. everything is incredible. its a story about high schoolers, so they are all just idiotic messes, but in such an authentic way.  this is a must watch.

This series is a bit older (early 2024), but i'm pretty sure neither of you have watched it and its one of my favorite series ever!!! its just incredible!! i have rewatched it so many times. I'm not gonna waste time talking about it, just watchhhh! (maybe i'm biased because im in love with Kurt Huang, but i don't think i am)

It was my favorite show on at the time of airing! it was just SO GOOODDD! There is some domestic abuse from the drunk father so tw for that. but otherwise this show was amazing~ a classic coming of age and self discovery story

From the director of to my star this was definitely the best kbl of the last year. To my start still beats it in the rankings for me but this series was very very good as well! I really loved both actors and the story was so sweet and angsty which is just what i like. there is domestic abuse from the father though so trigger warning for that.

I don't even know how to describe this series except that it was very japanese in a good way. it was very good and my most anticipated episode every week while it was airing. It's about two coworkers who accidentally start emailing each other about their struggles with their sex lives with their respective partners. they eventually discover who each other are and grow close while talking about their struggles and its just so well done and with just the right amount of angst

probably the best gmmtv show in recent memory. it was very cute and very solid and full of green flags! no toxicity here! and you will definitely love it if you love and idol romance! the friendships amongst the lykn members were super cute as well!

This show is basically 3 shows in one. The first 8 episodes were AWEFUL in my opinion. The characters, the story, everything was just so obnoxious i almost dropped the show entirely. but i forced myself to watch the next 8 eps for santa and perth and im glad i did! santa and perth's story wasnt revolutionary, but i thoroughly enjoyed it. very angsty and a bit toxic but it was everything i love about a toxi and angsty show. And then the final 8 episodes with Junior and mark were "chefs kisss". Junior is just such and incredible actor and his character was so unique esecially for a gmmtv show. their story was so cute and i just highly recommend this one! If you watch this series i would say you can skip the forcebook story line (but give it a try, maybe you'll like it?). but definitely watch the other two. the characters from all of them intertwine but i'm sure you can figure it out pretty easily even if you skip forcebooks story.

this was one of the few taiwanese bls that i actually finished this year and it was very cute!! nothing more adorable than a guy learning sign language out of jealousy~ definitely worth a watch.

This show is a masterpiece!! its not really a bl, more of a story of queer friendship and discovery. but its so incredibly well told and the characters are so close to my heart! i love them so much!!! and they are queer archetypes that don't get enough representation imo. the two main characters become friends so there is no romance between them, but one of them does have a romantic story line that is very cute as well. some major trigger warnings  for sa and attempted sa from a teacher as well as for school bullying so if you do watch i can give you eps/timestamps for those. but seriously if you can stomach it, this series is so incredible!! (in my own personal ranking it is much higher, but i'm ranking it low for you guys because of the tws) (also if you watch let me know so i can send you the fansubbers official links. they paywalled the final episode because people kept stealing and reuploading their subs on other sites, but i bought it on their kofi so I can share with you!)

Another masterpiece!!!!!! This is the darkest bl I have ever seen. Honestly with all the physical and sexual trauma and violence (including quite a bit of blood) in this series I'm not sure if I should be recommending it to either of you. But it was one of my favorite shows of 2024 and it feels wrong to not include it on this list. (spoiler: as the title suggests it is happy of the end, but the road to getting there is quite the opposite of happy). (this also is ranked much higher on my personal list, but am ranking it lower for you guys because of tw and knowing that i tend to like darker things more than you guys)

I'm not sure that I "loved" this series in so many words. But it was just so bat shit crazy that by the end I was just watching out of fascination for how insane it was! I recommend going in blind and just go along for the ride because it was definitely a ride!

this was the same flavor as our dating sim, but not quite as good. but it was solid if you just want a cute kbl with a bit of angst. I've rewatched our dating sim about 20 times, but i probably wouldn't rewatch this one. definitely worth one watch though!

So this series is SLOW BURN. Its one of those series where all they do as look at each other and you can feel it. It's step brothers enemies to lovers in high school and very good!! but unfortunately they were supposed to do a second season but the last i heard it was cancelled. And when i say slow burn, i mean that they barely even got to the point of burning yet and i was so excited  for season two and now we are just stuck with a half done series. so if you don't mind the blue balls of not having a satisfying conclusion AT ALL, then definitely give it a watch. 

Not really my cup of tea. But I'm adding it here because so many people on tumblr were obsessed with it so you guys may like it more than i did! i had to speed watch it because i only really liked joongdunks dynamic.