Gay shit I watched

dropped after ep 1

censored mlm. ~430 minutes

Oops the guy who probably murdered my family, who I swore to avenge, might be kinda hot. Dropped because it wasn't going to actually be gay, even though they are married.

current

mlm, gnc. ~480 minutes

Burnt out artist takes a shitty PR job for an asshole of a boss, who also happens to be hot and the only one who appreciates his art.

Messy social commentary with BL elements. Beautifully shot.

current

mlm. ~450 minutes

Guy with memory loss runs into a person who claims to be his ex, but who may be a murderer.

current

mlm. ~600 minutes

Toxic chaos surrounding a university play.

current

mlm. ~480 minutes

The producers say this isn't BL but a gay series. Anyways, it's about political tensions in the late 60's early 70's, and I have high hopes for this one.

current

wlw. ~600 minutes

current

mlm. ~1080 minutes

Guy gets cheated on by golddigger girlfriend, and decides to get back at her by seducing her new mafia-adjacent boyfriend. 

This can be pretty funny and dramatic, but be warned that it is majorly toxic and regressive in the 'dark romance' sense. This kind of behavior can be fun to watch in fiction, but it has to stay fictional. 

Unpopular opinion, but there were many points at which I wanted to drop this. There's so many reasons: the toxicity, the way everything they do and say is calculated, the way that sex is represented as scary, painful, inevitable and not super consensual, the endless coincidences that lead to incredibly improbable misunderstandings which of course will not be cleared up because every conversation is a game of chess and people are keeping all their cards close to their chests, the sheer callousness and active malice that every character displays from time to time, the dragged out tragedies, etc. It's not my type of story. 

The reason I didn't drop it is because Mainland Chinese BL censorship was a special interest of mine, and I can't let it go yet.

cw: gang rape and sex trafficking (not romanticized, not graphic), sexual harassment and dubcon (romanticized and trivialized), snakes that kill stuff.

on hold

mlm. ~340 minutes

on hold because I can't find episode 6 onwards

mlm, trans, gnc. ~310 minutes

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

on hold

mlm. ~520 minutes

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

wlw, mlm, gnc. ~130 minutes

cw: transphobia

on hold

mlm. ~540 minutes

cw: seriously a horror

on hold

wlw. ~360 minutes

Married woman kisses a woman she's just met and tells her husband about it. And then we see a slow exploration of mostly polite and calm but emotionally intense conversations among all parties, including the husband's family, who they have to live with.

On hold because I can't find good subtitles. I really appreciate the husband's sister, an adult autistic woman with a burnout and an inability to go outside.

on hold

mlm. ~1260 minutes

Dating reality show. Should've been trimmed down into something shorter. 

current

mlm. ~330 minutes

Devout goody two shoes at Christian school meets embittered rebellious new student questioning faith because it clashes with his gayness.

current

wlw. ~520 minutes

Princess gets replaced by doppelganger and almost murdered, but is saved again and again by awesome cop lady.

current

mlm. ~510 minutes

Prince and servant bestie like each other, but aren't allowed to.

current

mlm. ~450 minutes

Insecure dude who was recently cheated on by ex hits it off with handsome stranger. Appears to be character focused rather than plot focused. Doesn't have the idealized clean BL aesthetic. I think it wants to be closer to actual representation than BL usually is. The main character is dealing with insecurities over not being cute and little like BL bottoms usually are, and feeling less desirable for it.

current

wlw. ~480 minutes

Spoiled princess has to marry down to earth farmer in order to save family business.

This is a comedy with intentional overacting. I think it really works.

current

mlm. ~470 minutes

Strict emotionally closed cop and loosy goosy flirty cop have to solve murder mysteries together.

current

mlm. ~720 minutes

I was going to write a one sentence summary of the plot but honestly the plot is kind of secondary to the vibe. Comfy rural show with aspirations of realism and artistry. Everything about how this was shot feels like breathing at a forest creek. Made by the same crew as Secrets Happened on Litchi Island, and I could tell from the shared vibe, so I checked and it was true.

current

wlw. ~240 minutes

mlm. ~140 minutes

Gay star screwed up by drunkenly confessing feelings to fellow star, who wants nothing to do with him anymore.

This is very amateur and indie, but it still has a genuine and fun emotional core that I don't often see with the nth Chinese stoic 'too cool for emotions' -idol BL.

dropped after ep 1.

mlm. ~130 minutes

Star re-encounters childhood bestie and probably gets into fake relationship with him to avoid being set up for blind dates.

I can't deal with that one guy acting like a five year old.

dropped after ep 1

mlm.

Burned out erotic store owner meets rock star who keeps buying viagra, but not for the obvious reason.

It's a meh indie show. The reason I dropped it was that the rampant AI use was too distracting.

mlm. ~500 minutes

Douchebag star picks irrelevant extra to be co-star in a BL. The feels get real.

In terms of pacing, this is excellent. Really keeps you hooked.

It is intentionally very toxic. There's a rape subplot that feels like someone's fictional expression of their real lived experience, and I appreciate that. Not the therapy part though, that couldn't be further off from reality if you tried.

But this does suffer from that specific type of queerphobia that was characteristic of early BL, which China hasn't outgrown yet, and I really don't appreciate that. Like, it defends straight-passing guys who just happen to fall for the one other special guy, while quite explicitly putting down people who are 'really gay' (真gay).

cw: cheating, two explicit rape scenes, abuse of power, too drunk to consent, sleep kiss, main character beats up a gay guy for being too overtly gay.