BL Compilations

what a special episode should be

Overall: we had 27 minutes of new content that was a progression of their story and fluff which is exactly what I was looking for in a special episode. Available on GagaOOLala & Viki (country dependent).

What I Liked
- sweet/fluff moments
- intimacy/physical affection
- styling
- continuation of their story

Room For Improvement
- the 2 cringey fall, catch and awkward holds
- some of the camerawork felt low budget/shaky
- needed the production to include the 2 characters at the end into the special's intro sequence to refresh viewers' memories, per the review comment they are the cousin/colleague and the driver from the series, I'm likely not the only person who had no idea who they were so their appearance felt random

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rushed with some cute parts, loose adaptation of Why R U (Thailand, 2020)

Overall: This is a remake of the 2020 Thai BL Why R U (which in turn is based on a book) but I will review it on its own merits. 8 episodes about 25 minutes each. Note: there is an extra scene after the next week's preview in some episodes. Aired on iQIYI & Viki (depending on your country). Idol Romance also produced: Roommates of Poongduck 304, The Tasty Florida and Kissable Lips.

Content Warnings: manhandling, non con touching, non con kiss?, slap (part of acting)

What I Liked
- I did laugh a few times (swearing at each other with their fingers)
- cute moments
- Max & Nat cameo
- the original Why R U series playing in the background in a scene
- the perspective change in ep 2
- Sun Woo & Yoo Kyeom (up until the end of ep 4 when that reaction made zero sense to me)
- good kissing

Room For Improvement
- the intro felt like a trailer/exposition dump, it didn't hook me
- another bad "plan" that belongs in middle school (from Ji Oh), however Ji Oh had a personality change around episode 5 and I liked his character more/the dynamic
- confusing, did not clearly differentiate the flashback from present (the widescreen is flashback, full screen is present), several fast cuts
- was too choppy/rushed, should have cut out the sister/book thing entirely
- interjecting women/love triangles, (she had such a stupid plan, why wouldn't she tell her friend?)
- why didn't Yoo Kyeom tell Sun Woo about the girlfriend situation, he knew that they are friends
- cliche overhearing something and not telling the person what is wrong, and then a few days later he says he believes in being clear and finally tells him
- long recaps

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cute follow up

Overall: this takes place directly after episode 12 with the focus on the main couple. Watched on Gagaoolala, also on Viki.

Content Warnings: none

What I Liked
- cute moments (the jealousy, kissing, outfits, hairstyle, cuddle, etc)
- interesting concept for a special episode
- neutral on the season 1 flashbacks, it was maybe helpful to remind people of a couple of key moments but also kind of felt like filler

Room For Improvement
- I'm kind of confused with what the phone did because then doesn't that mean the 2nd hop would have changed their future?

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poignant and sweet, a really well done short BL series (minor spoilers)

Overall: I really enjoyed this more realistic/subdued BL (similar to Life Love on the Line). This is based on a manga but I'm rating it on its own. Watched on Viki.

Content Warnings: non con kiss (sleeping), dub con kissing, manhandling, trespassing, theft? (I don't consider the 10 year age gap or boss/employee to be a content warnings based on how things went)

What I Liked
- acting (I especially liked that Togawa was snotty when crying which is realistic)
- cute and caring moments, also a few really funny moments
- the food/desserts!
- cinematography (that long take scene at the end of episode 4 was amazing)
- although Nozue made more changes, I liked that Togawa also made a change in episode 5 based on what Nozue had said previously
- the subtle vibe
- good intro and song, as well as other music to fit the mood

Room For Improvement
- there were two times when I was so happy that Togawa respected Nozue's boundaries and then Togawa violated those boundaries which was disappointing
- the series would have benefited from a slightly longer run time (the abrupt and unknown time jump at the end as an example)
- a missed humor opportunity in episode 3, they could have shown Togawa frantically trying to clean up
- I think we should have had at least 1 kiss in episode 5, especially considering their ages

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Plot Rushed

Overall: They tried to make the plot too complex for a short runtime and I don't even think I'd call this BL. Because they did a 'Yoo Han is kidnapped' plot, Yeon Woo is not available to pair with anyone else romantically. Watched on Viki.

Content Warnings: bullying, side character deaths, fight scenes

What I Liked:
- good production value
- good acting

Room For Improvement
- very confusing/rushed/overly complicated plot - there's a secret bar, tea, pills, vantablack, fake candy factory, grayscale, probe surgery, a bunch of new characters introduced
- I really enjoyed season 1s vibe that was kind of dangerous/obsessive, this does not have that same vibe
- that kiss was mostly camera angle tricks and it was in a dream
- what idiot characters take drinks or pills from very shady characters, at least one could have faked taking the pill
- odd/non logical things such as: Yeon Woo just happens to leave around his very important notebook, also his aunt leaves something really important in a place that Yeon Woo can easily find (when has keeping secrets ever worked out well btw), if telling her bullies about her brother would stop her from being bullied why wouldn't she do that?, she suddenly dies (I'm sure there's a plot twist in that but it felt so random), the grandpa would know the truth wouldn't he tell the classmate? better to say nothing at all then a totally unhelpful "run away", the brother knew his sister was being bullied wouldn't he intervene?, no way the mom's headband would look brand new after years in the water, what exactly even happened with the mom? why would they do that elaborate candy factory thing when they could just go and kidnap monos?

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Well that took a turn....

Overall: I'd rate the first part (until 8min 25sec, just end it there, trust me) an 8. It felt a bit contrived but the NSFW was done well and steamy (no fake kissing there). But the 2nd part just took such an unfortunate turn. Also I think a better summary is "a security guard meets a bartender and things go down south" (or was he actually a police officer? I don't know the uniforms...). Watched on Gagaoolala.

Content Warnings: stealing, trespassing, violence, murder?

What I Liked
- the first 8min and 25sec

What I Disliked
- everything past 8min and 25sec, this all seemed so unnecessary and done for shock value

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Overall: an explicit 1 hour movie that needed to connect the dots a bit more regarding plot points. Watched on Gagaoolala.

Content Warning: dub con, very explicit sex scenes

What I Liked
- the Italian music
- that really muscular guy was so sweet (and he made me laugh a few times)
- showing the stress of caring for an aging/ill parent

Room For Improvement
- we needed more explanation, why did he go away for 7 years? I wasn't even sure why he returned/his relationship to the couple until I read the summary. I'm all for NSFW scenes, but they could have removed a couple and built the plot more.

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groundbreaking in some areas and reinforced stereotypes/terrible in others

Overall: I liked how they brought up several current social issues but episode 6 pretty much wrecked the series for me (see more info in my comment). It is obvious that the 2 directors and 3 writers were all men, this thing will age like milk. Aired on YouTube.
Note: there may be words/discussion in this review that people find triggering.

Content Warnings: rape (beginning of episode 6 more info in my comment), violence/beaten up, kidnapping/held against will, bullying, homophobia, transphobia, non con kissing, non con photo taking/posting, body shaming, sexual harassment, unwanted public outing

What I Liked
- bringing up and educating about social issues, ones I thought they did well include: school having sex education class, abortion, body shaming, non penetrative sex, educating about HPV, addressing transphobia
- sexual orientation and gender diversity (m/m, f/f and m/f couples; non binary character, a trans woman character who isn't the comic relief cliche)
- that they didn't shy away from showing NSFW scenes
- I enjoyed a lot of the music

Room For Improvement
- the writer/s really messed up on several issues:
      1. more information under a comment with spoiler tag but the whole Alex and Jean thing in episode 6, they should have focused on the part with the pictures. The fact that people can't agree that Alex raped Jean (which he 100% did, you can say stop at any point for any reason at all) shows how badly the writers messed this plotline up. And that he continually violates her boundaries by talking to her. His friends come up with the plan to retraumatize Jean by again contacting her and then kissing her in order to get his orgasm back. His friends don't know that Alex raped Jean but Alex definitely knows this and yet he goes along with their plan WTF?!? And I predicted they would end it as they did, vomit.
      2. BDSM conflated with cheating and poor communication - I was so happy to see consensual puppy play but was disappointed they went the poor communication, her not really being into it and him cheating (and yes he emotionally cheated and lied by omission). I didn't want her to take him back (welp update, guess what happened bleh)
     3. Open relationship conflated with poor communication and not as good as monogamy - again I guess it was too much to hope we'd see a healthy open relationship. Instead we got them fighting/hitting each other and really bad communication before they eventually made up. And now it appears they are getting married and end up in a monogamous relationship.
4. Army and Jo - I really wanted them to work through their differences but once again in episode 11 Army is ignoring/pushing Jo's boundaries with what he feels comfortable with. I'm not saying their relationship couldn't work but I wanted to see more communication and mutual decision making. I also didn't like how they made Army violate Alex's boundaries a few times, this felt like the stereotypical gay guy who can't keep his hands off of others.
5. Kat - again they are positioning monogamy as superior to non monogamy
6. The workplace sexual harassment - eventually they showed the boss as a douche but some people are really touchy feely in a non-sexual way. I wanted the writers to make it more clear cut. So have him make an inappropriate remark "your breasts look great in that shirt" or Liu tell him to stop touching her and then he continued. As I later state, it annoyed me that Alex and Ew had to be involved at all/come to the rescue. Instead of Liu punching him, what about getting the boss other consequences like suspended without pay/fired? I would have written this plot differently.

- that Alex continues to be a gynecologist with his only training being a short tutorial on giving a pelvic exam (because that obviously is sufficient instead of years of medical school/internship #sarcasm). He should have taken vacation or a leave of absence. It's insulting that he continues to give (perhaps dangerous and incorrect) medical advice to his patients.
- whatever happened with Jean's endometriosis? (in a comment someone said that this was not endometriosis but was from a poorly done abortion, however, they never explicitly state this so I feel that a very serious medical issue was not resolved/explained well)
- Kat, why did it seem like she was having her mug shots taken? There is 1 line about him being arrested but I would have liked them to actually show him arrested and put into jail.
- too many characters/plots meant not enough screentime/not fully developed characters and plots, I also think they should have reduced the number of social issues and brought them up more organically, it felt like an after school special at some points
- Alex positioned as everyone's savior so that he can climax, this was annoying and shallow. Army even specifically asked Alex not to talk to Jo and Alex ignored him and talked to Jo. Then Alex starts yelling at Liu's boss and ignores her even though she repeatedly asks Alex to stop. They should have focused on going back in time and left the whole orgasm part out of it.
- Ew proposing at his friend's wedding, I thought this was a universal no-no, Ew it isn't your day!
- the writers tried to have flawed/complex characters but instead they made a**hole characters that I don't want to watch/don't want to see certain couples be together
- not satisfied with the ending, obviously the writers haven't heard of the butterfly effect....

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exploring the joys and challenges of a poly relationship

Overall: I gave this a rating boost because there aren't many series/movies that give a realistic look at a modern day poly relationship and I think this series did a pretty good job with the topic. 11 episodes about 20 minutes each. Aired on Netflix https://www.netflix.com/title/82025606

Content Warnings: pet death, grief

What I Liked
- showed two women getting married in episode 1
- explored the enjoyable parts and the challenges of having a three person romantic relationship
- how they talked with each other
- the moms and the brother
- chuckled a few times

Room For Improvement
- the child-like voice overs
- needed to cut the woman with glasses out and focus more on the relationship development between the three leads (episode 9 was skippable, could watch at 18 min to the end)

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a comfort show with a few hiccups

Overall: the sweet/caring dynamic was fun to watch, but there were a few plot/character missteps. 12 episodes about 45 minutes each. Uncut on iQIYI https://www.iq.com/play/your-sky-episode-1-1mjy70t567o?lang=en_us ; episode 1 cut on YouTube (not available in Japan or South Korea) https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcTibKbv20S4ZNMvGUzUFQZrJenvr4xCa&si=Z1iDluCF_Hhpy73L I added up the timings in ep 1 and the uncut was about 1 minute longer - I didn't see any difference between the cut and uncut versions.

Content Warnings: manipulation, non con touching/manhandling, punches, non con picture taking/sharing, coercion, transphobia, non con touching, victim blaming, homophobia, manhandling

Watch Suggestions (uncut version)
- watch episodes 1-6
- episode 7 watch beginning to 3min and 52-end
- episode 8 start at 13:30
- episode 9 skip 31:30-35 and 38-44
- can watch all of episode 10 though the second couple annoyed me
- episode 11 watch 4:15-21 and 47-54:50
- watch all of episode 12

What I Liked
- showed a main character as kind through his actions at the beginning
- caring/sweet dynamic and that they communicated
- one of the few child-like characters who had agency (actively made his own decisions without being manipulated into things)
- supportive friend group
- Fah's loving and supportive family
- non cliche ex girlfriend
- intimacy and check ins, continued intimacy/not rebuffing intimacy

Room For Improvement
- character exposition dump montage with voice over for the other main character
- though Rak had agency, his continued child-like demeanor got on my nerves after he and Fah were intimate
- the stereotypical trans woman character
- nonsense stuff: so drunk he couldn't recognize someone but still able to stand/walk and talk, friends didn't seem to know what was going on but everyone else did in ep 2, that the antagonist didn't switch his focus to someone else
- in episode 6 they needed to show them filming so viewers realized that it was for the student film and didn't really happen (on/near the beach)
- in episode 7 what a character did could have killed another character, that was too violent and though the couple did briefly talk later, I couldn't totally trust a character that showed that level of violence
- a character randomly showed up to comfort Oh, they could have weaved that character in earlier
- nonsense in episode 8, there was plenty of time to say something to another character
- in episode 8 a 3rd couple came out of nowhere, could have built that up better
- the victim blaming in ep 9 was infuriating
- continuity error in ep 9 of no pants and then pants
- some of the camera angles were odd
- episode 10 with the apology letter and shopping part
- episode 11 a character acted totally different (and other characters hinting at it didn't work because what I saw as a viewer was different), the other adults not saying things right away, the manhandling, the 180 shift, none of it worked for me
- episode 11 and 12 should have reduced the family drama and spent that time better developing the second and third couples
- (neutral) comedy sound effects

Question - I'm wondering if the nickname "Saggy Cheeks" would better be translated to "Squishy Cheeks" - if anyone who speaks Thai can talk about the translation please let me/us know. "Saggy Cheeks" has a negative connotation to me but I had the impression that it was a silly nickname, not a negative nickname.

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accidental call meant to be?

Overall: I was happy that the series was focused on the leads but then a third character took up too much time in the finale. 4 episodes about 10 minutes each. Aired on Sukfilm's YouTube channel https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYfaogVGCvwSn_EksTEo-gNZJbq4wMIVb&si=ZTVhgoz20VrTZQUS (members have more/longer kissing scenes and apparently a short scene at the end of the finale) The production company Sukfilm has also made: Blue Boys, Seoul Blues, Never Fair

Content Warnings: threatened suicide, non/dub con kiss

What I Liked
- intro
- the flashback made his response in episode 1 make sense
- acting/visuals
- acknowledged that they just met, end of episode 4 was nice (just needed more screen time for them)

Room For Improvement
- that major things kept happening when one was very drunk
- a character took up way too much time in the finale
- cliche a character lied and another character walked away/misunderstood (though at least it seemed to be cleared up fairly soon)
- abrupt ending

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a strict CEO and a freewheeling guy

Overall: I enjoyed their dynamic but I needed less of the scheming woman cliche. 30 episodes less than 2 minutes each. Aired on Swipedrama app (also has I'm Your Pet). It took me 3 days to watch the series for free, which is really good for these vertical series. Note - episode 1 starts out as a preview and then goes into the episode. App information below.

Content Warnings: non con video recording, manipulation, mention of past intimate partner violence

What I Liked
- opposites attract dynamic
- laughed when he agreed to keep something a secret and revealed that secret a minute later
- sweet/caring moments (under the table footsie was fun)
- the 'say please' part in ep 17

Room For Improvement
- cliche wannabe girlfriend character and failed redemption arc
- wanted something at the very end that would have wrapped up the story nicely


How to Watch For Free
Day 1: check in, ad after check in = 7 coins, 3 ads = 9 coins, watched episodes 1-12 (free to watch), 13-15 used coins, 16 & 17 (when I ran out of coins I touched outside of the coin packages and then I could watch an ad to watch 2 more episodes 18 & 19). I then got the 6 coins for watching 5, 10 and 15 minutes but something glitched so I only watched up to episode 19 for free on Day 1. There are other ways to get coins (ie sign in, social media, get notifications) so you could watch more. Leftover coins day 1: 2

Day 2: check in, ad after check in, 3 ads (17 coins plus 2 from day 1) - watched episodes 20-22, then watched 23 & 24 daily ad, checked in 5, 10 & 15 min and watched 25 & 26

Day 3: watched a few ads to finish the series

App Notes: unused bonus coins seem to last for a year, episodes don't re-lock, you can't skip to different episodes (must watch them in order), no wait time between watching ads is nice

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aimless guys looking for something to hold onto

Overall: it was decent for a vertical series, but I've seen better. 44 episodes less than 2 minutes each Aired on Swipedrama app (also has Can a Freeloader Make it as a Secretary). It took me 5 days to watch the series for free which is pretty good (the worst took 13 days for Please Teach Me on TopReel). Note - episode 1 starts out as a preview and then goes into the episode. App information below.

Content Warnings: manipulation, suicidal thoughts, child abuse, slap, non con kiss

What I Liked
- realistic characters trying to figure things out
- sweet/caring moments
- non cliche female character
- intimacy

Room For Improvement
- started with a flash forward and then returned to a month before
- O Christmas Tree music
- although a character apologized I think he should have had more consequences for his actions
- noble idiot trope


How to Watch For Free
Day 1: check in, ad after check in = 7 coins, 3 ads = 9 coins, watched episodes 1-14 (free to watch), 15-17 used coins, 18 & 19 (when I ran out of coins I touched outside of the coin packages and then I could watch an ad to watch 2 more episodes 20 & 21). I then got the 6 coins for watching 5, 10 and 15 minutes and watched ep 22. There are other ways to get coins (ie sign in, social media, get notifications) so you could watch more. Leftover coins day 1: 2

Day 2: check in, ad after check in, 3 ads (17 coins plus 2 from day 1) - watched episodes 23-25, then watched 26 & 27 daily ad, checked in 5, 10 & 15 min and watched 28 & 29

Day 3, 4, 5 (same as above, about 7 episodes watched per day)

App Notes: unused bonus coins might last for a year (so this is a good app to do daily check ins to accumulate coins), episodes don't re-lock, you can't skip to different episodes (must watch them in order), no wait time between watching ads is nice

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decent pink film

Overall: this is a 70 minute pink film (has several pretty explicit scenes). Aired on GagaOOLala https://www.gagaoolala.com/en/videos/4764/heavens-candy-2023 There is an extra scene after the end credits.

Content Warnings: peeping, past grooming, past pedophilia/non con

What I Liked
- dynamic with the leads
- the age gap relationship with the dad and the other guy was interesting.
- NSFW scenes were pretty well done

Room For Improvement
- voice over with a flash forward to start the movie
- wish they had taken out 1 character to really focus more on the leads and their relationship
- rushed ending

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