So I watched Heartstopper ~<3 Idk if it technically 'counts' as a drama, but that's my tag now so I'm rolling with it. I already knew I was going to like it, I'm gradually collecting all the comics in physical form, but the production company really went all out with their editing and everything! The sound design was impeccable and the special effects were really sweet and 100% the right aesthetic to go for to make it really comicbook-esque and I really liked them.

The first season is 8 30 min episodes, so very easily bingeable, and the plot is nothing overly complex. It does deal quite heavily with homophobia and coming out and it does have a scene of sexual assault (forced kissing) and several with verbal harrassment, but the show is pretty quick to comfort the viewer and the characters after these events. Most of the tension comes from the kind of interpersonal issues all teens have: how do I date the person I like? What do I do if I realise my friends are assholes? What do you do if your friends don't like your new crush? It's nice!

The author has some unfortunate negative views about BL and yaoi that I honestly can't support but as someone who was on Tumblr at the same time, I know where they got them from and it's hard for me to be as mad about it as various of the people I know. That being said, I would feel remiss in not mentioning it. Anyone who chooses not to watch because of it is perfectly reasonable, despite of all my love for it.

My favourite thing about Heartstopper is that it feels like a romanticised version of my school years. I never had mixed age forms, but I definitely made fast friends with the girl assigned to the seat next to me. I was the one hanging out with the school weirdos and hiding from people inside at lunch (though I hid in the library instead). I've taken trains just like those to go to the beach. This is a show about people like me, at a school like mine, living in a place similar to where I grew up being happy and queer together and I love it. I don't think I'm capable of being objective about this show and that's okay.

It's also worth mentioning that everyone has alive mums and that Charlie and Nick make a queer friendship group! People like each other in this show, beyond just the romantic relationships. People are friends and I love that! Plenty of ink has been spilled on this show so I won't ramble too long, but it is a show that really touched me. I don't know if I'd recommend it to everyone, but if you're in the mood for two boys learning to love each other, then I think it's definitely worth a shot.

I've not finished many dramas lately, though I have started a few. I have finished a couple very short web dramas these past couple days, however. One is Tinted for You on Viki and one is Legend of Yunze on Douyin, with english translations provided by douqi on YouTube (they also translated Legend of Yunqian, a pillar of the baihe community!). They were both short and light on any kind of plot, but you can't fit a huge amount into less than 90 minutes of content. What they have could have been tighter, narratively, but these are definitely closer to amateur content than something with a budget and a production company of more than a few people.

Legend of Yunze has 2 seasons, a xianxia casefic where Jiang Zhaoyun and A-Ze meet and a modern-with-magic reincarnation romance drama (complete with genre typical manipulation tactics by Zhaoyun lmao). Each season is about an hour long and there are several plot holes, but the characters have just enough substance to be interesting and it was a fun sort of brain turn off and watch show. A-Ze, especially, is a great little character. Jiang Zhaoyun is quite stiff but, like I said, these land on the more amateur/low budget end of the scale.

• season 1 has a non-graphic suicide and sexual harassment of side characters, plus a tiny bit of mind control.


• season 2/special has manipulation (by jiang zhaoyun of a-ze, by a-ze's foster mother of a-ze), a bit of sexual harassment and some magical emotional manipulation.

Tinted for You is a 90 min korean BL where a schoolboy gets trapped in a painting/the past and falls in love with a prince (and, arguably, his bodyguard). This is one of those stories where the main character bumbles around until he remembers what he was told to do right at the very beginning but, in spite of all that, it's very sweet. There's an IC explanation at the end by the magical lady that put him in the painting that's very meta and interesting as well so that's nice. Though only 2 of the boys kiss, there's definitely canon support for a poly relationship as well which is nice to see. Or maybe that's my shipping goggles!
Content warnings: lots of attempted murder

I actually watched most of this in one week in January, but I put it down 4 episodes before the end and then picked it up again this week and finished it. Having finally reached the end, it's a bittersweet tale. Sweet, because the two main characters have really confronted the issues that caused them to hurt each other so much in the past, but bitter because I really don't think they could have got there without the hurts that came along the way. All the characters go through a lot, but it never feels trite or like it's just happening to push the plot forwards. In many ways that makes it all hurt more.

Our Beautiful Summer
16 Episodes
Modern Romance Kdrama with flashbacks to 10 years ago.

The short summary is two people who made a documentary together while they were in school are asked to do a 'where are they now?' documentary 10 years later which leads to them revisiting their history together.

Anyway, I definitely recommend it if you like a romance drama with a happy ending but lots of angst in the middle.