Welcome to my Saturday blog post, where I give thoughts on dramas I’m watching, whether at the beginning, middle, or end. Whatever I want, because I’m petty that way.
This week, I recapped episodes 11-12 of Pit Babe Season 2. There’s only one episode left, I’m predicting a lot of “action” and things left wide open for season 3. The last episode is already out, and I haven’t watched it, and it’s killing me a little.
I also recapped episodes 11-12 of The Next Prince. There are two episodes left in this show, and I’d really like more Nin and Charan in them.
I have a request for the makers of romantic dramas, and BL in particular: we’ve done the hands-entwined-during-sex thing a lot. Please come up with a new visual representation for… sex things.
What did I watch this week? There’s still more dramas out than I could reasonably watch, but I managed to start a thing and finish a thing. First, the thing I started:
A/B/O Desire – 垂涎 – 2025
Currently airing Chinese Omegaverse BL, I’ve watched 4 of 16 episodes.
Two hot, mean S-Class Alphas who are also CEOs of pharmaceutical companies both have love interests hiding big secrets.
Here’s a link to the trailer for episode 1.
I’m seeing people call this the first omegaverse drama, and in my heart, that will always be Pit Babe. But where Pit Babe tried to hide and then abandon its omegaverse roots, this show is 100% omegaverse all the way.
We’ve got alphas, omegas, betas, heats, ruts, and all that fun stuff
Pheremones are constantly wafting off characters.
And if you’re new to the omegaverse world and worried you won’t understand any of these terms, the show spends the first two+ episodes in exposition land. You get the full omegaverse story. There are plenty of scenes of characters sitting and explaining things to each other.
(As a side note, A/B/O stands for Alpha/Beta/Omega, I’m using the slashes here to avoid a slur in English.)
As I think I explained with Pit Babe, I am not well-read or particularly interested in the omegaverse world. What I am drawn to is novelty and soap opera. And we’ve got both here.
Two of our leads are CEOs with anger management issues who despise groups of people for things they can’t control. Their names are Sheng and Shen, and one tends to run cold while the other runs hot. They also talk A LOT about business, which is my least favorite part of this show.
Their love interests are both secretaries with secrets. One would be considered a spoiler at this point, though easily found on the internet. This meek, delicate-seeming man has some kind of big plan for his CEO.
The other secretary might be the only not-terrible person on the show, despite his secret. He’s desperately in love with his CEO, and because his CEO hates omegas, he’s using a dangerous amount of various medications to pass himself off as a beta. He also has a sick sister in the hospital. Of course.
I commend the show for its dead serious tone, as all these ridiculous things are happening.
Sick of the whole red flag/green flag discourse?
This is the show for you! Red flags everywhere. Outside of the one secretary, everyone here is terrible. They’re plotting, scheming, doing the worst things the worst way. And it’s fine because they’re all awful anyway.
This is soap opera territory, right down to some very shaky production values. The fun isn’t about getting warm fuzzies or heart flutters. The fun is in what dramatic, over-the-top thing will happen next. No one has ended up in the hospital yet, but I’m sure it’s coming. Multiple times.
I’m looking forward to seeing these people betray, lie, misunderstand, and communicate poorly with one another for the next 12 episodes.
If you’re not familiar with the omegaverse but you’ve enjoyed things like My Stubborn, When the Phone Rings, or Pluto, you may want to give this a try. If your tastes run towards things like Moonlight Chicken or When It Rain, It Pours, this is…. wildly different.
I also watched all of:
Fight for You – 對立而已 – 2025
A recently aired Taiwanese Spy-Comedy BL with 12 episodes.
It’s spy-versus-spy, kinda, not really, as a young man on his first assignment spies on his roommate who works for a shady group of people.
This show is confusing. One of our main characters is a spy, and the other is… a criminal? Kind of? He’s working for a shady organization. Kind of. For his sick sister in the hospital (that’s 2/2 sick sisters in the hospital this week).
All the details of this feel loose and confusing, disconnected from reality. Unlike the show above that handles its ridiculous setup with stone-faced seriousness, all the characters here seem half-invested in what they’re doing. While the story seems like it should be serious, it isn’t.
This is not the first time I’ve seen this style of storytelling
The other 3-4 times I’ve encountered these strange mixes of tone and storytelling have all been from Taiwan. The one that comes to mind first is Stay By My Side, where one character’s ability to hear ghosts didn’t seem that important to the plot. It just meant he wanted to be near the other character.
Even my beloved See Your Love started with this kind of silly setup, but it calmed down after a few episodes. While the mobsters always felt silly and unreal, the relationship at the core felt sincere and moving.
Here, our two leads are sweet and cute together. They have nice chemistry. They have nice skinship. But I had trouble getting into their relationship when everything felt so unreal.
The one guy just wanted to be a spy because it was the family business, and couldn’t lie to save his life. The other one accepted everything that he said without question. He was also dead set on doing the worst possible thing to make money, despite numerous people wanting to help him.
They both seemed kind of dumb.
So they started a fake relationship and then did some real kissing alone at home because that’s how you handle fake relationships. Then they were falling in love. I mean, why not?
But sometimes you want silly and not serious
Actual spy versus spy/criminal/guy-desperate-to-save-his-sisters-life would be a painful watch. If you want to escape reality, this show has very little to do with reality. It’s also something different than a light, fluffy school or office BL.
It’s stupid and silly, but it’s also kind of fun.
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