Boys Like Boys (2023)

Therapeutic dating show

I'm not a fan of dating shows, but I loved this one. I started watching it because it was compared to His Man. In my opinion, this one is much better. It may not have such a spectacular love story, but it has so much more.
The participants were surprising. They were completely different from the first impression they gave.
One who looked boring and rough, but was actually hiding so much emotion.
One who seemed confident and sociable, but actually felt inferior to the others.
One who seemed so perfect that others didn't dare enter into a relationship with him.
One who acted friendly and like a big kid, but looked after others all the time.
One who seemed to have nothing to hide from other people, but was in fact shy.
One who seemed too direct to others, but deep down was lost.
One who was still very young, but surpassed everyone else in maturity and put too much pressure on himself.
One who seemed carefree and sociable to everyone, but experienced loneliness in such a way that others did not notice.
Watching each episode, I felt like I was attending a therapy session where I was taught to love myself.
At one point in my viewing, I noticed that I stopped caring at all about who would form a couple with whom. I only cared about how the bond between the participants developed. Watching the friendship form between them was the most important part of the show.
It was therapeutic, relaxing and brought me peace of mind.

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a heartfelt reality dating series

Overall: my goal for reality dating series is always for them to make friends and have minimal heartbreak, any couples are icing on the cake. 10 episodes about 45 minutes each. Aired on GagaOOLala.

Content Warnings: ep 1 briefly mentioned a partner's death

What I Liked
- the friendships
- guys were genuine
- dinner conversation starters where they all answered (such as hobbies) but they also were free to ask their own questions (such as how one guy asked how many exes everyone had although I personally think that's an irrelevant/not good question to ask in the very beginning)
- how they had a date that was both kind of their choice but kind of up to fate
- smart decision to not let them say their age or occupation right away. I think people get fixated on those things when in reality personality, values and goals are much more important compatibility-wise
- the country/mountain setting
- the episode with the guest
- episode 9 was very heartfelt
- production value

Room For Improvement
- felt very similar to His Man (with the phone calls) and I would have liked if they had forged their own path
- dragged out the whole eliminating someone for too many episodes

Comparison to other m/m dating shows
1. Boy Romance (Taiwan, currently airing)
2. His Man seasons 1 & 2 (South Korea). Excellent production value though a bit repetitive with the number of phone calls.
3. Bromance (Thailand) is also on Gagaoolala. This is the typical Bachelor/Bachelorette set up with a bunch of people competing against one another to be with the 1 bachelor. I didn't like this because they could have all been hitting on each other and we have multiple couples! I got kind of bored and skipped a bunch.
4. Love House seasons 1 & 2 (Vietnam) on YouTube (most have English subs, this is ep 1 of season 2 no subs though https://youtu.be/TKzT_nHfVTA ). I liked this set up more than Bromance because the guys could all pursue one another. I didn't like the "secret couple" aspect and dividing them up based on sexual position seemed odd (can't they discuss that in private???) Season 1 was also the most brutal "rose ceremony" I've ever seen in any dating reality show. Season 2 was better.

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