They're airing at the same time and they're both pulpy action-comedy crime BLs where one person wronged the other in episode one.
Both are about high schoolers having to confront feelings too big for them in a world too small to trellis them appropriately. The world is cruel to young love, especially young queer love. The exploration of that particular mix of confusion, elation, and fear rings true in both works. Both also deal with the added pressures of internalized and external homophobia in sensitive and realistic ways despite the relatively short runtimes. There's little hope in either production, but it's always there. There is always a fool's hope when it comes to love.
They are both coming-of-age narratives that focus on two young people who have known each other all their lives and have a fraught relationship (are we friends, brothers, or competitors?) told in similar tones and with a similar level of simmering eroticism. Both have excellent camerawork and make interesting stylistic choices, both have convincing performances that showcase the actors' chemistry together, both are bittersweet, and both are continued in later installments of their respective franchises.
In the series cut of ATOF, there's the added punch of emotion that comes from the epilogue scenes of each episode that additionally match well with the ITSAY-esque tone.
In the series cut of ATOF, there's the added punch of emotion that comes from the epilogue scenes of each episode that additionally match well with the ITSAY-esque tone.
They are both coming-of-age narratives that focus on two young people who have known each other all their lives and have a fraught relationship (are we friends, brothers, or competitors?) told in similar tones and with a similar level of simmering eroticism. Both have excellent camerawork and make interesting stylistic choices, both have convincing performances that showcase the actors' chemistry together, both are bittersweet, and both are continued in later installments of their respective franchises.
They're both dialogue heavy and watch more like plays than television, they both grapple with themes of grief and isolation, they're both stories about young queer men without really being genre-complacent BLs, they both rely heavily on visual symbolism, and they both end on cathartic new beginnings.
Both 2024 Taiwanese dramas combine thriller elements with main characters feeling haunted by their life circumstances even before the bodies start racking up.
Both shows are horror comedies that feature ghost whisperers working for haunted skeptics and explore hauntings in a professional capacity.
Both shows have very similar premises as they're about a realtor and a ghost whisperer teaming up to sell houses. Both also have comedic elements.
Both stories are about exploring ghosts from a domestic angle; also, both of the respective main male leads have personal familial connections to and interests in the supernatural.
If you want to see Perth in a teenaged BL role that feels more authentic and less polished, then give his og series a try. His acting has definitely improved since 2018, but the lack of challenge that DR's script provided for both Perth and Chimon means that their performances feel very 'acty' if that makes sense? They're hyperaware of the camera and it shows. I can't recommend Love By Chance for anything else, but Perth and Saint have equivalently good chemi and a more interesting relationship. Just ignore the side couples.
A quirky coed uni friend group obsessed with aliens, the supernatural, and other inexplicable phenomena? Check. An actual supernatural who then ends up crossing paths with said friend group? Check. Comedy? Check. Loveable idiocy? Check. Five dollars and a dream? You better believe it.
If you're into BLs that revolve around time travel and fighting destiny with the threat of death hanging overhead at all times, then look no further. Also good for fans of *actually* interesting soulmate plots.