I can’t say that I’m unhappy with that discovery because it has lead me to a new obsession — Thai GL series.
For those of you who don’t know, GL stands for “girls’ love.” That’s the East and Southeast Asian moniker for types of entertainment that are about two women in love, versus “sapphic” or “women loving women” stories in the west, or the older Japanese manga term, “yuri.”
Generally, I’ve stayed with mostly Korean or Japanese dramas in the past because I enjoy the sound of the languages, but while searching for Korean GL videos, of which there are very few, I stumbled on Thai GL series that I’d never heard anything about.
These shows have original scores, high production values, and some seriously beautiful actors. The story lines can be hit or miss, perhaps because of the cultural differences, but for the most part they are fun to watch. Kind of a cross between telenovelas and Hallmark movies. And it works.
The really interesting thing about Thai GL is that Entertainment groups pair up young actors together, kind of like the K-pop idol model, and then put them in multiple series’ together. The fans ship them and they go and do fan events together as an “imaginary” couple. Everyone is in on the fact they aren’t really a couple, but it doesn’t matter.
Want my recommendations on some Thai GL shows?
Here are a few YouTube channels to explore:
@KissZeries
@IdolFactory
@gmmtv
Here’s a Korean GL channel as well. Although, there aren’t nearly enough GL Kdramas yet:
@RedQ_official
And here’s a great Instagram account to follow for news on what’s coming soon:
@official.sapphicverse
Perhaps the over-the-top story lines about ridiculously wealthy people doing silly things inspired me. Who knows. But at least I’m not completely giving up on contemporary romance after all.
Speaking of which, if you haven’t read Good Game yet, my only contemporary romance so far, now’s a great time to do so. There’s no telenovela drama going on, but there is a cute romance between a marketing director and the only female gamer on a professional video game team.
