BOYS’ Lockdown is another entry to the ever-growing list of boys’ love (BL) series, a genre which has seen a surge in popularity this year, and this time, its writer said that this is for people who want to see a cute, fluffy romance with a happy ending.

Boys’ Lockdown is a six-episode series directed by Jade Castro that follows the story of Key (Ali King) and Chen (Alec Kevin), two boys who meet each other during enhanced community quarantine (the strictest form of lockdown imposed in the country during the first few months of the pandemic) in a convenience store while running errands.

“We want it to be a satisfying watch for those who will watch the show, and personally for me, that meant a happy ever after,” Danice Sison, the series writer and creator, said during an interview with BusinessWorld via Zoom on Oct. 7.

The show, whose first episode premiered on Oct. 19 on the Ticket2Me YouTube channel, is meant to be a lighthearted watch that will show what a “healthy, loving, supportive relationship looks like,” said Ms. Sison.

The first episode of the series sees the two leads meet offline in a supermarket/pharmacy in twinning face masks, as remarked in a cameo by “Tita Julie,” a popular online character of a progressive, rich tita (aunt) created by Mark Averilla, best known as McCoy Dubs.

Boys’ Lockdown is produced by Ticket2Me, a Southeast Asian blockchain-enabled ticketing platform that has produced several musicals and plays in the country. This is Ticket2Me’s first online web series and was started because the company’s CEO and founder, Darwin Mariano, loved the Thai BL series 2gether: The Series and wanted to do something like it.

According to the Urban Dictionary, “Boys love is the common term used by the publishing industry to categorize works focusing on male/male relationships marketed at women.” The term and its abbreviation “BL” are now being used to describe a wide variety of work in all media including anime and manga, novels and fan fiction, and live-action web shows.

“I messaged Jade [Castro] and told him that we should make a BL series because 2gether, saved me a lot of grief during the worst parts of the pandemic,” Mr. Mariano said during the same interview.

2gether: The Series is a Thai show about two schoolmates finding love and was a smash hit in the Philippines. It is largely credited towards the popularity of the genre.

And because the series was filmed during lockdowns, the team opted to do a locked-in shoot where everyone stayed in one location for two weeks to complete the shoot, a novel experience, especially for Ali King who said that the show was his first-ever acting gig.

“It was fun… I don’t know how prod work is done before quarantine, so the [stricter] protocols are now the norm for me,” Mr. King said in the interview.

Boys Lockdown is the newest entry to the ever-growing BL series slate in the country, and for Ms. Sison, this is a step towards LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual, etc) representation as it allows those who identify themselves as part of the community to now “reclaim their stories” as they “saw themselves in these shows.”

Globe Studios came out with Gaya sa Pelikula while Ideafirst made Gameboys, both of which are BL series. (Read more: https://www.bworldonline.com/globe-studios-releases-boys-love-online-series/ and https://www.bworldonline.com/pinoy-web-series-on-gay-romance-finds-an-audience-during-the-pandemic/)

“They should watch Boys’ Lockdown if they like BL and if they like stories about two men falling in love and getting their happy endings and if they want a sweet, fluffy, romance,” Ms. Sison said.

Watch Boys’ Lockdown on the Ticket2Me YouTube page. The link to the first episode is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-epxsCY8jE . — Zsarlene B. Chua

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