FOR those who can’t get enough of Boys Love (BL) content which came out this year, here’s another one you can look forward to — Happenstance is a BL series that tells the love between two people living in different timelines from director Adolf Alix, Jr.

“The story is very different from what others have been doing,” Mr. Alix said of the series in a press conference on Dec. 21 held via Zoom.

Mr. Alix said the idea about the series stemmed from an article he read online about a woman finding a bag filled with old love letters from a man named Fred courting a woman named Daday in the ceiling of their ancestral house.

He said that after reading the story — the story broke in June — he figured that people communicating through time can be a good material for a Boys Love series. He then contacted his long-time collaborator Jerry Gracio to write what is now Happenstance.

Happenstance is a nine-episode series about two people who meet despite living in different periods — one in 1974 and the other in 2020. Jose Manuel (played by Jovani Manansala), who lives in 1974, is grounded by his father (played by Alan Paule), a soldier, after he learns his son’s relationship with Luis (Shu Calleja), an activist. Meanwhile, Wade (Kiko Ipapo) lives in 2020 and is recovering from a recent breakup with Eric (Saviour Ramos) and while on vacation is stuck inside because of quarantine. A super moon phenomenon (where the moon looks larger than it is normally) leads Wade and Jose Manuel to meet each other through a mirror, fall in love, and deal with said love considering their own issues and them living in different timelines.

The series streams starting December 25 via the GagaOOLala streaming platform. “What is going to be interesting is to see the audience reaction on how the two characters will interact and meet given their limitations,” Mr. Alix said in a release.

This is Mr. Alix’s first Boys Love series and said that it was his way of helping “to develop the genre and to push it forward.”

“It’s an interesting time because the market has widened because aside from the ‘pink market,’ BL [content] also caters to women,” he said in the press conference.

Pink Market is a term used to describe the LGBTQ community (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, queer, etc.)

Boys Love as a genre originally came from Japan, a genre of fictional media featuring male characters falling in love and are traditionally created by women for women. During the pandemic, the country has seen a rise in popularity of BL content largely attributed to the success of the Thai TV series Together The Series which aired in February.

Happenstance starts streaming on Dec. 25 via GagaOOLala (www.gagaoolala.com). The streaming service has a subscription rate of P49 for 3 days, P109 for a week, and P159 for two weeks. — Zsarlene B. Chua

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