Corner Café

What is going on? This week we are getting two new versions of Meteor Garden 流星花園 (2001), the Taiwanese series which is the first drama adaptation of the Japanese manga series, Boys Over Flowers 花より男子! One is the Japanese BL version, School Trip: Joined a Group I’m Not Close to 修学旅行で仲良くないグループに入りました, which is starting to stream today – not sure how closely the plotline will be to Boys Over Flowers, but it does feature four popular boys and one of them fell for the main protagonist. The other is the vertical version, Taming My Bullies, which is an 81-episode vertical series that dropped on October 16, 2025 on ReelShort, and this one is almost identical in the plotline. If you’ve paid attention to the poster, you can see the meteor shower in the background, and then all the flowers in front, LOL… The F4 in the Taiwanese series has become the Four Heavenly Kings in the BL series, and the Big Four in the vertical series… This vertical series is actually not bad as it has a solid storyline, apart from the ubiquitous tropes which are essential in almost every vertical series…

Emma Parker is a new transfer to Maple Elite Academy – and she’s picked a fight with The Big Four, on her very first day! Four rich heirs who rule the academy, they’ve decided she’s public enemy number one! But maybe there’s more than meets the eye. Rowan Calloway acts like a tyrant, but is he really a ruthless bully? And August Langford keeps helping her out. Have they met before? Who’s Emma going to choose – her worst enemy, or her childhood friend?

The series stars Meg Bush as Emma, Cameron Porras as Rowan, and Luke Dodge as August. Another thing, I have not noticed sponsorship in other vertical series before, but the sponsor’s ads placement in this series is as subtle as a brick, LOL…

Looking for something different other than the billionaire/CEO, or werewolf/vampire dramas on vertical series? Well, here’s one that is very different… Ms. Detective and Mr. Thief is a 79-episode American vertical series that dropped on January 26, 2025 on ReelShort. It stars Kyle Fragnoli as Ari and Jessica Jacoby as Isabel. As usual, don’t expect too much from the plots, just enjoy it for what it is…

Runaway Billionaire Becomes My Groom is a 77-episode American vertical drama series which started streaming first from January 7, 2025 on, apparently, the Sereal app (?), but the series can be found on quite a number of different app currently. I just finished watching it yesterday and, SHOCK, HORROR, this vertical series actually made sense! Not saying it is perfect, since there are still a couple of glaring plot holes that I noticed immediately, and the tropey high-class low-class plotlines; it is still way better than most vertical series.

Cheer Up Baby! is a 57-episode American vertical series that dropped on July 22, 2025 on DramaBox. Although I think this is one of the better vertical dramas, we still get the typical delusional antagonist to create drama, and hilarious to see how many different accidental kisses they can put into the plots, LOL…

Married A Gardener, Got A Prince is a 58-episode American rom-com vertical series that dropped on March 4, 2025 on a few different short-form vertical app. including Playlet and BestShort. It is quite enjoyable if you can suspend your disbelief about the plot, especially those surrounding the royalties in the story… because there’s virtually no security around them… Alright, they did try in the beginning, but later they (the production) just gave up, and not one security or bodyguard can be seen, and only the valet and the butler acting as security, LOL…

Lap by Lap, Back to You is a 60-episode American vertical series which dropped on August 26, 2025 (?) on the DramaWave app. Surprisingly, this one is actually quite decent in terms of vertical dramas because most verticals are full of plot holes so big that can swallow you up just to drive the story forwards… Although still very tropey in terms of fairy-tale plots and the typical evilness around them, it does have green-flag protagonists which I like…

Cooking My Way Back to Love is an 86-episode American vertical series that dropped on August 29, 2025 on the ReelShort app. The plot setup is quite similar to Hellfire Chef which I posted yesterday, that is a top chef fell into homelessness, then a kind restaurateur took him in and gave him a job, and so on… However I felt that this one is less crazy than Hellfire Chef but still, let’s say, Iron Chef gone bonkers, LOL… This series stars Adam Daniel as Leon and Christine Gonzalez as Ada…

Hellfire Chef: You Are My Final Taste is a 60-episode British vertical series which dropped on August 10, 2025 on the ShortMax app. Well, what can I say about this, it is MasterChef gone bonkers, LOL… So far with the western BL vertical series, we are still stuck on mafia, CEO types of plots, but with the BG vertical series, we are getting a wider variety of stories. Recently there are a lot of stories based on janitors, and now we are getting two series centred on chefs just this month… I will introduce the other one in my next post.

Daisy Tucker and Mr. NYC is a 78-episode American vertical comedic romance series which dropped on August 11, 2025 on ReelShort app. It is so trashy that I guarantee you will chuckle and trash talk the drama right from the start until the end, but still have an enjoyable watch as long as you don’t take it seriously… I don’t know why I clicked to watch the free episodes in the first place and then I couldn’t stop watching as it is so hilarious. Maybe it is the name Daisy Tucker which sounds like one of those bad TV series about hillbillies or country bumpkins from the olden days, LOL… You know the type of show that is so bad it’s good…

Jacked Janitor vs Golden Boy is a 54-episode American bromance vertical series which dropped on August 10, 2025 on DramaBox app. The series stars Mark Ciccarelli as Jack Hurtz and Jared Staub as Paxton Whitlock.