The Nicholist #15

Just call me Miss Philippines.

Welcome to The Nicholist! My weekly list of pop culture where I gush on everything that’s got me obsessed.

---

Filipino and Tagalog media have entirely taken over my life. Since watching Gameboys (Season One) last week, I've fallen down a well of Filipino content—and am drowning in a sea of Tagalog BL¹, teleserye², and music. 

Even though I am Filipino, I am Filipino American—a white-washed one at that—so I feel like a spectator taking in a new culture for the first time. Despite the English subtitles, I watch these shows and listen to these songs with the Tagalog to English Google page at hand—intrigued by the language, the translations, and the musicality of spoken words. 

Is this what it's like when those dangerously close-to-appropriating white people—who wear hoodies with cat ears—listen to K-POP or watch undubbed Anime? Pure fascination. 

All this to say, I now pay $4.99 a month for a myTFC³ subscription. Here are some of fave Filipino thingssss…

---

Gameboys (Season Two)

Completed my Gameboys journey this week. In season two, our babes, Gavreel and Cairo, take their relationship to the next level—from the digital sphere into the real world. Living together on borrowed time—Cairo is moving to the province from the city—they go through all the steps of puppy love in this awww-inducing BL that I'm probably too old to love. Short version: loved it, I cried, and now I listen to the soundtrack on repeat when I'm alone.  

Oh, Mando!

If Gameboys was 🥺, then Oh, Mando! was the BL that made me 😱🙈. This series follows closeted Mando, who falls in love with hottie Barry after an “Oh, no, I bumped into you, and my papers flew everywhere” meet-cute. But when Mando finds out said hottie has a boyfriend, he moves on to his female classmate Krisha—who has already been crushing hard on him. But, PLOT TWIST, Barry is Krisha’s older brother! Enter: sibling love triangle drama. Oh, Mando!

“Hanggang sa Huli” by SB19

Even though this P-POP⁴ boyband reignites the colorism trauma of my youth (are people like them the reason I was forced to use bleaching soap as a kid?!), the vocals on this are insane!

Senior High

This teleserye gives Gossip Girl meets murder mystery meets the short-lived Sarah Michelle Gellar vehicle, Ringer. Like SMG, the flawlessly eyebrowed Andrea Brillantes plays twins. After one twin dies, the other is left to discover the truth: was it suicide or murder?

“Raining in Manila” by Lola Amour

This song didn’t make me cry. But it does make me 🕺💃!

1. Boy’s Love: a gay romantic comedy genre.

2. A Filipino soap opera.

3. The Filipino Channel.

4. Like K-POP but Filipino. Pinoy Pop.