Lirelyn

2022 was a great year to get into BL dramas. Early in the year, I started making a rating spreadsheet of kiss scenes, and by the end of the year I had to rework it entirely because the field of content had gotten so much bigger and broader and, well, hornier.

Wait, back up. A rating spreadsheet of kiss scenes?
Yes, this is a very chill and normal thing to do, I think, when you really like kissing scenes in media especially if they're queer, and you also really like spreadsheets and analysis and taking trivialities extremely seriously. I see nothing to question here. Let's move on.

I can't think of a better 2022 wrap-up than to run down my top 10 BL kissing scenes of 2022, or at least I can't think of one I more wish to do. If it requires me to go back into all these scenes and find the perfect screenshot, that's a burden I'm willing to bear for you all. (Sadly viki has outwitted me in the taking of screenshots, so there are none for those shows.)

A few notes on inclusion: there are a lot of scenes and kisses I loved that didn't make the list. The biggest change I had to make to my kissing spreadsheet was to separate out kissing scenes from sex scenes. At the beginning of the year I was giving big credit to scenes that gave any indication that the characters might want to actually bone down, and by the end of the year I had so many scenes where the characters just straight-up did bone down. So I love that for me, and for us, but it meant some recalibrating. A lot of great kisses happened in the middle of bigger sexier scenes, but I've left those out (maybe next year!) and focused on the ones that stood out and stuck with me as kissing scenes.

A great kissing scene, for me, is an emotional turning point. A kiss scene that hits big for me is one that changes things between the characters, or releases something that's been held back. It's one where you can feel the mutual connection and desire and also the weight of what it means for them that this is happening. The much-hyped Bad Buddy rooftop kiss is still the best kissing scene I've yet seen, by my standards -- but that happened in 2021, so it isn't on the list. Here are the ones that are, in roughly chronological order.

Cutie Pie, ep 2
Cutie Pie had its ups and downs, but this scene was an all-time great. Up to this point Lian has been almost as obscure to us as he is to Kuea, but as Kuea drunkenly cries and begs Lian to love him just a little, just to pretend to love him, we see him crack open. Nobody does wrecked desire like Zee, and he gives it all here.



Semantic Error, ep 7
"Warning: I'm going to kiss you in one minute" might be my favorite lead-up line ever. It takes the boundary established earlier and uses it to say: I see what's between us, I want to act on it, I know you need me to take initiative, but here's an out if you're not ready. And then Sangwoo takes the initiative after all. Gorgeous.

Secret Crush on You, ep 7
There are a lot of great kisses in SCOY but this one wins for me because Nuea's walk-away-then-spin-back move was one of the hottest things to happen this year. Nuea is playing a controlled teasing game that they're both enjoying, so he should walk away after one kiss, but he can't do it, and it's GOOD, it's very good for me.



Kinnporsche, ep 6
Kinnporsche is the show that wrecked my original kiss rankings sheet. It expresses character and relationship through sex scenes with a fluency and nuance I never expected to see anywhere, and certainly not in a gay mafia drama. I tried for a while to rank the sex scenes alongside the kissing scenes in a way that made sense and was fair to both, but that turned out to be a silly idea. BUT Kinnporsche does have some good kissing scenes that are just kissing, and this is the great one. It's a critical turning point in the relationship, and the fierce, desperate clinging to each other is so so good.



Dear Doctor, I'm Coming for Soul, ep 10
This is one that makes the list largely for sheer sensuality. The romance is a very slow burn -- understandable since one of them is technically dead -- so I wasn't expecting this much intensity and passion when they do finally kiss. We've spent the whole series watching Tuaphee yearn, and the way his chest heaves, the way Prakan goes for him, is just beautifully satisfying.



Old Fashion Cupcake, ep 4
Thumb in mouth THUMB IN MOUTH okay I can be normal about this scene. It's so short, but so intense and so desperate and with so much wound-up tension behind it, tension that barely gets a few seconds of slack before being twisted up tighter than before. And the thumb thing is just. really. hot.

The Eclipse, ep 7
Speaking of short. This kiss barely lasts a second, but it's still one of my most-rewatched kissing scenes of the year. It's full of the hushed, pained tenderness that The Eclipse does so well. Kan and Thua both pretending to be asleep, both so scared for slightly different reasons, and then -- what really makes the scene for me -- Kan's face moving through distress and anxiety into a beautiful, breathless joy.



The Eclipse, ep 8
These are ordered chronologically because I can't possibly pick a favorite, but this might be my favorite. Ayan's relentless vulnerability and Akk's brittle, hopeless longing is just a lot it's a lot. The way they hold each other's faces. The way Akk's lips tremble. The, okay, yes, the tiny thread of spit as they separate. It's all very sexy and very intimate and, again, painfully tender, tenderly painful.



My Tooth Your Love, ep 9
Second to crying, the thing I love most in a kissing scene is when the characters keep breaking into smiles between kisses. They're so happy! They like each other so much! I love this show and these two characters for the honesty and openness and kindness between them, and it's all right there when they finally kiss.

Between Us, ep 2
I dislike the "tripped and accidentally kissed" trope, but I very much like this subversion, where they trip and hover in excruciating tension before kissing. It's hot, it's good.



BONUS GL SCENE - GAP, ep 5
I kind of expected that we'd have to work our way through some staid, basic GL content before getting to the really fun stuff, but nope -- GAP goes weird and horny right out of the gate. Sam inventing a whole game where she can bite Mon's lips and pretend it isn't kissing... I love her. Looking forward to more from these two as well as a few other GL shows next year.