Knock, knock: GL series ‘Pearl Next Door’ has arrived

Local BL series are experiencing a high during quarantine. 

The timing might be weird for queer narratives to get the attention they deserve but it’s better late than never. What about Filipino GL series though? Will they get the much-deserved hype too?

After the first local GL series “Chasing Sunset” dropped in June, The Ideafirst Company wants to prove sapphic narratives are here to stay. It’s all thanks to their “Gameboys’” spin-off series “Pearl Next Door.” 

On Oct. 23, the production company’s first GL series will premiere online. We are taken to the world of Gav (Kokoy De Santos) and Cai’s (Elijah Canlas) best girl Pearl (Adrianna So) as she navigates love and coming of age in the time of quarantine. In “Gameboys,” we often see her as your go-to hype woman and all-around problem solver. 

“Pearl Next Door” is here to show that she’s no secondary character. Here, we’ll see how she’s always been the hero of her own story—we just didn’t know it yet. 

In an exclusive interview with Inquirer, the creators revealed that they collaborated with SOGIE consultants for this series, sharing how it’s an obvious extension of “Gameboys” yet Pearl’s story taking a life of its own. 

One of the lines that stuck with me during “Gameboys” was a social media status Pearl posted. “Fixing is my jam. Sometimes it’s a problem. I have to learn to trust that people can fix themselves.” We all know she’s the person you run to when you have problems. In her own series, we might find out the answers to the following questions: Who does she run to? Who solves her problems?

Despite being a conservative country, these digital gay narratives have been embraced by a lot of us this year. We hope “Pearl Next Door” will continue to break barriers on what love can be in this country. It’s not always binary and not always we expected it to be. 

Read more:
‘Pearl Next Door’ is the answer to the PH’s GL series drought
Thanks to Cairo of ‘Gameboys’ I’ve stopped being hard on myself
Line up these 5 GL series for your next binge-watching session

Still from “Pearl Next Door”