My Sweet Brother in Law – Series Review & Episode Guide

Khanh works as a TA at the University of Economics. One of his students is Bao. During class, Khanh catches Bao taking sneaky photos of him. Khanh is offended and confiscates the phone. He sees Bao's group chat, where his friends are openly thirsting after Khanh and hyping Bao up to make a move. While Khanh is irritated, Bao simply looks amused. Later, they run into each other in the washroom. As they flirt, it becomes clear that their attraction is mutual.

Once class is over, they don't waste much time. Khanh ends up at Bao's apartment, and things heat up immediately. Bao lays down one very specific rule. No kissing. Since his last relationship crashed and burned, he has decided that kissing is off-limits. After sex, Bao reveals that he's actually engaged to a woman. Surprise! However, Khanh barely reacts and doesn't seem bothered. They agree to continue sleeping together, no strings attached.

Khanh heads home for a family visit. His older sister, Huyen, announces she's getting married and wants to introduce her fiancé. Khanh is shocked to see him. Yes, him. Bao acts like they're meeting for the first time, even though they were sleeping together not long ago. Huyen seems oblivious to the tension. She gushes about how Bao manages to make money through investing before going back to school. Bao turns on the charm. He's polite and says all the right things. By the end of his visit, he had made an excellent impression on the future in-laws.

Khanh is furious. From his point of view, Bao has completely played his sister. She's about to marry a cheating closeted man. Khanh pulls Huyen aside and tries to shut down this wedding. Since he isn't out to his family, Khanh can't explain the real reason he opposes the marriage without outing himself. Instead, he says Bao is too young for her. He points out that Bao does not even have a proper job. Huyen isn't buying it. She doesn't care about the age gap and actually admires Bao's ambition.

During the visit, Bao finds out his future brother-in-law is already married. Khanh has a wife, Tha, who doesn't know about his extracurricular activities with men. Awkward! Later, Khanh tries again to get Bao to dump his sister. This time, Bao is smug as hell. He knows these threats are empty because Khanh can't expose him without blowing up his own life. Even when Khanh bribes him with money, Bao refuses. He isn't interested in a payout. Despite all the risks, the two of them keep hooking up anyway and continue their secret relationship.

My Sweet Brother in Law is a guilty pleasure for anyone who loves juicy drama. It begins with our main character hooking up with his sister's fiancé. Excuse me, sir? Why are you sleeping with her man!? Ten minutes into the first episode, we already have a forbidden romance… Enemies-to-lovers arc… And so much sexual tension! The series knows this story is scandalous. It makes things even messier with naughty jokes and not-so-subtle innuendos. My Sweet Brother in Law is campy as hell in the best way possible.

The title feels ironic since Bao's character is anything but sweet. Around his future in-laws, he acts like Mr. Perfect Gentleman. So polite! So charming! When he's alone with Khanh, the mask drops. His true nature is a devious little shit who lives for drama. Bao has zero shame about his fake marriage and even taunts Khanh with a smug smile. "Yup, I'm screwing him… 😘 marrying his sister… 😏 and tricking their parents… 😌 WHAT ABOUT IT???" I'm watching this sociopath destroy a whole family and he doesn't even pretend to feel bad. Of course, I'm obsessed. We need more evil leads like this in BL. Give us the fun villains!​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

The couple's first hookup is iconic. Oh, the way Khanh is looking at Bao's body? Absolutely feral. This man is HUNGRY with desire! At first, it's just pure horniness driving the relationship. As the episodes roll on, we start seeing actual depth between them. They're flirting, they're cracking jokes, they're having mature chats. There's more to the couple than just sleazy sex. Sometimes, they're even sweet to each other. Episode 4 has a date montage that's giving full rom-com fantasy, and I ate it up. These two have serious chemistry, which really helps sell their romance.

Bao's actor (Kevin Pham) does brilliantly. Playing a scheming bastard can be tough because it's so easy to make the audience hate you. But Kevin? His roguish charm makes Bao feel more playful than evil. I love his smug little smirk when he's being naughty! His co-star (Nguyen Hoang Anh) excels at non-verbal acting, particularly since so much of the story lives in what these men can't say out loud. Long pauses. Sharp glares. Tiny smirks that scream, "We both know the truth." Their chemistry really shines in the intimate scenes. I wish we could've seen even more of it.

The story moves fast. With only five short episodes, there's no time for filler. It sounds great in theory… In practice, the plots escalate far too quickly. The drama suddenly jumps from 0 to 100. We need a longer series with some extra scenes to make everything flow more smoothly. The characters also seem awfully one-dimensional. We've got the scheming fiancé, the closeted brother, the clueless sister, and the homophobic parents… They're basically archetypes out of a soap opera handbook. Let's give them more layers to make them feel like actual people.

My Sweet Brother in Law fumbles the ending hard. The melodrama gets cranked up to eleven. We went from super campy to "okay, this is just ridiculous now." And that cliffhanger finale? Absolutely not. You can't just leave me hanging like that after everything! The lack of closure soured things for me. But still, I liked this series way more than I should. Am I giving an absurdly high review score to soap opera trash? Maybe! Do I care? Not really! Ultimately, My Sweet Brother in Law has entertained me. I like that it's bold. Shameless. A little toxic. And just the right amount of messy.