Listen, it was very clear from the trailer for the Chinese zombie drama The Last Oath that this is a modest-budget show and won’t be blowing anybody away with its special effects. But the second I was done with the trailer, I knew I would watch it, because it combines two of my favorite guilty-pleasure genres: zombie horror (from American hit ‘The Walking Dead‘ to Korean dud ‘Zombieverse’, I’ve seen it all) and BL. IYKYK.

‘The Last Oath’ is a gay romantic thriller starring Chen Liang as protagonist Lin Zai, who loses his entire family to the zombie apocalypse and survives by joining a small group living near a hidden bungalow by the sea. When Lin Zai rescues a special agent named A Leh (Chen Ming Hao), a special bond forms between them. But little does Lin Zai know that A Leh has a dangerous ulterior motive behind his kindness toward him.

The first episode of The Last Oath kicks off with some action, as a small group desperately tries to outrun a bunch of zombies in what clearly looks like a school. Very ‘All of Us Are Dead‘ coded, but low budget. Lin Zai’s survival skills are questionable, and he only makes it out alive because others step up to protect him. In fact, if you’ve seen the trailer, you’ll already know this: he does get bitten, but it turns out he’s immune to the zombie virus. Lucky him. And even though he seems like the princess type, he keeps his immunity a secret and credits his miraculous survival to an amulet.

Chen Ming Hao’s A Leh, on the other hand, is introduced as a cut-throat, no-nonsense fighter, someone capable of cutting through zombie hordes with ease. He’s on a mission to find a vaccine and appears to be working for someone powerful. The two meet as strangers when a badly injured A Leh ends up near Lin Zai’s camp, and of course, our resident softie has to help a human being in need. And because Lin Zai is incredibly good-looking, it’s not very hard to believe that even a cold-blooded zombie slayer might just fall for him.

Also, I’m not entirely sure ‘The Last Oath’ is meant to be taken too seriously, because Lin Zai’s little group of survivors is quite the assortment. There’s an old grandma whose only skill so far seems to be cooking soup, even though they could’ve made her a killer granny. Think Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All at Once (she was 59 then, okay?). Then there’s an overweight dude who definitely doesn’t look like he can outrun zombies, and one slightly badass fighter woman who somehow still finds time for a full face of make-up. Basically, if you were picking teams during a zombie apocalypse, this is the group you’d expect to die first.

Each episode of ‘The Last Oath’ is about 20 minutes long, and despite the garish zombie effects, some of which are probably just AI, the first four episodes are pretty fun, even if hellah trope-y. You know, Lin Zai accidentally falls into A Leh’s arms just so we can get some cheesy romantic moments. The leads are good-looking and can definitely act, so that makes the cringe worth it. There’s a scene where A Leh casually wades into the sea and comes back with a gigantic fish, and we’d be damned if Lin Zai wasn’t thinking, “That’s all you really need to survive the end of the world, a hot boyfriend who can catch fish.”

So far, ‘The Last Oath’ is exactly what I expected: a fun, low-stakes guilty-pleasure watch, the leads display promising chemistry, and the background music is actually great. Episode 4 ends with an interesting cliffhanger and finally pushes the tale into more serious territory. The real challenge for the creators will be retaining viewers’ attention over the next few episodes, especially since the show has a 24-episode run!

You can watch the ‘The Last Oath’ episodes on YouTube.

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