An MDL-er's Eternal Plight: Ratings

While some peaceful souls are immune to this disease, for a few of us unlucky ones; Rating-induced-anxiety is an ever-present problem. You usually encounter this after you've watched a couple of dramas and the beginner's enthusiasm has drained away. Now your enemy "The Brain" has started to interfere and the cynic somewhere inside you makes you nitpick everything. Following are some symptoms and their triggers:

5) Did I rate it too high?

This is the condition where you enjoyed a drama so much, you went and gave it a big fat 10. You were feeling mighty happy and everything was sunshine and rainbows but then... Brain-nim kicked in. And somehow, you started to think about it and slowly but surely you remembered all the flaws you ignored in the past but are now glaring at you like a vengeful ex. This condition might stir if 1) you read negative reviews on the show and instead of being defensive you find yourself agreeing 2) you watched the show when you were a newbie and looking back you can't help but cringe. While some succumb to the smug grins that one show gives you every time you open your watch-list and change their rating, prideful users like me, refuse to go back. For us, it's a daily battle that we have to bear through.

(For me it's 2); buried under the crimes of my past newbie, non-critical self, I am. You?)

4) Did I rate it too low?

Now, this is when you got very annoyed by a particular happening in a show, emotions got the better of you and you rated it a whopping 1 or worse, you rated it a 7.5 when it was a 9.  But then... your heart started to rebel. Because the moment you make up your mind, your feelings interfered with doubts like "Oh but it wasn't that bad, now was it?" and "Omg but that one scene was such a 10" and you start to remember moments you loved so incredibly much that they may have made up for the bad ones. Maybe, maybe not. But you'll never know and your soul will be eternally in unrest.

(This, personally, only happens to me with the 7.5/9 scenario because I'm mighty sure of my 1s and 2s and 4s and I never regret them. What about you?)

3) What you thought was not what happened

Here, mostly an external agent is in play. So you were feeling really good about a drama, right? And you thought maybe you should share it with a chingu, except you thought wrong because unfortunately, that chingu raises some points you can't seem to stop thinking about.

"Oh but that drama has such nice kissing scenes. Park Shin Hye finally improved!"

Um okay, but are you sure? The camera work was such that they never really showed PSH kissing in the first place. It seemed a bit meh to me.

"Oh but that drama was so smart! You never saw that coming?!"

True but that plot twist was also so unnecessary with no contribution to the plot. Tell me what was the point of it?

While some strong souls are not deterred, others can't help but ponder about it again and again and then, when they rewatch particular scenes they can't unsee and unhear some things. *insert misery*

 (I feel so evil because thankfully this has never happened to me but I have done it to a lot of others :P Who were you? Victim or perpetrator?)

2) Rewatch = Re-evaluate?

Now this happens when you were so in love with a show that you decided to watch it again after a long time (think: few years or many months) and unfortunately you find yourself... not liking it as much. Suddenly, the things that you loved before seem kind of illogical now. Shortcomings that you never thought of before keep smacking you in the face. 

And there it is your rating, A huge 10. To leave it as it is? + Or to pull it down a notch? = Existential Crisis.

(I haven't experienced this one yet but I am about to soon. Hopefully, I'm one of the lucky few who love the drama as much the second time around as they did the first. What's your story?)

1) Scared ofJudgement

on a side note, even though it's a nice gif, I still judge him from time to time. #sorrynotsorry

This is something a lot of people have an issue with. Rate an extremely popular drama too low and you'll get flak (Think: Rating W a 2.5).  Rate a mostly hated drama too high and you'll be given the side eye (Think: Rating Boys Over Flower a 10). Sometimes people can also be influenced by their friend's rating... or their enemies? Who knows. Sometimes people get flak for rating everything they watch too high or too low. And though this doesn't always stop a person from rating a certain way, it might leave a bad taste. 

Bad taste = extreme contemplation.

(Personally, I've never faced this one either but only because when you have too many unpopular opinions, you just get used to people getting butthurt and dgaf anymore. What's your experience with this?)

THE CURE:

If you're a normal human being, then you got nothing to worry about but if you've suffered from any one of the above stages, sorry to tell you but you've been infected. The best cure is understanding that dramas are there for your own entertainment and ratings reflect your personal enjoyment and emotional connection. There is no shame in anything. Ratings are also not words of the gospel and so prideful people (including me) should understand that you can always go back.

NOTICE: This cure and the pep-talk usually fails. In case of failure, you're on your own. Take care~

Disclaimer: This article was written for comedic purposes. It's nothing that deep. I'm normal, I promise. If the comedic purposes failed, sorry but I'm also lacking. Thank you for reading, regardless!

Enjoy!