Joined MDL a few years back but became active recently.
I have seen a crazy number of Anime/Manga, Dramas, Movies, Variety Shows, and K-pop content. Even if I haven’t completed them, I have sampled a lot in the past decade of being an Asian entertainment fan – K-variety & drama being the most dominant. I do not dabble much in movies as they tend to be heavier, wanting to put together a coherent story in a smaller runtime. Most of my all-time favs seamlessly blend humour into otherwise ‘serious’ content.
Apart from the ‘It’ factor of captivating my attention, in a Drama, I pay attention to:
Production Quality,
Emotional Investment into the Characters,
Coherent Storytelling,
Ability of Actors to Emote,
and most importantly – Memorability.
I love a Drama that makes me recall it randomly on a random day.
What I dislike in dramas are Inconsistent and Illogical characters, OTT ridiculousness that does not translate well into comedy, and random clichés not handled well. Given the fact that my favourite genres are Comedy and Romance, I run into these oh so often.
Note: My ratings for a lot of the dramas tend to be underrated (even ones that I did enjoy quite a lot) as compared to the MDL ratings, but to do justice to the dramas that I do end up rating highly, I have a common standard of sorts of my own.
| 2-4.5 | Dramas that contained a heavier dose of my dislikes. (Contains a few fan faves – The Heirs) |
| 5-5.5 | Dramas that had usual tropes that I dislike, but at least I enjoyed them (Consider them Guilty Pleasures ;) – My Secret Romance, Jugglers) |
| 6.0 | Dramas that got some elements right – has either a memorable character (bromance in Rooftop Prince) or some theme that they tried to introduce (even if they didn’t exactly get it right – Go Go Squid) |
| 6.5 | Based on enjoyment derived from the consumption of these dramas (more than a drama rated 6- Career, DOTS) |
| 7.0 | Dramas that pull their weight when compared to their counterparts (Above Average) – interesting concept (W), character depth (Another Miss Oh), beautiful production (Eternal Love), or Music (Naeil’s Cantabile). |
| 7.5 | Based on Emotional investment into the series (compared to a 7 – Bitter Blood, 100 Days My Prince, My Youth) |
| 8.0 | Dramas that unexpectedly made itself memorable for me [while telling either age-old stories with a fresher outlook (KBS family drama – What happens to my family?, or a Special that compacts the necessary while cutting unnecessary (Splash Splash Love), or an unassuming Supernatural Mystery (Akumu-chan)] |
| 8.5 | The ‘It’ factor at play here – with either character (Weightlifting Fairy Kim BokJoo), themes (Kekkon Dekinai Otoko), storytelling (Maou); that made me want more |
| 9.0 | Stories that left me in a slump after they were done telling their tale (The Happy Loner, Tonbi) |
| 9.5 | Tales that haunted me long after they were over (Mother, Stranger) |
| 10 | Even if I were to do imaginary casting or remake it, I would do nothing differently (Life on Mars, Hanzawa Naoki) |
Thanks for being patient with my rambles! :D
Plan to watchMar 4, 2023
Currently watchingMar 4, 2023
Plan to watchMar 4, 2023
Plan to watchMar 4, 2023
Currently watching 70/100Feb 26, 2023
Plan to watchFeb 19, 2023
Plan to watchFeb 19, 2023
Plan to watchFeb 19, 2023
CompletedFeb 19, 2023
