Ranking Dramas I Watched In 2025

CW Apr-??? (1000/10)

Just watched the 1st ep and it looks like I have accidently stumbled on a fricking masterpiece! I had the same feeling while watching the first episode of SOOD & TLIYE.

2nd ep done and this is sure going to be in my ult fav list. They give you an emotional punch in every episode. Another thing that I am appreciating a lot is the visualization of the issues of each patient so that we as viewers can understand what the patient is going through. It helps a lot for people like me that are largely unfamiliar with the medical branch. It's cinematography is above excellent. It is unique in it's choice of color palette and lighting and the visualization, as I mentioned before, is excellent. The director and screenwriter both have done a terrific job in making sure the emotional impact is felt. The actors are all amazing too, and the characters they portray are well written. The entire cast and crew did the best they could have done. Overall one of the most highest quality drama. 

It keeps reminding me of SOOD despite both having very different plots. Creators of both shows have emphasized on the plot and storytelling the most, both have excellent actors, the cinematography, visuals and direction of both were top notch. Both proved that there is no need for fancy (but useless) visuals that follow a trendy aesthetic to be called an amazingly directed show. All they need is a visual style that truly suits the themes of the show/film they are creating.

If one wants to know how useless trendy visuals are incapable of saving a bad quality production, watch SOOD's Korean remake ATCY after watching SOOD. That remake exists to prove this fact. 

CW Apr-??? (1000/10)

Excellent. Melancholic. Tragic. Alluring.

There is no mediocre scene in this show. Each scene is captivating. This is one of the Chinese shows that I use as an example when I claim that so many 60+ episode Chinese dramas are much more better and worthy than 98% of 16 episode Korean dramas.

Also, Zhou Xun is phenomenal. The multiple other actresses have also done a great job. Chinese actresses and actors never fail to win you over with their skills (provided you watch the right shows/films and not CEO falls in love with Cinderella) 

Edit: I am scared that I will finish this one day and there would be no new episodes. It also doesn't help that China stopped making these kinds of shows TT-TT

Edit2: Once I finish this, I'd make a flood of FMVs. I have unique and never done before ideas that I won't be revealing before I publish those FMVs somewhere.

CW Apr-??? (1000/10)

Epic. Vast. Marvelous. Magical.

This is what we call epic. Just first episode in and I already know this will be another ultimate favourite. The worldbuilding of Novoland universe is extremely vast, and I believe that only this adaptation and Eagle Flag were capable of portraying on screen that vast world amongst other failed adaptations. This one is directed by the GOAT Cao Dun, an extremely talented director from China. I believe that this drama (and Eagle Flag too maybe) has the vastest of the world seen in an E.Asian drama. I don't know anything that exceeds this show's worldbuilding. 

Also, I know how it ends as it covers only around half of the book and there is no sequel in sight. But that doesn't really matter to me. To me, the journey is more important than the destination in such kinds of shows. 

CW soon

Before even starting, I know this will be in my one of the top shows list. ATP I am watching so many amazing Cdramas. The cinematography is so good! One of the best ever in an E.Asian drama set in this period. 

CW soon

I will call this 'Song Dynasty Youth Chronicles'. Youth and blood are too common words used in English titles of Chinese dramas. This sounds much better.

Jan

Without spoiling anything, the best kdrama of all times. This made it to my list: The GOAT Dramas That Will Stay With Me Forever

I took a photo of the amount of tissues I used to show it to people and tell them that this is to be considered my no word review for the drama. I barely cry, but I love it when dramas are able to make me cry (or any piece of entertainment media). 

Stumbled upon this series randomly while browsing MDL & Douban, accidently opened a whole new world of amazing short horror stories for myself. These 12 stories are not all, their YouTube channel uploaded a lot of other stories too. I'll watch each and every work done by this team now. I am so f**king addicted!!!! 

The potential for Chinese drama makers to delve into the horror genre is immense. If they do full length dramas like this, they will even outdo Korea! They can even set these horror stories in historical settings! Please please please China, I need more horror dramas from your side!

Other stories from the same makers:

• Abnormalities 
  • Abnormalities Season 2
  • Abnormalities Season 3 
    
  • Abnormalities: The Final Season 
    
• FM Abnormal (this)
• abnormal.m4v 
  • Bu Si Yi: Guai Tan 
• Abnormal Timezone 
  • Abnormal Timezone 2.0 
• Abnormal Select: Strange Nights 
• Abnormalities: City of Human 
• Abnormal Special (MDL page unavailable, linked to YouTube playlist)
• Shan Ye Yi Si (historical setting)
  • Shan Ye Yi Si Season 2

Also, below is the link to their YouTube Channel:

• Abnormal TV 不思異劇場

CW Mar-??? (10-9 predicted rating)

I started this with not so high hopes. I just wanted to watch it thinking I won't like it later after watching all the new xianxias, since I believed that this one has a not so appealing storyline and FL character being described as childish did not really appeal me. I didn't think that Yang Zi would be capable in pulling off a cutsey character unlike YSX since the vibe I got from her was mature and elegant. 

However, all my worries were unnecessary, as this drama won me over. YZ doesn't feels off as a cutsey FL thanks to her good acting, and the typical love story is done quite well. I am fully invested, so much that I watched till ep 24 in 2024 and kept it on hold due to work and now instead of resuming from where I left, I am finding myself rewatching the entire 24 episodes. 

The cinematography is not too good, but it is good enough when compared with other period idol dramas around the time of its release. Some shots look fabulous, some average-ish, and a few are quite bad. The lighting is also like that, sometimes good, sometimes bad. Costume design is quite sloppy with few exceptions. Same with the props. The heavenly realm and bird tribe sets took me out a lot of times due to their low quality. Flower realm and Night immortal scenes are quite well filmed in comparison. 

Overall this gives off the vibes that I expect c-dramas to give, and lives up to it's reputation. I can see why this is so well rated. When I am loving this even though I know about xianxias of today, how much excited would it have gotten people at the time of it's release when there were only a few xianxias?  

Jan-Feb

I wasn't disappointed at all! I knew that Li Mo's drama wouldn't fail me. It was one hell of a journey! I had to watch an episode daily since this dealt with the hard topic of death. The stories in this were all very impactful. I met so many characters that I loved. I cried buckets watching this show at several moments. This show made me cry the most till date alongside The Light in Your Eyes.

Our main character went through tremendous growth. She started as a rough, rebellious and non-caring character that was a little annoying and slowly became a better person that learnt the meaning of life and built meaningful and lifelong relationships with different people around the funeral parlor. Each of these characters on their own are very lovable people who have their own story. 

In terms of the slow healing and repairing of broken and strained mother daughter relationship, this show is one of the best. This is nothing like Korean dramas where the toxic mother is portrayed in a comedic manner where she treats her daughter (and sometimes husband) horribly till almost the end of the show, only for her to get redeemed all of a sudden at the end as she gives speech on how she secretly cared for the daughter (looks at SWDBS, TB, LND, AMO). This portrayed their problems in a serious manner and both the mother and daughter work to improve their relationship every episode.

This is one of the many Chinese dramas that I use as an example to prove that people have just a biased view toward Chinese dramas saying that they only make cringy romantic cliche modern dramas, which honestly is the biggest lie I've heard in my life. Compared to Korea, there are a LOT more realistic dramas from China, Japan & Taiwan. 

Jan 

This was so so so good! I ended up binging the entire drama, which is something I rarely do. More often than not, I come across dramas that are not interesting enough for a binge. It's either that, or the drama itself is slow paced or slice of life meant to be enjoyed slowly. This however was a fast paced drama that never runs out of pace. 

All of the osts are soooo good, including Jingfei Chen's Night Breeze as well. I was surprised and pleased to hear JFC's NB here. ^^

Yes, it is not a flawless drama, but everything ends up making sense at the end. Never once was I bored nor did I have to fast-forward or watch at 2x speed. So happy to be able to finally come back to c-dramaland.

From 2 or so months I have been watching only k-dramas (couldn't afford to watch something interesting back then due to work, that's why). Except for Light Shop, none other could pique my interest. Even Goblin and CLOY are not as good as expected. Most Korean dramas fall apart in the second half. Even so called 'underrated' dramas like 'Awaken' ended up falling apart completely in the second half. 

Chinese dramas however are different. They are long in episode numbers, but the length of each episode is less. This makes it easy to watch them over 16 episode k-dramas with 1hr20mins episode runtime. Apart from this, even if a Chinese drama is 100+ episode long, they still end up being interesting enough over even 6 episode k-dramas (like Black Knight). 

I am really happy to return to Chinese dramas and also Taiwanese, Japanese and HK dramas. They are the true best E.Asian dramamakers for me. Never understood the Korean hype, especially when most dramas that end up becoming special to me from Korea are themselves highly underrated and unappreciated due to the lack of silly rom-com cliche elements.

CW Jan (10-9 predicted rating)

This is the perfect winter show. It has got all of my favourite themes. I live for time-travel and slice of life dramas. 

This is even better than the top rated kdramas I am currently watching. Proof that this is My Kdrama List MKL & not MDL. Such great dramas get such terrible ratings here while certain trash kdramas get even an 9.1 *looks at AOS*

CW Jan (9-8 predicted rating)

Just watched 4 episodes and I have to say, I am liking it more than I expected. Although it is not as mature as I prefer for a slice of life and there are traces of idol modern dramas in this, it still manages to captivate me. 

The cinematography is just amazing for a 2017 Chinese non-mainstream contemporary drama. I love the shots in this so much. Perfectly suited for the story they are telling. Even more perfect for the art theme of it. This drama made me suddenly realize why I was so bored by the art parts of Her Private Life (I mean the whole show is bad, but the art part is the worst for me as an artist). HPL uses cinematography and lighting that is very generic to Korean romantic dramas. I am bored by seeing the same types of shots, the same filters, the same angles, the same color grading over and over again. 

If we take random shot of 10 k-romcoms where leads are not visible and say that they belong to the same drama, no one would be able to find out. The thing is, that type of generic and boring rom com cinematography and lighting is not fit for an art themed show. It makes the art look very boring and soul-less, despite the art itself not being that bad. Here, the color grading makes the art stand out. In fact, I have seen a lot of art themed dramas from China, and the art from those shows always stays in my mind.  

Apart from art, I really love the use of appropriate color grading, lighting, composition of scenes and camera angles which help me to differentiate between the past and present. 

The storytelling is also good. The style of showing both past and the present in a way that is not to revealing yet gives you enough information keeps your interest throughout. Had it been a linear story, I don't think it would be as interesting as it is now. 

CW Mar-??? (8.5-8 predicted rating)

I am liking this one despite its faults. This so called low budget period drama has better cinematography than a lot of high budget shows made back when it was released. Yes, we can see the low budget sets and costumes, but they have been intelligently made. Although the cloth looks very modern, they embody the daring, lavish, flowy and vivid look that was prominent during the Tang dynasty (this one is set just after Tang dynasty ended). Apart from the clothing, the low budget sets are barely visible due to the amazing lighting and cinematography.

This show is a living proof that even with a lower budget, a drama can look high quality. This drama has so many breathtaking scenes that I am collecting them all to make an fmv of the cinematography and visuals (if I get the time). Truly a visual feast.

As for the plot, this drama has a moderately interesting plot that started to get so much more interesting after episode 11. At first, I was fed up with Wan Mei being so kind and unable to kill as her personality made her hard to survive in the kind of the situation she is in. I facepalmed myself multiple times due to her 'kindhearted' acts. But after 11th episode, things are starting to become so much better as WM finally realizes that her kind and naive personality led to her downfall.

CW Apr-???

Started off well. It looks like they took very slight inspiration from LCX's Ball Lightning and Netflix's Stranger Things at the beginning when the alien arrived. I was however relieved that it is only slight inspiration and not full on copy, as I did not want to watch another plagiarized but never called out for it because of it being a Korean drama. Thankfully it seems to go in a very different direction than BL & ST (for now) 

Feb-Mar

Where it all began. Each installment from these people keeps getting better and better!

S1- 8/10

This one was a good start. The camera quality was not very good and the stories were predictable, but they were fun

S2- 8/10

This 2nd season has upgraded in terms of production quality as the first season became a hit. Stories were slightly better too, but not on the same level as FM Abnormal series.

S3- ?/10

S4- ?/10

Apr

A forgettable thriller. It turned out to be nothing special. It was just so-so. It kept me interested till episode 4, at the end of which I realized that the so-called plot twists everyone was talking about, half of them already occurred without me knowing they were twists. It turns out that these basic things were being called twists, which were predictable from miles away. The final episodes went exactly as I predicted. I was so hoping to be surprised and realize that everything is actually connected and the characters are intentionally behaving stupid. But oh god no. The connection was both badly written and boring. The characters were actually that stupid. The writing failed to live up to the promise that synopsis made.

How it got an 8.4 on douban is beyond me. I guess that I really can't trust kdrama ratings anywhere. Even the most reliable source repeatedly failed me. First CAHM, then FFMW, then CLOY, then Goblin, now this. I am just tired trying to find a single kdrama that I can rate above 8. Let's see if Circle impresses me or if it is yet another boring and badly written kdrama being promoted as an 'underrated gem'. I hope to be proven wrong at least this time please.

Jan-Feb

It was not terrible, but I have seen wayy more interesting Chinese thrillers. The idea was really interesting, but I feel like this could have been shorter. The focus on the police characters can be removed entirely. The lead police guy had a very common and done to death story attached to him. The police woman was not any interesting either. 

Yu Hai & Lu Jie did not really have the chemistry to hold it together. I feel like watching the Japanese film would have been a better option, since the plot would be so much better and more thrilling as a film. 

The most lovable part of this was the ending song. I loved it and have saved it to my playlist. The opening credits is well made too. The cinematography was really good. Loved the idea of using warm and cool color grading to separate the past and the present rather than displaying the date every time they switch. Acting of everyone was good enough, no complains in that department. 

Finally, the twist did get me but after that it again became average-ish. I have seen many other great Chinese thriller to be enamored by this. However, this is still better of a thriller than the 2 recent Korean crime dramas I watched 'Awaken' & 'When The Phone Rings', with WTPR being one of the worst I have watched as of yet.

Feb-Mar

This was good, but nothing special. Better youth and slice of life Chinese dramas exist, plenty of them. I don't feel like I would have missed out if I did not watch this. It started out well for me, but became boring in the middle. Only a few good moments towards the end. This had a lot of potential to be good, but alas it was what it was.

The good things about this were the friendship and slice of life elements, although these themes could have been written better. Another good thing for me was the cinematography. The visual style of this show really suits the themes of youth. The vivid blue sky, the beautiful nightsky, and the beautiful town. Whenever they showed the outdoor scenes, I always thought to myself how relaxing and beautiful it was and how I want to visit that place too.

The romance was not it for me. I would have much preferred for leads to be actually like brother and sister. Romance in any form shouldn't have been there. Because of love triangle, SML became an annoying b*tch. I liked him so much when he was not going after her. ML and FL did not have chemistry together. The friendship and family aspects had so much potential that I was disappointed towards the end.

The friendship part should have been the focus. I would have loved to see ML & Qu Wei's friendship, ML & Shi Che could have been good friends too. If only there was 0 romance. 

I was not okay with how this show blamed everything on ML's mom when his father was so worse. I liked to see his father improve and be better, but they did not need to sacrifice his mother for that. She had evidentially suffered at the father's hands. Painting her in an evil manner towards the end left a bad taste in my mouth. The conflicts between FL's parents could have been better written too.

The overall writing could have been more realistic in tone.  

On-hold Jan-??? (7.0-5.0 predicted rating)

On-Hold for sometime as it started feeling like a chore to watch amongst all the Chinese and Japanese dramas I am watching, Will be back soon

Why did I start this? Why did I believe in it's ratings? I am struggling to watch this so much TT_TT When will I ever learn from all those k-drama disappointments? As if my kdrama list is not enough shorter, I feel like it will be good to push certain overrated things out. Why again is this such a famous dramamaking country?

Edit:

Should I just drop this? I don't think I find this that good amongst the sea of mindblowing Chinese, Taiwanese and Japanese dramas. Korea should really start making mini dramas only. Nothing beyond episode 10 limit. 6 episodes have to be the norm for them to be watchable to me. Nothing frustrates me more than popular and high rated kdramas that turn out to be mid. People really hype up random dramas on the basis of good looking actors. This is not super bad, but it is not any interesting either. Just hangs in the middle. Only god knows if I will finish this or not. Maybe watch it while traveling?

Jan-Mar

So, I ended up writing a huge personal review for this. I will break it down into small points and write it here. Basically, this show is lackluster whose bad points outweighs the good. The good points become average after episode 9 or so. The cinematography no longer feels good as you realize that it is just a good quality camera in hands of an average director and cinematographer and the repetitive songs bore the f*ck out of you. For songs to be that repetitive, they have to be as good as Wu Bai's 'Last Dance'. Stay With Me which is so popular as this show's ost played just once. 

The main romance goes in negatives, ML looks and behaves like the father of FL, FL hops, runs around, pouts and talks with a cringe face and voice like a 5 year old throughout the show. I usually have no issue with male older age gap plots nor with cutsey FLs, but here they combined things in the worst possible way. The ML looks like he could be her father, and FL looks younger than an 18yo, and behaves like a toddler. Which idiot thought that this will make even a remotely good pairing? 

Second lead pairing start interesting, but becomes boring as episodes pass by. Certain plot decisions make 0 sense. Editing and pacing is a mess. Things are inserted just for the shock value like a makjang, as they make no sense. What I thought could have been a good show fell badly.

Towards the end, more and more illogical and laughable stuff happened that had me like WTF is even going on over here? As one of the popular Indian meme goes: Kuch bhi, KUCH BHI?!?! (it is used to call out illogical nonsense). The whole historical plotline has to be a parody. Because it was such a below average and generic story that I cried out of frustration whenever those scenes played.

Cannot believe this is what they call a masterpiece epic romance and an epic tale of tragedy. If I hear someone say this again, I'd laugh in their face without any shame.

Jan

People went into crazy defense mode for this sh*t? LMAO XD. TBH it deserves 6.0 or something (that's being VERY generous). Those people actually for once did a great job at preventing this sh*t from staying 8.8 or something. Proves how the MDL audience for kdramas has changed recently. Horny teen fangirls and fanboys everywhere.

This kept going down each episode. I could have dropped it, but I just want to see how terrible it got towards the ending episodes when the rest of it was already this bad. So many comments are calling this piece of absolute garbage a masterpiece, making me wonder if the English language changed the meaning of that word. Here is what I feel it means now:

• Masterpiece: a work that is so horrible, even the trash in the dustbin and the sewage in the gutter refuses to accept it. 

Edit: Just went through the comments for this one and AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  This shit deserves an oscar? The best drama ever made in the history of E.Asian dramas? I am all for respecting everyone's subjective tastes but-

I had also read someone saying that the scene where the camera spins around the protagonist to show his world spinning being a unique cinematic masterpiece!!! That trick has been in use since ages. AGES!!! Even trash tv serials in India overuse this technique!!! 

And I thought fans of Chinese idol dramas were crazy. In front of these kdrama fans, those c-idol fans are still sensible. Comments on this and 'Love Next Door' proves that people have lost it. Labelling these 2 the best of all times, even going as far as to attack everyone with a differing opinion repeatedly. Wonder if we have had more influx of 9-10 year old kids on this website.

This drama is also living proof of the fact that Korean dramas will mostly suck no matter the number of episodes. I felt like I was watching a f**king Indian TV serial with all the OTT unrealistic stuff HAHAHAHAHA!!!! I have such a high urge to make a video roasting this sh*t.

Dropped 12/35

This was obviously better than Goblin, but not as good as the other Chinese shows I am watching along with this. Since I have a huge Chinese drama list for contemporary dramas alone, and other Chinese shows with similar themes as this have done it better, I cannot watch this anymore. I wished I could get into it, but ultimately I couldn't. 

Also, JC's acting was subpar. I may not watch any of her dramas in the future. 

Dropped 7/28 Jan-Feb

Edit 2: I finally ended up dropping it. This is not a bad show per say, but it's tone is not meant for me as it seems a bit childish. I love healthy relationship with nothing happens style of rom coms, with or without slice of life realism. However, I found it hard to overcome the childish tone here. If a teenager watches this, they might like it.

Edit 1: The tone of the drama and the plot don't draw me in much, but I'll still watch this when I eat as I love Wan Peng and the overall drama is mostly happy with quick conflict resolution. 

If I feel it to be dragging I might drop. However, I'd stand by my opinion that the acting of Wan Peng as a teen is better than a lot of Korean actresses and for as long as I watched this drama while eating, I did not get frustrated unlike the Korean rom-coms I had watched with the typical rude ML being labelled a green flag by fans *cough* HCCC, DATCP, HPL, LND, WTPR *cough*

1st episode impression: I went into this with little expectations. The first episode was really good. It's nice to see that they are not portraying the ML as a rude cold asshole in the name of an introvert. And also nice to see that the FL doesn't behave like a 5 year old annoying kid in the name of an extrovert.

Wan Peng's acting as a teen here outshines what Korean actresses like Shin Hye Sun and Jeon Yeo Bin did while acting as teenagers in both Still 17 and ATCY. Both of them ended up looking like 5 year old annoying brats instead of high school teens. I love Wan Peng even more now!

Dropped 7/16 Jan

Sooooooooooooooooooo I ended up dropping this. It got less and less entertaining as episodes passed by. I am quite disappointed by PMY's acting in this. God it is so HARD to find a good actor from Korea. They are either way too stiff or act too OTT. 

Korean Romcoms suck. They suck hard. IDK why people say they prefer Korean dramas for modern day setting shows. Most of them (especially rom-com) are terrible. They keep repeating the same things over and over. The FL who is presented as a strong minded woman in the beginning turns out to be a childish idiot. The ML's are toxic most of the times. The side characters are sometimes the saving grace, other times I just skip the heck out of their scenes. Don't even ask about the SFL or the female character that likes the ML. Korea will never let go of this trope and keep writing such terrible representation of rich, fashionable, successful and talented women. 

The fangirl part of it is horribly bad and wrong on so many levels. A grown a** woman obsesses over an idol and promotes the 'he should never date, it breaks our hearts' message. This woman even forgives and justifies fans that attacked her with guns and eggs saying 'their hearts were broken, so it is only natural for them to do this'. I am speechless. 

The whole obsessive fan culture just infuriates me. I mean, FOR WHAT REASON?!?! If I go on ranting about that, I would cross the word limit. 

Also, this had art as one of the themes, but the focus on art is VERY LESS. When focused on, it is not well written at all. I mean, I am an artist myself and I felt the art parts were laughable. The rom-com lighting and filters does not suit the art theme at all. The director has terrible way of shooting the artworks. Even if the artworks looked good enough irl, the way they are shot + all the boring and generic k-romcom lighting garner interest in negative from my side.  

Dropped 1/11 Jan

Had started this with hopes of watching a feminist drama. What I was being served here instead was way over the top plot that makes 0 sense. This turned out to be a heavy makjang, even though people reviewed it to be not a makjang. All the screaming affected my hearing. I can't believe this was what people were praising. Absolute trash.

The FL is a total a**hole trashbag after what the she does in the 1st episode with her employ. Being a woman, she shamed her employ for working in bars and accused her of a lowly being that sold her body. She knew this woman was raped by her boss's husband, but she chose to victim blame and shame her AND kicked her out of her job even though she literally begged on her knees that she will never reveal this crime to the world. She also made sure that everyone in the corporate treats her as an invisible person. She left her with no choice other than to end her own life. Having to endure this scumbag of an FL for 11 long episodes and watch the woman get redeemed of her crimes will bring out the worst in me (yes I know how it ends if someone feels like explaining how it is not how it seems. Still unforgivable, she should be burned alive in the end imo when she is the most happiest in her life.)

I mean, do they want me to believe that this sh*tbag has never before killed people in a similar manner to clean the mess her owners created? Suddenly she grows sympathy? Talk about logic. I can't even leave my brain before I consume this. It's that horrible. This one cements my hatred for makjangs. 

Also, what an irony that a feminist drama talking about the things women go through features an actor that has raped a minor. HAHAHAHA feminist drama my a**

After War of Faith. 

After Ruyi