CKDramaddicts

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I'm only on ep 6, but the journalism practices are so distracting! In Western media, the subject would never get final approval of an article, as that is a clear conflict of interest and considered very unethical. Critical analysis or articles on important issues would never get approved! Profile interviews would always be puff pieces that make the subject look their best or whatever "image" they want to maintain and project. We can and should clarify anything we aren't sure about to ensure accuracy and not take comments out of context, etc., and not to say reporters don't make mistakes, but even the ML says the article should be objective and not a PR piece, lol. Approval process aside though, she's a very good journalist. Her colleague is awful though! This is the second drama I've watched with a reporter FL that has a super unethical and competitive colleague (Date with the Future was other one)...

(Edit: omg, I would never be able to edit a single word if my article subject was hovering over me like that! 🤣 And I would be very concerned if they also changed into pj/loungewear! 🤣 My vicarious stress level watching this scene, haha...)

While I do find it's still noticeable (but a lot less than before), it really shouldn't matter at all either way. Unfortunately in my experience, in China, some people do care and can still be snobs about regional accents and pronunciation.

I've only seen vague speculation. I would not be surprised if there are political sensitivities around a low rating for a drama like that. I think Ace Troops was government approved, so if the rating is indeed lower than what would be politically "acceptable", I wouldn't be surprised if Douban is simply afraid to reveal it. Basically, they may be self-censoring to prevent getting into trouble or creating a sticky situation.

(Apparently there was no Douban rating for Yang Yang's military drama last year until a while after it finished airing.)

Yes, Dylan is adorkable on the variety shows! And he just had a stronger regional accent (nothing wrong with that imho), but he's been working hard on his mandarin pronunciation too.

Yes, it seems totally unreasonable!

Yes, I've definitely seen IMDb scores easily get skewed by people flooding to the site. King the Land was because it got flooded with people extremely upset at the portrayal of the rich Middle Eastern friend. Racket Boys, because people were upset at the portrayal of Indonesians during a tournament. I agree these elements are problematic, but both shows were pretty good otherwise. Should they be completely trashed wholesale, given their overall quality? (Both are higher now that that the initial firestorm has died down, but still extremely low compared to MDL.) It's a good lesson though for producers and writers to become more sensitive and mindful as TV programming around the world becomes more global. (On the other hand, Backstreet Rookie wasn't nearly as good overall, and also had some pretty racist depictions too, but the MDL and IMDb scores are similar and not extreme...)

Yes, I think it's silly to rate before the whole thing has been released and that an easy watch romcom doesn't deserve people expending so much negative energy!

Oh wow, I just checked the DB score for FOMH. I thought it'd be like a 5 or something, but this would definitely fall under crazy "exceptions"! :O When there's a massive discrepancy between two review sites that doesn't even make sense on a relative scale, I tend to lean towards MDL being closer to my personal tastes, and figure it probably deserves something reasonable somewhere in between the two extremes...

Oh, I'm sure there are haters, just like every other platform, but in my personal view/experience, there are just as many (if not more) supporting fans who give everything a perfect score, so for me, most of the time the two extreme sides usually even out, especially when balanced with the rest of the people who just judge on (their opinion of the) quality.

Sometimes you can see the haters hard at work trying to pull down a high score, but they manage maybe by just 20-30 basis points (0.2 to 0.3), because the overall number of users giving it a rating is so great on Douban. (On MDL, the ratings don't mean anything to me until at least a few hundred people have weighed in - just math/stats). And if you read into the comments, Chinese viewers can get picky about certain things that international audiences might not pick up on, like historical details.

I also find sometimes people automatically assume that a lower or higher score than they like is because of haters or superfans, when I think it's a perfectly reasonable rating. Like, even if I personally think something is worth a 9 or 9.5 on MDL, but the overall average score is an 8.5, I still think that's pretty good.

Douban scores are generally lower for C-dramas (but unlike other platforms, it's based on 10Ks+ to 100Ks+ user ratings, not just a few dozen, a few hundred or a few thousand), so you have to look at them on a relative scale, which I find surprisingly consistent across various platforms for the most part. e.g. For me, I consider anything over a high 6/low 7 usually worth checking out on Douban, which often translates to around 8 or higher for MDL, and over 9.4-9.5 for Viki. Of course, there are variations within those ranges, and there are always exceptions too, and differences around domestic vs international audiences, so I'm generalizing a bit, but for me, there is still enough consistency overall. And despite what some people are saying, Douban is still widely regarded as a less biased review site (overall). Propaganda dramas probably skew a bit higher, and Youth/Idol dramas likely skew a bit lower, but again, it's on a relative scale.

Sorry for the lengthy reply! At the end of the day, of course, ratings are interesting and helpful in gauging whether to check something out when there are so many dramas out there to sort through, but ultimately, we enjoy what we enjoy and that's the most important thing! I have totally checked out a drama and subjectively loved it for the cast, but objectively recognize that it's not good, lol.

I trust my friends. I am simply surprised by the huge discrepancy, since with a few exceptions, Douban more or less usually aligns, on a *relative* scale. I didn't say I wasn't going to check it out.

Douban is basically China's all-in-one IMDb/Rotten Tomatoes/GoodReads/social networking site for films, TV, books, music, and more, and has upwards of 300 million active users.

Haha! 😂

I was thinking about checking this out for the cast and because I used to be a business reporter (and my friends are enjoying it), but Douban just released the ratings and eeek....4.8/10 by 41K users so far. Even by Douban's tough/high standards, that's just...ouch.

Edit: This whole discussion has prompted me to start watching, lol. 😄

I really liked Falling Before Fireworks, where he played the ML. If you don't mind dramas that are a bit more "quiet" and less about excitement, it's a beautifully shot romance about healing and forgiveness.

(The Familiar Stranger easter eggs here were kind of interesting/fun. The clothing the FL and 2FL wore in the flashbacks were from FS, and outfit she wears in the final episode when she is filming is also from FS, even though the directors are different for both mini dramas.)

He appears very very briefly in the second half of the final episode. (S2E10)

There have been a number of shows where the epilogue episodes make a huge difference on my overall opinion of a show. They often tie up loose ends, and can turn what appears at first to be a sad or bad ending into a happy one. If I commit myself to taking the time to watch 26,30,36,40 whatever number of episodes, then I want an ending that is complete and satisfying. A lot of epilogues serve that purpose.

For some reason the very specific genre of "Republican era mini dramas" really test the censorship boundaries -- and somehow pass!! -- depicting scenes and acts you would *never* otherwise see in C-dramas ... I was surprised how far they went in the scene with one of the villains and the mayor's concubine being photographed, and the photograph shown after. They allowed all that to air when other dramas have been forced to take a hatchet for far less. And while I was just okay with the casting of the OTP, I definitely can't deny the absolute chemistry between them -- there was so much smoldering heat I was surprised my screen didn't spontaneously combust in every episode. And the innuendos! I kept wondering if I was really watching a C-drama, lol.

I'm keeping an open mind as I was interested in checking this out regardless of the rating, but a 9.1 on Viki to me is very low by Viki standards, since all the good dramas that everyone loves usually get around 9.6 and above...anything that's rated below 9.3 or 9.4 enters so-so territory in my personal experience. So on a relative scale, the Viki and MDL ratings actually seem to correspond pretty well.

The ML also reminds me of Wang Ziqi...

Just checking this out, and am I the only one that's really bothered by how they more or less glossed over what was essentially sexual assault (even if the ML was "under the influence" of some drug or aphrodisiac that was secretly put in his food)? Okay, I can pretend the FL somehow bounces back immediately from being kidnapped multiple times, but no matter how "fluffy" or campy a drama is, this is one topic that should be treated with a lot more care and sensitivity, and C-dramas minimize it far too often. Even if the FL was understanding of the circumstances of the situation, it's all very traumatic and the ML should still apologize and ask if she is okay at a minimum. (Edit: omg, and the number of times the disgusting executive tries to attack her too!)