I've noticed MDL has been deleting the links people post to them in the comments. Interesting! I wonder what caused the crackdown? 🤔 I don't use them so it doesn't bother me, but I did notice it's started happening more.
Check douban, imdb and other sites, high rating is pretty consistent.
Me too!
But what I think the commenter is pointing out is that if a drama is more objectively a "hit" rather than a "miss," more than one site will consistently reflect the higher ratings. IMDB has lower ratings for everything than MDL, but the highs and lows for ratings on MDL echo the highs and lows on IMDB.
When it came out a lot of people were mad that this "rom-com" that they perceived as inferior had a higher rating…
(This ended up being a longer response than I anticipated, so I made it a spoiler so it doesn't eat up the comment section 😋)
I've discovered that when there's a disparity between my personal rating and the drama's rating (like after finishing, I felt the rating seemed to mislead me about the drama), I discovered it had less to do with the quality of the drama itself being objectively better or worse, and more to do with my taste/preferences and what I was expecting going into it. I usually agree with the ratings pretty well UNLESS it's a genre I can't get into as much (aka the genres I'm less into are afterlife/reincarnation/ghost dramas, office dramas, etc.), and I eventually started to notice those patterns, and then when I started calibrating my research to fit the patterns, the ability to predict what I'd like based on ratings improved).
I think a lot of people who aren't big into Kdrama rom-coms of this flavor in general see the "hype" for this and then get frustrated with what they watch because they had expectations going into it that were calibrated inaccurately. That's just a possible theory based on what I've observed about myself and others on MDL.
Some people also don't like it when people say their taste is bad (on either side of the debate) as that might be what it feels like when their taste does not align with the rest of the majority's view on "the masterpiece."
(i.e. The assumption and subsequent logic seems to go as follows: "My taste is objectively good. I disliked this drama, therefore this drama is objectively trash. Everyone who says otherwise is a fan-girl, idol-worshipper, a bot or a teenager with no maturity.")
That said, there could be/have been some bot activity on here, but I think it's unlikely to have happened to the extent people who dislike this drama claim (are there enough people that care about this page to rig 54,000 votes? I'm sure it's possible. Likely? I don't think so).
But one time I pointed out to another user that (from what I've seen) average dramas always seem to go down a bit in ratings right after they finish airing and then will go down much more slowly the months/years following, but SUPER popular, iconic dramas will not drop as drastically right away (because they are beloved by many) but will still inevitably drop eventually, albeit very slowly. My point was that the 9.1 would not last forever, but because it had stayed a 9.1 for quite a few months, it seemed to indicate it was finding its way into the iconic rom-com category, like it or not.
The persistent contrarian user then claimed (this was about 6 or 7 months after LR finished airing, still going strong maintaining its 9.1 rating) the rating was rigged and MDL had "frozen" the rating feature and locked it at 9.1 due to people bot-rating it 10/10. I don't know if that was true, but the next day the score dropped from 9.1 to 9.0. Either an MDL admin. read her comment and unlocked the page (as she claimed) or my prediction of slowly decreasing ratings for a much beloved drama came true. 💁♀️
I'm still not sure which of us can claim we were right, though. 😉
I always take age (aka how old the drama is) into account when I read comment sections. People are super harsh on BOFs and old dramas like that (2016 isn't even that dated!); BOFs is still one of my favorites, so I've slowly learned that I definitely have to factor the age in when getting people's opinions on it who are watching it now and don't have a taste for dated things. 😉
The fact that this is from 2016 and has over 200,000 watchers and still at an 8.5 is super impressive. It speaks for itself. 😏
I really like LJS but he definitely doesn't have natural facial features. I think W is strongest in the first half, but that doesn't mean it gets significantly worse. It gets a bit rushed and a little confusing but I think it's still a solid watch. That said, if you didn't like While You Were Sleeping and other stuff with LJS, and didn't even care for W much up to this point, then it may not be your cup of tea. 🤷♀️ While You Were Sleeping (after 200 dramas, mostly Kdramas but some Cdramas now) is still my Number One. It's almost perfect (in my opinion). But I enjoy everything by that screenwriter; her writing is my favorite Kdrama writing style.
He played that one sweet character and has been beating people up in dramas ever since 😆
I think Study Group feels a bit like Weak Hero, but this is much more lighthearted. The tone of Weak Hero feels more hopeless, like the main characters are fighting against a broken system and broken people that will never be fixed. I found the overall message kind of demoralizing.
Study Group is much perkier in tone to me (and is more over-the-top; what I like about how they did the "over-the-top" part is that we know it's exaggerated and the story doesn't take itself too seriously; the fighting was almost equally unrealistic in Weak Hero but not in the same way, so it felt like it took itself TOO seriously, like it was saying "this depressing, brutal violence in school is normal," and just everyday high school awfulness (um, it's not; it might happen in some places, but it's not NORMAL, not for the setting it's portrayed in)).
Those are the differences for me that make me prefer Study Group. 😏
Cute. A bit slow in the middle, but the beginning and end were sweet. I have a few gripes and nitpicks (e.g. the adult MLs in modern Cdramas I've seen tend to be more sexually aggressive than I appreciate (e.g. Is your girlfriend an object who "meets your needs" or a person? Must we reduce "being in love" to this? 🤨) with the FLs being very passive sexually; modern Cdramas I've seen so far also often have a not-so-subtle message that always feels borderline propoganda-y: "China is great! Isn't China great? Did I mention China is great?"), but overall it was relaxing and enjoyable, and Dilraba was adorable in this. I liked that their careers ended up working perfectly for each other, and I appreciated the way they supported one another without demanding that one of them give way to the other in their career goals.
Their dynamic was particularly great once they got together because they're both so feisty and miechievous. Their flirting scenes are quite entertaining. 😏
So yeah, this drama is essentially reverse La La Land (as far as the message goes). 😋 And it's much more my cup of tea as a message, too, even if it is unlikely to work out this way for most (okay, not even most, just anyone 😅). You'll never get a gorgeous aerospace engineer who ends up with a sweet, beautiful actress with a heart of gold. But it's entertaining fiction to watch! 😉
Oh my gosh, this sounds like a movie plot all by itself. 😅 But really, who doesn't know that people working in high profile positions in the film industry are notoriously shady? Just because Asia hides a lot of the directora/actors' controversial behavior unlike in the U.S., it doesn't mean it's not happening, it's just that we don't always see it/know about it. People get all in a tizzy about this scandal stuff, but I continue to get puzzled by the disappointment and outrage. Why is this shocking? Are people living under rocks? 😅
Apart from the horse tripping in ep 1, I am enjoying this more than I thought I would. I cracked up at the introduction…
Yes, they do NOT treat horses properly in Cdramas, and it's across the board. Honestly, it makes me wonder how they treat their actors, too. Are their labors laws for actors behind the rest of the developed world's laws like their animal cruelty in film laws are behind? It does make me wonder...
Yu Tu: "I need to quit my life-long passion for "the galaxy" and move into boring, lucrative finance since I don't make enough money to support my parents financially as they age."
Also Yu Tu: "I will dish out half my monthly salary to protect my new girlfriend's image that might have leaked ONE TIME and to keep our relationship a secret."
I'm just starting this but I have to say... How could it gone so wrong if he studied so hard but even though he…
I think it's hilarious, because he's very caricatured (that montage about his rankings at the beginning paired with the music in Episode 1 had me cackling). The emphasis for our focus is on his dogged determination, not on the fact that he never improves (that's for us to get a kick out of as it's played for laughs). 😉
I don't think it's supposed to be super serious, either. He's a cartoon; a product of webtoon fiction and he just cannot be replicated in the real world.
Right? It's weird to think about, but the ability to code switch actually has a lot more to do with upbringing and privilege than I would have thought. 🤔 That realization kind of makes me sad! 😳
But what I think the commenter is pointing out is that if a drama is more objectively a "hit" rather than a "miss," more than one site will consistently reflect the higher ratings. IMDB has lower ratings for everything than MDL, but the highs and lows for ratings on MDL echo the highs and lows on IMDB.
I've discovered that when there's a disparity between my personal rating and the drama's rating (like after finishing, I felt the rating seemed to mislead me about the drama), I discovered it had less to do with the quality of the drama itself being objectively better or worse, and more to do with my taste/preferences and what I was expecting going into it. I usually agree with the ratings pretty well UNLESS it's a genre I can't get into as much (aka the genres I'm less into are afterlife/reincarnation/ghost dramas, office dramas, etc.), and I eventually started to notice those patterns, and then when I started calibrating my research to fit the patterns, the ability to predict what I'd like based on ratings improved).
I think a lot of people who aren't big into Kdrama rom-coms of this flavor in general see the "hype" for this and then get frustrated with what they watch because they had expectations going into it that were calibrated inaccurately. That's just a possible theory based on what I've observed about myself and others on MDL.
Some people also don't like it when people say their taste is bad (on either side of the debate) as that might be what it feels like when their taste does not align with the rest of the majority's view on "the masterpiece."
(i.e. The assumption and subsequent logic seems to go as follows: "My taste is objectively good. I disliked this drama, therefore this drama is objectively trash. Everyone who says otherwise is a fan-girl, idol-worshipper, a bot or a teenager with no maturity.")
That said, there could be/have been some bot activity on here, but I think it's unlikely to have happened to the extent people who dislike this drama claim (are there enough people that care about this page to rig 54,000 votes? I'm sure it's possible. Likely? I don't think so).
But one time I pointed out to another user that (from what I've seen) average dramas always seem to go down a bit in ratings right after they finish airing and then will go down much more slowly the months/years following, but SUPER popular, iconic dramas will not drop as drastically right away (because they are beloved by many) but will still inevitably drop eventually, albeit very slowly. My point was that the 9.1 would not last forever, but because it had stayed a 9.1 for quite a few months, it seemed to indicate it was finding its way into the iconic rom-com category, like it or not.
The persistent contrarian user then claimed (this was about 6 or 7 months after LR finished airing, still going strong maintaining its 9.1 rating) the rating was rigged and MDL had "frozen" the rating feature and locked it at 9.1 due to people bot-rating it 10/10. I don't know if that was true, but the next day the score dropped from 9.1 to 9.0. Either an MDL admin. read her comment and unlocked the page (as she claimed) or my prediction of slowly decreasing ratings for a much beloved drama came true. 💁♀️
I'm still not sure which of us can claim we were right, though. 😉
The fact that this is from 2016 and has over 200,000 watchers and still at an 8.5 is super impressive. It speaks for itself. 😏
Study Group is much perkier in tone to me (and is more over-the-top; what I like about how they did the "over-the-top" part is that we know it's exaggerated and the story doesn't take itself too seriously; the fighting was almost equally unrealistic in Weak Hero but not in the same way, so it felt like it took itself TOO seriously, like it was saying "this depressing, brutal violence in school is normal," and just everyday high school awfulness (um, it's not; it might happen in some places, but it's not NORMAL, not for the setting it's portrayed in)).
Those are the differences for me that make me prefer Study Group. 😏
Their dynamic was particularly great once they got together because they're both so feisty and miechievous. Their flirting scenes are quite entertaining. 😏
So yeah, this drama is essentially reverse La La Land (as far as the message goes). 😋 And it's much more my cup of tea as a message, too, even if it is unlikely to work out this way for most (okay, not even most, just anyone 😅). You'll never get a gorgeous aerospace engineer who ends up with a sweet, beautiful actress with a heart of gold. But it's entertaining fiction to watch! 😉
Also, I think this drama has 15-20 minutes worth of footage of artsy Shanghai cityscape. 😂
Also Yu Tu: "I will dish out half my monthly salary to protect my new girlfriend's image that might have leaked ONE TIME and to keep our relationship a secret."
😂😂😂
Love really does put things in a new light. 😉
I don't think it's supposed to be super serious, either. He's a cartoon; a product of webtoon fiction and he just cannot be replicated in the real world.