TrashyMctrashPicker Form

Oh no, I watch content from all over the world so I definitely am not picking dramas over my favorite U.S shows. The diversity of the U.S means you have so many different creators doing different things. I may love some British shows (Peaky Blinders really was my shit and Bake off is my thing), French shows (Kamelott is hilarious), but hard to beat an HBO subscription. Plus my holy trinity of shows that is The Wire, Breaking Bad and Oz cannot be beat. I just feel like there’s more genres, and more diversity in the U.S. I’ve in the last years enjoyed the hell out of Mind Hunter, Black Sails, Snowfall, Silocon Valley, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The Good Place, etc. The problem with drama land is you are never really going to get something like The Wire, West World, Oz, Blacksails, Vikings, The Expanse, Game of Thrones, etc because of budget. There is a huge lack of sci-fi, action and adventure in drama land. Interestingly though, Korean moves are way ahead in terms of exploring these themes. Really wish Korea would make shows equivalent to their moves like Snow Piercer, Train to Busan, The New World. The moves are doing amazing things, the shows are meh.

Hospital Playlist should be right up my alley but honestly, it was just a bore. Lowkey feel like Korea doesn’t do slice of life in a palatable way. I do think though, the characters may be the selling point for many. I didn’t care all that much about them and I think that’s why it wore me down. I had a case of, I don’t hate anything but I also don’t like anything either.

I’ve been in drama land forever and there is no K-drama for me that is on the level of historical Chinese dramas. I’m more likely to actually recommend those to people who don’t watch drama. Some people will find it draggy but the pacing of many historical dramas is on par with period pieces in the West. Then again, I enjoy history so that might make a difference. I miss the days of K-dramas having fantastic historicals. Some of the most well written dramas came from the late 2000s and early 2010s. Most historical dramas are not instantly exciting.

Goblin, It’s Okay Not to be Okay, The Untamed, Word of Honor, Itaewon Class, Ashes of Love, Love and Redemption. On this list, I actually enjoyed The Untamed and Word of Honor although WoH was just a whole ass mess. The rest made me want to strangle someone. On the highly rated list, the dramas I’ve personally found the ranking to fit are Nirvana in Fire, and The Story of Minglan.

The show could have definitely fleshed out its characters more since we don’t really see them do much outside of their home or art background. For one, the male lead is supposed to be the fuckboy but we don’t really see him actually doing much of that.

Heck, the female lead explores her options more than he does. Her insecurities don’t stem from us seing the male lead doing anything dubious. Instead, he’s just on the phone constantly and people gossip about his non-savory ways but not much of that is shown.

Then there are just random things that are absolutely never developped like her family relationship. Really any of the relationships… Feel like the side characters even had more growth and more relatable episodes than the female lead.

I was wondering why this show felt so empty and it’s really that. We don’t really get to dig into the two leads personalities much, they just exist as picturesque people who are into each other but ambiguously so. They never communicate ever and they fight over the exact same thing. Then rinse and repeat. There are times she’s berating his character but because we’ve not really been shown anything much about the male lead that hints at his character, I was just left confused.

This is why they just both aren’t very likeable.

Pretty much this. I actually clicked this because of the summary that promised us sex friends in a messy relationship, and while it was that, it was also just dull. There really was no plot here just two people who clearly shouldn’t be together playing tug of war for 10 episodes. Also, while people are claiming it’s realistic, the fuckboy turns a new leaf in like two episodes. Say what?! It was really genuinely difficult to love the characters because they just weren’t fleshed out or given much of a background.

I seem to be the only person who found the female leads annoying in both to the point where it was genuinely hard to continue both dramas. Perhaps they both get better but the whole childish doe eyed thing that many romance based xianxia dramas place on the female lead is terrible.

Also, any time the female lead just happened to trip into the male leads arms, I just sighed. The numerous unavoidable tragedies are also disheartening and would not happen if there were no pointless misunderstandings or just dumb plot points. I think the annoying female lead trope would be bearable if they didn’t have that ridiculous voice. Especially as a good portion of the drama is going to involve the female lead just crying out for the male lead over every sign of danger. My blood is low key boiling just remembering it.

Same here. I was completely unable to stand any of the female leads so it was really hard to make my way through both dramas.

This is such a beautifully written review that it’s interesting to me how the things that I felt were grave weaknesses in this drama were the things you outlined as where this drama shines. It’s rare though that I read such a well written and detailed drama where I am on the complete opposite end.

I personally hated Empress Ki so I would put this as significantly better than Empress Ki. Empress Ki felt like a fictional story full of convenient plotting to ensure the leads survive. Zhen Huan feels very realistic. It’s a slow burn filled with the most ruthless characters I have ever experienced.

A lot of dramas seem to function on the idea that people are fixed by other people as opposed to working on themselves. Like all it takes is for someone to be in love to magically start behaving like a reasonable adult.

I admit, I also dropped it at ep 44. I genuinely enjoy slow burns but after the marriage, I just lost interest. To me, the conflicts weren’t as interesting because Gu Tingye has a massive protagonist halo. I feel like how he planned things to me was uninteresting in comparison to Minglan.

I thought they were creepy but that had a lot to do with the fact that she really behaved like an 8 year old. It was hard to see romance especially when he patted her head. He just felt too fatherly for my tastes largely because she behaved like a child, which she was. I am about 960 years younger than him and I would feel wrong dating someone her age who behaved that way. I have a 14 year old cousin who is more mature than her and I’m not even exaggerating.

I watched Violent Prosecutor but didn't know it was highly watched. Was a standard movie, nothing to write home about.

As I recall, they are called Wuxia dramas for a reason. They do not translate well on film but it's juicy to read.

Welp, I deleted my reply mere moments after posting it and did not think anyone had even read it then bam, I go into my email and it's a flood of notifications. Which is why I've deleted most of my comments from this page. On top of that, the discussions seemed to be getting out of hand and people kept repeating the same thing other previous posters had already mentioned. It's also stopped being about the actual drama and more about people's opinions on other people's opinions which is not what I want. I initially just wanted to discuss the drama and opinions about the drama whether negative or positive, not people yet somehow things were interpreted that way.

Haha okay, fair point. I won't. On that note, definitely one of the fewer better disagreements I've had.

I say it's not unique in that it absolutely does nothing for the plot. These supernatural elements add nothing to the plot. Which is actually my reason for the poor rating. They could have done more with the Goblin having a sword stuck in his chest, but really that just becomes the set up for a romance between him and the 18 year old. I mean, yes the characters are unique but these unique elements barely do anything for the plot. They may as well not be there. The grand exception being that one actually good episode where they reveal the Grim Reaper's past although I was still left a touch disappointed at how nicely everything was settled. My Lovely Sam Soon definitely is not a cliché Rom Com. Heck, I don't think I've ever seen a rom com where the lead is actually torn between the female leads. On that note, I rarely watch rom coms. I do understand your point though, like when it came to The Heirs, I knew what to expect. This, I mostly randomly started. I never read tags and try to stay away from being influenced but sometimes you can't help it. On that note, even if you know what to expect, it doesn't mean the drama doesn't have flaws. For instance, I didn't just have one criticism here. Another of my criticisms was the poor pacing and awkward romance which played a huge role here.

Oh, the assumption comment wasn't meant for you. On that note, if this is a cliche rom com then that makes me wonder why the high ratings? Are we criticizing me for criticizing a cliche rom com yet admitting this drama is just that. I don't think the supernatural plot played much of a role here. It is mostly cast aside for the rom-com elements. I don't even think the tag would have set me up for that. Sadly, the supernatural elements don't make this drama unique. On that note, we all have our own opinions. Some loved this to bits and even think it deserves to the the highest rated drama here, I just gave it what I think it deserves and that's that. I explained my reasoning as best as I could. I admit, I am salty because I think this drama could have done more. Not all rom coms are cliché. This one just has some very overdone elements. *Sigh* The GR was very lovely though.

I'm pretty apathetic. Just wondering what people saw that I didn't. I think you make a lot of assumptions here about things I never said, but again, opinions are like arseholes, we all have our own. Also, I still do stress that this is a very cliché rom com, that isn't much less. I think a lot of the reviews are stressing a drama that doesn't exist. I was led here more by splashes of scenes from this drama than the tags. A lot of the comments were calling this weird, different, etc. So my stupidity here is once again trusting the people on my feed commenting that this is "unique." Then watching this and going, this is just another rom com... In fact, after I started watching this, the one person whose reviews I trust was the only voice of reason, going, this isn't really as good. If only I waited for her to voice her opinion.