Kannadin

Just go see my list and take whatever C drama has been rated 8 or above though given the few titles on your short list I think "Prisoner of Beauty" would be a good fit for you, though I personally rated it 7.5.

Currently watching "The Double", that one is a definitely a must-watch that I'm probably gonna rate a solid 10 if it stays that way along with currently airing "Legend of the Female General" though this one is not everybody's cup of tea.

You seem to be into family dramas so not my favorite genre, but I've heard good words about "Meet Yourself", "New Life Begins" and " Go Ahead" (which remake is K drama "Family by Choice").
If that's your jam, I suggest giving these ones a try, though I personally haven't watched them yet ( beauty of fully committing to C dramas only 3 years ago is that the list of good shows to enjoy is endless).

10/10 dramas currently on my list are "Love Between Fairy and Devil" (the FL's voice is high pitched horrible but you get used to it) and "Love Like the Galaxy".

In another genre "Reset" got a solid 9.5 from me.

Out of all of the C dramas I've completed I must have dropped 2 or 3 that I just didn't like but people were raving about most recently "First Frost" and "Revenged Love" otherwise, anything rated under 9 is usually due to a problem of them being overly long.

Anyway I think I'm getting close to 40 C dramas now so you'll probably find something to enjoy though I do have to mention that my favorite genre is Fantasy with romance or Historical with Romance. China produces them in spades so although there's other genres to enjoy, since I already can't keep up with everything that's out, I tend to stick to these genres.

Everything is subjective of course and that will always depend on the viewers but in terms of plot, acting and production value, you'll see. Maybe 5 years ago you could still say, K dramas were at the top, but now?

That would be dishonest.

I think the biggest flow I could mention regarding some C dramas I watched which made me rate them lower is their length and occasional rushed endings.

They do take their time to tell their stories, sometimes I enjoy their more leisurely pace which gives room to character growth and just letting their story breathe instead of being full-plot-placked... But sometimes it makes some shows overly long for my taste... last case in point "Prisoner of Beauty" though I completely understand why fans were raving about that one.

Anyway, if you do give a try to one of them (or anything I haven't mentionned for that matter), I'll be happy to hear what you think.

My take is not really AI but rather investors whose job should be limited to giving money, wanting this or that put in or removed according to past successes and date gathering.

As an artist myself, AI is a no-no. 'Course it's gonna be faster and easier, but at the end of the day, the idea is not only to create something but also to learn along the way. You learn nothing relying on AI, let alone bettering your craft.

And yes it's time consuming... But art is like that. You put your heart and soul in your work, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't but there's no failure in trying at least you've learned something. Anyway I could write a whole essay about how much I hate AI for a variety of reasons but I will refrain.

The cat's out of the bag, it's here to stay now... But my stubborn self is gonna stick to rely solely on my brain even if I don't encounter success on the way.

Well if you mostly watch romance ( also my case but I often venture in other genres as well)... No wonder you've switched to watching more C dramas. Most Romance K dramas I watched were pretty stale as of late.

I've personally given up on US shows more than 20 years ago. I occasionally bother but they have this tendency of milking to the last drop of milk every successful shows to the point of ruining them.

Last show I bothered to watch was "Stranger Things". First season was terrific and then as usual, the quality dropped with each passing seasons. Typical.

I'm not sure about "wokeness" as you write it... I don't really like that term that is very much a term coined by the far right and used ad nauseam to pin the blame for shows being shitty on the wrong reasons.

Representing diversity is definitely a step in the right direction in my book but it has to be done subtly without viewers feeling like they are being preached non-stop which is the issue with most US content these days. Make a good story, eventually put some diversity in it but don't go into full preaching soliloquy, that tends to alienate audiences, let the story do its job of making people think and reflect about their stances in life.

This being said I haven't seen it in K dramas, all I've seen is K dramas being more sexualized, more violent and as you wrote "playing it safe", though I heard Squid Game Season 2 and 3 included a transgender character... but err, since I didn't enjoy the first season in the first place, I didn't bother with season 2 and 3.

I'd have phrased it slighted differently "inject moral preaching through diversity or whatnot in random places where it doesn't belong."

Otherwise, sadly I have to agree with your analysis.

PS: For "Nice Guy", I have already given up on this show. Not for me. Boring is the worst crime a show can be in my opinion. Sometimes a show is a complete FUN mess and you finish it for the joke but a boring one? No way.

Ok the medic friend is actually his nephew... This one is not gonna dissapear but he'll grow on you ( I hope)... as for the weakest of the new recruits... you'll see, you'll grow to like them ^^

I don't see which annoying characters you're talking about... The only annoying one is Chu Zhao... Since you've just started... Let's just say that some "annoying characters" becomes her friends very early.. The story is pretty fast paced for a C drama.
This is more a light hearted romance with some epic fights and some plotting in the background than an Epic story with some romance. There's humor for sure, but it's not a comedy either. It's in the middle.
As long as you go into it with that mindset you won't be dissapointed.

PS: All the fight scenes are pretty cool EXCEPT one particular scene involving wolves which CGIs are truly horrendous. Just to warn you.

Hmm...
I think this drama is not for you... The tone is pretty consistent so far... with a focus on romance and comedy so if that's not your jam, better not waste time.

I get your comment... To be fair... I never completely got used to it but it gets better though I think it's more the breathy way she talks... It will never be worse than Esther Yu though.

PS: I'm no fan of any of these actors. Story-wise however, the Double is way better but these are two very different stories so comparing them is a bit...

You're welcome 😉

"On top of that, the ones airing recently tend to lean more toward action, noir, or heavier topics."

That's more a question of trend... For some reasons K dramas have always been like this. It's like all the channels are discussing about which genre they should push forward each year and then they push it all at the same time.

Well I wouldn't phrase it like justdoingmathang...
But I do have to agree on the overall content of the post. I wouldn't talk about the First Frost which I dropped nor the Prisoner of Beauty which I found too long...

BUT

There's plenty of C dramas which visual quality, cinematography and stories have absolutely NOTHING to envy to K dramas and are often superior.

As a long time K drama watcher of over 20 years, I thought there was no way China would do anything better... given the few things I saw back then. The first Chinese drama I watched 8 years ago was disappointing at best...

But then I stumbled on a good one, tried others and now I'm down the rabbit hole.

There is no such thing as no competition. It's just a matter of mentality.

If you think about China, you don't necessarily think of animation, yet two of the most popular anime currently airing are Chinese "To Be Hero X" and "Lord of Mysteries".
Story and animation is top notch, way better than most of what Japan is currently producing.

This is the type of arrogant attitude that will be the downfall of K dramas if they continue down that route. Every single country now wants to have a slice of the Soft Power pie.

Dramas, Animation, Music... all of these things have real life economic consequences for the countries in question not only in term of Tourism. The K Beauty industry benefited a lot from it so thinking that China as the second most powerful country in the world is not aware of it and doesn't want to capitalize on that is ridiculous.
I'm sure they're also pushing their content with lots of support money from the Government.

Now do I care about these politics?

I don't. You give me good content, I support the industry.

Another bad move from South Korea is relying too much on platforms such as Netflix and Disney + ever since the success of Squid Game.
Most of K dramas were available on Viki in the past... Now most of them have either been licensed on Netflix and Disney + or other more international and expensive platforms.

Which means, the core most faithful public of K dramas, now has to purchase several subscriptions to get their K drama blockbusters. Of course there's piracy but for those who don't want to bother what happens?

WELL. There's still Viki which content is slowly being diversified... with contents from other countries BUT with an increasing number of Chinese productions...
Chinese blockbuster dramas for that matter.
The most expensive, most awaited Chinese dramas have almost ALL been made available on Viki and the rest are available on iQiyi... which is Chinese. Last I checked by the way it's now called "Rakuten Viki" so bought by the Japanese.. though I don't really know how these things work... Maybe it's Japanese now, maybe still American who knows?

[That includes Thailand which is going full throttle with LGBTQ+ content to get their own slice of Soft Power, and they're right to do so because that's probably the easiest way to compete with other Asian countries since they're still lacking moneywise but are way less conservative than the others]

I don't know what is going to happen to K dramas seriously... But I have to admit that I can count on the fingers of one single hand, K dramas I really raved about for the past 2 years unlike China... and I am honestly sad about it.

The only issue I think with China is its censorship regarding political topics, corruption or whatever. Doing anything contemporary is a bit of a headache hence the fact that they do produce lots of romance and lots of fantasy and historicals...

HOWEVER... that's also what's most popular in terms of audience.
Occasionally you get awesome thrillers that do well in terms of numbers, but they're few in-between and usually don't catch up with the most popular romance.

I've yet to find a good contemporary thriller from China to be honest but again it doesn't necessarily bother me given that's not a genre I enjoy that much. For that, I still think SK is better... for now.

Overall, SK is not better, they've just conquered the market sooner.

But I feel they've become sloppy with the quality of their production. That pie cannot grow more, you either lose some slices or you don't... And I'm sorry to say, at least as far as I'm concerned... and I'm sure I'm not the only one, they already did lose some substantial slices not only in dramas but also in anime.

I did. I'm in favor of "no ratings at all until the show has completely aired"... and no review as well.

Watched it.
Well thanks for your reply... I guess I was expecting something a little bit more plot-driven so I guess this is not for me... I occasionally watch melos but it is definitely not my usual jam... Basically melos are just above the Horror genre... and since Horror is at the bottom of my genre preference that's saying a lot.

Hopefully once this drama is finished, the ratings will go up because honestly it is really off-putting given the MDL average. Might discourage lots of people who likes that genre to even give it a try.

Hopefully they don't drag this particular misunderstanding for too long... but based on the preview of episode 24 (see links in Dedra70's post below)... We're still in for the jealousy trope... They just put it somewhere else now...

Man! Chu Zhao should just get a clue and stop third wheeling.

From what I understand there's basically a jealousy misunderstanding in the novel that has nothing to do with the past RuFei's identity that is not in the drama. Instead they changed it to make it a misunderstanding about Ru Fei's identity.

In the novel, Xiao Jue knows everything before he learns that He Yan is He Rufei of the past, so they don't separate because of it... but here obviously they changed that. I personally find this stupid given He Yan has already proven repeatedly where her loyalty lies... but I'm not gonna hold it against the drama.

I'm not a fan of that change. It also means that there's other changes down the lines... We'll see how they do it.

Never thought I'd see a day on this platform when C dramas are more watched than K dramas... What exactly is happening to Kdramaland?

This is currently the most watched K drama on MDL and the ratings are the worst... out of all the currently watched shows.
I know ratings of currently airing shows don't mean necessarily a lot... but still, going that low is quite an achievement on this platform.

Seriously 2025 has been a series of Kdrama disappointments so far, and I no longer know which K drama to pick.

I was planning on watching that one... But now I wonder if I should bother...
To those of you who have watched up to the latest aired episode, is it REALLY that bad?

Yes but that's exactly it. Regarding these, I prefer the novel version. I don't dislike the show because of it but I wish they stuck with the novel on that particular part.

That's not the same misunderstanding we're talking about. In the drama, they've decided that Xiao Jue discovers He Yan's identity and still doesn't know the full truth of what happened hence the fact that he goes back to having doubts about her betraying her father... Which i not in the novel since he already knows the full truth before confronting He Yan about her identity. In fact the last piece of the puzzle is He Yan being ex He Rufei... whereas here, they've changed the order 1st piece of the puzzle is He Rufei being a woman... which leads to this misunderstanding since he still hasn't made a full inquiry about what happened when his father died.

Lol I cannot count the time people got into stupid arguments with me because I didn't like their favorite shows and even though I explained why, they would wage some "internet feud" with me over A DRAMA seriously... Telling me how IF I didn't like their shows, in meant I didn't understand this and that.

Sometimes you can see the intention behind the narratives, yet can't into the story. What works for others, just doesn't work for you, and that's fine. I hate when people try to force others to bow to their opinions, as if THEY are right and OTHERS are wrong... be it one direction or another.

Also, diversity of opinions is always welcome... Since you've decided to watch it to the end, I think the best way to show others that maybe the show is not for them, would be to write a complete review once you've finished it.

I personally often check negative reviews to see if what triggered the viewer would be something that would trigger myself as well. I've noticed quite a lot of dramas I ended up watching because people were raving about it didn't work for me and often the points that bothered me were already expressed, prior to me watching, in other reviews :D

Anyway good luck to you then ^^That's 15 more episodesto go! Happily for you they're short... Sadly for me, they're TOO short 😭😭😭

When he knows the truth about He Rufei, he already knows the truth and they immediately patch things up, he already has done his research and there's no room for misunderstanding... I read that scene.