babepiggie

It’s long overdue that I update my profile page and I am a bit inspired to share a little about myself so here goes. . .

Being a long-time lurker, I was encouraged to open a MDL account because of Chinese drama “The Long Ballad” and the lively discussions in the drama’s comments page back in 2021.  Viewers were so vocal during the show’s airing and the tons of daily topics and threads started made this drama page the place to be and well, I couldn’t help joining in the fun!  It was one of the best decisions as I met many wonderful individuals who were friendly and helpful that it simply enhanced the entire drama-watching experience!  Since then, with busy work and personal life, I have been an (infrequent) MDLer. 😊

I predominantly watch American and Western productions but once in a while I would be in the mood for a Chinese drama.  So how did my discovery of Chinese dramas happen?  I had long been exposed to Hong Kong dramas since young and felt an affinity to Hong Kong productions because they were spoken in my native language, Cantonese. I can understand the speech but unfortunately cannot read the Chinese characters. However, Hong Kong dramas have deteriorated over time and the acting performances and production quality left a lot to be desired that I gravitated towards American shows.  One night few years ago, I came upon “Eternal Love” on Netflix and was intrigued by the beautiful poster and started binging this series.  I fell in love with the plot, the beautiful CGI scenery (at the time) and the amazingly beautiful cast, none more so than the stunning Dilraba Dilmurat.  I was completely charmed by her character and her romantic journey!   

After completing “Eternal Love”, I watched Reba’s older dramas and also began to follow her new projects, noticing the improvements in her performances over the years.  I don’t always visit MDL and am known to disappear for long spurts but I always return to Reba’s profile page and might frequent her upcoming drama pages for information.   Reba is the only Chinese artist that I avidly support, simply because I do not have the time, energy or inclination to follow other Chinese artists though I do admire many.  I might also venture to other MDL pages if I were interested in an upcoming drama, mostly productions that were or will be adapted from the English-translated Chinese novels that I have read. 

I enjoy many Chinese drama genres, with special preference for historical period pieces.  I am probably less enthused about sci-fi and xianxia fantasy dramas but with a good script and acting, I can get engaged rather quickly.  The most important criteria for me is the script of a drama; if the plot and dialogue made no sense and pacing was off, no amount of stellar acting can salvage an unconvincing plotline.  I (mostly) can tolerate average, even mediocre, acting performances but drama with a bad or no plot?  Nope, that is death sentence to me. 

RATING SYSTEM:  Below is my rating system, where I rarely rate a drama 10.0 and never rate a drama below 5.0. First off, it’s unlikely that I will watch a drama that is below a 5.0 rating because my Plan To Watch List has ballooned and I tend to watch dramas that have good reviews due to my limited free time.  Please do take my rating system with a grain of salt.  I do want to advise viewers to not only rely on the average MDL rating to judge the quality of a drama. There are dramas that I immensely enjoy and rate much higher that are considered just average on MDL (high 7s or low 8s).   

• 10.0 – Drama exceeds expectations.  The entire production is high quality.  Script and plot are top-notched and acting performances and directing are just exceptional.
• 9.0 – 9.5 – Very enjoyable. Storyline is great and the acting and casting are stellar where I am completely moved by multiple performances.   High rewatch value.
• 8.0 – 8.5 – Overall very good but can be better, such that (minor) details of plot can be further developed, but nothing that deters from the overall good quality of the drama. 
• 7.0 – 7.5 – Very watchable and have passable qualities required in a drama but need enhancements in one or two areas to be rated higher.
• 6.0 – 6.5 – A one-time watch, plot might be cliché and acting performances adequate.  Nothing that makes the drama stand out but watching can pass time.
• 5.0 – 5.5 – Requires improvement in multiple areas.  I would not recommend any dramas with this rating given there are hundreds of better Chinese dramas available.  I would only recommend if the production has the viewer’s favorite cast members.  I honestly would not rate a drama below a 5.0 because I feel a below-average drama might still have positive points and so much hard work goes into the making of a production.  

PET PEEVES:  The one thing that I cannot stand in any drama is a love triangle and I avoid dramas with heavy love triangles like the plague! In my opinion, there are so many people in the world that not every single man would fall in love with the female lead or not every single woman must have the male lead.  I feel romantic angst can be written creatively and should not rely on a person being torn about whom he/she should be in a romantic relationship.  Just my honest preference. 

FRIEND REQUEST:  I do not accept friend request from individuals that I never had any interaction.  I am not interested in boosting my friends total here at MDL so please do not send me a friend request if we never met.  I want to engage with others who share similar interests as I based on conversations we previously had.  Thank you.

Those who are familiar with me and my posts know that I can be long-winded so not surprisingly, my profile page ends up being more extensive than I anticipated!  LOL 😊 I hope to always have a nice MDL experience, so let’s all be respectful to each other and any difference in opinions can be constructively communicated.  I think this type of contact will make MDL a better place for us to meet and interact with one another.  Thanks for reading!