burhaa aadmi

Well, I have to say I was surprised by how many I had watched. I'd dropped and avoided *A LOT*: SWDBS, DOTS, Goblin, Record of Youth, Start-Up, Secret Garden, Hwarang, Another Miss Oh, WFKBJ, Oh My Ghostess to name just ten, but your list showed that even though there were a lot of Dramas I didn't like (even among the ones I completed), there were more successes than I remembered. So thank you! I look forward to part 2

WOW! I'm blown away by this list, especially since it's only part 1 - so much work, well done! I wonder if it might have been worth noting which of them were remakes, either of earlier K Dramas (1%) or Dramas from other countries, FTLY, ALSB , Witch's Romance. On a personal note I'm chuffed that I've watched, dropped or avoided all but 2 or 3 of the list, meaning I knew of basically all of them. And a little sad at how many of them are now irreparably tainted for me by the sexual crimes of the male lead actors. ☹

LOL! There is a DELICIOUS aptness to the idea that his very first Drama after "Manhole" would be a "Bad Memory Eraser" Four years probably not enough time to have erased that REALLY bad memory. :D 🤣

A small point of clarification - mutual intelligibility is at the very heart of the difference between a dialect and a language. uS English, UK English, Australian English, Indian English - L1 speakers of all those variants can communicate with a very high degree of mutual intelligibility.
When people speaking their own L1 languages cannot understand each other (like Fuzhou and Mandarin), they are by definition LANGUAGES, not dialects. That's what makes Fuzhou, Mandarin, Min, Hakka, Cantonese, Wu, and so many others real languages, not mere dialects. Chinese is a family of related languages, not one language.

It can be even worse when you actually LIKE an actor's real voice. I'm a big fan of Ariel Lin, and love her voice, both speaking and singing. So I was excited to watch her in Legend of The Condor Heroes (2008). Until I heard her 'speak' and realised that they'd dubbed her. Instant drop. :(

I didn't say it was the ONLY reason. I said it was an "element". Everything about C-Dramas IS influenced by politics, from SARFT's rules on acceptable content to government decrees on which actors are "bad moral examples". Of course, my views are also influenced by having many friends who speak Sinitic languages other than Mandarin: Calling Mandarin "Chinese" really pushes the buttons of my Hakka, Min, and Cantonese speaking friends, and this undoubtedly influence my views on dubbing in PRC Mandarin-language Dramas

Very interesting read. A fascinating reminder of how different perceptions can be, since I disagree on basically every point, ESPECIALLY Nr 3. And especially for female voices. I've lost count of how many C Dramas I've dropped as soon as the helium-high, doll-voiced adolescent female dub starts for the 30-something female actor.
I also note there's no mention of the political factor involved in dubbing, the CCP's obsessive determination that there is only ONE Chinese language, and only ONE acceptable accent, Beijing's.

I think one of the things I like most about Sunny is how the cast have stayed close for the decade since. It says something about the shared experience of making it. Which is kind of meta, given what the film is all about :)

Thanks for the rec of Relumino - since I've seen and loved the other 2, I'm likely to enjoy this one.

An interesting list, thanks. Nice to have my contrarian tastes confirmed by the top 5 - Skipped, dropped, skipped, dropped, dropped. I was also interested to discover that of the remaining 5, I scored 4 the same at 6/10, with the nightmare that was Secretary Kim coming in at 4.5. If you ever offer drama data analysis as a service, do let us know, it could be really interesting to have one's own stats analysed by a pro!

An interesting choice of themes, a couple are definitely on my watchlist. We may have different definitions of "old" though, because unless I'm mistaken, the "oldest" Dramas on the list are from as recently as 2016, while most are from 2020 or 2021. Five years doesn't seem "old" to me, probably because I am. :)

Thank you for this! Your comment and the replies have saved me wasting my time on this Drama. It was the sisters I was interested in not the lovelines. Dropped!

I wonder if I am the only one who feels the title is likely to prove brutally honest and accurate?

Still no sign of this at kissasia, dramacool or dramago. Any other suggestions on where to watch from outside the US?

The fact that anyone at all could rave about KTEM is a mystery to me, that it was an offshore hit is clear proof the Dramagods have a malicious sense of humour.

Overlong episodes are AWFUL. It's one of the main reasons I despise a Drama many love, Misaeng. The Drama started off at about 60 minutes per ep, ended over 90, puhleeze! Reply 94 was the same, which is why I never bothered with Reply 1988 and its two week long episodes. This article's writer says "Asian" but there is no "Asian" norm in Dramas, for sure.

Liking or not liking a Drama is entirely subjective of course, and I'm happy for all those who loved Vincenzo. What I didn't see in your article though was an explanation of what you meant by "game changer"?

In what ways was it different from other high profile Dramas of recent years, for example "Crash Landing On You", which was also a huge success for Netflix internationally? What was the "game" Vincenzo "changed"? And given that you mention a Drama like "Doom At Your Service" which is imploding in its domestic ratings like a bad souffle, what does that say about Vincenzo?

This statement "Both international and Asian audiences almost have similar tastes in drama consumption" is not borne out by cold hard facts and figures. Dramas which tank in SK for example have boomed off-shore, and vice versa - and then there's Japan, which doesn't give a fig about sharing its Dramas offshore at all. Your enthusiasm for the Drama you enjoyed was fun to read, it would have been even more enjoyable had you provided objective support for your subjective assertions. Especially in regard to the sweeping generalisations because as has often been said "all generalisations are dangerous, including this one" :)

I was wondering this myself - I started watching Dramas in my mid-40s, and am now approaching my mid-50s, and I definitely have a higher tolerance for slice-of-life now than then, along with a lower tolerance for vapid silliness. The only difference being that even when I first started, I hated fantasy, so that hasn't changed at all :)

upvoted for mentioning Hot Stove League! :)

Great article on one of my favourite genres. I dropped Hospital Playlist because I don't enjoy medical Dramas, and now that I've learned it's coming back I'm even more glad I did - I very, VERY much prefer single season K Dramas.

But Black Dog, Diary of a Prosecutor, and Live were all Dramas I loved. Prison Playbook I enjoyed after accepting the recommendation of a friend who said it reminded him of his 2 years in Korean prison. Hush and Navillera are on my watchlist and now so is Move to Heaven, thanks to your article, thank you!