nycfoodie

What is 19 years out of infinity?

Imagine 19 seconds of your life, and even then, it's still too much because any amount of time in infinite time is infinitesimally small.

Oh, I see.

Though "toxic" seems overly harsh to describe someone who's struggling with unresolved emotional issues.

By "toxic," do you mean in terms of contemporary Western liberal definitions of "toxic masculinity?"

Or something more real & literal such as the toxicity of India's "sacred" Ganges/Yamuna Rivers due to industrial sewage & human waste (public & open defecation)?

Depends.

If you have good taste, it's good.
If you have bad taste, it's not.

Or you could try figuring it out for yourself. But then again, you wouldn't have asked if you could figure things out for yourself, so let me kindly help you out.

1) Look at the MDL overall rating (est. time: 0.2-0.3 secs)

2) Read 2 or 3 MDL representative reviews (est. time: 2 to 3 mins)

3) Consult authoritative sources re: aesthetic taste in general (est. time: 2 to 3 days)

My suggestions include a) Pierre Bourdieu's Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste; b) Immanuel Kant's Critique of Judgment (esp Part 1 which analyzes aesthetics in particular); c) Edmund Burke's A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful.

For more holistic & relevant treatments of the subject, read Laozi's Tao Te Ching and Zhuang Zhou's Zhuangzi.

First of all, I never even gave my personal opinion about lotfg or abcdefg or any other acronyms that end with "fg."

Last of all, what part of "the only C-drama reviews I trust are my very own" do you need me to explain to you again?

I was just kidding around. Obviously, dramas cannot review fans.

But since you brought it up, so what if you work at MDL's NYC headquarters?


I grew up & currently live in NYC and had no idea MDL even existed until a year or two ago and didn't know it even had a physical location in NYC (or at all) until a minute or two ago.

And what makes you qualified to work at MDL as "certified" reviewer? Do you have to take the CDRAMAT & enroll in Graduate School of Cdrama Arts & Sciences or something?

Last but not least, the only C-drama reviews I trust are my very own, and even so, only with a grain of salt...

But does lotfg say @carstel's romance is "mehh" (the additional "h" is a nice touch) at best? And what about abcdefg? What does abcdefg say about @carstel's romance?

It's okay to come up with your own opinions. It's not so okay to come up with your own definitions & randomly redefine terms to better spin your narrative

Anything "not top tier" is "meh," huh?

Are you a jet-setting billionaire? A Nobel Laureate or Fields Medalist? An Olympian or world-class athlete? An international celebrity "idol," perhaps?

Or are you "meh at best?"

How exactly would MDL "ensure" (let alone enforce) these policies?

If a MDL viewer claims s/he's watched at least half of this or that drama, did s/he or didn't s/he?

What counts as "watching?" Does playing the drama @1.5X speed count as watching? 2X speed? 3X?

Is fast-forwarding or skipping parts allowed? What if the viewer were dozing off or multitasking? Does s/he have to rewatch?

Should all reviews carry equal weight? Should reviews based on watching 50% of a drama carry as much as those based on 75% or 100%? Should the reviews of viewers who've watched 2 or 3 dramas in their
lives carry as much weight as those who've watched 20 or 30, even 200 or 300 dramas?

Speaking specifically of C-dramas, should the reviews of those who know little or no Chinese language, history, culture & customs, etc. count as much as those coming from a native Chinese, Chinese diaspora member, or Chinese expert?

Should the C-drama reviews of K-drama/K-pop migrants (& other assorted "koreaboos") matter as much or at all, given their possible (conscious & unconscious), more Western & Westernized, Netflix-oriented biases against Chinese language, cultural beliefs, customs & way of life? Reflected upon what they see as an antagonistic geo-political system & society? Via the focus of government "censorship?"

I'm only scratching the surface here. But in light of these things, any & all opinion ratings (including MDL's) are inherently & indubitably biased. This built-in flaw is a feature, not a bug.

"Fake baby voice," huh?

Do you mean something like the Western (especially American) phenomenon of "uptalking?" This occurs when the "uptalker" makes statements as if he/she/they were asking questions (usually by raising the pitch of the last syllables of those statements), so they basically sound like 10 or 12 year-old California "Valley" girls.

Western (cis) women and LGBTQIA+ community members frequently do this. Even professionals in professional settings. Are these highly educated, affluent, powerful & privileged Western women or gay men (among others) BY DEFINITION incapable & incapacitated from being & becoming "strong and motivated" leaders?

Yes or no? Why or why not?

For everyone's sake, I hope you keep it!

Oh, I see.

Maybe, try seeing each & every episode for what it is, in & of itself. If & when you reach the point at which you no longer find it worth your while, you'd save yourself not only a lot of time, but also from a lot of disappointment.

"Disappointing" is a relative, not absolute term. Something is disappointing or not disappointing only relative to your anticipations & expectations.

Try to see things (not necessarily talking about this drama in particular) with an open mind & heart w/o preconceived notions & emotions. You'd be pleasantly surprised to see your prior disappointment magically disappear! You may still not love, or even like what you see, but you definitely won't be disappointed by it.

It's a very polarizing drama, mostly due to differential expectations, especially between those from two opposing camps (those novel readers that expected a more literal adaptation vs those who didn't either read the novel or particularly how about how it was adapted).


I 'm guessing about one-third of fans love the drama with most of the two-thirds having mixed feelings about it & the rest absolutely hating it.

So you have a relatively high rating, with a bunch of "mid" reviews.


Neither general ratings nor general reviews (no pun intended) should mean much for you individually.

See for yourself & come up with your own personal ratings & reviews.

The romance is too much for the critics, but not enough for the admirers.

I could take or leave romance, but I still got something out of the drama because I tried to see it for what it is instead of what I wish & expect it to be.

I don't know you, so why would I take my "frustration" out on you?

I'm just giving my opinions about your opinions. That's kind of how public discussions work.

Brutally honest & blatantly blunt, perhaps...but not "rude."

N/A

BECAUSE NOVELS ARE NOT THE SAME AS THEIR ADAPTATIONS.

So can you tell anyone WHY TF UR SHOUTING BECAUSE I'M SHOUTING BECAUSE UR SHOUTING...

"Historical," huh?

Were there random demons hanging around in ancient China I don't know about? Which dynasty, pray tell?

Do you even have an iota of an idea what xianxia means?

P.S. Watch your gratuitous (not to mention, unoriginal & uninspired) foul language whether or not you watch another ("historical") C-drama, as if anyone but you could care less. MDL is a family-friendly forum.

Neither life nor ratings are (necessarily) fair.


Just curious, but do you know who CFY's parents are? Trust me, plenty of people who care to know anything about the Chinese entertainment industry have had long ago started to appreciate him.