Elisheva:
I've mostly given up on MDL ratings. For a while I paid more attention to reviews and comments but even those have led me badly astray. Three of my favourites have pages of bad reviews because I don't know, it's like the writers and directors expected more attention and intelligence from the audience than the majority of western viewers are willing to give.
The exceptions are some hidden gems with few viewers because those who seek them out are generally going to give them enough attention to understand them.
For me, it's been a long road of learning who I can trust to make or recommend quality, whether it's directors, production companies or fans, and what I'm best off avoiding.
I agree with all of this! (Although it’s not just Western audiences that don’t always have patience for unique dramas…)
I agree with all of this! (Although it’s not just Western audiences that don’t always have patience for unique dramas…)Popcxqueen:
Likely. I'm never sure what's the best descriptive word to use, "English-speaking" might be more accurate as it's English language reviews and comments here and on other platforms where I'm seeing the lack of insight and understanding. From the language use, I suspect it could be narrowed down further but it would be incendiary to get that specific :) "International fans" is the common parlance, though it often actually signifies "US and maybe Canada" and I'd rather not do that. I wish I had the language skills to read more broadly and understand how more of the world sees other cultures' offerings.
Anyway, my main data point for the country of origin is that it continues to make intelligent youth-orientated comedy so it's not a stretch to assume there's an internal market for it and understanding of what they're doing. You used the word "unique", as if these were all one-offs. Unique plots are a feature but there are underlying mechanisms in common, like here's this comedic thing going on and now we're going to slide some depth of emotion and serious meaning into it. But the reviewers and commenters I see here and elsewhere will miss the serious meaning and either trash it or be all ooo cute and fluffy. At the "look deeper to understand what this is really about" level, they're not unique.
Uff, that got long. And in some one else's thread. Sorry. Will leave it as it hopefully clarifies something I short-handed in my first reply.
TimiZero:
Forgive me if I'm wrong, but judging from you watchlist I assume you are new to Asian dramas. In that case just go with the trendy ones with high ratings that have plots that intrigued you. See and develop you taste from there. At this early stage you have the freedom to explore.
For seasoned watchers we rarely rely on ratings anymore as we know what we're looking for. In my case I would watch for the writers, original source materials, and of course interesting plot in the genres I like. I would also read negative reviews/comments and see if their points would matter to my watching decision or not.
I am not new actually, I have watched a lot of dramas from every country before I discovered MDL, I tried to do my watchlist but I already have a list on my PC so I didn't bother cause it has too many titles to update and time consuming.
The MDL ratings didn't bother me when I saw that dramas I have watched that I consider 10 on ratings is rated a 7.8 in MDL. So I wonder what is considered a decent rating on MDL.
Also, I realized and noticed that usually ratings that are 9.0 - 10 are those trendy popular but has decent plot with a lot of budget and those with ratings 7.0 - 8.9 are hidden gems or dramas.
