Favorite Contemporary Dramas
i don't watch a lot of these.
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1. A Murderous Affair in Horizon Tower
Chinese Drama - 2020, 16 episodes
great performances, superb use of unreliable narrators, and the slow creeping horror of learning about meibao's past is intense.
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2. Some Day or One Day
Taiwanese Drama - 2019, 13 episodes
really, really good; didn't understand why it was a classic until i watched it, but it absolutely deserves its reputation.
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3. Reset
Chinese Drama - 2022, 15 episodes
really good and tightly written timeloop drama with solid acting from the entire cast
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4. Bu Liang Zhi Nian Qing Chu Shi
Taiwanese Drama - 2023, 12 episodes
touching supernatural drama. the lead is especially good.
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5. Pettegolezzo
Chinese Drama - 2020, 36 episodes
superb chinese adaptation of the original jp manga. i like that they didn't go for 1:1 character interpretations, but rather made cn versions that made sense. the two leads are great, both as children and as teenagers, and the emotional beats are all there.
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6. The Outcast
Chinese Drama - 2023, 27 episodes
neat supernatural story with fun characters. feng baobao and wang ye are my faves.
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7. Under the Skin
Chinese Drama - 2022, 20 episodes
a cop show, but with a genius artist as the sherlock holmes-y type. tan jianci is great here.
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8. Cross Fire
Chinese Drama - 2020, 36 episodes
very good and quite funny at times! luhan turns the corner on his acting here for sure.
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9. We Best Love: Forever the First
Taiwanese Drama - 2021, 6 episodes
gao shide would be terrifying irl but he's cute insofar as the show goes... really refreshing for a bl, including like real physical affection that's not immediately sexual
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10. We Best Love: The Runner-Up Strikes Back
Taiwanese Drama - 2021, 6 episodes
wbl second season, with a timeskip... a whole new barrel of bl tropes to tackle and it does it quite well. impressive performances from the leads.
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11. Ping Pong
Chinese Drama - 2021, 44 episodes
cn adaptation of the ping pong anime; there's some unnecessary things that drag it out more than necessary, but overall a quite good sports anime adaptation. bjt is especially good here.
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12. You Are My Glory
Chinese Drama - 2021, 32 episodes
WHOLESOME. once they get it together, probably the healthiest, most functional relationship i've ever seen in a cdrama? the bar is low, but this couple is really cute. one of the better romance dramas out there, even if the genre didn't just sort of inherently suck.
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13. Light on Series: The Bad Kids
Chinese Drama - 2020, 12 episodes
brilliant, but not something i would want to rewatch often... but i need to rewatch it at least once at some point, since i apparently missed a whole lot of what was going on with ycy the first time around.
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14. Hen Jun Bu Si Jiang Lou Yue
Chinese Drama - 2021, 37 episodes
i reject the tragic ending but mzj is quite good here.
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15. S.C.I
Chinese Drama - 2018, 24 episodes
actual plot is muddy but the cast has good chemistry. i love that they censored this by making the leads an old married couple. didn't know who gao hanyu was when i watched it, then didn't realize it was him after i watched call me by fire until i ran across it again.
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16. My Girl
Chinese Drama - 2020, 24 episodes
i literally have no idea how i enjoyed this between the absurd premise and the Extremely Questionable Depiction of Mental Illness, but i did. the penny-pinching charisma-less ml is funny.
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17. Love O2O
Chinese Drama - 2016, 30 episodes
technically i only watched like half of this, but it was weirdly charming despite also being full of stuff i find annoying af.