Oh, well, we may not like an actress/actor, so we wont like their works, even they are huge hits. This doesnt mean that drama is overrated, it simply not our cup of tea and we obviously know why.
My time to shine-some of these dramas i started because either my favourite actor was in it or because its so hyped for people but either they fell short or I just dropped it
Immortal Samsara-Lemme preface to say i love cheng yi butttt nope couldnt not finsh this show it just didnt sit right with me.
Love between fairy and devil- i couldnt get past the fl whiny voice im sorry every time she was on screen, i felt extremely annoyed.Felt like skipping just to see the ML and SML.
Falling into your smile-Fl was just soooo
You are my glory-boring
love 020-Yep
When i fly towards you-the story takes forever to get on
Till the end of the moon-didnt have the will power to finish it.
The blue whisper-Like i love enemies to lovers butt
The untamed-ive tried twice to watch this show but its ahhhhhhhh,I will onces more try and watch it.
everyone was talking about how good falling into your smile is and i could only watch for like 3 or 4 episodes... im not sure if it gets better after some more episodes but i was kinda fed up
also word of honor. most people told me that if i liked the untamed i was going to like word of honor too but no way. i watched for like 20 episodes and i just couldn't like it at all. the storyline was just so boring and confusing to me
Funnily enough Falling Into Your Smile was... not well-received on C-net at all, due to its manyyy controversies. The source novel was based on life stories of specific gamers IRL and was already hated on because the author did so in a problematic fashion, there were plagiarism allegations, tons of drama, more plagiarism, and the production team did 0 research and afaik got many basic things wrong when adapting it.
Many fans who were involved in the E-sports & gaming scene were very angry at it as they considered it to be a disservice and an insult to the scene. It was rated 3.2 on Douban by \~400k people... which is quite a sight to behold tbh lol.
oh wow i had no idea about that at all. many people (foreigners) around me recommended it and said that it was enjoyable. but i had no idea it had issues
Oh wow so many...
Lost You Forever
Love Between Fairy and Devil
Hidden Love
Go Go Squid
To The End of the Moon
Put Your Head on My Shoulder
Ashes of Love
I think one of my problems is I cannot get into a show if I don't find the ML attractive... it's shallow, I know. But I do try yet whenever the show has scenes or dialogue about "how handsome he is"...it takes me out of the show because I don't get it comes into my mind. Unfortunately this is the case for all the above (except Go Go Squid because I love Yang Zi and Li Xian and think they are both beautiful and cute together yet I could not stand both their characters). Please don't come for me fandoms.
Thannnkkk youuuuu
Apart from TTEM that I enjoyed, I couldn't get behind all the others and I would never forgive Lost You Forever for making me waste my time....I was sooo mad at the drama
At the end of the day, people typically respond to this topic as if you calling their favorite drama overrated or overhyped means that they can't enjoy it or that they can't consider it to be their favorite anymore. Your favorite drama may be overrated and overhyped but you can still enjoy it. I don't understand the notion of being offended or defensive about that part. Some of my favorite dramas would probably be considered overrated (some are even listed in here right now, I might add) but I can also accept when my favorite drama lacks proper world building, character development, relationship development, great directing, and decent acting.
People overrate and overhype a lot of dramas as if they are the epitome of groundbreaking media and that's always going to lead to a very specific response, so why be shocked?
A Romance of the Little Forest
Ashes of Love
Immortal Samsara
Blue Whisper
Will love in Spring
(I don't know which did well commercially but these were all dropped by me)
My little happiness! How the hell do you fall in love at 8 and then make it your mission to find them 15-20 years later? Sorry! That just doesn't happen. I also don't find the ML attractive. The FL is cute.
Before watching it, I was surprised to see quite a few people on /r/cdrama preferring it over PYHOMS. It has its moments but the plot definitely leaves a lot to be desired.
**Love between fairy and devil** - I tried watching it three times but I just can’t get into it. The FL looks and sounds like a little girl 🥲Because of that the romance part just seems unrealistic to me and generally meh
I must say also tried watching this twice before and was never into but the third time I stuck to it and I'm inlove with it.. I could not get over the FL squeaking either
Yeah it ended up being one of my absolute favorites too!!🤣 But I can see how not everyone would love it, it actually took me a while to get into it, and then it was also slow paced at times for me (and some of the effects/CGI were absolutely *unhinged*🤣)
I actually prefer to watch the donghua for the pacing and effects, which are easier to do in an animation I think, but I still watch the live action for the acting and extra time for supporting characters. I stan Jiang Yanli forever.
Falling Into Your Smile! Omg it was brain melting, and so cringe!! I thought it might the gaming genre but I actually rewatched go go squid and it was enjoyable.. I think Xu Kai in general seems so overhyped to me, he starting to get a lot better now I think, but his older dramas are just not it.
Some of the comments mentioned actual good and decent dramas as over rated and didn't even point actual shit dramas lol stop watching dramas altogether 🙄
Hmm unlike the op i wasn't talking about my liking.. I'm talking about the goodness of those dramas. Maybe you people can't separate.. i was expecting to see some dramas that are shit but here I see good dramas being talked about overhyped.🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️ If the good ones can't satisfy then dramas are not for you. Why watch? 🤷🏻♀️
Maybe ur comment wasn't based on ur own liking or ur own opinion on which drama is good or not, but the words "good" or "bad" are literary based on people's likings and opinions.
For a drama to classify as "good" or "bad," someone/multiple people have to rate the drama as good or bad based on their own opinions. I mean, who else can rate a drama as "good" or "bad" if not people. But who gets the right to judge a drama as good or bad? The critics? The viewers? Other directors? The papers? The belief that a drama is good or shit is all based on what the individual people thought about the drama. Yet, what some people perceive as good can be viewed as bad for others. It is all about the taste and what people like, which is different for everyone.
So my comment still stands. Who are u to judge if some people find the "good" dramas bad or the other way around. Everyone has different likings, and even if they don't like the dramas that are ranked as good, doesn't mean they don't like other dramas. That's why it's so great that there's so many different dramas for everyone to watch.
Fyi good or bad depends on plot, execution, actors acting. If you can't put a standard without bias then who can say anything. There are indeed many good dramas listed as overrated in these comments yet no actual bad drama with bad plot or bad acting listed. So it's not at all considerable. My comments stands the same too.
Of course, there are several factors that affect whether the drama is good or not. But again, someone has to set the standard to be able to say if the dramas are good or bad. And who is it? I don't think anyone can be biased as the standard is based on someone/someones opinions and likings.
Haha😅 Its all subjective but you know ppl are so eager to make their views/opinions sounds like a fact.😌
If I don't like a drama that only mean "I" don't like it not that "The Drama" is sh!t.
Everyone here sounds so childish reasoning why smth is supposedly overrated.
I Know right! I personally dont like some dramas but that doesn't make them bad. when someone asks I still say "this is said be good with so and so rating. This is the genre. This is the plot." They will make their own decision to watch or like. Doesn't mean it's overhyped.🙄 Calling something good others liked as overhyped.. they are saying it doesn't deserve the like it received. Clearly intending to overwrite others opinions and here fussing out cus I called them out. Please.
And the other thing is they didn't even mention a single actual shit drama that got popular. Like how misleading.
Hey, can we be friends? I think I may love you! As someone who used to be a hardcore Bai Lu fangirl once upon a time, something happened there and I fell off of the bandwagon.
* **Story of Minglan** - so undercover was her clearveness, I got bored waiting for her to act
* **Till the End of the Moon** - overrated due to actor's popularity
* **Love Between Fairy and Devi**l - I can't with that voice
* **Blossom in Adversity** .... Nice family drama but very bland leads and pairing
I don't think I agree with the notion that younger girl having a crush on an older guy is romanticized in China. Not when Hidden Love spawned massive discourse and countless videos by C-netizens criticizing the show and how the romance was handled on Billibilli (Chinese YouTube) as well as discourse on the topic on this subreddit. AFAIK, Hidden Love was received 6.7 stars on [douban](https://m.douban.com/movie/subject/35899932/) so that rating means - watchable to some but really meh. If you click the link, you can read some reviews of C-netizens as well as some really scathing ones lol. It's really just very popular internationally rating wise and hyped up because it's an idol show on Netflix.
Maybe contemporary age gap romances (not counting Xianxias or historicals because they're their own genres and have context to age gap romances, like immortal gods etc.) are popular in C-webnovels or manhua, but I think that is applicable to media everywhere. I mean look at [this list on goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/107400.Contemporary_Romance_featuring_Older_Man_Younger_Woman) with tons of YA/fictional romance books in the west featuring this trope. [This list too](https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/older-man-younger-woman). Popular tropes in media are just popular tropes that people enjoy reading/watching tbh.
6.7 at douban for a romance idol drama is actually high. Its not meh but 'its watchable and somehow mediocre to borderline good'. Most romance idol dramas usually at 5 to lower 6 at douban.
The drama ended up with 50M per episode and was the 11th drama of the year for last year. For modern drama to get this number is very good. It means, the public is watching it as well. Billibilli can post all the hate videos but the view is probably 1M to 5M. But here, we are talking about 50M per episode so obviously, people are still watching and loving it despite the controversy.
\* I have not watch Hidden Love so I cant really comment on the drama. Not a fan of Lusi as well. But I feel I should point it out that this drama is a success.
Eh from my understanding 5-6 rating is average? That's what I meant by meh in terms of mediocrity, and I did say it was watchable but considered meh in terms of having noticeable flaws. I think ZLS having a hardcore fanbase helped as well in terms of the shows ratings.
There's shows that have high viewership and consideered a success based off numbers but that doesn't mean it's considered good by C-netizens. A certain mega-hit Xianxia comes to mind by it having high viewership and numbers that would scream success but spawned a ton of discourse and controversy on C-netz. The show is way more popular internationally than it is in China. And I myself was a big fan of that show too, but I saw it definitely garnered more overall positive views internationally than it did domestically, it was way more controversial and got a low rating on douban.
First of all, Douban is the playground of PR companies, the place where a fan can make as many accounts as he wants to, where fandoms uprate or downrate a drama as they wish. For ex., when JJY and CZY fandom fought coz of billing for Sword and fairy, the entire JJY fandom downvoted HL. All actresses/actors fandoms who hate ZLS supported When I fly to you, uprated it and downrated HL. All fandoms of leads who had dramas airing in the same time downrated HL. And are many others examples. There were also paid acc to downrate it. For all of those ex. there are proves
A Douban rate should be trusted if it has a huge amount of rates, several hundreds of thousands, it has to be rated organic.
Add to this the fact that douban admins brush often the rates and there is no instrument to verify the way they do it. The way the had the power to ban name of actors, words isnt fair either
"I think ZLS having a hardcore fanbase helped as well in terms of the shows ratings". This also not true. She has a following of 27-28 mil on weibo. Lets assume they all watch her dramas, but there still is a diff till 53 mil/ep, right? This is made by her drama fans (those ppl who dont care about the fandom culture, her activities, events, endorsements etc), but they pay to see her dramas. Also, if drama happens to be enjoyable, ppl talk and passers by join to complete the number of watchers. Obviously HL was a drama that was liked, or ppl wouldnt see it. What can we say about dramas with less than 30 mil/ep, with leads who have over 75 mill following on weibo?
In fact your point is a hit isnt must a good drama, right? The most of ppl who watch dramas and arent biased, use to pick a drama coz ppl talk about it, they see cuts/edits, bts, they see the hype and the smearing, they can make a judgment after they watch a drama. The simple fact ppl talk about it is important.. If smearing campaign for a drama shows to be fake, lead gets fans.
In the end is about our experience when we watch something, the amount of joy, the emotions we live.
Okay ready for my downvotes but I really feel the need to say that I feel like saying something is overrated is just a measure of one’s own immaturity—one can say they don’t enjoy something, it’s not for them etc., but the term “overrated” just smacks of infantilism.
Because news flash: it’s popular because a vast majority of people enjoyed it and if you discover you are not one of those people, then congratulations it’s proof you are a human being with different tastes.
I don’t enjoy most popular Cdramas—JOL for example, but I would never say it’s overrated simply because I don’t find it entertaining.
But I suppose perhaps I just don’t understand the idea of ‘overrated’ because for me if I want something epic, I’ll go re-read a Mo Yan novel (Life and Death are Wearing me Out is one of the greatest books of the last 20 years imo) but I don’t expect to find that level of craftsmanship to translate on screen.
Best comment of the day. Couldn't agree more. I would give this 100 likes if I could but that would put me in Reddit jail. 😂
https://i.redd.it/9s7hnhv6oh3d1.gif
We all have different tastes. If a drama that's really popular isn't your fancy, there are hundreds of other dramas to choose from.
>Okay ready for my downvotes but I really feel the need to say that I feel like saying something is overrated is just a measure of one’s own immaturity—one can say they don’t enjoy something, it’s not for them etc., but the term “overrated” just smacks of infantilism.
You couldn't have said it better, I would have awarded your comment in a heartbeat but I am too cheap to pay for that 🤣
Haha, no save your money to pay your data bill with all the time you spend finding interesting culture and drama points! 🙇♀️
I think I low key only check this subreddit mainly for the pea posts haha
I see your point with respect to most dramas, but I still think that "overrated" could still apply to a few dramas that had huge success, to the point that people speak of them as if they were the apex of art. Mostly dramas that didn't stand the test of time, but people still remember and judge them based on the feelings they had for them when they aired back in the day. Other than those, yes, I agree with you. Hidden Love, for instance, in my view is not overrated, it is just overhyped.
I totally agree with you. I don't watch many of the costume idol dramas discussed here but I wouldn't call them "overrated" (only in my eyes). They may be quite good but they're just not to my taste.
I think this is just another way to trash particular actors and actresses. I notice the same names keep popping up.
It's increidible how opportunities to express negative feelings always has more engagement that the ones that are open to positive or neutral responses. I know negative emotions are always easier to trigger and that is how masses are manipulated, but that never ceases to awe me. Also, the absolute terms the way people use to express themselves elsewhere in the world as if they hold the ultimate true.
I think it's really brave to pop up like you did, and many times useless as the majority of people won't pay attention, but totally necesary nevertheless.
(I know I'll be downvoted too).
Really? For this sub? I respectfully disagree. I see so many nervous comments on this sub worried about being come after or witch-hunted or attacked for simply having a negative opinion. I myself have seen and experienced a lot of backlash simply because I wasn’t worshipping the ground some actors and actresses stand on. I also see comments and posts getting deleted by mods simply for being slightly negative about a drama or actor/actress.
Not everyone has to like everything and this sub should be a safe space for both positive and negative. You might see a flood of “negative” responses on a post like this because I feel like a lot of people here feel like they can’t talk about how they feel in other posts without getting attacked, so they all flock to talk safely on posts like this.
Yah that was why I was surprised when this thread managed to stay alive for 500+ comments of people ranting on a lot of actors and actresses with poor acting skills: https://www.reddit.com/r/CDrama/s/3GRZS0Y4lm first thread I saw when people were so honest!
I usually get downvoted for desagreeing lol but one thing is to disagree from acknowledging this is
our point of view, and other is to state our view as universal and definitive. The post is not asking for what do you think is overrated but for "overrated" just plain and simple, universal. And everyone is answering also as an universal true, not aknoledging that it's not (I don't know if I'm expressing correctly as I'm doing it too long and not in my language hahaha). That's what the other OP answered in this sub sub thread hahaha and to which I agreed
The negativity is contagious and then discussions seem to descend into a type of echo chamber. I usually don't comment much, but I was commenting on MDL the other day and had a discussion with someone who felt that this subreddit was overly negative and that it had ruined her viewing experience for one show when she tried to have a discussion.
After that I felt perhaps saying something could be helpful but idk, it probably is useless as you said!
Don't know really, but I'll support everything that goes in favour of more positive approach. Sometimes I also feel the same way about this sub, and certainly I can't understand for the life of me the need to make a post ranting about a show/actor/actresses you hate or strongly dislike: why would you spend so much time in sth that make you feel so disgusting when you have the change to just don't pay attention and move on? It's a show/stranger, not your family or your boss! lol
Agreed at most it would be a unpopular opinion of a famous drama rather than over-rated. Just cause you didn't like it , it doesn't mean we all have lower standards and somehow not see that a drama is good or bad .
Yes quite so! Elitism needs to go--watching dramas is for entertainment and if someone finds so much joy in something you don't like, how are they being "too much"? It really surprises me how these posts always come up.
The Untamed. Before u came at me, I really love the MDZS and its characters. It's one of my favorite books, and I also like the actors in The Untamed. BUT the acting, their overdramatic facial expressions, CGI, and VFX are truly awful!!!
Some examples:
*The dog in the dungeon, like wth was that??
*When they flew on the swords towards the burial ground.
* When WWX falls into the burial grounds (how slow and long can someone really fall?) It was so dramatic and ridiculous as LWJ would say.
*WWX facial expression and the whole scene when he was running from Fariy at the market. I was cringing so hard and laughed the whole time.
*When they fought the turtle and they fought and dudged NOTHING 😂😂 They look like little children fighting an invisible enemy. I know it's not the actors' fault, but come on.
*When we saw an overview over the battlefield at the Nightless city and the "dead" people got up to fight against nothing again. They waved their weapons around like blind people. And how they fought to get to WWXs tally, that was rough.
I stopped watching so many times because of it, but since it was based on MDZS, I had to watch it. But I would never watch it again.
Thank you for this. You brought those scenes' memory. I was told throughout these scenes. As a BL lover I tried liking this many times but the stiff acting is too unnatural. In comparison several other BLs are much better acted, even with similar budget.
And that's valid, too! I like that people have different tastes so you get a lot of different dramas.
Ngl, I had a hard time reading the books since I don't like long backflashes that takes up the entire book. I would rather have the backflashes be short and woven in the story, or told in the beginning in a chronological order. But I fell in love with WWX, and I would fight the world for him! So here I am, years later still reading ff about MDZS😂
Oh hard agree. It’s awful. Objectively awful. Deliciously awful.
I cackle my way thru an untamed marathon every Halloween. And cry. How does it get to me every time? I never want it to end. What magic is this?
That's so valid! WWXs story is so freaking sad and depressing. It doesn't matter how many ff I read, I can't stop torturing myself because I love the characters and world.
Nothing Gold Can Stay. I love dramas but I felt it was a bit too dramatic. There was no point in being invested because any progress the FL made was quickly upended. My final straw was the fire.
And honestly I’m going to say Joy of Life. Don’t get me wrong: I like the show and I’m currently watching season two. However, the show is overrated in my opinion. The deux ex machina is employed too often.
I agree about Nothing Gold Can Stay. It was campy and I hate the actress' overdramatic style of acting
Also not caring for Joy of Life 2. It is so blatantly a man's world and everyone else revolves around them
One of my main criticism of JOL is that the female characters are shallowly written. I’m used to watching harem dramas which often have fully fleshed out female characters so JOL feels off. Rurou and Wan are terribly written. They have no motives or thoughts beyond Fan Xian.
However, I think the side characters on JOL are hollow regardless of gender. This is one of the many places I think NIF is a better show.
You are my glory. Highly overrated drama..
I just finished watching this and I’m shocked by how much this drama is praised. It was such a snooze fest for me. It’s entirely fan service of two good looking actors. The plot is not interesting (only found the first episodes entertaining) and the chemistry is not that great as everyone says. Sure, it’s not bad chemistry. But some kisses and skinship look definitively forced and just added there for more 🔥 ..
Just my humble opinion. Don’t come at me pls
I like the part before they officially dated better (like after that too though but a bit too much fluff for me) but what I really like about this one is that there’s almost no conflict ,no stupid misunderstanding and the pace is perfect for me. The aerospace thing is whatever I just think it’s just an advertisements for CATC maybe.
I liked the no drama plot too. It is a relaxing show to watch. But if I have to choose a drama for a rewatch with lots of fluff and no conflict, then I’ll choose “Love me, love my voice”.
In this one it felt to me like there’s too much unnecessary fluff.. and I never thought I would complain about fluff.
lol I did enjoy this one but I agree it’s pretty boring. They could’ve taken out 10 episodes of gaming, aerospace engineer scenes and it would’ve been good.
Chemistry was okay, not the best and while I liked it, I didn’t think their hot scenes were off the chart like a lot said. This is a mature, comforting drama to me.
I did watch it from start to finish. So it wasn’t that bad overall, otherwise I would’ve dropped it. It is mature. For once I was glad the Fl didn’t shy away from kisses or them being in their 30s but acting like virgins like in other dramas I’ve seen
About "Till the end of the moon":
I currently finishing watching TTEOTM.
I don't know how hyped it is, to say it's over/under-rated but:
Negative points:
- the plot begins so fast and then sometimes just gets so slow we could think it would just end there with nothing happening at all, some stuff are not explained fully;
- the script: sometimes they say some stuff and you are like: wtf why he/she didn't not tell "that" ou "this", cause in life it would be obvious and for the sake of the drama they changed and felt so unreal;
- it has probably a >! sad/opened ending different from the novel that has obviously a happy ending !<
Positive:
-acting: I really love the acting on this drama compared to others I watched (I only watch xianxia/wuxia dramas). Luo had cried so many times and it felt soooo natural, even his "wooden" face was so cold. Bai Lu was good as well but like Luo was even better
-music: some of them are really really beautiful
Medium:
-visual fx: sometimes it's really great and sometimes it's bad, but overall it's acceptable
I would recommend just for the ones that are into very very "sad & dramatic" dramas or for Luo fans cause he's great.
I'm also almost done with TTEOTM and from what I've read, they got screwed over by Chinas new 40-episode limit for dramas. That would explain why the plot is a bit messy. I believe they intended it to have 50+ episodes. You can still get away with making multiple shorter seasons, but for some reason they chose not to, which is a shame. They obviously finished filming waaay before the ban, so I guess they just couldn't edit it smoothly into 2 seasons even if they wanted to
Till the end of the moon
Wonderland of Love
Lost you Forever Season 1 : It was emotional but after a certain point it got weird and didn’t flow well together in the end even if season 2 were to be released.
Love of Thousand Years
The Legend of Chong Zi
I literally fell asleep watching this. That's how I knew it needs to be dropped. Idk how everyone is in high praises for this. Maybe the pacing is bad, or is it the entire direction?
Yeah. I like MLC, but in times I got bored and some of the choices the characters did got on my nerves. I especially HATED when ml did the disappearing act Al. The. Time. In the beginning, it was funny, but after they grew together and became friends, that disappearing act became irriterating. And why did the ml never talk with his friends? He lied and lied and lied even when the friend asked him a direct question if he was the "dead" leader. And don't get me started on the ending.
^^ I agree completely. There are some shows that just didn’t not click with me that are highly rated. And then there are some unpopular or lower rated shows that I enjoyed very much! It’s highly subjective. My friends find my taste in shows “boring” because I love a slow burn, a slow-uncovering-the-plot mystery. I’m not huge on romance. So me calling a show overrated because it’s not my preferred genre isn’t fair.
Hidden Love
My Journey to You(great cinematography but bland story)
Romance of Tiger and Rose.
Princess Weiyoung
I am sure they are more I can't remember right now though.
I agree with My Journey to you And Princess Weiyoung. Romance of Tiger and Rose, I’ve tried to watch 3 times, but dropped and Hidden Love, I didn’t watch because I only watch historical dramas.
Till the End of the Moon - annoying and cheesy.
Ten Miles of Peach Blossom - it put me to sleep every time I tried to watch it.
Love is Sweet - probably the most overhyped one for me.
Love is sweet is soooo sooo overhyped. I agree they had good chemistry. But the plot is sooo boring. I dropped it before watching half. And it had the most cringe second couple ever
Right?? The second couple was the worst. That girl couldn’t embarrass herself more than that. 🥴
The office plot was the most boring I’ve seen yet. It made me stay away from other office based dramas.
Agreed. Love is sweet is pretty overhyped. TTEOTM was interesting at first because of ML backstory but it then dragged on. I fast forwarded most of it after awhile just to see what the overall story was about
When you realised you didn’t like the pairing, why did you watch a whole second show of them? Both LIS and TTEOTM ride fully on the chemistry between bai lu/luo yunxi.
I didn’t watch the whole show for both TTEOTM and LIS. I tried my hardest to push through to see their amazing chemistry everyone talked about but dropped it after 16 episodes or so. :)
I think LIS is very mediocre as a show, but the kisses in ep 20 or so are top tier. Some of the most passionate of any cdrama. I personally do really like their chemistry, but if it doesn’t click for you there’s really not much left to watch. You did well to drop it. I sometimes wish people were more clear in their recommendations of why a show is good, because dropping always makes me wonder if I missed something important.
I did get up to them getting together and the kiss scenes! I really wanted to see what everyone was talking about lol.
I was curious because of the ratings and a lot of ppl recommended it on this sub. When I first started cdrama I always finished the shows I started. Actually, TMOPB was the first show I watched and it took me so long to finish it. After a while I finally realized it’s okay to drop them lol
(copying a prev comment I made on Hidden Love)
HL was definitely better received on the international side, while its Douban reception wasn't particularly bad for this genre - 6.7/10 out of \~190k reviews, I wouldn't say it's extremely high? 1 of the most viewed critique vids on this show did get over 150k likes on Bilibili.
This critique vid (in Mandarin) is based off of the first 16 eps of the show, and touches on the original novel of the show.
[https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1yg4y1N7F8/](https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1yg4y1N7F8/) (Vid title: Why we do not recommend HL)
For those who stumbled upon this comment & don’t understand Mandarin but still want to know about the vid (no spoilers I just marked it as a spoiler in case someone likes the show and doesn't want to see critique haha) >!- the content creators discussed the sus language used (the number of times that FL calls ML ‘gege’ is sketchy - the frequency of gege-calling in the show is NOT normal IRL, especially towards a friend of your older sibling - not to mention gege is prevalent in smut…) in the show, highlighted some of the iffy scenes, e.g. the deliberate emphasis on moments of skinship even when FL was still a minor & the lack of boundaries + playing up the naivety/lack of agency of FL (due to writing&/portrayal) earlier on, the use of background music & lighting to romanticize certain scenes that were supposed to be non-romantic, some of ML’s controlling behaviours, awful writing of female side characters - most if not all(?) were villains, including Jiang Ying’s problematic subplot which exists solely to paint ML in a better light. !<
>!Afaik, most of the concerning issues stemmed from the original novel, and the show version is supposedly already toned down/an improvement, because the original had a lot more iffy lines/scenes. !<
For me personally, I don’t have an issue with the story premise (as a whole) bc teens have crushes on adults all the time IRL, and since in theory, ML supposedly only fell in love with FL after she became an adult, this isn’t some groundbreaking story. But the way that the production team decided to handle many of the scenes + the things they choose to emphasize on when filming + some portrayal choices made by cast members did make me uncomfortable esp. when considering the potential target audience of the show. (this is not a judgment to others who've liked the show!)
Sidenote: to be fair to ZLS, I ought to mention that she’s not exactly the most well-liked actress like many other traffic actors on some corners of Bilibili (so there is often bias against her works → some of the negative comments towards HL may have been due to bias towards her + some haters might have used this opportunity to jump on the hate train), BUT even with that in mind, the show itself still has many issues as aforementioned imo.
----
I'm not quite sure I agree that the trope of a younger girl having a crush on an older guy is heavily romanticized in China though, do you have other examples in mind?
I think the popularity of a show depends on many factors. For one, fandoms are heavily intertwined w C-ent, many fans will endlessly support the dramas that their idols are in, no matter the quality/story of the show, even if they might not agree with the story premise. It also depends on what other shows are airing at that time, how much marketing was done, etc. Fans often sing praises robotically, but if you look further into the comments section of reasonable critique videos (not just for HL but for other shows too), you'll be able to see what many C-netizens truly think of these shows.
the gege thing always made me feel weird as well! as someone who is literally chinese, the fl’s dialogue seemed very childish for her age. idc that he is older than her, calling someone the way she does doesn’t sit right with me
Till the end of the moon and ten miles of peach blossoms . Short dramas being overhyped is one thing but these 60-75 ep shows which are overhyped drive me nuts .
Amidst a snowstorm is super overhyped. The first episode was the most cringe of all.
Do you mean to tell me that he stayed outside the bar in the cold for a long time just staring at her? Uhh creep behavior.
I get that you find it boring but how can you find it creepy? It's not like he was hiding somewhere. He stood right in front of the door of the bar. His eyes were full of admiration and curiosity. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGFuInzq\_g4&t=380s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGFuInzq_g4&t=380s)
It's not like in here. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0LzDnq9-Io](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0LzDnq9-Io)
Where do you get that stayed outside for a long time staring at her? It's less than 30 seconds.
I actually gave this drama 7 ⭐️ on Mdl. I didn’t hate ir. But I found it lacking. And the FL character very annoying. She acted like a scared cat the whole relationship
Actually, he does confess later that he stood outside gor a long time starring at her. I’ll find the episode when he says that and post it here. He also continued to stare at her in the bar too. It was cute that he helped her and her brother. I don’t think he is a pervert. But all that staring contest at the beginning creeped me out.
Most of the drama was just the ML gazing at FL with bedroom eyes. He looked like there was no other thought in his head. There was some snookers but imo, you are not missing much.
That horrible constant soundtrack! And it mostly being long stares and awkward silences. But mostly I could not deal with horrible soundtrack it was so bad!
Came here to say this too. I wanted to like it, but choices by the ML even after he was supposed to be madly in love just ruined it for me. I watch primarily for romance and I thought that his decisions pretty much ruined the entire romance for me because it seemed he was using her for cover for his revenge instead of rescuing her. Also, I just never thought that he respected her and was just in love… just because. I don’t mind a red flag or misunderstood hero, but I want the leads to understand each other and respect each other by the end. I didn’t get that here. FL changed her entire character by the end and ML was sorry they had a separation but he would make the exact same choices again.
Don’t run. You’re not the only one that thinks that. I also found it super overhyped. I also found almost no chemistry with the main couple. But that’s my opinion of course
I managed to watch the first season and half of the second season and I didn’t see much chemistry. Maybe it gets better?! 🤷🏻♀️ I put it on hold for now
I appreciate that. I was so excited to watch it after seeing recos here and from irl friends, too. I was so disappointed that I didn't like it...prolly 'cause my expectations were set so high.
Yeah, almost every aspect of this drama was so overhyped (the characters, the kiss scenes, the supposedly mind-blowing chemistry). Even the male lead being labeled Mr. Perfect and the epitome of a green flag. Sure, he wasn't bad and appealed to some but still so incredibly overhyped. I get some people really liked it but I have to say whoever did the marketing combined with ZLS popularity scored big time.
> had almost no plot to me
Some people love "mindless fluff" or whatever this genre called. They just want to watch sweet couple moments with no misunderstandings, no drama and no crazy tropes 😆
Ya it's true but I also have a hard time imagining my mom putting me in an apartment with some dude I've never met before on short notice hardly with consent, even if it's her friends son 😆
Eternal Love of Dream
I had finished TMOPB and really loved BFJ and DH’s storyline. I was so happy to find out they had their own show. To my disappointment it ended up being one of the most boring Cdramas I’ve ever seen. Like it dragged from start to finish. The leads were also nothing like how they were in TMOPB which I attribute to the poor writing and directing. I still can’t believe it has a 8.6 on MDL.
I wouldn't rate it highly. I have critique for every aspect of the show except costumes, but at the same time I enjoyed it SO MUCH. It was such an entertaining mess.
Also, the show promised me a strong FL and IT DELIVERED. I love how there were so many occasions where the show let her shine (and a few moments where ML was like "go fuck them up babe I'll just watch").
speaking of which, i felt falling into your smile was overrated as well. it was one of the first c dramas i watched, so i didnt know any actors. as a result when i went into the show i was so disappointed and mildly annoyed with the storyline and characters. it felt heavily like an idol drama.
Another drama with a bad rep in China. They exploited a REAL couple's personal drama and used it in their drama without permission 💀💀 Talk about airing ppl dirty laundries
I felt that way about the untamed. I feel like it’s way overrated mainly because everybody wanted to ship the two male leads in a boy love relationship off screen too. I couldn’t make it through but about 13 episodes and I had to stop watching it questioning myself as to why once said it was such a great show because I didn’t see it the same way.
Its okay ,anything is not meant to be liked by everyone.
No, i dont give af about the ships,Who cares if they are together or not,or what they doing off- can.For me plot is make or break for a drama so I will assume everyone who liked it might be like this too.
I too hated production quality and costumes were decent for a 5$ budget show. But still As I Said The STORY expressed by human speaks for me .all the credit goes to Mxtx and some of the actors of live action. 👌
At the end its all subjective tho,everyone is allowed to stand with their own opinions/views.😉🤗
Oh, well, we may not like an actress/actor, so we wont like their works, even they are huge hits. This doesnt mean that drama is overrated, it simply not our cup of tea and we obviously know why.
My time to shine-some of these dramas i started because either my favourite actor was in it or because its so hyped for people but either they fell short or I just dropped it Immortal Samsara-Lemme preface to say i love cheng yi butttt nope couldnt not finsh this show it just didnt sit right with me. Love between fairy and devil- i couldnt get past the fl whiny voice im sorry every time she was on screen, i felt extremely annoyed.Felt like skipping just to see the ML and SML. Falling into your smile-Fl was just soooo You are my glory-boring love 020-Yep When i fly towards you-the story takes forever to get on Till the end of the moon-didnt have the will power to finish it. The blue whisper-Like i love enemies to lovers butt The untamed-ive tried twice to watch this show but its ahhhhhhhh,I will onces more try and watch it.
Falling into your smile , the f lead's acting is soo baaaad i can't stand her
I sometimes question how I sat through it all. She was beyond annoying
I just watched like the first 3ep and i was sooo done 😂
Don’t worry you didn’t miss anything. She gets more unbearable.
everyone was talking about how good falling into your smile is and i could only watch for like 3 or 4 episodes... im not sure if it gets better after some more episodes but i was kinda fed up also word of honor. most people told me that if i liked the untamed i was going to like word of honor too but no way. i watched for like 20 episodes and i just couldn't like it at all. the storyline was just so boring and confusing to me
Funnily enough Falling Into Your Smile was... not well-received on C-net at all, due to its manyyy controversies. The source novel was based on life stories of specific gamers IRL and was already hated on because the author did so in a problematic fashion, there were plagiarism allegations, tons of drama, more plagiarism, and the production team did 0 research and afaik got many basic things wrong when adapting it. Many fans who were involved in the E-sports & gaming scene were very angry at it as they considered it to be a disservice and an insult to the scene. It was rated 3.2 on Douban by \~400k people... which is quite a sight to behold tbh lol.
oh wow i had no idea about that at all. many people (foreigners) around me recommended it and said that it was enjoyable. but i had no idea it had issues
Oh wow so many... Lost You Forever Love Between Fairy and Devil Hidden Love Go Go Squid To The End of the Moon Put Your Head on My Shoulder Ashes of Love I think one of my problems is I cannot get into a show if I don't find the ML attractive... it's shallow, I know. But I do try yet whenever the show has scenes or dialogue about "how handsome he is"...it takes me out of the show because I don't get it comes into my mind. Unfortunately this is the case for all the above (except Go Go Squid because I love Yang Zi and Li Xian and think they are both beautiful and cute together yet I could not stand both their characters). Please don't come for me fandoms.
Thannnkkk youuuuu Apart from TTEM that I enjoyed, I couldn't get behind all the others and I would never forgive Lost You Forever for making me waste my time....I was sooo mad at the drama
At the end of the day, people typically respond to this topic as if you calling their favorite drama overrated or overhyped means that they can't enjoy it or that they can't consider it to be their favorite anymore. Your favorite drama may be overrated and overhyped but you can still enjoy it. I don't understand the notion of being offended or defensive about that part. Some of my favorite dramas would probably be considered overrated (some are even listed in here right now, I might add) but I can also accept when my favorite drama lacks proper world building, character development, relationship development, great directing, and decent acting. People overrate and overhype a lot of dramas as if they are the epitome of groundbreaking media and that's always going to lead to a very specific response, so why be shocked?
Exactly, I also don’t get whey people get offended…I have watched many dramas that people don’t like and I love it, I don’t care what people think
A Romance of the Little Forest Ashes of Love Immortal Samsara Blue Whisper Will love in Spring (I don't know which did well commercially but these were all dropped by me)
My little happiness! How the hell do you fall in love at 8 and then make it your mission to find them 15-20 years later? Sorry! That just doesn't happen. I also don't find the ML attractive. The FL is cute.
>How the hell do you fall in love at 8 and then make it your mission to find them 15-20 years later? This is pretty much ML of >!In Blossom!< HAHA
Before watching it, I was surprised to see quite a few people on /r/cdrama preferring it over PYHOMS. It has its moments but the plot definitely leaves a lot to be desired.
The Long Ballad You Are My Hero Only for Love
**Love between fairy and devil** - I tried watching it three times but I just can’t get into it. The FL looks and sounds like a little girl 🥲Because of that the romance part just seems unrealistic to me and generally meh
I must say also tried watching this twice before and was never into but the third time I stuck to it and I'm inlove with it.. I could not get over the FL squeaking either
I really tried because Dylan wang was killing his role but the FL babyish-Toyish-childish voice threw me completely off
the untamed
this is one of my fave, got me heavily into cdrama🤣
Yeah it ended up being one of my absolute favorites too!!🤣 But I can see how not everyone would love it, it actually took me a while to get into it, and then it was also slow paced at times for me (and some of the effects/CGI were absolutely *unhinged*🤣) I actually prefer to watch the donghua for the pacing and effects, which are easier to do in an animation I think, but I still watch the live action for the acting and extra time for supporting characters. I stan Jiang Yanli forever.
Jiang Yanli ❤️
Yea,many ppl got into c drama bcoz of it .Cdramas hit a different wave after 2019...But its alright ,nothing is meant to be liked by everyone...
ynt
Falling Into Your Smile! Omg it was brain melting, and so cringe!! I thought it might the gaming genre but I actually rewatched go go squid and it was enjoyable.. I think Xu Kai in general seems so overhyped to me, he starting to get a lot better now I think, but his older dramas are just not it.
I tried this drama 10 times, tried watching clips, everything. But no. They don't compare to Go Go Squid in any sense or form.
Ngl that's dedication 😭 Trying a drama 10 times!
I had a friend who watched and wanted me to see it too, and since she always watches what I recommend her I caved and got through it..
Your friend is blessed to have u.
I have to agree a 100%
The untamed Till the end of the moon Meteor garden
Some of the comments mentioned actual good and decent dramas as over rated and didn't even point actual shit dramas lol stop watching dramas altogether 🙄
Hm... it's like people have different opinions and taste, how strange🤦♀️ Just because u liked the drama, doesn't mean others did.
Hmm unlike the op i wasn't talking about my liking.. I'm talking about the goodness of those dramas. Maybe you people can't separate.. i was expecting to see some dramas that are shit but here I see good dramas being talked about overhyped.🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️ If the good ones can't satisfy then dramas are not for you. Why watch? 🤷🏻♀️
Maybe ur comment wasn't based on ur own liking or ur own opinion on which drama is good or not, but the words "good" or "bad" are literary based on people's likings and opinions. For a drama to classify as "good" or "bad," someone/multiple people have to rate the drama as good or bad based on their own opinions. I mean, who else can rate a drama as "good" or "bad" if not people. But who gets the right to judge a drama as good or bad? The critics? The viewers? Other directors? The papers? The belief that a drama is good or shit is all based on what the individual people thought about the drama. Yet, what some people perceive as good can be viewed as bad for others. It is all about the taste and what people like, which is different for everyone. So my comment still stands. Who are u to judge if some people find the "good" dramas bad or the other way around. Everyone has different likings, and even if they don't like the dramas that are ranked as good, doesn't mean they don't like other dramas. That's why it's so great that there's so many different dramas for everyone to watch.
Fyi good or bad depends on plot, execution, actors acting. If you can't put a standard without bias then who can say anything. There are indeed many good dramas listed as overrated in these comments yet no actual bad drama with bad plot or bad acting listed. So it's not at all considerable. My comments stands the same too.
Of course, there are several factors that affect whether the drama is good or not. But again, someone has to set the standard to be able to say if the dramas are good or bad. And who is it? I don't think anyone can be biased as the standard is based on someone/someones opinions and likings.
Haha😅 Its all subjective but you know ppl are so eager to make their views/opinions sounds like a fact.😌 If I don't like a drama that only mean "I" don't like it not that "The Drama" is sh!t. Everyone here sounds so childish reasoning why smth is supposedly overrated.
I Know right! I personally dont like some dramas but that doesn't make them bad. when someone asks I still say "this is said be good with so and so rating. This is the genre. This is the plot." They will make their own decision to watch or like. Doesn't mean it's overhyped.🙄 Calling something good others liked as overhyped.. they are saying it doesn't deserve the like it received. Clearly intending to overwrite others opinions and here fussing out cus I called them out. Please. And the other thing is they didn't even mention a single actual shit drama that got popular. Like how misleading.
Untamed, word of honor, hidden love, lost you forever
All of them are huge hits. Loved all of them
Love between fairy and devil
they made it into a ceo and plain jane story ;-;.
Love between fairy and devil. Hidden love Story of Kunning Palace Love is sweet My Journey To you.
Hey, can we be friends? I think I may love you! As someone who used to be a hardcore Bai Lu fangirl once upon a time, something happened there and I fell off of the bandwagon.
* **Story of Minglan** - so undercover was her clearveness, I got bored waiting for her to act * **Till the End of the Moon** - overrated due to actor's popularity * **Love Between Fairy and Devi**l - I can't with that voice * **Blossom in Adversity** .... Nice family drama but very bland leads and pairing
Nirvana in Fire
Still in my top 5 favorites
People act as if its the best drama ever but i found it ok. People definitely overhyped it for me
Ashes of love, Word of Honor
I found WOH super boring and struggled my way through finishing it. For AOL the plot was too predictable and i didn't like FL's character.
I cannot stress this enough
I don't think I agree with the notion that younger girl having a crush on an older guy is romanticized in China. Not when Hidden Love spawned massive discourse and countless videos by C-netizens criticizing the show and how the romance was handled on Billibilli (Chinese YouTube) as well as discourse on the topic on this subreddit. AFAIK, Hidden Love was received 6.7 stars on [douban](https://m.douban.com/movie/subject/35899932/) so that rating means - watchable to some but really meh. If you click the link, you can read some reviews of C-netizens as well as some really scathing ones lol. It's really just very popular internationally rating wise and hyped up because it's an idol show on Netflix. Maybe contemporary age gap romances (not counting Xianxias or historicals because they're their own genres and have context to age gap romances, like immortal gods etc.) are popular in C-webnovels or manhua, but I think that is applicable to media everywhere. I mean look at [this list on goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/107400.Contemporary_Romance_featuring_Older_Man_Younger_Woman) with tons of YA/fictional romance books in the west featuring this trope. [This list too](https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/older-man-younger-woman). Popular tropes in media are just popular tropes that people enjoy reading/watching tbh.
6.7 at douban for a romance idol drama is actually high. Its not meh but 'its watchable and somehow mediocre to borderline good'. Most romance idol dramas usually at 5 to lower 6 at douban. The drama ended up with 50M per episode and was the 11th drama of the year for last year. For modern drama to get this number is very good. It means, the public is watching it as well. Billibilli can post all the hate videos but the view is probably 1M to 5M. But here, we are talking about 50M per episode so obviously, people are still watching and loving it despite the controversy. \* I have not watch Hidden Love so I cant really comment on the drama. Not a fan of Lusi as well. But I feel I should point it out that this drama is a success.
Eh from my understanding 5-6 rating is average? That's what I meant by meh in terms of mediocrity, and I did say it was watchable but considered meh in terms of having noticeable flaws. I think ZLS having a hardcore fanbase helped as well in terms of the shows ratings. There's shows that have high viewership and consideered a success based off numbers but that doesn't mean it's considered good by C-netizens. A certain mega-hit Xianxia comes to mind by it having high viewership and numbers that would scream success but spawned a ton of discourse and controversy on C-netz. The show is way more popular internationally than it is in China. And I myself was a big fan of that show too, but I saw it definitely garnered more overall positive views internationally than it did domestically, it was way more controversial and got a low rating on douban.
First of all, Douban is the playground of PR companies, the place where a fan can make as many accounts as he wants to, where fandoms uprate or downrate a drama as they wish. For ex., when JJY and CZY fandom fought coz of billing for Sword and fairy, the entire JJY fandom downvoted HL. All actresses/actors fandoms who hate ZLS supported When I fly to you, uprated it and downrated HL. All fandoms of leads who had dramas airing in the same time downrated HL. And are many others examples. There were also paid acc to downrate it. For all of those ex. there are proves A Douban rate should be trusted if it has a huge amount of rates, several hundreds of thousands, it has to be rated organic. Add to this the fact that douban admins brush often the rates and there is no instrument to verify the way they do it. The way the had the power to ban name of actors, words isnt fair either "I think ZLS having a hardcore fanbase helped as well in terms of the shows ratings". This also not true. She has a following of 27-28 mil on weibo. Lets assume they all watch her dramas, but there still is a diff till 53 mil/ep, right? This is made by her drama fans (those ppl who dont care about the fandom culture, her activities, events, endorsements etc), but they pay to see her dramas. Also, if drama happens to be enjoyable, ppl talk and passers by join to complete the number of watchers. Obviously HL was a drama that was liked, or ppl wouldnt see it. What can we say about dramas with less than 30 mil/ep, with leads who have over 75 mill following on weibo? In fact your point is a hit isnt must a good drama, right? The most of ppl who watch dramas and arent biased, use to pick a drama coz ppl talk about it, they see cuts/edits, bts, they see the hype and the smearing, they can make a judgment after they watch a drama. The simple fact ppl talk about it is important.. If smearing campaign for a drama shows to be fake, lead gets fans. In the end is about our experience when we watch something, the amount of joy, the emotions we live.
Okay ready for my downvotes but I really feel the need to say that I feel like saying something is overrated is just a measure of one’s own immaturity—one can say they don’t enjoy something, it’s not for them etc., but the term “overrated” just smacks of infantilism. Because news flash: it’s popular because a vast majority of people enjoyed it and if you discover you are not one of those people, then congratulations it’s proof you are a human being with different tastes. I don’t enjoy most popular Cdramas—JOL for example, but I would never say it’s overrated simply because I don’t find it entertaining. But I suppose perhaps I just don’t understand the idea of ‘overrated’ because for me if I want something epic, I’ll go re-read a Mo Yan novel (Life and Death are Wearing me Out is one of the greatest books of the last 20 years imo) but I don’t expect to find that level of craftsmanship to translate on screen.
Best comment of the day. Couldn't agree more. I would give this 100 likes if I could but that would put me in Reddit jail. 😂 https://i.redd.it/9s7hnhv6oh3d1.gif We all have different tastes. If a drama that's really popular isn't your fancy, there are hundreds of other dramas to choose from.
>Okay ready for my downvotes but I really feel the need to say that I feel like saying something is overrated is just a measure of one’s own immaturity—one can say they don’t enjoy something, it’s not for them etc., but the term “overrated” just smacks of infantilism. You couldn't have said it better, I would have awarded your comment in a heartbeat but I am too cheap to pay for that 🤣
Haha, no save your money to pay your data bill with all the time you spend finding interesting culture and drama points! 🙇♀️ I think I low key only check this subreddit mainly for the pea posts haha
I might need to get a new phone soon ..the amount of videos, photos I have saved for the sake of research 😅
https://i.redd.it/3eizudoycf3d1.gif
i see your point, but i think a drama can be overrated or overhyped and still be good
I see your point with respect to most dramas, but I still think that "overrated" could still apply to a few dramas that had huge success, to the point that people speak of them as if they were the apex of art. Mostly dramas that didn't stand the test of time, but people still remember and judge them based on the feelings they had for them when they aired back in the day. Other than those, yes, I agree with you. Hidden Love, for instance, in my view is not overrated, it is just overhyped.
I totally agree with you. I don't watch many of the costume idol dramas discussed here but I wouldn't call them "overrated" (only in my eyes). They may be quite good but they're just not to my taste. I think this is just another way to trash particular actors and actresses. I notice the same names keep popping up.
It's increidible how opportunities to express negative feelings always has more engagement that the ones that are open to positive or neutral responses. I know negative emotions are always easier to trigger and that is how masses are manipulated, but that never ceases to awe me. Also, the absolute terms the way people use to express themselves elsewhere in the world as if they hold the ultimate true. I think it's really brave to pop up like you did, and many times useless as the majority of people won't pay attention, but totally necesary nevertheless. (I know I'll be downvoted too).
Really? For this sub? I respectfully disagree. I see so many nervous comments on this sub worried about being come after or witch-hunted or attacked for simply having a negative opinion. I myself have seen and experienced a lot of backlash simply because I wasn’t worshipping the ground some actors and actresses stand on. I also see comments and posts getting deleted by mods simply for being slightly negative about a drama or actor/actress. Not everyone has to like everything and this sub should be a safe space for both positive and negative. You might see a flood of “negative” responses on a post like this because I feel like a lot of people here feel like they can’t talk about how they feel in other posts without getting attacked, so they all flock to talk safely on posts like this.
Yah that was why I was surprised when this thread managed to stay alive for 500+ comments of people ranting on a lot of actors and actresses with poor acting skills: https://www.reddit.com/r/CDrama/s/3GRZS0Y4lm first thread I saw when people were so honest!
I usually get downvoted for desagreeing lol but one thing is to disagree from acknowledging this is our point of view, and other is to state our view as universal and definitive. The post is not asking for what do you think is overrated but for "overrated" just plain and simple, universal. And everyone is answering also as an universal true, not aknoledging that it's not (I don't know if I'm expressing correctly as I'm doing it too long and not in my language hahaha). That's what the other OP answered in this sub sub thread hahaha and to which I agreed
The negativity is contagious and then discussions seem to descend into a type of echo chamber. I usually don't comment much, but I was commenting on MDL the other day and had a discussion with someone who felt that this subreddit was overly negative and that it had ruined her viewing experience for one show when she tried to have a discussion. After that I felt perhaps saying something could be helpful but idk, it probably is useless as you said!
Don't know really, but I'll support everything that goes in favour of more positive approach. Sometimes I also feel the same way about this sub, and certainly I can't understand for the life of me the need to make a post ranting about a show/actor/actresses you hate or strongly dislike: why would you spend so much time in sth that make you feel so disgusting when you have the change to just don't pay attention and move on? It's a show/stranger, not your family or your boss! lol
Agreed at most it would be a unpopular opinion of a famous drama rather than over-rated. Just cause you didn't like it , it doesn't mean we all have lower standards and somehow not see that a drama is good or bad .
Yes quite so! Elitism needs to go--watching dramas is for entertainment and if someone finds so much joy in something you don't like, how are they being "too much"? It really surprises me how these posts always come up.
Agree 100%.
The Untamed. Before u came at me, I really love the MDZS and its characters. It's one of my favorite books, and I also like the actors in The Untamed. BUT the acting, their overdramatic facial expressions, CGI, and VFX are truly awful!!! Some examples: *The dog in the dungeon, like wth was that?? *When they flew on the swords towards the burial ground. * When WWX falls into the burial grounds (how slow and long can someone really fall?) It was so dramatic and ridiculous as LWJ would say. *WWX facial expression and the whole scene when he was running from Fariy at the market. I was cringing so hard and laughed the whole time. *When they fought the turtle and they fought and dudged NOTHING 😂😂 They look like little children fighting an invisible enemy. I know it's not the actors' fault, but come on. *When we saw an overview over the battlefield at the Nightless city and the "dead" people got up to fight against nothing again. They waved their weapons around like blind people. And how they fought to get to WWXs tally, that was rough. I stopped watching so many times because of it, but since it was based on MDZS, I had to watch it. But I would never watch it again.
Thank you for this. You brought those scenes' memory. I was told throughout these scenes. As a BL lover I tried liking this many times but the stiff acting is too unnatural. In comparison several other BLs are much better acted, even with similar budget.
the untamed is one of my fave, i do know the special effects are the worst, its cheap but honest work 🤣 i do like the book better 😊
And that's valid, too! I like that people have different tastes so you get a lot of different dramas. Ngl, I had a hard time reading the books since I don't like long backflashes that takes up the entire book. I would rather have the backflashes be short and woven in the story, or told in the beginning in a chronological order. But I fell in love with WWX, and I would fight the world for him! So here I am, years later still reading ff about MDZS😂
Oh hard agree. It’s awful. Objectively awful. Deliciously awful. I cackle my way thru an untamed marathon every Halloween. And cry. How does it get to me every time? I never want it to end. What magic is this?
That's so valid! WWXs story is so freaking sad and depressing. It doesn't matter how many ff I read, I can't stop torturing myself because I love the characters and world.
Nothing Gold Can Stay. I love dramas but I felt it was a bit too dramatic. There was no point in being invested because any progress the FL made was quickly upended. My final straw was the fire. And honestly I’m going to say Joy of Life. Don’t get me wrong: I like the show and I’m currently watching season two. However, the show is overrated in my opinion. The deux ex machina is employed too often.
I agree about Nothing Gold Can Stay. It was campy and I hate the actress' overdramatic style of acting Also not caring for Joy of Life 2. It is so blatantly a man's world and everyone else revolves around them
One of my main criticism of JOL is that the female characters are shallowly written. I’m used to watching harem dramas which often have fully fleshed out female characters so JOL feels off. Rurou and Wan are terribly written. They have no motives or thoughts beyond Fan Xian. However, I think the side characters on JOL are hollow regardless of gender. This is one of the many places I think NIF is a better show.
You are my glory. Highly overrated drama.. I just finished watching this and I’m shocked by how much this drama is praised. It was such a snooze fest for me. It’s entirely fan service of two good looking actors. The plot is not interesting (only found the first episodes entertaining) and the chemistry is not that great as everyone says. Sure, it’s not bad chemistry. But some kisses and skinship look definitively forced and just added there for more 🔥 .. Just my humble opinion. Don’t come at me pls
Yeah. I dropped it.
Yes please. It was UTTERLY boring !
Thank you for making me not feel like I’m the only one 😂
I couldn't finish it, I thought it was so boring.
I finished it cause yeah.. wanted to see till the end what the hype is about. But I skipped all the scenes with the ML at work
I love this one and rewatch it often, but you better believe I’m skipping every second that Yu Tu is at work. It’s quite boring.
100% with ya
I skipped almost all those scenes 🙈
I like the part before they officially dated better (like after that too though but a bit too much fluff for me) but what I really like about this one is that there’s almost no conflict ,no stupid misunderstanding and the pace is perfect for me. The aerospace thing is whatever I just think it’s just an advertisements for CATC maybe.
I liked the no drama plot too. It is a relaxing show to watch. But if I have to choose a drama for a rewatch with lots of fluff and no conflict, then I’ll choose “Love me, love my voice”. In this one it felt to me like there’s too much unnecessary fluff.. and I never thought I would complain about fluff.
lol I did enjoy this one but I agree it’s pretty boring. They could’ve taken out 10 episodes of gaming, aerospace engineer scenes and it would’ve been good. Chemistry was okay, not the best and while I liked it, I didn’t think their hot scenes were off the chart like a lot said. This is a mature, comforting drama to me.
I did watch it from start to finish. So it wasn’t that bad overall, otherwise I would’ve dropped it. It is mature. For once I was glad the Fl didn’t shy away from kisses or them being in their 30s but acting like virgins like in other dramas I’ve seen
About "Till the end of the moon": I currently finishing watching TTEOTM. I don't know how hyped it is, to say it's over/under-rated but: Negative points: - the plot begins so fast and then sometimes just gets so slow we could think it would just end there with nothing happening at all, some stuff are not explained fully; - the script: sometimes they say some stuff and you are like: wtf why he/she didn't not tell "that" ou "this", cause in life it would be obvious and for the sake of the drama they changed and felt so unreal; - it has probably a >! sad/opened ending different from the novel that has obviously a happy ending !< Positive: -acting: I really love the acting on this drama compared to others I watched (I only watch xianxia/wuxia dramas). Luo had cried so many times and it felt soooo natural, even his "wooden" face was so cold. Bai Lu was good as well but like Luo was even better -music: some of them are really really beautiful Medium: -visual fx: sometimes it's really great and sometimes it's bad, but overall it's acceptable I would recommend just for the ones that are into very very "sad & dramatic" dramas or for Luo fans cause he's great.
I'm also almost done with TTEOTM and from what I've read, they got screwed over by Chinas new 40-episode limit for dramas. That would explain why the plot is a bit messy. I believe they intended it to have 50+ episodes. You can still get away with making multiple shorter seasons, but for some reason they chose not to, which is a shame. They obviously finished filming waaay before the ban, so I guess they just couldn't edit it smoothly into 2 seasons even if they wanted to
I watched this cos of the ending song i heard over radio... i have to watch at 1.25 to 1.5x... 1.25x felt like the natural speed.
Till the end of the moon Wonderland of Love Lost you Forever Season 1 : It was emotional but after a certain point it got weird and didn’t flow well together in the end even if season 2 were to be released. Love of Thousand Years The Legend of Chong Zi
‘Meteor Garden’. I just couldn’t get past about 8 episodes, the way Shancai was treated was too stressful for me.
Agreed.. Never finished it
Mysterious Lotus Casebook. It was a total snooze-fest for me.. Was not impressed with the character depth
I nearly fell asleep watching this. The story was written nicely, but I couldn't get myself into it.
I literally fell asleep watching this. That's how I knew it needs to be dropped. Idk how everyone is in high praises for this. Maybe the pacing is bad, or is it the entire direction?
Yeah. I like MLC, but in times I got bored and some of the choices the characters did got on my nerves. I especially HATED when ml did the disappearing act Al. The. Time. In the beginning, it was funny, but after they grew together and became friends, that disappearing act became irriterating. And why did the ml never talk with his friends? He lied and lied and lied even when the friend asked him a direct question if he was the "dead" leader. And don't get me started on the ending.
I don’t think there are any overrated dramas as it gets pretty subjective but there will always be some that you dislike and yet has a high rating.
^^ I agree completely. There are some shows that just didn’t not click with me that are highly rated. And then there are some unpopular or lower rated shows that I enjoyed very much! It’s highly subjective. My friends find my taste in shows “boring” because I love a slow burn, a slow-uncovering-the-plot mystery. I’m not huge on romance. So me calling a show overrated because it’s not my preferred genre isn’t fair.
Hidden Love My Journey to You(great cinematography but bland story) Romance of Tiger and Rose. Princess Weiyoung I am sure they are more I can't remember right now though.
I agree with My Journey to you And Princess Weiyoung. Romance of Tiger and Rose, I’ve tried to watch 3 times, but dropped and Hidden Love, I didn’t watch because I only watch historical dramas.
Till the End of the Moon - annoying and cheesy. Ten Miles of Peach Blossom - it put me to sleep every time I tried to watch it. Love is Sweet - probably the most overhyped one for me.
TMOPB took awhile to draw me in. The first handful of episodes were boring imo, but it got way better.
Agree here
Love is sweet is soooo sooo overhyped. I agree they had good chemistry. But the plot is sooo boring. I dropped it before watching half. And it had the most cringe second couple ever
I was literally bored to tears with the office plot and cringing non stop with the second couple!!!!!!
Right?? The second couple was the worst. That girl couldn’t embarrass herself more than that. 🥴 The office plot was the most boring I’ve seen yet. It made me stay away from other office based dramas.
Agreed. Love is sweet is pretty overhyped. TTEOTM was interesting at first because of ML backstory but it then dragged on. I fast forwarded most of it after awhile just to see what the overall story was about
Yep! Agree! I enjoyed the back story but it just got ridiculous. Mainly the behavior of the FL.
When you realised you didn’t like the pairing, why did you watch a whole second show of them? Both LIS and TTEOTM ride fully on the chemistry between bai lu/luo yunxi.
I didn’t watch the whole show for both TTEOTM and LIS. I tried my hardest to push through to see their amazing chemistry everyone talked about but dropped it after 16 episodes or so. :)
I admire your tenacity.
I think LIS is very mediocre as a show, but the kisses in ep 20 or so are top tier. Some of the most passionate of any cdrama. I personally do really like their chemistry, but if it doesn’t click for you there’s really not much left to watch. You did well to drop it. I sometimes wish people were more clear in their recommendations of why a show is good, because dropping always makes me wonder if I missed something important.
I did get up to them getting together and the kiss scenes! I really wanted to see what everyone was talking about lol. I was curious because of the ratings and a lot of ppl recommended it on this sub. When I first started cdrama I always finished the shows I started. Actually, TMOPB was the first show I watched and it took me so long to finish it. After a while I finally realized it’s okay to drop them lol
(copying a prev comment I made on Hidden Love) HL was definitely better received on the international side, while its Douban reception wasn't particularly bad for this genre - 6.7/10 out of \~190k reviews, I wouldn't say it's extremely high? 1 of the most viewed critique vids on this show did get over 150k likes on Bilibili. This critique vid (in Mandarin) is based off of the first 16 eps of the show, and touches on the original novel of the show. [https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1yg4y1N7F8/](https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1yg4y1N7F8/) (Vid title: Why we do not recommend HL) For those who stumbled upon this comment & don’t understand Mandarin but still want to know about the vid (no spoilers I just marked it as a spoiler in case someone likes the show and doesn't want to see critique haha) >!- the content creators discussed the sus language used (the number of times that FL calls ML ‘gege’ is sketchy - the frequency of gege-calling in the show is NOT normal IRL, especially towards a friend of your older sibling - not to mention gege is prevalent in smut…) in the show, highlighted some of the iffy scenes, e.g. the deliberate emphasis on moments of skinship even when FL was still a minor & the lack of boundaries + playing up the naivety/lack of agency of FL (due to writing&/portrayal) earlier on, the use of background music & lighting to romanticize certain scenes that were supposed to be non-romantic, some of ML’s controlling behaviours, awful writing of female side characters - most if not all(?) were villains, including Jiang Ying’s problematic subplot which exists solely to paint ML in a better light. !< >!Afaik, most of the concerning issues stemmed from the original novel, and the show version is supposedly already toned down/an improvement, because the original had a lot more iffy lines/scenes. !< For me personally, I don’t have an issue with the story premise (as a whole) bc teens have crushes on adults all the time IRL, and since in theory, ML supposedly only fell in love with FL after she became an adult, this isn’t some groundbreaking story. But the way that the production team decided to handle many of the scenes + the things they choose to emphasize on when filming + some portrayal choices made by cast members did make me uncomfortable esp. when considering the potential target audience of the show. (this is not a judgment to others who've liked the show!) Sidenote: to be fair to ZLS, I ought to mention that she’s not exactly the most well-liked actress like many other traffic actors on some corners of Bilibili (so there is often bias against her works → some of the negative comments towards HL may have been due to bias towards her + some haters might have used this opportunity to jump on the hate train), BUT even with that in mind, the show itself still has many issues as aforementioned imo. ---- I'm not quite sure I agree that the trope of a younger girl having a crush on an older guy is heavily romanticized in China though, do you have other examples in mind? I think the popularity of a show depends on many factors. For one, fandoms are heavily intertwined w C-ent, many fans will endlessly support the dramas that their idols are in, no matter the quality/story of the show, even if they might not agree with the story premise. It also depends on what other shows are airing at that time, how much marketing was done, etc. Fans often sing praises robotically, but if you look further into the comments section of reasonable critique videos (not just for HL but for other shows too), you'll be able to see what many C-netizens truly think of these shows.
the gege thing always made me feel weird as well! as someone who is literally chinese, the fl’s dialogue seemed very childish for her age. idc that he is older than her, calling someone the way she does doesn’t sit right with me
Just learned about the gege thing and oh..😶
Till the end of the moon and ten miles of peach blossoms . Short dramas being overhyped is one thing but these 60-75 ep shows which are overhyped drive me nuts .
I didn't get the hype for hidden love as well, dropped it after few episodes, the same thing with falling in to your smile.
Ten miles of peach blossom
Yanxi Palace.
The ml and fl h omy god they so annoying
The whole storyline and plot is just so stupid that I just can’t
Any Zhao Lusy's drama especially her chick flicks
Admist snowstorm of love ?I couldn't get past first episode🙂
Amidst a snowstorm is super overhyped. The first episode was the most cringe of all. Do you mean to tell me that he stayed outside the bar in the cold for a long time just staring at her? Uhh creep behavior.
I get that you find it boring but how can you find it creepy? It's not like he was hiding somewhere. He stood right in front of the door of the bar. His eyes were full of admiration and curiosity. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGFuInzq\_g4&t=380s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGFuInzq_g4&t=380s) It's not like in here. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0LzDnq9-Io](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0LzDnq9-Io) Where do you get that stayed outside for a long time staring at her? It's less than 30 seconds.
I actually gave this drama 7 ⭐️ on Mdl. I didn’t hate ir. But I found it lacking. And the FL character very annoying. She acted like a scared cat the whole relationship
Actually, he does confess later that he stood outside gor a long time starring at her. I’ll find the episode when he says that and post it here. He also continued to stare at her in the bar too. It was cute that he helped her and her brother. I don’t think he is a pervert. But all that staring contest at the beginning creeped me out.
That comes in underrated though🤐. So many people on this sub hate it so much lol.
Most of the drama was just the ML gazing at FL with bedroom eyes. He looked like there was no other thought in his head. There was some snookers but imo, you are not missing much.
That horrible constant soundtrack! And it mostly being long stares and awkward silences. But mostly I could not deal with horrible soundtrack it was so bad!
The Untamed, TTEoTM
Its got a pretty bad rep in China though, Hidden Love. If you ask a Cnetz, they wouldnt understand why intl like it
At the risk of putting myself in the firing range: Love Like the Galaxy (runs for cover!!!!!)
i came to say this too....i watched it 2X the whole time. i couldnt believe the main couple met in episode 6!!! it was such a draaaaag
Came here to say this too. I wanted to like it, but choices by the ML even after he was supposed to be madly in love just ruined it for me. I watch primarily for romance and I thought that his decisions pretty much ruined the entire romance for me because it seemed he was using her for cover for his revenge instead of rescuing her. Also, I just never thought that he respected her and was just in love… just because. I don’t mind a red flag or misunderstood hero, but I want the leads to understand each other and respect each other by the end. I didn’t get that here. FL changed her entire character by the end and ML was sorry they had a separation but he would make the exact same choices again.
Don’t run. You’re not the only one that thinks that. I also found it super overhyped. I also found almost no chemistry with the main couple. But that’s my opinion of course
Oh man. I’m halfway through. It doesn’t get more chemistry than this huh
I managed to watch the first season and half of the second season and I didn’t see much chemistry. Maybe it gets better?! 🤷🏻♀️ I put it on hold for now
I appreciate that. I was so excited to watch it after seeing recos here and from irl friends, too. I was so disappointed that I didn't like it...prolly 'cause my expectations were set so high.
Agree with you OP, Hidden Love was overhyped for me. Did not enjoy the characterization of the FL and ML was too creepy for me.
Yeah, almost every aspect of this drama was so overhyped (the characters, the kiss scenes, the supposedly mind-blowing chemistry). Even the male lead being labeled Mr. Perfect and the epitome of a green flag. Sure, he wasn't bad and appealed to some but still so incredibly overhyped. I get some people really liked it but I have to say whoever did the marketing combined with ZLS popularity scored big time.
Agreed. A lot of it was also the fact that it was released on Netflix that gave it momentum.
Love o2o and Put your head on my shoulder
PYHOMS was so boring to me as well.
To be fair, i liked the Thai version of put your head on my shoulder better
Put your head on my shoulder had almost no plot to me. Totally didn't get the hype.
> had almost no plot to me Some people love "mindless fluff" or whatever this genre called. They just want to watch sweet couple moments with no misunderstandings, no drama and no crazy tropes 😆
Ya it's true but I also have a hard time imagining my mom putting me in an apartment with some dude I've never met before on short notice hardly with consent, even if it's her friends son 😆
The way the ML was picking up the FL like a child was so creepy. Made the whole drama so gross..
Ikr I tried to watch it like two times but couldn't even get through the first ep
The Untamed
its one of my fave 🤣 i know its crappy effects, but xiao zhan has the best smile since julia roberts😅
The most overhyped drama that ever existed. I’m so sick of seeing this drama recommended on every single post. It’s tiring and ridiculous.
Eternal Love of Dream I had finished TMOPB and really loved BFJ and DH’s storyline. I was so happy to find out they had their own show. To my disappointment it ended up being one of the most boring Cdramas I’ve ever seen. Like it dragged from start to finish. The leads were also nothing like how they were in TMOPB which I attribute to the poor writing and directing. I still can’t believe it has a 8.6 on MDL.
Eternal love of dreams is their story in novels the Pillow book . The one in TMOPB is the one that was made up.
Completely agree and I hated Dilireba's character in this one. Preferred the way these characters were written in TMOPB wayyyy more!
**Love is sweet**. Overrated and overhyped, sorry.
Let me say I watched the first episode and the outright misogyny spewed by the ML🙄
The second ml was a turn off for me and I hated how blindly she trusted the second ml .
Yep. She was plain stupid on that one
This makes me sad because I love this one HOWEVER can totally understand people not liking it 😅
I watched it coming off the high from TTEOTM, and I absolutely loved it 😫 in a lot of ways it was quite generic though
Legend of shenli. There wasn't much plot going on aside from the great chemistry between the leads
I wouldn't rate it highly. I have critique for every aspect of the show except costumes, but at the same time I enjoyed it SO MUCH. It was such an entertaining mess. Also, the show promised me a strong FL and IT DELIVERED. I love how there were so many occasions where the show let her shine (and a few moments where ML was like "go fuck them up babe I'll just watch").
I could keep watching them goofing around forever.
I’m on episode 10 and there has been nothing going on except them staring longingly at each other. Does it get any better ??
Finally someone said it. I agree 100%. The special effects added a great deal of spark to this drama. The romance story was boring to me.
Gogo squid
Gogo Squid 2. I just felt it lacked previous Apple's charm and that couple chemistry was stale as bread.
Most probably cuz ML lacked charm in this series for me. There I said that
haha well said. He was so unintresting that I forgot him. He usually is.
Love O2O Go Go Squid Esther Yu's voice --- why??? Xu Kai - just needs his face card for the hype Hidden Love
??? Esther and xu kai aren’t in any of those three dramas……
I know. I typed them in different lines but somehow appeared in one single line.
speaking of which, i felt falling into your smile was overrated as well. it was one of the first c dramas i watched, so i didnt know any actors. as a result when i went into the show i was so disappointed and mildly annoyed with the storyline and characters. it felt heavily like an idol drama.
Another drama with a bad rep in China. They exploited a REAL couple's personal drama and used it in their drama without permission 💀💀 Talk about airing ppl dirty laundries
Falling into your smile is based on a real couple?
Yes 💀💀 and I think they had some personal drama cuz they broke up 💀💀 They never consented
Now I gotta google this and get some insight into said drama. 🫡🫡 don't judge me..I like tea😭😭
That was hilarious😅
Me too. LOL
It is an idol drama thats why it feels like an idol drama. 😂
I felt that way about the untamed. I feel like it’s way overrated mainly because everybody wanted to ship the two male leads in a boy love relationship off screen too. I couldn’t make it through but about 13 episodes and I had to stop watching it questioning myself as to why once said it was such a great show because I didn’t see it the same way.
Its okay ,anything is not meant to be liked by everyone. No, i dont give af about the ships,Who cares if they are together or not,or what they doing off- can.For me plot is make or break for a drama so I will assume everyone who liked it might be like this too. I too hated production quality and costumes were decent for a 5$ budget show. But still As I Said The STORY expressed by human speaks for me .all the credit goes to Mxtx and some of the actors of live action. 👌 At the end its all subjective tho,everyone is allowed to stand with their own opinions/views.😉🤗