Why Not: Watching Dramas With Low Ratings

HELLO EVERYONE!

If you’re wondering, “why choose to do this?”, contrary to the cover image, it’s not because I enjoy pain. It’s really not. Call it morbid curiosity, because sometimes when I can’t decide on a drama to watch, it's the ones with lower ratings that catch my eye. 

So I decided that I would watch dramas with a rating below 6, one from each country available on MDL’s database, and see what exactly was so bad, or maybe even good, about these titles.

This section wasn't really necessary, but I worked really hard on the math, so... sorry.

Why did I choose 6.0 as the highest possible rating for this article?

A search generated on MDL to find the statistics on ratings for dramas revealed that titles rated 9.0 and above yield 1101 results, dramas rated 8.0 - 9.0 come in at 3456, dramas rated 7.0 - 8.0 have over 5000 results, and titles rated 6.0 - 7.0 have 3860 results. Of course, there are overlaps, dramas with the ratings of whole numbers are listed in two different brackets, therefore the total results available are an average estimation.

Compared to these statistics, dramas rated 1.0 - 6.0 yield only 1542 results. 

Of course, I could have just stated that dramas rated below 6.0 are lesser in number compared to dramas with ratings above 6.0, and that the rating 7.0 - 8.0 is the most common, but I’m complicated like that. 

I set a few guidelines for myself before I chose the titles I would watch, the first two of course being

• One title from each of the seven countries on MDL
  
• Ratings below 6
  

I also further filtered the results down by

• Choosing dramas with a viewer count higher than 500. I did this to ensure that the ratings were a result of a larger group of watchers. If this viewer count was unavailable, I simply chose the title with the largest number of viewers. 
• Checking the availability. Some dramas were unavailable on OTT platforms or had regional restrictions enforced on them, while others were only available without subtitles. 

This is purely my personal opinion. Liking or disliking a drama is up to each individual’s tastes and it is possible that one of your favorites is featured in this article, and I may have a different opinion to yours. Conversely, I may have liked one of your lower rated dramas. I see this article as an excellent opportunity to discover new titles that may interest you, because dramas have a way of surprising us sometimes. I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts, I only ask that we keep the conversation respectful and light.

I have also tried to keep the article as spoiler free as possible, and covered up all necessary spoilers with a tag, so do enjoy!

Without further ado..

Title: Magic Cell Phone (2016)

MDL Rating: 5.8

Number of viewers: 1,744 (rated by 685 users)

Where to watch: Netflix (availability may differ due to regional restrictions)

This drama revolves around the romance between an ordinary guy and a girl group member. The drama is a joint Korean-Chinese production, for a total of 5 parts.

I have a bone to pick with this show. The title alone makes the drama seem like it would have an interesting premise, and it did, but here comes my gripe. The writer clearly decided they wanted to include every genre under the sun, and then proceeded to make a complete mess. So many storylines that are either complete nonsense or abandoned immediately after they're mentioned. 

Even the coherent parts of the story are half baked, the magic cellphone is neglected until it’s necessary for the plot, they don’t really explain how the phone works and yet the villain is able to figure out the mechanics after a small encounter with the male lead. The connection between the leads is hardly believable and before you know it, the drama is over.

For a web series, they tried their best to create something of quality, ten episodes with a duration of ten minutes each didn’t really provide this series with the runtime it required, especially with such a promising premise. They tried to make a highly ambitious fantasy/mystery/thriller/comedy/romance drama, but nothing came through quite like they meant it to.

Props to them for making me laugh though, they definitely didn't mean to make it that hilarious but sometimes things are just so bad, they're funny. It made me laugh almost every episode, either because of the acting, the writing, or because of the weird graphics.

Oh! They even managed to sneak in a PPL (product placement)! So bad it's good? You can say that.

MY RATING: 5.0

Title: Princess Princess D (2006)

MDL Rating: 5.8

Number of viewers: 2,873 (rated by 1,150 users)

Where to watch: YouTube 

In an all-boys school with a tradition of Princesses (boys chosen to attend school functions dressed up as girls to alleviate the tension between the students), Yutaka Mikoto, Shihoudani Yuujirou, and Kouno Tooru are this year's chosen Princess team. Dissatisfied with the half-hearted efforts of the current Princesses, Hanazono Otoya creates his own team of Dark Princesses to rival for the students' attention. Adapted from the manga “Princess Princess” by Mikiyo Tsuda.

This was the drama I was most excited about from the list, I’m not even going to lie, this sounded genuinely interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I've watched quite a few J-dramas, and there are some that are incredibly random story-wise but turn out to be just what you needed to watch, for example Cool Boys Only High and Princess Princess D. This was my introduction to the "Princess Princess" universe. I am aware Princess Princess D is based on the manga "Princess Princess" and there is an anime adaptation of the same name. I’m not familiar with either of them, but I liked this so much, it makes me want to hunt those versions down, too. 

The story was engrossing and hilarious but also surprisingly heartwarming. The friendships were adorable, the characters were whimsically weird and maybe my sense of humor is on the fritz but I found myself busting a gut laugh during several scenes. There was not one boring moment, I was completely engrossed. There were definitely facets they could have improved upon, provided backstory on some characters, developed some storylines more and explored the relationships between certain characters or groups of characters (Arisada Shuuya and Hanazono Otoya, Sama and the Princesses, the Student Council, the Dark Princesses, and more). Nevertheless, in 10 episodes with a duration of 20 minutes they managed to make me laugh, swoon, even tear up a little. 

So weird, but I loved it.

MY RATING: 8.0

Title: Married First Then Fall in Love (2021)

MDL Rating: 6.0

Number of viewers: 4,691 (rated by 1,699 users)

Where to watch: YouTube

Saying I'm a novice when it comes to watching C-dramas would be an understatement. I’ve always been interested in watching a sweet and romantic C-drama, nothing too dramatic or over the top, but then I get scared looking at the number of episodes. Initially, seeing this had 30 episodes made me apprehensive, but when I noticed each episode was only 3 minutes, I felt prepared. A sweet miniseries from the looks of it, so a great way to start watching more of the genre, right?

WRONG. I was not remotely prepared for the sheer amount of violence, abuse, and emotional manipulation. What happened to the sweet rom-com promised by the poster?! What happened to the contract marriage where they go from indifference to sugar sweet?! The male lead is violent and abusive, the female lead is naïve and can never stand up for herself, the parents are emotionally manipulative and every single character, down to the most insignificant role, is written in the worst possible way. Non-consensual behavior, violence played off as romance, physical abuse, I could keep going. So did they, because the wheels of inappropriate behavior just turned and turned until the season was over. The story had absolutely no forward movement, it ended the way it began, terribly.

The acting wasn’t great either, the only two emotions on the male lead's face were anger or irritation, and the female lead was either confused or sad. There is a second season, and while I'm usually all for continuity, 30 episodes of this was already too much for me. 

MY RATING: 2.0

Title: Bro and Me (2019)

MDL Rating: 5.8

Number of viewers: 1,242 (rated by 610 users)

Where to watch: Viki (availability may differ due to regional restrictions)

Growing up, Jie En had one goal in life: to be as cool as the older boy who lived next door. A few years older than Jie En, Ye Hong was just your average young man. Too busy with his own life to bother with the kid next door, Ye Hong had fun teasing Jie En on occasion, but that was as far as his affection went. To Jie En, however, Ye Hong was everything he ever wanted to be and he looked up to his neighbor as if he were his actual older brother. Naturally, Jie En was devastated when Ye Hong announced he would soon be leaving to study abroad. 

With Ye Hong gone, nothing in the world felt right for Jie En, but he had little time to think about that or anything else. With the pressures of getting into a good university mounting, Jie En is forced to focus solely on his studies. Wanting only the best for their son, Jie En’s parents announce they’ve hired a tutor who, after studying abroad for the last year, will be moving in with them. Not sure what to make of his parents’ announcement, Jie En is elated when he realizes his new tutor is none other than Ye Hong. Living with Ye Hong, the world feels right again. At least until he realizes that Jing Han, the girl he’s befriended in Ye Hong’s absence, is actually Ye Hong’s first love. Suddenly caught up in a tangled mess of complicated relationships and confusing emotions, Jie En begins to wonder if the world will ever make sense again. (Source: Viki)

I don’t know if this is bending the rules because I've already watched this drama. Wait... I set the rules. I say it’s fine, ha ha. I rated it a 4.5 which usually means that I wasn't very impressed, but given that I don't quite recall what went down, I thought a rewatch would better indicate my thoughts on the series.

And... rewatching it did change my mind. And my rating. The drama is mostly cringe comedy and while it can come off a bit over the top at times, it was still enjoyable. The acting was decent, and they did a commendable job with the story, especially since it mostly focused on the relationship between the leads and not really on a sequential plot. 

The best part, though, was the fact that his syllabus for an exam included the different types of love, which I think a lot of us would ace, lol.

MY RATING: 5.5

Title: Boys (2022)

MDL Rating: 6.0

Number of viewers: 193 (rated by 21 users)

Where to watch: YouTube 

A gay university student, Ho Yin, uses his failed love story from the past as inspiration for a production for the Drama Society. During the rehearsal, Ho Yin finds himself falling in love with Boris, who is one of the main actors of the drama. (Source: "不是一個人 NotAlone" YouTube; edited by olivestulip at MyDramaList)

Title: What the Duck Season 2: Final Call (2019)

MDL Rating: 4.9 

Number of viewers: 8,999 (rated by 3,194 users)

Where to watch: YouTube (episode 1 is available with subtitles, the other seven are unsubbed)

I'll be honest, I've been avoiding this like the plague. I watched season 1 and let's just say I wasn't looking forward to eight more episodes of all that. I felt a lot of emotions watching this, anger, irritation, boredom, but the one I'm so glad I felt was gratitude. Watching this was a reminder of what was out there in terms of representation and sensitivity and I'm just so glad dramaland has moved forward (for the most part) on those fronts. 

The story continued from where it was left off in season 1, and the entire events of season 2 take place in the timespan of a week. I counted. There were already way too many leads in the first season, but for some reason they decided to add two more to this season. Each episode did not exceed 40 minutes and because they had chosen to have more than 8 leads, and each of them required proper screen time, sometimes characters didn't show up for literal episodes at a stretch. When they do show up, it's for scenes that take up half the episode with no actual progress, meaning there's no real sense of connectivity or progress to the story. And to reiterate, season 2 is the story of a week's happenings, it was incredibly fast and way too slow all at once.

Coming to the plot points, oh... I don't know where to begin because you're basically watching 8 episodes (28 if you're watching season 1 as well) of betrayal, lies, manipulation, trauma, violence, and every other toxic and destructive trait you can think of condensed into characters. Everything about this was messed up, every single scene. There was stuff so messed up that I still cannot comprehend everything I witnessed. I don't mind a series where they discuss and depict mature and sensitive topics, but you need to know how to do it. This was all too serious but I got the feeling that they didn't quite take it seriously. The ending made me relieved, angry, and disappointed at the same time. Relieved that none of the couples ended up together, so relieved. Angry and disappointed because they promised development and closure. I should have read the fine print though, because they didn't really promise anything good.

There was something to be said about the acting and the cast, most of them are major players in the Thai drama industry as actors or musicians and even though this was the debut or second work for most of them, their performances were pretty solid. I still can't rate this any higher, though, because what I watched were things that will stick with me even if I don't want them to. 

Also, unrelated and major spoiler, but Oat wanting to become a monk gave me major Tharn Type 2 vibes, like you can't tell me Mew being in both of these series is a coincidence.

MY RATING: 2.0

Title: Ever After (2023)

MDL Rating: 5.0

Number of viewers: 572 (rated by 53 users)

Where to watch: YouTube

I need someone who's also watched this to explain it to me because honestly, I sat down trying to process everything that happened and came up with absolutely nothing. This may be one of the worst things I've watched, truly. At the least, you should be able to appreciate just one thing, whether it's the acting or the story or the cinematography or even just the chemistry between the leads. It really makes you wonder how they managed to create something with absolutely nothing to write home about.

There was no acting, no plot, and I can’t be positive about this, but I’m pretty sure the director just put the cast in a random building, placed a camera in all corners and said go about your day. You know, Big Brother style. The acting, oof, I'm pretty sure at one point one of the leads just read his dialogues off the cue card without ever looking into the camera. And the story. There's no synopsis on MDL, and the description on YouTube is that it is "a story of love, sacrifice, and lies". The writing in this series is some of the most horrendous I've had the displeasure of witnessing. Why did they need so many characters and around 10 different storylines?! There are huge gaps in the story, they create plot lines out of incidents that never happened, the dialogue is a mess and all the while, you're just staring at your screen in confusion. Before you know it you've watched 12 episodes of absolute nonsense and you start regretting your choice to feature this drama in your article.

I can't think of a positive about this series, it was 4 hours of pure torture.

Should I do a part 2 watching higher rated dramas as well?

LET ME KNOW!

THANK YOU FOR READING, I HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT!