I have read different places that Pachinko, Eve, Nevertheless, and Snowdrop were banned in Korea due to explicitly sexual and “violant” themes. And those blogging about these dramas seem to equate “violance” with a drama being bad (as in badly written, filmed, or whatever).
I personally had a hard time watching Eve because it was so obvious how it was going to end, and the mean and nasty rich people out to get the cheating husband were really, for me, way too much. I have issues with any drama that shows women being harmed, driven crazy, raped, or whatever. And the FL changing her designer clothes and shoes and eyeliner every five minutes was annoying.
But Eve started out well. And every other drama I’ve listed has had excellent reviews.
A highly unsatisfying “Asianese” drama I’ve watched is Café Minamdang on N-tfl-x. The writers did not seem to know who their audience was. It started out as a comedy, veered into tragedy, jumped in and out of the supernatural, and did not know how to be convincingly romantic. The ML and FL were way too old to be believable in their roles. It was just a mess. I liked the SFL and SML better than the ML and the FL and stuck with it as long as I did because of them.
PERSONALLY, the worst drama suggestions are those that some people want to suggest to others without adding that the choice of dramas we/you/others suggest; is your own personal taste, and you might not like it or find it to be such a great drama after all. That is why I never watch a drama suggested by others without making sure I watch the TRAILER, and make a decision from there if I will continue to watch or not.
I learned one thing, and that is to watch Asian Dramas without expecting to be impressed about them, and accepting that it will be pretty much the same thing we watch in so many other dramas. The only thing they change is the actor/actress, and some of them do make the drama work for us, but it gets tiring and boring to see the same pattern in the romance department so the worse drama suggestion to me are THE ROMANTIC dramas bc they are so predictable.
A colleague of mine absolutely loves horrors and would recommend this or that, despite knowing that horrors are my least liked genre. Although I don’t enjoy horrors, I do understand that in his opinion a particular film is good for the same reasons if I were to recommend him a good sci-fi film. (or romance )
We would be able to cite which move/drama would take the title of being the worse because of multiple failings,
Bad acting.
Rubbish plot.
Disjointed editing.
Cheap or terrible CGI/special effects.
Scenes that breaks suspension of disbelief.
etc.
Accumulate enough of these failings to eventually become a worthy nominee of a how not to award.
While you would have no interest in having romance genre being recommended to you for the reasons you stated, it remains that within the romance genre there will be the greatest romantic drama ever by way of majority opinion amongst romance aficionados, some hidden gems …and a downright stinker of a romance drama/film ever!
Such that you can generalise that you find romance dramas predictable but one sticks out in particular because not only was it predictable but the leads had absolutely no chemistry whatsoever and it shows that they didn’t like each other on set, a complete fail for a romance.
Wow! Really? I got to see that one for when they shoot daggers at each other!
That would be true of any genre, there will be a few that fails so spectacularly to be good (not intentionally) that they become entertaining in itself.
Trailers for a drama are very important to me. They are made up of what a drama’s creators think will grab an audience’s attention. They usually cut out all the “filler” and provide the essence.
I say usually because sometimes a trailer has nothing to do with how a drama plays out from start to finish. I have started watching dramas with high hopes and have been disappointed by characters or plots that aren’t interesting at all.
Those are what I’d call “bait and switch” trailers.
Here, have a filet mignon. Oops, sorry, we just ran out; how about some dried squid?
Haha! @ninjas_with_onions, they’ve made a recent worst drama, just right for this thread.
Based on the comments alone, it qualifies. Do check this shows’ comments.
Overall, the script writing seems to be the key that plunges it!
I mean, how can you have leading characters, looking like whimps about to cry, as if they are waiting for their students to rescue them, and letting the student have such a commanding voice in major sect decisions.
The end of episode 28 throws light on the script writer’s attempt at revelation.
Hence the correct consensus on a script not written the best. The audience likes to be clued in, not muffled, or insulted for that matter, never muffle your audience. This comes to mind. The pen is mightier than the sword.
I just watched a show like this, a 2023 2016 C-drama. Overall, I liked the pace, and idea, of the story.
!Princess of Lanling King | Mainland China | Drama | Watch with English Subtitles & More ✔️
They had blows to the head, roughing her up, and choke holds to the neck, to trigger memories. Also lots of surviving death by water, fire, and falling off some scary looking cliffs.
The initial memory lost got a pass, it’s regaining her memory that fell short. They literally bypassed more than one very good places in the story, for regaining her memory. They then had to wrapp up the whole regaining her memory, a bit hastily, in the last set of episodes.
There is this makjang Korean drama, that keeps dragging on… writers find another new clue or secret just to extend episodes. The chemistry between main leads is bizarr, at least the male is trying really well, the actress looks very stiff, her character changed as well, like a different person… the family chaos on high and unrealistic plots all over…
It started out ok and just got weirder and weirder as if writers were changed… I think lot of people gave up… and left…
Btw “Real” is the name for the baby in womb
@leerla73 it was in English in my editor and it switched at posting to Spanish… this happens quite a lot! Now I added a space between link and it’s in English
Seriously, kept wondering this myself.
Well, one more week and everyone (currently watching) is released from this … mess
Reading some of the comments on MDL/reddit every week was pretty funny though.
P.s. a lot of people are hating on the FL on pretty much everything, but her character was more interesting in the beginning and they just threw everything out the window. I put the blame on the writers / director(s)
Stairway to Heaven was #1 drama that I watched and was so terribly disappointed, but it wasn’t suggested for me to watch. I couldn’t believe how a writer can dare to write so many senseless tragedies in one drama. lol
I also can’t feel any connection between her & the other actor whom she actually had a relation from the beginning & now a kid. from the 1st episode i just couldn’t feel anything between them, i’m not sure if they did this on purpose to not make us root for them but that doesn’t make sense.
TBH, these 50 episodes dramas are weird, i watched 3 so far & almost in each one of them there were the same chaotic mix of birth secret, illegitimate child, controlling parents, mad ex & maybe memory loss at some point lol & almost no romance.
I’ve not seen it, and judging by the video essay it’s probably best not to!
It’s one thing to make a weird surrealist movie to be just that but you have to go the full hog. This movie sounds like it doesn’t know what it wants to be, neither weird enough to be good in that genre nor being watchable as a thought provoking art film. Instead it seems to have fallen into the uncanny valley.
)
that plunges it! 
The pen is mightier than the sword. 
