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What's do you consider the lowest MDL Rating that is considered good for a drama?

Panda Critic

So I have seen a lot of good and decent dramas and shows with 7.0 or 7.5 ratings and that's typically the lowest ratings I will consider watching because knowing reviews and ratings in MDL are generally low. I even see some shows with 6.0 or lower just because it was not on a streaming platform they preferred or they don't like someone from the cast and I consider them decent shows.

Generally, I consider a 7.0 or 7.5 rating to be above average and is worth giving a try.

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Popcxqueen VIP

For whatever reason (and I'm curious about what some of them actually are), but if it's a J-drama, ratings are much, much lower than others. Even if the drama just started airing and hardly anyone has watched yet, they're almost always in the 7.0-7.5 range. (And same with some Taiwanese dramas.)

I also watch a LOT of C-dramas and the shorter they are the lower the ratings seem to be. There seems to be lots of stupid reasons why people rate dramas low on here.

I've pretty much stopped caring about what the ratings are for dramas and I just watch them if I want to.

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Elisheva

I've mostly given up on MDL ratings. For a while I paid more attention to reviews and comments but even those have led me badly astray. Three of my favourites have pages of bad reviews because I don't know, it's like the writers and directors expected more attention and intelligence from the audience than the majority of western viewers are willing to give. 

 The exceptions are some hidden gems with few viewers because those who seek them out are generally going to give them enough attention to understand them.

For me, it's been a long road of learning who I can trust to make or recommend quality, whether it's directors, production companies or fans, and what I'm best off avoiding.

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LotusRayne

I've been steadily working my way through a list I made myself of horror anthology dramas as I love them, especially if the stories somehow interconnect. Those tend to always end up with low ratings (but then horror tends to score very badly in general).

Some of my favourite dramas have extremely high ratings on here, but for the most part, MDL scores seem a poor indicator of what I'd enjoy myself which is fine. If a synopsis catches my attention I read the comments and reviews, and if I'm still interested I'll try watching an episode. It sometimes takes some digging to find those hidden gems but well worth it.

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kardasx

The lowest for me is 6.9 and highest 9.0.  In most cases I didn't like those ranked > 9, so I usually avoid tham as well as those below 7. But there can be exceptions.

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Popcxqueen VIP
 Elisheva:

I've mostly given up on MDL ratings. For a while I paid more attention to reviews and comments but even those have led me badly astray. Three of my favourites have pages of bad reviews because I don't know, it's like the writers and directors expected more attention and intelligence from the audience than the majority of western viewers are willing to give. 

 The exceptions are some hidden gems with few viewers because those who seek them out are generally going to give them enough attention to understand them.

For me, it's been a long road of learning who I can trust to make or recommend quality, whether it's directors, production companies or fans, and what I'm best off avoiding.

I agree with all of this! (Although it’s not just Western audiences that don’t always have patience for unique dramas…)

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LouM VIP

MDL rating is pretty irrelevant but its a good indicator of what is generally liked,for example i have something rated 10 and im the only  one who has watched it in the site,another 10 i have has 6.2 rating with with 3.200 users rating it.
Meanwhile i have rated 7.5 (maybe worth even 7 tbh) a show that is rated 9.1 and have dropped numerous drama above 8.5+ rating.Now to answer your question if i hadnt watched the many shows i have watched i would probably look for shows above 7.8 in MDL rating,but at this point i pay no attention to the ratings.
Also agree with what someone pointed above,Jdrama are criminally underrated

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Elisheva
 Popcxqueen:
I agree with all of this! (Although it’s not just Western audiences that don’t always have patience for unique dramas…)

Likely. I'm never sure what's the best descriptive word to use, "English-speaking" might be more accurate as it's English language reviews and comments here and on other platforms where I'm seeing the lack of insight and understanding. From the language use, I suspect it could be narrowed down further but it would be incendiary to get that specific :) "International fans" is the common parlance, though it often actually signifies "US and maybe Canada" and I'd rather not do that. I wish I had the language skills to read more broadly and understand how more of the world sees other cultures' offerings.

Anyway, my main data point for the country of origin is that it continues to make intelligent youth-orientated comedy so it's not a stretch to assume there's an internal market for it and understanding of what they're doing. You used the word "unique", as if these were all one-offs. Unique plots are a feature but there are underlying mechanisms in common, like here's this comedic thing going on and now we're going to slide some depth of emotion and serious meaning into it.  But the reviewers and commenters I see here and elsewhere will miss the serious meaning and either trash it or be all ooo cute and fluffy. At the "look deeper to understand what this is really about" level, they're not unique.

Uff, that got long. And in some one else's thread. Sorry. Will leave it as it hopefully clarifies something I short-handed in my first reply.

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TimiZero

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but judging from you watchlist I assume you are new to Asian dramas. In that case just go with the trendy ones with high ratings that have plots that intrigued you. See and develop you taste from there. At this early stage you have the freedom to explore.

For seasoned watchers we rarely rely on ratings anymore as we know what we're looking for. In my case I would watch for the writers, original source materials, and of course interesting plot in the genres I like.  I would also read negative reviews/comments and see if their points would matter to my watching decision or not. 

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Panda Critic
 TimiZero:

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but judging from you watchlist I assume you are new to Asian dramas. In that case just go with the trendy ones with high ratings that have plots that intrigued you. See and develop you taste from there. At this early stage you have the freedom to explore.

For seasoned watchers we rarely rely on ratings anymore as we know what we're looking for. In my case I would watch for the writers, original source materials, and of course interesting plot in the genres I like.  I would also read negative reviews/comments and see if their points would matter to my watching decision or not. 

I am not new actually, I have watched a lot of dramas from every country before I discovered MDL, I tried to do my watchlist but I already have a list on my PC so I didn't bother cause it has too many titles to update and time consuming.

The MDL ratings didn't bother me when I saw that dramas I have watched that I consider 10 on ratings is rated a 7.8 in MDL. So I wonder what is considered a decent rating on MDL.

Also, I realized and noticed that usually ratings that are 9.0 - 10 are those trendy popular but has decent plot with a lot of budget and those with ratings 7.0 - 8.9 are hidden gems or dramas.

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fiflydramalover VIP

It depends on the content and the country for me. Some shows get a higher rating just for have having good cinematography even if the acting and scriptwriting is crap. For kdramas, the baseline for something that is good is usually an 8 for mainstream dramas. Anything lower and I know they're breaking the formula in a way that most people don't appreciate and might be in bad taste. Though for me personally, a 9 or higher might make my eyes roll as they sometimes tend to use formulas made to wrench the heart that I'm just not too interested in. But their indie stuff 7.4 - 9.0 is worth risking a look at. Doesn't gaurentee anything good though haha. 

For jdramas 7.4 is also my baseline of usually worth looking at. 8 or higher typically guarentees either something really well made or something that is formulaicly good (not necessarily to my taste.) In this rating range (8+), it matter more what the content is about and what my peers think of it. For jdramas, I luckily follow people whose opinions are usually worth listening to. 

For xianxia/wuxia cdramas though, 7.4-8.4 is riskier. There's less of a chance that something was rated lower just because it had a unique storyline that didn't vibe with people, and more because it was just poorly made or got draggy. Though sometimes that doesn't matter to me. I'll usually risk watching a 6.0-7.9 rated cdrama if its a miniseries. They tend to be fun and off-beat in ways that are forgiveable compared to like a 40 episode series with the same rating. Cdrama ratings are mostly useless for 40+ episode dramas though because so many of them are just rated high based on whatever actor inspired the cult following behind that rating. But, if a 40+ episode cdrama is 5 years old and still rated a 9.0, that means more to me than an airing show with the same rating. 

There are also certain tags I'm more invested in. For example, there are tags that if I find a drama is rated low (like 6.8-7.5) AND it has controversial comments? There's a chance I'm going to enjoy myself. And that's regardless of the country that produced it. 

For me, its more important to understand how audiences in various niches rate things and what that implies instead of just going off a number. Because these numbers don't have the same value. There's like conversion rates or something depending on the fandom 😆🤣

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Moonlight VIP

2/10 lmao

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Klio

I usually pick the ones with the rating above 8. Sometimes, if I like the actors or the plot seems interesting, I give a chance to the ones with 7.5-8 rating (some of my favourite dramas and movies have a rating around 7.5-7.6) but I usually don't go below that (unless I really like the actors). The rare ones with the below 7.5 rating on MDL I watched were horrible. 

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BrightSun VIP

I only started using this site a few months back so I relied a little on the ratings to give me an idea but I've learned it's just best to start watching and come to your own conclusion. I love Immortal Samsara and it's very heavily critiqued and have hated a lot of very popular shows, like recently Eternal Love.

It's really just matter of taste I think and since I'm usually the odd one out, if I ever see anything lowly rated I'm guaranteed to check it out 😂

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