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Drama Recommendations to Overcome Slump

jeyjaejay

Hii~ I'm new around here and thought that I would ask for some drama recommendations since I'm in a drama slump right now. It has been difficult to start watching new dramas these past few months, and I find myself re-watching the same dramas over and over again. I enjoy watching romance dramas, especially rom-coms, but I don't mind the occasional thrillers. I especially dislike sad endings (forever traumatised by Moon Lovers). I watch Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and Thai (both straight and BLs).  These are some of the dramas I enjoyed watching:

  • The Midnight Romance in Hagwon
  • Last Twilight (Thai)
  • The Judge from Hell
  • Mother
  • The Heart Killers (Thai, ongoing)
  • Marry My Husband
  • Crazy Love
  • Hidden Agenda (Thai)
  • One Ordinary Day
  • Perfect and Casual (Chinese)
  • My School President (Thai)
  • Mental Coach Jegal
  • Cherry Magic (Japanese)
  • Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol
  • Word of Honor (Chinese)
  • Hak Lai, My Lady (Thai)

Thank you very much and have a nice day!

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angeliviki2022

These are the shows I really like. Maybe you'll enjoy them:

  • A Little Thing Called First Love (China, 2019). High school to college. Sweet story. FL goes through a physical transformation. ML is kind, smart and generous.
  • About Youth (Taiwan, 2022) Sweet, youth romance. OST is a 10/10! BL
  • Falling into Your Smile (China, 2021) ML greatly dislikes FL as the replacement for one of his e-sports team members who retires due to injury. FL is one the best female gamers who starts to impress the ML with her skills.
  • Shanai Marriage Honey (Japan, 2020) Secret marriage in a workplace setting. I have re-watched this series as a pick me up.
  • Our Dating Sim (Korea, 2023) High school best friends meet again in a workplace setting. Really cute flashbacks (after the cresdits) and I loved their chemistry. BL
  • Stay with Me (China, 2023) This is an incredible BL, full of details and "clues" about the MLs' growing closeness, from the posters and artwork on the walls and the color schemes of clothing, lighting, etc. You can search for the Reddit on-air discussions for additional details, which was esp. useful for me on culture/language insights. SWM was adapted from book 1 of the novel "Are You Addicted?" by Chai Ji Dan, who was the screenwriter for this drama. Watch until ep 23 if you want to stay happy and reserve ep 24 when you have tissues on hand. Unfortunately, the promised Season 2 was cancelled.
  • Lovely Runner (Korea, 2024) I loved this show even though I normally shy away from time travel dramas. This one just pulled me in, hook, line and sinker. Both leads did a fantastic job, esp. the ML juggling his multiple roles as student-athlete, rock star, regular college student and celebrity actor/model. The FL was impressive as well, plus they had great chemistry together. I also loved the SML who had fun bromance moments with the ML. The OST was so good, it made it into an actual Top 10, and fans were clamoring for the show's band to perform IRL.
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autumn iris

My Top 10 rated 10/10 no sad ending drama after 2020

  • Falling into You about a trainer and her athlete's romance - Chinese
  • Go Ahead about a familiar relationship of one widower with his daughter and adopted son and one divorcee-also male with his son - Chinese
  • Hospital Playlist about 5 specialists friendships and band - Korean
  • I Am Nobody about an orphan with superpower who's recruited for upcoming martial arts competition - Chinese
  • Kikazaru Koi ni wa Riyuu ga Atte (cw but it's a 10/10 and should have a happy ending) about an influencer works in sales who lives in a mix-gender house with 2 chefs, 1 counselor, and 1 artist-painter - Japanese
  • Little Women about 3 sisters involde with a chaebol family in different areas/family members - Korean
  • Love Like The Galaxy about an abandoned (forcefully) and uneducated generals' witty daughter and her love story - Chinese
  • My Cherie Amour about a rich woman with 3 messed up brothers and 1 autistic brother who falls for a widower with messed up family members - Thai
  • To The Moon and Back about a daughter of a divorced queer owns a cabaret club and a neighbor, a specialist-surgeon with passion for baking with trauma - Thai
  • Under The Queen's Umbrella about a queen mother, her dying son, a crown prince and her 4 other idler sons - Korean

My Top 5 rated 10/10 BL/censored BL with no sad ending after 2020

  • Bad Buddy about two sons of two business rivals who's forced to hate each others - Thai
  • Doku Koi: Doku mo Sugireba Koi to Naru (cw, but should have a happy ending) about a lawyer and his partner in business, a swindler - Japanese
  • Koi wo Suru Nara Nidome ga Joto about an editor and his ex-lover, a professor - Japanese
  • The Spirealm about a man who joined a team to complete the door worlds - Chinese
  • The Untamed about a transmigrated ex-devil sect leader meeting his past friends, families, and enemies - Chinese

May them bring you out of your drama slump.

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mahiba

Hello, I'll give you advice instead of recommendations: switch up the type of dramas you usually like, you might be surprised to see it does it for you. This happened to me by accident. I was recently in a very big slump, I almost exclusively watch romance, but this year almost nothing could keep my attention. I couldn't finish all those really hyped kdramas (Queen of Tears for example). 

The only dramas I've been able to enjoy this year were out of my go-to type: BL ( Koi wo Suru nara Nidome ga Joto and Let Free the Curse of Taekwondo are definitely in my all around top 5 this year ), and I used to think I hated BL dramas. I also found a few favorites in dramas with no or very little romance like High School Return of a Gangster .

I think the reason is simple : TV writing is very formulaic. When you only consume one or two genre ( like action and romance for example), you will end up knowing every trope of the genre and it leads to boredom. So you need a palette cleanser. Go explore more types of dramas, maybe other countries. Maybe go for more movies. After a little while, you will start missing your comfort watches again and you'll be out of the slump. I hope. Happy watching!

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jeyjaejay

Thank you very much for the advice and recommendations! I recently started watching Falling into You and I'm enjoying it so far! I'm planning to watch About Youth, Falling into Your Smile, Go Ahead, Kikazaru Koi ni wa Riyuu ga Atte, and Love Like The Galaxy after I'm done with Falling into You :)

I agree with @mahiba that I might have gotten into a drama slump because of the formulaic nature of the dramas I watch :( Maybe it's time for me to venture into GL and crime dramas ;) I'm considering Pluto, The Worst of Evil, and  Dong Jae, the Good or the Bastard. 

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