Dramas watched in 2024

Modern fantasy drama about dealing with loss, grief and growth, with supernatural, mystery and horror elements sprinkled with some hilarious moments to balance everything out.

Completed: 08/01/2024.

Pure unadulterated crack and unhinged joyride with a surprisingly coherent plot (despite some contrived subplots). 

Aside from Zhang Yuenan who is the star of the show, the rest of the cast‘s could’ve used some polishing.

The toilet jokes can get a bit overboard but it did kind of illustrate a point and they  were so shameless about it that I didn’t mind it too much.

fave scene: right after FL recovers her memories; arrow scene.

Completed: 26/01-08/01.

Wuxia/xuanhuan.

- needed a bit more Wuxin or at least have him stay longer than six eps in the beginning. 

- some of the court intrigue required some suspension of disbelief (e.g. the rebellion) 

fav character: Xiao Se

Completed: 11/02/2024.

Historical sageuk.

Completed: 30/01-18/02/2024.

Mini-drama.

Period spy fake identities. Similar to A Killer is Romantic (2022) but not as good in execution and the acting  was…
+1 for the ending because it made me laugh out loud. 

Completed: 01/03/2024.

Modern time-loop suspense. With a bit of thriller.

Had me on the edge of my seat for the first half. Fleshed out supporting characters‘ stories and details with each cycle so the loop didn’t feel repetitive (at least for the first 2/3).  Didn’t love the reason behind the perpetrators‘s cause. Peaks at ep 8. Good for a weekend binge.

Completed: 01/03/2023

Mini drama.

The only Two things I liked about this was 1. the tragic ending and 2. the twist with the fl’s sister. The rest - acting, characters, the one song played nearly every episode - was terrible.

Completed: 03/03/2024.

Historical/comedy/intrigue  with a dash of Sci-fi.

Fave character: Teng Zijing, Fan Xian, Wang Qinian

Fave scene: ep 28, pleading scene, scene between Wan’er and Royal Princess 

Completed: 03/03/2024.

Mystery/thriller with strong feminist themes.

Completed: 10/03-18/03/2024.

Mini drama. 

Completed: 16/03/2024.

Post-apocalyptic horror. Good for a weekend binge.

Completed: 22/03/2024

Time travel rom-com youth drama.

There’s a really sweet story here - it’s just the execution is a bit sloppy. 

Acting is ok - I wish they hadn’t dubbed Judy Qi’s voice.

The ending made me sad.

Episode 9 - character map qi shuo

Completed: 23/03/2024.

Comedy.

Ridiculous OTT laugh-out-loud comedy. It does lean on slapstick sometimes but is balanced out by the warmth and chemistry/rapport of the cast.

This should’ve been a few eps shorter. Some of the jokes got predictable and repetitive. 

Favorite line: ”Those who denied it, supplied it.” 

Funniest scene: episode 5; episode 16

Completed: 26/03-10/04

Historical/romance.

(+) fast paced for the majority of the run - fav arcs were the middle eps (grassland eps) - things happen from the get-go and didn’t drag

(-) the politics sometimes felt like it was written for primary schoolers
(-) last arc

Completed: 16/04

Romantic melodrama about three broken individuals finding solace, acceptance in one another and healing through their tangled dark messy past traumas.  Fairytales and its motifs are weaved into different narrative arcs (lasting about one episode).

Completed: 28/04/2024

Romance, melodrama with a streak of dark comedy. Well after completing the show, I can surely say this is a makjang lol. A makjang without the OTT makjang acting. I mean… all the makjang tropes are there.

Is this a story about two 

(+) great lead actors,  humour works for me  

(-) reverie-like sequences

Completed: 30/04/2024.

Modern wuxia, mystery with some fantastic creative fight sequences (see entire amusement park night battle sequence between ZCL with FBB and members of the Sinister Pleasure).

- enjoyed the first half more, lost interest in the final third
- feng baobao ❤️ 

Completed: 30/04/2024

“I’m the ghost under your blade.”
“When the sun sets there will be the moon. When the moon hides, the stars will come out. After it rains, a rainbow will appear.”

Completed: 01/06/2024

Republican slice-of-life about the financial industry in 1930s Shanghai with some action and political elements.

Completed: 09/06/2024

Mini-drama.

Completed: 12/06/2024.

Mini-drama.

Actress spotlight: 

Completed: 14/06/2024.

Crime mystery about lost children. 

Completed: 18/06/2024.

Started: ~03/01