JJJ

The 7.8+ ones on MDL for non-idol dramas are probably the really good ones.

You can also try searching the Chinese title of a drama with the word "douban" in the search engine to check the rating for it on Douban (from Chinese viewers' POV). Dramas that are usually rated as 6+ there means it is passable, 7+ means a good drama, 8+ means great, and 9+ means excellent. Douban raters can be pretty tough on C-dramas so if they rate it high, then you can usually trust that it really is good.

Some of my other non-idol C drama recommendations:

Mystery/crime: https://mydramalist.com/37243-a-murderous-affair-in-horizon-tower

Thriller/crime/law: https://mydramalist.com/760989-wu-jin-de-jin-tou

Drama/comedy/sports: https://mydramalist.com/45437-qi-hun

Thriller/mystery/sci-fi: https://mydramalist.com/697563-kai-duan

Thriller/mystery/crime: https://mydramalist.com/51571-cat-s-cradle

Maybe something like 新剧 (new drama) or 新剧推荐 (new drama recommendation). Sometimes searching up the keyword with the month like 新剧 5月2026 (new drama May 2026) can also show dramas that are airing in May 2026 including the non-idol ones.

Xiao Hong Shu (the app) might be a good place for international fans as they allow for foreign accounts + has translation features to translate the comments right there. Twitter I know has a pretty decent sized C-drama community and there are translation accounts on there that translate C-ent news!

This one was pretty well liked with the acting and the plot recently but might not be everyone's cup of tea if they are not into thriller/psychological genre: https://mydramalist.com/696679-zhi-mi

Same, I am looking forward to it since it is a family genre drama too and they are great if done well.

I think Li Landi is really versatile so I check out all her dramas in general because I can always trust her to convey her characters well (even if the plot goes sideway). The Way Home is up in the airs because the actor who plays the older Wu brother in the drama had a cheating scandal recently. I don't think they would need to swap his face but there is not much update now regarding this drama except it kept on being pushed back. There are some rumors that it might be picked up by CCTV, but who knows at this point due to that scandal. Q4 might be the best bet though.

Internationally that might be the case but in C-ent within her generation, she is considered one of the best actresses. It is the reason why she can do CCTV dramas like this that air on TV (not many C-actors/actresses in their lifetime will have a leading drama on prime TV and definitely not at her age when she was only 25 years old when she acted in this drama). It is an acknowledgement from them that they can trust her acting skills to be in a project like this.

Some of her most successful dramas in China are actually some of her non-idol dramas like "All the Way to the Sun". But if you ask international viewers who tend to prefer idol/romance dramas, most of them won't bother watching an urban drama like that or only know about her period idol dramas lol.

MDL is unfortunately always like this. Some of the best C-dramas that I have seen (non-idol ones that doesn't focus on romance) are around low 8. I think it is also because fans of some of the idol dramas have multiple accounts to increase the rating really high while these types of dramas don't really have much raters/fans so it is easy to have it be rated low if only a couple of users rated it low.

I appreciate that she has a life after retirement. Even though she is retiring, she is looking for a new path which is involved in painting/restoring arts. Our life is not over even when our career is over. There is aways more to do and explore!

Xia Zi's mom in episode 6:

I do appreciate that even within these few episodes, the 3 women are written really well. I feel like I have a good grasp on their characters just from their interactions with each other.

Xia Zi grew up very independent (wants to be the prince that takes down the dragon) due to her parents. Her parents build her up to go seek out beyond where she grew up but she ended up burn out. Minawaer is someone who has always dreamed big and wanted to be the princess but felt trapped within Kashgar so turned to marriage to try to escape. Lai Li is the mediator between the two but also has a temper of her own especially when it comes to wanting to take over the family business and live in guilt due to her older brother. Impressed that within these few episodes, I am able to understand these characters. I have to give props to the scriptwriter and the actresses.

I am enjoying it too!

These ladies can ACT.

A guy "digging" for gold LOL. Just that he likes money and wants to earn money.

Love the grandma. 🥹

It is very true how sometimes children attribute the best moments they have experienced in their childhood to their dads when moms are often behind the scenes setting things up and making sure everything is running. I love that scene in episode 3 when it is shown who is actually the one riding the motorcycle.

Yes, it is done airing on iQiyi within 3 days.

There is, all the 3 women have romantic connections, but this drama focuses more on their individual conflicts/growth and their friendship with each other.

Oof so real, sometimes when you move on to what you think is "grass is greener on the other side", you realize that it isn't all that and maybe the original place where you were from was actually better and the people who stayed flourished. But then the people who stayed also felt maybe their lives could had been better if they left.