Stuffed Cat

I expect many will criticise me for saying this, but I believe it's true nonetheless:

When you get down to it, acting is just a job. "I don't want to can peas, I want to paint fish" is a reasonable work goal but, at the end of the day, if no-one will pay you to paint fish but they will to can peas, it's your choice whether you work or not. And if someone does pay you for painting fish, but finds their customers won't buy them or prefer to buy ones painted by others, you probably won't be in the job long. Maybe at the same time customers are saying "Hey, what happened to the canned peas you used to sell? We really, really, want to buy them again."

No doubt the comment about his role preferences is meant, in part at least, as a plea for casting directors to offer the sort of parts he actually wants to do, and hopefully they will. But if they don't, or the audiences for some reason don't like him in those roles, it's time to go back to canning peas. Or maybe look around for a compromise ... Canning fish? Painting peas?

It is kinda funny when you see just one or two on a list, but sometimes it's nearly all of them. (Check out "Underrated K-Dramas" ... there's no show in the top 100 with a rating less than 7.4, and most are mid/high eights or higher. "Underrated"!?)

I think it would be cured, in part at least, if we could see who voted for what. If people knew they'd be 'named and shamed', instead of hiding behind anonymity, they might pay a bit of attention.

Of course, the list owner can delete inappropriate items, but that's time comsuming, and probably some idiot will just add it back again soon after!

[ Oooh ... an idea! I'm off to the 'Suggestions' thread! :-) ]

No, that's exactly what it DOES mean. People may look at 9.1 and consider that personally they would give it a 10, so in that respect it's underrated, but don't you think that it's somewhat arrogant to think "I thought it was excellent, therefore everyone else should too"? The rating is an average of the opinion of everyone who watched it (and voted). Averaging helps correct the wild extremes of lovers and haters, resulting in a more or less accurate guide to how good most people found the show.

Agree with pretty much all of the commenters below me. Of the top 100 (at the time of writing this), only four are rated less than 7.5. What planet do people live on where they think a "9.1", or even an "8", is 'underrated'??? This could be a useful list if the shows had a rating of, say, less than 7.0, especially if the voter(s) explained their reasons. We might actually realise there's stuff we want to watch but missed, or were put off by others' low rating.

I suggest the creator of this poll delete every show with a rating of 8 or more (and perhaps add a little more guidance for those who don't understand what 'underrated' means).

Just in case it isn't clear, I was being sarcastic when I said "it's understandable". This is not the first example on MDL, nor I suspect will it be the last, of people voting for things that are outside of the questioner's guidelines. It's so easy to check, both before and after you vote, yet there are those who don't bother. I can't decide if it's people who can't read (in which case, why are they using the internet!?), arrogance ("I can't be wrong" / "the rules don't apply ro me") or laziness.

Each story is a separate couple. HIStory 1 has three stories, each of 4x20min episodes. HIStory 2 and 3 each has two stories ... not sure yet after that, but each is separated into different pages on here. If you search "HIStory", you'll see them all. Even HIStory 1, which is actually one complete season of the whole show, is split into three items here.

Not before HIStory 1, no. Probably not before the others either. Each one is a self-contained story over a few episodes. I've not yet found any link between them. (Mind you, I'm only up to HIStory 3 so far.)

Yeah. It's understandable though. After all, who would think to go and check a drama before adding it to make sure it is a "Japanese Drama". Even harder when it's already been added by someone else ... you have to let your eyes drop down to the line immediately under the drama's title. Just accept that this is very difficult for some people.

Agree. It works the other way too. A good story, well directed and filmed, can often survive mediocre or poor acting to end up being pretty good. Of course, that does depend on just how bad the acting is and how much screen time those actors get. Sometimes it's just too cringe-inducing to endure, no matter how much you want to like the story. Unless the acting is REALLY bad, of course. Then it becomes funny, and you can watch it for a different reason! :-)

Well, I've not seen any comments here addressing hype, only rating. Perhaps the biggest problem is with how the question itself has been written.

Whilst one can't know for sure the explanation for why voters have voted as they have when they haven't also commented, when they do the majority are saying "I didn't like that drama" (implying that they therefore don't understand why so many others did).

If I am looking down on people, it's not "...for no reason". It would be because they don't seem able to accept the validity of other people's feelings ...

.... Nah. I don't think you'll ever get my point, so there's no benefit to either of us in continuing.

Have a great day.

Sorry, don't understand your first sentence, even after having asked Google for help.

"Hype" and "overrated" mean two different things, so there is a possibility different responders are answering different questions. However, I'm not aware of any of those listed being more hyped than usual/than any other, and all the comments I see here refer to how shows have been rated not hyped, so it's reasonable to conclude it's the "overrated" meaning of the question that voters are responding to.

As you say, different people have different tastes. It's perfectly OK for one person to really like something and another not. The lowest ranked show here (at the time of writing) has an 8.5 rating given by nearly 34,000 people. Nearly half of the people who watched it also rated it. Those are healthy enough numbers for the average to be a reasonable reflection of the majority view.

We'll never know exactly why any particular individual chose to watch the show. Was it just because they like the genre? The plot summary sounded interesting? A favourite actor was in it? For whatever reason, though, most of them highly enjoyed it.

Effectively, when casting a vote for a particular show that person is saying "I don't understand why so many other people found this so enjoyable".

I (and I'm sure many others) find it perfectly easy to UNDERSTAND why other people find something very enjoyable whilst personally disliking it for whatever reason.

By casting a vote for any show, that voter is either saying "I don't understand why others liked it so much" or "I didn't like it, so everyone else is wrong".

Either way, I stand by my remark. There is (likely) no problem with the show. The problem lies with the voter's lack of understanding of why others found it so enjoyable.

From many of the comments here, it looks like what people are actually voting on is "Shows that are highly rated, that I didn't like". Which is fine as an answer to that question ... but it's not the question that was asked!

Yeah ... I really couldn't decide if it was good make-up, clever lighting, or a different actor playing a younger version. Even now that I know, I don't think I'm 100% convinced!

Both! Agreeing with you, being sarcastic about "them". :-)

[I'm British ... being sarcastic is my default response.]

What a shame we don't get to see who voted for what. I'd love to start a list for "Most Disappointing MDL Member". Maybe I'll have to settle for "Dumbest...", based on comments they've left.

".... some people doesn't like open endings."

Yeah, I can understand that. I mean, it really isn't fair to expect people to think for themselves.

This thread is a good example of something that is so obviously a spoiler and should have been marked as such, as should several of the replies.

The idea of a week or so's delay made sense back in the days when shows aired on traditional TV. Once it had aired, you'd either seen it or you hadn't, except for the lucky few who could afford a video recorder and had postponed watching for some reason. Most of those would usually try to watch before the next episode aired in a week's time, so they didn't end up watching things out of order.

Nowadays, there are different ways of watching. Some are prepared to accept the agony of a weekly wait for their next fix. Others, like myself usually, prefer to wait until the whole season has aired, so they can binge-watch the things they like. What's great is to discover a drama that has already completely aired. so you can binge-watch the whole thing. straight away.

So the notion that within a week those who are going to watch it will have no longer holds true. Indeed, many people specifically use others' comments to help them to decide whether or not to start watching something.

So, regardless of when it's written, if a comment reveals a plot point it should be marked as a spoiler. If it isn't, the writer is being discourteous and thoughtless, or arrogant because they think that what they have to say is more important than other people's enjoyment.

[spoiler]This is a test to see if we can mark just part of a comment as a spoiler. If you're seeing this, rather than the 'Spoiler' alert, it didn't work. :-( [/spoiler]

Of course, deciding what is and what isn't a spoiler isn't always easy. I'd consider "I really HATE character X" isn't a spoiler, whereas "Isn't it great that character X got killed off" is. If in doubt, as a courtesy to others mark it as a spoiler, or rephrase it so it obviously isn't, or just don't write it!

[BTW, I consider comments and reviews two totally separate things. Reviews are (should be!) far more likely to contain spoilers and you read them at your own risk, though many reviewers are kind enough to warn about spoiler sections before you actually come to them.]

I really don't understand. "Vincenzo", "Reborn Rich" and "Descendants of the Sun" are all high on this list. How can ANY show that presents an opportunity to watch Song Joong-Ki be considered "disappointing"?

Can I just thank everyone for remembering to wrap stuff in Spoiler alerts? :-)

I'm halfway through Ep. 9, and came here just to check how many episodes are left. Ended up starting to read the comments, until suddenly realising "What am I doing? What am I doing???".

If the non-spoiler comments are anything to go by, I have an episode-and-a-half of total enjoyment in front of me tonight ... then agony for a week waiting for the last two to air!

Rats! This list has depressed me a bit! I eagerly add just about every LGBTQ+ show I come across that sounds even vaguely interesting to my Watch List. There's already a huge gap between "Watched" and "Plan to Watch". Now I find there are more than eighteen-hundred of them??? I won't live that long! :-( ... Many thanks though. I'll tick off as many as I can in the time I have left. :-)

Oh well. Guess I should stop writing, and start watching.