Michelle Topham

Awwww, he's not remotely annoying. He's really sweet. He just hides his real feelings because he's afraid of putting himself out there (and Dr Gu already understands that, hence why she now mostly laughs at him instead of getting angry -- mostly :).

I've known plenty of men like that -- with barks far worse than their bites, as they are really just timid little boys deep inside :)

Good. And see. She's not manipulative. There were reasons... :)

Loving Yu Yu explaining his "Blind Date Logic" to his "Eldest Niece" -- ROTFL. He's so cute, as he's so transparent with his real intentions :)

She's not manipulative at all. As you'll find out in Episode 13 :)

LOL yep. Different strokes for different folks.

And like I said, the ending of Sword Rose was disappointingly carried out with the main focus of the entire story not really getting a satisfying resolution. So, no, if I was you, I wouldn't feel like I missed much by dropping it :)

If you end up liking Dilraba and want to see her more, she's very good in Sword Rose, although the drama itself has a disappointing ending. And happy you're liking this one :)

Wow, you left a nice respectful comment to start with, then decided to delete it and be an absolute bitch instead. Good for you. Hope you're proud.

And btw, I've been watching Asian dramas for well over 2 decades, seen so many I've forgotten most of them. But when I watch one episode and nothing in it is different than what I've already seen, I move on.

I didn't slam the actors (performances in Episode 1 were good), I didn't slam the director, didn't slam anyone watching it, Hope anyone enjoying it enjoys it. Just said it's not my thing.

Anyway, enjoy your day of being a bitch. Hope it works out for you. :)

I only watched Episode 1 but was bored from about 15 minutes in. The plot is poorly explained, like you I don't care about the leads one way or the other, and nothing about it is any different than 1,000 other dramas/films I've seen with similar plots -- most of which had their premise better explained.

Cinematography is nice, it seems a little creepy, although predictably so, and the performances are decent.

For me, it's a no, as I'm watching too many other dramas to spend time on something that didn't grab my attention from the get-go. I'd say try Episode 1 and see what you think, you may enjoy it.

Yep. It's very much an 'already seen this plot a thousand times' but this one pales in comparison to other much better ones so far. Could get better, but I didn't care about any of the characters or the story enough to find out. Dropped after Ep 1. Won't rate as, IMO, that's not fair.

First episode. Nice cinematography, not a particular fan of either Dilraba or CXX (don't care about either of them one way or the other), plot is "seen this 1,000 times". Easy drop. Won't be rating as, IMO, that's not fair.

Enjoy if it's your thing. :)

It's live on iQIYI in China -- 56 episodes, all dropped at once - (MDL was wrong with their 80 episode count ). First 9 episodes free-to-watch, then the rest are VIP.

3 minutes per episode, and production quality is very nice. No English subs (of course :)

https://www.iqiyi.com/v_22dchdsj2h0.html?s3=pca_115_series_card&s4=0&playertype=mini&vfrmblk=pca_115_series_card&vfrm=3&s2=3&vfrmrst=0

No sign of it on iQIYI international, but I can't see how they wouldn't release it internationally as the main series has been one of their most-watched this year.

Could be a later drop time/date (fingers crossed), as the Chinese streaming companies never do what you'd expect :) Will get back to you when/if I hear more.

I didn't :) I just did a quick search and Speed came up, but then @Jeeee above said Begin Again, and I checked the synopsis and that made more sense. So now we both know :)

Yep, it's a bit of an odd choice for a spin off isn't it, but I'm very interested to see what the writers do with it. Screenwriter on this entire series has been superb, so should be cool to see what he pulls off with this one :)

I think it's Begin Again, like someone above commented? And not Speed?

Vertical drama spin-off of this is dropping tomorrow on iQIYI --

Doesn't feature any of the usual STOTD leads though but, considering how successful the main series has been, should drop internationally as well. Might be interesting.

https://baozibuns.com/strange-chronicles-of-tang-the-changan-detective-premiere-date-set-wang-zi-yi-and-zhao-jia-poster-drops/ (Updated info at the bottom of the article)

No worries. I'm obsessed with this stuff, LOL, so it's easy for me to come up with a quick list. Hope you find something you like.

And, honestly, most of the time I just watch the trailer on YouTube or X and, if it peaks my interest, at least give the first couple of episodes a go. More reliable than anything on MDL :)

There really isn't one unfortunately.

MDL used to be excellent, but there are so many trolls on here now who rate just like you said. So much so, I don't trust any rating on MDL anymore as I've been fooled, both with highly rated dramas being terrible and low-rated dramas being fabulous, too many times.

IMBD is even worse -- their administration will allow shows to be downrated to a 1 out of 10 if enough trolls are "offended" by one line a character in a drama says, and do nothing to stop it.

Rotten Tomatoes doesn't usually have ratings for many K-dramas or hardly any C-dramas, and they're not reliable either as even their critics now seem to rate high if a show pushes some 'woke' theme, ie: if it features a transgender character, it will be rated high, even if the show itself is trash. That's why you'll often see RT ratings at 95% from critics (stupidly high) and then viewers' ratings at 25%, and people asking "What the hell is this garbage?" :)

Viki's ratings are far too high, and there was a rumor they are artificially inflated by their administration just to persuade viewers to watch more dramas. But at least they don't allow their users to massively downrate a drama in an attempt to destroy it.

So, no, nowhere in the west really.

I occasionally look at Watchapedia (Korean site), but their ratings tend to be quite a bit lower than westerners may like. Their 'hot rankings' for instance, may not be higher than a 3.5 out of 5 (ie: a 7 out of 10). Still seem more accurate than anything on an English-language site though.

https://pedia.watcha.com/ko-KR/

If you watch C-dramas...

I use Douban for C-dramas (Chinese site, very strictly monitored, and has a reputation for being accurate with ratings). If a drama has a high rating on Douban, it's almost always an amazing watch.

https://www.douban.com/

I also like AvenueX on YouTube for C-dramas. She's very honest about her opinions about Chinese dramas, but never overly harsh, even if she hates something. She's also Chinese, so understands the culture. I've found her assessments more accurate than not. Even if I sometimes enjoy the dramas she doesn't.

Ah, and now you've proven yourself to be one of the ugly trolls. Well done you :)

Yep. Hahahahaha.

It's idiotic that the site allows people to rate episodes that haven't even released as well. Whether that's someone giving every episode a 1, or every episode a 10. Should have been stopped long ago.