#need more cdramas of this calibre

[lurkingshan]

As someone who vibes quite well with your commentary and insight, I'm wondering if you have a (probably) short list of recent shows that are worth a watch. For calibration purposes, I couldn't get past ep 3 of Kidnap, but quite enjoyed Love is a Poison. Story and acting are what float this boat!

Thank you for coming by! I’m happy to share a list; I’m not sure what counts as recent for you, but I’m going to assume we’re talking about shows that have completed airing in the last few months. My top three recommendations from this season of completed QL with absolutely no caveats:

Love in the Big City

Let Free the Curse of Taekwondo

Love is Like a Poison

I see you’ve already watched that last one! There are a couple others I enjoyed a lot recently but that I do have caveats for:

Blue Canvas of Youthful Days (beautiful most of the way through but then a classic cdrama wtf ending tacked on)

Love in the Air Koi (has a few execution bumps but overall a solid adaptation of a Thai drama in half the time)

I’ll also add a few more that aired slightly earlier in case you haven’t seen them yet:

The Trainee

Mr. Mitsuya’s Planned Feeding

Takara’s Treasure

I hope something here will work for you; let me know if you need any more recs!

[pandorumblue-blog]

Miss them.

Miss the thrill and anticipation of new weekly episodes.

Miss the cinematography. The acting. The script.

Miss Zisheng. Miss Cheng Shaoshang.

Miss our spazztastic Emperor Wendy.

Haven't found a replacement.

Sad 🐼.

Cheng Shaoshang… I know that you always questioned our unequal status, and always worried that I would oppress you. Today, I want to tell you, I, Ling Buyi, treat you as my wife. All of what’s mine, belongs to you. In the future, I will do everything I can to protect you. I will never oppress you.

Love Like the Galaxy

[orsuliya]

I feel in love with Xiao Qi the first time I saw his sweet smile (when Ningshuo Soldiers are celebrating about Xiao Qi's promotion as Prince Yuzhang, they are so proud and spirited, meanwhile we have Xiao Qi aside and smiling timid).

I mean from a general we might expect a rude character, instead we have this good, GOOD man with high values and calm manners. I really love him <3

You may be the most discerning of us all, dear Nonnie With A <3! It takes an excellent eye to recognize Xiao Qi’s qualities this early; it took me at least until episode 3 to abandon most of my doubts as to his relative attractiveness and a bit longer than that to put my trust into his impeccable character. Mea culpa!

There are certainly many faults that one can expect from a cdrama general, much less one of this calibre. Some of them literally drip with machoism, while others show rather worrisome brashness; there are those who behave rudely, whether out of arrogance or mere awkwardness; others yet seem completely unapproachable as if being a military genius removed the need for humble communication; a general might be bitingly cold or totally closed off, overly-ambitious or over-confident, a jerk, a bitching malcontent or in need of growing up into an actual human being. I am not saying that all of them are like that... but it seems like being in possession of at least one of those faults is more or less a must. Only it turns out that it is not! Imagine my surprise. Is it any wonder that we love Xiao Qi so much?

[dangermousie]

(sorry I'm not goods with acronyms whenever I see people use them even fore drama I have to google it like what drama is that? Even if I watched it more than once. Oh yes! I heard that in some lives they swap genders but never knew the ML was pregnant was it by the FL? I need all the spoilers for this novel it sounds so good how bad is the angsty parts of the first life? I'm sure all the lives have tragedy though.

The angsty parts are not the angsty mainly because the novel is so short there is no time for it to be fleshed out. I think the drama has the potential for upping the angst by the sheer fact of seeing actual people and also by fleshing things out.

However, keep in mind I am an angst fiend and my favorite web novel of all time is 2ha (The Husky and His White Cat Shizun) which, despite its cutesy name is an absolutely infamous angstfest with more knives than a knife factory. There have been only two cdramas that ever maxed me out on angst to such a degree I had to take a break - Royal Nirvana (the bulk of it) and Novoland Eagle Flag (eps in the 20s.) I mean, I cried so hard in The Myth I literally threw up and it’s in my Top 5 dramas of all time. So my calibrating device is kinda off on angst levels :)