What I Watched in 2023 [Ranked Order]

morally grey/villainous FL ~ simp ML ~ villain x villain romance ~ sensuality was hot AF ~ queer normative world ~ explicit gender reversal: "I can be the woman" ~ great character/relationship development ~ spoofs the ubiquitous time-traveling/alt. world female character of short length series ~ red ribbon sex scene speaks to trauma ~ former sex worker heroine 

abrupt editing in the introductory episodes makes it a little hard to follow

phenomenal relationship development ~ morally grey/villainous FL ~ simp ML ~ role reversal master/shifu dynamic ~ plot moved swiftly w/ fun twists & turns ~ enlivening secondary cast with a mix of young and mature actors ~ the most fun I've had watching a drama this year!

100% rip off of chinese fantasy dramas ~ world building was often an afterthought, contradicted itself

Two princesses navigate wartime chaos

Cried like a daughter

One of the best friends-to-lovers romances I've seen

Brilliant Shakespearean tragedy

Revenge, served piping hot

The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long

Love is a battlefield

We stan a killer girl in this house

University romance with impeccable summer vibes

8.5

Cliché-free romantic mystery delight

Vibes for days

Poor man's version of The Glory

Solid laundry drama & the superior Dr. Romantic

Two of the best introductory episodes I've ever seen, then a lot of mushiness 

Lots to work with, little to show for it

Moments of radical subversion in an otherwise phoned-in production

Poorly directed drama with interesting ideas 

like Wulin Heroes, this is a radically female-led wuxia romance with a FL who possesses more power, strength, and martial arts skill than any of the male leads, but, also like Wulin Heroes, the drama falls short of the mark, which felt like a directing snafu, as everyone's acting, including the typically enchanting Xing Fei's, was mediocre at the same level ~ not enough plot or narrative depth to fill the 36 episode runtime so lots of superfluous filler  

Cheap knock off of Zhang Gong Zhu Zai Shang

dominant FL/submissive ML dynamic ~ incest undertones = something I've never seen before ~ villain x villain romance

abrupt/pointless ending ~ lack of character growth for the FL ~ ML actor has had plastic surgery and it visibly limits his range of expression ~ FL actress is suitable for her mean girl moments but cannot summon a performance of warmth/romance/chemistry

Exemplifies everything wrong with Netflix's approach to K-dramas

Best watched with the mindset you'd bring to Pretty Little Liars or The Vampire Diaries

abrupt/pointless ending

Aesthetically gorgeous, emotionally vacant

Christopher Nolan effect: thinks it is much deeper (emotionally impactful) than it really is! ~ my biggest problem with BL: female character exists as an object/non-entity ~ built on a long established series/OP which I'm unfamiliar with so a lot of spaces are left blank which must be filled in by the previous works? 

Non-consensual romance done right

Women don't owe men anything

Want to re-write this from her POV

WHAT was that ending?! I really don't care if a story concludes optimistically, pessimistically, or ambiguously, but I hate it when a narrative conclusion UNDOES most of the story that came before it, which is what happened here ~ worse yet, the main event of the ending ONLY made sense if you followed a minor character's lengthy monologue, full of awkward exposition, on concepts and history we'd never heard of! ~ the rest of it was so slooooooooow and often felt as if it was circling the drain on the same relationship conflict

Bizarrely watchable trash fire 

Epic love should never be this dull

Never a woman, always a girl

I don't mind age gap romances or romantic relationships that develop within an educational setting (master/disciple, teacher/student), but I do grow uncomfortable when the younger or childlike FL in these love stories are treated like children. First, when a youthful actress performs with a infantile naïveté and high-pitched girlish voice, it's uncomfortable on a personal level because it feels pedophilic. Secondly, when the "mature" characters treat the childlike FL as a child, as in they're meeting her needs on her behalf and allowing her little autonomy or input, it is limiting the growth of that character. By curtailing the growth of the FL, the narrative arc of the drama itself is stymied. How can we be convinced that the FL has "grown up" or matured, if she's constantly coddled by the ML?

Kiss zero sense

Graceful like a belly flop

100% over-hyped, most disappointing watch of the year 

ML is the worst Gary Sue I've seen in awhile & the other characters exist to hold up his story ~ the evil spirits only inhabit ugly, fat, handicapped, or abused people??? cool cool cool  ~ oh, and even MORE ableism in the MC's arc ~ like a lot of superhero movies, this drama is clearly most interested in and excited by its action scenes but there isn't much else to it, I have no idea why it's been such a success for Netflix

Formulaic and predictable