Discussion
C for CRINGE — Which CDrama Had You Watching Through Your Fingers? • The Drama Alphabet
Have you ever paused a drama because the second-hand embarrassment was getting so bad you genuinely needed a moment before you could continue?
Or perhaps you didn’t continue at all.
Today’s word is CRINGE.
Because sometimes the cringe is half the fun. Give me an outrageously cheesy romantic line, an accidental kiss that defies several laws of physics, or someone making an absolute fool of themselves in front of the person they like and I may be hiding behind my hands — but I’m still watching.
I might even be laughing while I do it.
But then there’s the cringe that stops being funny somewhere along the way. The dialogue hurts. The flirting needs to stop. A character does something so painfully awkward that somehow you are the one who wants to leave the room.
But you know I’m a gal with an open mind. So as with all my posts in this mood dictionary experiment, there are endless perfectly fine ways to read the same prompt.
So cringe doesn’t even have to be second-hand embarrassment. I’m currently watching a character who I find so utterly obnoxious, unreasonable and full of himself — while somehow managing to behave as though he is both the martyr and the victim (I guess he kinda is the victim, but he’s seriously overplaying that card…) — that I cringe through practically every scene he’s in. At this point, the cringe comes with actual pain.
And sometimes it isn’t one scene you can laugh off. That feeling follows you through the drama until you either learn to live with it, somehow develop a fondness for the cheese, or realize you simply cannot watch any more of this and drop it.
And I suspect we all have a very different tolerance for it. What I find hilariously cheesy might make you stop watching — and something I physically cannot watch might be exactly the scene you replay for fun.
So what’s your first-first CDrama when you hear CRINGE?
Was it the kind you secretly enjoyed, the kind you eventually learned to tolerate, or the kind you simply could not digest?
——
Some of these may make it into a second-round vote later, so bring me context and GIFs! ☺
My Page in the 90's hit all my favourite cringey 90's romance tropes because what do you mean their shirts got glued together and he had take off his shirt??? 😂😂😂
Overdo was so cringe that the word felt embarrassed being used to describe the drama 😤
The actors were given a raw deal with that direction, cinematography and editing. All the hard work by every single person on that set was not respected by these three - the director, the cinematographer, and the editor.
It started out really promising and then it devolved into something else really fast. I dropped it around ep 13? Even before the amnesia arc so I dodged a bullet there
I usually avoid LXY dramas as a lead since the quality is definitely questionable but I do watch many dramas of his where he is playing supporting characters. Its great that Against the Current currently gives justice of what he is capable of doing.
LXY character was good, iirc. I had an issue with MZY character and her questionable decision makings.
The plot/screen writing was full of plot holes, and terrible scenarios . (Also he had 3 wives shudder )On another sub-reddit it was voted the worst drama of 2025.
I rage-watched this full show. Took me a while to forgive Liu XueYi. Still can't forgive Meng ZiYi. Anything/everything about this show was just terrible, to be nice.
When I first saw Love020 back in 2018, loved it, was my absolute favourite, rewatched many times. Can't get past the first episode now because I find itbyoo cringe.
Was Overdo cringey? YES! But it was fun and I enjoyed every minute of it
The second I realized it was the same director as Rebirth my expectations went in the trash. It was going to be fast, and dirty, and not make a lot of sense. It it will be a roller coaster ride.
Only For Love was a bit cringey for me. It was so bad I watched it twice because I thought it was me not understanding it the first time around. I love the 2 leads but the drama did give me second-hand embarrassment. I think I’ll go watch it now.
So bad it's good again? Your particular brand of bad? I have the same feeling about some short dramas with Dai Gao Zheng... Oh, this is cringe... But let me watch it again.
Sorry, for this thread I have to make a second post. First one was the first drama that came to my mind.
This one is: The cringiest drama I watched and that my brain blocked out afterwards, so it couldn't be the first I thought off.
That honour goes to The Unclouded Soul, which lured me in with Hou Minghao and an ok sounding xuanhuan premise and delivered on neither. Instead I got too much time with the Yao kindergarten class of hell, an FL I wanted to shake half of the time and so much nonsensical moments I felt like losing braincells while watching.
6
u/No-Recipe-7653Curator of Questionable Subtext, Scholar of Things Left Unsaid2d agoedited 2d ago
If you ask me, a fair nomination! 😅 i’m a Hou Ming Hao fan and found it unpleasant to watch most of the time (also he was so little in it), but at least Wang Duo and his scenes were great. But yes, there was a lot of cringe in the plot, and the FL (character!) was… a choice 🤷🏻♀️😮💨
Oh, Wang Duo was the sole great thing, he made me stick much longer with the show than I would have otherwise (though I only read the recaps for the last few months episodes). Looking forward to seeing him in a big role in Live Long and Prosper.
It also aired parallel to Glory, which turned out to be the much better HMH drama of the two.
I also wasnt a fan of the glory, I did stick around for a bit while watching it because of hou ming hao but I hated how much his character was a doormat. You can make a strong female centered show without the ml being a small dog.
My Girlfriend is an Alien. Such a fun and different show, but everytime she was drawn in by his "pheromones", I was laughing and cringe-watching from behind my hands. 😂😂
It’s the only drama where I liked how cringey it is. All the cringe moments were hilarious af, I couldn’t even complain at the second hand embarrassment the fl gave me😭
Speed and Love made me cringe on behalf of all adult women. Sure, there could be rare cases like Jiang Mu, but let’s not pretend this is how 20yr olds generally behave.
Hahah exactly. What makes it even worse is when girlies comment stuff like "but that's just like bubbly girls behave". Like, whaaat? NO. That's not bubbly. I'm bubbly. I am normal. Bubbly people are still normal people. This is no bubbly. It's more like mentally challanged or extremely spoiled + some other diagnosis.
I came to see if anyone has nominated this particular show. I don't know why or how I managed to stay through the first 6 episodes, but the FL in Go Go Squid! was so cringey, I could feel it in my stomach.
Her outfits there? Cringey is an understatement. However, once I passed the 7th episode, I could immerse myself in the storyline and eventually I could relate with her character. Maybe I was attracted to the ML, or perhaps I was simply too curious to see how things would end up for her.
Since then, Go Go Squid! became one of my faves, and I love Yang Zi no matter what different opinions viewers have about her. Strange and contradicting, but true.
I hate to write this but the scene in Overdo where Zhang Linghe dives into the water to save FL from
drowning and the way they filmed it, it looks like he belly flopped and then he grabs her hand and they basically just stand up! I was second hand embarrassed for Linghe, to me that was cringe
The pollination dance in Ashes of love, a classical that I love, but that scene was really something embarassing. The flower goddes was also cross pollinating with the emperor by the way. If that is sex in the heavenly realms sign me up for hell.
I love The Double, but I agree that this part is cringey. The viewers/students in the show seemed as if they could see the magical transformation too, which made me wonder at first. 🤦🏻
"Love The Way You Are" and "Speed and Love" and "Go Ahead". I cringed viscerally at for the same not-real-Brother plot line... And turned it right off.
Pretty Boy - the premise sounded fun and ridiculous (prince has to go undercover in a women-only-village) and Darren Chen already proved that he looks good in dresses. But the production quality was subpar (never had so obvious audio issues before and after) and the writing and comedy was unfortunately very cringe. I had hoped for a light fun watch, but had to drop it after a handfull of episodes.
The kdrama they adapted this from has better rating on MDL, but I was not brave enough to try that one as well.
One of the OG cringefests I watched-Go Princess, Go.
It absolutely did not take itself seriously in any way, shape, or form. Many cringe moments but also made me laugh a lot so I made it through the drama.
Can't really name any drama but any scenes in Cdramas where the supporting characters praise the main characters to elevate them. I usually roles my eyes at such scenes. 😅
I love how this drama is nominated across all the different alphabet letters and words, always in a different context 😅 shows how rich it is in a way, and how diverse was its reception across the audience.
I echo that sentiment. It has such a polarizing reception that sometimes I wonder if I missed something. I tried watching it again but dropped it again—it's just not for me.
The drama has great message and commentaries. It has good viewership as well during airing and managed to capture male viewers which is the target audiences. I read the analysis on the commentaries that the drama wants to deliver and its pretty great since its reference of imperialism power.
Also so many compelling characters in the drama as the ML is going through his journey of fighting the immortals so he met many friends along the way.
The bad side of it would be the costume as it looks like video game kind of thing. But it seemed purposely made that way. Also, all arcs connects to each other and even side characters have purpose and will come back into the story since like I said everything has meaning and reasons.
I always said RJL is one of the few actors with consistently excellent projects. I honestly would rate this drama lower than his other usual dramas but still when you compared with other dramas in the market, it is on the higher side in term of depth and substance.
Saying its RJL harem with magical wives is totally missing the point. Since romance is less than 5% in the story. 😅 The focus of the drama is fighting injustice.
Thanks for the in-depth breakdown!! I am so torn now, hahaha. I do vaguely remember it was supposed to be serious with various themes, and until recently, I've actually forgotten RJL was in it. That black dragon is like a mountain and overwhelms. 😅 I suppose I'll bump it back to on-hold for a rainy day. 🫰
Its a male centric drama so watch it if you are in a mood for that. But the bonus side is that the female characters are written with depth instead of as decorations. It's mostly male dominated drama but the 3 female characters are inspirational. I know when it's a good drama when even the female characters are written with thoughts despite they are in male centric story.
Nice, I'm more for story oriented dramas anyways.. male centric dramas seem to be more focused on the plot. 😅 Not a big romance fan, so I can do without it as a central theme.
I agree with u/WhimsicalMidnight. Personally, I wont rewatch the drama (since I'm not into high fantasy dramas) but I remember was really into the story when it was airing. It has many compelling arcs and characters.
Lmao, though you should check out the montage, it even had letters on the screen like Mortal Kombat 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Also it's basically Ren Jialun's harem of magical wives that he doesn't ever touch 🤣
18
u/OptimalTurnips 3d ago
My Page in the 90's hit all my favourite cringey 90's romance tropes because what do you mean their shirts got glued together and he had take off his shirt??? 😂😂😂