There are some dramas that actually have multiple seasons. An example of this is Hospital Playlist. They filmed season 1. They released season 1. They went back and filmed season 2. They released season 2.
Then, there are other dramas that are really just a single season with a single production period that get released in multiple parts. Examples of this are the first season of Arthdal Chronicles (split into 3 parts), The Glory (split into 2 parts), or My Dearest (split into 2 parts).
If you think about American/other Western TV, which has had the multi-season format as the norm longer, they don’t call something a new season just because it had a midseason hiatus, so I find it rather strange and cumbersome that dramas in the second case (single seasons with multiple parts) have different drama pages for each part.
Currently it seems like the main way these two cases are differentiated on MDL is that the titles will say either “season” or “part.” For example, Hospital Playlist Season 2 vs. The Glory Part 2. On the other hand I’m not sure that’s actually what it means, because I believe My First First Love was a single production, yet the second part is titled My First First Love Season 2. So I’m not sure whether the “season” vs “part” in the titles is actually an indication of how it was produced or how it was marketed or just arbitrary?
Ideally, I think a single season of a show (meaning something made as a single production even if it is released in multiple parts) should have a single drama page and be a single entry on my watchlist. Shows with multiple seasons would continue to have multiple drama pages, as they’re often released years apart rather than weeks or months, have changes in cast and crew, etc.
Maybe the site could be adjusted so there’s a way to add multiple airing periods to a single drama page? I think this would also save time for contributors, who currently have to add actors, crew members, tags, etc. to each part when they are largely the same.
I totally agree with this and have been bothered by it in the past for other dramas! Right now I am finding it very inconvenient for My Dearest which is definitely one cohesive show not separated into seasons, but with a break due to production. I would love if MDL changed this system to make such shows just one entry so I can leave one rating for the show as a whole.
I think there is just not a lot of consistency on MDL in general. Look at the Thai BL series, Our Skyy 2. There is a MDL entry for the whole series. There is also an entry for each couple's episodes (two shows each), so there are 8 of those listings. Then there is an entry for a crossover episode, which is the exact same two of the previously mentioned 16 shows.
The whole thing is just completely confusing (and frankly ridiculous) the way it is entered into MDL. It should have been either separate couple episodes (probably not), or just a complete series (probably this). If you didn't want to watch all 16 episodes, then don't watch them, or mark them as watched, or even just ignore them. Either way, there was no need for 10 separate entries for the same show!
Alternatively, these pairs of episodes could have been tacked onto the listing for the original part 1 of the couples series.
I agree with the basic premise in the OP that Western shows don't work the way that shows on MDL do. Even when shows are separated by lengths of time, on different TV networks, have a special nighttime episode, or with different actors (look at soap operas of all 4 of these) they are normally considered the same show and would typically appear in somewhere like IMDB as one show. There are exceptions of course...
I agree with @IM YourOnlyOne on this topic, "Only split if it is supported by the official release; worst, splitting it ahead even though we do not know yet if the OFFICIAL source will reset the episode count."
This happened recently with Death's Game. On amazon it's just one single season with episodes from 1 to 8, while here episode 5 is episode 1 of part 2.
Confusing and unnecessary. It divides the discussion and takes more space on their servers.
I'll just quote the responce of @IM YourOnlyOne here
BEST SOLUTION: Follow the official episode count....
Scenario #1:
* TITLE episodes 1 to 10
* TITLE Part 2 episodes 11 to 20
MDL should NEVER split it.
Scenario #2:
* TITLE episodes 1 to 10
* TITLE Part 2 episodes 1 to 10
MDL CAN split it.
Scenario #3: (see link for continuation)
