I still don't understand these dramas, with so many revenge plans??? When you only need one arrow, bullet to kill…
I just realized that must be one more practical reason. Kdrama script writers must come up with a NEW script, new characters, new story ... every ... 6-8 weeks. That is exhausting.
So it is easier to just copy in an old story and change a few details :) And based on comments in various dramas, that is precisely what happens :)
Like, recently i watched King The Land because I was doing research and as I was watching it, I said to myself - wow this is so familiar... ??! and I realized it is THE SAME THING as Bon Apettit Your Majesty..... FL is the same actress acting the same way in both dramas, ML is the same kind of guy, there is food, cooking, competitions, it is just that the scenery is different, one is a modern hotel and the other is in Joseon.
A side note: ML from Bon Apettit made it a totally unique drama and a total hit bc he was different from all male leads ever :) He was SOOOO enthusiastic, vibrant, radiant, energetic, so humorously overacting it and having fun acting it as a comedy but still being in the character (it was esp possible bc he was a tyrant Joseon King) so *he* made the drama super special. I guess he must have been stoked to land that role and it showed! :) It did make him a star :)
When an actor looks / feels kinda "i dont care" or even tired of acting, and/or not responsive, esp. to their partner - like super cold self-centered FLs in Eagle Brothers, 3 Bold Siblings, Live Your Own Life, It is Beautiful Now, etc - then the drama goes totally flat. Seeing the enthusiasm from Bon Apettit ML was sooo inspiring and uplifting, it was like a breath of fresh air for the audience
For anyone who is annoyed with body swapping and thinks it was meaningless - well think again. 1. Body swap prevented Dal I from being killed, several times. The only reason she is alive is bc CP was in her body and could defend the body.
2. Body swap prevented them from parting forever. Just a few minutes before the body swap, they angrily dumped each other and were going to part forever, although they loved each other. They had no reason to be meeting anymore, and body swap FORCED them to stay connected and have a chance to "spend time together"
3. Body swap helped them understand each other better. She is a poor "slave in hiding" and he is rich, privileged, public figure TARGET lol
3. Body swap caused impersonation, which added so much comedy. Some ppl wrongly accused it as "gimmick" - but hey that was an amazing, A+ improv comedy. such a humorous addition .... that showcases their stellar keen precise observation and acting WOW skillZ, and also forces you to SEE the characters in more detail - do you think they copied each other well? did you realize more details about how they acted previously by watching them impersonate? - and all that adds so much humor. It was HILARIOUS! And yeah that had to stop bc it limits their acting to just impersonating, they need to be themselves to show ALL their acting repertoire. And they are!!!!
ML-FL scenes imo are masterful. They both act very well, showing a range of emotions.
The only thing that can spoil that is bad script forcing them into weird stuff, so please script writer - refrain from that :) For example, Dal I and the bird was some of the most stupid plot imo
First i hate that they killed the bird 😡 Second why they have to capture the bird alive it's not like the bird…
they have to go back to themselves or else it is too much work for the actors - and for the audience - that ML and FL have to impersonate each other. Impersonating is fun for a while but too many episodes of that would just ruin the drama. The actors would be very limited in their acting.
I still don't understand these dramas, with so many revenge plans??? When you only need one arrow, bullet to kill…
bc they need episodes :) if it is too simple, it is over in 1 minute :) That is why episodes are created by "anio" plots and miscommunication, not talking, etc.
But, I will argue that "the seemingly simple" kind of drama can have many episodes too, if you know HOW - that route requires creativity and life experience - bc life always has ups and downs that you can show in a drama in an interesting way (one example is Love Scout kdrama 2025 that is rated 9.8 on Viki and 8.5 on MDL, so we cannot say it was not popular to have simple plot!!!!... or Making Family c-k drama 2016 with MDL rating of 8.0.... we do not know how much those dramas made, but high rating probably means a lot of money? - or the legendary Bogart/Bergman Casablanca 1942 movie or Lemon/MacLaine The Apartment 1960 movie - both these movies made awards and tons of money and are considered some of the greatest movies ever made!!!! and the Apartment was a contravesial movie at that time... - and all of these have such super simple plot!!!! sooo simple!!!!! that is totally riveting and keeps you glued to the screen the entire time).
I am now just seeing how lucky I was to watch The Apartment early on in my watching. I had NO idea it was that popular until a few seconds ago when I googled it for this post LOL I watched Casablanca bc I knew it was so famous so I was curious. I was thinking of Casablanca a lot lately because it is so simple and amazing. Thanks for reminding me, I will rewatch both :)
The Apartment and Casablanca are in my measuring sticks for a good movie :) and how you can create a total masterpiece of a super simple plot.
but a lazy / bad script writer never choses that seemingly simple route....
I lack knowledge to comment on WHY this happens.... .. I suspect bc it is too much work LOL .... The "seemingly simple" route would require creativity and life experience.... A new/cheap script writer is probably someone without writing skills and life experience.... and also there might be pressure to not experiment and use tropes that worked before to get the people to watch, i.e. drama is "box office driven" ... After all who cares for drama ratings, what is most important is how much money they make, right? We dont know how much kdramas make but I think high rating means high income? The western audience is used to meaningless-always-shocking plots...the last good movie that I am aware of in the USA is Idiocracy in 2006... the only series worth watching is Selfie in 2016 but it was discontinued... And now we have billions dollars industry of vertical shorts from China.... And I think the pattern globally is short attention spans and shocking cliff hangers so that is why everyone is trying to make a fast whirlwind of meaningless stuff... But .... I aint watching any of that LOL If I dont see what I like to watch, I will find something else to do :)
As audience, we just see a lazy / bad script writer will just keep churning meaningless wondering roundabout episodes to stall the time
I am put off by relying on a product placement mechanical tool to create 2 episodes and then mentioning it in every episode as the key to entire drama plot. It is low taste to keep trying to "shock" the audience with something so distasteful.
Also, it is purely product placement.
If the idea was to show that our heroine wants to learn about her body and enjoy it, then no pills or mechanical toys will ever do the job...
Also, as I said, we still do not know if FL likes the ML for who he is, or is just wanting to have fun with a nice body of a nice guy. Liking him for who he is should be THE KEY point in this drama unless we want to show that women can get sidetracked by hormones just like men do, and that ppl make mistakes and fall for hormones when they have no real feelings, and that it falls apart fast.
that random "Sex" Dream scene was included because it personally ruined my experience with the show sigh.…
that was kinda ok bc it is realistic IF she really likes him... but we do not know IF she likes him for who he is, or just wants s@x. I totally understand your point I think in her defense, she already was hungry and then this yummy morsel showed up, and she is confused. DOES she know if she likes him, or just his body?
It got worse later ep 8-9, when she had a porn toy in public and there was like TWO episodes about that and how to use it and I think she ordered it for herself too... etc etc etc That was super .... low taste. If they wanted to shock the audience, ok show the product placement for a minute, but do not make 2 episodes out of it... and then it was mentioned in every episode until ep 12.
Luckily ep 10-12 had meaningful relationship and romantic scenes eg we saw them helping each other, talking and getting closer as a pair and THEN trying to kiss etc But still those ep 7-8 porn toy name keeps being mentioned and dragged on and it has become a key point in the drama Low taste
I am enjoying ML and FL acting, otherwise I would have dropped out a long time ago and I might have to. Originally, I could not even follow the script, it was so fast, luckily ppl explained what is going on and I understood the complicated past. Now I am having difficulty with the script that is soapy cheesy and a little bit all over the place and not really coherent.... the time jumps and how the story is revealed are just ... all jumbled up... and the camera work makes it worse, scenes changing so fast. So choppy, moving back and forth in time without any good "transitions" it is jarring to watch. The story just doesnt flow. Unless it is scenes between ML and FL. Their personal scenes, only 2 of them, are masterfully done. I am watching that and fast forwarding the rest. The rest is super cheesy. I am not going to even comment - ML is a crown prince yet always falls into the traps of Left Min Rasputin.... etc etc etc... FL running away with the baby bird... etc etc etc This was like a daily melodrama crazy illogical over the top script.
The love interest of 2ML is baffling to me. That actress has this poker face all the time, her acting skills are none, and her character has proven to be a blood thirsty greedy ambitious serial killer psychopath, and as far as I can tell, she did not change one bit, ..... so ... why are they still together?
Oh my God, Kang Tae Oh’s acting is SO bad, I swear I could cry at any moment ðŸ˜.
what precisely made you feel that? The evidence shows that he is doing well - he acts here a whole range of emotions. works well with his co-star, plus made a great copy of a woman, so hilarious
It was an unnecessary scene too 😠it really left a bitter taste in my mouth although I'm enjoying the show
Oh thank you. I just rewatched that.
I thought the scenes were ok as AI as it was more similar to her memory - some anonymous faces and backgrounds ... and only when the ppl were critical to be shown, real actors were shown. I thought it was totally cool actually, it looked more like what a real memory looks like
But I hear you, they could have hired live actors and blurred them. But that seems too complicated just for those few simple scenes from her old memory
Queen's House was different and that is why it is officially my FIRST daily ever :) It started super dumb and…
I LOVED Iron Family until the very end when ML chose his nasty mommy.... instead of FL. I think many ppl hated it bc it was about poor people, and perhaps the international audience did not like that it was a very local, very korean drama. I honestly think that the audience was too snobbish. The story and the acting and the filming and the music was AMAZING. I only disliked 2ML the orphan because the script made him a poker face and he just never was able to make it a live character. In All About My Mom his shows his amazing ability to act a warm lively person as well as depression. In Iron family, he was DEAD
Ok then I am looking forward to your recommendations for the good ones to watch. I started watching kdramas during COVID in 2020 with Young Lady and Gentleman.
Queen's House was different and that is why it is officially my FIRST daily ever :) It started super dumb and…
why do you watch dailies then? It is not waste of your time to watch most dumb shi% ?
Watching such stuff seems useful for a consumer complaint desk officer in training LOL or perhaps a policeman / detective / jail psychiatrist / social worker in training LOL or maybe someone at a security desk at night, needing to stay awake... ?
Why would you be interested to spend time with your brain off and watching most illogical dumb shi%?
1 
So it is easier to just copy in an old story and change a few details :) And based on comments in various dramas, that is precisely what happens :)
Like, recently i watched King The Land because I was doing research and as I was watching it, I said to myself - wow this is so familiar... ??! and I realized it is THE SAME THING as Bon Apettit Your Majesty..... FL is the same actress acting the same way in both dramas, ML is the same kind of guy, there is food, cooking, competitions, it is just that the scenery is different, one is a modern hotel and the other is in Joseon.
A side note: ML from Bon Apettit made it a totally unique drama and a total hit bc he was different from all male leads ever :) He was SOOOO enthusiastic, vibrant, radiant, energetic, so humorously overacting it and having fun acting it as a comedy but still being in the character (it was esp possible bc he was a tyrant Joseon King) so *he* made the drama super special. I guess he must have been stoked to land that role and it showed! :) It did make him a star :)
When an actor looks / feels kinda "i dont care" or even tired of acting, and/or not responsive, esp. to their partner - like super cold self-centered FLs in Eagle Brothers, 3 Bold Siblings, Live Your Own Life, It is Beautiful Now, etc - then the drama goes totally flat. Seeing the enthusiasm from Bon Apettit ML was sooo inspiring and uplifting, it was like a breath of fresh air for the audience
1. Body swap prevented Dal I from being killed, several times. The only reason she is alive is bc CP was in her body and could defend the body.
2. Body swap prevented them from parting forever. Just a few minutes before the body swap, they angrily dumped each other and were going to part forever, although they loved each other. They had no reason to be meeting anymore, and body swap FORCED them to stay connected and have a chance to "spend time together"
3. Body swap helped them understand each other better. She is a poor "slave in hiding" and he is rich, privileged, public figure TARGET lol
3. Body swap caused impersonation, which added so much comedy. Some ppl wrongly accused it as "gimmick" - but hey that was an amazing, A+ improv comedy. such a humorous addition .... that showcases their stellar keen precise observation and acting WOW skillZ, and also forces you to SEE the characters in more detail - do you think they copied each other well? did you realize more details about how they acted previously by watching them impersonate? - and all that adds so much humor. It was HILARIOUS!
And yeah that had to stop bc it limits their acting to just impersonating, they need to be themselves to show ALL their acting repertoire. And they are!!!!
ML-FL scenes imo are masterful. They both act very well, showing a range of emotions.
The only thing that can spoil that is bad script forcing them into weird stuff, so please script writer - refrain from that :) For example, Dal I and the bird was some of the most stupid plot imo
we could never recognize the actor LOL
But, I will argue that "the seemingly simple" kind of drama can have many episodes too, if you know HOW - that route requires creativity and life experience - bc life always has ups and downs that you can show in a drama in an interesting way (one example is Love Scout kdrama 2025 that is rated 9.8 on Viki and 8.5 on MDL, so we cannot say it was not popular to have simple plot!!!!... or Making Family c-k drama 2016 with MDL rating of 8.0.... we do not know how much those dramas made, but high rating probably means a lot of money? - or the legendary Bogart/Bergman Casablanca 1942 movie or Lemon/MacLaine The Apartment 1960 movie - both these movies made awards and tons of money and are considered some of the greatest movies ever made!!!! and the Apartment was a contravesial movie at that time... - and all of these have such super simple plot!!!! sooo simple!!!!! that is totally riveting and keeps you glued to the screen the entire time).
I am now just seeing how lucky I was to watch The Apartment early on in my watching. I had NO idea it was that popular until a few seconds ago when I googled it for this post LOL I watched Casablanca bc I knew it was so famous so I was curious. I was thinking of Casablanca a lot lately because it is so simple and amazing. Thanks for reminding me, I will rewatch both :)
The Apartment and Casablanca are in my measuring sticks for a good movie :) and how you can create a total masterpiece of a super simple plot.
but a lazy / bad script writer never choses that seemingly simple route....
I lack knowledge to comment on WHY this happens.... .. I suspect bc it is too much work LOL .... The "seemingly simple" route would require creativity and life experience.... A new/cheap script writer is probably someone without writing skills and life experience.... and also there might be pressure to not experiment and use tropes that worked before to get the people to watch, i.e. drama is "box office driven" ... After all who cares for drama ratings, what is most important is how much money they make, right? We dont know how much kdramas make but I think high rating means high income?
The western audience is used to meaningless-always-shocking plots...the last good movie that I am aware of in the USA is Idiocracy in 2006... the only series worth watching is Selfie in 2016 but it was discontinued... And now we have billions dollars industry of vertical shorts from China.... And I think the pattern globally is short attention spans and shocking cliff hangers so that is why everyone is trying to make a fast whirlwind of meaningless stuff... But .... I aint watching any of that LOL If I dont see what I like to watch, I will find something else to do :)
As audience, we just see a lazy / bad script writer will just keep churning meaningless wondering roundabout episodes to stall the time
Also, it is purely product placement.
If the idea was to show that our heroine wants to learn about her body and enjoy it, then no pills or mechanical toys will ever do the job...
She better join a yoga/dance/kung fu class to gain strength and elasticity and learn to MOVE, in rhythm, with expression. Like this: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGTF4K2Ceco/?hl=en or resembling this as much as possible
https://www.tiktok.com/@olgabery/video/7515125808382381368
Also, as I said, we still do not know if FL likes the ML for who he is, or is just wanting to have fun with a nice body of a nice guy.
Liking him for who he is should be THE KEY point in this drama
unless we want to show that women can get sidetracked by hormones just like men do,
and that ppl make mistakes and fall for hormones when they have no real feelings,
and that it falls apart fast.
FL already was hungry and then this yummy morsel ML showed up, and she is confused.
DOES she know if she likes him for who he is? We never saw her think that or say that.
So far she is clear she wants fun with his body and that is what she told him too.
If this drama is about a horny FL who wants fun.... let us see what the messages of the drama will be....
I think in her defense, she already was hungry and then this yummy morsel showed up, and she is confused. DOES she know if she likes him, or just his body?
It got worse later ep 8-9, when she had a porn toy in public and there was like TWO episodes about that and how to use it and I think she ordered it for herself too... etc etc etc That was super .... low taste. If they wanted to shock the audience, ok show the product placement for a minute, but do not make 2 episodes out of it...
and then it was mentioned in every episode until ep 12.
Luckily ep 10-12 had meaningful relationship and romantic scenes eg we saw them helping each other, talking and getting closer as a pair and THEN trying to kiss etc
But still those ep 7-8 porn toy name keeps being mentioned and dragged on and it has become a key point in the drama
Low taste
The story just doesnt flow. Unless it is scenes between ML and FL. Their personal scenes, only 2 of them, are masterfully done. I am watching that and fast forwarding the rest.
The rest is super cheesy. I am not going to even comment - ML is a crown prince yet always falls into the traps of Left Min Rasputin.... etc etc etc... FL running away with the baby bird... etc etc etc This was like a daily melodrama crazy illogical over the top script.
The love interest of 2ML is baffling to me. That actress has this poker face all the time, her acting skills are none, and her character has proven to be a blood thirsty greedy ambitious serial killer psychopath, and as far as I can tell, she did not change one bit, ..... so ... why are they still together?
I thought the scenes were ok as AI as it was more similar to her memory - some anonymous faces and backgrounds ... and only when the ppl were critical to be shown, real actors were shown. I thought it was totally cool actually, it looked more like what a real memory looks like
But I hear you, they could have hired live actors and blurred them. But that seems too complicated just for those few simple scenes from her old memory
Ok then I am looking forward to your recommendations for the good ones to watch. I started watching kdramas during COVID in 2020 with Young Lady and Gentleman.
THANKS!
Watching such stuff seems useful for a consumer complaint desk officer in training LOL
or perhaps a policeman / detective / jail psychiatrist / social worker in training LOL
or maybe someone at a security desk at night, needing to stay awake... ?
Why would you be interested to spend time with your brain off and watching most illogical dumb shi%?