SongofSixpence

ML was accused of r*pe by a female friend. He was cleared of charges, then counter-sued for false allegation. In the counter suit the court found her claims credible and recommended re-opening the investigation. ML later appealed and on appeal she was found guilty.

So he was technically found innocent. But r*pe/SA laws in South Korea are shit at protecting victims and prosecuting offenders. The court decision claimed that under law because there was no evidence of violence it couldn't be r*pe, ignoring other methods of coercion or consent issues - ML testified that consent wasn't given.

https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/art/2024/02/398_211020.html
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2023/11/113_231317.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20170909024642/https://www.soompi.com/2017/06/13/lee-jin-wooks-sexual-assault-accuser-found-not-guilty/
https://www.soompi.com/article/1121055wpp/woman-accused-lee-jin-wook-sexual-assault-receives-sentence

One of the best uplifting slice of life dramas I've seen. All the characters are unique without being OTT personalities and their individual struggles and successes with different issues throughout the series are well done. The only weakness is that with an ensemble drama viewers are bound to find some of the stories more interesting than others. So there may be parts that fall flat or feel unrelatable depending on the individual, but overall this is just a well-written and well-crafted drama. Highly recommended, though you can skip the last episode - it's just a bonus story.

Yep, and three out of twenty is 15% - that's a good showing.

I compared MRITH to QOT tears because it's the same quarter, same network and same time slot. OP had no metric for what hit cable drama ratings looked like and that was a recent example with similar advantages. I'm not sure where the value judgement was because my comments to the OP are pretty straightforward? But regardless of genre, below 5% for a weekend slot is under-performing.

More generally ratings are useful because they give an overview of how well a drama reaches its target audience, not the international audience. The hagwon system is a hot issue in South Korea and I think the drama failed to portray it in a nuanced manner which is responsible for the lack of interest, not the subject matter itself. I personally don't think it's due to the tone, production style or romance - without the backbone of a strong narrative, none of that matters much. It's only when the narrative is the weak that an audience focuses on the style over the substance.

But Reply 1988 is about changes resulting from the end of the military dictatorship and the beginning of democracy in South Korea - if that's not a societal issues drama I'm not sure what is? Our Blues is also a heavy hitter, particularly with women's issues and mental health. They're just broader in scope and less heavy handed about it.

And just a final observation, but slice of life isn't the sole province of societal issues. Romcoms (even makjangs) deal with them too, and well at that. Dismissing entire genres as escapism is an unwarranted value judgement, especially since there's a good deal of escapism in the romance here too - ideal first love, taboo relationship, ardent ML suitor pursues virginal FL, etc.

You picked an odd example because Prison Playbook is one of the top rated cable Kdramas of all time, as are Reply 1994/1988, Encounter, Our Blues and Hospital Playlist 1/2. Slice of life dramas - romantic or otherwise - can absolutely rate well on cable and network. It's a bit pretentious to claim the genre isn't accessible to viewers when it's frankly quite popular in South Korea and Reply 1988 is often held up as the best Kdrama of all time.

It's also peak ratings that count toward a drama's ranking for Neilsen, not the average. But with hit dramas there's an upward trend from start to finish, and MRITH doesn't show that - it lost viewership from its premier peak and stabilized around 4%.

Not to mention the Sat-Sun time slot is the ultimate advantage - if a drama can't rate well there, it won't rate well. SITR had a worse time slot (Fri-Sat on cable) and better ratings overall from start to finish as did OSN and Prison Playbook (Wed-Thurs on network/cable, the lowest rated time slot of all).

So I'm sticking with the subject matter not matching the zeitgeist and the ratings being so-so. It's weird MDLers keep trying to frame MRITH as some indie art-house piece when in reality it's a weekend romance melodrama on the largest cable network - that's as mainstream as it gets.

Nope, but it was confirmed for the 2nd half of 2024. I've watched a lot of noona romances too, though I think I've dropped an equal amount! I'm most looking forward to The Life of Mrs Ock, it seems unique.

That's hard to say? If I had to guess it would be that hagwons generally don't have a positive reputation in South Korea, for good reasons. Trying to portray them as sympathetic or heroic is a mismatch with popular opinion.

Yep, but popular cable dramas hit double digits in weekend slots while really popular cable dramas hit the mid-teens to 20s. For comparison, Queen of Tears preceded MRITH on tvN in the same time slot and hit double digits at the 4th episode with a peak at 24.8%.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_of_Tears#Viewership

r/KDRAMA does a great weekly post with ratings breakdowns for airing dramas if you're curious.

This is an unexceptional drama ratings wise in South Korea - hovering at 4%-5% in a Sat-Sun timeslot on a major cable channel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Midnight_Romance_in_Hagwon#Viewership

That came out in 2018, OP asked for other noona romances from 2024. Otherwise I would have mentioned a lot more!

There's actually a ton of noona romances out or coming out this year because Kdrama loves trends. We've got...

1. Knight Flower - sageuk politics action romcom
2. Branding in Seongsu - office romcom with supernatural thriller
3. Wedding Impossible - chaebol contract marriage melo romcom
4. Dare to Love Me - genre fusion OTT romcom
5. Midnight Romance in the Hagwon - You Are Here!
6. No Loss in Love - contract marriage romcom
7. The Life of Mrs Ock - sageuk law melo romcom
8. Cinderella at 2AM - chaebol office romcom

More Tdrama, Cdrama and Jdrama noonas too.

The beautiful opening episodes had me looking up the screenwriter, Noh Hee Kyung, who's also an essayist. She wrote this about her thought process behind My Blues:

"In my younger years, I only saw my own pain. So, I understand why writers in their twenties and thirties write such stories. They need time to immerse themselves in their own experiences. However, when a writer reaches their forties or fifties, it's not good to remain engulfed in your own pain. The moment we start to observe and empathize with other's pain is when we become adults. That's why my characters also begin to see the people around them."

Such an inspiring and refreshing definition of maturity - being able to recognize other's pain as important as your own. I can't wait to watch the rest of the series!

Nice write up, but I'm not sure how what you described differs from what I described, except that you enjoy those dynamics and I don't? Changing through the Power of Love is a stock Kdrama trope, as is a virginal lead (odd choice in a noona romance) waiting and longing for a first love. But if that idealized love never goes through the process of becoming real love it just feels trite to me.

The reality is the leads haven't had a substantive relationship for 10 years, and they still don't - it's more wishful thinking over the past connection for FL and love bombing on the part of ML with the resistive drunk kiss and repeated emotional appeals. And neither of them are in a secure place in their life/jobs or the rest of the hagwon story wouldn't have any weight at all.

Maybe I was too hyped by other people praising the realistic scripts preferred by this director. But this writer is a newbie and it shows because they rely on exposition - telling not showing - to redefine the characters for the romance and story to progress. It's not at all realistic to me to have people non-stop soliloquizing about their lives and feelings vs showing them gradually growing and changing.

The progression of the story and relationship just isn't working for me. Two episodes post confession and the romance is still all about their past connection instead of developing who the leads are in the present, apart or together. ML's character lost the thread of socioeconomically marginalized 20-something desperate to make his mark and is now portrayed as just plain desperate. Meanwhile FL went through a speed-run of reputation hungry hagwon tutor to noble, ideal teacher thanks to True Love™, with endless exposition trying to fill in the gaps in story and characterization.

It's also progressed to my least favorite noona romance dynamic - the pushy, immature ML who can't take no for an answer and the older, stronger, wiser FL passively swept along with his whims. That's not realistic romance, just a spin on standard Kdrama wish fulfillment.

I'm in this now for the quirky direction (I've can't say I've ever wondered what it'd be like if Quentin Tarantino did melodrama, but now I know) and seeing how the writer resolves the warring ideologies of education politics. But I'm getting the feeling that's probably going no more in depth than the relationship, ending with a reiteration of "good teachers good, bad teachers bad".

According to the MDL stats the only age group rating this drama higher than an 8 is the 55+ crowd. So it guess it depends on what your definition of young is?

But seriously, lets keep the critique to the drama and not the people watching it.

It's sort of a budget crash zoom effect which is meant to enhance the drama or immediacy of a moment. But that's more often used in action, horror and comedy (eg Quentin Tarantino) so it can come across as OTT or out of place in other genres.

Personally I think Ahn Pan Seok uses it as parody - highlighting the farcical melodrama of what should be mundane moments - along with the jazzy Kill Bill-esque instrumentals. It may be annoying but it's deliberate and you'll see more of both if you keep watching.

No worries! I like to make sure writers get credit, they get overlooked (and often underpaid) in the Kdrama industry. I agree that Ahn Pan Seok has a Brand and it's very formulaic - it'd be nice to see him branch out and try new things rather than directing a remix of the same basic drama over and over.

But it's funny, I feel like most melos have kneeling scenes though you're right it's not always the parents - sometimes it's another authority figure or relative. We don't have very similar watch lists but there's one in Heard it Through the Grapevine, Secret and I think Call it Love too? Also in a lot of weekend/daily family melos.

I think maybe it's both a generational and cultural thing? Equal relationships are what I see around me too so that's what I expect to see in dramas (especially more realistic ones). But there's a preference for MLs doing most of the romance and support and that feels wrong to me no matter how strong the FL is as a character. MLs deserve to be romanced and supported too!

I'm actually okay with a relationship that starts unequal but becomes equal as part of the story too because to me that's also maturity - people learning from mistakes and growing. But yep, I 100% agree that if a relationship is uneven from start to end I can't ever see that as mature or fair to either partner no matter how romantically it's presented. You described why really well!

This village crafts being replaced by knock offs is a fun twist on the theme (if knock offs look the same why do traditional goods have value?) and it also answers how the village economy works. It seems more like a Mennonite community than Amish since they've accepted some modern tech but try to maintain a traditional lifestyle.

There's a lot of social role shuffling too. ML tries to act like a Confucian male head of household with his sister and she refuses to take him seriously. Lord Grandpa refuses to open the village to Camille, but she won't take no for an answer. SML (once a servant) wants to hire SFL (once a noble). And poor FL is still stuck between fancy servant or designer and respected teacher or lover.

I also sympathize with ML's sister. She was a kid (11-12 from the timeline) when she and their mom left and we don't know the full details yet. It was a decade later when ML left for school and she might have had good reasons for not getting back in contact.

Hopefully next week we'll learn more about the theft+fire years ago that seems to be everyone's fateful connection. My money is on the Minster of Culture being a villain.

Episode 5-6 is peak comedy of manners with some side srs bsns tradition vs modernization. There's a preference with drama fans right now for "mature" (often blandly simplistic) or "badass" (often abrasive anti-hero) leads which I think is partly why the rating for this one is so low, but flawed yet relatable leads that grow and change with the story are classic Kdrama. I'm still enjoying this one, though I wish the tone would even out a bit before it hits the melo middle we all know is coming.

Lol, people keep giving too much credit/blame to Ahn Pan Seok for things that have nothing to do with him. The writer of SITR and OSN was Kim Eun, the writer of SLA and HITTG was Jung Sung Joo. This drama has a different writer, Park Kyung Hwa. Ahn Pan Seok has some obvious preferences as a director, but he doesn't write dramas.

The "kneeling in front of parents begging" scene is just a stock Kdrama melo trope, along with parental/societal disapproval - a lot of writers use it.