Viajero

Hulu is only available in the U.S.

I just wish Disney+ (or any other streamer) was showing this in my region. But they don't show any k-dramas here. They do allow Star+ to show about 3 new k-dramas a year, but often not the better ones. So far this year, of all shows Disney+ has the rights to, for some crazy reason they decided to only offer us A Shop for Killers (which at least was pretty good), Seoul Busters, and Gangham B Side. What makes this particularly crazy from a business point of view is that k-dramas are very popular here. At any given time, there is almost always at least one k-drama (if not more) in the Netflix Top 10 for this country.

While I do think 2023 was a stronger year for k-dramas, there have been several pretty good series this year. My favorites for 2024 so far include Pyramid Game, The Judge from Hell, Lovely Runner, Parasyte, Marry My Husband, and A Shop for Killers (in roughly that order).

I do generally like horror and action thrillers, as well as romances, but of the shows you mention, I was honestly only really impressed by Parasyte. I thought both Bequeathed and Hellbound (S1 & S2) were particularly disappointing. I think my favorite relatively recent horror k-dramas were last year's Revenant (particularly due to an exceptional acting tour de force performance from Kim Tae-ri), and 2022's All of Us Are Dead.

I would generally agree that its an overused trope. But one of the best Netflix original movies I've watched this year was ¨Drawing Closer¨ out of Japan, in which both leads have terminal diseases. Yes, its depressing in a way, but it can also be somehow uplifting. If its done right with really good actors (and Deguchi Natsuki was simply outstanding in that movie), this trope can still make for a worthwhile watch. That's one movie for which I completely agree with the very high rating here on MDL.

I thought part of the purpose of this comments section was to give our honest opinion about a show . Is it really considered hate just to criticize a show for specific reasons? Particularly one that was widely panned by a large number of people on this very website for much the same reasons. I personally value reading different opinions about shows I'm considering watching.

I thought King the Land was one of the worst k-dramas I´d ever watched. It' s certainly the worst (by far) that I ended up watching until the end. Admittedly there was great chemistry between leads, but the plot was almost non-existent, mostly consisting a series of poorly developed and poorly connected scenes that came across as transparent excuses to put the leads together in different situations. 16 long episodes consisting of very repetitive cute scenes between the leads with only a pretense of anything else happening is way too much. I didn't drop the series only because I kept hoping something would happen.

I can understand not remembering Sound of Magic. A light piece of fluff that was eminently forgettable, all the more so because of the really lame music (not a good thing for a musical). I didn't think it was horrible, but there just wasn't much there.

I wouldn't even count Tune in for Love as good. I thought the script was a mess, which pretty much drained all emotional tension from the story.

I don´t really think you can compare Korean Sageuk with Chinese Wuxia. I like historical fiction, but this whole ancient magical martial arts world of most wuxia just isn't my thing. When it comes to straight up historical series of the kind I prefer, I've found k-dramas are usually better. Though there are exceptions, on average, Korean historical dramas tend to have better writing with deeper more sophisticated plots, better acting, better cinematography, and often better overall production values. But if you are more into the fantasy and magic, than c-dramas may be more to your liking.

My favorite k-drama so far in 2024 has been (much to my own surprise) Pyramid Game. But as a low profile TVING show, I´m not surprised it didn't win anything. I do want to watch Boyhood, but can't find it anywhere.

Agree 100%. If they were going to give a best villain award to Marry My Children, it should have been to Song Ha Yoon

I thought both were about equally good, but neither was quite as good as Lovely Runner.

We still have 4 episodes to go in my region and I´m wondering if this show suddenly goes downhill in those final episodes because of the way the ratings dropped so sharply both here on MDL and on IMDb at the end of the season. I've really enjoyed the show so far (I'm up to episode 10) and I'd hate to see it ruined by a poor ending.

I notice a heavy focus on Boy Love series on this list. Nothing wrong with that for those who are interested, but you've left out some pretty good shorter Japanese series in other genres. ¨First Love Hatsukoi¨, ¨Nigeru wa Haji da ga Yaku ni Tatsu¨, and ¨Boku Dake ga Inai Machi¨ just to mention a few I would recommend at least trying. Also, note that several of the shows you do list have additional seasons that make them longer.

I see we have yet another MDL comments section taken over by bigoted trolls.

The American Ballerina is not a remake of the Korean Ballerina. It's a completely different story. It's also staring Ana de Armas, so I will definitely be giving it a chance.

I enjoyed Season 2 as much as Season 1, though for different reasons. S1 was more tightly focused on the monster story, with an interesting historical context, while Season 2 was more focused on the main characters, providing a needed explanation for their behavior and choices. My only real issue is that S2 feels incomplete, with some story-lines not fully resolved. But this may be fixed if they do film a S3 (as seems to be implied by the post-credits scene at the end).

I think its too unusual a show for everyone to like it. But obviously many people did.

Were the reviews in Korea negative? Because on Rotten Tomatoes the first season got a very good 93% critics score and a high 83% audience score.