burhaa aadmi

That is one HELLUVA CAST - Shibasaki Kou, Mitsushima Hikari and Odagiri Joe?! Astonishing

Two episodes in and bored rigid already. I had been hoping for a story arc where each learned from the other and grew in the process. Instead, we get irritating clown judge (a man, of course) always being right and conscientious stickler judge having to always klearn from him, never the other way round.

I'm just starting this, and really want to see it through, but does the voiceover narration continue through the whole Drama? I absolutely HATE that technique and won't be able to endure it for 24 episodes if it keeps going

After 6 eps I've come to the conclusion this is actually a mystery. The mystery being "what the HELL is Yasuda Ken's character doing?"A second mystery would be "what's the point of her useless waste of space sister?" Introduce both those characters to the White Truck of Doom and this show might have promise.

The whole show is Shrill, noisy, and tonally chaotic and contradictory. BUT, I need to find out if any of its sound and fury actually signifies SOMETHING, or makes any kind of sene so I will keep going.

Thanks for the correction!

That was a biopic, about a real person, and not a revenge story

MDL only showed me this list today - LONG after it closed. It seems our Srop tastes" are VERY similar looking at the list, so there's only three I'd suggest might be worth a 2nd try

Delightfully Deceitful - Chun Woo Hee really wowd me in this one

The Arc of Life - I came for Chen YI Han, stayed for Jian Man Shu. (and wrote about it here) https://news.mydramalist.com/article/roads-less-traveled-dramas-with-less-than-1000-viewers

Check in Hanyang - I probably would have dropped this is if not for KIm Min Jung, whose "Mr Sunshine" style role was AWESOME, and who got the perfect ending to her arc, too

At least a couple of the actors actually look like they might be rugby players

A very interesting article, thanks. I've actually only finished one of the Dramas you mentioned (and only started one other), but the one I did finish is one that shoiuld have carried a trigger warning:

The end of the STP in "King2Hearts is STILL a criminal outrage. Even worse is that it's the diect result of an extension. Because they added a couple of episodes, they need "dramatic" stuff for filler. So we got that horrible, HORRIBLE end to the STP arc. The senselessness and pain still stings me to this day, way more than 10 years after first watching it.

SO pleased that we separately though of piña coladas! I would say a gentle critique of fairy tales rather than criticism, after all, its literal title is something like "fairy tales part 2" , acknowledging its place :)

You describe it as "short format (11 ep)" yet say you've watched 37 out of 37 episodes? 37 is not 11, and it is not short, either

YES! She was also great in Summr Break, playing a VERY different character

I hope you're right. That's what I'd LOVE to see. But after having watched more than 300 KDramas, I still fear that the "anti-alcohol' doctor will be 'converted'. The fact that the FL character is implicitly praised for her high alcohol tolerance, which is presented as a BENEFIT of having grown up in a family of alcoholics, is a worry. If you're right and I'm wrong, I will be very, very happy

The casting sounds interesting, the concept sounds ghastly. she "drinks better than men as she grew up in an alcoholic family. " - aaaargh! When will SK stop glorifying alcohol abuse in Dramas, while vilifying those who do overindulge? I'm prepared to bet that the Drama will end with the doctor seeing the error of his ways and realising that alcohol is awesome and everyone should drink more - A LOT more🙄

By the way, the 2024 KDrama Crash references BTS very early in its opening episode. It was an obvious gag line, but it worked and raised a chuckle.

FWIW, reading your comment reminded this old person of an even older "Law" which goes higher than your 80%
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law

You make several valid points, especially aabout the bias toward nostalgia and "white saviour" complex, but making sweeping ad hominem generalisations about those who have a different pov is likely to prove suboptimal for getting those points acknowledged.

Thanks for a well-structured look at something many have experienced and that most will. I started watching K-Dramas long before the 2018 start date you chose for the framework of your piece, so it was fun to read a retrospective of a long ago journey.

I especially liked your encouragement to look beyond Korea. I completed 100 KDramas in the first 6 months of starting, but it took me another 10.5 YEARS to reach 300 completed, in large part because TW and J Dramas began to match my developing tastes bnetter. So I was delighted to see Trillion Game and especially the OUTSTANDING Someday or One Day referenced in your piece. And for crime thrillers in particular, there's a JDrama network that makes basically nothing but - lookout for WOWOW Dramas.

On the subject of tropes, it is impossible to avoid them. No one will ever be able to keep finding trope-free entertainment, so I prefer to think of tropes as ingredients in a recipe. The ingredients may be the same,. and the recipes may be similar, but the skill of composition and the exact amounts of each ingredient can still produce very different end products. So looking for originality of execution can help. I've found this has helped me enjoy KDramas again, after gongi throguh many of the issues you wrote so well about.

Finally as another recommendation in gratitude for a very interesting read, I would you encourage you to 'look back' if you can. With the exception of "Friends" almost all the content you reference is recent - from 2018 onward (VERY recent for an old person like me😁) As someone who's watched around 400 (OLD) Indian (most, but not all, Hindi) movies, I loved your reference to the subcontinent. But from across Asia, there is so much older content that is worth looking out for. Here's a few to consider, from different countries, years and genres if you're able to access them. Happy hunting and thanks again for a really enjoyable read!

Mars (TW) 2004
Orange Days (JPN) 2004
Kimi Wa Petto (JPN 2003
Coffee Prince (KR) 2007
Woman (JPN) 2013
Punch (KR) 2014
D-Day (KR) 2015
Night Light (KR) 2016
Prison Playbook (KR) 2017
Circle (KR) 2017
Avengers Social Club (KR) 2017
Falsify (KR) 2017

Thanks for the link to my article, not sure how visible it is
https://kisskh.at/article/roads-less-traveled-dramas-with-less-than-1000-viewers

Ha! I doubt it, but thanks - it is nice to know some have been more widely seen now

Ha! I doubt it, but thanks - it is nice to know some have been more widely seen now