Also, how do you even know it’s the same group of people saying this and not different people? Some drama fans…
It's actually really easy to generalize because I've a) been here a long ass time, b) watched dramas and been in these communities for a long ass time. The desire for one's latest drama obsession to have more seasons isn't some new fringe desire, it's been prevalent for decades not only among foreign viewers of Korean shows, but of Korean viewers of Korean shows as well. It is also not difficult to see the harping for new seasons as the most popular sentiment even in the dramas written to be one season like the ever popular Crash Landing on You.
What else is prevalent? Blaming the latest "big bad" entering the scene of Kdramas for "ruining Kdramas". Right now it's Netflix. 10+ years ago it was Viki and Dramafever. Ironically all 3 have done the most work (other than Kpop lol) to make Kdramas mainstream.
You’re completely wrong. What Netflix doing is diving 16 episode ONE story into TWOs separate seasons which…
I'll humor you since you decided to give me a lecture when you don't seem to understand how and why these decisions are made.
Why do more and more Korean shows have seasons now? It's NOT because of Netflix. Believe it or not, Korean studios aren't just Netflix slaves that do whatever Netflix says, they have agency too. Korean media, just like Western media in the last decade, has seen a shift in business structure because of the changing technological landscape (read: streaming becoming more prevalent with younger generations.) More and more Koreans THEMSELVES wanted their own dramas to have seasons like Western shows, because 16 episodes wasn't enough for them to enjoy their favourites on screen. Streaming has made seasonal shows incredibly popular in Korea. Korean studios realised that it is actually financially beneficial to capitalise on the fact that fans of a show would all be tuning in for S2. Producers also saw that this format offered extra story-telling and world-building opportunities that the traditional 16-episode format didn't, allowing for more room to try different stories that they otherwise wouldn't have done.
Korean showbiz is still navigating a landscape where the Western market is an actual viable market. They're still testing the waters and trying various ways of distributing a story. They're trying the binge-watch model, the half binge-watch model (Netflix's half and half), the traditional weekly model, mini-series of 4 eps, and more. And oftentimes, if you actually pay attention, you'll notice that they don't just arbitrarily decide that a random drama gets the season treatment (Hospital Playlist) or another gets the 5050 treatment (The Glory). They are experimenting with how they tell their stories, instead of a one-model-suits-all method. Dramas follow story beats, and when all your dramas are 16 episodes one and done, it limits the scope of stories you can tell.
All in all, this is about Korean showbiz changing with the times, and Korean creators experimenting with new things that they haven't done before. Methinks Westerners should accept that Korean dramas don't exist to cater to their needs; this is about the economic and creative endeavors of Koreans in an economy where they should be relying on Chinese money less and less.
Kdrama fans are such clowns lol. When they see lots of seasons, everyone's like "ugh, hate shows with seasons." when their fav airing show ends, the top comments on the drama page are always "wIll tFerE be SeaSOn 2 tho pls I waNt anOther SeAson"
This show has such a glorious portrayal of female friendship even though one half is gone. This role was made for Liu Yifei. Fun fact; she has lost a very close friend to cancer irl as well. There is a famous Chinese drama called "Empresses of the Palace." The female singer who sang the iconic OST for it was a girl named Yao Beina (Bella Yao) who passed away in 2015 from breast cancer. Beina's last public performance is one of the most emotional, painful things I've ever watched. Beina and Yifei had been very good friends.
I've waited years to see Kim Ok Vin in a romance, this is a dream come true. (For those who don't know, she's known for being an action film star and even her few dramas are all action, so a romcom? I can't believe it)
Started watching this one. Very pleasantly surprised, and I'm picky when it comes to cdramas. I like the fact that the inciting incident of FL's story is not a lover or a family member, but a best gal friend. Already very relatable.
the question i have is what happened to Kim? Kim is the one who was known for his water torture methods, right? it was not lee dong pil; lee dong pil himself had been a victim of the water torture for some reason. So where/who is Kim now?
I also have some weird suspicion that FL's grandmother didn't die naturally. FL's dad has some vendetta against the adoptive grandfather's family which includes Gido, the son. I think it can be assumed that he abandoned his daughter for a reason, maybe for safety, like he was wronged. What I can't understand is how then would the grandmother end up being such great friends with the grandfather. How did FL's family get so entangled with this family? The dead characters in this drama are literally even all buried in the same graveyard plot LOL
what if FL has been manipulated and used this entire time--since she was a kid--to be the lapdog (shih tzu, heh) of the family that wronged hers? maybe Gido's daughter Yiyeon found out the truth at some point.
i'll commend this show for having the courage for tackling suicide, but that doesn't mean i have to like it. suicide, depression, mental illness is complex af. my problem with most of these cases wasn't even how easily they were solved, but how simply their cases presented as.
almost every single one was X happened, which is why Character A wants to kill themselves. look at how simple the first case was, the bully was so much of a caricature she was practically just a webtoon villain. all these cases are so black and white. good vs evil. wrong vs right. but suicide and depression are more often than not not like this. a lot of people who are depressed don't even know WHY they're depressed. a lot of people are in such mental anguish they want to kill themselves to end things but they don't know why. and the fact that some of them have lived privileged lives, have loved ones in their lives, makes them feel even MORE burden. it exacerbates their already-existing idea that they're a burden to the world and don't deserve to be alive. it really isn't so simple like "she bullied me, i became suicidal, i got revenge on bully, i'm no longer suicidal." if only it were that simple??? if only most of the people in this world feeling they're a burden, they're selfish, they don't deserve to be loved, knew WHY they felt this way, what caused it, what's the reason??? then it would be so much easier, wouldn't it?
this is what makes a drama a drama. in a drama, there's always a villain to blame. but real life is often different. there are often no villains to blame, which is why depression in real life feels like suffocation.
even park joong gil, i can speak from this character's perspective because my mother committed suicide when i was 19, so i know what it feels like to be the person left behind. yet i didn't find PJG relatable, why? because he KNEW why his wife killed herself. he knew all the things that led to her choice. but you know, most of us who lose someone to suicide, it happens suddenly out of the blue. one morning you're enjoying christmas karaoke with your mom and the next morning she's hanging from the ceiling. and you spend your entire fucking life trying to find a reason, you wrack your brain for an answer, you keep thinking to yourself "i should have done this, i should have done that, did she do it because i did this?" >> THIS is the trauma of losing someone to suicide. the ptsd it caused me made it so I became so docile, I was afraid of acting out or speaking my mind, or doing anything "wrong" because I thought I had done something "wrong" for my mother to kill herself. I was afraid that I did something, I said something, I shouldn't have complained as a teen when my mom didn't let me sleepover with a friend, I shouldn't have always been on my phone... that's the PTSD suicide causes to people left behind. PJG knew what to blame himself for. The rest of us blame ourselves without even knowing why.
Such a classy lady. The old school Korean actresses are my favourite because they came from an era where production was not all about perfect, flawless faces or crying "beautifully" in front of a camera. That is not to say beautiful actors can't act, but their presence doesn't feel as grounded to me. When I watch Kim Hyesoo, I don't feel that she's performing a role, I feel that she IS the role.
This is based off a true story, so Xiong Dun does die because that is what happened in real life. But the drama isn't a "Tragic ending" because it never actually shows her dying scene. There's no weeping as she slowly fades away. Instead, her last scene is her sitting in a train with ML, and the train travels out of the scene. It's kind of metaphorical to mean she is traveling away from the world, but it's not sad at all. Somehow it even feels inspiring.
What else is prevalent? Blaming the latest "big bad" entering the scene of Kdramas for "ruining Kdramas". Right now it's Netflix. 10+ years ago it was Viki and Dramafever. Ironically all 3 have done the most work (other than Kpop lol) to make Kdramas mainstream.
Why do more and more Korean shows have seasons now? It's NOT because of Netflix. Believe it or not, Korean studios aren't just Netflix slaves that do whatever Netflix says, they have agency too. Korean media, just like Western media in the last decade, has seen a shift in business structure because of the changing technological landscape (read: streaming becoming more prevalent with younger generations.) More and more Koreans THEMSELVES wanted their own dramas to have seasons like Western shows, because 16 episodes wasn't enough for them to enjoy their favourites on screen. Streaming has made seasonal shows incredibly popular in Korea. Korean studios realised that it is actually financially beneficial to capitalise on the fact that fans of a show would all be tuning in for S2. Producers also saw that this format offered extra story-telling and world-building opportunities that the traditional 16-episode format didn't, allowing for more room to try different stories that they otherwise wouldn't have done.
Korean showbiz is still navigating a landscape where the Western market is an actual viable market. They're still testing the waters and trying various ways of distributing a story. They're trying the binge-watch model, the half binge-watch model (Netflix's half and half), the traditional weekly model, mini-series of 4 eps, and more. And oftentimes, if you actually pay attention, you'll notice that they don't just arbitrarily decide that a random drama gets the season treatment (Hospital Playlist) or another gets the 5050 treatment (The Glory). They are experimenting with how they tell their stories, instead of a one-model-suits-all method. Dramas follow story beats, and when all your dramas are 16 episodes one and done, it limits the scope of stories you can tell.
All in all, this is about Korean showbiz changing with the times, and Korean creators experimenting with new things that they haven't done before. Methinks Westerners should accept that Korean dramas don't exist to cater to their needs; this is about the economic and creative endeavors of Koreans in an economy where they should be relying on Chinese money less and less.
loved this drama tho, short and sweet. also i like that the romance is in the subtext and suggestions, not in your face.
I also have some weird suspicion that FL's grandmother didn't die naturally. FL's dad has some vendetta against the adoptive grandfather's family which includes Gido, the son. I think it can be assumed that he abandoned his daughter for a reason, maybe for safety, like he was wronged. What I can't understand is how then would the grandmother end up being such great friends with the grandfather. How did FL's family get so entangled with this family? The dead characters in this drama are literally even all buried in the same graveyard plot LOL
what if FL has been manipulated and used this entire time--since she was a kid--to be the lapdog (shih tzu, heh) of the family that wronged hers? maybe Gido's daughter Yiyeon found out the truth at some point.
almost every single one was X happened, which is why Character A wants to kill themselves. look at how simple the first case was, the bully was so much of a caricature she was practically just a webtoon villain. all these cases are so black and white. good vs evil. wrong vs right. but suicide and depression are more often than not not like this. a lot of people who are depressed don't even know WHY they're depressed. a lot of people are in such mental anguish they want to kill themselves to end things but they don't know why. and the fact that some of them have lived privileged lives, have loved ones in their lives, makes them feel even MORE burden. it exacerbates their already-existing idea that they're a burden to the world and don't deserve to be alive. it really isn't so simple like "she bullied me, i became suicidal, i got revenge on bully, i'm no longer suicidal." if only it were that simple??? if only most of the people in this world feeling they're a burden, they're selfish, they don't deserve to be loved, knew WHY they felt this way, what caused it, what's the reason??? then it would be so much easier, wouldn't it?
this is what makes a drama a drama. in a drama, there's always a villain to blame. but real life is often different. there are often no villains to blame, which is why depression in real life feels like suffocation.
even park joong gil, i can speak from this character's perspective because my mother committed suicide when i was 19, so i know what it feels like to be the person left behind. yet i didn't find PJG relatable, why? because he KNEW why his wife killed herself. he knew all the things that led to her choice. but you know, most of us who lose someone to suicide, it happens suddenly out of the blue. one morning you're enjoying christmas karaoke with your mom and the next morning she's hanging from the ceiling. and you spend your entire fucking life trying to find a reason, you wrack your brain for an answer, you keep thinking to yourself "i should have done this, i should have done that, did she do it because i did this?" >> THIS is the trauma of losing someone to suicide. the ptsd it caused me made it so I became so docile, I was afraid of acting out or speaking my mind, or doing anything "wrong" because I thought I had done something "wrong" for my mother to kill herself. I was afraid that I did something, I said something, I shouldn't have complained as a teen when my mom didn't let me sleepover with a friend, I shouldn't have always been on my phone... that's the PTSD suicide causes to people left behind. PJG knew what to blame himself for. The rest of us blame ourselves without even knowing why.