Re multiple series- I feel like it only makes sense where there is more to say or another story to tell. My perfect example here would be Korean Odyssey, which finishes with the leading lady dead and in some sort of underworld or similar. I’d love to see a season two where Son O-Gong goes to mess things up and rescue her 😁 I feel like that’s a pretty natural season two possibility. I don’t think it makes sense if it is forced though.

@Trent – I did read the synopsis and added it to my own “monster” (watch list). Now I remember seeing trailers for this show because I thought it was interesting that Yeo Jin goo starred in a movie with that same name – Monster. The plots are unrelated though.

@Ele Nash – I just got a response from KOCOWA. I had complained about them not having certain shows that are produced by them. I asked them why am I paying for them and Viki if neither service will be carrying (especially Kocowa’s own shows)? They responded that the show I was asking about (Oh My LadyLord) had been licensed out so they wouldn’t carry it themselves. 😒

@BE – that’s not what I meant. I consider Hulu as low man on the totem pole so I was surprised that one of the bigger streaming services like Netflix or Amazon Prime did not outbid (or whatever determines how they obtain shows).

@Trent – thanks. I’ll check out the synopsis. I think I saw the word “evil” and just assumed it was another spooky show (which I avoid unless one of my biases is featured) 😉

@BE – I was very surprised to see that HULU has Parasite.

@BE – I agree. You would think that with the success Netflix has achieved with Kdrama (especially after their scramble to stay relevant with the expiration of their contracts for Marvel (Disney)/Paramount, etc.) you would think they would add more Korean movies.

@Ele Nash – I stand corrected. Unless… do you guys have KOCOWA in the UK?

@BE – In your wish for more streaming channels to pick up Kdramas/Kmovies _ have you considered that means paying more subscriptions? This is my absolute dread!

@BE – Keep in mind that shows like Dr. Romantic belong to the big 3 and as such, they’re on their own streaming channel – KOCOWA. Those shows will never be on Netflix (unless over time, Netflix offers KOCOWA so much money that they decide its more profitable to dissolve and send their content to Netflix).

This was an interesting question and loved all the inputs by kfangurl as well as the other commenters.
In my opinion, though I love the characters so much, I prefer closure. This is why I guess, lovestruck in the city didn’t vibe well for me. Would love to see more interesting dear kfangurl debates 🙂

Hmm, reading your points, kfangurl – eloquent as always – and everyone’s comments here, I feel like I hardly ever like multi-season dramas from any country. I think I get so caught up in characters and so invested in them that I’m burnt out by the end of one season. For example, I’m working my way through the gloriously bleak My Mister (gosh, it’s excellent) and adoring every moment with Dong-hoon and Ji-an (gosh, they are fantastic characters and so very well played) but, with one episode left, I wouldn’t want to see them again, however much I have adored being with them. I wonder if because kdrama is often so character-led (which I heart) it doesn’t lend itself easily to plot devices that extend it beyond the story-arc?

In my kdrama viewing, I have seen very few multiple series. Stranger 2 really upset me for half of the season (although much of the cast were intact) because they weren’t together on the screen the same way. It took an age for me to adjust.

Having said that, often in Western shows, seasons 3 or 5 might be the best ones (I’m thinking of ‘my’ Buffyverse that the spin-off series Angel was so-so until , woah, final season 5 😍 and of course long-runner Doctor Who coming back with an excellent series helmed by Russell T Davis). Am I digressing? Oh, right, so I guess my point would be that when a series goes on a few, it often brings out the best in them.

Maybe no right or wrong, other than multiple-series with ‘popularity’ and revenue as its motivator can never lead to great artistry, as so many Western shows prove. And perhaps that’s why kdrama has been so refreshing. Eek if Netflix are trampling on that creativity and honesty in its rush for profit and popularity.

I hope Netflix doesn’t influence Korean series too much by making them clones of Western ones that have been unwatchable for years.

Awesome post! I’m just hoping to see a Reply 2021 someday 🙂

2 cents more: my gripe with sticking the landing–
Signal dropped the ball at the end because it was unnecessarily set up to be a two season drama.
As I have said elsewhere, Vincenzo locking down four episodes earlier with our hero taking down the villains in one fell swoop as a reprisal for his mother would have saved viewers a whole bunch of extraneous plot complications that added nothing and lost the show’s joy.
The World of the Married in its unrelenting piling on of plot complications rendering anything other than abject tragedy implausible, meaning the attempt to evade such to tie the show’s obvious loose ends off compromised Kim Hee Ae’s bravura performance.
I was surprised to enjoy the second season of Dr. Romantic, but one thing about it is that season one did have some closure, even if season two took up an extension of the same exact melodrama, villain and all. But I would argue its success was largely on the shoulders of how Ahn Hyo Seop took on a similar role to that of Yoo Yeon Seok’s OTP male lead and actually improved upon it, and the addition of So Ju Yeon to the ensemble who added a youthful freshness to them.\
Finally, I loved the three season HBO series, Treme, I am glad they did not stop at the end of season 1. The key for me is not one or the other, but the appropriateness of show and consistency throughout. In repeating my wish for Queen Seon Deok to have been presented in three seasons, this: it is one of the great, classic sageuks, with a sensational cast, sensational villain and sensational anti hero characters, a pair of virtuous support heroes to rival any such in any such kind of story, but who looking at that humongus number of episodes is really willing to take the whole thing on if they have not seen it before?

Thanks so much for answering my question, KFangurl, and great builds here from the community! I agree with the benefits of a single season format forcing the plot to closure and generally better pacing–I certainly do notice a great deal less annoying “filler” content in Kdrama single season shows than in many of the western multi-seasons. But also agree that it whether a show can stretch to multiple seasons (or even makes it through one!) comes down to the behind the scenes quality. For example, Sherlock, Westworld, Game of Thrones (though let’s pretend the last season of GoT didn’t happen, hmm?) and the Mandalorian all are amazing shows that successfully stretched to multiple seasons, though interestingly enough they all also tend to have shorter seasons which I guess forced the writers to keep the plot tight…

I’m thinking that maybe also a reason why multi-seasons are more common in the US could be that actors here are more willing to sign up for them? Besides the fact that maybe actors here don’t mind playing the same character for a while, I think TV actor salaries have the potential to grow bigger if the show is a hit. I believe @Sean mentioned that kdrama actors get $80k an episode…is that true even for the big stars? If so, that seems low compared to the US, where the biggest stars can get $1MM USD or even more per episode. HERE is an interesting thread on it. So there could also be a monetary component to it…

“The single season format is preferable to the multi-season format”

Absolutely agree!

Hi Kfangurl, my introduction into k dramas was through Arthdal Chronicles. I absolutely loved it and when it ended without ending, I didn’t mind much because I’ve been used to the western format for a long time. Luckily they renewed it. But now, after having fallen down the K drama rabbit hole, I’ve come to like the one season format. It’s like a long movie where nothing needs to be rushed and things are resolved. I love it. So, no, I won’t want the one season format to change. I’ve been plenty annoyed by dramas that might have wanted a second season and then didn’t do it. Like Vagabond. I felt really really annoyed after watching it. Even though I loved the show, the ending left me extremely frustrated. So much so that I now sometimes read up on the ending before I start the show. 😁Unfortunately can’t do that if I watch something as the show is airing so I’ll just have to roll with the punches 😁

Woo H00 – this question is one of my favourite subjects (I write my response as I take a quick break from legal matters and constitutional issues, but that’s a story for another time, maybe 😂).

I am a fan of either single seasons or multi seasons. For me it comes back to the quality of the show, although I admit I watch and enjoy stuff that many others do not like. In the days when we just had mainstream tv ruling the airwaves, I loved all those shows they used to put on late at night during summer, to either fill in the hours or test the market. Yes, some of them were delightfully dreadful.

Perhaps the best show I have seen in kdramaland regarding how the single season format is written or developed is Fantastic where the female lead is a drama writer and she takes us through her process of setting out a 16 episode story. Of course, in terms of how a story is executed in a drama and what happens behind the scenes, we need to watch The King of Dramas (recommended to me by kfangurl, and which I thoroughly enjoyed).

The interesting thing for me in the single season universe is that we see each of the key drama producers now trying different formats i.e. generally shorter, although cdramas can tend to go the other way. With jdoramas, although they are generally around 10 episodes, they are pushing out much shorter series and occasionally, something a bit longer. The Japanese also, like SK also push out one season daily shows and weekend shows that can run up to six months. Of course with kdramas we are also getting to see the full range of episodic experimentation, which is wonderful from my point of view: episodes that last 10 mins, 30 mins or sometimes 90 mins. I am going to talk about Thai dramas for a moment, although they have their single season lakorn format, they too mix it up. Taiwanese dramas, in the main seem to be consistent with their single season dramas.

In terms of the longevity of single seasons in kdramaland, as an aside, kdrama actors get about $80,000 per episode. I just thought I would throw that one in. However, it is a serious consideration regarding the squeeze being put on the industry and future income.

I also watch a range of other shows from around the world and they tend to be single season when we talk about Turkey (although they have some excellent long running shows), Egypt and other middle eastern countries. Then there is Spain, the South Americas and, yes some excellent Russian shows.

With multiple seasons, perhaps the Japanese are most varied here as they do have many long running shows. Apart form this, I find multi seasons in kdramaland interesting. I have watched God’s Quiz but not the reboot as yet. With Voice, I bailed out during Voice 2 – it just didn’t cut the mustard, so I am reluctant to take up V3 and V4. Kingdoms 1 and 2 – simply awesome and K2 (note: not The K2 which everyone didn’t really like, but I though was awesome) is even better than K1. With Stranger 1 and 2 – they are in a class of their own. As for Chief of Staff 1 and 2, well I used to rattle around in that world, so it was quite well done and I loved the more mature performances. Then there is Partners for Justice 1 and 2 – fabulous. if you want to see a grumpy mans version of CSI, then take a peak. I am still meandering my way through Hospital Playlist. I will find the exit one day 🤣

The Thais take a different slant on multi seasons. They tend to role out many of their shows like multi series romance novels. In other words, one series is around one character. The next series is around one of the supporting characters in the previous series and so on. Some of them are quite good, and others well, let’s just say, hmmm.

With western shows, often, I feel cheated if there is just the one season. However, the issue always comes back to quality. If we look at a BBC production it will either be single season or multi season to maintain a quality outcome. Both forms will be either 4 or 6 episodes. I am not talking about Coronation Street here, as a colleague of mine when he rang me the other night to see if I was up for a range of projects rudely commented: “I hope I didn’t interrupt your Coronation Street watching.” I blithely replied, no but I did watch some of it when I was a kid. My good friend replied “I actually watched the first episode!”

Despite the long running daily soaps and Doctor Who, until MASH came along, no one really dared dream that shows could run so long, be popular, and perhaps even go beyond ten years. A great family show in this regard is Heartland. Then if people are still unhappy with that they now make followup TV movies and every now and then, even a cinematic movie production.

As for American sitcoms, well I guess most know of the classic multi seasons shows. The interesting issue here is that at least 500 sitcoms alone were made a year in the US before the advent of Netflix and others. The impact of Netflix is a thing. During the last quarter its number of new subscribers was about 60% of expectations, but still not a bad result, as the numbers were well and truly in the black. However, it has quickly changed its approach re new content. As many have complained, Netflix was churning out stuff. Of late, other visitors to this blog have certainly commented on what they get to see Netflix wise. I guess with VPN, you can get to see the whole catalogue. Otherwise, for countries outside of the US, it is between 40 – 60% of the catalogue. Disney and Prime in the last 12 months has had far greater success with new content. Prime has some big big shows coming re the Foundation series and LOTR at a projected cost of $500M per season. So, Netflix has made the decision to get back to quality content. I guess we will see what happens.

There are those western shows that stay good all the way through, there are those I have walked away from and then there are those that have gone good, bad, then good again. Aren’t you lucky I haven’t gone on about the History Channel.

When its all said and done, I watch what I find interesting or appealing and as I said to Beez the other day, much of it is probably to do with the “feels.” So, I am happy to watch something that is just one episode, one season or 20. I mean I am a great Doctor Who fan (despite grievances every decade or so), and it has been going since November 1963.

Now on with watching the last episode of Mad for Each Other…

I also very much appreciate the 1 season format – after all, a k drama with 16 eps, 80 minutes each (as we often get) is, truly, the equivalent of a 2 seasons US show (or a 3 seasons UK show).
I personally find multiple seasons shows tedious; I’ve rarely watched more than one season of one show, unless of course I was tricked into it, as I was tricked spending almost 26 hours of my life watching Arthdal Chronicles and now, of course, I am waiting! I haven’t watched any of the other shows you mention as multi-seasons precisely because they have multiple seasons, and,imo, neither Vincenzo nor Sweet Home need a second season. Vincenzo’s highly successful balance between the fun and the nonsensical (cf: an army of pigeons!) could not be maintained for a second season and Sweet Home ended as it should, in a perfectly bleak way (seriously, was there realistically a possibility for a happy ending there?).

One of the things that originally appealed to me about k-dramas was the single-season format of most shows. In American TV, there is the phrase “jumping the shark” to identify the moment when a TV series lost what made it originally appealing. (The phrase comes from a beloved comedy, “Happy Days”, which actually had a scene were a key character literally jumped over a shark when water skiing. It was incongruous, unrealistic, completely contrary to the character’s personality to be water skiing in the first place, and everything went downhill from there.) The key point is: most American shows eventually do jump the shark, because the number of seasons, with few exceptions, are driven by ratings/economics and not artistry.  BE mentioned good examples, and I’ll bring up another: the still ongoing “Succession” (third season coming soon), which is of very high quality throughout and should appeal to anyone who liked “Money Flower”. 

So I have found the idea of a single season appealing, not so much due to there being a wonderful sense of closure (we have elsewhere discussed how k-dramas so very often do not stick the landing) but because there just isn’t enough time for what makes a good show good to peter out. I’ve enjoyed a couple of multi-season shows but by and large I don’t miss them when they don’t appear (hey, there’s always the possibility to rewatch!).

To comment on some of the specifics brought up by kfangurl:

Age of Youth: I thought that the second season of this one was terrific because there were enough of the characters and elements intact, but I the plot moved forward and into different directions. For my money, AoY 2 was one that did stick the landing beautifully. And I never got the uproar over replacing actors for the Eun-jae character between seasons: I thought Park Hye-Su was fine but not special in Season 1 and that Ji Woo was just about as good and I forgot that the faces were different after S2E2. And Park Eun-bin was in both seasons, which is never a bad thing.

Let’s Eat: THREE seasons PLUS a more-or-less continuation in “Drinking Solo”, which some have called “Let’s Drink” and has some charms of its own. I was one of the ones who was bugged by the change of FL from S1 to S2 but I was won over (and then some) by Seo Hyun-jun. And I may be the only person who actually liked S3, which had an interesting new twist (prequel side-by-side the present-day story continuation) and ended about as well as it could given the last-minute unavailability of its star.

And Netflix: I don’t view these as multiple seasons proper if they are short 6–episode blocks spread out a la “Kingdom”. 

Sorry, too long. G’night all.

I think it is a case by case situation. Contrary to Snow Flower, I think both American and European television handle multiple seasons well especially with regard to police or political melodramas. As much as I love K Drama, imo The Wire, that went for five seasons, was probably the greatest filmed work for television ever.
Part of it has to do with the nature of the shows. While The Wire resembled K Drama in that it was a novelistic kind of story telling rather than a collection of short stories, one reason these kinds of dramas usually work better in consecutive seasons is that they often tend to be such collections. Southland, a first rate five season show was much like that. It is my take that while show came to a reasonable closure, Move to Heaven, both in its abbreviated season of ten episodes and its episodic nature in which the novel gets a back seat to the individual short story, is built for a second season. American tv has gone from 13 episode seasons to 10 and 7 episodes these days, so of course they are easier to swallow in more than one season.
But besides everything else, Vincenzo, which has the earmarks of franchise (PLEASE NO!) clocking in at twenty episodes with four full episodes too many already of unnecessary plot complications putting a kibosh on its early fizzy magic, unless they can figure a way to be as inventive and fresh a second season looks like it well turn out to be a left out, flat five day old quarter bottle of uncorked sparkling wine.
Dr. Romantic had a cast with enormous chemistry and a lead actor who is also a long time leading man in film, who also insofar as I have read had attracted members of the cast to stick with it, but beyond that, it also contained many short stories that continued to keep show alive.
Personally, I thought the flaws in Stranger 1 were exacerbated in Stranger 2 in the sense that I just did not care about the mystery at the show’s center. It’s main feature was the actors, particularly Bae Doo Na.
Kingdom’s two seasons was really just two parts of one season, and Ashin of the North as a singleton will live or die on its own merits.
Unlike folks here I never got into Hospital Playlist, but in the states hospital dramas have proven to be exceedingly durable as long as the lead actors, and show has really solid lead actors, stay committed. Even though it so far has not caught me, I can certainly see how it could easily clock a huge fan base this season, and we can see from there.
Of course, American (and European) drama has been also trending toward one season stories. I really have enjoyed the twelve episode single season goes in K Drama of Navillera and Youth of May. I love the single season story, but the one flaw I see often in K Drama is that they are so long, and thus require so many plot complications to keep viewers tuning in week after week, that they have an extreme amount of difficulty sticking the landing.
For me the biggest problem of Netflix is that they will push for more high concept, high production value, high trendy, somewhat cliched dramas that seem commercial and begin to eschew so many of the virtues I find, great ensembles, nuanced performances, quirky shows, and a willingness to bring shows to an unflinching and emotionally satisfying finish.

Please, Netflix, do not push for multiple season dramas! I can’t stand episodic multi-season shows! They can’t tell a story right. I don’t watch any Western shows precisely for that reason.