@Paulina — Boy, I sure wish you had been around for our Money Flower discussion a few months ago, because we spilled more than a few electrons over how and the extent to which the protagonist resembled a classical Aristotelian tragic hero… good times, good times.

I’ll see if I can muster up some more substantive response to your excellent comments later, when I’m not on my mobile, walking the dog, etc.

@j3ffc – YES! Adams family is fantastic and stands the test off time and definitely art even if it was an “accident”.

Yes! I soooo agree 16 well edited episodes of Bufffy would kick butt. I do love Buffy, I was a true hard core fan for its entire run even putting up with some new characters that never worked for me.

OMO! I LOVE that idea of a Buffy K-Drama remake. Im so in!!! Oh I love the idea of Sung Dong-il as “Rupert”. Now who would play Buffy?!!!!

Since so many of the Kdrama actors seem to have musical theater backgrounds, do we have any musical Shows or Movies from Kdramaland?

Just think about Buffy’s Once More with Feeling in the KDrama remake 🙂 Such a creative episode with all the clever lyrics in all those singable songs that I know every word 🙂

@Paulina – YES! I agree with you about my draw to Korean Drama Shows as to me they appear as works of Art whereas American Television rarely if ever felt like works of Art. Yes, they told good stories, engaging ones, interesting characters, etc. I am not knocking all of American TV as they definitely have had some stand out Shows.

My only point is on the whole Korean TV Shows, network or cable, seem to be far and above American TV Show body of work. Korean TV Shows seem to be better story tellers and they usually can get the job done in one season, thankfully. And they take us on an emotional journey which I do not think I have ever felt as if I have been on an emotional journey with American TV Shows. Now that could be do to the short format of Korean TV Shows vs. American Shows that can go on for numerous years (ER, Grey’s, Friends, Cheers, Fraiser, etc).

I remember when I first started watching Korean Dramas I would take snapshots of a scene and send to my friends saying doesn this look like a scene out of movie and this is a TV Show!

I do see though many American Films as being works of Art, though. I have only seen a couple Korean Films as I havent gone down that rabbit hole, yet 🙂

@j3ffc – Thanks! Been listening to it!

as one ahjumma to another: i love your sense of humor.

That is exactly how I would answer others. No need to explain yourself to someone else, to be honest! Especially when, like OP felt like the other person might judge them for watching kdramas. However, if I feel that the other person is not out to mock me, and is willing and truly curious, this post would be helpful to forward along.

Ah the perennial question.. In an Asian culture, what age will you stop being called “Miss” or “young lady” or whatever equivalent and start being called with respect by young strangers. A particularly sensitive issue for ladies! 😂😂😂 Getting called Ahjumma in Korea, “Aunty” in Singapore… Ahem only saying this cos I’m on the brink of Aunty-dom. Anytime now…

Bee, my sentiments exactly! After some 290 dramas over the last 8 years…my family just will say…I know you’re drama watching, but dAnd off I’ll go only to pick back up where I left off.

i recently finished “mr.sunshine”. here is a bit of feedback on this drama, and see if you would be interested, although you would have to widen and lengthen your deficit in attention span. it does include spoilers.

in reality, i hate to rain on somebody’s parade, and since a lot of people truly love this drama, i apologize, but what must be said must be said.
i can not relate to this drama but from a truly split personality perspective, since it has the “good, the bad, the ugly” and more. all that the other viewers write about it is mostly true – mind-bogglingly beautiful scenery (the scene where ae-shin is walking with eugine on the icy lake takes your breath away and will stay with you forever etched in your visual and emotional library, whether it’s in your brain or in your heart, and the entire story is kind of symbolic of walking on thin ice at all times), in general the choice of sites in the drama can be used for tourism in korea – guaranteed to work even today, the cinematography is up there with the most outstanding dramas and/or movies from all times, the characters especially the main 3 males and the female hotel owner hina are extremely multidimensional, like it is in real life and their continuous development is very satisfying, the acting of all actors is as good as it gets, especially lee byung-hun as eugene choi (i first saw this actor in “all in” while i was chasing after ji sung, and discovered lee byung-hun, and the rest was history… his charisma, his manly charm, his superb acting, his ability to go from extreme toughness to extreme softness – he was raised to my top best korean actors from that moment on) and he does not disappoint in “mr. sunshine”, he stays true to himself as an artist, as always gives it his all, and shines with unmistakable inner beauty. one more thing that i noticed, when he gazes at ae-shin or even other people, he slowly blinks just one time, and the blink is like a cat that blinks to his/hers owner expressing love, it’s really special, if you know cats. the other actress that i enjoyed very much is of course the adorable, mysterious, badass kim min-jung as kudo hina, she truly kept me on my toes, with her non-ending french designers dresses, hats, jewelry, her quirky intelligence and female intuition, her courage, her undeniable charm. these two characters or i should say actors kept me wanting to see more and more of them, even when i wanted to just leave this show many times throughout, the slow paste of it drove me crazy, the lengthy looking in each others eyes for minutes at a time without any movement or action – i wanted to scream enough already, we get the idea, we are not dumb… the heart breaking good byes between ae-shin and eugen, too many, not justified and always coming back together just to say good bye again – really? some other things that annoyed me to no end i will mention later here… the other two characters that is worth mentioning is yoo yeon-seok as goo dong-mae, perfectly cast in this role, so strong, gorgeous looking, evil, always with endless pain bubbling to the surface, always staying a step ahead of death, and byun yo-han as kim hee- sung, the tipical spoiled rich brat, always gambling, loosing and drinking on the account of others. both of these characters, one was born in the lowest class of that society, the other was a son of the richest aristocrats in this area. dong-mae like a ticking bomb always on the verge of exploding and taking down all around him no matter how, who or what. kim hee-sung, the aristocrat, who loves all things beautiful, easy going, trying to charm everybody no matter who, making a joke out of any situation. frankly, i did not like these two all the way till the last third of the drama, and then they kind of woke up, tapped into their own morals, grew on me and developed into characters that slowly charmed my heart and i got deeply invested in them all, only to be devastated at the brutal end. the question for me, was it worth spending so many annoying hours of this drama, to finally get to the last third part and especially the last 5 episodes, to finally get so emotionally attached to this characters only to be completely heart broken at the end? i truly did not answer that question yet. and now the most baffling part of this drama – the main female character, ae-shin. i think her character was completely screwed up by the writers, she was the only one one-dimensional as it can be. yes, they wanted to show her burning patriotism for her country and cause, but they deprived her of humanity. wasn’t she a physical body like all of us, in flesh and blood and all? didn’t she have emotions that a woman would express through some kind of affection to the love or her life? the one who gave up ALL that he had in this world for her, his adopted country that he was so proud of, his military career that he loved, his best friend, and finally his own life in exchange for hers. (by the way, eugene choi succeeded somehow to express his love without touching her ever, but it felt like he was stopped by her inner desire to avoid any physicalness) and at all times, there was not a single hug, kiss or any other form of expressing love. how on earth can that be? even when they got married, no hug, no kiss – nothing. and i understand the writers or directors idea of showing extreme patriotism above all, but show at least something… something that would move us and make us believe that she really loves. i did not expect them to passionately make love in the apothecary or in the field, i understand the korean sensitivities in this regard, their extra conservative attitude especially at that time, i even understand the beauty and depth of the most pure form of love, (like ning yi and fengzhiwei in trop where you did not see much of physical expressions of love but you could definitely sense it), but at least some kind of physical interaction i would like to see. that was my greatest disappointment and the biggest flaw of this drama. and last but not least i wanted to mention the politics in this drama, although very interesting, educational, thought provoking, but it was supposed to be kind of the background to the love story and anything else, but took over and became the major part of it. although i appreciated the lessons about korea in general in that period (and it made me truly hate the japanese cruelty), it was too much of it and became simply boring many times. now that you know “the good, the bad and the ugly” you decide if this drama is for you, if you can tough it out until the third part of the drama.

@Carulhein, I thought Arthdal Chronicles was not bad at all. Too bad it ended rather abruptly. I usually don’t like multiple season dramas, but I would watch a second season of Arthdal if it ever got made.

I liked Arthdal too. The show starts sloooow and it was tiring following the threads initially but my sister loved it so I kept watching until I really did like it. It’s from the writer of Dae Jang Geum and Queen Seon Dok.

welcome to the party! it took over my world, once i stumbled over my first drama, which was a 50+ episode chinese historical drama – the colors, the scenery, the jewelry, the sets, the photography, and most importantly – the acting – i found it all enchanting, fascinating, exotic, educational, and on and on. i was sold, and no desire to go back to any western productions. chinese historical dramas are still my first love, but i am totally into the korean dramas also, especially thanks to kfangirl and all the comments that follow.

@Trent – What would you consider “uniquely pinnacle unequaled in the history of audiovisual dramatic arts”?

Hi Trent,

some really good points here. I love kdramas because they’re damn good entertainment. They basically made lockdown bearable for me and my family (that’s when we discovered them)because they offer such excellent escapism. Well-paced storytelling, attractive actors, genre mix, you name it.

Do they offer “something for everyone”, though? I don’t think so. As you say, they’re rarely inclusive. I suspect those working in the entertainment industry hold less conservative views on the whole, but the plots we’re shown do not reflect this. It’s very often outdated morals in an incredibly attractive package. And it’s also ironic that those pretty Korean idol boys inspire Western young men to break free from male gender stereotypes while in their own country they’re nothing less than free, having to hide any relationship.

Watching the products of this outwardly so homogeneous culture remains a complex experience. I stand by enjoying them, but always tell people they have to find out for themselves if it’s for them.

trent, for me, the allure is in the element of education – it opens up a world of people, their struggles, traditions, foods or even how they present their meals, and even politics, that i knew almost nothing about, and yet it is part of my own world that inhabit, although a gazillion miles away. all other elements are of course important to me, but they are bonuses.

Hi Trent. Very good post indeed. I couldn’t agree more with you on this. It’s a good thing that many new kdramas do address social issues in a nuanced sensitive way. It shows an awareness from kdrama producers of needing to move with the times and be responsible when addressing certain social issues.

I have noticed, however, that kdrama newbies do not appreciate these efforts all that much… Coffee Prince and Itaewon Class come across as not all that progressive to those who do not watch many kdramas or Asian dramas in general, but rather conservative and reactionary in their efforts and “not enough”… People need context. If you see kdramas in a vacuum, you are not going to get the positive messaging out of it. You need to put the work into them and see the value in the storytelling, the acting and the sentiment beyond sometimes very glaring blind spots in social issues. You also need to familiarise yourself with the patriarchal and hierarchical society in Korea to appreciate the “rebellion” in some storytelling choices (Something in the Rain and One Spring Night come to mind).

I suspect that what many kdrama lovers dislike about Western drama is not necessarily their increasingly more progressive social messaging but rather the latest preference of Western drama for antiheroes of questionable morals. I myself do not dislike a good flawed and even problematic hero (I actually prefer them to the most obvious “good ones”). However, I find it difficult to relate to more classical antihero immoral actions and enjoy them less -I know that they provide good exciting television and, if the antihero is well portrayed, we get to understand the antihero and the systemic social set-up that has turned him into an immoral person so that we root for him (ie Walt in Breaking Bad or Beth in The Queen’s Gambit), but for me, they are just less satisfactory to watch. Why? Because a good antihero story is supposed to present this protagonist in all its glory, with honesty and with no interest in making them likeable. I personally find it hard engaging with these stories, although I’d never question their quality, general appeal and importance. For me, it’s just matter of taste, no judgement attached to it.

Well said. There are good and bad shows everywhere. US shows have their strengths, Spanish shows have theirs, as do Korean, British, Italian and so on. Keeping an open mind is so important. That’s how one finds those little gems that are so often overlooked. I have heard great things about The Chair. I must give it a go!

Good point, Gloglo. Indeed, there are misogynistic elements in this whole discussion. Also, so many people have a need to dismiss everything loved by other people. How many times haven’t we heard: “You watch Game of thrones? That sucks”, “Marverl is for nerdy morons”, “Seriously, you don’t think that Squid Game’s a good show”, or whatever. My personal opinion has always been that if a thing has its fan base, it’s because it relates to some people and I have absolutely no right to judge, or try to prove that I have superior tastes or something. The only shows I can absolutely not stand are reality type shows like the Bachelor, but even then, what an idiot would I be to say to a fan “You watch this crap? Try watching Bergman instead, his films are amazing”.

A big yes to the misogyny issue – there has always been a tendency throughout history to write off entertainment created primarily by/for women as frivolous and “less than” compared to entertainment created primarily by/for men. In the US, this is compounded by a critical apparatus that often rewards works that are dark, gritty, ironic, emotionally distanced, violent and cynical (think The Sopranos, Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones) over works that focus on character relationships and emotional engagement (it’s not a surprise that many of the same critics who call kdramas “soap operas” wax eloquently about films like Old Boy and Parasite). I think this is also one of the reasons Squid Game has broken through because it is, well, dark, violent, gritty, etc.. I don’t think any country’s entertainment industry needs to produce just one kind of content, but I do think there is often a tendency on the part of kdrama watchers to apologize for liking content focused on romance and emotion as if this is a bad thing. I think we should be asking instead why love, empathy and care for others aren’t values more generally celebrated as worthy topics for storytelling.

You took the words out of my mouth, the humanity, kindness and critical thinking of kdramas is just next to none. They just evoke all the emotions in you and make you feel things and situations you’ve never been in. The world needs to catch up to dramas but I’m kinda scared because I don’t want kdramas to ever change due to “westernisation”

Edit: Now that I have read comments by other friends here, it is fun to realize that we all think more or less the same, in that there’s more humanity in Korean tv shows. No wonder we are all fans then! 😄

“While I understand it’s easy to praise the well-written, thoughtful masterpiece type shows, people underestimate how much work goes into making a hilarious comedy or even an over-the-top makjang.”

Amen.