i smell a FAIL, Athena and IRIS are two dramas that start off good and get very VERY boring in the end!!!

I feel bad for the actors. They're practically signing on for a drama that'll tarnish their resume the way The Tourist is putting Johnny Depp's acting career on shaky grounds... Not that we're going to see the end of Depp anytime soon. The man is too good to just disappear. But than again, are we being too pessimistic? X/

IRIS is good and I love it, from the cast to the storyline.
Athena is a huge disappointment. I'm not surprised that its ratings dropped drastically. As for IRIS2 they better find some actor who is compatible to Lee Byung Hun and better script writer or it will fail miserable like Athena.

i agree that it will fail - but more on the vein of javabeans' last comment - the spy drama is no longer new and exciting, and no one is going to care to tune in. after all, how many scenarios of nuclear weapons can you create? it's all gonna sound and be the same after a while...

The writers can always opt for different scenarios, other than nuclear weapons .. (Which Athena should have done) look at 24 and its successful 8 season release.

Please ,after a crappy production like Athena, they want us to watch Athena 2. Viewers are not that easily manipulated. Give us a good show and we will watch.

i was so bored by IRIS, so a sequel is really blah to me. and it's about time they stopped capitalizing on this spy genre and move onto something else.

Oh man Athena 2, I really hate Athena's storyline. I was hoping for a tragic ending where they couldn't make a sequel.

The ONLY reason I will ever consider watching Iris 2 would be KIM SO-YEON.

Wouldn't it be cool for Kim Tae Hee and Jung Woo Sung to do the next one together!!!??? I loved their chemistry in The Restless!

Honestly, even with a stellar cast for the upcoming IRIS 2 and ATHENA 2, I don't think it'll do well. People get bored to see the same type of plot over and over again (except the JAMES BOND franchise!)... IRIS was a hit and perhaps a movie for it would have been a better choice.

IRIS was pretty good because in my opinion, there was a mystery element to it....till the end, I was really curious about Seung-hee and who she really was. Athena seems to be all about guns, explosions,nuclear arms and technology. Can't imagine producers would want to spend millions again on a drama thats not pulling in the viewers.

IRIS 2 - if you get the original cast back, I think it just might work

I don't get the distribution of kdramas.
Networks are surely getting the most revenue by ads, promo and franchise. As for ratings: they seem to make or brake a show (adding or reducing of eps / cancellation). And most of them go to DVD afterwards, which leads to more cash. Worldwide TV-rules, I guess.

But korea seems to generally have a no-second-season policy. It's unclear what the deciding factors are for a production to get the rare green light from a broadcaster. The Hallyu factor? Influence / Expectations of the sell-off to other asian countries?
And it looks doubly unfair when we had a ton of incredibly underrated or overhyped dramas over the last years not even getting a second glance by producers. And now there's going to be movie of a spinoff of a sequel of an under-performing drama?

And something else: How much are production costs of k-programs in average? Variety shows are probably cheaper than dramas, right?
How come Taewon Entertainment invests big money into A-listers and flies them to top-locations, but their drama scripts and stories are rehashed / nonsensical crap from basic spy fandom. Srsly, I've read better, suspenseful and challenging fanfiction.

Sorry, couldn't resist posting this.
This is especially for those are disgruntled with Athena and the IRIS franchise as a whole.

I know not everyone will be able to read Hangul but if you scroll down slowly the images are all self-explanatory.

http://gall.dcinside.com/list.php?id=giant&no=62661

Now wouldn't it be bliss if Jo Pil-yeon was to do this with ALL shows of 2011 that are kinda... not up to standard.

Athena has only gotten good at around episode 15 - suddenly somebody somewhere has remembered this is an action series.
Iris I had to stop after 2 episodes - it was almost painful - except for the 2 Kims.

Athena's choice of music, the pseudo-romantic flashbacks every 2 seconds, and way too much time upon a love story that is inexplicable and absolutely without heat.

Action, action, action. Episode 17 showed me what Athena could have been. Sigh!

What they should have done is wait a year or two before putting all this crap into production.

I actually liked Iris, but for some reason I couldn't get into Athena. I'm not sure why, but I felt it was lacking an actual storyline and there was less chemistry between the characters. It's a shame because the cast were all stars that I like.

i agree with everyone here. the story in Athena is repetitive and the loveline has no grounds at all, im not even sure if the two are in love. the plot is messy and yeah i agree, the acting is not bad, but not all good acting makes good drama. i think the viewers losing interest in this drama is because messy plot.

for the sequel, im not sure if IRIS 2 is going to be as successful as its predecessor, but if they make a hella good script and plot on this one, i say they could make it better, but i highly doubt it. how many scenario can you make involving nuclear bomb? well, if they ask me to write a script for them i'll give it a try. yikes, just kidding.

Two words: Cash cow

athena isnt that great because half its OTP cant redeem herself!
yay for novelty but i prefer my heroines to be moral
i'm still watching for choi siwon but not on time even for that reason :O

Is T.O.P in this one? Oh, no? Well then, there went my interest...

Maybe they should give it to the Hong Sisters? They haven't done this genre yet, I'm sure that they could have fun with it...

Better yet... why not just make DB and GF write it?

"Leading man Lee Byung-heon has already declined to return — "

Absolutely relieved about this. Once is enough, hope this situation stays. Hopefully KSY doesn't return either but looks like she's not going to be freed of endless misery losing out on other (better) projects.

LBH made IRIS a hit with the sterling performance with KSY (everything else taeWON did goes haywire with endless loopholes to create "sequel suspense" puhleeze and completely destroy the storyline the movie ending). Everything about Kim Sunhwa was thrown out the window. In the drama she's the best honorable loyal sidekick for Hyunjun who'd die for him.. someone he would do the same for but in the instant-cash-oriented-psycho-edited movie they made her the infamous sniper. Despite the lame production claims that movie and drama are different, the selling tagline at the movie market had been "the killer of HJ will be revealed in the movie." Talk about CONTRADICTING.. and in the spinning spin-off.. again change Sunhwa to a docile housewife and then push her to ground zero to raise the dwindling numbers. Sunhwa is now perhaps the most unstable character in IRIS... but throw her left and right, we will love you because you're not the enemy.. Taewon is.

Only watch KSY in Athena despite the extreme change they gave her all over. Hope she will kick KSW really good in her revenge (Sunhwa is now being betrayed by PCY like Hyunjun was by Baeksan-Sawoo in IRIS).. comrade or not.. his supposedly know-all character failed her twice.. in IRIS and spin-off. The only good thing prevailing is KSY.. all other Athena just bleh. Spinning dumdum.

Thanks JB for writing about IRIS and LBH.. appreciate the mention.

IRIS 2 should be halted and really learn from Athena's hard fall-from-huge-hype fiasco. Please stop while you still have a good rating and better reputation to remember.

The only fault I find with IRIS/Athena is it's writing. Seriously.

If only we could add writers Kim Young Hyun or Chun Sung Il for IRIS 2 just for their epicness.

And while we're at it, let's have Song Ji-Na to make a villain as compelling as Chae Do Woo.

Then we can have Jang Dong Gun be the villain (which, surprisingly, he was the hero in Iljimae 1993 version. Dude needs to be bad once in a while). And Go Hyun Jung as the fierce female lead. Lee Jung Jae can be the suavy lead, and Lee Min Ho as his nerdy assistant.

I know, I know. It will never happen. But since I'm dreaming anyways, might as well have Hyun Bin being Joo Won acting as the unexpected top spy who goes on every mission in his sparkly, purple tracksuit.

What really would be astounding would be if they sold the story to the US for a crappy US remake. That would be the cherry on the "milk this for all it's got" pie.

I loved IRIS, tried watching Athena and got really bored with it. o___o

...And I was complaining of a, for now, non existent Secret Garden sequel... they really want to squeez all to juice to Iris.

They could have thrown all the money in the world at these shows and they'd still be crap thanks to the writing..

Wait, scratch that. They could have hired good scriptwriters and gotten someone to write a sensible story with consistent characters.

Yeah, this is part of Shiri's legacy on Chungmuro, that never-ending drive to become a Hollywood blockbuster factory. The irony is that the results have always been mixed, in particular when they've done big budget thrillers (for example, Shiri's follow up Yesterday.)

It makes sense to continue the Iris fandom. It's not producing action/spy shows, it's about luring A-listers into doing TV, getting foreign investors, and making money in Hallyu market. Cha Seung Won kinda admitted as such in an interview. Given the elevated profile from City Hall, he decided this would be a great opportunity for him to promote his Hallyu brand. Even though the Hallyu market is still geared toward romantic trendies (Secret Garden is going to make BANK) and "vacay spot" sageuks, it also works as general PR for what the industry can produce for TV.

Anyway, I like Athena. The show was never going to really transcend that it's a Korean-style "workplace romance" show. The internal logic of the story, however they may hide it, is still standard romantic triangle stuff, with a lot of escalation. Even a show like "Time of Dog and Wolf" never really broke from that. In that regard, I think the show's okay, and I liked Cha Seung Won's Depp-style turn as the villain. There's a wonderful texture to the scenes between Hye In and Son Hyuk -- his intensity for her is by turns moving and scary.

And I like the Kill Bill-style setup for Iris 2. If you have Kim So Yeon in the lead role, well hey maybe they can pull out the $$$$ for Jang Dong Gun and give us an All About Eve reunion.

It would be awesome if they could get a Jang Dong Gun, Cho Seung Woo, or Kang Dong Wan. But Iris 2 has "Jang Hyuk" written all over it.

i think iris rating is higher because the soundtrack is great.