This year had some dramas giving us some fresh out of water premises, settings and all. So while we didn't know what to expect, we were well aware of what not to expect, and even if it did occur, not in the regular way we see it play out. Yet somehow it managed to not deliver on its fresh premise as it got overriden by overused plot tropes.

Another thing dramas did was the Kopiko PPL. OMG it was everywhere I looked. And the obvious way it was paraded just grated my skin. For a product that made it's way into a good number of the dramas I watched this year, it is tiring to see the same sentence over and over again with no ingenuity at every different turn. Do better please.

The writers didn't know what were their story's strengths and highlighted their weaknesses instead like the love story in Why Her?, the villain in Cheer Up, the bad clichés in Business Proposal, etc.

I'm extremely over the episode 14 breakup (or equivalent). I don't think it happens quite as regularly as it used to, which makes the dramas that do have it stick out - and not in a flattering way.

It wasn't the only thing I found disappointing about episodes 13 and 14 of Extraordinary Attorney Woo, but it was one of the bigger things. Those episodes made me tune into the last week of the drama with trepidation instead of anticipation, which was such a shame considering how interesting the rest of it had been. The couple in EAW had more barriers to communication than most do, but it was still a shame to see their breakup play out in a way that didn't feel authentic to who they were. Add to that the fact that they never resolve any of the issues that caused the breakup in the first place, and you get a serious lack of emotional payout when they get back together in the finale.

Serial killer mysteries (Cheer Up, Love in Contract's fake out).
Serial killer plot twists (May I Help You's character assassination, The Golden Spoon's school shooting).

Yes, the two parters are my biggest gripe, Poong the JP being the biggest culprit here. I'm only giving Alchemy a pass because I love it so much.

My personal opinion is that the dramas we had this year seemed to try to be the next Squid Game or Parasit -they tried so hard to be complex at the expense of everything else including story coherence, chemistry between the OTP, and that overall “joy” of watching that drama.

There are no simple and fun stories this year like Weightlifting Fairy, Live Up to Your Name, Chicago Typewriter, Descendant of the Sun (I know, some of these are not everyone’s liking but I’ll use them to illustrate my point). Instead, we have had numerous lawyer shows, shows with questionable lead characters or premises, shows that we don’t know what the intention of the producers is, incoherent or inconsistent shows, and violent shows. I know Koreans are competitive and they perhaps want to outdo their previous global hits but too much is never the way to go. What makes Korean shows stand out from the rest is the Korean elements in them. Trying to appeal to the international audience too much and they lose their unique charms.

My gripe: Old (tongue in cheek) actors playing their younger selves. Give the budding Nam Da-reums out there a chance please.

Serial killer, murderers, rapists, extreme crime in romcoms. Give us a straight up and down love story with bizarre rain trauma or money trou less. Why do we need serial killers in a romance. Smh

Another thing that should be corrected is the excessive length of the episodes. GAUS for example, in addition to being great, was 50 minutes per episode. Simmer Strike is also well under the hour.

I had no trouble with dark and non-Korean-like dramas before, but this year was awful and weird. Glitch, Connect, Somebody, A model family...

Plot less, story-less, moral-less dramas.
What are dramas trying to do, what is the story or lesson they are trying to convey?
I feel more and more dramas are just made in the air for entertainment and maybe ratings. There are fewer actually good stories that are conveying a purpose or making the audience care.
It was another country's drama that made me realize how kdramas are lacking a stronger lesson in their stories. Yes not every drama needs to have a lesson but at least a purpose a story that makes people care.

One thing that annoyed me this year was the number of dramas with original interesting premises that, halfway into the season, reverted to pure formula to fill up the remaining time with. Like 'Hey, were did that breakup come from?' or 'Hey, where did that episode 14 separation come from?' Either they had the script pre-written for the first half then rushed through the rest, or the studio pressured them into altering the script to make it more 'mainstream'.

I had to think long and hard about this one then it suddenly came to me: the playing of two timelines alongside each other when the source material had a linear time line. Pachinko and Seasons of blossom both suffered this fate and reading the comments sections it was clear that some people were not experiencing the elements that I had loved in the source material because of this storytelling process. Such a shame as the source material for both were really well written pieces with great characters but the drama failed to bring this out for multiple reasons.

It's not new to 2022 but the display of violence is too much for me.
For example, I stopped watching Sound of Magic when they showed the female lead being sexually gropped/abused by her old boss in the 1st episode. Why would they show me an actual sexual abuse on screen? Why do they let the actress go through this? I don't understand...
And also the countless bullying scenes in high school settings, the beatings, the murders, etc.
So many series I've dropped because of the unnecessary violent and traumatising scenes! I wish they would stop this trend!

I'm soooo tired of lawyer/legal dramas. It feels like Korea is going through its David E. Kelly phase.

One? 😆

Okay, I have some complains but the biggest one is that they forgot romcoms exist (or what they really mean).

Thanks to kdramas, now every time I hear "romcom" I think of a dead body, some dude's trauma and/or the probabilities of a main lead with both of their parents alive and well.

Why Kim Tae Ri couldnt play adult Na Hee Do, when they had no problem making her mom a grandma.

You caught me! 😅 Chicago Typewriter would be qualified as a coherent and fun story, not simple and fun one. But the idea is the same.

I hate, with the heat of a million burning suns, showing actors smoking. I don't know how many millions of dollars tobacco companies spent filling folks' pockets to make it happen, but it's unforgivable.

fucked up Seon In Gook´s strike of luck with scripts.

Open endings and/or implied conclusions. Writers, PLEASE use your skills to give the viewers a little more closure with the ending.