Thanks, @unit. I'm not resigned to this trend yet, though. I'm still raging against the dying of the light(hearted).

The only rom-com that ever handled the unexpected intrusion of a murder/thriller subplot right was Because This Life Is Our First.

Thank you @unit for saying what I have been thinking for a while now. It is easier to go in with low expectations and be pleasantly surprised than to fall for the promos of unicorns and rainbows only to find yourself soaked to your knickers in one of those sudden downpours we see all too often in K dramaland. I don't live watch some dramas until I know the all clear has been given after the first round of episodes have been reviewed.

Entertainment is a copy-cat industry. Producers and writers get into a comfort zone of the format or blueprint story lines for a genre. It is not just Korea, a friend once remarked that all Hallmark stories are the same script but the names, location and occupations are changed: like a rancher in Montana turns into a car salesman in San Diego. The k-drama that actually unexpectedly blew up the standard office-business plot was PEGASUS MARKET in such a bizarre and delightful way.

It’s all about the writing. No matter how talented and charismatic the cast, it’s hard to produce a great drama from a lousy script. (Unfortunately, you don’t have far to look for proof!)

It takes a skillful writer to add twists and conflicts in a romcom that intrigue the viewer and add complexity to the story in a way that feels organic to the drama and true to the characters. When a show purporting to be a straight-up romcom takes a sudden, whiplash-inducing turn into the horrific or the supernatural, it’s a good indication that the writers don’t trust their basic story enough to sustain the audience’s interest…or that they don’t trust the audience itself. It also speaks to a lack of some combination of imagination, originality, skill, or understanding of the basic craft of scriptwriting.

Thanks for the post, @unit. Yes to everything you said. I think because I am always immersed in shows and I don’t want to be disappointed, I wait to see Beans’ reviews first before I begin watching a drama. I don’t wanna dive headlong into a bush in any case, but that comes with the price of not being able to join the discussions while the show is airing.

Reading your piece @unit, I immediately thought about last year series Thirty-nine with Son Ye Jin. The gap between the promo elements and the actual tragic and heavy content was huge, so misleading! I dropped it after 2 episodes.

From my years of kdrama viewing I’ve learned that more often then not, the second half of the drama falters, it either loses momentum or the writer doesn’t have enough material to cover 16 or so episodes. Even certified classics like COFFEE PRINCE could’ve done with fewer episodes.

Yes with the competition of streaming services we’ve seen fewer episodes for dramas lately, the 12 episode format being the most common. And yet the same problem persists? I feel like 2023 has been plagued with not just the continuation of serial killers in rom coms (and in every other genre basically) but very boring ass villains especially in comedies.

THE FORBIDDEN MARRIAGE was mostly silly fun and yet we were stuck with the most bland ass villains. This was a comedy so it was a perfect opportunity to make the baddies just as fun and ridiculous! It’s also the reason I dropped HEAVENLY IDOL like a hot potato, for something that was meant to be campy and goofy the villain was the exact opposite. I’m not sure if this trend started with ALCHEMY OF SOULS, a villain with great eyeliner but lacked depth and was the most frustrating character to watch, yes even Park Jin’s bad cooking scenes were far more interesting imo.

Writers please make villains be more than a one dimensional caricature whose only motivation is power yeah?

That said @unit, I can also usually endure a bad drama if I find some part of it redeemable or become invested in certain characters. Chef John’s redemption arc and his love-line with Ji-wan was what kept me watching LOVE IS FOR SUCKERS. In SUMMER STRIKE the slow blossoming romance between our two introverted protagonists (tho flawed) was sweet. Plus rooting for my girl Kim Bom to escape her horrendous situation was what kept me watching a very disjointed slice of life show.

So while I do feel burnt out from time to time, I’ll always keep coming back to kdramas. While sometimes frustrating (and sadly the trend of multiple seasons becoming more prevalent), I do enjoy the medium. A self contained story within 16 episodes or so is not as common in western media and thus not having to wait year after year to see my favourite show completed or god forbid cancelled is always a bonus!

That is really a great piece completely fitting the healing dramas and romcoms we have been getting. But just like @unit I can't watch without being invested in the characters and what happens to them.

I do agree that in most dramas everything on the surface is not what it seems. Otherwise there is no reason for the story to be told. To have a drama that is gripping our interest and keep us wanting more and more, that is what makes the drama a success with higher ratings than the run of the mill shows. The best kind will be one that a revelation is the key to the entire movie or drama. For a good example, look at the movie Sixth Sense with Bruce Willis as the ML. The reveal was so unexpected and shocking that leaves the audience reeling, but it makes a whole lot of sense to the entire plot.

Oh @unit. I loved your write up! I needed those chuckles on this very rainy, chilly day!

There's an old saying that 80% of everything is garbage. 80% of movies, 80% of radio stations, 80% of restaurant food, 80% of parenting advice, 80% of relationships. But the flip side is 20% (one-in-five) of everything is really really GOOD! That seems like pretty good odds. If one in five K-dramas are making you happy you can just ignore the other four and be happy.

I have thought about this issue some and I agree with @unit and everyone else who commented on the varied source of the problems. The only caveat I would insert is that the issue most arises when the premise is good but the show is disappointing.

Unexpected can be a very satisfying viewing experience, as it was for me with the recent Call it Love. The pre-airing description was so melodramatic that I wasn't even going to watch it until clued in by DB recaps and comments. But it turned out for me to be one of the most interesting and emotionally engaging romance shows of the last couple of years.

Also, and this is true for me, I would say expected is not always good. The three sageuks I attempted and then dropped this year I was attracted by their unusual premises--A silly Joseon rom-com (Forbidden Marriage); a mystery romance (Our Blooming Youth) and a focus on a female inn-keeper (Romantic Guest House). But they turned out to be exactly what is expected in every sageuk--a focus on court politics and succession crises. (I know sageuk fans love these elements, just like I love many rom-com tropes, so the emergence of the expected was just my personal dismay.)

But, back to the disappointment of the unexpected--the premises that sound great or, alternatively, start out really well--Heavenly Idol, Summer Strike, Love is for Suckers, Crash Course in Romance--and turn out to be total duds because writers lose sight of what is appealing about their shows. For these shows I never know whether to credit the writers for the original concept, or whether to blame them for neglecting it. Why do writers/producers/directors not realize what the strength of their shows' premises are when EVERYONE watching can see it--as @unit discusses, the recent examples of the fun "fish out of water" element of Heavenly Idol satirizing the music business degrading into an extraordinarily ridiculous and surprisingly grim theological exercise; the expose of the after school system combined with romance in Crash Course inserting a serial murderer as an absurd adjunct to an already complex plot.

For shows in which the marketing is misleading, well described by @reply1988, is it because PR people realize they have a dud on their hands, and so stress what will pull people in initially--such as "watch this for light fluffy escapism and romance" like in Summer Strike--ignoring the poorly integrated and out of place dark elements, hoping that viewers will stay to the end? But that doesn't seem to have worked for recent rom-coms. I THINK Bora, Deborah will remain a lighter rom-com, but its initial ratings were abysmal. So the marketing of it as a light fluffy romance was not a success? What if they had emphasized that in this rom-com there will be a serial killer targeting Bora, and then surprised with a fluffy rom-com?

In the end, I've concluded that it is just really hard to write, produce, and direct 12, 16, or even more hours of...