Oh in like episode 3 or something lmao.
I don’t even know if I can finish it. Even episode 9-10 was painful for me.
Will still try and get the essay out though.

½ I have a different perspective of the whole thing.

First of all, I think this show went downhill in episode 3 and 4 as soon as they decided to ignore the satire the first two episodes set up.
Second of all the likely hood of this being better written if it were pre-produced is low because it’s issue is not in the production, it’s in the writing. Also, if the last three years are anything to go by, pre-production DOES NOT mean that your show is going to be any better technically because of it.

Because of these things we can therefore conclude that the flaws lie elsewhere- that is in the very core technical elements of writing and directing.

Statistically speaking, out of the 115 kdramas I have watched, I would only rate about 8% of those at or over an 8/10, would only recommend said 8% and therefore would only class said 8% as “Good” shows.
This is also how I feel about most television, film and literature worldwide. Finding an excellent book these days is like finding a needle in a haystack, even more so one that was written in the last two decades. I would rave about maybe 2 movies every two years. That’s a very low percentage considering how many both books and movies comes out within that time.

From my experience over the past 20-30 years there has been an ever decreasing focus on what good storytelling is, how to tell it and why it’s important within these mediums.
What they care about instead is a bit dependent on the medium; it’s often money, particularly in the case of Hollywood movies (this is why a) Disney is buying everything and b) Franchises are more popular than standalones even though Franchises aren’t good quality typically, especially not by the time they end) or clout, or merely success at their “career” without actually being good at it- you see this a bit in the modern “literature” sphere, especially in the fiction aimed at younger audiences- the technical quality of the piece doesn’t matter, so much as being able to write something that sells well and will get you lots of rabid fans and therefore money for the publishing house.
In film at the moment you basically have two categories of film. The Award Bait film (be it Cannes or the Oscars), and the gross over-saturated franchise or remake/sequel/prequel money making blockbuster. Most award ceremonies these days are bias and therefore the films made to bait these awards are of a certain kind.

On top of this, nowadays these mediums are more about entertainment value, and ever increasingly the barrier for what we are entertained by is getting lower and lower, as we consume more and more of it daily.
Social media is the prime example of this. And along with globalisation is why things like Vine and TikTok become popular. It’s not hard to get a million views on something now.

2/2 … We crave easy entertainment and the bar for getting whatever boost it is we do from these mediums is really frakking low. So then people cater to that cheap, fast food entertainment in both TV, film and books, instead of remembering why we cared about those things to begin with.

Over the past year or two, the more I watch dramas, the more I notice the same or similar issues in creative content produced by Korea and kdrama writing to content and writing everywhere else.

That is, in my opinion, storytelling as an art form is being lost.

As well as the aforementioned reasons, I also think there just isn’t enough weight being put on it as an art form, be it visual or written. I also don’t think it’s being taught at all, anywhere. Because the entertainment industry is about entertainment, and not how these things can be art.

Of course, we still keep coming back for more, whether it is to satisfy our entertainment fast food needs, or because we still manage to form some sense of emotional connection through the overly processed products that are put out everywhere, and when something comes along that BREAKS the mould of global entertainment, we understandably rejoice.

But the majority of kdrama writers I’ve encountered don’t’ write good stories, not technically good ones, so I have to just assume they either don’t know or don’t care, and if they don’t care then my guess is they’re too wrapped up in the mess of the industry to step back look at things differently.

I mean come on, most young writer’s these days in literature sign their souls away to monopoly publishing houses because to them they just want to be PUBLISHED. Never mind they’ll have no creative control and won’t be pushed to write better ever, because like hell that’s what the publishing house cares about. I imagine something similar could easily happen in the K-Ent world. Oh a big station wants to turn your webtoon into a kdrama? Not many writers, young or otherwise would turn down a tv show deal. It doesn’t matter if the webtoon is good, or if the writer can even write coherently for tv or not, they just need to put out content.

And… cynical Sic has made a comeback folks. A round of applause please.

Let’s make a list of all shit shows & their no logic….. This might get long.
Abyss
Trashdal
Thaw Me
Extraordinary You
My Absolute Boyfriend
Hotel Del Luna
The Crowned Clown

(side note – how does YJG manage to find all the shit scripts? Only TCC had potential on the surface & we both know how we feel about that)

@maybemaknae
So what my 92%?

(the least I can do right now is list all my shitposts. So you’re missing Memories of Alhambra and Kill It and Vagabond.)

Thanks for the essay! I’m honoured to have it on my wall hehe. You should post it on your wall too.

2019 was a rough year indeed from the storytelling point of view. More dramas than ever before but quality is getting lower. 😖

Mofa – I don’t understand game stuff & except for 2-3 major things I didn’t notice logical flaws, but yes that drama was a scam because there’s no way the lead should’ve been alive by the end.

Kill It – how could I forget kill it? This is the year of episode 6 tells-all how trash it’s gonna be (*cough EY cough*) I have a soft spot for this drama because it lived up to its namesake & actual killing happened 😂🤣
_ For me it was a so bad it’s good drama. Kind of like how you enjoy VB.

VB – from reading y’alls comments & shitposts I’m assured it deserves a spot. I did watch ep 1 after all 😆

I think EY takes the cake for worst dramas this year. It actually fake attempted to establish couple of rules, unlike HDL which was like ‘You nice, keep being dumb’

Also was Radiant from this year? It deserves to be in this list.

Clean With Passion for Now – it was annoying & senseless even for a rom com. But I’m not sure if it was bad enough to be included in the worst list.

@wishfultoki haha aww thanks! Maybe I will!.

@maybemaknae
I can’t rate EY worse than TCC. Even though… It comes close in some ways.
Kill it was also my guilty pleasure.
Radiant was this year yes hehehe.

Thanks for that essay! Really puts things into perspective. It’s kind of sad that that’s the reality we’re in, k-drama world or not. I guess it’s sad too when you put your hope into something – like “please be good, I haven’t watched anything this promising this year yet. Please, please.” And you wait every week for something, I dunno, amazing to happen story/character/plot-wise and you reach the end of the show, and it’s disappointing because you never got what you waited for. *sighs* On to the next one I guess.