The Extremity of Korean Dramas - When Does it Become Too Much Drama?

           I came across this interesting article that addresses how Korean drama (soap opera) producers have been writing nonsensical scripts to attract more viewers.

           My mom and I used to be hard core K-drama watchers. Now we don't watch them anymore, although I do watch the children's drama, which is basically a whole another genre in itself. Yes, I would have to say K-dramas have now turned into something more of a genre in itself. Which means they're all the same, so the plot is pretty predictable. 

         So what do I have to offer, as someone who hasn't watched a Korean drama for some time? Well, it is true that I don't have first-hand, personal experience of watching today's Korean dramas, but what I do watch is "Gag Concert". One of the corners today is called "The King of Viewer Ratings", and basically, the director sits in his chair and directs the actors and actresses in the drama according to the graph that shows the number of viewers next to him. So if the number of viewers is going down and he feels that the drama is boring, he'll throw in something random and/or outrageous and then the graph will show that the number of viewers will go up. This director does a lot of parodies of the actual Korean dramas and what he parodies is so crazy that sometimes I am deceived that the comedian exaggerated or just made it up, but the shocking thing is, he gets those crazy plot twists straight from actual dramas, with no exaggeration. So basically he pokes fun of it all along the way. Based on all of this, I'm actually relieved I don't watch Korean dramas anymore.

        The article lists some specifics in Korean dramas these days, and they're all just so illegal, right? Just like the article title says, it's all trash. A married man marrying some other woman while his wife is on a trip? What is this?! Who watches this?! The frustrating thing about Korean dramas is that the cliff-hangers are intense - you have to watch the next episode, and the next episode. You get hooked to the drama. Before my family just altogether quit watching Korean dramas, I've encountered a couple of Koreans who wouldn't even watch one episode of a drama with us, saying that, once they watch a drama once, they have to keep watching it. I didn't understand them at the time, but now that I'm older and wiser, I agree with them 100%. 

        Even before Korean dramas started to become hyper actively irrational and just plain ridiculous, they were already pretty predictable. The same line of plot was and still is: rich guy likes poor girl, rich guy's mother hates poor girl, and someone dies. But murder was rarely the cause of the deaths. Of course, back in those good ol' days, even if you could say that all dramas are the same, there was so much more originality then. I don't know if script writers are running out of ideas, but the article says it's more because of the competition. But before the producers put their needs first, which is making money for themselves, they should think about what kind of society they are potentially forming with their projects. Like Jackie Chan said, the directors are responsible for what society becomes.



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