~~Unpopular Opinions about Kdramas ~~

All my unpopular opinions have been mirrored in previous posts - the over, over use of tropes such as childhood loves, amnesia, etc. It's quite groan inducing. The native audience clearly responds to these stories well, so I get it but I wish you'd have something a little knew. Ahn Pan-seok, himself, uses the trope in Something in the Rain in how he connects the two characters through their childhoods, but it doesn't feel like a clichés because he changes a few things. That's all you really need. A few tweaks to anything freshens up even the most mundane of story devices. 

My unpopular opinion is probably the use of chaebol and big conglomerates. It's surely a society thing but can't we get through a story without "powerful people are out to get me". I'd even prefer it if the powerful villan or hero wasn't apart of he strongest conglomerates of the country but rather a middling company because its at least something different. 

And oh, sageks should branch out more in-terms of stories and structure. It's interesting finding different versions of the same story but it does become predictable after a while. And they all follow the same formula. I feel like I've seen the story of Prince Gwanghae tons of times now. In different forms - him a bit reformist, him in his later days where he's losing his mind, etc. Enough already? The life of the citizens while only have those stories as a backdrop would be interesting, rather than the other way around. 

 Tova:

I find it superhard to look at actors/actresses who've had super obvious plastic surgery. Especially the ones who have a shaved jaw. It's super weird to see a person whose neck is wider than their face. 

Also can't stand mls that look like children. There is nothing wrong with having a pretty face, but I cannot see someone as a valid romantic interest when they look like teenagers. Especially if the character he is supposed to play is an adult with some amount of influence.

Also also, in dramas that people complain about the fl being annoying or badly written. 99% of the time the ml is also terribly written, but people don't see it because they're attracted to him lol. 

I was thinking the exact same thing as that last paragraph of yours the other day.

 dearmariska:

Something incredibly controversial: I absolutely hate 16-episode dramas. I've rarely seen such shows make effective use of their extensive screening time: usually the story starts to drag around the 12 episode mark. I'd rather watch a fast-paced drama with only 12 episodes than waste my time on a show that doesn't now how to properly wrap up a story. It's usually fine when you're watching a show while it is airing (because then you tend not to notice it) but, for the love of god, forget binge-watching a show afterwards because then it becomes too obvious the writers are doing all they can to not end the story yet.

A Piece Of Your Mind, one of my favourite dramas, was cut to 12 episodes due to ratings but I genuinely believe that it helped the show. As it's a slow paced story, they had to speed up a conclusion much quicker than intended which prevented it being dragged out or boring by the end. So I'm with the 16 episode structure not being the best. Longer or shorter ones are paced much better. 

An unpopular opinion about Korean dramas, more specifically about leads in dramas. Beauty is not talent, but there is talent in being able to come across as beautiful on screen. Beauty can make up for some lack of talent, but no amount of talent can make up for not being beautiful.

 cal0ri3:

Kdramas are never funny.

Comedy tags mean nothing to me and I know dramas with it won't actually be funny. It's not that I have a terrible sense of humor, I just don't get the jokes in kdramas mostly due to the lack of background knowledge. The other option is slapstick, but that's too over the top for most dramas. I know kdrama writers aren't trying to cater to my humor and knowledge, but that's just how I feel. 

Watching lots of korean variety shows helped me in this aspect. There are some jokes that are only known to koreans and some are just badly translated so we don’t get the humor. 

But the main point of their humor is mostly word play (which is something we won’t understand especially if we don’t know their language) and also the delivery of the lines. 

I'll say that all you need to watch for Bang Won history is Six Flying Dragons and the first few episodes of Tree With Deep Roots. After that, I've gotten my fill. 

UNPOPULAR OPINION:

Romcoms are NOT the only cliché dramas, too many crime and sageuk dramas also just always copies of each other. Sageuks recycle Joseon + plotting for throne 90% of the time even lmao.

OCN crime-thrillers are NOT good, TvN & Netflix originals are more creative in plot and FAR superior.

Crime enthusiasts are WAY TOO KEEN Romcom haters because "romcoms are cliché"....Meanwhile K-crime dramas are cliché too LMAO ????

American/European crime shows are better than asian crime shows imo.

The talent and creativity lies within the dramas that dare to combine MULTIPLE genres aka.

Vincenzo, Happiness, The Last Empress, Healer etc.

Crime-comedies are superior to OCN crime-thrillers!

Historicals set in 1900s or historical-COMEDIES are better than most pure historicals.

The average Thai historical lakorn shows far more creativity than any korean or other asian countries historicals could only dream of.

Thus,

CRIME AND (korean) HISTORICAL drama deserve the SAME hate as Romcoms get for being CLICHÉ!

 autumn carrot:

I couldn't agree more! I've noticed that I usually put kdramas on hold on episode 12 or 13 which just goes to show how the plot thins at this point and so the interest dwindles. Weirdly enough, I find that I can watch 20 episode shows easier than 16 episode shows. Something about 16 eps just means they drag the plot for 4 unnecessary episodes. 

We have EXACTLY the same problem: when I drop a show it is literally always around that 12 episode mark! I can truly enjoy a drama and, still, I often find myself losing interest during that final act. It's a shame because watching 4 whole episodes is too much time to invest into something you've lost interest in but, at the same time, you've also already watched so many episodes that dropping it also feels like a waste.