Month: April 2018

Where Have All the Good K-dramas Gone?

When I started blogging about K-dramas five years ago, K-dramas as a whole were new and shiny and exciting. Sure, I knew some of them were completely ridiculous (Lee Min Ho’s Boys over Flowers hair comes to mind), but they were charming and addicting in a way that was different from most of the American shows I watched. I have a distinct memory of sitting on my couch over Thanksgiving break, unshowered at 3:00 p.m., hitting “play” on the next episode of Coffee Prince, and loving every minute of it. For the last year, I’ve lost that K-drama–loving feeling a little. So what happened? Is it me getting jaded and overthinking a genre I used to enjoy? Is drama quality really going downhill? Or are external forces impacting the way international fans interact with dramas? Maybe all of the above? First, a disclaimer: I’m coming at this post from the perspective of a K-drama fan living in the United States. I know my experience accessing and discussing K-dramas differs from that of local Korean viewers or even …