My Pet Peeves with Korean Dramas

by Rachelle Gan

A Korean drama freak airs her grievances about the little things in dramas that make her roll her eyes, head desk and resist urges to break her television set or computer screen.

One mundane night, in a state of mind-numbing boredom I chanced upon an episode of the hit Korean drama Full House. Before I knew it I was completely hooked. This pattern repeated itself for a handful of other Korean dramas over the years and it was official: I love Korean dramas.

Well the good ones at least.

Most Korean dramas are typically produced in a miniseries format spanning 16 to 20 episodes, but those airing during the weekends sometimes span 50 episodes and those airing daily come in 100 episodes or more.

Korean dramas usually have four leads – two guys and two girls – though this concept does differ occasionally. Dramas spanning 50 episodes or more do have more than just four leads and they encompass more characters because more material is needed to fill out the episodes.

I’ve watched mainly dramas in the miniseries format and even though the love for dramas is great, it isn’t blind either – accompanying it is a lot of exasperation, hate and by George, even anger at times. There are so many things I’m put off with in various Korean dramas yet I keep going back for more, it’s a wretched cycle indeed.

Undoubtedly, romance will always play an integral part in most Korean dramas but I get really peeved when “love” becomes the rhyme and reason for everything. It’d be nice if people were capable of doing the logical, right thing by each other without any romantic inclinations involved, or if they weren’t driven to do things of epic stupidity all in the name of that darned emotion. Yes I do count dying to give your eyes away to someone else an act of epic stupidity.

Another pet peeve is when the writing incorporates silly clichéd plot devices to move the story along – why, of course two people end up kissing accidentally after one of them trips and falls on top of the other. Although, it gets fun when writers take clichés and give them a spin or make fun of them instead.

Also, it is imperative I like the characters if I am to continue watching a drama because there’s really no point sitting through 16 hours or more of people you don’t even like. In fact it’ll irritate the sanity out of you.

Just as a good drama is hard to come by, so are likable, non-twisted characters. It gets particularly annoying when the lead characters are supposed to be really likeable – what with all the whitewashing and other characters singing praises about their perfection – but all you want to do is hurl them over the nearest cliff.

Many of these dramas contain elements that are irritating as heck but I keep going back because when you finally discover a gem of a drama; the excitement, impatience, tears, laughter, frustration and joy that accompany it? Totally worth it. 


Next Week: The K-pop Scene: A Disenchantment