Let me start of by sharing how I started watching Korean dramas:
I started watching Korean dramas when my friend raved about the drama, Your Beautiful which tempted me to give it a try... I disliked it. I disliked Your Beautiful mainly because I found the story childish and illogical so I stopped watching and went to watch Taiwan dramas in which I truly enjoyed. (Note: I did watch Korean family dramas with my mother since young so when I say started watching Kdramas on my own, it means prime time dramas.. I have never watched a family drama on my own because I will probably smash my laptop out of frustration.)
Few months later, I chanced upon dramas like My Girlfriend Is A Gumiho, Secret Garden and that's when I started loving and got myself addicted to Korean dramas, I was quite doubtful when watching My Girlfriend Is A Gumiho since I did note that it's by the same writer as Your Beautiful (My ever favourite writing duo Hong Sisters) but I absolutely loved it and well, apart from Your Beautiful, I loved ever single one of Hong Sisters drama. (Moral of my story: Do not judge the writer by one drama) After that, I was interested in Secret Garden so I started watching it, I did not enjoy the first 1/4 honestly, I found it boring but after that 1/4, I LOVED the drama to the moon and back, I even re-watched the whole drama more than 10 times. AND SO, MY DRAMA ADDICTION BEGAN WITH LOADS OF DRAMA MARATHON AND READING REVIEWS ONLINE TO DECIDE WHAT TO CHECK OUT AND SLOWLY UNDERSTANDING THE KOREAN DRAMA SYSTEM, I was quite confused with stuff like Viewer Ratings, Prime Time Drama, Family Drama since I don't know what they are and what they are for so I am creating this post to share some basic in watching Korean Dramas and what kinds of Korean drama are good for starters.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF KOREAN DRAMAS
SBS Heirs
KBS Iris
MBC Moon Embracing The Sun
1. Prime Time Dramas
Prime Time dramas are usually and mostly shown late at night on Monday & Tuesday Timeslot or Wednesday & Thursday Timeslot, they are usually short with 16-20 episodes with some exception of more (Empress Ki had 50 episode), they are usually the dramas with higher budget, famous scriptwriters and directors, a more stellar/famous/well known cast. Prime Time dramas are mainly dramas that I and many other Korean drama lovers watch most, I like short dramas because they are usually much less laggy and I get impatient easily so Prime Time dramas are good for me. Prime Time dramas are more targeted towards being more trendy and it does well internationally, in the past Prime Time dramas are able to receive around 30% ratings but currently, anything around 10% is considered pretty good and successful.
SBS Secret Garden
MBC Dr Jin
SBS Incarnation Of Money
2. Short Weekend Dramas
While weekend dramas are usually long with around 50 episodes, there are also short weekend dramas with around 20 episodes, they are actually considered Prime Time dramas to me since they satisfy all the elements of a Prime Timeslot drama except that it is shown on weekends.
KBS Wonderful Days
SBS Glorious Days
MBC Twinkle Twinkle
3. Weekend Dramas
Typical weekend dramas are around 50 episodes long, weekend dramas tend to do better in ratings since it's more relatable and meant to be suitable for the whole family to watch. KBS does best in ratings for weekend dramas since they have a timeslot that have drama reaching around 30-40% constantly (Wang's Family/Wonderful Days/My Husband Got A Family), SBS have been suffering heavily with ratings with it's weekend timeslot while MBC is doing pretty decently good.
KBS Melody Of Love
SBS My Daughter The Flower
MBC Princess Aurora
4. Daily Dramas
Daily dramas are shown at around dinner time from Monday-Friday, each episode is pretty short at around 30 minutes, typical daily dramas have around 120 episodes with some going up to 160 episodes if it's doing well in ratings so the drama is around the length of a weekend long drama since each episode of those are around an hour. Daily dramas do pretty well in ratings since it's really family oriented and full of drama (it's rare to find daily dramas without evil people trying to steal your company or some random birth secret plot)
KBS TV Novel: My Love, My Love
SBS Two Women's Room
MBC Pink Lipstick
5. Morning Daily Dramas
The dramas are really similar to daily dramas just that it's shown in the morning at around 7-8am, despite showing really early, the ratings are pretty good, having some of the dramas achieving around 20-30% since many housewife are awake at that time to cook breakfast/send their husband and children to school. The quality and length of the drama is around the same as the normal daily dramas in my opinion.
KBS High School Love On
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KBS Spy
6.Once A Week Drama
This is a new Friday timeslot created by KBS, is started with High School Love On showing one episode a week and now, it is showing Spy which shows two episodes in a row. This timeslot has been doing badly in ratings having to average at 4-5% but KBS seems to be continuing with this since the next drama has been planned. I've yet to watch either of the dramas but I am starting on High School Love On next, the impression it gave me was of a prime time drama considering the length and theme of the dramas.
KBS Different Cries
MBC Old Goodbye
7. Drama Special/Drama Festival
Drama Special/Festival are shown as a one/two episode stand alone drama, it usually feels like a television movie. The ratings for these are usually bad since it's just one/two short episodes.
NAVER TV cast Love Cell
NAVER TV cast Dream Knight
8. Web Dramas
Web Dramas are quite new, it's introduced because more and more people are watching dramas online than on the TV which suggest the low viewer ratings. These dramas tends to aim viewers that are around the schooling age so the production team cast many idols so they can attract their fans to watch. Web dramas are short in duration and length.
MBC High Kick 2
KBS Family
SBS Salamander Guru
9. Sitcoms
Sitcoms are usually around a 100 episodes long but there are some exception like Salamander Guru with only 10 episodes . Sitcoms are supposed to be fun and more of a comedy.
TVN Liar Game
JTBC Heartless City
OCN Special Affairs Team TEN
Channel A Panda & Hedgehog
Mnet Monstar
TV Chosun Bride Of The Century
10. Cable dramas
Cable dramas has all types of drama listed above, from prime time dramas to long daily dramas. There are quite a few cable channels with the most popular ones being JTBC, TVN and OCN, OCN focus mainly on crime dramas while others have a mixture. Cable dramas DOES NOT lose in quality/acting/casting compared to public network's drama, famous and critically acclaimed actors like Jung Woo Sung, Han Ji Min, Park Shin Hye, Yoo Ah In have done cable dramas recently, writers and directors that have done famous dramas like Coffee Prince, My Name Is Kim Sam Soon have been also doing dramas on cable networks. Cable dramas tend to have more freedom, for example, I Need Romance series have been named as the Korean drama version of Sex and The City, Heartless City deals with dark themes like drugs which may be rare or not allowed in public channels. Cable dramas have lower ratings because they have a smaller audience so anything above 1% is considered a success but cable dramas have been doing really well with TVN's Misaeng reaching up to around 9% and creating loads of buzz around, JTBC's Secret Love Affair manage to reach around 5% despite it's adultery theme and OCN's Vampire Prosecutor received loads of praises and fans and it manage to get around 2% in ratings. Cable dramas are getting more and more impressive which sometimes put the big 3 public network in shame, the budget for cable dramas are increasing and the cast are getting even more impressive. I USED TO THINK CABLE DRAMAS ARE FOR SECOND/THIRD CLASS ACTORS AND WITH CHEAP PRODUCTION COST but I was so wrong, cable dramas definitely does not lose to prime time dramas in any way and sometimes exceeding (look at how great Misaeng, Reply Me 1997 are!), even long daily dramas from cable channels are good, I really liked the 100+ episode Ice Adonis.
VIEWER RATINGS
Viewer Ratings does not determine if the show is good or bad. I used to think that viewer ratings are the points Korean viewers give the show haha, viewer ratings are just mere numbers that shows how many people are watching the drama. Dramas may get even around 60% ratings in the past but currently, anything around 40% is considered a rare success, prime time dramas have been doing badly in ratings too, with one timeslot, 2014's Wed-Thurs timeslot having the three drama ranging at around 4%-8% ratings which is pretty sad. There are even prime time dramas that go as low as 2% due to high competition and little viewers.
KBS Baker King (Baking King reached around 50%)
VIEWER RATINGS DOES NOT DETERMINE ANYTHING, true enough, viewer ratings shows if a drama is successful and all dramas wants to do well in ratings, no matter how well the drama is being praised critically, if it does not do well in ratings, the drama may even incur a loss. There are dramas that did amazingly well in ratings like
Smile Dong hae in which I passionately disliked. Dramas that do well in ratings usually consist of loads of drama, from birth secret to having a super evil main secondary lead torturing the main lead to stealing of a company. These are alright once in a while to keep the story going but not when you spend every episode creating a new one, it irritated me to the core. There are some people that did enjoy the drama and enjoy these type of drama so I am not going to talk about it any further since everyone has different taste.
There are also dramas that does amazing in ratings, praised critically and even get super popular overseas,
You Who Came From The Stars was a definite success, it almost reach 30% which is a huge achievement since prime time dramas have been doing badly in ratings, it created a hallyu wave, it was so popular overseas that almost everyone knew about it, it sold out many products used in the drama and viewers (like me) did enjoy and love the drama.
There are many dramas that I love so much (and is well received by viewers) but never manage to become popular overseas nor do well in ratings which is a pity....
Miss Korea was completely overshadowed by You Who Came From The Stars having to be in the same time slot, Miss Korea was well received by viewers and I really love it too. The ratings for this is honestly not that bad considering it's competition but it is still not a success.
I love Liar Game and so did many of the viewers but it only manage to receive around 0.9%-1% ratings throughout it's run on TVN.
I still haven't get over Healer, I loved it dearly and It is definitely one of my favourite drama. It did manage to become quite popular overseas and almost everyone that watched it, loved it because it is that good. Sadly, the ratings are quite upsetting, it remained 7-10% throughout which isn't bad since it manage to clinch first and second place in the ratings battle for a while before falling to third place in the last few weeks, THIS DRAMA HAS THE POTENTIAL TO DO MUCH BETTER, I think the drama deserves to get at least 12-15% in it's peak but it faced large competition from SBS Punch and never managed to get anymore popular in ratings.
And in the last category, we have dramas that I didn't exactly enjoy and did badly in ratings too,
Trot Lovers didn't do that bad in ratings since it ranged from 6-9% which is decent since it's low budgeted compared to others and the drama was really pretty bad.
Marry Him If You Dare had a great cast that I love but the story was bad, really bad. MHIYD had so much potential, it premiered with 9.7% which is really good but as it goes on, it dropped till 4%, I wouldn't have finished the drama if not for Yoon Eun Hye and Jung Yong Hwa. The only reason why anyone bother sticking through the end is probably because of YEH's star power.
I didn't exactly disliked Bel Ami.. but it isn't good either. It's rating range from 2.9-6%.
DRAMAS FOR NEW KDRAMA VIEWERS
There are many genres of dramas, Romantic Comedies (Rom Com) are probably the easiest to watch since they are mostly light hearted and fun but there are also some that are pretty bad (for example the three dramas I've just listed above). Rom Com is the best starting drama since it's easy to absorb and doesn't require much thinking, some personal recommendations:
1. You Who Came From The Stars/My Love From The Stars (21 episodes)
2. My Girlfriend Is A Gumiho (16 episodes)
3. Birth Of A Beauty (21 episodes)
This is purely my opinion since there are people that prefer melodramas so they enjoy watching them or there are people that dislike rom coms but I think generally, these three dramas are good for starters. There are dramas that I love dearly but would not recommend it to people who just started watching, for example Misaeng, Reply Me 1997 since they tell their story in a slightly different way than those that I listed and may be slightly hard to understand. I wouldn't recommend saeguk either since I think it's much harder to understand, I started watching saeguks like Jumong really early so I think I was still quite unsure about the culture and all so I didn't enjoy it despite it's stellar review. However I do know some people that watch mainly saeguks and they started drama watching from saeguks so it kind of depends.. if you feel foreign with saeguk at first but still want to give it a shot (like me), try time travelling dramas like Queen In Hyun Man or dramas like Sungkyunkwan Scandal.
DECIDING WHAT TO WATCH
I started reading reviews to narrow my to-watch list since I started off quite late, when reading reviews online, always open up a few websites so you can get a general view, everyone has different taste in dramas, some may love that particular drama but some may hate it so it depends. For example, I read mainly(99%) bad reviews for Big so I didn't want to touch it but it manage to perk up my interest after watching Hong Sister's Master Sun and I loved Master Sun so much so I thought that how bad can Hong Sister's Big be? I watched with low expectations and aware of the warning on how bad the ending is going to be but I ended up loving it.(with the exception of the ending)
DON'T FORCE YOURSELF TO WATCH WHAT YOU DISLIKE, this is a bad habit I can't get rid of, I hate the drama but I still watch it for the sake of the actor and sometimes it's a torture since it's that bad. I am trying to get rid of my habit since I did stop watching stuff I really feel annoyed by even though i'm halfway through. Always watch around 5 episodes before deciding if you should continue, 1-3 episode may be too little since there are some shows that started off badly but ended up being gold. (For example, History Of A Salaryman)
Watching teasers is important too since it gives you a rough idea of the drama but teasers aren't perfect indication of the drama. I disliked Pinocchio's Teaser but Pinocchio ended up good. I loved the teasers of Trot Lovers teaser but disliked that drama.
Running Man aka Variety Shows do help perk up interest in dramas if the cast of the drama goes on as guest to promote. Since Running Man is on SBS, the dramas being promoted are from SBS too. If the cast look like they have fun with each other and are interesting, it will probably interest the viewers too, isn't it?
EXAMPLES:
Episode 166- The Heirs
Episode 190- Angel Eyes
Episode 219- Birth Of A Beauty
Episode 78- History Of A Salaryman
Episode 54- Protect The Boss
WHEN TO START
This is just a friendly tip, wait until there is only a few days left till the last episode before starting to watch. I enjoy having drama marathons and hate waiting so I always start a few days before the drama ends, it is a huge torture to wait every week for the next two episodes. Example, Healer ended on 10 February, it takes around a day for the subs to be out which is February 11 so I started watching only on 8th February and I didn't have to wait at all.
I always watch one drama at a time (with the exception of family dramas since I always watch one long drama with my family at the same time), I don't like watching a few dramas at the same time since I don't think I am able to enjoy it fully. It's worse when you watch two great dramas at once and you can't help but to compare and neglect the one that may not be that great but still worth watching. (Personal thoughts of mine.. there are some people that enjoy doing that so it depends on whether you are patient enough to wait)
TO SUM IT UP
It took me around a whole morning and a little of my afternoon to write all these, these are mainly my thoughts and opinions so it may differ from what you are thinking or feeling. Hopefully my thoughts do help if you are just starting to watch Korean Dramas, if not, hopefully you didn't feel like you have wasted your time reading this? *inserts shy faced emoji*
I started watching Korean dramas when my friend raved about the drama, Your Beautiful which tempted me to give it a try... I disliked it. I disliked Your Beautiful mainly because I found the story childish and illogical so I stopped watching and went to watch Taiwan dramas in which I truly enjoyed. (Note: I did watch Korean family dramas with my mother since young so when I say started watching Kdramas on my own, it means prime time dramas.. I have never watched a family drama on my own because I will probably smash my laptop out of frustration.)
Few months later, I chanced upon dramas like My Girlfriend Is A Gumiho, Secret Garden and that's when I started loving and got myself addicted to Korean dramas, I was quite doubtful when watching My Girlfriend Is A Gumiho since I did note that it's by the same writer as Your Beautiful (My ever favourite writing duo Hong Sisters) but I absolutely loved it and well, apart from Your Beautiful, I loved ever single one of Hong Sisters drama. (Moral of my story: Do not judge the writer by one drama) After that, I was interested in Secret Garden so I started watching it, I did not enjoy the first 1/4 honestly, I found it boring but after that 1/4, I LOVED the drama to the moon and back, I even re-watched the whole drama more than 10 times. AND SO, MY DRAMA ADDICTION BEGAN WITH LOADS OF DRAMA MARATHON AND READING REVIEWS ONLINE TO DECIDE WHAT TO CHECK OUT AND SLOWLY UNDERSTANDING THE KOREAN DRAMA SYSTEM, I was quite confused with stuff like Viewer Ratings, Prime Time Drama, Family Drama since I don't know what they are and what they are for so I am creating this post to share some basic in watching Korean Dramas and what kinds of Korean drama are good for starters.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF KOREAN DRAMAS
SBS Heirs
KBS Iris
MBC Moon Embracing The Sun
1. Prime Time Dramas
Prime Time dramas are usually and mostly shown late at night on Monday & Tuesday Timeslot or Wednesday & Thursday Timeslot, they are usually short with 16-20 episodes with some exception of more (Empress Ki had 50 episode), they are usually the dramas with higher budget, famous scriptwriters and directors, a more stellar/famous/well known cast. Prime Time dramas are mainly dramas that I and many other Korean drama lovers watch most, I like short dramas because they are usually much less laggy and I get impatient easily so Prime Time dramas are good for me. Prime Time dramas are more targeted towards being more trendy and it does well internationally, in the past Prime Time dramas are able to receive around 30% ratings but currently, anything around 10% is considered pretty good and successful.
SBS Secret Garden
MBC Dr Jin
SBS Incarnation Of Money
2. Short Weekend Dramas
While weekend dramas are usually long with around 50 episodes, there are also short weekend dramas with around 20 episodes, they are actually considered Prime Time dramas to me since they satisfy all the elements of a Prime Timeslot drama except that it is shown on weekends.
KBS Wonderful Days
SBS Glorious Days
MBC Twinkle Twinkle
3. Weekend Dramas
Typical weekend dramas are around 50 episodes long, weekend dramas tend to do better in ratings since it's more relatable and meant to be suitable for the whole family to watch. KBS does best in ratings for weekend dramas since they have a timeslot that have drama reaching around 30-40% constantly (Wang's Family/Wonderful Days/My Husband Got A Family), SBS have been suffering heavily with ratings with it's weekend timeslot while MBC is doing pretty decently good.
KBS Melody Of Love
SBS My Daughter The Flower
MBC Princess Aurora
4. Daily Dramas
Daily dramas are shown at around dinner time from Monday-Friday, each episode is pretty short at around 30 minutes, typical daily dramas have around 120 episodes with some going up to 160 episodes if it's doing well in ratings so the drama is around the length of a weekend long drama since each episode of those are around an hour. Daily dramas do pretty well in ratings since it's really family oriented and full of drama (it's rare to find daily dramas without evil people trying to steal your company or some random birth secret plot)
KBS TV Novel: My Love, My Love
SBS Two Women's Room
MBC Pink Lipstick
5. Morning Daily Dramas
The dramas are really similar to daily dramas just that it's shown in the morning at around 7-8am, despite showing really early, the ratings are pretty good, having some of the dramas achieving around 20-30% since many housewife are awake at that time to cook breakfast/send their husband and children to school. The quality and length of the drama is around the same as the normal daily dramas in my opinion.
KBS High School Love On
KBS Spy
6.Once A Week Drama
This is a new Friday timeslot created by KBS, is started with High School Love On showing one episode a week and now, it is showing Spy which shows two episodes in a row. This timeslot has been doing badly in ratings having to average at 4-5% but KBS seems to be continuing with this since the next drama has been planned. I've yet to watch either of the dramas but I am starting on High School Love On next, the impression it gave me was of a prime time drama considering the length and theme of the dramas.
KBS Different Cries
MBC Old Goodbye
7. Drama Special/Drama Festival
Drama Special/Festival are shown as a one/two episode stand alone drama, it usually feels like a television movie. The ratings for these are usually bad since it's just one/two short episodes.
NAVER TV cast Love Cell
NAVER TV cast Dream Knight
8. Web Dramas
Web Dramas are quite new, it's introduced because more and more people are watching dramas online than on the TV which suggest the low viewer ratings. These dramas tends to aim viewers that are around the schooling age so the production team cast many idols so they can attract their fans to watch. Web dramas are short in duration and length.
MBC High Kick 2
KBS Family
SBS Salamander Guru
9. Sitcoms
Sitcoms are usually around a 100 episodes long but there are some exception like Salamander Guru with only 10 episodes . Sitcoms are supposed to be fun and more of a comedy.
TVN Liar Game
JTBC Heartless City
OCN Special Affairs Team TEN
Channel A Panda & Hedgehog
Mnet Monstar
TV Chosun Bride Of The Century
10. Cable dramas
Cable dramas has all types of drama listed above, from prime time dramas to long daily dramas. There are quite a few cable channels with the most popular ones being JTBC, TVN and OCN, OCN focus mainly on crime dramas while others have a mixture. Cable dramas DOES NOT lose in quality/acting/casting compared to public network's drama, famous and critically acclaimed actors like Jung Woo Sung, Han Ji Min, Park Shin Hye, Yoo Ah In have done cable dramas recently, writers and directors that have done famous dramas like Coffee Prince, My Name Is Kim Sam Soon have been also doing dramas on cable networks. Cable dramas tend to have more freedom, for example, I Need Romance series have been named as the Korean drama version of Sex and The City, Heartless City deals with dark themes like drugs which may be rare or not allowed in public channels. Cable dramas have lower ratings because they have a smaller audience so anything above 1% is considered a success but cable dramas have been doing really well with TVN's Misaeng reaching up to around 9% and creating loads of buzz around, JTBC's Secret Love Affair manage to reach around 5% despite it's adultery theme and OCN's Vampire Prosecutor received loads of praises and fans and it manage to get around 2% in ratings. Cable dramas are getting more and more impressive which sometimes put the big 3 public network in shame, the budget for cable dramas are increasing and the cast are getting even more impressive. I USED TO THINK CABLE DRAMAS ARE FOR SECOND/THIRD CLASS ACTORS AND WITH CHEAP PRODUCTION COST but I was so wrong, cable dramas definitely does not lose to prime time dramas in any way and sometimes exceeding (look at how great Misaeng, Reply Me 1997 are!), even long daily dramas from cable channels are good, I really liked the 100+ episode Ice Adonis.
VIEWER RATINGS
Viewer Ratings does not determine if the show is good or bad. I used to think that viewer ratings are the points Korean viewers give the show haha, viewer ratings are just mere numbers that shows how many people are watching the drama. Dramas may get even around 60% ratings in the past but currently, anything around 40% is considered a rare success, prime time dramas have been doing badly in ratings too, with one timeslot, 2014's Wed-Thurs timeslot having the three drama ranging at around 4%-8% ratings which is pretty sad. There are even prime time dramas that go as low as 2% due to high competition and little viewers.
KBS Baker King (Baking King reached around 50%)
VIEWER RATINGS DOES NOT DETERMINE ANYTHING, true enough, viewer ratings shows if a drama is successful and all dramas wants to do well in ratings, no matter how well the drama is being praised critically, if it does not do well in ratings, the drama may even incur a loss. There are dramas that did amazingly well in ratings like
Smile Dong hae in which I passionately disliked. Dramas that do well in ratings usually consist of loads of drama, from birth secret to having a super evil main secondary lead torturing the main lead to stealing of a company. These are alright once in a while to keep the story going but not when you spend every episode creating a new one, it irritated me to the core. There are some people that did enjoy the drama and enjoy these type of drama so I am not going to talk about it any further since everyone has different taste.
There are also dramas that does amazing in ratings, praised critically and even get super popular overseas,
You Who Came From The Stars was a definite success, it almost reach 30% which is a huge achievement since prime time dramas have been doing badly in ratings, it created a hallyu wave, it was so popular overseas that almost everyone knew about it, it sold out many products used in the drama and viewers (like me) did enjoy and love the drama.
There are many dramas that I love so much (and is well received by viewers) but never manage to become popular overseas nor do well in ratings which is a pity....
Miss Korea was completely overshadowed by You Who Came From The Stars having to be in the same time slot, Miss Korea was well received by viewers and I really love it too. The ratings for this is honestly not that bad considering it's competition but it is still not a success.
I love Liar Game and so did many of the viewers but it only manage to receive around 0.9%-1% ratings throughout it's run on TVN.
I still haven't get over Healer, I loved it dearly and It is definitely one of my favourite drama. It did manage to become quite popular overseas and almost everyone that watched it, loved it because it is that good. Sadly, the ratings are quite upsetting, it remained 7-10% throughout which isn't bad since it manage to clinch first and second place in the ratings battle for a while before falling to third place in the last few weeks, THIS DRAMA HAS THE POTENTIAL TO DO MUCH BETTER, I think the drama deserves to get at least 12-15% in it's peak but it faced large competition from SBS Punch and never managed to get anymore popular in ratings.
And in the last category, we have dramas that I didn't exactly enjoy and did badly in ratings too,
Trot Lovers didn't do that bad in ratings since it ranged from 6-9% which is decent since it's low budgeted compared to others and the drama was really pretty bad.
Marry Him If You Dare had a great cast that I love but the story was bad, really bad. MHIYD had so much potential, it premiered with 9.7% which is really good but as it goes on, it dropped till 4%, I wouldn't have finished the drama if not for Yoon Eun Hye and Jung Yong Hwa. The only reason why anyone bother sticking through the end is probably because of YEH's star power.
I didn't exactly disliked Bel Ami.. but it isn't good either. It's rating range from 2.9-6%.
DRAMAS FOR NEW KDRAMA VIEWERS
There are many genres of dramas, Romantic Comedies (Rom Com) are probably the easiest to watch since they are mostly light hearted and fun but there are also some that are pretty bad (for example the three dramas I've just listed above). Rom Com is the best starting drama since it's easy to absorb and doesn't require much thinking, some personal recommendations:
1. You Who Came From The Stars/My Love From The Stars (21 episodes)
2. My Girlfriend Is A Gumiho (16 episodes)
3. Birth Of A Beauty (21 episodes)
This is purely my opinion since there are people that prefer melodramas so they enjoy watching them or there are people that dislike rom coms but I think generally, these three dramas are good for starters. There are dramas that I love dearly but would not recommend it to people who just started watching, for example Misaeng, Reply Me 1997 since they tell their story in a slightly different way than those that I listed and may be slightly hard to understand. I wouldn't recommend saeguk either since I think it's much harder to understand, I started watching saeguks like Jumong really early so I think I was still quite unsure about the culture and all so I didn't enjoy it despite it's stellar review. However I do know some people that watch mainly saeguks and they started drama watching from saeguks so it kind of depends.. if you feel foreign with saeguk at first but still want to give it a shot (like me), try time travelling dramas like Queen In Hyun Man or dramas like Sungkyunkwan Scandal.
DECIDING WHAT TO WATCH
I started reading reviews to narrow my to-watch list since I started off quite late, when reading reviews online, always open up a few websites so you can get a general view, everyone has different taste in dramas, some may love that particular drama but some may hate it so it depends. For example, I read mainly(99%) bad reviews for Big so I didn't want to touch it but it manage to perk up my interest after watching Hong Sister's Master Sun and I loved Master Sun so much so I thought that how bad can Hong Sister's Big be? I watched with low expectations and aware of the warning on how bad the ending is going to be but I ended up loving it.(with the exception of the ending)
DON'T FORCE YOURSELF TO WATCH WHAT YOU DISLIKE, this is a bad habit I can't get rid of, I hate the drama but I still watch it for the sake of the actor and sometimes it's a torture since it's that bad. I am trying to get rid of my habit since I did stop watching stuff I really feel annoyed by even though i'm halfway through. Always watch around 5 episodes before deciding if you should continue, 1-3 episode may be too little since there are some shows that started off badly but ended up being gold. (For example, History Of A Salaryman)
Watching teasers is important too since it gives you a rough idea of the drama but teasers aren't perfect indication of the drama. I disliked Pinocchio's Teaser but Pinocchio ended up good. I loved the teasers of Trot Lovers teaser but disliked that drama.
Running Man aka Variety Shows do help perk up interest in dramas if the cast of the drama goes on as guest to promote. Since Running Man is on SBS, the dramas being promoted are from SBS too. If the cast look like they have fun with each other and are interesting, it will probably interest the viewers too, isn't it?
EXAMPLES:
Episode 166- The Heirs
Episode 190- Angel Eyes
Episode 219- Birth Of A Beauty
Episode 78- History Of A Salaryman
Episode 54- Protect The Boss
WHEN TO START
This is just a friendly tip, wait until there is only a few days left till the last episode before starting to watch. I enjoy having drama marathons and hate waiting so I always start a few days before the drama ends, it is a huge torture to wait every week for the next two episodes. Example, Healer ended on 10 February, it takes around a day for the subs to be out which is February 11 so I started watching only on 8th February and I didn't have to wait at all.
I always watch one drama at a time (with the exception of family dramas since I always watch one long drama with my family at the same time), I don't like watching a few dramas at the same time since I don't think I am able to enjoy it fully. It's worse when you watch two great dramas at once and you can't help but to compare and neglect the one that may not be that great but still worth watching. (Personal thoughts of mine.. there are some people that enjoy doing that so it depends on whether you are patient enough to wait)
TO SUM IT UP
It took me around a whole morning and a little of my afternoon to write all these, these are mainly my thoughts and opinions so it may differ from what you are thinking or feeling. Hopefully my thoughts do help if you are just starting to watch Korean Dramas, if not, hopefully you didn't feel like you have wasted your time reading this? *inserts shy faced emoji*
nice!!!
ReplyDeleteneed to link it on my blog
Thank You ^^
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