The Current Crop of K-Dramas Are Aberrations - Why K-Drama Is Building On A Bubble

What the Korean media calls "Genre Dramas" are those dramas that are not based on romance - horror, action, mystery, and the like. K-Dramas are popular both nationally and internationally for their romantic comedies and stories about complicated love lines. The current crop of K-Dramas is breaking away from this pattern amid much press fanfare. In fact, dramas such as "Three Days," "God's Gift - 14 Days," "Golden Cross," and "Gap Dong" are being hyped everyday by different media outlets. They are competing directly against other traditional romance-based K-Dramas.

These "genre dramas" were previously a thing of cable channels that were already outlets for various American dramas, which are mostly "genre dramas" and rarely romantic. OCN, for example, already had a large viewership that enjoyed American "genre dramas" and was able to sell their "genre drama" rather easily to the viewers.

However, it's a new trend for the "Big 3" broadcasting companies to produce and air "genre dramas". Breaking the mold of Rom-Com, Melodrama, Historical, and Family-based drama, "genre dramas" have now entered as a mainstay genre. Media outlets are praising both the content and the production of such dramas, even calling it the "New Age of K-Dramas".

Is that really what's happening? Is the face of K-Drama changing altogether? Or is it just a bubble that will be popped eventually?

These new "genre dramas" may not be the next big thing. Perhaps this new found love for new genres and content are coming from a fatigue over Romantic Comedies - but as the word fatigue implies, the desire for Rom-Com would return after a time.

There are a few problems with "genre dramas" continuing their popularity. The first problem is that they need to make it as perfect as possible. In other words, the story line requires perfect execution. If the suspense isn't continued over the series, the initial interest toward the drama can fade quickly.

How can tension be stretched over 16 or 20 episode series? The answer is - it usually doesn't. Dramas such as "Three Days" and "God's Gift" are not as hot as they claim to be. Nielsen Korea's report shows that "Three Days" is hitting just 11% rating while "God's Gift" is sitting at 8%. These are especially low ratings for SBS drama series. tvN's "Gap Dong" is sitting at 2%, which is not a bad rating for a cable drama, but it's only half of what "Emergency Couple" did.

What this reflects is that there is no correlation between the ratings and the media hype. While some say that as media moves toward digital content, the use of TV ratings to gauge a show or drama's popularity is quickly becoming an outdated method. However, dramas such as "My Love From the Star" and "The Heirs" recorded much higher rating than any of these "genre dramas", showing that TV ratings are still a valid method to measure the popularity of the show through viewership - and these dramas are not measuring up.

The second problem with these "genre dramas" is their high production cost. This is because these "genre dramas" have to compete with American dramas. A shabby, low-production cost drama will not be able to catch the attention of the viewers who have had their tastes heightened by the production values of U.S. made dramas.

This is a double whammy partly because "genre dramas" are generally not good exports. Except for "Three Days", no other "genre drama" does well internationally. K-Dramas may have a great story line, but the execution and production value of U.S. or U.K. made dramas are something that K-Dramas simply cannot match. As with any kind of business, the "genre dramas" and their 'high cost, low income' is not a viable one.

There is also concern about the content. Namely, the content of "genre dramas" is often complex due to its nature. If the plot is not set up perfectly in the beginning of the series, the rest of the series become a haze, partly due to the fact that the story line is extended over 18-, 20-, or sometimes 24-part series. Therefore, there is concern about the effectiveness of such story development methods.

With all that said, the days of Korea making internationally acclaimed dramas that compete with masterpieces such as BBC's "Sherlock" or FOX's "24" seem not too far away. Although there are some definite hurdles that needs to be overcome, when they are indeed overcome, K-Drama may become a greater export than K-Pop. 

Tags
Three Days
God's Gift - 14 Days
Golden Cross
Gap Dong
Emergency Couple
My Love from the Star
The Heirs
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