When I first started watching dramas (2015) I couldn’t get enough of them. I wanted to watch any and everything. All the new stuff all the old stuff and everything in between. But I’m the past three years I’ve been struggling in the kdrama space. On the one hand it seems like dramas are getting more produced, refined, and improving quality wise. On the other hand, it feels like kdrama’s are loosing their unique Korean flair. A lot of dramas seem like they could easily be adapted to Hollywood productions because they’re kind of generic. I also recognize that I do have an element of pickiness that I didn’t originally have. I won’t watch certain actors, certain plots, and also availability can be an issue considering I hate Netflix and therefore canceled it. What do you guys think of the changing
Drama-scape? Am I just being too picky or have you all also noticed a change in dramaland?
Those two may be interlinked. If you don’t like Netflix series, it is no wonder you don’t like ‘netflixized’ k-dramas. Many Korean dramas are co-produced by Netflix and their content is adapted to the wider audiences. Therefore, they tend to be less korean-oriented and more american-oriented.
There is, of course, the fact that you watched a lot of them and you need a break. The quality gets better but the stories overlap, the plots are identical and the actors are more of an influencer than an actor. Hence, if you’ve seen five romcoms, you’ve seen them all.
I find that I’m okay with plots that are similar or overlap as long as I like those tropes. I’ve been resorting to watching Chinese and Japanese dramas recently because of the Netflix thing. I understand that Netflix needs to reach a larger audience it’s just kind of disappointing for me. I kind of miss dramafever because they coproduced dramas but I really liked those ones.
I totally understand how you feel… it’s hard to find dramas with the “old” flair. Personally, I thought A Business Proposal and From Now On, Showtime! contained a lot of it. The same adorkabke couple anf brilliant, hilarious supporting cast… and an overall heartwarming feeling.