Being that I am so new with K drama, I thought for sure they were all just standard 16-20 episodes and 1 season. Imagine my surprise when I tried to watch “Giant” (because of Kim Soo Hyun) and I think I stopped at episode 30, I couldn’t watch it anymore , it started off good though I think it won awards and all but it was just too long for me.
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Loved it back then but well Kim Soo Hyun played the youngster version, in the beginning an in flash-backs, must have been hard for you, I watch for at least 4 actors and actresses, so I made it until the end, but even for me the last 10 or so episodes were hard to watch - I have a boiler issue since then.
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I think it’s not a question of the number of episodes per se, but of the target audience. They are family dramas, so they have to cater to the audience’s tastes, and make everybody happy, including the grandparents and the children, be suitable to everyone and have something for everyone. That’s why they have young couples, older couples, and there’s a lot of traditional relationships, respect for elders etc., although they try to tackle society problems in a way that makes the audience warm up to novelty without being shocked and too ruffled.
Re-marriage of divorcees with children in “Five Children”,
age-gap couple where the woman is older, pregnancy before marriage in “Father is Strange”
a young woman living alone in “Father is Strange”
divorce, women’s independence, marrying ex-in-laws, age gap couple (although we never see them really kiss) etc. in “Once Again”
etc.
The thing I don’t like even in the best of them is that there are some cheap elements like over-the-top acting with exaggerated expressions, open mouth, eye-rolling, big gestures. In “Once Again”, the male lead, Lee Sang Yeob chewed his food and talked at the same time, with mouth open, disgustingly (like all the other characters) whereas in all his other dramas he never did. So, it was clearly the director who asked for it, to make it more familiar to the audience. Although his character belongs to the rich family, not to the lower-middle-class family.
So my gripe is that even the best of these weekend dramas (and the three I mentioned were really good) still try to cater to the lowest denoninator.
The one I liked more was Yu Na’s Street. I think it was almost flawless - except for the lukewarm romance, but then the romance wasn’t the main point to begin with.
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With J-drama’s I’m surprised if they have more than 10 episodes. Hoping To Give You A Big Hug Tonight has 12, but that seems exceptional.
The 15-minute drama’s can easily lead to “Okay, I’ll go do something useful, just one more episode …” 
And before you know it you’re several episodes ahead.
Fleet Of Time (TH) had those short episodes, but there were 80 of them. Because Of You 2020 had only 10, but it was still on air when I started watching it, so I had to wait anyway.
I think it’s mostly the more modern Chinese dramas that have significantly less episodes.
Yes, there’s always new things to watch. Or translate. 
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ohhh. i’m still lost tho. too lazy to read anything.
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I actually don’t really like J-dramas. I think I’ve only really liked one or two of them maybe. I’ve watched animated shows and have liked some of those but not actual live shows for some reason. It could be I’m not watching the right shows lol
That is so true… those lil episode shows suck you in. That happened to me and I looked at the clock and found that 2 hours had already passed though that’s not as bad as “opps it’s 2am already??” times.
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It can depend on the k-drama whether it’s worth sticking to it and watching to the end. I’m still debating on a few shows right now and I think I like where “Heard it Through the Grapevine” is headed but got sidetracked by a bunch of other shows.
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Which ones did you watch?
To be honest it’s probably been a year or more since I actually got very far in a J-drama - the last one I started to watch was “Coffee and Vanilla” and couldn’t make it through the first episode.
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Hi. I am back, taking a little break from translating. For some of you who have a hard time staying with a long drama, I want to recommend a couple of mini-dramas: Mysterious Freshman, and Page Turner.
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Oh, I even translated “Coffee and Vanilla”. And then I watched “Scum’s Wish”, with the same actor in it. I think you missed out, haha. 
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Nope, couldn’t watch either of those though I did try to watch “Scum’s Wish” too. I can watch Taiwanese, Chinese, Thailand, Korean, Australian, UK etc. I haven’t found shows from Spain I enjoy but some Mexican ones have been okay. Can’t do French or German (though I have some understanding of both) for whatever reason or Japanese. I’d like to see more shows from Singapore in the future.
“The heart wants what it wants, or else it does not care.” Who knows? I may find some in the future I enjoy.
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Oh wow those are both really short! I enjoy many different kinds of dramas and enjoy the longer series… depending on what it’s about. 
I put them both on my watch list! I’ve been on a sports drama kick lately but once I finish a few of those shows I’ll pick up a few more.
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If you like sports drams, have you watched Stove League? The main character is Namgoong Min, one of my favorite actors.
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I love Taiwanese dramas too. 
I haven’t seen that many Chinese shows yet.
Until recently there was only 1 Thai show available in my area and I liked it. Now working on my second Thai show and so far I like that one as well.
Korean shows were what I originally came here for.
I haven’t seen anything from western countries yet on Viki and I think most of it is not even available for me. There’s 1 show from Spain, but it’s a sports documentary, so no, thanks.
Can’t receive anything from Singapore either. 
If it would be there, I would certainly try it.
Me watching a lot of Japanese shows is partly because I’m currently trying to learn Japanese. They are indeed very different from Korean shows. But some of them found their way to my heart anyway.
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I’d go back and watch “Better Man” but that was such a long drama! I think I’ve watched everything Jolin Chien has ever been in and I think he was the reason I started watching Taiwanese dramas.
I have watched sooo many Chinese dramas. I can’t count how many I’m actually watching now. I just finished “Take Your Mark” (swimming) and watched a long time ago “My Mr. Mermaid” (also on swimming). There are two ice skating ones - “Skate Into Love” and “My Unicorn Girl”. Non-sports shows “The Golden Eyes”, “Guardian”. Historical/detective: “'The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty”, “Ancient Detective” and… trying to remember but “Maiden Holmes” I think. I’ve also watched everything Yang Yang and Ma Tian Yu have been in. lol
I don’t think there’s any ones from Singapore on Viki and Thai shows I watch on another website though I think they have a few here maybe. Most of the Thai shows I’ve seen have been fairly low budget but the acting is great so I still watch them! Other regions can be limited here but there are a lot of other sites to watch shows on too.
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Short and sweet is probably the best for me right now because of school deadlines and I tend to get sucked in and get distracted easily. Thank you. Will check these out.
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I have also noticed that lately there are quite a few bite-sized dramas with 10-15 minute episodes. Most of them are web dramas or idol dramas. In fact, I am in the subtitle team for The Mermaid Prince which has only 6 episodes, each less than 15 minutes long. I don’t much care for web dramas myself but they seem to be very popular with the younger audience. I guess I am showing my age. Lol
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Will “Dream High” be considered an Idol Drama? I actually was surprised that I enjoyed it 
. Currently watching one of your recommendations “Mysterious Freshman”
Also to continue with the thread title…
- The parents of the lead characters either injured the other parent/killed/accused of killing/injuring the other parent after the leads have already fallen in love
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I actually really enjoyed Dream High. I hope you like Mysterious Freshman. I think it is underrated. Yes, to continue with the thread title… I personally think that the revenge theme has been overplayed and the Romeo and Juliet scenario gets too predictable.
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