Life is full of surprises
Observations on watching my first K-dramas
Round one of K-dramas, from favorite to meh: SKY Castle, Crash Landing Into You, Itaewon Class, Record of Youth, What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim, Sweet Home.
K-dramas have ruined my Netflix algorithm and I am not mad at all.
This is a huge generalization, but I feel like at this point every Netflix user has seen at least one K-drama in their queue. I had been seeing K-dramas pop up and considering whether to watch them for at least a year before I finally tried one. Since I’m stubborn, once I decided to check K-dramas out, I didn’t want to start with a Netflix one, and I didn’t want to watch a romance or zombies (so most of Netflix’s lineup was out anyway). Instead I chose SKY Castle, a drama about wealthy doctors’ families and the lengths they will go to ensure their children are successful.
SKY Castle ended up being the perfect drama for me to start off on, since it sucked me in by showing the intense focus on studying and college admissions right off the bat. I’m easily engrossed by rich people shenanigans, and the first couple of episodes involve a group of doctors’ wives competing to hire a tutor that guarantees their kids’ acceptance to the top medical school in Korea. There’s a whole thing where they have to be invited as VVIPs of a bank to meet the tutor, and then tutor evaluates them based on how much both the kid and the mom can be dedicated to the process. (A lawyer with a private practice and full control over her schedule is denied because working in any capacity means that all her attention won’t be dedicated to her kids’ school.)
In the past year of living in a trash fire of a country, I’m extremely interested in learning about new cultures and the sociology of different countries. I knew that South Korea was a more conservative country than America before I watched SKY Castle, but I got super sucked in through seeing the specific college-admissions/family-dynamics/ideas-of-success angle of Korea society, versus if I had watched a romance first and just been surprised at the modest courtship. It made me think a lot about success in terms of duty to family and generational history, and I also got a new level of appreciation for my mom, who mostly let me figure out my own shit in high school versus pushing me onto a specific path. (Also, there was a fair amount of hospital-administration drama which, isn’t my thing in theory, but I was engrossed.)
As I watch more K-dramas, in addition to learning about Korean societal trends, I’m also fascinated by the structure of K-dramas and the trends that keep coming up. All but one of the dramas I’ve watched have been comprised of one season of 16-20 hour-long episodes, with at least the finale if not other episodes being an hour and a half. The pacing is usually super engrossing with cliffhangers and all that jazz, but they run out of steam at the end and try one more twist that feels wither extra or unnecessary . Literally four out of the five such series I’ve watched could have been two episodes shorter. The series that didn’t match this structure, Sweet Home, was the length of a typical American Netflix original, 10 episodes 50-min long, and it just wasn’t my thing (I watched it for my mom cause she loves zombies). I really enjoy the long season format because it’s so engrossing, I get lost in it to the point that I watched seven hours straight of What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim and it felt like three hours. I haven’t been able to keep my attention on something that long for a year, and I’ve missed it.
Also, for the romance lovers, I have to point out that K-dramas are doing what needs to be done. Every time I see a tweet about the latest Hollywood drama and how the leads have low to zero chemistry, I want to reply CRASH LANDING. If you want chemistry and tension and longing and Ri Jeong-Hyeok looking at Yoon Se-Ri like she is his reason for living, watch Crash Landing into You. About halfway in, I paused the show and said to an empty room, “Gotdammit, I guess I believe in love.”
So that’s been my K-drama journey so far. There are many more I need to watch, including everything on this round-up from Jae-Ha Kim. I haven’t even gotten into the multi-season Netflix originals or the crime/mystery dramas yet, plus whatever Mouse is. If you have recommendations for K-dramas, or any other international TV shows I should watch, comment below!
A note on Substack: I’ve been staying up-to-date on all the discourse regarding this platform’s lack of moderation and practice of giving horrible people huge amounts of money to write for them. (Here are some great pieces from trans and queer writers on everything.) I stand in solidarity with trans writers and as soon as any organizing within or exodus from the app happens, I’m following their lead. I’ve been looking at other platforms and how they do content moderation, but I haven’t made any moves because a) this newsletter’s free and not directly lining Substack’s pockets and b) I have a lot of paid deadlines in the next few weeks that I’m focusing on. If you have any thoughts on Substack as a platform, I’d love to hear them either through DM or the comments below. Also, if the newsletter randomly switches to Revue or something in two or three weeks, that’s why.
I Wrote Something
If you missed my last few hits:
a guide for getting into K-pop that’s half a personal essay about losing and finding joy and half recommendations for K-pop YouTube videos to watch. // The Downtime Guide to K-pop
my Malcolm & Marie review, for Polygon. // Netflix’s vivid relationship drama Malcolm & Marie keeps subtweeting itself
These are So Good!
Korean TV’s Unlikely Star: Subway Sandwiches // @sethberkman
“Product placement in TV shows is a reality the world over. But South Korea’s terrestrial stations are prevented from inserting commercial breaks during programming, meaning many Korean companies must be creative about getting their wares in front of viewers. As Korean dramas have become more popular with international audiences, global brands have pushed to be part of the action.”
The 32 Greatest Character Actors Working Today // @vulture
“In the era of Peak TV and the subsequent streaming boom, character actors are working more than ever before — and since many of us have little else to do but stare at our screens, it’s precisely these performers who have filled the gap left by our secondary bonds. When your social circle has shrunk down to your immediate household, the glimmer of recognition that comes from spotting a familiar face in a movie provides more dopamine than it probably should.”
The Big, Stuck Boat Is Glorious // @amandamull
“I’m obsessed with the dang boat because people like me and you are not really supposed to be aware of what boats like her are up to. You’re not supposed to think about, or even notice, global freight, but the Ever Given has made cartoonishly noticeable some of the crucial infrastructure of global capital, which is usually invisible in most people’s daily life. She has done so with an absolutely sublime visual gag, improved by every new detail about the problems the ship is causing and every new photo of the impotent human measures being undertaken to fix them.”
This Week In Culture is a free newsletter by freelance culture writer Quinci LeGardye. If you’d like to support the research for this project, or buy me a coffee, my Venmo/CashApp/PayPal handle is quinciwho. If you want to be friends, follow me on Twitter at @quinciwho.