My Content Specialist, Julia, sent this to me:
The whole world has fallen in love with K-pop groups like BTS and BlackPink. But you know what other Korean cultural export that we Filipinos love and highly recommend to our bosses overseas? Korean TV shows.
We have been watching Korean TV shows and we have been hooked since the early 2000s. We still enjoy Filipino and American TV shows but there’s something about Korean TV that’s just so good.
One reason why Korean shows have mass appeal is because most of them are G rated (thanks to Korea’s strict censorship board). You can watch with the whole family AND not worry about graphic scenes.
They also put a lot of thought into their choice of music. If you’re looking to get into KPop but you don’t want to go for the mainstream groups, the official soundtracks of most Korean TV shows are great sources.
And the stories are so creative and unexpected. They have storylines I haven’t seen anywhere else.
The portal between life and death as a hotel? That’s a K-Drama Hotel De Luna.
You prefer a pop-up restaurant? That’s Mystic Pop-up Bar.
Ancient Zombies in medieval Korea? That’s The Kingdom.
A game developer with super powers moonlighting as a bodyguard? That’s Strong Woman Do Bong Soon.
They also have “realistic” dramas and comedies where everyone is gorgeous and wearing designer clothes (What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim).
Yes, some of them can be completely ridiculous but they’re so good at world building you just can’t help but be drawn into these make believe worlds.
And the plotlines are often unpredictable. Sure, they drop clues in each episode. But KDramas have this amazing ability to merge their subplots into the main plot in the last 2 – 3 episodes of the show. The pieces just drop into place the more episodes you watch.
Last but not the least, most Korean shows are structured more like mini-series. The series is done in 12-20 episodes of an hour each. Shows rarely have a second season unless the story was actually long and epic (which happens with historical dramas). So there are no bad seasons. No boring episodes. No need to lose weeks of your life just to catch up. You can binge watch an entire show in one weekend. Then start a completely new series next weekend.
Julia