The Golden Era of K-Drama Is Over
Korean dramas, famously known worldwide as K-dramas, have long been a fascinating part of South Korea's cultural identity, but their international dominance may not be as ironclad as their streaming numbers may suggest. Beyond wave after wave of acclaimed and viral K-dramas in the 2020s following Squid Game's success, lies an uncertain future and underlying industry problems. While now a recognized staple of Korean pop culture, K-dramas and their telenovela formats were deemed a necessary evolution vs. their older runs, which resembled American soap operas running in perpetuity. Yet, even after tightening stories, establishing a popular formula, and dominating streaming charts, K-drama novelty is fading, budgets are ballooning, and algorithm-driven competition is an existential threat.
K-Dramas Changed Forever After Squid Game
K-dramas were a prominent cultural export before the pandemic years of 2020 and beyond, but not to the extent it is today. It benefited from particular impressions such as via licensed broadcasts in Japan as well as China before its 2016 "ban", they didn't blow up worldwide until 2021's Squid Game. For OG K-drama fans, this leads to a set of strong indicators such as of when an individual fan of the medium got into their obsession, largely focusing on which shows rank among their favorites. Winter Sonata achieved massive international popularity in Japan to the point of being parodied in the Yakuza video game series, for instance. Generally, big hits for K-drama fans even from more recent years include Reply 1988, Strong Girl Bong-soon, or Crash Landing on You. These stories respectively featured original, atypical slice-of-life formatting compared to common K-drama formulas; superhero parody; and even featuring a forbidden romance in North Korea. These, alongside anything before them, are progressive indicators of classic fans.
By contrast and necessitated by newer production trends, Strong Girl Nam-soon is acclaimed by modern audiences, but decried by older fans who see past its formula, claiming it misunderstood the parody and charm of its predecessor.
But with the advent of Squid Game, in which Netflix was able to directly compete with Korea's content machine and distribute at a quicker rate, production timelines sped up to meet demand, with higher investments into production and talent necessitating guaranteed success. While Squid Game is original, albeit heavily influenced by Japanese death game stories, it was a big gamble. Thus, when Squid Game was a massive success, and interest ballooned worldwide in K-dramas, content accelerated out of Netflix, joined by a chorus of other international streamers like Disney+ and Rakuten Viki. While highly popular internationally, these series often did so through formulaic storytelling, adaptations, and sequels, thus the later seasons of Squid Game.
The Wrong Lesson Was Learned from Netflix's K-Drama Surge
Ironically, Squid Game's success didn't spawn similarly bold, inventive K-dramas like Hwang Dong-yuk's idiosyncratic story. After all, Squid Game was famously rejected by Korea's traditional broadcasters. Despite its breakthrough success, Netflix and other broadcasters would err on the side of caution. This means shorter runtimes, cut from the strictly 8-week business model driven by presold ad slots, bringing episode counts down from 16 to as low as eight in the case of Business Proposal. Additionally, such as for Business Proposal, many popular K-dramas nowadays are adaptations of popular webnovels or manhwa, featuring top-billed talent. While there are some true gems despite such a formulaic approach, it leads to a different form of fixation. Fans of Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha may very well have been introduced after hearing the "Wish" song in TikTok meme compilations. The series is excellent, and features affable talent like Shin Min-ah and Kim Seon-ho, but their next big projects are adaptations.
There's nothing inherently wrong with wanting to see these talents in their next big hits, but these hits are increasingly pursuing safer, formulaic approaches. 2024's Lovely Runner is an incredible hit, but its success largely speaks to the strong writing of its source material, Tomorrow's Best, than the novelty of a wholly original series. Lovely Runner's male lead, Byeon Woo-seok, has two more adaptations coming for his next big projects: Perfect Crown, and Solo Leveling. The adaptations only grow more plentiful, as budgets have risen often 10 times per episode compared to what it was even a decade ago. In this light, another format threatens K-drama dominance entirely.
Vertical Microdramas Could Be an Existential Threat to K-dramas – or Their Evolution
Topreels microdramas
Emerging as a particularly popular Chinese cultural export now exceeding the revenue even of domestic-produced film, microdramas are just as they sound: rarely longer than a minute apiece, on tiny budgets, allowing greater revenue opportunities for their creators.
K-dramas are directly threatened by microdramas as they have exploded in popularity, especially considering China's de facto ban on the medium. This has led to them introducing competitor services, as succinctly discussed by YouTuber Asian Boss. However, in Asian Boss' video essay, he also proposes an ideal solution should Korea play with the microdrama formula like on their new platforms like TopReels. The idea proposes a short-form proof of concept before expanding those stories with bigger budgets and traditional runtimes. However, this decision would largely be in the hands of producers driven entirely by profit.
The golden age of K-dramas is over, and while there's plenty to enjoy, it's uncertain how long they'll stay.
K-dramas, as they were once known to run in perpetuity like more typical American soap operas, are long gone. Their heyday of 16-episode runs is more hollow than it once was, pursuing a similarly formulaic approach but mitigating risks when possible. The golden age of K-dramas is over, and while there's plenty to enjoy, it's uncertain how long they'll stay.
