Diving (back) into the Korean wave - a celebration of K-Dramas

I recently travelled to New York for the first time and found myself in my hotel room one afternoon watching local television (for the sake of cultural study, naturally). While channel surfing, I landed on MTV where the music video for "Chk Chk Boom”, by the Korean male pop group Stray Kids, caught my eye because it featured none other than Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman. After recovering from the initial jump scare, it got me thinking about Korean culture and the moment it's having in the West.

I hadn’t heard of Stray Kids - this particular music video has over 100 million views on YouTube so they’re obviously massive - but they’re just one of several K-Pop groups that have achieved huge success in recent years. Elsewhere in the zeitgeist, Korean skincare is sought after (the ten-step routine might seem daunting but many people have felt up to the challenge); Korean movies are critically lauded (“Parasite" was one of the rare times most of my friends had actually seen the Best Picture winner); and the nation's musicians are some of the most popular on the planet: Jennie, from the girl quartet BLACKPINK was in the ill-fated HBO show "The Idol", alongside Lily-Rose Depp, and all of its members are ambassadors for major fashion houses. I’ve been experiencing my own personal Korean love affair by watching tons of K-Dramas this year (specifically romances in the interest of avoiding stress) so I wanted to unpack what has led me to reach for them over and over again. Let’s dive in.

I was, thankfully, first introduced to the world of Korean entertainment when I was 13. I was a wannabe emo and it saved me from a subculture I, truthfully, did not have the disposition for.  It was 2010 and my family had just moved from Kenya to Malaysia, where Korean music and television were emerging as popular forms of entertainment for the local teen. In what I will forever consider a tremendous act of kindness, one of my new friends lent me the boxset of "Boys over Flowers," a show about a scholarship girl who catches the eye of a popular (and initially mean) heir to a major Korean conglomerate. This friend also introduced me to the group Girls Generation — I was immediately entranced. The vibrant colours and outfits, typical of the early 2010s; the catchy beats and lyrics, despite my not speaking a word of Korean; the dance moves that you could learn after a couple hours spent following tutorials. Everything was girly and cute: full of florals, pastels, adorable emoticon sounds and facial expressions. It was highly addictive content for an insanely dramatic teen girl prone to living in hyper-reality, and completely unsuited, as I mentioned, to emocore.

My time in Malaysia was sadly brief. I moved to London in 2011 and became estranged from K-culture. It was not yet making its way into the mainstream, even in Malaysia it felt a bit niche. It also became much harder for me to access the shows without friends to lend me their boxsets. I attempted watching a few shows throughout the remainder of my teenage years in the UK - "Princess Hours" being one that I particularly adored and watched through relatively sketchy means - but found that I was starting to lose my carefully cultivated patience when it came to the genre’s infamously slow pacing. Unfortunately, there also wasn’t the online community that exists now and without people to share this love with, it slowly drifted away.

Not so now. Korean entertainment has strutted, with dramatic flair and admirable commitment, into the public consciousness. People are discovering, or becoming enlightened to, all the amazing content. Luckily, there is so. much. content. Despite all the amazing music and films, I wanted to speak on a subject in which I am an (self-proclaimed) expert: television, my lifelong obsession, my first and truest love. I was named Ashley for Ashley Banks of "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” after all, so one could say I was literally born for this. At least, that’s what I tell myself to justify the hours - nay, days - I’ve spent watching episodes.

I think it would be easy to dismiss the soap-opera level storylines as frivolous and mindless TV but what saves them is a dedication to the inner lives of their characters. The characterisation is so rich that to call these stories shallow does them a great disservice.

So, why hit up K-romance shows now? Truthfully, I’ve been experiencing a growing disillusionment with Western TV, with limited content due to the Writers' and Actors' strikes in Hollywood (fair); a continued reliance on franchise-related content (unimaginative); and a rejection of the traditional 22-episode September to May release schedule (HUGE bummer). Contrary to what you might think, there is only so many times a person can rewatch “Gilmore Girls” or “Normal People.” I’ve also watched the entirety of “Lost”, “The Rookie”, “Girls”, “Drive to Survive”, “The Sopranos”, “The Americans”, and “The Last Kingdom” for the first time in the past two years. Basically, I have been starved for content, particularly the kind of long binge that comes with watching a show that has hours and hours of episodes. I’ve watched over 50 shows this year and yet, for some biblically greedy reason, I want more.

With K-shows, a limited series will have 16 episodes, each at least an hour long. The downside is that they are usually just one season but they’re so prolific you can’t even be mad. This intimidating length could potentially put some viewers off. If you're brave enough to overcome this slight hurdle, you’ll be rewarded by the sheer amount of character development and plot covered. Sure, there are scenes that run a bit long and there are C plots and D plots galore but they help you feel like you’re really living with these people, that you know them and understand their quirks. You start to predict their foibles and wish for nothing more than for them to triumph over their internal and external demons. Isn’t that what television was made for? A regular catch-up with longtime friends as opposed to the infrequent meet-ups with the acquaintances of movies?

It’s also felt as though Western media has been turning away from the sentimental, focusing instead on global stakes rather than intimate, interpersonal ones. Did we ever really care about what advertising campaign Don Draper was working on or which mob affiliations Tony Soprano had that week? "Grey’s Anatomy" has remained a television staple for decades due in large part to its singular focus on the interpersonal lives of the surgeons, nurses, administrators etc. of Seattle Grace Hospital.

The irony is that the bubblegum, melodramatic, soapy world of Korean romance shows has provided me with the most grounded, fallible and true-to-life characters on TV this year.

K-TV characters spend an awful lot of time agonising over their feelings - dissecting them with themselves (they talk to themselves a LOT) and others, over drinks and food, during walks and on drives, through their dreams and in their imaginations. Yes, there are pretty histrionic plots but these otherworldly events have very grounded and real consequences. They’re rooted in family and friendship, culture and tradition - what is more true to life than that? I think it would be easy to dismiss the soap-opera level storylines as frivolous and mindless TV but what saves them is a dedication to the inner lives of their characters. The characterisation is so rich that to call these stories shallow does them a great disservice.

I tentatively dipped my toe back into the shallow end of the K-drama ocean late last year with weekly episodes of "My Demon" on Netflix. It is a supernatural romance between the devil and a rich, cold heiress whose lives become entangled when he loses his powers after saving her life (I was not fucking around about these premises). I was immediately captivated by how different the modern K-romance (K-rom? K-romcom?) heroine is to her predecessors. Whereas her forebears were awkward, sweet, naive, a bit dumb, innocent, and very clumsy (as a girl who is always falling and dropping things though, I can relate); the contemporary K-heroine is strong, assured, perhaps self-centred and sometimes a little mean. However, she’s grounded by her commitment to the people in her life - whether she acknowledges it or not - and to her dreams and ambitions. This trend continued with many of the K-roms I’ve watched this year, all had a wide range of difficult women, a mainstay of Western media in recent years as well.

As a Type A person who is prone to diligent decision-making and constant overthinking, I’ve been a bit overwhelmed by the rise of this new difficult woman in media who is self-destructive to the point of caricature. Even with so called fluffy shows like "Emily in Paris," Emily is quite devoid of self-reflection, genuine struggle and consequences for her actions so as to make her character frustrating as opposed to someone you want to root for. This is in comparison to Darren Star’s other more lovable yet messy heroine, Carrie Bradshaw - although your mileage may vary on whether you find Carrie lovable. The irony is that the bubblegum, melodramatic, soapy world of Korean romance shows has provided me with the most grounded, fallible and true-to-life characters on TV this year.

It does seem incongruous that streaming, which has contributed to the aforementioned drastic and painful changes to Western television, has also led to the widespread dissemination of the balm that are Korean shows. Like all capitalist ventures, they created the problem and sold us the solution. Don’t get me wrong, there are many justifiable criticisms to the outputs of the Korean wave - the rigid body standards, the appropriation of black music and style, the hyper fixation on the uber wealthy and stringent heteronormativity. There are also concerns about the ways in which Korean shows are streamed via Netflix, leaving little profit to be gained by the local studios and broadcasters that create these shows. There will likely be more to learn about the dark sides of this industry, as no industry is lacking in one. I can be clear-sighted about that and also grateful to have reconnected with a long-lost youthful love.

My 2024 K-romances ranked

1. “It’s Okay to Not be Okay” (2020) - late to the party with this but my goodness what a triumph of a show. This isn’t just my favourite K-romance, it’s one of my favourite shows of the year (and possibly ever). It was so moving, heartbreaking, profound. Its unpacking of trauma and mental health struggles was so adept that I wondered if perhaps I should have just watched this instead of spending thousands of pounds on therapy. Rating: highly recommend

2. “My Demon” (2023) - the lead characters in this are both cold-hearted loners who think they don’t need love + a marriage of convenience. Inject it. One of two past lives romances on this list. Rating: fun

3. "Love Next Door” (2024) - if you’re a friends to lovers obsessive then this one’s for you. The banter (which can err towards being mean in a way that only lifelong friends can get away with) is impeccable. The family and friendship dynamics are ultimately what make this show stand out, specifically between our leads and their parents. Rating: fun

4. “Destined With You (2023) - enemies to lovers with a great “Past Lives” component (in a more literal way than the eponymous movie. A civil servant gets entangled with a rich lawyer whose family has been cursed. A bit of a slow start compared to the top three but when it gets going, it’s incredibly hearfelt. Rating: lounge buddy

5. “Queen of Tears” (2024) - second chance romance about a married couple who need to find their way back to each other. Only last because one had to be. Rating: lounge buddy

Where to watch: Netflix because I have yet to complete the catalogue here before moving to another streamer.

Refinery29 also has a list of shows for the amateur K-show watcher who is keen to learn their history.