Jump to content
OneHallyu Will Be Closing End Of 2023 ×
OneHallyu

Serious question about K-dramas and genres


wonwhoa

Recommended Posts

Most k-dramas seem to be heavily romance/comedy oriented and I never see anything of the more serious variety such as thrillers or psychological dramas. I'm talking high production values like Game of Thrones or challenging/graphic shows like Hannibal or Mr.Robot. Is it that they do exist and just aren't popular among the international crowd? If they do exist can you guys rec me some? The only 'serious' ones I see are still romance oriented and or time period related ones.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Signal (crime/time slip drama),

Save Me (crime drama. The main theme is about cult church),

Master of Revenge (or God of Noodles. Literally a revenge drama),

Liar Game (thriller. Imagine variety The Genius, but 10 times more twisted, and the contestants are real people),

White Christmas (high school themed thriller),

Secret Forest (crime drama),

Memories (this more like drama, tho),

God's Quiz (medical thriller drama),

The K2 (action/thriller),

etc etc

 

they're pretty popular, actually, like Signal is actually as popular as Reply 1988 and DOTS at that time, but yea, most of these kind of dramas are a bit less popular than the romance ones

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Koreans love their thrillers. Try to check Voice out. It is OCN's drama (which actually a cable channel that has a lot of thrillers and serious dramas). It was so popular that it is getting a season 2.

No one has mentioned Gapdong which is based on a real serial killer case (Hwasong serial murders). It is kind of fascinating but if you are a "fan" of serial killers and know the basics then the detectives' work seem ridiculous. Still, good for one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Koreans love their thrillers. Try to check Voice out. It is OCN's drama (which actually a cable channel that has a lot of thrillers and serious dramas). It was so popular that it is getting a season 2.

No one has mentioned Gapdong which is based on a real serial killer case (Hwasong serial murders). It is kind of fascinating but if you are a "fan" of serial killers and know the basics then the detectives' work seem ridiculous. Still, good for one.

^^

 

Also a lot of OCN dramas are crime / thriller, with no romance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Like other people have mentioned, there some non-romance/comedy dramas. In the last 2 years, there's been a large increase in non-romance/comedy related dramas and with the success of non-romance/comedy dramas (e.g. Voice, Avengers Social Club, etc.) and lackluster ratings of many comedy/romance/melo dramas (20th Century Boy and Girl, Temperature of Love, etc.), I expect that trend to continue.  

 

I doubt there will be any k-dramas that have high production values like Game of Thrones. I suspect that it's because production companies hardly ever shoot k-dramas far in advance, spend too much on acting fees, or it's not profitable to do so unless they can sell the broadcast rights to the Chinese for an insane amount of money to guarantee themselves a profit. If there ever is a k-drama that has a high production value, my money is on Netflix (they're creating an in-house k-drama with Kim Eun Hee, the writer of Signal). On the other hand, there are a lot of historical Chinese dramas that have high production values. 

 

In terms of "challenging and graphic" k-dramas, I think everyone has already mentioned all of the ones that I have watched. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you everyone for the recs! smile.png

 

Like other people have mentioned, there some non-romance/comedy dramas. In the last 2 years, there's been a large increase in non-romance/comedy related dramas and with the success of non-romance/comedy dramas (e.g. Voice, Avengers Social Club, etc.) and lackluster ratings of many comedy/romance/melo dramas (20th Century Boy and Girl, Temperature of Love, etc.), I expect that trend to continue.  

 

I doubt there will be any k-dramas that have high production values like Game of Thrones. I suspect that it's because production companies hardly ever shoot k-dramas far in advance, spend too much on acting fees, or it's not profitable to do so unless they can sell the broadcast rights to the Chinese for an insane amount of money to guarantee themselves a profit. If there ever is a k-drama that has a high production value, my money is on Netflix (they're creating an in-house k-drama with Kim Eun Hee, the writer of Signal). On the other hand, there are a lot of historical Chinese dramas that have high production values. 

 

In terms of "challenging and graphic" k-dramas, I think everyone has already mentioned all of the ones that I have watched. 

This makes me wonder about how many shows from outside of Korea that Koreans watch. I do remember seeing an article about how procedurals are relatively popular within Korea though. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.

Back to Top