Are K-dramas Hitting Different in 2020?
Is it me or is everyone talking about K-dramas (Korean Dramas) right now? It might just be that my TikTok algorithm is finally perfect and it’s really just showing me the exact things I want to see — like people guessing paint colors, cats meowing incessantly at each other, and people lying in bed talking about their favorite K-dramas — but it really does feel like I’m seeing a surge in conversation around K-dramas, and I love it.
It’s also made me want to watch one so I started It’s Okay to Not be Okay on Netflix and wow, what a perfect show. The drama, the epic love story that doesn’t even go anywhere near a kiss until half way through the season, the flawless cast — umm Kim Soo-hyun — and some dark and stormy fantasy vibes that just really topped it all off. And pretty much as soon as I started watching it I was like yup, this is it, I’m obsessed. And suddenly there I was staying up until 2am watching episode after episode until I crushed all 16 of them, telling everyone I knew that they had to watch, was devastated it was over and then moved on to the next show, Itaewon Class. And WOW, I fell in love all over again. For real though, watch it! It is perfect and flawless, and the character development and story is just, *chef’s kiss.*
To be honest I’ve had a fascination with South Korean (hereafter Korean) pop culture to be for years, I actually wrote my masters dissertation on it, and the impact of the “Korean Wave” on the development of Koreatown Los Angeles, so this level of interest isn’t unusual for me (or for millions of other people in the U.S. obsessed with Kpop, K-dramas and Korean skincare products). But what got me both curious and excited this time was that I was seeing so many different kinds of people, of different ages and ethnicities, talking about K-dramas. And when I started to look into it, it became clear that there are a few compounding factors that probably led to this surge in conversation.
First of all, we can’t go on any further without a little mini dive into The Korean Wave, or Hallyu, which is essentially the term for the spread and global popularity of Korean pop culture. This international popularity of Korean culture grew first in East, South and Southeast Asian countries, but soon after became widespread globally through YouTube videos of Kpop and the availability of K-dramas on various streaming platforms.
What’s unique about this cultural phenomenon though, is that it is an official policy of the South Korean government to strengthen the economy and attain soft power internationally by exporting culture. The South Korean government has funded the arts at universities, supported creative industries with government subsidies, and taken other measures to promote cultural industries in an effort to establish and maintain, “brand Korea” (Walsh, 2014).
And it’s working. Around the world people have become obsessed with Korean culture and content — I mean BTS was just on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert and broke the record for most YouTube streams of the show within the first 25 minutes. And in American specifically, K-dramas have pulled a diverse audience base from the onset. In 2014, DramaFever, a popular streaming platform that launched in 2009 but is no longer in service, reported that 85% of their 20 million unique monthly viewers were non-Asians; with 40% White, 30% Latino, 15% Asian and 15% Black. And no surprise, most of their viewership was young women ages 18–24.
But all of this doesn’t explain the surge in conversation I felt like I was seeing specifically this year. So I did a couple more searches and found that Netflix struck a deal with South Korean cable TV network JTBC, that kicked off in January 2020, giving Netflix the streaming rights to over 20 new Korean-language drama series. Netflix has also formed a three year partnership with the Seoul-based, Studio Dragon, that’s going to deliver even more K-drama titles including original series just for Netflix.
So availability seems to be a key factor here — even though numerous platforms have offered K-dramas in the U.S for years, it makes sense that Netflix making this move would increase viewership and conversation since that is such a widely used platform.
It would be hasty to talk about all of this without touching on the actual content of the K-dramas though, as these are undeniably perfectly crafted stories of true romance that tap into that feeling of a high school crush — where a single shot of a hand grazing another hand can literally make me scream. These shows aren’t just focused on the physical aspect of relationships that most of American TV focuses on, but they really are about the relationship between two people. That’s what’s drawing people in, and part of what’s making these series so incredibly addictive. I mean in Itaewon Class they don’t even kiss until the last episode (sorry for the spoiler) how can you not keep watching with that kind of tension!
And I know for me, and probably for many others, this kind of pure unadulterated romance is hitting differently in 2020 — when we’re all looking for new ways to self soothe and escape — I don’t know if I’ve found a better source of temporary salvation to be honest.
Ultimately, what I find so moving and honestly hopeful about this increased interest in K-dramas, is that in a year when issues of race have been laid out for the world to see where America is really at, so many people (especially young people) in this country are engaging with content that is in another language, and from another culture. This is the modern cultural experience to me, and a beautiful example of the power that storytelling has to fundamentally shape how we can connect, progress, and expand our perspectives together.
