Korean Job Discussion Forums

[therealdrag0]

I'd like to start a Korean TV show to work on my language. But I'm kinda a snob when it comes to the quality of media I entertain.

Here's some examples of stuff I think is great: Battlestar Galactica, Full Metal Alchemist, The Office, Arrested Development.

Could you recommend some amazing Korean TV shows?
Please don't let this turn into an off topic flame fest, arguing about what's good and what's not.

Thanks a bunch!

[seoulsucker]

Sorry, sci-fi and dry, witty sitcoms have no place on Korean TV.

That being said, there are some pretty good dramas that have been on the air over the past few years. Check out "IRIS" or "ATHENA" which are 24ish style action/dramas.

A lot of the period dramas that are so popular here are tough to keep up with at times because they're so focused on dialogue and often in older dialects.

[johnnyrook]

As you're presenting yourself as a consumer of more high brow entertainment I can tell you that you'll find Korean TV shows generally awful unless you also moonlight as a teenage girl. There's a few action and crime shows around too, although I wouldn't say they're of the highest quality.

There's been a few cable series come out in the last year that have tried to model themselves on the grittier American tv series coming out in recent years on channels like HBO and Starz, complete with gore and even nudity.

Really, you should stick with Korean films if you wanna see good quality stuff, there's literally dozens of great movies, listed in numerous threads on this website.

If I did have to recommend one Korean drama it would be this one:
http://wiki.d-addicts.com/High_Kick_Through_the_Roof

I got into this series as my girlfriend was watching it, and for once I was able to enjoy one of the dramas she liked.

Even though I was viewing it mainly through her translations and my own guesses of what was going on, it still made me laugh, which is pretty much the only time any korean tv program (variety show, gag concert *cringe*, drama) has ever made me laugh at anything but the sheer lameness of it. Well, Shin Se-Kyeong and Hwang Jung Eum also got me interested. And I can't guarantee it'll be anywhere near as good with subtitles and knowing what's actually going on.

[blm]

I have enjoyed some of the drams and movies because they are so unpredictable compared to western movies.
They will introduce a character and you try and think what role will he have to play in the future? You would never guess the answer is none. A lot of the deaths and twists just don't come at the time they would in western movies. It is probably just as formulaic but I am just not familiar with the formula.

A lot of the endings suck though....I watched one drama that went for 20 plus episodes and ended with "It was all a dream" FFS.

[furtakk]

[fermentation]

Korean dramas and sitcoms are really stupid in general. The acting is also incredibly cheesy. If you're exposed to enough of them, you'll find them really bland and unoriginal as well. You're not gonna get something on the level of the Sopranos or the Wire here. Stuff like the Office, a show that pokes fun of social issues and fuax pas, are hard to find as well.

The only show I cared to watch was Hot Brothers(뜨거운 형제들). It doesn't air anymore but they had this section where they get a person or persons to go on a date with an earpiece and he/she had to do whatever order was given through the earpiece. Most of the time it was really ridiculous crap and often resulted in hilarity.

There was a Korean War fad in the TV industry and a bunch of dramas about soldiers during the war were made. But totally unrealistic, historically inaccurate, full of war movie cliches and cheesy acting. If you like that kind of thing, you could give it a shot but if you're expecting Band of Brothers or Generation Kill level production, they're probably not for you.

[nero]

There is a hilarious drama show called 'Yong Hee' or something like that about an overweight unmarried woman working in an office and living with her pretty sister and her parents. Her boss is an ass, her mother is a shrew and and some of the scenarios are quite funny for Korean tv.