K-drama, as Korean scripted television is called whether it’s drama or comedy, existed long before Netflix’s Kingdom (premiering January 25) began production, is frequently richer than The Good Doctor’s source material, and has everything to do with how the structure of Korean TV allows for unparalleled emotional payoff. That’s not to say that great Korean TV is a recent development.
Pay channels such as tvN and JTBC, as well as newcomer-to-Korea Netflix, are producing scripted and reality television that can comfortably slide in next to international prestige shows.
But like the poor girls of old-school melodramas who Cinderella-ed up the social hierarchy, Korean TV has acquired fancy new trappings in recent years thanks to international licensing fees and the development of South Korea’s domestic-cable networks. audiences earlier this decade, it was primarily pitched as an addictive guilty pleasure. When Korean TV first came to the wider attention of U.S.
