I think kdramas have better content and story after 2016-2017. They completely got rid of those toxic male leads and meek and docile female leads that cries all the time. 2016-17 started showing male leads that supports the female leads and the good guys ending up with the girls. Also they started coming up with more genres like thrillers, slice of life, comedy, action etc. Before that almost all of the successful kdramas were just rom-coms with rich arrogant guy and dirty poor docile female leads. Also the technical aspect also started being more advanced.
I would disagree -- only because I started watching kdramas at the start of the wave -- this is 2000s. I lived in southeast asia at the time and it was on tv. there is a reason why those early set of dramas like "winter sonata", "boys over flowers" made people very curious about kdramas. rather than the rom-coms, it was actually the melos that sucked people in and made kdramas famous. at the time, the joke among viewers was whether the leads would survive, which one would die or how will they dramatically get separated. 😂. the rom-coms were also highly entertaining even if they had lots of tropes. even when you know that it is stupid arc, you still want to watch the next episode. 😂
my kdrama forum friends laugh at my MDL list because of the sheer number of dramas I have watched and dropped. in fact my drop list is higher than my finished list. so when I say I have watched tons, I have. I don't remember many of the dramas in the recent years whereas I can still recall some of the older ones. they were more interesting and juicier. in the last few years, there have been couple of highlights but nothing like the stuff from the past which had amazing ratings (40%+)
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