My drama watching has been sidetracked still with more J-dorama goodness but on the K-drama side it’s sporadic and not the usual prime time fare that I usually watch. The Wed-Thurs time slot is making moves with the second week of new arrival Suits on KBS, with the drama growing from the premiere week of 7.4% to 9.7% this Wednesday. It widens the gap with SBS drama Switch: Change the World averaging around 6.5% with KBS melo Let’s Hold Hands Tightly and Watch the Sunset bringing up the rear around 3.2% for its average ratings. The initial week reviews for Suits were across the board but it sounded like the style adapted from a US show needed more time to really gell. Looks like it has in its second week so congrats to Jang Dong Gun and his little younger-me male lead Park Hyung Sik, hopefully it can hold the lead when new arrivals The Undateables and Come and Hug Me arrive in the coming weeks.
Just curious what y’all think about Switch? No mentioning of this drama in this blog after airing considering Ms Koala used to recap many JKS’ dramas in the past… any comments? Thanks…
Not that good. It started nice but then… Boring. So far, prefer suits.
Decent start but petered out quickly. Still really like Jang Geun Seok in it!
This is not the complete story though. My Ajusshi took a hiatus this week, so Suits had one less competition. Let’s see if Suits could maintain its ratings in the next two weeks when My Ajusshi goes to its final weeks. The preview for episodes 13 and 14 looks very very intense.
not same timeslot though,ajussi is 21.30kst while suits is 23.00kst,Although ajussi is 90minutes drama it finish airing when the dramas airing in terrestial tv start.
I think Suits is 22:00, so it probably had some effect.
ah yeah its 22.00
My Ajusshi is LOVE. Even the special episode netting above 3.5% which says a lot. The interest in drama increased if last week’s episode 12 is any indicator and if to based on coming episode preview, the intensity is dialling to 11. I am also curious how Suits will fare next week with MA back to broadcast.
Both the leads are handsome and great acting but the story is so boring
What Japanese shows are you watching? I haven’t watched one in the past few years. Any recommendations…
hana nochi hare, kakegurui, unnatural, itou-kun a to e, tokyo tarareba musume,jimi ni sugoi, crisis, border,high and low. btw i like suit , eye catching drama!
to add more jdrama this season : confident man jp (still on going),nagasawa masami is awesome ..
so many good jdrama lately .. Im not complaint though 🙂
I loved Unnatural, 99.9 season 2, and currently cooing over the cuteness that is Hana Nochi Hare. All the right shoujo manga adaptation feels!
With Jang Donggun’s star power they aren’t able to surpass 10% ?
He’s been away for too long.These days star power is not enough to raise or maintain ratings.Plenty of big name actors these days have had flop dramas.People just want a good and entertaining story and good acting.
I am happy with Suits doing well for Hyung Sik’s sake but as much as I love him, I dropped this show after episode 2 because it is damn boring. And maybe an unpopular opinion but Jang Dong Gun irritated me with him trying to appear cool which ended up looking fake and instead of eassaying the character, he was plain “acting”.
Agreed. Every pose he strikes, every look he darts, says I am acting. The American Harvey has that cheeky swagger as well as the occasional sincerity, but the Korean Harvey is just airs. The Korean Mike looks a bit dumb and not really a genius. I just wish I have’t watched the American original so I could come as a clean slate to this Korean version and enjoy it on its own merit. Sadly, just couldn’t resist the comparison.
Most of the comments in Korean websites said good things about JDG’s acting, i.e. he looks so cool. Their opinions matters, and no one give AF about your opinion.
making a remake drama and having to adapt it to a different country and cultural point of view, of course it is not easy.
and I think suits, mistresses and good wives are good dramas although they are not as good as the original, even the Japanese version of the signal is not as good as the korean version.
rating is not necessarily determine the drama is good or not.
so far, best adaptation across border I can think of was cold case. Japanese version has it right, with jdrama flavour but maintain it original vibe. Because I’ve watched the original (3 seasons), I was surprised how good jdrama adaptation was.
As someone who’s watching the original one and thinks that adaptions don’t work most of the times, I’m a bit wary still.
I don’t like both male lead acting. Hope they are both rising their acting when it’s matter. It makes drama less exciting. All the lines feels compelling.
i think am the only one here who prefers the kversion more than the us version. This may be boring to some cause it is slower in pacing than the original but the storytelling is more compelling for me in kversion. I prefer the korean mike than us mike cause he is less annoying and less arrogant and more believable.
Suits us is just a typical us drama and not that special so a remake is quite risky. Doing it korean makes it more enjoyable for me atleast.
its weird cos they skip alot of the cases and introduce later plot points from the original earlier, (obv. cos there is 7 seasons and they probably want to get at least up to when mike gets discovered) but the drama still feels really slow compared to the american version. I think its really well made i just don’t think it held on to the original charm of the show and the characters and it just feels like an ordinary law kdrama
i totally agree about the korean mike being more likeable tho hes just more easier to sympathise with or just root for bc of the way he is written and i think the changes in dialouge just makes the show more nuanced ( like when they first meet and hyungshik and jdg have that conversation abt choices and consequences and hyungshik acknowledges that his choices were wrong so he had to face the consequences for it, they didnt have that in the original)
Thank you for your input. Maybe the reason for me is that the story feels more natural compared to us version. Have to admit that US version is wittier and funnier bec of the banterings and movie meta/reference and of course harvey specter’s charisma. But it is just superficial to me. Storytelling wise, I prefer korean version.
Also, PHS is nailing the role of yeon woo for me. If it is gabriel macht who owned suits in us version, i think it is a chance for hs to prove he is more than just a visual. Am impressed actually.
So far, in the wed-thu days, my favourite is still Switch… Maybe because I really cannot appriciate so much remake of any other country dramas…