Categories: K-dramas

Joynews Poll of Industry Insiders Selects Arthdal Chronicle as Worst Drama of 2019 and Sky Castle as Best Drama

This is a little early for year end lists but like Christmas creep everything happens earlier and earlier. Joynews in South Korea conducted a poll of 200 K-ent industry insiders from producers, directors, screenwriters, and drama crew members to ask their opinion on the best and worst lists of 2019 dramas. I’ll start with the Worst K-drama of 2019 since rubbernecking failure is still like watching a trainwreck – coming in first is massive flop (cost to ratings ratio) fantasy sageuk Arthdal Chronicles, followed by Neighborhood Lawyer Jo Deul Ho 2, Joseon Survival Tale, and Item.

On the flip side, the Best Drama list has Sky Castle sweeping the competition but it’s sorta not fair because it also made Best lists in 2018 since it premiered November 1, 2018 and ended its run February 1, 2019. Oh well, more power to SK. Coming in second on the best list is my personal best pick The Light in Your Eyes (Dazzling) followed by Melo is My Nature. And not to be left out, Kim Hye Ja won for Best Drama Actor of 2019 while the Kang Ha Neul and Gong Hyo Jin‘s pairing on When the Camellia Blooms got the most votes for Best Drama CP of 2019.

Worst drama of 2019:

  1. Arthdal Chronicles – 36 votes
  2. Neighborhood Lawyer Jo Deul Ho 2 – 25 votes
  3. Joseon Survival Tale and Item – each 14 votes
  4. Vagabond – 10 votes
  5. Absolute Boyfriend and Just One Love – each 9 votes
  6. The Great Show and Issue – each 8 votes
  7. Abyss, Other People’s Hell, and Melt Me Softly – each 7 votes

Best drama of 2019:

  1. Sky Castle – 63 votes
  2. The Light in Your Eyes – 38 votes
  3. Melo is My Nature – 26 votes
  4. When the Camellia Blooms – 19 votes
  5. Search WWW – 16 votes
  6. Fiery Priest – 14 votes
  7. Hotel Del Luna 11 votes

Best Couple of 2019:

  1. Kang Ha Neul and Gong Hyo Jin – When the Camellia Blooms
  2. Yeo Jin Goo and IU – Hotel Del Luna
  3. Ahn Jae Hong and Chun Woo Hee – Melo is My Nature

Best Drama Actor of 2019:

  1. Kim Hye Ja – The Light in Your Eyes – 41 votes
  2. Um Jung Ah – Sky Castle – 34 votes
  3. Kim Seo Hyung – Sky Castle 0 21 votes
  4. Kim Nam Gil – Fiery Priest, Kang Ha Neul – When the Camellia Blooms – 16 votes
  5. IU – Hotel Del Luna – 12 votes
  6. Gong Hyo Jin – When the Camellia Blooms – 8 votes
  7. Han Ji Min – The Light in Your Eyes, Kim Hye Yoon – Sky Castle – 7 votes

ockoala

View Comments

  • Yeah 3 dramas that I enjoyed made it to the top 5
    my top 3 :
    - Sky castle (1)
    . Melo is my nature (2)
    - Search WWW (3)

    • Worst drama is "Secret Boutique" and "Vagabond", because SEVEN times we were shown baseball games instead of those dramas. And I believe this is will continue.

      P.S.: Is my comment will be deleted? Asianwiki remove every viewer's baseball-related complains and bad ratings in SBS dramas.

      • Hmm I don't get u... Vagabond.... Are you sure of Wat u are saying... Vagabond is worst.... Act your own..let us watch. It is still d best film for the year....stop saying rubbish ?

  • Don’t care I still love AC and VB❤️ But definitely happy for Melo is my Nature which was so underrated.

  • IU is doing great amongst all the veterans. KHY is the youngest on the list with same number of votes as HJM, very impressive. Second place of best couple is YJG & IU, excellent. No surprise that AC is the worst drama, lots of hype with nothing delivered.

    • Honestly I think the incomplete story of AC pissed off a lot of people. There are worse dramas this year (Melt Me Softly is so bad, I cringe through almost every scene) but AC problem is Netflix shooting itself in the foot by pretending this one "season" was a complete story like most kdramas.

      The actors, concept, even the story itself was interesting but it had the same pacing problems as Moon Lovers three years ago, only worse because at least ML finished its story.

      • I think who write this article must be crazy or who vote for it are out of their mind how could they say arthdal chronicles is the worst for me it's the best of 2019 no it's the best korean drama I ever seen I was watching korean drama for 10 years and I know what the best and worse of KD and where're the masterpiece dramas doctor john and vagabond both of those drama are the best so far of 2019. This avaluation was wronged and underrated.

  • Dazzling is the best drama for me.
    Happy to see Kim hyeja and Hanjimin that list. Its just a pity Nam joohyuk is not there.

  • I don't know when this poll was done but I would also add JDY-KSH for best couple of 2019. JTBC is the new drama kingdom based on the top 3 dramas. Awesome.

    • Except for When Camellia Blooms, I agree with all on the list. Camellia is not watchable, cringe worthy even whenever the leads show up, esp Gong Hyo Jin. I think she needs to stop acting when she's acting. It is so obvious.

    • Same! Nokdu couple are amazing, it's the first time in a long while I've seen that kind of chemistry between leads. Jang Dong Yoon and Kim So Hyun deserve the love they're getting, and I hope casting directors take notice.

      • If they don't end up winning best couple at awards ceremonies you can be sure those are rigged. This list should have had their names.

  • How director Kim Won Seuk went from one of the best, if not THE best, dramas in 2018 (My Mister) to the worst in 2019 is beyond me.

    • What's wrong with the directing of Arthdal? U might critics the plot, but not the acting and directing. Kim Won Seok did good.

      • The directing is among the worst I've ever seen. Awful pacing, bad lighting, too much time spent on unnecessary scenes. KWS obviously does not suit the genre. He's better at smaller scale stories.

  • ^.^,❤️ That IU and KHY on the list among veteran actresses/ actor. Keep going girls!
    And yes, Sky castle deserve its number 1 rating.

  • Whatever.. Personally I enjoyed Arthdal Chronicles. Something different from usual romance cliche kdramas.. And Vagabond too is a fun watch

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