Lee Jun Ki and Shin Se Kyung Preview their Arthdal Chronicles 2 Chemistry in Allure Korea September 2023 Pictorial
I see The Uncanny Counter 2 as the tvN Sat-Sun placeholder to the arrival of Arthdal Chronicles: The Sword of Aramun. I can’t say AR2 is going to be better than the first season in 2020 but that drama set the bar so low it’s hard to imagine this aged up installment will fare worse. Leads Lee Jun Ki and Shin Se Kyung are no strangers to sageuks and even more specific action sageuks, their casting feels not just age appropriate but the production went out of their way to really sign up the ideal older Eun Seom and Tanya. The two are in the September 2023 edition of Allure Korea for some modern fashion playfulness as a precursor to donning their fight for the throne looks in a few weeks.
Has anyone seen the news that the domestic Kdrama market is on the verge of collapse? Over 100 drama filmed without any takers for broadcasting, filming of new dramas has been halted for some and CJenm and Disney+ both have massive embezzlement scandals which have hit drama production hard. The dog drama is lucky to have gained an air date but it looks like KBS will be hit badly next year. Tvn is also having a bad year with even their weekend dramas failing except for Crash Course. Netflix really ruined the whole entertainment business in South Korea. They pushed up production costs and fees indiscriminately and now local producers and channels are suffering. Not that the Netflix brand of kdrama is always good either. They are working behind the scenes to pick and choose which actors should be cast for what and flexing too much power at this point. Even Moving can’t save Disney+ Korea at this point since the content team has already been disbanded and all the new productions have been stopped. Is this going to be like China? Will those 100 dramas never be released? Take me back to the 2010-15 era of kdrama before Netflix entered the country!
Honestly, the k-drama world was a mess before Netflix got into production. They’ve been struggling through tired tropes eroding the local market, the Japanese market losing steam, and the Hallyu Ban in China. Netflix, in the beginning, was a boon to Korean Ent because a lot of us, including me, discovered K-dramas via them getting licensed to Netflix. My first was Faith with Lee MinHo and Kim Hee Sun over 10 years ago on NF. I didn’t know Viki or the now defunct Dramafever were a thing until then, and I am not alone. It’s my understanding that Netflix was saved by Covid. They are losing product to other streaming sites so they are now going more international. I think we will see a lot of entertainment re-sets in the coming years. Who knows, maybe Hollywood will make some product that people will want to leave their big screens to see. I managed to actually see 2 movies in the theater this year. Woo Hoo
Nothing ever stays the same and hopefully K-ent can adapt.
Netflix just had to get in and try and make some money off the popularity. Their effect on creating more “seasons” of 8 episodes is super annoying. I agree, lets go back to the pre-Netflix kdrama time!