At What Point do Underrated Kdramas become Overrated? by Rebekah Walton

As I scroll through lists of underrated Kdramas, I wonder about the fact that I have seen a lot of the same Kdramas on these lists by totally different people. Which gets me thinking, At what Point do underrated Kdramas become overrated? 

Now, this could easily be a post on my other blogger since I believe this question applies to not only Asian Dramas, but, also, Anime, and American Tv shows and movies. But, I decided to narrow it down to only Kdramas. We all know the Overrated Kdramas: BOF, You're Beautiful, Full House, The Heirs, My Love From the Stars, Coffee Prince, Descendants of the Sun, Goblin,Strong woman do bong soo, Secret Garden, Cheese in the Trap, and so many others including: Scarlet Heart:Ryeo, and Hwarang. 

These dramas whether they were good or not is not what I am discussing here. I enjoyed many of these and I understand why they have been over hyped. But, I am discussing what makes a kdrama overrated or underrated.

But, the underrated kdramas are more up for discussion.While Gentlemen's Dignity, Healer, Moonlight Drawn by the Clouds, Weightlifting Fairy, Dr. Stranger, Tomorrow with You,Surplus Princess,Playful Kiss,I’m Not A Robot, and Duel were not overhyped when they were airing and in some cases got over low ratings in Korea or Internationally, they can not really be on the underrated Kdramas list anymore since now, they are or almost all overhyped.

I can't get by an international list without Healer being mentioned and Playful Kiss has it's own cult following because it is a remake of Itazura Na Kiss, and all 12 million of those have their own group of people who love them. (I am included, I love all the remakes and the original, infact, we do not have enough I want an American version too, I know I am greedy.)

When I was looking down an underrated list I was very suprised to see I'm Not a Robot since, I enjoyed that drama a lot and everyone I saw was talking about that drama and how sweet they were. But, since it did get low ratings in Korea I see why people were saying it was underrated, but, I really think it was only underrated in Korea. If we wanted to be accurate and list all kdramas underrated by Korea, Scarlet Heart: Ryeo should really be on that list. Korea did not really care for the show so much that it never got renewed for a second season unlike the original Chinese one Scarlet Heart. 

Weightlifting Fairy was not highly rated during it's time, but, I have recently found this drama included in overrated Kdrama lists.

Dr. Stranger is a favorite of mine but, it still seems to be underrated by a whole lot of people, that and Tomorrow with You. Dr. Stranger had an awesome couple, but, apparently some people got SLS, I don't know, the main couple was cute, hot and could survive gunshots, they seemed liked the perfect couple.

I have no clue why Tomorrow with You was underrated, I considered it better than Tunnel and I loved Tunnel.

Mermaid Kdramas do not seem to do very well in Korea so that's why Surplus Princess is on this list, although I must say there might be another reason for this kdrama being underrated, it truely wasn't that great. (Kind of boring if I say so myself, and I love Mermaid stories.). Also, since they were cut to 10 episodes the story wasn't able to be fleshed out and therefore has a lot of weird plot gaps.

Moonlight Drawn by the Clouds seemed to be underrated mostly by the International community while it was currently airing since everyone was watching Scarlet Heart: Ryeo instead. But, now it probably does not deserve to be on the underrated list now, as I am pretty sure everyone has watched and heard about this drama by now.
 

So, back to what I am trying to say. Maybe, we should second guess if a Kdrama is underrated if it is on everyone's list, really underrated Kdramas should be ones that not everyone has heard of about a billion times. In most cases, these kdramas should no longer reconsidered underrated. So, next time you are looking at an underrated Kdrama list, try to find kdramas you have never heard of.

How I got into Kdramas by Rebekah Walton

It all started back when my siblings got into anime. I still watch the occasional anime, and I have liked a few shows such as Ouran Highschool Host Club, Sailor Moon, Parts of One Piece up to Alabasta, Bleach, Itazura Na Kiss, Maid Sama and Cardcaptor Sakura. But, I am not really into anime anymore, I don't really read watch them unless I am re watching something. In 2010/2011, I heard about the live action Japanese drama of Ouran Highschool Host Club. I decided to watch that and that.

For a while that was the only drama I watched, and it wasn't until after I saw the anime, Itazura na Kiss and loved it that my journey into kdramas continued. The first kdrama I watched was Playful Kiss the drama based on Itazura  Na Kiss. I also then watched It Started with A Kiss and even watched part of It Started with a Kiss 2,(my first Tawianese dramas)  (I tried to watch the Japanese live action version, Itazura na Kiss(1996), but I couldn't finish it, and dropped that.) before I went back to see another Korean Drama.

I cannot be sure of what I watched next but, You're beautiful was one of them. To this day that is still my number one favorite drama and I have watched around 90 or so. I was at first a kdrama closet fan, as I went to college for a semester by myself (2^nd semester my sister came with me), and I had no room mate and made literally no friends. When I wasn’t in class or doing homework, I spent all my time in my room watching kdramas. In fact, I would say I probably watched more than half of those kdramas in that year alone.( I did go to a semester of Bible college before that first semester and I would watch things only at night and early in the morning as not to disturb my 4 roommates. But, that semester at my new college was really when a became a fan, I watch way more than the occasional drama at Bible college.) My semester at the new college was early 2013.

I was still a closet fan for a while and it wasn’t really late 2013 when I decided to tell everyone. Or rather, when I told my parents about it. They did not seem to mind as much I thought they would so I started to openly talk about them using kdramas as references for real life and stories to tell other people. I met a few people at college who watched kdramas, but I did not have time to hang out. When My Love from the Stars came out, everyone knew that I was really invested. While waiting for my English class after chapel I would watch the new episodes of My Love from the Stars as they came out. Because I watched these using Viki (I watch shows on both Dramafever, and Viki and I have paid for both, but, I prefer the awesome comments and I like the subtitles better on Viki.), I was able to watch episodes sometimes with no subs at all because I could not wait. I remember in particular episode 16, where I watched the conversation between Do Minjoon and Yoon Jae. It was so awesome that I understood a lot of that conversation.

Around that time, I met a Korean girl going to my college and she invited me to spend time with her, her roommate, and her boyfriend as she watched an episode of My Love from Stars with no subs whatsoever. It was to practice her Korean while she was over here. She seemed very impressed that I could understand the episode and therefore laugh at the right times and be totally invested. (Thankfully, I had already watched the episode with subs, so I could understand it all. I also could understand enough to know what the summary of conversations were. Therefore, I would have the right reactions at the right time.) We watched it together and I enjoyed also her little comments like, ‘‘gwiyeobda’’ and small phrases that I understood while we were watching.

I did try to get my sisters into kdramas, and at first, it did not work as well as I thought it would. My older sister watched My Girl with me, but, I made a fatal mistake. I did not watch the drama before I showed it to her. She finished it one morning while I was asleep. Apparently, she did not like the fact that they had to separate and that it took so long for them to get together. But, since I still haven’t watched the last three episodes, I still really can’t say what she really disliked. Not that she hasn’t watched kdramas since then. She watched quite a few dramas, including You’re all surrounded, My Love from the Stars, Queen In Hyun’s Man, Skipbeat, Her Lovely Heels, and Bride of the Century.  My oldest sister who is now married, has watched only parts of kdramas so far, but, I gave her two for her wedding present and one of them included, My Love from the Stars, so I expect she will love the ones she watches. My younger sister likes watching Chinese and Tawianese dramas and several times watches different kdramas than me.

 Just recently, I got to force my younger brother to watch a couple of kdramas. He enjoyed for the most part the ones he watched. I know what each of my family likes so, I tend to only show them dramas that I know they would like watching. My dad has to work in New York for his job, and before he left, I made everyone watch My Love from the Stars (I edited it to be 14 hours instead of the 21 hours. This meant I took out most second lead parts and the whole past girl that Song Yi looks like. I left in most funny parts except Do Minjoon getting jealous since our second lead was no longer a second lead, and her actress friend never became evil. My siblings insisted that they hated these parts.) My parents like it well enough, and I even showed my mom You’re all surrounded she love it. I think I need to do her reactions to kdramas and kpop sometime, she had very different reactions than other people. My mom even got so used to reading the subs that when we watched a movie without subs she was confused and then realized it was all in English.

This is in essence, how I got into kdramas.