OTT close-up | Kdramas are shrinking, more violent

Have you noticed? Kdramas are shrinking.

2024 Netflix original Kdrama “A Killer Paradox” had a total of eight episodes.

The streamer’s historical monster drama “Gyeongseong Creature” was 10 episodes long.

“A Shop For Killers,” which was the most viewed local original series in the Asia-Pacific for Disney+, had a total of eight episodes. “Bargain” (2022), a series released on Paramount+, had six episodes.

All were between six to 10 episodes. All are Korean dramas released on American streaming platforms.

Remember SBS hit drama “Heirs” in 2013? It had 20 episodes.

So did “Welcome To Waikiki” (2018) and popular office drama “Misaeng: Incomplete Life” (2014).

Streamers are leading the trend of shrinking Kdrama seasons, with fewer episode orders than ever.

And that’s not all.

Kdramas are getting more violent. With more adult, graphic content not suitable for younger audiences, and much darker themes. With the aggressive content spending by U.S. streamers on Korean titles post-pandemic, there have been vast, distinctive changes in Korean television dramas.

Let’s dive in.

(*For the purposes of this discussion I am focusing on primetime Korean dramas, which are often distributed globally, and excluding daily dramas, which can be upwards of 50 to 100 episodes.)

Kdrama seasons are getting shorter than ever

With streamers like Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video continuing to expand international content (while cutting back in overall spending this year), there’s been more Korean content available for audiences all over the world.

But there’s been a longstanding audience pre-Netflix. In the U.S., Viki was in the market long before the post-pandemic boom in international content, and DramaFever had already pioneered the way for streaming legally licensed Korean content.

The traditional Korean drama format has typically been 16 to 20 episodes long, with two episodes release every week (usually across two consecutive days).

It’s a format that American audiences have become familiar with since DramaFever launched in 2009. “Secret Garden” (2010-2011), starring Hyun Bin and Ha Ji-won, had 20 episodes. “Coffee Prince” (2007) was a 17-part series.

“She Was Pretty” (2015) starring Park Seo-joon and Hwang Jung-eum had 16 episodes. So did global hit “Descendants of the Sun” (2016) and fantasy romance “Goblin: The Lonely and Great God” (2016-2017).

Lee Min-ho and Jun Ji-hyun starrer “The Legend of the Blue Sea,” which aired during the same years, had 20 episodes.

Sure, you might occasionally see a 24-ep series. Historical drama “Mr. Sunshine” (2018) had 24 episodes.

And those oddball numbered episode (say, 17-part) series?

That may be a 16-episode drama that was such a ratings hit that a bonus episode #17 was added. Because if you have a runaway Kdrama megahit, sometimes a bonus episode - or a cast-and-crew reward vacay - are granted. (See “Marry My Husband,” “The Red Sleeve,” and “My Love From The Star.”)

(Sidenote: the other oddity - on the leaner series side - is that the ratings were so abysmal that episodes got slashed.)

Korean networks are (mostly) still sticking to 16-episode dramas

Korean broadcast and cable networks are the only ones still producing and airing Kdramas in 16-episode seasons with any consistency; the 20-ep series seems to have mostly (quietly) disappeared.

JTBC’s “Destined With You,” SBS’ “My Demon,” and OCN’s “Tell Me What You Saw” each had 16 episodes. So did Korean pay TV networks ENA and TV Chosun’s dramas, “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” (2022) and “My Happy Ending” (2023-2024), respectively.

But there also seems to be a ripple effect - airing on a major Korean broadcast or cable network doesn’t necessarily mean a full, 16-part series anymore.

SBS’ “A Business Proposal,” (2022) had 12 episodes; so did this year’s “Knight Flower” and “The Story of Park’s Marriage Contract” from MBC.

While Korean networks are more consistently producing 16-episode series, its smaller seasons also show that streamers are having a transformative effect.

Shrinking Kdrama seasons reflect Hollywood’s transformed TV industry

The move, however, does not only apply to Korean content, but reflects American content distributors’ overall approach to TV over the past decade. It was one of the magnified sticking points in the labor economics of Hollywood’s existential crisis which resulted in last year’s double strikes.

Television seasons in the U.S. have been cut in half; 20 to 22-episode seasons have been shortened to 6 or 7. Streamers have disrupted Kdrama formats by cutting them in half, too.

A marked reversal from initial postpandemic streaming, the industry has gone from aggressive spending on original productions to making deep cuts to content budgets, a trend which emerged before the strikes.

OTT’s reshuffled business model - and spending

The belt tightening included rolling out ad tiers, increasing subscription fees, cutting original programming, and stepping up content licensing, as well as requisite layoffs last year. Diversifying content with partnerships for live sports and video games have been added to OTT (over-the-top, aka streaming platforms) strategies.

And while slashed content budgets have persisted in headlines since 2023, in recent weeks, market distinctions of where budgets are being spent now have been featured across industry reporting.

For the first time, content buyers are shifting to buying more international content outside the U.S. than local acquisitions. Netflix is set to spend $7.9 billion USD (more than half of its budget) outside North America for the first time (Ampere Analysis); and it announced $2.5 billion slated for Korean content. Paramount+, however, is straying from the pack and focusing on domestic content, aside from its tentpoles.

For reference: Amazon Prime Video spent about $19 billion USD on content last year (though a sizable chunk went to music); Paramount+ spent $16.5 billion. Disney+ spent $27 billion USD last year and expects to spend $24 billion this year. According to MoffetNathanson, a total of $132 billion in content spending on film and TV is expected this year.

So far when it comes to Korean content, there are more titles than ever - but seasons are also shorter than ever.

Other trends in Korean TV? An uptick in unscripted series (“Physical: 100,” “Single’s Inferno”), which are cheaper to produce than scripted formats.

Kdramas are more violent, graphic, bloodier than ever

The title sequence for “Gyeongseong Creature” depicts horrifying artwork of bloody corpses lying in a gruesome trail. The Korean drama is a mixture of historical fiction and monster genres.

Episode 1 depicts massive piles of bodies being burned alive, people being mercilessly killed en masse while imprisoned; a man being tortured by Japanese police.

Though “Gyeongseong Creature” has a narrative rooted in Korean history which merits depicting colonial era atrocities in some capacity, it is unusual for Korean TV dramas to be this graphic and violent in its cinematic style choices.(Korean feature films, however, are another story.)

Longtime Kdrama viewers - whom have watched Kdramas on DramaFever and Viki and some of whom have watched them even before that by renting videotapes from a Koreatown store in a major metro U.S. city - are not used to seeing this much gore in the genre that they’ve come to know for romances with sensitive characters, clean language, and no suggestive content.

At least, not until the past few years.

Graphic adult content - violence, profanity, sexually explicit scenes

In “A Killer Paradox,” viewers were shocked to see a shot suddenly cut to an explicit sex scene, which seemed to have no relevance to driving the plot forward.

In “Moving” (Disney+), the superhero series includes many graphic scenes, including those depicting electrocution, stabbing, and characters being killed.

The first episode of “The Worst Of Evil” came off as gratuitous, with “violence for violence’s sake.” International audiences were shocked at the severity of school violence portrayed in titles like “The Glory.”

While lighter Kdrama fare can still be found on platforms, graphic content has dominated Korean originals commissioned by streamers, as more titles include darker thrillers and revenge themes.

Streamers seem to be chasing a specific slice of the Kdrama pie - the audience that watched Netflix’s outlier global hit “Squid Game.”

Because what the company brought us post-green tracksuits were titles like “Hellbound,” “Gyeongseong Creature,” and “A Model Family,” which are difficult to imagine airing in their existing entirety even on Korean cable networks like OCN, which is known for more gritty Kdramas and crime thrillers.

The dramas that “Gyeongseong Creature” lead actor Park Seo-joon has become known for, such as “Fight For My Way,” “What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim?,” and “She Was Pretty,” are all relatively family-friendly fare.

They’re fun and light, with no need to be weary of NSFW scenes depicting gratuitous violence. It’s what longtime Kdrama fans are more familiar with.

Darker themes - bullying, revenge, organ trafficking

Bullying seems to be trending more than ever - it’s included in the storylines of “The Glory,” “All Of Us Are Dead,” “Taxi Driver,” and “Extracurricular.” There’s no shortage of dark themes - crime thrillers, revenge narratives, and horrific abuse, with titles like “My Name,” “Vigilante,” and “D.P.,” which had a particularly gruesome ending.

I’m fast forwarding through more scenes than ever because I simply can’t stomach them. (And when exactly did all the concerned buzz surrounding the desensitizing effects of violence onscreen, stop?)

And while revenge themes and bullying are nothing new to Kdramas, their onscreen depictions are unflinchingly more grotesque and cruel. There’s more blood, more torture, more extreme violence, and darker storylines.

Paramount+ series “Bargain” begins with underage prostitution solicited by a cop which quickly flips around into an underground organ trafficking ring.

Sure, creative choices from writers and directors are at play here, but pressure from global streamers who are trying to find safe bets in dictating/appealing to audience demand, undoubtedly abounds.

On another note, content ratings are not the most visibly apparent on platforms. Studios may offer an age-appropriate rating or a handful of keywords, but the types of adult content depicted vary widely in theme and across episodes.

I noticed another curious type of depiction that stood out.

Streaming Korean dramas - where characters actually smoke, uninterrupted

Tobacco use depicted in Kdramas has completely changed post-streaming.

Ji Chang-wook’s character smokes onscreen in “The Worst Of Evil.” Characters are seen lighting up in “Doona!” and “The Glory.”

Expert Kdrama fans have come to expect a character’s (almost) smoking scene to be interrupted; cigarettes are never lit onscreen. Such has been the case with local standards for Korean broadcast TV.

In fact, it’s a current issue on the radar for Korea: the government is trying to regulate Korean content that has bypassed local network standards by going straight to streaming.

OTT and its curation of Korean content, audience

Distributors have disrupted the traditional Kdrama format and its predominant genres, and key player Netflix has a disproportionate amount of industry influence. Kdrama seasons are half of what they used to be, with more gore than ever.

But are streaming platforms keeping or losing some of the pre-existing Kdrama audience? Are longtime fans happily satisfied with the curated titles of late?

Are distributors having tunnel vision chasing the “Squid Game” audience and leaving longstanding international viewers behind?

While Korean content is expanding and diversifying for audiences in the U.S. and globally, the dominance of graphic adult content in streamers’ curation of originals is a far cry from what longtime international audiences have enjoyed about Kdramas: romantic narratives at the core of storylines, with less violence and explicit content.

Time will tell to see how studios continue approaching Korean content in line with their respective strategies and how the market - and audience - continues to evolve.

What I’m also interested in: seeing how the Korean domestic market adapts to the numerous industry changes from OTT and the deeper effects of globalization.

More to come.

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