Rejoice, for the Netflix/Disney/streaming era money funding a slew of big budget dramas since 2020, driving up actor fees and creating worse labour conditions for the cast and crew is finally drying up.
With the exception of Queen of Tears (Netflix), Lovely Runner (TVING, budget of $20 billion won), and Midnight Romance at Hagwon (TVING), we haven't seen many high production dramas in the first half of the year.
(The rise of local streaming apps like TVING is also a good sign.)
This gives me some hope that mid budget dramas with their quirky stories and working class actor* leads may be coming back on our screens.
The last two months of drama offerings have solidified this theory more for me.
Here briefly are a few of these lower budget dramas, which would have been drowned out by high production fares any time these last three years.
The Auditors
A tenacious auditor, with the personality of a sphinx, goes from company to company, rooting out corruption from the highest levels. Show explores how people mistake nice for good, how corporate corruption usually originates at the top level and workers are usually the victims. Has strong team dynamics and fun antagonists. Gives mild Stranger vibes. Keeps you hooked.
Dreaming of a Freaking Fairytale
A girl stuck with her loving step family likes to think of herself as Cinderella and decides to net herself a rich husband to improve her lot. Except she has no filters and admits to her motives openly. She joins a luxury lounge as part of the staff and meets its eccentric, hot owner, who is instantly attracted to her brand of crazy. They pretend not to like each other for 10 episodes. Short drama with great chemistry between the leads.
My Sweet Mobster
An ex-mafia man has built a profitable meat production company that openly hires ex-convicts to help them rebuild their lives. The only thing missing in his life is a good hearted children's content creator (who needs 16 episodes to realise that she can start and run her own YouTube channel without a company running everything for her). There are cohabitation shenanigans, the gruff-softness of the male lead (who's constantly battling with his feelings and failing to suppress them), and a very annoying prosecutor who thinks it's justified to abuse his power to bully reformed ex-convicts who've done their time.
Miss Night and Day
Starts out as a story about a young, hardworking woman who’s tired of failing job interviews for years until one day she wakes up in the body of an older woman and finally finds a job through an elder intern program at the local prosecutor's office. Eventually becomes all about the mystery of a decades old serial killer reemerging to make new kills. The best part of the show are Jung Eunji and Lee Jung-eun - the two actors who play the night and day versions of the female lead. There's a cute romance, office friendships, and a magical cat.
There are more shows like Bad Memory Eraser, Good Partner, and Serendipity’s Embrace which I haven't watched yet.
It's not that such projects had dried up in the past years, they still existed, but with all resources and attention directed to high budget mega projects there was little oxygen for these dramas to appear on our radar. I'm not arguing that all of these are great stories, simply that they need to thrive to keep drama land healthy and help newer writers and PDs gain experience and build their future.
*Working class actors in my head refers to actors who aren't stars or millionaires, who don't earn more from endorsements than from acting, who need the next drama project to keep making a living.
I just finished The Auditors last night! Although I felt like it got a touch "convenient" a few times toward the end, its breezy pace, fantastic tension and excellent ensemble kept me engaged for every moment of the 12 eps.
Now your summary of Dreaming made me add that to my PTW list immediately. :P
EDIT: Also, Pyo Ye Jin is the FL! Now I'm even more interested in that one!
This was helpful. I'm new to Kdramas, started late last year and up to over 100 dramas... not counting the rewatch. It seems to me in my limited experience that this post helped me to understand why I'm liking the older dramas for the most part. say anything from the early 2000 through 2020 (there are some exceptions) I've tried to watch those dramas that are "recommended" for one reason or another. Thanks for this information.