• Speculative Korean TV: Introduction 1 - General

    From Joe Bernstein@21:1/5 to All on Mon Sep 13 23:52:06 2021
    Nearly two years ago, I wrote in news:XnsAAF5A14004DDBKdeuramagmailcom@144.76.35.198:

    I still expect to complete my work for this thread, quite possibly
    before 2021, and probably before 2030. But I'm no longer confident.

    Does anyone still care?

    The K-drama market has changed dramatically since 2019. Mostly, many
    of the walled sites have picked up K-dramas in significant numbers.
    Also, the non-law-abiding streamer which had most of the speculative
    dramas of the decade of the 2000s folded, so I no longer know of any
    way to watch those shows at all, regardless of expense, except that
    some can be bought on DVD. Finally, the specialised sites - Viki, to
    which I never properly introduced y'all; KoCoWa, OnDemandKorea - have
    all become significantly more paywalled. In addition, KoCoWa's
    evident goal of making Viki the only serious alternative to itself
    has succeeded beyond its wildest dreams. In most of the world, Viki
    and Netflix are the main places to watch K-dramas; in the Americas,
    there are a few other choices, nearly all of which cost money I
    don't have, and in some cases refuse to tell me which dramas they
    have unless I spend that nonexistent money.

    I find this a depressing and draining state of affairs to try to
    document, and now that the local libraries have figured out how to
    find English-subtitled DVDs again, am mostly just ignoring it.

    Specifically, I got fed up with watching Web dramas at YouTube to
    find speculative ones about halfway through the job, which of course
    would now be much bigger anyway.

    While I was posting, I was fulfilling a long-held goal, and I did
    leave that unfinished. But it was obvious the whole time that few,
    and for all I know sometimes none, were reading the posts.

    What I can certainly offer is a list of the Web dramas I found were,
    in fact, speculative, by watching them. In the unlikely event that
    y'all produced an outpouring of interest, I might tackle the rest of
    the remaining work, but also might not.

    So: Does anyone still care?

    Joe Bernstein

    --
    Joe Bernstein, writer <Kdeurama@gmail.com>

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Adam H. Kerman@21:1/5 to Joe Bernstein on Tue Sep 14 21:16:57 2021
    Joe Bernstein <Kdeurama@gmail.com> wrote:

    Nearly two years ago, I wrote in >news:XnsAAF5A14004DDBKdeuramagmailcom@144.76.35.198:

    I still expect to complete my work for this thread, quite possibly
    before 2021, and probably before 2030. But I'm no longer confident.

    Does anyone still care?

    The K-drama market has changed dramatically since 2019. Mostly, many
    of the walled sites have picked up K-dramas in significant numbers.
    Also, the non-law-abiding streamer which had most of the speculative
    dramas of the decade of the 2000s folded, so I no longer know of any
    way to watch those shows at all, regardless of expense, except that
    some can be bought on DVD. Finally, the specialised sites - Viki, to
    which I never properly introduced y'all; KoCoWa, OnDemandKorea - have
    all become significantly more paywalled. In addition, KoCoWa's
    evident goal of making Viki the only serious alternative to itself
    has succeeded beyond its wildest dreams. In most of the world, Viki
    and Netflix are the main places to watch K-dramas; in the Americas,
    there are a few other choices, nearly all of which cost money I
    don't have, and in some cases refuse to tell me which dramas they
    have unless I spend that nonexistent money.

    I find this a depressing and draining state of affairs to try to
    document, and now that the local libraries have figured out how to
    find English-subtitled DVDs again, am mostly just ignoring it.

    Specifically, I got fed up with watching Web dramas at YouTube to
    find speculative ones about halfway through the job, which of course
    would now be much bigger anyway.

    While I was posting, I was fulfilling a long-held goal, and I did
    leave that unfinished. But it was obvious the whole time that few,
    and for all I know sometimes none, were reading the posts.

    What I can certainly offer is a list of the Web dramas I found were,
    in fact, speculative, by watching them. In the unlikely event that
    y'all produced an outpouring of interest, I might tackle the rest of
    the remaining work, but also might not.

    So: Does anyone still care?

    Your reviews and summaries are well written. I may not watch what you
    watch, but I like reading about it. Thank you.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Joe Bernstein@21:1/5 to I just on Sat Nov 20 03:38:58 2021
    I just wrote:

    Anyway, as I second-watch various other speculative dramas, there's
    no reason I can't review them individually here, and I may well do
    so. But I don't foresee being able to map the entire field again.

    I've so far watched three dramas in the second-watching way described
    in my previous post tonight. One is a speculative Web drama just two
    hours and change long. Essentially all my re-watching so far has
    been to settle my own indecision about dramas' music, not, so far, to
    re-visit speculative shows or any others that I really like. This
    drama quotes a ton of music, at which I'd thrown up my hands on first
    watching, so I went back to it. I've just looked at what I wrote
    when I did so, in July, and it needs a lot of links checked, but then
    I'll post it and see what happens, maybe within the next week.

    -- JLB

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Joe Bernstein@21:1/5 to Adam H. Kerman on Sat Nov 20 03:15:47 2021
    "Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com> wrote in
    news:shr3g9$qlo$2@dont-email.me:

    Joe Bernstein <Kdeurama@gmail.com> wrote:

    Nearly two years ago, I wrote in >>news:XnsAAF5A14004DDBKdeuramagmailcom@144.76.35.198:

    I still expect to complete my work for this thread, quite possibly
    before 2021, and probably before 2030. But I'm no longer confident.

    Does anyone still care?

    [snip]

    While I was posting, I was fulfilling a long-held goal, and I did
    leave that unfinished. But it was obvious the whole time that few,
    and for all I know sometimes none, were reading the posts.

    What I can certainly offer is a list of the Web dramas I found were,
    in fact, speculative, by watching them. In the unlikely event that
    y'all produced an outpouring of interest, I might tackle the rest of
    the remaining work, but also might not.

    So: Does anyone still care?

    Your reviews and summaries are well written. I may not watch what you
    watch, but I like reading about it. Thank you.

    Thank you for the compliment, but one "aye" isn't enough.

    At some point after this thread, I changed my approach to writing
    about K-dramas, from writing on first viewing and allowing lots of
    revision, to writing on (at least) second viewing, with that second
    viewing involving a lot of closer watching for specific cliches and
    so on.

    This means I'll be watching those Web dramas again, and there isn't
    any reason that can't be relatively soon. Except that right now the
    local public libraries where I live have a bonanza of speculative K-
    drama DVDs that I'm working through. (And since I'm now housed and
    mostly supporting myself, I'm doing that a great deal more slowly
    than when I started.) I have the vague impression that sometime next
    year I'll probably tackle the Web dramas.

    Anyway, as I second-watch various other speculative dramas, there's
    no reason I can't review them individually here, and I may well do
    so. But I don't foresee being able to map the entire field again.

    Joe Bernstein

    --
    Joe Bernstein <Kdeurama@gmail.com>

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)