THEME: “Why I Like Kdramas”

THEME: “Why I Like Kdramas”

I like kdramas because for the most part they’re happy. Because even when the characters are presented with unhappy situations, by series end love triumphs over adversity, the bad guys get their comeuppance, and the protagonists find their happy ending.

And in between the introduction and the ending, there is a wealth of sadness and joy. The best shows run the full gamut of human emotion and take you on a journey through empathy and despair.

It’s beautiful to be allowed to feel so much. To have all of your empty spaces filled, even just for a little while, enables a person to face their own life with a bit more hope that everything will turn out all right. And that’s beautiful.

To laugh and cry cleanses the soul. It opens you up to possibilities you might never have known. It lets you look at another person and see that they’re human too, and thus deserving of consideration and maybe even love.

In a world that is often confusing and scary, a kdrama lets you believe that perseverance will be rewarded. If you hold onto your spirit and don’t give in to temptation and cruelty, you can live a good life. Just keep moving forward, keep smiling, cry when you need the release, and don’t let anyone tell you that you’re not good enough to be happy.

There’s so much feeling in a good kdrama. It might be fiction, but it feels like truth. Because you will laugh, cry, and fall in love one hour at a time.

And that’s another think I like about kdramas: they are planned out with a beginning and an ending. Each series has a goal to be reached and you don’t have to worry that things will be drawn out season after interminable season. Most shows have 12-16 episodes unless they’re an epic, which might have 50-60 episodes, maybe even 100. But they don’t drag on season after season, with the writers coming up with ever more desperate ploys to keep people watching.

When I watch a kdrama, it’s with the expectation that I will feel a lot of emotion. I will be drawn into the lives of people struggling alone until they find each other. And when it’s all done, it’s done. I can walk away satisfied that I’ve seen a complete story.

I watch kdramas because even when they’re sad stories, most of them show happiness and love. They make me feel a lifetime of emotion in a dozen episodes. They make me look around and want to give life a chance. And that’s beautiful.


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