Open Thread #755

I was thinking some about the endings of kdramas this week—partly because I was wondering if my dissatisfaction with many of them said more about me or more about the shows. In the end, (of my reflection, not the shows) I’ll not blame myself entirely, and say it is true that most shows don’t end as well as they began—in part because the plotlines/themes/character developments have piled up in ways that become enormously complex to resolve—even in detective shows, where a satisfactory end is to catch the guilty (or, in English-subtitle speak, which I love!—the “culprit”) –Or, in rom-coms, where the only ending priority is that the main couple has to unite. (but why no grandchildren, Business Proposal?!?)

But that brings up a second thing that I’ve observed—and can be corrected on, if I’m wrong. In Hollywood, although there are seemingly endless numbers of screenwriters, when a film or show goes badly or ends satisfyingly, we tend to blame the director or the “showrunner.” This is clear in movies, where directors are well-known but generally not screenwriters, but its also the case in T.V. So, for example, when I want to praise or complain about the show Bridgerton, I’ll cite showrunner Shonda Rhimes rather than the head writer, Chris Van Dusen (although I will blame Van Dusen for having ALL the characters end EVERY sentence with “is it not.”)

However, with K-Dramas, it seems to me commentators here tend to credit (or blame) the writer(s). So, for example, I will express my frustration with Kwon Do-eun for the ending of 25-21 when she wrote the previous episodes so beautifully, rather than the director Jung Ji-hyun. But isn’t it the case, just as in the U.S. that shows often move out of control of writers, as directors, actors, locations, budget, worries about audience response, etc. etc. do their work in production? So why don’t we say, “Jung Ji-hyun really blew it with that last episode” rather than say, to (end with a positive assessment), “another brilliant ending by the writer of Search: WWW?” (which in my opinion did end brilliantly, unlike 25-21, but I’m not writing to rehash that issue again—just to ask if writers should be given the degree of credit/blame they seem to be in kdramas!)

Open Thread #755
Source: Buzz Pinay Daily