K-Drama School: A Pop Culture Inquiry into Why We Love Korean Television

Comedian Jung (Deli Ideology) adapts her podcast of the same name into an astute examination of the themes and appeal of Korean television shows. Many such programs “use extreme forms of storytelling to moralize the importance of self-care,” Jung contends, noting that the series Extraordinary Attorney Woo (2022) and Crash Course in Romance (2023) revolve around protagonists who strain under the intense demands of their jobs and the loved ones “who rescue them from their dogged routines and habits.” Jung offers a whistle-stop survey of Korean history through television, discussing how Eyes of Dawn (1991–1992) dramatizes Japan’s colonization of the peninsula during the first half of the 20th century, and how military dictators Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan sought to control and distract the public with propagandistic programs in the 1960s and ’80s, respectively. Elsewhere, Jung expounds on Something in the Rain’s critique of the sexualization of women in the workplace and When the Camelia Blooms’s exploration of South Korean and American adoption agencies’ unethical practices. Jung’s penetrating commentary showcases the variety of the K-drama format while assisting foreign readers in understanding the cultural context. It’s an essential companion for anyone who has binged Crash Landing on You or Squid Game. (Apr.)