“24″ TV Series
I just finished watching Season 3 of 24 on DVD. I had seen Season 1 on TV and had forgotten about it. However this past fall, my co-workers were mesmerized by Kiefer Sutherland and all conversation swirled around the cliff-hanger of the week. I’m all for a good drama and brainless entertainment, so I got sucked back in.
What I don’t get is why it took American producers so long to create a series with a plot that is tightly integrated week to week. Dramas, like ER, CSI and , are only loosely tied to each other from week to week and in 40 minutes reach the resolution of the week. There’s nothing compelling me to watch the next episode. American soaps operas may do this but we all know they are also never ending.
Now, anyone familar with Korean dramas knows that how addicting they can be. Typically you go to a video-bhang (literal translation: video room) and walk out with a tall stack of rented VHS tapes. Each tape generally has 2 1-hour episodes or 4 30-minute episodes. Either way, it’s about 2 hours of video-watching pleasure. The series can be as short as 8 tapes or as long as 40+ tapes. A show can be a hilarious comedy or an over-the-top dramatic tear-jerker but it always keeps you wanting more.
For example, Autumn Story was one of the most popular dramas in 2000 and a huge hit in Taiwan and Japan. A girl and boy are raised as siblings for 14 years until the families discover that the sister was switched at birth with another girl. After switching their daughters, the family moves to the US for 9 years. The brother comes back to Korea to get married; meanwhile, one of his good friends has coincidentally fallen in love with his “sister”. Once united, the “siblings” fall in love for each other but their love is complicated since they were raised as brother and sister. The friendship of the two guys deteriorates; the brother’s fiance attemps to take her life. They try to live the proper lives - staying in relationships with someone who is not their true love. Life is hard enough but the “sister” is then diagnosed with leukemia and gets very sick. Out of true love, the friend steps aside and allows the two to spend her final days together. They enjoy each other’s company, have a mock wedding, and take walks on the beach. She passes while piggybacked on the back of her true love. He allows the friend to say goodbye by spreading the ashes. A few days later, he joins his true love in the heavens when he doesn’t get out of the way of an oncoming truck.
One tissue box and 16 episodes later, you come out of the zombie state where you spent the weekend popping VHS tapes one right after the other. But now you regain your life until the next big must see drama… There are some shows that are emulating this pattern - Lost, Alias, 24 - but the major difference is that they are striving to continue the story into the next network season. This is probably due to the different ways in which networks work in the two countries. For instance, in Korea actors and actresses are contracted with the networks and characters are ephemeral - no 10-year runs as a Ross or Racheal. Once a series ends, the network juggles their talent around and uses them in the next series as different characters. Given the popularity of Korean dramas throughout Asia, there’s something to be said for this model. While I don’t think American networks will ever turn to this model completely, I’m curious to see what the future holds for the 1 hour length dramas.
Links:
Tour2Korea.com
Koreanwiz.com.
