Culture

Why I Don’t Watch American Dramas

And why I prefer K-drama

Photo by Victor He on Unsplash

I began watching the second series of Emily in Paris the other day, and quickly remembered why I hated watching American dramas.

I haven’t watched American dramas for a long time, mainly favouring K-dramas if I watch anything at all. There’s a certain sensibility to them: yes, there's a lot of alcohol featured, but there's zero nudity, sex scenes are hinted at rather than explicit, and it takes ten episodes for the love interests to hold hands, and a further eight for them to kiss. Plus, with hour-long episodes and twenty episodes per season, there’s so much more real estate for character development.

American dramas, in contrast, love a steamy sex scene with nudity — preferably in the first ten minutes of the first episode. Start with a bang, they say. Furthermore, the attention is given to more superficial aspects of relationships, lust, and the aftermath/fallout of sexual interactions means that the character and story development just isn’t the same.

And whilst I know not all dramas are alike — and I’m sure there are American dramas out there without explicit scenes — they seem to be becoming less and less prevalent. It’s as though their prevalence indoctrinates us to accept that sort of content. With repeated exposure to nudity and sex on screen, our eyes become immune to it. However, take some time away, and you find that it becomes embarrassing.

Watching ‘Hometown Cha Cha Cha’ a while ago a thought struck me — how lucky are the Korean actresses that their dignity is preserved, and they don’t have to get (near) naked for their job.