Top 5 Over-Hyped K-Dramas

Top 5 

Over-Hyped K-Dramas

We all know those movies or shows that seem to have an amazing cast, great premise and solid team working on them. In the months leading up to their release there’s a steady build of excitement as we’re given more and more promotional material leading up to the release date. Then the fabulous day finally arrives and we can at last watch what we have been waiting months for! Only then you find out that the cast underperform, or the story is a mess, or the directing has ruined everything. Or all of the above. K-Dramas love building hype before their release- we have the synopsis released, actors announcing that they are accepting roles, posters published, and teasers to tease us. And then once we finally watch the drama, it’s not uncommon for it to be completely underwhelming and not nearly as epic as the promos promised. These are my top 5 picks of K-Dramas that were buried under all their hype.

5: Legend of the Blue Sea

While I can understand why some people were drawn to this show, for me this drama was just never as good as it (and a lot of people who had watched it) promised it would be. There were so many things behind this drama that were reasons why it should have been good. The director was Jin Hyeok (of ‘City Hunter’ fame), the writer was Park Ji Eun (who also penned ‘The Producers’ and ‘My Love from the Stars’), and then of course we had the leads- Lee Min Ho (who I honestly find ridiculously overhyped as is) and Jeon Ji Hyun. Plus it was a fantasy, and everyone loves fantasy. While this drama did give us pretty solid performances from both the leads, unfortunately the story was pretty lacklustre, and didn’t come close to giving us the dramatic, tragic, magical love story it promised.

4: Hwarang

While I personally enjoyed this one, it’s safe to say that most of its viewers were left feeling pretty disappointed. In the lead up to the drama’s release, viewers were promised a dramatic power struggle with a solid bromance at its core. And everybody loves a good bromance. Everybody. Where ‘Hwarang’ largely failed is that it didn’t deliver on the power struggle or the bromance. Sure, there were scenes of the Hwarang boys all getting along fairly well, but it’s the addictive, heartbreaking bromance the fans were wanting- so they were pretty salty when it didn’t come about. The story was fairly light-hearted and had a sweet romance at its core- but as that’s not exactly how the show was presenting itself during its promos, people were left feeling a tad bitter about the whole thing.

3: Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo

Oh, if ever a K-Drama crashed and burned it was ‘Scarlet Heart’. The sad thing about this show is that it did so many things right. But then it did so, so, many things wrong. Granted the writer wasn’t too well known, and the director was known for being only pretty okay- but the cast. The cast was dazzling. IU was the leading lady and the boys that surrounded her were Lee Joon Ki, Kang Ha Neul, Nam Joo Hyuk, Ji Soo and Baekhyun. All these big names got people pretty excited to watch this show and see how all their favourite actors would come together as royal brothers. We were promised bromance, we were promised romance, we were promised tragedy! The only real tragedy we got was how tragically poorly this drama was written. 

2: Ruler- Master of the Mask

‘Ruler’ is similar to ‘Moon Lovers’ in that the writer and PD were fairly green, but the cast just seemed too extraordinary to sign onto a script that sucked. Plot twist- this script sucked. Still, at least from episode 1 you knew what you were in for- unlike, 'Moon Lovers' this drama sucked from start to finish rather than suddenly sucking midway through. Despite acting powerhouses Yoo Seung Ho and Kim So Hyun leading this show, the writing failed to let them do much with their characters. Kim So Hyun’s leading lady was all but written out of the drama as the show decided to focus on the male leads. I’ve never really had a problem with idol-actors before, but this is quite possibly L’s worst performance to date, and I suddenly realised that people weren’t wrong when they said he was a poor actor. This show hyped us all up with the promise of a dynamic story of a Crown Prince with a hidden identity and his love story that he would risk his throne for. And then it crashed when we all realised that the writers had no idea what they were doing and had bit off more than they could chew, and what should have been an epic saga became nothing more than the senseless whining of immature children.

1: The Heirs

Kim Eun Sook is well known for her romantic scripts and addictive chemistry between her main leads. She’s penned great hits such as ‘Lovers in Paris’, ‘Secret Garden’ and ‘A Gentleman’s Dignity’. People eagerly await her dramas, excited to chow down on the next huge romance she will deliver, and let’s just say ‘Heirs’ was a bit of a fail. In addition to a famously well loved writer, this drama had a great cast- Lee Min Ho (who I still maintain is overhyped) and Park Shin Hye (our Candy Queen) were our leads and they were backed up by names such as Kim Woo Bin, Choi Jin Hyuk and Kang Ha Neul. By all rights this should have been a dazzling show, so I think we were all left feeling mighty disappointed when it…wasn’t.

What are the most over-hyped K-Dramas you've seen?