Nearly two years ago, I wrote in
news:XnsAAF5A14004DDBKdeuramagmailcom@144.76.35.198:

> I still expect to complete my work for this thread, quite possibly
> before 2021, and probably before 2030. But I'm no longer confident.

Does anyone still care?

The K-drama market has changed dramatically since 2019. Mostly, many
of the walled sites have picked up K-dramas in significant numbers.
Also, the non-law-abiding streamer which had most of the speculative
dramas of the decade of the 2000s folded, so I no longer know of any
way to watch those shows at all, regardless of expense, except that
some can be bought on DVD. Finally, the specialised sites - Viki, to
which I never properly introduced y'all; KoCoWa, OnDemandKorea - have
all become significantly more paywalled. In addition, KoCoWa's
evident goal of making Viki the only serious alternative to itself
has succeeded beyond its wildest dreams. In most of the world, Viki
and Netflix are the main places to watch K-dramas; in the Americas,
there are a few other choices, nearly all of which cost money I
don't have, and in some cases refuse to tell me which dramas they
have unless I spend that nonexistent money.

I find this a depressing and draining state of affairs to try to
document, and now that the local libraries have figured out how to
find English-subtitled DVDs again, am mostly just ignoring it.

Specifically, I got fed up with watching Web dramas at YouTube to
find speculative ones about halfway through the job, which of course
would now be much bigger anyway.

While I was posting, I was fulfilling a long-held goal, and I did
leave that unfinished. But it was obvious the whole time that few,
and for all I know sometimes none, were reading the posts.

What I can certainly offer is a list of the Web dramas I found were,
in fact, speculative, by watching them. In the unlikely event that
y'all produced an outpouring of interest, I might tackle the rest of
the remaining work, but also might not.

So: Does anyone still care?

Joe Bernstein

--
Joe Bernstein, writer <Kdeurama@gmail.com>

Joe Bernstein <Kdeurama@gmail.com> wrote:

>Nearly two years ago, I wrote in
>news:XnsAAF5A14004DDBKdeuramagmailcom@144.76.35.198:

>>I still expect to complete my work for this thread, quite possibly
>>before 2021, and probably before 2030. But I'm no longer confident.

>Does anyone still care?

>The K-drama market has changed dramatically since 2019. Mostly, many
>of the walled sites have picked up K-dramas in significant numbers.
>Also, the non-law-abiding streamer which had most of the speculative
>dramas of the decade of the 2000s folded, so I no longer know of any
>way to watch those shows at all, regardless of expense, except that
>some can be bought on DVD. Finally, the specialised sites - Viki, to
>which I never properly introduced y'all; KoCoWa, OnDemandKorea - have
>all become significantly more paywalled. In addition, KoCoWa's
>evident goal of making Viki the only serious alternative to itself
>has succeeded beyond its wildest dreams. In most of the world, Viki
>and Netflix are the main places to watch K-dramas; in the Americas,
>there are a few other choices, nearly all of which cost money I
>don't have, and in some cases refuse to tell me which dramas they
>have unless I spend that nonexistent money.

>I find this a depressing and draining state of affairs to try to
>document, and now that the local libraries have figured out how to
>find English-subtitled DVDs again, am mostly just ignoring it.

>Specifically, I got fed up with watching Web dramas at YouTube to
>find speculative ones about halfway through the job, which of course
>would now be much bigger anyway.

>While I was posting, I was fulfilling a long-held goal, and I did
>leave that unfinished. But it was obvious the whole time that few,
>and for all I know sometimes none, were reading the posts.

>What I can certainly offer is a list of the Web dramas I found were,
>in fact, speculative, by watching them. In the unlikely event that
>y'all produced an outpouring of interest, I might tackle the rest of
>the remaining work, but also might not.

>So: Does anyone still care?

Your reviews and summaries are well written. I may not watch what you
watch, but I like reading about it. Thank you.

"Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com> wrote in
news:shr3g9$qlo$2@dont-email.me:

> Joe Bernstein <Kdeurama@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>Nearly two years ago, I wrote in
>>news:XnsAAF5A14004DDBKdeuramagmailcom@144.76.35.198:
>
>>>I still expect to complete my work for this thread, quite possibly
>>>before 2021, and probably before 2030. But I'm no longer confident.
>
>>Does anyone still care?

[snip]

>>While I was posting, I was fulfilling a long-held goal, and I did
>>leave that unfinished. But it was obvious the whole time that few,
>>and for all I know sometimes none, were reading the posts.
>
>>What I can certainly offer is a list of the Web dramas I found were,
>>in fact, speculative, by watching them. In the unlikely event that
>>y'all produced an outpouring of interest, I might tackle the rest of
>>the remaining work, but also might not.
>
>>So: Does anyone still care?

> Your reviews and summaries are well written. I may not watch what you
> watch, but I like reading about it. Thank you.

Thank you for the compliment, but one "aye" isn't enough.

At some point after this thread, I changed my approach to writing
about K-dramas, from writing on first viewing and allowing lots of
revision, to writing on (at least) second viewing, with that second
viewing involving a lot of closer watching for specific cliches and
so on.

This means I'll be watching those Web dramas again, and there isn't
any reason that can't be relatively soon. Except that right now the
local public libraries where I live have a bonanza of speculative K-
drama DVDs that I'm working through. (And since I'm now housed and
mostly supporting myself, I'm doing that a great deal more slowly
than when I started.) I have the vague impression that sometime next
year I'll probably tackle the Web dramas.

Anyway, as I second-watch various other speculative dramas, there's
no reason I can't review them individually here, and I may well do
so. But I don't foresee being able to map the entire field again.

Joe Bernstein

--
Joe Bernstein <Kdeurama@gmail.com>

I just wrote:

> Anyway, as I second-watch various other speculative dramas, there's
> no reason I can't review them individually here, and I may well do
> so. But I don't foresee being able to map the entire field again.

I've so far watched three dramas in the second-watching way described
in my previous post tonight. One is a speculative Web drama just two
hours and change long. Essentially all my re-watching so far has
been to settle my own indecision about dramas' music, not, so far, to
re-visit speculative shows or any others that I really like. This
drama quotes a ton of music, at which I'd thrown up my hands on first
watching, so I went back to it. I've just looked at what I wrote
when I did so, in July, and it needs a lot of links checked, but then
I'll post it and see what happens, maybe within the next week.

-- JLB