Ok I am watching Shopaholic Louis 2015 kdrama in 2026 and I now understand how kdramas got to be so awful since 2015.
Shopaholic Louis kdrama shows compassion, the love, the connection, the message of deep belief in goodness, in unconditional love in spite of everything.
There are greater stories of great loves, involving spiritual loves, but as far as human love goes, ML and FL here are examples of how deeply humans can love. If you cannot see it – then… ??? I would recommend you read recap of this drama on Dramabeans, the best summary is the Commentary to the 16th episode: https://dramabeans.com/2016/11/shopping-king-louis-episode-16-final/
So after seeing comments of the audience how this drama was boring, SML was too old, etc etc – even ppl who “liked” the drama complaining about silly stuff, clearly not really liking it – I can see the thinking of the Western and other non-korean audience.
THIS DRAMA IS INCREDIBLY CREATIVE AND INCREDIBLY DEEP, and if your heart is closed / jaded / callous, you miss it. And anyone who watches hwood or cdramas is trained to be a callous person…. . Kdramas also train in certain forms of being rotten, such as sexism against women, portraying women as dumb, kind, losers OR villains.
Most ppl on this site are international audience, polluted by junk from Hwood and now cdramas, very bombastic sensationalistic dramatic soapy plots, very shallow, fast whizzing flashy images, etc. Hwood too, with s.x and violence instead of content. Cdramas and hwood are like alcohol, you watch them to stop thinking about the reality. So they do NOT have any transformations and character growth, and are very HEAVY, they lack lightness and humor.
kdramas DO have meanings, teachings, transformations, character growth, heavy topics treated with compassion, lightness, warmth and humor, and hope, always seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. and always moving towards it, putting effort to move towards it.
A true, real, good story has 3 parts: PART 1: FLAWS, PART 2: SUFERING AND OVERCOMING, and PART 3: WIN AND TRANSFORMATION
Hwood and cdramas have only part 1, and most kdramas have all 3 parts.
SO MOST INTERNATIONAL AUDIENCE WILL FIND KDRAMAS BORING AND WILL MISS THE MEANING, BC THEY JUST CANNOT SEE ANYTHING DEEPER
but they have money. So Koreans started dumbing down their dramas, and by year 2026, there are so many new kdramas in Hwood style.
And that is truly sad
and Koreans too are losing their “special feel” and becoming numbed and dumbed down.
So that part is a true tragedy – that S Korea does not produce this kind of quality often anymore,
and a true tragedy would be that kdramas go extinct.
2015/2016 has great, creative dramas,
and by year 2026, many new kdramas are a total cesspool filmed in Western style
ALSO, the actors and actresses are all super skinny now, cannot move, lack energy and liveninss, and new dramas are o sedentary, static, serious, gloomy, with really bad characters…