Perhaps as a corollary to this discussion of why ratings are important, for better or for worse (usually for worse), here’s an article that discusses one such ramification: actors who come attached with high price tags that the drama then is unable to recoup when a drama flops in the ratings.
(One thing to note: Despite the high numbers listed, Korean actors find most of their paychecks going to management companies, as actress Choi Jin-shil recently gained attention for mentioning. In the U.S., agents are only allowed to take 10% — though more fees get siphoned off to managers, publicists, lawyers, and the like — but that percentage is much higher for Korean celebs.)
Even if a drama flops, stars’ asking prices continue to soar. It’s not as though market theory applies, and those prices keep rising, defying logic. Even when a drama meets with crushing failure, hurting the production company behind it, a star’s fee still climbs.
I gave up watching KBS’s over-the-top melodrama Bad Love because from what I saw, it was horrible. And yet, part of me thinks it could’ve been a lot of fun to watch even despite — or because of — how ridiculously bad the series is. Alas I don’t have twenty hours to commit to unabashedly cheesy histrionics.
The viewers are also flagging for the Monday-Tuesday drama, which finds itself “unable to revive from its slump”; after its thirteenth episode, ratings are in the 7% range. What could be the reasons for its failure to catch on? A few possible reasons are offered up by Newsen:
First off, it’s behind the times:
Bad Love was planned with the ambitious goal to revive the languishing melodrama genre. The drama set sail aiming to become a new-generation melo, but has failed to capture viewer interest. …
The melodramas that swept the late ’90s and early 2000s have long since been on the downtrend. The “season” dramas [Autumn Love Story, Winter Sonata], quintessential melo series, ended in resounding failure and trampled pride with Summer Scent and Spring Waltz.
It’s because viewers have started becoming fed up with such tearjerkers. They aren’t entertained by these “Korean-style” melodramas with their obvious love triangles, or the lead characters with fatal diseases who die in the end.
It seems Bad Love has failed to captivate audiences because it has followed the footsteps and adopted the characteristics of these passé dramas.
Moreover, sources related to the broadcast station credit considerable audience distaste to the adulterous storylines used in the drama.
Secondly, the drama is unconvincing in its developments, and the characters are unable to convey emotion well:
Viewers by and large feel that Bad Love has lost believability. The four men and women’s lives connect and entangle in an excess of coincidences, and audiences find it difficult to focus on the story when its sense of reality is lost. …
They also point to the matter of the characters’ emotions. Kwon Sang Woo, Lee Yo Won and the other actors display their acting talents in strong performances, but that is insufficient to allow the viewers to connect with their characters’ emotions. The characters struggle, love, and break up, but some viewers still say, “It’s difficult to understand their actions.”
The article mentions that Bad Love was supposedly the dark horse, facing off against large-scale sageuk dramas like Yi San and King and I, but I think that point is overly generous — when you’ve got such outstanding flaws within the drama itself, you don’t really need to go looking at the competition for more reasons for its failure.
With only six more episodes remaining, Newsen wonders, “Will it be able to revive itself in its remaining episodes? Will Bad Love end up as Bad Ratings or Kind Ratings? The answers can only be given by the series itself.”
Kwon Sang Woo returns to television after three years in the upcoming KBS Monday-Tuesday drama (starting December 3) Wretched Love (a more apt but slangy translation could be “Screwed-up Love”), which is described as being different from “normal trendy dramas.”
(Frankly, it seems like everything is being described as “different” these days, which I think is more just an indication that the staples that made Hallyu famous are shifting in a new direction. I don’t think we’ll be seeing many more “standard” trendy dramas anytime soon, since everyone’s tastes have been whetted for deviations from the cliches.)
But Wretched Love is different because it’s not “soft” (connotation: sissy) and “romantic” (the writer uses those words like they’re insults), but rather, in keeping with its title, the melodrama depicts love that’s so effed-up it can ruin a life. The love triangle wears down its participants so much that it makes a person want to shout, “Love’s a bitch.” Sounds like a charmer!
Producers are counting on fellow masochists to watch this lovely-sounding scenario unfold and sigh along, “Ah, I’d like to love like that once too.” Sure, and I say life’s not complete until we all drive ice picks through various bodily appendages. The pain means you’re alive! (For now.)
After showing his tearful acting in such weepies as Sad Story and Stairway to Heaven, Kwon Sang Woo shows his “manly” and “intense” side in his new project (who else thinks the reporter’s being awfully chauvinistic merely from his/her word choice?). Cuz real men don’t cry about love, they ruin it, apparently.
As for his romantic (or should I say “wretched” and “miserable” instead, since romance doesn’t seem to be the order of the day) female lead, auditions are being held to cast the lucky lady who gets to be wrecked by tragic love. Can’t wait!
