When Night Comes, Strongest Chil Woo

This is interesting because I’m actually watching all three Monday-Tuesday dramas right now, and I agree with the general points made, and yet find the outcome curious. Gourmet is the undeniable winner, consistently earning more viewers than When Night Comes and Strongest Chil Woo combined — and based on what I’ve seen, rightly so.

But what strikes me as odd is that although Chil Woo manages every week to barely beat out Night, ratings-wise, their numbers have been fairly comparable. So why is one being called a mania drama (a cult hit), while the other is on the verge of being pegged a flop? To wit:

MBC’s ambitiously prepared Monday-Tuesday drama When Night Comes hasn’t been able to work free of its struggle. On top of that, its lead actors’ conditions have been aggravated by injury. These days, Night seems to be acting true to its title, slipping into trouble when night comes along.

And yet, by contrast:

The KBS2 MondayTuesday drama starring Eric (Moon Jung-hyuk), Strongest Chil Woo, seems set for mania drama status following Hong Gil Dong.

Although the ratings have come to a standstill after going up and down around the 10% mark following the premiere, it’s stirring up strong response within a faction of its viewership.

SONG OF THE DAY

When Night Comes OST - “사랑 탐험” (Love exploration) by Buga Kingz [ Download ]

 
What’s the deal with Monday-Tuesday dramas? >>

Tags: drama ratings, Eric, Gourmet, Kim Sun-ah, Lee Dong-gun, mania dramas, Strongest Chil Woo, When Night Comes

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MBC’s When Night Comes, SBS’s Iljimae

 
The following article from OSEN takes a look at the difference between the types of dramas on the air these days. I find a lot of mainstream entertainment press to be oversimplified (I’m sure I’m just not looking in the right places), but it’s something to chew on, for those of us who are curious about the relationship between ratings and the popularity/quality/success of a drama — as much as we all like to say it doesn’t matter.

Popular Dramas, Buzzworthy Dramas — There’s a Difference

There are dramas that bring in high viewership ratings but don’t get talked about much. On the other hand, there are also dramas that don’t pull in strong ratings numbers but are constantly being discussed. A drama’s content, actors, and its PR are all potential factors in drawing attention, but they don’t necessarily correlate to good ratings. Because there are many ways to watch a drama these days, the significance of ratings is gradually receding, but it’s still the primary factor in deciding advertising, and is the standard for measuring popularity. …

SONG OF THE DAY

Gourmet OST - “너에게” (To you) by Casker. I’m still trying to catch up on Gourmet, but for now I will say it has a standout soundtrack. [ Download ]

 
More popular and buzzworthy dramas >>

Tags: daily dramas, drama ratings, Gourmet, Iljimae, La Dolce Vita, Lee Dong-wook, manhwa adaptations, mania dramas, My Sweet Seoul, Oh Yeon-soo, sageuk dramas, Sohn Ye-jin, Spotlight, Strongest Chil Woo, When Night Comes, You're My Destiny

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So yeah… not a great drama.

It’s too bad since the two leads are entertaining together and they’ve got that bickering, competitive one-upmanship vibe going strong. But the rest of the plot, the directing, the cheesy music… meh. I haven’t found much on the director or the two writers, which is usually an indicator that they’re early in their careers. I also found myself wondering whether the writers had anything to do with Air City… It’s nothing specific, just the overall style and tone, as well as their liking of “twist” reveals that are supposed to be clever but are really kind of glaringly obvious. And their tendency to amp up mundane events as Dramatic! And! Exciting!

SONG OF THE DAY

Mighty Mouth - “Energy” [ Download ]

 
WHEN NIGHT COMES Episode 2 >>

Tags: episode recaps, Kim Sun-ah, Lee Dong-gun, When Night Comes

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To be brief?

Based on Episode 1, I found When Night Comes (also Every Night or Every Time It’s Night) to be part fun, and part corny. Its attempts to be slick and cool keep the action moving, but aren’t entirely successful — and while they’re not complete failures either, it falls short of its goal, landing it in Rivals territory: good acting by its leads, a few interesting scenes, peppered with a few ridiculous ones. Still, there’s hope.

SONG OF THE DAY

SG Wannabe - “우습지” (Isn’t it funny) from the drama OST. [ Download ] [ Re-upped higher quality ]

 
WHEN NIGHT COMES Episode 1 >>

Tags: episode recaps, Kim Jung-hwa, Kim Sun-ah, Lee Dong-gun, When Night Comes

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Stars of MBC’s When Night Comes were on hand on June 17 in Seoul for the press conference introducing their drama. Kim Sun Ah, Lee Dong Gun, Kim Jung Hwa, and Lee Joo Hyun were in attendance as their new series tries to take over from its predecessor Yi San’s successful ratings.

When Night Comes kicks off next Monday, but its competitors got a head start and premiered today: SBS with its long-awaited Gourmet (starring Kim Rae Won and Nam Sang Mi), and KBS with Eric’s sageuk comedy Strongest Chil Woo. Ratings-wise, Gourmet came out on top, with its first episode posting 13.2% ratings versus Chil Woo’s 11.5%. For their second episodes, Gourmet’s ratings went up 2.9% (to 16.1%), probably taking all of the 2.4% that Chil Woo lost (total 9.1%).

I’ve seen the first episodes of both, although I’ll wait until I catch the second episodes before weighing in, but here are my predictions:

If When Night Comes proves to be a good show, it’ll probably split ratings with Gourmet, which looks like it’s on its way to being a hit. On the other hand, if Night disappoints with mediocrity, Gourmet will take the night, leaving Night to trail in second place with middling ratings. But I’m betting Chil Woo will probably be a spectacular failure either way (I enjoyed it, but yeah, it’s pretty awful).

SONG OF THE DAY

Spicy Soda - “소심 Blues” (timid blues) [ Download ]

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Tags: Gourmet, Kim Jung-hwa, Kim Sun-ah, Lee Dong-gun, press conferences, Strongest Chil Woo, When Night Comes

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