Korean Television Needs An Evangelion Moment

I believe in the power of art and will continue doing so until I'm am no longer alive. Unfortunately in our current age where the idea of "art" seems to be slowly dying in favor of a "content" focused approach to entertainment, I worry that the marketplace will continue to be flooded with mutually intelligible works, leaving old-fashioned fogies like me with nothing more than the catalogue of the past.

I understand that television is generally a medium that is filled with works that are accessible, broadly appealing, and trying to gain far more of a wide audience than film is. This is not unique to Korean television by any means. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t works of Korean drama that I would consider to be exceptional and worth the time to experience but that the amount of high quality works across the medium aren’t as high as they probably should be.

In Japan the anime industry was in a slump in the 90s due to multiple variables. The economic crash and a crisis of ideas were at the heart of it. Then came along a little series you may have heard of: Neon Genesis Evangelion. To say Evangelion would represent a Japanese cultural and commercial milestone would be putting it lightly, and that in and of itself is putting it lightly. Evangelion brought with it new ways of creating ushering in the era of innovations that allowed a technical and artistic revival of the industry. Greater authorial control, the concentration of resources in fewer but higher quality episodes, a directorial approach similar to film, and greater freedom from the constraints of merchandising. Not to mention Hideaki Anno (director of the series) and his cerebrally driven poignant style of direction, storytelling, and fantastic shot framing and cinematography.

Korean drama desperately needs a Neon Genesis Evangelion. A show that is not just immensely popular to its niche audiences (the industry already has a glut of those and will continue to produce many more) but one that pushes the boundaries of what we know possible that upsets the status quo in the best possible way. I’m not saying there isn’t a place for shows like Itaewon Class or Descendants Of The Sun or that they shouldn’t exist, merely that there is an over saturation of them, they shouldn't be the only ones to exist. Shows such as The Cursed, Bad Guys, the Reply series, and Signal didn't exactly have as high aspirations as Evangelion did, but that's not to say that they aren't high quality in their own rights from a critical perspective.

This is entire article is probably more of a fool's errand than anything. The majority of the Korean drama viewing population isn't particularly interested in perception-changing, philosophically rich and poignant pieces. I am such a minority in my opinion sometimes I'm convinced I'm the only one who feels this way and ultimately I alone am not able to generate the kind of capital the television networks are looking for (shocking isn't it).

The Korean film industry between 2000-2015 has produced some of the best films in it’s history. Joint Security Area, Oldboy, Memories Of Murder just to name a few with remarkably forward thinking directors Park Chan-wook and Bong Joon-ho respectively. You can’t tell me it’s not possible to replicate at least a portion of that quality through serialized television drama.

Maybe it’s just the artistic idealist in me who wants the poets to be given more of a voice than the salesmen, it is a business after all, as much as I hate remembering that vital piece of information. And the aforementioned shows received viewership ratings through the roof, mostly satisfying the business end of the spectrum. However as Evangelion has proven, it is possible to satisfy both.