bojinator:
After all this, I think China should not fund Korean dramas anymore, they should pull out, and invest in their up and coming new classes of actors/actresses, and focus on their own development.
I agree. The whole reason people segue out of kdramas in the first place is because they're looking for something different. Unfortunately, increasingly Cdramas - esp contemporary romcoms - strike me as attempted copy-pasteas of the kdrama aesthetic that relies on flawless idol actors, flashy photography, and cheesy directoral tricks. Then again, what's available is hardly representative of cdramas as a whole. Personally, I'd like to see more emphasis on compelling stories featuring regular people with whom we can actually relate and are more tonally organic - Battle of Changsha, The Way We Were, To Be a Better Man, Soredemo, Ikite Yuku, Alone in Love, Beautiful Life, etc. etc. Probably explains why I like a lot of 90s Jdramas.
That said, this thread is obviously successful bait. Anyone who allows their artistic assessments to be soiled by short-term personal experiences shouldn't be taken seriously. And I'm still waiting, since the onus should be on the OP, for the reasons why Goblin and It's Okay, That's Love are hurr durr 'best TV shows in the world, with which no other can compare' LOL. But since asked, I'll name a few that grind both of those into the dust: Upstairs, Downstairs, Poldark (the original), Lonesome Dove, Roots, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Smiley's People, House of Cards, I Claudius, Pride and Prejudice, North and South, Mash, The Forsyte Saga, Brideshead Revisited......sigh.