Here is a screenshot from Doctor Prisoner


Another one from Save Me


I know its not all of them, and many dramas are still looking like, well "tv dramas", but its coming more and more. It started like 3-4 years ago? Anyone know what started it all? Haha.

I definitely love it, puts a luxurious feel to the production. 

also, Something in The Rain. 

I actually took a look at my watched list, and it seemed that Korean dramas started to look more polished sometime around 2014? Secret Door (SBS), Secret Love Affair (jTBC), Incomplete Life (tvN) have this really lush feel to them (it should be noted that all of them had excellent directors). Beyond the Clouds (KBS) look quite polished but have lots of close-ups, which were quite common back in the day (I think) but these days are not as ubiquitous as they once were.

(I made this observation based on memory, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.)

So this article is kind of an ad for a camera, but I thought it was interesting. 

But to answer your question, I think it's about the availability of better, movie-quality cameras and lenses now vs. several years ago.  So higher budget dramas will look better, and "cheaper" dramas (daily dramas, weekenders, and certain lower profile bits of even higher budget dramas) might use older cameras and shoot on cheaper sets (vs. more on-location stuff in bigger budget dramas + better cameras).  I agree that 2013/2014 seems to be about the time when we started seeing a lot more of the higher quality "look" to dramas.