Game of Thrones: 8 seasons, 73 eps, roughly 1hr each The Untamed: 1 season, 50 eps, roughly 45mins each Both adapted from epic novels. One had to fight government censorship every step of the way; the other had free reign. One is a cultural juggernaut; the other duffed itself.
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It just... fascinates me, to compare the two. And it really hits home to me why I've become so obsessed with c-dramas as a narrative form.
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The thing with western TV is, at a fundamental level, we don't conceive of TV shows as closed narratives that, from day one, have a pre-determined narrative endpoint. The very new exception to this is book adaptations, but even then, sometimes studios wanna milk that cow dry.
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Whereas very many c-dramas - or at least modern c-dramas; I cannot speak to their history - are intended to be long but finite narratives. The entire point is to tell a single, detailed story across multiple instalments, not to keep adding more seasons for as long as you can.
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The thing about finite storytelling is that, when you know where something ends, you can build towards it; you don't have to keep hedging, throwing up random obstacles to catharsis in case you need more emotional ammo down the line. And where this is especially important -
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- is the development of relationships: actual, end-game romances. The western TV model has been, for ages, to start with chemistry/sexual tension and then just... let it keep going, more or less indefinitely, well past the point where you'd expect the dynamic to evolve or stop.
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Which means that, for all their strengths, western TV shows frequently suck at purposefully developing a romantic relationship from beginning to end. It's always about relationships, plural, sex and breakups and obstacles, b/c they're always trying to keep their options open.
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Whereas with c-dramas, when they want to show a main pairing romance, they just... do that. You get full development and full catharsis. There'll still be angst and drama and heartbreak, but it's not *arbitrary* - it's all engineered with the endgame in mind.
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Replying to @fozmeadows
I'd like to insert The Expanse as a counterexample. Strong story, long arc. A definite end game in sight. Also Canadian.
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Agreed, but it also falls under the exception of book adaptation.
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