As a screenwriter I’m very aware of the limitations of media and how that influences plot presentation. One particular media form is the hour-length episode for a tv series. If you look at say, Lost, you see that what makes it very fast-paced is its tight construction per episode – Lost doesn’t even have an opening credit sequence. It maximizes plot development on air within its allotted time. Typically, an episode runs for forty minutes. The hour-length slot is one third advertising, possibly due to heavy competition.

I’ve recently become more interested in korean dramas (KH, Daniel and I watched Love Story in Harvard earlier this year) and am fascinated by 내 이름은 김삼순 / My Name is Kim Sam-soon. One thing I noticed immediately was that each episode runs for a full hour. Unfortunately, I didn’t watch enough SBS drama while in Korea to see if they had a similar hour-length slot system. If they do, then there is much less time for advertising.

My hypothesis (and this is completely off the cuff) is that a) the Korean television industry is relatively small and b) the target audience demographic is more or less captured ie Korean dramas are not easily substitutable for say, Battlestar Galactica S2, therefore c) the market is less competitive, less advertising income is necessary, screenwriters have a larger episode length to work with, d) episodes are less tightly constructed and have a slower pace. This would have a significant impact on story structure and presentation.

Of course I could be completely wrong since I’ve done zero research and this is only the 2nd korean drama I’ve seen.