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A still from “Beyond Evil”

Over the past few years, there’s been a noticeable evolution of genre television in Korea. Viewers’ growing thirst for justice during the Moon administration has been a major impetus for this evolution.

“Stranger,” which was distributed on tvN in 2017, triggered an evolution of Korean genre television that borrows from real-world desires. The success of this show — which continued with a second season last year — led to a mass interest in Korean genre television.

Meanwhile, the video streaming services that have emerged as a new platform for watching TV shows in recent years have refined the taste of Korean viewers by introducing them to top-notch genre shows from other countries.

Korean television producers have begun to release shows that respond to these domestic changes while also targeting the global market. The solution, once again, is genre television, a drama framework familiar to people around the world that can be enhanced with “local color,” resulting in fascinating variations.

This evolution of Korean genre television became more pronounced in the first half of 2021. The addition of adult content made shows more expressive, as they dealt with topics and materials that had long been taboo on Korea’s terrestrial broadcasters.

Thrillers like “Beyond Evil” (JTBC) and “Mouse” (tvN) were some of the leading successes in the first half of the year, neatly illustrating how far Korean-style genre television has come.

A still from “Taxi Driver”

These thrillers — which kept audiences on the edge of their seat until the final episode — managed to combine the attention to detail of a well-made Western program with Korean media’s quintessential emotionalism.

Following the thread of the murders in these shows, we stumble upon sentiments that are typical of Korean society. The dominant mood in these thrillers is their focus on the fact that victims suffer more than criminals and don’t always get justice from the law.

These Korean thrillers weave emotional reactions to real-world injustice into the drama, producing catharsis. That was made possible by the fact that, as more genre television is produced, on-the-ground research has become de rigueur for scriptwriters.

“Taxi Driver” (SBS) is inspired by an online comic, but all the episodes are based on true stories. This series was created by a producer who worked on the long-running investigative reporting show “Unanswered Questions” and takes on real-life incidents already covered in the older show. “Taxi Driver” uses the fiction of vigilante justice to quench the public desire for justice in cases where the law has let us down.

There are shows like “Delayed Justice” (SBS) in which the script is written by the reporter who inspired the main character of the show, while legal shows like “Law School” (JTBC) are filled with technical information about the law.

Research-based writing is what has made Korean genre television so detail-oriented.

We shouldn’t ignore the fact that successes from the first half of 2021 have caused Korean genre television to break new ground in the genres of superheroes, time travel, and zombies.

Shows like “Awaken” (tvN) and “LUCA: The Beginning” (tvN) present superhumans who are the product of biological experiments. “The Uncanny Counter” (OCN) is about superheroes, and “Dark Hole (OCN)” riffs on the zombie genre.

“Sisyphus: The Myth” (JTC) is a post-apocalyptic show that tackles the genre of time travel, while “Vincenzo” (tvN) earned plaudits as an action-comedy that applies Korean sentiments to the Italian mafia genre.

For a long time, Korean drama mostly consisted of family dramas, melodramas, and historical dramas, which was a product of the contemporary media environment, family values, and the mood in society. But as viewers migrate to global streaming platforms and become more individualistic and pickier about their media, Korea’s genre television is expected to keep evolving.

The first half of 2021 offered yet another chance to confirm that salutary trend.

If you haven’t seen the shows I’ve mentioned, I highly recommend at least watching “Beyond Evil,” “Mouse,” “Awaken,” and “Law School.”

By Jung Duk-hyun, culture critic

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]