Hollywood can learn a lot from Asian television.

While Hollywood pursues the next monster blockbuster, Asia tells stories the right way.

By far the best Asian television comes from Korea, although Taiwan is catching up.

Korean storytelling often comes in the form of sixteen episodes, so they use a television format but stick to stories that have a beginning and an ending.

The acting is generally excellent, particularly the young actors, although there’s a lot of crying in the melodramas.

Korean humor doesn’t always translate smoothly for American audiences and it can come across as fluffy. However, don’t be put off if a show looks silly at first, because a number of these shows start as fluffy comedies and then dive into much deeper depths. It’s a Korea thing.?

Story lines Koreans like: their Joseon past, the notion of a South Korean monarchy, North-South relations, corruption, time travel, children who have scary adventures and meet again as adults, and Cinderellas marrying rich cranky men.

The culture is hierarchical and sexist. Abusive bosses, parents, husbands and boyfriends.

Lots of cellphones. Lots of food porn. Lots of Korean power ballads. Not a lot of sex.

Most shows are on Netflix. Most but not all are Korean.

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MUST SEE TV.

1.?????Because This Is My First Life, two troubled people marry for financial reasons and the inevitable happens. I actually re-watched it because the actress essentially plays different personas depending on who she’s dealing with, mystifying everyone including her husband.

2.????Twenty Five Twenty One, gorgeous coming-of-age romance starring a reporter and an athlete, bouncing from romance to tragedy to friendship to forgiveness to patriotism to courage; one of the few Korean series with humor that works for global audiences. But brace yourself for the finale, where romance collides with reality.

3.????Thirty Nine, tearjerker about women approaching 40. An emotional wallop in every episode. The cast is so stacked that Son Ye Jin is working in support of Jeon Mido.

4.????Love Around (Taiwan, Viki), warring families; Annie Chen’s acting work is dazzling, especially in the confrontation with her father.?

5.????When the Camellia Blooms, romcom plunges into everything from soap opera to serial killer to It’s A Wonderful Life; excellent cast led by a shy crabby orphan girl who never backs down from a fight.

6.????Love Now (Taiwan); begins with a ridiculous meet-cute, descends into a strong melodrama in which a newly married couple endures everything. Annie Chen dazzles again. 72 episodes.

7.?????Thirty But Seventeen; bus accident leads to Grieving Mother, Coma Girl and PTSD Guy. Neatly threaded with mysteries. It’s a must-see just for the nutty maid with deep secrets.

8.????Another Miss Oh, spiky romcom about jealousy and revenge. Gutsy actresses rejected romcom clichés so they could make new mistakes of their own and create characters that are complex but relatable.

9.????Live, rookie cops meet a mentor fighting for his marriage. Not to be confused with Life, a so-so medical drama.

10.?Legend of the Blue Sea (Hulu), Jun Ji-Hyun displayed Chaplin-level comedic skills as a mermaid horking down spaghetti like a Doberman and crying like a whale, and managed the athletic underwater scenes not long after giving birth (same girl played a total loon in the feature My Sassy Girl).

11.??Rain Or Shine, aka Just Between Lovers, young couple helps a town to move beyond a tragedy. Won Jin-Ah does a superb job in her first starring role.

12.??Extraordinary Lawyer Woo, procedural about an autistic lawyer, very good lead, exceptional writing.

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ALSO GOOD.

Perfect Match, Taiwanese food porn and good acting.

Live Up To Your Name, medieval acupuncturist is transported to modern Korea. Male lead shows astounding range as the story leaps from slapstick to romcom into deep drama.

Stranger/Forest of Secrets, political/crime drama led by emotionally mismatched detectives.

Hospital Playlist, the lives of surgeons, well written and acted, but much more low-key than, say, Greys Anatomy. It’s fun to watch Jeon Mido, veteran of musicals, pretending she can’t sing.?

Rookie Historian Goo Hae Ryung, historical romcom, girl who rams her way into the incredibly sexist world of royal historians. Great lead actress.

While You Were Sleeping. Smart procedural with a twist: a cop, a prosecutor and a doe-eyed reporter have premonitions when one of the others faces mortal danger, which is every week.

Voice, cool pulpy riff on the serial killer genre.?

Inborn Pair (Taiwan), messy but cool 84-episode romcom that follows a plucky girl agreeing to an arranged, up and down marriage with the son of a rich, rough family, despite an initial loathing. Stars the dazzling Annie Chen.

Cinderella and the Four Knights: despite the silly name and the overly-pretty actors, they manage to avoid the pitfalls of Korean romcoms. Good cast led by Park So-Dam who was also in Parasite; she’s been battling cancer the whole time.

Nevertheless, delves into the art world.

My Name, interesting revenge story.

Start Up, Bae Suzy takes on romance and the IT world.

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SHOWS THAT ARE A BIT HEAVY AND SAD.

My Liberation Diary, interesting, almost non-verbal relationship between the two leads.

Chocolate, chance meeting between children changes their lives; clever plotting, food porn.

Tomorrow, grim reapers try to stop suicides, one grim story after another.

Other pieces that can be kind of slow and sad and exhausting: Our Blues, Mister Sunshine, Misaeng, My Mister.

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SHOWS WORTH CHECKING OUT DESPITE THE WOBBLY VILLAIN.

Descendants of the Sun. UN peacekeepers. Cool collision of romcom, action and doctor drama.

One Spring Night, romance; two sisters battle a stalker and an abusive husband.

K2, bodyguard falls in love with girl targeted by vindictive relative, good acting trumps bad plotting.

Gung, aka Princess Hours (Amazon). Girl marries into toxic royal family, prince is a jerk, but Yoon Eun-he crushes her acting debut.

Two shows had the same silly villain, Iris and The King 2 Hearts; in the latter a female North Korean soldier and southern prince try to hold their romance together. Also, the toxic female lead in It’s Okay Not To Be Okay.

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ACTORS STRUGGLING AGAINST THE ABSURD PREMISE OF THE SERIES.

Crash Landing On You, rich girl accidentally hang-gliding into North Korea and into a doomed romance. Great acting led by Son Ye Jin and the posse of angry beer-drinking grandmas.

Her Private Life, meet-hate mixes high art and pop culture; solid actors rise above wobbly writing.

Inspector Koo, funny riff on the genius psycho killer genre, well directed and designed; they hired the 50-year-old Lee Young-ae as the detective and she turned out to be spectacular.

Alchemy of Souls is a rather odd story about magical swordsmen, redeemed by the brilliant Jeong So Min, again playing layers as a complex assassin, hiding in the body of a blind girl who is secretly a princess, hiding in plain sight as a servant. And lying to everybody about everything.

Triad Princess, so-so Taiwanese romcom, gangster’s daughter works as a bodyguard for her acting idol; avoids going totally silly in telling the story; carried by the excellent Eugenie Liu who steers into the silliness and the romance.

Guardian: the Lonely and Great God, immortal goblin meets girl at chicken store; redeemed by the actress Kim Go Eun. A Korean Odyssey tries the same goofy goblin story with uneven results.

Who Rules The World, from mainland China. A fantasy about medieval intrigue and romance; the show is good, if you can ignore the absurd martial arts sequences.

Also in this category: Memories of Alhambra, drama about a computer game; 100 Days My Prince, amnesia is just the beginning of the silliness of the premise; Kill Me Heal Me, great male lead is wasted; Black; Vagabond; Man to Man.

Also Signal, two teams of cops from different decades cooperating to solve crimes over a magic radio, but annoyingly every cop in Korea is an abusive moron.

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SHOWS THAT MIGHT BE ROUGH GOING FOR FOREIGNERS.

Monarchy in The King Eternal Monarch (cool female cop).

Period pieces like My Country, Arthdal Chronicles, Mister Sunshine, Reply 1988, King’s Affection (excellent female lead).

Political dramas like Chief of Staff and The Lies Within.

Fluffy humor in Strong Girl, What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim, Romance Is a Bonus Book, Introvert Boss, Mad For Each Other, Revolutionary Love, and the food porn sitcom Let’s Eat.

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ACTORS FIGHTING WITH BAD WRITING.

Café Minamdang, weird cross of revenge drama and kooky con men; tries to bridge the humor divide between Korea and the West.

Forecasting Love and Weather, workplace romcom involving weather forecasting, implausible romance.?

Our Beloved Summer, romcom hampered by irritating female lead.

Something In The Rain; Son Ye Jin builds a beautiful romance and then is betrayed by the writers in the finale.?

Hometown Cha Cha Cha, passable fish-out-of-water comedy, city dentist in the country, good acting.

Business Proposal, another poor girl tames an emotionally-hobbled rich boy, excellent lead.

Tokyo Girl (Japanese), dull story, dull characters.

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Go see the Asians at work. It will be a refreshing change from the junk that comes out of Hollywood.

?Jack is a writer with 29 feature screenplays and a series completed, almost all of them with female leads, three under option. Check them out on this site and let’s get one filmed! https://threewibbes.wordpress.com/