In addition to Netflix Korea’s efforts, Netflix’s The Swoon promotes K-content of all kinds to their global audience. Launched in 2019, the promotional effort is bilingual Korean and English and now encompasses multiple social media platforms, Youtube, Twitter, and Instagram, offering the kind of behind-the-scenes content and interviews that fans might normally find during a press tour, if these actors were invited onto late night shows or covered by standard American press tours.
Recently, several K-dramas have become global hits on Netflix. In 2020, the political romance Crash Landing On You took the world by storm with its star-crossed enemies-to-lovers story. A rich South Korean woman accidentally hang-glided her way into the DMZ between North and South Korea, and one might also say, eventually into the heart of the North Korean soldier who found her. The absurdity of the premise aside, the show represents all the best that a K-drama can be: funny, warm, a mystery/thriller b-plot, amazing clothes, class struggle, and way more fateful coincidences than makes sense – but who cares, this is true love! The show, which involved research with actual defectors from North Korea,
Other shows like thriller Vincenzo, sci-fi horror show Sweet Home, the grounded, Normal People-esque together romance Nevertheless, and military action-thriller D.P. have all seen success internationally, each broadening the global appeal (and therefore potential audience) for Korean shows. Zippy romance Start-up even got some time on Netflix homescreens for some viewers, and slice of life romantic comedy Hometown Cha Cha Cha is currently wrapping up a successful run that started before Squid Game dropped.
While in many ways Squid Game is quintessentially Korean, the show differs from much of its industry in key ways. Ultimately, they’re differences that likely contributed to Squid Game’s global success. K-dramas typically run for one, sixteen-episode season, with episodes lasting an hour or more – an hour and twenty minutes isn’t unusual. That first episode length can be a sizable barrier to entry for new viewers not accustomed to it.
Increasingly, Western viewers look for a manageable binge, something they can knock out in a weekend or every night for a week so they can join the conversation. With only eight episodes, Squid Game mostly avoids bloat (wisely shortening its penultimate episode), and prospective viewers might be more inclined to jump on the trend, knowing it won’t take long to catch up. Episodes of new shows are typically dropped weekly, even on Netflix, in order to prevent spoilers in an ever-connected world. The worm may be turning on the binge vs. weekly model, but the masses that worship at the altar of Netflix haven’t quite gotten that memo yet, so being able to binge Squid Game immediately instead of having to wait for new episodes weekly like Nevertheless, or Hometown Cha Cha Cha likely worked in its favor.
Squid Game’s cast is clearly an immeasurable asset to its success. Lee Jung Jae (Player 456/Gi-hun) is a highly in-demand leading man movie star in Korea, the kind of star that makes people sit up and pay attention when he decides to anchor a TV show. While many Americans were surprised to see him clean up nice for interviews, his dashing clean-cut look is quite familiar to Koreans. Gong Yoo is well known both at home and abroad, with critical acclaim and name recognition due to the success of Train to Busan. Has anyone ever been tweeted about so much for so little screen time?