Television as we know it has transformed in the last two decades, shifting from sitcoms, police procedurals, or courtroom dramas told in standalone episodes, towards serial narratives with clear storylines that span an entire series/season. At the same time, viewing habits in many places, including Canada, now incorporate content from around the world, changing how we evaluate TV quality and come together with fellow fans via the shows we watch. These shifts have coincided with the rise in popularity of Korean television shows in North America, since Korean narrative television has long been formatted as stand-alone, complete series, with clearly defined beginnings and endings. This talk will highlight the characteristics of Korean television serials (K-dramas) that account for their intense binge-ability and contextualize the place of Korean television content in our increasingly global media landscape.

Please contact Alumni Relations, if you require information in an alternate format, or if any other arrangements can make this event accessible to you.

Michelle Cho (@mhc727) is an assistant professor of Korean popular culture and media in the department of East Asian Studies. Her published scholarship analyzes contemporary South Korean genre cinemas, self-reflexivity in hallyu television, the history of the Korean Wave, and K-pop's multi-sited fandoms. She is currently co-editing a volume on gender and popular media in South Korea since the #MeToo movement and a collection of essays on the K-pop group BTS. Her public-facing writing on film, K-pop, fandom, and media convergence can be found at flowjournal.org, Even Magazine and The Los Angeles Review of Books. She's also a frequent commentator on hallyu media in outlets ranging from the CBC to NPR, the LA Times, the BBC, GMA, Bloomberg, Reuters, Vox Media, CNN, Al Jazeera, and the Washington Post. In the fall of 2022, she moderated a public conversation between hallyu stars and BFFs Lee Jung Jae and Jung Woo Sung at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).