Streaming Economy: Seriality and Netflix Original Korean Series

Benjamin Min Han (2024). “Streaming Economy: Seriality and Netflix Original Korean Series.” Global Storytelling: Journal of Digital and Moving Images, 4(2), 13-33. doi: https://doi.org/10.3998/gs.5750

Abstract: Seriality is one of the most important and recognizable elements of television since its inception and has been understood in terms of gaps, interruptions, and repetitions. Seriality has also long been linked to the mode of melodrama and the soap opera genre. However, with the rise of Netflix, seriality has taken on new meanings that redefine the textualities of original Korean series. This article examines how streaming seriality must be reconsidered under the logic of lack, deviating from previous scholarship on seriality firmly grounded in the discourse of excess in terms of aesthetics and affect. To illuminate these points, I engage in a close reading of The Glory (2023), a popular original Korean series on Netflix, to explore how its seriality, inflected in the logic of lack, shapes its textualities and speaks to the new political economy of streaming seriality. In examining how seriality is being reconceived in the age of streaming services, I question how Korean TV dramas on Netflix prompt us to reexamine the concept of streaming seriality. The article sheds light on how seriality, as a long-standing facet of television, continues to inform the development and production of contemporary Korean TV dramas on Netflix.