Recap: April's Top Dramas
April was a great month for dramas with the completion of two popular series and the advent of five strong new contenders for first place in nightly viewing.
The month began with the dramatic finale to the compelling series, "That Winter The Wind Blows."
Viewers were fascinated with the tragic love story of a repentant gambler and a blind heiress. With the lovers' fate uncertain, the 16th and final episode of the highly rated melodrama, starring Jo In Sung and Song Hye Kyo, earned a 15.8 percent viewer rating.
"Iris 2" also finished early in April with a decent 10.2 percent rating. Although much anticipated, the sequel to the thriller "Iris" did not finish as strongly as expected.
That same week, several new dramas premiered. The initial reaction to "When A Man" was lukewarm as the first episode began on the same night as the finale for "Iris 2" and "When A Man" only earned 6.6 percent of the viewer ratings.
The story of a loan shark who transforms his life for love did catch on in the next few weeks, jumping up in the ratings to 11.1 percent by its fourth episode. By mid-April, the story with its stars Song Seung Hoon, Shin Se Kyung, and Yeon Woo Jin ranked number one in the night's ratings. One reason it may have edged ahead is the interesting and often surprising way the characters developed. "All About My Romance," a story about two politicians with opposing views who fall in love, only rated as high as 7.4 percent.
On Monday night, three dramas battled for the lead. The first night, "Gu Family Book," the story of a half human, half mythical being, who yearns to become human, started out at a disadvantage, trailing "God of the Workplace," a story about a super temp who wows her superiors.
"Gu Family Book," which stars Suzy and Lee Seung Gi quickly took the lead, edging higher in the ratings with every passing week, until this week, it achieved a 16.3 percent rating. "God of the Workplace," praised for its accurate portrayal of office life, started at 12.3 and rose steadily to 13.5 percent.
Left far behind was "Jang Ok Jung," the story of the famous royal concubine responsible for deposing and possibly poisoning Queen Inhyun. Despite the star power of Kim Tae Hee and Yoo Ah In, the ratings began at only 9.1 percent, sunk as low as 6.9 percent and eventually achieved a modest 8.2 percent. One theory on why the historical drama trailed its contenders was that the story of Jang Ok Jung had already been portrayed seven times in dramas and films.
