Weekend TV Drama Battle: Who Won?

MBC's 'The 21st Century Prince Consort' tells the romance between Seong Hee-ju, a chaebol heir but of commoner status, and Prince Ian, a king's son who can possess nothing, set against the backdrop of a 21st-century constitutional monarchy. The drama started at 7.8% and, within four episodes, surpassed its own highest viewership rating to reach 11.1% nationwide. It combined the pairing of IU and Byun Woo-seok, conflicts surrounding status and power, and classic romantic tropes, while alternating between thrilling and tense moments with elements like a public declaration of dating, a kiss cam moment at a baseball stadium, a runaway car with broken brakes, and a dramatic rescue. It efficiently captured the 'speed of immersion' necessary for weekend dramas.

SBS's 'The Shaman and the Law Firm' quickly garnered a strong response, with mentions of it topping both viewership ratings and buzzworthy topics, thanks to its '​dopamine combination' that blended legal drama with shamanism, exorcism, and ghost narratives. In its recent episodes, it has maintained ratings around 6%. The plot, featuring ghost possessions, investigations into the deaths of young ghosts, and gunshots, aims for intense stimulation. However, actors like Yoo Yeon-seok, Lee Som, and Jeon Seok-ho appropriately anchor the emotional temperature of the relationships, preventing it from appearing as mere excess.

JTBC's 'Everyone is Fighting Their Own Worthlessness' joined the weekend drama competition the latest, with high expectations due to writer Park Hae-young and the pairing of Gu Kyo-hwan and Go Youn-jung. However, its premiere viewership rating was a relatively modest 2.2%. This production focuses on slowly building emotional depth rather than offering 'immediate stimulation.' The premise itself—finding peace amidst feelings of envy and jealousy among successful friends—leans more towards a slow-paced internal drama than a fast-paced genre piece.

MBC has leveraged traditional mass appeal in its romance fantasy, while SBS has maximized genre thrills by attaching exorcism and ghost narratives to its legal drama. JTBC aims for the opposite with its slowest emotional pacing. Since all three have distinct approaches, it's highly likely that one drama won't completely overshadow the others. In today's era of diversified viewer tastes, weekend dramas are not decided solely by their initial performance, and the current number one position is merely a snapshot of the present; the final outcome is still open.