Can “detoxification” work for dramas?

The impact the “idol invasion” has had on the J-dorama landscape over the last decade (not to mention the impact it’s currently having on the Korean TV industry, with people like Lee Soo-Man, Park Jin-Young and Kim Gwang-Soo commanding as much influence and power as top industry executives) is as obvious as it is painful to witness. Shows which in the mid to late 90s would have been perfectly acceptable are now contaminated by hordes of Johnny’s vermin, just as spurious and damaging to the overall quality of the product as a locust swarm would be to luxuriant crops. For an industry with so much behind the scenes potential, so much history and opportunities to take advantage of Asia’s richest narrative background, what we’re being offered today is little more than slim pickings, 2009 having been one of the worst years for J-dorama in recent memory.

Leave out a predictably brilliant turn by Abe Hiroshi, elevating 白い春 (Shiroi Haru) a few notches above the norm, and curious overachievers like JIN-仁, and you’ll once again find out that the sole remaining bastions protecting Japan’s TV drama legacy are the often maligned NHK and WOWOW, which is finally starting to show its teeth with the Renzoku DoramaW format. If NHK took top honors in 2007 with their masterpiece ハゲタカ (Hagetaka), WOWOW followed up a year later with Inoue Yumiko’s formidable パンドラ (Pandora), but the battle in 2009 was even more interesting. The odd show out was certainly MBS’ exquisite 深夜食堂 (Shinya Shokudo) and its mix of food porn and wacky slice-of-life situations, but fighting for best show of the year were two shows by WOWOW – 空飛ぶタイヤ (Soratobu Taira) and 隠蔽指令 (Inpei Shirei) – and two by NHK.

While 官僚たちの夏 (Kanryotachi no Natsu) deserves plenty of attention on its own, the real gem of 2009 is 外事警察 (Gaiji Keisatsu), a relentlessly dark and ridiculously badass antidote to asinine “quasi-24″ abominations like ブラッディ・マンデイ (Bloody Monday), but also a pretty classy production which shows NHK can truly make a mark when it wants to – albeit they’re often all too happy to continue bastardizing their taiga legacy for that automatic 25% instead. Starring Watabe Atsuro – in his best perf since 2001’s 北条時宗 (Hojo Tokimune) – as the top dog of a mysterious and elusive top secret organization like the Foreign Affairs division of Public Safety, Gaiji Keisatsu banks everything on suspense and the war of nerves which ensues before the action starts, in the same exact way Hagetaka made mergers and acquisitions appear like some kind of Shakespearean war of bravado and political machismo. There is no black and white here, no villains nor heroes, just shades of gray and Machiavellian motivations, leading people to choose one action over another, with all the consequences which ensue.

It is WithS2’s tentative, after subbing Hagetaka, Prisoner and Shinya Shokudo, to continue our “detoxification” of the J-dorama fandom, by eliminating the cancer at its root. No idols, lazy literary adaptations with the same artistic merit of an amoeba, and no shallow cutesy targeted at teenagers, but raw and unadulterated storytelling quality, delivered by real actors and produced by professionals who still listen to their artistic conscience. It’s a small step (show, as always, recorded ratings around the 5%, and has largely been ignored online, be it at home or abroad), but someone has to take it…





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