Inside the Korean TV Boom That Has Global Streamers Piling Into Seoul

These days whenever Chanette Thompson stubs her toe or knocks her funny bone, she’s likely to shout out “Aish,” the Korean equivalent of “Oh no!” or “Darn it.” Thompson, a make-up artist who lives in Los Angeles, has never been to South Korea and is not even close to being fluent in Korean. The fact that she’s prone to curse in a language she doesn’t speak is a testament to one thing — her insatiable consumption of Korean TV.

Thompson first happened upon Korean shows more than a decade ago while flipping through the outer reaches of free broadcast TV channels in LA. Before long, she was enthralled with Pink Lipstick, a Korean romantic comedy with a handsome protagonist and a melodramatic storyline, which reminded her of The Young and the Restless, a soap opera she used to watch with her grandmother. From there, her fascination took off.