rationalskepticism.org

I've recently discovered Korean period dramas, and I'm quite hooked. What I like about them is the multi-dimensionality of the characters and the fact that the twee, milquetoast sentimental endings and other Western tropes are either absent or cast sufficiently differently to make them feel absent. It leads to the sentimental stuff not feeling forced or contrite as it invariably does from Hollywood dreck. Victorious endings tend to be pyrrhic to at least some degree.

They seem to drink a lot...

The one I'm currently watching is Empress Ki. Epic stuff about a girl who grows up alone as a boy, becoming the leader of a street gang but eventually finding her way to the courts of Goryeo and the Yuan dynasty (Mongolia).