‘Bite-sized’ focus on K-pop, designer babies, ‘myth of monogamy’ in docu series

Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke in “Gattaca”: Nature vs nurture

Good things come in small packages. You wouldn’t find an aphorism better suited for Inquirer Entertainment’s exclusive “first-look” feature this week: Netflix’s documentary series, “Explained,” which takes a “bite-sized” approach to a wide range of topics that animate the computer-controlled era we live in.

The series, which begins streaming on May 23, pulls fascinating topics from the zeitgeist, from pop culture to science to politics, and takes an insightful look at the “big picture”—in less than 20 minutes!

Take K-pop, one of the crucial spurs that the so-called Korean Wave needed to evolve from a regional fad into a $5-billion global music industry.

The series’ second episode chronicles the rise of K-pop from its “humble” beginnings in the ’90s, when the trio of Seo Taiji and Boys and the H.O.T. quintet blazed a trail for a different kind of music that incorporates diverse Western styles and genres into its unique Korean roots.

Two years after the Asian financial crisis in 1997, South Korea passed a law devoted to bolstering the arts and vowed to dedicate at least one percent of the state budget to culture.

How big has K-pop grown since then? To put things in perspective: In 2005, the popularity of Korean music was ranked 25th in the world by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, a nonprofit organization that represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide. Its popularity has grown by leaps and bounds since—in fact, in 2016, it was already ranked No. 8.

At the forefront of the K-pop factory are SM Entertainment, JYP and YG, companies that train groups that adhere to tried-and-tested formula characterized by a breezy mix of catchy music, inscrutable themes, impeccable choreography and squeaky clean “idols” who include the members of Exo, 2NE1 (with Sandara Park), Girls’ Generation, Red Velvet and, yes, Psy, whose “Gangnam Style” was the first music video to reach one billion views on YouTube.

BTS

Last year, Billboard, whose target market is averse to non-English music by tradition, opened up to a country it knows little about when the seven-member Bangtan Boys (BTS) stayed on the Social 50 chart for—more than a year!

For its maiden episode, “Explained” is fielding “Designer DNA,” which discusses the pros, cons and the polarizing ethical issues surrounding the revolutionary Crispr technology, 3.8 billion years after life began on the planet.

Approximately 65 years after we began figuring out how the DNA works, man has developed a way to identify genes that cause diseases (cancer, HIV) and tools that could rewrite them.

But there’s more to it than its medical pertinence: The gene-editing technology could steer the future of human evolution and, as examined by the 1997 film “Gattaca,” “make man his own God.”

As it fields questions about genetically modified designer babies, which are illegal in 25 countries, Crispr walks the fine line between therapy and enhancement as it raises valid concerns about nature versus nurture: If humans had the technology to control the source code of life, what happens when we turn it on ourselves?

In the third episode, the show examines the “myth of monogamy,” and why humans are terrible at it. It’s a sensitive topic that has made Jerry Springer’s trashy talk show thrive for 25 years.

But statistics makes it hard to dismiss the relevance of the subject matter: In 2016, while 2.2 million couples in the United States got married, over 800,000 called it quits. Needless to say, love, as Rosemarie Gil’s exceptional CineFilipino starrer “Delia and Sammy” demonstrates, isn’t always synonymous with monogamy.