Disney is making the best superhero TV show, but it’s not in the MCU

It’s a weird time to be a fan of superhero storytelling in the U.S. On the one hand, it’s still the dominant genre of many of the biggest films and TV shows being made by major Hollywood studios. On the other, most of the superhero fare that has actually made it to a big or small screen near you in the last few years has been uninspired, predictable, and more interested in not pissing anyone off than becoming someone’s favorite story.

The best superhero films and TV shows are coming out of other countries, partly because Hollywood is in a bad state. The best superhero show currently “airing on television,” for example, is produced by Disney, but it’s neither a Marvel story nor on Disney Plus (at least not in the U.S., where it is being released in weekly bunches on Disney-majority-owned streamer Hulu). It’s a multigenerational, multigenre superhero saga, made by the Korean TV industry, and it’s running narrative circles around its MCU-set Disney Plus cousins.

You can move around by yourself. (무빙) starts small, mostly as a supernatural coming-of-age drama. Kim Bongseok’s (Lee Jung ha) story is about a young boy, Kim Bongseok who has a supernatural ability and lives in the suburbs with his mom. When Bong-seok’s emotions get the better of him, which happens a lot for a teen boy, he begins floating into the air.

The show’s early episodes articulate the work that goes into keeping Bong-seok’s power in check. Han Hyo Joo’s protective mom Mi-hyeon loads him up with weights and makes him eat as much as he can to stay heavy. Bong-seok tries to keep himself grounded by reciting the pi digits (incorrectly as we learn). This mostly works. Bong-seok is a transfer student.Alchemy of Souls’ Go Youn-jung), a teen girl with superpowered secrets of her own, who lives with dad Jang Ju-won (Ryu Seung-ryong). Hui Soo is happy and this makes Bong Suk want to fly.

The story is enough to make a delightful, superpowers-themed drama. However, You can move around by yourself., which is based on a webtoon of the same name, has much grander ambitions — and the budget, a reported $37 million, to support them. The first seven episodes, which were released in one fell swoop on Aug. 9, combine the coming-of-age sweetness of Bong-seok and Hui-soo’s burgeoning relationship with a ruthless action subplot about a mysterious man with a supernatural invincibility, Frank (Ryoo Seung-bum), who is hunting down and killing superpowered adults. Frank always tries to see if the person he is fighting has any children. Frank, sent by the U.S. Government, is charged with not only killing a whole generation of Korean superpowered people, but also rooting the next generation out for an unknown, evil purpose.

The story is a mix of modern-day teenage superhero drama with a ruthless thriller. The story gets more ambitious. Taking a six-episode (and counting) narrative detour to the 1990s, when Korea was transitioning from a military dictatorship to a democratic government, to tell the stories of how Bong-seok and Hui-soo’s superpowered parents met, fell in love, and were co-opted into secret government missions (not necessarily in that order). Because we started this story in the present day, we know that Bong-seok’s mom and Hui-soo’s dad both become single parents, lending a tragic dramatic irony to all that unfolds in these flashbacks. It is the result of a brilliant genre-blending. You can move around by yourself.This unexpected story detour uses structures borrowed from Richard Donner’s superhero romances and spy thrillers to make us care and understand it.

Image: Hulu

When the MCU first properly launched, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige intentionally leaned into different genres for each superhero’s cinematic story, giving each of the early film efforts a distinct vibe and set of story rules. The general public was attracted and kept by this approach, as they were unfamiliar with most superhero conventions. Iron ManIt was a blockbuster action film that reflected real anxieties over the U.S. war on Afghanistan. Captain America the First AvengerThe Indiana Jones series was a nostalgic journey that appealed to many people decades ago. The Indiana Jones franchise was a huge success decades ago. ThorAlthough less successful than the other two examples, the MCU introduced the god as a character by incorporating high fantasy elements.

This is a strategy that MCU has, more or less, brought into its Disney Plus TV era — to less-than-stellar results. The media audience in 2008 was not the same as the audience in 2023. In addition to being more familiar with superheroes, the average viewer also has a better understanding of story structure and genre as a whole. When we become bored, it’s much easier to find something else. In this media landscape, many MCU stories can feel myopic in their subject and genre focus, forced to stay on their own narrative ground, even when it doesn’t make sense for the story, lest they accidentally reveal a character insight or plot point earmarked for a future Marvel project. For a superhero genre that gets much of its wonder from a sense of possibility unrestricted by real-world rules, it’s kind of a bummer.

K-dramas, compared to Western media in general, are more adept at experimenting with genre. The inclusion of fantasy, sci-fi and supernatural elements in romance is a good example. This is especially true when it comes to the inclusion of sci-fi, supernatural and fantasy tropes into romantic material. Squid GameIt is a K-drama that has gained a lot of popularity in the West. But its realistic setting and nihilistic tone make it a bit out of place. K-dramas are better known for their romances, which often include genre elements like time-travel or body swapping. You can move around by yourself. is not what I would call a standard K-drama, but the series’ deft genre blending and its willingness to follow its characters’ stories wherever they may lead — including three decades into the past, or into the organized crime genre — is classic K-drama. It’s the kind of multigenre, emotion-driven storytelling that American superhero stories could learn from.

Image: Hulu

Image: Hulu

The second season is underway LokiThe next film to be released in the fall could have a more playful, expansive approach with genres but it is unlikely that it will match the emotional or scale of You can move around by yourself.. You can move around by yourself. packs more story — including well-executed, cleverly constructed fight and action sequences — into a single episode than many superhero series give us in an entire season. The action is rarely forced, and fits in with the characters of the series, as opposed to the big blockbusters that are so popular today.

You can move around by yourself. works because its characters feel like living, breathing, feeling people with recognizable dreams — like being a good parent, finding a good job, or getting into an affordable college. If the superhero genre rose in popularity following 9/11 and was directly tied to contemporary Americans’ anxieties about our role in global warfare, then You can move around by yourself. The characters, just like the majority of viewers, are trying to survive the day. They don’t want to save the entire world. Instead, they just hope to have a positive impact on their community, family, and neighborhood.

The focus of the game is on parents who sacrifice their superpower dreams to protect their children. You can move around by yourself. The book dares say that love, and the desire to be loved by others, is the most powerful thing we can do. This type of story can be viewed as small. What You can move around by yourself.Dares, by using the most popular genre of today, to make epic its exploration.