The lowdown on Disney+'s new genre-blending show Snowdrop

One of the key ways to make television still enjoyable as the era of prestige TV seems to be nearing a decline is to feature influences from many different genres.

Snowdrop, now streaming on the Star portion of Disney+, effectively showcases this by offering elements from romance novels and black comedies while also including aspects derived from spy thrillers – and somehow making it all work together.

Set against the backdrop of 1980s Korea, specificially the year of the June 1987 Democracy Movement, it focuses on Eun Yeong-ro, a student at Hosu Women's University who lives the life of an average university student.

After going on a blind date with her roommates with members of the nearby male university, she falls for Lim Soo-ho. Unbeknownst to her, Lim is secretly a North Korean spy undercover on a mission to bring a college professor to the North.

When the plan fails, he escapes with a bullet wound, chased by the South's secret service, to Yeong-Ro's room without her knowledge. She discovers him there and assumes him to be one of the many protestors at a rally in the city nearby that was broken up by riot police.

Throughout the next few episodes, she secretly hides him within the university dorms in a sequence that effectively mixes the genres mentioned above in a unique way.

It should be noted that the series gained a large amount of controversy in South Korea before and after it initially aired last year, with many people objecting to perceived historical negationism. Many objected to a North Korean spy being the main male protagonist and also how they deemed the show to portray the ANSP, the secret service for the dictatorship in charge of South Korea at the time, in a positive light.

However, despite public backlash and protests, the series aired in the country and is now available internationally.

While it may not be entirely historically accurate, and I would likely have a different view if I were from South Korea, it still hits the mark in terms of an entertaining piece of television.

Snowdrop is streaming now on Disney +.