The Best Korean Dramas to Stream on Netflix Now
Warning: these are highly bingeable and dangerously addicting.
Long before Parasite created a worldwide sensation and swept up nearly every important award in film, including the top prizes at the Oscars in 2020, Korean culture had been steadily gaining global popularity. With this Korean Wave, also known as Hallyu, you may have heard of the boy band BTS? Or perhaps you've developed a taste for haute Korean cuisine thanks to Michelin-starred restaurants like Cote and Atomix? Or maybe you have a shelf lined with Korean beauty products for your nightly 10-step skincare routine? Korean television dramas, though they may not have as much critical clout as the country's cinematic output, are an indispensable part of the cultural fabric—and several of the best ones are on Netflix. Below are the most entertaining K-dramas to watch on the streaming service, from a stunning period piece to charming romantic comedies to more than a few zombie thrillers.
Twenty Five Twenty One
The latest romantic comedy everyone can't stop talking about (or watching) is a charming, nostalgic coming-of-age tale that is set over a decade. Beginning around the time of the Asian financial crisis of the late '90s, Twenty Five Twenty One portrays how that affects the lives (and eventual love story) of its central characters—high school fencing prodigy Hee-do (Mister Sunshine's Kim Tae-ri) and riches-to-rags former chaebol scion Yi-jin (Start-Up's Nam Joo-hyuk).
Thirty-Nine
Sort of a Sex and the City with a tinge of melancholy, Thirty-Nine follows three best friends as they deal with life, love, career, and loss while on the precipice of entering their forties. The trio consists of successful dermatologist Mi-jo (Crash Landing on You's Son Ye-jin), acting coach Chan-young (Jeon Mi-do), and department store cosmetics manager Joo-hee (Kim Ji-hyun).
Our Beloved Summer
When they were teenagers, two former lovers were the subject of a documentary series set at their high school. Their relationship didn't last but the documentary, of course, did. Ten years later, it goes viral and producers want a sequel, forcing the ex-couple–who had sworn to never see each other again—to reconnect and grapple with their feelings, their past, and how much they have grown.
All of Us Are Dead
The zombie horror premise gets a coming-of-age twist in All of Us Are Dead thanks to its high school setting. A science experiment gone horribly wrong leads to an outbreak and leaves students trapped on campus to fend for themselves. Season 1 dropped in January and swiftly made it onto Netflix's Global Top 10 list, earning praise for its allegories to things both global (Covid) and specific to Korean society (the 2014 Sewol ferry disaster, intense academic stress). Good news for fans: a second season is in the works.
My Name
After witnessing the murder of her father, a 17-year-old girl desperate for revenge seeks the help of the ruthless drug lord he worked for. She is taken under his wing to become the latest member of his crime syndicate and after four years of training, is ready to carry out the plan: infiltrate the police force as a cop in the narcotics unit so she can find her father's killer, but most importantly, prove her loyalties.
D.P.
Since 1957, all men in Korea between the ages of 18 and 35 have been required to serve in the military for at least 18 months. And it has long been an open secret that extreme hazing and bullying are rampant in the armed forces. As one of the most daring Korean shows of late, D.P. is a fictional portrayal of what actually goes in the ranks and tells the story of a team of military police whose job is to catch deserters.
Squid Game
This highly dystopian thriller—think Hunger Games meets Parasite, with a lot more violence—was such a global hit last fall that it surpassed Bridgerton to become Netflix's most-watched show, ever. The twisted premise: 456 people who are down on their luck and desperate for money are invited to play a series of popular children's games. While the eventual winner is promised a handsome cash prize, little do these contestants know that losing a game means paying with their lives. (Be prepared to binge the entire first season in one night.)
Hellbound
Although Hellbound wasn't exactly able to achieve the viral stardom of Squid Game, it was still a worthy addition to the dystopian genre. A dark twist on the concept of sin and religious extremism, the show depicts a society in which "sinners" are given eerie notice of exactly when they will die—and when that time comes, beasts from the underworld emerge to hunt them down and violently send them to hell. And what's a worthy dystopian tale without a mysterious religious cult leader at the center of it all?
Sweet Home
Yes, another zombie show. Here, the classic apocalypse survival trope—residents sequestered inside an apartment building team up to fight the flesh-eating, humanity-threatening monsters outside—feels fresh thanks to its character and plot development and graphic edge-of-your-seat action sequences.
Hotel del Luna
The Hotel del Luna is a historic boutique hotel located in the heart of downtown Seoul. The catch? It's reserved for ghosts with unfinished business, and run by a mysterious, mercurial, and materialistic woman named Jang Man-wol (pop star-turned-actress IU), who was cursed to this occupation as punishment for a sin committed 1,300 years ago. Everyone who works at the hotel is a ghost, too, except for the new general manager, a Harvard-educated aspiring hotelier (Yeo Jin-goo) who is also cursed to this job because of a deal his father made with Man-wol 21 years ago.
Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha
This charming romantic comedy follows a big city hot shot dentist (Shin Min-a) who gets fired from her practice and decides to start over in a small seaside town. While adjusting to her new, decidedly less glamorous life, she meets the village's down-to-earth jack-of-all-trades (Kim Seon-ho).
Mine
Much in the vein of recent Korean shows offering a blistering portrayal of the lives of the country's stratospherically wealthy (see: The Penthouse and Sky Castle, both of which are unfortunately not on Netflix, yet), Mine centers around a powerful chaebol family, and specifically on its two daughters-in-law who are trying to carve out their identities—and reclaim what's theirs—in a patriarchal society. Part Succession, part Downton Abbey, and part Big Little Lies (a murder, revealed in episode 1, propels the narrative), watch for a bingeworthy, twisty plot and stellar lead actresses Lee Bo-young and Kim Seo-hyung, especially, who is very reminiscent of Tilda Swinton in I Am Love with her impeccable style and poise.
Vincenzo
Resident heartthrob Song Joong-ki stars as the title character Vincenzo, who was adopted by the head of an Italian crime family when he was young and grew up to become a consigliere to the mafia. Infighting and betrayal forces Vincenzo to flee to Korea, where he finds a new enemy to take down: a ruthless conglomerate.
The Uncanny Counter
In this popular paranormal hit, a disabled teenager is recruited into a supernatural group known as the Counters, who go after the evil spirits that have escaped the afterlife to possess human hosts and corrupt them into committing terrible acts. As part of this crew of demon hunters (the front for their secret business is a noodle shop) he develops superhuman and psychic abilities, and leads a double life—high school student by day, vanquishing evil by night.
Stranger
Now two seasons long (with fans hopeful for a third), this beloved crime thriller was featured on the New York Times' list of the best TV shows of 2017. Louis Vuitton muse Bae Doona plays a charming detective who teams up with an empathetically-challenged prosecutor (a brain surgery gone wrong during childhood left him with very low EQ) to solve a murder. Along the way, they discover much deeper, more insidious forces at play, in the name of political conspiracies orchestrated by Korean TV's favorite villain: those all-too-powerful, ne'er-do-well conglomerates.
Start-Up
As its title suggests, Start-Up is about a group of millennial individuals working in Korea's version of Silicon Valley. While their professional struggles might be reminiscent of the HBO hit Silicon Valley, this being a Korean drama after all, the show is more rom-com (expect the usual, like love triangles, meet-cutes, etc) than industry satire.
Mr. Sunshine
This historical drama is set during the late Joseon Period, Korea's last dynasty before Japan annexed the country in the early 1900s. Lee Byung-hun plays U.S. Marine Eugene Choi, who returns to his motherland and falls in love with Go Ae-shin (played by The Handmaiden actress Kim Tae-ri), a noblewoman who secretly moonlights for the Righteous Army, a militia fighting for Korean independence. Mr. Sunshine has all the requisite ingredients for a great K-drama: love triangles, history, and action. Above all, it's a cinematographically beautiful ode to Korea, before it was changed forever.
It's Okay to Not Be Okay
Mental health—generally a highly taboo subject in Korea—is the central theme of this show. A popular children's book author (Seo Ye-ji) has an antisocial personality disorder; a psychiatric ward caregiver (Kim Soo-hyun), on the other hand, has high emotional intelligence and the added baggage of having to take care of his autistic older brother. Girl meets boy, and the healing begins.
Kingdom
In this Netflix original (there are two seasons out now, a third on the way) set in the Joseon era, the king is mysteriously stricken with a strange illness and is presumed dead. Crown Prince Lee Chang (Ju Ji-hoon) attempts to find out what's going on with his father, only to be locked out of the palace by his power-hungry stepmom and her father, who are conspiring to keep the king's condition a secret until they can secure their grip on the throne (by getting rid of Lee Chang, for one). Turns out the king isn't dead—he's turned into a flesh-eating zombie. The plague begins to spread throughout the kingdom and it's up to the Crown Prince to save his people—and expose the evil conspiracy behind his stepmom's power grab. It's like Game of Thrones plus The Walking Dead, but set in 17th-century Korea. And much like those shows, Kingdom asks: can people be more monstrous than the zombies that hunt them? Yes.
Itaewon Class
First, Park Sae-ro-yi (Park Seo-joon) gets expelled for punching a school bully, who happens to be the son of the very powerful owner of food conglomerate Jangga Group. Then he loses his father in a hit-and-run accident, in which the reckless driver is—who else?—that same rich bully. After nearly beating his father's killer to death, Sae-ro-yi gets sent to jail for three years. After his release, he vows to take down the powerful food company that ruined his life by opening up a bar in Seoul's Itaewon neighborhood with the goal of turning it into a franchise. This underdog tale received high marks for its diverse cast of characters—the bar's employees include a transgender woman, a Guinean-Korean, a former gangster, and a sociopath—and its portrayal of their difficulties in trying to fit into a society that is rarely kind to outsiders.
Leena Kim is an editor at Town & Country, where she covers travel, jewelry, education, weddings, and culture.
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