The 5 best Korean dramas to watch on Netflix this winter
Although K-dramas have been popular in many parts of the world since the 2000s, their global popularity has exploded in recent years, largely thanks to the rise of Netflix. The streamer recently revealed this more than 80% of global subscribers watch Korean content – a figure that shouldn’t come as a surprise considering Korean shows come in regularly Netflix’s global top 10 list of the most-watched non-English showswhich sometimes take up at least half of the places on the list.
Whether you’re a longtime K-drama fan or relatively new to Korean TV, below are five great K-dramas you’ll want to start the new year with. Featuring thrillers about terrifying zombies, gruesome Grim Reapers, armed guards in pink jumpsuits, and some low-key workplace dramas, our overview provides a glimpse into the sheer breadth of K-dramas audiences can enjoy today. And despite their differences in subject matter, all five of these shows feel quite relevant and timely – each for their own reasons.
So make yourself a cup of hot chocolate, snuggle up under a warm blanket and press play. If you’re squeamish, you might want to watch some with the lights on.
Genre: Zombie thriller for people who are normally afraid of zombie thrillers
episodes: 12
K-drama A-listers Han Hyo-joo (Move, Blood-free) and Park Hyung Sik (Doctor Sneak, Soundtrack #1) stars in this unique thriller, directed by Ahn Gil-ho, who directed other successful K-dramas such as Stranger, Memories of the Alhambra, Record of youthAnd The glory.
Sae-bom (Han), a smart and fearless member of an elite police unit, is eager to move into a newly built luxury high-rise building, but there’s a catch: preference for new tenants is given to married couples. To secure an apartment, she convinces her old friend and detective Yi-hyun (Park) to agree to a marriage of convenience. Shortly after they move in, however, a mysterious disease begins to spread among the building’s residents, turning the infected into zombies and prompting the military to quarantine the apartment building. Isolated from the outside world, residents begin to turn on each other as they fight to survive the outbreak.
Happiness is not your typical zombie thriller. For starters, it’s slower and perhaps less frightening than most other zombie films, if only because most scenes don’t involve zombies (the zombies themselves still look terrifying, though). Those infected with the disease are not even called zombies, and their bouts of madness and flesh-eating frenzy seem to be temporary in most cases. Instead, the series feels much more like an exploration of human nature in times of crisis — something that resonated with audiences when the show premiered in 2021 during a pandemic.
Genre: Dark, supernatural fantasy thriller with eerie real-world parallels
episodes: 6
In November 2021, Hellbound‘s first season debuted that week as the most-watched show on Netflix worldwide. Although the show’s second season – which came out last October – didn’t attract as much attention, many viewers praised it for being even more exciting than the first.
Directed and co-written by acclaimed filmmaker Yeon Sang-ho (Train to Busan, JUNG_E, Parasite: The Grayand the highly anticipated upcoming Netflix movie Revelations), Hellbound imagines a dystopian world in which people are condemned to hell by being given ‘decrees’ by ‘angels’ who predict the date and time of their death. At the predicted time, three colossal monsters appear from nowhere to maul and maim the unfortunate victim before setting them on fire.
Season 2 features the unexpected resurrections of two individuals who traveled to hell and back: Park Jungja (played by Kim Shin-rok from Sweet home And Move) and religious cult leader Jung Jinsu (Kim Sung-cheol van Our beloved summer) – raise all kinds of questions about these supernatural events and lead to a power struggle between different ideological groups that want to push their own agendas.
Based on the same name webtoon which director Yeon co-created, Hellbound is, at first glance, a very creepy fantasy thriller. But Yeon says the series is also a symbolic representation of the ‘adversities we face in our lives’ and the hell that many of us create for ourselves. And with the rise of religious and political extremism around the world, the social commentary we find in Hellbound feels particularly relevant to our times.
Genre: If children’s games could kill…
episodes: 7
On December 26, 2024, Netflix finally dropped its most anticipated series of 2024: the second season of Squid gamethe streamer’s most-watched show ever. Writer and director Hwang Dong-hyuk has often talked about it pressure he felt while making the show’s second seasonbut it seems he really outdid himself. (But let’s be honest, did we really think Netflix would go out of its way to promote season 2 if it wasn’t actually good?)
Three years after becoming the sole winner and survivor of the Deadly Games, player 456, Seong Gi-hun (played by the incomparable Lee Jung-jae), re-enters the high-stakes competition, this time aiming to beat to end once and for all. all. But will the other participants – who, like him, are once desperate for money – agree to work with him, or will greed get the better of them? And will Gi-hun finally confront the Front Man?
The star-studded cast features some of the most recognizable faces from Korean film and TV (and even K-pop!), with returning actors Lee, Wi Ha-jun, Lee Byung-hun and Gong Yoo joined by new castmates like Yim Si-wan, Lee Jin-wook, Park Sung-hoon, Kang Ha-neul, Park Gyu-young, Jo Yuri and former BIGBANG member TOP
Featuring a host of new children’s games, surprising revelations, gripping performances and of course the signature costumes and candy-colored set designs, the latest season packs just as much intense and bloody action as the first.
The blockbuster series continues with season 3, which will be released sometime later this year.
Genre: Inspiring drama in the workplace
episodes: 20
This is an older K-drama that came out in 2014, but we’re including it here because it’s such a classic and features several stars from Season 2 of Squid gameincluding Yim Si-wan, Kang Ha-neul and Jeon Seok-ho.
Jang Geu-rae (Yim) is a child prodigy in the game Go (called baduk in Korean), but his family circumstances prevent him from practicing this professionally. Forced to face the real world, Geu-rae starts working as an intern at a trading company, but is immediately discredited by his colleagues due to his lack of academic qualifications and work experience. With nothing to rely on except the skills and strategies he has learned from badukCan Geu-rae successfully navigate the workplace and ultimately win over his colleagues?
Based on the webtoon of the same name by Yoon Tae-ho and directed by Kim Won-seok (Artdal Chronicles, My sir, Signal, Sungkyunkwan scandal), Misaeng (A baduk term referring to a stone that is neither dead nor alive) offers many lessons about work and everyday life and subsequently inspired both Chinese and Japanese remakes.
Thanks to the show’s massive success (it won a number of domestic TV awards in 2015 and 2016) and its cultural impact in South Korea, many K-dramas began to be adapted from webtoons – a trend that continues to this day continues.
Genre: Boy meets girl in space
episodes: 16
Here’s another workplace K-drama, but this one takes place in space! This highly anticipated sci-fi rom-com is billed as South Korea’s first space-set office drama, starring heavy-hitters Lee Min-ho (Pachinko, The King: Eternal Monarch) and Gong Hyojin (When the Camellia blooms, The producers) and is directed by Park Shin-woo (The deadly voice, It’s okay not to be okay) and written by Seo Sook-hyang (Pasta, Romanesque city).
Gong Ryong (Lee), a gynecologist and future son-in-law of the chairman of Korea’s largest conglomerate, pays a large sum of money to travel to a space station as a space tourist. There he meets Eve Kim (Gong), a very capable Korean-American space scientist who likes to do everything by the book. She also happens to be the commander of the space station and hates tourists like Gong Ryong who buy their way into space travel without proper astronaut training. Will the pair be able to tolerate each other if they are forced to spend time together in confined spaces, hundreds of miles above Earth?
When the stars gossip premieres on January 4.