I've had a lot of people ask me what Korean dramas are the best ones to start with. I wrote this up as an email to those people and I thought I would share it all here as a blog post. All of these shows are available on Netflix.
The first show I'd like to share is actually a Japanese series named Switched. It revolves around a depressed high school student who commits suicide. A fellow student, the popular girl in school, sees her fall from the roof of the school and passes out herself. The two girls wake up to find they’ve switched bodies. This one has only 6 episodes.
Blackpink: Light Up the Sky
Before I start the K-dramas there’s actually a really good documentary on Netflix about a K-Pop girl group. I’m not a follower of K-Pop music but I watched this and I actually like their music and this was a great introduction to the group.
Record of Youth
Three guy friends since childhood, two grow up to become models/actors with the third becoming a photographer. They deal with pressure from parents, class struggles, jealousy, scandal, success, whether or not to enlist and do their required time in the military, and relationships. I really liked this one.
It’s OK To Not Be OK
Two brothers, orphaned very young after the murder of their mother, are constantly on the move never staying long in one place. The older brother has autism the younger works as a caretaker in a hospital. Older brother wants badly to meet his favorite author who just happens to be doing a reading of her book for children at the hospital the younger brother works at. She’s got an antisocial personality disorder. We learn that their lives are very intertwined. This is very much a drama, a bit of a mystery, with some romance tossed in. I think this one is my favorite so far.
Mystic Pop-Up Bar
A mysterious outdoor drinking establishment run by a hot tempered woman (but you do warm up to her as you learn more about her) appears on the street. The woman has been sentenced in the afterlife to settle the grudges and regrets of 10,000 souls using her power of entering their dreams. Her co-worker, who is a former afterlife detective, and a newly hired young man (who has his own superpower) work together to help people but also have past lives that are intertwined. While the opening of this one is extremely dramatic and quite the downer, it does perk up in tone and is a very cute show.
Extracurricular
This one is kinda heavy. A teenage boy who is living on his own and is your model student, leads a double life as a pimp. One of his classmates learns this and starts blackmailing him completely upending his life and the lives of others.
My Holo Love
This is a romance. An inventor creates a holographic assistant in his own image you can only see and hear the assistant when wearing special glasses. The inventor loses his glasses and a young woman finds them. The assistant AI helps her come out of her shell and gain confidence as well as alleviates her loneliness by becoming a friend. The AI learns about human relationships and love. Yes the woman and the inventor meet up, and the wackiness ensues.
Love Alarm
A new app pops up all across South Korea, oddly enough it’s called Love Alarm. This app tells you when a person who likes you, that also has the app, is within a 10 meter radius. Kids in High School start to learn that the one they love doesn’t always love them in return. Unrequited love is exposed, secret loves, and actual relationships are sometimes ruined.
School Nurse Files
Not exactly a K-Drama more of a K-Sci-fi/Fantasy turning a manga into a series. The School Nurse has special powers and uses them to battle the forces of evil. This one was SO MUCH FUN.
Kingdom
This historical zombie series. A mysterious plague is sweeping the land, turning people into zombies. There’s also intrigue and conspiracy surrounding the Crown Prince. This is quite the epic drama not the typical soap opera-y ones I’ve been finding.
Crash Landing On You
A South Korean heiress who is about to be given control of her father’s company paraglides for some kind of stunt for the company. A freak tornado knocks her out and blows her across the border into North Korea – then the wackiness and romance ensues. I haven’t finished this one because Dwight started watching some one of these others. This one feels very soap opera-y. But does have its comic moments that kept me going for several episodes.
Start Up
Two sisters watch as their mother belittles their father for constantly quitting his jobs. She warns him that if he quits his current job she’s going to divorce him. The girls follow their father to work only to find that his boss is actually beating him up and humiliating him. They return home and beg their Mother to let him quit that job. She’s unwilling and demands a divorce. The girls must choose which parent to live with. They split. Mom remarries a very rich and successful man, they move to the US. Years later the girls meet up at a start up incubator called The Sandbox. Both girls compete to start their own company.
Stranger
If you love shows like Law and Order, Luther, Broadchurch, CSI etc you'll love this one. Stranger is a South Korean crime thriller. Due to corrective surgery for a condition he had as a child, Prosecutor Hwang Si-mok has lost his sense of empathy and lacks social skills. This does however, make him a very good and focused prosecutor. He and Police Lieutenant Han Yeo-jin investigate a murder case that unravels deep corruption in the prosecutor's office as well as a private corporation. There are two full seasons, each season follows the investigation of one main case. This is one of my most favorite of all the dramas.