The Ultimate Guide to K-dramas on Netflix (Jan. 2024)

Korean made movies, series and documentaries, or in short K-content, on Netflix. Have you ever watched any? If not, you are among the few left. TUDUM, a blog page made by Netflix, reported more than 60% of all Netflix members watched Korean titles in 2022. And due to its major success in 2023 Netflix added 34 more titles to the list making it the year of Netflix’ biggest release of new K-content. The movies, series and documentaries cover a variety of genres: unscripted, reality, sci-fi, thriller, dramas and more.

I feel K-dramas are still the most popular type of content on Netflix at the moment, although recent unscripted reality shows like Singles Inferno and Physical 100 are gaining popularity and possibly overtaking K-dramas in the future. If reality shows are for you, be sure to also check out these 2 suggestions, but for now let’s dive into some K-dramas.

What are K-dramas?

Unlike popular belief a drama does not have anything to do with romance. A drama is simply a scripted, mainly serious and exciting story meant for entertainment. The ‘K’ in the term K-drama stands for Korean, which usually means it’s made in Korea and by Koreans, portraying Korean characters and actors.

Although many K-dramas do fall into the category of romance, it’s certainly not all there is to K-dramas. Showing you that there is a K-serie for every mood, company and snack choice when having a Korean Netflix night, I provide you with this Ultimate Guide to K-dramas on Netflix. No matter if you’re a starter in K-dramas, or already fluent, this list contains all essential titles that you must have seen (in no logical order at all).

1. Squid Game

K-drama, Survival, Thriller, Horror, Action

Of course Squid Game is a good point to start here. released in 2021, this show quickly became the most popular Korean TV show of the moment.

The story follows a group of contestants who play a series of children’s games to win a large sum of money. Bonus info: this show is said to reflect South Korea’s class gap and views on capitalism quite well.

2. Crash Landing On You

K-drama, Adventure, Romance, Comedy

This is the first show on this list that checks all the checkboxes for a stereotypical K-drama in my opinion – which I told you is not at all true in the intro.

South Korean Chaebol Heiress Yoon Se-ri goes paragliding and ends up landing in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. There, her rescuer Ri Jeong-hyeok, a North Korean Special Forces captain, decides to help her return home. The show shows a forbidden love, but also revolves around the main characters’ cultural differences and geographical issues of their relationship.

Also read: A beginners guide to “Chaebol”

3. All of Us Are Dead

K-drama, Coming-of-age, Fantasy, Horror, Zombie apocalypse

All of Us Are Dead is again more in the thriller corner. When a science teacher accidentally unleashes a virus that turns people into zombies, you follow a group of high schoolers that get trapped inside the school where the virus started. Meanwhile the virus spread throughout the whole country.

4. Extraordinary Attorney Woo ⭐

K-drama, Legal drama, Comedy, Romance

I always describe this show as just being very wholesome. Attorney Woo starts working at a law firm as the first autistic lawyer in Korea. You follow her and her colleagues, who she forms close relationships with, while Attorney Woo learns about the social skills necessary inside and outside of the courtroom and in her (romantic) life.

5. Kingdom

K-drama, Historical drama, political drama, Horror, Thriller

For this one I am not speaking from experience, as I haven’t watched it yet at the moment. However, it combines two of my favorite features of (Korean) series, taking place in the Korean historical Joseon-era and a thrilling adventure genre (in the form of zombies). This show is said to be the first Korean shows to captivate Netflix’ U.S. audience.

The story follows Crown Prince of Joseon Lee Chang, who investigates the mysterious illness that has spread to be a deadly epidemic and has reached the King among many others in the kingdom. He attempts to save the kingdom not only from the epidemic, but also political opponents who are trying to seize the throne.

6. It’s Okay To Not Be Okay ⭐

Romantic comedy

As one of my personal favorites I just couldn’t exclude this show from the list. This show can only be fully categorized as a romance. However, you would not say so from its storyline. The starting point is trauma and mental health, thrown into one. Beware: because of this it’s quite a heavy show to watch.

The story revolves around Moon Gang-tae, a psychiatric ward caregiver who also takes care of his older brother, Moon Sang-tae, who is autistic. And Ko Moon-young, who is an antisocial children’s book author with a personality disorder. All three of these characters have some unresolved trauma from the past. During the show you watch these characters deal with (mostly) funny happenings with the psychiatric patients and while also resolving their own trauma’s.

7. Itaewon Class

K-drama, Romance

Again, not a K-drama I have watched yet, although it has been on my list since I began getting interested in K-dramas. This is undeniably one of the most watched K-dramas on Netflix.

Watch Park Sae-ro-yi, power through the not so easy tasks of becoming a business person and avenging his fathers death, with a group of unusual, but supportive friends. The show discusses topics like LGBTQ+ rights and racism.

8. Love Alarm

K-drama, Romance

Honestly, not one of my favorites, but it is a good one to see if you’re into romantic K-dramas and its peculiarities. If you are, there is a whole list of K-dramas, which I will put at the end of this blog that are in somewhat the same category that you will probably also like. Released in 2019, this was actually the first K-drama picked up by Netflix, even though Kingdom was released first.

The show revolves around a newly released app: Love Alarm, which surprisingly accurately shows you when someone nearby has romantic feelings for you. High school student Kim Jo-jo experiences some trouble when the app reveals heartthrob Hwang Sun-oh has feelings for her, which leads to best friend Lee Hye-yeong hiding his feelings for her. Surprisingly, even though this Love Alarm app should be of help, most of the characters seem to be unaware of the others feelings for quite a long time.

Also read: 10 Things about K-dramas that just make sense

9. Sweet Home ⭐

K-drama, Apocalyptic, Fantasy, Action, Horror

This show starts with Cha Hyun-Soo, who after a family tragedy ends up alone and moves into an apartment building. After monsters start appearing all over the city, he gets stuck inside the apartment building with a group of other residents, trying to survive as long as possible (with mixed success). Already a spoiler, there is a second season (unlike many other K-dramas) and this summer there will even be a third season.

Don’t be surprised, but in the second season main character Cha Hyun-Soo is much less present. The season revolves more around one of the other residents of the building: Lee Eun-yu, before the monsters invaded the city, a formerly aspiring ballerina who quit due to an ankle injury. This change in main character partially has to do with the military enlistment of the actor who plays Cha Hyun Soo, Song Kang, but also follows the storyline of the webtoon the drama is based on.

10. Hotel Del Luna ⭐

K-drama, Dark fantasy, Romantic Comedy

The driving force behind this show is main character Jang Man-wol, played by actress and singer Lee Ji-eun, better known by her stage name as singer IU. She is the owner of Hotel Del Luna, a hotel that only hosts ghosts. Or better, lost souls that have unfinished business. Due to a twist of fate, Gu Chan-sung, the male lead, ends up having to work at the hotel as the sole human (read: non-ghost) employee. Together with other employees in the hotel the duo helps guests resolve their grudges (in a humoristic way) and cross over to the afterlife.

Honorable mentions

Sadly, once I started this blog and selecting K-dramas I quickly found there would be too many to cover. Especially for those who are into the romance K-dramas, some honorable mentions, although there are also some actions and thrillers in there that have also become characteristic for Korean productions in the past years:

Vincenzo
Business Proposal
Start Up
Bloodhounds
My Demon
The King: Eternal Monarch
W – Two Worlds ⭐
Extracurricular
What’s wrong with Secretary Kim
Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha
My Holo Love
Our Beloved Summer
Twenty-Five Twenty-One
Hwarang
Mr. Sunshine
The King’s Affection

Final opinion

I feel like a lot of Korean titles are not recognized for their mostly serious and … genres and themes, unlike many non-Korean shows, which are more often fully meant for entertainment. This shows especially in the themes and settings of some of the shows named above that are quite popular in K-Dramas, like: the Joseon-era and related political themes, modern day business and politics and often related Chaebol (meant here as organizations as well as persons), popular and (in Korea) sometimes controversial topics like death (and the afterlife, applicable for any religion), LGBTQ+, (social) disorders, Korean beauty standards, capitalism and Korea’s class system.