Our Favourite K-Dramas To Binge-Watch!

Did you know that 'Itaewon Class' was originally based off a web-comic? If you didn't, you might want to read on to find out 6 of the Best Korean Dramas to binge-watch at home!

These 6 dramas have are each critically acclaimed, and approved by both Koreans and non-Koreans alike as being the best K-Dramas!

Let's get it!

 

1. Crash Landing On You (2019)

How could we start the list with any other show? Crash Landing on You is South Korea’s biggest current television hit, and for good reason! The gripping story-line and unique premise made it one of the best Korean dramas on TV in the past year.

The story opens with the beautiful heiress to a South Korean business empire being swept up by a tornado while paragliding, and crashing on the wrong side of the heavily fortified Demilitarised Zone.

She meets a handsome North Korean soldier – the son of a top military general who serves Kim Jong un – and the two fall in love as he hides and protects her.

Crash Landing on You is fantastical in its plotlines, but has drawn praise for its portrayal of everyday life in the North, even down to accents and words.

The division of the peninsula is a regular theme in K-drama and K-movies, but it is unusual for so much of a show to be set in the North – in both Pyongyang and the countryside – and defectors have complimented its accuracy, making it one of the best K-Dramas (some say) ever made!

 

2. Hi Bye, Mama! (2020-present)

Often, romance and unrequited love is the recipe for tears in the best Korean dramas, but Hi Bye, Mama! uses another angle - familial love - in this highly emotional 2020 drama series.

A fatal accident from 5-years ago meant that Cha Yu-ri (Kim Tae-Hee) has been living her life as a ghost - that is, until she becomes the test subject of a reincarnation project. With that, Yu-ri returns to being a human, but is given just 49 days to get back her place in the family, in order to continue staying alive.

She faces an uphill battle as her 5-year old daughter has grown up without her presence, and her husband has since re-married. Hi Bye, Mama! depicts the grief and loss of a mother-daughter relationship, and is one of the most heart-wrenching dramas of the year. It certainly deserves a place on this list!

 

3. Kingdom (2019-present)

From a tear-jerker, we go to Kingdom, one of the trendiest and best K-Dramas airing on Netflix! The show mixes 2 of the hottest properties in Korean media - Zombies (Train to Busan) and Korean History (Dae Jang Geum, Six Flying Dragons and a lot of others)!

Set in Korea's Joseon period, a few years after the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592-1598), Crown Prince Lee Chang (Ju Ji-hoon) becomes embroiled in a political conspiracy and is forced to embark upon a mission to investigate the spread of a mysterious zombie plague that has beset the current emperor and the country's southern provinces. 

The story starts with a notice on a billboard, claiming the king of Joseon is dead and the crown prince should be crowned immediately as the new king. However, inside the palace, the king is known to be severely sick and has been secretly treated for the past 10 days. No one was allowed to visit the king, not even the crown prince himself. Late at night, the crown prince sneaks out to visit his father, wanting to know the truth. But instead of his father, he encountered the silhouette of a beastly monster.

The second season of Kingdom centers on the advancement of the zombie plague across several provinces, and is available on Netflix now, so you're not too late to catch up on one of the best K-Dramas in recent memory!

 

4. Signal (2016)

If you like crime murder-mystery dramas in the vein of Sherlock, you'd love one of 2016's best K-Dramas, Signal!

The show won Best Drama, Best Screenplay (Television) and netted Kim Hye-soo (who plays lead detective Cha Soo-hyun) the Best Leading Actress in TV award at the 52nd Baeksang Arts Award!

I'm looking for the best Korean drama!

With cases inspired by a series of actual serial murders in South Korea, Signal smartly marries real-life accuracies with fantasy elements, telling a story of a cold-case profiler in 2015 and a detective in 1989. They work together to solve a series of related murders spanning three decades, all while using a special walkie-talkie to communicate with each other.

If you like suspenseful Korean dramas, Signal is one of the best!

 

5. Reply (2012-present)

If you like nostalgic dramas that bring you back to your childhood, perhaps you're curious about what that kind of dramas will be like for Koreans! Reply's three seasons (Reply 1997, Reply 1994, Reply 1988) are consistently some of most talked about by Koreans as being the best Korean drama series! We'll dive deeper into the first installment (Reply 1997), which was said to have sparked the "retro" trend in South Korea!

Set in the 1990s, Reply 1997 follows female high-school student Sung Shi-won (Jung Eun-ji), who idolizes boyband H.O.T, and her 5 high school friends. As a teen, Shi-won was obsessed with that boy band, and now that she is 33 years old, Shi-won and her friends are reviving their memories as their school reunion nears.

If you enjoy the 'coming-of-age' type school-life movies from Asia that seems so be all the rage now, consider diving into the Reply series!

 

6. Itaewon Class (2020)

Finally, we will end the list with one of the most talked-about Korean dramas, Itaewon Class! It is credited for bringing the district of Itaewon to the international spotlight (in the same vein as 'Gangnam Style' for the district of Gangnam) showing Seoul's diversity and vibrant nightlife!

“Itaewon Class” is a drama based on the webtoon of the same title by Kwang Jin that started on December 2016. It joins the list of numerous other dramas based on webtoons to air in 2020.

Itaewon Class tells the story of ex-convict Park Sae-roy (Park Seo-joon) whose life has been turned upside down after he gets expelled from school for punching a bully. To make things worse, his father is killed in an accident. Following his father's footsteps, he opens his bar-restaurant DanBam in Itaewon and, along with his manager and staff, strive towards success and reaching greater heights.

Ever since its premiere, Itaewon Class has been soaring in popularity rank. It has attained 30.19% share in the entire drama category which includes both public and cable TV channels and now one of the most popular drama in Korea. If you have been living under a rock, it's time to start binging this series!

 

That is our list and recommendations for the best Korean dramas to binge-watch! If you're bored at home, or looking to spend some 'Netflix and Chill' time, you won't go wrong with any of the dramas on this list!

 

If you want to read about an incident that unfortunately brought negative attention to Itaewon, and caused a uproar in Korea over some celebrities, click here!