Since the rise in popularity of Korean dramas such as Crash Landing on You, Kingdom, Vincenzo, Hospital Playlist, and of course, Squid Game, there has been an influx of recent as well as upcoming K-dramas not to be missed.  Below are some to watch out for:

Mask Girl

The series follows Kim Mo-mi (Ko Hyun-jung), an ordinary office worker who has always dreamed of being a performer though she feels that her face isn’t beautiful enough to achieve her goals. So, each day when she returns home from the office, she dons a mask and streams a live broadcast, calling herself Mask Girl.  She becomes a sensation.

Everything is going well until a chain of ill-fated events takes over her life.  Soon, she gets involved in the search of her missing co-worker, Joo Oh-Nam (Ahn Jae-hong) who has a crush on Mask Girl and has eventually discovers her real identity…

 

 

See You in My 19^th Life

This supernatural romantic comedy is about a young woman, Ban Ji Eum (Shin Hye-sun) who can remember her previous lives, going back to nearly a thousand years.  After her 18^th life was cut short by a tragic accident, she endeavors to find people from her past in her 19^th life.  Will her actions negatively impact her current life while she is trying to reconnect with those from her past? 

 

 

Bloodhounds

Bloodhounds is about three young people who find themselves in the dangerous world of loan shark operators.  It’s centered on Woo Do-hwan, who plays Gun-woo, an up-and-coming boxer whose dreams of becoming a world-famous champion must be set aside to help his mother get rid of her debt to loan shark Myung-Gil (Park Sung-Woong).  Consequently, he finds a job as a bodyguard to work for CEO Choi (Heo Jun-ho), a legendary figure in the money-lending business. 

 

 

Daily Dose of Sunshine

Based on the webcomic, Morning Comes to the Mental Ward by Lee Ra-Ha, Daily Dose of Sunshine is set in the world of neuropsychiatry.  The series follows Jung Da-eun (Park Bo-young), a nurse whose first round in this department proves a lot more challenging than she imagined. 

She is mentored by Chief Nurse Song Hyo-Jin (Lee Jung-eun), who helps her with patients in varying degrees of mental health, as she establishes a friendship with Dong Go-Yoon (Yeon Woo-jin), a proctologist working at the same clinic. 

 

 

Destined With You

This fantasy drama stars K-pop star Rowoon, who plays Jang Shin-yu, and actress Jo Bo Ah who portrays Lee Hong-jo, a civil servant who finds a forbidden book from 300 years ago. She discovers that Shin-yu became a victim of a curse put on his entire family centuries ago through that book. It is written by renowned screenwriter Nah Ji Sul (100 Days My Prince).

 

 

Doona!

Based on the webcomic The Girl Downstairs, it stars Yang-Se-jong as Lee Won-jun, an ordinary college student who befriends the lead singer of a popular group, Lee Doon-na portrayed by Bae Suzy.  Doon-na unexpectedly announces her retirement from the spotlight leaving her glamorous days behind her and Won-Jun must come to terms with his new reality that he is living with a famous and beautiful K-pop phenomenon.  The pair eventually develop a relationship.

 

 

DP Season 2

The highly acclaimed first season premiered in 2021 and was about the realities of life in the military police from the South Korean perspective.  The series shines a light on the brutalities that policemen face daily set against a backdrop of bullying and hazing where the ‘survival of the fittest’ reigns supreme. 

Alternatively, those who don’t measure up are treated very poorly by their superiors.  This season D.P. (acronym for Deserter Pursuit) centers around Private Ahn Joon-ho (Jung Hae-in) and Corporal Han Ho-yul (Koo Kyo-hwan) who team up together to catch deserters and end up in an adventurous journey.

 

 

Goodbye Earth

It’s 200 days before an asteroid is destined to collide with Earth.  Unsurprisingly, the world is in chaos.  It stars Yoo Ah-in as Yoon Sang-eun, a researcher at a biotechnology research institute who is having a relationship with Se-kyung, played by Ahn Eun-jin, whose priorities are to protect children in danger.

Another pivotal character, Woo Seong-jae, played by Jeon Sung-woo, is a deputy priest who mysteriously disappeared immediately after the announcement that the asteroid was on course for Earth.

 

 

Gyeongseong Creature

The series takes place in 1945 Gyeongseong (the former name for Seoul) during Japan’s rule over Korea. Jang Tae-Sang (Park Seo-joon) is a wealthy man and the city’s best informant, who becomes involved with Yoon Chae-OK (Han So-hee), a specialist renowned for finding missing people.  The couple must confront a strange creature born of greed and battle against it for survival.

 

 

King The Land

A romantic comedy from the screenwriters of All of Us are Dead (Chun Sung II and Choi Rom), starring Lee Jun-ho, from the boy band 2PM, who plays Heir Goo Won, a cynical young man whose life changes when he meets an ambitious receptionist-turned-executive Cheon Sa-rang, played by Yoona (from all girl group Girls Generations).  The title of the series refers to an exclusive business lounge which caters to wealthy hoteliers.  Goo Won will inherit the business one day, and despite his street smarts he lacks common sense when it comes to his personal life.