Of late, Netflix has been seriously stepping up their international tv and film game! They aren’t just getting the rights to shows that were already on TV or in the theaters, but they are also developing their own. I, The K-Pop Hero, as a K-Drama Addict, have gone and vetted a lot of these dramas for you by binge-watching them and looking like I have no life! Thus, I have created the “Best K-Dramas on Netflix” for you. Without further ado, let’s jump right into it.
힘쎈여자 도봉순 (Strong Girl Do Bong Soon)
We’re are going to start with a romantic comedy mystery thriller… that also happens to be playing on my TV right now. I have watched this drama a few times, and it is always just as good as the first time! Do Bong Soon (Park Bo Young) is a girl who was born with super strength that is passed down from female to female in her family. She is an unemployed girl who is simply looking for a job. While looking, she happens to be seen helping some young children with her super strength by Ahn Min Hyuk (ZE:A’s Park Hyung Sik), who happens to be the CEO of a gaming company called Ainsoft who is being blackmailed. Naturally, he is impressed with her skills, and immediately wants to hire her as his bodyguard. While all of this is going on, Bong Soon’s childhood crush, Gook Du (Ji Soo) is investigating a murder of a girl in the area.
This drama has a little bit of everything. It has romance, unrequited love, murder, mystery, and just a bit of that thriller fact. It constantly keeps you on your toes while you watch all the intertwined stories unfold. Even though part of the intertwined stories is really dark, the murder plot, the writers, actors, and directors excel at contrasting this dark plot with lots of cute, happy playful moments.When I say it has everything, I’m not even joking!
밥 잘 사주는 예쁜 누나 (Something in the Rain)
This drama is something else. There are definitely cute moments in it, but it is far more intense than Strong Girl Do Bong Soon. Yoo Jin Ah (Sohn Ye Jin) is a girl who works in a copy that is full of extreme sexism. Some of the men who work there have a habit of making the women do things that are relatively degrading. Despite that, she comes from a relatively well to do family. Her best friend who’s parent’s left’s little brother Seo Joon Hee (Jang Hae In), who just moved back from working for his gaming company in America, works in the same building. They meet again after a long time, and slowly fall in love and go through many struggles.
This drama explores Korean culture on a different level than many other dramas that I have seen. It goes into a number of the bad aspects of Korea and its Confucian culture. Because of the difference in age between Jin Ah and Joon Hee as well as their difference in social position, they face many struggles in their relationship as people find out about them. It’s relatively hard to watch, and I could only watch a few episodes at the same time, but really did enjoy watching this.
블랙(Black)
This drama I was actually able to get my dad to watch! He had caught sections of it while I was watching through it. I watched the final episode at the office, only to get a text from him that he watched the final episode on his own as well! Black is part cop drama, part romance, part comedy, part supernatural, and part mystery thriller. It really has a little bit of everything. Hell, it got an almost 60-year-old man to watch it!
The story follows Kang Haram (Go Ara) who is able to see shadows on people that tell her they are about to die, and how they are going to die. Han Moo Gang is a detective who just wants to help others… until he meets Kang Haram. The two of them quickly become a team that tries to prevent people’s deaths. In the process, Han Moo Gang ends getting caught in the crossfire. He then comes back as a grim reaper who is trying to find his reaper partner who jumped into a human’s body. Naturally, one thing leads to another, and he ends up sticking around in the human realm for a while. This drama will really keep you all on your toes.
꽃보다 남자 (Boys Over Flowers)
This drama is almost 10 years old now, but it is still quite famous. This story follows the daughter of a family who owns a dry cleaning business named Geum Jan Di (Gu Hye Sun) who ends up saving a man’s life who was about to commit suicide at one of Korea’s top high school’s, Shinhwa High. After she saves the boy, they end up inviting her to be a student there. She ends up meeting the boys of F4, the richest guys in school, who shake up her teenage life quite a bit.
This drama, although pretty old give you a good taste of a lot of things, especially drama and romance. This is another drama that explores the struggles between the classes and the strict Confucian system in Korea. Obviously, since it is a drama (you will tell based off of the music in 2 seconds) everything should be taken with multiple grains of salt. This show basically shows the crazy extremes that it could theoretically get to.
마이 온리 러브송 (My Only Love Song)
This is probably the campiest romantic comedy that I have ever seen. Even though it is extremely campy, I loved every single second of it. It is extremely adorably weird. My Only Love Song is about an actress, Song Soo-Jung (Gong Seung-Yeon), who throws a fit and ends up traveling back in time accidentally in a van named Bbong Bbong. She ends up back in the time frame of the drama she was filming and in a jail cell with On Dal (CN Blue’s Lee Jong-Hyun). From that point forward, hilarious antics ensue.
Honestly, I was laughing hysterically through this entire drama. They do an excellent job of using weird sound effects and physical humor to “amp up” the drama’s hilarity factor. Besides being hilarious, this drama managed to give me all the feels. I was completely engrossed in the entire storyline, and kept predicting my own endings. This show is so cute that I can’t take it.
Where Should You Start?
I didn’t want to overwhelm you completely with a massive list of dramas. That’s why I am only giving you 5. Anymore than that, and you wouldn’t be leaving your couch for weeks. This list alone will take you quite a bit of time to complete, as many of the episodes are over an hour long.
So, which drama on this list would be my starting point? For the purposes of trying to balance over-dramatic and romantic comedies, I would watch them in this order:
- My Only Love Song – all episodes are about a half hour, and it’s light
- Black – all episodes are an hour and a half. You can also watch My Only Love Song simultaneously to break it up.
- Strong Girl Do Bong Soon – all episodes are about an hour
- Something in the Rain – might want to break this one up with episodes of Strong Girl Do Bong Soon. It’s that intense.
- Boys Over Flowers – This one has the perfect mix of funny and dramatic so that you aren’t overwhelmed.
Obviously, this isn’t a complete list of the best K-Dramas on Netflix, and it will probably be expanded upon in another post as I keep watching more dramas, the list will get bigger. Plus, Netflix keeps making brand new dramas.
What dramas have you watched that you love? Let me know in the comments below, K-Nuggets!
사랑합니다!
–Rachel
