5 K-dramas for genre newbies to watch this Valentine’s Day
Cozy up with some of our favorite K-dramas, including Crash Landing On You and Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha
TV Lists Valentine
Background: Run On (Screenshot: Netflix); Hearts, clockwise from left: Crash Landing On You (Lim Hyo Seon/Netflix), Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha (Screenshot: Netflix), It’s Okay To Not Be Okay (Screenshot: Netflix) Graphic: Allison Corr
In 5 To Watch, writers from The A.V. Club look at the latest streaming TV arrivals, each making the case for a favored episode. Alternately, they can offer up recommendations inspired by a theme. In this installment: In honor of “Love Week,” we’re rounding up some of our favorite K-dramas.
When Squid Game smashed Netflix records last year, the general response in the West one was of surprise—but South Korea has been producing some of the most popular TV shows in the world for decades. Ahead of Valentine’s Day, we’re digging into the country’s most heavily exported genre: K-dramas.
With hundreds of K-drama titles available—most of which consist of roughly 16 hour-plus episodes—it can be difficult to determine where to start or even decide if you want to make such a lengthy viewing commitment. The A.V. Club is here to make things easier by narrowing down the choices, so you can spend this February 14 cuddled up with a box of discounted chocolates and some characters with way more exciting love lives.
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This is a bad list. The Heirs is terrible (with a gaslighting abusive male lead and a weak female lead), and most of the entries are mediocre. Crash Landing is like a B+ and It’s Okay is the only one that is actually delightful. Top 5 romantic kdramas for newbies is a tough list because there are a million great romantic kdramas out there.1. Coffee Prince: any list without Coffee Prince is invalid. It has the best kdrama trope, the girl dressing as a boy to feed her family, as well as found family. It also features my favorite stock kdrama character: Tough But Fair CEO Grandma. The chemistry is amazing and it’s charming and fun. And it’s canonical.2. It’s OK not to be OK, because as I said, it’s the only really really good one on the list.3. Any of the “flower boy” shows: Flower Boy Next Door is my favorite, followed by Shut Up Flower Boy Band, but FLower Boy Ramen Shop is also ok. Sort of a dumb premise (cute boys doing stuff, romancing a girl, and discovering a found family), but executed so sincerely and quirkily. FBND features a manic pixie dream boy charming the pants off of a lady hermit crab, and SUFBB is all class warfare wearing guyliner (and like It’s OK, is about all kinds of love).4. Reply 1997: falling in love with your best friend, who happens to be a crazy boyband fangirl. So much nostalgia and pathos.5. Queen In Hyun’s Man: Lots of Kdramas mine star-crossed lovers separated by things like time or world or what have you. This is my favorite of those. A scholar from the past is transported to the present and falls for an actress playing a famous person from his time.Some of these can’t be found on Netflix, so my favorite romantic kdramas on Netflix are: It’s OK, Hyena, Reply 1997, Mystic Pop-Up Bar, and, more unconventionally, The School Nurse Files (which is a bit surreal for a true romance, but it’s romantic nonetheless). Or perhaps Because this life is my first.
What are the other 4,995 dramas?
My friend is trying to get me to watch Boys Over Flowers on Netflix. I’m trying, but it’s completely incomprehensible. I don’t know if these people are supposed to be in high school or what. There’s this group of hot dudes that are obviously important, but I don’t know if they’re a boy band or gangsters or just a cool clique of students at the maybe-high-school.I don’t even know which characters are meant to be adults and which are children. I think the main girl is meant to be a teenager but she looks 32.I’ve read James Joyce and I’m completely baffled by this shit