Beginning Recommendations for K-Drama Newbies
These series showcase what is so good about K-Drama, with stories and characters that are easy to like and cheer for, good production, skilled acting, relatable humour, high stakes, great soundtracks, profound insights, and wonderful, sincerely-portrayed relationships. You could watch them in any order, but this order gives a good balance between lighter, heavier, modern, historical, and fantasy.
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1. Touch Your Heart
Korean Drama - 2019, 16 episodes
Funny, heartwarming, sweet, and satsifying. Great office 'family'.
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2. Ghost Doctor
Korean Drama - 2022, 16 episodes
Characters you don't know you're going to like, but end up liking a lot. Frustrating baddies, a mystery that grows before being solved, lots of laughs, and heartwarming kindness between people who used to be strangers.
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3. Shooting Star
Korean Drama - 2022, 16 episodes
Funny and sweet - not everything's perfect, like most series, but the good stuff is highly enjoyable.
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4. Queen In Hyun's Man
Korean Drama - 2012, 16 episodes
A captivating love story with time travel/time slip elements, a wonderful hero, and lots of challenges for the characters to go through. Production, supporting characters and acting, and some story elements, have flaws; but the love story at the centre is beautiful and makes this absolutely worth watching.
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5. Delivery Man
Korean Drama - 2023, 12 episodes
A cute, funny, sincere story with some of the best K-Drama hallmark elements.
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6. Bossam-Stealing Destiny
Korean Drama - 2021, 20 episodes
Profound, moving story with very likeable main characters, and some very unlikeable villains and others. Excellent acting from the main actor and actress. This is more of a heavy-ish story, a bit longer than most, with lots of political machination and injustice being faced and fought against. It's so rewarding, though, and I would recommend it because it's a really good example of a historical Korean series, better than others I've watched.
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7. Ik ben geen robot
Korean Drama - 2017, 32 episodes
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8. The Story of Gumiho
Korean Drama - 2020, 16 episodes
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9. Sleep Memo
Korean Drama - 2023, 20 episodes
Even if you only watch this to gze at Park Hyung Shik as the awesome Prince Yi Hwan, it's worth it. Some furstrations, but overall a good story, very well produced.
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10. Just Between Lovers
Korean Drama - 2017, 16 episodes