2025 was a middling year for Korean Dramas.
Some started out with promise but fizzled out as they went along, others declared damp squibs from the start while still others lacked that ‘It’ factor that makes their ilk so unique and addictive in the first place.
Nevertheless, some shows kept us hooked from start to finish on the strength of their storytelling or sizzling chemistry between the leads.
Sukanya Verma picks some of Netflix’s top K-Dramas of 2025.
When Life Gives You Tangerines
The simple journey of two Jeju island inhabitants — a spunky girl and docile boy and their rock-solid relationship across a lifetime as they navigate love, marriage, parenthood and ageing over the course of several ups and downs feel amazingly authentic at every step.
Its moments of laughter as well as heartbreak unravel a rainbow of emotions even as the cinematically staged drama repeatedly highlights a woman’s strength and a man’s sensitivity as the true pillars of a family equipped to overcome every challenge.
Study Group
Based on a webtoon of the same name, Study Group‘s hugely entertaining premise involves a nerdy yet academically struggling teen’s attempts to form a study group in a famously violent high school by using his nifty fighting skills to keep the bullies at bay.
The zany tone of the series, its fun friendships and humorous confrontations as well as the super cool action sequences makes Study Group a breeze to watch.
It’s no surprise there’s a second season in the works.
Weak Hero Class 2
After an impressive first season about high-school bullies and bromances, does Weak Hero Class 2 make for a worthy follow-up?
Though it lacks the well-defined complexity of its predecessor, the troubles plaguing young, struggling minds and the intense world of violence they are pressured to embrace, packs in enough spectacle and spark, when a new batch of friends and foes emerge, to overlook what the sequel has to offer.
The visually arresting climatic showdown alone is worth the price of admission, er, subscription.
Bon Appetit, Your Majesty
Ever wondered what MasterChef in the Joseon era would look like? Bon Appetit, Your Majesty entertains the idea in abundance in this feast of show whose rom-com energy and historical liberties make for a scrumptious watch.
A ingenious Korean-French culinary expert chef time-travels way into the past and lands at the royal palace where she bumps into a gourmet gifted prince juggling between his innate conceit and tender foodie.
Their inevitable romance over the course of delicious meals and dangerous enemies coveting his throne makes this one hell of yum ride.
Typhoon Family
Triumph of spirit stories are tailor-made for awe and inspiration and Typhoon Family‘s riches-to-rags-to-riches story pays rich ode to that theme.
Set against the backdrop of South Korea’s 1997 financial crisis, it looks at how a reluctant inheritor of a once-booming business resurrects a struggling trading company, his deceased father’s left behind, by collaborating with his resourceful colleagues despite his obvious inexperience, a pesky rival and piling difficulties.
What’s fascinating is how his steady optimism and die hard spirit help him discover the leader he always was but could not see.
Dear Hongrang
Dear Hongrang‘s hanbok costume K-drama is an exercise in exquisite melancholy and provocative mystery touching on the subjects of incest and abuse.
Both depth and darkness envelops its intrigue and charm as it sets out to tell the nature of power, ambition, desire and discrimination in ways that’s as startling as it is devastating.
Aside from its lush production and haunting music, Dear Hongrang‘s sublime ferocity lingers long after the end credits have rolled.
It all starts when a stranger claiming to be the long-lost son of a noble clan threatens the status quo of ruthless lords and loyal substitutes and a shabbily-treated half-sister averse to accepting him as her blood.
Dynamite Kiss
A wealthy chaebol hunk meets a jobless slob from a humble backdrop on a scenic island where they pretend to be lovers only to find themselves wildly attracted following a magical kiss.
In true blue Cinderella style, she leaves him hanging high and dry only to meet him again and learn he’s the boss of the company she lied to get a job in. What’s her fib? That she’s married and a mom.
There’s much formula in the ensuing friction and confusion but Dynamite Kiss has a ball living up to the crackling camaraderie of the leads and the morality tussle their forbidden liaison invites. And so does its ear-to-ear grinning viewer.
Photographs curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff
