These six Korean dramas everyone should watch whether they’re a beginner or not!

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

Korea has always had a special place in my heart as an adult. In 2018, I received a prestigious US government scholarship to live and study at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, and it was there I built up my basic Korean proficiency in a way that led me to later go back, six years after this first time, on a different government scholarship to Pusan National University.

When I was in college, I really fell hard into film. I signed up for a Contemporary Korean Cinema course my very first semester of school, and I loved what I was watching on screen. Later on, I received my Bachelor of Science and one of my minors was in Film and Media Studies. Less than a year later, I was working freelance/contract as a film critic at the online outlet MovieWeb.

I did that for three years before leaving my post behind in order to pursue a Fulbright (which didn’t work out) and this blog. I produce reviews and summaries for the movies that I watch, and the fact I have this blog has offered my more flexibility in what kind of content I’m watching.

For example, when you’re working at a publication, you’re often always chasing after the latest and the greatest. There isn’t a lot of room to revisit movies and shows that are older because they’re not seen as trendy enough. Only if they’re actually trending can you write about it.

So I made this blog focused on BIPOC and international cinema, with an emphasis on Korean and pan-Asian film. I was unemployed for a bit in late 2024 and early 2025, which meant during my free time, when I wasn’t writing for some money or applying to jobs, I was watching movies and television shows.

That’s the crux of this list—these are some of the best Korean school dramas I’ve watched throughout the years!

Weak Hero Seasons 1 and 2 / 약한영웅

Weak Hero was one of those shows I ended up resisting watching in the beginning. It took me some time to watch this, but when I finally did get to it, the show had already released its second season. As I started watching I fell really into this and watched both seasons in rapid succession.

Both seasons follow the same protagonist: Si-eun. In season one he starts out as this smart kid who keeps his head down and away from trouble, but with his new friend group, he gets sucked into the path of fighting for justice.

As he finds out though, sometimes we make sacrifices in order to go down this path, which is what makes this show so interesting!

The Heirs / 왕관을 쓰려는 자, 그 무게를 견뎌라 – 상속자들

The Heirs came out in 2013 and is definitely a relic from that time, but it combines an epic cast that wouldn’t be replicated in the same way today—and that’s because they’re all big stars! This was actually my gateway to Korean dramas back when it came out in 2013.

This series follows Cha Eun-sang, the classic poor girl who finds herself thrust into a remarkable situation. She ends up at a school for some of the country’s most elite students, and when she attends this school, not only does she attract ire from some students, but she also finds herself in a love triangle between two male students.

It’s just such a solid classic, even though it does feel dated at times!

All of Us Are Dead / 지금 우리 학교는

My fun fact for this drama is that when I first watched it, I woke up at 6 AM to binge watch most of the series by 12 PM that same day. I was working as a film critic at the time and was doing the coverage for this show, as I knew in advance it was going to be a hit globally.

I think the appeal of All of Us Are Dead is how it spins the zombie genre into the high school antics of its characters. They start out as friends and mortal enemies in the realm of the school, but when the zombie apocalypse breaks out in Korea, alliances and loyalty shift in order to stay alive.

This show is a whirlwind of activity and keeps you on your toes throughout its run time. I enjoyed it a lot and would highly recommend giving it a chance if you haven’t already!

Twinkling Watermelon / 반짝이는 워터멜론

I remember when Twinkling Watermelon first came out everyone I know was raving about it. They were asking me if I had seen it, but at the time I was busy with graduate school and trying to work my multiple jobs and make money.

I ended up watching this show two years later, after its hype had come and gone, but I remembered that after time. This show is about a boy who accidentally travels in time and ends up in the period where his parents met.

There, he joins a band and creates some solid relationships. But as we know, what you do when you time travel can change the future, especially when you’re one of the people’s kids and changing what their destiny could look like.

Lovely Runner / 선재 업고 튀어

This is another one of those shows that was incredibly hyped when it first came out, and it seemed like I was one of the last people to ever see it. I ended up watching the show when I got a Viki subscription against in 2025, and, as expected, I binge watched all of it in a single weekend.

Lovely Runner’s female lead is Im Sol, who, after all of these years, is devoted to the idol Ryu Sun-jae. When she finds out something tragic about him in the current moment, she ends up back in the past. There, she has the opportunity to befriend Sun-jae as a student and change both of their futures.

It’s a cute drama, that’s for sure. And it helps that both of the leads are fairly likable!

Extraordinary You / 어쩌다 발견한 하루

It’s wild to me that Extraordinary You came out seven years (upon writing this blog post) ago, but time really has passed. I remember easily when this came out, as I was a sophomore in college and using dramas as a crux for something I avoided in my personal life.

The main character of this drama is Eun-oh. She goes to the perfect school and has an ideal life, but one day she comes to a big revelation: her school doesn’t actually exist, nor do her classmates and she. She lives inside of a comic book and isn’t even the main character.

To try and change her fate, she befriends an unnamed character and calls him Haru. But as she learns, like our characters in time traveling dramas, changing the story could end poorly for everyone involved at times.

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