Whittling all these successes down to just 15 titles requires some terrible sacrifices, but with that done, here are our picks for the best Korean dramas of 2021, ranked from good to great.
15. The Penthouse (season 2)
Last year’s makjang (Korean soap opera) hit The Penthouse quickly returned to our screens with another outrageous season of television, with the ne’er-do-wells of Hera Palace once again up to no good.14. Vincenzo
Superstar Song Joong-ki returned to screens in two major roles in February, first in the Netflix sci-fi action movie Space Sweepers and then as Vincenzo Cassano, the suave Italian-Korean lawyer for the mob who comes back to Korea, in Vincenzo.He bands with Jeon Yeo-been’s feisty lawyer and the colourful inhabitants of a dilapidated commercial building as they take on the dastardly Babel Group and its larger-than-life CEO, played by Ok Taecyeon. Sprawling if occasionally unwieldy, Vincenzo is infectiously entertaining. Read our early preview | midseason recap | final review13. Mine
There were many high-society dramas fronted by women this year, but the one that really hit home was Mine. The show offered all the usual trappings we expect, with a peek at the rarefied upper echelons of Korean society, as back-stabbing corporate family members scheme against one another in fabulous costumes on splendid sets.
12. Mr Queen
Shin Hye-sun leads the body-swap period romcom hit Mr Queen with a barnstorming performance as a modern male chef who magically winds up in the body of a noblewoman in Joseon dynasty Korea who is about to marry the king.
The pop culture references, many of which highlight outdated patriarchal norms, are on point, and beautiful cooking montages serve as terrific interludes in an involving tale of royal court romance and deception. Read our early preview | midseason recap | final review11. Sell Your Haunted House
Real estate inequality is one of the top themes in Korean entertainment these days and it got a fresh take this year in the supernatural romcom Sell Your Haunted House.
Jang Na-ra shines as one of the year’s best small-screen leads, playing a goth-styled exorcist chasing ghosts out of buildings so they can be put on the market – when she isn’t gorging on Korean fast food during her daytime off hours. Read our early preview | midseason recap | final review10. Navillera
This cross-generational ballet-themed delight is probably the smallest series the prolific Song Kang has featured in recently, but it may be the best thing he’s done yet.
The actor plays a young ballet dancer teaching a retiree (Park In-hwan) who wants to fulfil his dream of dancing on stage before Alzheimer’s disease prevents him from doing so. Their emotional journey has a lived-in, realistic feel as it moves steadily towards a cathartic finale. Read our early preview | midseason recap | final review9. On the Verge of Insanity
Veteran film stars Moon So-ri and Jung Jae-young lead the workplace drama On the Verge of Insanity, one of the year’s most unassuming K-drama delights.
While the stakes are low and it never really threatens to become a romance, this is a mature tale that explores the prosaic realities of office politics in a Korean corporation with expert characterisations and performances that draw us into the small conflicts, setbacks and triumphs of its protagonists. Read our early preview | midseason recap | final review8. One Ordinary Day
Coupang Play jumped into the K-drama ring with One Ordinary Day, a remake of the first season of BBC’s Criminal Justice. Kim Soo-hyun takes the lead in this courtroom and prison saga, which was earlier remade as HBO’s The Night Of, as a college student who wakes up in a dead woman’s house and is arrested for her murder.
This compulsively watchable adaptation is tightly paced throughout and features a terrific supporting cast that includes Cha Seung-won, Kim Sung-kyu and Lee Seol. Read our early preview | final review7. Yumi’s Cells
Highly reminiscent of Pixar’s Inside Out, this hybrid of live action and animation follows a single young working woman as she navigates a new relationship – and we get a first-hand look at how the cells inside her head are dealing with it (poorly).Kim Go-eun takes on the titular role in this engaging and effortlessly relatable romantic tale that manages to be cute and heart-rending without ever veering into schmaltz.
6. Happiness
If you think K-zombies have been done to death, think again. The apartment survival drama Happiness goes back to basics with a simple but highly engaging tale of residents quarantined in a residential high-rise, where they must contend with a zombie-like infection and a mass of prejudices among the social classes of their ad hoc group.
5. Dr Brain
Both Apple TV+ and master filmmaker Kim Jee-woon made their Korean drama debuts with the six-part sci-fi action-noir Dr Brain.
In this hyper-stylised cyberpunk odyssey, Parasite’s Lee Sun-kyun stars as a neuroscientist who experiments with brain synchronisation technology as he attempts to unravel the mystery behind his son’s disappearance and his wife’s descent into madness.4. Hellbound
Film director Yeon Sang-ho (Train to Busan) made his TV debut in grand fashion with the thrilling Netflix horror-thriller Hellbound, based on a webtoon he co-wrote with Choi Kyu-seok.Demons from the underworld appear on earth as they hunt down people whose deaths have been preordained by a mysterious being. A cult rises to power and society descends into religious paranoia in this dark and gritty series that explores the underbelly of Korean society.
3. D.P.
South Korea’s harsh obligatory military service is put under the looking glass in Han Jun-hee’s sensational webtoon adaptation D.P., in which Jung Hae-in plays a young conscript assigned to a squad tasked with chasing down deserters.
Camaraderie and tension commingle in this fascinating exploration of the South Korean military, which builds to the year’s best climax with a poignant finale that drew high praise from viewers in Korea, particularly men who had experienced the gruelling hazing that the military is known for.2. Squid Game
No wrap-up of 2021 could possibly be complete without Hwang Dong-hyuk’s world-conquering Squid Game, the most successful Netflix series of all time with 142 million subscribers recorded during its launch.In the show, 456 cash-strapped individuals unwittingly sign up for a series of deadly variations on playground games as they compete for a 45.6 billion won cash prize.
The sets and costumes turned this violent and macabre polemic of global capitalism into an endlessly meme-able event which captured the zeitgeist as few other stories have before. Hwang is reportedly set to welcome us back to more of the Squid Game in the near future. Read our full review1. Beyond Evil
Shin Ha-kyun shines in the TV role he was born to play in the superlative crime drama Beyond Evil. This Memories of Murder for the small screen pits a hotshot young investigator (Yeo Jin-goo) and jaded rural officer (Shin) against each other as a search for a vicious serial killer in the countryside unfolds.
With brilliant twists, sterling dialogue, gripping atmosphere and memorable performances, this JTBC series brought Korean crime dramas to a new level. We can’t wait for future shows to rise to its challenge. Read our early preview | midseason recap | final reviewncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tK%2FMqWWcp51kuaqyxKyrsqSVZLhuvM6pZqRllKeurq2OmqmtoZOhsnB%2FkG9oam1nZH52ecGeqq1lm2Kxs63MmqpmamBnfm7CyKeanqaqpHqiusNmpKtloaqyprqMrKiuoZRitKK5xA%3D%3D