The Best Korean Dramas on Kinogram

The word "dorama" (from Japanese, via Russian usage) has become shorthand for East Asian TV dramas, and today it's used first and foremost for Korean series — a distinctive pacing, a closed arc across one or two seasons, and an attention to detail Western shows often skip. The Kinogram catalog now has dozens of published Korean dramas, from global hits like Squid Game to classic romances. Here are ten picks for different moods: thriller, romance, fantasy, and historical drama.

Squid Game (2021–2025). A competition where losing means elimination, literally — the series that took Korean drama global and became Netflix's most-watched show ever. Three seasons; if you haven't seen a Korean drama yet, this is the logical place to start.

The Glory (2022–2023). A woman pushed to her limit by relentless school bullying spends years methodically building a plan of revenge against her tormentors — one season of tight, cold-blooded thriller with no wasted scenes.

Guardian: The Lonely and Great God (2016–2017). An immortal warrior doomed to carry a sword in his chest that only his future bride can pull out meets a girl who can see death — one of the most famous and quoted fantasy dramas, one that shaped the genre for years afterward.

Mr. Sunshine (2018). A boy who fled Korea for the US after a childhood tragedy returns decades later as a US Army officer on the eve of Japanese colonization, and falls for a woman from a noble family — historical drama with a scale you don't always expect from television.

When Life Gives You Tangerines (2025). The series follows a woman on Jeju Island from youth to old age — one of the most highly rated Korean dramas of recent years, quiet and without a single overplayed moment.

True Beauty (2020–2021). A high schooler who has spent years hiding her bare face is accidentally exposed by a classmate — for all its light setup, the series is genuinely honest about beauty-standard pressure and teenage self-doubt.

Alchemy of Souls (2022–2023). Magic in a fictional kingdom works so that a dying mage's soul is reborn into a new body — a fantasy drama about a powerful witch stuck in a body without magical ability, and the young mage who has to help her get her power back.

All of Us Are Dead (2022 — ongoing). A zombie outbreak erupts in the middle of a high school class — students have to survive, cut off from the outside world, until rescue arrives. A fast-paced horror-thriller built on real claustrophobia rather than cheap jump scares.

Sweet Home (2020–2024). Residents of an apartment building start turning into monsters that embody their darkest desires — three seasons of horror that runs less on shock and more on the question of what actually makes us human.

Dr. Romantic (2016–2023). A brilliant but reclusive surgeon works at a small provincial hospital and takes young doctors under his wing — a medical drama about medicine staying a human profession even inside a system that keeps forgetting that.

If you're not sure where to start, Squid Game and All of Us Are Dead suit viewers who want pace and tension, Guardian and Mr. Sunshine are for those after romance and scale, and When Life Gives You Tangerines and Dr. Romantic make for a quieter but no less powerful evening. Release year, status, and season count for every drama are on the Kinogram catalog cards.