2023 saw a huge increase in activity in the K-drama realm, and this year has built on the trend. Prepare to note down the dates as we reveal the top highly anticipated K-drama series of the year.
We might be nearing the end of 2024, but streamable K-Drama content isn’t quite down-and-out yet. So far this year we’ve already had major hits including Gyeongseong Creature Season 2, Lovely Runner, and Love Next Door.
But what’s left on the roster? Obviously there’s one particularly big title many of us are waiting for – more on that later – but there’s still a few hidden gems on our favorite streaming services to tuck into.
Even better: almost all of these are debut titles, meaning you don’t even need to have seen anything beforehand to enjoy them. Here’s exactly what K-Drama has in store for the rest of the year.
12. Resident Playbook
K-drama fans are ecstatic over the news that Resident Playbook will premiere in 2024 on Netflix. The medical K-drama is a spinoff of the popular Hospital Playlist. Alchemy of Souls star Go Young-jung will star as the lead with her character as a first-year obstetrics and gynecology resident.
Resident Playbook will follow the same idea as its predecessor by focusing on the lives and friendships of a group of hospital residents. Set in the Jongno branch of Yulje Medical Center, the K-drama explores the lives and friendships of young obstetrics and gynecology residents.
According to Soompi, Resident Playbook has pushed been pushed back to 2025. Due to an influx of medical resident resignations in South Korea, the K-drama has been postponed with no set release date.
Release Date: 2025
11. When the Phone Rings
Romance thriller alert!#YooYeonseok and #ChaeSoobin star as a couple in a "marriage of convenience" in WHEN THE PHONE RINGS. Korea’s youngest presidential spokesperson finds his cold, calculated three-year marriage thrown into questions when his wife, a sign language… pic.twitter.com/RLUjWZZbJH
— Netflix K-Content (@netflixkcontent) October 1, 2024
Fairly little is known about this upcoming romance-thriller… but if you enjoyed Old Boy and Hospital Playlist, this might be one for you.
Yoo Yeon Seok and Chae Soo Bin star as a young couple who are unhappily married, but things change for good when the wife is mysteriously kidnapped.
The full synopsis reads, “A ‘marriage of convenience’ in When the Phone Rings. Korea’s youngest presidential spokesperson finds his cold, calculated three-year marriage thrown into question when his wife, a sign language interpreter, is mysteriously abducted.”
There’s no confirmed release date other than a vague window of November, but the new drama will be comprised of 12 episodes, which will drop on a weekly basis.
Release Date: November
10. Mr. Plankton
Announced in 2023, Mr. Plankton is an upcoming 2024 K-drama from Netflix. Details are scarce, but fans are pleased with its leading actors and its story of being outcasts. Like plankton, Hae-jo (Woo Do-hwan) is seen as an outcast and is unloved because he doesn’t know who his father is.
He receives news one day that changes everything and he sets out to find him. Meanwhile, Jo Jae-mi (Lee Yoo-i) has always wanted a big family and is set to marry the son of the Eo family, who owns a food company.
The family patriarchs are not too pleased with the relationship but make do because their son told them Jae-mi is pregnant. On the day of the wedding, Jae-mi disappears and embarks on a journey with Hae-jo.
Release date: November
9. Love in the Big City
Coming of age? Tick. Slice of life? Tick. A romance that manages to blossom in spite of it all? Triple tick.
Don’t get this confused with the movie of the same name – we go on a 10-year journey with writer Go Young in the binge-worthy TV show, “learning about life and love through ups and downs.” He meets (and loves) Gyu Ho, but soon believes he has to let him go, instead following a stranger to Thailand to spend a late monsoon vacation with them.
Intrigued? You can find the series exclusively on TVING.
Release date: October 21
8. A Virtuous Business
If The Golden Girls was set in modern-day South Korea, it might look something like this. The Netflix series focuses on four friends known as the ‘Bangpan Sisters’, selling door-to-door products in 1922 through the height of social taboos.
We follow them through time as their “indiscreet” hobby is shamed by many – including their families – while the quartet remains completely ahead of their time. There’s plenty of laughs and even a jaunty Sex and the City-style theme tune to go with it.
Release date: October 12
7. Family By Choice
Doing what it says on the tin, Family By Choice is a show set to remind us that our nearest and dearest are exactly that. Kim San Ha, Yun Ju Won, and Kang Hae Jun share a tight bond, but none of them are related. Ju Won’s father Jeong Jae and San Ha’s father Dae Uk raise them and try to do their best by them in spite of it all.
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Ten years later, the five members of their found family reunite – but this is TV, and nothing is the same as it once was.
Release date: October 9
6. Spice Up Our Love
No, it’s not a new Spice Girls song… it’s the Prime Video romance drama fans have been waiting for! Arguably the biggest release in October, we’ll see R-rated romance web novelist Nam Ja-yeon unexpectedly transform into Seo Yeon-seo – her female lead.
When she does, she embarks on a wild affair with the book’s male lead, Kang Ha-joon. Even better: the new TV show is a spinoff of No Gain No Love, one of the channel’s most popular K-Dramas of the year.
Release date: October 3
5. Hellbound Season 2
One of the most anticipated releases of the year is the second instalment of Hellbound, which first hit Netflix back in 2021.
We last saw religious leader Chairman Jung Jinsu disappear and Park Jungja resurrected, with Min Hyejin successfully escaping with baby Toughie. This time around, the streaming service has hinted we’ll see “religious factions the New Truth, the Arrowheads, and Sodo leader Hyejin must grapple with sudden resurrections of the formerly condemned.”
All of our main cast is back – and while it’s not clear how many episodes will be in Season 2, it will all drop at once.
Release date: October 25
4. Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born
Based on the webtoon of the same name, Disney’s Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born takes us back to the 1950s. Jeong-nyeon is a girl who has a natural talent for singing, and we follow her journey in the Yeoseong Gukgeuk troupe as she grows up as a member.
Release date: October 12
3. Gangnam B-Side
Disney+ is two for two this season, following up immediately with Gangnam B-Side in November (no confirmed release date as of yet).
A series of disappearances occur in the middle of Gangnam, with ‘disgraced’ Detective Kang Dong U assigned to the investigation. Yun Gil Ho is looking for the missing Jae Hui in the meantime… but soon finds they’re not the only one.
Release date: November
2. The Trunk
When a trunk washes up on a local shore, a secret marriage service is uncovered. In the middle of this is an equally strange marriage, but we’re yet to find out why.
We’re equally not yet sure how this links to the above woman ominously leaning over a man who could be on death’s door… but surely that makes things even more exciting. Keep your eyes peeled on Netflix in December for this one.
Release date: December
1. Squid Game Season 2
It’s the big one! Seong Gi-hun might have mysteriously lost his red hair in new promos, but Squid Game Season 2 is going to set the Christmas period on fire with depravity (through games, of course).
Here’s what we know so far: it takes place three years after Season 1, in line with our real passage of time. Gi-hun “remains determined to find the people behind the game and put an end to their vicious sport.”
After chasing the man with the suit, he’s led to an inevitable conclusion – “To end the game, he needs to re-enter it.” They’re set to go head-to-head in a way that likely extends into the confirmed third and final season.
Don’t expect all your favorites back this time (let’s remember, most of them died), but you will be seeing more than one familiar face.
Release date: December 26
You can read more on Dexerto’s best 2023 K-dramas, and a list of Korean movies to watch this year. You also don’t want to miss the more TV shows streaming this month and the best TV shows of the year so far.