These Are The 45 Best Korean Dramas In 2022 You Need To Start *now*

If you haven't already been sucked into the Korean drama craze (ahem, Squid Game), first, what have you even been doing? And second, 2022 is as good a time as ever to get started. I don't know what sort of magic these shows possess, but there's nothing like a K-Drama to put my emotions and fan-girling tendencies into overdrive. So if you're looking for a good laugh, a good cry, a good scare, or a good dose of butterflies in your stomach (thanks to all the drop-dead-gorgeous stars), a Korean-language drama will probably give you your fix. And, yes, they are absolutely worth the minimal effort it takes to read subtitles.

While there are libraries full of essential K-Dramas from years past that deserve your attention, these past few years have brought some really good new options that belong to the canon. From silly romantic comedies to series that explore psychological stress berat—you'll definitely find something to your liking. Here are some of the best Korean dramas you need to watch ASAP.

This charming love story is based on a webtoon. And it stars Parasite actor Choi Woo-shik! The series follows two high school rivals who shoot a documentary together comparing their lives as the top and bottom-ranking students of their senior group. The show becomes a hit, and fast-forwarding years later, it goes viral again. At this point, the two are both living completely different lives and haven't seen each other in a while. But fate brings them together once more as they're asked to do another documentary catching up on what's happened since high school.

Set in 1998, this drama follows two young people facing the consequences of the South Korean financial crisis. Fencer Na Hui-do (Kim Tae-ri) loses funding for her school's team, while rich boy Baek Ijin (Nam Joo-hyuk) suddenly loses his luxurious lifestyle after his father's business goes bankrupt. Still, the two find a way to pursue their dreams and find their way to each other.

Three best friends on the brink of turning 40 deal with all that life has to throw at them.They are there for each other through the highs and the lows, but a new duduk perkara threatens to destroy the trio for good.

A zombie outbreak begins with a high school campus as ground zero. Now students are trapped in the building and have to fight their way out.

Forecasting Love and Weather

Work and dating make for a messy mix. That's something Jin Ha-kyung (Park Min-young) has to learn the hard way. After a brutal breakup with a co-worker at the Korea Meteorological Administration, she swears never to have an office romance ever again...until team newcomer Lee Si-woo comes along.

Shin Ha-ri (Kim Se-jeong) is a busy working woman but can't say no to a friend in need. After being asked, she tries to scare her friend's blind date away, but it gets tricky when he turns out to be the CEO of her company.

In a future where water and food are scarce on earth, a class of space explorers is sent on a 24-hour mission to the moon to try and retrieve samples from a mysteriously abandoned research facility filled with classified secrets. But it won't be as smooth and easy as they had hoped.

Sim Eun-seok (Kim Hye-soo) is a prominent judge with a reputation for being tough. She has no patience for juvenile offenders, having been a victim of juvenile crime in her youth. But when she gets assigned to a juvenile court, she tries to set aside her bias and strike a fairer balance in order to tackle complicated cases as youth violence rises.

During the Joseon Dynasty, the Crown Princess Consort gives birth to twins—a girl and a boy. She sends the girl away to spare her life. But when her son dies, her daughter must take his place, disguise herself as her brother, and assume the throne. And as if things weren't complicated enough, she encounters her first love, making it more difficult to hide her true identity.

This series stars BLACKPINK's Jisoo as Yeong-ro, a university student in 1987 Seoul. She recognizes a handsome but bloodied Soo-ho (Jung Hae-in) in her dormitory and tends to his wounds. The two find romance, but when Soon-ho's secrets unravel it becomes more difficult for them to be together.

So I Married the Anti-Fan

K-pop superstar Hoo Joon (Choi Tae-joon) meets magazine reporter Lee Geun-young (Choi Soo-young) at the opening of a new nightclub. They get along until she witnesses his rude behavior, she vomits on him, and she ends the night by throwing her shoe at him. She winds up getting fired from her job and decides to hold a one-person protest in front of Hoo Joon's talent agency, gaining a reputation as his number one "anti-fan."

This was the K-drama of 2021 and Netflix's biggest debut hit in history! Centering on a desperately indebted group of people, a sadistic tournament of seemingly harmless children's games promises winners a large sum of money they each need to pay their (sometimes life-dependent) debts. Preying on people that will go to drastic lengths to make ends meet, it's literally a game of life or death.

This highly-anticipated dark thriller about a revenge-driven woman is new to Netflix, but it's already at the top of our list as one of the most suspenseful, noteworthy K-dramas. Actress Han So-hee stars as Ji-woo, who joins a crime ring to find her father's killer, and in the process ends up infiltrating the Korean police force with a new identity.

This fantasy love story between Hong Chun-gi and Ha Ram, a painter and an astrologer, respectively, centers around the fictional Dan dynasty. Ha Ram lost his vision in a childhood accident but can read the future by tracing the movement of the sky at night. Of course, they fall for each other, but their love story is not without difficulty and interference from the royal court's Prince Anpyeong and the vindictive Prince Sooyang, who is determined to become the next king.

Based on a popular webtoon series, Nevertheless follows classmates Han and Song, two quintessential "I don't believe in love" types that...you guessed it...fall in love. It does what K-dramas have been doing so well lately—balances the fairytale aspects of falling in love with the realities of dating in the modern world. It's a must-watch for anyone navigating the dating scene in 2022.

Can you say chilling? This show sure can. This apocalyptic horror series follows Cha Hyun-soo as he moves to a new town after a terrible family tragedy. Soon after his move, everyone around him begins falling victim to monsters (and turning into monsters themselves). Trapped inside his new apartment building, he joins forces with his unbitten neighbors to battle the monsters. This show is also based on a popular webcomic Sweet Home by Kim Carnby and Hwang Young-chan.

This series centers around the residents of Hera Palace, a luxury penthouse apartment with 100 floors. There's a tonnnn of drama, secrets, and battles for money, power, and success among the penthouse's many residents and their children. Cue the ~dramz~.

Looking for a good fright? This show will give you one. Two policemen from the Manyang Police Substation encounter a killing that resembles a cold case from years ago, leading them on a harrowing search for a returned serial killer. And of course, it’s not a K-drama unless the two main characters have secrets of their own, and in this series, they are oh-so-juicy.

A professor (and former prosecutor) and his students at the prestigious Hankuk University Law School find themselves involved in a case when another professor is found dead during a supervised mock trial class. Relationships are tested, rules are bent, and students are left reeling as their professor is arrested as a suspect. It's a classic whodunnit, and it'll truly keep you at the edge of your seat.

In this sci-fi series, demon hunters called "the Counters" pose as workers in a noodle shop, keeping undercover as they do the dirty work of catching evil spirits. Like the Power Rangers, they all have their own combat specialties, and the project is all about teamwork in this light-hearted, easy watch.

If you're into supernatural dramas, this one's for you. Cha Yu-ri is a ghost who died in a car accident five years ago while nine months pregnant, leaving behind her husband and their unborn child, whom she never met. Tired of being a ghost, she tries everything to become human again and finally stumbles upon a reincarnation project that will give her 49 days back with her husband and daughter. If she can regain her place as their wife and mother in that time, then she can stay human for good. However when she returns, she finds things have changed drastically in the last five years, and her (remarried!) husband is not the person he was before.