The Korean Dramas Worth Starting in India, From Reply 1988 to When Life Gives You Tangerines

Director Shin Won-ho and writer Lee Woo-jung's family drama follows five families on one alley in Seoul's Ssangmun-dong in 1988. There is a romance at its centre, but the show is mostly about neighbours, parents and growing up, and it is the one to recommend to someone who thinks K-dramas are only love stories. Episodes run long, often more than 90 minutes.

A romance between a special-forces captain, played by Song Joong-ki, and a surgeon, played by Song Hye-kyo, set largely in a fictional war-torn country. It was one of the first K-dramas to become a hit across Asia in the streaming era. It is on several Indian services, Netflix among them.

Writer Kim Eun-sook's fantasy romance stars Gong Yoo as an immortal goblin, cursed for nine centuries, who needs a human bride to end his life, and Kim Go-eun as the high-school student who can see him. It is the show many Korean drama fans started with.

Netflix's first Korean original series is a zombie thriller set in the Joseon dynasty, written by Kim Eun-hee. A crown prince, played by Ju Ji-hoon, investigates a plague spreading through the kingdom while political enemies close in. Two short seasons of six episodes each make it the quickest watch here.

A South Korean heiress, played by Son Ye-jin, is blown across the border in a paragliding accident and lands in North Korea, where she is hidden by an army officer played by Hyun Bin. Writer Park Ji-eun made the most famous romance in modern K-drama out of that premise, and its two leads later married. Six years on it still drew 3.4 million views in six months.

An ex-convict, played by Park Seo-joon, opens a bar in Seoul's Itaewon district and spends years building a business to take revenge on the food conglomerate whose family ruined his. It is a revenge story told as a start-up story, adapted from a webtoon.

Song Joong-ki plays an Italian-Korean mafia consigliere who comes to Seoul for hidden gold and ends up fighting a corrupt conglomerate alongside a lawyer played by Jeon Yeo-been. It mixes dark comedy and crime, and it is the show to give someone who wants a K-drama with an anti-hero.

Hwang Dong-hyuk's survival thriller, in which 456 people in debt compete in children's games for a cash prize and are killed when they lose, made Korean television a global export. Lee Jung-jae became the first Asian actor to win the Emmy for lead actor in a drama. The story ended with its third season in June 2025, and all three seasons were still drawing about five million views each in early 2026.

A zombie outbreak traps a group of students inside their high school, adapted from the webtoon Now at Our School. Of the shows here, it drew the most Netflix views in the first half of 2026, four years after release.

Park Eun-bin plays Woo Young-woo, an autistic lawyer with a photographic memory in her first job at a large Seoul law firm. It began on a small cable channel and became one of 2022's biggest K-drama hits. Each episode is largely a self-contained case, which makes it easy to start.

Writer Kim Eun-sook, who made Goblin and Descendants of the Sun, turned to revenge: Song Hye-kyo plays a woman who spends nearly two decades planning to destroy the classmates who brutally bullied her at school. It was released in two parts, in December 2022 and March 2023.

A superhero series written by Kang Full from his own webtoon: teenagers with inherited powers, and the parents who hid their abilities from the government to protect them. Ryu Seung-ryong, Han Hyo-joo and Zo In-sung play the parents. It is not on Netflix; in India it streams on JioHotstar.

Park Ji-eun, who wrote Crash Landing on You, wrote this romance about a marriage on the edge of divorce between a department-store heiress, played by Kim Ji-won, and her husband, played by Kim Soo-hyun, from a country village. It became tvN's highest-rated drama, overtaking Crash Landing on You.

Writer Im Sang-choon and director Kim Won-suk follow one couple on Jeju Island from the 1950s to old age, with IU and Park Bo-gum playing them young. Netflix released it in four weekly batches. It is the newest show here and the one most likely to make a first-time viewer cry.