12 Best Korean Dramas of 2020 — Start-Up, Itaewon Class

Korean dramas have been my solace to forget the terrible year we are living through. Here are the best Korean dramas of 2020. There’s time travel, zombies, serial killer married to a cop and more—Perfect escapes to indulge in. Most of these K-dramas are available to stream on Netflix. You will find the others on Rakuten Viki.

Best Korean Dramas of 2020

My absolute favourites this year were Start-Up which focussed on friendships and start-ups while tearing our hearts with a love triangle, Itaewon Class where a man carves out his fate and takes down conglomerates, My Dangerous Wife that kept me at the edge of my seat and the amazing fairytales in It’s Okay not to be Okay.

1. Start-Up (2020)

Start-Up is one of the most enjoyable K-dramas this year. I would wait eagerly for the episodes every weekend, and when it ended, I greatly missed the characters. Seo Dal-mi (Bae Suzy) and her sister lead very different lives—Dal-mi stayed in Korea with her entrepreneurship-dreaming, financially poor father while Won In-jae (Kan Hye-na) was adopted by her mother’s rich second husband and moved to USA. Dal-mi dreams of becoming a CEO and snagging a spot in the prestigious Sandbox, a hub for start-ups. There’s also a childhood friend Nam Do-san with whom she has been exchanging letters, and an aspiring entrepreneur (Nam Ji-hyuk) who claims to be Do-san but is so unlike her penpal. I loved the camaraderie in the show (especially Nam Do-san’s wonderful team mates), the incredibly funny scenes (look out for the advertising campaigns), a cute love triangle (I was Team Nam Do-san but this has to one of those dramas where the second lead ‘good boy’ Han Ji-pyeong (Kim Seon-ho) is just too good), a loving grandmother with a corn dog stand, healthy competiton, brainstorming sessions for new technology and products, coding nights and on-the-edge presentations and sly clauses in contracts.

2. It’s Okay Not to be Okay (2020)

This K-drama is eye candy from start to the end. Think stylish outfits, abandoned mansions, fairy tales that come to life in stunning animations and a swoon worthy Pinterest palette. Mostly set in a psychiatric hospital and an old mansion, a children’s book author (Seo Ye-ji), a psychiatric nurse (Kim Soo-hyun) and his autistic artist brother (Oh Jung-se), who is a fan of the author, cross paths. The drama shows mental illness and its implications through a humane lens. Original—Laughing Dog, The Zombie kid, The Boy who Fed on Nightmares—and old fairytales—Bluebeard, Dancing girls—find a place in this drama filled with nightmares, butterflies, art and warm hearted humans. Most of all, it was Oh Jung-se who stole my heart and had me weeping.

3. My Dangerous Wife (2020)

My Dangerous Wife was an incredibly suspenseful watch, making it one of the best Korean dramas of 2020. It is full of twists, so intense that at the end of every episode I would wonder ‘how would this story move forward?’ Chef Kim Yoon-cheol’s (Choi Won-young) is happily married to Shim Jae Kyung (Kim Jung-eun) until he has an affair with an employee (Choi Yu-hwa). He decides to murder the wife on the advice of his mistress, but Jae-kyung goes missing right before he can accomplish the feat. Thereon ensues a nerve wrecking cat-and-mouse game with a spying neighbour couple, a contract marriage, five million dollars that everybody is trying to steal, paintings, secrets hidden in coffee bean sacks, poison (oh, lots!), tense cooking (every time the couple cooks, I stop breathing), and a web novel that eerily imitates the crimes in the real world. Watch for double-crossing, too-many high heeled shoes, Gone girl vibes and poisoned wines.

4. Itaewon Class (2020)

Itaewon Class is an underdog’s success story set in the beautiful, neon-lit, urban Itaewon in Seoul. It tackles transphobia, classism and racial discrimination in sixteen episdoes. Park Seo-royi (Park Seo-joon) wants to be successful and take down the conglomerate leader who was responsible for the mishaps in his life. He starts anew in Itaewon with a restaurant and close-knit group of employees. Itaewon Class stole my heart with the great storyline, acting, and the underlying motto ‘never give up’. I especially liked the women in the drama who save themselves, without waiting for any man. This show also features my favourite character of the year—the plucky, ambitious, selfish, goal-driven social media maverick Ye-seo (Kim Da-mi) who is a cutie and also very inspiring.

Also Read : Itaewon Class is not your usual revenge story

5. Crash Landing on you (2019-2020)

Crash Landing on You follows two star crossed lovers—South Korean businesswoman Yoon Se-ri (Son Ye-jin) who is blown to the North Korean regions in a paragliding accident and Ri Jeong-hyeok (Hyun Bin), Captain of the North Korean Special forces and member of a elite family. There’s a cute romance, an amazing soldier squad (with one guy who loves his liquor and another who watches smuggled k-dramas), a North Korean ajhumma gang who gossip and buy smuggled cosmetics, and humorous turns.

6. Flower of Evil (2020)

Flower of Evil features a detective wife (Moon Chae-won) and artist husband (Lee Joon-gi) with a mysterious past that might make him a serial-killer-in-hiding. Love and duty clash ferociously because everyone is scared for their lives. Watching this was an adrenaline rush.

7. Kingdom (2020)

I watched both the seasons of Kingdom this year and they offered me much respite from the maniacal Covid situation around us. Well, we aren’t in as bad a spot as having zombies hunt us down. Kingdom is a historical horror drama set in the Joseun period where young prince (Ju Ji-hoon) with the help of a physician (Bae Doo-na) and a skilled hunter (Kim Sung-kyu) tries to fight zombie invasion and corruption. These blood thirsty zombie are too good to miss. And the best part?—there’s a cure.

Also Read : Why Kingdom is the drama that saved me this year

8. The World of the Married (2020)

The World of the Married had record viewership in Korea and deep-dives into adultery, affairs and relationships. When a doctor (Kim Hae-ae) with a perfect life discovers that her husband (Park Hae-joon), has been cheating on her, her world falls apart. She is shocked to realise that their friends are aware of this. Much drama, eye-rolling twists, scandalous revelations and messy relationships.

9. VIP (2019)

The storyline of VIP is very close to The World of the Married, but I ended up loving VIP more, contrary to the high ratings that The World of the Married received. Here a team at the Sung Un Department Store caters specially to the VIP clients. One day, a team member Na Jeong-sun (Jang Na-ra) receives a text message about her husband’s affair. As she tries to find the truth, she stumbles onto darker secrets. VIP was entertaining, twist-filled, and keeps you guessing. Also look out for rich people, super exclusive luxury events and shopping.

10. The Penthouse (2020)

The Penthouse tries to be the next Sky Castle (which is incredible and in my list of top K-dramas) and falls short. It might not be the one of the best Korean dramas of 2020 if you have watched Sky Castle previously, but it still has its moments. The drama follows a few rich people with spoilt children who live in a prestigious building Hera Palace. There are affairs, bullying, manipulation of marksheets, murder, a famous music school and a bit of theatrical acting which might be off-putting in some scenes. The drama is often incredibly makjang (people hanging from railings, a woman in elevator seeing her daughter fall and crash onto a statue and die), and will surely satisfy your craving for school rivalry, rich people drama and betrayals.

11. Record of Youth (2020)

I have to admit Record of Youth wasn’t my favourite this year; probably because I had sky-high expectations. But I watched it anyway because of Park Bo-gum who plays a part-time model and aspiring actor and Park So-dam, who plays a makeup artist and fangirl. The script writing was weak, the loose arcs of minor characters distracting and the café scenes too frequent (tone down the promotions please?) but I really enjoyed the dialogues between the youngsters (some gems in there), the beautiful cinematography and the world of modelling, beauty and cinema. Also kudos to one of the most mature romances seen on TV.

12. Alice (2020)

This is a sci-fi drama where time travellers from the future can visit the past. While attempting to solve a case, detective Park Jin-gyeom (Joo Won) is reunited with woman who might’ve died long ago. As he digs deeper into the mystery, he uncovers the death of his mother, and the truth of his birth. Like most time travel dramas, Alice does get a bit messy towards the last episode, but it is still a very engaging watch.

Bonus — My best Korean dramas of 2020

I watched two older dramas this year that I absolutely fell in love with. So if you haven’t watched these, I would highly recommend them.

Reply 1988 (2015)

Reply 1988 set its firm roots as one of my all-time-favourite dramas. The episodes are long, but I thoroughly enjoyed watching them and the drama soon became one of the best Korean dramas of 2020 for me. Reply 1988 revolves around five friends and their families living in the same neighborhood of Ssangmun-dong, Seoul. If you are a 90s kid, this drama will make you incredibly nostalgic. It isn’t often that you see a drama with such a huge array of characters where every character manages to leave a deep impression in your heart. Reply 1988 is more about friendships than love, the changing history (trust me, you’ll have lots to google about Korea’s history), urbanization and that slow tumble from teenage into adulthood. I was in it for the long haul—be it the friendships, or the young love or the ajhumma gang and their inapproprite jokes while prepping meals, or the ajhussis who remain firm friends. This is a drama that I will rewatch many times in my lifetime.

Healer (2014)

I had always assumed Healer isn’t my kind of a drama with its people-in-black posters and action sequences. I was so wrong. I absolutely loved this thrilling show starring a night messenger for hire (Ji Chang-wook), a journalist at a news website (Park Min-young) and a big-shot journalist (Yoo Ji-tae) at a big broadcasting station. The action scenes give you the thrills, the mystery keeps you glued to the screen and witty dialogues catch you off-guard. The cast was excellent—a hacker ajhumma (Kim Mi-kyung) who loves knitting and rolling gimbaps, an attorney who runs a café and gives work to ex-convicts, a detective trying to catch the Healer, a Boss and many more. Every time Healer jumped off a building, my heart would flutter. So yes, I would totally recommend Healer for the thrills, the laughs and for Ji Chang-wook.

 
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