The year 2025 was defined by incredible Korean content. With a month left before the new year, now is the perfect time to binge-watch the most talked-about K-dramas that dominated the scene.
Here is our list of the 10 must-see dramas of 2025, presented in no particular order.
1. When Life Gives You Tangerines (Netflix)
Covering the span of four seasons across the main character Ae Sun’s life after she is born in 1951 to a poor free-diver, the show displays how a girl from a rural background changes her life around. She meets a boy named Gwan Sik who falls madly in love with her and stands beside her through thick and thin. The story is narrated by their daughter, Yang Geum Myeong. The show manages to walk through her life in childhood, teenage years, adulthood, and old age via different actors bringing the essence of the headstrong woman to life.
2. The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call (Netflix)
Baek Kang Hyuk is a skilled trauma surgeon who used to work in conflict military zones. After circumstances have him joining a university hospital to help out with its trauma team, he implements his not-so-ideal methods in dealing with emergency patients. He’s paired with a former proctology surgeon named Yang Jae Won and an anesthesiologist resident, Park Gyeong Won, who form a task force team to save lives in the most unexpected ways.
3. Friendly Rivalry (Netflix, Prime)
Chaehwa High School appears to be your ordinary establishment until deeper secrets about its students come to light. Woo Seul Gi’s sudden transfer to the school with the top 1% of the country puts her among hungry, calculating girls who eye her as competition and do their best to pull her down. As her father is murdered, the mystery begins to unravel, and new friendships threaten her understanding as a person.
4. Our Unwritten Seoul (Netflix)
Yoo Mi Ji and Yoo Mi Rae are a set of identical twins whose lives are completely different. Poles apart in personalities as well, the former has had to quit her career as a sportswoman after an injury and now takes on odd jobs in the village in order to run her life as well as take care of her grandmother. The latter is a perfectionist who works in the city and experiences workplace bullying. After they exchange their lives, a past acquaintance comes knocking on the door, much to their surprise.
5. Study Group (Netflix)
Based on the webtoon of the same name by Shin Hyung Wook, the story follows Yoon Ga Min, who is skilled at physical fights. However, life at Yusung Technical High School does not come easy to him as he tries his very best to form a study group full of interesting people who could help him enter a university. As he encounters a past teacher, who is trying to save the school, he ends up seeking different ways to spare his friends from bullies.
6. S Line (Prime Video)
The show follows a series of mysterious events that unfurl when a girl discovers that people end up with a strange red S line above their heads connecting them to others with whom they’ve had physical relationships. A handsome detective learns about these lines sprouting from his head and gets involved in a case involving a high school student and a teacher.
7. Weak Hero Class 2 (Netflix)
Yeon Si Eun has had to transfer schools after the terrible encounter with bullies in his last one left one of his friends in the hospital and another one sent overseas. However, the prevalent case of bullies finds its way to his life once again. Despite forming new friendships, he faces a stronger opponent and must once again use his skills to keep them away. As his squad’s weakness threatens their lives, it remains to be seen how he protects them all.
8. Head Over Heels (Prime Video)
Park Seong Ah has two lives, one as a high school student by day and the other as a shaman named Fairy Cheon Ji at night. She can see the future and learns about her first love, Bae Gyeon Woo’s ill-fated destiny, as he visits her with his grandmother for a reading and the next day transfers to her school.
9. Resident Playbook (Netflix)
The Jongno branch of Yulje Medical Center has a new set of residents who are each different and come to the hospital at various moments in their lives. As obstetrics and gynecology residents, they struggle to survive in their department in an era of low birth rates in their country.
10. Bon Appétit, Your Majesty (Netflix)
Yeon Ji Yeong is a modern-day French culinary chef who ends up time-traveling 500 years in the past during the Joseon dynasty, where she is captured. After crossing paths with the ruthless King Yi Heon, she is introduced to the royal court and ends up becoming the royal head chef soon after. As palace politics are unveiled, she finds herself in a fierce competition against some Chinese counterparts, with the future of the country riding on her shoulders. While she remains determined to the cause, her desire to return never fades. Slowly, the King develops affection for her and tries his best to hold her back, to no avail.
Other K-dramas you may want to check out include You and Everything Else, As You Stood By, The Price of Confession, Typhoon Family, Hyper Knife, Mercy For None, and Melo Movie.
