A general thread about Korean dramas

jian · Feb 5, 2026

This one is probably not as good as the ones I’ve covered so far, but at least it’s short.

Remarriage and Desires (Netflix, 2022)

Another rather odd translation, since the original title means "Bride of Black", but honestly that would be awkward and confusing - it's about an elite (black as in Amex Black or similar) marriage agency.

Our protagonist (there's really only one) in this 8-episode (shortest yet!) series is Seo Hye-Seung, a Gangnam (as in richest area of Seoul) homemaker whose life is destroyed when her husband kills himself after an affair with a colleague goes very badly wrong. Her mother pays for her to attend a party for Rex, an elite marriage agency which arranges ideal marriages for very rich Korean people, and there she finds the woman who destroyed her life* and plots revenge.

*Didn't her husband have any agency in cheating on her and embezzling money from the company? No, apparently not.

So, Remarriage and Desires does the Sky Castle thing except for Korean hypocrisy around marriage, virginity, divorce, remarriage etc. and honestly it doesn't do it very well (because it doesn't challenge much of any of the rampant sexism and heteronormative assumptions around that whole culture) but it's an interesting watch nonetheless to see how these things might work. Our villainess, Jin Yoo-Hee, is pretty compelling as a total sociopath who nonetheless has understandable motivations.

jian · Feb 9, 2026

The next one is the first one we watched in the last few years - we took a bit of a break after 2015 or so.

Mine (Netflix, 2021)

This is one of those shows that feels like the writers decided to do a Korean version of a popular Western series (Succession, in this case) but with the serial numbers filed off. There are of course versions where they do actually license the original show - Designated Survivor, for instance.

Mine is basically a chaebol family drama. The ruling family of the Hyowon Group is thrown into chaos when Han Suk-Chul, its domineering patriarch and CEO, has a stroke and lapses into a coma. As you'd expect, the family immediately feud about what happens next.

The two protagonists are the two daughters-in-law, Jung Seo-Hyun and Seo Hi-Soo. Seo-Hyun (played by the wonderfully glacial Kim Seo-Hyung, last seen as the brilliant Coach Kim in Sky Castle) is married to the elder son, who's a wastrel, and has ambitions to run the company herself; Hi-Soo, a former film star, is married to the younger son and heir apparent.

As you'd expect the story is complicated and actually quite tightly plotted. Mine was notable for me for mentioning and dealing with homosexuality - more or less the first Korean drama I'd seen that did so. It poked fun at the Korean male habit of bathing together while reassuring each other that they aren't gay ("not that there's anything wrong with that!") and one of our protagonists is a closeted lesbian who grows to accept herself and her sexuality, and by the end doesn't care who knows it.

Mine definitely has its faults but it's a good drama and a good introduction to chaebol stuff. Yes, it's basically Dynasty in 15 episodes, but if you're OK with that, I'd go for it.

jian · 2026-02-16T23:51:21+0000

Ms Ma, Nemesis (Viki, 2018)

This is a bit of a departure from what I've reviewed so far, in that it's not a high-production-value Netflix-style series. It's also got a slightly weird format, of 32 half-hour episodes, apparently to fit in more adverts when it was aired.

This series, as I noted above, was recommended by Donovan Kemper, who does the All About Agatha podcast, which is about all things Agatha Christie. Because Ms Ma is based on half a dozen Miss Marple novels - Nemesis (not surprisingly) but also The Moving Finger, The Mirror Cracked, A Murder is Announced, The Body in the Library, and (sort of) At Bertram's Hotel.

Our initially nameless protagonist is a woman who was jailed and then institutionalised for brutally murdering her young daughter. Nine years later, she inexplicably escapes and finds her way to a rural village (Rainbow Town) near the city of Daejeon. There she takes the identity of Ma Ji-Won, a writer of mystery novels, and collects an eclectic cast of NPCs including a fake niece, an ex-mobster (who has maxed out combat skills for no obvious reason), the two local police officers, and several women who volunteer at the library. There she tries to solve the mystery of who murdered her daughter and framed her, all the while having to solve murders which keep on happening in her village. Seriously, it's worse than Midsomer (or Cabot Cove).

It's a well-written and plotted series, partly because it uses the Marple plots well (though it runs through two of them very quickly indeed - Ms Ma just glances at the crime scene and then explains the plot perfunctorily) and partly because it weaves them well into the main storyline. There are a couple of places where you just wish the characters would just TALK TO EACH OTHER but those are few and far between.

TheSword · 2026-02-17T00:15:55+0000

At the fist of of taking us back to our medieval roots… I’m a big fan of The Kingdom. Such a good story. With a satisfying beginning, middle and end. Love the characters, love the drama!