K-DRAMA NEWS - Dec 2025
By Sharon Stern
I want to apologize for a couple of errors in dates over the last two months. My information is only as good as what is pre-published before we send the newsletter out. Dates, especially US streaming dates, sometimes change in the last week or two before a series premieres
The list of new dramas for December is kind of short. That’s OK, though, because we’re going to recap all of 2025 at the bottom. First, the new shows!
Taxi Driver 3 – 모범택시 시즌3
Kocowa, Viki – Starring: Lee Je Hoon, Kim Eui-sung, Pyo Ye-jin, Jang Hyuk-Jin, Bae Yu Ram
Genre: Action, thriller, mystery, crime
This is the third season of this popular series. If you are unfamiliar with the series, it was originally based on the webtoon The Deluxe Taxi (Red Cage) and the first season aired in 2021. The “taxi drivers” are actually secret agents helping victims find revenge for criminals who have avoided prosecution. The cases are based on true crime stories, which have added to their appeal. Season 1 dealt with national crimes. Season 2 dealt with international trafficking. Season 3 is set to deal with both national and international crimes, including Yakuza plots with Japanese actors as well as an idol from Hong Kong. If you liked the first two series, you will most certainly like the third. If you haven’t seen the first two series, you might want to back up and watch the beginning, although it isn’t actually necessary.
The Price of Confession – 자백의 대가
Netflix – Starring: Jeon Do-yeon, Kim Go-eun, Park Hae-soo, Jin Seon-kyu
Genre: Mystery, thriller
After a lot of cast and director changes, this series finally found its footing and was announced to be shown on Netflix worldwide. The story follows Ahn Yoon-soo (Jeon Do-yeon), an art teacher and housewife, whose world is turned upside down when her husband is murdered and she is the prime suspect. Stuck in prison with the public assuming her guilt, she starts to crack. Another prisoner, Mo-eun (Kim Go-eun), nicknamed “the witch” because of her ability to read people, offers a bargain to Yoo-soo – to confess to the murder if Yoo-soo will commit another murder for Mo-eun. Outside of prison, prosecutor Baek Dong-hun (Park Hae-soo) is investigating all angles of Yoo-soo’s case, even as doing so challenges his morals. And Yoo-soo’s lawyer, Jang Jung-gu (Jin Seon-kyu) is fighting to prove her innocence, but the cost for truth becomes very high..
Surely Tomorrow – 경도를 기다리며
Prime – Starring: Park Seo-joon, Won Ji-an, Lee El, Lee Joo-young, Kang Ki-doong
Genre: Rom-com-dram-melodram
Lee Gyeong-do (Park Seo-joon) and Seo Ji-u (Won Ji-an) were in love in their twenties, but separated. Several years later, they got back together to try again, but their romance failed a second time. Many years later, Lee Gyeong-do is a reporter for Dongwoon Ilbo, assigned to a sensationalist extramarital affair scandal story in the middle of which is Seo Ji-u, the wife of the man the scandal revolves around.
Pro Bono – 프로보노
Netflix – Starring: Jung Kyung-ho, So Joo-yeon
Genre: Legal, social justice, comedy
Two very different lawyers end up on the same team. Kang David (Jung Kyung-ho) is a judge and a legal influencer with hundreds of thousands of followers. He loves his success and his expensive things. He’s arrogant, but his image is spotless and clean-cut…until he is caught up in an incident that forces him to stand down as a judge and start over.
Park Gi-Ppeum (So Joo-yeon) is a public interest lawyer who dives into her work. She is enthusiastic about defending human rights, making social justice happen.
The two are thrown together in a non-profit organization called Pro Bono. They defend corporate clients, but use the money they earn to help victims with nowhere else to turn.
Made in Korea – 메이드 인 코리아
Disney+ - Starring: Hyun Bin, Jung Woo-sung, Woo Do-hwan, Cho Yeo-jeong, Seo Eun-soo, Won Ji-an, Jung Sung-il
Genre: Historical, action, political thriller
Premieres Dec 24 | Set in the 1970s, this short, six-episode series covers major events in South Korean history. The cast is star studded, with Hyun Bin in the leading role as Baek Gi-tae, an ambitious man in Korea’s CIA seeking wealth and power who goes up against the elite of the rich and powerful in South Korea.
There is no question that the acting in this one will be superb. The production team is the same team from 12.12 The Day. The director has an impressive history of films and this is his first venture onto the small screen. I am really looking forward to this one.
Cashero – 캐셔로
Netflix – Starring: Lee Jun-ho, Kim Hye-jun, Kim Byung-chul, Kim Hyang-gi
Genre: Superhero, fantasy, action
Premieres Dec 26 | Based on a webtoon of the same name, this drama follows Kang Sang-woong (Lee Jun-ho – fresh on the heels of Typhoon Family) who is a civil servant who has mysterious super powers that are connected to the amount of cash he is carrying. He struggles to keep enough cash on him to activate his powers because when he uses his powers, the cash goes away. But he has a sympathetic girlfriend, Kim Min-sook (Kim Hye-jun), who is a smart and practical lawyer. Her superpowers are unleashed when she’s drunk. The story also follows Byeon Ho-in (Kim Byung-chul), a lawyer and leader of a supernatural organization, as well as Bang Eun-mi (Kim Hyang-gi), a lawyer whose superpowers are connected to the calories she consumes. They work together to ward off villains who want to destabilize the world. Sounds kind of silly, but it could be cute.
A LOOK BACK AT 2025
There were over 100 dramas that came out in 2025. Some of them have yet to become available on a streaming platform in the US. I keep a list of these and check them every month, so if they become available in the future, I will make sure they get featured. As I have said in the past, so many brief recaps of dramas sound similar to hundreds of others, but the details in each drama do change and there were an enormous number of subjects covered by all of these dramas – not just love and revenge! Several did disappoint, I’m afraid to say – including a few that were so star-studded, both in casting and production, that there shouldn’t have been a way for them to come up short…but they did. That’s dramaland, though! Despite the fact that YouTube always says that every, single drama is “highly anticipated”, you have to just dive in and try them for yourself to see. Scroll to the bottom of the list to see a few featured stand-outs and disappointments.
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Drama Name Original Premiere
Love Scout 1/3
When the Stars Gossip. 1/4
The Queen Who Crowns: Before Sunrise. 1/6
Motel California 1/10
Unmasked 1/15
I’ll Take Your Place 1/22
Study Group 1/23
The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call 1/24
For Eagle Brothers 2/1
Kick Kick Kick Kick 2/5
The Scandal of Chunhwa 2/6
Newtopia 2/7
Friendly Rivalry 2/10
Our Chocolate Moments 2/11
Melo Movie 2/14
The Witch 2/15
My Dearest Nemesis 2/17
Buried Hearts 2/21
Undercover High School 2/21
History of Scruffiness 2/26
Secret Relationships 2/27
The Potato Lab 3/1
Mother and Mom 3/3
When Life Gives You Tangerines 3/7
The Art of Negotiation 3/8
Hyper Knife 3/19
Villains Everywhere 3/19
Heo's Diner 3/24
The Divorce Insurance 3/31
Way Back Love 4/3
Karma 4/4
New Recruit 3 4/7
Crushology 101 4/11
Resident Playbook 4/12
Good Luck! 4/14
First Love 4/18
The Haunted Palace 4/18
Heavenly Ever After 4/19
Weak Hero Class 2 4/25
Queen's House 4/28
Pump Up the Healthy Love 4/30
Spring of Youth 5/6
Second Shot at Love 5/12
Tastefully Yours 5/12
Shark: The Storm 5/15
Dear Hongrang 5/16
Nine Puzzles 5/21
A Head Coach's Turnover 5/23
Our Unwritten Seoul 5/24
Oh My Ghost Clients 5/30
One: High School Heroes 5/30
Good Boy 5/31
Mercy for None 6/6
The Woman Who Swallowed the Sun 6/9
The First Night with the Duke 6/11
Fresh Romance 6/12
Our Movie 6/13
Hunter with a Scalpel 6/16
Salon de Holmes 6/16
I Am a Running Mate 6/19
Head over Heels 6/23
Squid Game 3 6/27
Bitch x Rich 2 7/3
Law and the City 7/5
S Line 7/11
Low Life 7/16
The Nice Guy 7/18
The Defects 7/21
My Girlfriend Is the Man! 7/23
Trigger 7/25
The Winning Try 7/25
Mary Kills People 8/1
Beyond the Bar 8/2
My Lovely Journey 8/2
Love, Take Two 8/4
Our Golden Days 8/9
My Troublesome Star 8/18
Aema 8/22
Bon Appétit, Your Majesty 8/23
Twelve 8/23
My Youth 9/5
Queen Mantis 9/5
Confidence Queen 9/6
Tempest 9/10
You and Everything Else 9/12
A Hundred Memories 9/13
Shin's Project 9/15
To the Moon 9/19
Walking on Thin Ice 9/20
A Graceful Liar 9/22
First Lady 9/24
No Mercy 9/24
The Murky Stream 9/26
Ms. Incognito 9/29
Genie, Make a Wish 10/3
Would You Marry Me 10/10
Typhoon Family 10/11
Marie and Her Three Daddies 10/13
The Dream Life of Mr. Kim 10/25
Spirit Fingers 10/29
Last Summer 11/1
The Manipulated 11/5
Nice to Not Meet You 11/3
Dear X 11/6
As You Stood By 11/7
Moon River 11/7
Don't Call Me Ma'am 11/10
Dynamite Kiss 11/12
Love.exe 11/13
Heroes Next Door. 11/17
Taxi Driver 3 11/21
The Price of Confession 12/5
Pro Bono 12/6
Surely Tomorrow 12/6
Made in Korea 12/24
Cashero 12/26
There were a few very strong dramas in 2025. There were several seemingly promising, but in the end horrible dramas. There were many that had good parts, but weren’t overall strong. There were many that were fine, but not outstanding. Everyone’s list will probably be different – that’s part of the fun of K-dramas. I will highlight what I consider hits and misses and a few that are worth watching, but not completely hits.
hits
I didn’t look for this on purpose, but my biggest hits, with the exception of the last one (and that one is mentioned for a unique reason – see below), all seem to be about characters doing a very deep dive into self-reflection, usually not exactly by choice. These are just the ones that stood out as superior to me, because that description is not necessarily something that would draw me in.
Way Back Love - 내가 죽기 일주일 전 (A Week Before I Die) - April 3
Viki – Starring: Gong Myung, Kim Min-ha
Genre: Fantasy, romance, coming-of-age
Recap: 24-year-old Jeong Hee-Wan (Kim Min-Ha) has been living as a recluse, with no will to live after the death of her first love, Kim Ram-Woo (Gong Myung). He shows up at her door…now a grim reaper and tells her she will die in a week. They have one week to spend doing things they couldn’t do when Ram-Woo was alive. Hee-Wan would rather just get her death over with, but Ram-Woo won’t hear of it. He wants her to fulfill her bucket list…except she doesn’t have one. He tells her they can fulfill his bucket list and she reluctantly agrees to do ten things on the list.
So…this is introspectively weighty and I think will make a lot, if not most, people cry…multiple times. But in the case of this drama, that is not a bad thing. It really is a beautifully told story. It asks some of life’s difficult questions and ponders them thoughtfully. It’s only six episodes, so it’s hard to find an excuse not to watch it. The OST is good. Kim Min-ha’s expressions are always so subtly powerful and that is true in this drama.
Our Unwritten Seoul - 미지의 서울 - May 24
Netflix – Starring: Park Bo-young, Park Jin-young, Ryu Kyung-soo
Genre: Coming-of-age, slice-of-life, romance
Recap: Park Bo-Young plays twins, Yoo Mi-Ji and Yoo Mi-Rae, who are identical looking, but who are very different people. Yoo Mi-Ji was a promising track athlete, but now lives with her sister, living carelessly, doing part-time jobs and without focus. Yoo Mi-Rae is a perfectionist, working at a government job. They decide, by a twist of fate, to swap lives and assume each other’s identities, leading them to a deep dive into self-discovery.
I like some action and this drama certainly does not have much. It is a slow-moving story of self-discovery. The storytelling is very good and it unwinds in a steady way. I don’t think it was anticipated to be a big hit. By the end, it has a pretty high viewership and was being praised for its honest approach to today’s youth. In the month that it came out, I had said that if Park Bo-young could pull off creating two, unique characters who then switch places and have to act like each other, that would be an impressive accomplishment. She did a very good job and pulled us in well. The message of acting like someone else in order to reveal who you really are was powerful and affective.
You and Everything Else – 은중과 상연 – September 12
Netflix – Starring: Kim Go-eun, Park Ji-hyun
Genre: Friendship, slice-of-life, melodrama
Recap: Two women, Ryu Eun-jung (Kim Go-eun) and Cheon Sang-yeon (Park Ji-hyun), are both rivals and best friends from a young age. Jealousy, sometimes distain, cause tensions, but they remain close friends in their youth. Over the years, they drift apart – sometimes in contact with each other, sometimes not. In their early 40s, Sang-yeon suddenly comes to Eun-jung to tell her she has cancer. The reunion helps them hash through their past and reconsider the influence they had on each other’s lives.
I wasn’t overly enthusiastic to start this drama, but it hooked me pretty quickly. Like Our Unwritten Seoul, it is a slow-moving, self-reflective look at two people and those around them over time. It isn’t a happy story. It’s downright depressing, at times. But it is very well written and well acted. The honest approach at what humans choose to hide or share and how we cling to each other, despite things that should tear us apart rings true. Almost everyone I know, myself included, had to take breaks between some episodes. But it’s worth being patient and watching.
Dear X – 친애하는 X – November 6
Viki – Starring: Kim Yoo-jung, Kim Young-dae, Kim Do-hoon, Lee Yul-eum
Genre: Melodrama, thriller
Recap: Baek A-jin (Kim Yoo-jung) is an A-list actress who seems nice enough on the outside, but who has a lot of grudges and who suffered domestic abuse and watch out if you piss her off. She survived by figuring out how to manipulate people, which works well for her career. There is only one person she trusts – Yun Jun-seo (Kim Young-dae). He has supported her, but ultimately creates her downfall. Kim Jae-o (Kim Do-hoon) is a fellow abuse survivor and he looks up to A-jin. Also in the mix is a former idol and rival actress, Im Re-na (Lee Yul-eum), who has her eyes on Yun Jun-seo.
Obvious trigger warnings here regarding abuse and violence issues. I’m not even wanting to suggest that everyone should watch this drama – not everyone should. The stand out in it is Kim Yoo-jung’s acting and it needs praising. She hasn’t always played completely goody-two-shoes characters, but she has definitely never played anything this dark and complicated. Even the other actors in the series have said she really scared them with her cold stare. It isn’t easy to convincingly portray someone who is sociopathic without the character seeming somehow false or stereotyped. This isn’t an easy watch, but Kim Yoo-jung is being highly praised for her performance and she deserves to be, so I wanted to point that out. Don’t mistake this praise for me saying that everyone should run and watch
Biggest Misses
When the Stars Gossip - 별들에게 물어봐 – February 23
Netflix – Starring: Lee Min Ho, Gong Hyo Jin, Oh Jung Se, Han Ji Eun
Genre: rom-com, sci-fi (sort of – not what you would typically depict as sci-fi, though it covers science that is fiction)
Recap: The plot follows an Ob/Gyn (Lee Min Ho) sent to space as a space tourist by the chaebol father of his girlfriend, supposedly to sneak an experiment regarding fertilizing his sister-in-law’s eggs on board. The commander (Gong Hyo Jin) is a seasoned no-nonsense astronaut. Both have relationships back on earth, but begin to see things differently when very closely confronted with each other in this confined space.
I really wanted this drama to be excellent. The cast was really strong. The setting and set were quite amazing, unique, cost a lot to make and were a lot of fun, though some of the animation was ridiculously silly. The OST was excellent. The storyline was rubbish to the point of being nauseating and they didn’t pre-announce that the experiment they were sneaking on board had to do with fertilizing eggs of a woman with her deceased husband’s sperm. The Koreans-you-need-to-have-babies-in-any-way-possible message was in no way subtle and had moments of being offensive. The ending was insanely horrible too. Everyone all across the globe has panned this drama. It was a huge disappointment. Do go listen to the OST, though.
Squid Game 3 – 오징어 게임 – June 27
Netflix – Starring: Lee Jung-jae, Lee Byung-hun, Wi Ha-joon, Im Si-wan, Kang Ha-neul, Park Gyu-young, Park Sung-hoon, Yang Dong-geun, Kang Ae-shim, Jo Yu-ri, Lee David, Roh Jae-won
Genre: Dystopian, survival, thriller, horror
Recap: The third and final season of Squid Game launched in June. Originally, the writer was going to finish the story in two series, but couldn’t finish the story he wanted to tell and needed more episodes. What is there to say here? The games become deadlier and more sinister. In-ho welcomes the VIPs and his brother continues his search for the island, unaware there is a traitor in their midst. If you loved Season 1 and 2, I’m certain this one will thrill too! If this drama has been a bit too brutal for you, this series is going to get even more intense.
In all honesty, I didn’t watch this one. I’m not a big fan of sequels, with rare exceptions, especially for a format like this, where you have nowhere to go other than into the more intense and bloodier. This was widely watched, as were the first two series, but also widely called disappointing. The story was said to be disjointed and the ending disappointing. Violence for the sake of violence, which this third series seemed to play into, sits in the category of obscene, to me. There are enough true-life stories of violence to not make up a story about killing people in a game environment.
Genie, Make a Wish – 다 이루어질지니 – October 3
Netflix – Starring: Kim Woo-bin, Bae Suzy
Genre: Fantasy, rom-com
Recap: The drama brings together Suzy and Kim Woo-bin, who previously starred together in Uncontrollably Fond. Ki Ka-young (Suzy) is a script translator, living under her grandmother’s strict rules. She’s an emotional hot mess and some call her a psychopath. She’s actually pretty clammed up and cold and emotionally unresponsive and lives a very controlled and organized life. That changes quite dramatically when she finds a lamp and out comes a genie named Iblis (Kim Woo-bin) after being cooped up for 1,000 years. He’s a mean genie – really mean. He tells her he’s Satan. He hates humans and their stupid wishes. He uses the wishes to corrupt the humans. But Ki Ka-young doesn’t want wishes fulfilled. She wants to explore this idea that humans are all corruptible – and she’s willing to make a very high-stakes bet with Iblis to do that.
“This drama is written by one of the best out there, so it absolutely has to be good”…I said in October. “Kim Eun-Sook wrote some of the biggest classics: Secret Garden, The Heirs, Descendants of the Sun, Goblin, Mr. Sunshine and The Glory, amongst others. That’s quite some resume. The dialogue in this one should be something to look forward to”…I said…huge moan! This was one of the biggest disappointments of the year, for sure. The problem started with having two negative characters that you are supposed to want to follow – it didn’t work from the very beginning, though it softened in small ways as it went along. The character Suzy was portraying was not just kind of like a psychopath – she was a full-blown psychopath. It’s hard to feel empathy for a character that starts out trying to strangle her grandmother to death. It just didn’t work. Terribly disappointing!
Tempest – 북극성 – September 10
Disney+ – Starring: Jun Ji-hyun, Gang Dong-won
Genre: Romance, spy, thriller
Recap: This drama features a pretty large ensemble cast, but Jun Ji-hyun and Gang Dong-won have the largest central roles. The story is about an ex-Ambassador to the US, Seo Mun-ju (Jun Ji-hyun) who teams up with a mercenary, Baek San-ho (Gang Dong-won), whose role and who he reports to is not so clear, to look into what is behind an assassination that threatens the relative peace of the Korean peninsula and beyond. What they uncover is a complicated web of secrets and political maneuvers.
I was really looking forward to a drama featuring Jun Ji-hyun, since it’s been too long between them. I thought the plot looked interesting and it should have had enough action and intrigue to keep us hanging on. Instead, it was a bit of a mess. It started strong. It had a very good director (Vincenzo, Little Women). It wasn’t that the acting was bad. The storytelling wasn’t there. It couldn’t figure out if it was a romance story or a spy-thriller or political intrigue or none of the above. Now, you could dance around all of those subjects well, but this just flopped around in illogical ways, leaving you confused. And then there were a pretty long list of actual political controversies that happened because of what characters said and did that got the production in trouble with China, Vietnam and Iraq. It seems like it wanted to be internationally appealing while being internationally ignorant. Bummer.
Both Hits and Misses, But Worth Watching
I think these dramas are worth watching. They are listed in order of when they were released. I think they fell short of being excellent for different reasons, which I will mention briefly.
The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call - 중증외상센터) – January 24
Netflix – Starring: Ju Ji-hoon, Choo Young-woo, Yoon Gyung-ho, Ha Young, and Jeong Jae-kwang
Genre: Medical drama
The main character is a doctor with war-zone experience, so he is used to improvised procedures. But he comes across a little too MacGyver – he’s always spot on with his dangerous improvs, he’s never wrong. The character is too one-dimensional, in my opinion. The episodes are action-packed, but there isn’t really any empathy or storytelling surrounding the patients and the other medical staff is also a little simplistic. The action is gripping. If you like medical dramas, you will like the medical scenes of this. But there’s not a lot of depth to the rest of it.
When Life Gives You Tangerines – 폭싹 속았수다 – March 7
Netflix – Starring: IU, Park Bo Gum, Moon So Ri, Park Hae Joon
Genre: Romance, slice-of-life
This drama was a fine story of a couple over a lifetime, but they completely ignored the ugly history taking place during the timeframe. Why set a drama in an historic timeframe if you aren’t somehow going to embrace that period of time? There was a lot of potential here to touch more profoundly on some of Korea’s most difficult moments in modern time, but the drama just missed that calling.
The Haunted Palace – 귀궁 – April 18
Viki – Starring: Yook Sungjae, Kim Ji-Yeon (Bona), Kim Ji-Hoon
Genre: Historical, fantasy, rom-com
This turned out to be a bit more like the Edgar Allan Poe poem than I expected, but also had a kind of Scooby-Doo feel to parts of it (and I saw someone else say that too, so it wasn’t just me). There is a rom-com element to it, but that isn’t really front and center a lot of the time and has twists to it – that was entertaining. The ghosts were sometimes funny, sometimes scary, but sometimes really icky, gross. I don’t like icky gross. The action kept you jumping at the beginning and the story had you intrigued at the end. The middle could have been tighter or maybe less episodes. It definitely isn’t a typical ghost story and it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea.
Oh My Ghost Clients - 노무사 노무진 - May 30
Kocowa, The Roku Channel – Starring: Jung Kyung-Ho, Seol In-Ah, Cha Hak-Yeon
Genre: Fantasy, action, comedy, legal
I think this drama surprised a lot of people because of how good it was compared to expectations. It’s a legal drama that deals with labor issues. It’s comedic, but not too slapstick. There are some really sad moments. There’s the fantasy element because the clients are all ghosts. But the episodes were somewhat inconsistent and the stories were not all tightly finished. It probably could have had fewer episodes. But it is worth a watch.
Bon Appétit, Your Majesty – 폭군의 셰프 – August 23
Netflix – Starring: Im Yoon-ah (YoonA), Lee Chae-min, Kang Han-na, Choi Gwi-hwa
Genre: Fantasy, romance
Many people highly praised this drama. I definitely like it, but I felt like there was an element missing. Just like in Mr. Queen, the drama was trying to take modern cooking techniques and rework them in the Joseon era, with ingredients available at the time. For me, this concept worked in Mr. Queen, but didn’t really work well in Bon Appétit, at least not most of the time. There were too many (literal) mind-blowing moments for the taste of food that was, yes, prepared differently from what was typical for the time, but there weren’t really valid examples as to how and why. The miracles the recipes created didn’t really shine correctly – they were just kind of webtooned in – and not in a good way. But the drama was entertaining.
Typhoon Family – 태풍상사 – October 11
Netflix – Starring: Lee Jun-ho, Kim Minha
Genre: Drama
This is another period drama that was super hyped and was fine to watch and I enjoyed it, but it seems like they missed some opportunities to really set us in the timeframe and make us feel the every day, every moment pain of the financial crisis. They more or less show it. They show it quite a bit, in certain ways. But it doesn’t gut punch you and draw you in on the empathy wave. And the drama goes a bit flat in the middle. But it was an enjoyable watch.
There were definitely other dramas completely worth watching this year, everyone. We’ll keep introducing you to new dramas as they come out, so stay tuned!
