K-DRAMA NEWS - Oct 2025
By Sharon Stern
Happy Chuseok! Although there have been a few really good standout dramas so far this year, I feel like we have also been pretty overwhelmed with a dearth of mediocrity. It seems like the last quarter of the year is going to change that. Even though many dramas sound very similar from a few-line description, you can’t judge them until you see them. First episodes can be confusing (too much backstory) or disjointed, but further episodes can be gripping. Conversely, first episodes can be brilliant, only to disappoint with subsequent episodes. Take the time to take another look at the dramas that came out last month and invest in looking at the upcoming ones. It seems like there are a good number of excellent dramas screening in the last months of the year. There will always be some mediocrity too, however!
Good Luck (also known as Catch Your Luck) - 대운을 잡아라
Viki (you need the Plus level), Kocowa – Starring: Son Chang-min, Sunwoo Jae-duk, Park Sang-myun, Lee Ah-hyun
Genre: Family, drama, romance
This series debuted in April and I was trying to figure out why it’s just showing up streaming now. It showed Monday – Friday in 30-minute episodes from April through August, so it showed to completion domestically before becoming available here. It got really high watch percentages in Korea. It is 50 episodes, but each is only 30-minutes.
The story is about three different men who knew each other in school, and their families. One is wealthy, but focuses on money more than his family or friendships. One is struggling financially. And the last would really like to have money, somehow. Life’s challenges complicate and strain their families and their relationships with each other. The trailers seem very corny, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I watched a couple of episodes. It is pretty corny, which is ironic because the subject matter is serious. It has a daytime drama vibe, if you have watched any of those – it is on the over-acted end of the scale. But the trailer is almost the worst of all – it doesn’t really go with anything other than that the opening scene of the first episode shows all of the men dancing. So, don’t judge the drama by the trailer alone.
To The Moon – 달까지 가자
Kocowa – Starring: Lee Sun-bin, Ra Mi-ran, Jo A-ram, Kim Young-dae
Genre: Rom-dram, workplace
Starring Lee Sun-bin, Ra Mi-ran and Jo A-ram and based on a webtoon, the drama follows three working-class women struggling to survive who dive into cryptocurrency investment in pursuit of a better life. What starts out as a gamble becomes a roller coaster ride as the crypto market continually fluctuates. It was inspired by a web novel by the same name.
However, a teaser sparked immediate controversy. In the teaser, actors wore Middle-Eastern-style costumes, adorned their foreheads with bindis — a traditional Hindu symbol — and performed choreography combining elements of Hawaiian hula and belly dance. Culturally insensitive at best. Middle Eastern viewers called it blatantly ignorant and racist. One quote said, “Koreans get offended when mistaken for Chinese or Japanese, yet show no sensitivity toward other cultures and reduce them to stereotypes.” The teaser got taken down and MBC issued an apology. Their reasoning around staging the teaser like that made no sense because the teaser doesn’t really point to the story. The bad teaser is still out there on YouTube.
It’s a very strong cast, so it’s unfortunate that they had to do this before the show even premiered. You can watch the trailer and see if you want to give it a go.
Walking on Thin Ice – 은수좋은날
Kocowa – Starring: Lee Young-ae, Kim Young-kwang, Park Yong-woo
Genre: Family, thriller, melodrama
Genre: Rom-com, rom-dram
The storyline is like a Korean version of Breaking Bad, but with enormous, professional drug labs instead of the home-cooked stuff. A pretty ordinary housewife, Kang Eun-soo’s (Lee Young-Ae), life starts to fall apart as she faces her husband’s terminal diagnosis and her daughter’s withdrawal from school. She has overwhelming debt hanging over her. By accident, she finds a bag full of millions of dollars of drugs - ice. Along with her daughter’s art teacher, Lee Kyung (Kim Young-kwang), who is hiding his secondary life as a drug trafficker (Wait, isn’t that a horrifying idea?!) they move forward to try to sell the drugs before getting caught by Detective Jang Tae-gu (Park Yong-woo), who is always close on their trail. But Kang Eun-soo has more at stake than anyone else. It is very edgy. You feel like Kang Eun-soo is constantly trapped, constantly erasing her moral lines in the sand, one by one, until her life is pretty devoid of perspective and really, of meaning.
A Graceful Liar – 친밀한 리플리
Kocowa – Starring: Lee Shi-ah, Lee Il-hwa, Lee Seung-yeon, Choi Jong-hwan, Park Chul-ho, Seol Jung-hwan
Genre: Drama, family
Cha Jeong-won (Lee Shi-ah) takes on a false identity in order to marry into the family of Geonhyang Group. But when she is faced with her new mother-in-law, Han Hye-ra (Lee Il-hwa), it is none other than her biological mother who had abandoned her to try to escape poverty (obviously successful there). Cha Jeong-won was scarred by this abandonment and by having a father who was framed for murder. She discovers that Han Hye-ra is her mother right before the wedding and wants revenge for what her mother did to her. Both women are locked in a battle and surrounded by their lies.
First Lady – 퍼스트레이디
Viki – Starring: Eugene (Kim Yoo-jin), Ji Hyun-woo, Lee Min-young
Genre: Political thriller, drama
Cha Su-yeon (Eugene) has had a political career, but her ambitions have continuously been blocked by her father, who was the part leader. She decides to shift her work to supporting her husband’s, Min Cheol’s (Ji Hyun-woo), political career and works tirelessly by his side during his campaign for president. He wins the election and she is excited that she will become the First Lady. With just 67 days before he takes office, Min Cheol wants a divorce. They become cold and adversarial and in the middle of it all is Min Cheol’s secretary, Sin Hae-rin (Lee Min-young). The drama takes place in these 67 days between the divorce announcement and the inauguration.
No Mercy (also known as Conviction) – 단죄
Kocowa – Starring: Lee Joo-young, Ji Seung-hyun, Junhoe (Koo Jun-hoe), Shin Soo-ho
Genre: Thriller, crime, revenge
This drama uses a very modern theme. A yet-unknown actress who had once attended the police academy, So Min (Lee Joo-young), has her world collapse when her mother disappears, her father is dead and her missing mother’s voice is used in a phishing scam created by a criminal organization called Ilseong. She decides to seek revenge by using deepfake technology, which is what the phishing scam has also done. She gets mixed up with the greedy boss of Ilseong, Ma Seok-gu (Ji Seung-hyun), a policeman, Park Jeong Hun (Koo Jun-hoe), who helps her dig up info on Ilseong, and a hacker, Kim Do Jin (Shin Soo-ho).
Ms. Incognito – 착한 여자 부세미
Viki – Starring: Jeon Yeo-been, Jang Yoon-ju, Jinyoung (Jung Jin-young), Seo Hyun-woo, Joo Hyun-young
Genre: Romance, crime, thriller, revenge
A bodyguard who has come from a poor background, Kim Yeong-ran (Jeon Yeo-been), becomes the bodyguard of the head of Gasung Group, Ga Sung-ho (Jang Yoon-ju). Ga Sung-ho is terminally ill. He offers Kim Yeong-ran a deal to enter into a contract marriage and she will inherit his fortune. A number of people don’t like that and she is forced to go into hiding (Wait! Isn’t she a bodyguard?) as a kindergarten teacher in a small town. A strawberry farmer, Jeong Dong-min (Jinyoung) whose child is in Kim Yeong-ran’s class, finds something about her suspicious. She needs to stay hidden and convince Jeong Dong-min that he doesn’t need to be suspicious of her.
Genie, Make a Wish - 다 이루어질지니
Netflix – Starring: Kim Woo-bin, Bae Suzy
Genre: Fantasy, rom-com
This drama is written by one of the best out there, so it absolutely has to be good. 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!
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.
Would You Marry Me? – 우주메리미
Disney+ – Starring: Jung So-min, Choi Woo-shik
Genre: Rom-com
Yoo Me-ri (Jung So-min) is a quirky and fiery designer who is trying to find a fake husband so that she can keep her really nice townhouse, which is for newlyweds and that she just won in a lottery. She was supposed to get married, but her husband-to-be cheated on her. She finds Kim U-ju (Choi Woo-shik) who is the only heir to an 80-year-old bakery business – South Korea’s oldest. He is a perfectionist at running the business and is on the narcissistic side. Yo Me-ri knows him because she has done design work for the bakery. Kim U-ju just happens to have the same name as her ex-fiancée, which is extremely convenient. She proposes a 90-day fake marriage between them so that she can keep her townhouse. This looks like a no-deep thought, fluffy rom-com, which Jung So-min does so well. If you need some escapism and probably a bit of silliness, this might be a good choice for you.
Typhoon Family (also known as Typhoon Boss) – 태풍상사
Netflix – Starring: Lee Jun-ho, Kim Minha
Genre: Drama
This drama takes place during the 1997 financial crisis in Southeast Asia. This crisis had different dynamics than the financial crisis of 2008 because of where it took place, but many large companies collapsed or were bought up during this time. The ripple effect hit the US stock markets as well, but it was devastating in South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Philippines, China, Singapore, Malaysia and Mongolia. The series could be interesting to learn more about this point of history, if nothing else.
The series follows Kang Tae-poong (Lee Jun-ho) who runs the Typhoon Company, a small business he has inherited from his father. He is referred to as a member of the Apgujeong Orange Tribe. Apgujeong is an area of Gangnam and the Orange Tribe were rich 20-somethings in the 1990s who spent a lot of money on luxury goods. The name Orange Tribe comes from the color of the subway line on subway maps that go to Apgujeong. When the financial crisis hits, he has to struggle to keep his small business from going under. He also wants to be responsible to his employees, who include O Mi-seon (Kim Min-ha), who is the company’s bookkeeper and who brings in the income for her family.
Marie and Her Three Daddies – 마리와 별난 아빠들
Kocowa – Starring: Ha Seung-ri, Hyun Woo, Park Eun-hye, Ryu Jin, Hwang Dong-joo, Gong Jung-hwan
Genre: Rom-dram, rom-com, family
Premieres Oct 13 | The plot sounds a bit like Mamma Mia, Korean style. Kang Ma-ri (Ha Seung-ri) is caught in the middle of three men claiming a fatherly connection. Lee Pung-ju (Ryu Jin) is a doctor who is tied to Ma-ri through family secrets. Kang Min-bo (Hwang Dong-joo) is the man that Ma-ri knew as the father who raised her, but has been abroad for a good part of her life and has suddenly returned. Jin Gi-sik (Gong Jung-hwan) is her caring uncle who wants to play a bigger role in her life. As Ma-ri tries to figure all of this out, she begins a romance with Lee Gang-se (Hyun Woo). Ma-ri’s fiery mother, Si-ra (Park Eun-hye) brings even more chaos and unpredictability to Ma-ri’s life.
The Dream Life of Mr. Kim — 서울 자가에 대기업 다니는 김 부장 이야기
Netflix – Starring: Ryu Seung-ryong, Myung Se-bin, Cha Kang-yoon
Genre: Dramedy, workplace
Premieres Oct 25 | Kim Nak-su (Ryu Seung-ryong) is a successful salesman with a 25-year career. He owns a wonderful apartment in Seoul, has a wife (Myung Se-bin) and a son (Cha Kang-yoon) and seems to have the ideal life. Over time, he starts to sort of go numb and loses everything he thought was important. He has to rediscover what is important and how to survive. His is a journey about how to find true happiness and at times it is a tragic journey and at other times it is comical.
Moon River (also known as The Moon Flows in This River) —
이강에는 달이 흐른다
Viki - Kang Tae-oh, Kim Se-jeong
Genre: Historical, fantasy, romance
Premieres Oct 31 | A vengeful Crown Prince Yi Kang (Kang Tae-oh), has lost his crown princess and tries to hide his pain by acting carefree, and a merchant, Park Dal-i (Kim Se-jeong), who looks exactly like the deceased crown princess, but has lost her memory, swap bodies, sending them both into chaos. As they try to figure out what happened, they also discover political conspiracies and the fact that their connection may be deeper than they first thought.
