20 K-Dramas You Shouldn’t Miss – Part 1: Money, Work and Power
It is easy to dismiss K-Dramas as love stories with beautiful people and long glances. Easy, and wrong.
Look closer and you find debt, conglomerates, corrupt prosecutors and the question of who gets to belong. Korean series wrap social critique in entertainment. European viewers, however, often lack the key to see everything inside.
That key is what we provide here. For each series, alongside story and background, there is the culture key: the one thing a European viewer needs to know to understand it fully. Plus who it is for, and how much time it takes.
This list was first published in 2023 and covers series up to 2022. In September 2026 we rewrote it and split it in two. Part 1 is about money, work and power. Part 2 is about history, the mind and fame.
The codes that keep coming back
Before we start, a few patterns you will meet in almost every series.
The thread of fate. Remarkably often, the lovers have met before without knowing it – as children in Secretary Kim, years earlier in Switzerland in Crash Landing on You. Behind this lies a Korean concept: inyeon. According to the Korea Times, it is the invisible thread that connects people through destiny and shared experience, with roots in Buddhism. An old proverb says that even two sleeves brushing in passing are inyeon.
Heartbreak, trauma, healing. Many series follow the same arc: an old wound, an encounter that reopens it, and in the end something like redemption. That is not a lack of imagination. It is form – like the Hollywood happy ending.
The occasion. Korean series often take up what the country is currently preoccupied with. Stranger aired in the middle of a justice reform; Squid Game tells of a debt crisis.
The effects. Comedies in particular use on-screen graphics, sound effects and exclamations. It takes getting used to. Then you miss it.
The weather. The first snow and the umbrella carry their own meaning in Korean series. More on that in part 2, under Goblin.
Money, class, conglomerates
1. Squid Game (2021–2025)
Netflix · 3 seasons, season 1 with 9 episodes · Writer: Hwang Dong-hyuk · Director: Hwang Dong-hyuk
In one sentence: Hundreds of deeply indebted people play children’s games for their lives and 45.6 billion won.
The one-liner: Basically It’s a Knockout, if you took the title literally.
The culture key: The games are real Korean children’s games. “Mugunghwa kkochi pieotseumnida” literally means “the rose of Sharon has bloomed” – the rose of Sharon is South Korea’s national flower, and the game is the Korean version of red light, green light. There is also ddakji, flipping folded paper tiles, and dalgona, cutting a shape out of a sugar candy. After the release, exactly these games set off a wave of imitations worldwide, all the way to a Netflix reality show. The series takes the childhood of an entire country and turns it into a death game.
What it is really about: Debt. The series is read as a sharp critique of economic inequality in South Korea and of the growing household debt that weighs above all on the lower and middle classes. Hwang Dong-hyuk said in 2025 that he wanted to ask whether people caught between the endless desire, frustration and defeat of a capitalist society can still build a better future. And anger, Hwang said, should point upwards.
For: anyone who likes social critique with suspense. Not for: the faint-hearted. Time needed: Season 1 has nine episodes – the shortest commitment on this list.
Behind the scenes: Hwang Dong-hyuk wrote the story as early as 2009 but could not find anyone to fund it – until Netflix took an interest around 2019. The first season cost 21.4 million dollars, became Netflix’s most-watched series and won six Emmys. Who owns that success is the subject of Who Owns the Success.
2. Itaewon Class (2020)
JTBC · 16 episodes · Writer: Jo Kwang-jin · Director: Kim Sung-yoon
In one sentence: An ex-convict opens a bar to beat the conglomerate that destroyed his family.
The one-liner: A pub takes on a multinational. As underdog stories go, it has a better bar than most.
The culture key: Itaewon is not just any neighbourhood. It is considered Seoul’s most international, with restaurants from more than twenty cuisines, around forty embassies and many foreign residents; it is also known for its queer bars. Setting the series there automatically makes it a story about everyone who does not quite belong in an otherwise rather homogeneous country.
What it is really about: Who gets to belong? The series is set in Itaewon, Seoul’s most international neighbourhood. The team includes an ex-convict, the chef Ma Hyeon-yi, who comes out as a trans woman – by critics’ accounts the first trans main character in a major Korean mainstream drama – and Kim Toni, a Guinean-Korean who faces racism. Add to that the dominance of a food conglomerate over small businesses. An article in the academic “Korea Journal” notes, however, that while the series argues for a more open idea of who is Korean, it remains rather closed towards foreigners.
For: anyone who likes underdog stories. Not for: anyone with little patience for a very stubborn hero. Time needed: 16 episodes of around 70 minutes, just under 19 hours.
Behind the scenes: The script was written by the webtoon’s own creator, Jo Kwang-jin. He first declined, thinking an experienced screenwriter would do better. It was the first series produced by the film distributor Showbox. Japan remade it in 2022 as Roppongi Class, and it won best drama series at the Asian Television Awards.
3. Little Women (2022)
tvN · 12 episodes · Writer: Jeong Seo-kyeong · Director: Kim Hee-won
In one sentence: Three poor sisters run up against one of Korea’s most powerful families – and a great deal of money that is not theirs.
The one-liner: Little Women, if the March sisters had discovered offshore accounts.
The culture key: Behind the powerful family lies a Korean phenomenon: the chaebol, family-run conglomerates that dominate the country’s economy. Their boards are often filled with family members and close associates, and some owners run the groups as their personal domains. When Korean stories are about wealth, they are usually about them.
What it is really about: Poor against rich. Three sisters without money take on one of the country’s most powerful families. Money is not the backdrop here but the engine of every decision – along with the question of what one is prepared to do for it.
For: anyone who likes intricate thrillers. Not for: anyone expecting a polite literary adaptation. Time needed: 12 episodes of around 77 minutes, a little over 15 hours.
Behind the scenes: Writer Jeong Seo-kyeong co-wrote several of Park Chan-wook’s films, including The Handmaiden and Decision to Leave. Director Kim Hee-won came from Vincenzo. Filming also took place in Singapore.
4. Vincenzo (2021)
tvN · 20 episodes · Writer: Park Jae-beom · Director: Kim Hee-won
In one sentence: A mafia lawyer, adopted to Italy as a child, returns to Seoul and fights a conglomerate with its own methods.
The one-liner: The Godfather moves back to the old neighbourhood. The residents’ committee has never been so effective.
The culture key: That the hero was adopted abroad as a child is no mere plot device. Around 200,000 children from South Korea were adopted overseas over the past decades, most to the United States and Europe, including Germany, Denmark, Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands – believed to be the largest diaspora of adoptees in the world. In 2025, a state truth commission found the government responsible for fraud and abuse in these adoptions. So there are many real Vincenzos in Europe. Rarely with mafia connections.
What it is really about: Small people against a conglomerate. The tenants of an old commercial building face demolition, a pharmaceutical group brings a dangerous drug to market, and the law does not help. The series answers with black humour and an uncomfortable question: what if justice can only be had with the other side’s methods?
For: anyone who enjoys black humour and revenge stories. Not for: anyone who prefers subtlety. Time needed: 20 episodes of around 80 minutes, about 27 hours.
Behind the scenes: Writer Park Jae-beom also wrote Good Doctor and The Fiery Priest (both on this list). The dialogue is in Korean, English, Italian and Mandarin, and the budget was around 20 billion won. Director Kim Hee-won went on to make Little Women (also on this list).
Work and hierarchy
5. Misaeng: Incomplete Life (2014)
tvN · 20 episodes · Writer: Jung Yoon-jung · Director: Kim Won-seok
In one sentence: A failed Go player without a degree becomes an intern at a trading company.
The one-liner: It’s The Office, except nobody’s laughing. Least of all the intern.
The culture key: After the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s, Korean companies began hiring temporary staff who work full time, earn less and are easier to dismiss. In the late 2000s the government estimated them at a third of all wage earners. Jang Geu-rae is exactly such an “irregular”, which is why so many young Koreans saw themselves in him.
What it is really about: Precarious work. Jang Geu-rae is an intern without a permanent contract, and young viewers in particular saw themselves in him. The Korea Herald wrote at the time of a “Misaeng syndrome” gripping the nation. The title is a term from the game of Go for a stone that is neither dead nor alive. And the ending is honest: despite his achievements, Jang does not get a permanent job.
For: anyone who has ever been an intern – and anyone who wants to understand how a Korean office works. Few series capture its hierarchies and rituals so precisely for outsiders. Not for: anyone looking for a love story – it is not the focus here. Time needed: 20 episodes of around 65 minutes, about 22 hours.
Behind the scenes: It is based on Yoon Tae-ho’s webtoon, and parts were filmed in Jordan. The producer was Lee Jae-moon, who later released Save Me (in part 2 of this list) through his own company, Hidden Sequence. A cinema version marked the tenth anniversary in 2024.
6. What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim (2018)
tvN · 16 episodes · Writer: Jung Eun-young · Director: Park Joon-hwa
In one sentence: The perfect secretary of a vain conglomerate heir wants to quit after nine years.
The one-liner: He thinks he’s irreplaceable. She hands in her notice. That’s most workplace dramas sorted, really.
The culture key: Korea has its own word for abuse of power from above: gapjil. It became known internationally through the 2014 “nut rage” incident, when the daughter of Korean Air’s owners assaulted two flight attendants because she was served macadamia nuts in a bag instead of a porcelain bowl. A law against workplace harassment has applied since July 2019; a government survey at the time found that two-thirds of employees had experienced harassment. The series turns this into a romantic comedy – and reverses the power relations.
What it is really about: Who serves whom? Beneath the romantic comedy lies an employment relationship: the heir to a conglomerate and the woman who spent nine years making him look good. The story begins the moment she no longer wants to.
For: anyone who likes light romantic comedies. European viewers need a moment to get used to the on-screen effects and exclamations; after two episodes they belong. Not for: anyone irritated by a hero with a very large ego. Time needed: 16 episodes of just over an hour, around 18 hours.
Behind the scenes: The story has passed through many hands: first a novel by Jung Kyung-yoon (2013), then a webtoon on KakaoPage (2015), then the series. Versions have since been made in the Philippines, Thailand and China.
Power, justice, corruption
7. Stranger (2017, 2020)
tvN · 2 seasons of 16 episodes · Writer: Lee Soo-yeon · Director: Ahn Gil-ho, Yoo Je-won (season 1)
In one sentence: A prosecutor without feelings and a police officer with plenty of them hunt a killer and run into their own institutions.
The one-liner: A prosecutor with no feelings investigates his own colleagues. Which is, admittedly, the only sane way to do it.
The culture key: For decades, the prosecution service was Korea’s most powerful investigative authority; the police had to hand over every case. On 13 January 2020, parliament passed a reform: according to the news agency Newsis, the relationship was defined as cooperation for the first time in 66 years, and the police may now close cases at first instance themselves. The change took effect on 1 January 2021. The second season aired in August 2020, in the middle of this overhaul – and is about exactly this power struggle.
What it is really about: The justice system itself. The series shows corruption within the prosecution service in minute detail, as Korean media pointed out. The hero investigates not outsiders but his own office.
For: anyone who likes to think along with a crime story. Not for: anyone who checks their phone while watching. Time needed: Two seasons with 32 episodes, just under 40 hours.
Behind the scenes: Both seasons come from a single writer, Lee Soo-yeon. The New York Times named it one of the best shows of 2017, and it won the grand prize for television at the Baeksang Arts Awards. A spin-off, Dongjae, the Good or the Bastard, followed in 2024.
8. The Fiery Priest (2019)
SBS · 2 seasons · Writer: Park Jae-beom · Director: Lee Myung-woo
In one sentence: A hot-tempered priest investigates the death of an old priest with a timid police officer and an ambitious prosecutor.
The one-liner: A priest with anger issues. Forgive them, Father – right after I’ve hit them.
The culture key: A priest taking on the powerful is not pure invention in Korea. Around eleven per cent of the population is Catholic, and during the years of military dictatorship Myeongdong Cathedral in Seoul was a sanctuary for dissidents. In 1987, Cardinal Kim Sou-hwan told the authorities who came to arrest students there that they would only get to them after getting past him, the priests and the nuns.
What it is really about: A web of power and corruption. Of all people, a priest, a timid police officer and an ambitious prosecutor have to expose it. The series takes aim at the institutions people should be able to trust, and turns it into comedy.
For: anyone who likes loud, fast comedies. Not for: anyone looking for quiet tones. Time needed: Two seasons, 2019 and 2024.
Behind the scenes: It was the first drama in SBS’s new Friday–Saturday slot. Writer Park Jae-beom went on to write Vincenzo. A second season followed in 2024, five years later, largely with the same cast.
9. Doctor Prisoner (2019)
KBS2 · 32 short episodes · Writer: Park Kye-ok · Director: Hwang In-hyuk, Song Min-yeob
In one sentence: An ousted surgeon becomes the doctor in a prison for the rich and powerful and plots his revenge there.
The one-liner: A prison for the wealthy, where the food is better and illness is available on request.
The culture key: South Korea has a long tradition of pardoning convicted business leaders. In 2022, for example, President Yoon Suk Yeol pardoned Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong, convicted of bribery, arguing that the economy needed him. An opposition politician said at the time that it confirmed a widely held belief: free if you are rich, guilty if you are poor.
What it is really about: Privilege behind bars. A prison for the rich and powerful, where a doctor decides who counts as sick. The series asks whether power ends at the cell door. The answer is no.
For: anyone who likes revenge thrillers. Not for: anyone who wants to believe in a just world. Time needed: 32 short episodes, usually two per evening, around 19 hours.
Behind the scenes: It won outstanding Korean drama at the 2019 Seoul International Drama Awards. Writer Park Kye-ok later co-wrote Mr. Queen (in part 2 of this list).
10. Bad and Crazy (2021–2022)
tvN, iQIYI · 12 episodes · Writer: Kim Sae-bom · Director: Yoo Seon-dong
In one sentence: A corrupt police officer is visited by K, who fights for justice with his fists and lives inside his own head.
The one-liner: His conscience moves in, pays no rent and punches people. Still better than most flatmates.
The culture key: Ryu Soo-yeol has only a high school diploma and nobody backing him. The series makes exactly that the reason he can be bought: whoever has no support goes looking for some – if need be from a lawmaker who dangles a promotion. The reveal of where K comes from leads back into Soo-yeol’s childhood and turns the action comedy into a serious story about violence and guilt. We will say no more.
What it is really about: Career against conscience. A capable but corrupt police officer acquires a second personality that wants exactly what he gave up: justice. The conflict takes place inside his head.
For: anyone who wants to laugh and does not shy away from depth. Not for: anyone expecting a romance. Time needed: 12 episodes of just over an hour, around 14 hours.
Behind the scenes: The series was an original production of the Asian streaming platform iQIYI. Director Yoo Seon-dong had previously made The Uncanny Counter. Wi Ha-joon had just become internationally known as the police officer in Squid Game, Lee Dong-wook as the grim reaper in Goblin.
What connects these ten
None of these series is harmless, and none is an editorial. They tell of debt, conglomerates and authorities as if they were love stories, comedies or thrillers. That is exactly why so many people watch them.
Social critique cannot be prescribed. It has to be told well.
Behind the camera, the same names keep appearing: Park Jae-beom wrote Vincenzo and The Fiery Priest, director Kim Hee-won made Vincenzo and Little Women. In Korea, the writer is often the name that carries a series.
Continue with Part 2: History, the Mind and Fame – from Mr. Sunshine to Goblin. Why most of these series have sixteen episodes and what happens when they move to other countries are told elsewhere.