Year-end review time. Just like the year-end awards, we are here to credit good K-dramas that was aired in 2020. The multiple good dramas is a long list and here are just the top few that have perfect the balance of good script, cast, production, and more.
#1 Crash Landing on You
No. of episodes: 16
Genre: War, Romance, Drama
Native title: 사랑의 불시착
Original network: Netflix, tvN
Forbidden love between the North and South Koreans, the romance that no one will ever think it is even possible since they are closed up individually to the other. There are countless points in the drama that made it so wholesomely good.
Yoon Se Ri (Son Ye Jin) is a chaebol in South Korea who made an emergency landing in the country that she is not supposed to be in due to a paragliding accident. She met a North Korean special officer, Ri Jung Hyuk (Hyun Bin) who falls for her and been hiding and protecting her in the North.
#2 Find Me in Your Memory
No. of episodes: 32 (each episode is 30 mins)
Genre: News, Romance
Native Title: 그 남자의 기억법
Original network: MBC
The drama revolves around a man, Lee Jeong Hoon (Kim Dong Wook) with hyperthymesia which is an ability to remember every single details that happened in his life, and a woman, Yeo Ha Jin (Moon Ga Young) who has forgotten the most important part of her life.
#3 Start-Up
No. of episodes: 16
Genre: Business, Romance, Friendship
Native title: 스타트업
Original network: tvN, Netflix
The drama is about the joy and hardship of being an entrepreneur. The story sets in South Korea’s fictional Silicon Valley Sandbox, the world of start-up companies. Founder and co-founder of Samsan Tech find it tough to produce a sellable product despite receiving the highest recognition from CODA. They joined Sandbox and met Seo Dal Mi (Bae Suzy) who became their CEO.
#4 It’s Okay Not to Be Okay
No. of episodes: 16
Genre: Romance, Medical, Psychological, Melodrama
Native Title: 사이코지만 괜찮아
Original network: tvN, Netflix
The drama revolves around the Moon brothers and a unique fairy tale writer. Moon Kang Tae (Kim Soo Hyun) is a community health worker in a mental hospital, moving from one to another because of his elder brother Moon Sang Tae (Oh Jung Se) who has autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
#5 Romantic Doctor, Teacher Kim 2
No. of episodes: 16
Genre: Medical, Romance
Native title: 낭만닥터 김사부2
Original network: SBS
The story begins with a mysterious man heading to watch a live broadcast of surgery and immediately spot the problem when the surgery did not go smoothly. Kim Sa Bu (Han Seok Kyu) is a mystery man, a genius doctor from a small humble hospital in the countryside called Doldam Hospital.
#6 The King: Eternal Monarch
No. of episodes: 16
Genre: Fantasy, Mystery, Romance, Comedy
Native title: 더 킹: 영원의 군주
Original network: Netflix, SBS
The drama is about a parallel universe and the romance between a King and inspector from different worlds. The big question mark and the mysterious police ID left in the other world start it all. Lee Gon (Lee Min Ho) is the King in the Kingdom of Korea whose main city and the palace is located in Busan, South Korea. His uncle Lee Rim (Lee Jung Jin) murdered his father, the King when he was just eight. Almost killed but saved by a mysterious man who carry a police ID tag of Jeong Tae Eun (Kim Go Eun).
#7 Memorist
No. of episodes: 16
Genre: Thriller, Supernatural, Crime, Investigation, Police
Native title: 메모리스트
Original network: tvN
The supernatural thriller is really creepy with the cases and minds of the killers. Dong Baek (Yoo Seung Ho) has a supernatural ability to read whoever he touches, he can replicate their memories and given the nickname ‘Telepathy’. Han Sun Mi (Lee Se Young) is the youngest senior superintendent in the police force who passed her bar exam and has a doctorate in criminal psychology. She is known to be a genius profiler and a super smart person.
#8 Mystic Pop Up Bar
No. of episodes: 12
Genre: Fantasy, Comedy, Mystery
Native Title: 쌍갑포차
Original network: JTBC, Netflix
The drama remake from a popular webtoon ‘Ssanggap Pocha’ that tells the story of a mysterious pojangmacha (outdoor street food bar found in South Korea) run by Weol Joo (Hwang Jung Eum) and an afterlife police Chief Gwi (Choi Won Young).
#9 Was it Love?
No. of episodes: 16
Genre: Romance, Comedy
Native title: 우리 사랑했을까
Original network: JTBC, Netflix
The drama is about a single mother living on her own for 14 years, Noh Ae Jung (Song Ji Hyo) is a movie producer who has given up on romance but found herself starting the next chapter when four other men walk into her life at the same time. To even complicate things, an A-list actress Joo Ah Rin (Kim Da Som) enters into the story.
#10 Record of Youth
No. of episode: 16
Genre: Modelling, Romance, Drama
Native Title: 청춘기록
Original network: tvN, Netflix
The drama follow the lives of three individuals who strives hard for their dream in the modelling fashion industry. Sa Hye Joon (Park Bo Gum) is a bright and warm young man who dream to be a model and actor yet able to look at the world objectively.
#11 Itaewon Class
No. of episodes: 16
Genre: Rebellious, Business, Romance
Native title: 이태원 클라쓰
Original network: JTBC, Netflix
Itaewon Class is about the life of Park Saeroyi (Park Seo Joon) moving the harder path after he punched a bully, Jang Geun Won (Ahn Bo Hyun) on his first day of transferring to a new middle school. After he punched Geun Won, he was expelled from school and his father lost his job at Jangga.
#12 More Than Friends
No. of episodes: 16
Genre: Romance, Friendship, Comedy
Native Title: 경우의 수
Original network: JTBC
The drama about an unrequited love between a struggling calligraphist and talented photographer. Kyung Woo Yeon (Shin Ye Eun) and Lee Soo (Ong Seong Wu) are high school classmates. Distance between them close up but the day Lee Soo left for further studies in the United States, Woo Yeon confessed.
#13 Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol
No. of episodes: 16
Genre: Romance, Comedy, Music
Native title: 도도솔솔라라솔
Original network: KBS, Netflix
The romantic-comedy drama is about Goo La La (Go Ara) who is an optimist despite the multiple difficult situations that she was caught into. After her father’s sudden death, the family’s empire and wealth hit rock bottom. Lala is a city girl living in a mansion like a princess, she moved away to a small village Eunpo where she met a mysterious man. Sun Woo Joon (Lee Jae Wook) is a guy living day-by-day with multiple part-time jobs with no goal.
#14 My Holo Love
No. of episodes: 12
Genre: Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance
Native title: 너와 나 혼자 야
Original network: Netflix
Han So Yeon (Go Sung Hee) is a marketer in a glasses company for 5 years yet she always work alone and did not mingle with her colleagues as she suffers from prosopagnosia (the inability to recognize faces). Go Nan Do (Yoon Hyun Min) founded the IT research company, GIO, and one of the utmost secretive product is ‘Holo’. His stepsister, Go Yoo Jin (Choi Yeo Jin) held a conference to potential investors and after the event, man-made accident occurs to steal ‘holo’ which is a spectacles.
#15 Search
No. of episodes: 10
Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Military
Native Title: 써치
Original network: OCN
This military thriller drama is set in the most heavily armed area in the world, the demilitarized zone better known as DMZ. The unnatural death and disappearance of soldiers from the South lead a team into the zone. Yong Dong Jin (Jang Dong Yoon) is a military dog handler who is counting down to the day of his discharged was caught into the search team along with Son Ye Rim (Krystal Jung).
#16 Backstreet Rookie
No. of episodes: 16
Genre: Romance, Comedy
Native Title: 편의점 샛별이
Original network: SBS
The drama revolves around Jung Saet Byul (Kim Yoo Jung), a 22 years old dropped out student who struggles to meet the end of the day after her father passed away. She has a crush on Choi Dae Hyun (Ji Chang Wook) after he saved her and Kang Ji Wook (Kim Min Kyu) when they were young. One day, Dae Hyun’s family run franchises convenience store hits manpower issue and Saet Byul walks in to apply as a part timer.
Binge-watch lovers, this is the ultimate checklist to catch up on 2020 K-dramas. The toughest year yet we are not compromises by the quality of dramas and the obstacles that were set such as the decrease chances of overseas filming.
If you’ve select ‘None of the above’ perhaps you can hop to find out more K-dramas review in 2020.