6 Netflix K-dramas To Watch: 'Mercy For None,' 'Dear Hongrang' And More

Forbes

6 hours ago

'Dear Hongrang' and 'When Life Gives You Tangerines'
Wondering what to watch as the world waits for the June 27th premiere of Squid Game season 3? Whether you're a longtime fan of K-dramas or have only recently started getting into them, Netflix has released a slew of top-notch Korean series in recent months. But with the streamer premiering at least one new Korean title every week between April and early June, many viewers might find it difficult to keep up with all the K-content that's being offered.
So to help audiences figure out what to watch, here are six new and recent K-dramas on Netflix that are worth watching. From grisly action thrillers to historical romance to coming-of-age family dramas, all of the shows on this list have ranked in Netflix's weekly Global Top 10 list of the most watched non-English shows. (As a side note, Korean series have taken up anywhere from three to over half the spots on Netflix's Global Top 10 list of non-English shows every week since April—a testament to K-content's ongoing global popularity and also to Netflix's continued commitment to investing in Korean projects.)
Mercy For None
In this gritty, uber-violent thriller, veteran actor So Ji-sub stars as Nam Gi-jun, a former gangster with formidable combat skills who decides to leave the mob after his younger brother Nam Gi-seok joins a rival gang. But when Gi-seok is brutally murdered, Gi-jun returns to the underworld to uncover the truth behind his brother's untimely death, embarking on a bloodthirsty quest for revenge.
Inspired by the webtoon Plaza Wars: Mercy for None by Oh Se-hyung and Kim Gyun-tae, the gripping seven-episode series features stellar acting and gruesome fight sequences that will leave you aghast as you watch Gi-jun slash and smash his way through Seoul's underbelly, smacking down anyone who gets in his way with bone-crushing blows.
Despite the series' mixed reviews back home in Korea, Mercy for None has found international success, taking the top spot on Netflix's Global Top 10 list of the most watched non-English shows shortly after its premiere earlier this month.
Fun facts: After his breakout role in the iconic 2004 K-drama I'm Sorry, I Love You, So Ji-sub became one of Korea's most famous actors and a leading Hallyu star in the 2000s. Mercy for None marks his return to the noir action thriller genre after 13 years.
Huh Joon-ho, who plays the chairman of Juwoon Group, has been acting for roughly four decades and is the son of legendary actor Heo Jang-kang, known for playing memorable villains in Korean films from the 1960s and 1970s.
So Ji-Sub as Nam Gi-jun in 'Mercy for None'
Our Unwritten Seoul
Park Bo-young (Daily Dose of Sunshine, Melo Movie) shines in a dual role as identical twin sisters Yu Mi-ji and Yu Mi-rae in this heartfelt, coming-of-age drama. Mi-ji and Mi-rae look so alike that even their own mother can't tell them apart, but their personalities and lifestyles couldn't be more different. After an unfortunate injury, younger sister Mi-ji is forced to give up on her dream of becoming a track and field athlete and stays in her hometown to work odd jobs and take care of her grandmother. Meanwhile, older sister Mi-rae, who excelled in academics, now works for a public corporation in Seoul and helps support her family with her paycheck. Dissatisfied with their current situations, the two decide to swap their lives, launching each of them on a path towards love, renewed hope, personal growth and self-discovery.
Fun facts: Audiences in Korea have been praising Park Bo-young for her performance as essentially four different characters in this series—as Mi-ji, Mi-rae, Mi-ji pretending to be Mi-rae, and Mi-rae pretending to be Mi-ji.
The show's Korean title, 'Mi-ji-eh Seoul' (미지의 서울), can be interpreted as 'Mi-ji's Seoul' or 'Unknown Seoul.'
When Life Gives You Tangerines
Lauded by many fans and critics as one of the best K-dramas ever made, When Life Gives You Tangerines is a sweeping family saga that will give you all the feels. Oh Ae-sun (played by K-pop superstar IU, who also portrays Ae-sun's daughter Geum-myeong) is a poor but ambitious girl who grows up on South Korea's Jeju Island in the 1950s and 1960s. She longs to leave the island to attend college and pursue her dream of becoming a poet, but socioeconomic and family circumstances keep holding her back from achieving her goal. Yang Gwan-sik (played by K-drama heartthrob Park Bo-gum) is Ae-sun's childhood friend who later becomes her devoted husband. As the two of them start a family, will they be able to provide a better future for their children, and will Ae-sun ever be able to realize her dream of becoming a poet?
As Professor David Tizzard wrote in The Korea Times, the entire series is a poem. A poem about life, love, loss, family, hope, struggle, dreams, sacrifice and resilience. It's also a bit of a crash course on South Korea's history, traditional customs and pop culture, as the story takes place against the backdrop of the country's rapid economic development and democratization and includes iconic Korean songs playing throughout.
Park Bo-gum as Yang Gwan-sik, IU as Oh Ae-sun in 'When Life Gives You Tangerines'
All that said, if you find that the series doesn't resonate with you, you're certainly not alone, as some reviews have criticized the show for its slow-moving plot and boring dialogue. But it's important to note that When Life Gives You Tangerines is a show where the richness and poetic qualities of the Korean language are on full display, so while the English subtitles capture the essence of the characters' lines, much of the lyricism, emotional depth, nuances and humor in the original Korean dialogue unfortunately gets lost in translation. In that sense, it's perhaps a bit surprising that the series did so well outside of Korea, given its heavy reliance on the unique characteristics and subtleties of the Korean language that are practically impossible to convey in English.
Fun fact: The writer of When Life Gives You Tangerines (who also penned other hit K-dramas like When the Camellia Blooms and Fight for My Way), is known for hiding her true identity from the public and the media. She reportedly adopted the pseudonym Lim Sang-choon (which sounds like a man's name in Korean) to avoid any potential discrimination based on her gender or age. Both When the Camellia Blooms and When Life Gives You Tangerines won Best Screenplay in the TV category at the Baeksang Arts Awards in 2020 and 2025 respectively, but Lim skipped both awards shows, sparking heightened public interest in her identity. She is rumored to be in her late 30's or early 40's and living with her husband in Seoul's Mapo district.
Dear Hongrang
When Hongrang, the son of the most powerful merchant family in Joseon Korea, goes missing at the age of eight, his half-sister Jae-yi relentlessly searches for him. Twelve years later, a man claiming to be Hongrang suddenly shows up, though he has no recollection of his childhood. Nevertheless, everyone in the household is convinced that he is the real Hongrang—everyone, that is, except for Jae-yi. Determined to expose the truth behind her brother's disappearance, she sets out to investigate, only to find herself developing complicated feelings for the mysterious man—and her life increasingly in peril.
With action, romance and intrigue unfolding over the course of 11 episodes (an unusual episode count for K-dramas), Dear Hongrang received mixed reviews upon its release but was generally praised for its cinematic quality, costume design, thrilling fight sequences, and tension between its characters. (Personally, I thought the series improved with every episode, and the onscreen chemistry between Lee Jae-wook and Cho Bo-ah was exceptionally strong.)
Fun fact: The show's Korean title is Tangeum (탄금), which literally means 'swallowing gold' and is also the title of the 2021 novel by Jang Da-hye on which the series is based. According to Korean media outlets, 'swallowing gold' has a double meaning in this case. First, it refers to a form of punishment reserved for nobles and royalty in ancient China, in which the condemned individual would swallow gold nuggets until their insides literally burst. However, as gold is also highly valued and associated with wealth, the expression can also have the positive connotation of attaining something you've greatly desired.
Lee Jae-wook as Hongrang, Cho Bo-ah as Jae-yi in 'Dear Hongrang'
Heavenly Ever After
After decades of working as a loan shark to support herself and her paralyzed husband, Lee Hae-sook (Kim Hye-ja) dies shortly after his passing and arrives in Heaven. There, she's told that she can select her age in the afterlife. She chooses 80—the age at which her late husband Ko Nak-joon had said she looked the most beautiful. But when she reunites with him in Heaven, she's shocked to find him in the form of his 30-year-old self. Despite their age gap, Hae-sook learns to navigate her new life in Heaven with Nak-joon's help as they begin to build the life they never had on earth.
Featuring a star-studded cast that includes veteran actress Kim Hye-ja (Mother, Our Blues), Son Suk-ku (A Killer Paradox, My Liberation Notes), Han Ji-min (Love Scout, Yonder), Lee Jung-eun (Parasite, Miss Night and Day) and Cheon Ho-jin (Beyond Evil, My Liberation Notes), Heavenly Ever After combines comedy, romance, fantasy and even horror to weave an imaginative tale that feels adorably quirky, heartwarming and occasionally terrifying all at the same time. A touching scene with pets in Heaven might move you to tears, while another depicting Hell in graphic detail might give you chills. Throughout the show, you'll likely find yourself pondering questions about the afterlife, Heaven and Hell, and possibly even reincarnation.
Fun fact: Han Ji-min wasn't initially cast in this drama, but when she expressed her strong desire to participate—she even went so far as to say that she would work as part of the production crew if that meant that she could work with Kim Hye-ja—the series' creators invented a new character just for her.
Son Suk-ku as Ko Nak-joon and Kim Hye-ja as Lee Hae-sook in 'Heavenly Ever After'
Weak Hero Class 1 And Weak Hero Class 2
Based on the popular eponymous webtoon by Seopass and Kim Jin-seok, Weak Hero follows Yeon Si-eun, a star high school student who seems frail and weak but uses his cunning and mastery of physics to fight back against bullies. In the series' first season (Class 1), Si-eun (Park Ji-hoon) becomes the target of a class bully after beating him at their school's math competition. When Si-eun stands up to the bully's aggressive behavior, he and his friends find themselves unwittingly caught up in an increasingly violent chain of events. The second season (Class 2) sees Si-eun transferring to another high school, where he faces off against a menacing gang with the help of some newfound allies.
Although Weak Hero Class 1 initially premiered on the Korean streaming platform Wavve back in 2022, it found a huge global audience after dropping on Netflix in March of this year, ranking in the streamer's Global Top 10 list of non-English shows for six weeks. Weak Hero Class 2 topped that same chart soon after its release on Netflix in April. Though a third season hasn't been confirmed, many fans are speculating that class will be back in session soon given the rave reviews for the show's first two seasons.
Park Ji-hoon as Yeon Si-eun in 'Weak Hero Class 2'
Be warned though that despite its high school setting, this series really is for mature audiences only (let's just say that it features a myriad of creative ways to maim someone using only school supplies…). Many viewers have praised Weak Hero for its tight storytelling and themes around friendship, resilience and personal growth, but some might find its bloody fight scenes and overall violence hard to stomach.
Fun fact: Interestingly enough, director You Su-min revealed that once he knew that the show's second season would be released globally on Netflix, he decided to make it less emotionally intense than season 1 so that international audiences would find it easier to watch.