The 10 best K-dramas of 2022 … so far, from Our Blues and Link: Eat, Love, Kill to Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area
- The best Korean drama series of 2022 so far feature true crime, horror, romance, fencing and ‘immaculate’ conception
- From Kim Nam-gil’s criminal profiler in Through the Darkness to Kim Hye-soo’s Netflix debut in Juvenile Justice, Korean talent has shone through
We’re only halfway through it, but 2022 has already gifted us an embarrassment of K-drama riches.
Superlative slice-of-life dramas, sweeping historical epics and mirthful romcoms are just some of the stand-outs that have shared Korean TV and streaming schedules.
We rank the best Korean drama series of the first half of 2022, from good to great.
10. Woori the Virgin
In this bubbly remake of the US series Jane the Virgin, which both pokes fun at and embraces soap opera conventions, Lim Soo-hyang plays a 30-year-old virgin who prepares for her very own immaculate conception when she is mistakenly artificially inseminated.
9. Link: Eat, Love, Kill
Link: Eat, Love, Kill has only just started, but with such an iridescent and charming opening, this darkly humorous fantasy-romcom-thriller-drama mash-up deserves a spot on our list.
8. Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area
Part 1 of Netflix’s Korean spin on its Spanish hit Money Heist doesn’t depart very much from the original story, beyond giving it a unique geopolitical spin, but with such a winning formula and dynamic cast, who cares? This is a slick and enjoyable update.
7. Through the Darkness
Kim Nam-gil suavely brings a fascinating real-life figure to the screen in this adaptation of a true-crime chronicle written by South Korea’s first criminal profiler. Much like David Fincher’s Mindhunter, the story finds a gifted behavioural investigator interviewing violent criminals to find out what makes them tick and how to catch others like them.
6. Thirty-Nine
5. Juvenile Justice
Screen doyen Kim Hye-soo makes her Netflix debut in grand fashion as a stern judge who presides over a juvenile court and becomes the focus of national attention when several high-high-profile cases appear on her docket.
4. Pachinko
Apple TV+’s sweeping epic brought Min Jin Lee’s acclaimed bestseller about Korean immigrants in Japan to a broad global audience, and garnered some of the best reviews of any show released this year.
3. Our Blues
Hit writer Noh Hee-kyung assembled the year’s starriest drama cast in Our Blues and each of them delivered in this earthy and heartwarming Jeju-set drama about a gregarious community of merchants, seafood divers and fishmongers.
Rather than mix everything up from the get-go, the story gives each relationship time to grow and breathe in individual episodes, while the rest of the cast buzz around in the background.
2. Twenty-Five, Twenty-One
Kim Tae-ri is an utter delight as the feisty fencer who comes of age in the kaleidoscopic and thoroughly engaging youth romance Twenty-Five, Twenty-One. She shares wonderful chemistry with co-star Nam Joo-hyuk, who puts in a quieter but no less impressive performance.
1. My Liberation Notes
My Mister writer Park Hae-young returned in outstanding fashion this year with the exceptional slice-of-life drama My Liberation Notes.
Son Suk-ku steals the show as the enigmatic Mr Gu, but the whole cast shines in this absorbing and complex tale about the frustrated dreams of a trio of siblings who commute into Seoul from the countryside, and the elusive personal freedom they attempt to achieve.
