13 Best K-Dramas of 2024

It was an excellent year for Korean dramas — and with Squid Game season 2 on the horizon, there’s more to come.
Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
It was an excellent year for Korean dramas — and with Squid Game season 2 on the horizon, there’s more to come.
Time travel adds a relatively unique element that differentiates K-drama storylines from other shows, but there is also a very visceral component. K-drama story arcs excel at telling tales of love and revenge. And what better way is there to get these points across than depicting how love and revenge transcend all boundaries, including time?
Like “Under the Queen’s Umbrella,” “Lovely Runner” uses the 우산 to represent how our protagonists fight to protect themselves from countless obstacles — including a messy serial killer subplot that I found redundant and not particularly compelling.
My name isn’t uncommon in Korea. But, as you can imagine, I never had to worry about a classmate sharing my first name after we immigrated to Chicago. On the other hand, whenever my friends and I went to the mall to buy keychains or anything that had a name pre-printed on it, I never found my name listed anywhere along with the Julies and Kevins. Imagine my delight when I started watching Korean Dramas and saw characters who share my name!