MsLatté’s Daebak Cybercafé (Kdrama addicts #49: Still reeling from the insanity of When the Stars Gossip, we dust off our party frocks to present Daebak Café’s 2024 best scoring shows

[boatyardblues]

A quiet corner of MN for serious addicts of Kdrama, or the K-curious. Most of our viewing is drawn from Netflix, Viki, Amazon Prime, AppleTV and Disney+. There are also platforms streaming content illegally if you go looking. We don’t promote them as they are peppered with pop-ups of “Olga” and friends offering a good time, but we can point you in the right direction. We also dip into Japanese, Taiwanese & Chinese drama - the best are listed below.

The previous thread is here. Our list is cumulative & includes previous threads’ recommendations and favourites. Shows marked with a star are more uniformly loved or admired. On genre categories, its important to note most Korean dramas have multiple strands - e.g. supernatural, romance and a thriller; crime series with fantasy elements. Genre-busting mash-ups are normal. Series that are tagged as dark may also have moments of comedy or the absurd, likewise fluff can have heavier moments. This tonal chaos is part of kdrama’s charm. View the categories below as best approximate & ask if you need guidance about suitability for younger viewers.

Comedy
I picked up a celebrity on the street (Viki)
LTNS (no major platform yet)
My Fellow Citizens (Viki/Netflix)
The Fiery Priest (Netflix)

Crime/Thriller
Bloodhounds (Netflix)
Come and Hug Me (Dramafast)
Graceful Family (Viki)
Healer (Netflix)🌟
Heartless City (Viki)
He is Psychometric (Viki)
I Hear Your Voice (Netflix /Viki) Killer Paradox (Netflix)
Life on Mars (classy remake of BBC series, no major site yet)
Little Women (Netflix)
Maestra (Disney+)
My Name (Netflix)
My Secret Terrius (Netflix)🌟
Signal (Netflix)🌟
Somebody (Netflix, content warning: sexual & violence)
Snowdrop (Disney+)
Stranger - 2 seasons (Netflix)
Suspicious Partner (Netflix)🌟
The Lies Within (Netflix)🌟
The Worst of Evil (Disney+)
Tunnel (Netflix)🌟
Vigilante (Disney+)

Historical/Period drama (“sageuk”)
100 Days My Prince (Viki/Netflix)
Crowned Clown (Viki/Netflix)🌟
Missing Crown Prince (Viki)
Mr Queen (Viki)🌟
Mr Sunshine (Netflix)
My Dearest (Viki)
Our Blooming Youth (Viki)
Pachinko (AppleTV)
Rookie Historian Goo Hae-Ryung (Netflix)
Tale of Nokdu (Viki/Netflix)🌟
The Forbidden Marriage (Viki)
The King’s Affection (Netflix)
The Red Sleeve (Viki)🌟

Makjang
Perfect Marriage Revenge (Viki)

Romance - lighter & fluffier
Beating Again (Netflix)
Business Proposal (Netflix)
Coffee Prince (Netflix)
Dali & the Cocky Prince (Viki)
Destined with You (Netflix)
Don’t Dare to Dream (Netflix, or as The Eighth Sense [BL] (Viki)
Jealousy Incarnate on Viki)🌟
Gogh, The Starry Night (Viki)
Happy Once Again (Netflix)
Her Private Life (Viki/Netflix)
His Master’s Sun (Netflix) 🌟 Hometown Cha Cha Cha (Viki)🌟
King The Land (Netflix)
Love for Love’s Sake(QiYi)
Love from a Star (Netflix)🌟
Lovely Runner (Viki)
Lovestruck in the City (Netflix)
Monthly Magazine Home (Viki)
Pinocchio (Netflix)
Race (Disney+)
Radio Romance (Netflix)
Romance is the Bonus Book (Netflix)🌟
Run On (Netflix)
Semantic Error [BL] (Viki)
She Was Pretty (Netflix)🌟
The Beauty Inside (Viki/Netflix)
The Secret Life of My Secretary (Viki/Netflix)
Thirty Not Seventeen (Viki) or as Still 17 (Netflix)
To My Star [BL] (Viki)
True Beauty (Viki)
Twenty-five Twenty-one (Netflix)🌟
Wedding Impossible (Viki)
Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo (Netflix/Viki)
What’s Up With Secretary Kim (Viki)🌟
Where Stars Land (Viki)🌟
You are my Destiny (Netflix)
You Make Me Dance [BL] (Viki)
Yumi’s Cells (Viki)

Romance - heavier weight/more grown up themes
Another Miss Oh (Netflix)🌟
Because This Is My First Life (Viki/Netflix)🌟
Chicago Typewriter (Viki/Netflix)🌟
Crash Course in Romance (Netflix)
Crash Landing on You (Netflix)🌟
Daily Dose of Sunshine (Netflix)
Descendants of the Sun (Viki/Netflix)
Doctors (Netflix)
Doom At Your Service (Netflix/Viki)
Extraordinary Attorney Woo (Netflix)
Fight For My Way (Viki/Netflix)🌟
Go Back Couple (Viki)/Couple on the Backtrack (Netflix)
I’ll Go To You When The Weather is Nice (Viki)/When the Weather is Nice (Netflix)
It’s OK Not To Be OK (Netflix) Just Between Lovers (Viki)/Rain or Shine (Netflix)🌟
Mad For Each Other (Netflix)🌟
Marry My Husband (
Melo is my Nature (Viki)/Be Melodramatic (Netflix)🌟
My Strange Hero (Viki)
One Spring Night (Netflix)
Red Carpet - film (Netflix, very adult content)
Romantic Dr Kim - seasons 1&2 (Viki), season 3 (Disney+)
Search: WWW (Viki, Netflix)🌟
Something in the Rain (Netflix)
Tell Me That You Love Me (Disney+)
The Atypical Family (Netflix)
The Handmaid (film, Netflix - content warning: explicit sexual content)
The Package (Viki)

Straighter ‘Slice of Life’ dramas on universal themes
Gaus Electronics (Viki)🌟
Family By Choice (Viki)⭐️
First Responders (Disney+)
Hospital Playlist (Netflix)🌟
Hospital Playlist 2 (Netflix)🌟
Into The Ring (Viki)
Itaewon Class (Netflix)
Live (Netflix)
Misaeng (Netflix)🌟
My Liberation Notes🌟
Move to Heaven (Netflix)
My Mister (Viki/Netflix)🌟
My Unfamiliar Family (Viki)🌟
Navillera (Netflix)🌟
Not Others (Viki)
Prison Playbook (Netflix)🌟 On The Verge of Insanity (Viki)
Once Again (Viki)
Our Blues (Netflix)🌟
Stove League (Viki)/Hot Stove League (Netflix)
Racket Boys (Netflix)
The Good Bad Mother (Netflix)
Would You Like a Cup of Coffee (Viki/Netflix)🌟

Supernatural/zombies/vampires/fantasy/sci-fi - lighter & fluffier
A Time Called You (Netflix)
Alchemy of Souls (Netflix) 🌟Extraordinary You (Netflix)
Goblin (Viki)🌟 I am not a Robot (Netflix)
Legend of the Blue Sea (Viki/Netflix)
Kiss Goblin (Viki, webdrama)
My Holo Love (Netflix)🌟
My Lovely Liar (Viki)
Orange Marmalade (Netflix)
Twinkling Watermelon (Viki)
While You Were Sleeping (Viki)🌟

Supernatural/zombies/vampires/fantasy/sci-fi - darker/more grown up themes
#Alive (Netflix)
Black (Netflix)🌟
Delivery Man (Viki)
Happiness (Viki/Netflix)🌟
Hotel del Luna (Viki/Netflix)🌟
King: The Eternal Monarch (Netflix)
Kingdom (Netflix)🌟 Kingdom: Ashin of the North (Netflix)
Light Shop (Disney+)
Moon in the Day (Viki)
Moving (Disney+)
Mystic Pop-up Bar (Netflix)
Peninsula - film, Train to Busan sequel (Amazon Prime, iMovies)
Sisyphus (Netflix)
Sell Your Haunted House (Netflix)
The Guest (Netflix)
Train to Busan - film (Amazon Prime)
W: Two Worlds (Viki & Netflix)🌟
Zombie Detective (Viki/Netflix)

Guilty Pleasures (for the joy, not the quality)
Bride of Habaek (Netflix)
Hwarang (Viki/Netflix)
My Secret Romance (Viki)
The Last Empress (Viki/Netflix)
Sassy Go Go (Netflix)

Mad as a box of frogs/uncategorisable
Chicken Nugget (Netflix)
Behind Your Touch (Netflix) Strong Girl Bong Soon (Netflix)
School Nurse Files (Netflix)

Not Korean ‘You May Also Like’
Regulars also branch out into Japanese, Taiwanese and Chinese drama. The Chinese & Taiwanese stuff is much more variable quality-wise, so we’ve noted anything decent here:

Before We Get Married (Viki - Taiwanese)
F4 Thailand (Viki)
Fake it Till You Make it (Viki)
Find Yourself (Netflix - Chinese)
First Love (Netflix - Japanese)⭐️
Go Go Squid (Viki - Chinese)
I’m Married But… (Netflix - Taiwanese)⭐️
In House Marriage Honey (Viki, Japanese)
In Time With You (Viki - Japanese)
Instead of Tipsy Why Not Get Drunk (Viki, Chinese)
Let’s Talk About Chu (Netflix, Taiwan)⭐️
Lost Romance [BL] (Viki, Taiwanese)
Love O2O (Viki, Chinese)
Meet Yourself (Viki, Chinese)
Million Yen Women (Netflix, Japanese)
Morning Call (Netflix, Japanese)
My Little Happiness (Viki, Chinese)
My Personal Weatherman [BL] (Jdrama, Viki)
Orange Days (Japan, Netflix)
Put Your Head on My Shoulder (Netflix, Chinese)
Rinko Wants To Try (Viki, Japanese)
Some Day or One Day (Viki, Taiwanese)
Sweat and Soap (Viki, Japanese)
The Makanai (Netflix, Japanese)
The Romance of Tiger & Rose (Viki, Chinese)
The Untamed (Nertlix, Chinese)
To Fly with Me (Viki, Chinese)
Tientsin Mystic (Netflix, Chinese)
You Are My Hero (Viki, Chinese)⭐️

*AVOID aka “the shit list” *💩
Melting Me Softly
The Birth of a Beauty
Well-Intentioned Love season 1 (S2 is fine & stands alone)

Top scoring 2024 dramas with 5 or more votes
Overall scores reduced due to more voters this year.
#1 A Shop For Killers 9
#2 Lovely Runner 8.8
#3 Let's Talk About CHU Score 8.8
#4 Family By Choice 8.6
#5 Squid Game 2 8.5
#6 Mr Plankton: 8.3
Full run down by Bettys here.

Top Scoring 2023 Dramas
#1 Bloodhounds 8.9
#2 = The Good Bad Mother 8.8
#2 = Deaths Game 8.8
#2 = Moving 8.8 #
#2 = The Glory 8.8 (#2 rankings by number of votes)

Top Scoring 2022 Dramas
#1 My Liberation Notes 9.45
#2 Alchemy of Souls 9.10
#3 First Love 8.88 (Jdrama)
#4 Our Blues 8.83
#5 Gaus Electronics 8.75

Top Scoring 2021 Dramas
#1 The Red Sleeve - 10
#2 Happiness - 9
#3 Devil Judge - 8.75
#4 Squid Game - 8.6
#5 Navillera - 8.57

Top Scoring 2020 dramas
#1 Mr Queen - 9.4
#2 Parasite (film) - 9.05
#3 It's Okay To Not Be Okay - 8.88
#4 The Uncanny Counter - 8.50
#5 Once Again - 8.42

Top Scoring 2019 dramas:
#1 Her Private Life - 9.40
#2 Melo is My Nature - 9.00
#3 tied: Crash Landing On You, The Crowned Clown, The Lies Within, and The Tale of Nokdu - 8.75
#4 Hotel del Luna - 8.50
#5 tied: Romance is a Bonus Book, and Search: WWW - 8.17

We are fans of all things Korean, so equally happy to talk about Korean cookery, language, current affairs, film and music when the mood takes us. A few of us are learning Korean, Japanese and/or Mandarin (some more diligently than others), so we swap tips and links to language resources. Basically, anything topical goes.

S Line is weird and very disturbing. More interesting though is that the subject matter of sexual history and cultural attitudes to sexual encounters outside of marriage is now deemed suitable for a Korean drama.

Hello Chingus, sorry been off radar for a while, as teens are back from Uni and so my K-drama viewing has slowed. Teens both loved KPop Demon Hunters and keep telling me to watch it. I've not got there yet as feeling a bit old for cartoon format or should I do it? On my holidays at the moment and drove through Switzerland but not via CLOY country. Discovered Better Late Than Single and am having a ball. Only on Ep 2, so need to catch you all up. Seo In-guk looking really rather lovely ;-)

Dropping backing in to 😍 about Our Unwritten Seoul, which was just perfect. I've not got involved in the spreadsheet thing so far, but I might be brave this time to give a perfect 10. Just one small thing though, the ultrasound pictures at the beginning and end look to be clear fraternal rather than identical twins 🤔

I've also had Stranger on the go for a while, dipping in an out and DH and I are very much enjoying the silliness of Hyde, Jekyll, Me. That one was definitely sketched out on a beer mat after a long week at work! 😆

I'm not really a reality TV fan, so haven't been tempted by Better Late Than Single but Seo In-Guk, you say..? 😳

And thanks to whoever posted the Swiss CLoY article link, very interesting! I live somewhere that has recently and suddenly appeared on people's radar in a similar-ish fashion and it's surreal to now see (mostly) American, Canadian and Australian tourists taking photos/selfies in perfectly normal (to me) places like pubs, the church, even the train station! 😲🙈🤣

(Edited to give end of term fist-bumps to @peanutcookie and any other educational survivors.)

Im enjoying Head over Heels on Prime. Its the story of a teenage girl shaman and her battle to keep her first love safe from ghosts. Its very funny. I really like the fantasy lite thing that some KDramas do, that "mad as a box of frogs" category has all my favourites in!

Sounds like my sort of thing @turkeyboots, I love the completely bonkers ones too 😆

Head Over Heels is great!

Oh, amongst all the love for Head over Heels, the ML's hands are giving me the ick. They're wrinkled, bony and have dracula length nails .... on a highschooler.😬

Apart from that, it's a shamanfest, which I love. I went to one in SK last year and I'm still waiting............. promises, promises.😆

Oh I get the hand thing. But ML isn't as bad compared to the cast of "We were liars" also on Prime. I had to stop watching the very much not 16yos as it annoyed me too much.

Apart from that, it's a shamanfest, which I love. I went to one in SK last year and I'm still waiting............. promises, promises

Migs, I went to a fortune teller in Jeonju and he told me I was good at maths. Hmm….as I’d got 4% in my maths O level I didn’t have much confidence in his other pronouncements.

🤣🤣🤣

Andante, mine was in Jeonju too! A female with a shaven head. I have a photo of her somewhere. I should have wasted my KRW on fried squid or those delicious PNB choco pies and doughnuts instead. YUM!!!

Law and the City (Viki) is improving after a slow start and the family story of Kang You-seok's character is one I want to know more about.

On the perilla growing front, the warm year has led to another good crop of plants.🙌 I harvested about 300gms of leaves and made perilla kimchi a few days ago.
I might break even in about 5 years, on the cost of setting up raised beds and buying soil, manure, pots and seeds. 😆

You’re doing important work here Miggs. You’re putting in the hard yards and can share your learning in a couple of years so we all grow our own without grief. 😄

Between the family watching the footy, Love Island and me getting waylaid by a documentary series on Netflix about critical trauma care in London, I am way behind on my kdramas. It’s lovely having my kids around over the summer but also very annoying having to timeshare the TV. 😆

We’ve just planted some perilla seeds so fingers crossed.

We’ve finished The S Line. The ending was odd and it seemed the series was a prequel - not sure if that’s the case.
It was pretty graphic for a K drama, especially the scene with the music teacher in the hotel but we enjoyed it and it held my attention throughout. Excellent acting and Lee Soo Hyuk was brilliant as the cop.

I had to check the number of episodes as I wasn't even sure that it was the finale.

Drumroll please! I'm on holiday in a UK cottage and for the past 3 nights before bed, the teens have watched an episode of Heavenly Ever After with DH and I and have expressed tentative enthusiasm for continuing this for all 12 episodes! They're finding the swinging between silly/humorous/serious/touching/dark to be strange but intriguing, so 🤞

💪Parenting goals! 😆

I've just got back from Interrailing through Switzerland, and managed to make a stop off in Interlaken to see the famous CLOY pontoon (minus piano) There were a LOT of visitors taking photos! It was idyllically pretty but they were specifically there for the CLOY connection.

Great photos bettys, especially the one of the new turnstile which is wonderfully nostalgic of old Victorian piers, although it must be the shortest pier ever to charge - the power of television!
We've also just got back from holiday and didn't watch much tv while we were away but did watch Officer Black Belt which was more enjoyable than I was expecting (possibly in the same way cheap wine tastes better on holiday 😁)
Anyway, I've got a lot of catching up to do. I'm very behind on First Night with the Duke.

Seconded on your beautiful photos. It looks like you had perfect weather on the day you visited.

Roll on the end of Love Island. I’m waiting for tonight’s to end so I can finish the penultimate episode of Better Late than Single. 🙄 The LI people come across so fake compared to the eternally single BLTS nerd poppets.

betty's photos might inspire those of us in Europe to join the CLOY tourist trail in Switzerland!

BLTS had the perfect ending for me. The Korean mothers watching the show were probably all shouting at their tvs in frustration, " Why is no one picking the surgeon?"😄

Swiss trains run to the exact second, so pretty straightforward too, I'd imagine. I once did a journey with 5 connections (one with only 3 mins to change trains) and everything was on time, no drama, stress-free. And double decker trains are always fun 😁

I’ve heard the same about the trains in South Korea. I am looking forward to being somewhere where the transport network works for a couple of weeks. It will be as novel as many of the other cultural experiences. 😆

My kids loved the double-decker trains in Germany @PunksVersusBrats .

I’ve now finished ep 10 over lunch. It concluded very satisfactorily. When the surgeon appeared in the 5 min library to do his final vote I realised I’d barely seen him. What a waste!