Film & TV

5 New K-Dramas to Watch After 'Squid Game'

From romantic comedies to action-packed thrillers, we're breaking down your next big Friday night binge.

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With its widespread popularity drawing parallels to several critically-acclaimed TV shows like Game of Thrones and The Handmaid's Tale, Squid Game has drawn millions of viewers into its dark world of children's games. Garnering recognition as one of Netflix's biggest hits thus far, the show is set to be the streaming platform's most-watched series of all time. The foreign-language thriller has amassed a following of avid K-drama viewers, as well as notable newcomers whose obsession with the horror hit sparked conspiracy theories surrounding its chilling ending and speculations for a following season.

Squid Game, named after a popular children's game in South Korea, is a social satire horror series that encompasses the struggles of impoverished, debt-ridden people who play a series of violent children's games out of desperation—with the promises of a ₩45.6 billion ($38.6 million) cash prize if they make it alive through six life-threatening challenges.

The chillingly vicious show caused social media buzz around the world, and much like Bong Joon-ho's Oscar-winning thiller film Parasite, the South Korean film and TV industry is making waves around the world for its impeccable directing, acting, and screenplay. With Squid Game being merely a nine-episode series, with a following season still under wraps, here's a list of upcoming K-dramas to look forward to this fall season.

The King's Affection

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A quintissential K-drama series set to release on October 11, The King's Affection is a historical-drama and romance series based on a South Korean comic. The show is centered around a hidden princess, Lee Hwi (Park Eun Bin), who was sent back to the palace after the sudden death of her twin brother. Her mother, the Crown Prince’s wife, orders her to disguise herself as the crown prince, the monarch’s heir.

My Name

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Coming October 15, Netflix's newest K-drama series My Name follows a young woman, Yoon Ji-Woo (played by Nevertheless actress Han So-hee) who seeks to avenge her father's untimely death by working with a drug gang. A revenge-driven Ji-Woo ultimately works under the drug investigation unit of a police department and becomes an undercover cop eager to unveil her father's mysterious death.

Hellbound

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Set to launch November 19, Hellbound is a fantasy-horror drama that is centered around the concept of a death angel. The paranormal phenomenon lures a detective (Yang Ik-june), a lawyer (Kim Hyun-joo), and program director of a broadcasting station (Park Jeong-min) to unveil the origins, truths, and mysteries behind the supernatural creatures who condemn people to hell. The series is directed by Yeon Sang-Ho who is celebrated for directing the zombie-hit movie Train to Busan.

The Silent Sea

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With a star-studded line up of notable South Korean actors such as Gong Yoo, Bae Doona, and Lee Joon, The Silent Sea is a sci-fi thiller series scheduled to release by the end of 2021. Set in 2075, where the planet suffers from a scarcity of resources from food to water, a special space agency team was given a mission to collect mysterious samples from the silent sea—an abandoned space station on the moon. The Silent Sea is a TV show adaptation of the 2014 film The Sea of Tranquility written and directed by Choi Hang-yong who is also set to direct the upcoming series. 

Snowdrop

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Although the official release date for Snowdrop has yet to be announced, with several delays causing fervent speculation over its release, the much-anticipated series has caused media frenzies over the last year since it's announcement of Blackpink's Jisoo as the female lead. Snowdrop is centered around university students, played by Jung Hae-In and Jisoo, who develop a romatic relationship during a historical and pivotal year in South Korean history where the then-authoritarian government held democratic elections and later enforced constitutional reforms.

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