2021 Dramas
While I watched a lot of 2021 dramas (a total of 40 out of the 71 I completed), I decided that there were too many older dramas that I couldn’t not include them in my top ten list of dramas watched this year. A departure from last year, which was a bad year for me to the point I had to add movies to bulk out the list. I tried to rank them, which proved hard as a group of dramas just felt like they were the same, so this list isn’t perfect in that regard but my #1 is definitively my top drama of this year.
10. Run On - 런온 (2021): Run On was a complete surprise for me. A drama that I only picked up because we were doing an episode on sports on the podcast, and wanted to try to at least watch some of a drama before the episode. I binged it over two days. The drama is simply about how you should keep going. Whether it’s small or large, just keep moving forward. It showcased characters’ relationships beautifully and was real with the hurt that life’s events could do to you, and didn’t try to be obnoxious in its sentiment. There was not a single time I didn’t feel the chemistry between all the cast and it made me love it even more.
9. Hospital Playlist 2 - 슬기로운 의사생활++ (2021): While the second season didn’t make it up as far on my list as the first one, it still was a solid drama. Listen, if you liked the first season, you’ll probably like this one. Hospital Playlist just has a special charm, and it was carried into this season. One of the biggest changes in the story was the focus on the secondary characters. While the first season spent some time with them, this season really started to flesh out their storylines and gave them more attention as those junior doctors and interns moved up in their positions and life.
8. Coma - 코마 (2006): I have a full review of this drama that can be found here if you want a detailed look at my thoughts, but I had to include it on this year’s top list - despite it being so old (the oldest drama I watched this year). A solid horror drama about the atrocities that happened to a hospital before its closure. It kept me interested and engaged, and I had a lot of fun with it.
7. The Guest - 손: The Guest (2018): Another drama that I have a review for so I won’t go too in depth with this blurb. I kept putting off watching this one far too long, especially since I had started watching it when it was airing. I just never made the time for it, and I’m glad to use the summer to finally do that. It’s got this really great mesh of crime/investigation with horror and doesn’t focus too much on religion despite it being about exorcisms. It’s on Netflix, just go watch it.
6. Memorist - 메모리스트 (2020): Memorist came out in quite possibly the worst time of my life, and so I didn’t get a chance to watch it airing. I finally picked it up this year, and am so glad I did. I had so much fun with this drama, I couldn’t stop watching. It’s got a great mix of crime, thriller, and fantasy with the main character being able to read people’s thoughts if he touches them. The drama doesn’t spend a lot of time on this, it’s part of the world and known by all and just that alone really melds it into the overall story without bogging it down with unnecessary filler to discuss it or even make the drama more of a fantasy than it needed to be.
5. Beyond Evil - 괴물 (2021): I’m sure this is on every crime/thriller lover’s list this year, and there’s a good reason. Beyond Evil takes you on an amazing journey where you don’t know what’s going to happen. It keeps you in this uncomfortable place because you don’t know who is good and who is evil, and if you should be agreeing with what they do. It’s an interesting way to keep you in that thriller state, and Shin Ha Kyun plays his role effortlessly and at a lot of times, disturbingly. If you didn’t get around to it this year you have to make room for it soon.
4. Youth of May - 오월의 청춘 (2021): Set during the Gwangju Uprising in the 1980's, Youth of May was the story of two ill-fated lovers. It’s a sad one, not only because of the pain of the two leads, but the pain of the events that are happening around them. While their story is not real, what is happening was, and the drama made time to focus the story on the heartbreak and horror of that time in South Korean history, even if it meant taking its focus away from our main couple. Lee Do Hyun and Go Min Si were fantastic in their betrayals and had a lot of chemistry. Make sure you have tissues around, you’ll need them.
3. Sell Your Haunted House - 대박부동산 (2021): I really didn’t think I was going to like Sell Your Haunted House as much as I was going to, and by the time it ended it had shot up to the top of my list. It’s one of those dramas that make you believe it’s going to be silly or light-hearted in between all the ghosts, and yet…it isn’t. Don’t get me wrong, there is some humor, but unlike a lot of dramas it knows when the humor should be there and when it should stop. The cast was incredible and the stories - including the main one with the two main characters - had a lot of depth to it. While it is about getting rid of the ghosts that haunt places, it focuses on the pain that has kept those deceased there.
2. Move to Heaven - 무브 투 헤븐: 나는 유품정리사입니다 (2021): I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to get this drama into my watching before the end of the year, and I really made the push to focus on it. I’m glad I did, because here it is sitting at number two on my list, sometimes those last-minute rushes do pay off. Move to Heaven is about a cleaning service for those who have passed. The main character is autistic, and after the loss of his father his uncle (right out of jail) comes to be his guardian. Each episode focuses on not just the main characters’ growth, but also the story of those they help. There was not a time in my watch that I wasn’t crying, and most of the time sobbing. It’s raw, emotional, and absolutely beautiful. Beyond worth the tears.
1. Happiness - 해피니스 (2021): At this point I feel like a broken record, and if you follow me any where else you knew that this was going to be my number one drama of the year. Not only is it my number one, it’s also has secured its self as one of my favorite dramas of all time. A ten out of ten, the drama hit every mark perfectly. Perfectly crafted horror, amazingly written characters, zombies, and my favorite type of love story - it has it all and more. I don’t even know what more to say. It just makes me…happy.
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