Summary

• Thriller K-dramas are just as popular as romantic ones, with gripping narratives and twisty plots.
• Doctor Prisoner is a revenge-driven tale of a framed doctor seeking justice in prison, with meticulous planning.
• K-dramas like Stranger and Signal explore themes of justice, time travel, and unintended consequences.

While romantic K-dramas definitely create more vocal online fandoms, the best thriller K-dramas are equally popular. Besides the popular romantic K-dramas and melodramas, South Korea also creates thriller series that will have audiences on the edge of their seats. K-dramas continue to dominate streaming platforms, just like the gripping family drama Little Women and the nail-biting revenge show My Name. The genre is also known to feature a variety of thrilling narratives and stories, from cat and mouse stories involving serial killers to shows with creepy cults.

Thanks to platforms like Netflix and Rakuten Viki, viewers can easily binge thriller K-drama with riveting plots. What makes Korean drama series so interesting is they usually aren't bound by the same confines as their American counterparts. Many of the best K-dramas contain supernatural or fantasy elements, while others are beautiful period pieces, and K-drama thrillers are no different. K-dramas are usually more aesthetically pleasing than American programs, with attention to the smallest details, and there is no shortage of enthralling K-drama thrillers.

30 Doctor Prisoner (2019)

A Doctor Is Wrongly Imprisoned

One of the big themes in K-dramas is romance, but Doctor Prisoner features no romance. Instead, the focus is on revenge. Revenge and justice, unsurprisingly, are common themes in thrillers, and that’s the case for K-dramas that are thrillers as well.

Here, an emergency room doctor ends up in prison after being forced to quit his job when he is framed for malpractice and people he cares about are being put in danger left and right. He isn’t exactly serving a prison sentence but acts as a prison doctor while meticulously planning his revenge against those responsible for his misfortune. He forms numerous connections within the prison to make his plans come to fruition.

The series captured the attention of audiences and critics, winning Best Drama at the Seoul International Drama Awards and getting a slew of nominations at the KBS Drama Awards.

29 Signal (2016-)

Two Investigators In Different Times Connect Over An Old Radio

• Available to stream on Paramount+

Inspired by the 2000 movie Frequency and actual criminal cases in South Korea, Signal takes the idea of two people across time working to solve the same cases and allows them to actually one another with the use of a very special radio.

The modern storyline takes place in 2015 as one detective finds an old radio on which someone he doesn’t know starts talking to him like they’re old friends. The voice on the other end helps him solve a case, and he ends up being placed in a cold case unit. The voice is actually an investigator in the 1990s, working the cases on their end as well.

While the investigations are fascinating, just as fascinating is that their interactions cause ripples through time that create unintended consequences. Signal has been so successful that Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and Indian remakes of the series have been made.

Years later, a second season of the South Korean series is in development.

28 Stranger (2017-2020)

A Prosecutor And Police Officer Team Up

• Available to stream on Netflix

In one of the few thriller K-dramas to get multiple seasons, Stranger crafted a compelling story in its first season and then explored the consequences of it in the second.

The first season sees a prosecutor and a police lieutenant investigate a murder together. While they chase down leads, however, they find themselves thwarted at nearly every turn by people in charge of their offices as well as some of the chaebol families. They slowly uncover a conspiracy. In the second season, they team up again as each of their offices wants to lead their own version of an investigation with no cooperation. The conflicts mean that no progress is actually being made, making them believe working together is the best option to actually get justice.

Stranger became one of the highest-rated cable dramas in South Korea during its run. It also nabbed the Grand Prize at both the Seoul Awards and the Baeksang Arts Awards.

27 The King of Pigs (2022)

A Story Of Violence Spans Two Decades

• Currently unavailable to stream

This South Korean web series has mostly flown under the international radar. Adapted from an animated series, the story traverses 20 years with an investigation in the present and school violence in the past.

Two people in the present day are still affected by the bullying and violence committed in high school 20 years earlier. The story is told through the eyes of a killer and the eyes of the detective trying to solve the crimes. Throughout the series, however, the story flashes back to the high school days and then to the present to give the audience a full picture of how traumatic events of the past can affect the present.

With only 12 episodes, no episode of this series is filler. It’s a nail-biting way to provide social commentary on how teenagers treat one another and the lasting effects that treatment can have.

26 A Bloody Lucky Day (2023)

A Taxi Driver Experiences A Terrifying Fare

• Available to stream on Paramount+

A Bloody Lucky Day is inspired by a webtoon published by Naver. The series was so anticipated, it premiered the first two episodes at the Busan International Film Festival before it began airing on television. A global distribution deal was also made for the show throughout Paramount, ensuring that it could be broadcast or streamed outside of South Korea fairly quickly.

In the series, a taxi driver thinks he’s getting the best break of his life when a enger offers him a huge payment to take him somewhere. What he realizes throughout the course of the journey, however, is that his enger might actually be a serial killer, and he has to find a way to survive the experience.

The nail-biter hasn’t been a big name among Korean award shows, but it did snag nominations for the actors at the Bakesang Arts Festival.

25 Mask Girl (2023)

An Insecure Office Worker Becomes A Masked Internet Personality

• Available to stream on Netflix

Mask Girl examines three different moments in the life of an insecure office worker (played by three different actors throughout the series — Lee Han-byeol, Nana, and Go Hyun-jung). She longs for everyone to love her, and she needs adulation so badly that she develops the internet personality of "Mask Girl". However, her life spirals out of control due to a series of events surrounding her fame.

It’s an incredibly dark thriller of a K-drama, more graphic than many television viewers might expect.

These include crime, murder, and even her own child having to suffer the consequences of the actions that she causes. It’s an incredibly dark thriller of a K-drama, more graphic than many television viewers might expect. It was also creatively set up, with each episode following a specific character in the story. Based on the Naver webtoon of the same name by Mae-mi and Hee-se, the series took place over just one season with seven episodes. Ahn Jae-hong won Best ing Actor at the Baeksang Arts Awards for his performance as Joo Oh-nam.

24 My Name (2021)

A Woman s A Gang To Avenge Her Dather's Death

When a young woman’s father dies suddenly, she works her way up in a crime syndicate to find a way to gain revenge against those responsible for his death. Part of her work, however, involves going undercover for the criminal group inside the police force. She has to play a double agent for both sides and has a hard time figuring out where her loyalty should lie as she becomes close to both criminals and investigators.

The thriller K-drama is one that keeps up the mystery as well as whether a person is really a monster for wanting revenge. The series debuted three episodes at the 26th Busan International Film Festival and then launched on Netflix in October 2021. The series has a total of eight episodes, each checking in at just under an hour in length. Ahn Bo-hyun went on to win the Excellence Award, Actor in a OTT at the APAN Star Awards and Han So-hee was nominated for Best Actress at the Baeksang Arts Awards.

23 Beyond Evil (2021)

Two Detectives Try To Stop A Serial Killer

• Available to stream on Viki Rakuten

Another thriller K-drama that asks questions about monstrous humans is Beyond Evil. In the crime drama, the series sees two different detectives struggling to catch a serial killer. In order to get criminals off the streets, the detectives decide that they are willing to do anything to catch them, including breaking the law themselves. The darkness that they delve into makes them question who the real monster is — the serial killer or the ones searching for them.

The series is not based on a true story and is completely fictional, but there are comparisons to the real-life Hwaseong serial murder case. That comparison comes from the fact that the show was inspired by Memoirs of Murder, a movie by Bong Joon-ho, which was based on those murders. Beyond Evil was a huge success and scored eight nominations at the Baeksang Arts Awards in 2021. It won three of those awards, including Best Drama, Best Screenplay - Television, and Best Actor - Television for Shin Ha-kyun.

22 Dark Hole (2021)

A Detective Is Called Into A Town Whose Residents Have Mutated

• Available to stream on Rakuten Viki

One of the best K-drama thrillers is Dark Hole, which will have viewers on the edge of their seats with a mystery, thriller, and dark fantasy story. Lee Hwa-Sun is a detective in Seoul whose life is turned upside down when she's called by her husband's murderer. She's told to go to Mujishi, but there's a problem. The residents of the town are closed off as many have transformed into heinous mutants after breathing in mysterious dark smoke from a sinkhole.

With a dire need to catch Lee Hwa-Sun's (played by Kim Ok-vin of the hidden gem The Villainess) husband's killer, she ventures to Mujishi and s forces with a former cop-turned driver. This was the fifth installment of the "Dramatic Cinema" project by OCN, which combined the elements of film and drama. The season had 12 total episodes, and it originally aired in 2021. What started out as a strong K-drama horror series soon ventured into sci-fi territory while keeping the mystery strong until the end.

21 Possessed (2019)

A Cop Who Can See Ghosts Meets A Woman Who Can Read Minds

Among the best Netflix K-drama thrillers for supernatural mystery is Possessed. Sometimes ghosts and the paranormal world make for a more interesting storyline and series. In Possessed, two unlikely individuals meet and team up to solve crimes, leading to some nail-biting sequences. Kang Pil-Sung (Song Sae-Byeok) is a good detective but is somewhat crude and can be a bit lazy. He meets Hong Seo-Jung (Koh Joon-Hee), a woman who hides her psychic abilities from others.

In the supernatural K-drama, they partner up and take on a difficult case involving the ghost of a murderer from 20 years ago. While Kang has started learning that he can now see ghosts, he has to figure out what this means when he works with Hong, who shares the same ability, but can also read minds and sometimes control people. The series has 16 total episodes, and while it has an overall mystery they have to solve, it's also set up as a procedural, as the two work together to solve crimes.