While there’s a plethora of great K-dramas I can never recommend enough, there are a few I wouldn’t recommend to a friend. It is safe to say that there is a K-drama for everyone. However, that doesn't mean every Korean show is the right one for you.

K-drama writers and directors are famous for producing TV shows with nuanced characters that blend different genres, which may not always work for everyone. The success of K-dramas like Goblin, Crash Landing On You, and Squid Game has made Korean shows more popular than ever, and it can be difficult to pick a new series to start.

It is difficult to find a Korean drama that is bad from start to finish. Some just tend to be too long, have undesirable endings, or have stories that don’t hold up. Although what makes a K-drama a masterpiece is subjective, there are a few that I would tell a friend to think twice about before watching.

10 Playful Kiss (2010)

Playful Kiss Doesn't Add Anything New To The Subgenre

Fresh off his Boys Over Flowers role, Kim Hyun-joong starred in Playful Kiss. The K-drama was adapted from the Japanese manga, Itazura Na Kiss, by Tada Kaoru. The 2010 Playful Kiss was the third adaptation of the manga. The Korean series centers around Oh Ha-ni, an unpopular girl struggling with her grades who falls for Baek Seung-jo, the most popular boy in her class. Seung-jo, however, will not give her the time of day.

Playful Kiss isn’t all bad. It's wholesome, funny, and has a great cast. What works against it is that it's too cliché. There are other TV shows with similar stories that are far more interesting. Further, the way Ha-ni relentlessly pursued Seung-jo even when he told her countless times that he wasn’t interested in her hasn’t aged well. She’s portrayed as not having any self-respect, and her only goal is to get with the popular boy.

9 Empress Ki (2013)

Empress Ki Is A Long And Complex K-Drama

Empress Ki was one of the most popular period K-dramas at the time it aired. With beautiful costumes and a great cast, it’s easy to see why it became a domestic and international success. Jang Young-chul and Jung Kyung-soon's series centers around Ki Seung-nyang, a lowly-born woman, and her ascension to power. Empress Ki is an intriguing K-drama with a strong female lead and interesting court politics.

Empress Ki is set in the Yuan Dynasty.

However, Empress Ki’s strength is also its weakness. While the Korean drama’s 51 episodes do a great job of fleshing out the TV show’s characters, they also work against it. Traditional K-dramas usually only have about 16 to 22 episodes, so 51 is a bit too long. Because of how long the series is, it tends to drag at times, and that can be hard to sit through.

8 The Heirs (2013)

The Heirs Didn't Know What To Do With Its Characters

Penned by Goblin’s Kim Eun-sook, The Heirs should have been another amazing K-drama, but unfortunately, it had several shortcomings that made it a tough watch. Also known as The Inheritors, the romantic K-drama stars Lee Min-ho as Kim Tan and Park Shin-hye as Cha Eun-sang. The series depicts Kim Tan’s and Eun-sang's budding romance. As the two fall for each other, they have to overcome several challenges that threaten their relationship.

The Heirs isn’t unique in any way, although Lee Min-ho brought his famous charisma to the K-drama. The Heirs is full of cliches and tells a story that is way too overused. The rich boy who falls for a poor girl premise has been seen countless times, and unfortunately, The Heirs doesn’t add anything new to the trope. Lee Min-ho’s other K-drama that has a similar storyline, Boys Over Flowers, is better in a lot of ways than The Heirs.

7 Cheese In The Trap (2016)

Cheese In The Trap Should Have Had A Better Ending

Based on the webtoon by Sonkki of the same name, Cheese in the Trap stars Park Hae-jin as Yoo Jung and Kim Go-eun as Hong Seol. The K-drama follows Yoo Jung, a rich and manipulative boy who begins to fall for Hong Seol, a hardworking college student who is mainly concerned with graduating, until her life is upended by Yoo Jung’s presence. Cheese in the Trap received mixed reviews, mainly because there was a lot to like but also dislike about it.

Cheese in the Trap had great characters, but it also failed to properly develop some of them, particularly when it came to Yoo Jung, who couldn’t decide if he was a bad guy or a good guy. The K-drama also has a weird shift midway through that has a different tone from its earlier episodes and fails to balance the subplots with the main story. Cheese in the Trap’s biggest shortcoming, however, is its ending. The conclusion to the show is very underwhelming when compared to how it formulated its story from the beginning.

6 Love Alarm (2019)

Love Alarm Is Too Convoluted

As the first K-drama to debut on Netflix, there were a lot of high expectations for Love Alarm, including because it had Song Kang in the cast, who at the time was still a newcomer to the subgenre. The K-drama is set in the modern world where an app informs people if there is someone close by who likes them. With its sci-fi premise, Love Alarm set itself apart from other K-dramas with a high school setting.

Kingdom was the first K-drama to be commissioned by Netflix, but Love Alarm premiered before Kingdom.

That being said, upon closer look, Love Alarm is too dystopian and convoluted. While the concept of having an app that reveals the true feelings of its characters is fun, it's a little dark, particularly because some emotions should be private and not be broadcast to the rest of the world. Love Alarm is also unnecessarily complicated, more so because simplicity would have been its biggest strength.

5 Save Me (2017)

Save Me Is Extremely Dark

A lot of K-dramas usually have complex themes mixed in with their plot, which is evident in hit Netflix shows like Squid Game and Hellbound. Save Me is no exception, as the thriller K-drama tells a chilling story of a family that is broken apart by the death of their son, and so they seek healing from a pastor who promises to heal them.

While Save Me is a nuanced show that has a lot of great things going for it, like Woo Do-hwan and Seo Yea-ji’s performance, it's also incredibly dark. Save Me can be disturbing and difficult to watch. The way the characters evolve into shadows of themselves and the bullying in the series can be too much to handle. Save Me’s heavy storyline is, of course, important, but then again, it is not for everyone.

4 The Bride Of Habaek (2017)

The Bride Of Habaek Didn't Flesh Out Its Characters

A spinoff of Bride of the Water God, The Bride of Habaek was released 11 years after the original series premiered. The supernatural K-drama centers around Lord Ha-baek, the god of the Land of Water, who asks So-ah, a human, to help retrieve the sacred stones for him to become the king in the Divine Realm. The Bride of Habaek, like many other K-dramas, combines several genres. While in some cases this works, The Bride of Habaek failed to properly execute its story.

When compared to similar fantasy K-dramas like Goblin, which set the standard for the subgenre, it makes it even more difficult to enjoy The Bride of Habaek.

The Bride of Habaek had too much going for it and could at times feel rushed. Some aspects of the plot, such as Ha-baek’s backstory, took too long to be revealed, which was frustrating because it was a significant part of the K-drama. All in all, The Bride of Habaek had a lot of concepts that it didn’t really know what to do with, so it ultimately fell flat. When compared to similar fantasy K-dramas like Goblin, which set the standard for the subgenre, it makes it even more difficult to enjoy The Bride of Habaek.

3 My Girlfriend Is A Gumiho (2010)

My Girlfriend Is A Gumiho Isn't As Great As Other Fantasy K-Dramas

My Girlfriend is a Gumiho was a critical and audience success at the time it premiered in 2010. The Korean drama received several awards and follows Cha Dae-woong, an aspiring actor who accidentally releases a nine-tailed fox spirit he ends up falling for. Nine-tailed foxes often make an appearance in fantasy K-dramas as they are a significant part of Korean folklore, and My Girlfriend is a Gumiho does a great job of including the lore in its story.

My Girlfriend is a Gumiho isn’t by any means a terrible K-drama. The main issue with the show is that it is predictable. The storyline isn’t particularly interesting, and it could have fared better with more exciting scenes. My Girlfriend is a Gumiho also didn’t fully develop its characters. Dae-woong could be childish and a little annoying at times, which can be difficult to overlook because he had so much potential.

2 When The Stars Gossip (2025)

When The Stars Gossip's Ending Was Less Than Desirable

When The Stars Gossip was one of the most anticipated K-dramas of 2025, and for good reason. It starred the renowned South Korean actors Lee Min-ho and Gong Hyo-jin, and was the first romantic K-drama to take place in space. When the Stars Gossip chronicles Eve Kim and Gong Ryong’s complex love story as they navigate their lives in a high-stakes environment. Lee Min-ho, Gong Hyo-jin, and the rest of the cast of When the Stars Gossip were amazing in the K-drama and ended up being the show’s saving grace.

Despite its cool concept, When The Stars Gossip failed to deliver. It had everything to become one of 2025's best K-dramas, but it had storylines and moments that didn’t fit in with what the show promised. Perhaps When the Stars Gossip’s biggest downfall was its ending. The K-drama built itself up to have an incredible conclusion to Eve and Ryong’s story, but instead fell short.

1 Strangers From Hell (2019)

Strangers From Is Scary

Strangers From Hell, or Hell Is Other People, doesn’t take too long to show that it isn’t an ordinary K-drama. The horror Korean series depicts Yoon Jong-woo’s story as he embarks on a new journey after moving to Seoul. Unfortunately, the apartment building he moves into has a lot of questionable characters that make him begin to doubt his sanity. Im Si-wan and Lee Dong-wook are, as usual, a joy to watch and bring a certain gravitas to their characters.

The show has many twists and a dark storyline that can be, at times, scary. Strangers From Hell does an incredible job of creating a tension-filled story that keeps audiences guessing, but it is also too complex. The subject matter in the Korean series can be heavy and creepy. Strangers From Hell also takes a bit of time to find its rhythm, which makes it frustrating, especially for someone who is not already into K-dramas.