These are ranked by levels of toxicity and romance — this list is not correlated with being the best overall show (that would be Beyond Evil) or closest to canon (probably Chief Kim or The Devil Judge).
Hey! Could you maybe recommend a more cozy feel good kdramas? Thanks! 😊
We all love a good Cozy Drama!
Warm & Cozy K-dramas:
Hometown Cha Cha Cha: Slice of life drama that takes place in a small town. Lots of great characters and the romance is cuuuute.
Your House Helper: A very sweet drama centering three woman who live together and the healing each of them needs. This one is waaaay underrated!
Soundtrack #1: A short drama about two friends. One of them is helping the other write a love song (while also being in love with her). It's cute!
Romance Is A Bonus Book: Noona romance, workplace drama about two family friends who fall in love.
I'll Go To You When The Weather Is Nice: A small town drama about an introverted book shop owner and a woman that moves back home. They have a bookclub with the neighbors that is excellent! One note: Some streaming sites block the conversation at book club and just place music over it (I think it's a rights thing). If you don't hear words, try and watch it somewhere else. (That edit is really annoying)
A Piece Of Your Mind: A melo romance that takes place primarily at a small music studio. The domestic bliss in this one is very adorable.
12 Nights: A short drama about two people that meet and spend a total of 12 nights together.
One Spring Night: A Slice of life love story about a single dad and a librarian.
Touch Your Heart: A more traditional rom com between a lawyer and a celebrity, but there's almost no tension whatsoever so I really enjoyed that.
Run On: I'm not sure if this counts as cozy but I found this drama to be super comforting. Must be all of the soft people in it!
Just Between Lovers: I'm not sure this drama is actually warm and cozy because there is a LOT of trauma, but the couple is one of my comfort couples so I'll just put it here anyways.
Here's all my absolute 10/10 dramas, both korean and chinese with ratings, tags, and my thoughts in general.
Lovely Runner - 10/10
Finished 2024-05
Truly a masterpiece from start to finish. Some incredible twists at the beginning that take the plot to somewhere completely new. The fantasy is handled so well in developing the love story and tension. SML borders on second lead syndrome, but they are the only drama to handle that role properly imo. Honestly perfect. Not a single episode or plot point I didn’t like.
Favourite quote: “It will rain tomorrow. Then as you wait for the rain to stop, live another day. If you keep this up, there might a come a day when life doesn’t seem so miserable.”
Tags: time travel, love triangle, idol drama, rom com, serial killer villain, mental health and disability themes
Twenty Five, Twenty On - 10/10
Finished 2023-08
I will never recover from this drama. I cried and laughed and fell so in love with the entire cast. The friendship between the two female leads is beautiful. Nam Joo-hyuk the actor that you are. That ending will be permanently etched on my heart. Another incredible display of how talented female writers are in kdramas.
Favourite line: “It’s love. I love you, Hee-do. I don’t need a rainbow.”
Tags: melodrama, sports, friends to lovers
Hospital Playlist 1 & 2- 10/10
If you like Grey's Anatomy for the relationships and friendship however, this is the show for you. Medical stuff is sometimes boring in this one, but the found family and ships 100% make up for it. Also there's like 100 episodes of behind the scenes to watch and the cast is too cute.
Season 2 is honestly even cuter than season 1. I love this show so much. I dunno why people didn't like this season as much, I loved finally getting to see the couples get together and I think the medical stuff is slightly more interesting in this season.
Favourite line: "I don't want to waste time. My time is too precious for that. I want to live doing the things that I like and the things that I want to do now."
Tags: friends to lovers, slow burn romance, medical drama, found family, ensemble cast, music
Doom at Your Service - 10/10
Finished 2023-07
Cried my eyes out. Park Bo Young is too cute. The whole premise is so good and they do such a good job pacing it and throwing in twists to keep it interesting. Also has made me a huge Seo In Guk stan, the man is crazy talented at playing a villain with a heart of gold.
Favourite line: "Love me to the point that you will want to destroy the world for me."
Tags: fantasy, melodrama, enemies to lovers
Reborn Rich - 10/10
Finished 2023-09
There has never been a better revenge drama. Succession meets time travel fantasy meets enemies to lovers romcom meets 90s period piece. Song Joong Ki absolutely nails it once again.
Favourite line: "There are 24 hours in a day and 365 days in a year. They say time is fair to everyone. However, time isn’t fair. Just like everything else in this world."
Tags: revenge, enemies to lovers, time travel, 90s
My Name - 10/10
Finished 2023-07
Despite being traumatized by the ending, this is still one of my fave dramas. The acting. The fight choreography. The romance. 10000/10. Pil-do might be one of my favourite male leads ever. I love me a soft boy who would do anything to protect his strong, independent woman.
Favourite line: "Is life supposed to be fun?"
Tags: revenge, action, enemies to lovers, gangs vs cops
Romance is a Bonus Book - 10/10
Finished 2023 -07
So rewatchable. Truly the coziest kdrama out there. A great start into noona romances too. Also the line where she talks about how it was so nice to be called by her name, instead of “mom”, “honey”, “you” really stays in my heart. Also started my obsession with Jong-Suk.
Favourite line: "Instead of 'I love you,' soseki natsume said, 'the moon is beautiful."
Tags: friends to lovers, noona romance, workplace romance, romcom, love triangle
Absolute perfection. Jun Ho is the new standard. Deals with autism in a surprisingly modern way. Some interesting episodes on feminism in the workplace too.
Favourite line: "All my thoughts tend to center around me, so I make people close to me lonely. I don’t know when or why I do that. And I don’t know what I can do to stop it."
Tags: legal drama, autism, workplace romance
Flower of Evil - 10/10
Finished 2024-05
So good that I had to stop and take a break at ep. 14 because I didn't want it to end. The closest I've ever seen to a truly romance thriller genre. The romance between this married couple - despite one of them potentially being a psychopath murderer lol - is literally one of the most adorable and authentic in any drama I've seen. This drama has definitely given me an unhealthy bias for Lee Jong Gi soooo...
Favourite line: "He is the father of my child. He is my family. He is my person. He has a wife who will stand by his side no matter what happens."
Tags: married couple, serial killer thriller, detective drama
Nevertheless - 10/10
Finished 2023-06
Female gaze times a million. And the supporting cast is one of my faves (except for the TAs, they were boring as all hell). It’s also one of the few kdramas that tackle a relationship that’s kind of “friends with benefits” and you can very much tell it was written by a woman.
I get why some people really don’t like this one, but I’m a big believer in not needing the main characters to be good people for it to be a good piece of art. Everyone is very flawed in this (nearing on toxic), but it tells a lot of important stories that I really connected with.
Favourite line: "I know it will cause me pain again. Nevertheless..."
Tags: friends with benefits, college drama, red flag ml, love triangle
Hot Stove League - 10/10
Finished 2024-03
Baseball is life. Definitely the best sports drama out there, although it’s a close race with Love All Play. This drama has no romance, so I was really surprised that it hooked me so much. But the drama is amazing. The villains are so good. And mostly I just love this goddamn sport man. Even if you don’t like sport, I think you’ll enjoy the twists and turns and found family dynamics of this one. Also Park Eun Bin never misses.
Favourite quote: "Everyone's situation is different, we all fight with the resources that are available to us. If we start listing excuses, we'll lose again in the same situation."
Tags: sport drama, found family, no romance
It's Okay Not to be Okay - 10/10
Finished 2023-07
This was a slow start for me because I found the main female lead so annoying at first. But trust me she grows on you. Literally one of my fave dramas now. The emotions are SO real, I was crying constantly. Very attached to this little trio now. And the parallels of the beginning and ending are soooo good. All the characters have so much character growth, some of the best writing I’ve seen in a kdrama.
Favourite line: "Your body is honest. When you're in physical pain, you cry. But the heart is a liar. It stays quiet even when it's hurting."
Tags: enemies to lovers, autism, mental health
Alchemy of Souls - 10/10
Finished 2023-10
Absolutely binged this. Such a fun watch. The lore is really cool too. My only thing is I LOVED the female lead from S1 and it felt weird not to have her in the second season. Also second season felt a bit rushed on the ending. Otherwise perfection.
Favourite line: "If you stabe me, then I wil die as the one who released the assassin. If you withdraw your sword, I will make you another promise."
Tags: fantasy, enemies to allies to lovers, magic, love triangle
Love to Hate You - 10/10
Finished 2024-04
Incredible binge watch. Only 10 episodes, and all about 40 min or less. They don't get distracted by any unnecessary side stories and really just focus on the characters. Both the ML and FL are incredible, and the secondary couple is just as cute. I will forever remember the look that he gives her when she finally says I love you back. A great mix of comedy and swoony romance.
Favourite line: "I can stand other people hating me, but I can’t live with hating myself."
Tags: enemies to lovers, idol drama, fake dating, badass FL x soft boi ML
Hidden Love - 10/10
Incredible coming of age story. I rewatch it constantly. I put off watching it at first because of the description of the age gap. But honestly they handle it so well and their relationship becomes so beautiful and healthy. Definitely one of the healthiest relationship I've ever seen portrayed in a drama.
Favourite quote: "Am I really getting old now? Why are my parents no longer here?"
Tags: age gap, fl falls first, highschool crush to lovers, high school to college years
When I Fly Towards You - 10/10
The most beautiful little love story. No angst, no tension. Just blissful first love with a happy ending. Super slow burn so keeps you invested. Love the male lead's character development, from shy and quiet to confident and smiling all because of her. The friends are also so cute and amazing. Second romance is perfect. It's essentially 2521 with a happy ending.
Favourite quote: "The charm of youth is never about getting what you want, but about every unexpected tomorrow and every person you meet by chance."
Tags: friends to lovers, shy ml/quirky fl, high school to college years, fluff no angst
The way Sound stole my heart in My school President ep 9. He started out as this arrogant not very likeable dude and now he feels like an actual person with ups , downs , many feelings and a artists way of expressing them. Kudos to Satang for the interpretation, for me he is the surprise of MSP :D
