April showers bring May flowers…and a host of new dramas to lose sleep over. Be excited, because we’re getting everything from taxi drivers exacting revenge, first year law students and their exploits, and mysterious smoke that turns humans into monsters. We might even get the long-awaited second season of a popular Netflix drama, so mark your calendars! With pencil, because some of these dates are subject to change due to the ongoing pandemic.
Hospital Playlist 2
Genre: Medical
Starring: Jo Jung-suk, Yoo Yeon-seok, Jung Kyung-ho, Kim Dae-myung, and Jeon Mi-do
Plot: Season two of the wildly popular medical drama will continue the story of five doctors who’ve been friends since medical school.
Thoughts: I know everyone’s excited, but try and manage your expectations. A few sources say Hospital Playlist 2 will start airing on April 7th, but some say it won’t air until June. Nothing’s been set in stone, so keep checking back on Drama Milk for updates. We’ve gotcha covered.
Taxi Driver
Genre: Action, Horror
Starring: Lee Je-hoon & Esom
Plot: Lee Je-hoon plays Kim Do-gi, a graduate of the Korea Naval Academy whose mom was murdered when he was younger. He’s now a driver for the Rainbow Taxi Company; a company that specializes in getting revenge for their clients. Esom plays Kang Ha-na; a prosecutor who becomes increasingly curious about Do-gi and his unconventional job.
Thoughts: See, this is why I just stick with Uber. Although it’d be hard to resist Lee Je-hoon pulling up and offering to take me anywhere I wanted to go…
Law School
Genre: Mystery
Starring: Kim Myung-min, Kim Bum, and Ryu Hye-young
Plot: Yang Jong-hoon (Kim Myung-min) is a criminal law professor and former top-tier prosecutor. Most students steer clear of him, because he’s harsh, but the determined and the brave are drawn to him. Kim Bum plays a first year law student by the name of Han Joon-hwi. He’s charming and at the top of his class, but there’s more to him than meets the eye. Especially when him, Professor Yang, and the rest of the law students come across an unusual case.
Thoughts: This drama gives me “How To Get Away With Murder” vibes, and I’m here for it. I’m also happy to see Kim Bum back as a main lead! He just ends up stealing the show when he’s not 😉
Sell Your Haunted House (Alternate title: Real Estate Exorcism)
Genre: Supernatural
Starring: Jung Yong-hwa and Jang Na-ra
Plot: Want to put your haunted house on the market? Daebak Real Estate’s gotcha covered! Hong Ji-ah (Jang Na-ra) is a real estate agent and exorcist who cleanses buildings of spirits. She teams up with paranormal con-artist Oh In-bum (Jung Yong-hwa), and together they try to solve the mystery behind her mother’s death.
Thoughts: These plots keep getting wilder and wilder! And this will be Jung Yong-hwa’s first drama since his discharge from the army, so I’m sure his fans will be happy about that.
Undercover
Genre: Thriller
Starring: Ji Jin-hee, Kim Hyun-Jou, Yeon Woo-jin, and Han Sun-hwa
Plot: Married couple Han Jeong-hyeon (Ji Jin-hee) is a National Intelligence Service agent, and Choi Yeon-soo (Kim Hyun-joo) is a human rights lawyer. She gets a big promotion, and it’s cause for celebration. But what Yeon-soo doesn’t know is her husband has been hiding his real identity for years! Can their marriage withstand the truth? Or will it pit them against each other, and force them to choose duty over love?
Thoughts: This kind of sounds like Korean Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
Dark Hole
Genre: Action, Sci-fi
Starring: Kim Ok-bin and Lee Joon-hyuk
Plot: Lee Hwa-sun (Kim Ok-bin) is a detective in Seoul, and she’s stunned when her husband’s murderer calls her and tells her to go to a place called “Mujishi”. When she arrives, she discovers that the people of Mujishi have turned into terrifying monsters after inhaling a mysterious dark smoke. Hwa-sun soon teams up with Yoo Tae-Han (Lee Joon-hyuk), a disgraced ex-cop, and together they fight to stay alive, as well as capture her husband’s murderer.
Thoughts: This is airing on OCN, so you know it’s going to be dark, gritty, and suspenseful.
Love #Hashtag
Genre: Romance
Starring: Oh Chang-seok, Shin Hye-jung, Han Seung-woo, and Chae Soo-ah
Plot: This drama will depict love stories between different men and women in their twenties and thirties through various forms of social media, such as DMs, stories, comments, likes, and hashtags.
Thoughts: Sounds adorable! I’m always interested in seeing how dramas incorporate technology in their story-telling.
Honorable Mention:
Dramaworld 2
Genre: Fantasy
Starring: Sean Dulake, Liv Hewson, Justin Chon, Henry Lau, Daniel Dae Kim, and Brett Gray (with special guest Ha Ji-won)
Plot: Claire Duncan (Liv Hewson) is your stereotypical fangirl: geeky, awkward, and obsessed with Korean dramas. Instead of going out and enjoying college life, she spends her days studying and working. Her only escape is watching a Korean drama called Taste of Love, and she regularly swoons over the main lead Joon Park (Sean Dulake). One day, Claire is sucked through her smartphone and thrust into the world of Taste of Love, where she meets Joon Park and learns some very important life lessons.
The second season will take place in LA and Seoul.
Thoughts: Come on, Claire is one of us! I can’t tell you how many times I wished I was sucked into one of my favorite dramas when I was younger. While I wouldn’t call Dramaworld a Korean drama, it’s Korean drama adjacent and pokes fun at all of our favorite tropes. Only someone who watches a ton of K-dramas would appreciate it, so I decided to make it an honorable mention. You can stream the first season on Viki just in time for the season two premier. I was pleasantly surprised at how cute and self aware the first season was. It starts out a little cheesy, but actually has heart, and some good life lessons. Claire’s also very relatable. The nice thing is, it’s not a big commitment, because there are only ten episodes and each episode is around fifteen to twenty minutes.
With Henry Lau being added to the cast, and veteran actors like Daniel Dae Kim and Ha Ji-won set to make appearances, I think the second season of Dramaworld will be just as fun as the first.
So, now that you know what April has in store, which dramas are you looking forward to? I’m excited about Law School, because I love legal dramas and Kim Bum was always my favorite F4 member in Boys Over Flowers. I’m also curious to see how Dramaworld 2 will follow up the fun and wackiness of season one.
I love this list!!!! So many good dramas to sink into!
Author
Yes! Lots of thrillers from different subcategories too!
Which drama Will you recap, V?
I can’t wait for hospital playlist season 2 and undercover.
We want to do one each day! Is Hospital playlist your fave of the group? Hopefully that one airs in April, though it might not air until May. We are thinking of covering that one since it had a pretty popular season 1.
If you like thrillers and dark stories with lots of suspense – this is your list. What is the recent binge in KDramaland about violent content? Or is that the only kind of drama they are exporting? The only romantic dramas are about multiple couples. One nice thing about older KDramas is the ability to enjoy repeating them. I guess I’ll revisit my list of rewatchables, you know the ones, they have a FL and ML and they go overcome trials (usually not a murder) to come together in the end. Hope those are not a thing of the past.
Author
I see this pattern with K-dramas a lot where a particular genre or trope will be popular, so all the dramas feature it. I think that’s what’s happening right now with thrillers and the supernatural genre (there are a lot of zombie/exorcist dramas out recently). A few years ago it was time travel dramas nonstop, because of a drama called Signal’s popularity. Don’t worry, it’ll swing back to romance. Have you checked out “She Would Never Know” and “Oh My Ladylord”? The first just finished airing and the latter just started. I watched “She Would Never Know” and did a review on it if you want to see what it’s like before watching. Just beware of spoilers and stop reading before I start talking about the climax and resolution. As for “Oh My Ladylord”, I watched the first episode, and it has potential. So, if you’re looking for new romance-based dramas, you might want to check out those two. Particularly “Oh My Ladylord”.
Oh thank you for the suggestions! I will look into those two.
I tried a few new ones everyone seems to like. Ep 1 of Mouse did me in with the guy carrying around the father’s head and the mother trying to save her kids and then the older brother trying to save his brother after the mother gets her head cut off. The head rolled out of the head of the snowman. Egads. Had to quit there. Sysiphus is just silly at this point and Vencenzo is having an identity crisis. I miss Mr. Queen. Romantic comedy is my preferred genre – we have plenty of violent offerings in the US. Escaping that is why I watch KDrama. I hope Korean directors and producers aren’t trending more Hollywood. That would be a fatal mistake.
I just finished the 50 episode “Five Children” which won all the awards and had Shin Hye Sun in it. Very good. And I liked Hospital Playlist and will watch the sequel whenever they air it.
Author
I’m on both sides of the spectrum. I love dark, gritty Korean dramas, but I also love romance/fluff, so I see what you’re saying. I enjoyed Mr. Queen as well. It was cute and hilarious.
I’ll have to add Five Children to my list.
Drama World 2? Are you kidding me? A friend of mine told me about Drama World a couple years back and I checked it out. He didn’t remember the title but I found it on Viki. As you said, Adri, it was a short drama with lot of fun for true Kdrama fans.
My friend’s son (who lived in Korea for a few years and found his wife there as well) was the co-owner of the restaurant they filmed this show. Unfortunately, after he sold the place and returned to Korea, that restaurant is no longer in business.
I will definitely check out the sequel.
Author
Exactly! When I first heard of Dramaworld, I was like what is this??? It’s probably going to be a train wreck, but it ended up being cute and relatable! I’m always urging people to give it a chance. I can’t believe your friend’s son co-owned the restaurant they filmed the show in. That’s so cool!
Sean Dulake was the main lead in season one, so I wonder what role Henry Lau will play? I’m guessing Claire’s going to get her own love triangle.I’ve gotta rewatch season one.
Great summaries! If HP2 is on this month, it will be a welcome surprise! But I might just watch both drama worlds this weekend! Sorry, Money Flower, which I’m also trying to finish, you’ll just have to wait another weekend!
Author
Thanks! I always have fun with the summaries. I think you’ll have a nice laugh with Dramaworld. Hopefully the second season is good too.
I can’t find Dramaworld 2 anywhere. Where are you watching it?