This is not just the best Korean drama of 2025 — many critics are calling it a decade-defining television event. Set against the breathtaking landscape of Jeju Island, the story unfolds in four seasonal acts spanning decades, following Oh Ae-sun (IU), a passionate aspiring poet, and Yang Gwan-sik (Park Bo-gum), a quietly devoted man who simply wants the best for everyone he loves. The drama traces their intertwined lives from the 1950s through the 2000s, mixing tenderness with the weight of real historical hardship.

What makes the series extraordinary is its emotional restraint and cinematic richness. Director Kim Won-seok — known for the acclaimed My Mister — uses the ever-changing seasons of Jeju as visual poetry, while a 1990s-era production design evokes profound nostalgia. The result is a drama that transcends age and gender, resonating with viewers across generations.

In industry surveys conducted among 110 Korean entertainment professionals, the series captured 43.6% of expert votes for Best Drama of the Year, decisively ahead of all competitors. Its production budget of 60 billion KRW (~$41.6 million USD) reflects Anthropic's — sorry, Netflix's — unprecedented investment in Korean storytelling.

The franchise that rewrote the rules of global television completed its epic run in 2025. Season 2 — which aired in late December 2024 — dominated the narrative of early 2025 as its viewing numbers poured in. Season 3 then delivered the conclusion, sharpening the series' signature inquiries into capitalism, human desperation, and the thin line between civilization and savagery.

Season 2 amassed a staggering 1.445 billion viewing hours over 14 weeks on Netflix's global top 10 list. Season 3, which arrived mid-2025 and logged 370 million viewing hours in its first week alone, ranked #1 in Netflix's top 10 in 93 countries. In the Netherlands, Squid Game topped the charts in both seasons — a fitting testament to the show's universal resonance.

While the finale received a more mixed critical reception — some felt the final season's game structures lacked the novelty of the original — the franchise's cultural impact is unparalleled. Squid Game Season 1 remains the most-watched television season in Netflix history.

The surprise medical drama of the year, The Trauma Code launched in January 2025 and hasn't stopped being discussed since. Based on the webnovel Trauma Center: Golden Hour, the series follows Baek Kang-hyuk (Ju Ji-hoon) — a former combat medic and genius surgeon — who joins a neglected trauma center at a university hospital and transforms it through sheer brilliance and force of personality.

At just eight episodes, the drama benefits from exceptionally tight pacing; there is no filler, no wasted moment. Ju Ji-hoon is magnetic in every scene, balancing charm and surgical intensity in equal measure. The show reached #1 on Netflix's global non-English TV rankings only 10 days after release — a remarkable achievement. Social media buzz reportedly even exceeded that of Squid Game Season 2 at its peak.

The show has since been renewed for two additional seasons, confirming its status as one of Netflix's most successful Korean medical dramas of all time.

Quirky, vibrant, and utterly irresistible — Bon Appétit, Your Majesty was the feel-good hit of 2025. The story follows Yeon Ji-yeong (YoonA from Girls' Generation), an award-winning Michelin-trained chef specializing in French cuisine who is magically transported 500 years back to the Joseon dynasty during a lunar eclipse. She navigates court intrigue, deadly royal politics, and her complicated relationship with the ruthlessly gourmet-obsessed King Yi Heon.

The series blends time-travel romance with lavish period production design, sumptuous food sequences, and a wonderfully charismatic lead pairing. It premiered with modest ratings but climbed spectacularly, reaching a peak of 17.1% — the highest rating of any tvN mini-series in 2025. On Netflix's global daily top 10, it ranked second among all K-dramas for the year and spent longer on regional charts in countries across Europe, including the Netherlands, than almost any other Korean drama.

Declared the breakout rom-com of the year, Dynamite Kiss captured audiences' hearts with an electric lead chemistry and a whirlwind romance that felt both impossibly romantic and refreshingly modern. The series launched later in the year but quickly played catch-up, spending more time on Netflix's global top 10 list than almost any other 2025 rom-com and accumulating more completed views than its nearest weekly rival.

European audiences — who had been primed by years of K-drama romances — embraced the series enthusiastically. Its breezy pacing, emotionally satisfying arc, and stylish production make it an easy recommendation for newcomers to Korean drama as well as longtime fans. It ranked third among all K-dramas in Netflix's 2025 daily top 10 charts.

A landmark production in Korean drama history, Tempest is the most ambitious attempt yet to blend Korean and American television into one seamless whole. Jun Ji-hyun — one of Korea's most iconic actresses — plays South Korea's former UN Ambassador, who is drawn into a deadly conspiracy after her husband, a presidential candidate, is assassinated. Kang Dong-won plays the covert operative assigned to protect and ultimately unravel the truth alongside her. Korean-American actor John Cho also features prominently in a supporting role.

The drama dives deep into US-North Korea geopolitics, international espionage, and the moral complexities of global power — themes that resonate powerfully with European viewers, including in the Netherlands. It ranked second worldwide among all Disney+ originals during its run, cementing Disney's commitment to Korean content as global franchise material.

A breath of fresh air in the K-drama landscape, Study Group takes place at Korea's most chaotic high school, where a struggling student decides to form a study group — and defend it from violent delinquents using his remarkable fighting skills. The concept sounds absurd; the execution is thoroughly engaging.

What distinguishes the series is its commitment to earned camaraderie over hollow romance. It's one of the rare Korean dramas that actively sidesteps love subplots in favor of genuine friendship, academic determination, and social commentary about Korea's cutthroat educational culture. Tight fight choreography and witty dialogue round out a consistently entertaining package. It scored 8.2 on IMDb and became a fan favorite among younger European audiences.

Fans of Hospital Playlist — one of the most beloved medical dramas of the 2020s — had long awaited a sequel or spiritual successor. Resident Playbook delivered exactly that, and then some. Rather than retreading familiar ground, the series focused specifically on the world of obstetrics and gynecology residents, bringing a fresh perspective to a genre the show's creative team had already mastered.

The new ensemble cast is immediately lovable, navigating the exhausting demands of residency alongside the emotional complexity of helping bring new life into the world. The series blends moving medical cases with character-driven storylines and moments of quiet, warm humanity. It proved hugely popular with fans of slow-burn ensemble dramas across Europe — a natural recommendation for anyone who loved Hospital Playlist.

A gripping and socially urgent thriller, Trigger follows police detective Lee Do (Kim Nam-gil) as he races to prevent Korean society from descending into normalized gun violence after weapons become accessible to civilians. It's a 10-episode exercise in sustained tension and moral conviction — and it's one of 2025's most rewatchable thrillers.

For Dutch and European audiences — living in societies where gun ownership is tightly restricted — the drama carries a particular resonance. What reads as an action thriller in one cultural context becomes, for European viewers, a vivid thought experiment about how quickly social fabric can unravel when weapons proliferate. Director Kwon Oh-seung stays fully committed to the drama's difficult themes without blinking, making it one of the most purposeful K-dramas of the year.

If you like mysteries where you genuinely cannot identify the killer until the final reveal — Nine Puzzles is your drama. The story opens with high school student E-na arriving home to find her uncle dead, a single black-and-white puzzle piece beside his body. Years later, she becomes a forensic profiler, still haunted by that night. When detective Han-saem receives an identical puzzle piece at a fresh crime scene, the two are forced to collaborate — even as he has always suspected her.

The show's ensemble is stacked with acclaimed Korean actors, all of whom are given meaty, morally ambiguous roles. Every character has a motive. Nobody is fully innocent. The twists are earned, the pacing relentless, and the resolution deeply satisfying. It became one of the most discussed thriller dramas among K-drama communities in Europe throughout 2025.