Corongnews.com – The year 2024 is ending on a high with the return of the biggest K-drama of all time, but 2025 is ready to race out of the blocks with a thrilling line-up of January series.
These include a space-set romance, a high-stakes medical drama, a high school drama, a period drama and plenty of romcoms thrown into the mix.
1. Love Scout
Lead cast: Han Ji-min, Lee Joon-hyuk
After playing an unusual veterinarian in Behind Your Touch, Han Ji-min is back as the tough boss of a major headhunting company in Love Scout. Meanwhile, Lee Joon-hyuk transforms from the titular prosecutor of Dongjae, the Good or the Bastard into the perfect secretary.
Han plays Kang Ji-yun, who excels at work but is lacking in just about every skill needed outside the office.
The person with all those skills and the empathy to go with them is her skilled secretary Yoo Eun-ho (Lee), who has his work cut out for him taking care of Ji-yun and her mismanaged life. (SBS, January 3)
2. When the Stars Gossip
Lead cast: Lee Min-ho, Gong Hyo-jin, Oh Jung-se
The 2025 K-drama calendar kicks off with a bang thanks to the big-budget space-set romance When the Stars Gossip.
From writer Seo Sook-hyang (Don’t Dare to Dream) and director Park Shin-woo (It’s Okay to Not Be Okay), this sky-high romance stars Lee Min-ho (Pachinko) and Gong Hyo-jin (When the Camellia Blooms) as people who fall in love at a space station.
Gong, who has not been seen on screens for six years, plays Eve Kim, the new commander at the station, while Lee is Gong Ryong, an obstetrician gynaecologist and the future son-in-law of the chairman of Korea’s biggest corporation, who is staying at the station for a few days as a tourist. (tvN/Netflix, January 4).
3. The Queen Who Crowns
Lead cast: Cha Joo-young, Lee Hyun-wook
After her breakout supporting role in The Glory, Cha Joo-young lands her first major leading role in the regal drama The Queen Who Crowns, alongside Lee Hyun-wook (Mine).
Cha and Lee play Won Kyung and Taejong, the queen and king of Goryeo, a Korean state that existed from 918 until 1392.
Won Kyung was born to the influential Min family and married Lee Bang-won (Lee), the first son of King Taejo. But after the king names his second son as his successor, the Min family plots to have Bang-won ascend the throne instead.
Although the plot is successful, conflicts arise in Bang-won’s marriage with Won Kyung after he takes the throne. (tvN, January 6).
4. Motel California
Lead cast: Lee Se-young, Na In-woo
Lee Se-young was recently seen in the melodrama What Comes After Love. Now she is back in Motel California, alongside Na In-woo (Marry My Husband).
Lee plays Ji Gang-hee, who grew up at the Motel California – which was run by her father.
She had a difficult upbringing in her rural hometown, and was discriminated against because her mother was of dual heritage.
Gang-hee left for Seoul and works as an interior designer, but then decides to return to her hometown. She reconnects with her first love Cheon Yeon-su (Na), who now works as a veterinarian. (MBC, January 10).
5. Unmasked
Lead cast: Kim Hye-soo, Jung Sung-il, Joo Jong-hyuk
Screen legend Kim Hye-soo leads the year’s first Disney+ original drama Unmasked, as the face of an investigative news programme.
Kim is Oh So-ryong, who is trying her best to save the programme Trigger from being cancelled after it aired a particularly controversial story. So-ryong is a fierce character with an unshakeable sense of justice.
To save the show, So-ryong and her team have to both uncover the insider leaking intel about them and solve an old case involving a famous actor who disappeared.
Joining her on her quest are producer Han Do (Jung Sung-il, The Glory) and contractor Kang Gi-ho (Joo Jong-hyuk, Extraordinary Attorney Woo). (Disney+, January 15)
6. Study Group
Lead cast: Hwang Min-hyun, Han Ji-eun
Hwang Min-hyun leads the drama Study Group as Yun Ga-min, a student who is good with his fists but not so much with his brain. To change that, he forms a study group with the worst students at his school as they brace themselves for the all-important college entrance exams.
Despite doing his best to study, Ga-min’s grades do not improve, but when his group starts getting bullied, he takes off his glasses and raises his fists again.
Hwang, who is also simply known as Minhyun, is a former member of the bands Nu’est and Wanna One. He has been raising his profile as an actor over the past few years, appearing in shows such as Alchemy of Souls and My Lovely Liar. (TVING, January 23)
7. The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call
Lead cast: Ju Ji-hoon, Choo Young-woo
The very busy Ju Ji-hoon, whose recent projects include Disney+’s Light Shop and Love Your Enemy, joins forces with Netflix for the medical drama The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call.
Ju plays Baek Kang-hyuk, a brilliant trauma surgeon who specialises in performing surgeries in conflict zones.
Kang Hyuk begins working in the trauma unit of a university hospital. Conflicts arise, however, as the more lives his unit saves, the deeper in the red the hospital goes.
The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call is the drama debut of director Lee Do-yoon, behind the criminally under-seen big-screen thriller Confession, also starring Ju. (Netflix, January 24). (*V)
