Choosing Your Next Korean Drama On Viki And Netflix
If you love Korean drama, then you know that the thrill of finally finishing a Korean drama immediately leads to the next question, what to watch next on Viki or Netflix?
This can mean a lot of stress as you try to work out which characters, writers and actors and actresses to invite into your world. After all you will be investing at least 16-20 hours of your life into watching the next drama, so you want to get a good return on your choice.
Let’s cover the most popular two choices – on Viki and Netflix.
Choosing A Drama On Viki.com
Viki can be easier to find a good drama. They have some good sorting options on their desktop, especially when you choose Korean drama after clicking the EXPLORE button on their main menu.
But before doing that, it pays to look at their front page carousel, which typically shows the newest and sometimes most popular dramas they have on offer.
If you don't find something that initially catches your eye, then its a good time to proceed to the Korean section by clicking EXPLORE and then choosing Korean drama from their explore options menu.
Then it's time to try their sorting options, which are available on the top right side of the page under the Schedule menu. You can sort four ways:
- Popular All Time
- Popular This Week
- New
- Highly Rated
If you are new to Korean drama, then you can't go past Popular All Time. Most of these dramas should be a great choice. Don't be afraid to stop after the first episode of your first drama, to try another drama if you like.
More experienced fans, can also look at Popular This Week and New - although the choice is entirely up to you.
Additionally, you can also click the genre to find a particular type of Korean drama that you wish to watch as well.
Choosing A Korean Drama On Netflix
Netflix is a bit trickier. They don’t usually have a separate classification for Korean dramas. What also complicates things is that Netflix sometimes changes the names of their dramas. For examples The Heirs becomes The Inheritors.
If you have a history of watching, it gets easier as they are more likely to provide suggestions to watch based on past viewing history. They will also email you with suggested new dramas so you can keep up to date that way as well.
One method we think could work would be to actually create a new profile in Netflix on your desktop computer. Then you can simply use the search function to type in the word "Korean".
Then a lot of dramas and movies will come up. You can then simply hover your mouse over each and choose the + sign to simply add Korean dramas and movies to "My List". Not all dramas that come up will be Korean, and we suggest to keep scrolling down as they will continue to appear.
We also tried searching for "Lee Min Ho" and that brought up more dramas to add as well.
We counted almost 140 Korean dramas and films in our list after these two searches, so there should be a lot to choose from.
How To Decide Which Korean Dramas To Watch
Once you have a few initial choices, Wikipedia can be a great help to make a selection.
But of course, be mindful that occasionally there are plot spoilers on Wikipedia, so only read what you think is necessary. The things to look for on Wikipedia are:
- Plot summary
- Lead and supporting actors and actresses
- Ratings history
- Any awards the show has received as well
- International reception
- Number of episodes and episode length.
Sometimes shows that aren't popular in Korea can be very popular overseas, so ratings history and international reception can both give a good indication about how good a drama will be.
Additionally it's a good idea to check both the number of episodes and the episode length. Most dramas are 16 episodes of one hour per episode. Some dramas can go for much longer - so you want to know what to expect in advance. There is nothing worse than finding a dramas that goes on for longer than it should.
Also, Viki has a lot of user feedback. They have ratings and message boards, so it's a great guide.
However, there is a huge range of tastes and quite often something that is popular to many users on Viki might be boring to others.
Bear in mind that users might also give negative feedback because of technical issues - for example the sub-titles are out of time with the dialogue.
And of course, if you are love Korean drama, then why not express your love for KDrama with one of our great designs. You can find some of our favorites right here, so check them out today.