Politics - not so much action months.
Sports - Cricket - more so for bigotry.

Social - Did i mention it before - slightly different. I have seen numerous times foreign viewers coming at Father of the hero-heroine for forcing them into business or business deals and marriages. blah blah blah. I think i did talk about it few weeks ago. The good example of it can be taken from Peter parker's friend named harry's father and what he became and why did he become what.

The reason is simple - as a human you are putting your own life, life energy, feelings, motivations, hopes and desires into that business - you devote almost all your resources to that business - sooner or later you becomes part with that business. It started being an inorganic asset and later becomes your child but without your own realisation you become one with company. At least in your thoughts. So you work for the betterment and welfare of that company. For your ownself you can do everything and that's why these fathers who have massive feelings for a legal identity care way less for the children who they rarely saw or met.
All the struggles, hardships and achievements are achieved in the company of this legal identity then why would a man who has seen huge typhoons of business world would show emotions for few human brats.

This feels unsurprising since I'm sure I've seen a kdrama where the wedding guests were fake/paid though I can't remember the name of it.

This is also a problem in India and there was even a Bollywood movie that referenced it, called Shuddh Desi Romance.

Is that $20 plus a meal? 😉

This is exciting! What was your gateway drama? Just to get a feel of what you might like

Have you watched Stranger? I think it's pretty much the best non-romance drama I've seen, and I'd put it up there with the best series in any language, fwiw.

My Ahjussi is another one that you might enjoy if you're just looking for a good story and without a romance component.

Misaeng is a great drama w/o romance. I would also recommend On the Verge of Insanity.

I'm saying I don't like romance, but it's the same me who was shipping Yeo Jin and Shi mok in my first ever kdrama!
So... Just purely the romance genre doesn't suit me, if it's with anything else I won't mind watching it!

In addition to The Watchers, DP and Extracurricular, I suggest Prison Playbook.

Doctor Prisoner if you like crime/intrigue shows.

Stove League if your like office drama in sports setting.

Pegasus Market if you need an absurd comedy.

Chocolate if you like food porn between sad, healing stories.

Welcome aboard. Dare I recommend HEALER (2014/15) (Viki US) which brought me into kdrama land in 2016? The romantic part of the plot grew and became important as the drama progressed but there was a lot else going on and wonderful performances.

Interestingly I recently (Sept./Oct.) and separately introduced two visiting male friends into the the world of kdramas.
I knew both these guys from when I lived in NYC. My approach was to start by running episode 2 of the reality show JUNG HAE IN’S TRAVEL LOG (Viki US) which was filmed in NYC in Oct. 2019. I told them, “hey we can see the city pre-pandemic”.
(I found it delightful to watch JHI and 2 of his buddies visit the city.) Then I moved onto JHI’s performance in D.P. on Netflix. They both were in awe. At the end my friend in September asked about JHI’s performance in D.P, “is that the guy from New York?” My reply, “yep, that was him.”
(O/T. Of the dramas I have seen JHI in (I have not seen his romantic dramas) D.P. is for me his best performance. It is also one of my favorite dramas of the year.)

I’m actually watching Misaeng right now. So good!

@unniunni

Here's my K-drama suggestions:
It's Okay to Not Be Okay
2 seasons of Hospital Playlist
Vincenzo
Mr. Queen
Alice
Do You Like Brahms?
Itaewon Class
Hyena
Squid Game (this one is still popular on Netflix)

...and here's my non-Kdrama suggestions:
Running Man
You Quiz on the Block
Hangout with Yoo
I Live Alone (MBC)

I definitely tend more to romance dramas, but some less romance/more crime/thriller-y dramas I’ve enjoyed are -

Tunnel
Mouse
I Remember You/Hello Monster

Healer! Healer is a must watch no matter your preferences!

Three non-romance dramas that I have watched recently and I would recommend:
- Save Me (2017) Suspense drama about a cult

- Kairos (2020) Time travelling thriller

- Strangers from Hell (2019) Suspense horror (not scary just creepy and a bit violent)

Three from this year that have really impressed me:
On the Verge of Insanity (MBC)
Undercover (jTBC)
Daebak Realty / Sell Your Haunted House (KBS)

The one kdrama that pulled me into kdrama-land: Uncanny Counter. I used to be skeptical of kdrama, I thought kdrama was full of crying cringe scenes.

But after getting frustrated with the western series, in which almost every drama (even the supposedly non-romance theme) has s*x scene, I randomly just give the Uncanny Counter a try.

I didn't have any expectations and just because it was listed top 10 at my Netflix's country at that time, I guess why not.

And, wow I found Uncanny Counter very refreshing & fun!

That's when I started to dig more kdrama!

Among my favorite that I kept pestering my hubby to watch together with me, in the order :

0- Uncanny Counter - Fantasy
1- Beyond Evil - So wowwww (my husband loves this series as well; you know it's hard for him to get sucked to binge-watching kdrama on his own. Haha)
2- Mad Dog - You'll start loving it come episode 2
3- Sell Your Haunted House - Funny, no romance
4- Stranger Season 1 (I found Season 2 has too many unnecessary dragging scenes)

------------
These kdramas has romance scene, but they introduce me to the other part of life, that I'm grateful I watched them :

0- Familiar Wife - Funny & fantasy. If you're married or are getting ready to get married; I highly recommend this drama. It shows that married life is sweet when we learn to unlearn, to appreciate little things, to pause for a moment, and many more things. Go watch it! This is one of the rare kdrama whose ending is perfect for me.

1- Hotel Del Luna - It has very little romance compared to other kdrama. But it teaches me so much about how to mentally prepare for our own death and preparing for our loved one's death.

2- While you were sleeping - About prosecutor's work and how it become more powerful with the help of reporter and police patrol

3- Pinocchio - Now I know how journalists/reporters get their stories and news sources

4- Ms Hammurabi - I didn't know that Judge do such and such works, I thought judge were the almighty who just approve or passed judgments. They do hardworks too.

5- Imitation - Opened my eyes to real-world of idols. I used to assume that idols have fun all day all months long; but I never thought that they have to work hard, on top of they have to train themselves to be strong mentally. I definitely cannot be an idol. I'm a very snappy person.

Same even I was bombarded with ads when I first watched in these site!
What I did is, I downloaded an app called "free ad blocker browser" from playstore and it solved everything! Now once in a blue moon I get ads!

Yeah, something goofy has happened at k*s*asian. The site insists you take down your ad blocker & when you do all hell breaks loose. Serves me right for wanting my drama goodies without paying for them?

Not so much for new popular dramas I guess but for older dramas there are a lot legitimately on YouTube (like on the network’s channel), which I didn’t know for a long time.
I found this quite helpful -
https://www.reddit.com/r/KDRAMA/comments/gqe41c/list_of_legally_available_webdramas_on_youtube/

fd and ka in particular, I have found go through cycles of bad ads, anti ad block and pop ups or other issues. Then they might change the site's overall server and they'll be alright again.
I am currently using 1dramanice-site, because the others have had for me, internal video hosting server issues, with slow loading or whatever. It's working fine.
I use uBlock Origin as an adblocker and have for years.

iQiyi is great! You can even download episodes for offline watching (workaround for ads!).

That really sucks and is often the case, sadly. It’s worst if they hand it on to someone who isn’t even performing just because they have been there longer.

Congratulations of being fully vaccinated! I got my second vaccine last weekend 😊

Little Forest is a wonderful slice-of-life film with Ryu Joon Yeol.

He has a supporting role in Taxi Driver which is a great film about the Gwanju uprising.

He was great in Believer which was an action crime drama.

I'm planning to watch Human Disqualification next week and I am so excited to see Ryu Joon Yeol again! Waiting for the drama to end to binge it was torture!

He has a minor role in A Taxi Driver and played the gangster bff of Jo In Sung in The King. I think he did a phenomenal job in Believer and The Battle: Roar to Victory. He was also in Little Forest with Kim Tae Ri and Hit-and-Run Squad with Gong Hyo Jin and Jo Jung Suk.

Hit and Run Squad, Money, The Battle: Roar to Victory. He also did a travel show with Lee Je-Hoon called Traveller, season 1.

He also did a tropey drama called Lucky Romance. Watch at your own risk.

I did the same thing after watching him in R88, .. though I couldnt continue with Human Disqualification.. just not the right emotion for me at this time. Maybe later.

1. A supporting role in Heart Blackened: Choi Min-shik is the star of that film - and what a star he is - but RJY is unnervingly perfect as a very distinctive kind of scumbag.

2. A small part in Robot Sori (aka Sori: Voice from the Heart). Again, he is supporting a brilliant ahjusshi, in this case Lee Sung-min, but he is really sweet and funny as an up-and-coming indie musician.

A few years ago RJY was one of the leads in a film called Hit and Run Squad. You'd think a fun action movie starring him, Jo Jung-suk and Gong Hyo-jin would be a surefire hit, but apparently it not only bombed quite badly but was outperformed by another, much drier and darker RJY film called Money.

Thanks guys. You gave too many options. I think I'll narrow it down to Believer, Money, The King, Little Forest and maybe Blackened heart, Hit and run Squad and Taxi driver. I'm actually quite afraid to watch A Taxi driver because it is about Gwangju. I was already traumatized by Youth of May.

I watched Move To Heaven before bed and ended up crying myself to sleep a few nights in a row 😅 I don’t know what’s worst: a wet breakfast or a wet pillow?

Breakfast tears 😭, I had after dinner tears.

But they're good tears.

This is why I physically block my webcam with tape 😄

omg 🤣 a combination of The Chair + Steven Colbert 1st Day of Covid show.

Can I share what my 5th graders came to our zoom classes with? BEST covid excuse for not doing math: "My puppy ate my charger so I couldn't log on".

The sound of water splashing... :D

I have a little dark-coloured teddy bear sticker over my laptop camera, and I don't care if it leaves a residue. Before covid, I didn't use the camera at all.

I'm still wondering if *getting to the bottom of the incident* was intentional or otherwise 🤔

Tee hee hee, “availability angst”, it’s such a real thing 👍🏼

A couple "funny" reaction Weibo comments:
"Done to prevent spoilers." "To stop people from finding out this is not bromance."

Author MXTX's only 3 novels are now all locked. MDZS and SVSSS were locked almost exactly 3 years ago. Back then I thought this might have been done to save the derivatives from being affected.

Ah this makes me sad. Priest and MXTX are among the best and I've liked almost all these novels. I just finished reading Priest's Silent Reading a few days earlier - thank god for English translations

Oh no, a new laptop sounds more horrifying to me than zombies!
Turtie, excellent work on the concert!

Congratulations on your successful outing!

Have a fun Halloween celebration.

Well done on managing the concert! Hope Halloween is fun :) it’s not really celebrated here (there is a constant argument about how it’s not something we do/it’s just commercial and borrowed from American culture/don’t be such a killjoy and let the kids dress up 😂) but I might do something at home for the kids to be a bit special for them.

Once she starts kdramas, she will 😏

Damn true about becoming addicted!! 😂 I just go on watching by saying I'm just gonna watch all good kdramas and then will leave, like leaving is so easy! 🤦🤭

Congratulations!
Once you watch MISAENG you will understand. Jang Gue-rae was the young new guy in a sales team in a trading company. The “knewbie”. In MISAENG JGR was played beautifully by Siwan.
(Perhaps other beanies have a better description.)