In the summer of 2019 I was ploughing through Star Trek: Deep Space 9 on Netflix and beginning to get bored. Netflix's AI was watching me and thought to itself, Hmm, he likes shows with the word 'star' in the title, what have I got, ah yes, 'My Love From the Star', that'll do. I saw the recommendation and thought, ha ha, a 400 year old alien and a movie star, that's too daft for words, it's right up my alley, expecting something worthy of MSTK 3000. Except... those production values... intelligent storytelling... nice satire on showbiz... something in episode 6 picked up on a detail in episode 3... it was... good.

So I decided to explore. How about a costume drama? That Rookie Historian thing looks interesting. How about Chinese? Etc.

I'm on a bit of a break from dramas right now. I blame Idol: the Coup, which led me to EXID and thence to K-pop more generally. But I'll be back for something longer than 3 minutes in due course.

It's so fun hearing everyone's stories! Thank you for sharing 🙂

I'm a recent Kdrama fan, having discovered them during the pandemic shut down. Saw ads for CLOY, decided to give it a try, and whoosh down the rabbit hole I went! Haven't wanted to find my way out.

And then I was so excited to find DB!! Discussions, cultural explanations, fans with interesting insights!! Yay!

I do wish I'd discovered Kdramas/kfilms earlier because there are a lot of older ones I'd love to watch but can't because they're not available in the US. I love Gong Yoo for example but have never seen Kim Ji Young, Age of Shadows, Finding Mr. Destiny...

My mom got me into K-dramas while watching WINTER SONATA (2002) on Mysoju (RIP). DAE JANG GEUM, EMPEROR of the SEA, JUMONG, KING, and the CLOWN and SANDGLASS, got me addicted to K-dramas and films. I'll always have a soft spot for the actors in these dramas. Choi Min-soo, Go Hyun-jung, director Kim Jong-hak (RIP) and writer Song Ji-na, Lee Young-ae, Song Il-gook, Han Hye-jin (Soseono is my favorite queen), director Lee Joon-ik, Lee Joon-ki, Jin-young, Kam Woo-sung, and writer Kim Young-hyun whom I have a love/hate relationship with. 😆
For me, the early 2000s - 2010 (maybe) were the golden era of sageuks. So many Daeha sageuks took over 6+ months to finish, and I loved watching them during winter.

I'm still watching K-dramas but not as much as I used to. I think it'll always be a part of my life.

it was 2016 and we were waiting for our after school science class when my friend started losing her mind at smth she was watching on her phone (spoiler, it was the wheelchair slope scene from DOTS)

So i looked over all curious and she told me about it and how to watch it and boom thats how it all began.
(Funny thing is that now even tho im no longer in contact with that friend, we kinda swapped roles, her having zero interest in it and me being in love with it)

Till this day, I have zero regrets on starting kdramas as it has definitely changed me and my views in life in so many ways I didnt know was possible.

It is a destiny, love at the 1st sight 💗

The first Korean film that I remember (actually the second, but we won't mention the first one) was 'April Snow' from 2005 starring a remarkably young Son Ye-jin. I thought 'This is the sort of content I want but nobody's giving it to me'. I'd then happen across other Korean films occasionally but it would be another eight years before Korean television finally crossed my path.

I was mourning my best friend and "You're Beautiful" was the first thing that made me laugh again. That's why I will always feel nostalgic about this silly little show.

In the following months, I kept primarily focusing on shiny rom-coms that made me gigglesnort through the grief. Over time, I discovered that there was a lot to love (even beyond all the actor crushes) about K-dramas so I decided to stick around and discover more. It also led me to fully appreciate subtitles and I now watch everything I can with them. Such a nice and underrated accessibility feature.

Netflix kept nagging me to watch this strange-looking show called "Strong girl Bong-soon", and I eventually gave in and clicked. The massive block-letter title text (힘쎈여자 도봉순) caught my eye, and when Google assured me I could totally learn to read Hangeul in 90 minutes I couldn't resist the challenge. As I kept watching I found myself sounding out words I saw on screen, tentatively switched between English and Korean subtitles, and eventually started recognizing words here and there as the episodes passed. Although I was completely bewildered by the cartoonish gangsters, the weird monk, "poop wine" (!!!) and other strangeness, I grew to love the chemistry between the leads. I immediately moved on to "Oh my ghost" (because Park Bo-young), and decided k-dramas and I were now an item. 2020 brought extended Covid lockdown and a few months of (successful) chemotherapy for my wife, and my main escape valve during those difficult times was learning Korean with k-dramas, YouTube and Duolingo. I recently learned that the guy I share an office with also watches K-dramas and was irrationally happy to find someone IRL with the same interest.

My colleague used to rave about Kdramas but I wasn't interested. Then my son happened to mention that he was watching an interesting series on Netflix called World of the Married - I decided to give it a try. It was kinda meh and wasn't enough to get me hooked. After a while someone mentioned CLOY and had been seeing it on Netflix so thought let me try this - I was hooked! 141 dramas later I am still hooked (and C-dramas as well). I have binged all the recommended oldies and goodies so now watch ongoing.

First it was Kingdom, when it aired in Netflix, it was good but I only saw a pair of episodes. Then it was Memories of Alhambra. I watched the first episode and I had such a great time! It was so funny! (Maybe because I am from Spain I found it specially funny). But I don't know why I didn't go on watching more...
Then three years later it came Squid Game and I watched it because everybody was talking about it... So that was my first completed k-drama. Past january I watched It's ok to not be ok and well, I have not stopped watching k-dramas since then (Memories of the Alhambra too XD).

In these past ten months I have finished more than 50 k-dramas. I'm so happy to have discovered Dramaland! I wish it had been earlier.

I always thought i started kdramas in 2011, but now that i think about it, it must’ve been earlier. I went to a friend’s room in uni and found a group huddled in front of a laptop on her bed and every now & then they would just cackle with laughter. That got me curious so i asked what they were watching. I took a peek but couldn’t really understand it, later the friend lent me the cd and that was the beginning of the end - My Girl & Lee Dong Wook still have me hooked til today.

Circa 2015 or 2016....my daughters were teens at the time. The girls and I had an on-off relationship with anime, and I think the older one had gotten sick with something like Strep Throat and needed something to entertain her for a few days, so I picked up a few volumes of the Boys Before Flowers manga. We were early into streaming, and I think she stumbled onto the Boys Over Flowers kdrama on Hulu. She let me know about it. Unlike her, I found it rather cringeworthy, but I was intrigued enough to start hunting down more mature-themed shows. I think it was "Secret" (Ji Sung is still one of my favorite male leads, and his chemistry with Hwang Jung-eum was...wow) and "Queen In-Hyuns Man" (always a sucker for a good love story, and love fantasy too) that really hooked me.

My friend kept recommending k-dramas for me to watch. I kept the "yeah yeah okay..." response, until I ended up with strep throat and the flu. I was home for a few days, bored, and only had Netflix to keep me company. I came across "Fated to Love You", and down the rabbit hole I went.

Short answer: Taiwanese dramas

I live in the US, long-time Netflix user. Sometimes I checked out foreign shows; one day in 2017 I saw the title "Back to 1989" and gave it a try. Watched several episodes, the sincerity and emotion of some of the scenes between the leads really stood out from typical Hollywood shows.

Looked for other Taiwanese shows, found "Fall In Love With Me", enjoyed it, discovered viki.com, decided to give Korean shows a try. Watched the first episode of "While You Were Sleeping" and was blown away by the writing, the cinematography, the production values, and the incredible story (I still consider that one of the best first episodes I've ever seen).

Still watching, several dozen Korean shows later (also Japanese, Taiwanese, and Chinese). Grateful to have gotten out of the US bubble and discovered the incredible shows coming from other parts of the world.

It was 2010. While pregnant for the first time, I watched Boys Over Flowers with my aunt. It was chaotic and kind of fun (oh, the flower boys), but the real pull-me-in-never-let-me-go took place during postnatal depression and some long nights of no baby sleep. In deep despair, I turned to whatever would give me a brief moment of relief. At 5 a.m. in the morning, I started to devour City Hunter and then Heartstrings and then... everything else. Dramas helped me navigate through some difficult times. It has been a ride I do not regret. #twelveyearsandcounting

I grew up with what in hindsight was a pretty good dubbed version of Sailor Moon, at least in comparison to the horrendous American dub. This led my friends and I to discover the wonder of anime. Sailor Moon, Fushigi Yuugi and Hikaru no Go will forever define my high school years along with Buffy. During my time at the university, I discovered Youtube and great shows like Hana Yori Dango, Nodame Cantabile and Nobuta wo Produce. Then, a friend of mine recommended this show called Secret Garden which was my introduction to Kdrama.

The big break came about a year later when I had my eldest and ended up binging Healer when he wouldn't fall asleep until one or two am and I was desperate for something to watch that wasn't five seasons or longer.

I was interested in Asian cultures, history, martial arts. I first thought that Koreans spoke Chinese and the first Korean drama I watched was "Spring Time" on TV, "Autumn Tale", they were dub. And when I found Arirang channel in 2004, I realized that they had their own language. At that time, we didn't have internet at home, so when I found a drama on any channel, I watch it "sorry i love you" "dae jang eum"... when we got it in 2009, it was the explosion, I kept watching, sometimes I didn't sleep until I finish all the episodes on dramacrazy, gooddrama, youtube, .... and if I couldn't find an episode, I checked your website or any recap on other websites. For me, k-dramas have short episodes compared to dramas from other countries (except Japanese dramas), and I used to see them as innocent dramas, they are not based on sex like American dramas and are not only love stories. I also like the fight scenes, the fantasy stories and it's an escape from the problems.

I returned to the US after living abroad for a decade and found the violence on American TV horrifying. One night a friend and I were searching on Roku for something to watch and came across a show called Coffee Prince. After laying eyes on the beauty that is Gong Yoo there was no going back was there? That was 11 years ago.

It took me 2 tries. Co-worker been encouraging me to watch for years but whenever I ask why, she would always gush about the oppas. So, I begged off. In 2017, I finally tried Black. I was unimpressed and thought everyone was overacting. So, I thought this is not for me. Then in 2018, we joined a group tour to SK. Included in the itinerary was Nami Island, where there Autumn of My Heart markers all over the place. Then we stopped at "the wall" and girls in our tour group, whipped out their red scarves while taking selfies. We've always loved historical sites whenever we travel so the highlight for us was the tour to the palace and hanok village. All of these experiences motivated me to try again. When we got home, saw Mr. Sunshine on Netflix which started with an episode about history (I know it was criticized for historical accuracy) and got fascinated by the cinematography, soundtrack, the directing and the acting of everyone. Went down the rabbithole since.

It was in 2004-2005 I fell head first into world of kdramas.Was readying myself for university and prepping for equivalent of A levels in my country. And turned to a local tv channel airing that winter classis Winter Sonata in all its Chinese language dubbing “grace”. Suffered at beginning listening to those dubbing, OMG cringe for sure.Luckily, by 2006 in university I discovered the non-legal manner of getting kdramas undubbed and with fantastic English subs.

Huge thanks to those early day subbers for all your hard work in days of no legal streaming and relying on local tv channels to watch kdramas dubbed in Chinese. Those were the days.

Moving forward once started working, more cable channels were foundedcin my region providing Korean contents, thank heavens.KBS WORLD, was a fav channel probably circa 2010 , early 2010s. Along with other cable channels, my kdramas watching went smoothly.

Then, came the streaming companies and my intention to watch dramas legally grew and right now I am subscribed to many OTT providers along with cable provider for my live sports interest too.

Being in the Asia region means always getting dramas on same night or latest the next night.But some dramas still fall through to the crack as real life gets in between, working and other stuff. And now with Korean OTT providers having own production, but not all available with streaming providers in my region, some recent 2022 dramas havent been wble to watch them.

K drama watching started in June 2015 after I watched anime show Princess Jellyfish on Netflix. I wanted to see similar stuff so looked on web, stumbled into DramaFever. I have watched stuff with subtitles, no big. I saw Boys Over Flowers pic and thought it looked interesting. Watched it. Hooked.

Where to begin, it all started with Song Il guk. The first drama i watched was A MAN CALLED GOD, then after about half a year, i watched KINGDOM OF THE WINDS, at the time i watched on bru ray discs so it was hard to acquire all episodes. It took me over a year to finish KOTW, but before i did i got my hands on everyone's favourite; BOYS OVER FLOWERS and this is where iam today

The first drama I have ever seen is Thousand years of love. I decided to watch it because I was studying for my first Korean history exam at the University and wanted to see something related. Even if it made me fall in love with So Ji Sub, I was disappointed by the ending and did not try to watch another drama.

A couple of years later, my sister nearly forced me to watch with her On the way to the airport with Lee Sang Yoon. Even if it was maybe a too mature story for me at that age, after a reluctant start I started to beg my sister to watch another episode!

After a couple of months, she proposed me Encounter and well...the rest is history. It was exactly what I needed in that period of my life and not only I started to understand how a good boyfriend should act, but I started to love dramas and watching them.

Later on I was hit by Hyun Bin like a lighting, and you know...once you fangirl Hyun Bin you can't go back! XD

I'd heard about kdramas from friends and family over the years but never got around to watching any of it until a few months ago, when an American author whose blog I regularly read shared that they'd been watching Alchemy of Souls and loving it.

I binge-watched AoS up to whatever episode was available at the time (I think it was Episode 10) then joined the rest of the world in the agony-slash-ecstasy that is live-watching the show as it aired.

I was quite frustrated at the time because no one else I knew IRL was watching the show and I had no one to discuss theories with. A quick online search led me here to dramabeans and I was so happy to discover the smart and kind group of beanies who had gathered around AoS (I went so far as to tell a friend that this was the "community I didn't know I needed until i found it.")

Once AoS wrapped up, I dove into Our Beloved Summer (loved it!) based on a friend's recommendation. Then quickly followed that with Extraordinary Attorney Woo.

Now I'm live-watching May It Please the Court and considering CLoY as my next one . . . want to wait until I'm past a few work deadlines before I start that since I suspect I'll binge-watch it all in one large gulp. (lol)

It was about 2004 for me, I'd been watching HK and Indian movies for years, and someone on an internet forum suggested looking at K-dramas. Since YesAsia was producing U.S. DVDs of shows at the time and frequently putting them at steep discounts, I picked up Rooftop Room Cat. Loved it! In short order then it was followed by Full House, Sweet Spy, Alone in Love and others. I made a big spend ordering Jumong from Korea, and didn't regret it one bit. From there it was on to downloads and then streaming...

An online friend dragged me to my first ever Kdrama and then there was no looking back ...not immediately, but after a few months the Kdrama fever kicked in. Initially, it was difficult to identify and differentiate faces, but it's been some years now and I do know my drama leads real names. I passed on this fever to my sister recently and she is so busy marathoning them that she forgets everything till she finishes binge-watching. I tried Cdramas, some Tdramas and even Turkish as well as Thai dramas. It's been a wonderful journey in the drama world, with ups and downs, smiles and frustration, at times so annoyed that I would be shouting at the scene playing out in the episode. ALL in all, it's been a fun ride!

Crash Landing on You on Netflix during the pandemic.

So, I used to watch these song edits with k-drama couples sometimes and I was like - " They are so cute!" but never really got to actually watching the drama.
Fast forward to me just a month before my 10th-grade finals and I and my bestie were just talking about random topics and somehow this Korean mix pops up. She said she wanted to try watching these k-dramas and I said we could try them after finals. And we did! (except she is not k-drama obsessed, somehow reading the subtitles while watching it does not seem appealing to her. she does watch sometimes, the ones I recommend. I, on the other hand, cannot stop myself from binging.)
I most certainly do not regret it!

After cancelling my cable TV subscription (because my condo HOA stopped paying for it), like many others here I discovered kdramas on Hulu, and at first I found everything I saw was amazing. Eventually I got more discriminating (after seeing my third time-traveling doctor, I now realize that wasn't as unique a plot device as I initially thought), but Coffee Prince was the show that really got me hooked and is still a fave.

I got into Kdramas in 2013 while I was in a Foundation Program. A friend of mine was in love with Boys over Flowers and converted all of us in the rooms around to fall in love as well. It was also then I fell in love with the show Castle, but I digress.

Subsequently, I watched some 'current' dramas at the time: Heirs, MLFAS and the like, then I started checking out Dramafever (RIP) for the latest info on dramas and Dramabeans! for recaps.

It's actually Kdramas that introduced me to Kpop!

As a gamer who plays MMORPG my very first was a Chinese drama was (you guess it) Go Go Squid. A pure fluffy drama very well directed, cute romance, great chemistry between leads and real kisses. Lots of humor and relatable plots. From there I watch more dramas like Love 2020 with Yang Yang as the lead, Your are my Glory, Gank Your Heart with Wang Yibo as lead and The King's Avatar. All almost as nice to watch with great acting and plots. Well that soon petered out as there can only be so much dramas about MMO related stories and as most Chinese dramas before has poor subbing and more fantasy, costume and historical themes, I ended watching Thai Lakorns. Similarly Thai dramas except for a few are really good I then started watching Korean dramas and boy, they were so good I never look back. I fell in love with Korean dramas, although not MMO related, Kdramas are second to none. The Chinese and Thais can learn a thing or two on how to make good dramas that international audience will appreciate. Maybe they don't care much about the soft power that their local dramas can garner internationally and they are satisfied to cater only for their local population. South Korea has improved in leaps and bounds in promoting their country and culture in recent history. Congratulations!!!