Best Korean Shows to Watch in 2026: 8 Netflix Picks With Plot and Cast, Plus Disney+

Best Korean shows on Netflix right now: 8 picks

Counted from the ranking data Netflix publishes, Korean titles took 13 of the 34 non-English No. 1 weeks in 2026. Seven of the Korean titles that reached those charts in 2026 are listed below. They spread across genres: action set in a school, a retired agent hunting for his daughter, an interpreter's romance, a Joseon villain dropped into modern Seoul.

Squid Game, the eighth row of the table, comes from a different list. On the all-time non-English series list, built from figures for a title's first 91 days, its three seasons hold ranks 1 to 3.

Squid Game: plot and cast, and what the 456 players face

Cash-strapped players accept a strange invitation to compete in children's games. A tempting prize waits, and the stakes are deadly. In Netflix's own words the competition puts 456 desperate contestants through those games. In season 2 the lead, Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), is set on finding the people behind the game and ending it. Hwang Dong-hyuk directs.

The records are the outlier. On the all-time non-English series list, built from first-91-day figures, season 1 is first with 265.2M views, season 2 second with 192.6M and season 3 third with 145.8M. One title holds three of the ten places.

Teach You a Lesson: plot and cast, the Teachers' Rights Protection Bureau

The setting is a school system pushed to the brink. At the centre is the Teachers' Rights Protection Bureau, a fictional government agency created to protect victims and restore order when students, teachers and parents cross the line. Kim Moo-yul plays Na Hwa-jin, Lee Sung-min plays Choi Gang-seok, Jin Ki-joo plays Im Han-rim and Pyo Ji-hoon plays Bong Geun-dae. Hong Jong-chan directs and Lee Nam-kyu wrote it. It premiered on 5 June.

It is the Korean title that held No. 1 longest in 2026: four weeks at the top and ten weeks in the Top 10. Netflix said on 17 June that it recorded 21.1M views that week, ranked No. 1 in 46 countries and reached the Top 10 in 91 markets. Its 48M views make it the most-watched Korean title of the first half.

Agent Kim Reactivated: plot and cast, So Ji-sub's spy thriller

His daughter still is not home by morning. Mr. Kim, who looks like any other father, finds a trail of evidence pointing to a kidnapping. Under that unassuming exterior are the black-ops skills of a spy, and former Agent Kim goes back to work to bring her home.

It stars So Ji-sub, Choi Dae-hoon, Yoon Kyung-ho, Joo Sang-uk, Son Na-eun and Seo Su-min. It was No. 1 on the non-English chart for three weeks in 2026 and spent eight weeks in the Top 10.

Can This Love Be Translated?: plot and cast, Kim Seon-ho and Go Youn-jung

An unexpected relationship grows between a multilingual interpreter and a global celebrity. Kim Seon-ho and Go Youn-jung star, and the story travels from Japan to Korea, Canada and finally Italy. The Hong Sisters wrote it and Yoo Young-eun directed. Its Korean title is 이 사랑 통역 되나요?, and it premiered on 16 January.

It was No. 1 for two weeks and stayed in the Top 10 for five. Its first-half views were 29M.

The Art of Sarah: plot and cast, Shin Hae-sun's mystery

A body is found in the middle of town. A luxury label is on the rise. A detective tests every stitch of one woman's account, which keeps shifting. It is a mystery thriller.

Shin Hae-sun and Lee Jun-hyuk lead, with Bae Jong-ok as Choi Chae-woo. Kim Jin-min produced and Chu Song-yeon wrote it. It premiered on 13 February and was No. 1 for two weeks, with 26M views in the first half.

My Royal Nemesis: plot and cast, Lim Ji-yeon's fantasy rom-com

A Joseon-era villain doomed to die opens her eyes in modern-day Seoul, where a ruthless chaebol heir may be her last chance to rewrite her fate. It is a fantasy rom-com, with Lim Ji-yeon and Heo Nam-jun as the enemies turned lovers. Han Tae-sub directed and Kang Hyun-joo wrote it.

It was No. 1 for one week and spent eight weeks in the Top 10, with 16M views in the first half.

Bloodhounds and Dynamite Kiss: plot and cast, boxing action and office romance

Bloodhounds opens at the height of the pandemic, when two rising boxers team up with a new employer to bring down loan sharks preying on people who cannot fight back. In season 2, Gun-woo (Woo Do-hwan) and Woo-jin (Lee Sang-yi) take on a global underground boxing league led by Baek-jeong (Jung Ji-hoon). Season 2 drew 24M views in the first half and the show was No. 1 for one week in 2026.

Dynamite Kiss begins with Go Da-rim, a single woman who pretends to be a married mother to land a job at a baby products company. The small lie spirals when she meets her stoic team leader, Gong Ji-hyeok, and one impulsive kiss turns their office lives upside down. Jang Ki-yong, Ahn Eun-jin and Kim Mu-jun star; it premiered on 12 November and spent nine weeks in the 2026 Top 10.

Best Korean shows on Disney+: Made in Korea, Moving, A Shop for Killers

Made in Korea is set in the 1970s. Baek Ki-tae (Hyun Bin), a section chief at the intelligence agency's Busan office who treats the state itself as a business model, is pursued by Jang Geon-yeong (Jung Woo-sung), a prosecutor in the Busan district office. The six-part series premiered on 24 December, and the Disney+ page lists a second season for 9 September 2026. Disney+ said the show set the record for the most viewing in Korea among its 2025 Korean originals.

Moving is a 20-part series about children hiding superpowers and parents hiding their pasts, who end up facing danger together. It adapts Kang Full's webtoon, with the author writing the script himself. It stars Ryu Seung-ryong, Han Hyo-joo, Jo In-sung, Cha Tae-hyun and Ryu Seung-bum alongside Lee Jung-ha, Go Youn-jung and Kim Do-hoon. A Shop for Killers follows Ji-an, a niece who becomes a target of killers because of the dangerous legacy her uncle left behind. A second season was announced among Disney+ titles for 2026.

Disney+ runs no public weekly chart of the kind Netflix does. Results surface only when the company announces them, on a different clock such as 48 days after release, so the two services' numbers cannot be placed side by side.

Where these numbers come from

Netflix publishes its weekly Top 10 as a raw data file: the week, the category, that week's rank, the show title, the season title, that week's hours viewed, the runtime, that week's views and the cumulative number of weeks in the Top 10. The No. 1 weeks and Top 10 stays in this guide were counted from the file downloaded on 8 September 2026. Its week values run from 4 July 2021 to 23 August 2026.

The all-time list is a separate file, holding views and hours viewed from a title's first 91 days. The first-half view figures come from the engagement report Netflix publishes every half year. Netflix notes that some titles may not be available in all regions and that Top 10 lists are offered only in selected countries and territories, so a title on the global chart may not be on your country's Netflix.