When life is manic and uncertain, it’s nice to turn to relaxing and soothing Korean dramas to lift your spirits and tell you it’s all going to be okay
When the real world is already kinda crazy and dramatic, maybe we don’t need the shows we watch to be too exciting. Squid Game, Hellbound and My Name? All extremely nerve-wracking, gut-wrenching, nail-biting. After a long day of battling folks and situations in real life, perhaps it’s time to retreat to something slow and relaxing—K-dramas where nothing very exciting or even very much really happens, where people are nice to each other, and the world is hunky-dory (and pandemic-free).
Here are our favourite healing and heart-warming Korean dramas that will restore your faith in humanity, and maybe even get you through life’s tougher moments.
In case you missed it: 11 Korean Dramas With the Highest Ratings in 2021: Which Haven’t You Watched?
1. Hospital Playlist
One of our favourite comforting K-dramas is the crowd-pleasing Hospital Playlist, which ran for two seasons, in 2020 and 2021. Things revolve around five doctors at Yulje Hospital, who have been best friends since they graduated from medical school. Amidst the mini-dramas of their patients (some uplifting, some tear-jerking), the lives and relationships of the telegenic docs (played by Jo Jung-suk, Yoo Yeon-seok, Jung Kyung-ho, Kim Dae-myung and Jeon Mi-do) play out very slowly.
The beauty of this show is the easy chemistry among the leads, and how realistic everything feels—the doctors have meals together, chat about everyday things and make fun of one another. Nothing is actually happening, but it’s just soothing to watch. Each episode ends with the docs jamming in their garage band, which is how they destress from the intensity of their work, and each song is a poignant reminder of the life lessons learned in that episode—such as how to let go, the sweetness of first love, the importance of family. The most relaxing one-and-a-half hours ever.
Read more: Hospital Playlist 2: What to Expect in This Korean Drama’s New Season