We’ve listed our Top 5 Police K-dramas because sometimes we need a break from the romantic side of K-dramas and dive straight into murder! Though please remember, crime doesn’t pay.
Now, to be fair I mostly just watch police dramas, because I tend to cringe real hard when I see all the lovey-dovey stuff. I grew up watching a lot of American, English and even Scandinavian crime series. So it kind of makes sense that I stuck with it when I started watching Korean ones.
Here at M.E.A.L. we try to give a more balanced representation of Korean dramas which is why there’s a couple of us writing them. Kathleen tends to go for romance, Oraianthi goes for time-period dramas and I take the crime.
So without further ado, here’s my top 5 of Police K-dramas.
VOICE (season 1)
This show is great for many reasons. The plot is actually interesting and the pace is set well throughout the entire series. The female lead, played by Lee Ha Na works at the 112 emergency call center and has the ability to hear extremely well. I know it kind of sounds weird, but it’s really well executed and you should really give it a try. What made me stay though was the amazing villain. He has an interesting backstory and is so, SO well played.
I haven’t been able to catch up with the following two seasons, but I’m planning on it.
Here’s the trailer.
It’s available on Netflix.
Stranger
I have probably said it tons of times before, and I will continue to put this drama on every possible list I can think of. This show is top tier. Technically it’s more like a team-up between police and prosecution but it’s so damn good. Every new case and new piece of information creates a slow but steady build-up that is totally worth it.
Also, I know I said I didn’t like romance, but the chemistry between Hwang Shi-Mok and Han Yeo-Jin portrayed by Cho Seung-Woo and Bae Doo-na respectively makes me want it. I hope in the second season that there is some development on that front between them.
Here’s the trailer.
It’s available on Netflix.
Also if you want to read my full review on Stranger, please click here.
Signal
The drive of police officers to discover the truth so bad it can turn walkie talkies into magic that will allow you to talk to the future or past, depending on which point of view we’re taking.
‘Signal’ is great for many reasons, the fact that got me so into it was the plot though. I like how they played with the time and the cinematography. So you never get confused about which time zone you’re in because there’s a drastic difference between the present and the past. In the present everything is blue toned while in the past everything is yellow toned. It sounds very basic, but it is an actual visual reminder of the time zone. And it works.
Here’s the trailer.
It’s available on Netflix.
Also if you want to read a full review about ‘Signal’, because I did have some issues with the show, please click here.
Tunnel
Hooray, there’s another time travel police drama on this list! I started watching ‘Tunnel’ because a couple of friends recommended it. I hadn’t really heard anything about it or seen anything on Instagram before I watched it, but WOW. This was so much fun to watch. There’s a review scheduled in the next couple of weeks, so keep an eye out for that.
Basically, a cop in 1986 is chasing a serial killer, ends up in an altercation in a tunnel with him and when he walks out, he’s in the future. They’re still trying to catch the same serial killer, so he helps them out.
Here’s the trailer.
It’s available on Netflix.
Live
This drama was a really unexpected personal favorite for me. I didn’t really have any expectations to speak of when I started ‘Live’ but it blew me right off my feet with the first episode. It’s such an honest, real look at how hard it is to be a police officer.
Also it kind of struck me as interesting that ‘Live’ shows you all of the studying and the practicing that they had to do but in a lot of Korean dramas police officers are usually shown as bumbling idiots. So what’s the truth?
Anyways, ‘Live’ is brilliant for its different story lines and the fact that you basically get invested in all of the characters no matter how small they are.
Here’s the trailer.
It’s available on Netflix.
Again, if you want to read my full review, please click here.
That was it for my Top 5 of Police K-Dramas. I know there are a lot of them out there and I haven’t been able to watch all of them, but they’re all on my to-watch list. If you have any recommendations that I should watch or you feel like a police drama you have watched should be on the list, let me know!
