7 of the best new K-dramas to watch in September 2024, including The Judge from Hell
The summer is starting to wane but K-drama schedules show no signs of turning down the heat, with a September line-up filled with romance, comedy, thrills and action.
1. Seoul Busters
Lead cast: Kim Dong-wook, Park Ji-hwan, Seo Hyun-woo
Disney+ is launching a new comedy police show with Seoul Busters.
Kim Dong-wook (My Perfect Stranger) leads the cast as the debonair Dongbang Yoo-bin, who turns down a tenured position at a prestigious foreign university to return to Korea, where he begins to volunteer as the chief of the 2nd Violent Crimes Unit at the Songwon Police Station.
His team, which is infamous for having the country’s lowest arrest record, features bumbling detectives played by beloved character actors such as Park Ji-hwan (The Outlaws) and Seo Hyun-woo (Uncle Samsik). (Disney+, September 11)
2. The Judge from Hell
Lead cast: Park Shin-hye, Kim Jae-young
Park Shin-hye (Doctor Slump) is ready to fire up our screens as the lead in new legal series The Judge from Hell.
She plays senior judge Kang Bit-na, who is known for her looks and judgments. What most people do not know about her is that she is actually a demon. Her mission in life is to target evildoers who lead other, innocent people to their deaths and send them to hell.
In the course of her work, Bit-na crosses paths with Han Da-on (Kim Jae-young, Love in Contract), a handsome detective with a keen eye for observation who hides a secret pain . (SBS, September 21)
3. To My Haeri
Lead cast: Shin Hye-sun, Lee Jin-wook
Shin Hye-sun (Welcome to Samdal-ri) stars as the titular character in To My Haeri, except that she isn’t a real person.
Parking attendant Hye-ri (aka ‘Haeri’) is actually the alter ego of Joo Eun-ho, a TV announcer who is still struggling to make a name for herself despite already toiling for 14 years as one.
Lee Jin-wook (Sweet Home) plays Jung Hyun-o, Eun-ho’s ex-boyfriend, who, by contrast, has become a star news announcer since they split up.
Despite the time they have spent apart and the different directions their lives have gone in, Eun-ho and Hyun-o reunite and attempt to help each other overcome their problems.
To My Haeri is the latest outing for Twenty-Five Twenty-One director Jung Ji-hyun. (ENA, September 23)
4. Dog Knows Everything
Lead cast: Lee Soon-jae, Kim Yong-keon, Ye Soo-jung
Veteran actor Lee Soon-jae (Dear My Friends) plays a version of himself in the new comedy series Dog Knows Everything.
After getting involved in an incident on the set of his latest drama series, the public begins to decry him as a bully. Reeling from the scandal, he decamps to Geoje Island off the southern coast of Korea.
There, he comes across former police dog Sophie. One day, Sophie’s barking suddenly turns into a human voice, but only her disgraced actor companion can hear it. Together, they begin investigating incidents in the neighbourhood. (KBS2, September 25)
5. Gyeongseong Creature season 2
Lead cast: Han So-hee, Park Seo-joon
Star actors Han So-hee and Park Seo-joon return for the second season of the Netflix period monster series Gyeongseong Creature.
Following the events of last year’s episodes, which took place in 1945, the action jumps forward almost 80 years to the present.
Han is back as the feisty people finder Yoon Chae-ok, who underwent a transformation in 1945 and appears to have made it to the present in her youthful form.
Meanwhile, rather than the dashing Jang Tae-sang, Park now plays Ho-jae, who looks just like the man Chae-ok fought alongside in the past.
With the time period update and other stylistic changes, Gyeongseong Creature season 2 is being billed as a series with a very different tone. (Netflix, September 27)
6. What Comes After Love
Lead cast: Lee Se-young, Kentaro Sakaguchi, Hong Jong-hyun
Korean actress Lee Se-young (The Law Cafe) and Japanese actor Kentaro Sakaguchi (The Last 10 Years) team up for the romantic melodrama What Comes After Love.
Lee plays Hong, a Korean woman studying in Japan who meets and falls in love with Jungo (Sakaguchi). Owing to their personal differences about love and the practical problems they face, the pair wind up breaking up. Five years later, Hong and Jungo meet once more in Korea.
Based on the 2005 novel of the same name co-written by Kong Ji-young and Hitonari Tsuji, What Comes After Love is the drama debut of film director Moon Sung-hyung (Seoul Vibe). (Coupang Play, September 27)
7. Iron Family
Lead cast: Kim Jung-hyun, Kim Sae-rok
In the weekend drama Iron Family, which will air 36 episodes from September until January 2025, Keum Sae-rok (The Interest of Love) plays Lee Da-rim, the daughter of a family that has run the friendly neighbourhood Cheongryeom Laundry business for three generations.
Sae-rok went to university with Seo Kang-joo (Kim Jung-hyun, Mr. Queen), the son of the wealthiest family in Cheongryeom. Eight years after their school days, Da-rim and Kang-joo are reunited.
Da-rim has steadily been losing her vision in the interim before going completely blind at the age of 30. However, there exists an expensive procedure that could restore her eyesight. (KBS2, September 28)
