Our beloved Summer Ung sharing his parents with Jiung so he didn’t have to be alone while his mum was away.

CLOY, HP and Itaewon Class are among my fave found family shows. I would include TUC too but I didnt like the last few episodes and the ending as much.
I think this also counts Prison Playbook, Reply 1988 and Reply 1994. I really like the group of friends on both. Plus there is also Still 17 and Chief Kim.

Lookout ❤️

Wok of Love
Confession

The description of Lookout makes me think of Leverage, my daughter's absolute favorite US TV series. We watch it from start to finish every year. The Korean version was one of the only 3 Kdramas we watched during my hiatus between 2015 and 2022. Can anyone tell me how Lookout compares to the Korean Leverage?

I most definitely agree with Hospital Playlist 100%. And I think I enjoyed reading about the unholy alliance described in Lookout.

My best found family will be Start Up with the focus on the strong familial relationship between Choi Won-deok(Kim Hae-sook) and Han Ji-pyeong (Kim Seon-ho).

This two had a relationship so profound you'd think they are actual parent-child. I don't recall how they actually came across each other but right from the beginning it was clearly shown that they held each other like eggs and always rooted for each other. No one messes with either of them except themselves. I guess the point where it struck the most, where it hit a focal point for me was Won-deok telling Ji-pyeong never to shy away from her after she learnt that her granddaughter rejected his hand. To always come to her whether or not he's feeling lonely. Even if they have nothing to say to each other...just to bask in the warmth of a mother's touch and savor the presence of each other. The bonds that bind this two strangers is so strong...and raw, without blemish. She knew that left alone, Ji-pyeong wouldn't bring himself reach out to her even if he wanted to out of necessity and she helped him to process the words he needed to say. This happens to be one of the few times I see Han Ji-pyeong this openly vulnerable throughout the course of Start Up.
In later episodes when the tables slowly turned and Won-deok was the recipient of Ji-pyeong's reassurance, she got it. He did everything possible to ensure that she felt comfortable, safe and secure even if it meant working grudgingly with a 'piece of work' character.

The love between this two if I must say, transcends blood. I knew that this two will be with each other each step of the way.

Honorable Mentions
- King Moo-hyul * Maro * Hye-ap * Chu Balso in Kingdom of the Winds. (😓 Remembering Ma-ro's death. It took a lot of strength to finally sit through this scene).

Gwangaetto, the Great Conqueror - Damdeok * Sagal Hyeon. Damdeok x Yeon Salta. Truly deep family-esque connections.

Park Hye-ryun is particularly good at writing found families well I think. Someone already mentioned Grandma and Han Ji-pyeong in Start-up. But before that we also had Dal-po and his adoptive family in Pinocchio as well as the joint breakfast group of While You Were Sleeping with all the people they helped.

If we could extend the trope a little, I also thought the village of Gongjin in Hometown Cha-cha-cha functioned like one big, weird-but-loving family.

Work Later, Drink Now
These ladies got each other’s back, besties forever

Age of Youth S1&2
While their relationships might not be permanent, their current living situation is very family like, warts and all. And what’s a family of you can’t live together eh?

Coffee Prince
Yeah I hate the capitalist mindset where your coworkers are apparently your ‘work family’ 🤮🤮🤮
Buuuut with their stunning good looks, friendship and horny customer base, they truly represent the capitalist’s dream no?

Let’s Eat Franchise:
What’s a family if you can’t eat together eh?

I’ll Go To You When The Weather Is Nice
I got nothing snarky to say about this, their book club is wholesome and sweet, and I wanna, I wanna, I wanna so be apart of it!

The Welcome to Waikiki crew from both seasons are a great found family/s too! The best parts of the show, aside from the comedy, is the bits where they all band together to help each other out (especially when they do so with Baby Sol in the first season) 💕

There are some other dramas that came to my mind
Manager Kim
Forcasting Love and Weather (not favorite of many, but the forcasting team was a reall team and work family)
Imitation (all the characters united and became friends, snd maybe soon to be family)
Fermentation Family (here love was only one of the many stories we had and stragers became reall family)
Sell your haunted house (If we can count addition of two new figures in price of two old ones, yeah )
Jirisan (again not accepted by many, but the way colligues looked after eachother, definitely made them family)
Because this is my first life(this isan exciting example because two distinct group met each other and unified. Technically they formed three families but their lives are sooo interwoven...so...one big family)
Come back Miseter
Mustic pop-up Bar
A poem a day
Blossom
The Witch's Dinner
Doctor Romantic
Buldusal(somewhere midway of the story)
Midnight dinner
Misaeng

The first one that came to my mind is 30 but 17.

I think my favorite found family K-drama is still Mixed Up Investigation Agency. It's such an odd mix of characters and personalities, yet they end up complementing each other perfectly in one of the best friendship-driven shows I've seen.

My extended definition of "family" means living under the same roof, eating together, and supporting each other. Found family means the same but under usual circumstances. What comes to my mind is MASTER OF STUDY where 5 failing students camp themselves in 24/7 study hall.

Just Between Lovers, with Kang-doo, loan shark halmeoni, room salon madam Ma-ri, earth angel Sang Man, and their friends providing the mutual support and kindness their damaged or non-existent families couldn't.

CLOY and Chief Kim were also at the top of my list, along with the oddball law office crew in Suspicious Partner.

Honestly, do the kdrama found families beat Dramabeans and our Brotherhood of Beanie Buddies?

Mystic Pop-up Bar - literally.

Father is Strange - where he thought he found his birth family, but this was some other family, which worked out perfectly in the end.

Be Melo - the friends who stay together to help raise a kid and prevent a beloved friend from spiraling from grief. They got each other through rough times.

Business Proposal - Young-seo ends up being like a second daughter in Hari's family, even helping out at the chicken store sometimes. Her bio family sucked.

All the replies, but Reply 1988 - families finding other families until they become one Big Super Family.

Vincenzo - in that building, you got family members of different ages willing to come together, dress to the nines, and get revenge!

Another might be Life on Mars. Especially for Han Tae Joo's character.

My personal recommendation for this category: Racket Boys. Totally love all the kids and how they created a wonderful relationship with each other alongside their coaches.

Best found out family would be The Guest.

I agree with Lookout. I loved Ksg and Key together! I also would add 30 but 17. The cobbled together family with the housekeeper as the matriarch of it all. Loved that.

My pick for the worst found family…Taxi Driver! (Yes I know, I’m sick of myself too)

Dealing with their emotional angst by kidnapping the baddies of the world ain’t gonna yanno help them heal, therapy might help tho

Regardless, a family of vigilantes is a recipe for disaster, but then again I wouldn’t have my show otherwise, soooooo who really benefits?

Romantic Doctor teacher Kim. I’m surprised I didn’t think of it immediately because I wrote an essay here about it a long time ago! http://www.dramabeans.com/2018/03/best-friends-forever-when-work-friends-are-best-friends-and-family/

Prison playbook - my first pick for the best found families.
Misaeng - the rookies should be here too
Hospital playlists, Age of youth, Waikiki, Vampire detective - I love their bonding and friendship goals

There are great squad of friends but for found family, I think they need to live together.

Be Melodramatic is a good one. They lived in the same appartment and they all got something about it : No rent to pay, free babysitter, emotional support.

Age of Youth 1 and 2 : they really helped and supported each other. They had very different personality but it works.

Welcome to Waikiki 2 : I liked how they helped the FL to become independent when themselves were completely struggling 😅

LOL Hwang Jung Eum and all the personalities of Ji Sung in Kill Me
Heal Me haven´t been mentioned yet. Same body 7 people...

Be Melodramatic!

Padam Padam-First one that comes to mind is this drama written by Noh Hee Kyung. I didn't care much for the love story but the found family part was really good. And a few of her other dramas feature a similar vibe.
Strongest Deliveryman and Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol before the I famous ending.

I like the article but wanted to point out that in Itaewon Class, Park Saeroyi is imprisoned for beating someone nearly to death, not for “being poor.” His Dad was an executive at a large company and he’s not actually poor at any point in the drama.

It may be not totally considered a "adoptive family", but in Oh My Venus... the ML, FL, best friend, and side-kicks created a little bit of a "found family" that was kind of cute. I enjoyed the fact that the boys said they will be uncles when they knew the FL was pregnant... (sorry for the spoiler)...
It was cute.
Not my favorite... but it brought lots of light to the drama.

Quickly scrolled to see that it wasn't mentioned by other comments. For me Bossam; Stealing Fate had the absolute best found family to date. Comprised of dad and cute-as-a-bug son, dad's scene stealing best friend, a steel magnolia princess and her nanny, they initially bond over shared hardship. Eventually they develop such tender regard for each other and willingness to risk everything to keep everyone safe. That dynamic made the first half of the drama a true joy. Show got a little lost there near the end but that's true of so many Kdramas, eh?

Terius Behind Me
Fight For My Way
Still 17
The Fiery Priest
Zombie Detective
Uncle
Showtime Begins
Couple or Trouble
Stars Falling From the Sky
The Suspicious Housekeeper
+All the dramas about three girlfriends (Melo, Drink Now, 20th Century, WWW, Hi Bye Mama, etc)

Bonus: Kim Bum's found family from Tale of the nine tailed or wtv the title is.

It is a Chinese Show but "Go Ahead" is my favourite in this genre!

I'm late to this discussion but I wanted to say my favourite "found familias" too.
- Prison Playbook would be number 1. I loved the bond between the group and some prison guards.
- Live Up to your name (ML, FL, grandpa and his two employees and the old ladies who often go to the clinic, one of them even becoming the "mother" of the ML).
- The best hit.
- Crash Landing on You.
- Shopping King Louis.
- 30 but 17.

I like this subgenre a lot :)
Even more if we add "fish out of the water".