Alchemy of Souls of course! It’s super underrated and how can so many people miss such a hidden gem?!

Sorry I just had to, but jokes aside definitely agree with @missvictrix choice. Adamas was totally underrated (yes I know I still have to finish the final episode)

But I was super chuffed that Ji Sung got an honourable mention for best male actor in the Editor’s Picks! His acting was truly great and he played his dual roles with perfection!

I never missed the opening sequence, truly one of the best OPs this year. And of course the iconic Adamas title. The directing and editing were on point!

The comment section discussions were fun and some of us were also thirsty for Ji Sung 😉

Never Give Up Never Give Up Never Give Up!

Seriously, the most hidden of the hidden gems. I don't even think it has an English language wikipedia page y'all. But the story of 40-something dad Gu Pil-soo (played to perfection by Kwak Do-won) meeting and befriending 20-something Jeong Seok (again, perfection from Yoon Doo-joon) under weird and trying circumstances is just the best.

Gu Pil-soo has the most amazing optimism and passion for everything that he does, so it's a shame that he's a bit down on his luck in the beginning, while Jeong Seok has been betrayed or let down by too many people to have a very high opinion of the world. But when they are thrown together under the same roof (also with Gu Pil-soo's wife and son, plus an old lady/load shark) their relationship is just perfect. They both help each other out in various ways and their bickering/advice swapping bromance is what makes the show.

Not that the rest isn't great too! I love the relationship between Gu Pil-soo and his wife as they try to figure out what they are to each other after 20 years of marriage, and their relationship with their son as he rebels and wants something different. The barely-there romance with Jeong Seok and Oh Seul-gi was just the right amount, and his journey out of cynicism and into community building with his band of misfits (plus Gu Pil-soo, obviously) was one of my favorite arcs of the year.

Quick warnings for folks who are sensitive to such things: there is a terminal illness, but it's plausible and used well from the beginning, not thrown in unexpectedly. The actors playing the 40-year-olds also play themselves at college age, but the whole thing is so tongue-in-cheek that you can tell the drama-makers are in on the joke, so this didn't bother me like it sometimes does.

An adorable side couple in Kiss Sixth Sense...oh! I remember😊.
And I agree with you @mistyisles about Wild Boar Hunting. It was bleak but phenomenal.

My Bean of Hiddeness has the following clause - lack of fanfare here on dramabeans in the What Were Watching or the drama's comments section.

As such my Bean of Hiddeness goes to King of Pigs. Generally I stay away from anything horror like, and the pig skull as a mask in episode 1 was enough incentive to shy away and not continue the watch, and it is on OCN. This wasn't the only thing to derail me, it had it's premise based on high school bullying. Someway somehow I stayed on and was drawn into the world of the bullied.

The beauty of King of Pigs that kept me in was that the originally bullied guy did not get stronger than his bullies as he became an adult, he was still weak in strength but he managed to effect punishment despite them being stronger than him. That clause separates King of Pigs from other childhood bully now an adult revenge theme series. Now add in Kim Dong-wook and I had a reason to watch KoP before the drama warmed up to me in the premiere episodes.

I don't know how well King of Pigs was received in South Korea but I know OCN re-ran it. Still, no fanfare in DB's WWW.

My top four shows this year were THE WITCH IS ALIVE (BECOMING WITCH) (A-), SHOW WINDOW (A-), LIFE IS BUT A DREAM (Short) (A-) and ALL OF US ARE DEAD (A-).

Director Park Chan-wook shot this 21 minute film on an iPhone 13 as an Apple commission project. After his casket is stolen and prepared for a recently deceased warrior, a dead man's spirit battles the soul of the dead warrior for ownership of the casket. The simple and condensed story, with a lot of action in cinematic style, with an actual ending, is something AoS 2 fans should watch for comparison alone.

I think both BECOMING WITCH and SHOW WINDOW were underrated because each synopsis seemed like formula shows. But each was unique takes on their respective genres.

The choice for me would also be between Wild Boar Hunt and King of Pigs. For its fabulous ending, when grandma and the boar meet face to face as the survivors who both got their revenge and the last laugh, my bean goes to WILD BOAR HUNT.

"Kiss Sixth Sense" is a great pick, but it's "Love All Play" for me. It stumbled in the back half, and the hero deserved more apologies from those around him than he got, but I loved this one so much. The mood, the romance being front and center, the ML's dimples--it all grabbed me and wouldn't let go for the entirety of its run.

What a great category! After being in something of a Kdrama drought, I've now added a couple more to my check-it-out list.

I'm not sure this was under-appreciated or not, because I have seen some references to it here on this site, but I really liked Glitch. Two interesting female leads, an intriguing plot that was not drawn out, and most important, a story filled with possible metaphors that pseudo-intellectuals like myself could drone on about, soothing our partners to sleep.
On another, more irritable note: Adamas, Kiss Sixth Sense, and @laurensophie mentions Love All Play are not available in the U.S. unless you install a VPN, and deceive Disney and haven't already subscribed to Disney+ prior to your VPN. Wild Boar Hunting is on Apple + I think that IS available in the U.S., but I haven't found the offerings on Apple + in general compelling enough to subscribe. Maybe if they had more kdramas. Tracer was not at first available anywhere, that I could see, although now it is on Viki and based on @lovepark 's additional recommendation, I'll take a look at it, although its hard not to be attracted by new and shiny kdramas.

Still, the point is that for some of us, there are technical reasons that these are hidden and even if they might be ripe for drama discovery, they are as much beans of frustration as beans of hiddenness.

Hidden (C)gems: The Oath of Love and The Story of Xing Fu.

Kiss Sixth Sense disappointed me because I love the webtoon and didn't think it was a good adaptation

For me it's the serie "Anna" with Bae Suzy (at her best). A woman fighting to survive and get free. The director's cut of 8 episodes is better.
Also, Gaus electronics was a hidden gem imo.

I don't know if gaus electronics can be considered a hidden gem, but if we go by its ratings.. I wish more people would take their time to watch it.

My bean of hiddenness is a tie between Red Heart and If you wish upon me.
Red heart was a complex tale where our emotions kept being shifted from start to end. The plot was rich and never got boring and the acting was great. Kang Han-na, Lee Joon, Jang Hyuk, Park Ji-yeon as well as the rest of the cast nailed their roles. The cinematography was astounding from the beginning of the drama to the ending scene. I also want to appreciate the one who was in charge of Kang Han-na's outfits as her hanboks were stunning.
If you wish upon me was a slice of life that never failed to touch my heart. Be it the side stories or our hero's backstory and his budding relationship with his newfound family and our heroine. Ji Chang-wook and Sung Dong-ii's acting was phenomenal and their father-son relationship was the highlight for me and got me invested more than anything. Perhaps there were some plot holes in the drama but it had a lot of good aspects that made me somewhat knowingly turn a blind eye to the bad ones.

@laurensophie agreed Love all, play is a hidden gem. It gets missed because it is compared to Racket boys as they were both about badminton but the age difference meant very different issues were covered in the two dramas.

Love All Play was about sacrifices and living with the short/long term consequences of making choices based on emotions rather than rational thinking. It had humour, romance, found family and was a slice of life in the elite sports world. The side plots covered corruption, sponsorship, competitiveness, team work, and parenting.

Watching the main couple get together was a joy. The repercussions of the accident had a devastating impact on them individually and as a couple. My main complaint was how toxic they made the sad part of the love story and it was extended over too many episodes. This left too little time for the main couple’s reconciliation and therefore we missed out on their interactions which were the best parts of the show.

Its embarrassing that I can't think of any (smaller) series from the first half of the year. There were probably several I liked a great deal but they aren't coming to mind. 'My Name' came out Oct 2021 so doesn't qualify (though most people only discovered it only after watching Squid Game).

My hidden gem, I guess, was 'Glitch'. There was no online buzz, no discussions. How could people so thoroughly overlook a Nana - Jeon Yeo-been pair-up?

So many dramas now to watch!

I didn't know which drama I'd pick for this until I finished my personal "Editor's Picks" Comment. But my bean of hiddeness goes too...

Monstrous - it was just so good, but so under the radar! The tone, the directing, the characters... I loved it all. I wish it was longer.

Honorable Mentions: Sh**ting Stars (I loved this drama to bits and pieces, but I think too many people also loved it to truly call it a "hidden gem")