Mine was Romantic Doctor Kim, the first. I had sworn off medical dramas because of how contrived and inaccurate they all were. Turns out, I just needed to see a Korean one. But I saw myself in it and how the relationships were deep and meaningful between coworkers. It made me be more intentional and there for my staff and colleagues that I spend more time with than my own family sometimes. And it was my gateway to Goblin which aired soon after. And everything else is kdrama history.

For me it was Encounter. The heroine’s journey really resonated with me. Watching her slowly break free from the cage of expectations and responsibilities, unlearn the identity others had given her and spread her wings struck such a chord with me. All she needed was one person willing to love and support her unselfishly to give her the courage to move forward. I know I’m in a minority of those who appreciate this show, but possibly because for once I’m not focused on the romance, but the process of self-discovery,

Perfect Marriage Revenge and Carry Sun-Jae and Run!!

PMR was makjang on speed and the Beanie fanwall was full of dazzling posts. 😊 It was a once upon a drama kind of experience.

Sun Sol are the cutest OTP in like forever. 🫰 ♥️ 🥰

Love Alarm (specifically season 2). Maybe a weird choice, given reactions to this show/ season have been less than positive. I don't know, maybe because I wanted to see the nice and soft guy actually win a love triangle and have the girl choose him, maybe because I found myself relating to him on some level, but this show just snuck up on me when I watched it a few months ago, and I've been thinking about it ever since. It's not perfect, but I think the story, the characters and the message just kinda spoke to me in a certain way.

I have more than 20 shows I listed as my favourites of all time. There are many (rightly and over-)hyped shows I haven’t watched. That is to say the majority in my favourite list did sneak up on me in one way or another, and often not because of their popularity. Each of them touched me in some way, and once was, if not still, a show I didn’t know I needed. The most recent one is See you in my 19th life. I’d been desperately looking for a romance that would grab my heart, a romance with everything done with the right amount, not too little, not too much, not too fluffy, not too angsty, and not emotionally manipulative. And See you in my 19th life delivered exactly that. It’s a dreamy show (I borrowed this word from @hopefulromantic ) that fulfilled my longing heart.

Numbers. This drama wasn't really even in the "so bad that it's good category," it was more like, "How do K-dramas do it? They consistently make accountancy crazy fun and sexy?? First, Chief Kim and now THIS!!" 😆

A huge part of the "not knowing what I needed" aspect, as @seeker notes above for PMR, was, of course, the devoted community of Beanies who gathered each week to both praise and tease this amazing drama, all following the lead of our amazing recapper, @alathe --- someone always equipped with pointed barbs and witty insights that kept us all aware that K-dramas are for our enjoyment.

It was six weeks delightfully spent.

For me this year it was Doctor slump, even though I'm a PHS fan I would have watched it anyway but I didn't know I would love it this much..It really comforted me..It was refreshing to see a communicating healthy couple in a kdrama.

I watched Chief Kim during the middle of the pandemic, and it was exactly the combo of ridiculous humor and random misfits banding together to overcome impossible odds that I needed at that moment.

Easy pick for me: Welcome to Waikiki (Season 1, mainly). It brought me so many laughs and I remember looking forward to each episode and in the midst of all the rom-coms I watch, this was a gem for me. Rebecca, Chewbacca, and "gwenchana, gwenchana, gwenchana" have become common references between me and my sister ><

From the current shows it has been Byeon Wooseok who sneaked on me and captured my heart unexpectedly.

From the recent batch it was Chaebol and Cop which I originally hadn't planned to watch at all, but once I clicked play and the retro intro and fitting music started, it was oh, yes, I needed exactly this moment for me, with a huge grin on my face. Plus I was surprised how much warmth was hidden in this procedural.

For me there are several dramas that didn't make a significant impression upon first sight, but then popped out on me. "Hyena" was one of them. That came to me when I was in desperate times, not knowing how to get through the days and feeling strangled by my then-circumstances, and here was a heroine who didn't have "give up" in her vocabulary and was more than resourceful and self-confident in any given situation. This drama was a perfect match at the perfect time. I often feel that I owe it my sanity.
Then in times of grief there was Move to Heaven and A Piece of Your Mind which helped me a great deal.
And then, when I was close to give up kdramas for some time, The Matchmakers came along and restored my faith in the magic of a kdrama done right! Recently when I was contemplating that I should get in motion more and begin exercising again I stumpled upon Oh my Venus which was very different from what I thought it was, in a positive way.
So now I'm actually waiting to be found again! My most recent drama watch is about to end, and I'd like a new one that makes me feel all the feels again...

That will be You Are My Spring.

When it aired, it was one of those dramas that I didn't like and also didn't hate. It was a lukewarm receive from me.

So imagine me bingeing episodes 5-12 in the space of 2-3 days. I stuck by the recaps and realized this was my kind of story and baam! I was folding my toes watching Kim Dong-wook and Seo Hyun-jin do thier thing.
And honestly, it has been. Why? Of all the dramas stored in my reserve, I've rewatched YAMS wholely a total of 5 times. Most times when I rewatch, I skim through and focus on the best episodes. But with YAMS, everything is everything.

Now, if you ask me to write a love letter to YAMS, I'll get to it immediately till I'm tired of waxing how much I love it.

Perfect Marriage Revenge
It wasn't perfect--the production values were not as good as many higher budget shows and some of the acting bordered on bad (or was it campy?)--but it came right when I was going through a low point in my kdrama watching life. PMR answered so many of the gripes I had with dramas during that period--Why do the bad guys always get away with so much for so long and why do the mains keep falling for their stupid schemes and lies? Can I like leads who are that gullible? Why can't the mains communicate? Why does the ML (or sometimes FL) have to be so deliberately mean/cold to the FL? Why can't the evil people get the comeuppance or scheme foiled earlier than the last episode? Why must adults titter like small children at the smallest thing like a brush of a hand? Why must there be actual falling to initiate heart flutters instead of more swoony moments? Why can't big corporations be run by professionals instead of just family members who get it birthright, but no obviously skill? PMR resolved these question and more by showing you could make a show interesting by having the mains foil plots early and often, having the leads talk and engage in real conversations about issues, and have the leads have a real relationship that deepens over time through communication work and trust. It did all this and still made show fun and entertaining. I didn't know how much I needed that until I got it--and it was a fun ride. Wheee!

Run On:

I was never a Shin Se-kyung fan, but her character definitely won me over. It made me realize how underappreciated translators are when they are literally unsung heroes for us people who want to watch stuff in a language we can't understand. Glad I chose this over the overhyped True Beauty when both were still ongoing.

There are a lot of dramas that have caught me by surprise by how enjoyable and/or engrossing they were--two recent ones were Perfect Marriage Revenge, for the reasons mentioned by @pynyc and Flowers in the Sand--who knew a drama about an obscure form of wrestling could at times be so moving?

But I understand the "drama you didn't know you needed" to be something more significant than that, so I would have to say the Park Minh Young rom-com Her Private Life, which was the first kdrama romance I ever watched. I had already seen The Stranger, Signal, Tunnel etc. so knew the high quality of kdrama mystery and detective series; I also have been a romance fan all my life, so in that sense, I knew I "needed" the genre.

But, as hard as it might be for long time kdrama fans to believe, I had no idea prior to watching Her Private Life how expert kdramas were in developing and employing romance tropes. This show, in addition to an appealing, adult romance, with some smoking hot kisses, also presented an aspect of pop culture that I'd always been curious about--obsessive fan interest in music idols, and it did so in the context of collection and curation, which still makes a lot of sense to me as an explanation of some of the bizarre aspects of this fan culture.

Unfortunately, the show also has the flaws that I am now aware are way, way too often a key part of kdrama romances, especially the obsessive focus on male psychological trauma. So I consider this show, as with many others, including a couple of the ones listed above, as part of my current love-hate relationship with kdramas. But at the time I watched Her Private LIfe I had no idea that I needed a kdrama rom-com--or any kdramas, really, besides suspense, mystery, and detective shows.

Like Flowers In Sand. Long tragic sageuks are my favorite genre, so I never expected to be captivated by sports/coming of age/romance/ mystery/slice of life drama.

What comes to mind right away is Shopping King Louis. (I also can’t believe it was from 2016.). I remember it as this light, fun, ridiculous show that somehow tugged at my heart. The premise was crazy but SIG and NJH and the production team made it work.

"Drama you didn’t know you needed".
As in dramas that gave me comfort when I needed it the most, but I didn't see it coming?

2013: Flower Boy Next Door

2017-2019: My Ahjussi
Live
Just Between Lovers
Be Melodramatic
At 18
Because This Is My First Life

2020-2021: You Are My Spring
Be My Dream Family
Run On
Mad For Each Other
2022: 25-21
My Liberation Notes
Seasons of Blossom
Gaus Electronics

2023: Tell Me That You Love Me
Like Flowers in Sand

Those dramas came out of nowhere to give me a little peace and comfort.
I guess this were shows that had a "great timing" in my life.

For me, that would be "Because This Life is My First". The FL's journey resonated with me at that point in my life, and the title itself has been a very significant and instrumental part of my mental well-being and interactions with others -- reminding myself that it's ok to make mistakes because this life is my first, and similarly extending that empathy to others in their interactions vis-a-vis me.

Also "Find Me In Your Memory" - this coincided with the start of the pandemic lockdown, so it provided a great source of comfort during those uncertain times!

For me its Perfect Marriage Revenge and Twinkling Watermelon. I loved both so much and both wrre not even in my To-Watch List initially. 🥰

Definitely Hometown Cha Cha Cha evangelist this week, just having watched it... To me, such a beautiful commentary on acceptance-- of one's own flaws, of other's flaws and why they may be the way they are, and learning to move past all those into a relationship that works, whether it's between lovers, friends, antagonists. Also, the importance of communication- though if everyone in Kdramaland were open and honest about their feelings, half of all the shows would cease to exist hahah.
Plus, of course... Kim Seon Ho's emotive eyes and smiles- I could watch his subtle expressions that tell me a million things, all day :D :D

For me it was WHEN THE WEATHER IS FINE. I was on a break from all things Kdrama then (I'm ashamed to say including this site!), and I wasn't updated on the latest releases. I had no idea the drama existed, but Netflix kept showing me the show so one day I just gave it go, and it turned out to be one of my fave dramas of all time.❤️

I'd say that about all my favorite dramas, honestly: Flower Boy Next Door, Prison Playbook, Queen Seon Deok, Twinkling Watermelon, 25-21, Misaeng, Live up to your name, When the weather is fine, The Matchmakers...

Discovering these unexpected gems is exciting. I'm always on the search for a new treasure.

Sorry for being late to the party.
Hands down Lovely Runner. I didn't even have to think twice. The Sol-Jae couple is having all my heart.

I am not into zombie stories but thoroughly enjoyed Kingdom and watched both seasons.