1. Dear,My Friends (a show centered on old people, though Go Hyun-jung, Jo In Sung and Lee Kwang Soo are in the drama). It went on to win the Best Drama and the Best Screenplay Award in the Baeksang Arts Awards).
2. Recipe for Farewell (A slice-of-life where the hubby learns how to take care of his sick wife).
3. Would You Like to Have A Cup of Coffee? (A drama where a young man learns not about making coffee, it also talks about family, friendship and community).

Mother
A ridiculously high IMDb score
Lee Bo-Young’s incredible performance
Emotional scenes that hit harder than a white truck of doom that will have you screaming “Daebok!”
Probably the best kid actress performance from Yool Heo that I’ve ever seen- right up there with Kidnapping day.

And nobody talks about it nor brings it up.
Maybe it’s the lack of romance, or lack of comedy. Maybe it’s the non-typical plot. It’s has received very little fanfare.
Even Dramabeans does it dirty. If you sort by rating, Mother doesn’t show up as a top rated show despite having a top rating. It’s like the show is invisible.
It got pulled from Viki right after I watched it, so now it’s near impossible to watch.
Mother deserves more praise and adoration- much more.

Off the top of my head, an underrated drama is one that I enjoyed but was not popular or appreciated for the acting or story. The one that comes to mind had its episode count cut mid-production from 16 to 12 which made the ending rushed. It was not the best drama but I like it: BEST CHICKEN.

Kairos
365: Repeat the Year
Circle
Tamra the Island

I love too many dramas that nobody talks about. I don't think I can choose a most underrated one.

King of Pigs - As someone who is easily drawn away from dramas centered around modern violence, I loved this one to the moon and back. It was so good that OCN re-ran the series on last time as an independent network before OCN became no more. It was the only one they re-ran. But it got no noise from here. I do acknowledge one beanie who was consistent in the WWWs when the re-run was ongoing.

Family: The Unbreakable Bond - Yes, the premiere week is enough to kill any buzz it might want to garner. But as it continued, it proved to be one gem a few enjoyed.

Iron Family - I fear this might become an underrated weekender thanks to the disappointing predecessors.

Recipe for Farewell, Love to Hate You, Would You Like A Cup of Coffee, The Three Musketeers, May It Please the Court, Fly Dragon.

Maybe Secret Love Affair. Amazing performances and very believable piano playing by Yoo Ah-In for such difficult material.

Forgot to mention Conspiracy in the Court.

Was It Love?

This is not just an underrated drama, apparently most people actively dislike it. I watched it as an anti-recommendation and I enjoyed it from beginning to end

It is a reverse harem, and each of the men have a different role and purpose for her arc. I genuinely loved the drama

Oh my goodness, I totally agree with you on this, @missvictrix!
A Piece of Your Mind is definitely a really underrated gem 🥰

Some others:
- Marriage Contract
- If You Were a Season (short drama, also Chae Soo Bin)
- My Holo Love

That’s all I can think about early on a Sunday morning lol Might add more later

I'm not sure this technically counts as underrated, but I'm gonna say it anyway: Arthdal Chronicles. It had mixed reviews, low viewership compared to it's massive budget, and I don't really see anybody talking about it. It was apparently popular enough to get a second season (thank god for that, even if S2 really flew under the radar), though it had to deal with lots of recasts, a reduced budget, and the writers clearly having to pick and choose what they wanted to focus on because it was literally impossible to wrap everything up in 12 episodes. Both seasons are great though, and it's among my favorite KDramas. I genuinely loved the massive world the show created, and the characters & stories that inhabited it. Mind you, S1 didn't exactly do itself any favors sometimes, especially with it just not resolving anything and instead ending on massive cliffhangers (not to mention the break between part 2 and 3, and then part 3 not even paying off the very thing the ending of part 2 was teasing). I deliberately waited to watch it until S2 finished airing, and I think this is one of those shows that really works best when you binge watch it. I probably would've been very frustrated otherwise.

Also, I'm not the only one that's just going through these comments looking for what dramas to add to my list, right?

Dramas I think that are underrated and unknown, at least outside Dramabeans (where practically nobody talks about them):

_ My Unfamiliar family.
_ Live up to your name.
_ Mirror of the witch.
_ 9 end 2 outs.
_ Seasons of Blossom.
_ Racket Boys.
_ The Matchmakers (outside Dramabeans of course).
_ Miraculous Brothers.
_ Into the ring.

Mystic Pop-Up Bar: a nice, well-written, rounded out story with many details. It is a bit like Hotel del Luna as it is dealing withghosts, afterlife and grudges, but it's still very different.
Tracer 1 & 2. Im Si-Wan at his best with a nice bunch of co-workers at the tax office.

Weightlifting Fairy Bok-joo

Its a cult classic for a reason, the performances by the cast are fantastic, the characters are charming, likeable and symathetic.

It does a great job at capturing just how awkward it can be to "grow up", and the joys and difficulties of navigating school, friendships, family and romance as a young adult.

Some of my underrated favorites include Mixed Up Investigation Agency (Evasive Inquiry Agency), Beautiful World, Psychopath Diary, Liar Game, Return of Iljimae and Capital Scandal. They're all rather hard-to-categorize shows that are happy to veer off in unexpected directions.

Some of the dramas I consider underrated gems (and I've already talked about them a lot in other posts, haha) are Unlock My Boss, Into the Ring, The Matchmakers (although it was popular locally here), Pegasus Market, Hello, Me!, and The Sound of Your Heart. It's fun to read through the comments and get some new ideas!

For me, I was always surprised that Haechi wasn't more successful. Great costumes, music, acting and story. Its point of view regarding politics seems very timely.

Underrated in general :

- The Matchmakers : The Art Director deserved the Beaksang award!
- Into the Ring : It was a nice rom-com.
- A Piece of Your Mind : I will be angry against TVN until I'm 90 years old!
- Extraordinary You : I think EY was a better drama than True Beauty (same PD), the themes were more interesting and the story more original.
- She Would Never Know : It was a nice office /slice a life romance.
- On the Verge of Insanity : It was a great drama without any romance!
- Through the Darkness : I don't get how Kim Nam-gil didn't get all the awards for this show. He was so good.
- Tomorrow : the theme was very difficult but this drama addressed a lot of subject and gave us a tragic love story.
- You Are My Spring : the whole part with the twin wasn't really interesting but the ML was my favorite psy in Kdrama world!

Lies Hidden in My Garden. Though I see the rating was higher than I thought! Uh...that could be because I gave it a high rating?

Just from a SK ratings point of view and NOT considering how many comments were generated here at DB a few of my personal favorites with poor ratings would include:
From my early kdrama days:
1. tvn’s CHICAGO TYPEWRITER (2017). Nationwide average rating (NAR) 2.27%. (Cable drama ratings have traditionally been lower than the terrestrial networks.)
2. OCN’s DUEL (2017). NAR: 1.732%
3. MBC’s I AM NOT A ROBOT (2017/18). NAR: 3.2%
4. tvn’s A POEM A DAY (2018). NAR: 1.011%
Jumping to 2024:
5. KBS’s DARE TO LOVE ME: NAR: 1.3%
6. Channel A’s CINDERELLA AT 2AM: NAR: 0.48%

Side note re INAR. When the ratings for the first 4 (30 min) episodes were released: 4.1%, 4.5%, 3.0% and 3.1%. ML Yoo Seung-ho was shocked and (from an article I read at the time) said on set he could not look the Director in the eye. My personal opinion is that blame for the poor ratings went squarely on the shoulders of the writers who introduced the main characters so poorly. Folks got turned off early and said: ‘see, ya’. I stayed with it and it became an all time favorite of mine. (Nowadays, perhaps those ratings would be considered ok.)

It’s that time of year again! The time when I bring up for the zillionth time how ridiculously underrated Never Give Up/There is No Gu Pil-su was and is. Y’all, it doesn’t have an English language wikipedia page - that’s how under the radar it flew. It was ENA’s first drama if I’m not mistaken, approximately 4 people watched it as it aired in Korea, and there were no legal streaming services offering it internationally. Netflix picked it up (I’m assuming for peanuts) a few months later and I started watching without much expectation. But then! I fell in love with the kind and goofy ajusshi ML, the earnest but cynical younger ML, and the community they built around their found-family and fried chicken shop. It’s such a feel-good story that centers an intergenerational bromance but leaves room for explorations of marriage, parenting, following your passions, and letting go of your past.

I'm here just to get recs and remember which dramas I've had on my watchlist for years. 🙈

But I would say that I feel like Reply 94' became an underrated drama after it finished airing. No one mentions it anymore. It's like only 88 and 97 existed. I particularly liked it better than 97, even tho the extension of episodes made the ending weak.
Even Viki forgot about it, apparently. It's the only Reply that isn't available on my region. 🙃

Anyway, I would say that this friend group, and just the drama in general, does not deserve to be forgotten. It was lots of fun and very heartwarming.

Extracurricular's subject matter was dark (prostitution, drugs), but its story was enthralling and well-written. I think the show is mostly underrated because it's a high school drama with a young cast, but it's definitely not your typical high school drama.

'Lost/Human Disqualification'. A quiet, understated, melancholy drama, so I can see why it flew under the radar.

'The One and Only'. One of my all-time favourite "damaged character" romances.

'My Lawyer, Mr Jo'. A lot of fun. And I love the cuddly loan sharks!

Queen Of Tears which was not just the story we were told, but also a story about acting; about acting skills, and about authenticity. And about "Life" as opposed to narrative.
I talked a lot about in on my wall, but it seems some of the things that were extra funny because they thematised pretending and acting were seen as boring because it seemed the plot was repetitive. But it was looking at yet another angle of the subject - yet another reason and another way to pretend something.
I am sure that if you went back in with that perpective, there would be stuff for a thesis, - and for more wonder and laughs, as Kim Soo-hyun cries first hilariously, then heartbreakingly, or needs to act sad, then happy, loving, but then cold, then hot, then drunk ... either to make his wife love him, or to set her free.
That aspect is at one time so awesome, funny, and chilling, and I don't think it is appreciated enough.
THere are lots of other K-dramas that I like, but they are liked by a lot of other people, too, so I wouldn't call them "underrated".

The one for me is the dramedy Incarnation of Money (2013, yikes). First time I ever noticed the name Yoo In-sik, director; and writing team Jang and Jung. First time I ever saw loveable, quirky senior actress Kim Soo-mi, may she rest in peace. It was one of Kang Ji-hwan's and Park Sang-min's last successful dramas. I was crazy about IoM then even though it didn't set the world on fire, and it's stayed high on my re-watch list. I recognize some of the same elements now in Kim Jae-bum's hit dramas like Chief Kim and Fiery Priest.

Hello everyone,
I would add:
Birthcare center
Anna
Queenmaker
Youth of May
Misty
Weekday Afternoon Lovers

I got these for now. The first three are office dramas that do not get much love. The fourth, I feel deserves more love. The last I enjoyed so much.

On The Verge Of Insanity
Gaus Electronics
Agency
Our Beloved Summer
The Whirlwind