9 December 2023 K-dramas to look forward to

With one month left in 2023, December will end the year with a bang as a popular apocalyptic K-drama returns and fans get more than a laundry list of new storylines.

Netflix will end 2023 with some of Song Kang’s most anticipated K-dramas from Sweet Home Season 2 to My Demon. K-drama fans will spend the holiday season keeping a schedule of newly released content and new episodes the entire month.

The K-dramas in December 2023 will range from bloody horror, supernatural love stories, heartwarming reunions, thrillers, and the return of Park Seo-Joon in a Netflix K-drama.

With so many K-dramas on the list, here’s a comprehensive guide to their release dates, plots, and everything else we know.

10 PHOTOS

1. Like Flowers in Sand

A ssireum (Korean wrestling) generational athlete is thinking of calling it quits from the sport after no longer being in his glory years – but the return of a childhood friend changed his mind.

Like Flowers in Sand follows Kim Baek-doo (Jang Dong-yoon) as he no longer is the prized wrestler he once was. He thinks of retiring for good until his childhood friend Oh Yoo-kyung (Lee Joo-myoung) returns to Geosan County. She becomes the new manager of the ssireum team that’s on the verge of disbanding.

Intermixed in their story are newcomers to town, a cafe owner, the team’s coach, and Baek-doo’s best friend.

Like Flowers in Sand is scheduled to release on December 20, 2023, on ENA.

2. Soundtrack #2

A sequel installment to Disney+’s Soundtrack #1, Soundtrack #2 is a separate storyline that follows a new theme of love and relationships.

The first season focused on two lifelong best friends who had to live together for a week. In return, they were forced to air out their feelings for each other. Disney+ will release Soundtrack #2, focusing on the concept of returning love.

Hyun-seo (Keum Sae-rok) and Soo-ho (Noh Sang-hyun) met when they were in college. They fell in love when they took part in a band as a vocalist and keyboardist. Despite their year together, the end of college and venturing into adulthood led to turmoil and their breakup.

Years later, the two meet by chance. Hyun-seo gave up her dream and is now a piano teacher, while Soo-ho is a successful CEO. Will their past bring up old feelings?

Soundtrack #2 is scheduled to release on Disney+ on December 6, 2023. Fans can expect a very short season like its predecessor.

3. Maestra: Strings of Truth

A former violinist is now a world-renowned orchestra conductor. But behind her bravado and talent lies a secret.

Cha Se-eum (Lee Young-ae) has pursued her career with passion, boldness, and fire. It led her to become one of the best. But she has a secret that shakes her to the core. Maestra: Strings of Truth will be one of December 2023’s worthwhile thriller K-dramas.

The secret surrounding Se-eum will unfold as bizarre occurrences begin to take place within her orchestra. Its storyline is a remake of the 2019 French series, Philharmonia.

Maestra: Strings of Truth will be released on December 9, 2023, and its 12 episodes on a weekly basis. It will air on tvN.

4. Night Has Come

A group of high school students are forced to partake in a real-life Mafia Game that leads to chaos and death.

Night Has Come stars a large list of young riding actors in a K-drama thriller. The students of Yooil High School go on a retreat hoping to relax and enjoy time with their friends. But they soon realize their peaceful retreat is a hunting game. They are forced into taking part in a Mafia Game with real consequences. To the death, the characters find a way to survive. Will the class president’s logic help? Or will the social outcast find a way out?

Night Has Come will air on December 4, 2023, and release its 12 episodes on Viki.

5. My Man is Cupid

Imagine if Cupid was real and handsome. My Man is Cupid has a fairy fall in love with a human after many reincarnations.

The December 2023 K-drama has Cheon Sang-hyuk as a fairy who helps people fall in love. Or who many call Cupid. But 500 years ago, his wings were burned and the only way to restore them was going through 27 metamorphoses.

Now on his 28th, he meets Baek Ryun. She’s a kind veterinarian who has had men fall for her all her life. But there’s a catch. Every time she dates someone they have a near-death experience that has them running out the door. Is she cursed? Regardless, she no longer dates but desperately wants fated love.

My Man is Cupid will air on December 1, 2023, and its 16 episodes will be available on Amazon Prime Video.

6. Welcome to Samdal-ri

Ji Chang-wook switches gears from undercover gangster in The Worst of Evil, to bubbly green flag romance in Welcome to Samdal-ri.

Jo Yong-pil (Ji) is a weather forecaster known for being honest and his unpredictability. He became a forecaster after his mother died due to an incorrect report as she was a driver. Therefore, Yong-pil has no problem telling his superiors when something is wrong. Having been born and raised in Samdalri on Jeju Island, he has a deep-rooted love for it.

He once had a childhood friend he grew up with Jo Sam-dal (Shin Hae-sun). They were born in the same year and did everything together, but grew apart as adults. Sam-dal is now a well-respected photographer in the city. But due to an event, she loses her career, prestige, and fame. Needing to reboot her life, she returns to Samdalri. Yong-pil and her reconnect and develop a relationship.

Welcome to Samdal-ri will air on December 2, 2023, and air its 16 episodes on Netflix.

7. Sweet Home Season 2

Song Kang will return to his beloved role as Cha Hyun-soo in Netflix’s Season 2 installment of the apocalyptic horror Sweet Home.

Sweet Home was one of Netflix’s first major successes having greenlit the webtoon K-drama for Season 2 and 3. Taking off right after the first season cliffhanger, Hyun-soo is taken captive by Ui-myeong. Having left the apartment complex, the survivors and Hyun-soo are in for a world of reckoning of what has become of humanity.

But the new season promises a few changes as more characters will be introduced, and a deviation in monsters. As the government proves they are not saviors and a scientist is hellbent on a new world order, the characters have no choice but to fend for themselves once again. Hyun-soo sets out to become the answer to saving humanity. Amid the romance K-dramas for December 2023, this K-drama will be a bloody horror.

You can also check out Dexerto’s review of the first three episodes of Sweet Home Season 2.

Sweet Home Season 2 will premiere on December 1, 2023, with its eight episodes on Netflix.

8. Gyeongseong Creature

Han So-hee and Park Seo-joon team up for a supernatural thriller in Netflix’s Gyeongseong Creature as looking for missing persons leads to uncovering a secret.

Set in the spring of 1945 in Gyeongseong, during the Japanese colonization of Korea, two adults’ path to answers leads them to a startling discovery of monstrosity. Yoon Chae-ok (Han) is a bounty hunter who looks for missing people and is skilled in combat and firearms. Searching for her mother, she finds herself in Gyeongseong.

She crosses paths with Jang Tae-sang (Park), a wealthy man in town known for getting reliable information. A series of missing persons cases leads them to a hospital that no one dares go into. But the hospital has a deadly secret as Tae-sang and Chae-ok are faced with monsters.

Gyeongseong Creature will premiere its first seven episodes on Netflix on December 22, 2023. The final three episodes will air on January 5, 2024.

9. Death’s Game

What happens when you try to cheat death? A mundane man decides to die by suicide but only angers Death herself. It leads to a horrible punishment.

Choi Yi-jae (Seo In-guk) can’t land a job, his girlfriend leaves him, and he’s drained of all his money in a Bitcoin scam. Fed up, he decides to die by suicide. But on his way to hell, he’s stopped by Death (Park So-dam). Angered at his lack of respect for life, and flippant attitude for dying. She decides to punish him.

He will reincarnate as a new person 12 times. Each person is on the brink of their own death. If Yi-jae is able to stay alive, he will stop the cycle and live out his life as that person. Death’s Game is a webtoon K-drama that has everyone excited thanks to its star-studded cast.

Death’s Game will air on December 8, 2023, and air its eight episodes on Amazon Prime Video.