Jung Hae-in as Yoo Jeong-woo in 'Prison Playbook' Image via tvN By Anja Djuricic Published Sep 2, 2026, 11:01 PM EDT Anja Djuricic was born in Belgrade, Serbia, in 1992. Her first interest in film started very early, as she learned to speak English by watching Disney animated movies (and many, many reruns). Anja soon became inspired to learn more foreign languages to understand more movies, so she entered the Japanese language and literature Bachelor Studies at the University of Belgrade. Anja is also one of the founders of the DJ duo Vazda Garant, specializing in underground electronic music influenced by various electronic genres. Anja loves to do puzzles in her spare time, pet cats wherever she meets them, and play The Sims. Anja's Letterboxd four includes Memories of Murder, Parasite, Nope, and The Road to El Dorado. Sign in to your Collider account Add Us Add on Google Preferred Source Google News Like Like follow Follow followed Followed Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap The conveyor belt that is the K-drama world is packed with shows that just keep on coming. With Netflix Korea getting more traction and a higher budge t, as well as other streamers investing their money into great original Korean programming, there will soon be a time where everywhere we look, we will have an array of K-dramas to watch (in a good way).
However, that type of constant influx of new titles can become overwhelming, as some good shows can then stay buried unless we pay attention to them. There are many great shows hiding under piles of brand-new titles with big names, waiting to be discovered . Here are K-dramas that everyone forgot about that are worth your time.
A group of prisoners in a yard in 'Prisoner Playbook' Image via tvN Prison Playbook has recently re-entered the mainstream conversation, but it's been largely forgotten over the past few years. Created by the writer behind Reply 1988 , the show has a meditative and warm energy nurtured by the ensemble in their best form. Less interested in prison-drama darkness than in the small, absurd, genuinely funny rhythms of people making do in an impossible situation, Prison Playbook is a comedy as often as it's a drama, and it shifts between genres without ever losing its footing. Park Hae-soo , years before Squid Game made him a global name, leads the ensemble as the protagonist while Jung Kyung-ho anchors the supporting cast as Park's childhood friend and long-term prisoner. The two leads have a kind of effortless chemistry that can't really be manufactured , and their rapport makes the show all the more compelling.
Prison Playbook follows Kim Je-hyeok (Park), a professional baseball pitcher who is days away from his Major League signing, when he's arrested for assault after defending his sister from an assailant and sentenced to serve a one-year prison sentence. Prison Playbook follows Je-hyeok's adjustment to life inside , the weird and wonderful array of inmates and guards who become his unlikely community, and the slow, patient understanding of prison life, survival, and that all of it is less about toughness and more about figuring out who to trust. The show aired in 2017, and it predates the global K-drama boom by several years , which is why it lacks more international recognition; this show's been waiting for new audiences to find it ever since it aired, and now's…