5 new K-dramas to watch in January 2022: Rain’s return in Ghost Doctor, Netflix zombie horror All of Us Are Dead, and more
- The January K-drama line-up features some enticing shows, from a pair of hospital-themed dramas to a highly anticipated high-school zombie series on Netflix
- Global icon Rain (Jung Ji-hoon) will return in medical drama Ghost Doctor, while Lee Yoo-mi of Squid Game will star in action-horror All of Us Are Dead
2021 was a banner year for K-dramas and, while 2022 has a lot to live up to, there’s still plenty to look forward to as the industry goes from strength to strength.
A case in point is the line-up of drama series launching in January, which features several enticing productions, some of them timed for release around the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday.
Among them are a pair of hospital-themed dramas, and a highly anticipated high-school zombie show from Netflix.
1. Ghost Doctor
Kicking off the 2022 K-drama calendar will be the medical drama Ghost Doctor, which will mark the return to our screens of global icon Rain (Jung Ji-hoon), last seen on Korean television station MBC’s Welcome 2 Life three years ago, alongside Kim Bum (Law School).
In the drama on cable channel tvN, the pop star will play Cha Young-min, a brilliant but arrogant doctor who finds himself involved in an unexpected case which transports his consciousness into the body of another doctor.
Kim plays Go Seung-tak, a resident doctor who is the grandson of his hospital’s founder, and the son of its current chair. (tvN, January 3)
2. Tracer
Originally expected to air at the end of 2021, the Wavve original drama Tracer is now set to premiere in early January both on the South Korean streaming service and on MBC.
Also on the case are his teammate Seo Hye-young (Ko Asung, Snowpiercer) and his division’s boss Oh Young (Park Yong-woo, Priest). Hide and Seek’s Son Hyun-joo plays In Tae-joon, the regional tax office’s ambitious director. (Wavve/MBC, January 7)
3. Through the Darkness
The Fiery Priest actor Kim Nam-gil will be back on screens early in the new year as a criminal profiler in the upcoming serial killer drama Through the Darkness. Kim is on board as the calm and charismatic profiler Song Ha-young, who buries himself in cases as he seeks to penetrate the dark recesses of a killer’s mind.
4. Dr Park’s Clinic
Lee Seo-jin headlines the upcoming medical comedy Dr Park’s Clinic, which will debut on tvN in mid-January. Last seen in the thriller Times, Lee plays Park Won-jang, a doctor who recently opened his own internal medicine clinic. His goal is fame and fortune, but the reality proves to be very different.
Ra Mi-ran of Honest Candidate stars as his long-suffering wife. The show is based on a web comic of the same name by Jang Bong-soo, who drew from his 18 years of experience as a doctor. (tvN, January 14)
5. All of Us Are Dead
Following a host of major genre-bending programmes, Netflix’s first major series of the year will be the high-school-set survival-action horror series All of Us Are Dead, based on the popular webtoon Now at Our School.
