Where to Watch

Where I watch

We truly live in a golden age for streaming Kdrama on the Internet.

Even a few years ago, international viewers wanting to watch Asian dramas had to hunt down time-consuming (not to mention illegal) downloads or wait for insanely expensive DVD releases. But as a North American with a high-speed Internet connection, today I have access to more drama than I could watch in two lifetimes.

There are downsides—although many sources are free on a limited basis, bells and whistles and some episodes come at a price. The video for older dramas tends to be low-quality, and few steaming sites are available outside of North America, thanks to licensing issues. Plus there are always those rare-bird dramas that are only available through illegal sources, which are often unreliable.

Ultimately, though, there’s nothing like sitting down to watch a drama when you can trust that every single episode is only a click away, well subbed and largely problem free. So as an intrepid drama watcher, I thought I’d share my go-to sources for legal drama watching. 

Crunchyroll

The lowdown: Although primarily dedicated to anime, this site includes some older Korean dramas and adds one or two new series a year. Many episodes and features are available without a premium account, but others are accessible only to paying users.

Subtitles: Drama subs seem to be provided by the show’s original network.

Ad breaks: Yes, unless you sign up for a paid account.

Restart location: Where you left off in a specific episode; using your history page you can tell which episodes you’ve seen.

The letdown: New dramas are incredibly rare, which makes this site unessential for anything but a few unusual classics in its library. When using the free service, advertisements are awkwardly placed and frustratingly repetitive—you’re likely to see a single ad over and over again.

Hidden gems: Fan favorites Alone in Love and Someday aren’t carried by other legal streaming sites. Also available are episodes of The Kimchi Chronicles, an English-language show about Korean cooking (hosted, strangely enough, by Hugh Jackman).

International availability: Determined on a drama-by-drama basis as required by Crunchyroll’s contract with the content provider.

Apps: Available for many mobile devices, gaming platforms, and set-top devices such as Roku and Google TV.

Dramafever

The lowdown: Home to one of the Internet’s biggest selections of old and new Kdramas, Dramafever carries many currently airing shows and reliably posts new episodes the day after they air in Korea. Many episodes are free, but a premium account is required to watch others.

Subtitles: Older subtitles come from a variety of places, including fansubbing squads. New shows are subbed by Dramafever. Their subs tend to be reliable but very Americanized, with widely known Korean terms like oppa and ajumma translated into English. Some less obvious Korean traditions may be glossed over, as in the episode of Big where the female lead mentioned a child’s hair being cut as a form of punishment. This line wasn’t included in the Dramafever translation at all. On the bright side, there are many subtitle display options to ensure that you never miss a word.

Ad breaks: Yes, unless you pay for the premium service.

Restart location: Where you left off in any given episode, if you’re a member. Dramafever also tracks which episodes you’ve watched. This makes it extremely easy to return to a show after taking a break. (I dropped Baker King Kim Tak Gu for more than a year, but thanks to Dramafever was able to tell at a glance exactly where I stopped.)

The letdown: The site is image heavy, so can be slow to load. Recent redesigns took some getting used to and are still a bit buggy for some users. (In my case, there’s only one problem: episodes resume about five minutes earlier than they should.) Free users will find commercials repetitive and awkwardly placed.

Hidden gems: Recently added reality show We Got Married; oldschool classic Sandglass; complete collections of influential drama series, including Lovers in Paris, Lovers in Prague, and Lovers; every drama written by the Hong sisters.

International availability: For a limited time, the first five episodes of all shows are available worldwide (with the exception of parts of Southeast Asia and South America). Premium memberships are available only in North and South America.

Apps: Available for many mobile devices, gaming platforms, and set-top devices such as Roku and Google TV.

Hulu

The lowdown: Kdramas from many sources are available on Hulu, including Dramafever and Viki. Some episodes are free to watch on a computer while others (and most apps) require a Hulu Plus paid membership.

Subtitles: Vary according to source.

Ad breaks: Yes, whether you’re a paying member or not.

Restart location: Episodes resume where you left off, but I find it hard to keep track of which episodes I’ve already watched.

The letdown: Frustrating commercials that you can’t escape from, even as a paying user. Hulu also provides little information about the cast of each show; it’s impossible to search for actors or dramas featuring a specific individual.

Hidden gems: Kpop Tasty Road, an English-language series that visits Seoul-area restaurants favored by Kpop stars; currently airing I Summon You, Gold and The Virus; the 21-episode director’s cut of wacky sageuk Tamra, the Island. (For non-Dramafever or Viki rarities, search for CJ Entertainment, SBS International, or MBC America.)

International availability: Hulu Plus is only available in America and Japan.

Apps: Available for many mobile devices, gaming platforms, and set-top devices such as Roku and Apple TV. (But not Google TV, blast it.) Most apps require a paid membership.

Mvibo

The lowdown: A small-but-growing-collection of recent dramas and some classics. The first few episodes of some dramas are free, but then you need to shell out for a paid membership. All episodes of other dramas are only available to paying members. The site always contains a boatload of variety shows, although few (if any) are available with subtitles.

Subtitles: For new shows Mvibo does their own subbing, which is of generally acceptable quality. Older shows have network-provided subs.

Ad breaks: None, beyond extremely brief Mvibo commercials at the beginning and end of each episode

Restart location: Where you left off if you’re a paid member returning to the most recent episode you watched; otherwise, the beginning of the episode. (Your place is lost if you watch a different episode on the site.)

The letdown: Although Mvibo carries new dramas, its English subtitles lag far, far behind. (Nice Guy is only subbed up to episode 10 even though the show’s twenty-episode run ended last November.) Some series offerings will apparently never be subbed, including its sitcoms, variety shows, and documentaries. Beware: subbing status is often hard to determine. Just because a drama is labeled as available in English doesn’t mean all of its episodes have been translated; check the episode list before you start to avoid nasty surprises.

Mvibo doesn’t have a queue feature. Also, there’s no descriptive text for any episode or series—you have to go elsewhere for even the most basic information, including cast. This is surprisingly annoying.

Hidden gems: Episode 18 of Coffee Prince, which isn’t available on other legal streaming sites. (Don’t panic—it’s just a making-of ep.)  The KBS drama special series, including Swamp Ecology Report, starring Can We Get Married? it-boy Sung Joon. Last year’s much-loved Ojakgyo Brothers and A Wife’s Credentials.

International availability: America only

Apps: None.

Netflix Streaming

The lowdown: The gateway to Kdrama addiction for many an American, myself included, Netflix offers a limited selection of shows with international appeal that have already completed their runs in Korea. (Check out the list of currently available titles on Kdrama Fighting.) There’s no free option; to watch, you must be a paying member.

Subtitles: Quality varies. I suspect Netflix only uses official network subtitles as they appear on the series’ DVD set.

Ad breaks: None.

Restart location: Where you let off, no matter how many movies or dramas you’ve watched in the interim.

The letdown: Netflix carries an extremely limited selection of mainstream dramas—you’ll find no exciting rarities here. It’s a bummer that there’s no ad-supported free version. It offers no options for how subtitles are displayed, so good luck reading the white type on Ji Hoo’s white wardrobe throughout Boys over Flowers.

Hidden gems: Korean movies that are hard to find streaming regularly appear on Netflix, including a number that star drama favorites. Check out Gong Yoo’s Silenced and Moon Chae Won in War of the Arrows.

International availability: Streaming is open to residents of North America, the Caribbean, and parts of Europe.

Apps: Every single mobile device, gaming console, and set-top box on the market today has a Netflix app, and it always works well.

Viki

The lowdown: Featuring an amazing number of shows in a variety of languages, I suspect this free site has the broadest global availability of any of the legit streamers. Its subtitles are provided by fans, which can be a two-edged sword: they’re available incredibly quickly (often within a few hours of the Korean broadcast), but when they’re new their quality can be hit or miss.

Subtitles: Known to be faithful to the original, not translating words like oppa and ajussi into English. Sentences are often phrased in a Korean-friendly way that avoids personal pronouns.

Ad breaks: Yes. This site has no paid option that allows you to sidestep them, although some shows are available ad-free.

Restart location: From the episode’s beginning.

The letdown: Drama availability depends on your location, unlike other streaming sites; just because something is available on Viki doesn’t mean you can watch it where you are. (Which can be Tantalus-esque torture.) Commercials are thrown in without any logic, sometimes interrupting key scenes. The advertisements themselves are often annoyingly repetitive.

Viki has no queue feature, but it’s possible to use your account’s “favorites” information for this purpose. (If you don’t mind e-mails about new episodes, anyway.)

Hidden gems: Lots of dramas that are hard to find elsewhere, including the currently airing Hundred Year’s Inheritance and last year’s wonderful time-travel romance Queen In-hyun’s Man. Viki also carries Love Me Not, the movie That Winter, the Wind Blows was based on, as well as some other older Korean films.

International availability: Determined on a drama-by-drama basis as required by Viki’s contract with the content provider.

Apps: Available for many mobile devices, gaming platforms, and set-top devices such as Roku and Google TV.

YouTube

The lowdown: Although most Kdrama on YouTube is unauthorized, a few Korean networks have their own YouTube channels that stream full episodes with English subtitles. These channels are often extremely difficult (dare I say impossible?) to navigate, but diligent searching can unearth some exciting finds.

Subtitles: Vary depending on source; language availability is difficult to predict until you’re already watching.

Ad breaks: Yes.

Restart location: No special functionality here; you need to keep track of where you are. Most YouTube episodes are broken up into segments, though—with the playlist feature this makes for easy watching, and also allows you to start in the specific file you were on instead of having to sit through a whole episode’s worth of commercials to watch the last ten minutes of something.

The letdown: Did I mention it’s hard to navigate? Because titles are often in Korean, you have to browse by poster image or hope searching for a specific drama name pays off. Subtitle availability is spotty and not clearly indicated. Ad breaks are often obnoxiously repetitive and annoyingly placed.

Hidden gems: Seven-episode drama special Like a Fairytale; classic action drama Time between Dog and Wolf starring a young, beautiful Lee Jun Ki. (Search by station name for listings of available dramas: KBS World, MBC World, SBS Drama, tvN, etc.)

International availability: Determined on a channel-by-channel basis.

Apps: Available for most platforms, but of varying quality.


Did I miss anything?