This is a collection of my personal favorite contemporary K-dramas. They are not listed in any particular order. I warmly recommend all of them. I enjoy most genres. I want romance, but nothing too fluffy. I want thrilling, but nothing too scary. I want action but not a constant "slash, shoot, bam!". I hope that gives you some understanding of what to find through my list. ;)
I will be updating this list as my favorites are constantly increasing! Enjoy! 
(I do not own any images)

My collection: The top contemporary K-dramas

Blackmailed and in love, Jang Tae San, a member of a criminal organization, is about to be a father. With a new life ahead of him, Tae San decides to give up a life of crime. However, before he gets the chance to retire, he is forced to take the blame for a murder his boss, Moon Il Seok, had committed or would see his girlfriend, Seo In Hye, die. Without question, Tae San tells In Hye to get an abortion and ends the relationship. Eight years later, after serving the prison sentence and still affiliated with the gang, Tae San runs into In Hye and finds out that she never got the abortion and that his daughter, Soo Jin, is in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant. Apparently, In Hye is not a match. Luckily, Tae San turns out to be a perfect match. He decides to save his daughter\u2019s life and schedules the operation to occur in two weeks when suddenly he is placed under arrest for the death of two detectives.

Two Weeks

The Tweeks Team 

Noh Ji Wook is a brainiac prosecutor and Eun Bong Hee is a rookie justice department intern, who always seems to find herself in the most unfortunate and embarrassing situations. Bong Hee is falsely accused of murdering her ex-boyfriend, and Ji Wook gets demoted because he risks his career and reputation to save Bong Hee. Things get complicated as their careers, and love lives get entangled, but one thing brings them together- catching the real culprit responsible for a series of murders before they run out of time and get themselves killed. Ji Eun Hyuk used to be a good friend of Ji Wook, and their friendship used to be the strongest ever. During Eun Hyuk's troubled childhood, Ji Wook used to feel like his only family.

Suspicious Partner

The Suspicious Team

Mi Nyeo has a twin brother, Mi Nam. They grew together at an orphanage. Mi Nam has been chosen to be a member of a boy band, but he can't work as a singer due to an accident. So Mi Nyeo pretends to be her brother and starts to live as Mi Nam, the idol singer. The boy band has three other members: Shin Woo, Tae Kyung, and Jeremy. Shin Woo is a musical genius and the most popular member. Unlike the artistic and sensitive Shin Woo, Tae Kyung is more like a businessman and is hardly moved by anything. And Jeremy is an optimistic person who gets along with everyone. Mi Nyeo, living as Mi Nam, has to work with them. However, she is not sociable as she has lived all her life cut off from the world. So living as an idol singer is hard for her.

You're Beautiful

The A.N.JELL Team

Is it possible live in the same place at the same time but in a completely different dimension? 

Oh Yeon Joo (Han Hyo Joo) is a second-year cardiothoracic resident doctor. Her father, a famous comic book creator, suddenly disappears one day and then Yeon Joo herself is kidnapped by a strange man covered in blood and taken to a different dimension. 

Kang Chul (Lee Jong Suk) is a former Olympic gold medalist in shooting and self-made millionaire. How will his world intertwine with Yeon Joo’s other-dimension universe? Is Kang Chul the only person who can help Yeon Joo escape from a parallel universe? 

“W” is a 2016 South Korean drama series directed by Jung Dae Yoon.

Cassiopeia

Go Mi Ran (Won Jin Ah) is a young jobseeker who is told she will be given around US$ 4,200 if she takes part in a cryogenic freezing program. She is told that she will be frozen for just 24 hours and then leave with her money.

Also being frozen is Ma Dong Chan (Ji Chang Wook), a popular entertainment TV producer who is cold as ice when it comes to working – but tends to get hot and passionate when it comes to affairs of the heart.

But instead of waking up a day later, the duo awakes from cryogenic slumber to find they have slept through 20 years. All the people Mi Ran and Dong Chan once knew have aged by 20 years, but their own bodies and memories have not changed at all.

Life 20 years in the future is not easy – and things are made harder for the duo when they discover that should their body temperatures rise above 33 degrees Celsius, they will die.

When Mi Ran and Dong Chan begin developing feelings for each other, temperatures start to rise…spawning all sorts of dramatic consequences.

Will the duo fight back the heat of a potentially fatal romance? And will they discover the mysterious reason why they were frozen for two decades – and the role of the enigmatic Dr. Hwang, the shady figure behind the freezing project?

“Melting Me Softly” is a 2019 South Korean drama series produced by Shin Woo Cheol.

Melting Me Softly

A fugitive searches for justice. 

Kim Je Ha (Ji Chang Wook) is a former mercenary soldier known as “K2” who suddenly turns into a fugitive when he is wrongfully accused of killing his girlfriend while he is serving in Iraq. He finds his way back to Korea and gets a job as a bodyguard for Choi Yoo Jin (Song Yoon Ah), the owner of JSS Security and the wife of Jang Se Joon (Jo Sung Ha), who is running for president. 

Je Ha uses his new job to plan his revenge on Park Kwan Soo (Kim Kap Soo), the leader of the current ruling party and Se Joon’s rival, whom Je Ha believes ordered the murder of his girlfriend. 

When Je Ha is assigned to guard Go An Na (Yoona), the reclusive illegitimate daughter of Se Joon, they begin to develop feelings for each other. But what happens when the person who wants to harm An Na the most is Yoo Jin, Je Ha’s boss and revenge ally? Where will Je Ha’s loyalty lay? 

“The K2” is a 2016 South Korean drama series directed by Kwak Jung Hwan.

The K2

The K2 Minions

JTBC

Do Bong Soon (Park Bo Young) is no ordinary woman. She is the latest in a long line of women who possess monumental strength. However, Bong Soon’s incredible powers can only be used for good. If she happens to use her abilities for selfish reasons or to harm others, she’ll end up like her mother, Hwang Jin Yi (Shim Hye Jin), who lost her powers forever.
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Although Do Bong Soon uses her bloodline’s remarkable force for good, her one true desire is to create a video game where she appears as the main character. While she struggles to find employment as a developer, Bong Soon’s abilities help her secure a position as the bodyguard for Ahn Min Hyuk (Park Hyung Sik), the chaebol heir and the CEO of the gaming company, Ainsoft.
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As Bong Soon helps her new boss track down someone making dangerous threats against him, she also strives to capture attention from her childhood friend and rookie police detective Guk Doo (Ji Soo), who’s searching for an insidious kidnapper. Between helping to solve both cases, Bong Soon finds great romance and humor along the way.

Strong Woman Do Bong Soon

Small but Mighty Team

On the outside, Baek Hee Sung (Lee Joon Gi) looks like the ideal husband. A hard-working craftsman, his metal-working studio has met with its fair share of success. Able to provide a good life for his wife and daughter, he’s an exemplary example of what a husband should be. But his accolades don’t stop there, as comfortable working around the house as he is working in his studio, Hee Sung can as easily fill the roles of father and husband as he can business owner and craftsman. But this perfect exterior hides some very dark secrets. Secrets he would rather his detective wife, Cha Ji Won (Moon Chae Won), never learn.&nbsp;

Unfortunately, secrets have a way of coming out and as a hard-hitting homicide detective, it’s Cha Ji Won’s job to uncover as many secrets as she can, in her never-ending quest for the truth. With an insatiable curiosity and an unwavering determination to solve even the hardest cases, Ji Won lives for her work. Thriving on the excitement of unraveling mysteries and the high that comes from bringing criminals to justice, Ji Won is always searching for the next clue.&nbsp;

But when Ji Won takes on a particularly cruel case, she starts down a dark path that could crumble the very foundations of her happy life. Determined to bring this evil psychopath to justice she dives ever deeper into this case, only to find that the criminal she’s been chasing may have been standing next to her all along.

A suspenseful game of cat and mouse, “Flower of Evil” is a 2020 crime thriller drama directed by Kim Cheol Kyu.

Flower of Evil

✨🌹The Flowers Team 🌹✨

All who have ever felt self-conscious about their appearance will find a kindred soul in Im Joo Kyung (Moon Ga Young). Although cheery about most things, Joo Kyung is secretly leading a double life when it comes to her appearance.
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Thanks to the help of internet beauty tutorials, Joo Kyung has mastered the art of makeup and transforms into a beautiful goddess with the skillful application of cosmetics every day. She’s known as one of the most attractive girls in class. Despite this, she lives with the fear that her classmates will discover her true appearance behind makeup.
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The only person in school who knows her ugly secret is Lee Su Ho (Cha Eun Woo), an all-star student with natural good looks and a talent for basketball to boot. Dashingly handsome, Su Ho has captured the hearts of all the girls in the high school.
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However, Joo Kyung is not the only one with secrets. Su Ho has a few of his own from his past that are slowly but surely catching up to him.
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Drawn together, these two individuals not only begin to uncover each other’s secrets but also learn more about their true selves in the process.
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The True Beauty drama is based on a long-running Webtoon that goes by the name “The Secret of Angel (True Beauty)”, penned by Yaongyi. Now adapted into a full-fledged Korean Drama that stars a stellar cast that includes K-pop Idol Cha Eun Woo amongst other popular celebrities, fans of the Webtoon The Secret of Angel have something to look forward to.
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“True Beauty” is a 2020 South Korean romantic comedy-drama series that was directed by Kim Sang Hyub.

True Beauty

True Beauty Team

Oh Woori (Im Soo Hyang) is the assistant writer of a popular drama series. She has vowed to remain a virgin until she marries, and has shied away from romantic relationships in a bid to remain chaste until she marries. She is dating the devoted police officer Lee Kang Jae (Shin Dong Wook). But when she attends a routine medical exam, a terrible mixup takes place and she is accidentally artificially inseminated. She later discovers her pregnancy, and demands the hospital gets to the bottom of the case.

Eventually she discovers that the donor whose child she is now pregnant with is none other than the CEO of a notable cosmetics firm named Diamond Cosmetics. This CEO, named Raphael (Sung Hoon), is going through a messy divorce with his wife Lee Ma Ri (Hong Ji Yoon), a beautiful woman who does not want to split for her husband, chiefly for financial reasons. But when Raphael learns he is to be a father, things get very complicated – particularly after her realizes that there is a secret past connection that links him to Oh Woori!

This drama is a remake of the 2014 American drama series “Jane the Virgin,” which was loosely based on the 2002 Venezuelan drama “Juana la Virgen.”

“Woori the Virgin” is a 2022 South Korean drama series that was directed by Jung Jung Hwa.

Woori the Virgin

😲The Unexpected Surprise🎁 

Love is never easy, which is why Da Da (Minah) has sworn off men forever. The long-time girlfriend of a popular actor, Ma Wang Joon (Hong Jong Hyun), Da Da never had an easy love life. After seven years with a man too popular for his own good, Da Da decides enough is enough. Alone for the first time in years, the special effects makeup artist finds herself alone. But not for long.
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When an odd package is delivered to her by mistake, Da Da can’t help but take a quick peek inside. Falling into her arms, the second the box is opened, Zero Nine (Yeo Jin Goo), the state-of-the-art robot companion, is activated by their accidental “kiss”.
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Unintentionally thrust into the seven-day trial period, Da Da finds herself stuck taking care of this handsome “boyfriend” for the next week. With such a perfect companion by her side, you’d think Da Da would be more than satisfied with her new love life. But when Ma Wang Joon turns up, things get a little more complicated.
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A hilarious girl meets boy/meets robot love story, “Absolute Boyfriend” is a 2019 Viki Original drama series based on the ever-popular manga, “Zettai Kareshi” by Yuu Watase.

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