The Korean TV industry is known globally for violent thriller series like Squid Game, historical epics like Mr. Sunshine, character-driven procedurals like Extraordinary Attorney Woo, and slice-of-life dramas like When Life Gives You Tangerines—but straight-forward romance remains the cultural export’s genre backbone. Hallyu, or the Korean wave, was built on rom-coms like Full House, Coffee Prince, and Boys Over Flowers. The genre continues to be vital, which is why it was disappointing that there was yet to be a big K-drama rom-com hit in 2025… until Dynamite Kiss came along. 

With its mid-November Netflix debut, Dynamite Kiss made a big splash by breaking all of the K-drama rom-com rules. Traditionally, the format follows a tried-and-true formula: The first episode or two involves a meet-cute (or meet-hate, in the case of an enemies-to-lovers tale). The middle chunk of episodes follow the development of the will-be couple’s relationship, usually made more entertaining by a series of hijinks, misunderstandings, and solvable complications. The two characters will get together about two-thirds through the series’ run, break up in the penultimate episode, and reunite for a happy ending in the finale. It’s a good formula, and has produced some of Korean drama’s biggest hits. That being said, a few decades into building a loyal K-drama audience, it doesn't hurt to switch it up a little. 

Dynamite Kiss initially speedruns the main characters’ romantic relationship. Chaebol heir Gong Ji-hyeok (Atypical Family’s Jang Ki-yong) meets chronically unemployed Go Da-rim (My Dearest’s Ahn Eun-jin) in vacation hotspot Jeju. By the end of the first episode, they are kissing. By the end of the second episode, they have gone on their first date and fallen into bed together. If Da-rim’s mother hadn’t ended up in the hospital, they might have become a happy couple. Instead, Da-rim disappears while Ji-hyeok is in the shower. He spends the following episode looking for her, while she spends the same time trying to figure out how she is going to  pay her mother’s hospital bills and her sister’s loan shark debt.

After this unconventional start, Dynamite Kiss falls back into a familiar structure. In an unabashedly contrived setup, the two meet in an office setting. Ji-hyeok, desperate to help his mentally ill mother divorce his controlling father, agrees to take a position at the family corporation, baby products company Natural BeBe. Da-rim, desperate for a job and without much experience, applies for a job at the same company—not knowing her recent love connection is also connected to the company. 

The role Da-rim applies for is part of a newly formed team of working mothers. Da-rim—not actually a mother—lies, asking her best friend, a single father named Seon-u (My Dearest’s Kim Mu-jun), to pretend to be her husband. His young son, Jun, knows Da-rim as an aunt. When Da-rim gets the job and shows up for her first day, she discovers the man she met in Jeju is her boss. And Ji-hyeok believes that the woman he fell for is married with a child, and lied to him about it during their life-changing first date.

This year in K-drama has been an underwhelming one for romantic comedy. The most anticipated rom-coms of 2025, including Potato Lab, Would You Marry Me, and Nice to Not Meet You, didn’t quite land, due to a lack of chemistry, faulty concepts, or some combination therein. The rom-coms that have told a rewarding story, including Love Scout and My Dearest Nemesis, haven’t created quite the same excitement as Dynamite Kiss, perhaps in part because Dynamite Kiss is the only one of the titles widely available on Netflix. (Love Scout is available in select regions via Netflix, but is available in the U.S. on Viki.)

But Dynamite Kiss’s buzz goes beyond its accessibility on the world’s biggest streamer. Driven by the series’ bold start and the chemistry between Jang and Ahn, the series has been a much-needed rom-com hit in a year otherwise defined by suspense thrillers, action comedies, and slice-of-life dramas. It represents a kind of K-drama that, while far from endangered, is perhaps at risk of becoming less common in a TV industry at a crossroads due to the arrival of foreign OTT giants. As more money is pumped into the industry, and the expectations for global viewership grows with it, we’re seeing more of it funnelled into action, superhero, and crime drama—genres typically associated with male viewers.

Genre diversity isn’t a bad thing, and Korean dramas have long been adept at blending seemingly disparate genres in unexpected and entertaining ways. But in the pursuit of big hits like Squid Game, there is a risk of losing the romance focus—traditionally more popular with female viewers, and underserved by Hollywood—that made K-dramas so popular in the first place. The best rom-coms aren’t ashamed to be romantic and sentimental. In the U.S., unabashedly romantic tales are mostly relegated to the Christmas season. In Korea, they rule year-round. 

As with all Korean dramas, and TV series more broadly, a great start is hard to sustain. It’s the rare K-drama that fully lives up to its initial promise. Dynamite Kiss will wrap up its 14-episode run next week, with the final two episodes dropping on Dec. 24 and 25. Whether it comes to a satisfying conclusion or not, the romantic comedy has brought a light, romantic, much-needed escapism to the end of 2025. And that’s important, in so many ways.