The Best K-Drama To Watch While Waiting for More ‘All of Us Are Dead’

3 3 minutes read

Netflix’s South Korean zombie apocalypse drama All of Us Are Dead was supposed to be a single-season show, but it’s unexpected popularity on the streamer led to the series renewal in June 2022. During its airing, the success of the show made it the second South Korean Netflix program to hit the #1 spot in the U.S., following right behind the record of Squid Game. The show trended and maintained its position in the Top 10 non-English series for two weeks. The K-Drama stars Park Ji-hu, Yoon Chan-young, Lomon, and Cho Yi-hyun who play high school students caught up inside Hyosan High during a zombie invasion. However, the wait for Season 2 keeps getting longer as the production of All of Us Are DeadSeason 2 gets delayed once more to ensure a better quality show. The 2020 Netflix series, Sweet Home, should tide All of Us Are Dead fans over until the new season drops.

‘Sweet Home’ and ‘All of Us Are Dead’ Are Quite Similar

Viewers will find a similarity in that both are gory horror thrillers centered around people coming together to fight through an unexpected plague. Just as in All of Us Are Dead where students are trapped at their school, in Sweet Home Cha Hyun-su (Song Kang) and the other characters are trapped inside an apartment complex. Sweet Home, while keeping Cha Hyun-su as the central character, introduces the viewers to the world of residents of the apartment block Green Home. All of Us Are Dead introduces a bunch of new young faces to the K-Drama world, but Sweet Home cast is filled with A-listed actors; this includes Song Kang, Lee Do-hyun, Lee Si-young, Park Gyu-young, Go Youn-jung, and Go Min-si. As Hyun-su unwillingly teams up with these people during the invasion, the story shifts to his interactions with the residents. The series has an action-centered plot but also does an amazing job of exploring character relationships and dynamics. Viewers are pulled into the story through these nuanced dynamics of the characters’ relationships.

The underlying themes of All of Us Are Dead are what make the show stand out to the viewers. The drama has a commentary on serious present-day societal issues, including bullying, social media, hostility against refugees, and the long-lasting cultural impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sweet Home also subtly touches on themes of bullying and school abuse, but that’s not one of its central themes. Apart from that, the two shows have several overlapping themes and delve into asking ethical and moral questions based on life, death, and humanity. The question, “What does it mean to be human?” significantly centers on the character arc of Cha Hyun-su.

Consequently, both shows put their characters in horrifying situations where making humane and empathetic choices becomes difficult. If you love seeing people in tense existential circumstances that might bring out their will to survive — that can either unite them or turn them against one another — then you are sure to enjoy Sweet Home.

‘Sweet Home’ Trades Zombies for Monsters and an Expanding World

There are two main differences that set Sweet Home apart from All of Us Are Dead, one of them being the presence of monsters instead of zombies. Sweet Home has high-quality visual effects and graphics. The CGI monsters, however terrifying, are not specified as zombies. However, the way the plague spreads in the K-Drama is very similar to how a zombie virus would spread. As a result of a bite, the infected person goes through low body temperature and nose bleeds before their ultimate transformation. Another minor difference is in the storyline of Sweet Home, as it involves a diverse cast of characters with different genders and ages, rather than focusing only on high school students.

After Season 1, the cast of Sweet Home leave their apartment complex to explore the apocalyptic world outside, something which hasn’t yet been done in All of Us Are Dead. Cha Hyun-su’s world expands beyond survival as he is given the key to save what is left of the human race. For All of Us Are Dead, this could be a possible plot point that can be explored further and a potentially new direction it could take in its next installment.

All of Us Are Dead fans might be familiar with the fact that the show is an adaptation of the webtoon “Now At Our School” by Joo Dong-geun. Similarly, Sweet Home is also based on a webtoon of the same name by the author Kim Carnby. The famous director Lee Eung Bok was brought on board for this Netflix adaptation. Previously, Lee Eung Bok worked on classic K-Drama hits, including Goblin (2016), Mr. Sunshine (2018), and Descendants Of The Sun (2016). Therefore, with Sweet Home, viewers can expect the absolute best of Korean television. Sweet Home finished airing its final season in 2024, so the three seasons of the Netflix adaptation, along with the webtoon, can keep fans busy until All of Us Are Dead Season 2 finally drops.