'When Life Gives You Tangerines' Selected as Time's Best Korean Drama of the Year

Time has selected 〈When Life Gives You Tangerines〉 as the best Korean drama of the year.

On December 19 (local time), Time published an article titled 'The 10 Best Korean Dramas of 2025'. In this article, they selected the best Korean dramas of the year in reverse order. 〈Trigger〉, 〈Spirit Fingers〉, 〈The Tale of Lady Ok〉, 〈Study Group〉, 〈Resident Playbook〉, 〈Our Unwritten Seoul〉, 〈Tempest〉, 〈Squid Game Season 3〉, 〈Way Back Love〉 took the 10th to 2nd places.

The prestigious 1st place went to 〈When Life Gives You Tangerines〉. The drama, starring IU, Park Bo-gum, Moon So-ri, and Park Hae-joon, follows the story of Oh Ae-soon and Yang Kwan-sik, who grew up in Jeju Island, from childhood to old age, depicting various human figures and their love. Time conveyed the aspirations of director Kim Won-seok, stating, "It is a tribute to the father-mother generation and a message of encouragement to the daughter and son who will navigate the world ahead," and evaluated that "〈When Life Gives You Tangerines〉 remarkably succeeded in realizing that aspiration."

Time also commented, "Recently, Korean dramas have shown more ambitious strides in terms of genre," while explaining that "this work, considered one of the best TV series of the year, unfolded a beautiful and profound story using only what can be gained from reality." 〈When Life Gives You Tangerines〉 was released as a Netflix original over four weeks in March 2025.