Prisons are a unique setting for dramas to take place. But there are few Korean shows that are centred in a prison. It might be about innocent people accused of crimes, or people who want a second chance in life. These dramas will surely change people’s views about prisoners.
1. Prison Playbook
The drama focuses on the lives of prisoners and their families. It also tells about people working in prisons. The main characters are prison-mates arrested for different crimes and belonging to different social backgrounds. The rest of the show is about how they affect each other’s’ lives.
2. Defendant
‘Defendant’ is about a violent crimes prosecutor, who is arrested for the murder of his wife. But he doesn’t remember anything about the day of his wife’s death. Though the inmates are there for a crime they have committed, they consider him to be threatening as he killed a family member.
3. Doctor Prisoner
This drama is about the power play within the prison. It is about a genius doctor who wants to become the prison’s medical director. The people involved in the prison’s administration find his ambition suspicious but they soon realise that he was once falsely accused of medical malpractice.
4. Doctor John
Though Doctor John is about a famous anaesthesiologist, the first few episodes focus on his life in prison. He is a respected prisoner and the officers often take his help for medical emergencies. The doctor who arrives to work there suspects him but soon gets to know about the story behind his arrest.
5. One Ordinary Day
The drama is about how a man’s decisions changes what would otherwise have been ‘One Ordinary Day.’ On the way to meet his friends, a university student accidentally meets a girl. The next morning she is found brutally murdered and he is arrested. Only one lawyer is ready to help him.
6. Secret Love
This is the third drama starring Ji Sung on this list, but he is not the prisoner this time. A couple who are on their way home after a proposal end up in an accident. The woman voluntarily gets arrested instead of her boyfriend who caused the accident. Though she is serving her time in prison, the victim’s lover wants her to suffer more.
7. Insider
The drama is about a judicial trainee who decides to go undercover. The trainee is extremely sincere and after the suggestion of his seniors, goes undercover as a prisoner. But he soon realises he is trapped and fights to get back the life he was living.
8. Big Mouth
‘Big Mouth’ is about a lawyer who is falsely accused of a murder. Just when he starts accepting his fate and goes to prison something unimaginable happens. He is mistaken for a conman known as ‘Big Mouse’ and his life is in danger. The rest of the story is about the real identity of the ‘Big Mouse.’
9. Room No. 9
The drama is about a lawyer who has a success rate of hundred percent and will do anything to win her cases. She meets a death row convict in the high-security room no. 9. Inside the room, their souls exchange and the lawyer’s boyfriend, a psychiatrist is the only person who can help them.
10. 4 Legendary Witches
This drama is about four women who join baking classes in the prison. With the help of their baking teacher, they open a bakery after their release. But their business is threatened by a bakery corporation and two of the prisoners are personally involved with the group.
