Asian Dramas Like The Penguin

A detective becomes addicted to drugs after being injected during an investigation, uncovering a drug cartel tied to his past.

Both are built around systemic corruption grinding down everyone who tries to fight it. The pacing is a slow-burn dread that accumulates until the weight of it is unbearable.

A police detective becomes addicted to drugs after being unknowingly exposed, and investigates a drug cartel from the inside while battling his own dependency.

Both are built around questions of who you really are under the person you've been told to be. The pacing is a slow-burn dread that accumulates until the weight of it is unbearable.

Detective Park Joon-mo goes deep undercover into the most dangerous drug syndicate operating across Korea, China, and Japan — a criminal empire bridging three countries. To gain th…

Both are built around questions of who you really are under the person you've been told to be. The pacing is a slow-burn dread that accumulates until the weight of it is unbearable.

By day, Kim Ji-yong is a top police academy cadet. By night, he tracks down criminals who escaped justice through legal loopholes — and kills them. When a tenacious journalist begi…

Both are built around questions of who you really are under the person you've been told to be. The pacing is a slow-burn dread that accumulates until the weight of it is unbearable.

Kim Yo-han is a promising judicial trainee sent undercover inside a maximum-security prison to expose an illegal gambling ring run by powerful inmates. When his cover is blown and …

Both are built around questions of who you really are under the person you've been told to be. The pacing is a slow-burn dread that accumulates until the weight of it is unbearable.

Oh Kyung-sook is a ruthless PR strategist who has crushed careers and built corporate empires. When a worker's death exposes the chaebol family she serves, she defects — and decide…

Both are built around the intoxication of power and what it costs to keep it. The pacing is a slow-burn dread that accumulates until the weight of it is unbearable.

An honest but struggling detective partners with an experienced but morally flexible colleague to solve a difficult case.

Both are built around systemic corruption grinding down everyone who tries to fight it. Same gritty and dramatic energy throughout.

A veteran detective is framed for murder and must uncover the truth while working with a young detective who distrusts him.

Both are built around systemic corruption grinding down everyone who tries to fight it. The pacing is a slow-burn dread that accumulates until the weight of it is unbearable.

When the Prime Minister of South Korea assassinates the President in a desperate bid to save the country from a corrupt system, he discovers that the system fights back harder than…

Like The Penguin, it leans hard into power vacuum. At its core, it's about the intoxication of power and what it costs to keep it. The pacing is a slow-burn dread that accumulates until the weight of it is unbearable.

Two young men with exceptional combat skills become loan shark collectors to fight back against a predatory lending empire that is destroying ordinary people's lives. What starts a…

Both are built around systemic corruption grinding down everyone who tries to fight it. The pacing is a slow-burn dread that accumulates until the weight of it is unbearable.