What To Watch When You're In Your Thirties

Go Back Couple - is about a married couple in their late 30s who get a chance to go back in time to when they met in college. It's a chance to either remember why they got married, or change their lives. It has funny parts, but also parts that really hit home, like being able to see a dead mother again. It was great to see them enjoy their youth again, and look at it through the lens of someone approaching middle age. The drama challenged what it means to regret, and the choices you make in life shape your relationships.  - u/caninedesign

Because This is my First Life - A show about 3 female friends and their lives - personal, professional, and romantic. The portrayal of issues and the characters' response and the growth is all on point. It's brilliant from start to finish and all the characters are well written and relatable. Must watch definitely.  - u/bumi-ish

Because This is my First Life - absolutely this one. there's a brilliant line about turning 30 in the drama that i can't remember right now, but it really well encapsulated the thoughtful outlook at life and aging. - u/forever-cha-young

Search WWW - This show deals with three high-powered women in the work place and the challenges they face balancing love and work life. It's very relatable in terms of the struggles women in their thirties experience, whether it's societal/family expectations, important career decisions -- and finding love that will support you through it all instead of adding to all those struggles. I found this drama really empowering!  - u/chouchou8975

Romance is a Bonus Book - the story focuses on childhood friends Eunho and Dani. While Eunho became a sucessful writer and the youngest editor in chief while Dani became a divorcee who struggles to find a job after being a housewife for many years despite having an experience as a copywriter before she married. I find Dani's struggles realistic, the discrimination, the regrets, the what-ifs. I feel like those in their 30s can relate to Dani and the side characters' stories.  - u/PsychologicalSprout

Chocolate - this drama is, at its core, a healing drama. It features two adult leads who have already experienced a lot in their lives, and focuses on their attempt at overcoming trauma, hardship, and hesitancy to start over. The leads seek acceptance, and the drama is very mature in its muted and more realistic trajectory of healing--not through childish adventure but simply through learning what it is you love about life, and how to center your life around it (food, for one of our leads, being this stable love, and by god, you will be hungry all the time watching those delicacies displayed). The drama is replete with some of the most heartfelt stories on television, and will most certainly make you sob, repeatedly, but will nonetheless leave you feeling fuller and more whole as you progress through the episodes. The drama features a huge transition after the first few episodes, and only gets better and better, so give it a chance. - u/forever-cha-young

I Need Romance (2011) - this one is a coin toss, either you love it or hate it but I actually loved this show. It has a mature approach that never needed to paint the FL as virginal because she isn’t but that doesn’t make her easy. KD sometimes have this polarised view of women as either very strong, liberated, and sexually loose while their BFF is timid and innocent. The FL shows 1 woman can be capable of being all of those because we are multi dimensional creatures.

If you have been in long term relationships, cohabited, or are in your 30s w/ dating exp you can relate. - u/Excellent_Ad5213

20th Century Boy and Girl (2017) - A group of 30-something best friends (three female, one male) managing the stress of their professional and personal lives while maintaining their decades-long friendship. It's worth watching because every character brings something different to the table and I'm sure everyone  can identify with or relate to some aspect of their lives or a situation they find themselves in. You feel like you're part of their friend-group while watching it and root for them to overcome the obstacles in their lives.  - u/Blitz_Kreegs

Thirty Nine - a drama about the value of friendship, even as an adult. The story follows three women who are on the brink of starting a new decade of their lives, and chronicles the endurance of their deep friendship, the love they have for one another, and the highs and lows they each must face and help one another through. It's more mature than your average kdrama, both in its willingness to show more adult behavior but also in emotional heaviness (although it has incredible spots of humor as well). It will make you reach for your phone to check on your best friends (or otherwise angst over a lack of amazing best friends). Finally, it will make you, no matter how old you are, reevaluate your life and how you might live it more fully, and more authentically, no matter how much time you have left.  - u/forever-cha-young