Karma ~ Frankly Speaking, They Had It Coming!

“Karma” is a 2025 Korean drama series, with 6 episodes, categorized as Thriller, Suspense, Crime, Mystery, Legal and Medical Drama; based on a webtoon of the same name and released exclusively on Netflix.

SUMMARY: Karma in common everyday language is “what goes around comes around.” But is that always true? And does karma somehow entangle unrelated people who should not be entangled?

♦ How are We Connected?

In “Karma”, individual people who don’t appear to be connected or related somehow are or become entangled with each other.

We Both Need Money:  Two men both desperately need money. One man finds out that his father made him a beneficiary on his life insurance policy. The insurance payout is a lot of money. But how long will it take before his dad dies? He’s in debt and needs money NOW!! He doesn’t know the other man, but he knows about the other man because he did research. That man is a member of a ruthless crime gang and knows how to kill people.

But he didn’t come to South Korea to engage in that kind of activity. He just wants to make money from an honest job and send it home to his family. Instead of being paid for honest work he got cheated by his employer. What if the gang member kills his father, and once he receives the insurance payout, he pays him for doing “the job”?

It’s a foolproof plan. He knows a place where there are no surveillance cameras. What can go wrong? Uuhh … There were no cameras, but there was a human witness who saw what happened. The dad had a friend who happened to be in the area that night.

I Just Want to Meet a Woman:  Then there was a financially successful man. But what’s the point of success when you can’t meet women? He finally got lucky and met a woman, and she was “perfect”. They had a good time at the hotel, and then when they left, she started messing around with him while he was driving. Of course, that’s very distracting. It was such a distraction that he hit a man with his car.

Not only that, but there happened to be another man on the road that night, and he bribed him to help him get rid of the body. But shouldn’t he have just called the police? He didn’t mean to hit the man. It was an accident. Yes, he should have. But he’s a respected doctor, runs his own business, panicked, and didn’t think straight.

Once he did have time to review the situation, he looked at the footage from his dash-cam and realized that the accident was a “set up”. That “perfect” woman he met was in cahoots with other people, and he was their “mark”. When he found out, he couldn’t control his anger and he killed her. Unfortunately, one of the guys she was working with killed him. It was a bloody mess!! And … in this situation, there was a witness … WITH A CAMERA … who took pictures. Were they going to the police, OR did they plan to use the photos for blackmail?

Did I Save the Life of the Man Who Raped Me?:  Then there was a doctor who had been gang raped when she was a teenager. The rapists got away with the crime. She never knew what became of them. An unidentified burn patient was rushed into the emergency room, and the doctor saved his life.

When he was finally conscious and could speak, he told the hospital staff his name. It was the name of one of the rapists. But was it the rapist or just a person who had the same name? The doctor hired a private investigator to look for the men who sexually assaulted her. But what was she going to do if the burn patient turned out to be one of the rapists?

• These and other incidents involving various people seem to be unrelated, and yet the people become connected to each other in a tangled web. Did they come across each other later in life because of karma?

Main Characters:

• Kim Beom-jun (played by Park Hae-soo, “Phantom”, “Yaksha: Ruthless Operations”, “Time to Hunt”, ““By Quantum Physics: A Nightlife Venture”, “Narco Saints”, “Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area 1 and 2”, “Squid Game 1 and 2”)
• Lee Ju-yeon (played by Shin Min-a, “Go Go 70s”, “No Gain No Love”, “Tomorrow With You”)
• Park Jae-yeong (played by Lee Hee-joon, “Bogotá: City of the Lost”, “Handsome Guys”, “Badland Hunters”, “Miss Baek”, “Blood Free”, “A Killer Paradox”, “Mouse”, “Jeon Woo-Chi”)
• Jang Gil-ryong (played by Kim Sung-kyun, “12.12: The Day”, “Don’t Buy the Seller”, “Officer Black Belt”, “Divorce Attorney Shin“, “Secretly Greatly”, “The Fiery Priest 1 and 2”, “D.P. 1 and 2”)
• Hang Sang-hun (played by Lee Kwang-soo, “Inseparable Brothers”, “The Killer’s Shopping List”)
• Lee Yu-jeong (played by Gong Seung-yeon, “The First Responders 1 and 2”, “My Only Love Song”, “Flower Crew: Joseon Marriage Agency”, “Are You Human?”, “Circle: Two Worlds Connected”)

Where to Watch

Viewership and Rating:

• IMDb: 7.7 of 10 stars
• My Drama List: 8.1 out of 10 stars

My personal rating is the same as MDL.

In my humble opinion, an imaginative scriptwriter can make this series grow. It could easily become more than one season. But no more than 6 to 8 episodes per season. Plus there should be well-known actors or actresses who make cameo appearances, not in all of the episodes. Maybe just a couple. What do you think?

LINKS OF INTEREST:

Karma review: Netflix’s K-drama shocks viewers, netizens call it ‘disturbing & satisfying…’ | Web Series | Hindustan Times

Review | Netflix K-drama Karma review: Park Hae-soo, Shin Min-a in morally murky ensemble thriller | South China Morning Post

Karma review: A sharp, gritty tangle of fate and retribution | India Today

Karma Season 1 Ending Explained: How The 6 Characters Are Connected | screenrant

Breaking Down the Twisty Ending of ‘Karma’ | TIME

TRAILER/TEASER:

Netflix. “Karma.” YouTube, 18 Mar. 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ig-yn_yO3qA.

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