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The month of July has seen an impressive new slate of content for streaming audiences worldwide, but for viewers on Netflix, K-dramas are having a particular banner month in the early summer. Hot off the well-received full slate of episodes for dark fantasy series The East Palace, the streaming giant also debuted the latest Park Eun-bin vehicle, Spooky in Love, to instant Netflix success, with arguably an even more telling sign of its prevailing prominence in the weeks ahead thanks to its home network. It seems that Spooky in Love, a horror rom-com in the vein of all-time hit Hotel Del Luna, has quite an impressive ratings presence in South Korea.
As shown in Nielsen's South Korean charts for ratings surrounding July 18 and 19, the respective release dates for Spooky in Love episodes 1 and 2 before streaming on Netflix, the series has broadly dominated both Seoul's and overall South Korea's viewership. This is likely unsurprising for those who are familiar with female lead Park Eun-bin's prior works, particularly with acclaimed lead roles in Extraordinary Attorney Woo and Castaway Diva, but Netflix viewers in particular know her most recently for her starring role in The WONDERFools. Regardless of the reason, though, this is an excellent debut for a proven K-drama premise, with five more weeks ahead of similar dual releases to dominate the Korean airwaves and streaming.
Netflix's Latest Licensed Horror Rom-Com K-Drama Is A Ratings Powerhouse
With 729,000 tuning in for episode 1 and average household ratings only faltering slightly behind a special news report, and episode 2 climbing to 1.343 million in Korea alone, Spooky in Love has opened strong, ending the weekend as the #1 show in South Korea. It may not have the same chokehold that Agent Kim Reactivated launched with a month ago, but against a saturated slate of new offerings across July for K-dramas, it's certainly safe to declare this latest charming outing a win for home network tvN.
But the good news isn't merely there for domestic South Korean statistics. Despite launching at the absolute tail-end of Netflix's weekly roundup dates for July 13-19, 2026, Spooky in Love impressively cinched the #8 spot on Netflix's global non-English charts, two places away from overtaking June's juggernaut series, Teach You a Lesson, with 1.7 million views, 3.5 million hours viewed, all on just two episodes available. It's practically a foregone conclusion that these numbers will grow significantly by next week thanks to two more episodes on the way on July 25 and 26, as well as a full week's worth of sample viewership data rather than merely two days.
Netflix's approach to licensed and original K-dramas is certainly continuing to pay off, especially since its latest exclusive, The East Palace, stands at #2 on the charts, although still significantly lagging behind Agent Kim Reactivated. But considering the non-English chart for the week features five of its top 10 series as K-dramas, with the two top spots being an impressive variety of action-thriller and dark fantasy, with more action, comedy, and horror rom-com qualities bringing up the rear, the medium has a demonstrable range not to be scoffed at. And a major part of this is the stars at play, particularly in Spooky in Love.
Park Eun-bin's Latest K-Drama Has Her Playing A Haunted Chaebol Heiress
A wildly talented actor capable of an immense range of emotions and eclectic characters with an infectious presence, Park Eun-bin's role as Cheon Yeo-ri may come as a surprise for some. Playing an outwardly sullen CEO of the luxurious Reina Hotel, this chaebol archetype is certainly one of the more common characters found in K-dramas, but leave it to Park Eun-bin to find one with a twist. The series opens with Yeo-ri already aware of what's basically her curse, that she can see ghosts who will follow her until she helps with their unresolved issues so they may move on. However, if any living person touches Yeo-ri, they'll immediately be haunted as well.
Episode 1 of Spooky in Love lays down the heavy-handed consequences of those who confidently claim they can handle such a burden alongside her, only to realize these spirits can be utterly vengeful towards them. The series strikingly shows Yeo-ri about to get married, only for the terrified groom to give in, feeling unsafe around her, leaving her at the altar on her wedding day. Thus Yeo-ri spends her days isolating from people, including children, while refusing to take off her gloves in public, only coming out to help the ghosts she encounters, bringing her to cross paths with a Seoul District prosecutor, Ma Kang-wook, played by Yang Se-jong (Temperature of Love).
What ensues is one of the more bizarre meet-cutes in recent K-drama memory, in which the two meet on two separate evenings, on two separate cases involving a different dead body. Their sudden teamwork is palpable, their chemistry is fun, and Yeo-ri's attempts to avoid Kang-wook, intended for his protection and her privacy, fail hilariously as fate pushes the two together. Spooky in Love is interesting because it touches on similar tropes found in recent shows like Phantom Lawyer as well as modern classics like Hotel Del Luna, in which they deal with potentially dark or harrowing cases of those unjustly killed, while themselves realizing they could be living better lives as well.
Time will tell whether these ratings hold for future weeks, but chances are, both in South Korea and on Netflix, Spooky in Love will easily shoot up the rankings for the coming weekend and beyond. It's a fun premise, the hour flies by for each episode so far, and Park Eun-bin is a total treasure as usual. But it'd be foolish to think the month is out of massive hits just yet. While Netflix may have released a killer double-feature, Disney+ is bringing the heat with A Shop for Killers season 2, while Rakuten Viki is dropping an impressive slate of a new long-running series, a new dark comedy, and even a brand-new action-comedy. Summer has indeed only just barely begun.
