Credit: Netflix

Remember March 2025, when When Life Gives You Tangerines had every Netflix watcher a bit emotional for no good reason? And then you realise, actually, there was a very good reason.

We all pressed play thinking it was Ae-sun’s and Gwan-sik’s love story, nice and simple, and then you get that inevitable gut-punch. Before you know it, you are there thinking about your mum and dad, all the stuff they probably never told you about.

Because that’s the catch, isn’t it? The romance in When Life Gives You Tangerines welcomes you through the door, but then you enter the house and realise that the show is really all about what one generation bears in silence, so the next lot have it a bit easier. And not in some big, grand gesture either. People just get on with it. They swallow things. They make do.

Ae-sun wanting to be a poet says a lot on its own. For a woman like her, at that time, even wanting something for yourself was a bit of a luxury. And her mum being a haenyeo? That was not just there for a bit of local flavour. Those women worked their backsides off. Jeju was hard going, and the money was tight. Korea was changing in those times, and the family was basically trying to keep its head above water through all of it.

So if you miss that exact kind of ache, these five Netflix shows are where we’d like you to head next.

Five shows to watch if you miss When Life Gives You Tangerines:

Reply 1988 (2015)

Did watching children understand how much their parents gave up for them get you in When Life Gives You Tangerines? If yes, then Reply 1988 could finish you off. The show takes us to Seoul in 1988, following Deok-sun and four childhood friends whose families are this tight-knit group, and the kids are wandering in and out of each other’s homes, nicking food and gossiping. There are crushes too, but director Shin Won-ho said the focus was family. And you can feel that from the start.

There is a clear Tangerines connection too: Park Bo-gum plays Choi Taek, the baduk prodigy inspired by champion Lee Chang-ho. But put Gwan-sik aside for a moment. The deeper link is hindsight. Both shows understand that growing up means one day realising what was happening in the next room while you were busy being a child. How devastating!

Anne with an E (2017–2019)

Anne with an E has that same thing going on, where childhood starts looking very different once you realise what the adults around you are carrying. Amybeth McNulty plays Anne Shirley, an orphan sent to live with siblings Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert on Prince Edward Island. Only slight problem: they’d asked for a boy to help on the farm. So yeah. Bit awkward. Anne, obviously, isn’t about to pack it in. She tries to make this accidental home hers, all while carrying a super dark past.

And this isn’t really some cosy Anne of Green Gables retelling either. Creator Moira Walley-Beckett brings in prejudice and trauma, but most importantly, she makes sure to sprinkle in all the lovely little rules society had for girls. You know, stay quiet, behave yourself, know your place. Anne? Not having it. And that’s where we see the resemblance to When Life Gives You Tangerines. Ae-sun wants to become a poet, and Anne refuses to live the life everyone else has already picked for her. Different girls, different worlds, but the stubbornness is unchanged. Oh, absolutely. Neither of them is interested in being told where she belongs. And isn’t that what we love about these girls?

Our Blues (2022)

And then, we are back on Jeju. That already makes Our Blues an easy recommendation after When Life Gives You Tangerines, but do not mistake it for only the coastlines and stone walls making the connection. Writer Noh Hee-kyung made the series as an omnibus, so instead of one character lugging the entire story around, it keeps hopping between different people on the island. A travelling salesman reconnects with a woman carrying years of pain, while everyone else is busy dealing with friendships and family drama, with some old problems that, naturally, never really went away.

Do you see how it relates to Tangerines? Both shows understand that a community is often messy. Tangerines follows Ae-sun, Gwan-sik and the generations around them, while Our Blues basically lets everyone have a turn. Noh has spoken about looking beyond one person’s pain and towards the suffering around them, and you can really feel that here.

From Scratch (2022)

A little warning before you go ahead: this one gets a bit dangerous if When Life Gives You Tangerines already left you emotionally wrecked. Press play wisely. From Scratch follows Amy, an American artist studying in Italy, who meets Sicilian chef Lino. They fall in love, build a life between two cultures and then, well… Life does what life does. Suddenly, they have to deal with a loss that makes them appreciate everything they had.

Netflix adapted the series from Tembi Locke’s memoir, inspired by her marriage to Sicilian chef Saro Gullo and the grief that followed his death. From the very beginning, you can feel that connection; you just know that there is something personal behind the show. Locke created the adaptation with her sister, novelist Attica Locke. So when the series gets into grief and the way food can carry memories, it does not feel like somebody just put it there because it sounds nice. Just like Tangerines, you invested in the love story first and then got grief-struck. Certainly not for the faint-hearted.

Sweet Magnolias (2020–)

After everything, When Life Gives You Tangerines puts you through, Sweet Magnolias feels like somewhere to recover. Yes, it sounds a bit contradictory, but as many similarities as these shows have, Sweet Magnolias also heals you somewhere. You know what, you need it. So three girls. Maddie, Helen and Dana Sue have been friends since school, and they live in a town called Serenity, where everybody seems to know your business before you do. Here, families get involved, and next thing you know, the whole town is in on it.

Do you know what, though? That is exactly why it works for Tangerines fans. Serenity has that same Jeju feeling where people will not let you suffer alone. Annoying sometimes? Sure. But when life goes off the rails, they show up. So if you loved that community around Ae-sun and Gwan-sik, get on that, except the emotional murder is a lot less.