6 Best Foreign Shows on Disney Plus Right Now

When Blackpink’s Jisoo starred in her first lead role, it was surprising that she chose a story like Snowdrop. Sure, at the time, stories set in the 1980s were a hit in Korea, with dramas such as Reply 1988 and Youth of May that nostalgically recreated the aesthetics of the time, while also re-examining the loss and the pain under the dictatorship then. Snowdrop does the same, but it adds a more controversial twist– the love story isn’t between innocent bystanders caught in the fire, it’s formed between a South Korean student and a North Korean spy. Writer Yoo Hyun-mi and director Jo Hyun-tak take this interesting premise to chaotic, unpredictable scenes, and it’s a fun ride, at least until the secrets he holds and the politics inevitably brings their childhood to heartwrenching ends. Seolganghwa isn’t a perfect drama, but it’s a story that understands how muddled and confusing the era got, and how much the country should avoid a repeat of state interests acting at the expense of personal freedoms.

When teens are superheroes, it can be tough to balance the regular teen drama along with saving the city (or maybe the world), but it’s a fairly common premise for a teen show. Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir may take some familiar super teen tropes, like the secret identities, awesome suit-up moments, and cool powers, but unlike most shows, the enemies they fight are teens just like them, trying to deal with regular teen problems… except they’ve been given power and bad influence from Hawk Moth, an overdramatic supervillain that somehow keeps up-to-date to the latest drama in Marinette and Adrien’s Parisian high school. Playing with new powers and switching up the tropes, Miraculous is a fun gem of a kid’s show, one that pays genuine attention to kid’s issues, even if they solve it with the most ludicrous of powers and catchiest of songs.

Returning to your hometown can be an eerie thing, mostly because of the way plenty of things would feel familiar, but they’ve either stayed in stasis all these years, or they’ve changed so much. Tierra Incognita takes that eeriness and uses it to craft a mysterious vibe in the small town of Cabo Qwert, a town now best known in the series for its titular abandoned amusement park. It relies a tad bit on jump scares and family melodrama, and the theme park itself seems much more pristine than an abandoned park would look like, but Tierra Incognita would be an okay series for kids to enjoy.

The concept of Selenkay isn’t so bad. If done right, it would have been a great way to experiment with special effects, introduce new Argentinian talents in a gorgeous lakeside location, and maybe, create good television. But things are introduced here in such derivative ways, that, when Sofía Rivera meets Gael Fénix, you can already tell how this Romeo & Juliet-esque relationship would go– boy loves girl, girl loves boy, parents disapprove, but whatever because the power of true love will triumph over all, etc. There’s an interesting thread where the kids debate over ecological responsibility over guilt, and it’s not totally atrocious, but Selenkay is much more interested in being a teen show, rather than exploring the world and powers that its premise has to offer.

Given the time period, costumes, and the sets, you would think that the first Chinese Disney+ show would be one of those stuffy period dramas with court intrigue, political maneuvering, and forbidden romance. This isn’t the case with Delicacies Destiny. Some of the aspects are delightfully refreshing, with its over-the-top goofy comedy, casual court chefs, and of course, the mouthwatering food porn of classic Chinese dishes. However, these refreshing aspects are disappointingly offset by the way the show fails to establish compelling characterization for both leads, so each time Ling Xiaoxiao tricks someone, or each time Prince Zhu Shoukui throws all his dishes around, the reaction of their understandably shocked underlings is much more relatable than the leads who were supposed to win us over.