South Koreans have bee encouraged to stay at home for the majority of 2020. Therefore it’s no surprise that a drama produced this year would rack record viewership. That drama is the South Korean adaptation of the BBC’s Doctor Foster series. The elusively titled The World of the Married.
If a 21-episode drama feels like too much to indulge in, the first six episodes offer a self-contained storyline, providing a great taste of the series. Episode seven catching up with the characters two years after we’ve originally met them. It follows the marriage of a middle-class couple whose relationship escapes the doors of their home and spreads throughout Ulsan. There’s heaps of drama, down-right-dirty betrayals and revenge. In some ways, it encapsulates everything you’ve ever wanted from an episode of Jeremy Kyle but slots it into an elaborate drama.
In this six-episode story arch, doctor Ji Sun-Woo (Kim Hee-ae) figures out that her aspiring film director husband, Lee Tae-oh (Park Hae-joon) has been cheating on her with the daughter of a wealthy businessman and she is now pregnant with his baby. What makes it worse is that several people in her close social circle are aware of the situation. We watch her break up and attempt to divorce her husband, turn their teenage son against his father and categorically ruin his life. If this isn’t the revenge girl summer energy of 2020, I don’t know what is.
Despite her actions, Sun-Woo is a really enjoyable character to watch. She may have been hurt by her husband, but her extensive failure to let go suggests that she is torturing herself. She has no remorse and is willing to go to any extreme to get her own back.
As a whole, the series was a highly enjoyable watch and the strange combination of intensive revenge and realistic storyline was something I found compelling. By any means, it is a show that is definitely worth your time!
Watch the trailer below and let us know what you think:
