The World of the Married (2020)

A train wreck in the best way possible, The World of the Married is a drama with full blown craziness in all its glory.

No matter how beautiful a woman is. No matter how successful she is in her work life. No matter, how good she handles her house and children. No matter how smart, considerate, kind she is. Cheating men will cheat.

And then most of the time that woman has to deal with friends and family who will tell her to forgive the man, innocently selfish children who will ask her to compromise, outsiders who will gossip and an unapologetic man who will think it is his right to cheat. She'll be left with a destroyed family, broken pride and a stamp of a woman who couldn't handle her marriage.

This drama tells the story of what happens when you mess with the wrong woman.

Sun Woo is ruthless and takes no prisoners when it comes to revenge. Giving a new meaning to "Hell hath no fury, like a woman scorned", she is obsessive, borderline psychotic, scarily intelligent, calculating and even selfish but at the same time she is incredibly strong, bearing and someone who's been hurt in the most profound manner.

Kim Hee Ae's acting is beyond phenomenal, not unexpected from a four time Daesang winner. She hits every emotion on the spectrum to the point you are fully attuned with her character. She will make you love her fiercely, frustrate you to no end, question her motives, pity her and even hate her.

The shock value in this drama is no joke. Things that you haven't imagined in your wildest dreams happen in the most iconic fashion and you're just left with your mouth hanging.

There's no passive watching this drama, for it wrenches feelings out of you. You'd be screaming at the screen, tearing at your hair and will probably think of throwing your phone at the wall once or twice.

Every aspect is exceptionally executed. Where there is emotion, you'll be crying your heart out. Where there is thrill, you'll be biting your nails to stubs. Where there is suspense, you would be sitting at the edge of your seat. Where there are makeout scenes, the entire room will feel hot.

None of the characters in this show are truly likable. The moment you start warming up to someone, they'll do something to screw you over. These people are extremely complex, selfish, vindictive, weak- human nature at its worst and that's the beauty of the show.

The music is amazing and added in just at the right moments. The writing plus dialogues are crisp (pretty loyal to the original series) but the direction and delivery by the actors takes the cake.

It's impossible to stop, once you start watching it and it maintains the tension from beginning to end with never a draggy moment.

A true masterpiece, that explores the dark waters of marriage, relationships and being human, it is not reccomended for people who can only root for righteous and wholly good characters. For this drama, leave your moral compass behind or it will explode.

Lastly, the drama beautifully succeeds in delivering its point:

Cheating is NOT ok and you don't have to forgive it. No matter how weak you get, no matter how hard it is (and it will be) no matter what the world says, no matter how much history you have, you don't have to compromise. No excuse should be enough.

The world of married is a place where there are no winners, you just have to do what's right by you. Because, before being a wife, a mother, a daughter, a friend, a working woman: you are your own person.

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Oh. My. God. This show was totally crazy!

I've never ever seen something like this. I mean, The World of the Married is now the highest-rated cable drama, so this should definitely tell you that this show is very special.

Why is it so special though? Because it's totally insane! From beginning to end, the show never lost its intensity. When you think that it's finally over, there's something even more shocking and twisted that will surprise the hell out of you. You honeslty can't predict anything in this drama, the characters took such actions that noone could've guessed!

Speaking of characters, they are definitely the strongest part of the drama. Ji Sun Woo -- a powerful, strong lady who was ready to destroy everyone who's trying to hurt her. And while she was a character that was easy to root for, some of her actions were very questionable. But well, that's what made the drama even more impactful.

And here comes my favourite character -- yes, the most hated character for 2020 - the horrible, disgusting, insolent Lee Tae Oh. You know, everyone can admit that he was a terrible person and even more terrible husband, but gosh, he was so interesting to watch.

While I saw that there are some people who felt symphatetic towards Da Kyung, I did not. Not even a bit. Sure, humans can't control their feelings. It's not impossible to fall for someone else's husband (especially when he's as hot as Park Hae Joon), but the moment you try to seduce him and ruin his family, that's when you became a horrendous person. I mean, she's not the only one to blame for the disaster that happened to Sun Woo's family since her husband was shit and has always been shit, but still, Da Kyung is not just an innocent princess.

All the actors delivered spectacular performances. Just wow, they left me speechless. Someone give an award to Kim Hee Ae and Park Hae Joon. I can't believe Hae Joon was hesitating whether he'd do a good job at portraying his character. Dude, you have my respect. It's been a while since I last saw such brilliant performance.

I would strongly recommend this if you're looking for a mature, complex drama with hella intense, gripping storyline and one of a kind characters. The World of the Married will make your blood boil but it's worth it.

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I think after the 4th episode everything goes to shit. I kept on watching and i don't regret it but i do think there was too much drama and "plot twists". Life is complicated for sure but damn... this was more like a dramatic novela. It's a good kdrama but failed to be one of my favorites after so many going back and forth. Perhaps if it was a little shorter it would have made a difference for me. I did loved the main actors though. Definitely excited to watch more projects with them. I cried on the last episode in some moments but somehow the story didn't exactly wraped up like i wanted. I mean it did in the way the characters ended up being, but i wished there was less dramatic scenes and more of a sense of closure to all.

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I'm actually really conflicted on the rating.... I give my 10s easily, but I have this feeling that something was missing..

I feel like this drama just tried to push the limits, and at a certain point they got caught up in their own plan of "how can we make this even more shocking". I kinda started to lose interest by ep12 ish, and I think that's when they tried too hard to add more conflict so the story doesn't end, but they didn't want a rushed ending so they made ep15 seem like a pre conclusion, but then they kept adding conflict after the resolution becasue they had 2 more hours to go.
like the "I'm sorry", "I'll kill you", "let's forget this", "I'll kill you" dance...

for one thing, I'm glad of how they handled Ye Rim and Je Hyuk, but just like the rest of the story I feel like they gave us too much buildup/middle ground and not enough cleanup/closure?

like they never talked about Hyun Seo or In Gyu again. so what? was it suicide? was it not? why did they play us to think it might be Yoon Gi?
and the son running away? then they didn't show his face at the end? why because he looked older or they couldn't film that scene with the real actor? becasue it was a last minute thought?

when Tae Oh tried to kill himself I got the desperation, but it was a slow street, even if the bus/truck hit him he'd have only broke a bone or two. it was not going that fast, but I was emotional when they revealed that he wasn't dead. otherwise I'd have given it a 1 ;)
also all of those scenes making it seem like they were going to kill the son? come on that was a cheap move..
which makes me wonder if the son running away was the writers "punishment" for Sun Woo, because at the end of the day she was not blameless in that mess

but I do admire them for breaking away from the revenge mold, usually it takes them 10eps to uncover the secret and 5eps of omg I can't believe, with 1 wrap up party..


the ost was great and I never rewatch stuff

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I ll start by saying this is a unique storyline to me and i found it captivating so i sat through the 16 episodes straight in one day. so its really a slice of life interesting drama.....with that being said i'll dive into an emotional rant of all the characters..... yes all of them in this drama were scum to varying degrees..... the lowest degree of scumness was dr kim and the highest degree of scumness was Lee tae oh...... as a matter of fact there is low, lower, Lee Tae Oh..... you get the point lol.

1) Sun Woo- so in the first few episodes i could feel her pain, she had a perfect life and all of a sudden she realised her husband was cheating on her and stealing from her and her 'Friends' were in on it too........ i was pissed along with her raining curses of Lee Tae Oh. i was also proud of her strategy to divorce him without him knowing.... i was proud of her ability to stand up for herself every time.... then in much later episodes i began to doubt her aim of doing all she was doing, she literally lost it in my opinion because so many of her actions were so questionable to me. using her son as a bait too was low of her (although it was smart) but the boy didn't deserve to think his father was abusive to the mother just like that. The boy also deserved to see the father so that whole act in their welcome party was another low! and her betraying the bartender girl in order to protect herself and her love hate relationship was low! also its important to not that she was too stuck up on her work, too overconfident in thinking she knew her soon and had everything in control.... phewww she could have avoided a lot of things by moving out and starting afresh but i feel she was stuck up on proving points and never really got over her ex husband.

2)Tae oh---- deserves a whole rant epistle but in short he was just an entitled cheat who felt he should be forgiven for keeping a mistress ( who got pregnant) for two years while he had a wife and son.....whats worse.... he was stealing from his sons policy funds to take care of the mistress like really...! After the whole divorce he married his mistress and comes back rich and successful (or kinda not) and starts stalking and threatening his ex wife and trying to get her fired, trying to buy his son back.... girls this is the kind of man you really dont want to marry PERIODT!

7)sun woo's son----- while i feel bad for his situation which isnt his fault, he was a whole mess.... a spoilt brat literally! i mean his classmate's mum was also divorced but she still lived right. why he decided to use his dysfunctional parents as a reason to do clownery i will never understand. also i felt he was more forgiving of his father than his mother.... he was way to mean to her!

3)All the family friends---- how do you go on a vacation with you friends and one of you comes with a lady who isnt his wife..... and you do not tell the wife, as a matter of fact you help him deceive the wife (like what.... off with their heads lol) and let me not get started on seol myung the double spy..... i was happy Hyo jung got redemption at some point because she was the only one in their circle who had a bit of sense even though her husband holds the 3rd position on the scum list. i mean he was married but the whole time he was sleeping around and trying to woo his own friend's wife chile....

4)Mistress----- this clown was just so naive and stupid, a man leaves his family for you and somehow you think you acting right and being a supportive wife will make you better than his old wife and stop him from cheating on you like he did to his old wife ......... i mean people change but once a cheat, always a cheat i guess! the fact she was trying to buy everybody's love and loyalty in the city and make sun woo look like a bad person was low!

5)mistress father---- typical rich powerful man in kdramas that has power to do many things mostly bad things. him and his wife were too stuck up on themselves to correct their child for taking someones husband. they instead ran a campaign to get her support from the community with their money....

6) community peeps----- this ppl will just kiss a** of any influential person and gossip for a living...... i cant.....

the only somewhat decent people in this drama were min hyun (bartender girl), chairman choi's wife (woman association leader) , and dr kim..... every other person can be thrown away thanks!


Anyways watch the drama its emotionally investing but its captivating and interesting. And i hope they scoop a lot of awards because the acting was 100%

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Overrated

This show was going to be great if it ended at episode 6... but it didn't.

First thing to clarify, I hate the kid in this show, his character was the most annoying and was waiting someone to beat the crap of him for good or push him in front of a car so that there is less screen time for him and I didn't have to listen to him anymore. Maybe it's too much but each time I saw him I had the urge to drop the show right there.

Now that we clarified the hate relationship with that character lets continue...

The first 6 episodes was interesting and I was enjoying the show but afterwards everything was going downhill.

The show was trying too much to make each episode some kind of a turning point... I hate him, no I love him, then I hate him again and I love him once again... this game is played till the rest of the show and it was annoying as hell.

I never had a show that had me switch the character I hate the most after each episode (except the kid, he was number one in my hate list).

Pretty much the shows was trying the push the agenda that all men are cheating pigs and women are stupid enough to keep loving/forgiving them nonetheless... maybe it's overgeneralization, but that's the logic that the show was trying to sell us.

And that ending... oh my god... saying that it was stupid will be a compliment to the movie industry. I had to watch a 15min repeat of a whole scene from the previous episode just to finish it... and when I did there was one generic and totally stupid ending, where the previous episode ending (without the last stupid part) would have been a better ending point.

The saving grace was maybe the acting which was really good but no acting can save a bad screen writer.

So how did I score it:

1-6 epsiodes - 9/10
7-10 epsiodes - 7.5/10
11-15 epsiodes - 7/10
16 episode - 6/10

So the final verdict is 6/10 and I wouldn't recommend it to watch it.

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Wow ! Wow ! This drama from start to finish has been a roller coaster of emotions, this drama really has a knack of dragging people in and angering all the viewers, the main focus of the drama is married life mainly focusing on the negative aspects, from toxic relationships to cheating, this drama really boils your blood. At first I really had my doubts for this drama that it would have a few good starting episodes and quickly turn stale towards the last episodes, but I can genuinely say this is a drama that's had my attention from start to finish. the anger one goes through during this drama is indescribable. Every episode had me gasping for more!
The story was phenomenal it had the perfect amount of grittiness, I liked how the female lead was also shown in lights were she morally did multiple things wrong too not just her husband, it showed the mentality of someone after a divorce (especially when you had a husband like Tae Oh, yikess)
With side couples and their marital problems, this drama doesn't stray away from toxic relationships, also by showing abusive boyfriends and lying husbands.
The acting was also amazing there was one scene in episode 14 with Sun Woo that gave me goosebumps! Kim Hee Ae is an amazing actress and she really pulled it off with this drama, the raw emotions really cut deep, it was almost as if she was made to be in makjangs cause this drama was really her strong suit.
If you're thinking of starting this drama, think no more this drama will hook you from episode 1, it's an addictive drama that has you craving for the next episode, for me it has been one of the best Korean dramas I have watched in 2020!

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Zero Character Development

I must say that I felt hooked because I was waiting for the main character to finally win and get her revenge--but I wrong for rooting for her because she is stupid. She keeps getting entangled with her husband who was not worthy at all. How I would breakdown the plot:

Episodes 1-4 = pretty much Tae-Ho gaslighting Sun Woo that he is not cheating

Episodes 5-14 = revenge going back and forth, no winner but everyone is a loser; both parents emotionally abusing the kid / Jun Yeong

Episode 15-16 = pure trash; Sun Woo trying to be a saint saving his trash ex

That's pretty much it. A trash I would not recommend because there is no character development. Sun Woo could have been a better character if she was not stupid. She keeps on telling that she wants everything for Jun Yeong but keeps exposing the kid to the wrong environment because she is selfish and have other motives.

Best ending goes to Ye Rim. Girl freed herself from stupidity.

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Whirlwind of emotions throughout the show. Brilliant acting by everyone, even the kid most of the people hated.
We see Sun Woo as a strong female lead, whose whole world collapses when she *SPOILER* catches her husband cheating on her, and their whole circle of friends being aware of his cheating. The first episode got me goosebumps. Then we see her plotting for revenge, at the same time working and maintaining a social life. She is not to be messed with, which her husband realizes a lot later!
Tae Oh, the husband, is an entitled jerk who literally does not regret cheating on his wife. He is obsessed with her, even after getting married with the person he cheated on with. He was living and got caught in a web of lies by both the women, and ended up losing both. The hypocrisy of this man had no bounds. Hating him was so easy, since this character was played brilliantly until the end.
Apart from the leads, the storyline of secondary characters was actually interesting with bittersweet endings.
All in all, this drama had so much potential, which I think got lost during the end.

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" The world of the married " handled adult themes that other dramas shy off, usually.

The drama's appeal to the public is probably due to the intense scenes and the frustrating situations that it presented. The story is packed with twists, revenge, drama and just enough events to make you mad and frustrated, and it keeps that momentum up till the very ending. The latter was actually pretty unpredictable and probably fitted the drama well.

However, there were times in the drama that felt that they were repeated. Also, the whole frustration thing was a bit too much after a while. Finally, the drama had a bit of a slow down towards episode 6, but got back on track quickly.

Still, the performances were excellent and pretty intense. The drama did, in addition, a good job with handling the side stories.

So, overall, seven out of ten.

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This review also appears on: https://frommelbtoseoul.wordpress.com/2020/05/17/review-the-world-of-the-married/

I wouldn’t be the first to say this, but what an epic rollercoaster. The twists and turns of The World of the Married has rightfully landed itself in one of the top viewed dramas of all time, and I am so glad I jumped on the bandwagon right before it completed airing.

There are a lot of elements that work seamlessly together to deliver the brilliance that is The World of the Married. The show nails plot progression, character development and acting performance. There really isn’t much to fault how this drama has played out, from start to end. The drama rides on an intense and fast pace, without ever wanting to stop. The whole time I was watching, it felt like my heart and mind was going to go into overdrive and I kept bracing for the sudden crash. Yet, the show just kept going along with the constant speed, compelling me to hold on for the ride as the characters blindly race through the events of the series. I’ve learnt that I like a drama that is quick to build tension and keep its viewers in suspense, never wanting to look away. I think what I liked best from having the drama be at such a quick pace is that we, as viewers, discovered secrets and lies at the same rate as the protagonist. It made the show feel real, or at least, made me feel like I was there with them as the story progressed. The drama also didn’t hesitate to reveal these secrets to other characters albeit the pain and damage it could create, and I was there for every moment of it because I didn’t want our heroine to have to struggle alone.

I’m aware that The World of the Married is an adaptation of the BBC series Doctor Foster so whilst the plot didn’t have to be created from scratch, the performance from the actors and actresses really helped the drama excel. It’s one thing to have great writing, it’s another to have great performance. The casts ability to display how complex humans are were a highlight to this drama. The characters are all immensely flawed, barely any of them have redeeming qualities and don’t seem to be redeemable, but that’s what makes this show so much better. In that, these characters are relatable. Kim Hee Ae is an absolute standout, living up to her reputation of being an incredible actress. She puts on an impressive act in portraying a woman, struggling to find a balance with her marriage, career and being a mother. I loved her character as our heroine because of how headstrong she is, her ability to go as far as she can to protect what really matters to her and her, somewhat frustrating, inability to take a loss. She’s constantly striving to win, which is something I feel like a lot of people want but never really have the guts to acknowledge or fight for. Park Hae Joon as Lee Tae Hee was also scarily impressive. There was so much wrong with his character and the display of ambition, justification and honestly, some really psycho acts, from him left quite an impression. His character arc, alongside the son, Lee Joon Young, were the most interesting. Whilst one character showed a sense of remorse and growth, the other, so consumed by his own failure and resentment, fails to realise how selfish and pathetic he is. If there was a character I didn’t really care for but played a major part in the drama, it was Han So Hee’s character Lee Da Kyung. Han So Hee played her role well but Lee Da Kyung was never likeable and I couldn’t sympathise or feel any pity for her, even at the end. There’s a lot she did that I couldn’t forgive even if it seemed like her character arc ended in a rather positive note. I mean good for her? Also, I was disappointed though of the lack of ending for my favourite character, Min Hyun Seo, played by Shim Eun Woo. Her role was to support Sun Woo, but then it felt like the drama forgot about her after she served her purpose. Hyun Seo deserved better!

In fact, what I loved the most from this drama using its plot and characters to ultimately deliver strong messages on themes of love and relationships, hate and revenge and being human. I find The World of the Married to be one of the more realistic dramas I’ve watched through its exploration and presentation of these ideas. Of course, the main focus is the break down of Sun Woo and Tae Oh’s relationship, as we discover his betrayal right from the beginning. However, whilst many dramas would have that the characters resent and disconnect from each other, in this drama there’s a rather scarily accurate of how much more complicated relationships between two people who feel strong emotions for each other are. Questions of love, hate, loyalty, betrayal and the act of grief for something that has ended abruptly are thrown in the air and I found myself constantly running these thoughts through my head. I also loved that the show used a number of relationships between different characters to draw distinctions between how emotions can dictate various behaviours, dependant on a person’s nature. How one relationship starts and ends is not always going to be the same for another, even if the circumstances are similar. As well as not all toxic relationships will look the same and doesn’t always necessarily involve physical abuse. The relationship between the characters, Go Ye Rim and Son Je Hyuk’s, is a great example of these points. I actually grew to love these two for what they represented, both together and individually. There’s a lot to learn from them about broken relationships, whether it’s worth repairing, especially if it means risking your own mental health and happiness.

I feel like the numbers really speak for itself when it comes to The World of the Married. Its popularity is well earned and well worth the ride. You would be signing up for a realistic and confronting representation of life and the frightening aspects that it contains. From start to end I was hooked, and whilst I can admit that I’m not a fan of how the drama ended, I do appreciate it for continuing to commit to the realistic representation of life. Strap yourself in tight and get ready to be enthralled.

Rating: 4.5/5

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