Lead cast: Park Min-young, Na In-woo, Lee Yi-kyung, Song Ha-yoon
Latest Nielsen rating: 5.9 per cent
The new year is an opportunity to start things afresh to cast away the disappointments, fix bad habits from the previous 12 months, and look forward to the future with renewed hope.
Kang Ji-won, the first K-drama leading character of 2024, is also kicking off the year with a new slate after suffering a series of medical catastrophes and personal betrayals. Rather than look to the future, she is returning to the past, given a second chance to avoid falling into the same quagmire – and to get some revenge for good measure.
As the series begins, she is in hospital gazing out of a window at cherry blossoms and wondering how things have got so bad. She is receiving chemotherapy and has been given six months to live.
12 of the best new Korean drama series to watch in January 2024
12 of the best new Korean drama series to watch in January 2024
Her husband and mother-in-law are both very upset, but not out of sympathy for her. They would rather she die quickly to save them any trouble. Her husband, who quit his job to gamble on the stock market and play video games all day, has been sucking her dry for years.
The only person she can still depend on is her friend Soo-min – that is, until she heads home one day to discover a familiar pair of red pumps in the foyer and her best friend in the arms of her husband.
Before making her presence known, she overhears their plan. They hope she dies quickly so that they can cash out an insurance policy Min-hwan secretly took out on Ji-won’s life. They even joke about killing her.
That joke takes a dark twist when Ji-won confronts the treacherous pair and, during the argument that follows, Min-hwan violently pushes his wife. She collapses onto a glass table and falls dead to the floor.
When Ji-won opens her eyes again, she isn’t in heaven. She is back in the office. As her eyes come back into focus, she sees Min-hwan in front of her. To the shock of their colleagues, she attacks him and is pulled away from him by the dashing Yoo Ji-hyeok (Na In-woo).
She rushes outside to collect herself and then the reality of her situation dawns on her. Looking at the ads that surround her – including a poster for the gangster film New World – she discovers that she has been transported back to 2013.
She isn’t married to Min-hwan yet, they’re just dating, but now she is scared to spend any time with him or the bubbly Soo-min.
With the benefit of hindsight, she sees her past life in a new light. The signs for her future were already there. Min-hwan is possessive and is already borrowing all her money, and Soo-min is needy and not above stealing Ji-won’s work to elevate herself.
Also looking very different this time around is Ji-hyeok, a bespectacled manager who is as goofy as he is serious and keeps appearing around Ji-won in the nick of time to get her out of trouble.
Her mysterious time travel has also given her a few other advantages. She knows that Ji-hyeok, whose identity in the office is a secret, is actually the grandson of the chief executive and will take over the company. She also knows which of Min-hwan’s gambles will pay off and which won’t.
Marry My Husband presents a simple but engaging premise that is colourfully brought to life through the show’s animated cast and zippy pacing. This is a series that leans into K-drama stereotypes with a wink and nudge and is all the better for it.
Tailored around Park, the show pulses with bright and breezy K-drama vibes. Of her co-stars, Na is most in step with his character, investing the caricatured Ji-hyeok with a charmingly buffoonish air.
The exploration of toxic patriarchy in the workplace circa a decade ago is also a nice touch.
Marry My Husband is streaming on Amazon Prime.