Familiar Wife (2018) poster
8.1
Your Rating: 0/10
Ratings: 8.1/10 from 11,922 users
# of Watchers: 27,475
Reviews: 48 users
Ranked #1922
Popularity #494
Watchers 11,922

Cha Joo Hyuk works at a bank and has been married to Seo Woo Jin for five years. When a strange incident happens one day, Joo Hyuk makes a decision that impacts his life and those around him in unexpected ways. Suddenly, the life he had with Woo Jin and his best friend, Yoon Joong Hoo, is gone, and he is leading a very different life. How will his first love, Lee Hee Won, factor into his new life? And will it be possible to get his old life back? (Source: Viki) Edit Translation

  • English
  • Arabic
  • Türkçe
  • Português (Portugal)
  • Country: South Korea
  • Type: Drama
  • Episodes: 16
  • Aired: Aug 1, 2018 - Sep 20, 2018
  • Aired On: Wednesday, Thursday
  • Original Network: tvN
  • Duration: 1 hr. 15 min.
  • Score: 8.1 (scored by 11,922 users)
  • Ranked: #1922
  • Popularity: #494
  • Content Rating: 15+ - Teens 15 or older

Where to Watch Familiar Wife

WeTV
Free (sub)
Netflix
Subscription (sub)
K-DRAMA
Free (sub)
iQIYI
Free (sub)
Viki
Free (sub)

Cast & Credits

Photos

Familiar Wife (2018) photo
Familiar Wife (2018) photo
Familiar Wife (2018) photo
Familiar Wife (2018) photo
Familiar Wife (2018) photo
Familiar Wife (2018) photo

Reviews

Completed
AnanyaS
59 people found this review helpful
Sep 21, 2018
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 2
Overall 8.5
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 10
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 8.0

It wasn't perfect, it wasn't without it's faults, but it was a drama that I really enjoyed watching!

-The story centers around Cha Joo Hyuk, who is miserable with his married life. The drama focuses on how his one choice changes the world that he has always known. Not just for him. But for everyone he has known and loved.

- Frankly, I'll agree with everyone who says that Joo Hyuk was an immature selfish jerk. I'll say the same thing. He was everything that people described him as. But REALISTICALLY so.
We, as viewers, are used to seeing a male lead who is righteous and is ready to sacrifice himself, for the female lead, at the very least. But Cha Joo Huk wasn't like that. Not at the start anyway. The choice he made was solely for his own happiness. But dare I say I understood Joo Hyuk? Don't get me wrong, I didn't like him either (not for a long time anyway), but I get his character. If faced with a similar situation in similar circumstances, maybe not everyone but still more than a few people would make the same choice.

- Again, this will probably go against general opinion (from those I read on different places), but I liked the character development of Joo Hyuk. And yes, I do think he had one. He started out a completely self centered jerk, who only wanted his own happiness. He blamed his wife for his unhappiness. But slowly, as he got to know his own faults, as he realized his own mistakes, we started seeing his character grow. He wanted to make her happy. Even if it wasn't with him.

- Enough about the male lead, let's move on to the female lead. Woo Jin... At first she is portrayed like a "monster" who has a really short temper and is extremely violent. But later on we get to see what made her that way.

- One thing I really liked about this drama was the fact that how BOTH the leads were far from perfect. Although Joo Hyuk might be more so. Nevertheless we get to see them try and become better person. Both individually, and together.

- I really enjoyed the chemistry between Han Ji Min and Ji Sung. As a married couple, and as a non-couple too, they were believable.

- The second female lead- Hye Won. She is portrayed as a materialistic and vain person. I actually think she wasn't as bad as they were trying to show her. She behaved like she was entitled to everything, but she wasn't evil or villainous like a lot other SFL.

- The second male lead Jong Hoo, was a really good character. He was charming, but he never overshadowed the male lead enough to give you SLS. I really liked the bond between him and Joo Hyuk. It wasn't exactly bromance but they had a really nice friendship.

- All the other secondary characters were fun to watch. The mysterious ahjussi, Joo Eun, Woo Jin's mom... Everyone. My favorite was Sang Shik. His emotional scenes always got me smiling.

- Also Jo Jung Suk's cameo! Loved it! The whole thing was so cute! Joo Hyuk 's reactions XD

- As for the one thing that bothered me was about the children. How could they give us one, just one scene. I think everyone is aware of the fact that a parent child bond is truly a special one! So how could you not, writer-nim? This is just one thing I cannot get over.

- Overall, I really, really enjoyed this drama! It has everything, a spectacular cast, and intriguing storyline, a good OST. So please give this drama a chance.

Happy Watching!!

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Completed
mamichu
30 people found this review helpful
Sep 20, 2018
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 5.5
Story 4.0
Acting/Cast 7.0
Music 8.5
Rewatch Value 2.0
I’m going to start this off with the fact that right from the beginning, I wasn’t a huge fan of the story of this drama. All throughout the drama, I’ve been convincing myself that I should keep giving it chances to redeem itself and here we are now, after the very last episode. This drama could have been shortened to at most 10 or 12 episodes, but the writer decided that it was a good idea to extend this up until 16 episodes. There were plenty of scenes that this drama could have had without. Yes, I’m talking about the drama between Joo Hyuk’s bank colleagues. I think that it would have been alright to include those scenes if they would have some sort of impact to the main characters’ story, but there really wasn’t. I suppose that the stories about the other bank workers are a “break” from the main characters’ story or perhaps “comic relief," but there were just too much of it and it did very very little or nothing to progress the plot.

As for the main characters themselves, right off the bat, we are shown that both our male and female leads are flawed. Now that is fine, because we all love to see how their characters would develop and how they could possibly fix their past mistakes. But the writer was so good into turning the viewers’ feelings of “neutral” to “dislike” up until you’re seething with anger and hatred towards the characters that you’re supposed to sympathise with and like. Our precious main characters are quite the selfish people and their fated love prevails everything else to the point that they were cheating on their respective partners. I’ve never quite watched a drama where the writer romanticises cheating to follow one’s heart and not feeling guilt whatsoever for one’s wrongs. Anyway, since the point of the story seemed to be a better relationship between the main characters, the last few episodes would not disappoint you.

But despite such a mess of a drama, the actors did very well to portray the sort of characters that the writer had given them. I especially appreciate the acting from Park Hee Bon (Cha Joo Eun) and Oh Eui Sik (Oh Sang Sik) as I enjoyed their characters’ addition to the drama. Their portrayal of a married couple, I found, was more enjoyable than our main characters’ love story. If you are a fan of Han Jimin or Jisung, I’d say, you’ll appreciate their acting as always, but I hope that their characters here would not make you like them any less.

If there is anything that I loved from this drama, it’s the OST. The songs fit so well with the overall vibe and every time I hear the songs playing, it would sometimes make me forget that the drama has such a messy story. Even if you, who might be reading this now, was planning to watch this drama and decided that maybe you’re not going to watch it after all, at least give the OST a listen. I recommend Roy Kim’s “No Longer Mine.” Likewise, N.Flying’s “Let Me Show You” and SF9’s “Love Me Again” were good songs. Both groups did so well with the OST.

In the end, I wouldn’t recommend this drama and I would not watch it again. The drama has redeeming qualities here and there, but despite that, this story hasn’t completely won me over. I know that there are others who enjoyed this drama so don’t let all the negative things that I’ve mentioned here stop you if you really were keen to watch it. At the end of the day, this is just my opinion amongst many others and perhaps I’ve just failed to see all the positive things about the drama that could possibly outweigh the negatives.

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Details

  • Drama: Familiar Wife
  • Country: South Korea
  • Episodes: 16
  • Aired: Aug 1, 2018 - Sep 20, 2018
  • Aired On: Wednesday, Thursday
  • Original Network: tvN
  • Duration: 1 hr. 15 min.
  • Content Rating: 15+ - Teens 15 or older

Statistics

  • Score: 8.1 (scored by 11,922 users)
  • Ranked: #1922
  • Popularity: #494
  • Watchers: 27,475

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