This Time-Shattering, Revenge-Filled K-Drama Is Your Next Prime Video Binge (2024)

There's almost nothing sweeter than revenge. Chocolate is an extremely close second, but Prime Video's South Korean fantasy drama Marry My Husband takes the cake. This revenge fantasy came out in January 2024 and has risen in popularity because of its stellar cast, stunning visuals, and oh-so-honeyed vengeance. The entire story is told in just one season, so it's a nice binge to sit through when you want to see bad people get what's coming to them.

This show is more than just revenge, of course. Marry My Husband is also a love story. The protagonist of this series finds love unexpectedly during her mission to escape her miserable life. There are twists and turns that captivate the audience and keep them on their toes. There's drama in each and every episode that makes the antagonists of the show even more damnable than what was presented in the official trailer.

Marry My Husband

Drama

Fantasy

Comedy

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Marry My Husband follows Kang Ji-won, a terminally ill woman who is betrayed by her best friend and husband. Miraculously, she travels back in time ten years and seizes the opportunity to rewrite her fate, seeking revenge against those who wronged her and finding a chance at true happiness.

Release Date

January 1, 2024

Cast

Park Min-young , Na In-woo , Lee Yi-kyung , Song Ha-yoon

Main Genre

Drama

Seasons

1

Creator(s)

Seong So Jak

'Marry My Husband' Was a Web Novel Before the Prime Video Series

Marry My Husband started out as a web novel by Sung So-jak. It was serialized by Webtoon and adapted by the studio LICO. In So-jak's novel, 37-year-old cancer patient Ji-won stumbles upon her husband and her best friend having an affair. When confronted, her husband attacks and kills her. Her life seems to flash before her eyes, but instead of dying, she gets transported back in time to 2013 as her younger self. And she has knowledge of her previous life! With this knowledge, she plans to make different choices so she can live a happy life. Her first objective is to marry her trashy best friend to her equally trashy husband.

So-jak began writing the Korean web novel in 2020 and finished the story in 2021. This Webtoon comic began in August 2022 in English and ended in November 2023. While the art style was pretty simple, the variety of colors and expressions of the characters made it an enjoyable read. Prime Video's Marry My Husband adapted the Webtoon version of this story instead of the original web novel So-jak created. As a result, there ended up being some side characters who don't get much spotlight compared to the novel or even the comic. Still, the show adapts the web comic's narrative very well and makes for a bingable revenge treat.

Ji-won's Perfect Balance of Romance, Revenge, and Consequence

The premise of Kang Ji-won's (Park Min-young) story in Marry My Husband is to redo her life and make it a happy one, starting with getting her revenge. Romance wasn't on the table at the start of this story. She found companionship with Yoo Ji-hyuk (Na In-woo), her manager at her workplace, who was also sent back in time after he died in a car accident. He was in love with her in the previous timeline and was aware of her death. He vows to protect her in this new timeline. How romantic is that? Throughout the series, the two bond and form a relationship. It's delightful to see someone who was wronged and hurt gain the courage to love another when she could have easily run away to begin her life somewhere else. The chemistry between the two characters is instant. It's nice to see two characters who were wronged in the past timeline come together to make a better life for each other and for themselves. There's no stronger love than that.

Ji-won's path of revenge is very satisfying. She gradually manipulates her best friend, Jeong Su-min (Song Ha-yoon), into marrying Park Min-hwan (Lee Yi-kyung), the man who was her husband in the previous timeline. Su-min's intentions to sabotage Ji-won are clearer and more evil compared to the web comic, which only makes her downfall all the more rewarding to watch. That includes Min-hwan as well, who only wants what he knows he shouldn't have (Su-min, in this case, but also Ji-won as she grows closer to Ji-hyuk). The time-traveling plot device is popular in K-dramas, and since Ji-won knows exactly what will happen, she can calculate her plan accordingly. The more that she transfers her misfortune onto others, however, the more she sees it start to affect the people around her as well. The best example of this is when one of her colleagues and friends, Yang Ju-ran (Gong Min-jeung), ends up getting the cancer she originally had a result of her rewriting her life. Even though the cancer was able to get detected and treated quickly, it's one of the events that opens Ji-won's eyes to the fact that her actions have consequences.

The Changes in 'Marry My Husband' Improved the Story

While Marry My Husband stayed true to the overall plot of the web comic, the producers made some changes that amplified the narrative. They included some scenes that weren't in the original story. The camping trip and the judo lessons that the characters were part of helped connect the storyline better. The interactions between each character felt more genuine. Whether it was Su-min flirtations with Min-hwan, Ji-won receiving cruelty from Su-min, or Ji-hyuk expressing his love for Ji-won, each character feels real. Viewers also get to see Ji-won struggle more than she does in the Marry My Husband web novel. She was more of a "girl boss" who kept her primary focus on her revenge in So-jak's comic. In the Prime Video show, however, Ji-won struggles along her path of vengeance, especially once she begins to realize that her actions in changing certain events in her life is affecting others around her. Not only did she gain a new romantic relationship, she formed new friendships as well. Whatever she would change had the potential to affect someone else.

A new character was also added to Marry My Husband that wasn't in the original story. Oh Yu-ra (Kwon Bo-ah aka BoA), Ji-hyuk's ex-fiance,comes in about halfway into the series to interfere with his blossoming relationship with Ji-won. Marry My Husband becomes two revenge stories. A revenge drama that is hopeful is a rare case, but Marry My Husband does the genre justice. Not everyone who has watched the show was happy with the introduction of a new character. It is a bit cliché to include another female character to counter the female lead once she is in a happy relationship. However, Yu-ra added so much more drama than the web novel did that it made the show more interesting to watch. Her involvement only furthered Ji-won's revenge and Su-min's suffering.

There's only so much that a television series can adapt from a book or web novel. So-jak's original web novel was about 181 chapters long. The Webtoon serialized comic condensed the story down to 69 chapters, including a short spin-off series after the main story, but the overall narrative still took too long to get to a satisfying conclusion. Prime Video's Marry My Husband is 16 episodes long and managed to adapt the major plot points from the web comic. Still, the pacing was just as slow as its Webtoon counterpart. The show did incredibly well despite this and is one of the better Webtoon adaptations to date. The stakes are high, the romance is beautiful, and the revenge is sweet like sugar.

Marry My Husband is available to stream on Prime Video in the U.S.

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