Would You Merry Me kicked off with a rapid, time-flying romance, culminating in Jung So-min's blunt proposal at the first broadcast.
On the 10th (Fri), the first episode of SBS's new Friday-Saturday drama Would You Merry Me (directed by Song Hyun-wook, Hwang In-hyuk / written by Lee Ha-na / produced by Studio S, Samhwa Networks) opened with the prank-like first meeting between Kim Woo-joo (played by Choi Woo-sik) and Yoo Merry (played by Jung So-min) and, at their second meeting, Merry's sudden proposal asking Woo-joo to be her husband, foreshadowing a spectacular fate for Woo-joo and Merry that sent viewers' dopamine soaring. At the same time, episode 1 of Would You Merry Me recorded a peak rating of 7.0%, a 6.1% rating in the Seoul metropolitan area and a nationwide average of 5.6%, ranking No. 1 in its time slot and No. 1 among all programs except daily dramas, marking a refreshing start. Notably, the 20-49 rating peaked at 2.15%.
Episode 1 of Would You Merry Me depicted Merry facing both a life crisis and a stroke of luck. While preparing for marriage, Merry discovered her fiancé Kim Woo-joo's (played by Seo Beom-jun, hereafter the ex-Woo-joo) affair. Because of a new-home lease loan, they had even completed their marriage registration, but Merry decided on divorce, saying, "If I live with you, I think we'll get divorced someday. If we're going to divorce anyway, I'll just do it now," and gave the ex-Woo-joo a satisfying splash by pouring a drink on him.
One month after signing the divorce papers, Merry fell into a life crisis when she was caught up in a new-home lease scam before the pain of the breakup had even passed. The ex-Woo-joo coldly drew a line and sparked anger by saying to Merry's plea for help, "We are nothing to each other now."
Meanwhile, Woo-joo and Merry had a fateful first meeting. Woo-joo, driving slowly while looking for a street, got into a minor collision with a heavily intoxicated Merry. To handle the accident, Woo-joo saved his contact on Merry's phone, and the drunk Merry, seeing the three characters "Kim Woo-joo" in the contact name, mistook the man before her for the ex-Woo-joo and started a brawl, drawing laughter. After a topsy-turvy scuffle, Merry vented her hurt and fury toward the ex-Woo-joo. She happened to sit on a cactus pot and was injured when a spine lodged in her buttocks; Woo-joo took Merry to the hospital for treatment and escorted her home, revealing a quietly kind charm.
At the same time, unexpected luck arrived for Merry, who faced life crises like divorce and a lease scam, causing viewers to become overly absorbed. A top-tier townhouse worth 5 billion won that a department store had prepared as a lobby promotional prize ended up with Merry after the department store representative Lee Seong-woo (played by Park Yeon-woo) failed to rig the winner selection, and the prize went to Merry instead of the intended winner. Baek Sang-hyun (played by Bae Na-ra), executive director at Botte Department Store, instructed staff to scrutinize the complicated contract clauses to cancel the prize. After receiving a call that the prize intended for newlyweds had been won, Merry realized she was still listed as married because she had not yet filed her divorce certificate and submitted the documents to the department store.
Sang-hyun, who needed a reason to cancel the win, threatened that the couple must attend the prize ceremony together. Facing cancellation of the top-tier townhouse prize, Merry tried to contact the ex-Woo-joo but could not reach him. Then Woo-joo contacted her, and Merry's eyes lit up as if she had found hope in the three characters "Kim Woo-joo," who shared the same name as her fiancé.
When Merry met Woo-joo, visibly nervous, she startled him with an unexpected question: "Are you married?" She then, showing desperate eyes, said, "I know it's hasty to say this after meeting once, but there's no one else but Kim Woo-joo," and surprised everyone with a sudden proposal: "Would you be my husband?" The ending featured Woo-joo's dumbfounded expression, leaving viewers eager to see what changes Merry's surprise proposal will bring to their relationship in the next episode.
Would You Merry Me delivered heart-fluttering dopamine from the first broadcast with a brisk pace in which Woo-joo and Merry became entangled like a twist of fate and even reached a proposal. Their unexpected meeting, like a minor collision, heightened curiosity about the storylines Woo-joo and Merry will build going forward. In particular, actor Choi Woo-sik perfectly embodied a new character, a flawless chaebol fourth generation, successfully transforming his image. Although he appears cold, he shows a subtly warm, reverse charm that evokes excitement. Actor Jung So-min delicately portrayed Merry's emotional arc as the protagonist of a roller-coaster life who grasps both crisis and fortune, eliciting empathy. After the divorce was finalized, Merry practiced swinging a bat at the baseball field to steady herself and then crumbled under the pain of the breakup, creating a poignant moment, while her lovely drunk performance was unmatched and provided comic relief.
Episode 2 of Would You Merry Me airs today (11th) at 9:50 p.m.
[Photo] Would You Merry Me
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