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The show enjoyed modest viewership share, but it beat its competitor by topping the important 20-49 year old demographic, as well as streaming, popularity, and brand reputation charts for consecutive weeks. in 2024, JioStudios of India remade as Legal Affair.
Synopsis
The series is about Noh Ji-wook (Ji Chang-wook), a prosecutor, and Eun Bong-hee (Nam Ji-hyun), a prosecutor trainee, and how they work together on a mysterious case involving a sly psychopath murderer. They find out how deeply connected they are by their past. A forgetful killer can be a dangerous thing. Noh Ji-wook is a prosecutor who changes jobs to become a private attorney due to circumstances. Eun Bong-hee is a prosecutor trainee under Ji-wook while he was a prosecutor. Attorney Ji Eun-hyuk (Choi Tae-joon) is a longtime family friend of Ji-wook who betrayed Ji-wook by cheating with Ji-wook's ex-girlfriend.
When a murderer strikes, Bong-hee suddenly finds herself as a suspect.
A prosecutor in the Sunho District Prosecutors' Office who ends up switching professions to a private attorney in the aftermath of defending Eun Bong-hee, a defendant in which he was supposed to be her opponent. He harbors a trauma stemming from an event in his childhood involving his parents and first love. Bong-hee falls for him though he does not initially return the feelings. He comes to realize his feelings for her eventually and tries to win her back. However, he started to be swayed again by the fact that Bong-hee's father could have been the arsonist who set the fire in which his parents died.
A prosecutor trainee at Ji-wook's office, later lawyer who was a Taekwondo athlete in her youth. One day, she becomes a murder suspect as her ex-boyfriend's dead body was found in her house in which she had no alibi, causing District Attorney Jang Moo-young to keep coming after her and blame her for his son's death. She eventually falls for Ji-wook after he defended her. He eventually pursues her as he realizes his feelings for her, but she is skeptical to accept his feelings as she was initially rejected by him.
A lawyer with complicated family relationships who had a particularly harsh adolescence. Once best friends with Ji-wook, he is now despised by him but tries his best to get back to being best friends with Ji-wook. He has a friendly platonic relationship with Bong-hee in which the two support each other with each other's romantic relationships.
Noh Ji-wook's ex-girlfriend who made an unforgivable mistake, sleeping with another man. A prosecutor who tries to win him back no matter what it takes. She harbours romantic feelings for Eun-hyuk which she confuses for friendship. She later becomes friends with Bong-hee and Na Ji-hae.
Bong-hee's mother who loves her daughter. She works at a massage parlor where she befriends Ji-wook's mom and later ends up working for Ji-wook's mom. The two are frequently indulge in semi-friendly banter.
Bong-hee's father who died while trying to save Ji-wook. He was earlier accused of murdering Ji-wook's parents until it was discovered that he was innocent.
A victim who was accused of murder which has similar vibe to Bong-hee's case, but has a mysterious identity that lies in him. He was in fact a serial killer who had earlier, out of revenge, murdered five of the six gang-rapists (including the victim of a murder he was accused of and first appeared in the show for) of his high school crush Park So-young, who committed suicide after this incident. He was also the real culprit who murdered Jang Hee-joon; in fact, his real target was Bong-hee, who unknowingly witnessed him killing two of the rapists but ended up killing Hee-joon, who was at the wrong place at the wrong time when he tried to make amends with Bong-hee for cheating her. Hyun-soo was eventually sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders he committed.
Kim Hong-fa as Jang Moo-young
Jang Hee-joon's father and the District Attorney of Sunho District. He believes in upholding the might of the prosecution even if it meant defaming common people, as shown when he falsely incriminated Bong-hee's father as the arsonist who caused the fire that killed Ji-wook's parents and also himself, releasing the gang-rapists of Park So-young after dismissing their rape charges on the bribery of the parents and forcing Ji-wook to indict and convict Bong-hee (who was actually innocent) for murdering his son. Upon discovering Hyun-soo's guilt of his son's murder, he tried to kill him unsuccessfully and this led to his downfall as he was dismissed from his post and arrested for attempted murder (and possibly his pre-existing corruption prior to his arrest).
A forensic investigator who went missing after being falsely incriminated for murder. He was actually one of the gang-rapists who raped Park So-young and was shown to be plagued with remorse (possibly) for the crime. He disappeared before he could meet up with Ji-wook to reveal something related to Hyun-soo, and was confirmed to be murdered by Hyun-soo when his body was discovered nearing the finale of the series. Four of his five accomplices - Lee Jae-ho, Yang Jin-woo, Kim Min-goo and Sung Jae-hyun - were earlier murdered by Hyun-soo while the final accomplice Min Young-hoon eventually surrendered and went to jail for the crime around the same time Hyun-soo was indicted the second time and finally sentenced.
The early working titles for the drama were Beware This Woman and Suspicious Romance. The first script reading took place April 4, 2017 at SBSIlsan Production Center in Tanhyun, South Korea.
^ The series was originally packaged as twenty 60-minute episodes. In In order to circumvent Korean laws that prevent commercial breaks in the middle of an episode, what would previously have been aired as single 60 minute episodes are now being repackaged as two 30 minute episodes, with two episodes being shown each night with a commercial break between the two. This, following a fall in ratings and eventual 2-episode cut in the preceding drama serial Saimdang, Memoir of Colors.
"The Irony of Suspicious Partner". Newsen. 그러나 전체 시청률을 제외한 TV 화제성, 브랜드 평판, 2049 시청률 등에서는 '수트너'가 압도적으로 1위다. 전체 가구 시청률에서 20세에서 49세까지의 시청률을 별도로 산정한 '2049 시청률'은 '수트너'가 6연속 1위를 차지했고, TV 화제성에서는 3주 연속 1위를 유지했다. '수트너'의 주인공인 지창욱은 5주 연속 TV 드라마 출연자 화제성 1위에 이름을 올렸다.
Promotional poster