The Affair Was Just the Beginning: 5 Reasons This Dark K-Drama Should Be On Your Watchlist

Kim Hye-soo leads Coupang Play's darkly funny thriller The Affair Was Just the Beginning. Here are 5 reasons to add it to your summer watchlist.

- August 8, 2026 | 3:35 PM IST

5 Reasons To Watch The Affair Was Just the Beginning (Photo Credit: Facebook)

Every once in a while, a drama comes along that makes you gasp and laugh in the same scene. This summer, The Affair Was Just the Beginning makes a strong case for being one of those shows. Coupang Play’s new black comedy takes the familiar premise of marital infidelity and hides something far darker underneath it. What begins with rumors of an affair quickly turns into a story about a dead body, family secrets, and two neighboring families whose lives spiral out of control.

The series follows Park Kyung-hee, a successful interior-design CEO and influencer who has built a public image around her perfect family. Her husband, Lim Jae-hong, is an actor who lives somewhat in the shadow of his more successful wife. Next door are dermatologist Ahn Soo-jung and her estranged husband Joo Bo-seong, who are locked in a bitter divorce and custody battle. When these two families become connected by a secret far more serious than an affair, everything begins to unravel.

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Here are five reasons The Affair Was Just the Beginning deserves a spot on your watchlist.

A Premise That Escalates Fast

The title tells viewers exactly what kind of ride this is. The story begins when Kyung-hee hears rumors that her husband may be having an affair. She follows him, expecting to uncover marital betrayal, only to discover something much more disturbing.

The promotional material teases the discovery of an unidentified body and a chain of events that quickly makes the alleged affair seem like the least important problem facing the families. The series then turns the initial mystery into a much bigger question about what the characters are willing to do to protect their families and carefully built lives.

Kim Hye-soo Leads A Dark Role

Kim Hye-soo is at the center of the chaos as Park Kyung-hee, an interior-design company CEO and hugely successful influencer who has turned her family life into part of her public image. Kyung-hee appears to have everything. She is a woman with a million subscribers, a younger husband, and a dream home. She has built a carefully controlled image of success, and her family is an important part of that image.

That makes things interesting as her supposedly perfect life begins to collapse. Kyung-hee is not only investigating whether her husband has been unfaithful, but she is also forced to confront that maybe her picture-perfect family might be hiding something much worse. For an actress who has spent decades moving between genres, this is another chance to play a character who can be charming one moment and deeply unsettling the next.

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A Star-Studded Cast With Complicated Characters

Kim Hye-soo is the biggest name in the cast, but The Affair Was Just the Beginning works because the story gives its other leads equally complicated problems. Kim Ji-hoon plays Lim Jae-hong, Kyung-hee’s younger husband and an actor whose career has been overshadowed by his wife’s success. The character is at the center of the affair rumors, but his role in the larger mystery makes him much more than the stereotypical cheating husband.

Next door, Cho Yeo-jeong plays Ahn Soo-jung, an elegant dermatologist who is caught in a bitter divorce from Joo Bo-seong, played by Kim Jae-chul. Kim Hye-soo and Cho Yeo-jeong are reuniting on screen 23 years after appearing together in Jang Hee-bin. Soo-jung is determined to protect her daughter, while Bo-seong is fighting to regain custody. Their already difficult relationship becomes even more complicated as their lives collide with Kyung-hee’s and Jae-hong’s problems.

And the ensemble does not stop with the four adults. Jeon Si-hyun plays Ye-ji, while Do Young-seo plays Min-seo, the daughters of the two families. Promotional stills show the two girls facing each other, hinting that the adults’ secrets may eventually affect the next generation as well.

A Director Known For Dark, Unsettling Thrillers

The combination of black comedy and thriller is another major reason to keep an eye on the series. The Affair Was Just the Beginning is directed by Lee Chang-hee, the filmmaker behind the acclaimed thrillers Strangers From Hell and A Killer Paradox. Lee Chang-hee’s previous work suggests he knows how to create exactly that kind of unsettling atmosphere.

Eight Episodes Make It an Easy Summer Watch

At just eight episodes, The Affair Was Just the Beginning is a relatively quick commitment. With eight episodes, the drama has less room to waste time before moving on to its next revelation. It is also arriving at a good time for viewers looking for something outside the usual summer romance. There is no long romantic build-up here. Instead, the series mixes dysfunctional marriages, family drama, crime, and dark humor into a story that keeps changing shape.

And that may ultimately be the biggest reason to watch The Affair Was Just the Beginning. The series starts by asking whether a husband has been unfaithful. It quickly turns that question into something much more disturbing: what if the affair is actually the least of their problems?