K-drama First Lady Ep 1 premieres to strong ratings – Eugene and Lee Min Young’s first lead roles in over 3 years
Michelle Topham 
The new MBN drama First Lady is a must watch simply because it features a main cast of actors who aren’t always starring in every drama that gets released.
Those actors — Eugene, Ji Hyun Woo and Lee Min Young — are seasoned professionals, but are also people who have not had a huge number of lead roles in the last few years, and that alone is a breath of fresh air.
Especially in the case of Eugene, who hasn’t starred in a drama since 2021’s The Penthouse, Season 3, and Lee Min Young, whose last lead role was in 2022 in Becoming Witch.
A breath of fresh air, just like last night’s First Lady, Episode 1, which premiered to strong ratings with a 2.17 percent from the nationwide audience, and 2.02 percent from audiences in Seoul.
Excellent first ratings for an MBN drama, and especially one with a political theme.
The First Lady plot
First Lady follows Cha Su Yeon (played by Eugene), a woman who has been incredibly supportive of her husband, a man who has just been elected to the presidency of South Korea.
But, just days before her husband’s inauguration, he asks for a divorce.
The relationship between Cha Su Yeon, and her husband president-elect Hyun Min Chul (Ji Hyun Woo), now sours, and all of it pushed on by Sin Hae Rin (Lee Min Young), Min Cheol’s secretive secretary and closest confidant.
Episode 2 of First Lady airs later on tonight (at 10:20 p.m. KST) on MBN in South Korea, and streams on Viki internationally.
Check it out as, if the first episode’s well-written plot with its shady characters, and a main couple whose marriage is definitely in trouble continues in the same vein, it should be a solid and interesting watch.
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