Which The Scandal Character Are You?

Learn More About The Scandal

The Scandal is one of the most talked-about K-dramas of the fall, reimagining a classic tale of seduction and manipulation within the rigid social order of the Joseon dynasty. The series stars Son Ye-jin as Lady Cho, a noblewoman constrained by Confucian tradition, and Ji Chang-wook as Cho Won, a wealthy aristocrat with a notorious, libertine reputation. The two form an uneasy alliance, agreeing to manipulate romantic entanglements for their own purposes, testing exactly how far Joseon-era social convention can bend before it breaks.

Their carefully controlled game becomes complicated when Hui-yeon, played by Nana, enters the picture. A young widow with little experience in courtship, Hui-yeon becomes entangled with both Lady Cho and Cho Won, and the show uses her innocence as a mirror against their calculation. What begins as a scheme for two people who think they're above real feeling slowly curdles into something far messier and more dangerous, as unintended emotional attachments start to form between all three.

Premiering on Netflix on September 18, The Scandal has drawn immediate comparisons to classic period dramas of seduction, but critics have singled out the chemistry between its three leads as the show's real draw. Son Ye-jin brings a controlled, simmering intensity to Lady Cho, while Ji Chang-wook leans fully into Cho Won's charm and recklessness. Nana, best known for her music career and previous acting roles, has been praised for grounding Hui-yeon's arc with genuine vulnerability rather than played-for-sympathy melodrama.

Visually, the series leans hard into its historical setting, with lush hanbok costuming, candlelit interiors, and sweeping location shoots that emphasize both the beauty and the suffocating rigidity of the era. That tension between opulence and restriction becomes a visual shorthand for the show's larger themes: characters who are outwardly composed but privately desperate to defy the order imposed on them.

As the season progresses, the show digs into how each character defines love, control, and freedom differently, and whether any of them can actually escape the roles they were born into. It's a slow-burning, deliberately paced drama, but one that rewards patience with genuinely surprising emotional turns.

Love a good period drama? Check out our Bridgerton or Game of Thrones quizzes for more scheming and forbidden romance.

The Scandal also arrives at an interesting moment for Korean historical dramas more broadly, as the genre has increasingly leaned into morally gray, ensemble-driven storytelling rather than clean-cut heroes and villains. Director and writing credits for the series draw on a well-worn literary tradition of seduction narratives, but the show updates that framework with a distinctly modern sensibility around consent, agency, and the emotional cost of treating people as pawns. Early episode reviews have singled out the show's restraint, letting silences and glances carry as much weight as its dialogue, a choice that rewards viewers willing to sit with its slower, more deliberate pacing.