Suspicious Partner · Season 1 · Episode 1 · 10 May 2017
S1E1 Episode 1
THE MOMENT Bong-hee's arrest at the end of the first episode: the pivot that reframes everything that seemed like a slow-burn romance as a legal emergency.
The premiere positions Noh Ji-wook and Eun Bong-hee as two people already connected by prior heartbreak before engineering the crisis that transforms their dynamic overnight. The genre-blend - workplace comedy, murder setup, romantic tension - is introduced with enough confidence that the tonal shifts feel purposeful rather than arbitrary.
Full episode analysis below. Spoiler-light verdict above.
Updated
Suspicious Partner Season 1 Episode 1 aired May 10, 2017 on SBS as the premiere of the 20-episode series. IMDb audience scored the season 7.7; Kdrama Kisses awarded it 8.5 out of 10. Nose in a Book described the show as a combination of 'a genuinely tense murder mystery with a sweet, silly romance.' The premiere positions the two leads as people already marked by prior heartbreak before staging the crisis that transforms their professional relationship overnight. The genre-blend of legal procedural, romantic comedy, and serial killer thriller is established within the first episode with enough tonal confidence that the shifts read as intentional rather than arbitrary. Ji Chang-wook's Noh Ji-wook arrives as a prosecutor whose silence and stillness communicate more than dialogue, and the premiere's central reversal - Bong-hee's overnight transformation from trainee to suspect - reframes the genre expectations cleanly.