Love Is Like a Cat (2024)

That was disappointing...

First, there is a "dog" cafe without dogs... that's strange as hell.
There is ONE dog in the whole show.
All Koreans understand Thai for some reason without translation devices or so it seems.
The story was soooo slow going in the beginning and then the ending was rushed. What did they wait for? Most of the inbetweens scenes did not much for the love story. The "traitor" was still in the final shot - I only thought WTF? There was a chance for an emotional outbreak for what he did, but nothing happend.
The production value was high, but for such a subpar story it was wasted.
The chemestry between the two leads was ok-ish, I guess a language barrier is not so easy to overcome. They still lacked passion and longing for each other.
All in all I could have skipped it and not miss a thing.

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This show is like a cat, and I'm allergic

I really didn’t have high hopes for this project from the get-go. Mixing Thai with Korean BL sounds like a decent idea on paper, but the execution turned out to be incredibly clumsy. Peach Of Time did it first - it felt awkward then, and it feels awkward now. I’m not saying this concept can’t be done. Because Of You actually pulled the mixing of languages off quite well. But that’s because some of the characters in the show were actually multilingual, so it made the entire thing a whole lot more believable because they effortlessly switched between languages, depending on who they were talking to. In this show, however, Uno somehow understands Korean perfectly, but he cannot speak the langue at all. How in the world would you ever get to that point? Listening and speaking skills develop hand in hand. Of course, it is quite common to have an easier time understanding a language than actually speaking it. But I simply don’t see any way in which someone would understand everything as well as Uno does (down to words like 'euthanasia‘ which you won’t find in basic vocabulary lessons unless you attend a very odd language course) without being able to make at least simple every-day conversation. The same goes for Uno’s manager who understands Thai but doesn’t speak it, and his assistant assumably too, because he never speaks to Uno in Thai but understands him without any struggle. It makes no sense and took me out of the show completely. For everyone who isn’t magically able to understand Thai/Korean, the instant translation earpiece was a very cheap way out. I suppose I gotta praise them for at least trying to address the language barrier in some way, it just was a little bit too convenient for my liking. Especially regarding the TV show they were filming. The audience obviously does not have a fancy insta-translator, and when we saw the manager watching the show, there were never any subs. So, how are the Korean viewers supposed to get anything of what Uno was saying?

But anyhow, the language nonsense was the least of the show’s problems.

The even bigger issue is that the world of this show feels completely empty. You know those stories where the places actually come to live and you feel the vibe of the coffee shop, office, house, or whatever through the screen, or even through pages of a book? Well, this was the opposite of that. It never feels like you’re watching people going about their lives, moving naturally around the world they live in. It feels like you’re watching actors on a set. A set that refused to cast any extras. The main place of the show is a dog cafe. But somehow, we see a grand total of ONE dog at the entire cafe, and we never get to see a single customer who isn’t part of the main cast. The same goes for the vet clinic, although, there we actually get to see one other client (I believe), which didn’t add much realism, but at least it was something. It was incredibly strange to watch and ruined the immersion.

But the most glaring issue, by far, is the romance.

You see, the two love interests don’t actually interact (apart from a brief encounter) until half way through the show. I absolutely don’t mind if you take a while to establish the characters on their own first, before you introduce the romance. If well done, that in itself would not be an issue. The issue is that in this show, those first episodes felt incredibly wasted. It didn’t really feel like I was getting to know the characters well. Somehow we spent 6 episodes introducing them, and I still couldn’t connect to either of them. At no point did I feel like I actually know these characters. Uno just felt like a caricature of an aloof, stand-off-ish celebrity. I have no idea how he even got famous in the first place, because that generally requires charisma, and Uno has none of that. Dae Byeol loves animals. That’s all I could take away from his character. And that he struggles financially, maybe. Both of them felt like empty shells who weren’t appealing to watch at all. Much like with the set feeling just like that, a set, the characters also felt just like characters rather than actual people.

When the two main leads finally do get to interact, the romance feels as empty as the characters do. There was no romantic chemistry there whatsoever, and the build-up is clunky as hell. This is yet another show that feels like it should’ve been a bromance, and on the day of filming, someone decided to add some romance into the mix. So, they came up with very few moments that were supposed to be cute, but they come so out of the blue and feel so awkward that I went 'Wtf is going on?‘ Instead of 'Awww!‘ which is definitely not the reaction you want when watching a romance series. It’s not even that they established a friendship that felt believable. They just went from not really liking each other to loving each other without putting in any effort of making the two actually bond for more than a total of five minutes. It was completely wasted, and I was honestly shipping Dae Byeol with the vet and Uno with his assistant more than I was rooting for the two of them. Dae Byeol had more chemistry with the damn dog than he did with Uno.

This series might go down as the show with the most awkward hug scene in BL history. It was actually painful to watch. Uno hurt his foot while they were out looking for their dog. They sit down and Uno goes on an incredibly forced monologue about how his dog trauma came to be (their conversations in general feel clunky and forced, but this one was the worst instance). Then, Dae Byeol proceeds to wrap his arm around him in the most unnatural way anyone has ever hugged anyone ever. It felt like he was forced to hug that one relative he doesn’t like, because his parents told him to be polite, not like he was getting close to someone he apparently has feelings for. It was supposed to be cute, but I had to pause the show because I was laughing so hard at how bad it was. The scene of him applying ointment for Uno wasn’t much better, but it wasn’t quite as horrendous.

Speaking of Uno’s trauma with dogs… He got over that way too quickly. How nice would it have been if the show actually depicted him slowly overcoming his fear with the help of Dae Byeol? But we cannot have nice things, apparently, so instead, he basically healed himself by the power of nothing. If getting over trauma/fears was that easy, it would leave therapists everywhere jobless.

The ending feels unearned and plot lines get resolved way too quickly and without any meaningful resolution. They're just wrapped up because it's episode 12, and we need a happy end now.

In terms of acting, the side characters were actually doing really well and were a lot more likeable than the main characters. Especially Uno’s assistant and manager were both hilarious and nailing their roles, so that was honestly the best part about this whole thing. Mew is a very charismatic person, usually, but somehow, he failed to add any charisma to Uno which made watching him incredibly boring.

If you’re debating whether you should watch this, I suggest you don’t. There really isn’t anything here to get attached to or fawn over. It's genuinely one of the most unenjoyable BLs I've ever watched. It's bad, but not even funny-bad, just plain bad. If you’re looking for a show with cute animals in it, you won’t find it here, and you’re honestly better off just watching dog or cat videos on Youtube. At least those are cute and not as awkward as whatever the hell this was.

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The actors, mostly Mew, kept this show afloat.

Tbh, if Mew wasn’t in this, I would’ve dropped it by ep2. And it feels like that’s what the producers aimed for, that Mew was enough that they didn’t need a good story. Beside the fact it took 5 episodes for the main couple to even speak to each other, their “romance” was so rushed, it was practically nonexistent. By ep10 when P’Uno left and he & Daebyeol had to reminisce about each other, they showed the exact same 3 moments cause THATS ALL THEY HAD. Like, there were not enough romantic-heavy moments for them to suddenly “be in love with each other since the moment they met.” Like, are you kidding me?? The producer woman pissed me tf off I can’t believe they decided to work with her at the end. And the part-timer that outed them, whyyyyy was he still working there in the end????? And so many plot points that came out of nowhere and then went nowhere??? For what sounded like a cute concept, the execution was done so poorly. I feel bad for Mew and the rest of the cast, they deserve a better production than this.

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beginning was slow, ending was rushed (watch suggestions)

Overall: the initial premise was good but the execution was lacking. 12 episodes about 15 minutes each. Aired on Viki and GagaOOLala (country dependent).

Watch Suggestions: (if you want to see the lead interactions and avoid a bunch of drama)
- read the synopsis
- watch episodes 6, 7 and 8
- skip episodes 9 & 10
- watch ep 11 5:35 to the end
- watch ep 12 13:30 to the end (or can watch all of it for a ton of drama that was quickly resolved)

Content Warnings: coercion/blackmail, non con picture/video taking and sharing, slap, 2 more but I'm keeping this spoiler free, one involves an animal

What I Liked
- the beginning was funny and I laughed at 1 fight scene
- visuals
- a few sweet moments
- production value*

Room For Improvement
- the leads don't really start interacting until episode 6 and halfway thru is waaayyyy too late, they had a few seconds in episode 2 and then towards the end of ep 5 but by then I was shipping the one lead with 2 other characters, I didn't really care about all the other stuff that they put in, there just wasn't enough time to do the romance well and with the additions of a love rival, family drama, work struggles etc.
- 6 antagonists was too many for just 3 hours of run time, also most/all antagonists did not have adequate consequences for their actions
- it is totally realistic that someone understands more in a language than what they can speak; however, it was not realistic that every single Korean character could understand Thai in the first few episodes, he should have spoken a few words in Korean to side characters but had his assistant, manager and dad understand Thai, also why was he wearing the translation device when they established that he understands Korean??? (also a character used the translation device to understand him but then later didn't and magically knew Thai, and that taping was live but no one translated into Korean what was said in Thai, how would the audience know what the character said?)
- *it was choppy at times, episode 1 ends with talking to a director and then the beginning of episode 2 is a character in a totally different place/time, two guys in a van talk to a character and then suddenly he is driving a motorcycle, in episode 7 it's complete daylight then the next second it's total darkness, etc.
- comedy sound effects, silly background music
- convenient writing (with the phones in ep 8), someone is injured then magically healed, cliche of overhearing something but ghosting/not communicating
- ending was extremely rushed, things were said but earlier never shown, everything tied sloppily with a bow
- with the series title, they should have had the setting be a cat cafe

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I don't get the hate

I almost didn't watch this because the hate for this show was immense, but curiosity got the best of me and I'm honestly confused.
There were issues with this series for sure, but for so many people to say it was the worst BL they've seen.. I'm just confused.
I thought the actors did a great job, I fell for JM.. he's gorgeous and what a voice. I know a lot of people have issues with Mew but I liked the way he portrayed his character, he was guarded and aloof but had a lot of love for people close to him.
I also really enjoyed the dual language aspect.
There were fun moments and sad moments and moments I wanted to scream at the producer but I really enjoyed watching it.
I didn't find it slow, I liked getting to know the characters, I do wish there was more of the two leads together though.
I seem to be in the minority that enjoyed this, but it's an easy watch and I'll probably watch it again.

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It’s worse than I expected

I unfortunately completed this drama but with the help of the fast forward ⏩. When you have to fast forward a drama with 15min run time then you already know it’s a terrible drama,
Funny enough it really could have been a decent enough drama even with the run time but I don’t even know how much a better developed plot could have saved this especially with how bad the acting from Mew was, I wanted to give the acting 1/10 but I ended up giving it 4/10 because the SML did a really decent enough job and shouldn’t be punished for the bad job the more experienced actor did.
If you haven’t watched this drama and thinking should I go for it just to see for myself, I sincerely employ you to not do it.
A lot of people in the comments accusing people of hating on the drama because of Gulf, do you think everyone is a delusional hormonal teenager without a brain like you?, if majority of people say something is bad, then there should be some modicum of truth in it?
There is no ifs and buts about this drama though, it’s really bad, a no plot drama with horrible acting. It was so painful to watch actually.
I obviously do not recommend

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A Different Perspective

I wanted to write this review because i think I watched this drama with a different perspective than most people, I understand why some people didn't enjoy this drama but for me this drama started the day after I lost my dog and going into it I didn’t realise that this drama would have a very heavy dog focus (I assumed it would be cat focused because of the title, that's on me being an actor watcher & not reading anything about the plot before starting it) and because of my experience I think in some ways I might’ve enjoyed and appreciated this drama a lot more than I initially might have done given my circumstances. though as a Mew and JUST B stan I think I would’ve enjoyed it either way but who knows. Was this drama the best I’ve ever seen? No but in some ways I think I healed alongside Uno during this drama and for that I’m grateful. it gave me an outlet for some of the pain & grief I had yet to process especially in episodes 9-11 when Uno experienced a similar situation that I did, and in some ways I was jealous of Uno for getting to do some of the things that I couldn’t so I got to live through those moments for a short period of time. Though I have to admit I do think I enjoyed this more because of the Uno & his story with dogs rather than the BL element, it was nice don't get me wrong but that wasn't what really what grabbed me when it came to the drama. They were cute though and I did enjoy some of their moments together but I think I saw the BL part more of a sideplot than the actual plot of the drama.

My experiences aside this drama is an easy watch, the episodes are short, so it's not like a chore to get through if you're not particularly enjoying it.

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When more is not better!

Well, I gave this series a chance. The series started off interesting (despite the very bizarre beginning) but this faded away with each following episode. I realized 3 things after watching episode 6. I didn’t care about the storyline, about the characters, and how this series would end. I actually love slow pacing storylines, but this was mind numbly slow. The script was a mess that had many elements that didn’t fit together or make sense. Everything about this story feels too forced. Especially the reasoning behind Piuno needing to work at the dog café. The overall acting was good. There were some actors that were better than others. However, I give the cast kudos for doing their best considering the script they had to work with. I like they didn’t waste screentime with opening credits, but they did waste it by doing unnecessary flashbacks from the previous episode. I may be old, but I can still remember things that happened in the last episode when each one is only 16 or 17 minutes long. There was also shaky camera work with some of the scenes and some scene placements that was weird.

Random Notes:

I’m probably one of the rare few that likes and enjoys Korean BL series with shorter screen time with a small episode count. This usually forces them to be more mindful of the pacing and story quality, but of course there will be exceptions.

At the time of this review, Viki has this listed as a “Hidden Gem” on their website. Of course, this is just my opinion but this is one stone that can/needs to stay hidden.

Once again, I’m going to sound like a broken record because the synopsis on Viki does not give an accurate describe of this series.

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Saved by the Cast

This is what I call a “junk show”, which is not to say it’s bad. It’s the type of seriously flawed show that still manages to entertain when approached with realistic expectations. It’s short, light, sweet and a bit ridiculous – making it a decent filler show between longer shows with much larger budgets.

I found the 4 main characters/actors to be quite likable with nice camera presence - they saved this from the dropped category for me. Can they act? I think so, but you’d never know it from this show. I hope to see them all again in better productions. The rest of the cast came from 2004 – seriously, it had a dated feel from the era that brought us Coffee Prince (a much, much better show even today).

Low budget doesn’t begin to explain some of the creative decisions that were made by the writer and director. You simply can’t over think this show.

Concept: 8
Script: 2
Behind the Camera: 2
Acting: 2 - 8
Editing: 3
Overall: 6

Would I recommend? Possibly, but only if you’re a big fan of the BL genre and you’re looking for a simple, nonsensical but sweet series with a decent cast.

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It's bland..

Maybe my expectations were too high but it was kind of disappointing. Also based on the title I thought it was going to have at least one cat in the story but it had literary nothing to do with cats, quite the opposite, it's just about one dog (which I wasn't interested in at all). The story was rushed and it didn't make me feel anything. It feels like everything that happened was kind of pointless because nothing really had any consequences in the end. Honestly I just watched it because I started it and it was short. It had some good scenes and overall it's not that bad. In my opinion the concept is good but it didn't reach it's full potential.

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