Run On

THIS DRAMA DESERVES A TEN

This drama may not be everyones's cup of tea, this is not for you if you like dramas with lot of twists. I can say that it can be like a typical drama for someone but for me it's not.

It's my first time watching a kdrama that doesn't have lots of slow motion moment just bcs they 'hold their hands', they 'kiss', or like they 'bumped into each other'. I didn't feel awkward at all & it doesn't make me feel impatient bcs of that, I really like it.

I like how they don't just focus on their love life but also in their personal life. This drama is like really matured, they show how a relationship is, how they learn & grow in their presence.

I also love their acting and the script, they're all natural & not cringy at all. That's what I love the most abt this drama. It's just natural & there's a lot to learn.

I really recommend this drama, even tho you like a drama with full of surprises, you should give this a chance, it's just really good for me.

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Just Keep Running

Just found this drama today, and I thought that I should give it a try. And I think my time was well spend. Learned many thing from this drama and also love the journey of both first and second ML FL story and their journey. This drama thought me that no matter how harsh it is just keep running toward your goal.

Best quote from the drama is running is to not looking whats behind but just focus on whats in front of you and focus on the goal. One more is not matter what life we go through surely we fall down to our lowest at some point but keep in mind that we fall not to be desperate but to learn how to make ourself get back up.

Lastly sorry for my english if it is bad.

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Suprisingly sweet drama with a refreshing take on rom com!

The beauty of this drama for me was the romantic subplot between Seo Dan and Lee Young. That was pure FIRE! Their chemistry and banter were just amazing. I also love the rendering qualities of the main lead. He played the naive, innocent, and Asperger-y character to perfections! I'm also glad I waited for all of the episodes to come out before I continued. I was watching it when it began but around episode 4 I got bored. Slice of life drama is better binged watched than waiting every week for 2 episodes. I wasn't expecting much from this drama but dare I say that it was a nice surprise to have it be a solid, well-acted, and refreshing take on the room com K drama section. 2020 and 2021 have not been the kindest when it came to fun, watchable, exciting K dramas and though I wouldn't call this exciting, it definitely delivers in the fun and watchable!

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High rating is a mystery even to me

Sadly, the modern ending made this a not something I'd.
This was a SLOW burn romance with a good dose of feminism; Featuring strong ,determined, selfish & career focused women. In contrast, the men were ruled by thier emotions & overall seemed a bit dimwitted (clueless). The end is modern, not giving you the traditional happy ending, but hinting at the possibility the couples might be together. ( would be interested to see how others interpret the ending, as I'd like to be wrong !) However, the way I saw it, It was a cowardly, waffley "cop out". I found the lead female's character to be hard to warm up to & really it felt like she didn't know what she wanted. The whole " yes I want him & I want him to want & commit to me, but only if & when it fits into my mood & schedule, AND my goals are more important than he is !" , thing was just badly written character to me. I also found it odd that the female lead was too dense & could not see the obviousness of the male lead's interest. I did enjoy the series, but the female lead & the noncommittal ending put me off. I think what really impressed me what that this was a Netflix original. I hope they do more Korean dramas that we can view in the US

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One of the most horribly written characters and plot I've experienced in a K-drama.

You can only do so much, even with a talented cast. I came into this show after watching the female lead in another show titled "Female Historian," I thought we would get the same caliber of acting and plot, but boy was I wrong. For some reason, the male lead is written as an extremely dimwitted and dense character. It's almost as if they decided he was born at 20 and just barely learning social development skills. Granted, most k-dramas take this route, but it's usually a lead character who is anti-social and only opens up when a female lead piques their interest. In this case, the male lead himself is just dense af. There really is no other word for it. There are numerous cringe-worthy lines, along with awkward writing and meetups that it becomes an abomination by the 6th episode. In fact, the sixth episode is perhaps the worse written of them all.

To make it worse, the male lead acts in a robotic manner with a puzzled "why am I here" look 90 percent of the time. It's infuriating cause there are moments where he acts in a normal manner and stems to be a person who does more for others than himself. The problem is that information is withheld within characters. No one says why they're doing what they're doing, or gives corrections to rumors (except for his fake actress relationship), but instead, hold back info that is counterproductive to their social lives. It makes absolutely no sense. Then when the characters revert to a pre-social development stage, it's when you seriously want to throw the remote at the screen.

For what it's worth though, Ms. Seo or Dan/Dahn is perhaps the absolute best reason to keep watching the show if you must. Her beauty, story, and acting come together for what little material she has to work with. Her love story also overshadows the main leads. To have found this actress is the only reason why I'm glad I checked in.

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We need season 2!

I'm doing this because i really love this kdrama. All the actors and actresses did really well. The ending is nice but i am expecting something natural. But since it did not happen im hoping it will have a second season. If the anime has a slice of life genre. I also find this one that kind of genre too.

If you will watch this but you are looking for a good review first then this is your sign. Watch it. This drama has everything. Good looking cast? This has. Good acting cast? This has. Funny roommate? This has. (Dont get me wrong what i meant "everything" is that they have what im looking for" It may not has a good start but it will become really good after watching a few episodes.

Btw i only submitted a review because this kdrama is underrated and i want more people to watch it.

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I was really excited to start this drama, as the top reviewers gave it a solid 10/10. However, I was a bit disappointed in the end. So, I will keep this review minimal and very short. As a sucker for romance dramas, I thought this one was lacking in chemistry and the overall good romance development. The lead couple were lacking both, in my opinion. But I did like the fact that there were no cheesy love quarrels like in your typical Korean drama, the couples were moving on past that miscommunication. In addition, I did enjoy the OST and the production of this show, brought a very cosy feeling of some sorts. I just feel like there are way better series out there, this one was too mediocre for my liking.

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Run On: The Elliott to my E.T. drama heart

I'm still relatively new to dramas, and I'm picky about romance plots with too much drama, so this was the perfect watch for me.

Story:
Never before has the dialogue of any TV/show I've seen been so intentional. No cringe jokes stuck in for the sake of humor, just friendly banter between friends. There aren't any 2-D characters that only ever seem to have one personality trait: characters that may seem headstrong at first are shown recognizing and apologizing for their mistakes, while characters that may seem soft-spoken or mild in character soon show resilience of their own. All in all, I really felt that the characters' personalities and wit really shown through all of their interactions. There were times I would rewatch a certain scene over and over because i expected a character to have acted one way, and almost thought I had understood the plot wrong. However, I would then realize that this was a learning moment for them (or simply just a representation of their mentality towards a certain subject matter), and it was surprising but also pleasing to see growth. And there were other times I would rewatch a scene because I thought the banter was just perfect, to the point where I would've missed some of the cleverness in the dialogue had I not rewatched it. Most of all, there were moments that gave the drama its own charm, such as the E.T. references or hilariously peculiar situations such as the moments before Dan Ah's birthday party (or Mi Joo and Seon Gyeom's first encounters).

Run On also addressed some major societal issues. The topic of bullying and whistleblowing in the athletic community, the reality of working on film sets, parental pressure when it comes to academics, family dynamics and having a work-life balance, the difficulties of being an idol, and so much more are all addressed. There was also LGBTQ+ representation in the form of both gay and ace characters, as well as some important messages about respecting the difficulties of coming out. Most importantly, the drama addresses the idea of respecting yourself and respecting others. We first see the idea of self-love and communication early on through the portrayal of Seon Gyeom, who is learning to respect himself instead of selflessly sacrificing for others who wouldn't do the same, and is in turn also learning to communicate his thoughts so others around him can help him on his journey. Soon, we see that this progression applies to every single character, as everyone learns to grow in some way. And in turn, the side plots contribute nicely to the overall message of the story - instead of leaving us feeling like "_______ couple" got more screentime than "_______ couple", we are left with a complete picture of characters whose lives and journeys are intertwined.

On the topic of Mi Joo and Seon Gyeom, I've seen some comments about how the chemistry wasn't really felt between Im Shi Wan and Shin Se Kyung (although of course I'm generalizing here). But I think that more has to do with how their characters are written. Neither of them really carries the extravagance of Dan Ah, or Young Hwa's overly romantic view of first love - which makes the second leads' dynamic so much fun to watch. They simply exist in each other's space. Mi Joo learns to break down her naturally strong, independent exterior and learns to open her heart up instead of turning away with difficulties in their relationship. Seon Gyeom learns to better understand both his emotions and others' emotions, no longer keeping things to himself and sharing how he feels. There are funny moments in between their moments of wit/banter, especially in their first few encounters with one another; there are awkward moments at times, when they don't have much to say; there are angsty moments when they break up or Mi Joo becomes frustrated and Seon Gyeom doesn't understand why; and there are cute moments when they show affection towards one another. It's enviable how peaceful their existence is with one another, and it makes me feel warm.

However, the reason I gave this plot a 9 and not a 10/10 is because there were some road bumps toward the middle and end of the story - I felt that some plots did not get as resolved as well as I had hoped, especially in the last episode. However, given that this is only 16 episodes, I think the drama did a good job.

Acting/Cast:
I don't have any complaints about the acting. This is a seasoned cast that did a great job.

Choi Soo Young's portrayal of Dan Ah is honestly my favorite. Soo Young brought out the qualities of Dan Ah as a badass character, and I totally admired how blunt she was with everyone around her. Her expression was often unreadable/she was quite cold to the people around her, but you could see Dan Ah slowly letting go of her pride to admit her wrongdoings in moments of vulnerability later on, which I thought was wonderful.

I also thought the rest of the main cast did a great job embodying their characters. Although at first it seemed that Se Kyung wasn't showing a lot of emotion in her portrayal of Mi Joo, now that I better understand the character of Mi Joo, I think she did a great job. Like I said before, Mi Joo doesn't have any striking personality traits like some of the other cast; all we see at the beginning is her as strong and independent character that doesn't take anyone's sh*t. However, we slowly see the development of her character through her interactions with everyone else: movie references, her perspectives on being a translator, her backstory (family, past relationships) and how it affects her today, being nocturnal, her relationship with blenders, drunk Mi Joo, etc. And she definitely has her funny/endearing moments, such as (like I said before) her first encounter with Seon Gyeom, her conversations with Dan Ah and Mae-Yi, as well as incidents involving a brick and the f-word, lol. All by way of saying that Se Kyung brought out all of these qualities about Mi Joo that we love so much, even if she didn't seem particularly expressive in the way that she portrayed Mi Joo - there was humor when there needed to be, moments of vulnerability amidst a really headstrong personality, and quiet moments with Seon Gyeom that were brought out really well.

Im Shi Wan, despite not doing a lot of romcoms, also served as a great portrayal of Seon Gyeom. Seon Gyeom seemed really level-headed (and often out of the loop, lol), and Shi Wan's eyes were especially expressive when Seon Gyeom didn't express his thoughts with his words (or they matched how he was feeling in the moment). There was a characteristic expression of blankness that indicated Seon Gyeom's confusion which Shi Wan brought out really well, such as when he didn't understand Mi Joo's movie references. Kang Tae Oh also did a great job as Young Hwa, and we could definitely see the transition from his idea of puppy love to a more mature view of Dan Ah.

Lastly, I thought Park Young Gyu really succeeded at embodying the villain role he was given. And Choi Jae Hyun and Yeon Je Wook as Tae Woong and Ji Hyun were hilarious to watch.

Music:
The OST was definitely catchy, and it fit well with the idea of recurring themes across different characters. However, given that this drama tries to be real in its portrayal of love and relationships, we didn't always need the overly melodramatic music and slo-mo shots when there was something touching going on. I don't necessarily have a problem with the songs themselves; rather, I thought the placement of the songs didn't fit with the overall message of the script.

Edit: Changing the music rating from a 6.5/10 to a 8.5/10 because even though it doesn't fit the series that well in my opinion, it's SO GOOD on its own. I've been listening to "Where Are You?" by Kim Na Young on repeat for the past few hours.

Rewatch Value:
Lastly, I would definitely watch this again. It's only been a few hours since i finished the last episode, but wow, I don't think I'm getting over this drama for a while. Every single character was so endearing. I understand why others may think that the plot dragged because there wasn't a lot of action or outright drama happening (and the ending being unreliable), but for me, it had enough suspense at times to keep me going while still maintaining the feel of the mundanity of life.

Conclusion:
Standing ovation to Park Shi Hyun. Definitely going to be watching more of Choi Soo Young's work. I want a roommate like Mae-Yi and a brother like Tae Woong. I also badly want to try japchae now.

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Sweet story with good pace

The key things that make this show enjoyable:
1. Good pace -- things actually happen in every episode! And they make sense!
2. Sweet, sweet story -- not saccharine, but uplifting and leaves a smile on one's face.
3. Excellent cast -- in every part, the actors do a really good job.
There are very few, and relatively minor, downsides. For me, primarily, one of the B-plots was a little too convoluted for the remainder of the plot, but still enjoyable. The other one that made the first few episodes hard to swallow was the impossibly-young-CEO trope (though with a woman, for a change).
However -- overall -- a show that is perfect for lazy weekend viewing.

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