Lovely Runner (2024)

Never ending loop of same events

This is my take on lovely runner so you don’t have to agree with it.
Firstly, I couldn’t help but notice alot of similarities in Sol and bora from 20th century girl in the beginning episodes. I feel like the writer wanted to make sol’s character like Bora but failed to do so. Bora was undeniably adorable and natural.. Unfortunately Sol didn’t make us feel that way. She was annoying to say the least.
Apart from that we discover in the 3rd episode that Sun Jae is the one who fell for Sol first and same happened in the 20th century girl as Woon-ho fell for bora first. Then the confusion starts that bora likes his friend same as Sun Jae confuses Sol is in love with Kim tae sung( not his fault thou as Sol was sending mixed signals). And the confusion continues up till the middle of the show.i feel just as we loved woon-ho from 20th century girl and wanted a different ending for him, the writer also wanted the same hence gave similar story but with time travel twist.(LOL)

I absolutely love sun jae and I was rooting for him but sol ughh. I don’t know why but she annoyed me throughout the show. I don’t understand what was she trying to do as her actions were abrupt and not thought through. Poor sunaje suffered much for her.
Anyhow i might not rewatch the show as story was lacking depth.. Sol’s time travel and sunjae’s death keep repeating in a never ending loop. It was bizarre towards the end.

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Didn't live up to the set up AT ALL

[We have to acknowledge Sudden Shower being the best OST of 2024. That song carries soo much emotion. Every listen brings you back to the concert scene. What a soundtrack]

PLOT - The synopsis got me to watch. As much as I avoid shows that use time travel I was determined to see this play out. The set up was great: a young talented idol gives hope to a girl who seemingly has nothing to live for. She becomes a die-hard fan and attempts to attend his concert one night, to no avail–That same night he dies tragically after giving one of the most touching performances I've seen in a drama. After succumbing to despair, the FL is magically transported into the past and ends up back in high school with her beloved idol. She takes this strange situation as a chance to save him from the dreadful fate he'll suffer in the future. The pilot is one of the best in a while. It's Oshi No Ko pilot good. After that ofc I expected an uphill trajectory. Except none of these emotional story elements are addressed, and the show has no interest in finishing what it started. Instead the serious topics introduced were sidelined and character development along with the unanswered questions are brushed off to make way for a cop-out happily ever after. This was fine but real ones know it was a disservice to all the good LR had going for itself. The time travel aspect got more inconsistent the longer this played out. The show also had tone issues. Was this a melodrama or a rom-com? Thought there were better ways to balance the two.

CHARACTERS - I agree with the majority about the leads being well acted. BWS IS Ryu Sunjae. Tho she was grating at times, you could tell KHY immersed herself in this role. Even with all the great chemistry neither of them progress as people. Instead they end up being a lovey-dovey couple with all the fanservice stops. Dgmw they were cute asf but I couldn't help but feel the shallowness of the relationship. I believe it was a mistake for Sunjae to fall in love with Sol. His first arc was written so well and we lost that so he could become a simp. Once we went from platonic love to romantic, my investment collapsed. I would've been fine with SJ not surviving in the end. That seemed like the natural course of events and would've made this show truly impactful. Had that been the case I'd prob be writing a different review. The SL seemed pointless and only existed as plot device for unnecessary conflict. Sunjae's dad was cute but seeing more of him and SJ's relationship in depth would've been nice. In Hyuk served his purpose okay as comedic relief. This show def needed it with all the crying scenes.

The screenwriter here is the same one for True Beauty. These works mirror each other in the sense of setting up rootable characters and launching difficult subjects only to abandon everything for superficial romance that doesn't feel earned. What a missed oppurtunity to discuss depression and how it affects both regular people and celebrites. Where's the social commentary? Where is the payoff?

Overall LR ended up being a big ball of wasted potential. I'd be lying if I said parts of the show didn't still linger. The essence was good and I enjoyed the feels but it didn't live up to what was initially promised. This had the makings to be one of the best dramas of the year but ended up being just ok. Now back to those OSTs

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STOP RATING THIS DRAMA SO HIGH???

Dude, I watched this from beginning to end and I’m flabbergasted at everyone’s audacity to rate this so high. This is a 6/10 at HIGHEST. There’s multiple plot holes, and a bloated storyline that wasn’t even inside the original content. The MC is absurdly dumb, it’s hard to cheer for her when she just gives me second hand embarrassment at every turn. It’s like self harm watching her react to situations. Don’t waste your time, don’t trust social media. It’s just eye candy. All actors are fine, the MC’s script I’m assuming was awful. It feels like people are getting paid to rate it so highly.

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Lovely Runner: Almost there to the finish line

The cast of Lovely Runner shines brightly. The main leads deliver strong performances, and the seasoned actors hold their own, creating engaging dynamics. The supporting cast does a good job of...well, supporting the leads. However, the show stumbles in its writing.

Clichéd Cupid: The romance between the leads, while well-acted, drowns in a sea of overused tropes. What starts as cute quickly becomes repetitive, leaving viewers yearning for something more original.

Time Travel Troubles: The central plot device, the time-slip, is a missed opportunity. The show fails to explain its core mechanic, leaving a gaping hole in the narrative logic. This lack of explanation is frustrating, hindering the audience's ability to fully invest in the story.

Conveniently Ever After: The ending feels rushed and predictable, opting for a simple "happily ever after" conclusion that ignores the complexities established throughout the show. It leaves viewers wanting more depth and a more satisfying resolution... and explanation.

Overall: While the cast is commendable, Lovely Runner banked more on the cutesy romantic feels and that's it. Clichéd romance, unexplained plot points, and a predictable ending prevent the show from reaching its full potential.

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Cheesy Fanfiction Loaded with Fanservice and a Side of Time Travel

I was really excited to watch this show after hearing all the great things about it. It seemed liked everyone was talking about it like it was up there with Queen of Tears, so maybe I had my expectations set too high to begin with because I was rather disappointed with how it turned out. The show isn't entirely bad, but it's very lacking.

I thought the overall tone of the show was fun. There were some funny moments and cute interactions between the leads, but most of it is overshadowed by the poor writing and lack of character development. The cast did good in their roles, though there is a bit of overacting that I suppose kind of fits with the quirky vibe but does seem out of place sometimes. First time seeing Byeon Woo Seok in a leading role like this, so I was excited to see how he does. I think he did good considering the poorly written character he had to play, but some of the overacting bits and exaggerated comedic expressions were a little awkward to watch. I do like how Seon Jae was not your usual cold and lifeless ML that we see a lot of in K-dramas, and he had a bit of a fun personality which was refreshing. Kim Hye Yoon did good as well, but I do agree with others that say her character could be a little annoying at times. The rest of the side characters were kind of just there to be there. They didn't really add much to the story, and I kind of wished the writers would have given a little more screentime to delve into the complexities around time travel and how that can impact relationships in Im Sol's life (something that Twinkling Watermelon did great on). Maybe more focus could have been on Seon Jae's depression and how Im Sol tries to help him through it (like the show "Seasons of Blossom"). The lack of character development for any of the characters, especially the leads, made the emotional aspect of the show suffer. I didn't really feel connected to any of the characters, so it just kind of felt like the writers were trying really hard to make me feel emotional and invested when I was anything but. Everything just seemed very surface level, like they had the potential to dive in way deeper when it comes to time travel and attempting to save a loved one by going back to the past, but instead they focused more on cliche fanfiction-like romance to make hearts flutter. But at the end of the day, even those heart-fluttery moments didn't really feel real or genuine since there was very little character to feel connected with and I wasn't even emotionally invested in their relationship. The time traveling was confusing at times and didn't really make sense. I wasn't a fan of how they kept switching between time periods and basically "resetting" everything multiple times. It got repetitive very quickly and the push-and-pull with the FL got boring.

The villain was kind of a joke. I still don't really understand what the point of him was, and I feel like the writers really tried to squeeze by hoping that no one would notice how poorly written his character is. He didn't seem all that threatening to me, especially when the script was rather predictable and I could tell based on the numerous dramas I've seen with similar villains that it was going to end up playing out the same way. He was just a crazy bad guy who was only there to progress the story when needed and add some conflict here and there. Every time he showed up on screen with his one bad eye I was like "oh great, I forgot about this guy".

I wasn't familiar with Lee Seung Hyub before this show, but he was surprisingly a breath of fresh air. He added that bit of comic relief while also not being too obnoxious or annoying. Im Geum and Hyun Joo were kind of funny and cute sometimes, but mostly just annoying and were clearly there to add comic relief. This wasn't really necessary since the show itself has enough comedic moments.

Then there's the love triangle with Kim Tae Sung. I read that his character was actually written specifically for the show and wasn't in the original. It seems like most people love him, but I felt more annoyed than anything else. His character was also not developed well at all, and he seemed kind of pointless until the last few episodes. He would just show up every now and then to add cheesy fanservice and jealous ML scenes. The dialogue in his scenes felt especially cliche to me when looking at it from a writing perspective. Like it's painfully obvious it was just fanservice most of the time, and of course they had to have the FL's past self be in love with the 2ML, while the present day FL is in love with the ML. Both Seon Jae and Tae Sung are constantly fighting for Im Sol's attention and love (more rivalry fanservice incoming), but both have very little character outside of this and this continues until basically the very last episode. It's hard to see how you could have 2ML syndrome when his character isn't at all interesting and very underdeveloped, added with the fact that he only has a few scenes here and there and doesn't really contribute much until the very end.

Sorry if my review seemed all over the place (I was really just typing whatever came to mind). Overall, if you're looking for a cheesy cliche rom-com that isn't necessarily groundbreaking but just as an easy watch, then this show could be for you. If you're looking for more of a complex story and deeper connections with its characters, then you might want to look elsewhere.

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A show for a non imaginative viewer. Waste of good acting

Let me contribute to give this 9.2 show the rating it truly deserves. I gave it a 3. 2 stars for two amazing actors and 1 star for good OSTs.

This is literally my first review, I wouldnt mind to make one anywhere but I just had to considering it's just such an insult to mislead people to open MDL and see that this show is above 9.

16 episodes of one dimensional writing, unintelligent dialogue and literally zero character arc or development. This is not hating I swear. But I imagine that if you watch this show with your eyes open it might just be the best romcom ever then you suddently open your brain and start to see many missing components of a story. A short sighted story but the writer decided to confuse viewers that it's a long one. From the leads to the supporting characters we never know anything about the characters themselves because they dont share with other characters or the viewers atleast, their humane thoughts.

Kdramas really need to stop with their murder mystery as the conflict or else i'm gonna lose it. This drama did not even bother to give the villain a motivation nor any background. He's just labeled as psycopathic but it's literally just an excuse for lazy writing. Moving on.

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Overall boring and frustrating

The plot seemed very interesting to me.

But I didn't like the execution, Im Sol seems super desperate to me, a lot of things have happened to her in life but she is still very immature, literally their lives are at stake and she is not able to take things seriously.

It is super frustrating to see that the other male protagonist was only a decoration throughout the entire series.

It was not well explained how time travel works, and it is good that it is not explained in depth, but how is it possible that the two of them and the grandmother have memories but the other characters do not? If the murderer also had memories of him it could have been much more interesting.

Apart from the fact that the killer looks super out of nowhere. They don't tell you anything about his motives or his story.

The story of the brother and the best friend is not funny, it is super frustrating, no one behaves that way and if they do it would be super cringey

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Because maybe, before that, there was a more interesting drama.

I don't know, I've only watched dramas with the same story. Even more feelings and sadness can be felt. I watched it just because of the actor and it went viral.

So, in my opinion, the story is easy to predict, because it is the same as the drama from the neighboring country which was previously released. Even the drama made me cry, but when I watched this I felt normal. Except my heart is happy to see the actor.

Apart from that, most people watch it just because of the actors, it would be too much if this was the best drama. I'm surprised that even the previous drama was much better. This story is too common, come on, really

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only stayed for byeon wooseok

gonna be honest, i did not feed into the hype that this kdrama had. just from the clips i saw online, it didn’t look all that interesting to me. just your run of the mill cheesy drama. and i was right.

it was funny for sure and if not for byeon wooseok i never wouldve watched this. my main issue is with im sol’s character. she lacks depth and personality throughout the whole series, which is a fault many many kdramas are guilty of. they dedicate so much character development and realness to the male lead that the female lead is always overshadowed and unliked. her character was unnecessarily clueless, slow and overall, just stupid. literally in any scenario this girl was in, she chose to make the stupidest decision that negatively affects the people around her. made no sense and just left me resenting her character. also this immature/childish “personality” that theyre always giving to the female lead- get over it already. this 30 year old woman jumping around like a preschooler? really?

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Typical kdrama with a typical story

I don’t know which lovely runner everyone else is watching because the one I am watching is just a mid and typical kdrama story. I don’t understand what was soo good about the show !!
First episode showed a lot of potential which went down the drain just after a few episodes because there was nothing much to look forward to..
Time travel become a game( try try again) and sun jae died soo many times it wasn’t even serious anymore 😭 made me laugh the third time he died and that scene was in slow motion like wtf. Totally killed the serious vibe.
The female lead got on my last nerves, she was soo annoying ( forced attempt to be cute). Not to mention her dumb explanations, she was in her 30s and time traveled to her 18 year old self but acted like 15 year old. Soo much could’ve been done with the time travel plot but we got soo little. And the character development was nil.

Kdramas at this point have become soo repetitive with the same plots and storylines. Its hard to keep watching after few episodes. And the story gets too predictable just as with lovely runner.

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Kdrama version of all that glitters is not gold

I usually watch kdrama after checking it’s rating and Lovely runner has 9.2 rating!! I have completed watching the show and am shocked as it’s rating is same as twinkling watermelon( that show is a legit masterpiece) and lovely runner doesn’t even come close to it. Still wondering what made people give this show such a high rating. The show feels like a low budget time travel.

I am sorry but story was average and execution was below average. There were soo many timelines but hardly any character development in those timelines. Sol goes back in past many times and still can’t get things right. It felt like she didn’t care about her disability that much and was just obsessed with ML. She wasn’t in love with him in the beginning so why was she acting as his long lost lover.
Her actions made no sense and left me plain confused in the beginning episodes. I was expecting more because she is the FL not just any other character.

I have no issue with the SunJae as he was clueless and such a sweetheart. I kept watching the show for him.
The serial killer guy made no sense to me till the end. He was used only to drag the story as there was nothing else to add in the plot. The supporting characters weren’t used that much and felt irrelevant at times. The show could’ve been made more exciting by adding thrilling factors in it as time travel is soo vast and have multiple dimensions in it. I feel like the excitement factor was not there. The show is not bad but just not worth the hype and definitely not worth the rating.

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