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 affected 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? baby voice at her grown age?
while it is cute and swoonworthy, it just was not developed enough. it was kind of random like many kdramas out there—some random crime happening and super tragic backstory like i don't even know why the stalker plotline was necessary. well, i know why it was necessary —for drama— but come on. it didn't even make any sense. this is one of those dramas where it would've been perfectly fine if the storyline was just normal, mundane, sweet. but of course there had to be some sort of egregious criminal activity thrown in for the plot. the time travel alone was a stretch but sprinkle in all this random other stuff?? personally i don't find that smart or appealing.
the best best component about this show is the soundtrack. it is jam packed with catchy songs by great artists and of course, byeon wooseok; the real treasure of this series. let's be real it's probably why most of us tuned in to watch this but he carried this show's success on his back. yes, they are cute, both in real life and this show but only wooseok was giving what needed to give. is it funny? yes. is it cute? yes. is it also at the same time something that seems like it was written by a 14 year old who has never seen a real life couple before? also yes.
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A painful watch
I want to start off by saying I'm not trying to bash the actors, I'm only criticizing the writing and characters.My biggest issue was that the character Im Sol was just straight up annoying. It's like they tried to make her as cringe as possible. The dialogue was unbearable and I hate that she cries almost every episode, they made her just so....helpless. All she does is cries out for Sun Jae?? That's pretty much the reason I had to force myself in order to finish the series.
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A Highly Overrated Trashy Piece of Nonsense Paired With Absolute Cringe Acting of The Female Lead.
This story was so cringy that it forced me to question the high ratings of this show. I forced myself to watch it till the last due to its high rating, thinking it would get better. The female lead was absolutely irritating and dumb to the point of making my blood boil. I liked the female lead only in the opening scene, where she showed me that she can act. But later, all she did in the entire drama was Seon Jae this and Seon Jae that. She had no life of her own. I absolutely hate such female leads who have no life of their own other than thinking about the Male lead. I lowkey felt like the creators of this show hated the FL. Because otherwise, you can not write such a dumb female lead. The over-the-top acting of the actress made the drama unbearable as well. The male lead was far better in terms of acting and as a character. Though the music of the drama is very nice but it couldnot save this cringefest. Though the last episode was bearable, the experience was spoiled for me due to the uncomfortable expression of the FL which felt like the ML was the only one in this relationship. She looked visibly uncomfortable to me in response of the ML's affection, which made no sense to me as she was risking everything earlier for the ML. Overall, this was an absolute torture of a drama that can be recommended to others as a punishment.Was this review helpful to you?
BORING - how can this show be this overrated ?
Everything is in the title : boring.I struggle to watch 13 episodes, it was good at the beginning, a lot of potential but EXTREMELY repetitive. Every episode is the same, they could have shorten it to 10 episodes, maybe it would have been better.
Romance was so childish and unreal... I couldn't relate.
Also, the disability part and depression would have been a great plot of this show, but barely developed, this drama wasn't deep enough...
Nevermind, I will have trust issues now with the rating of a Kdrama show ... gave me hope, but waste of time for me.
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Disregarding disabilities
I'm way too late to the party, but I still have my 5 cents. I couldn't finish the drama in over a year, but I wanted to see if it's actually worth anything.🔸The main comparison for Lovely Runner when it was airing was Twinkling Watermelon. But this comparison is absolutely not sustainable. If Twinkling Watermelon actually educated the common viewer about disabilities and accessibility issues, this drama is no more than a joke, and it's infuriating to me. Instead of installing elevators or acessible amenities in the office where wheelchair user Im Sol applied for a job, she just had to grow herself some new legs with magic instead of inconveniencing herself and others.
The drama started as something that had pretentions in that direction but it ended as the most cliche cartoonish production. I am genuinely grossed out. Even of we aren't talking about disabilities, there is nothing of value in this drama, it's extremely repetitive and predictable, and I could only finish it on x2 speed.
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Overhyped & Repetitive — A Frustrating Watch (12/16 eps)
Ep 1–2: Bored.
Ep 3–7: Finally felt some momentum.
Ep 8 onward: Gradual decline.
By episode 8, I started getting irritated with the female lead, Im Sol. By episode 9, that irritation turned into genuine disconnect. The emotional scenes, which should have been impactful, didn’t land for me at all.
I pushed through until episode 12, but I found myself stuck there for days. I had already crossed the halfway mark, so I didn’t want to drop it. Eventually, I did.
The central concept... repeatedly going back to the past and returning to the present... felt fresh at first but quickly became repetitive. Instead of deepening the narrative, it started to feel like the only driving device.
Despite a few enjoyable moments, I couldn’t stay invested. For me, it didn’t live up to the hype.
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Dissapointing and Overrated
So I'll be honest, I did not really enjoy watching Lovely Runner. I had really high expectations but it was just boring...I thought the beginning was interesting as she had suffered a terrible accident and had to learn how to live her life in a wheel chair. She was unhappy and suicidal, but then suddenly, one call from some idol and some simple message like "live to enjoy tomorrow", would completely change her outlook on life. This does not seem realistic. One does not change from suicidal to suddenly a bubbly and positive girl from one moment to the next. After the concert in episode 1, he meets her at the bridge, which is a huge coincidence to be honest. Then it turns out he had been her neigbour, another big coincidence, he was actually the one who saved her at the bridge, another big coincidence... I know fiction always has coincidences and unrealistic occurances, but this was really too much! Also, I thought we would learn of his struggle with depression and suicide, and the plot twist was so dissapointing.
Additionally, I thought it was strange that the whole plot of his "suicide" would suddenly change to a murder case, which was connected to Im Sol's car accident. It is just so typical and predictable at this point. Furthermore, the serial killer does not have any personality and is just a chess piece for the plot.
The second couple in the drama were just so unnecessary. What did that add to the story?
All the problems in this drama are external, and the most important being that the murderer will kill Sun Jae. This is also boring, as there is no character development in the whole story. What did Sun Jae and Im Sol learn in the process? Nothing. Only that they loved each other.
The whole plot was based on saving Sun Jae, and there is literally nothing else the plot is about. He was in love with her from the beginning also making the whole "falling in love" process really gone. I usually love romance, but this drama did not make my heart flutter at all!
Well, throughout the drama until like episode 15 I was somewhat okay with the drama. Nothing exceptional but some light entertainment, but at episode 15, when the killer got hit by a truck, I was really shocked! This is it? That's it? The main characters were not even responsible for the catching of the murderer! I mean what did I watch this drama for? I watched it so that Im Sol manages would put the criminal in prison. So when episode 16 came, I expected something dramatic to happen cause episode 15 was so underwhelming and dissapointing. Turns out episode 16 is just one super long episode about Im Sol and Sun Jae being together. I really felt nothing when I finished the drama.
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im sorry for the person im gonna be
there's a lot of things that i wanna say about this drama because the more i watched it the more i started to force me to finished it and i couldn't. i watched half of the 14th ep and i decided to watch another thing 💀i'm not gonna talk abt the acting cuz idk abt those things but instead i'm gonna talk abt sol's character. she pissed me off so bad, she just did things that i didn't like and she was just doing it for stupid reasons. that time where she made the guy from her career eat the mouthwash just because she didn't want sunjae to see her??? and the fact that she wanted sunjae not to fall in love with her and okay, i kinda get it but why would you say that if you're gonna cry and start to date him suddenly?? doesn't make sense. sol needed to make up her mind SO BAD i bet she also didn't know what she was doing
i also didn't know when was the time that sol felt something for sunjae because in 2023, she told him she did but did she really? when was that actually? /gen like, i never noticed that (i think it was when sunjae asked her if she didn't feel anything towards him at any of those times she was in when they were at her house)
also, can we talk abt the crime subplot?? if there's something i hate on romcoms dramas is that mf crime subplot like, why?? if i wanted to watch a crime drama i would. and please don't try to excuse them with the "it's because she couldn't walk" okay i get it, but there's so many options for that, she could've just get in a car accident-
speaking of which, there were a lot of drama at some point because of the guy that abducted her, sunjae confessing and sol's mom at the hospital?? 🧍🏼♂️
even tho i gave it a 6.5 i won't say this was a bad drama. like, i actually enjoyed it and it gave me a good chuckle and, if it wasn't for sol's personality i would say sunjae and her had a good relationship, it was cute and all.
btw omg i loved sunjae's personality. he was so cute, he really liked sol and he was so down bad for her. i love when the male leads are a losers <3
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cansei :(
as viagens do tempo sem sentido, os flashbacks desnecessários, a falta de lógica e a construção rasa do vilão me cansaram e eu não consegui terminar :(mas no início eu realmente me diverti muito com a história do casal principal e adorei cada personagem.
acho que como comédia romântica ele cumpre razoavelmente o papel porque a protagonista passa pelas situações mais constrangedoras possíveis e as cenas do casal são ótimas.
acho uma pena sabe, tinha potencial. se as viagens no tempo tivessem uma lógica, se o vilão fosse bem construído eu acredito que seria uns 8,5/10
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Such potential....wasted
This drama could have been wrapped in 12 eps. Alright with that out of the way I will confess that I had dropped this drama at Ep 12. I was so hyped about this drama back in the day and even visited the locations in Seoul of this drama. Super cute ML and bubbly chirpy FL was super fun to watch first few episodes. The chemistry was amazing. All of that lasted for the first 5 episodes. Then the repetition of the plot started to get boring. I felt sorry for the ML who kept chasing the FL and she kept wasting our and his time. :bAround ep 10 the ML also figured out the time travel plot and even confronted the FL so they could have worked together as a team but she chose to once again do it her way and fail...again !!
So after a couple of years I picked it again and remembered all the reasons I had dropped it.....this time screaming, shouting at the screen, mostly at the FL. So much potential with the cast and story....!! ><
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Kim Hye Yoon stuns and Byeon Woo Seok is great, but after that?
Attempting to keep this brief.Kim Hye Yoon and Im Sol are as perfect a pairing of actor and character as can be achieved by human effort.
Byeon Woo Seok is more than capable as a lead and is particularly good when Seon Jae is uncomfortable and awkwardly trying to make something happen with Im Sol. Somehow, when he's supposed to be cool and under control, doesn't seem as natural.
The two together are fantastic particularly through the first time loop sequences up until Im Sol finally (in present day) comes clean about her feelings and the big scene in her apartment doorway delivers the awaited romantic payoff.
These two can duke it out with the lead couple of just about any drama and hold their own.
But the rest?
Not great.
There's a second couple but 1. it's forgotten almost completely from episodes 4 through 15 and 2. they are clearly intended to be the comic relief in a show where the leads provide plenty of laughs so the second couple has to take their acting to a sketch comedy level that is nails-on-chalkboard grating.
Kim Won Hae is great (as he almost always is) but the relationship between Sun Jae and KWH's father is rarely given any in depth play. What could have been a terrific subplot, particularly when dealing with Sun Jae's swimming career, is ignored.
Tae Sung is a promising character but he needed a bit of backstory and consistency. Like a lot of characters that aren't the main two, Tae Sung is too frequently simply a convenient device that transforms in to whatever the story requires him to be. A bad boy that needs to fake a relationship with Im Sol. Later a buddy for Sun Jae. Then an object of jealousy. Intermittently, a character teased as the third spoke of a triangle (thankfully only teased but even the teasing of it was unwelcome). Finally, a cop to pursue the villain. Although the time loop changes can account for some of this, it's jarring when in one loop he's a successful fashion entrepreneur and then suddenly he's a civil servant.
Back to the villain: it's the most bland villain ever and the final confrontation with him is so painfully anticlimactic.
And the storytelling overall is lacking. It starts after major events that drive the storyline have happened but the context is never adequately exposited. The time loops are fairly well handled but there is absolutely one more loop than there needed to be and it's clear that the writers grew tired of incorporating how the most recent loop back changed the present day circumstances.
It's a show that could have 1. been a show exclusively about the lead couple for about an 8 episode run (like a longer "Soundtrack" drama) or 2. a more traditional 16 episode drama that invested more screen time in the secondary stories and characters. Either way, with this lead couple, it could have been an all-time great show. Instead, it's a fun watch and certainly recommended but falls well short of what it should have been.
[EDIT: Wow. Thanks so much to everyone who has liked this review! The positive feedback is very appreciated :)
The review should have mentioned that Im Sol's grandmother, both the character and the portrayal, were wonderful but, frustratingly underutilized.]
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