Hard to Express my Disappointment with This Cringe Fest.
Since discovering Kdramas I had loved Shin Min ah, her beauty is so natural and gorgeous and her comedic touch in kdramas has been well established from my Girlfriend is Gumiho to Hometwon Cha Cha. Here paired up with a younger and extremely handsome ML the anticipation was high.Unfortunately what we got was a mish mash of a drama with totally uneven characters, development, character arcs and a script writer who seemed to think that focusing on sexual themes, lifestyles, and engaging in the odd time subtle but mainly the most stupid and crass sexual innuendo was the height of literary achievement.
The flashback scenes of the FL buying a gazillion condoms while shouting around the supermarket that her sex partner better do it more than twice tonight or admonishing some guy for his weak performance in bed were so cringe inducing and pathetic I was actually flabbergasted. I couldn't decide if this was aimed at 14yr olds or idiots or 14yr old idiots or people who hadn't had sex in 14yrs or people who never had sex.
And then the dildos ooh look our sexually liberated FL (okay we get it jesus we get it she has sex) has sex toys and masturbates, a univeral and generally private human activity but here glorified and held up as if ownership of them elevated her to a place of enlightenment and Liberation that sets her apart from the rest of us mere mortals. It reminded me of the innuendo filled British comedy of the 70s and 80s where anything sex related drew gasps and guffaws from the scandalised but knowing audience. The amount of cringey "oh my God I laughed so hard when I saw those dildos" comments I've read is oh whatever ?.
Then the more "serious" themes of views on marraige, family infidelity, polyamorous relationships and pregnancy. Again it was like the makers, in their desperate attempt to be edgy modern and join the dreaded race to the bottom of shittiness epitomised by shallow, amoral, sexualised characters in western TV, they just threw in a whole lot of ideas and developed none of them in any meaningful way. The supportive relationship between the three foster siblings was heartwarming but it was overshadowed by the unresolved and unfinished exploration of the nature of the FLs relationship with her mother vs everyone else's. The inherent unfairness of this seemed to be left to the FL right to the end.
The older foster sister having unprotected sex with multiple partners and not knowing or bothering to find out definitively who the real father of her child was, inadvertently highlighted some of the potential pitfalls of polygamy though the writer just seemed to be inserting it for "look at how edgy my script is". It really did not portray a meaningful rmessage apart from her BF being a selfish so and so. Like at least practise safe sex FFS. Again it seemed having the concept in the drama was more important than how it was actually dealt with.
The cheating ex faciltted by the FL the whole way through and the cheating dad of the CEO were just shittiness personified. The fact we are repeatedly shown and reminded that the FL is a morally fair and kind at heart person makes this worse as she loses all credibility here by blatantly betraying her exes wife who was generally kind to and supportive of her. And of course asshole ex gets a pass, ah well we might have that female character, along with the cheated on 2ML wife, portrayed as regressively as an early noughties Kdrama melo but we did have condoms and dildos and a polyamorous couple so it's okay we're edgy.
The infamous second couple were more typical of your Kdrama rom com cute couple but totally distracted from the main couple especialky toward the end, and his initial online attacks were pretty awful along with his weird mamas boy life but at least that plot line didn't seem to take itself too seriously.
Finally the .most irritating take I've repeatedly seen is how the FL is so cool unapologetic and iconic. I just can't get over how crass immature and painfully obviously trying to be cool this script is. It's like the member of your social group who because they're never actually getting any they never stop going on about sex in OTT ways to over compensate. it was pretty cringe tbh.
I don't want to get into the whole westernisation of Kdramas by the Streaming services but if this is anything to go by get ready for a serious decline.
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Fading Sparks in a Promising Romance
"No Gain No Love" started off really well – I binge-watched the first few episodes because they were so engaging. But as the story progressed, things went downhill. The chemistry between the main characters just wasn’t there, which was a big letdown for me. What started as exciting tension turned into boredom, and the plot dragged on. By the end, I was just waiting for it to finish, and the ending itself didn’t deliver. I kept hoping for something to make up for the slow episodes, but it never came. Maybe I’m burned out, or maybe it’s just getting harder to find a romance that really hits the mark.Was this review helpful to you?
A Promising Start, But Fizzles Midway: Mixed Feelings About the Film
I found the film quite enjoyable, and I really liked the actors individually. The beginning was great—dynamic, funny, full of energy! But towards the middle, I feel like the chemistry was lost a bit, things became colder, and the main couple's storyline kind of fell flat. However, the ending managed to save things a bit, which was nice.Was this review helpful to you?
Funny at first but ultimately fell flat
The first few episodes seemed promising and hilarious. However, the progression of events seemed too slow but too fast at the same time. Plotlines were unresolved for too long and I lost interest. The leads lack chemistry despite their amazing acting abilities. I really tried to sit through this for as long as I could because this show was so hyped up by other reviewers. But at the end of the day there were many overused tropes that were executed poorly and in a plain fashion. Nothing felt exciting and the set looked like it was straight out of Whoville.Was this review helpful to you?
Big disappointment, it had everything and they decided to give it a meh ending
Shin Minha carried this drama, her acting never disappoints, ifeel that the ml doesn't act well and does not transmit chemistry on his partIt had the potential to be THE romcom of the year but they ended it terribly
The comedy was great, the jokes were on point and any problems were easily resolved. It wasn't the most innovative story but it was going well, why did they have to ruin it?
I liked the secondary couple more and it seems that the director did too, they were given more prominence than the main couple....
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When a ROMCOM romcoms the right way.....
No gain no love was my biggest surprise this year..having walked into it with little to no expectations Iam actually suprised by how much it grew on me....with every episode...it's actually rare but I had this excitement for it from the beginning to nearly the end..like that's how addicted I was to the series.No gain no love was the perfect blend of comedy and romance..it had this light hearted tone to it that was maintained till the end..even with serious topics discussed and with the Deep dialogue at times..the drama still maintained it light tone...
The story was told in a way where even cliches felt fresh..there were plenty of my favourite troupes like we had the fake marriage troupe that actually felt different in its execution, we got the enemies to lovers from the second couple, we got the office romance and more..all of these are something I've definitely seen before but no gain no love managed to make them fresh and actually entertaining for me to watch and enjoy wholeheartedly.
The characters in the show were written to be interesting and unique each in their own way..we had a female lead who was calculating considering her nature of suffering no losses, she was realistic, bold and ambitious and also spoke her mind..to some she might have been annoying but her character felt rather amazing to me....she stood out because of these qualities that gave her a personality.
The male lead was written to be calm quiet and unintentionally funny...and I must her was good at it.
The other characters like the second fl and second ml and more were also entertaining and added a charm to he series and i must say I appreciate how all had amazing comedic timing which fitted the overall vibe of the series.
The acting was good... depending on how the characters were written..I know many people have complaints about Kim youngdae but I enjoyed his subtle yet impactful acting especially when he expressed himself through his eyes....it's something I noticed maybe because I paid extra attention to him since I was being cautious and he did a great job on his own and besides his co stars Shin min Ah.
The chemistry between the couple was amazing too..these have to be the rare tendecies Where I actually enjoyed both couples on the show..and just couldn't choose who I loved more than the other..the main couple was cute and lovely and their interactions were heart warming and made me all giddy... despite the age gap that seemed to worry many these two managed to generate a comfortable vibe around them with their natural chemistry and interactions.
The second couple was amazing too just a bit under developed..but still entertaining...and I can't wait for their spin off drama series.
The other soul of this drama, something I really loved was the comedy direction...this drama was actually funny..I had a smile on my face the entire time I was watching it..as I said above Iam happy they maintained the light tone of the series regardless of how deep the plot got especially when they were discussing some serious topics...even with the serious topics you can see that they were handled in a way that was delicate and sensitive without breaking the light tone of the series.
The pacing was amazing.. perfect for the 12 EPISODES of the series.
Overall this drama is definitely added to me list of classic and beautifully written kdrama ROMCOMs
Do I recommend it?
Absolutely if you looking for something light engaging and entertaining.
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TRASH
As the title says, this is the trash of the year. A complete waste of time and waste of good actors like Shi Min Ah who is well-known in the kdrama industry. Wasted everything in the mediocre writing and poor acting skills of some of the cast. Chemistry is a joke. FL and ML felt more like a mother and child here at worst.There is nothing new here. The same old cliche trope. It is too cringey. The worst is that they failed so miserably at becoming original. Chaebol freaking ML, Cheater EX, Arrange Marriage Shit, Polygamy shit, No character development. Oh! Let's pull some last minute break-up and reunion too. One word: BORING. Even dramas who have used similar cliche and cringe tropes has done a far better job compared to this total garbage.
I can't believe I wasted time on this piece of shitty writing. Even writers from asianfanfics could pull a better storyline than this. Don't be coaxed by the people who says this is the best romcom of the year. Believe me, you will regret wasting time on this. Even if you turn off your brain watching this, you will be left dumbfounded with the childish plot. It's nothing but a bunch of cliched nothing burgers.
Business Proposal and True Beauty is far better than this garbage. The ending is the worst too. The writer tried so hard but all they could pull was a lazy ass writing. The amount of unnecessary trope and useless characters here. It's a total mess. This is by far the worst ROMCOM drama I have ever watched.
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No Watch, Not too much Loss (2024)
Whenever I see a bad ending I tend to bitch and moan about it, so let's get that out of the way. I feel that that the writer has not even tried to prepare to write a 12 episode long miniseries. She just went through the motions almost exactly the same way as if it were a 16 epi long drama & then in e12 just quickly tried to wrap it all up, but -3 minute long happy ending aside- the finale is the worst episode of the show. It's just really messy & quite a bit stupid.The Good
⌲ Most characters on the show are rather entertaining on their own.
⌲ The Kim Young Dae + Shin Min Ah pairing worked better than I thought possible! (not amazing, but good)
⌲ Frenemies to lovers done very well in the first 9? episodes. (lots of fun bickering)
⌲ The show is very entertaining until the messy stuff in the final episodes. (until secret identities are found out)
⌲ The cat
⌲ The sismance
⌲ The comedy early on
The Average:
⌲ FL's seconary love interest (cartoon tier plot with a divorce offer, but he had so little impact that this does not qualify to trigger my hate for love triangles)
⌲ This is probably Min Ah's worst acting performance I have seen thus far & I'm a fan btw.. (still good, but disappointing compared to her usual self)
⌲ The murderer
⌲ The sex toys
The Bad:
⌲ I'm fairly open minded about consenting adults doing whatever, but this polyamorous plot was increasingly bad all the way to the end. (what bothered me has very little to do with the free hippy love part, more with marriage etc etc)
⌲ For a kdrama romcom there is barely any fluff in the show, sorry but this is not enough sugar for me!
⌲ The stupid 6 month separation in the final episode
⌲ The ridiculous carrier choices in the final episode (Jeez!)
⌲ The chaebol dad (though the time pressure on the writer made some very predictable plot developments disappear, so this could have been worse)
⌲ Tobacco
⌲ Why just WHY did FL's mom have to die just one second before the finale?
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low rating is more personal than this show being objectively bad
i think this show was just an unfortunate case of me not liking the choice of cliches and/or the execution of them. usually i love lots of cliches but this one wasnt to my taste. not to say it was an absolutely terrible show, because i definitely have some good things to say about it. the biggest one being that the fl was an absolute delight lol i love a fun silly woman who can also stand up for herself! just didn't really feel any chemi between the leads but yea i just didn't really care for this show tbh it's unfortunately cuz to me it was surprisingly getting good ratings so clearly this is very much a me thing.Was this review helpful to you?
High Hopes, But Disappointing
I wanted to like this show and gave it my all. I love Shin Min Ah, I like Lee Sang Yi, I love contract relationship stories, but the story and execution of this show isn't good. This show, like a lot of bad k-dramas, goes crazy with slow-motion, slapstick, randomly devious characters, irresponsible uses of serious subject matter, wacky sound effects, and production decisions that amplify the goofiness of its characters and create a schizophrenic tone to the show. If you've watched a lot of k-drama, you know what I mean--it's the "try too hard to be interesting and funny" style of k-drama. I think with better creative minds at the helm of the structure and script, it would've been much better; the cast is pretty strong, but the executive choices are all the wrong ones.No Gain, No Love follows Shin Min Ah's character who, very believably, is pissed about shilling out so much money over the years to passing acquaintances who were getting married. Her workplace discriminates against single women and so she decides she needs to get married in order to advance her career. She picks Kim Young Dae's character as her groom, who's a convenience store worker; they start out pseudo-enemies but he eventually agrees. A bit later, through some pretty contrived means, he starts working at her company and they have to manage the "realness" of their relationship. The B romance is a crazy mix of comical and serious, focusing on FL's foster sibling/adult fiction writer and FL's company CEO (Lee Sang Yi) who she sues for harassing her online (for one of the most ridiculous reasons I've ever seen).
I haven't seen anything else with Kim Young Dae, but I didn't care for his character here at all. I don't think he's given that much to work with; he's basically cast as "handsome guy ideal." All of the mystery and conflict of the story comes from him, but I didn't find him compelling at all. His character is responsible for all the slow-mo, fan-service, etc. that I find tacky in k-drama. It's not the actor's fault, but I can't help but think he's been typecast and this is the result. I also hate when a show always tells me a character is handsome; it makes me start thinking, "Is this guy really that hot? If he really was, why do they have to say it so much?" To give an example of what this show is working with, it goes full "glasses-make-you-ugly" followed by what he looks like without them, ending with an "oh no, he's hot!" I didn't like how it developed his character, even though I liked Shin Min Ah's career-oriented pragmatist character. They have decent chemistry (but definitely not as much as her and the guy from Hometown Cha-Cha), but what they do have, the last act pretty much kills.
Overall, just about every decision the show makes doesn't work for me. I can take and even enjoy a little bit of the classic k-drama silliness, but in this show, it's a crutch, as if it uses all the goofy editing and production tricks to pad time, which the show could've definitely used to flesh out what actually matter, i.e. the story itself. No show - not even an action romp - needs 10 instances of slow-mo an episode like this show. I also didn't find any of the extra stuff to be funny (besides maybe Lee Sang Yi's character). Not even Shin Min Ah can make up for all the weaknesses and lazy plotting temptations this drama gives in to. Disappointing.
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My opinion only
I love Shin Min Ah, as well as Kim Young Dae, so I was very excited for this one. I was so disappointed. There were too many storylines going on for 12 episodes, but I'm glad there weren't 16 episodes because it was all I could do to finish this.What I liked:
The second couple. They were so cute together, as well as in the scenes that they had separately.
Kim Young Dae's character, even with the bad haircuts.
What I didn't care for:
-Hae Yeong (Shin Min Ah's character). I was totally getting narcissist vibes from the character at the beginning, which didn't lessen as the show progressed. She was not nice to the ML throughout. I know some had said that she had a right, because of her mother, but I'm not buying that. Sometimes a character redeems herself. This one didn't, as far as I'm concerned.
-Bad kisses by the leads.
-3FL multiple sexual partners, one of whom wasn't exclusive to her either. The latest catchphrase seems to be polyamorous, but a different word comes to mind. Accidental pregnancy, not knowing who the father is. This whole storyline could have been left out and made the show more cohesive.
-Multiple storylines that went nowhere. What happened to 2ML's mom and dad? They had such a big story at the beginning, and it just fell off. What was the point of the 2ML's secretary? He was just irritating throughout.
-All of the sex chatter by the FL which demonstrates that she's had multiple partners. Personally, that really decreases my enjoyment of a "romance".
-The sex talk, the profanity, the sexual innuendos - for me, this was all very off-putting. I have been watching K-dramas to get away from all this stuff.
Again, this is just my personal preference, but considering that I love to binge-watch shows, I could only manage one episode a day and was reluctant to continue thereafter. I just found too much unlikeable about it.
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Too much, Too little
Overall, I really liked the show, but as others have mention, the second half really lowers it's rating for me as it felt really rushed. There's both too much they try to explore and more they could've explored. It really could have benefited from more episodes.Mainly if we wanted to have 3 story lines, we needed more episodes to allow for deeper exploration of each one. While I enjoyed the side stories, the left no room for us to see the main romance, let alone flesh out the other two. They leave us with no time to accept anything and immediately jump from one life event to the next with little time to enjoy the in between or see the little natural parts of life.
The humor was good and has some Easter eggs for connoisseurs of the genre (both the k dramas and web comics). It also has few nuggets of wisdom that, while having so many can come off as preachy, flowed really well into the story.
I did enjoy the polyamory / open relationship bit as representation is always a good, but was sad to see that it ended up becoming a point conflict, especially one that can cause a poor outlook on that kind of relationship. I would understand if it was just the "I didn't wanted to tell you because I knew how you'd react," but the pregnancy part would have done well to be explored through a separate story where it could be the main focus and allow for the nuance and communication needed for such a complicated topic.
(Minor problem: I've seen a few dramas that do the "if they take off their glasses, they're hot," and watching both this drama and another 2024 drama back to back with this a pseudo plot point, really bothers me. I wear glasses and it frustrates me that it's typically seen as unflattering. Once the glasses are no longer needed drive a point, they're switched for contacts but with no explanation why someone, who we have only seen wear glasses before, suddenly only wears contacts. Even a cutaway to a paper stating that part of the deal with working at this company is dressing a certain way including wearing contacts and him sighing or him at the mirror going to put them on but remembering how the FL thought he was attractive without them and switching to the contacts would have really made it feel more natural.)
All in all, I'm glad I watched it but did feel unsatisfied.
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