Love in the Big City (2024)

A journey thru life and love

I absolutely love dramas that portray real life. It's like watching someone else's story unfold before your eyes. Just like all of us, the characters are flawed. They make mistakes, and sometimes, we don’t fully appreciate the value of someone in our lives until they're no longer there.

In this drama, at first, I was confused about why he didn’t believe in happy endings, settle down with someone he loved, or why he seemed to sabotage his past relationships. But after learning about his background, I thought, "Yeah, that makes sense." Our traits and approaches to love are often influenced by other factors, such as family issues or past relationships.

I love that they didn't create this series for people to fantasize about or romanticize the life of a gay person, because it was NEVER easy for them. I admire how they made it so realistic. One thing that made me love this drama was not the Gyu Ho and Go Yeong pairing, but Go Yeong's gay friends. The drama shows that while love may come and go, good friends will stay until the end.

I also want to mention that Go Yeong's relationship with Mi Ae was superb, but in the later episodes, we rarely heard about Mi Ae. Sometimes we have friends like that: we were really close in the past, but now they’re focusing on their own lives. There’s no beef or something, just new priorities.

It was nice seeing Go Yeong go through different kinds of problems and heartbreaks in life. Each of the guys he dated taught him something new. I really appreciate how flawed he was.

There were many topics addressed in this series, such as parents being in denial about their son's sexuality, the aftermath of sex, the idea that people can always change and grow, depression, and watching someone you love go through something. I loved it so much. I really hope there will be more series like this in the future, showing us that life isn’t always about being happy—and that’s okay. Life keeps spinning, and you just have to learn to navigate it.

Not everyone will like this, but if you can relate to Go Yeong—whether you're scared of coming out of the closet, or even if you're straight and enjoy watching someone go through different stages in life, sometimes lost, happy, or annoyed—then you'll probably appreciate this. It's not that sad, at least for me, but it's not exactly happy either. But one thing’s for sure, it somehow comforted me in an odd way.

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This is one of the best series I've ever watched. The acting, the script, the cinematography, the music, everything was literally perfect. It was so real, so raw, it portrayed love and relationships so lifelike. I could relate to the mc so hard, it made me cry a few times. All characters were so layered, their motives were all so human. It opens the door to conversations about love, queerness, coming out and outing someone, the sexism and homophobia people have to face sometimes daily, childhood and adoult traumas, one's relationship to their family, death, living with HIV, safe sex, relationships, mental health, ect. It is a really complex story, I can not recommend enough.

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Love In The Big City is Worth An Emmy

Love In The Big City is a queer/lgbtq coming-of age kdrama that is well crafted into beautiful art that will entice all kinds of people. This lgbtq drama truly resonates with people in so many ways because of how realistic it is. It truly depicts the struggles that the lgbtq people go through and how love isn't always perfect. The maturity of Go Young Nam Yoon-Su and his amazing acting skills was truly delivered. I also loved how they portrayed the love scenes without shying away from anything. It was very realistic just like how couples do it in reality without making it look like they were acting. The plot and cinematography was on point. Love In The Big City is truly a remarkable drama that will go down in history to claim accolades and success. The best thing to ever come out of Korea this year. I loved every bit of it.

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Tales of the City meets Queer as Folk

I felt inexplicably nostalgic watching this show. It was hilarious and it was painful and had me staring at the credits with a pit in my stomach and it was definitely imperfect. In fact, there’s bunch of things I wish were done differently, but guess what? That’s how most of us can feel about our own lives and it rubs us the wrong way when fiction doesn’t go the romantic way, the perfectly cohesive and sensible way, when it leaves us with uncertainty and unfinished business. I’d love a second season to wrap up a bunch of incomplete storylines, but in the back of my mind I’m kinda hoping this right here is all there is to it. It’s a strange feeling ‘cause I know I’d like to see more of the characters, though at the same time I feel like I’ve seen enough to say mission accomplished, they got their point across. Whatever doubts I have left, the biggest accomplishment for me here is that I saw people getting through life for 8 episodes and that it felt utterly real to me. The lines of dialogue were amazing, the cinematography was amazing, the acting was amazing, the representation was amazing. It was NOT perfect, but it WAS amazing. Probably one of the best things I’ve seen this year, not only in the BL side of cinema, but even among the western media. This, Imaginal Disk and The Substance made 2024 for me. Hoping to see more projects from this team in the future!

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Heartbreaking but amazing

This series broke me, If you want a happy ending with a loving couple - don't watch it. It's so touching and heartbreaking, yet so relatable and beautiful. It shows you so many ups and downs, it shows you the beauty of friendship and the dark sides of being a part of LGBT community, the beauty and pain of love, the comfort you can find in loneliness and the sadness of it. The realisation that love is not always enough and that sometimes you have to let the person go so at least one of you can move on and live a better life. I haven't stopped thinking about this story since I finished watching it, it's a masterpiece.

I think sadly a lot of people can find comfort in this series, it's breaking but it's real - it happens, and people have to live their lives this way sometimes, no matter their sexuality

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Heart wrenching yet so endearing

I cannot fault the heartfelt love, longing, loss and loneliness depicted in this drama. I literally journeyed with our ML, GoYeong, such a beautiful man yet flawed in many ways. From each encounter he meets, a layer is peeled off him exposing the joys, the hurt, regrets, all the highs and the lows that defined his existence, in the end, he makes the decision to remain true to himself. We live in a fickle and harsh world where we can't always get what we wished for, this is the reality, not fantasyland, seldom a happy ever after. I was emotionally torn for our Go Yeong wanting him to have lasting happiness with Gyu Ho, his true love. I see this ending as an open one.... one day they'll be together again, never to part. Kudos to the all the cast, production crew, director and the screenplay adapted for the show by Park Sang Young, the author. Great cinematography, vibrant colors depict the city nightlife, the soundtrack, everything perfection. Thank you.

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REAL QUEER LIFE

if you're looking for some reality check and remembering what its like being queer nowadays this is it, this series is like a bucket of cold water thrown right at you and the only thing you can do is cry about it. I have been feeling so empty after watching such a great show, i keep seeing the scenes in my mind over and over again, I just wanna say thanks to the writer because this make realize so many things and this was all i need to star a new chapter of my life. gracias a go young por hacermos sentir que no estamos solos y que todos pasamos por ciertas etapas y eso está bien.

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a beautiful yet tragic representation of the life of an average gay person

this show was honestly everything. not your typical bl story, but then i, myself, wouldn't even consider it a bl, but rather a beautiful coming-of-age queer drama. this show has all of the elements you need; it's comedic, heartbreaking, and angsty. all of the characters are so well-thought-out and well-written, and even if you hate anyone of them, you cannot deny that they are so significant to the story.

i love the flawed main protagonist, go young. i think many gay people could relate to him whether it be his personality, upbringing, or love life. he is the physical and mental representation of an average queer person. he is such a relatable character and even if you don't agree with some of actions, you can't help but feel sorry for him, for what he's been and going through. i think most viewers who have watched the show wanted go young to have a happy ending, to finally be rid of the loneliness that he has felt for years. watching this character grow and develop throughout the series was truly one of the best parts of the experience. and this is all thanks to the actor, nam yoonsu for portraying go young so well. from his acting alone, it's clear that he approached the character with care and sensitivity. after finishing this show, i don't think there would've been a better choice than him for portraying go young.

i really enjoyed the format of this show---how it's split into four sections and they're basically four chapters of his life. a new man is introduced every two episodes and as a viewer, you can't help but be curious of the dynamics that go young will have with every one of these characters.

the reason why this show resonates with so many people is because of how raw and authentic it is. there was no room for sugarcoating and it touched upon sensitive issues. everything left a big impression on me, from the storytelling to the characters to the cinematography to even the settings---it was all perfect. i genuinely want to lose my memory just so i can rewatch this show and be in awe of its wonders all over.

the reason why i put the rewatch value as a 5 is because i think this is the type of show where it can only be enjoyed as a one-time experience. in my opinion, it's not really a "comfort" show where someone can just binge watch whenever they want. nevertheless, this show was extremely beautiful. <3

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10/10

I have nothing negative to say about this drama. It's a well-written coming-of-age story with realistic plotlines and emotions. It made me reflect a lot on life, relationships, and the idea of a 'happily ever after.' I appreciated seeing different types of love portrayed and how a breakup can happen without any major conflict, which felt very authentic and a valuable lesson for everyone.

I've watched many Korean BL dramas, and most have disappointed me, but this one didn’t. It had depth, genuine romance, and solid storytelling. I’m glad they didn’t give in to the pressure from Korean netizens who wanted to cancel the drama, allowing us to enjoy this amazing story.

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