This review may contain spoilers
Nice start, terrible ending
Worth watching until episode 8, but it only goes downhill from there.
Lower your expectations drastically if you plan to watch this series, it is bizarrely overrated.
You have been warned.
(SPOILERS!)
Why why why must there always be an assassin in a ROMANCE DRAMA??? Please k-drama writers, stop relying on this overused plot device to justify dragging on the show for too many episodes! This storyline isn’t even the main story of the show! The main premise was “fan with disabilities travels back in time to save her utt from depression, then discovers he was her neighbour all along and must deal with heartbreak while doing her best to save him from his bleak destiny”. This had so much potential! So many important, deep themes that could have contributed to these characters’ development and depth, but they’re all discarded to put a generic serial killer as the main excuse for all their problems! Aaaah that made me so angry!!
Seon Jae had 2 personality traits: he liked to swim and he liked Im Sol, and around episode 4 he gives up swimming. So we are left with this one-dimensional personality of his, where his sole purpose in life is to be with Sol. Not even the music bit had a significant impact on the story! I wanted to see him fall in love with music so bad after having his dreams of being a professional swimmer shattered, but it seems music is just like any other job to him. He might as well have chosen to be a janitor in Im Sol’s office building. The only purpose of him still being in music is so we can have the plot device of him being famous, but that’s it.
The show should have ended around episode 8 when they get together again in the future after she successfully avoided her accident in the past. It was completely wholesome the way they spent the entire night together just talking, enjoying funny moments and finally opening up about their true feelings for each other! It was almost like Before Sunset, but actually enjoyable. And what’s more, she didn’t have to return to the past that last time—he wasn’t dead, he was hospitalized! There was a real chance that he would wake up, and she didn’t even wait to see if it was possible! If he had woken up in that timeline, all would end up just fine seeing as the assassin was already imprisoned again. They could be together without any fear, but the writers just had to keep stalling us through another 8ish more episodes.
Between episodes 9 and 13 I was just bored, but after episode 14 is when we really start to have key lore and writing mistakes. If she went back all the way to before he first met her and stopped him from ever getting to know her at that time, in the future she SHOULD still be a wheelchair-user OR dead, because Seon Jae would have never been there to save her from her first abduction! The writers just gave up at this point, there is no more logic. No more attempts at making this story the least bit sensical. And, AND, how is she still friends with Tae Seong?? Did she make the effort to befriend him in the new timeline? Wasn’t she only able to stay in the past for one or two months? At that point teenager Sol would’ve come back and found out she was friends with Tae Seong and tried to date him again, and he would have been bored with her AGAIN, then they would end up NOT being friends after all, so IT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE! The third time she went back in time we see a scene where in the future Seon Jae disappears from an Eclipse promotion billboard, but in the future after Sol went back again and never met him, he is still famous, but he doesn’t seem to be a part of Eclipse, why is that? He should be a part of the band if Sol was never there to stop him from going to auditions with them! MAKE IT MAKE SENSE!!!
And oh my god, the protagonists have nothing to do with THE MAIN VILLAIN’S defeat?!?! What even is this show?? How the hell have I watched 16 mf episodes of Sol trying to save Seon Jae from this guy only for him to be killed by A RANDOM WHITE TRUCK??
Obs: I don’t think I have seen a FL cry as much as Sol. For real, she’s crying every 10 mins in each episode.
Conclusion: Can we just be honest? The only reason this k-drama is so highly overrated is Byeon Woo-seok, and that’s fine, I too will be watching every show he does. Hell, I came here after watching Perfect Crown just to see him a little more, he really is very charming! But let’s not act like this series is a work of art, please. Off the top of my head I can think of at least 5 other k-dramas that deserved the ratings Lovely Runner got with way better plot and character development.
The soundtrack is great though.
Lower your expectations drastically if you plan to watch this series, it is bizarrely overrated.
You have been warned.
(SPOILERS!)
Why why why must there always be an assassin in a ROMANCE DRAMA??? Please k-drama writers, stop relying on this overused plot device to justify dragging on the show for too many episodes! This storyline isn’t even the main story of the show! The main premise was “fan with disabilities travels back in time to save her utt from depression, then discovers he was her neighbour all along and must deal with heartbreak while doing her best to save him from his bleak destiny”. This had so much potential! So many important, deep themes that could have contributed to these characters’ development and depth, but they’re all discarded to put a generic serial killer as the main excuse for all their problems! Aaaah that made me so angry!!
Seon Jae had 2 personality traits: he liked to swim and he liked Im Sol, and around episode 4 he gives up swimming. So we are left with this one-dimensional personality of his, where his sole purpose in life is to be with Sol. Not even the music bit had a significant impact on the story! I wanted to see him fall in love with music so bad after having his dreams of being a professional swimmer shattered, but it seems music is just like any other job to him. He might as well have chosen to be a janitor in Im Sol’s office building. The only purpose of him still being in music is so we can have the plot device of him being famous, but that’s it.
The show should have ended around episode 8 when they get together again in the future after she successfully avoided her accident in the past. It was completely wholesome the way they spent the entire night together just talking, enjoying funny moments and finally opening up about their true feelings for each other! It was almost like Before Sunset, but actually enjoyable. And what’s more, she didn’t have to return to the past that last time—he wasn’t dead, he was hospitalized! There was a real chance that he would wake up, and she didn’t even wait to see if it was possible! If he had woken up in that timeline, all would end up just fine seeing as the assassin was already imprisoned again. They could be together without any fear, but the writers just had to keep stalling us through another 8ish more episodes.
Between episodes 9 and 13 I was just bored, but after episode 14 is when we really start to have key lore and writing mistakes. If she went back all the way to before he first met her and stopped him from ever getting to know her at that time, in the future she SHOULD still be a wheelchair-user OR dead, because Seon Jae would have never been there to save her from her first abduction! The writers just gave up at this point, there is no more logic. No more attempts at making this story the least bit sensical. And, AND, how is she still friends with Tae Seong?? Did she make the effort to befriend him in the new timeline? Wasn’t she only able to stay in the past for one or two months? At that point teenager Sol would’ve come back and found out she was friends with Tae Seong and tried to date him again, and he would have been bored with her AGAIN, then they would end up NOT being friends after all, so IT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE! The third time she went back in time we see a scene where in the future Seon Jae disappears from an Eclipse promotion billboard, but in the future after Sol went back again and never met him, he is still famous, but he doesn’t seem to be a part of Eclipse, why is that? He should be a part of the band if Sol was never there to stop him from going to auditions with them! MAKE IT MAKE SENSE!!!
And oh my god, the protagonists have nothing to do with THE MAIN VILLAIN’S defeat?!?! What even is this show?? How the hell have I watched 16 mf episodes of Sol trying to save Seon Jae from this guy only for him to be killed by A RANDOM WHITE TRUCK??
Obs: I don’t think I have seen a FL cry as much as Sol. For real, she’s crying every 10 mins in each episode.
Conclusion: Can we just be honest? The only reason this k-drama is so highly overrated is Byeon Woo-seok, and that’s fine, I too will be watching every show he does. Hell, I came here after watching Perfect Crown just to see him a little more, he really is very charming! But let’s not act like this series is a work of art, please. Off the top of my head I can think of at least 5 other k-dramas that deserved the ratings Lovely Runner got with way better plot and character development.
The soundtrack is great though.
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