8.5/10 is my rating. This is a 2017 South Korean romantic comedy drama with 16, 62-68 minute episodes.

First I provide a unique synopsis then review.

Synopsis

Kang Han-gyul (Lee Hyun-woo) was a bass guitarist in the pre-debut boy pop rock band “Crude Play” and helped make the band successful with his amazing song writing skills. Along the way, he discovered he had more talent as a producer and song writer than a guitarist. With the encouragement of the company CEO, Han-gyul quit the band to focus on perfecting his skills behind the stage. He is considered a genius in his field of music production but his people skills leave a lot to be desired. It does not help he represents his former band members who often resent him for losing site of the people in the product. He was recently in a relationship with popular female solo singer, Chae Yu-na (Hong Seo-young) but she did not feel he was dedicated to their relationship and felt he prioritized his work over all else. He is shocked and hurt to discover Choi Jin-hyuk (Lee Jung-jin), his mentor in the music world and CEO of the company started a relationship with Yu-na after she and Han-gyul had a fight. Devastated by the betrayal and already struggling through conflicts with his friends/former band mates, Han-gyul has a chance encounter with student Yoon So-rim (Park Soo-young). In a moment of inspiration Han-gyul bumps into So-rim in a park amd asks to borrow her phone to record some lyrics that came to him, Later he realizes the young woman now has his chart topping song and tells a series of lies to disguise his identity and attempts to charm her to get it back. What Han-gul does not realize at first is So-rim is a talented, singer and song writer herself. But So-rim fell in love with the talented Han-gyul at first sight. So-rim gets her break in the music industry and it so happens to be atthe same company Han-gyul works with. Despite his rocky romance with his former female singer girlfriend and despite the fact that So-rim is younger than he thought, Han-gyul finds himself drawn to her. Once his lies are exposed will So-rim still like him the same? Will their careers interfere with romance?

Review

Titles can be so deceiving. I thought this was going to be about a con man or someone who was a pathological liar. But this was more like the genius, prodigy musician who told some lies to protect his famous identity. And the story is really centered around the struggles of producing music and being a musician. There was a very sweet romance and it was a strong focus of the story but there still was a heavy focus on music and it was definitely an idol drama. It was good, I would watch it again. Would recommend it to fans of any of the actors as they all acted their roles well. And it ends happy.

Spoilers

I liked that there was not a separation trope because it seemed to be leaning in that direction. There were no annoyingly overdone tropes. Which is always refreshing.

I wish the jealous brat teenage girlfriend, Lee Se-jung (Jeon Yoo-rim) would have suffered more consequences. Some social shaming would have been something. Lee Kyu-seon (Park Jung-hyuk) going after her and comforting her after she was rightfully chastised was disappointing. Call me spiteful but I like to see people who act atrocious out of jealously get some serious karma. At least Chan-young what’s like? How could you possibly think I would’ve noticed you or liked you after what you did?

I do not know why they had So-rim’s childhood friend and band mate, Baek Jin-woo (Song Kang) be secretly in love with So-rim.

The President of the company, Yoo Hyun-jung (Kim Sung-joo) was horrible. She forced Crude Play to fake then was angry when they wanted to tell the truth.

It was a bit of a soft ending. I wanted to see both bands find real success after they chose to be honest in their music. It showed things were “taking off” but not that they arrived. There was also no real ending or resolution with Han-gyul’s father, Kang In-woo (Choi Min-soo) and having his music stolen and all that. And so what President Yoo was in love with him, nothing ever came of it. So In woo who could have made it big, just remains a street

Chae Yu-na (Hong Seo-young) cheated on Han gyul but then turned it around and made it his fault. You made me do this type thing. And it seemed he accepted that because he was not as angry with her as it felt like he should be. Like he was mad for a minute then back to writing songs for her. At least Han gyul’s friend and band mate, Seo Chan-young (Lee Seo won) told Yu-na off about how she cheated.

Seo Chan-young (Lee Seo-won) was a bit ridiculous. He gets his golden opportunity that so few musicians get to play with a band on the eve of debuting and all he can think of is how he is supposedly. I thought he was a huge whiner. Then he selfishly insisted that so rim saying his music when she would’ve more likely came out bigger if she had use the most successful songwriter, Han-gyul. I felt like it was cool he was supportive of all Mush & Co at the end but he was a little bit responsible for them being in danger of being spilt up because they did not debut as well as they could have.

#TheLiarandHisLover #LeeHyunWoo #HongSeoYoung. LeeJungJin #ParkSooYoung