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My Rating is 7/10

My daughter liked this less than I did and gave it a 6.5/10. While I liked it slightly more, I can understand exactly why she felt it was not very good.

I think My Bias, My Boss is one of those dramas where your expectations going in make a huge difference. If you do not mind cookie-cutter stories that lean heavily on familiar tropes, characters without much depth, and cheesy romance moments, you could be okay with this. For me, though, I would not recommend it to most Asian drama fans and I would not watch it again.

It has so many of the ingredients that made viewers fall in love with Asian dramas: the fangirl and idol, workplace romance, CEO, love triangle, accidental kiss, staring, umbrella, separation, reunion and ring. But for me, it was like being handed a LEGO kit without the instructions. You have all the bricks and accessories you need to build something really cool, say Snoopy. You have the black bricks, the white bricks and everything else you need. But without the picture or instructions, you don't realize that those pieces are supposed to become Snoopy. So you put them together and end up with a black-and-white dog. It has all the elements, but it isn't Snoopy.

That is what this drama felt like to me. It had all the right pieces, but they did not quite come together into the thing they were supposed to be.

And I don't think I would put this entirely on streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu or Disney+. I think there is a broader Western influence creeping into Asian dramas in general. Even dramas on Viki and iQIYI, which I still think of as quintessential Asian-drama platforms, are sometimes adopting some of the same changes: shorter series, shorter episodes, shallower character development and side romances that do not get enough time to become meaningful.

I have actually had a pretty big discussion with other Asian-drama fans on TikTok about this, and I know I am not the only one noticing the change. There is a feeling among many fans that some newer dramas are taking the things that made Asian dramas special and changing them without really understanding why those things worked in the first place.

That is exactly how I felt here.

There was nothing fundamentally wrong with My Bias, My Boss. There was enough here that I enjoyed portions of it, which is why I landed at a 7 rather than lower. But it often felt like a drama that assembled all the right ingredients without understanding how they were supposed to fit together.

For me, Kang Ha-gi was okay as a male lead. He was smart, handsome, mature and competent, so he checked all the boxes. Kang Hoon made him likable, but I never became particularly attached to him.

I did like his connection with the cats, though. I thought that was going to become part of the romantic payoff, perhaps with the cats eventually being reunited once Ha-gi and Nam Da-reum got together. Instead, Da-reum simply gave them away, including the cat Ha-gi had been caring for and seemed attached to. That felt like another little element the drama introduced without really knowing what to do with it.

I also thought Lee Chan and Nam Da-reum actually matched each other better in personality. Maybe dating her longtime bias turned out differently than she imagined because she was not the center of his world, but the two of them seemed to naturally understand each other. I never really loved Da-reum and Ha-gi as a couple.

The 12-episode format also worked against the story for me. I went in thinking I would miss the traditional 16-episode Korean drama structure. Instead, by the end I thought 12 episodes almost felt like too much. I did not need more episodes. I needed more character development.

I would not watch this again. I would not recommend it to most Asian drama fans, and if it happened to be on somewhere, I would probably change the channel or leave the room. Once was more than enough.

Spoilers

The biggest problem for me was Nam Da-reum.

I found her completely unlikeable through a large portion of the drama. I understand that she was an intense fan and wanted to be near Lee Chan, but she deliberately joined his company hoping to run into him. Fine. You got the job. Act like a professional.

She was not exactly a sasaeng in the extreme sense of stalking him or invading his privacy, but her motivation was still fandom first and career second. I even wondered what Kang Ha-gi would have thought if he had seen all of the Lee Chan merchandise in her apartment before making some of his decisions about her.

The early fangirl scenes with Da-reum and Park Mi-mi were the height of cringe for me. I had so much secondhand embarrassment that I almost quit watching. My daughter practically tuned in and out during those episodes and thought they were nearly unwatchable.

Then Da-reum gets accused of being a sasaeng. I understood why that upset her, but I also thought the drama was being a little generous in separating her behavior from the motivation that put her there in the first place.

And then she actually dated Lee Chan.

I thought that was a mistake.

Even if Lee Chan wanted the relationship, Da-reum clearly was not feeling it in the same way. I think dating her bias while she was still sorting out what she actually wanted only hurt him more.

And honestly, I thought Lee Chan was a better fit for her in personality. He understood the fangirl side of her, and they seemed to naturally click. Maybe the reality of dating her bias was disappointing because he had a career, responsibilities and a life that did not revolve around her.

That seems to be something Da-reum struggled with. She needed to feel important to the person she loved. When Kang Ha-gi was busy trying to uncover the mole and was not spending as much time with her, she became upset too. I found some of her reactions selfish because he had a legitimate responsibility to deal with.

He supported her career, and I thought she should have been willing to support his career in the same way.

That insecurity made the romance harder for me to buy. Ha-gi was willing to give her room to pursue her ambitions, but she sometimes seemed more concerned with how much attention he was giving her than with understanding what he was dealing with.

I also had trouble with the star necklace and bracelet situation. Once Da-reum and Lee Chan decided not to be a couple, those items still felt like an intimate connection between them. In other dramas, a necklace or bracelet from a man to the female lead is practically a romantic symbol. Here it was treated almost like a fan connection, but it felt much more personal and secret than that.

And I kept thinking about Ha-gi. I would have been hurt by it if I were in his position. Da-reum never really telling him about that connection made it feel even stranger. You could argue it was simply a fan thing, but the way the drama presented it made it feel like an inside secret between two people who had decided not to be romantically involved.

The cats were another little thing that bothered me. I thought their connection through the cats was cute and expected some kind of payoff. Instead, Da-reum simply gave them away, even giving away the cat Ha-gi had been caring for and appeared attached to. It was such an odd choice that I kept wondering what the point of establishing that whole connection had been.

The whole thing with Park Mi-mi getting time with her own idol was ridiculous to me too. The odds of Da-reum working closely with her bias were already pretty slim. Then her friend conveniently gets regular access to her own idol after discovering Roy was working as a deliveryman. That was just too much coincidence.

The romance tropes were everywhere, but often felt awkward. We got the catch-and-fall with the long staring session, "sleeping" together, accidental kiss, umbrella, separation, reunion and ring. I could almost check them off as they appeared.

I don't mind these tropes when they are done well. The problem was that here they often felt inserted because the writers knew fans expected them.

That is my bigger issue with some newer Asian dramas. It sometimes feels like the writers know the tropes, know that fans like those tropes, and then make sure every one of them appears without necessarily understanding the emotional details that made them work so well in the first place.

The fangirl moment with Yoon Choi was another example. Just a couple of scenes earlier, Yoon Choi was creating complications around Lee Chan, and then suddenly Da-reum was fangirling over her. I understood the joke, but it felt awkward and disconnected from what had just happened.

The idol group's reunion after nine years also pushed believability for me. With so many active K-pop groups, I had trouble believing a group that had been off the radar for that long would suddenly have such a major comeback. It felt more like another element the writers wanted to include than something the story really developed.

Then there was the Paris trip.

I understood what the writers wanted to do. Ha-gi is such a good guy that he supports Da-reum's career enough to let her go, and then we get the separation and reunion. I actually liked that part of his character. He was willing to support her career rather than make her choose between him and an important opportunity.

But the trip itself felt like it was there mainly to give us the separation trope.

Then came the reunion.

And then the ring.

I just did not feel like the relationship had earned that level of commitment. Da-reum spent a good portion of the series thirsting after her bias. Then there were late-night encounters, a relationship with Ha-gi, a six-month separation, a reunion and suddenly the ring.

It felt like too little actual relationship-building for such a huge romantic payoff.

And there was barely any family or friend involvement before that happened. The ring practically came before any meaningful "meet the family" stage. I miss that in some of these newer romances. Relationships do not exist in a vacuum, and seeing family and friends become part of the couple's lives is one of the things that can give an Asian drama more emotional richness.

I also had a hard time with the lack of depth in many of the characters. Ha-gi was fine, but he was mostly the smart, handsome, mature CEO who checked the boxes. Lee Chan had more potential for me because his personality seemed to fit Da-reum better, and I wish the drama had explored that dynamic more.

Too many of the other characters felt like they existed mainly to serve the plot or introduce another romantic complication. Neither of the side romances really engaged me, and whenever the drama switched to them, I found myself wanting to get back to the main story.

There are things I liked. Da-reum was genuinely good at her job. Ha-gi was likable enough. Lee Chan and Da-reum had a natural personality match. The cats were cute. There were funny moments, some cute moments and some genuinely sweet scenes.

But I kept wishing the drama would slow down and actually develop the people rather than move them through familiar romantic beats.

That is ultimately why I gave it a 7, and honestly, I feel a little generous.

I think there is a real difference between using the familiar elements of Asian dramas and understanding why those elements work.

Asian dramas at their best let relationships breathe. They let characters change slowly enough that you believe it. They give family, friends and side characters their own histories and relationships. They include little moments that may not advance the plot but make you understand why people love one another. That richness was what I felt was missing here. My daughter and I ended up watching the same drama and coming away with almost the same basic reaction, just with slightly different numbers. She gave it a 6.5. I gave it a 7. There was enough here to make me finish it, but not enough to make me want to watch it again. It had the bricks. It had the accessories. It just never quite became Snoopy.