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Lovestruck in the City korean drama review
Dropped 11/17
Lovestruck in the City
1 people found this review helpful
by Helgz2021
Jan 21, 2022
11 of 17 episodes seen
Dropped
Overall 4.5
Story 3.5
Acting/Cast 7.0
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 1.0

A poorly written, wannabe fan fiction

I’ve read fan fictions with better character development and writing than this series.

I wish I had listened to the negative comments about this series, but even then I couldn’t comprehend how truly awful this series would be. I watched up to episode 11 and read recaps of the remaining episodes to prepare myself for this review. I simply couldn’t bring myself to finish physically watching the series based on how awful the content in the recaps was.
Let’s get the few positives out of the way before I go off the deep end.
-Ji Chang Wook is an amazing actor and has an amazing range. He can be passionate, funny, and charming while being angry and devastated. I’ve heard many of his previous shows have been similarly bad, which is an absolute shame and a waste of potential. I hope his future is brighter.
-Rin Yi and Kyung Joon are the only redeemable characters (at least up to episode 11 and in the recaps I saw). They feature the most realistic relationship and are the most likable characters both individually and as a unit.
-The visuals are great and SOME aspects of the mockumentary work well and feel refreshing.

The bad:
-The mockumentary style gets old very fast. You have to turn of your brain to accept the logic of this show. Having participants in a documentary talk back and forth THROUGH THE CAMERA IN REAL TIME makes NO SENSE. They should NOT be having conversations. The point of individual interviews is that you get ONE person’s perspective, whether they are a reliable narrator or not. No one should actively contradict and get them to change their perspective. A big part of these types of shows is to have the ability to guess if someone is being honest or not. Having characters refute things in their own segments is fine, but having characters address each other and get responses makes no sense!! Why would they be allowed to see footage before it has even aired? Truly ruined a novel concept.
-Sun Yung is abusive. That’s all.
-The main character is absolutely excruciating to watch, and not even in a fun way. Lee Eun O has never heard of healthy communication and it shows. I detest her with a passion. She has no redeemable qualities. I won’t spoil anything, but they try to make us care about her struggles more than halfway through, after most of the damage is done. I can sympathize with her struggles but it truly doesn’t change the fact that her reasons for doing what she does are ridiculous and she actively contradicts herself at every step. She starts the show nonchalant and standoffish and ends it a complete emotional wreck. These are two different people!! To add on, the heinous things she did AFTER her suffering are not suddenly okay because she suffered. We can understand her pain and wish for healing but still hold her accountable for causing harm to others through her actions.
-This leads me to the worst offender, the poorly written relationship between Jae Won and Eun Oh. I’ve seen bad Kdramas, but none quite like this. The part that offends me the most is that this tries to come off as modern and fresh, but ends up glamorizing more unhealthy relationship behaviors. At no point did I feel their relationship was compelling or worth fighting for. I was dragged along to this point with the promise of a relationship worth enduring so much pain for and never got it. Not only is the significance never demonstrated, but, based on recaps, they never grow or learn from their mistakes! Neither of them has any will or agency. They are forced to be in the same room by circumstances created by the writers for whatever reason. I do not care about these characters and frankly, I hope they forget about each other and move on with their lives. Neither one learns and grows throughout the show. Instead, they’re both worse versions of themselves at the end.
I have to say, the writers have a talent for creating irredeemable characters. I’ll give them props for making me so irritated and annoyed. You’ll know by episode 5 or 6 if this is right for you. I stuck around because I’m a masochist (and the main leads are very attractive, but that’s neither here nor there).
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