THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS AND IS MOSTLY AIMED AT PEOPLE WHO'VE ALREADY SEEN THE SHOW.

No other drama compelled me to write a review as much as Dinner Mate did, especially so after I read all the other reviews which seem to be very big opposites of what I liked about the drama. This won't be much of a coherent review but rather writing down my thoughts after just finishing the show 3 minutes ago.

A big thing I read in other people's reviews is that they felt the first half was good but soon after the quality went down and the show started dragging. For me it was the complete opposite where I felt the 2nd half to be vastly superior in both quality and storytelling (though not flawless). The main things I want to talk about are the characters Woo Do Hee and Jung Jae Hyuk for I felt that this drama did an amazing job of creating an ex boyfriend turned stalker/obsessive personality disorder and secondly Do Hee is a very intelligently written character and played to near perfection by the lovely Seo Ji Hye.

Jae Hyuk and Do Hee made this show for me. While I liked the romance of Do Hee and Hae Kyung I didn't particularly feel connected to Hae Kyung's character and as a male lead he was majorly outshined by Do Hee.

I felt that Jae Hyuk's gradual change from an ex boyfriend who felt that he had a chance to fix his old relationship to a stalker with an obsessive personality disorder was done very well. This is the part of the show that fascinated me the most. Yeah there have been stalker plots in other drama's but this is the first time I felt sympathetic towards them, which makes this a good moment to shout out the actor Lee JI Hoon who played Jae Hyuk. God my heart genuinely ached during his breakdowns after the second half. The pain I could see in his eyes and face was done amazingly well. During the first half of the show I didn't like his character at all and I think that probably goes for many people but during the second half I started to sympathize with him. Not because I think his behaviour was okay or should be accepted but because at some point in the show I started asking myself; What did he do to deserve all this misfortune? Yeah, he absolutely broke into Do Hee's home and trashed the place to look for a picture while being in his delusion. He took the wrong approach in trying to gain back her love by focussing too much on what they had in the past rather than how Do Hee feels in the present but the key thing to me is that unlike other stalker plots not once did he become violent or started to entertain dangerous thoughts towards Do Hee. He did not try to kidnap her because ''SHE'S MINE!!''. He never became violent towards her or threatened to be and only ever wanted the best for her, that which was the best in his own warped delusional way but what matters to me is intent. I think that the writers did a splendid job of creating a character who treaded so dangerously close to the line throughout the entire show and even passed that line at points but never to an extent where you felt indifferent towards him or weren't able to feel his pain. The scene where he entered Do Hee's home to look for a picture is a prime example of that. Yeah, he broke in. He committed a crime. He saw her door. Started getting delusions about their past where they were happy and proceeded to use her passcode which still worked because it was never changed. For a man to escape their delusions they must be faced with reality and that's what happened in that scene. Like he said during that scene ''There's nothing here that shows our love'' while sobbing hysterically and being totally out of reality. Rather than be angry at him, or call him a loser I just wanted him to become happy. I wanted Jae Hyuk to heal, to become better. He has made mistakes in his life but I never once felt like he should've been denied the opportunity to become happy himself.

I mentioned that it was both Jae Hyuk and Do Hee who made the show for me.

Do Hee's character was phenomenal, for the most part. I will say that during the first half I felt that her decisions didn't always
make that much sense to me but I'm not going to talk about that because that's not what I'm writing down my thoughts for. These moments weren't nearly egregious enough to ruin what I felt like her character was. They were still in line with what I thougth her character was but I did feel like she could've gone about it differently. That aside I'm going to focus on her character near the second half.

Jae Hyuk was gradually getting worse in his obsession with Do Hee. Became more aggressive towards her ( in a non violent way ) to get back together and was naturally shot down each time. I'm so glad that Do Hee never considered getting back to him a single time. Firmly rejected his advances every time. She was over him, you could see that and I'm glad the writers agreed that this is how her character should be. Before I started this show I read about the ex's coming back part and I was hoping it wouldn't be like your typical; ex's come back, female lead is happy to see them and become friendly with them but in the end the male lead wins. It wasn't like that at all. I will say this for No Eul and Hae Kyung as well. I hated No Eul's character at many points in the show but their relationship was very similar in the sense that Hae Kyung also never budged or considered getting back together, not even once. Now the reason I am happy about this is not because I think ex's should never be given a second chance. Sometimes things don't work out you know, sometimes many years without seeing eachother and forgetting eachother can mature a person to where a relationship could suddenly work out. But this wasn't that kind of show. Do Hee didn't want to get back with him whatsoever so there was nothing to fix.

A key thing about Do Hee, something that complicated her relationship with Hae Kyung, was that every time Jae Hyuk would pull something to get back with her or try to win her heart but made mistakes in the process Do Hee felt so small and embarassed. At first I didn't quite get why. I feel like if I was in Do Hee's shoes I would detach my own self and worth from him and rather than feel embarassed I would feel annoyed but not be impacted on how I would interact with a love interest. After watching more of Do Hee and these moments I realized that what she really wanted was a normal relationship and to a lesser extent a normal life. She mentioned multiple times how her relationships had gotten to be such a mess. I think she was probably scared for a repeat of that, because it happened twice already and Jae Hyuk was well on his way to ruin it all.

A particular scene that really stood out to me and will probably remain with me for a while was when Do Hee took Jae Hyuk to the police station by taxi to report him for stalking and breaking in. She was incredibly cold unlike what we've seen of her in the show. She felt dead inside and so jaded by Jae Hyuk. After they stepped out of the taxi Jae Hyuk walked behind her and just said his typical ''mianhae'' after which she lost it and collapsed on her knees while screaming out of frustration. Rather than Jae Hyuk coming over to her to console or try to take advantage of this situation he just stood there, with a slightly shocked but stoic face. At that point he probably realized what he's doing to Do Hee and what an effect everything has on him. It was after this scene that he slowly started to entertain the thought of being ill, though being dismissive of it at first but later coming to terms with it. I felt that this scene was incredibly well done. The softer side of Do Hee came back and rather than actually report him for stalking and breaking in she called Geon u to take him away to a psychiatrist. I felt that this moment really showed what Do Hee deep down wanted. She wanted nothing to do anymore with Jae Hyuk but deep down wanted him to heal and find his own happiness for the sake of both of them.

Jae Hyuk and Do Hee had an incredibly toxic relationship during the entire show. But for me personally it was written in such a way that you could really see the gradual change from ''annoying ex boyfriend'' to someone who was a danger to himself and in complete delusion of where he stands.

Dinner mate absolutely has it's flaws but amidst scenes of mediocrity the complexity of two characters really elevated parts of this show to be something really special. Many people will not agree with me but that's the beauty about media and more specifically a show like this. People with different values and tolerance levels will enjoy different parts about this show.