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MyDramaObsession

MyDramaObsession

The Undateables korean drama review
Completed
The Undateables
0 people found this review helpful
by MyDramaObsession
Jul 21, 2018
32 of 32 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 7.5
Story 6.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 5.0
Nam Goong Min and Hwang Jung Eum have such great chemistry in this drama I could cry! The leads together are so sweet and satisfyingly adorkable if this had been a better executed drama the re-watch value would have been big for me as a fluffy drama lover. However, aside from a great concept and the amazing leads there really isn't anything special or satisfying about this drama at all.

The story started out with a really great premise. A woman with a romantic personality but "hot mess" in her career/personal life has to team up with a control freak
and relationship phobic "love expert" to help a group of unique people trying to find the one. From go it feels like a fun, light, sweet drama with great potential for hilarity and romance. Unfortunately, the main premise, that is the most satisfying part of the story, gets buried under loads of melodramatic manure of sub plots. Politics were unnecessary, complicated sub plots of secondary characters with way to much back story was also a complete waste of momentum. It would have been much better to have used the zero match characters to help advance the main story instead. The over use of unnecessarily complex backstories also killed much of the momentum of the main story and made the "fate" part of the romance seem uncomfortably contrived. As a whole the main story would have been better had it been the focus of the drama with scenarios created by interaction with the zero match members as catalyst to naturally advance the main relationship. I say it time and again but the truth is less in stories like these is always more! it's great to have well developed character backgrounds but if you have to explain it instead of letting it be discovered naturally throughout the story it's probably too much! Or in the least it is not relevant enough to do more than cause your story to drag.

I also want to mention that the love triangle/square in this story was boring and overly cliched to me. The second male lead never felt like a believable peer to the lead couple in my opinion and was even presented many times as if he was their senior. Maybe it was his style or demeanor but I never really felt like he fit the bill as a believable rival. He really didn't lack for anything and his (I'm guessing) awkward/nerdy backstory was pretty shallow to make him so relationship reclusive. Other than being around as an orchestrated rival to the male lead it was very forced and nonsensical. The same with the surfer girl, other than a poorly constructed plot device these characters felt like the writers were trying to unnecessarily cram a square peg into a round hole. It over complicated things, was actually a drag to the story slowing momentum, causing friction that until the end was never completely satisfied .

The lead actors are fantastic even though the show as a whole leaves much to be desired. Sadly, much of the secondary cast are also great but because of the way the story progresses everything secondary seems to become disjointed from the main story and boring. I have to wonder when things go askew like this if the actors themselves lose insight or motivation? I defiantly feel, aside from a few emotional moments, the series concluded with many generic/lackluster performances in the secondary stories. I suppose in the end it wouldn't mater much because I suspect many of those scenes will be overlooked anyway with the help of many viewers skip buttons on the remote. Even to the end the conclusions are rushed or unsatisfying open-ended for the time invested if you actually see it all the way through.

The soundtrack wasn't anything particularly exciting. Overall comparatively generic next to other contemporary romantic comedies.

The rewatch value for me is pretty low, at least not without the aid of my fast forward button. I hate getting to the end of a drama that has some really great fluffy, squeetastic moments and feel like it would be a hassle to revisit them. I really can only hope that this doesn't deter the leads from doing another, better quality drama in the near future.

Overall I didn't hate this drama but I will be vocal about my utter disappointment of lost potential. I couldn't rate any lower because it was a decent quality production, and overall no better or worse than most generic rom-coms. Yet let me be petty to writers/directors for a moment and say please, please consider investing in solid concepts in the future instead of this "everything but the kitchen sink" cliche mentality that is becoming more ridiculously overused. I can understand generic and overused story tropes being so inclined yet hilariously satisfying, but to have interesting and fresh prospective/potential constantly tossed to the way side in underdevelopment for cringy gimmicks is wastefully nonsensical. It doesn't cost more to develop a good idea and execute it consistently. Even the ridiculous amount of drama ads can be inclusive of this with some creativity. As a regular rom-com fan you might like this drama with the help of the lead chemistry to kill time between other dramas but its completely fair to say there is nothing special about this drama. It's sad but we can only hope Nam Goong Min and Hwang Jung Eum don't make us wait to long until their next drama together to fill the void of disappointment!
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