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My Secret Romance korean drama review
Completed
My Secret Romance
1 people found this review helpful
by SapphirePetal
Aug 19, 2020
14 of 13 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 7.0
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 3.0

Drama that gives you a dose of a more mature romance

I just finished this drama, since someone here on MDL recommended it to me when I said I was looking for a lighthearted romcom. I pretty much got what I was asking for.

This drama doesn't really have that much depth into it, but I enjoyed watching it anyway. It's lighthearted and not too stressful, which is exactly what I was looking for in my current mood. Though there were some frustrating aspects to it because of some of the characters and misunderstandings, those didn't overshadow the main plot like I've seen happen in some other dramas. Lately I've watched a few dramas that I've almost dropped midway because they got so boring, but this one kept me at least somewhat entertained the whole way. Maybe because they kept it short at only 14 episodes instead of dragging it to be the "standard length" that's at least 16 episodes?

The main and supporting characters had good chemistry, nothing felt awkward to me. The secondary pairings were cute as well! Many of the supporting characters were really funny too.

But when it came to the soundtrack, music and overall sound management, this drama felt really amateurish. There were some scenes where the "background" music was too loud and blasting over the attempted dialogue, and one of the OST songs kind of annoyed me because the lyrics didn't make sense (what on earth does "love is mint pink" mean?? "Mint pink" is not even a colour?).

Another negative thing for me was that there were way too many flashbacks. Also the episodes are basically only 35-40 minutes long or so, they just have at least 5 minutes of "epilogue" at the end of every episode, which is pretty much just recapping a scene that already happened, but from a different camera angle or such. And at the very beginning of every episode they have this pointless long intro, and then after that they seem to take like 5+ minutes of the end of the previous episode and show it again as if the viewer doesn't remember anything that has happened. I found myself pressing the arrow keys of my laptop a lot to just skip skip skip all those recaps and flashbacks.

But overall this drama wasn't terrible, I liked watching it, and it showed a more mature description of an actual adult relationship than the average kdrama, which was refreshing to me.
Most of the time I see kdramas where some 30-something-year-olds kiss each other once and then act like it's the most embarrassing and naughty thing ever like c'mon you are not some schoolchildren you're supposed to be adults!! So the fact that the characters in this drama actually had sex and sometimes talked about sex was really refreshing to see, since as a woman in my early 20s I'm so tired of the "oh all 30+year-old Koreans are virgins and wait until marriage" narrative that most dramas try to push. It's not realistic at all. I mean not that all kdramas are realistic, but I wish that these regular adult relationship dramas could aim for realism and maturity more often, but without getting too dark. This drama did that right in my opinion.

So, after all this rambling, I ended up scoring this drama a solid 7/10. It was a bit fluffy, didn't have a lot of depth, and the sound management was a bit poor at times, but it kept me entertained and that's essentially the main thing I look for in a drama. I hope this review is helpful!
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