i have tried with this drama multiple times and my review is mostly because, for some odd reason, the majority of the comments in feedback over this deservedly not well known trainwreck is positive. it was only when i was bored and heard praise of it either here or on DB or both that i started it and one out of a bunch of comments no an aggregate streaming site mentioned how horrendous this is. and the emphasized like truly horrendous, more than usual, and that's some pretty big bouts of being horrendous if you have seen a romcom ever.

that did not prepare me for the absolute insanity that i would try to witness

story?

a teacher who has a cute disposition and fun personality meets a nameless rich man who decides the second he meets her that he is now her abuser and she's like "well alright you got money tho right?"

when i say that this man is out of his mind he is out of his everloving mind. i'm fuzzy on the details but i'm sure he is a great poster child for what a man with extreme narcissism looks like. this came out in 2016 and it is more misogynist, insulting, sexist, patriarchal, horrendous in merging the content, characters, and production than two of the worst dramas i can remember existing with these issues which is "Pasta" and "Lovely Kim Sam Soon"

i was not the person i was when i watched this, not by a long shot, so for past me who was an avid fan of romcoms and was until around early 2017 so i have witnessed some bullshit that i don't like and now think EXTREMELY differently about even more now could. not. sit. through. this. LKSS was one of the most jarring examples i saw especially because of the physicality and Pasta with the verbal and psychological abuse

but this man? this man?

the thing is, it could be way less worse than i remember (it isn't) but it's the deception of the show that gets to me and then the interpretation of it and the "romantic" aspects and praise. this dude is terrible.

you like her in the beginning because she's very likeable but the show has a conservative tone to it in the palette and just in general and it's based on a novel made into a kdrama and this is a remake. lemme just try and speed this up

you think it's cute and you like her so ur trying to deal with this insufferable thumb looking motherfucker (the actor as his character i'm calling ugly not the actor himself, ya feel?) and then you're just like wait why am i dealing with this dumb bitch too? she agrees to things and we have to find out that she's so altruistic and doesn't care about money which go off but not in the fun anti capitalist way but in the way that women get to just stand there and be moved around. every woman in this show has to be taken down a peg or two and then on top of that they want us to be feel bad for this narcissistic man child because he had a bad childhood or whatever.

i'm gonna say that 99.999999% of the time parents are in the wrong and children get screwed over but i would hate him too if that were my son. she saw the evil in him early (i think it was his mom? anyway who cares a woman ruined his life) and so now he hates every single women he encounters especially ones he wants to have sex with which is another accurate portrayal so word

for some odd reason though they look the same age he is 6 years older than her which doesn't help the story at ALL and shows me that this is basically a wattpad story. men are fucking everywhere and tho her best friend is a woman bc he literally forbids her from havingg any male friends but also friends in gen lbr they talk about? men

and on top of that these actors hvae chemistry. in another drama it would be lovely to see them but here it gets wasted because he is an abuser, he hates her, he hates everyone, he's so insecure and crazy and she's a dumbass and they always do this where theyll remember women have agency and give a bit of push back but then you remember she agreed to pretend they were getting married and demanded no money even though he's getting money and essentially was like "uh give my school some stuff and this boy i know some help" and he was like "got it so i'm not gonna do that probably and also you cannot talk to that boy that's in our contract now congratulations you now have a dad i mean husband"

it's patriarch city and every time you see them the whole interaction is ruined by the absurdity. before they kiss, even though it's playful, he notices she put back up a poster on the wall of this superfluous (all f them are) dude and the kiss is good but the lead up is u realizing that this man really does not want this woman to live her life like he might murder her if any penis is in her vicinity i think the dog would have to be "female" and i honestly

wish
i was joking

the whole thing is INSANE it is insane and it is so confusing and i know why we see it as romantic but it doesnt serve a purpose anymore and this as a genre is just so lazy and it's unfulfilling. i do not want to see a man treat a grown-ass woman like a fucking toddler and lace that in with sexual chemistry. he honest to god drags her around is very physical, yells, doesnt like anything she likes but then they're cute and kiss then you go through that again and then he's covering her up if she isn't in a nun's outfit but also he's attracted to her but really he wants to control her?

it's weird and it stops being romantic when you realize that you've seen it all before and it's honestly just stifling and abuse when het stories could be more than cisheteronormative garbage and they have the capacity to display that and they waste it by making us watch a grown ass man try and put a blazer on a grown-ass woman bc her shoulders were showing and other eyes saw her IT'S GETTING WEIRD IT'S JUST WEIRD

so be warned sure like romantic i guess but not really and this dude SUCKS that's what ruins it he just sucks. and youhate her for being with him and the world for condoning it and it isn't worth it because it gives us nothing new and the good feelings are constantly ruined so it's a waste of film and time i cannot tell you how this man would have to be put down if this happened to me

anyway if you want 16 eps of 40m of a man abusing a woman he wants to fuck and her being like cool with a very bland palette and victorian esque themes then sure but it isnt warm cute or romantic and he is horrendous and his life should suck more