Her Private Life is a romantic comedy about an idol fangirl (Park Min Young) who has been passionate about her idol for many years.  She works as a curator at an art museum and tries to hide her fangirl side, but her secret becomes in jeopardy of being exposed after a new director (Kim Jae Wook) arrives.
Park Min Young plays our idol fangirl Sung Deok Mi. Deok Mi is classy, composed, and very good at her job as an art curator. But in secret, she is a true fangirl of Si An of the pop group White Ocean. Her home is decked out in all kinds of merchandise, she’s always ready to snap amazing pics of him, and she even runs a popular fan site dedicated to him. She is all in! I just knew Park Min Young would be perfect for this role. She wonderfully showcases the duality of being a mature working woman with being a dedicated fangirl. I loved watching her try to navigate both worlds and the lengths she had to go to in order to keep her secret. And things get so complicated as Ryan ends up involved with each of her identities while not knowing she is actually both of them.
Kim Jae Wook is Ryan Gold, the new director of Deok Mi’s art museum. He’s a bit prickly and closed off, but of course he’s pretty great underneath that. And he’s got some trauma stemming from being abandoned at an orphanage as a child.
We also have some important supporting characters. Park Jin Joo plays Lee Seon Joo. She is Deok Mi’s best friend, and the two have a very close relationship. Then there’s Ahn Bo Hyun as Nam Eun Gi. He’s our second lead who has been like a brother figure to Deok Mi, but he actually harbors feelings for her. Ryan was quite unappealing those first couple episodes because he was just so callous. But once we start getting a window into his past as well as seeing that he is a genuinely good guy, things start to improve. Then things get really fun when he starts getting tangled up in Deok Mi’s fan life all while not knowing she’s actually a fangirl.
Then rounding things out is the oh-so-sweet object of Deok Mi’s fangirling, Cha Si An (One) of the popular band White Ocean, as well as the trouble making sasaeng Cindy (Kim Bo Ra) who is well known in the fan community and bit of a rival of Deok Mi.

With the premise of Her Private Life focusing on a fangirl and the life that comes with it, this is something that I’m sure many people will be able to relate to. Watching every video your favorite group or idol puts out, fantasizing about them, waiting for a new album to drop, collecting merchandise, meeting other wonderful fans online while also contending with toxic fans. It’s all too familiar to those involved in the fan community. The show highlights many aspects of the fan culture in South Korea quite well. There are varying levels of it with some being very innocent with the simple joys of admiring an artist while other parts are very disturbing and can lead to obsessive and dangerous behavior. The drama worked all of this into the story so nicely.

Ryan and Deok Mi get off on the wrong foot with several initial encounters that end badly. Then he has some pretty humorous misunderstandings about her early on too. But as he gets to know her, he becomes intrigued by her. And when she ends up in the middle of a scandal with her idol, we get a good old fake relationship between her and Ryan to allow the pair to grow close while trying to make things better.

Her Private Life was always completely engaging with wonderful pacing that never felt draggy. That’s frequently a challenge in romantic comedies, and I sure do appreciate how well this drama put everything together to deliver a very entertaining drama.