Clichés with no plot

I started watching because I love romance, and everyone said it was awesome. Well, I didn't find it awesome. Here's why:

Male lead: I feel like his character is pretty much a shallow copy of Park Seo-joon's character in Secretary Kim. Which is not a compliment even if it was exactly like that character. There's little depth to him. His parents' car accident seems to have shaped his entire personality. One day the trauma simply disappears. It's 2022. Love doesn't heal traumas. Therapy does! Anyway, I digress. At first, his main personality trait was being rude and a workaholic. Once he falls in love (out of nowhere) the only personality trait we see is him being in love.

Female lead: she too lacked personality. I'm still trying to find an adjective for her. I simply find none because she had absolutely nothing going on for her. The only times she seemed to have a bit of personality was when she was pretending to be her best friend on blind dates.

The main couple: half the time she was running away from him. In the other half, she was repeating the same phrases someone had just told her or 'huh?'. 2022 and we have that. There have been so many great female characters for the past few years (I'll mention Crash Landing on You, Hotel Del Luna, and Mad For Each Other to name a few), and here's Ha-ri, sounding every bit like a female lead from the 2000s. Anyway, the couple simply existed one day. It made no sense to them at first too.

The second couple had chemistry, which was more than the main couple. They also had some sort of connection. They kept me watching the show, I won't lie. But then they slept together - while she was super drunk. Drunk enough to not remember anything. While he wasn't drunk. How come that's okay? From where I come from, that's not consensual. So after that, they were lost to me.

The plot: I know it's not the kind of drama we can expect an intrinsic plot. I didn't expect it. But this was... nothing. Nothing happened. The episodes felt like fillers all the time. A lot that served as a foundation for the plot didn't get explained. Ha-ri's crush on Min-woo, Min-woo's girlfriend, and Tae-mu's grandfather who wanted him to marry any woman to have kids but when it was Ha-ri he didn't support the relationship (because she made him trip a few times. seriously?!). I understand this kind of drama is supposed to be a rom-com - make us swoon and laugh - but at least a simple plot is expected. This simply didn't deliver it. It delivered a few kisses so maybe that's why everyone was in such an uproar.

The cast was good. They made what they could to make it work.

Overall, everything was forgettable. Ha-ri's co-workers, Tae-mu's trauma, Ha-ri's crunch on Min-woo. The only exception may be the cousin who spoke English with Korean. I'll be forgetting everything by tomorrow.

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a surprising cliché drama

I watched this because I love Jang Nara, but I was worried (dramas prior to 2014 make me worried) because it might be problematic and strange.
Although the plot is cliché, the acting between all four leads is good. Jang Nara and Jang Hyuk offer chemistry and are in their elements as their characters. The second leads do well on their own.
If I have to complain about something is the length - it could have easily been a 16-episode drama, or maybe even a 12-episode. But that was expected given the relatively simple plot and it being a 2014 drama, as the story goes on and on until everyone reaches a complete happy ending.
I did throw fits against Sera and Daniel, so I have to say I >>really<< didn't care about them in the end. But the central couple made everything worth it and it's definitely in my top 20 dramas.

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