Loveway (2022)

Short, but interesting

I came across this show yesterday by a coincidence, but ended up watching it today. I've seen most of the korean dating shows and probably heard about almost everyone, but I've never heard about Loveway before, so I decided to check it out. Seeing it had 8 episodes with a duration for about 30 minutes seemed manageable.

To be honest, I was sceptical at first when I saw a host together with the contestants. This was because I thought it might be pressuring for the contestants to actually show their true self and to make their moves. But fortunately the host let them stay there alone for the entire show until the final decision.

The good thing about the show is that its based around a somewhat unique concept. I've seen a similar concept before, but not too many shows base their concept around an activity. I personally think that this forced the contestants into spending time with each other and getting to know one another. It was also a great opportunity for these young adults to find other people with similar hobbies as themselves. We also got to see a variety of different activities including: pilates, bowling, cheerleading, bungee jumping and so on.

What I think could have been better is:

The show lasted for 5 days, which I think is a pretty short time if you're going to fall in love with someone. It didn't seem like it had that big of a budget, so if more money was put into the show, the contestants could have gone on a more variety of dates. The show also might have added panelists to try to guess where the contestants' hearts were going.

Cast:

Jung-Wan: Felt inferior from the start, lost confidence when he saw what Tae-Jin was doing to show off his charms. Should have been more active to show how he felt.
Tae-Jin: Did a great job actively showing his feelings, but he shouldn't have lied to Tae-Rin.
Woo-Sung: I can see why Seung-Hyun felt a bit afraid of him. He was openly showing how he was jealous and got quickly angry. I personally think that was a bad move when you're not even dating the person you're getting mad at.
Sung-Jae: He was personally my favorite among the guys. He tried to make the others laugh and feel less uncomfortable, which I think is a great trait to have. I'm glad he worked things out with Seok-Young and explained to her the reason for his actions.
Pyeong-Sun: Seemed like he was a little too confident that the girls would like him. At least he tried to show his feelings.
Seung-Hyun: Honestly felt a little crazy when she constantly laughed at something that wasn't funny. I could also see that she wasn't a good person when she said it was tiring talking to Sung-Jae when she literally chose to continue their conversation.
Ho-Young: I honestly felt like she ruined her shot when she mentioned the thing about how she gave her sandwich to someone who didn't have one instead of actually giving it to someone she was interested in. I also think she went a little overboard with her actions during her date with Woo-Sung. She seemed like a handful.
Tae-Rin: She was my favorite among the girls. I think it was good how she tried getting to know more than one guy and finding the one for her. I also think she could have done a better job speaking out about how she felt when she was disappointed and upset.
Seok-Young: She did a great job just being honest about her feelings. I'm glad she forgave Sung-Jae for wanting to get to know the other girls as well.

Overall a good show, I personally rated this 7/10 because there were some parts that could have been better, but it also had some good parts as well. We'll wait and see if this show ends up getting a season 2 or not.

Read More

Short but fun

9 fitness lovers (5 men and 4 women) live together for 5 days trying to know each other better to find a love connection.

I really enjoyed this show, the contestants are pretty active and most of them tried to talk to different people instead of just focusing on one, even if they had a preference. The pace is fast and there's no judge panel, which I prefer. Overall I liked all of them except a couple of people, they were too much in my opinion.

The only bad side is that each episode is only 30 minutes. A lot of shows have few episodes and the vacation is short as well, but at least the episodes are long enough to show more conversations and activities. In this case I wanted to see more, so I hope that if there will be a second season they will add more screentime!

Read More