Lovely Runner (2024)

Overrated for sure

I didn’t know earlier that true beauty’s writer wrote this drama as well. I understand now why there were soo many similarities and even the order of certain events was same. The love triangle plot and the bad boy 2nd lead, Male lead being her saviour and all.
I want to mention some comedy scenes that were cheap and not funny e.g when ML doesn’t hold the bathroom door for a guy and he is exposed among all and FL’s friend pooped in her pants etc . I don’t understand why they degrade the supporting characters like that. These scenes were not funny they were just disgusting.

Female lead was super annoying, she was confused as hell. Made dumb choices and at times i didn’t feel like rooting for her at all. I wanted to tell the ML to just run away from her as she creates unnecessary trouble. She acts from the beginning as she is his girlfriend and not a fan bcz what fans act this way !!!
ML was attractive up to the point he had ambition other than being in love with the FL but it felt like his life revolved around her only. It made him uninteresting.
Episodes towards the end were boring, I lost interest after episode 9. Time travel become boring after she traveled back again and again. Not to mention watching ML die soo many times. And the show didn’t pick up from that point and goes further down.
Music was amazing. The couples cute moments made me keep watching the show but at some point they also become cringe.
Nothing surprised me about the story and it was predictable. So I would say Lovely runner is just overrated.

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Not worth anyone’s time

Every episode makes me hate this series more.

- MC girl's facial reaction was 50% astonished and startled, with her mouth half open, 25% stunned and crying, and 25% faking so poorly. I'm not sure if this is what the director wants or a lack of acting skills.

- It always follows the same pattern: shocked, sobbing, side humor, and startled. Come on, this is getting boring.

- Stupid FL. She spends the entirety of the drama trying to keep the ML away. She never considered alternate solutions to the situation or use her brain. She is always startled and runs away from her problems instead of facing them. Somehow she was able to prove she is from the future by freezing time and walking to hide even though she wasn’t supposed to be able to tell Sunjae. It's as if she never uses her intellect. She never tried to tell her family or friends about the kidnapper/killer but instead she could tell Sunjae. Poor storyline or direction, many many plot holes

- No character growth; she remains an idiot till the end. Also, no chemistry with the male MC. The storyline is predictable.

- No explanation for how time travel occurred. I believe the writers had no idea what to do and kept going in circles.

- I believe this drama is for novice watchers who are just getting into kdramas. It is suitable for kids and teenagers who are in that juvenile stage of their life.

- Nobody with true standards and an appreciation for storyline, character arcs or complexity would enjoy this drama, unless they are searching for a show to watch while turning their brain off. It demands no thought because the premise is really simple and the storyline is poorly constructed. If cheesy romance is your thing, there's plenty here.

I give this a 3/10 and I am trying to be nice.

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It's unnecessarily long

It was better off being only 12 episodes. It was dragged on unnecessarily with cliched plots, mindless second lead dumping etc. This is infact highly overrated. Sunjae is a green flag, yes. But Im Sol is not. She's jumpy, confused and very very annoying. I love watching Hyeyoon trust me! Extraordinary You, Sky Castle, Snowdrop etc, she was marvellous in them. But this was cringe, straight up cringe. There's no business of this having 9 rating. A 7 would have been fine honestly. And it was too much of overlapping issues going on. Conclusively this is same typical cliched plot, nothing else.

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Overdid the time travel

To my surprise there wasn’t much to the story. It was quite plain. The writer didn’t overcomplicate the time travel theme which is good but it doesn’t mean there can’t be interesting factors in the plot. The writer didn’t think out of the box much Simply put I lost interest several times while watching the show.

I don’t care about how the time travel(the watch) worked. I liked the simplicity of it but story was too monotonous. There were no “wow” moments. Sol could time travel many times as she wanted so what’s the catch here? Time travel lost the charm simply by overdoing it and coming back with the same problems. Why drag the show for that long! It could’ve easily been a 12 episode drama. Too many filler episodes.

The 2nd lead guy didn’t had much relevance in the story or on sol’s choices same as many other characters !! The comedy had off timing. One moment something serious was happening and the next moment something totally lame. Sol herself wasn’t serious. As the main character she was lacking and wasn’t doing anything sensible that will make you support her.
Sunjae on the other hand was portraying a “boy in love” and we loved him. Mostly bcz he was unaware of what was going on. He was loveable character. But I can’t say that about Sol. Overall it was okay but bit boring.

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Kdrama version of all that glitters is not gold

I usually watch kdrama after checking it’s rating and Lovely runner has 9.2 rating!! I have completed watching the show and am shocked as it’s rating is same as twinkling watermelon( that show is a legit masterpiece) and lovely runner doesn’t even come close to it. Still wondering what made people give this show such a high rating. The show feels like a low budget time travel.

I am sorry but story was average and execution was below average. There were soo many timelines but hardly any character development in those timelines. Sol goes back in past many times and still can’t get things right. It felt like she didn’t care about her disability that much and was just obsessed with ML. She wasn’t in love with him in the beginning so why was she acting as his long lost lover.
Her actions made no sense and left me plain confused in the beginning episodes. I was expecting more because she is the FL not just any other character.

I have no issue with the SunJae as he was clueless and such a sweetheart. I kept watching the show for him.
The serial killer guy made no sense to me till the end. He was used only to drag the story as there was nothing else to add in the plot. The supporting characters weren’t used that much and felt irrelevant at times. The show could’ve been made more exciting by adding thrilling factors in it as time travel is soo vast and have multiple dimensions in it. I feel like the excitement factor was not there. The show is not bad but just not worth the hype and definitely not worth the rating.

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Interesting Story ruined by Annoying FL

I know is hard to explain and picture but I loved and "hated" watching this at the same time..
There were too many moments where I really just had to push through because of how exasperated I was at what was happening on screen. (and the only reason I enjoyed it was honestly because, in between all of the cringy worthy dialogue and incredibly unbearably annoying actions, there truly are some really funny moments in this and I liked all of the supporting characters (for the most part, the brother is annoying af and so is her best friend but I'll give her a pass))

The story starts out with a very interesting and promising plot. from the get go we get introduced to this once-bitter female lead that has now changed into someone brighter and more positive because she was inspired by the male lead. However the situation is very cringy since she does start out as an obviously obsessed Kpop fan. doesn't matter why she started liking them, she ended obsessed. and that obsession/love for her idol ruins like 75% of the dialogue between the leads in the first like 7 episodes. she can't say something that doesn't sound stupid or crazy for the life of her.

The way they wrote the female lead really made this unbearable to watch sometimes.
She was super annoying and lacked any common sense. She was supposed to be acting like a 30 year old that goes back in time but instead she acts like she is 13 the entire time. Like, miss girl, did you NEVER watch ANY time travel media?? like, there are so many movies and tv shows about time travel that it can be considered general knowledge at this point. it should be obvious that if you travel back in time you should try and at least act normal about it. SHE NEVER ACTS NORMAL!! she is so incredibly dense.

I honestly wouldn't rewatch this drama ever, not even for the "good parts". Seriously. A drama not worth a rewatch is not a good drama.

Casting 20/10 tho.. Loved the actors. ❤️


edit: okay, some of yall are not understanding. I personally, did in fact watch the whole thing and found it good. Simple as that.
There were annoying moments and things that I could, and have, nick-picked about the female lead because I can. It's my opinion and my take on my watching experience. that's it.

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Never ending loop of same events

This is my take on lovely runner so you don’t have to agree with it.
I couldn’t help but notice alot of similarities in plot of the movie 20th century girl and lovely runner. I will be pointing out those similarities because there are just soo many. I almost thought lovely runner was a drama adaptation of the movie with a time travel twist.
Firstly, Sunjae death in lovely runner and woon ho’s death in 20th century girl.
Secondly sol’s character had resemblance with Bora who is effortlessly cute and cheerful in the movie. Unfortunately Sol didn’t make us feel that way. She was annoying to say the least.
Thirdly , we discover Sun Jae fell for Sol first and same happened in the 20th century girl. The aesthetics, the video rental shop and the neighbourhood are similar too.
Finally , the love triangle that builds confusion between Sun Jae and Sol and it continues up till the middle of the show. This also happens in the movie. i feel the writer was either inspired by the 20th century girl or it was just too much of a coincidence.(LOL)

I absolutely love sun jae and I was rooting for him but sol ughh. I don’t know why but she annoyed me throughout the show. I don’t understand what was she trying to do as her actions were abrupt and not thought through. Poor sunaje suffered much for her.
Anyhow i might not rewatch the show as story was lacking depth.. Sol’s time travel and sunjae’s death keep repeating in a never ending loop. It was bizarre towards the end.

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if you don't want some draggy confusing drama plot with cliché leads, don't watch

the ost and acting for this drama is actually a banger. all of these actors really doing great with their characters. but im so sad the plot didn't doing great

i think there's just too much unnecessary plot. there's a lot of plot hole where watchers didn't get much proper explanation of the story. like when im sol jumping from one to another timeline, there must be some explanation where im sol got every memories from each timeline. when im sol time traveling for the last time, why suddenly im sol traveling using sunjae's watch instead of the one in her hand, and why she can traveling in traveling time mode(?) when she's not even ended her time travel era first before traveling again??? and it seems like there's no end to her last traveling era? is she living in the past?? and by calculation im sol's soul's age must be around 47 years old by the time she met sunjae again?? isn't it weird?? idk there's just too much weird things and didn't make sense even if you called this fantasy genre.

and there's scenes where it repeated heavily, draggy, and the female lead character getting more annoying as the time goes by (no hate to kim hyeyoon. ik she's just doing amazing acting, im criticizing the writer).

maybe if the writer cut some unnecessary plot and make this drama into 10 or 12 episodes only, the drama would be less draggy and less depressing.

overall i just want to take back all the time I've spent watching this drama... im here just for byeon wooseok ??

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(Sadly) I agree, this is overhyped

I really really really wanted to love this. It started off incredibly great, I was on the edge of my seat hugging my pillow for the first couple of episodes and then at some point it just turned so incredibly random.

It felt like someone had a pitch for the series and maybe the first couple of episodes thought out and then at some point they just winged it without any plan at all whatsoever. There were a bunch of fillers with a bit too much comic relief and a bit too little plot. They could have cut this show short by 5 episodes and it would have probably been a decently good show.

Although, even so the main plot had a bunch of holes (which is to be expected for this kind of story but still this one overdid it a little on the lack of logic front…).

The female lead is a bit… particular, her choices seem awfully random and not very thought out at all.. considering the whole thing kind of just revolves around her that was a bit annoying.

Now some positives which still made me sort of like this overall:

- it did have some exciting parts (although a lot of it was predictable too)
- I sincerely laughed quite a bit
- I absolutely adored the male lead (although his character does have some issues but I don’t mind particularly)
- male lead actor… just… <3
- soundtrack was pretty great and catchy

That’s it, overall I don’t think this was bad but it definitely does not live up to the hype, and it definitely did not live up to its own potential ..

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The curse of the 16 episode Kdrama strikes again

For me, this show was a solid 8.5 when I first started it. I have to say, I had no interest in this show. Then I heard about the plot and how it's about a girl going back in time to save her favorite idol...I thought the plot was so pitiful and sad! I started this out of pity! I just feel like it's sad when you have regrets about people you can't save. And the show didn't disappoint. The start of this show was exhilarating. It was relatable and emotional and so sincere. Then after the sad start, there was the humor, and the love interest developed into one of the more endearing male leads of Dramaland as he wore his heart on his sleeve and was just dorky and handsome at the same time. Not many can pull that off so kudos to Byeon Woo Seok for that. In addition, our leading lady is a tried and guaranteed good actress. The chemistry was sizzling, the plot was engaging, the humor was delightful, and the second male lead was not too annoying...it was all too good to be true. And it was, in fact, too good to be true.
It is a truth, universally understood but everyone is too chicken to acknowledge it, that all kdramas have the potential to end on episode 12 but get dragged on for four more episodes until the show loses all its unique charm and rots away in the cesspool of cliched stereotypes. My only wish while watching a kdrama is either for it to end with 12 episodes or if it has to go on, at least go with grace. Very few shows do that.
I was really rooting for this show. I really was. But sadly, the show started to stutter around episode 10/11 and by episode 12, the plot was lost, dead, and buried.
Here's the thing, you need to let your MacGuffin macguffin! You need to let your plot device be a device to drive the plot ahead. Not for the plot to run after the plot device on a bicycle! What I'm trying to say is that a lot of Korean rom-coms add murder mysteries or thriller subplots to their shows both to make them longer and to spice up the plot. And I'm gonna assume at some point this worked but lately, these subplots are becoming so intense, convoluted, and clunky that they totally derail the show and ruin its final arc. Here it was no exception as the plot began to fall into a repetitive cycle, the female lead lost all her brain cells, misunderstandings and miscommunications ensued, and characters actively made choices to sabotage the progress of the story.
Girl, you're traveling back in time. Putting aside the ludicrous shock of such an event, after figuring out the rules (which the show took as guidelines, instead of rules as they frequently and shamelessly broke them for plot convenience) why do you keep repeating the same pattern of behavior, hoping to get different results?!
The plot really fell in a loop. It became exhausting. Then the murderer plot became too big and it was like the villain had extra superpowers because why was he absolutely undefeatable for 16 bloody episodes?!
It was just too much and then episode 15 rushed to close the plotlines while most of episode 16 was fan service. The pace of the show was a mess. They should've established better rules for their universe and stuck to them at least in important plot moments. Unfortunately, logic and narrative were sacrificed for melodramatic effect, ultimately ruining the second half of the show beyond repair.
Now the actors were okay. I would especially say just the mains stood out as good. The side actors were so-so. The subplot of the brother and best friend was really bad. It was boring and wasted time more than anything else. Every other character was written only as background decoration or comic relief, making them too caricaturish to be taken seriously.
Production was minimal but it worked. Music was tolerable I guess. But I was still tired of the ballad by the end.
I won't rewatch this. The second half ruined it for me but the first half will always remain an exceptional "One that got away" for me.
I wish they had done better by the show. It deserved better. It could've been so much better. I still think if you really wanna watch it, it's a good rom-com and the leads' dynamic is worth enjoying. Just maybe prepare to clench your teeth in the second half.

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