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Love to Hate You korean drama review
Completed
Love to Hate You
1 people found this review helpful
by michelleoc
May 20, 2023
10 of 10 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 7.0
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 1.0

It should have been called Love to Play You

If you don't want to take the time to read my long-winded review, I can recommend this show if you want over-the-top characters. Sometimes the characters seem like caricatures of real people, but that is for comedy effect. This rom-com could actually be called a rom-com. There was romance and a lot of comedy, which is refreshing if you are trying to cleanse your palate after a serious show.

There were a number of things I liked about this show:
-Yoo Teo as Kang Ho. I enjoyed the way the actor played the part (doppelganger for Ok Taec Yeon, so what's not to like?!) as well as the way his character was written. I liked him almost from the start, he was wound a little tight, granted, but quickly redeemed himself.
-Kim Ji Hoon as Won Joon. Him and his beautiful head of long hair! I liked the way his character struggled to straddle the line between manager and friend, not always being successful. When, in the last episode, he said to 2FL "Are we still in our same life?" that gave me all the feels.
-Kim Sung Ryung as Soo Jin. I love her in everything I see her in. With her distinctive voice and the way she always plays slightly off center, I always enjoy her performances. I loved the character she played here - being the underdog and then standing up for the underdog. She seemed like the kind of woman that never had a woman friend before, and was glad of her friendship with Mi Ran.
-That it was only 10 episodes. It wasn't long and drawn out, with tons of filler.
-The playfulness of Kang Ho and Mi Ran in later episodes. Their chemistry was fire.
-The director that didn't speak throughout the whole show.
-The last episode was cute. This made me rate it a bit higher than I was planning to.
-The lawyers in Mi Ran's office, including the ex-boyfriend. What a misogynistic bunch of Neanderthals, but they redeemed themselves in the best way at the end.
However, there were some things that I didn't care for:
-The character of Mi Ran. Throughout this show, I didn't like her. First, her saying that she'd been with 100 men. I struggle with this in romances (for the women AS WELL as the men). Romance is about finding that one special someone. I've heard that you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find your prince, but that doesn't mean you have to sleep with them. Her reasoning for sleeping with them was lame, and as a potential partner, I'd insist upon a clean bill of health before I got too close. I was hoping for some hate turned to love (tricks played on one another, etc.), but that wasn't the case. She found out early on that he wasn't the way she thought he was, but even after he confessed his feelings, she was still playing him. She continued to talk about a 3-month (maybe a year) relationship limit, and her not wanting to get married made me feel like she wasn't totally committed to him. They were awfully cute together toward the end, but I still felt like she wasn't willing to totally trust and invest in the relationship.
-The massive amounts of drinking done.
-It is possible to portray a woman being strong without her being a b*tch and beating people up all the time. I felt like she needed to get some anger management counseling.
-Why, oh why, do they need to bring in an ex-girlfriend all the time?!?!

I really struggle with shows where one of the main characters is not likable. That affects my enjoyment of the show in a big way.
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