Dear.M Episode 12

A College Romance Series that Misses the Mark

The English language websites all state that Dear.M (2022) is about an ensemble cast of college students looking for an anonymous social media user called Dear.M but that couldn’t be further from the truth; the series was just a slice of life college romance.Dear.M (2022) is a spin off to the Love Playlist (2017 - 2019) anthology which is about young adults navigating romantic love, friendship and other relatable problems. The only returning cast member from Love Playlist’s 2019 run was Bae Hyun-sung as Park Ha-neul; who's on screen partner, Kim Sae-ron was replaced by Roh Jeong-eui as Seo Ji-min. This series delves into the problems they face after becoming a couple. NCT’s Jaehyun stars as Cha Min-ho, an intelligent Computer Science major/scholarship student navigating issues in the apps he created and the changing friendship he has with Park Hye-su’s Ma Joo-ah, a cheerful girl who has never fallen in love and had a dream. Yet. Lee Jin-hyuk plays Gil Mok-jin and Woo Da-vi stars Hwangbo Young, an unconventional opposites attract couple.Friends to lovers is my favourite trope and this series 👏🏽 did 👏🏽 not 👏🏽 disappoint! 👏🏽 NCT’s Jaehyun and Park Hye-su’s chemistry was so natural and the latter’s acting is impressive despite this being his debut acting role!However, what prevented my rating from being higher is much more than the series’ strengths. Namely, a lack of a cohesive theme tying all the characters and their emotional arcs together, the writers’ abstention of writing emotionally resonant scenes, etc. It makes scenes that require dramatic acting or emotional impact… awkward to watch? Min-ho and Joo-ah’s flashback scenes had SO MUCH potential to actually become emotionally resonant but always get cut short just to transition to Ro-sa’s schemes. Speaking of Ro-sa, dedicating so much screen time to the antics of a 1-dimensional jealous, and conniving “villainess” to Ha-neul and Ji-min’s relationship instead of developing underwritten female characters, female friendships, and character writing is irresponsible and echoes the mismanagement in the writers’ room.Hence, it resulted in a 12 episode tv marathon that had me press the “skip” button way too many times; but Min-ho/Joo-ah’ scenes, the series OST: Maple Latte, Look At Me, and Something’s Wrong did alleviate the series’ flaws.We need more college stories and while Dear.M (2022) may not be a classic, it is one step closer to the right direction.P.S. The representation of a diabetic character was natural and I appreciated how respectful and thoughtful Hwangbo Young’s friends were to her!

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Needed more depth in story and better pacing. But the actors were great and the friendships lovely.

The acting main cast did a wonderful job, and I absolutely loved listening to DAY6 on the OST. Unfortunately, the story didn't have enough depth to it to hold my attention and enthusiasm. The pacing was way too slow for me, especially at the beginning and many scenes were either unnecesarily long or felt like fillers. As in, they had the potential to add to the story but ended up being vague or unnecessary. It wasn't until the last few episodes that the pacing became more exciting and enjoyable for me. But I did enjoy the friendship of each group of roommates, the moments that focused on presenting the backstory of some of the characters, and the emotional/sentimental moments of self-reflection and honesty. (Though I would've loved to have more comedic moments and to have seen more of Mokjin and Young, individually or together, throughout the drama. ) Overall, it was okay, but I think a story with more depth and better pacing would've helped the drama. But, I'm looking forward to seeing all of the actors in other dramas because they did a great job. <3

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