Dear X (2025)

A Dark Story That Falls Apart Completely

This drama tries to look bold and unique, but the writing becomes extremely cruel without any real purpose. A Jin, the main girl, is written as someone who destroys everything around her. Instead of giving her depth or a believable reason for her actions, the story just makes her more selfish and stubborn as it goes on.

Jun Seo and Jae O — two genuinely good and loyal characters — end up suffering the most because of her. Their devotion is used again and again just to create more tragedy, not to build real emotional impact. Watching good characters get thrown away for shock value becomes tiring very fast.

The acting is strong, but even that cannot save a plot that chooses hopelessness over proper storytelling. The drama focuses on misery rather than meaning, and the ending only adds to the frustration.

If you dislike depressing twists, manipulative characters, or stories that hurt innocent characters for no reason, this is something you may want to avoid. There are many revenge dramas with better writing and far more satisfying arcs.

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A complete mess

I rarely dislike a drama, but Dear X somehow managed to push every wrong button from beginning to end. I hated it with everything I have.

I see people calling the criticism of Ah-Jin “misogyny” because male characters in other dramas often get away with worse.

Honestly? I have no problem with a psychopath protagonist. If a character is written as evil, chaotic, and destructive, and the show clearly knows they are “bad people,” I can watch that. I can even enjoy that.

But that is not how Baek Ah-Jin is presented. She is framed as this empowered, victim turned queen going after what she wants, when in reality she is just causing destruction because she refuses to break out of her self-pity. My issue isn’t her gender, it’s the way the show wanted me to root for her despite that.

I felt bad for her for maybe two episodes. But the moment she made her boss take the fall for her dad’s murder, I was done. She hurts people who genuinely cared for her. She wants the world to suffer simply because her parents were awful. Escaping the victim mentality could have saved her life, but she chose to drag everyone down with her.

Baek Ah-Jin left a trail of victims wherever she went, but for me, Jae-Oh was the most tragic casualty. She manipulated him relentlessly, emotionally chaining him, molding him into whatever she needed, and keeping him under her control for years. In the end, he even died for her. Jae-Oh was completely shackled, and considering how difficult his life already was, her influence only dragged him further into misery.

Kim Yoo-jung is stunning and undeniably charismatic. She has that celebrity aura, and honestly this might be her best performance to date. She shines in her evil scenes but falls flat in almost everything else.

Kim Young-dae might have finally found his genre. He is too pretty to be that expressionless, but here the blankness works perfectly for his character. I think he gets too much criticism for his acting because he was paired with experienced actors like Shin Min-ah and Lee Sang-yi too early in his career. No Gain No Love was simply a mismatch. But here, surrounded by actors closer in age and experience, he manages to hold his own.

The show constantly suffers from a lack of logic. Every single character behaves exactly the way Ah-Jin predicts, as if they are puppets dancing on strings only she can pull.

The writing is another rollercoaster. Where is the consistency? Where is the character development or growth? Why does it feel like not a single writer is doing what they are supposed to do?

The saddest part is that the first two episodes were so damn interesting. Then everything went downhill so fast I got whiplash.

And don’t even get me started on the ending. Every genuinely good character met a tragic fate; even Jun-Seo, who sacrificed everything, died. Meanwhile, Ah-Jin’s character walked away without facing any real consequences for her actions, which made the ending feel narratively hollow.

Honestly, the most fitting conclusion would have been Jun-Seo and Jae-Oh choosing each other and leaving Ah-Jin behind, but of course the show denied us even that.

But I’ve got to give credit where it’s due. The penultimate episode was incredibly satisfying. Ah-Jin finally had to endure the same pain she spent the whole show inflicting on others. Watching everything she built crumble, and seeing her struggle now that she’s the one on the receiving end? She absolutely hates it, and I loved every second.

Dear X had potential, good-looking actors, and a promising setup. After episode 2, the show became a chaotic, illogical disaster held together only by an even more disastrous character. I regret watching this stupid show, but at least it gave me something to rant about.

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