Dear X

Two Simps and a sociopath

this drama in infuriating in a good and in a bad way.
it is really fascinating to see a drama full of only shitty people with few exceptions and in this sense. they made a great drama.

watching it is a frustrating experience which is comparable to what living with a real sociopath could feel like.

our protagonist is Bek ah Jin, a girl who needs to grow up quickly and learn how to defend her self from the adults in their life and try to survive in a cruel world.

in the first half of the drama you can kind of sympathize with her (to a certain degree) but in the second half you just want to see her dead.

how much can your sad story really justify your actions? apparently, for beh ah Jin, the answer is: EVERYTHING.

this is what living with a sociopath probably feels like: they are always the victim, you make them behave that way, it is all your fault. etc etc.

what is not clear from the dynamics explored in the drama is WHY her 2 Simps friends stick by her side.
manipulators are charming, they love bomb you , make you feel special and on the top of world to lure you in and then control you, but beh ah Jin doesn't have to do shit.
she treats her frienda like disposable tools form the very beginning and isnt shy about it.
you never see do anything for them, not even "bribing" her poor friend to keep him close.
nothing. she is always complaining that she is the victim or that and this, is all their fault bla bla bla.

Guilt tripping someone can only take you so far.. but these 2 are willing to die for her
. like .. literally.

they clearly know she is the crazy one commiting crimes left and right but still, they stick to her side pretending in your heads she is a poor lady who needs to be saved.. mainly from herself.

they all know in full details what she does , especially her best friend, but somhow, they still think there is a spark of humanity in this empty sheel of a human.

I liked that beh ah Jin , is not the perfect mastermind. media portray sociopaths and psychopaths like geniuses which is true in some cases, they have a high IQ, but not all manipulators are super intelligent, beh ah Jin being one of them.
she never knows when to stop, even when it clearly will backfire. she always exaggerate and gets in more trouble.

during the drama she keeps saying she just wants a normal life, but that's just another lie she feeds to everyone.

and let me add that without her minions she wouldn t have anything. she is unable to provide or defend herself. she is too dependent on these 2 Simps.. but they never get anything more then crumbs of her attentions.

even in the end, they literally sacrifice them selves to "save" her ass.

I still don't know if the ending is good or disappointing.
there is no justice in this world, that's basically the message throughout.

maybe she should have been the one to die at her pick, just like she always wanted.

let's talk about the drama before this becomes a beh ah Jin essay.

acting? good. the main female lead is pretty good and believable as a white canvas empty of emotions.
the best friend... I see him in many dramas and he always look the same.

the others actors were all pros and did an excellent job.

entertaining value? pretty good. it keeps you glued to the screen until the last second.

overall all if you like flawed characters and a good ( still very fictional) portrait of bad people , this is a good drama

Read More

All Schemes, No Payoff

Baek A Jin had all the makings of an unforgettable sociopath—smart, beautiful, manipulative, and utterly broken. Kim You Jung delivered brilliantly, especially in the early arcs where A Jin’s calculating nature kept us hooked. Watching her outwit everyone while escaping her father (a shoo-in for Worst Dad Ever) was peak drama.

But then... the spark fizzled. The sociopath we were promised faded into the background as the story shifted to her getting rich, famous, and drugged. The tension? Gone. The excitement? Flat. And Moon Do Hyeok? A one-dimensional rich guy obsessed with breaking her—yawn. Even her cult followers’ sacrifices felt pointless. By the time she climbed that cliff with a Chucky-esque grin, we were left wondering why the show abandoned the very thing that made it so compelling.

Read More

A Dark and Thrilling Ride!

Dear X had me hooked from the start — the acting, the tension, and the way the story unfolded were all top-notch. Baek Ah-jin is one of the most fascinatingly twisted leads I’ve seen in a K-drama, and Kim Yoo Jung absolutely nailed it, and the rest of the cast really brought their characters to life. The drama felt intense, with the music and visuals adding so much to the atmosphere.

The only letdown for me was the ending. After such a strong buildup, the finale felt rushed and didn’t hit as hard as I hoped. It wasn’t bad, just not on the same level as the rest of the show.

Even so, I'd give it a 9.5 because the journey was amazing, and I’d still recommend it to anyone who loves dark, morally complex characters and gripping storytelling. Definitely one of the standout dramas of 2025.

Read More

MASTERPIECE BUT THE WEBTOON IS IGNORED???!!

As a huge fan of the webtoon, I immediately noticed the numerous differences with the drama. First, the chronological order of events: the news report denigrating AJIN's actions, which appears at the very beginning of the series, actually comes at the very end in the webtoon. Some characters also lack development, and most importantly… the ending has been completely changed, to the point of using the beginning of the webtoon to conclude the drama. Not to mention the fiancé; he wasn't supposed to have that ending either.

Despite this major error for readers, the series manages to maintain constant tension, driven by remarkable acting. Honestly, the cast delivered an exceptional performance! Not to mention the visuals, the music, and the overall production quality.

It's an excellent drama, but I remain truly disappointed by an ending that doesn't respect the original work.

Read More

an insanely good show on an evil villain

what an insane show

(i don't condone or idolize ajin's actions, it was interesting and exciting to watch an unpredictable plot)

we get plenty of shows about sociopaths and all but this one so different and good.
we get baek ajin, a girl from an abused family who gets stuck with other abusers and bullies but she overcomes everything by manipulating people from a young age. a sociopath who uses people left and right. she was morally grey (imo) until the cafe owner part. after that she was the devil who was on a mission to get on the top.

i liked the excitement of finding out how she was going to move and get to the top. her plan to bring down her school bully, her plan to kill her father, her plan to reach the top as an actress, her plan to escape her psycho husband (this was a very interesting part, seeing how the psychopath and sociopath will one up each other). there were so many unpredictable moments. my jaw dropped when we learnt the truth abt ingang's grandmother.

baek ajin was a complex character with so much layers to her. some things which make u want to be on her side and other things which want u wish on her downfall.

i loved the dynamic of her and each of the men she used. my fave would be kim jaeoh. and of them were also fairly complex characters, each of them with their own weakness which she perfectly uses. joonseo might the most interesting one, his dependency on her and desire to be with ajin but ultimately he wants the ajin he created in head and not the reality in front of him

kim yoojung deserves all awards for this. give her all the oscars and emmys, her acting was insane. especially her eyes, so much emotions were conveyed through her eyes and we learnt so much abt ajin without saying anything out loud.

the outfits, the sets, everything about this was perfect. even the soundtrack and osts.

there were some inconsistences to me, like the deep relationship the manager had with ingang, his suicide, seunghui and her last actions etc but im willing to overlook them.
i felt like they tired to downplay her mother's abuse of her sometimes along with making the school bully and joonseo's mom look like the victim, which might the only thing i don't like. ajin is evil on her own, don't make me sympathize with her by victimizing her abusers.

the ending was very good. i don't know how i wanted it to end but i was shocked by the ending. even the last shots were amazing. there could have been a better ending. i don't think we need a s2, keep it as it is.

overall, one of the best dramas of the year, it gave us everything from acting to story and sets. amazing

Read More

Inside the World of Ah Jin

This is the story of Ah Jin, a young woman with antisocial personality disorder shaped by years of abuse and trauma. Her mother abused her, her father killed her mother, and she continued enduring violence from him and others around her. She’s incredibly smart, manipulative, and uses people as tools, but only goes after someone when she feels threatened or wronged. Otherwise, she does keep to herself and uses men to help her climb to the top.

One of them is Junseo. They met as kids when Ah Jin’s father got together with Junseo’s mother, briefly living as step-siblings before Ah Jin’s father went to prison. Junseo knows she’s using him but accepts it because he’s attached to her, looking for her humanity while still being haunted by the moment his mother tried to drown Ah Jin. Since then, he’s trying to cut ties with his mother (who comes in and out of his life when she needs something) and stayed loyally by Ah Jin’s side as her brooding, obsessed sidekick. He’ll do anything for her except kill, which eventually becomes a problem since she needs help escaping her abusive father. Their relationship is incredibly close, toxic, and built on enabling each other’s worst impulses.

She also has Jae-Oh, whom she met in high school after catching him stealing an AirPod. She recruited him to run errands and collect money, and he eventually grew attached to her. Unlike Junseo, he’s more naïve about being used but definitely refuse to question her, even when he is pushed aside. He’s a good-hearted, loyal to a fault, funny, slightly arrogant kid who is typically bad at school, but the sunshine of the trio.

I won’t spoil the plot, but the first episode immediately pulls you in with its manipulation, secrets, revenge, and tight character dynamics. Ah Jin is the center of everything, and these two men willingly lie and scheme for her. She uses others too, but Junseo and Jae-Oh are her core tools.

Her whole goal is to put herself in a place where she can’t be hurt anymore, somewhere people can’t reach her. And in trying to protect herself like that, we sometimes see these small facets of her, little traces of humanity where she lets herself hope for something… but there’s always an external force pushing her to shut it down again.

She’s simply searching for the safe environment she never had as a child, a space where she can actually be herself.

It’s a deeply emotional, morally grey set of performances from the cast. We see the good in them, but we also see their unresolved issues, their obsessions, the healing they desperately need but never receive. So they cling to each other and try to survive, mostly by trying to give Ah Jin whatever she wants.

The series is phenomenal in both writing and acting. Kim You-jung is incredible as Ah Jin, delivering a rare, compelling portrayal of a female sociopath. If you like twisted relationships and high stakes, I definitely recommend it.

Read More

Refreshing and Entertaining

This was a story of a villain as the ML. I thoroughly enjoyed it and the 12 eps kept the plot engaging.

She was so quick to marry someone handsome with power, money and influence she didn't bother to ask any more questions about him. She got tangled up with someone crazier than she was. Lol. It's like he wants to see if he can break someone he thought was strong. That's his hobby.

To be honest, I didn't feel sorry for her. I felt bad for three men she manipulated to get what she wanted. She only called them when she needed them and their blind devotion was exactly what she used to get revenge on ppl. She chose a lot of the path she traveled. And really didn't want to take any personal responsibility for her actions, always blaming other ppl for how she "turned out".

She didn't have to marry that guy. She didn't bother to even talk to anyone else about it. She made that executive decision because she thought dude was another man she could use to her advantage. As she was so accustomed to doing and ended up suffering the consequences of her decision.

I did like that she played dirty with ppl who came after her first. But the 3 men she used didn't deserve her manipulation. So in the end, she got what she deserved. She was a well-played villain.

Read More

Great character study of a complex FL! The men though....

Overall, this show is one of the most captivating watches...you WILL be invested one way or another! The FL is obviously a lone protagonist, which breaks the mold but lets us see her relationship with multiple characters at a deeper level. Definitely would recommend if you like character-heavy shows and a really dramatic storyline.

With 16 episode dramas, I would always lose interest towards the end, but for maybe the first time, I wish this was longer, at least 14 episodes since the ending felt rushed.

The Good:
Fantastic acting! Almost perfect Act I and Act II (episodes 1-8), with really great writing, pacing, characters. It was gonna rank in my top 5 kdramas! The show really explored the FL's motivations and pushed her to her emotional extremes all while letting us understand and even empathize with what she's been through and why she acts that way. I think its one of the most complex, multi-dimensional characters ever, and overall, the FL carried the whole show.

However...
Act III (epi 9-end) felt rushed...it was still captivating and didn't ruin the show at all, but I felt like the show had set itself up with high expectations of how it would all end. For me, it wasn't the most satisfying but I'm also not upset...another reason for you to watch for yourself!
And since we spent the entire show with the FL, the other characters feel one-dimensional, almost like caricatures to serve the plot. They were still effective and for some people, they connected the most with the rest of the cast. But since the FL was so complex, for me the contrast felt so stark. The writers probably did this on purpose to stay focused and not divert attention, I think this choice is up to personal interpretation.

Overall, its obviously super unique and everyone should at least check out the first episode and decide for themselves!

Read More

Majorly disappointed

Ah-jin's backstory is devastating and it really makes for such a captivating story. I really rooted for her, despite all the horrible manipulation she's capable of. But then the plot took a real dive after episode 8 or so. So many plot points were thrown away after the mid-point (what happened to the agency CEO? And our classmate bully in the hospital?) And not to mention the finale. So ridiculous it's not funny. I really loved the villian husband that was a real match but Ah-jin but then there was no conclusion for their story. The character development lacked, and if there was, it was wasted by the end. Maybe they strayed away too far from the original webtoon.

The acting. I think Kim Yoo-jung shone best in this. The two male leads were a little wooden but that just might have been the fault of the writing.

There was so much potential, but this sadly did not deliver.

Read More

Why it is total BS

I'll make this short because this really angered me:

This show is absolute nonsense - why?

1. It's another flick of in slow motion torture porn going on forever and ever - who enjoys watching such sick stuff to such extent?

2. It is ab so lu te nonsense that the FL would look ANYthing like she is shown. In fact she would have been dead a hundred times after how her father is beating her to a bloody pulp. But let's for the sake of it imagine a very petite woman of probably 45kg soaking wet could survive such attacks, and several of them, where a VERY tall, strong man is kicking her into the stomach, groin, chest etc ( Did I mention that it is absolute bs she would survive this?)... so, if she would survive these attacks for some supernatural reasons, she would be scarred EVERYwhere, her face would be scarred up and down, she would have so many broken bones that she probably couldn't walk and stand upright without very lengthy rehab training, if ever at all again, and I laughed out loud after seeing the end of ep. 3, she is practically mushed potatoe in the end, and next scene in ep. 4 she is sitting in a hospital bed just with a little band aid in her still perfectly pretty face - seriously Ef off with this total nonsense!

These shows glamorize super crass violence and make it look like someone like this very tiny woman could just walk away from such attacks and plan any kind of ridiculious revenge while she would have been dead a hundred times. Are people so daft they don't even realise this simple fact? Does anyone know anything about basic physics, and basic knowledge of what a human body can take or not? I doubt the whole freaking mankind if I see something like this receives 8.4 here, absolutely hilarious.


3. Did I say this is bs already? Well, and on top it is a total insult to EVERY real victim of severe domestic violence, and people supporf this and rate it with 9.0 or 10.0.

Read More

Harsh

After watching eight episodes, I have decided to drop the drama Dear X. It is a very loud drama filled with negativity. I was expecting that the female lead’s character would eventually start doing good deeds, but not only was she arrogant, selfish, and psychopathic, she also killed someone in the eighth episode, which made her a murderer.

For me, it was impossible to accept such a character as the lead. I mean, the main character should be morally right at least at some point. For example, the character Ki Ga Yeong from the drama Genie, Make a Wish was also portrayed as a psychopath. However, as time passed and she stayed around good people, she gradually turned into a better person.

I expected the same kind of transformation in this character. Although the themes of both dramas are different, but both characters are psychopaths. One turns into a good person, while the other becomes even more cruel. I honestly don’t know what the ending of Dear X will be—whether she turns into a good person or not—but after she kills someone, it no longer matters to me.

Secondly, I felt bad for all the boys who helped her unconditionally and treated her well, yet she remained the same.
Overall, it was simply too much for me.

Read More